Letters: Readers discuss vaccination, the EPA and Rep. Kevin Yoder’s responsiveness
Prevent disease
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that every 20 seconds, a child dies from a vaccine-preventable disease, claiming the lives of 1.5 million children worldwide every year. One in five children lacks access to the basic childhood vaccines we take for granted.
As a health-care provider, I have seen the devastating effects vaccine-preventable diseases have.
Great strides have been made over the last decade to give more children access to immunizations. Measles deaths decreased by 79 percent between 2000 and 2015, according to the World Health Organization, and the world is now 99 percent polio-free.
These deadly diseases don’t stop at borders, as demonstrated by recent measles outbreaks. Preventing infectious diseases overseas protects Americans at home and abroad, and funding for immunization activities helps nations build strong health systems to more efficiently respond to outbreaks such as the Ebola crisis.
The United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign is asking U.S. legislators to help reduce vaccine-preventable childhood deaths by providing adequate funding for global vaccine programs. Call your legislators and ask them to fully fund programs through partners such as the United Nations, Gavi and other groups.
Denise Smith
Shawnee
Support the EPA
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt says the United States should exit the Paris climate deal.
Well, you can’t fix stupid, but we need to try.
The EPA was started by President Richard Nixon, a Republican, in 1970. We must not allow ignorance and ideology to dismantle the EPA.
Hundreds of thousands will celebrate Earth Day today by participating in a March for Science. Call your congressman and senators to insist they work to protect our planet. Don’t sit this one out. Our planet is depending on all of us to do something.
Bernadine Kline
Liberty
Carl Vinson
Can you imagine the noise that would be coming from talk radio and Fox News if a Democrat president had misplaced a carrier battle group?
Screams of incompetence and cover-up would be ringing though the air. This president not only lost an aircraft carrier battle group, but an entire armada — one that includes submarines that are much more powerful than an aircraft carrier.
Could someone get him the phone number of the secretary of the Navy? Oh, wait, he hasn’t got one.
Larry Morris
Kansas City
Regarding the April 19 article on the USS Carl Vinson battle group (1A, “Carrier wasn’t sailing toward North Korea”), I find it interesting as an enlisted Navy veteran that the senior commanders of the Navy were never asked, or the Pentagon did not communicate the position of this battle group.
From what I have seen and heard in the media, I would submit that this sort of non-communication is similar to the situation that led to the Pearl Harbor chain of events.
Lawrence D. Kepler
Shawnee
Secret plans?
Russia, Russia, Russia. It’s always Russia, and the Russians always lie. Now I see that ExxonMobil wanted to begin drilling again in the Black Sea with its Russian partners. (April 21, KansasCity.com, “U.S. Treasury rejects Exxon Mobil request to drill in Russia”) Imagine that.
Our Exxon secretary of state was rejected from resuming his Exxon business deals. Could this have been the intent all along?
Mark Hastert
Kansas City
Straight talk
Dear Rep. Kevin Yoder:
After listening to your “town hall” call Tuesday night that did not let me speak, let me point out the truth vs. your alternative facts.
The facts about our medical-care system in the USA is that it is the most expensive in the world per capita among developed countries but gives us the worst health outcomes, according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund.
The reason is that you congressmen designed it.
To do better, all we have to do is copy other developed countries’ systems.
Instead, you told us that you believe our system is the best in the world. It is not. Abraham Lincoln, an honest Republican, wrote, “I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false is guilty of falsehood, and the accidental truth of the assertion does not justify or excuse him.”
There is no excuse for your ignorance or lying, whichever it is.
Stop making bogus assertions about our health care and copy a system that works better.
Chris Roesel
Roeland Park
This story was originally published April 21, 2017 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss vaccination, the EPA and Rep. Kevin Yoder’s responsiveness."