Letters: KC readers discuss Colorado shooting, COVID-19 response, Platte County vote
Another if
I totally agree with the author of the letter under the heading “What if?” in the March 26 Star. (10A). However, I would add one “what if?” to the list.
What if at the March 22 mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado, there had been a person in the grocery store or in the parking lot who was carrying a gun and took out the shooter and saved a few lives?
- Sherry Darrow, Leawood
Think it through
I hear little talk about the ultimate outcome if COVID-19 and its variants were to win. I wonder whether all these anti-vaxxers really understand the consequences. It is a truly existential question, and throughout the billions of years the Earth has existed, there is little doubt that something similar has happened before — perhaps many times. You could watch as everybody dies, including you and your loved ones.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is scared. (March 29, KansasCity.com, “CDC director says she feels ‘impending doom’ as COVID cases again rise. ‘I’m scared’”) Does that not scare you? Does that even worry the under-30-year-old immortals who party like it’s 1999? It should, because it is happening at this very moment.
Viruses will be here on Earth long after the human race is gone. At least think about it, please.
- Steven Hornbaker, Junction City, Kansas
Blame game
The targeting of our hard-working Asian American friends and neighbors, an indelible part of American life and culture, is misguided when it comes to revenge for the effects of COVID-19 in our lives.
When China finally acknowledged in December 2019 that it had detected a new, dangerous virus and that it seemed a pandemic was likely, Donald Trump had already disbanded the National Security Council’s global health unit. Those experts had experience dealing with public health emergencies such as SARS and H1N1, among other threats.
On Jan. 22, 2020, Trump said: “It’s one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.” He didn’t even set up a task force to think about it until Jan. 29 and imposed porous restrictions on travel here from China two days later.
His weeks of narcissistic hubris, lies and waiting to see what would happen to the stock market cost thousands of lives.
- Charles Ford, Warrensburg
Vote Kingsley
On April 6, I will be voting for Jeffrey Kingsley for Platte County Health Department Board of Trustees, and I would like to explain why.
Before COVID-19, most Platte County residents like me gave little thought to our health department. There has not been a contested election for board members in many years, and most of us were unaware of the responsibility and control that we vest in this part of our local government until the pandemic hit.
We need a department led by actual health experts making evidence-based decisions, and Kingsley would be the first medical doctor elected to the board in an exceptionally long time. He is a pediatric physician with specialties in infectious disease and critical care. He has a research background and is a published author of multiple scientific and medical articles in peer reviewed journals such as Virology, Blood, GLIA and the Journal of Pediatrics. In addition to serving on the county health department’s board of trustees since his recent appointment, Kingsley serves Platte County as secretary of the Board of Services for the Developmentally Disabled.
I will support Dr. Kingsley on Tuesday, and I hope you will, too.
- Mike Claxton, Platte City
This story was originally published March 31, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Letters: KC readers discuss Colorado shooting, COVID-19 response, Platte County vote."