Dr. Anthony Fauci is not afraid to acknowledge the massive failures of the American COVID-19 pandemic response. Unfortunately, he is not willing to acknowledge the solutions that could have saved so many lives.
In the Sun-Times’ coverage of his recent visit to Chicago, Fauci stated that there have been 1.7 million deaths — “more deaths per capita than virtually any other country in the world” — and the “outbreak isn’t even over yet.” He rightfully points the finger at the lack of resources for local health systems, but he says nothing about the failures of the federal government. We should have maintained the state of emergency that kept resources flowing locally. We should have paid people to stay home and maintained free PCR testing for all. We should have kept 10-day isolation guidelines instead of bending to corporations who wanted employees back at work, regardless of the risk to their health and safety.
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COVID-19 continues to rage unchecked because the federal government has clawed back nearly every resource and regulation that kept us safer from this virus. Just this month, internal sources claimed that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering shortening isolation guidelines to just 24 hours, even if somebody still has COVID-19 symptoms. As someone with an immunocompromised partner, this terrifies me. CDC officials may want you to believe that this shift is based in science, but it is not. Research shows that COVID-19 is still transmissible for days and sometimes weeks after infection. And with every new COVID infection, you are at higher risk of developing long COVID that can disable adults and children alike.
We deserve so much better than this. You deserve to take care of yourself and loved ones without fear of losing your job. You deserve high-quality air filtration that can protect your family from viruses, as well as ever-increasing wildfire smoke. We have a chance at a truly COVID-free future if we push for COVID safety measures today. And that’s a future worth fighting for.
A.Z. Wang, Bridgeport
Reinsdorf should put a sock in it
Jerry Reinsdorf wants $1 billion in public funds for a new White Sox stadium. In a time when Chicago and the state are struggling to house migrants, when the city is dealing with homelessness, when the city is dealing with communities that have food deserts and are otherwise underserved, and when the public is still paying for the work done at Soldier Field and Guaranteed Rate, the answer to Reinsdorf is “hell no.”
I don’t want to see a penny of public money go to building a new stadium of sky boxes for companies to purchase and write off as a tax break. If Reinsdorf wants to build a stadium, he can use his own funds and find other investors. And if he threatens to move the White Sox, let him. We have much more immediate and urgent needs for public funds than for a stadium.
Peter Felitti, Ravenswood
GOP can’t wash hands clean of role in immigration failures
I got a big laugh when Jim Lanham, a recent letter writer (‘Don’t blame Texas governor for migrant crisis’, Feb. 20), claimed that the country’s migrant problem started when Democrat-led cities like Chicago declared themselves as sanctuary cities. In truth, the problem started when congressional Republicans refused to pass laws that would have fixed the country’s immigration policy flaws.
Steve Herr, West Ridge
