Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks alongside Food and Drug Administration Administrator Dr. Martin Makary, left, and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, as they announce that the government would no longer endorse the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children or pregnant women.
RFK vaccine advice
In a recent commercial, RFK Jr. stated that the COVID vaccine is not needed for healthy, and I stress, “healthy” children and anyone from 2 years and up. This is the most absurd statement any health official can say about vaccines. First of all, vaccines are preventive medicines whose purpose is to safeguard a healthy person from getting the disease. Vaccines are not curative medicines meant to heal a person after infection. Apparently, he thinks it is better for people to contract COVID and spend thousands of dollars on hospital care than get a $50 vaccine. His support for the OBBB that stripped health care from millions of people there is little help for anyone contracting Covid. Personally, I think that brain worm laid a few eggs before the surgeons plucked it out.
Daniel Poryanda
Southeast side
Reverse Robin Hood economics
Medicare premiums expected to increase to $ 206.50 in 2026
Social security cost of living increase will not reflect real inflation.
Why?
Reverse Robin Hood economics: Rob from the poor, give to the rich.
Healthcare cuts: Many rural hospitals, clinics, nursing homes expected to close.
ACA cuts: All medical insurance will increase, including Medicare.
Education subsidy cuts: Will most likely increase property taxes.
Tax cuts for regular folks end in 2028 while tax cut for the wealthy are permanent.
All this while increasing our deficit by $4 to 8 trillion we will have to pay.
$170 billion of your tax dollars used for ICE.
$45 billion being used for concentration camps.
And despite all the people fired and government agencies cut, we have spent over $200 billion more in the first 100 days of 2025 than in 2024.
Rob from regular folks, give to the billionaires.
Shirley Pevarnik
West side
A message to Ciscomani
I am writing in hopes of connecting with Juan Ciscomani, who doesn’t represent me in Congress. He was elected to do that, but is at the beck and call of another master who is spending billions of dollars and basically destroying the economy of the country while calling it progress. I have written Mr. Ciscomani four letters and have received jumbled replies about the wonderful job he is doing. I am not sure if they were AI-created or were simply from minions of the swamp his leader never drained, being too busy running the country into the greatest debt it has ever known.
I hope somebody — anybody — steps up for his job soon so we can put a leash on him in 2026. Then he can get a lobbying job for the masters he is now serving.
Steve Devitt
East side
The best money for Tucson?
Re. LTE suggesting that tourism is the answer. Well, every complex question has a simple answer — and it’s wrong. Tucson needs a growing, stable and environmentally sound set of solutions that will augment our tax base, involve our citizens and keep our brightest and best educated right here to build families and careers.
A decade or so ago, someone offered just such a comprehensive approach. It was dubbed the “Rainbow Bridge,” and it was a brilliant idea (if a bit of a white elephant — pun intended). It would have offered a highly visible and exciting tourist attraction involved shopping, a museum or two, a tech center sponsored in part by the U of A, a traffic solution, etc. It was the kind of thinking that we need. It involved virtually all of our able and talented stakeholders and it offered a long-lasting solution. Exactly the kind of innovative thinking we need.
Shelly Fishman
Midtown
Due process
Believe it or not, it’s happening here. Just like in Germany in 1934. People lived there in constant fear of being picked up off the street. No due process, masked men, full of hate. It could be you or me. Picked up off the street, disappearing, our fate unknown. Unless we say “no,” there goes our “democracy.”
Mark Adams
Northwest side
Good moral character?
Now Trump wants to require a test of moral character for all new citizens. What a hoot. Trump and most of his small-minded, sycophantic little fascist coterie couldn’t pass such a morals test themselves if their lives depended on it. Trump, himself a philandering convicted sex offender, serial liar, business cheat, briber, and grifter; Hegseth a problem drinker, and philanderer. RFK, Jr., another self-styled philanderer with a substance abuse history and certifiable lunatic, just to mention a few. Consider also the rogues gallery of current and former Trump buddies who all served time, left under suspicious clouds or were pardoned: Bannon, Navarro, Manafort, Giuliani, Roger Stone, Michael Cohen and even his recently appointed Ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, who went to prison for fraud and tax evasion. Yet the willfully ignorant or simply ignorant MAGA pigeons fail to see the irony of Trump’s moral character test. They sit in mindless stupefaction while we rot from within and watch our country turn into a remake of the Third Reich.
William Muto
SaddleBrooke
Redistricting
As with so many issues today, the discussion about redrawing congressional districts addresses the symptoms and not the problem. The real problem is single-person districts. The assumption is that the elected representative will represent everyone in the district. This has never been true. The person elected represents those who voted for him/her. I’m sure most Democrats do not believe Juan Ciscomani represents their views or interests. I’m sure most Arizona Republicans do not believe they have a voice in the Senate.
Gerrymandering is nearly as old as our Republic. During the Civil Rights era, Democrats used gerrymandering to increase the number of Blacks and Hispanics in Congress. Today, Republicans are using gerrymandering to silence liberal voices.
Districts are not in the Constitution. The only way to ensure everyone has a voice in Congress is to eliminate districts. Let every vote count, not just the winners.
Steven Brown
Midtown
Paint it black
The Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black” charted well in 1966.
Many people, in the desert regions of the Southwest, know steel exposed to sunlight can become hot enough to cause burns that can require medical care. If you doubt that, at 3 p.m., on a sunny summer day, try to hold onto some steel that has been constantly exposed to sunlight.
Trump’s idea of painting the steel border barriers is a stupendously ignorant idea. The acquiescence of his subordinates is not unexpected.
Painting the steel black would not significantly affect the deterrence of touching hot metal. How often would the steel need repainting? Existing steel will have to be stripped of corrosion. The steel will require a priming coat. The ambient air temperature will cool steel in winter.
So much cost, so little benefit. This idea will not chart well.
James Abels
Midtown
Deflection politics
We humans are capable of being deceived and manipulated, especially those of us who want to believe what their leaders tell them. But, we’re not stupid, and when deception and deceit is thinly masked by attempted “deflection” away from the ugliest adult behavior imaginable — pedophilia and rape of children — reasonable people aren’t deceived. We’re not animals, and we’re not stupid. Release the Epstein Files, Donald Trump and Pam Bondi. Whatever is in there must be very, very bad.
I’m reminded of the two German Shepherd brothers we had years ago. Titan was not so bright, but Savage was smart and cunning in pursuit of his self-interest — more food. Savage would run to the door or fence to bark, so that Titan could be tricked into leaving his food dish so that Savage could eat part of Titan’s food. Titan never learned. Never. But we’re not animals. We can’t be tricked.
Gerald Farrington
SaddleBrooke
Wittenbraker guest opinion
Janet Wittenbraker, ever the candidate championing business interests, complains that the rejection of Project Blue prioritized “environmental concerns over economic growth.” She’s right, and wonders “What might have been?”
Wittenbraker has four proposals to share: (1) Re-engage with Grand Canyon University (she hints that the competition could inspire the UA to lower its costs!); (2) “prioritize sustainable development...like a luxury resort near the former Project Blue site;” (3) revitalize tourism by bringing back Hollywood film productions and spring training; and (4) push the Tour de Tucson, “to attract elite cyclists.”
Each of these “bold” suggestions speaks — exclusively — to monied interests. 90% of Tucsonans have no role in her plans. Are you focused on GCU? Will you buy a luxury home on PB land? Will you benefit if Hollywood stars come back? Are you an elite cyclist? How does her view — from money — help hardworking Tucsonans?
Wittenbraker has no Republican opposition. Vote Democratic.
Regula Case
Midtown
LTE challenge
Are you tired of reading letters to the editor from the same old people with the same old gripes and grievances? I am. So, rather than offer more tit for tat, I’m throwing down the gauntlet. I hereby declare the opening of the LTE Go Positive Challenge. Every letter-writing contestant is allowed to complain about whatever they think is wrong with the world, but then they must conclude the submission with a simple, clear, positive statement of what readers can do to make things better. Okay, you’ve got 30 days to generate as many positive ideas as you can. Ready. Set. Go.
Thea Chalow
Oro Valley
Rethinking Arizona’s marijuana law
I felt frustration and sadness as I read Thursday’s article in the Star about how the police are going to begin observing cannabis users and determine if they are too impaired to drive. I ask myself, why did Arizona voters choose to legalize marijuana? If it hadn’t, this wouldn’t be so much of a problem. Besides, its use does more harm than good. Marijuana use has been linked to a higher risk of heart attack and stroke in people below 50. I am only 20 years old, and it is saddening to see people my age suffer from respiratory issues caused by second-hand exposure to marijuana in our neighborhoods. I cannot walk anywhere in peace anymore without smelling marijuana and having my allergies triggered. What’s worse is that it’s even in our schools, as students have found ways to acquire it illicitly and smoke it in the bathroom, which I witnessed firsthand. My question is ... why? Why legalize something that is hurting my generation’s physical and mental health?
Hector Guzman
South side
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