Sinema defends
predatory pricing
A recently received mailer from ALSIC biomedical council praises Sen. Krysten Sinema for blocking legislation that would lower drug prices.
The boldly colored mailer hysterically claims that a radical agenda allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices and less expensive Canadian imports would “import socialized pricing policies to America with devastating impact on innovation.”
Really?
Apparently Sen. Sinema is shielded from astronomical and escalating pharma costs with her taxpayer-funded, Cadillac health care plan and is unaware much innovative research is done with public funds. The pharma billionaires are produced in part by this socialized research.
Hypocritically and deceptively depicting drug pricing relief for the average citizen as dangerous socialism is not representing the public interest.
Hopefully Arizona will have much better representation in the future and given the choice between predatory monopoly pricing and socialized pricing, I’ll gladly take socialized pricing any day.
Candace Charvoz Frank
West side
Sudden embrace
of COVID science
Those who could get vaccinated but choose not to, should not get priority treatment for hospital care or ICU beds. Why should others needing care or surgery take a back seat or have to postpone procedures because of the irresponsible choice of others?
Funny how those who denied and refused the science pertaining to COVID before falling ill are suddenly very happy — even desperate — to embrace science from their hospital beds.
Prior to being hospitalized with the virus, how often did they think about the stress and strain on the hospital staff they now depend upon for their very lives?
Insurance companies must be fine with paying out huge sums for the medical care of people too obstinate or ignorant to take advantage of the vaccines. Insurers should wise up — no vaccine, no hospital coverage. Maybe that would help stop the stupidity.
Deb Klumpp
Oro Valley
Informed on
climate crisis
Re: the Aug. 12 article "Ignorance, stupidity might bring us down."
Leonard Pitts speaks of "an insurrection crisis," but that was a one-off incident that most likely will never be repeated.
He speaks of a COVID-19 crisis, yet nobody is denying it's a crisis; rather, some of us just don't think that more governmental controls will help solve the crisis.
As for global warming, I say America has reduced its carbon footprint more than any other industrialized country in the world and any further government restrictions on fossil fuels will only serve to hamstring our economy while having minuscule effect on global warming.
This is also true, in that China and India both continue to burn more fossil fuels and build more coal-fired power plants every year, again negating any possible effects of carbon restriction here.
Mr. Pitts seems to think that anyone who disagrees with his progressive beliefs is "misinformed." Hardly.
David Pearse
Foothills
School ranking
is inexcusable
There have been numerous letters regarding masking in schools. Evidently, many people are concerned about the potential health of our kids.
As COVID recedes, will those same outraged people clamor for the schools to actually teach our kids to read, write, and do math proficiently?
Are they ready to remove school boards, school administrators, and even teachers who cannot or will not teach our kids effectively?
The best chance of success in this country is a good education. Being 26th in the world in test scores is an obvious statement of the quality of education we are providing our children.
We should be No. 1, with no excuses. Everyone of us should be outraged at the ineffectiveness of our current costly education system
Pudge Johnson
Oro Valley
Sinema shows
how to lead
By voting to pass the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act last week, U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema demonstrated leadership and commitment to fix and modernize our nation’s infrastructure.
In Arizona, there are over 132 bridges and over 3,100 miles of highway in poor condition. And over the last decade, commute times here have gone up by 11%, meaning we’re spending less time with our families or adding to the state’s economy.
Aging infrastructure also hurts our state’s manufacturers, making it harder for them to move the equipment they build to their customers across the country and around the world.
Plus, getting infrastructure done this year can create nearly a half million U.S. manufacturing jobs within the next few years, including 100,000 above average paying equipment manufacturing jobs.
We urge the U.S. House to follow the example set by Sen. Sinema to do what’s best for our nation by working together to get infrastructure done this year.
Dennis Slater
Downtown
Thank goodness
for Joe Biden
The reoccupation of Afghanistan in one day, one week, one month, it doesn't matter! Americans are being returned home without casualty.
Instead, let's say the U.S. thought, "The Taliban is going to rush in, let's send another 20,000 troops and hold them back, so we can evacuate over a month.
Casualties all over the place. Then what would the critics say?
If you want to talk about lack of leadership, talk about the 622,000 deaths from COVID, and a leader who won't wear a mask, "because it makes me look weak."
We have a strong leader now, thank goodness for President Joe Biden.
James Torrey
West side
The real cost
of green energy
Re: the Aug. 14 article "The cost of green energy."
I am disappointed in the lack of balance presented in the article by David Wichner.
The article is one-sided. It does not make any logical sense. Green energy has become cheaper than the old 20th-century gas and coal options.
Only the utility and the company they hired were quoted. There were no quotes from the solar industry. No quotes from the energy efficiency industry. No quotes from the Sierra Club, which commissioned a study from Strategen Consulting that comes to the opposite conclusion for Arizona.
The Daily Star has reported prices lower than 4 cents per kilowatt-hour for solar mixed with batteries.
This is lower than gas costs on average, lower than coal costs. Solar, energy efficiency, battery storage and wind costs are all decreasing. Please print the other side, which is far more accurate.
Russell Lowes
Midtown
This 'freedom'
looks like idiocy
So, under the guise of freedom, Gov. Doug Ducey has decided to enable Arizona citizens who refuse to be bothered by wearing masks, to potentially infect others with COVID or to become infected themselves, furthering the burden on an already overwhelmed health care system. That's not freedom; it's idiocy.
Michael Ward
Midtown
Put booster shots
in US database
Re: the Aug. 18 article "US likely to authorize COVID booster shots."
The need for ongoing COVID booster shots opens a new opportunity. Each person receiving the shot should have the option of having this recorded in a secure electronic federal database.
This individual should then be able to prove his or her vaccination status in a convenient and convincing way. This could be useful for foreign travel, but also for many other purposes. For instance, I would join a fitness club that required proof of vaccination for membership.
Paper certificates are old technology; the yellow vaccination card is already over 85 years old. Even though paper certificates are still valuable, a parallel modern system needs to be established.
The start of booster shots is the right occasion.
William Faris
East side
The unvaccinated
should stay home
Attention, unvaccinated people: Stay home!
If you don't mind contracting COVID (or even dying from it), that's your prerogative.
But, it is unconscionable that you expose other people to the potential of getting COVID from you (even your own family and kids). News flash — shoppers and employees at stores, restaurants, etc. do not want to be exposed. Neither do your co-workers.
And guess what, neither do health care providers, workers and hospital staff. Duh!
So, stay home, even if you contract COVID yourself — stay home. Treat your own symptoms yourself. Do not go to any hospital and expose others. Unconscionable is an understatement.
If you die of COVID — hey — you had a choice. And, by the way, this is not political. It is a matter of life and death.
Karen McKee
West side
Let schools
protect kids
The longer Gov. Doug Ducey fails to deal with COVID, the longer our economy will stall and the more people will die. Some die-hards say they’ll take a bullet for America, but refuse to wear a mask or take a vaccine for their neighbors. So, COVID is spiking and they are dying.
But, failing to protect our children and our schools is the last straw. Not only has Gov. Ducey banned masks in indoor classrooms, he is withholding federal rescue funds from schools that follow CDC guidelines.
This means more unprotected schoolchildren will needlessly get COVID, and some will die. Even in America, no one is free to kill people, whether it’s with a gun or by letting a deadly disease run free.
Pray that Gov. Ducey gets schooled before more children and unvaccinated people die.
Judith Anderson
Midtown
Governor right
to trust parents
I am so grateful that Gov. Doug Ducey will block money to Arizona schools that mandate masks. Putting a mask on your child is a very important medical decision and thankfully he has put that decision back in the parents' hands.
Instead of pushing masking, and vaccines, the CDC would be much wiser to put dollars and research into developing protocols for early COVID treatment which would prevent hospitalizations and death.
Pat Moore
Foothills
