Friday's letters: Leave the unvaccinated alone, McConnell's slip, one-term president, more

Keep scorn of the unvaccinated to yourself

I suppose I should forgive the overbearing, shortsighted twits who believe they have a right to tell other people to get vaccinated (“Persuade the unvaccinated by making their lives harder,” Robin Abcarian column, Jan. 24).

Let me set you straight: No matter how much you huff and puff, everyone will eventually get COVID-19. Even if everyone gets vaccinated, everyone is still going to get it.

Vaccination does not keep people from spreading the virus. Oh, yes, yes, yes, if everyone were vaccinated, it might slow the spread of the virus, but it is not going to stop it.

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Has the omicron variant been slowed by vaccinations? Hmm? Everyone is going to eventually get it, just like the cold or flu virus.

So, keep your self-righteous scorn of the unvaccinated to yourself. The only thing vaccination really does is protect the health of the vaccinated. If people choose not to be protected, that is their business, not yours.

Politicians are using this crisis to accumulate power – not to protect the populous. Honestly, stop being a sheep and start thinking for yourself before they find a way of taking away more of your liberty.

Kevin McKiou, Sarasota

Why promote treatment over prevention?

Let me see if I have this right. Florida’s governor disparages the use of vaccination, mask wearing and social distancing, labeling them ineffective in preventing COVID infections.

He’s gone so far as to promote legislation forbidding any mandates that would impose preventive measures in the state. Instead, he encourages reliance on expensive monoclonal antibody treatments for those already infected.

Might it be reasonable to ask whether the governor, his cronies or any of his big donors have financial interests in the treatment centers he persistently touts?

Absent any monetary consideration, where is the logic in pushing treatment over prevention?

Ronald Ankowski, Parrish

DeSantis’ success? 64,000 Floridians dead

I have but one question for guest columnist Jake Hoffman (“America would be soaring under a President DeSantis,” Jan. 23).

Where should we as citizens of Florida place the blame for about 64,000 deaths from COVID during Gov. Ron DeSantis’ reign?

Margaret Maher-Williams, Osprey

McConnell’s flub rouses minority voters

At a recent media event, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, when asked about voting rights concerns among voters of color, said “Well, the concern is misplaced, because if you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans.”

McConnell’s office later put out a “clarification” saying the senator meant to say, as all Americans. To quote the Bard, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

On the heels of the senator’s remarks, Americans of color took to posting photos on Twitter with the simple statement, “We are Americans.”

Scanning these thousands of “We are Americans” faces is a dramatic reminder that in a democracy every citizen has the right to vote and the government is obligated to make voting as easy for its citizens as possible.

The words of McConnell and the voting rights failures of our own Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott have done more to mobilize the minority vote than any “get out the vote” campaign imaginable.

Remember: Gov. Ron DeSantis, who supported making voting more difficult in our state, and Rubio, who voted against the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act are up for re-election in November.

Daniel S. Klein, Port Charlotte

One-term president could focus on agenda

It appears that Joe Biden is in a unique position to become a transformative president while accomplishing much of what he has promised in his presidential campaign. He promised to be a unification agent, while fulfilling many of the social goals of his progressive supporters.

He can accomplish much of this by announcing in his initial State of the Union speech that he will not seek a second term, but will spend his remaining time working to heal the divisiveness in our political environment, while working with both sides of the aisle to pass at least part of his political agenda without the weight of worrying about appeasing his many liberal followers.

He can make accommodations to his opponents where practical and demonstrate to all Americans that compromise is not a dirty word but something that can work for all in our society.

He can pave the way for a new leader from his party to face off against whomever the Republicans run for the presidency.

His current electability to a second term is doubtful, and his age is problematic. By removing himself from the politics of running for another term, he will be free to actually serve the American people.

Gene McNerney, Sarasota

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Leave the unvaccinated alone, one-term president