Readers Write: Vaccination, women’s sports, Time’s Person of the Year, daylight saving time

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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The reprinted New York Times article “Vaccines put six diseases in the rearview mirror” (Dec. 16) gave vital information to a generation who has never seen these infectious diseases. The Times headline called them “six childhood scourges” and included a photo of a hospital ward in 1955 filled with children in iron lungs. I wish the Minnesota Star Tribune had found space for that photo.

Those of us over 80 have had real-life experience with these diseases and can hardly believe that anyone would risk their return. It’s easy to imagine that diseases like polio, measles and even tetanus are gone forever and can safely be forgotten but, in fact, the infectious diseases haven’t changed at all. What has changed is the protection offered by effective vaccines given to the vast majority of our population. Children in countries lacking that protection still experience all of these illnesses and deaths.

Much has been written about and by those who are determined to find fault with vaccines. Let us not forget the suffering and deaths from these six childhood scourges. We urge young parents to study the information about these diseases carefully as they choose to immunize their children. Our own immunity and that of our children is the gift we give to others in our community who are too young or too ill to receive their own vaccines.

Mary Meland, Minneapolis; Dale Dobrin, Minnetonka; Ada Alden, Plymouth and Roger Sheldon, Golden Valley

The writers are members of Doctors for Early Childhood, a child advocacy group.

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As an 81-year-old pediatrician I have acquired a unique perspective on human frailty, suffering and self-deception. The recent Strib Voices column by David M. Perry (“On RFK Jr., vaccines and my son with autism and Down syndrome,” Dec. 19) has rekindled my memories of treating measles, a disease for which there has been an effective vaccine available since 1968.

As a newly minted MD from the University of Minnesota, I began my pediatric internship in July 1969 at the Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital. Cleveland was enduring a measles epidemic at the time that was cutting a swath through the inner city. Immunization rates were abysmal.

I became able to diagnose measles in children by merely standing outside the examining room door while listening to the staccato cough that so characterized that miserable disease. And miserable is the perfect adjective for this preventable illness. Among all the children I have cared for, children with measles were the most miserable, covered with a fiery red rash and peering at me through weeping, red-crusted eyes. They cried incessantly, which only made their coughing more intense. I also witnessed children develop measles encephalitis with seizures, deafness and intellectual disability. One of my patients died. I had nothing to offer them or their families, other than empathy.

And now anti-vaccination rears its ugly head, slouching slowly to be born of self-inflicted ignorance. Influencers such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. make false claims regarding immunizations, based not on fact but on their own self-serving intuition. To him I say: Tell that to the parents of children who contracted measles in 1969 Cleveland — parents who would have done anything to protect their child from intellectual disability or even death.

We too easily forget the lessons of the past when false prophets launch attacks based in ignorance. Statements of fake certainty from those who misuse their public pulpits often motivate us more than the advice of scientists. Understanding and acting with science is difficult; following false prophets who are certain is easy. But losing a child is never easy.

Daniel J. Whitlock, Minneapolis

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I remember when masks covered my smile and plastic barriers sat in front of me during my lunch period. Everything was a reminder of the pandemic that never seemed to end. But it finally did. Thanks to vaccines, millions of lives have been saved. However, a new problem has emerged. Plummeting immunization rates, partly driven by misinformation and a lack of public knowledge, have caused vaccine-preventable disease rates to skyrocket. In Minnesota, reports of whooping cough cases have reached their highest point in more than a decade, according to the state Department of Health. Nationally, cases of the illness have increased sixfold since 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A recent Annenberg Public Policy Center survey found that around 30% of respondents were unaware of the whooping cough vaccine.

It’s crucial to address the current gap in vaccine knowledge to help those who are disproportionately affected by barriers to health care. This is highlighted by the CDC, which found that “The proportions of non-Hispanic Black adults (8%) and Hispanic adults (8%) who received an updated COVID-19 vaccine were nearly half that of white adults (15%).” There are several ways we can fight misinformation; policymakers and the government can collaborate with health experts to address current misunderstandings, and as citizens, we can talk to health professionals to understand vaccine-preventable diseases to the fullest extent.

Everyone deserves the equal opportunity to protect their health. Ultimately, encouraging vaccine accessibility and advocating for community-engaged discussions about public health can help ensure we save as many lives as possible and win the fight against vaccine-preventable diseases.

Michelle Pham, Minneapolis

I admit I don’t closely follow sports, but I was taken aback by Patrick Reusse’s column (“In local love list, Twins rank last,” Dec. 14). It seems that the winning Lynx were left out of his list. It’s exhausting to have to constantly remind men that women’s sports here in Minnesota deserve the same respect as the men’s sports teams.

Gretchen Harris, Minneapolis

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As a fan of NCAA women’s volleyball I was disappointed to not find single article about last weekend’s playoffs. If you haven’t watched a match with players of this caliber, you are truly missing out. One of my favorite things about this sport is that you can’t tell who is winning by watching the girls’ faces. (They are all smiling!) Please give the ladies their due and write an article or two about them.

Bob Gibbs, Maple Grove

I’d like to address a Dec. 19 letter to the editor regarding Donald Trump’s qualification to be Time magazine’s Person of the Year (“The choice was clear”). The writer stated that Trump “overcame overwhelming odds, a feat no other person on earth could have achieved.” First, Trump did not overcome overwhelming odds. He bullied his way into the nomination with childish name-calling and did the same to obtain elected office. As for the comment about being scourged by the media: How is reporting facts a scourging? If you can point out intentional misstatements by the media, that would support that comment, but facts are not misstatements.

As for the criminal charges, these were not made-up crimes. They were deliberate attempts to hide hush money payments to a porn star. More importantly, the case was decided by a jury, not the prosecutor. Regarding the delay in sentencing, it is not unique and given the election that was in process, the delay made some sense.

Trump mesmerized his followers who ignored his vulgar behavior and outright lies. Voltaire said it well: “It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.”

Mark Anderson, Ramsey

There’s talk once again about eliminating daylight saving time (“Trump proposes ending daylight saving time,” Dec. 14). DST should really be called Bus Stop Daylight Time, because it ensures that most kids, especially smaller kids, get to and from school in some form of daylight. Waiting at the bus stop in the dark in the morning is both soul-crushing and dangerous; recall the last few school days around Halloween and those cold, dark mornings at the bus stop before DST kicked in. With DST, the mornings may still be cold, but they are safer and less dreary for both kids and their parents.

Mark Ohm, St. Paul