Your choice to skip the new COVID vaccine hurts my elderly parents

Your choice hurts my elderly parents

DeSantis, Florida surgeon general again against requiring COVID precautions | Sept. 7

I think that the advice about vaccines recently offered by our Florida surgeon general and our governor is about the dumbest thing I have ever heard from public officials. The world’s medical experts agree that vaccines are safe and helpful. Given this, why on Earth would we not want all of our citizens to avoid disease? We don’t live in silos. If younger people want to get sick and take that risk, of course that’s their right. But when younger people are sick, they spread disease to other, more vulnerable people. Your choice to just get COVID means my elderly parents are at greater risk of dying. So our governor and surgeon general just gave advice that makes preventable deaths more likely to happen. That is exactly the opposite of what they are supposed to be doing.

Marlene Bloom Rubin, Tampa

Purposeful confusion

Shifting edicts baffle schools | Sept. 17

I believe the confusion on the schools rules was done on purpose. If no one knows for sure what is legal, everything can be illegal. This will allow the people in power to go after their enemies. The Florida right-wing leadership will have the power to make many laws that are unclear and trap their critics. How does this sound like the “Free State of Florida”?

Arnold Amidon, Treasure Island

It’s still discrimination

Biden cannot resist the River of Power | Column, Sept. 18

Ageism remains the only acceptable “-ism.” This is 2023, not 1823. We live longer and many do so in a healthier state than ever before. A person’s age should matter less than his or her performance. Judge the man by what he’s done, not his age. I’ll add that with age comes experience and, with that, wisdom. President Joe Biden has an enormous amount of experience and that is an exceptionally valuable quality in his particular occupation. If voters don’t like the job he’s done, they shouldn’t re-elect him. However, his age shouldn’t be an automatic disqualification.

Arlene Whitworth, Tampa

Not real fixes

3 insurance fixes for Florida homeowners | Column, Sept. 16

Gee, I sure hope Sen. Rick Scott didn’t dislocate his shoulder patting himself on the back in writing a column about all his groundbreaking actions regarding Florida property insurance during his time as governor. Two of his proposed solutions — bringing more private insurers into the market and reducing the Citizens Property Insurance Corp.’s policy load — are nothing more than pie-in-the-sky wishes without any meaningful suggestions of how to attain either goal. I don’t hear him mentioning ideas like a requirement for insurers to offer all lines of insurance that they sell, rather than allowing them to cherry-pick only the most profitable ones. I don’t hear him mentioning the possibility of getting insurers to split hurricane (primarily wind) coverage out from other casualties, so that homeowners have the choice of insuring for hurricane damage or not. I don’t hear him mention the possibility of setting up a federal mechanism, similar to the national flood insurance program, just for hurricane/tornado wind coverage. Finally, since I’m pretty sure he still represents the state of Florida, I’m wondering why he doesn’t use his powerful influence to actually help to bring about some of these desperately needed changes, instead of just basking in the limelight of yesteryear.

Lynn Barnhardt, Tampa

Underwater in every sense

3 insurance fixes for Florida homeowners | Column, Sept. 16

It is quite amazing that Sen. Rick Scott thinks that revising homeowners’ insurance availability will somehow save Florida from being financially underwater and then physically underwater. Until Florida’s leaders acknowledge that global warming and sea level rise are real, the state is doomed. Florida’s leaders should be standing shoulder to shoulder with the presidents of Vanuatu and the Maldives, screaming about global warming and sea level rise. Instead, they are promoting sprawl-for-all development, reducing wetlands protections and failing to start a serious discussion about how to move people and infrastructure off of barrier islands. Insurance companies and, more importantly, reinsurance companies can see that Florida is a very bad bet that will only get worse under current leadership. There is no way that insurance will stop the rising sea.