Grateful for emergency services
Just about the time that I was reading Kathie Warco’s front-page article in Monday’s Observer-Reporter about Midway Fire Department’s first female career firefighter, creosote buildup in my chimney caught fire. Thinking I could handle the problem myself only made it worse, and as the house filled with smoke, my wife insisted I call the fire department. “Dee Dee” Clark answered the phone herself, and in 15 minutes Fort Cherry Ambulance and Midway and McDonald fire trucks arrived along with at least a dozen volunteer firefighters.
Each year I get a solicitation from the fire department for a donation and each year a subscription for the ambulance service. Each year I check off the box and write a check for what I feel is enough money. While I watched the fireman use an infrared camera that cost thousands of dollars to make sure there were no hot spots in my walls, my wife was sitting on a $10,000 gurney in the ambulance getting oxygen for smoke inhalation. It was then that I realized that my donation probably wasn’t enough to clean the soot from Dee Dee’s coat.
I will send the departments a thank-you card with another donation, and I will not complain when I get the subscription renewal for the ambulance service because, God forbid, if I ever need them again, what if there was no one to answer my call?
Mark Kramer
Bulger
President must be
held accountable
The president has demonstrated his self-centered, reckless nature once again. As the noose tightens around him through alleged criminal activity and the prospect of impeachment or indictment is dangled, he tells us that if he were impeached, there would be a public revolt, something which he does not seek to discourage.
In advance of the 2016 presidential election, Trump told us that if he did not win, there would be riots, again doing nothing to indicate that such civil unrest should not take place.
The message is that the president seeks to hold us hostage: If I do not win or if I am removed from office, the country will disintegrate.
For now, he is shielded by Republican members of Congress, outgoing longtime Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, a prime hypocrite, stating regarding the potential for prosecution of the president, “I don’t care” because Hatch sees the president as doing a good job. Even if he were doing a good job, do we now allow crooks to lead the free world if we are in sync with them ideologically? What of our moral standing in the eyes of our people and the rest of the world?
The future of our democracy and our Constitution must not be placed in peril by the actions of one man who is wholly unsuited to public service and who may well have engaged in criminality. We must push forward with appropriate action if it is found that he violated the law and let the chips fall where they may.
Oren Spiegler
South Strabane Township
Respect accorded to Bush regardless of party
If you happened to see any of the coverage of George H.W. Bush’s funeral, your party affiliation wouldn’t matter.
You would have seen the respect and honor shown to a person who treated the job of president of the United States with the dignity and integrity it deserves, regardless of party. You would have heard about the concern shown for all Americans, regardless of party. You would have heard about a true patriot who served his country as a warrior and a politician for nearly his entire life. You would have heard about a man who cared about all people, family and all Americans, regardless of party.
You didn’t hear about stains on dresses and payments for hush money made to porn professionals from America’s house. You didn’t hear about a bad ankle keeping you from the service of your country. You didn’t hear childish names used toward anybody who didn’t agree with you. And when it was over, you would have to sit for a while and ponder, as all who care for this country do, what else will the current president do now to disrespect the office he holds and embarrass Americans around the world?
Ralph George
Washington
Why flu vaccine didn’t work last year
I commend the Dec. 10 piece, “Countering misinformation about the flu vaccine is harder than it seems,” which is good timing for the coming flu season. I have little to add except explaining why last year flu vaccine didn’t work as well as expected with a dismal overall 36 percent efficacy, lest people would lose confidence on flu vaccine.
Last year flu vaccine was only 25 percent effective against H3N2 (a subtype of influenza A), 67 percent against H1N1 and 42 percent against influenza B. Unfortunately most of the flu (67 percent) circulated last year was H3N2, not the one the Centers for Disease Control predicted. This contributes to the overall lower efficacy.
The high prevalence and low vaccine effectiveness against A (H3N2) made the high severity 2017-18 flu season with 49 million fell ill, one million hospitalized and close to 80,000 deaths, half of them children.
Dr. Jer-Yuan Tsai
The letter writer is a physician who practices at Carmichaels Clinic in Greene County.