Our health care workers, and teachers, deserve better

Nursing homes

Regarding “Virus task force arrives at nursing home,” (A5, July 29): My mother has been a resident at the Cambridge Health and Rehabilitation Center for eight years. I visit frequently and have been witness to the excellent care by the employees and management. To single out one nursing home, when we are in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, is hurtful and unfair to all those who have worked so tirelessly to try to avoid infection. This facility was virus free until a few weeks ago, but employees must go home for rest at the end of their long shift, patients go out and in to dialysis, medical visits, etc. Life must go on and the virus can slip in even using all the precautions. These tireless, dedicated health care workers deserve better than negative attention.

Jeneane Champagne, Richmond

Perfect storm for educators

Pop quiz for those saying schools should reopen soon. What profession exposes an at-risk population for eight hours a day and five days a week to 15-30 individuals in the immediate work space, and 500 to 5,000 individuals in the building at large, all of whom demonstrate at best a child’s comprehension resulting in poor compliance with social distancing guidelines, inconsistent use of personal protective equipment, suspect basic hygiene practices, and are also potentially asymptomatic carriers of a deadly disease being transmitted from communities with rampant spread? Time’s up. Pencils down. The answer is Texas teachers.

Texas teachers face a perfect storm of risk factors that is unlike any other profession. Spend a day with 18 kindergartners or 25 eighth-graders, and tell me I’m wrong. We have all had our life touched by a teacher. Picture the one who touched yours, alone and dying in a hospital, without loved ones around them. I see my first grade teacher, Mrs. Winkowski. For her, I wrote this letter. Please tell your local leaders not to open schools until case numbers and hospitalizations are under control in your community.

Allen Argyle Woodruff, Watauga