Medical workers aren’t to blame
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Philadelphia: Re “Homeless man says NYC hospital sent him back to shelter with coronavirus symptoms” (March 25): As a journalist for more than 20 years, former senior vice president of WebMD Consumer and the mother of an emergency medicine physician, I take issue with the slant and presentation of your story about the homeless man sent back to the shelter.
It is totally inappropriate, at a time when doctors are risking their lives, disrupting their families and working tirelessly through fear and exhaustion, to even imply that they are responsible for the breakdown in communications that is really at the root cause of this error.
The headline and the story imply that an insensitive emergency room physician and the hospital are to blame even though communication and dissemination of information are the root cause. I think you owe the hospital, which has been heroic in this crisis, and the doctors, all of whom are smeared by the gist of the story (and the tape? Who records their doctor encounter?), an apology, in print.
The hospital cannot possibly house the thousands of infected people walking around with this virus. It is wrong to imply that they are at fault here. Robin Palley
Forward thinker
Carmel, N.Y.: All 50 U.S. governors must allow free tuition for all nursing students, medical schools and other essential health-care students at all state colleges and forgive loans of recent graduates. Private colleges could do the same or at minimum allow 50% reduction in tuition. Many classes given online should automatically be free. These college expenses should be deductible on income taxes, including uniforms, and necessary medical equipment. Or tuition expenses could be refunded to students upon proven graduation and employment. Let’s be prepared for the next disaster. Susan McCormack
Free-for-all
Bronx: What should the American government do to help the economy? Stop destroying it. Stop initiating a new Great Depression. Stop wildly violating individual rights. Let people go back to work. Let each free individual decide if he wants to socialize or work in a pandemic or not — and under conditions and precautions. Almost beyond a doubt, the free individual will choose cleverly and wisely — the exact opposite of a mindless, soulless, dictatorial government bureaucrat. The ideal government solution to the ongoing economic disaster is for the state to halt its
current devastating attack. To halt its egregious and unprecedented violation of individual rights. To let people freely decide whether or not to socialize or work — when, where, how, and under what circumstances. The free individual alone has the competence and right to decide these things. Laissez-faire!
Kyrel Zantonavitch
Wash your hands!
Manhattan: Every day The News prints a helpful Survival Guide for people who may have caught the coronavirus. Why not also a chart on how to avoid contracting it? Peter Lushing
Never Trumper
Brooklyn: To Voicer Barbara Cusano: Yes, I can imagine Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden in charge of this “virus mess.” They would handle it with a lot more competence than 45. Stop drinking the Kool-Aid.
June Lowe
Nightmares
Yorktown Heights, N.Y.: To those Voicers mortified by my dream to have the virus wipe out Congress: Politics is the devil’s playground. The dirtiest game invented by man. If they had enough headroom, Congress could hold their sessions in the sewer. Even the high-minded who enter this cesspool with the best intentions are quickly corrupted and soiled forever.
There are no clean politicians. They only vary by how much filth they are comfortable wallowing in. Gabe Pompe
Dirty deeds
Brooklyn: Voicer Samantha Papaccio: Thank you for calling out the Republicans who sold off their stock. Now do Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California. I’m sure it was an honest mistake on your part, right? Martha Stewart served time. So should each and every one of these thieves. Kris Tapper
Unlearned lessons
Staten Island: When the pandemic disaster is over, we will all see where our weaknesses or strengths are and fix them…then I woke up from my dream. Allen Posecznick
Wishful thinking
Forest Hills: Maybe some good will come out of this horrible health situation if we realize that there is no purpose — financially or otherwise — to keeping older inmates who are no longer threats to society jailed. And quite frankly, releasing them is the humane thing to do.
Stew Frimer
Not a winner
New Rochelle: I was in New Rochelle to purchase a sandwich at a deli near where I work. I could not believe how long it took to pay for the sandwich but then I realized what was going on. The cashier was jumping back from one cash register to another because some people were there to buy food and some people were there to buy lottery tickets! These people were lined up to buy lottery tickets while our world is crumbling. This makes no sense at all. They did not purchase food but made a special trip to buy a lottery ticket. Come on, governor, do something. Suspend the lottery and eliminate lines. When I am at any store, I just want to go in with my money ready and check out as soon as possible. I do not want to wait for somebody to buy a lottery ticket.
Kevin Riese
Stock up!
Freehold, N.J.: With all the constant hand washing and associated drying out of hands, could the next hoarded item be hand lotion?
Ted Myslinski
Road rules
Brooklyn: When you venture out in your car during this difficult time, please remember to be a careful, observant driver. Traffic laws are still in
effect; don’t rush, don’t take risks. And for those riding bikes or walking, please be ever more vigilant. Our hospitals have enough to deal with because of people sickened by COVID-19; don’t add vehicular injuries to the strain on our first-responders and medical staff. Ellen Levitt
Protect the herd Not cool
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Brooklyn: To all my fellow New Yorkers and my neighbors in Jersey: Can we please follow the social distancing rule? And maybe little by little, when we turn on the TV we won’t hear about so much death! I would also like to add to all the people throwing their masks and gloves on the streets, please bring them home to throw out. Nobody wants to step on them.
Melissa Toretto
Bronx: Just got back from a run. What’s the story with all the discarded blue and white gloves I saw littering the sidewalks and the streets? Had to be more than 25 in a nine-mile run. Are people crazy, or just slobs? What irresponsible idiots would throw away such material in a way that endangers all of us? Oh, I know — the really stupid ones.
Michael Yorio