Devise a battle plan to end pandemic
We have to accept the fact that we are at war — with a raging pandemic and with inept, corrupt leadership that has left us unprepared and illequipped to fight this war. Our health care and essential service workers are putting their lives on the line every day doing battle without an effective battle plan and with insufficient weapons.
I propose that all health care workers treating COVID19 patients and other essential workers threaten to go on strike for one day in an effort to shame the Trump administration and Congress into providing the sciencedriven resources and strategy needed to win this war. Otherwise, they are just enabling the leadership failures that have brought us to this perilous situation. We need a clear, effective battle plan, modeled and embraced by our president and other top officials, that we all commit to, so that we can crush the pandemic as other industrialized countries have done. Our health care and essential service workers deserve no less, and so do the rest of us.
Michelle Lerager, Berkeley
Offer free masks
Regarding “Marc Benioff says people who don’t wear masks should be fined, like not wearing seat belts” (sfchronicle.com, July 17): I agree with Marc Benioff ’s suggestion that those who don’t wear a mask in public where social distancing isn’t viable be fined. However, I recommend that they first receive a documented warning, rather than be fined, and be offered a free mask. I also think there should be an aggressive (social and traditional) media campaign advertising the reasons for and benefits of wearing a mask, to oneself and others, which was very effective in motivating the public to adopt seat belt usage. Anyone remember those ads with people saying they didn’t want to wear a seat belt because it wrinkled their outfit? If not, let me just say it ended very badly.
Steve Gaitley, San Francisco
Boycott Hollywood
Regarding “Hollywood isn’t part of boycott over Facebook” (Business, July 17): If major entertainment companies like Netflix, ViacomCBS, Disney, WarnerMedia, Lionsgate, STX and Sony Pictures Entertainment don’t want to stop advertising on Facebook as part of a protest over the social network’s handling of hate speech, then consumers can boycott them. There are myriad entertainment options in this digital era, and sociallyminded citizens can choose to spend their hardearned (and increasingly scarce) dollars more selectively. After reading this news story, this Baby Boomer will no longer be singing “Hooray For Hollywood!”
Matteo DeLuca , San Jose
Stand with protesters
According to “Gun couple” ( July 17), Sen. Josh Hawley (RMo.) wants U.S. Attorney General William Barr to intervene against a St. Louis prosecutor who is investigating a wealthy white couple after they pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters passing by their property. But my question is this: Whose civil rights were actually being violated here, peaceful protesters or the guntoting owners of a mansion who labeled them an angry mob?
Rhonda CollinsJackson, Oakland
Make masks mandatory
Americans wear seat belts when they are in the car. They also put their children in car seats to protect them. They honor the speed limits and stop at red lights. They carry a driver’s license in their wallets when they go to the store. Americans obey these rules of the road for their own safety and the safety of others. Americans do these things without question, and if they fail to comply with the rules of the road, they are fined. If Americans can accept this degree of social order while driving, why do so many refuse to wear a mask in the midst of a pandemic? Is that not also a matter of public health and safety? In my opinion, a mandatory mask order is long overdue in California.
Barbara Lelich, Mill Valley
Park seems unsafe
Regarding “Tracking spread: Search for virus in sewage could guide response” (Page 1, July 17): This past weekend, I took a threeday trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California, expecting several coronavirus precautions after a positive experience at Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve in Sonoma County the week before.
But what I found there disturbed me, particularly since the national parks were closed for months to prepare for this reopening. While there were a few signs regarding COVID19 at the main entrance and wherever park rangers were stationed, most tourist sites, trailheads and bathrooms had zero signage or safety improvements. I saw no additional cleaning of campgrounds and bathrooms, and the majority of visitors on trails, picnic areas and campgrounds were not wearing masks regardless of how close they were to strangers. Even the signs I did see made it sound as though mask wearing was unnecessary except indoors or in crowds of strangers. Obviously, places with outofstate visitors and an absence of guidelines are going to increase the spread of this virus. It’s time for the state to step in and require California’s national parks to better protect us.
Hunter OatmanStanford, San Francisco