San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Insurance should keep covering tests for COVID19
As we can see a future past this pandemic just a few months away, I hope the community comes together to keep us safe. Unfortunately, I think we’re going to fumble the ball short of the goal line. States are opening up, mask mandates are coming down and several insurance companies are no longer covering asymptomatic testing, including Aetna, Cigna and Blue Cross/ Blue Shield. One of the tools to keep us safe is testing. Now is not the time to make it a financial burden to get tested. I hope that the insurance companies will reconsider their policies to keep our community safe and stop the spread.
Check on the children
After reading the article “Kids at risk: We must work together to avoid a postCOVID health crisis” (SFChronicle.com, Open Forum, Feb. 9) by Rajni Dronamraju and Debbie I. Chang, some thoughts came to our minds. We appreciate how the article mentions that children have less access to adults who can help them in the event they may be experiencing adverse childhood experiences (ACE).
Primary health care services have increasingly transitioned to telehealth appointments, hosted by phone or video. We have been educated on mandatory reporting obligations. Telehealth appointments may make it harder for health care workers to assess for abuse, because if it is done over a video conference; there is no guarantee that the patient can express all concerns freely and is not influenced by someone who may be out of view from the camera. It was conscientious to include the potential detriments that can occur to children and families from exposure to ACEs, along with the statistical evidence. Domestic violence hotlines should have been added to this article since The Chronicle has a large audience. Providing information on how to find your representative could have aided readers in taking political action.
Restore the highway
Regarding “Supervisor proposes to halt fines for graffiti” (Bay Area, March 10): It’s wonderful to see Supervisor Aaron Peskin supported a temporary flexibility during the pandemic for private property graffiti fines, but now says ultimately property owners are responsible. I applaud the admission by the supervisor that in these extraordinary times, extraordinary measures must be taken. But it follows that since San Francisco is slowly getting back to business, so should the Upper Great Highway be restored to its original purpose and the gates opened to allow the 15,00020,000 cars a day that are on our residential streets be returned to their rightful north/south travel corridor.
Peskin isn’t supporting a $500,000 study to see if cleaning graffiti off structures is a good idea, and I can’t believe Mayor London Breed, MTA transportation director Jeffrey Tumlin and Supervisor Gordon Mar need half a million to see that paying a San Francisco Recreation and Parks employee pennies to unlock the gates at Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard would make all the problems they caused by the UGH closure go away in hours.
Congress must step up
Regarding “Young people try new tactic to elicit climate response” (Bay Area, March 10): These youth are heroes, but solving the climate crisis in the courts was always a lastditch, fallback effort. There’s a better solution: Congress should step up and do its job. Let’s break the logjam by imme
GOOD WEEK
Her masterful interview of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry is the talk of the week, rocking the royal family across the pond.
San Francisco superintendent abruptly announces retirement. And who could blame him for wanting to get away from a distracted, difficult school board?
Pandemic relief signed by President Biden is going to all but wipe out projected deficits for San Francisco and Oakland. Also gives big boost to transit agencies. diately passing the Energy Innovation Act, which would rapidly reduce carbon emissions while putting money in the pockets of American households. The best way to resolve this lawsuit is to pass an actual law.
GOP unfit to govern
If it isn’t obvious by now, what will it take for people to be convinced that Republicans are simply unfit to govern? They’ve transformed a party that once had some limited sense of common humanity into a cult of personality devoted to a narcissistic sociopath who is bereft of any emotion other than selflove. When will this nightmare end?
Show concern for living
Regarding “Neartotal ban on abortion” (Nation, March 10): Apparently Arkansas wants to lead the nation in dismantling Roe vs. Wade. With the GOP seemingly oblivious to the thousands of deaths from the pandemic, gun violence and addiction (among other things), wouldn’t it be nice if they were as concerned for the born as they are for the unborn?
BAD WEEK
First family’s 3-year-old German shepherd and running mate Champ are sent back to Delaware after aggressive incident at White House.
Coalition looking to boot the progressive prosecutor gets the green light to start circulating recall petitions. Rising crime is raising concerns about his approach.
Popular artisanal cheese shop and its Sidekick Cafe announce closure after 18 years in the Ferry Building, yet another downtown business casualty of the pandemic.