Polio vaccine shows way to beat COVID-19

In the summer of 1952, as a 17-year-old, I came down with polio. Fortunately I survived, but was left with several paralyzed muscles. None of my family members, co-workers or friends came down with polio.

COVID-19 is in certain ways similar to the polio virus. Both viruses can make you really sick or kill you. You may have long-term aftereffects. You may be infected and yet show only mild symptoms or be asymptomatic.

In most of the world right now, people are no longer afraid of coming down with the once-dreaded polio virus. Why? Because of the development of polio vaccines.

With a concerted effort we may be able to conquer COVID-19 as well. This will only be possible if we take advantage of the vaccines that scientists have developed against COVID-19.

Please, if possible, consider getting vaccinated!

Theo Hufen

Kaimuki

Unvaccinated risk freedom of others

Now we are facing a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Beyond any legitimate medical or religious reasons, some individuals refuse public-health measures because it restricts their freedom. If they contract the virus, then they are free to become severely ill, potentially suffer long-term health problems if they survive, and maybe die — their free choice.

There are, however, extremely serious problems with exercising such freedom. If they contract the virus, then they may require hospitalization. That may prevent others from medical attention because of space and staff limitations. They may infect others, including hospital personnel. They may be part of a reservoir allowing the virus to persist and contribute to the emergence of new variants, possibly more dangerous.

In various ways, by exercising their freedom, they seriously diminish the freedom of many others and may cause deaths.

A national public health emergency should take priority over individual freedom.

Leslie E. Sponsel

Hawaii Kai

Who’s really hurting state’s economy?

Let’s review some well-established facts:

>> Rising numbers of COVID-19 delta variant cases are flooding our hospitals and morgues, forcing our leaders to reimpose preventative social distancing restrictions.

>> Those rising cases, statistically, are mostly people who are unwilling to be vaccinated.

Therefore, at this point, who has logically become the primary obstacle to reopening the state’s economy?

David Chappell

Kaneohe

Vaccination is a personal choice

There are many people who believe everyone should be vaccinated — that it isn’t a choice. These same people say it is a woman’s choice whether or not to kill a fetus.

So among those of you who claim intellectual superiority, or, in more modern terms, are “woke,” how is it that getting vaccinated is not a personal choice?

Don Clark

Aiea

President Biden an American visionary

Is Joe Biden headstrong and ambitious? Definitely, yes (“Headstrong, ambitious Biden gets ahead of his poor abilities,” Star-Advertiser, Commentary, Sept. 9). But “poor abilities”? No way. To me, Joe Biden is a hero.

President Biden is capable, intelligent, bold, resolute and imaginative. He is a leader, a diplomat, a statesman and a protector surrounded by competent professionals.

Is he able? He ended a 20-year endless war with a successful (if not perfect) airlift, saving thousands of lives. He battles climate change and conservative resistance.

He offers a comprehensive plan to build back better the eroding national infrastructure.

He fights a deadly global pandemic, constantly thwarted by pseudo-science and pseudo-journalism. He steers us around the toxic debris of a lawless previous administration that still feeds on fear, misinformation and a Big Lie.

Biden is an American visionary.

David Friedman

Kailua

U.S. military leaders botched Afghanistan

We have heard all the backlash the Biden administration is receiving over how we exited Afghanistan: He should resign, he should be impeached, he committed treason.

Yet no one has called out the military-industrial complex that has former senior military leaders, U.S. lawmakers and a select number of civilians on its payroll.

The loss of 13 U.S. service members and the failure to evacuate civilians could have been avoided had senior leaders exhibited leadership by example.

For 20 years, the same blueprint was used to fatten the stomachs of politicians as well as former U.S military senior leaders conveniently serving as pundits who know claim to know it all, but were failures in Afghanistan. How many U.S. service members paid with their lives while senior military leaders easily walked away with impunity? Because of lack of accountability, those lives were lost in vain.

Norman Fujioka

Nuuanu

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