More from our inbox:
- Why I Won’t Watch China’s Olympic Charade
- ‘Unconscionable Decision by the F.D.A.’
Credit…Giacomo Gambineri
To the Editor:
Re “How Do You React When an Anti-Vaxxer Dies of Covid?,” by James Martin (Opinion guest essay, Feb. 1):
I am highly disturbed by the anti-vax movement, but rather than feeling vindicated by the deaths of those who made the choice not to be vaccinated, I feel a deep sadness because, simply, so may people did not need to die.
We have all been affected by the sheer volume of death and misery this virus has created. Many people are hardened by compassion fatigue. My personal fury is directed at political figures who have negatively contributed to the situation through their disingenuous rhetoric, espoused for their personal political benefit.
The losses we have sustained as a nation are tragic. The saddest part is that it simply didn’t have to be that way. Shame on those who magnified the impact of the virus by their science denial or misguided attempts to stand for “freedom from tyranny.” As a society we just really should be better than this.
Robin Cronin
Tumwater, Wash.
To the Editor:
The Rev. James Martin’s thoughtful essay decries the apparent reaction of “Good!” when someone hears of a Covid-related anti-vaxxer’s death. He has concluded that the spontaneous reaction stems from a loss of empathy and compassion.
May I offer a counterargument? Most of us are fearful of this invisible threat to our lives, or our kids’ lives or the family’s well-being if the breadwinners are taken.
Millions dead. Hospitals swamped. Lives and livelihoods crimped. Lurking, dispiriting fear.
So relief may be felt when a source of that fear is removed. The unvaccinated can and do spread the virus. It’s the Typhoid Mary story all over again.
A nervous laugh may spring forth — relief that a propagator has been removed, or relief that it was him not me. Unkind, uncharitable, selfish? Perhaps, but also humanly understandable.
David Efron
Scottsdale, Ariz.
To the Editor:
As a clergyman who lost his wife of 56 years to Covid 15 months ago, I confess to the full range of emotions named in James Martin’s excellent guest essay. To be sure, these include anger and the temptation to gloat. What has saved me from myself is the simple prayer that such misguided souls’ loved ones and friends be moved to be vaccinated themselves.
Given the level of resistance to vaccines even at this late hour in the battle against Covid, perhaps that’s the best response I have to offer to my good colleague’s probing question.
Stan Hastey
West Palm Beach, Fla.
To the Editor:
As a thought experiment, imagine that a man playing Russian roulette shoots himself in the head. Assuming you don’t know him and have no personal grief, your response is likely to be along the lines of “Well, what did he expect?” That’s not gloating, or schadenfreude. One can be sorry for any needless death while having no sympathy for bad personal choices.
Max Alexander
Rome
To the Editor:
James Martin’s piece should not, perhaps, have been needed, but I am glad it was written. All through the pandemic I have struggled between hoping, on the one hand, that something will happen to “those” people and, conversely, what I think should be my Christian reaction: to forgive them and to hope and pray for their health, souls and enlightenment. Father Martin’s piece affirms the road one should take, the high road, even as those misguided individuals make me so darned mad.
Randy Dary
Lakeview, Ore.
To the Editor:
It’s difficult for me to put into words just how patronizing I found James Martin’s article. When the irresponsible and reckless behavior of another person affects the health and welfare of another, there is no excuse, no apology, no rationale for not holding someone accountable for their “choice.” Especially, when that choice flies in the face of simply doing what’s “right” to prevent the spread of a devastating disease.
I will not give a damn whether or not they suffer for their “choice.” I am fully vaccinated, including booster, and I was recently infected with Omicron along with my 80-year-old father. Do you honestly think I would wish this on anyone? Yet the individual who passed this gift along to me didn’t give a damn about me, my father or anyone else they exposed to the virus.
I have zero empathy for anyone who willfully puts me or my family at risk.
Paul Burton
Seattle
To the Editor:
James Martin’s eloquently humane meditation is in the tradition of John Donne. Personally, when I learn of yet another vaccine skeptic succumbing to Covid, I feel no urge to gloat. “Any man’s death diminishes me,” and I weep for a soul’s loss that could have been prevented but for his embracing and stubbornly clinging to lies and misinformation.
Many of these people were not only in denial about vaccines, but also refused to believe they were suffering from Covid until they took their last breath. Such a death is a tragedy. An even bigger tragedy is the great number of people who will choose to disregard it, choosing to follow their fellow skeptic to the grave rather than learning the cost of following the same path.
Preston Neal Jones
Hollywood, Calif.
To the Editor:
Thank you for printing this piece. It is a good reminder that we need to be kind, especially in these polarized times.
Lois Brinkman
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Why I Won’t Watch China’s Olympic Charade
To the Editor:
I will not watch the Beijing Winter Olympics, and I will not patronize the unsavory companies that pay for the TV commercials.
China is torturing and imprisoning countless Uyghurs who dared to seek freedom and independence while it presents a warm, welcoming, cuddly lie to the television viewers, so ignorant and uncaring that they buy into it.
Shame on those companies that see this as an opportunity to make money rather than the time to take a stand of conscience.
Watching these Olympics would make me feel complicit in condoning China’s ongoing Uyghur genocide. I won’t. I can’t.
Michael Maurer
Long Branch, N.J.
‘Unconscionable Decision by the F.D.A.’
To the Editor:
Re “U.S. officials limit treatments that don’t work on Omicron, but doctors say alternatives are scarce” (Coronavirus updates, nytimes.com, Jan. 24):
The Food and Drug Administration demonstrated both its distrust of doctors and zeal for harmful federal regulations by unauthorizing two Covid-19 monoclonal antibody treatments safely used in the United States for over a year, saving countless lives, because of their reduced efficacy against Omicron.
By outlawing safe treatments, the F.D.A. is forcing doctors to choose between treating sick patients or breaking federal law. While some treatments may be less likely to work well against Omicron, how is it preferable to force patients to receive no treatment at all? Doctors and patients should be making health care decisions — not Washington bureaucrats.
The F.D.A. had other options. Instead of just halting Eli Lilly and Regeneron’s treatments outright, it should have approved them for non-Omicron Covid and let doctors prescribe off-label.
Had the Biden administration prioritized therapeutics, the way the original Warp Speed team would have, there would not be such a shortage of authorized treatments.
While we slashed bureaucratic red tape in the Trump administration, President Biden is doubling down on it. Patients nationwide and my constituents in Texas will suffer, and some may die as a result of this unconscionable decision by the F.D.A.
Brian Harrison
Austin, Texas
The writer served as chief of staff of the Department of Health and Human Services during the Trump administration and is a member of the Texas Legislature.
