Letters to the Editor: The Times was wrong to publish a letter defending anti-vaccine cops

To the editor: When highly contentious subjects are discussed in its letter column, The Times typically allots space to opinions contrary to those of its editorial board. That indulgent stance generally pleases me; I often find contrarian opinions informative, if not always persuasive.

However, I question the value of publishing a letter that defends anti-vaccine Los Angeles Police Department officers.

It begins sarcastically, contrasting government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic with those directed at the AIDS epidemic. The letter is written as if both diseases were spread through similarly “casual” contact, and as if COVID’s annual death toll hasn’t dwarfed that of the AIDS epidemic’s peak year.

The letter concludes with similarly inapt contentions that dance around stark, incontrovertible facts: Unvaccinated people pose a hugely disproportionate threat to flood hospital wards, and to ultimately die.

I feel that publishing such a specious opinion serves more to deceive than to inform.

Rona Dolgin, Los Angeles

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To the editor: I understand The Times feels an obligation to print letters expressing varied opinions. However, I see no need to print such horrendous drivel as appeared in the Oct. 1 letter defending vaccine-resistant first responders.

No, we didn’t fire people who contracted AIDS in the 1980s. That was because AIDS was almost invariably fatal. Sufferers weren’t fired — they died. I know because I was there and lost many friends.

Such claims are not only wrongheaded, they are hurtful.

John Hamilton Scott, Sherman Oaks