Letters to the Editor: Good for UCLA for escorting out an anti-vaccine doctor

To the editor: The first oath for all doctors is, “First, do no harm.” UCLA anesthesiologist Dr. Christopher B. Rake, who was escorted out of his workplace because he has not been vaccinated against COVID-19, may have harmed a lot of people.

Can you imagine how easy it is for him to infect someone as he bends over his patient’s open mouth and throat and inserts the endotracheal tube ?

You quote Dr. Rake as saying, “But what they don’t realize is that I’m willing to lose everything — job, paycheck, freedom, even my life for this cause.” But does that give him the right to ignore the lives of his patients?

It is obvious that he did not learn enough about infectious diseases in medical school.

Harry Shragg, M.D., Reseda

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To the editor: Dr. Rake should not be in the medical field.

The coronavirus doesn’t just go away. It becomes less easily transmitted or less deadly only when mass vaccination takes place.

As someone who worked for the March of Dimes when the polio vaccine had just come out, and as someone who helped people in iron lungs, I experienced firsthand the benefits of mass inoculation. We eradicated polio.

But the anti-vaxxers have not lived through anything like this before. Those who refuse to have their children vaccinated should not have their kids admitted to public schools.

This man should get out of the medical profession and find another line of work where standing up for “freedom” doesn’t pose a risk to others.

Marcia Jacobs, Culver City