Letters to the Editor: How badly did Trump damage our country? Look at anti-vaxxer LAPD cops

To the editor: I am beyond angry at all of the articles I read about anti-vaxxers. The precious time that has been wasted coddling these people has resulted in the tragic consequence of dead Americans. (“‘I will not comply’: LAPD officer says he’ll lose job rather than comply with vaccine mandate,” Nov. 5)

The question to them should be, what is the real reason you don’t want to get vaccinated? The truth is that they don’t have an answer. It’s as if these people truly want to prolong the pandemic.

A perfect example is the Los Angeles Police Department officer who went on Instagram to say he’d lose his job before complying with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. He and others like him do not deserve the slightest amount of consideration.

I long for the days when citizens understood the concepts of public health, the common good and basic responsibility. What has happened to our society? I believe the answer is simple: the poisonous presidency of Donald Trump, a tragedy of immense proportions that will take years, possibly generations, to undo the damage.

More than 750,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, and vaccine resistance continues. We are a sad society.

Tracey Pomerance-Poirier, Chatsworth

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To the editor: This officer claims all sorts of reasons that the vaccine mandate is unlawful and unnecessary.

Of course he’s wrong. The virus is extremely contagious, causes an often fatal pneumonia in victims and has resulted in more than 750,000 deaths in our country alone and a decline in American life expectancy.

The only certainty is that vaccines have been rigorously tested and have been shown to reduce infections. In the few people who do get infected after vaccination, the illness rarely requires hospital treatment or causes death.

The evidence for vaccinating is overwhelming, as is the evidence that bad consequences from vaccination are extremely rare, far more rare that those from the viral illness. What more evidence do we need?

The motto of the LAPD is, “To protect and to serve.” How does refusing to get vaccinated for spurious reasons protect and serve?

Donald Broder, MD, Studio City

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To the editor: The use of the word “liberty” as an excuse to flout the well-being and health of other citizens is appalling. Many on the right are now using that word and perverting its meaning.

They need to understand its true definition, as explained in the French Constitution of 1793. I quote from Article 6:

“Liberty is the power belonging to man to do all that does not harm the rights of others: its principle is nature; its rule, justice; its safeguard, the law; its moral limits are in this maxim: do not do unto another what you would not have done to you.”

I submit that men and women who use that word to justify their bad behavior have bastardized its true meaning.

Richard Marcus, Los Angeles