Flu Follies
Great cover story! You deserve an award for this one. Where's Ralph Nader or the mainstream media's consumer watchdogs?
I've been a hospital pharmacist for 20 years and most all of my coworkers bought into the hype — even the "cerebral" among them. A yearly flu vaccine is probably not a bad idea for those with weakened immune systems (especially the elderly), high-risk healthcare workers, etc. But flu vaccine for the healthy adult is about as good as vitamin C or zinc lozenges taken to prevent colds! Of course, the government is in bed with the drug companies, but I had no idea about the NIH or the CDC. It's most likely more pervasive than those you exposed in your article.
My suggestion: Buy stock in these companies. This looks like a well-oiled machine.
—Ray Wilson, R.Ph.
Tampa
Surprise! We're Bushies!
With the column on "Why would anyone want to attack Spain?" you have certainly earned your stripes as a Bush apologist. Too bad you didn't wait a bit longer to suck up to the Bushites; you could have saved yourself some embarrassment over blaming the ETA, parroting the pro-Bush Aznar, who has since got himself voted out over spewing lies about who was responsible.
The fact is, Spain was a target because it sided with the U.S. on an aggressive war justified by a slew of lies. Many top-level politicians are now saying they were fooled by the Bush admini-stration. Well, shame on them. A middle-aged nurse from Florida wasn't fooled, and I imagine I have access to less information than they do.
You say Iraq is better off without Saddam? Let's see if you would be better off without hospitals, clean water, sewage, phones, etc. You have no idea what you're talking about, but fortunately for you neither do your readers. And so goes the continued brainwashing of the American public.
—Sarah McCown
St. Petersburg
Christian Commandos
Kudos on this insightful article. I saw it by chance when my husband and I attended a Religious Liberty seminar (sponsored by the Southern Union of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church) in Charlotte, N.C., this past weekend. It is a fascinating report on the frightening agenda of the Christian Reconstructionists. I hope that some of your investigative insights might get further media attention because I'm convinced that most Americans are totally unaware of the sinister goals of these extremists and their cancerous influence on many mainstream denominations.
Framing American policy in "moral" and "faith-based" terms serves to further marginalize the First Amendment. As pointed out in our seminar, the First Amendment is designed to protect minorities, because democracy is based on majority rule. By the way, the book referred to in the sidebar article, The Desire of Ages, is a Seventh-Day Adventist text.
—Glenda G. Hass
Pensacola, Fla.
My only wish is that this article could have been printed in the mainstream media in order to make people more aware of the true goals and prevalence of the Reconstructionists. This atheist is very scared.
—David J. Patterson
Spring Hill
CORRECTION
"Survival: Catastrophic Events and the Role of Art," a discussion between artist Audrey Flack, therapist Frances Marton and writer Adrienne Golub, will be at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 18, at the Scarfone-Hartley Galleries at the University of Tampa. An editor's note last week gave the wrong location.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2004.