As a physician, I must take issue with Sun Sentinel reporter Anthony Man’s Sept. 15 article, “Most Floridians see COVID vaccines as safe but many also believe conspiracy theories — including microchips.”
The subject is medical, so a small survey of lay people’s perceptions is meaningless. Statistically, the sample was small (600), there is no indication of protection from selection bias, and it is unclear how responders were assigned to political parties, so a headline stating “Most Floridians…” is nonsense.
The word “Republicans” appears 23 times in the article, with multiple inferences that they are wrong in their perceptions of COVID and that the majority (Democrats) knows the truth. (The poll was conducted by two state universities, USF and FAU).
Could there be a lemming effect where the herd is wrong? I’m reminded of the 1616 trial of Galileo being branded as a heretic for holding the “wrong” view in the eyes of the authoritative Catholic Church that the Earth rotated around the Sun, rather than the other way around.
In 1982, two Australian doctors proposed that stomach ulcers were caused by a bacterium, and were ridiculed. They challenged decades of medical doctrine holding that ulcers were caused primarily by stress, spicy foods and too much acid. They were proven correct, so the correct treatment for gastric ulcers is an antibiotic, not an antacid or dietary change.
My point is that the majority’s opinion is not always factually correct.
I doubt you will publish this letter, but I encourage you to pass it along to the author. I also encourage the Sun Sentinel to not be so politically partisan.
Albert Rabinovitch, M.D., Ph.D., Parkland
A phony impeachment story
What does it mean “to consider opening an inquiry” to impeach President Joe Biden? The phrase has generated hundreds of media hours for political commentators and officials of both parties to pontificate about.
When former president Donald Trump was twice impeached, the appropriate House committees took testimony, reviewed evidence and concluded there was sufficient basis to vote on impeachment. Trump was impeached and, not surprisingly, Republican senators were unmoved by the evidence and the two-thirds vote needed for conviction was not achieved.
At no time prior to formal commencement of the proceedings did House Democrats threaten to consider opening an inquiry.
Haven’t Republicans been considering opening an inquiry since the day Biden took office? In fact, haven’t they failed to pin anything on Biden?
Like a tree falling in the forest, if no TV commentators cover this phony story, does it make a sound?
Sheldon I. Saitlin, Boca Raton
A pricey cheeseburger
To celebrate National Cheeseburger Day on Monday, McDonald’s offered a one-to-a-customer double cheeseburger for 50 cents. But it had to be ordered through the McDonald’s app. It would not be sold to you if ordered verbally, or if you are not a cell phone owner.
Try as I might, even with help from others, the app wouldn’t appear on my phone. After a frustrating 20 minutes, I decided to forget the offer and ordered a regular cheeseburger. It was then I decided to walk out of this particular McDonalds, probably for good, after the employee told me a plain small cheeseburger is now $3.75. I couldn’t accept the fact that this McDonald’s had the nerve to raise its cheeseburger price to almost $4.
Because other McDonald’s owners are not as greedy as this particular franchise owner, I think now more than ever it’s important for us to be alert and aware of how easily and subliminally we can all be taken advantage of as consumers.
Roberta Chaleff, Tamarac
Hunter Biden’s chutzpah
For Hunter Biden to sue the IRS over the illegal disclosure of his tax documents by whistleblowers is the very definition of chutzpah. The committee investigating his finances is only trying to get to the bottom of what was a corrupt money-making scheme.
Osvaldo Valdes, Hollywood