Anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists
Vaccines are one of medicine’s greatest success stories. They have saved millions of lives and prevented countless cases of serious illness. Yet false claims about vaccines continue to spread on social media, creating fear and confusion and causing some people to avoid lifesaving vaccines.Anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists and influencers often profit from this fear. They can make money through social media, subscriptions, books, speaking fees, supplements and other products. Instead of relying on strong scientific evidence, they often use personal stories, fear and conspiracy theories.One common tactic is cherry-picking: highlighting one study that supports their claims while ignoring the much larger body of research that does not. They may also promote people as “experts” who lack appropriate medical or scientific training. When reliable evidence contradicts them, they may simply claim that scientists, doctors or government agencies are part of a conspiracy.Consider the 1998 study that falsely linked vaccines to autism. It was found to have serious scientific and ethical problems, was retracted, and its author lost his medical license. Yet the false claim continues to circulate.The consequences of vaccine misinformation are real. Before believing a health claim on social media, check trusted sources such as the CDC, American Academy of Pediatrics or World Health Organization.Most importantly, talk with your health care provider. Our health decisions should be based on sound evidence and not fear, rumors or conspiracy theories.
Eileen Briening, Naples
Vaccine lies
Trump tries to exhaust us with a torrent of lies. If they weren’t harmful we could ignore them but when he puts our children in danger we can’t. He is trying to mess with the schedule of MMR vaccines. I am a physician and this is an out and out lie and the MMR vaccine is completely safe. We need to impeach this dangerous liar.
Benjamin Glick, Naples
School library books removed
As we know, many of the books removed from our school libraries are young adult novels that deal with the trafficking of young people. Our state and local school boards and administrations, in their desire to shield students from this reality and “keep them innocent,” have deprived vulnerable students from recognizing and understanding the interactions/relationships that can lead to exploitation. The Florida Freedom to Read Project and professional library media specialists have long cautioned that books about these very difficult relationships can actually protect young people by creating awareness. Awareness is step one, then, of course, having an understanding, caring adult, like a teacher, is critically important, too. Now teachers in our schools are prevented from even having these conversations with students. I remember one HS biology teacher telling us that a student wanted to ask some questions about sexual relationships and the teacher had to say, “Sorry, I can’t talk about that with you. You will have to find a ‘trusted’ adult.” The student obviously WAS trying to talk to an adult he trusted. Exploitation can happen in families and in neighborhoods of any socio-economic level. Let our students learn and let them choose their own trusted person with whom to speak.
Madelon V. Stewart, Ed.D, Fort Myers
Campaign against Dr. Fauci
The ongoing campaign against Dr. Anthony Fauci has become deeply troubling. Americans are free to debate the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and no public official should be beyond legitimate oversight. But there is a difference between oversight and political theater.
Dr. Fauci devoted more than five decades to serving our country and the global public health community. His work helped advance medical science, strengthen our public health system, and save countless lives. Whether one agrees with every decision made during the pandemic or not, a lifetime of public service deserves respect — not intimidation or public humiliation.
Our elected officials should focus their time and energy on issues that matter most to the American people. If Congress is committed to uncovering the truth and holding people accountable, it should devote the same determination to investigating the Epstein files and the individuals implicated in them, rather than continuing to target a physician who dedicated his career to protecting public health.
Reasonable people can disagree about pandemic policies. What we should not do is allow partisan politics to erase a lifetime of public service.
Vera Winn, Naples
Threat to democracy
Are local police in Lee and Collier counties prepared and committed to prevent armed federal agents of the Trump administration from seizing ballots and voting machines? These are the scenarios that have been discussed by public officials, pro-democracy groups, and local government attorneys across the country.Donald Trump is desperate to prevent Democrat control of the House and the Senate and consequently to be held accountable for his crimes including locking up the Epstein files, starting an illegal war with Iran, raising taxes through illegal tariffs, etc. He has obtained billions of federal dollars to expand ICE and had them attack non-criminals, even murdered them, in the training process to carry out his orders. The Proud Boys types who attacked Congress January 6th attempting to overthrow the 2020 election are perfect examples. However, they were trivial in number compared to Trump’s ICE and FBI agents today.
The current threat to our electoral process and our democracy has never been greater. This is not Democrat vs Republican issue. Either you are for dictatorship or democracy − take your choice and vote accordingly. Importantly, check with local police to determine if they will protect our electoral processes from the feds.
William Pettinger M.D., Bonita Springs
Todd Blanche confirmation
No wonder Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy was nearly crying when he cast the deciding vote to confirm Todd Blanche as Attorney General. A physician, whose bid for re-election this spring was ruined by President Trump’s endorsement of his opponent, he also furnished the decisive vote for the unqualified Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as head of the Department of Health & Human Services. Now he’s foisted the president’s personal lawyer and uber-loyalist and chief of the weaponization arm of the Justice Department upon the country, allowing the duo to continue to wreak havoc on the Rule of Law. Those are both good reasons to shed tears.
Cassidy’s justification for backing Blanche is worthy of weeping. He explained it as concern that if Blanche is not approved, he would be replaced by someone worse. That’s the same reasoning that led Germany during troubled times to select Adolf Hitler as chancellor in 1933.
Further, it’s not necessarily so for at least a couple of reasons. First, it might be hard even for President Trump to come up with a poorer choice. Second, a defeat of the nomination could have led even this president to recognize the need for a more acceptable choice, just as President Nixon advanced better choices for the Supreme Court after a pair of defeated selections. This may be particularly so if Democrats were to gain ground or even achieve a majority in the upcoming midterm elections.
For these reasons, Cassidy’s confirmation vote for Blanche and previously of RFK, Jr. is truly a crying shame.
Marshall H. Tanick, Naples
Supervisor of Elections
In her opinion article published on August 7th, I believe Supervisor of Elections Persons-Mulicka was correct that Florida’s election infrastructure includes meaningful safeguards. This includes paper ballots, logic and accuracy testing, and post-election audits. These are real protections that deserve public confidence, and I commend her for educating voters about them.
The piece, however, ignores perhaps the most important aspect of election integrity: the impartiality of the person administering the process. Florida’s election framework assumes that the Supervisor of Elections is a neutral administrator – someone with no personal stake in electoral outcomes.
That assumption deserves scrutiny here. Supervisor Persons-Mulicka has multiple family members on ballots (or, scheduled to be on ballots) for elections administered by the office she oversees. This reality was readily apparent at the time of appointment. These are the kind of facts that erode public trust in our election system, and the independence of the organization she was chosen to lead.
Then, there is mixed messaging. On April 1, 2026, she was reported to say “Election fraud is real. It is not a matter of if fraud will occur, it’s a matter of when…” She used that declaration to justify passing sweeping election legislation, affecting millions of Florida voters in the Florida SAVE Act.
Just four months later, now overseeing those same elections, she asks Lee County voters to trust completely that their ballots are protected under her office. The equipment hasn’t changed. The process hasn’t changed. The messaging, however, has.
Chris Vignieri, Esq., Democratic candidate for Lee County Supervisor of Elections
Cost of government benefits
Your article Monday August 10 titled Florida at “Center of Medicare Fraud” was very enlightening relative to the subject of the article. However, the comment “Together with other federal health expenses, Medicare and Medicaid accounted for the biggest chunk of government spending in 2024, just ahead of Social Security, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget” taken by itself is misleading.
For FY 2024 the federal government spent $1.458T for Social Security benefits, all but $140B was out of the Social Security Trust Fund, so the cost really was $140B. In FY 2024 the average Social Security benefit paid was approximately $21,400 per person (there were approximately 68 million people who received Social Security benefits in 2024) or a cost of $2.06 per person.
Medicare paid out $1.118T in benefits of which $885B was not covered by premiums paid. There were 67.6M people covered by Medicare making the average cost of Medicare $13,092 person.
Medicaid paid out $919B in benefits of which $594B was not paid by the states. There were 88.2M people covered by Medicaid so the average cost of Medicaid was $6,735 per person.
The Department of Defense spent $841B in 2024, the Department of Veteran Affairs spent $325B. Veteran retirement benefits were $72.2B for 2.25M retired veterans or $32,088 per person.
Veteran medical benefits were $120B for 9M beneficiaries or $13,333 per person.
So providing only gross cost of these benefits is very misleading as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid costs are offset by people or states paying into these programs. This should have been pointed out. The high cost items in 2024 were: Military: $1.116T (DoD and Veterans Affairs); Medicare: $885B; Medicaid: $594B; Social Security: $140B
Steve Wiener, Fort Myers
Red light cameras
Regarding the ballot measure to reduce property taxes for residents, I want to suggest another way for Florida to earn back the lost revenue. Simply install red light cameras. Charge a big penalty for running the light. The lost revenue will be quickly matched, even exceeded.
Ellen Grossman, Naples
Importance of voting
My dad was a physician in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. He came to my school and gave us all of our shots, as we called them back then. Most of these were vaccines that prevented us from contracting all of the terrible childhood diseases from the past, like polio, whooping cough, lockjaw, chicken pox, diphtheria, measles, mumps and various other diseases. My dad was a Democrat but many of his friends and patients were Republicans. They were all good friends and not divided by culture wars started by an evil president who doesn’t give a damn about any of us. He only cares about how much money he can make for himself, his family and his billionaire buddies by removing all safeguards that protect our natural resources, our insurance coverages, gas prices, grocery prices and overall safety. He is personally responsible for 25% of our 40 trillion national debt. This will be his legacy, nothing else, not the golden ballroom, not the golden arches, not the presidential library and certainly not the gold leaf Trojan horse. When he leaves office we are left holding the bag. The time is upon us to vote out all of his enablers from the city, county, state and federal levels of government. Do not listen to what they say but what they have done in the past for you. J.F.K. said “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Right now our country is calling out for our help. During this primary and regular election please vote like your very existence is in peril, because it is.
John Mark Simon, Cape Coral
Red menace in our midst
Oh my God … can it be? Have those Republican ads been on the money all along? Maybe so. It’s looking as though there is a “red menace” in our midst, and this time he’s really saying the quiet part out loud. Where’s Joe McCarthy when we need him? Mothers, cradle your babies! Katie, bar the door! Oh … wait a minute. It may be too late. It looks as though the call’s coming from inside the house, The White House! Oh, say it ain’t so …Alas, though, it is. Recently our current chief executive offered his take on the high gas prices we’re paying, and guess what? They have nothing to do with this idiotic war he started and lost. The problem is the oil companies are making too much money, and there’s more! He said they should be giving some of their excessive profits back to the government, presumably to be distributed for the benefit of us all in the form of lower prices at the pump. Well, step aside Karl Marx. If that ain’t communism, it’s a first cousin. In his defense, though, he’s only a “convenience commie.” For the Prez, even the redistribution of wealth is preferable to owning up to a mistake.I’d say more, but right now I’m gathering up my family’s accumulated wealth and digging a hole in the backyard. I’m no fool. Who knows what that pinko behind The Resolute Desk will get up to next?
Geremy Spampinato, Naples
We need an independent party
The U.S. has only two viable political parties: Democrats and Republicans. Both parties suffer from the same crucial shortcoming; they are controlled by the radical portion of their party. Being a centrist is outdated. The result is nothing gets done, and much energy is simply dissipated attacking the other party. Working “across the aisle” is considered as unloyal. The result is the current circus clown show in Washington.
What we need is a truly independent coalition that that can offer candidates who do not run on a platform of attacking the “other side” and obeying their party bosses, no matter how inane a particular stance may be. Such candidates would use reason, logic, and expert input to build their political platforms. What a novel idea! But maybe difficult to pull off in a society where hatred sells.
The big obstacle, of course, is who would fund such candidates, who by the definition of independence would not be beholden to contributors? Maybe some multibillionaire who is simply interested in doing the right thing, rather than gathering more money and influence? Is there such a person? Warren Buffett?
Gordon R. Ultsch, Ph.D., Cape Coral
Timeline for homeownership
Some perspectives on current homeownership timelines for younger generations.
Historically, purchasing a home by age 30 has not been the standard norm, as achieving homeownership more commonly occurs in the mid-to-late 30s or early 40s. The expectation that young adults should buy a home immediately after entering the workforce overlooks the necessary economic adjustments required early in a career. Furthermore, there is a growing concern regarding the value proposition of modern higher education, as many graduates from elite institutions (and not so elite) face high debt loads from specialized majors that may not align with market demands or prepare them for financial independence.
Ultimately, success for young professionals requires securing employment, working diligently to master their craft, learning from qualified mentors, and maintaining resilience through the early stages of their careers.
So stop crying, get off your computers and out of your parents’ basements and work.
Joe Kiernan, Naples
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Deceitful ways of anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists | Opinion letters
Reporting by Letter writers / Fort Myers News-Press
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By Letter writers | USA TODAY Network
