Follow rules, then as now

My father was an old-fashioned doctor who had lived, as a teenager, through the great influenza epidemic after World War I. Here is what he taught me many years ago, during the polio crisis: “Every pandemic has a lifespan of its own. It will die on its own — when it can find no more victims.” That’s why today, we must follow rules and practices — whether we like them or not — that keep us from being victims and making victims of others.

Harriet P. Gross, Dallas/Vickery Meadow

Vaccination must be global effort

The United States is ranking highest globally for the number of COVID-19 cases recorded, followed by eight other G-20 nations. The pandemic has a far-reaching impact, pushing millions of people both in first-world nations and developing countries into extreme poverty. It’s claimed 1.4 million lives worldwide. Now more than ever, our leaders should know how basic health care and vaccination should not be a privilege for the wealthy but should be a basic human right for everyone. We do not and cannot live in isolation. What happens in other countries affects us, too.

The United States under President Donald Trump’s administration has declined to join a worldwide initiative to distribute COVID-19 vaccines worldwide. We cannot curb COVID-19 or tuberculosis by only vaccinating Americans. We need every person to be vaccinated. We can’t close our borders forever. Let’s urge our elected officials to get Washington to support the global vaccination efforts.

Deva Renee Arumugam, Dallas

Texas priority list omits teachers

It’s inexcusable that the state of Texas omits schoolteachers and staff from the high-priority list for receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Will someone in Austin please wake up?

Martha Durst, Richardson

Use malls for vaccinations

I ask our governor to consider the following path to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine to the general population:

Utilize regional shopping malls, which have massive interior and exterior footprints with multiple ingress and egress points. I have three such malls within 10 miles of my home: Music City, Irving and Northeast — they are virtually abandoned.

Utilize the Texas National Guard for traffic control and document control and Guard medical personnel for vaccination.

I believe this path will be much more conducive to a controlled distribution plus more efficient and safe than using local CVS/Walgreens stores or schools.

Mike Conroy, Grapevine

Do your part to save lives

Re: “ ‘Our grief cannot be measured,’ Sergeant with ‘servant’s heart’ is force’s first COVID-19 death,” Thursday news story.

The loss of Dallas Police Department Sgt. Bronc McCoy to COVID-19 was a tragedy. I’m grateful for all first responders as they cannot social distance while working.

But, where are the stories and pictures of the doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, etc., that we’ve lost to this virus? They have, are and will be working selflessly to care for their own colleagues, our first responders, our families and friends. The health care community has lost over 1,700 of their own. For perspective, that is triple the number of people in Congress, the Cabinet and Supreme Court combined. No other profession has suffered losses of this magnitude, but educators also need to be recognized.

If the residents who benefit from the services of these professionals do all we can to mitigate the spread of this virus, their jobs would hold less risk, deaths in our community would decrease and we could look forward to a more hopeful 2021.

Margaret Haynes, East Dallas

Pass relief legislation

People are struggling financially as COVID-19 surges across the country. The Federal Reserve and economists say that without action by Congress, the U.S. economy is in trouble. Low-income renters need help now. They are more likely to have lost a job or income due to the pandemic. It is estimated that over 12 million renters could owe an average of $5,400 in back rent by December. Without emergency rental assistance to help tenants and landlords catch up on rent, millions will face eviction when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium expires at the end of this year.

With families struggling to put food on the table, any legislation must focus on the deep hardships that families are facing this holiday season. I’m calling on our Texas senators to do everything in their power to move Congress on a COVID-19 relief bill. Such a bill should include at least $100 billion in emergency rental assistance, a boost in SNAP benefits, and at least $20 billion in emergency development assistance for organizations on the front lines like the Global Fund and Gavi. Low-income Americans need relief now. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn must act in the best interests of Texans.

Bukekile Dube, McKinney

Pardons for turkeys

President Donald Trump is supposed to pardon a couple of turkeys for Thanksgiving. That’s nothing. He’s been pardoning Make America Great Again jail birds for four years now.

Kurt Wolfenbarger, East Dallas

A day of thanksgiving

Do you celebrate Thanksgiving? Well, I do. This Thanksgiving holiday is different from the previous ones, but I will celebrate it thanking my loved ones who are keeping me safe. Holy prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be on him) said: “One who is not grateful to mankind is not grateful to God.”

I am also thankful for my family, friends, teachers, shelter, food, water and that I am alive and safe. I don’t really like eating the turkey because the poor turkey died, but I love the concept of giving thanks.

If you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, then you can consider just celebrating a day this year to be thankful for things just like me.

Anabia Malik, 9, Round Rock