Improving chickens’ lots healthier for all of us

It’s a shame that some kids didn’t have many Easter eggs to decorate this year — the bird flu affecting hens has made the price of eggs skyrocket.

We could avoid sending millions of birds to a grisly death due to flu if we improved their inhumane living conditions in commercial enterprises — hundreds crowded in extremely close quarters with little or no fresh air or sunlight.

Whether you eat eggs or enjoy decorating them, this is a moment to reconsider birds’ living conditions. We know all too well that viruses can jump from one species to another — so cramped living conditions affect not just birds but humans too.

Next time you see an opportunity to sign a petition to improve living conditions for birds, act on it. The better living conditions we give our birds, the less likely we’ll be to contract a virus that originated from them.

— Patrice Wagner, Oakland

Careful language drives effective policy

Re. “What can explain the wild winter of 2023?” (Page A1, April 7).

Kudos for periodic graphics comparing snowfall amounts in various years. I’m pleased you usually use “average” instead of “normal” for the mean like some. “Normal” is inappropriate for two reasons.

First, “normal” people are not restricted to average characteristics. There is always a range to normal, perhaps a standard deviation or two.

Second, snowpack and rainfall follow log-normal distributions, which means a few large events skew the average. From your published graph, one finds the average snowpack to be 120% of the median and twice the most likely value. Sixty-three percent of the years are below average. Livermore rainfall is below average 60% of the time, and 11 inches of rain is most likely, not 14.5 inches.

Similar skewed statistics apply to income, house prices and other human characteristics. Careless word use can lead to fuzzy thinking, which can then lead to poor public policy.

— Alan Burnham, Livermore

U.S. must fund adequate global health care

Re: “Marin County ranks healthiest in California, grapples with equity challenges” (April 8).

Proactive health interventions and preventative work propelled Marin County into California’s top spot for healthiest county, but there is still work to be done for marginalized and underrepresented groups in Marin, throughout the East Bay and globally.

Well-trained and equipped health workforces are essential for building sustainable, resilient health systems, especially in regions of the world that are already a step behind. Comprehensive primary health care can anchor a community by building trust through continuous relationships with community-based providers. Investment in primary health care can especially benefit women and people in low-income countries where geographic, political and financial barriers exist.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, is uniquely positioned to make a difference as ranking member of the subcommittee that decides on foreign aid funding. I urge her to continue increasing funding for front-line health care workers and work to ensure that essential supplies are consistently stocked at the front line.

— Sabrina Baffert, Berkeley

We must protect victims of domestic violence

According to national statistics, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner. We need stricter laws regarding those accused of domestic violence and more protection for the accusers.

It could take as little as 30 minutes to bail out of jail and commit more crimes. Should the defendant bail out, they should be held on house arrest to keep their victim safe. Relocation services need to be offered to accusers for extra protection. Imagine the relief a victim feels when their domestic violence abuser gets taken into custody and the absolute horror when they are informed they’ve been released.

This is a reality for many people that have experienced domestic violence abuse. Write to the Legislature and propose a new bill that will add protections for domestic violence victims and keep their abusers behind bars until they have proven their innocence in the judicial process.

— Nattaly Withington Union City

Fox’s lies for ratings are definition of pathetic

The discovery phase of the Dominion voting machines defamation lawsuit against Fox News has exposed internal Fox emails and texts which reveal that Fox anchors privately viewed Donald Trump’s claims of election fraud and a stolen election as false and that some of his legal team, especially Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, were bonkers liars.

Yet Fox continued to give plenty of airtime and support to these false claims, in particular, that Dominion voting machines would switch Trump votes to Joe Biden votes and thereby steal the election. Fox chose this dishonest path because Fox viewers demanded pro-Trump positions and Fox ratings began to tank when Fox broadcast anything contrary.

Fox lying to its viewers reminds me of the iconic line from Jack Nicholson in the film “A Few Good Men”: “You can’t handle the truth.” Pathetic all around.

— Bob Benson, Lafayette