Letters to the editor for Sunday, Jan 9: Learn to live with COVID-19 – The Register-Guard

Learn to live with COVID-19

Winter is the cold season! People get colds and the flu!

Now, rather than being proactive in myriad ways, colleges and universities around the country have decided to be reactive to delay their upcoming terms or go fully online.

The COVID-19 vaccine isn't stopping the virus, and we are going to have to live with it. COVID-19 and its variants have become like the flu. Just like the flu, likely you'll get an annual COVID shot for the mutations if you choose.

How long will our state and federal governments keep imposing vaccine and mask mandates that interfere with our personal lives and freedom?

Let people wear masks or not; let people take the shot or not.

Compared to the number of infections or deaths from cancer, heart disease and car accidents, the death rate from COVID-19 is very low.

Its time to stop the nonsense.

We can learn to live with this virus and its mutations.

Take the shackles off the citizens, especially our young adults, so they can have an enjoyable college experience while becoming educated as well as we can all worldwide have a Happy New Year!

Isn't it time?

Steve Mozena, Eugene

Nancy Lukasik maintains that Nick C.E. Squires should read the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, (Letters, Jan. 4). She states the First Amendment promises freedom ofreligion, not freedom fromit.

Here is the textthat pertains to religion: Congress shall make no law respecting establishment of religion; or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...

Lukasik and Squires: Letters to the editor for Tuesday, Jan 4: Proof in the (vaccine) pudding

The first clause sounds a lot like freedom fromreligion (established by the federal government). The second clause sounds a lot like freedom ofreligion (including no religion). You need to read both parts.

The First Amendment explicitly prohibits the federal government from getting into the religion business in any way, pro or con. At least thats how I read shall make no law.

There are millions of Americans who believe in a host of religions and millions of others who dont. It would seem, unless we intentionally allow the federal government to color outside the lines of the First Amendment as written, Nancy and Nick should be able to sleep OK at night.

The religious, hypocritical, right wing of the Republican Party demands that unborn children have the right to life. Pro-choice people demand the womans right to choose. Neither notes what kind of life the child is entitled to live.

Our Constitution guarantees the pursuit of happiness.What if that happiness does not include being forced to birth unwanted children?

Twenty-five percent of our children in this the wealthiest nation on Earth suffer from hunger and/or homelessness.

The Republican Party pro-life/anti-abortionposition insists an unborn child must be born whether wanted by the birth parents or not.

Once that child is born, these religious, principled Republicans dont care or feel responsible for the type of life that child will have, or adult he or she will become. Will this child they insist on being born live in abject poverty, neglect, be abused, abandoned, receive a decent education, have food and shelter? Will this child be forced to be a criminal, destitute, have severe physical or emotional needs?

So, what right to a decent life does that child have?

Robert Rubinstein, Eugene

Whitney Randallsletterin The Register-Guard on Jan. 3 describes an upcoming ballot measure (Measure 6) that would establish the Oregon Peoples Rebate, a yearly cash payment of $750 to every Oregonian.

For progressives, this is a worthy cause for all the reasons Randall lists, especially for the large swath of Oregonians with low and middle incomes who have been economically left behind as the wealthy grew ever richer.

But there is a gigantic problem with Measure 6. It raises taxes on corporations in exactly the same way the overwhelmingly rejected Measure 97 would have in 2016:by taxing the gross receipts of corporations with more than $25 million in sales at such a high level that many types of businesses would see all of their net profit taxed away. Thats right. Alltheir profit.

Grocery stores, auto dealers and construction companies are only a few types of businesses that could no longer make a profit under this measure. The negative effects on the Oregon economy would be unthinkable.

Douglas Berg, Eugene

In this new year, we face some gigantic challenges.

Reminds me of the situation in the late 1940s when we faced the armies of the Axis powers. Everyone wanted to contribute to the war effort.Kids collected scrap metal and adults planted "victory gardens."

But what can ordinary people do about the challenges that come with the climate change? For one thing, we can install cisternsand water storage tanks to catch rain water that comes off roofs during rainy seasons. There could be some interesting competitions.

Dick Sweeney, Eugene

Ive been a registered nurse at PeaceHealth for 20 years. The last two have been extraordinarily challenging, particularly because Im also a mother with school-aged children.

Initially PeaceHealth supported staff with 80 hours of COVID-19 paid time off. When things improved last summer, it took whatever was unused away from us.

Today, I am forced to go into work and leave my teenager home, who is sick with COVID-19 (yes, shes vaccinated). I dont have the sick time to cover my pay and since I have no symptoms, I am expected to work. Hopefully, Im not exposing my coworkers and patients.

In reality, I probably am.

This health care worker is beyond exhausted. I feel I am being forced to abandon my sick and scared child and that I am being forced to put others at risk as I am likely a carrier of COVID-19.

In the meantime, PeaceHealth is paying traveling RNs quadruple what I make.

This experience has been demoralizing, to say the least. I believe health care workers and families deserve better than this.

Misty Villalobos, Eugene

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Letters to the editor for Sunday, Jan 9: Learn to live with COVID-19 - The Register-Guard