To the Editor:
Re “Volatile Hearing as Fauci Invokes 5th Amendment” (front page, July 30):
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who helped save countless lives during both the AIDS epidemic and the Covid-19 pandemic, should be spending his later years being honored, celebrated and thanked for a lifetime of public service. Instead, he was treated with contempt and publicly berated by members of Congress on Wednesday at a Senate committee hearing on the origins of Covid.
This was a disgrace — not only to that institution, but also to the millions of Americans whose lives were touched by his work.
Reasonable people can debate policies and decisions made during times of crisis. That is the essence of democracy. But there is a profound difference between conducting legitimate oversight and publicly humiliating a man who dedicated decades of his life to protecting the health of the American people.
The interrogation of Dr. Fauci was, in my view, a blight on Congress and beneath the dignity of the office its members hold. America has always aspired to be better than this.
I refuse to believe that the behavior we witnessed Wednesday reflects the values of most Americans. If it does not, then we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to change it. November is our opportunity to begin building a Congress worthy of the American people. Our votes are our voice.
Robert Kunikoff New York
To the Editor:
What a sad day in U.S. history when a renowned scientist and public servant for decades — one who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush, a Republican, for his work on H.I.V. and AIDS and provided the nation with the best science available to us during the Covid-19 pandemic — felt compelled to invoke the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times at a Senate hearing based on the recommendation of his attorney.
Sadly, too, I feel Dr. Fauci was right to do what he did. Like so many Americans, I am grateful for his service to our nation. Apparently, vilifying Dr. Fauci is more important to some senators than focusing on the rising number of measles cases, the current health issues we have with food contamination, and all those who have lost their health insurance over the past year — one more reason to be sad.
Bill Lillis Jersey City, N.J.
To the Editor:
Re “Diary Tracks Rise From Disease Expert to Toast of the Town” (news article, July 30):
The release of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s personal diaries may depict a human being privately astounded and pleased by his new fame, but what matters is that his steady advice kept me, my parents (who are in their 90s) and everyone else I know who listened to him alive.
As a former violinist with the Houston Symphony, I also saw the benefits of Dr. Fauci’s work firsthand, when the symphony successfully ran a season during the first year of the pandemic with virtually no illnesses using his guidance.
I never felt forced to adopt Covid-safe practices. I embraced them. In fact, they allowed me to travel eight times in the first year of the pandemic without illness. I was more social than ever on Zoom, expanding my circle to long lost friends and countless club meetings.
To this day, I gladly put up with 20 minutes of masking in the grocery store. It sure beats getting sick.
Deborah Moran Houston
To the Editor:
The truth about Covid-19 isn’t in Dr. Anthony Fauci’s diary. It is that we had a president who preferred to politicize the pandemic rather than unify the nation. President Trump exploited the virus to divide us, and we allowed it.
At a time when we needed a strong leader willing to put partisan politics aside, we had, instead, a scheming con man who seized the opportunity to further his personal power. He sowed distrust in science to pit us against one another. He chose to stoke the fires of anger and fear over the communal good. We are complicit.
Today we live in the aftermath of Mr. Trump’s Covid-era manipulation. Parents now refuse vaccines that have kept children safe for generations. We have all but stopped funding scientific research to cure and prevent disease. More Americans view education with a collective anti-intellectual skepticism.
Whatever may be in Dr. Fauci’s private papers is less terrifying than the current willingness of Americans to be pawns in Mr. Trump’s political games.
Stephanie DiMartino Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Why is it so hard for so many to understand that a virus deadly enough to kill millions of people required government action to limit its spread and that such actions would be imperfect by their very nature?
No one could possibly know exactly how and if school closures would help or hurt the society. I believe that the hyperpoliticization of Covid-19 policy during and after the fact caused much more harm than the actions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did. Our politicians were not searching for the truth; they were searching for the half-truths and messaging approaches that would be most valuable to their political careers.
Certainly Dr. Anthony Fauci has been proven to have the best interests of our society in mind.
Ford Goodman Reno, Nev.
Betting on Elections
To the Editor:
“Polymarket and Kalshi Bets in Billions for World Cup Final” (Business, July 20) suggests that the World Cup may have been “the largest gambling event in history.”
May I suggest that this may be true only until the 2026 midterms or the presidential election in 2028? Could we perhaps be watching in real time the transformation of elections into gambling events?
Based on odds provided by the prediction markets, millions of voters/bettors could be incentivized to place their bets and cast their votes in a way that maximizes their individual financial interests with little regard to civic responsibility.
If so, how would this differ in principle from disbursing bribes from cash in a sack? Perhaps it should be viewed as a high-tech version of the same thing.
There seems to have been too little public debate about the implications of this transformation.
Joey Freeman Athens, Ga.
Happy in the Muck
To the Editor:
I really enjoyed “Picking Trash Out of Muck, and Loving It” (front page, July 18). It was refreshing to read such an uplifting story about a group of women who spend their time wading through ponds and lakes pulling underwater garbage from the muck.
You quote Lisa Weiss, a 65-year-old retired high school math teacher, as saying, “You’re exhausted, you’re maybe a little sunburned, you’re filthy, and it’s the best feeling.”
I wasn’t surprised to learn that the effort was started by a psychologist. The article beautifully illustrated what decades of psychological research have shown: Lasting happiness comes from connection, accomplishment, purpose and, perhaps most important, contributing to others.
At a time when so much of the news focuses on conflict and discouragement, this story was a welcome reminder that working together to improve our communities can bring deep joy.
The turtles and the fish are surely grateful for the women’s efforts, and they’re not the only ones applauding. I’m clapping for them, too.
Thank you for highlighting these women and the power of doing good.
Caren Baruch-Feldman Scarsdale, N.Y. The writer is a psychologist.