Medical providers not beyond refresher training
To the editor:
I am a supporter of the Review-Journal's thorough coverage of the hepatitis outbreak tragedy. But I am writing to take issue with your questioning the need to raise health care provider awareness as to safe injection practices ("Were they just 'unaware'?" Dec. 14 editorial).
As sad as it may sound, the fact is that too many health care providers are not aware syringes should be used once and only once. A recent study shows that approximately 30 percent of health care providers were unaware that they should not reuse syringes. This has lead to most of the outbreaks that have occurred, including the Las Vegas outbreak.
A nationwide survey conducted earlier this decade and sponsored by the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists found that 1 in every 100 health care providers reuse needles and/or syringes on multiple patients.
While 1 percent may seem small, it's not small when you're the patient. I should know.
A few years back, I contracted hepatitis C when nurses treating me for a recurrence of breast cancer with reused syringes. I was one of 99 cancer patients infected in what stood as the largest outbreak of hepatitis prior to your own tragedy in Nevada.
Exact reasons why some health care providers are ignorant as to the dangers inherent in reusing syringes is unknown. For some, it may come from being overwhelmed by a constant crush of patients. For others, it may be simply forgetting what they learned in school.
Regardless of the reason, this ignorance remains a threat to the public health and must be addressed through a targeted provider education and awareness campaign.
Finally, let me make clear that I will never defend nor tolerate the actions of any health care provider who caused severe injury to patients by reusing syringes. Injured patients deserve justice, and reckless health care providers must be appropriately punished, including by having their licenses revoked.
Evelyn V. McKnight
FREMONT, NEB.
THE WRITER IS PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER OF HEPATITIS OUTBREAKS NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR REFORM.
Living dead
To the editor:
To those who believe a government bailout can save a dying industry, I strongly suggest the next time you travel, use Amtrak. After 36 years and billions of dollars, the corpse is still on taxpayer-funded life support.
CURTIS F. CLARK
BOULDER CITY
Bailout terms
To the editor:
The proposed loans to the Big Three automakers are nothing more than a way of protecting union support of the Democrats with the use of taxpayer money.
Over the years, union coercion of the automakers and weak auto company management have resulted in an unsupportable burden to the competitiveness of this important manufacturing base.
There is no way the automakers can compete against foreign-based or foreign-owned car companies in the United States.
Before any taxpayer money is given, there should be strict requirements. Current union contracts must be declared null and void. New wage and benefit scales need to be imposed on both labor and management. Wages and benefits should be on par with those paid by foreign automakers in the United States. Health and other benefits for retired workers need to be revised to include union subsidies as part of the payout.
Management stock options and bonuses cannot be paid until the companies are profitable and bailout money is repaid.
If a realistic compromise cannot be crafted, then let the companies be forced into a packaged bankruptcy.
Martin Shainen
LAS VEGAS
Unfair competition
To the editor:
I am sickened by the response of the Republicans to the situation surrounding the auto industry. The way they have grilled and ridiculed the auto executives is disgusting. Why didn't they treat the Wall Street executives that way? Why not ask for oversight of Wall Street?
The answer is obvious -- they had nothing to gain by holding Wall Street accountable.
The foreign car companies that employ Americans in the Southern states have unfair advantages over their American counterparts. The Republicans are taking care only of their own states at the expense of the rest of the country. Republicans are and always have been against the American worker.
Joseph Hall
LAS VEGAS
Salaried professionals
To the editor:
In response to the Dec. 13 letter from M. Dykes:
Tipping teachers? No, I don't think that's a good idea.
As a 20-plus-year veteran teacher, I can truly say that being appreciated and remembered is always special during the holidays. I love handmade cards, home-baked mini-loaves of banana bread, gift cards for Starbucks, etc. Knowing that we are remembered and cherished as an important part of your child's daily life is rewarding, but tips are not appropriate.
Teaching is our profession. Unlike waitresses, manicurists and casino workers, we are not paid minimum wage with the expectation that tips will follow.
Yes, we are underpaid as a profession; yes, we work in increasingly substandard conditions. But tipping isn't appropriate here for so many reasons.
There is real cause to bring teachers' salaries into a livable wage without the need to work two and three additional jobs. We'd like to be able to concentrate all of our efforts and energy on doing the best we can for our students, not worrying about putting food on our table or a roof over the heads of our own children.
What I would like is to be respected for the education I've had to gain in order to make me highly qualified to teach your child; to be approached by parents who understand that we're on the same side here, in attempting to help your child grow into an accomplished and productive adult; to stop the constant bashing. And for the public to demand that education is properly funded, yes, including teacher salaries.
We're not looking to get rich, and yes, we knew when we took on this profession that it wasn't big money; but we are in a position of not being able to leave for a better job: in teaching, when you leave a district, you have to start over again to become vested for retirement benefits.
Liz Goodman
LAS VEGAS
Inconvenient truth
To the editor:
Did anyone else in the valley get 4 inches of "global warming" in their back yard Wednesday?
Timothy Kauffman
LAS VEGAS
No accountability
To the editor:
The Securities and Exchange Commission has admitted they bungled investigating the Bernard L. Madoff frauds that led to at least a $50 billion loss to big investors around the globe. Numerous credible complaints were made against that firm since at least 1999, and none of those complaints was investigated fully by the SEC.
However, the SEC is proud that they have forced investment banks to buy back failed investments whose rate of return was determined by auctions. Of course, the SEC failed to mention that these banks are probably buying these failed investments with government bailout -- taxpayer -- money.
This is the same SEC that was confident of the capital strength of the five major brokerage houses in March of this year, shortly before one of them failed and two others were sold in fire sales backed by government -- taxpayer -- money.
Is there some reason, other than graft and corruption, to explain why we haven't heard of massive firings in the upper management of the SEC, or for that matter, criminal investigations of SEC personnel by the FBI? Whether simply incompetent or criminal, the SEC has certainly developed very successful layers of foxes protecting each other rather than protecting our battered investment hen house.
Jim Brown
NORTH LAS VEGAS
