BACK TO BASICS

DEAR ELI SANDERS: Thank you for your piece titled "The Iconoclast" [July 5] about presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul. So often the reporting about Dr. Paul is poorly researched or is worded in a way to make his ideas seem bizarre. I suspect that the opinion of Paul's supporters is that our nation's founding fathers would find his ideas anything but bizarre. In fact, if Thomas Jefferson were alive today, he'd almost certainly be a Paul supporter. He might even be the leader of a Ron Paul Meetup group.

Brad Watson

MORE SURVIVAL TIPS

DEAR EDITOR: We want to provide clarification on a few inaccuracies in your June 28 article "Be Afraid" [Erica C. Barnett] :

King County's stockpile of the antiviral Tamiflu will be made available to treat sick members of the general public, in addition to health-care workers and other first responders.

Social distancing measures will depend upon a voluntary effort by people to slow the spread of the virus by minimizing their interactions with one another. An order from the local health officer may close schools, day cares, and facilities such as theaters and stadiums, and cancel public events, but King County's Pandemic Influenza Response Plan does not specifically call for the closure of businesses.

King County is planning for six alternate health-care facilities for a pandemic (not three) that will serve the surge of ill people needing care in a pandemic. Three of these sites have been identified and the other three are under consideration.

We appreciate Erica Barnett's personal example in preparedness and her effort in raising concern about pandemic flu. We hope that this clarification will help your readership have a more accurate sense of what to expect during a pandemic.

James Apa

Communications Manager, Public Health, Seattle and King County

NOT VERY AFRAID

HEY BARNETT: As a member of the tinfoil-hat brigade, I would normally be drawn to your article on bird flu, but I have some major reservations.

During that bird flu scare, if you'll recall, CDC Director Julie Gerberding (a scientist as well) did pronounce that she couldn't understand all the fuss because such a pandemic was highly improbable as it would require many iterations of mutations to reach its deadliest stage.

That was a surreal moment, for at the same time Gerberding said that, the CDC public relations guy was going around the country proclaiming the exact opposite, promoting people to "be very afraid."

You may have recognized this CDC PR guy as a former member of the 2000 Bush campaign.

As a direct result of this scare campaign, stock holdings in the company that manufactures the avian flu vaccine—the same stock that Donald Rumsfeld held quite a bit of—went up tremendously in value. Rumsfeld's previous source of revenue, his venture with the family of the Chinese dictator (Red Flag Software) and his position on the board of ABB, the Swiss energy giant which had sold nuclear technology to North Korea, hadn't been all that highly remunerative; ergo the necessity of the avian flu scare!

We have heard, year after year, that this year's flu (normally originating in China) would be the worst ever; yet that always turns out to be a false alarm. Historically, Seattle has been one of the worst hit areas for the Chinese flu attacks as this region is a conduit for illegal Chinese, a major vector carrying the latest contagion.

Speaking of the Chinese, we're far more likely to die from poisoned food from China, or their radioactive toys (they recycle everything in their manufacturing processes, including radioactive substances).

James

USELESS SNIGGERING

DEAR EDITOR: Mike Hood's Minutemen article [July 5] was totally pointless. The Minutemen and the racism their movement embodies are sensational distractions from a substantive debate about illegal immigration, and Hood's sniggering reportage utterly fails to rise above the fray; covering the immigration issue by reporting on the Minutemen is like covering the American dairy industry by describing the exploits of rodeo clowns.

Illegal immigration has a significant and ongoing effect on our culture and our economy. Americans have a right and a responsibility to respond to that situation deliberately and cogently, and the role of the press should be to illuminate the debate by introducing facts and ideas. For example: What would be the wider economic implications of removing illegal immigrants from the economy? I assume such a move would result in massive inflation as the rising price of agriculture and services produced upward pressure on wages across the economy. Maybe it would result in a revival of organized labor. I don't know what the experts think about any of this because The Stranger is giving me fucking rodeo clowns.

Jason Schmidt