To the Editor:
Re “Trump Proposes Draining Billions From Next Relief Bill” (news article, July 19):
I see that the Trump administration wants to zero out funding for coronavirus testing. I trust this means that all testing of White House staff and visitors will end. After all, according to President Trump’s reasoning, if no one around him is tested, there will be no cases of Covid-19 near him.
I am sure we would all be reassured to know that Mr. Trump and his family are no longer burdened by a constant barrage of test results and are, like so many of the rest of us, protected by absolute ignorance of how close the disease may be to them.
Martha M. White
Cardiff, Calif.
To the Editor:
Let me get this straight: A president who not long ago was a vaccine skeptic, saying that he knew people whose children became autistic after getting vaccinated — with vaccines that had been meticulously tested, took years to perfect and had long track records in use — now wants us to take a vaccine developed at “warp speed” by cutting all sorts of corners so he can be re-elected? I don’t think so.
Thomas Laraia
Babylon, N.Y.
To the Editor:
While I was at the bank the other day a guy behind me in line was having a loud conversation with the security guard. He was telling the guard that the Covid-19 virus was a hoax and would disappear after the election and that the whole pandemic was really a plot against President Trump by the Democrats in order to win the election. He went on to say that people going to the hospital were falsely claiming that they had the virus, whereas they really had some other more common ailment.
I asked the guy where he got his information. He told me he listens to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity all day. So I guess we can all rest easier now.
Steve Kutay
Raleigh, N.C.
Cleaner Air in New York City
To the Editor:
Re “I’ve Seen a Future Without Cars, and It’s Amazing” (column, July 12):
Farhad Manjoo describes the many benefits of moving away from car dependency, a sustainable future we fully support.
But when describing New York City’s air as “some of the dirtiest” in the country, Mr. Manjoo leaves out an important fact: Air quality in New York City has significantly improved over the last 10 years, thanks to recent laws on heating oil and building emissions.
We still have work to do. Air pollution causes more than 2,000 premature deaths and 6,000 emergency department visits each year. To address this public health threat, part of the solution will be the very changes that Mr. Manjoo proposes, and not just in Midtown and Lower Manhattan.
In the poorest neighborhoods of the city, residents experience higher rates of illness related to traffic pollution. In East Harlem, for example, asthma emergency department visits due to traffic pollution are 13 times those of the Upper East Side.
We must prioritize environmental justice in our solutions to air pollution. With this larger vision of equity, we share the goal of working toward cleaner air by valuing people’s health over cars and trucks.
Sarah Johnson
New York
The writer is executive director of the New York City Health Department’s Air Quality Program.
Living the Van Life
To the Editor:
“Stability in Motion: The Van Life” (Business, July 3) extolled van-living from a marketing slant. I lived in my van for 22 years and have a different perspective.
Posted above my driver’s seat is an inscription in Latin: “Multum in Parvo” (“Much in Little”). The van is the ultimate miniaturized home. With it comes a profound opportunity. Simplify! A good lesson for all.
Fortunes can be spent gearing up for this life, but my total rig cost $45,000 in 2020 dollars.
Don’t think “life on the road,” but “life outside.” Each day I spend not moored to mortgage, maintenance and overhead reveals some new place, friend, story or truth. But consider, too, the trade-offs, including security. And a welcome intimacy with nature includes intensified dependence on weather.
Lucky me: My career as a photographer and writer fits — if not requires — van life. Luckier yet: My wife, with her own writing work, loves the van, too.
Other purposeful lives can be pursued in nomadic style, but anyone drawn to them needs to look beyond the snazzy retrofit that has made “van life” a business.
Tim Palmer
Port Orford, Ore.
The writer is the author of “Pacific High: Adventures in the Coast Ranges From Baja to Alaska.”