HOSPITAL INFECTIONS
Visitors should comply with hygiene rules, too
Regarding “Hospital infections: deadly, preventable” (News, April 28), as I work daily in an acute care hospital, I observe nearly 100 percent compliance with hand sanitization by the front-line staff including nurses, therapists, etc.
The doctors are close to 100 percent compliant with hand hygiene as well. What your article didn’t seem to point out is poor hand sanitization by families and visitors. Daily, I see visitors exit isolation rooms without cleaning their hands — followed by their touching elevator buttons, vending machines, door handles and phones. The next visitor frequently takes those germs into other rooms, where they are passed on to the next patient. This problem flows both ways.
CHUCK STEPHENS, ATLANTA
PERSONAL JOURNEYS
Compassionate story tells barista’s dreams
“The barista” (Living, April 28) was a very good article.
Thanks for painting the picture in an interesting, informative and compassionate way. I look forward to future articles of a similar nature.
P.D. GOSSAGE, JOHNS CREEK
WATER WARS
Other states are trying to deny us what’s ours
It’s time for an ongoing, in-depth series in my paper about water needs. Reading the opinion piece “Close enough? Or too far apart?” (Opinion, April 21), one quickly finds that a mayor and at least one other local official list water as a priority need.
Atlanta-area citizens and those in surrounding counties are being held, it seems, in a vise grip by Florida, Alabama and a federal judge. It’s as if we bought a gallon or the equivalent of bottled water at a local store — only to have two bordering states say they deserve some of it, too. Then, to have a judge rule “okey-dokey” about what amounts to legalized theft is plainly dishonest, wrong and a hard pill to swallow.
DICK SLATE, WINSTON
PUBLIC SPENDING
Name-calling doesn’t advance an argument
Paul Krugman shows once again how the left believes that names matter and can hurt a great deal (“The proof is in: Austerity works, if you’re wealthy,” Opinion, April 27).
He tries to re-frame the argument between those who believe that a small government is best, and those who believe the welfare state powered by big government is best. He labels the former “austerians,” a newly invented and very unattractive appellation that the left likes to apply to their conservative opponents. It serves his purpose of demonizing those presenting logical arguments against the policies of the Obama administration, and trying to start a rational discussion about reforming Medicaid, Social Security, Medicare and government expenditures in general.
His thinking, as usual, is not helpful.
WILLIAM O. JOHNSON, BROOKHAVEN
CONGRESS
Oath is to Constitution, not majority opinion
I’ve read letters recently in which the authors say that our congressmen should cast their votes based on what the majority of people support. If the authors really want to live in a country with this type of government, they will have to move — because the United States of America is a constitutional republic.
When lawmakers take their oath of office, they swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States, not the will of the majority. As citizens of this republic, we should applaud our elected officials when they vote to defend our constitutional rights, instead of criticizing those officials via the media.
LISA CHAMBERS, SNELLVILLE
