NFL’s next crisis: HGH test results
The NFL’s corporate motto must be, “Better late than never.” It applies of course to the league’s recent abuse cases, but even more so to HGH or human growth hormone testing (“HGH testing finally begins in the NFL,” Sports, Oct. 6). The small AJC headline announcing the start of player HGH testing seemed almost apologetic, even though the players and owners agreed to test three years ago.
The usual delaying tactics (concerns with the science!) were employed by the players for three years, but even that is apparently played out. So here we go: The real NFL “800-pound gorilla” in the room is loose, and we shall see how the NFL brass handles the results. We should some day find out what biological miracle allows 300-pound men to run so fast, jump so high and perform amazing athletic feats.
IAN SHAW, CUMMING
College radio fans want more music
Now that the government has interfered with college radio stations WRAS and WREK, the results are in: You can’t listen to Sunday morning reggae for two hours on WRAS anymore. However, you can get the same droning PBS talk show on both WRAS and WABE at the same time. Concerning WREK on Friday nights, the Stonehenge show is preempted so one can hear girls volleyball. Stonehenge is WREK’s most popular show. Who tunes in girls’ volleyball? Does management think we want to hear sports and not music on Friday night? Have they ever bothered to survey college kids?
DON G. WHITE, ATLANTA
Ebola case reveals antibiotics misused
One aspect about the Dallas Ebola case seems to have been overlooked by the media. When Thomas Eric Duncan presented himself at the hospital for diagnosis and treatment, the medical professional he saw gave him a prescription for antibiotics and sent him on his way. Antibiotics? Antibiotics treat bacterial infections, not viruses. They have zero effect on viral infections. He should never have been given antibiotics. If the medical professional had done his or her due diligence, they would have found Duncan had a viral infection.
Yes, an Ebola epidemic is a terrifying thought, and it is not beyond the realm of possibility the virus could mutate to make airborne transmission a reality — an unlikely prospect, according to experts. But if it’s an epidemic of epic proportions we should fear, we need look no further than the nurse who gives a patient antibiotics not even knowing what is wrong with him, or the doctor who prescribes antibiotics for a child with a viral infection whose mother insists on his doing so even though the doctor knows he really shouldn’t. The thought of acquiring a bacterial infection and not having any medicine to combat it is far more terrifying to me than the possibility of the Ebola virus mutating.
SHERYL TOMBERLIN, PEACHTREE CITY
