Readers write
Data centers pose environmental concerns
Promises that Microsoft made regarding data center projects - saying they will avoid causing higher electricity prices for existing customers, limit water usage, create jobs, generate new tax revenue and establish workforce training programs near their data centers - are a good start. But we need to see more from them, and the other Big Tech companies, about how they will protect air, water and soil quality.
We need clear indications that they will use energy responsibly and pursue/help build sustainable options for powering their data centers. We already have one developer in Georgia seeking permits from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to run their data center entirely on on-site gas engines. And Georgia Power has been given the green light by the Public Service Commission to build 10 gigawatts of new gas-fired generation capacity.
All of this is unhealthy for Georgians and should not be happening. We need to see plans and commitments from data center hyperscalers on how they will protect our air, water and soil.
MAURICE CARTER, COVINGTON
Kennedy bypasses CDC on childhood vaccine decision
In my letter published in Readers Write on Nov. 26, I suggested that Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was rendering “CDC’s role in public health irrelevant” with the changes he made to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine safety webpage without input from CDC scientists.
On Jan. 5, Kennedy took this one step further with his announcement to reduce the number of diseases for which the country’s children should receive protective vaccines from 17 to 11.
His announcement cited consultations with the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, but not the CDC or even his handpicked Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Although CDC scientists were not consulted, the CDC’s webpage with the reduced vaccination recommendations states, “The content of this page is being revised to reflect updated childhood immunization recommendations recently MADE BY THE CDC (my emphasis).”
The elimination of protection for six diseases will lead to increases in childhood illnesses, hospitalizations, deaths and socioeconomic costs. Making the claim that the reduced recommendations are CDC’s doing absolves Kennedy of responsibility for the harm that will result for our children and demonstrates again that it is his intention to neuter the CDC.
CRAIG LEUTZINGER, LAWRENCEVILLE
