Misinformation about vaccines is spreading rapidly | Opinion letters

AI-assisted summary
• Readers express concern over proposed rollbacks of school vaccine requirements in Florida.
• Several writers condemn former President Trump’s remarks following the murder of Rob and Michelle Reiner.
• The termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haiti is criticized due to ongoing danger in the country.
• Writers debate immigration policies, the use of FEMA funds, and U.S. foreign policy shifts.

Naples Pier funding

Am I the only one that thinks it is not right that FEMA is allocating eleven million dollars towards the rebuilding of the Naples Pier? FEMA is “a U.S. government agency within the Department of Homeland Security that coordinates national response to disasters, helping people before, during and after events like hurricanes, floods and earthquakes.” The Naples Pier should not qualify for this money! I believe that FEMA is supposed to help people after disasters with “funds for critical needs like temporary housing, essential home repairs (roof, utilities) and replacement of damaged personal property (appliances, computers) not covered by insurance, plus immediate aid for food, water and medical needs, helping individuals and families stabilize and begin recovery after a presidentially declared disaster.”

Joan Lafferty, Naples

Vaccines proven safe, effective

As a retired professional nurse, mother and grandmother there is great concern regarding attempts to eliminate required vaccines. Parents do have rights regarding the health of their children. However refusing vaccinations does put their children at risk for serious illness or possibly death. Vaccines have proven safety and effectiveness. Personally as a senior receiving flu and updated COVID vaccines every year illness has been avoided. It has been safe to socialize in public and shop. The Florida state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced a workshop is the first step to repeal a rule requiring several vaccines. Cabinet Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy who is totally unqualified for that position has encouraged parents to avoid vaccinations. Much misinformation has been spread. Please listen to physicians who give accurate information to keep your family safe. 

Virginia Davidsaver, Fort Myers

Vaccine misinformation

Misinformation about the Hepatitis B vaccine is spreading rapidly on social media just as Florida officials move to roll back longstanding school vaccine requirements. Last week’s proposal to eliminate several vaccine mandates for schoolchildren, including Hepatitis B, Hib, and others, has alarmed pediatricians and public health experts who fear preventable diseases could rebound. (AP News)I retired five years ago as a pediatric critical care nurse practitioner after more than 40 years in the Pediatric ICU. During that time, I saw vaccines save countless young lives. These lifesaving tools were developed through rigorous scientific and pharmaceutical research, not political theater. Before newborn Hepatitis B vaccination became routine, I cared for infants and children suffering from chronic hepatitis B and its devastating consequences including liver scarring, lifelong disability, liver cancer, or death. Once newborn vaccination became standard, cases plummeted and children and parents were spared needless suffering.

Florida’s vaccination requirements have long protected our children in schools and daycares by maintaining high immunization rates. (Florida Department of Health) Rolling back these protections amid rising vaccine skepticism is reckless and shortsighted.

The solution is clear: We must reaffirm evidence-based immunization policies, strengthen public education about vaccine safety, and ensure parental decisions are informed by science, not misinformation. Our community deserves protection against preventable disease, not a return to outbreaks we already know how to prevent.

Eileen Briening, Naples

Status change for Haiti

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has terminated Temporary Protected Status for Haiti. TPS benefits will no longer be in effect starting at 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 3, 2026. For the 350,000 or more Haitians this would impact, returning to Haiti is extremely dangerous and could cost them their lives.

Major governments, including the U.S., UK, Canada, and Australia, have issued “Do Not Travel” advisories for Haiti. Haiti is currently at a Level 4: Do Not Travel advisory, the highest level of warning due to life-threatening risks from widespread crime, kidnapping, civil unrest, and gang activity. The security situation is extremely volatile, and emergency services are severely limited. 

At the base of the Statue of Liberty, these famous words from Emma Lazarus’s poem “The New Colossus,” are immortalized “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, / I lift my lamp beside the golden door!“ These lines, inscribed on a bronze plaque on her pedestal, welcome immigrants and symbolize America as a beacon of hope for those entering our country and hoping to make it their home.

Please contact your members of Congress by going to congress.gov/members and searching with your address.  If the current situation is deemed too dangerous for tourism, how can we send those who fled from violence back to certain danger in Haiti?

Dr. Sid Freund, Naples

Horrific attack in Australia

The Catholic members of the steering committee of the Catholic Jewish Dialogue of Collier County (CJD) are saddened by the horrific attack on our Jewish brothers and sisters in Australia. As the death count continues to rise, we lift up the deceased and the wounded in prayer. The survivors and families of the deceased also need our prayers as they deal with the trauma of yet another attack on the Jewish people simply for being Jewish.

We want our partners in dialogue to know that we stand with them wholeheartedly and share in their grief. We know that words are easy to say but we trust that our actions in working with you to fight antisemitism speak volumes.

Marty Gauthier. Co-Chair of CJD, Very Reverend Robert Kantor, Pastor of St. Agnes Catholic Church, Naples, Deacon Richard Surrusco, St. Agnes Catholic Church, Naples, Paul Baxa, Ph.D. Professor of History, History Internship Coordinator, Ave Maria University, Ginny Segaloff, Donna Poach, David Pince

Cruel comments

Dear Republicans, is this the best you can come up with? A foul mouthed, uncaring, person who sinks lower every day. I’ve been amazed at some of his previous cruel comments, but today’s sink even lower. Rob Reiner and his wife were real people with family and friends. Your lies about their murder being political revenge, and a disregard for common dignity is a new low. This is a president that represents our country? No wonder political violence is so prevalent.

Jim Walton, Bonita Springs

Disparaging remarks reaction

Do you think school boards and other public and private entities will go after their people who make disparaging remarks about murder victim Rob Reiner the same way they punished people who dissed Charlie Kirk after he was killed? “What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.” If not, why not? 

Bruce Diamond, Fort Myers

Consequences for remarks

I wonder how many teachers will have their personal social media posts scrutinized and then be suspended for agreeing with the hateful sentiment that Rob Reiner and his wife deserved their brutal murder because they had “Trump Derangement Syndrome”?

J. Anderson, Naples

Immigration policies

I am truly frustrated reading about people who are so violently anti-ICE and criticizing the Trump administration for trying to rid our country of “illegal immigrants,” the worst first.  I am tired of people who try to compare illegal immigrants today to our forefathers who came to this country legally.  The Irish, Italians, English, Scandinavians, etc. came to America, sought jobs, learned to speak English, acclimated and became American citizens while maintaining pride of their heritage.  We should not mind if those from different places around the world want to do the same, but they have to do it legally.  Immigrants today must acclimate not attempt to build pockets of their culture, their country around the United States.  Great nations that eventually crumbled did so from within.  We must make sure this doesn’t happen although there are definite signs around the country that this is happening.  Americans need to toughen up and not cave in to false pretense.  And all Americans must not forget who allowed millions of illegals to enter this country for four long years.

Bob Shea, Naples

Learn from history

Trump has fallen into three traps which two previous presidents and one prime minister of England fell into. President George W. Bush got into war with Iraq based on weapons of mass destruction Iraq supposedly had. Trump has said drugs coming into the country are weapons of mass destruction, and so he has provoked a conflict with Venezuela by blowing up their boats and seizing an oil tanker supposedly bound for Iran.  President Biden talked endlessly about how good the economy was, despite the average person’s financial situation. Trump is doing the same thing Biden did, which helped Trump win the election. What will happen with the midterms? The last trap Trump is falling into is the one which Neville Chamberlain fell into when Germany was given part of Czechoslovakia and then went after much of Europe. Trump wants Ukraine to give up 20% of its territory to Russia, which could result in Putin going after other countries, such as Georgia and the Baltic States. When we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.

Larry Ewert, Naples

America forfeited soft power

America’s strength was in our soft power − our official and unofficial diplomacy, our development aid, sharing our cultural values via NGOs, Voice of America, international exchange programs and more. Now, the present administration has denigrated and diminished all of these. As the year ends, we have to honor the tremendous efforts of all the thousands who have worked for decades to promote the best of American values. Losing this influence is devastating. Where the world once thought of the U.S. as a nation that cared and an ally, now, we have relinquished all soft power to the Chinese, who are rushing in with economic support, massive infrastructure projects, and aid in Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean and around the world. By blatantly focusing on “America First,” putting punitive tariffs on nations, and attacking other nations militarily without cause, in a mere few months, we have gone from friend to adversary across the world. What a tragic way to end this year.

Joanne Huskey, author, “The Unofficial Diplomat,” Naples

Does he speak for us?

We’d like to have a president who voices our values, our hopes and dreams, and our vision for a thriving, kind, and united country. We’d probably want a person with honesty, integrity, and character. Is Trump that guy? Does Trump speak for us? How many of us can identify with his assumption that he can touch women however he wants because he’s a star. Do any of us buy into his nonsense that Haitian-Americans in Ohio eat their pets. Aren’t all of us appalled by his lack of humanity when he demonizes Rob Reiner and his wife after their murder. Do we condone, or are we repulsed, when Mr. Tough Guy bullies news people, especially women. Do any of us find it admirable that he surrounds himself with sycophants who parrot and praise him, and feel compelled to carry out his political retribution? Do any of us subscribe to the idea that we greedily annex Canada or Greenland or the Panama Canal? Do many of us agree with Trump’s support for Putin at the expense of Ukraine?Some of us might take issue with his inaccurate and misleading comments on climate change, which he calls a hoax and a con job. Scientific evidence says he’s wrong. Does he speak for many of us when he paroles fraudsters and seditionists who stormed the Capitol? How about pardoning the former president of Honduras, who facilitated the importation of more than 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S.?Can we feel good about this guy speaking for us? Fittingly, the word trumpery means showy but worthless.

Kevin McNally, Bonita Springs

No Midas Touch

DJT pimps’ gold Bibles, gold shoes, and turns the Oval Office gold so that it appears like his dear departed friend Jeff Epstein’s New York City mansion. Faux king DJT does not have the Midas touch, just ask the victims of his six bankruptcies, just ask the victims of his sexual predation. In his oxymoronic Truth Social post, he said Rob Reiner and his wife were killed: “reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME”. Faux king DJT Is a rabid sick puppy who defecates all over everything and everybody: our allies, our Constitution, our climate, our democracy, our economy, our ecology, our history, our neighbors, our public health, science, truth. SCOTUS and his sycophants in Congress have encouraged and enabled this mess. We need to clean it up. We need to impeach, indict, convict, and incarcerate this rabid sick puppy. We need to call to account the sycophants who enabled this mess. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Patrick Frawley, Naples

Trump’s comments

Just when you thought our leader couldn’t stoop any further, he criticized Rob Reiner after the brutal attack of Rob and his wife. He ridiculed Rob for criticizing him. I guess then he hates anyone who says anything derogatory which is half the population. To go so far as to slur the target of this brutality is unfortunate but expected for this low-life commander in chief. The old adage “if you don’t have anything positive to say, then don’t say anything” apparently does not pertain to the lowest of the lows. For him to excoriate Reiner after this tragedy is par for him, unfortunately. The Republicans in Congress aren’t much better but they at least said nothing. 

Glenn Chenot, Cape Coral

Soul of the Republican Party

We are known by the company we keep, whether it’s in personal relationships or political figures to whom we express support. I think we’ve all shied away from friends, acquaintances and political figures who don’t reflect our interests or values. It’s heartening to hear from Trump supporting friends and political figures who are now re-assessing their fervid allegiances to Mr. Trump due to his grossly offensive and revealing post on his “Truth” Social site regarding Rob and Michelle Reiner’s tragic murder. To me, this abhorrent post by Mr. Trump is finally separating the wheat from the chaff in the Republican Party. The wheat being those with the capacity for empathy and the chaff being those without the capacity for empathy and who see nothing wrong with and actually align with Mr. Trump’s sociopathic mental state. Here’s hoping this internal tug-of-war for the identity and soul of the Republican Party favors those with courageous empathy and at last restores it to the Grand Old Party.

J. Cant, Naples

Veterans Administration cuts

It inspired a burst of patriotic fervor to see President Trump strutting on the chilly field in Baltimore to perform the opening coin toss at the Army-Navy football game Saturday, which Navy won 17-16 in the thrilling 126th annual edition of the game. 

Too bad that, as he was basking in his glory as Commander-in-Chief attending his sixth inter-services contest, his administration was reportedly finalizing plans to eliminate about 35,000 jobs at the nation’s 170 medical centers for veterans, including seven major medical centers in Florida although none in the immediate vicinity of Collier and Lee counties. 

The Veterans Administration already is reeling from prior staffing slashes by the Trump administration that have diminished the quality of care for some 9.1 million military veterans at those sites and nearly 1,400 other medical facilities. 

Coming on top off 30,000 personnel reductions earlier this year as part of Elon Musk’s ill-advised Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) purge, the prospective doubling down now of personnel vacancies is hardly a way of saying: “Thank you for your service.”

Marshall H. Tanick, Naples

Trump and 2020 election

I read over and over again from contributors to this forum about their hatred towards President Trump insisting he quit lying about losing the 2020 presidential election. My question to you is this. If Trump did lose the 2020 election and is guilty of all the things you are accusing him of then why is he the president of the United States today?

Norris Clark, Fort Myers

Trump’s mentor

On December 4, 2025, the Trump administration quietly released the 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS), a dramatic redo of a foreign policy which the U.S. had embraced since World War II. The new document proclaims that institutions like the United Nations, NATO and free trade between nations have been bad for the U.S. and redirects the U.S. away from traditional European allies and toward Russia. The strategy looks like a wish list to be like Putin.

Putin is, in fact, Trump’s mentor. Just as Putin invaded Ukraine for its resources, Trump wants to invade Venezuela for its oil.

Putin’s war in Ukraine is an economic, financial, geopolitical and human calamity for Russia. Russia’s oil and gas income, representing up to 50% of state revenue, is down 27%. Inflation is up at 8%; interest rates top 16%. The Russian budget deficit is rising, more than half of Russia’s sovereign wealth has been squandered, monopolies harbor big debt, foreign investment has plunged, import costs of strategic goods have risen by 122%, and consumer taxes are soaring, all to fund Putin’s war.

While the war has improved the incomes of 20% of Russians, the rest of Russian peoples’ incomes have fallen by 16% to 42%.

Trump’s war against Venezuela will be a calamity for Americans just as Putin’s war against Ukraine has been a calamity for Russians.

Joe Haack, Naples

Right and proper values

Just imagine – your 1st grade daughter comes home from school in tears. You console but ask what happened. Your daughter says her teacher said to her “…quiet, quiet piggy,” and referred to her as “nasty, terrible, ugly, and incapable,” a “loser,” and finally, “you’re disgusting.” What would you do next? In all probability you be right up to the school. If the comments were true any district of merit would immediately fire the teacher with cause.

These are just a few of the dozens of words that our Toddler President has hurled at women − and what are our congressional delegates saying − NOTHING − because they are afraid of Trump. Well folks if you are more worried about your next re-election than defending right and proper values then you don’t deserve to be re-elected in the first place!

Ted Barto, Naples