Vet shortage
A Post and Courier article on Tuesday about the shortage of veterinarians in our state hit on what I believe is the primary cause: a significant shortage of veterinarian schools. There are only 33 accredited colleges of veterinary medicine in the United States, fewer than one per state. (Clemson is in the process of establishing one.)
This article reminded me of a story from my teaching days in a suburban Philadelphia middle school during the 1970s.
There appeared to be no shortage of young people who aspired to study veterinary medicine. One student in particular stood out to me. He was quite bright and wanted nothing more than to be a veterinarian. To that end, he went to the University of Pennsylvania — an Ivy League school — hoping to be accepted to its veterinary medicine school after graduation.
Years later, I ran into his mother and asked if he had made it into the school. She said that unfortunately he hadn't been accepted. When I asked what he was pursuing instead, she said he was at Penn's medical school studying to be a pediatrician.
ELIZABETH CHESTNUT
Daniel Island
Vaccines necessary
The resignation of Dr. Peter Marks, one of the top vaccine experts at the Food and Drug Administration, was the tipping point for me. I spent my medical career as an infectious disease specialist, so I am very familiar with vaccines. I know how they are developed, how they work and what they are used for.
No one among us has even seen smallpox, one of the most detrimental infectious diseases in history. Why? Because it has been eradicated from the planet, thanks to a vaccine. I am old enough to have seen the ravages of polio, but most people have not due to the vaccine.
I expect Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has as much knowledge about vaccines as I have about flying a supersonic jet. Yet he was chosen to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, the most important public health body in America.
His lack of scientific background and spread of disinformation are staggering. President Donald Trump’s decision to appoint Kennedy as head of HHS, and the congressional vote to confirm him, are a blot on society. His anti-vaccine beliefs will continue to lead to more public health crises like the recent measles outbreak. Do we really want to be dragged back into the 19th century when infectious disease epidemics were the major cause of death in America?
BERNARD MANSHEIM, M.D.
Charleston
Improve education
After the S.C. Supreme Court shot down the Legislature's previous effort to use public money to pay for students to attend private schools, the Senate voted to use state lottery money to pay for this.
The lottery was sold to us as a way to improve education in South Carolina, so it should be poured into failing schools and schools based in poverty-prone areas whose students may not get proper nourishment in their homes.
I believe preschool education needs to be at the forefront of the use of this lottery money. No Child Left Behind, a once-popular phrase and program, should mean that our schools are prepared to bring students up to par from the first moment we interact with them.
Furthermore, this discrepancy in achievement levels is not necessarily the teachers’ fault. It is only when we establish an adequate system that addresses the problems starting with our youngest students and works with them as they go through their education that we will be able to adequately evaluate teachers.
In light of what is happening in the U.S. Department of Education, we should be vigilant about our state system because we rely on federal money to help our schools with disadvantaged students.
Our legislators say they are improving education, but they are widening the gap between educated students and students who failed. If the lottery money is to help education in this state, it needs to go where it is needed most.
JO CANNON
Charleston
Nation under DEI
Has America become “one nation under DEI” instead of “one nation under God"?
A once-great nation, a God-fearing nation, is slowly showing signs of becoming a nation with many gods. To know him is more real than life itself.
It takes faith to believe everything simply happens and no more faith to trust the God who created all things. The how and why of all unknown complexities of every creation are a mystery.
Allowing his word to speak results in having the one true light through the darkness.
STEVE JARRELL
Hanahan
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