Letters to the Editor — Masks in schools, Texas electricity, immigrants, COVID, ‘superbug’ outbreak

Set mask example in schools

While banning any requirement for masking in schools, Gov. Greg Abbott has stated that we’ve reached the “time for personal responsibility.”

To that end, trustees, administrators and staff have an opportunity to set the example of masking up when indoors.

As COVID-19 cases increase, hospitals refill and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that even those who are vaccinated wear masks when gathered in close quarters, schools become petri dishes for the disease to spread, mutate, sicken and kill.

If children and their parents see district adults choose to mask up, many will follow suit. Masks in school were the norm last year and can continue to be if leaders model responsible behavior.

For the teacher who lives with an elderly parent, for the student whose young sibling is vulnerable, for health care workers who face another wave of hospitalizations, use your individual power to instigate a healthy culture.

School boards and administrators have a long tradition of nonpartisan focus on doing what is best for their local district. Don’t be swayed by the politicization of a deadly pandemic.

Ann Madonia Casey, Fairview

Competition reduces rates

Re: “Behind Texas’ epic government failure — Electricity is treated like a commodity, but it’s a critical service. And as the February blackouts prove, people can die without it,” by Robert Bryce, Sunday Opinion.

Bryce’s op-ed on the February Texas energy failures repeats an unreliable and likely false claim about the benefits of retail competition. He cites a Wall Street Journal claim that “Texans paid $28 billion more for home electricity” because of competition. The claim relies upon a number of hidden assumptions, which, when uncovered, show why it is almost certainly false.

To wit, the analysis assumes electric rates for consumers in competitive areas should be the same as rates in the parts of the state still served by regulated utilities. For example, costs should be the same in Houston, Austin and Dallas as they are in El Paso, Amarillo or Texarkana.

I’m sure real estate buyers in the larger cities wished this were true! These rates were not identical under regulation in the 1990s, so the assumption that they should be the same under competition is groundless. The problems with the WSJ estimate goes deeper. They use fifth-grade math to attempt a doctorate-level problem.

Fortunately, Rice University economists have tried to carefully measure the rate effects of electric competition in Texas. They found rates under competition have been reduced for both residential and commercial customers.

Michael Giberson, Lubbock

Renewable energy will be reliable

Bryce’s column about the causes and failures leading to the February electrical energy blackout in Texas is excellent, with the exception of two points he makes. First, lack of wind and solar power was less than 3% of the problem. Several gas and coal plants and one reactor in the South Texas nuclear plant went offline due to equipment failure caused by the ice and low temperature and by reduced natural gas delivery. This was 97% of the problem.

Secondly, the “lavish federal tax incentives for wind and solar energy” are not examples of “crony corporatism.” They have been deliberate incentives to grow renewable energy capacity. Burning of fossil fuels must be phased out by 2050 and replaced with renewable energy and possibly advanced nuclear energy to meet our national (and Paris climate accord) goals for atmospheric carbon reduction.

Most solar farms are now built with battery storage, and utility scale energy storage will be available in the near future. Our developing renewable energy electrical grid, with its energy storage capability, will provide resilient and reliable power for Texas.

Charles R. Foreman, Arlington

Double-check those figures

Re: “Count the immigrants,” by Lynda H. Leake, Sunday letters.

The recent letter that quoted an increase of 900% in COVID-19 cases among immigrants crossing the border is a classic example of fake/misleading news. Fox News released a story of one reporting station claiming those figures. The numbers involved were so small that a 900% increase resulted in 135 occurrences over two weeks. So the number they started with was about one a day. With numbers that small, you could say that the carriers had tripled by just adding two a day. Sounds horrendous if you don’t know how small the sample was.

Then the story was picked up by various right-wing “news” agencies, but they conveniently forgot to explain that this was just one reporting station. It now sounded like the entire border was experiencing this increase. Even a local NBC affiliate in Alabama ran the story incorrectly.

I’m sure that social media outlets had a field day with it as well. I wonder how many Russian trolls pumped this story through the Republican base.

I would guess that millions of people got the impression that the COVID-19 problem in border states is an immigration problem. Please, people, double-check the news you get. We are getting duped too easily.

Kerry Mayer, Lewisville

‘Superbug’ update needed

Re: “4 die after fungus spread — Hospitals grapple with untreatable ‘superbug’ outbreaks, officials say,” July 24 news story.

It’s been about two weeks since this article came out about an outbreak of “superbug” in a Washington, D.C., nursing home and two Dallas-area hospitals. The hospitals weren’t identified. County judges, the DFW Hospital Council and hospital executives have been totally silent on the affected hospitals.

How does a Dallas-Fort Worth citizen feel confident in walking into a hospital emergency room for care or to visit an infirmed family member when hospital groups refuse to identify where this is happening?

We have almost daily requests that we all get vaccinated to prevent the spread of COVID-19, yet this superbug seems pretty deadly. Where is the reporting? Where is the DMN Watchdog? Crickets!

F. Howard Manning, North Dallas

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