Tarrant County public health workers have been a COVID lifeline. Don’t tear them down

Cheers to Tarrant County workers

I’d say one of my New Year’s resolutions is to avoid commentary from the peanut gallery, but I want to address Bud Kennedy’s column last weekend and make sure county employees get the credit they deserve. (Jan. 2, 1C, “Fort Worth residents with symptoms must hunt for COVID test”)

Our Tarrant County Public Health employees and the many folks in cities around the county who have spent nearly two years serving the community during the pandemic deserve gratitude and grace, not criticism.

They’ve spent countless hours running our testing sites, staffing our vaccine clinics and making sure that county residents stay healthy and have access to the COVID-19 resources and information they need.

Tarrant County has led the way on this. Dallas and Denton counties have relied solely on vendors or partners for testing. Our public health employees and cities’ first responders have been operating testing sites and administering vaccines, along with partner-run testing and vendor-run contractors. Our health department alone has given almost half a million vaccine doses to date.

Tarrant County was criticized for giving time off for the holiday weekends, but employees have been on the front lines operating sites and working weekends for nearly two years. Our public health colleagues in Dallas and Denton also took days off for the holidays.

Public health departments are not designed to run as 24/7 emergency-response entities. They are different from hospitals and police or fire departments. They have gone above and beyond and been quick to adapt in unprecedented circumstances.

There was never a gap in service. County employees made sure residents had updated information on vendor-hosted testing sites and vaccine clinics that remained open.

Public health department employees have operated sites in the cold, the rain and the heat. They have worked long days and long nights, and they, too, are trying to stay healthy.

They are exhausted, and their work continues indefinitely. They — along with countless city employees, partners, local colleges and volunteers in this effort — deserve our gratitude. So, thank you.

- Glen Whitley, Tarrant County judge, Hurst

No need for voting rights act

I am proud of Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker for declining to sign an obviously partisan letter supporting a so-called voting rights bill that is of dubious constitutionality. (Jan. 5, 2A, “Fort Worth mayor declines to support Voting Rights Act”) I support her leadership and good common sense. How easy it would be to cave to the jump-in-the-lake crowd.

- Curtis Basham, Fort Worth

Just throw out one ballot item?

Joe Biden is our elected president, not Donald Trump. To the people who deny this and think the election was stolen: What about others elected on that same ballot? In your vehemency regarding the 2020 election, why are you not demanding all those elected on the same ballot step down?

Open your eyes, fellow Americans and Texans, and examine this one point. Their lies fall apart. Those elected in 2020 who continue to insist Joe Biden is not our president should recognize this applies to them, too.

- Karen Boelkins, Lakeside

Not how a leader should act

Jan. 6, 2021, will be remembered as a horrific, appropriate ending to a corrupt, antidemocratic regime.

Donald Trump praised authoritarian leaders while denigrating NATO and adopted those strongmen’s strategies with shouts of “fake news” and the press being the “enemy of the people.” Yet he spread his own lies and insidious disinformation to spread distrust and divide the nation.

It culminated with the Big Lie that the election was stolen and his attempt to install himself as the unelected leader of a once-free nation. Never forget.

- Blake K. Wallace, Arlington

Are we gonna see more of this?

In the Jan. 6 wire story “Warrant needed to search cellphones, but not car data systems” from a reporter at The Detroit News, College of William & Mary law professor Adam Gershowitz was quoted as saying, “I think you’re gonna see a whole bunch of these searches.” Did Gershowitz actually say or write “gonna”? Or did he say “going to” with a typical elide that everyone uses?

I’ve seen this in the Star-Telegram before. Is an article more accurate or credible by this practice?

- Tom Kelly, Arlington