Salute doctors who provide free services
In 1933, the wife of a Georgia physician, Mrs. Eudora Brown Almond, wanted to recognize the contributions physicians made to their patients and their communities. She selected March 30, the anniversary of the first use of ether anesthesia during a surgery, as Doctors' Day in Winder, Ga. Some 85 years later, Doctors' Day is celebrated around the world.
The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Medical Society has worked hand-in-hand with our area physicians to improve the health and well-being of our community for 138 years.
The Medical Society and its charitable arm, the Medical Foundation of Chattanooga, formed Project Access to provide health care to low-income, uninsured Southeast Tennessee residents. Over the past 19 years, Project Access has coordinated more than $219 million of donated health care with the help of over 1,000 physicians, who provide their care free of charge, local hospital systems, and nearly two dozen other partner organizations.
As we celebrate Doctors' Day 2023, we would like to thank our community for allowing us to care for them.
Richard Moody
President, Chattanooga-Hamilton County Medical Society
James Haynes
President, Medical Foundation of Chattanooga
Drag queens worse than guns for kids?
When the drag queen bill was signed, we were told lawmakers wanted to protect children. Really? Then why did they then start to move a bill that will loosen restrictions on the weapons of choice used by school mass shooters? The shooters at Sandy Hook, Parkland and Uvalde were all in the 18-21 age range and used an AR-15 style or other rifle.
Apparently, lawmakers feel that drag queens do more harm to children than an 18-year-old with an AR-15.
Greg Gloss
Cleveland
Won't vote for gun supporters
More school shootings. More legislators whose "thoughts and prayers" are with the families. When will those thoughts and prayers bring about action that would actually make a difference? Save lives? Hasn't there been enough slaughter?
I didn't give birth to a child killed by a gunman, nor is any of them my grandchild, but they are all my children -- and yours! They would be the future of our country if they lived long enough.
This must end. I call on our elected officials to be brave enough to make it harder, not easier to obtain a gun, especially assault rifles. Anyone running for election who will not do this does not and will not have my vote.
Cathy Dreger
Politics wrong driver in virus funding
Tennessee is soon to become the first state in the nation to reject federal funding for Human Immunodeficiency Virus prevention and testing services. On June 1, our state will cease accepting Centers for Disease Control dollars for those purposes. Instead, it will initiate a new plan aimed at addressing the HIV epidemic supported by about $9 million in state funding, equivalent in amount to that now provided by CDC.
Tennessee Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Ralph Alfredo has provided few specifics about the forthcoming state plan. Gov. Bill Lee's office has provided some generalities indicating the Tennessee plan will modify priorities from those of the CDC. Such statements are understandably alarming to organizations now implementing the current federally funded plan. Specifically, they fear funding of certain nonprofits may be discontinued solely on the basis of political philosophy (e.g., support for LGBTQI+ or abortion rights) rather than on health service effectiveness.
Viruses don't have political affiliations. Solutions for viral epidemics should be guided by public health science, free from intrusive political influence.
Patrick Lavin
Hixson