Also: Poor target | Too much government | Keep independence | Wrecking ball | Lamar’s mirror. Mercury News reader letters to the editor for Feb. 16, 2025.
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NIH funding cut could
kill medical research
Re: “Judge temporarily blocks Trump move to cut NIH funding” (Page A1, Feb. 11).
Thankfully courts have paused, for now, the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) attempt to immediately slash the amount of money given to research institutions to support research. If allowed to proceed, the loss of money to pay research support staff and support research facilities will be a death knell for biomedical research in the United States.
At San Jose State, my lab is currently funded by NIH to test out a treatment to prevent a devastating side effect of cancer chemotherapy drugs. Odds are if you know cancer survivors, you know someone still struggling with chronic pain or other issues caused by chemotherapy. If NIH cuts research support funds, I doubt that SJSU will be able to find the funds to make up the shortfall, meaning that I will have to fire talented scientists and stop our research.
Researching cures to improve America’s health is not wasteful spending.
Katherine Wilkinson
Professor of Biological Sciences, SJSU
San Jose
USAID a poor target
for cutting spending
Re: “USAID is vital to our national interest as well” (Page A6, Feb. 12).
USAID spent less than 1.2% of the federal budget in 2023, and it provides food and housing assistance to developing countries. It also spends over $600 million per year to eradicate malaria.
When America shut down this humanitarian operation, the only ones celebrating were Elon Musk, Donald Trump and billions of mosquitos in sub-Saharan Africa.
Andy Frazer
Sunnyvale
Regulating trans athletes
is too much government
Re: “Trans-athlete ban a question of fairness” (Page A6, Feb. 12).
In reply to a recent letter, conservative commentators often spend an hour each day raving about transgender people in women’s locker rooms, but is it really the role of the government to determine what gender plays on sports teams or in PE classes? Shouldn’t this be determined by the school or team sponsor that hires the coaches and instructors?
I really miss the less interventionist type of governing of Ronald Reagan, who often said, “The best government is less government.”
Bill Graham
Salinas
Press must do more
to keep independence
Re: “AP barred from Oval Office over gulf name” (Page A2, Feb. 12).
Beware the end of free press.
When the Trump administration can punish independent press by barring them from the Pentagon and the White House, this nation is in peril. And to put this constitutional transgression in a small article on Page 2 in the Mercury News instead of heralding it in a banner headline is an example of allowing these malfeasances to continue unabated. The independent press needs to quit underreporting what’s happening in this country before Trump handcuffs them completely.
It’s time to sound the alarm even with fear of reprisals. The free press must survive if our democracy is to survive.
Claudia Parker
San Jose
Trump is taking wrecking
ball to nation’s values
Re: “Trump fires nation’s top oversight officials in further testing of limits” (Page A4, Feb. 11).
While the Trump wrecking ball reverberates from Washington, D.C., throughout the country, the Pew Research Center puts Donald Trump’s approval rating at 47%.
Truth be told, it appears that Trump is less the problem than he is the manifestation of the problem. Is this a country one would choose to live in for its intrinsic values? Those values reside in the population, and ours demonstrate the epitome of greed and selfishness — a nation and government of the money, by the money and for the money.
And no, we do not want to share.
Kirch DeMartini
Saratoga
Kendrick Lamar held
mirror to divided nation
Kendrick Lamar’s performance during the Super Bowl halftime show has become the most watched in history.
His literature and performance touched on some of the societal problems faced today. The red, white and blue dancers representing the American flag portrayed a deep level of understanding of our nation’s ongoing problem of racial and political division. He represented this notion by standing in the middle to represent the divide. His powerful use of literature and symbolic dancers had cultural and political weight to them.
Lamar has always been one of the most influential hip-hop artists in our nation. It goes to show how some people use their influence to make positive changes to better our society.
Nicholas Esquivel
San Jose
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