'Quite appalling' to call Dr. Fauci 'dishonest'

I read with interest but also curiosity your convictions that the RJK Jr. book should be regarded as the gospel on these subjects. 

He titles it as well to garner interest in his agenda of retrospectively breaking down a fast-moving, complicated time to fit criticisms based on things/publications/opinions he brings together as “facts.” 

Just amassing a like-minded group of followers do not authenticate information into the factual category of truth; studies with culled information from many individuals with like-agendas are not necessarily all reputable or with scientific merit. 

This book was written years ago, and the reviews that really break it down are not very favorable.

Please have some open-mindedness.

The scientific community at large regards COVID vaccines as not perfect, but certainly contributing to saved lives. 

Furthermore, I find it quite appalling to take in this trove of information hook, line and sinker and summarily label Fauci as irrefutably “dishonest.” That certainly tries to negate a long career in public service for world good regarded by most of his peers as outstanding and without reproach. 

—Larry Mendelow M.D., Washington University School of Medicine 

Editor response:

RFK Jr.’s book can be taken as fact or full of inaccuracies and false statements, depending most likely on where you lined up during the pandemic. 

Our questions essentially are asking Dr. Fauci to reply to or refute the evidence, facts, information and accusations that RFK presents.

As for Dr. Fauci's dishonesty, there was ample evidence reported from all over the world of the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin on COVID during the pandemic. 

The mainstream media overwhelmingly ignored it, but there were plenty of physicians and other non-mainstream media outlets reporting on successful outcomes from the use of those two drugs. 

Based on his recorded comments, Dr. Fauci was aware of this; and yet he consistently, dogmatically and persistently discredited them and said there was no evidence they worked. It wasn’t stupidity that made him say that.

What is the truth? If RFK is wrong, if the FLCCC doctors were wrong, show us, convince us. That's what Americans want to know. 

—MW

RFK Jr. is ‘a garbage human’

I’ve never ever had cause to use the term “garbage human.” Until your most recent editorial.

RFK Jr. is a garbage human. Dozens of extramarital affairs, his conquests carefully documented, to such an extent that it drove his wife to suicide. His own family, those who know him best, completely disavowed him. He was described as a predator, and given that history, who could disagree?

Not to mention his disturbing habit of using a blender to puree small chicks and mice for the birds of prey that he keeps putting on quite the show, it seems, for his younger cousins. 

No wonder his family came to distance themselves.

But not you, Mr. Walsh. You’ve elevated this garbage human to the level of our esteemed Dr. Fauci, who was the trusted face of the U.S. response to COVID. 

I remember COVID. Hundreds of thousands dying without any effective treatments or vaccines. Dr. Fauci almost single-handedly saw us through that darkness.

Meanwhile, the garbage human, no doubt, was notching another tryst.

—Eric Capellari, Sarasota 

Just say ‘sorry’ for the poster

Sarasota Film Festival President Mark Famiglio’s latest defense of the 2025 Sarasota Film Festival poster — “I guess sarcasm has been canceled” — smacks of the doubling down we often hear from the White House.

Let me be clear: Canadians relish sarcasm. What we don’t relish are the president’s recurring threats to annex the sovereign nation of Canada. 

When Mr. Famiglio tells the media, “There are people who would think that calling Canada the 51st state is a compliment,” he demonstrates his inability to read the room (e.g., his film festival audience includes many Canadians, who are rightfully anxious and angry right now). 

Famiglio’s insensitivity to the existential threat to Canada is astounding. Like a Canadian, he should learn to say “sorry.” 

—Julia Drake, Sarasota/Toronto

Don’t saddle ‘Doubters’ with ‘Doers’ debt

Matt Walsh’s Feb. 20 editorial troubled me because of his reliance on the Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation’s consultants to justify some of the reasons for his opinion. 

SPAF consultants are on record saying the total tax increment financing receipts will exceed $775 million compared to the published current city estimates of just more than $145 million. 

Keep in mind that every billion dollars of new development in the TIF district yields about $2.5 million to $3 million per year in TIF-based contributions. Currently, the annual TIF contribution is less than $2 million per year, and the annual payment on a $225 million-plus bond issue will require annual payments of about $15 million a year.

So we need another $13 million in TIF receipts from new development to close the gap. 

If you do the math, that means about $4 billion in new development will have to occur in the Quay and the Rosemary District. That is on top of the 10 to 15 condo and apartment projects that are already underway in the Quay and the Rosemary District that will add to the tax payrolls between now and 2030.

Walsh knows the SPAF has no financial liability should these numbers fail to materialize. The bond issuance will be undertaken by the city, and city residents will be on the hook for the debt.

Unless numbers are sourced from the city, SPAF estimates are soft at best and highly suspect at worst. 

If the sin of Doubters is that they are weak-kneed and lack the aspirational courage of Walsh, the sin of Doers is that they sometimes have a cavalier attitude about passing on debt to our children who will have to live with it long after the Doers pass away. 

I want a new performing arts center, but that doesn’t mean I’m willing to give the SPAF a blank check and pray.

—Mike Hassett, Sarasota