Death of child should prompt reform
In response to the Review-Journal’s Tuesday story, “Mother had long history with CPS”:
I have followed the story of Diana Eldridge and the death of her 2-year-old daughter since it began. She is more than an unfit parent — she deserves to be in jail. However, why did Child Protective Services do absolutely nothing after four visits? This shameful situation could have been prevented.
There are many couples eager to give children like this a good home. If CPS would have taken some sort of action, the untimely death of this child could have been prevented.
We need to have a special panel, unrelated to CPS, to investigate the agency and its policies as soon as possible. We must fix this and prevent more serious events such as this.
Hale Benton
Las Vegas
Up in smoke
Between 2010 and 2015, Nevada’s smoking rate among adults declined at nearly five times the rate as that of the preceding five-year period. This was in large part due to e-cigarettes, or vaping.
So, I can’t understand why the Obama administration is trying to discourage people from vaping.
There is a new FDA rule that could ban more than 90 percent of vapor products. The FDA rules will require current and new products to go through an expensive approval process that could force many small makers and sellers out of business because they won’t be able to sell their products during the FDA’s review.
I’m urging our congressional leaders to halt the FDA’s action and support the Cole-Bishop amendment that is currently in Congress. I understand it will help modify the rules while protecting the availability of products that are actually helping people to stop smoking.
Justin Knox
Las Vegas
Price gouging
A lot of people may not have been paying much attention to the recent news involving the pharmaceutical company Mylan, makers of the epinephrine injector, EpiPen. I don’t normally follow business news, but found myself part of it when it came out that Mylan had raised the price of the EpiPen 15 times from 2009 through 20015.
My son was born in 2008 and, soon after, we discovered he had a lot of allergies. He never seemed to have many symptoms other than coughing or headaches, but he was prescribed an EpiPen. While he has never had much of an allergic reaction to anything there’s peace of mind knowing you have something that can save him in the event of a major allergic reaction.
That’s where they get us. A lack of competition has created a monopoly on epinephrine injectors thereby allowing the drug company to set or raise prices.
The EpiPen went from $124 when we first got it in 2009 to the exorbitant price today of $609.
It’s not that there are no other drug makers trying to make generic versions, but the FDA has not approved any that have been submitted. The process to have a generic drug approved can be expensive and time consuming. Mylan has been taking advantage of this.
If we want to lessen the strain left on consumers we should push for competition and pass bills such as the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act.
Josh Uini
Las Vegas
Getting up there
Doug Elfman’s Wednesday item about the premiere of Ron Howard’s documentary “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week,” carried a photo with the caption “Former Beatle members Ringo Starr, left, and Paul McCartney arrive for … ” I thought, “Good grief! You don’t have to tell people which is Ringo and which is Paul.”
And then I thought, “Oh God. I’m old.”
Graham H. Tye
North Las Vegas
