Train Texas doctors overseas
Re: "Chipping away at the doc shortage," by Mitchell Schnurman, Dec. 9 Business column.
It's great that Texas is opening new medical schools and funding additional residencies. But to fully address its primary care shortage, the Lone Star State will also need to recruit more doctors educated overseas.
International medical graduates are more likely to go into primary care than doctors trained in the United States. This year, 70 percent of international graduates picked residencies in primary care, compared to just 4 in 10 U.S. grads.
Many international medical graduates are actually from the United States. Sixty percent of actively licensed physicians who graduated from Caribbean medical schools, for instance, are U.S. citizens.
There are 283 students from Texas enrolled at the school I lead — St. George's University in Grenada. Thirty St. George's graduates chose primary care residencies in Texas this year; three are working in Dallas and Fort Worth.
Dr. G. Richard Olds, Grenada, West Indies, president, St. George's University
Healthy move by McDonald's
McDonald's is taking steps to protect consumer's health? Way to go, McDonald's! McDonalds has announced that it would be restricting the use of medically important antibiotics in its beef supply chain.
For years now doctors, nurses and other medical professionals have been sounding the alarm about the growing dangers of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and how our overuse of antibiotics in our meat supply was actually breeding these superbug bacteria.
Seventy percent of medically important antibiotics sold in the United States are for use on livestock, and the widespread misuse of these lifesaving drugs to compensate for unsanitary conditions only puts our own health at risk. With many experts predicting that by the year 2050 10 million people a year could die from drug-resistant infections, this step by the McDonald's is quite literally a lifesaver.
As the largest beef purchaser in the United States, McDonald's new commitment could spark an industry-wide change to help keep antibiotics effective, and I sure hope it does. We need other fast food chains to be leading the way in protecting public health from these man-made threats.
Jenna Stevens, Dallas/Uptown
O'Rourke for top Texan
I recommend Beto O'Rourke as Texan of the Year. As The Dallas Morning News said when it recommended O'Rourke for senator, it's not necessary to agree with him on every policy position. Far more important, he presented a much-needed, inspiring, uniting vision. He asked Texans not just to embrace him but to embrace each other, to stop seeing their fellow citizens as enemies in a grinding culture war. Millions answered his call.
He did not play the politics of poisonous destruction; in fact, after a gang of hecklers harassed Sen. Ted Cruz and his wife in a Washington restaurant, O'Rourke immediately defended Cruz and asked that he be treated with respect. That gesture alone marks O'Rourke as a true leader who rises above the scorched-earth politics that have so weakened America.
Finally, O'Rourke re-energized Texans by asking them to finance the campaign themselves. His voters knew there were no political action committees or dark-money moguls coming to help. He said, "It's up to you, folks," and every time he set a fundraising goal, his followers smashed it. By running this kind of open-source campaign, O'Rourke brought in many new voters and rekindled the faith of older voters who had lost hope. In 2018, nobody changed Texas more than O'Rourke.
Charles Tucker, Richardson
It's about crime, not safety
"Gunman sought," "fatally shot in chest," "gunmen in series of robberies," "killed in crash," "dies after shooting," "bomb scare," "manslaughter charge." These are phrases taken out of the Public Safety Briefs for one day. This is a typical daily report. Nothing safe about these topics. Shouldn't this section be titled Public Crime and Hazard Briefs?
Steve Melton, Dallas