Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the editor:

If the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves a COVID-19 vaccine prematurely because of political pressure before it’s proven safe and effective, the name of the FDA should change to the Fake News and Disinformation Agency.

The only way a premature vaccine could achieve any credibility would be for the president, vice president, FDA commissioner and their families to roll up their sleeves and take the vaccine at the time of the announcement.

Otherwise, I will not be rolling up my sleeve anytime soon.

Arthur L. Wisot, MD, Rolling Hills Estates

Note from KBJ: Please promise that you won't "take the vaccine," Arthur. In fact, please promise that you won't let your family members take it, either. It sounds like you're the one politicizing the issue.

The Democrats never even mentioned the words LAW & ORDER at their National Convention. That’s where they are coming from. If I don’t win, America’s Suburbs will be OVERRUN with Low Income Projects, Anarchists, Agitators, Looters and, of course, “Friendly Protesters”.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 10, 2020

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Donald Trump's approval rating is 48%. Barack Obama's approval rating at the same point of his presidency (9 September 2012) was 52%.

Thirty-seven percent of respondents strongly approve of Trump. Thirty-two percent of respondents strongly approved of Obama.

Lack of empathy is a diagnostic bell-ringer for sociopathy. As a psychologist working for the Kansas Department of Corrections, I was part of a team that did the initial classification evaluations on sentenced inmates. I encountered many inmates who, when it was in their interest, could pretend to feel the very human emotion of empathy. In Friday’s Globe, the banner headline “Report: Trump disparaged US war dead as ‘losers,’ ‘suckers’ ” virtually screamed about Donald Trump’s inability to empathize with those who suffered the loss of a loved one in war.

We have also seen this deficit of human emotion on display in his response to the pandemic. Apparently, he doesn’t have it within him to even pretend to feel what others feel. I can’t begin to imagine what John Kelly, a retired general and then the secretary of homeland security, felt as he stood at his son’s grave with Trump when the president reportedly said, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”

It’s time to suspend the so-called Goldwater rule. We need more practitioners in the psychiatric field with the gravitas to inform public opinion to step forward and call Trump out for what he is.

Jim Cain

Wakefield

Note from KBJ: Jim Cain believes, without reliable evidence, that President Trump disparaged American soldiers. Why does he believe it? Because he hates Trump. Get some help for your derangement, Jim. You're making an ass of yourself.

The United States Navy, or the Department of Defense, will NOT be cancelling its contract with Catholic Priests who serve our men and women in the Armed Forces so well, and with such great compassion & skill. This will no longer be even a point of discussion! @CardinalDolan

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 9, 2020

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Here is John Nolte's latest column.