Dr. Burnett, please take a big step back and reassess your opinion of Sheriff Wheeler’s position. As Wheeler notes (Daily Bee, April 9), your job as a doctor and his as a sheriff are nearly identical: you are both first-responders in your chosen professions.

Obviously Wheeler’s advocacy for defying the state stay-at-home order will almost certainly endanger the health and lives of the people of Idaho, thereby making your job as a healthcare professional more stressful, difficult, and dangerous: likewise your advocacy for good public health measures will certainly make the job of the police more stressful, difficult, and dangerous, too (I guess?). Sure, the stay-at-home order is unconstitutional according to some constitution somewhere (not ours), but does the goal of public safety justify the means of preventing me from enjoying a good old-fashioned techno-rave?

Regarding your obviously facetious claim that Wheeler, because of his poorly thought out opinion has “essentially relinquished your [Wheeler’s] claim to any of these potentially scarce resources (Daily Bee, April 5),” your subtlety has obviously been lost on Wheeler. Despite his denial, this has obviously struck a highly emotional raw nerve in Wheeler, triggering an gush of outrage virtue signaling: even suggesting such a thing is beyond the pale!

Bottom line, we all need to make sure we are more sensitive to the feelings of Sheriff Wheeler so he can get off his fainting couch, un-clutch his pearls, and get back to making Bonner County safe again.

JAMES KNOBBS

Richland, Wash.