Opinion

Mayo Clinic News Network DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I love to be outdoors. I enjoy running, hiking and swimming.

A time-honored Washington axiom holds that one should never attribute to scandal what could be explained by garden-variety incompetence. In the case of the Secret Service’s mysteriously missing text messages, however, mere ineptitude doesn’t quite fit the facts.

Google and Facebook have enormous economic and political power in society – especially over the news industry. Many ask if they have played a role in the misinformation that erodes our free press and plagues our democracy.

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I am a 45-year-old woman with urinary challenges, including feeling the frequent urge to empty my bladder. My primary doctor said I might have interstitial cystitis and suggested I see a urogynecologist. Could you explain this condition? What are my treatment options, and will I recover?

Given the latest surge in COVID-19 cases — thanks to omicron subvariant BA.5, deemed the most transmissible yet — and the relatively new threat posed by monkeypox, which has been spreading globally since May, one might expect the public health establishment to be asking for heightened precautions or at least vigilance.

Kira Anglen, registered nurse, Oak Grove To the editor: The opioid crisis began long before many of us were aware of it. It began in 1996 with the marketing of OxyContin by Purdue Pharma and from there skyrocketed from heroin, to the now deadly Fentanyl.

Marvin Sands, Independence To the editor: In this year’s Missouri General Assembly that went into session between January and May, a number of issues were passed with some directly subverting the will of the people. Among the 33 states that passed these kinds of bills, Missouri ties for the fifth largest number of anti-democracy bills introduced.

Larry Pearce, Independence To the editor: Words: “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Words from our Declaration of Independence. Believe it or not, there are folks who think our Constitution is too old fashioned, that we need to update it to suit their agendas.