Karin J. Lauria, Marlborough, Mass., writes regarding, "E. Coli Sickens 39 in New Jersey and New York” (front page, Dec. 5) to say, so health officials delayed telling the public about the Taco Bell E. coli outbreak because they were concerned, you report, about “possible overreaction by the public”? Lauria says precaution would have been a more responsible and reasonable characterization of potential public response to such information. Then again, maybe a well-informed public is bad for business. It seems to Lauria that the most dangerous infection here is the one in which certain people believe that the risk to corporate profits deserves greater consideration than the risk to public health. That sickness seems to be going around a lot these days.