Dear Sir:
Chinese farmers brought virus-contaminated animals to a marketplace in Wuhan China. Humans contracted the virus at the market, medical personnel reported it to the authorities, but Chinese leaders decided to cover it up. This allowed the virus to spread around the world.
The Donald Trump administration downplayed the potential severity of the virus outbreak. This delayed the response and preparations by medical agencies and state and local governments to combat the virus. In January our intelligence agencies warned Trump of the impending coronavirus outbreak, but he ignored them.
Trump said the coronavirus was a “new hoax” by the Democrats. He blamed the media for fake reporting about it. He said it was no big deal and it would quickly disappear.
Trump is more concerned with a depressed economy adversely impacting his reelection, and he is disregarding advice from medical professionals and trying to muzzle leading infectious disease authorities within the country. Governors and mayors should ignore Trump and implement their measures, including their timelines, and not go with an arbitrary Trump timeline.
We have an inept and blundering president during a serious crisis, endangering the lives of millions of Americans.
Donald Moskowitz
Londonderry NH
Nonsense.
Nearly all world leaders downplayed the virus in the sense of treating it like just another flu virus.
Trump did more than any other leader in closing America off to Chinese visitors on January 31, long before most other countries took it seriously, a move none of his predecessors ever did when two previous Chinese viruses reached America.
Trump called the use of the virus by his Democratic Party opponents to score a few political points a hoax. He never called the existence of the virus as a hoax.
The economic consequences of the plague may be actually turn out to be far worse than the plague itself, as several Caribbean leaders have opined.
The loss or destruction of lives around the world because of suicides, mental breakdowns, the murder of spouses, the destruction of lifetime savings, business and personal bankruptcies, mortgage foreclosures, etc. may indeed be far greater the direct Coronavirus loss of lives.
Sometimes the attempted cure turns out to be worse than the affliction as history keeps showing us.
This virus is being pushed for all it’s worth by the media, the pharmaceutical and medical industries, and the political establishment all of whom have much to gain in increased revenue, prestige, influence, and power from this tragedy.