To the Editor:
“These are the times that try men’s souls.” – Thomas Paine.
I sense that the American public has not been so challenged and stressed since the days of World War II. Covid-19 was an act of nature. It has been made worse by the actions and decisions of President Donald Trump. The following quotations are taken from the Washington Post (March 20, 2020):
“U.S. intelligence agencies were issuing ominous, classified warnings in January and February about the global danger posed by the coronavirus while President Trump and lawmakers played down the threat and failed to take action that might have slowed the spread of the pathogen….
“’Donald Trump may not have been expecting this, but a lot of other people in the government were—they just couldn’t get him to do anything about it,’ this official said. The system was blinking red….
“‘I think it’s going to work out fine,’ Trump said on Feb. 19th. ‘I think when we get into April, in the warmer weather, that has very negative effect on that and that type of virus….’
“’The Coronavirus is very much under control in the U.S.A.,’ Trump tweeted five days later….
“’We have a very small number of people in the country, right now, with it,’ he said four days later. ‘It’s around 12. Many of them are getting better. Some are fully recovered already. So, we’re in very good shape.’
(Offstage voice). “Hey, Patton, knock it off. I thought we were supposed to rally around our leader in a time of crisis.”
Sir, I think that the American public can walk and chew gum simultaneously. We can do our part to prevent the spread of Covid-19, and we can raise our voices to prevent President Trump from making even more mistakes.
Covid-19 patients are presently dying due to a lack of ventilators. It took weeks of intense criticism by the nation’s Governors to get President Trump to use the Defense Production Act to increase the production of ventilators by General Motors. The Governors’ outcry corrected a mistake by Trump.
President Trump suggested that citizens of New York State be quarantined and prevented from traveling to Florida. That caused an uproar in the legal community and ended a bad idea. He proposed that restrictions on citizens’ behavior, such as personal distancing, be selectively relaxed in time for Easter. Virtually all the nation’s health experts rose to oppose Trump’s plan, saying it is premature and would only spread the virus further. Their pressure is causing Trump to reconsider his plan. Staying silent in a time of crisis is not the patriotic thing to do, if you know that what the leader is doing is wrong.
Meanwhile, the truly patriotic thing to do is to curtail the spread of the virus by our personal behavior, Stay at least six feet away from other people. Stay in our homes as much as possible. Wash our hands frequently. Clean surfaces with disinfectant. Order take-out from local restaurants to keep them afloat financially. Donate money to food banks. Make masks for our first responders to protect them against the virus.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases predicts a second wave of Covid-19 will occur next winter, after the present one has subsided. That will take place after the next General Election in November. We have the opportunity to prevent more mistakes by President Trump. We can vote him out of office.
Gary Patton
Hampton, N.H.