As a nurse, I am extremely upset about learning that President Trump knew how deadly the COVID-19 virus was in February, while he told people that he supposedly serves that we didn’t have to worry about the virus saying, “It will just go away.” 

Journalist Bob Woodward recently shared tapes from his interviews with the president while writing a book about him. Woodward has written books about many of our presidents. Tapes from these interviews were recently released. And I also wonder why Woodward didn’t share the tapes earlier. 

While President Trump as been spinning lies about dealing with COVID-19, thousands of people have died. If we all had the information about dangers of this virus earlier, many deaths could have possibly been prevented. Watching the news and hearing the facts of Woodward’s interviews show us that President Trump contributed toward the high number of cases and deaths from COVID-19 in our country.

We, the people, needed to hear, immediately, that wearing masks, keeping a 6-foot distance and washing hands for 20 seconds frequently would help control the contagion. Trump downplayed the advice from the doctor who was advising him. How many people would still be alive if the president would have activated our great public health community back in February when he first learned about the deadly COVID-19 virus? 

Diana Linda Simon, R.N., M.S.
Steamboat Springs