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Letter: Trump’s incompetence is making COVID-19 worse

Dear Editor,

Things are moving fast, and I do thank your crew and the news media in Colorado and the country for stepping up and covering a challenging story about coronavirus.

So, here we are in Routt County. Grocery store shelves are stripped bare. Schools are closed. Gatherings and special events, like sports and music, have been canceled. Ski areas, including our own, are closed. Steamboat Springs is about to get very quiet, as visitors leave for home and locals hunker down with their rolls of toilet paper and closets of canned goods and wonder, “What next?”



Meanwhile, the stable genius in the White House lurches about and makes decisions without consulting with allies or experts, banning flights from Europe and then insisting that panicked returning Americans must be tested for COVID-19 before they can return home. The result this weekend has been jammed crowds in the nation’s big airports like Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, creating an environment ideal for the rapid spread of the virus. So much for social distancing.

COVID-19 is bad enough, but Trump’s incompetence is making it worse than it would be otherwise. While China and South Korea can test tens of thousands of people a day, our national government has yet to test even a few thousand in total.



Public health authorities at the state and local levels are scrambling to pick up the slack and fill the leadership gap at the top. Other countries have a much better grasp on what is happening and are acting accordingly.

With Trump at the helm, we’re flying blind. He hates government and distrusts science. 

We have to work together and tamp down the fear. The best news I’ve seen is that Washington state authorities tested an existing anti-viral medication on five elderly patients at death’s door. All five seem to be hanging on and recovering.

Sincerely,

Brodie Farquhar
Hayden


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