To the Editor:
Our current economic disaster and unnecessary deaths can be largely explained by analyzing the president’s missteps. Shortly after taking office, President Trump defunded and dismantled government pandemic watchdog committees. Regarding coronavirus, Donald Trump got his first warnings in January 2020. Until mid- or late- February, the President described it as a hoax when speaking to supporters at several rallies. As he explained it, this hoax would magically disappear very soon. When the stock market began to tumble in March, the president created a public relations committee for the purpose of controlling explanations so as to reduce how information would be presented to the American people.
Thus Trump and/or Pence misled TV viewers in many ways. They claimed in March that testing for coronavirus antibodies would commence very soon. However, such tests for coronavirus antibodies are still not checked out at this time, nor are the contact tests checked out. Because of Trump’s delayed response and distractions, the strong economy that Donald Trump inherited from Obama is now a disaster. This has resulted in much suffering, endangerment and death. The truth is that Donald Trump takes no personal responsibility for his weak leadership. Rather, he does his daily TV rallies where he continually shifts blame and creates confusion.
In this week’s performances, he announced he will stop funding the World Health Organization. That action will bring its own repercussions to us and to the rest of the world. Then, today he will use his bully pulpit and other means to force reopening of the economy as quickly as possible. It doesn’t seem to matter that informative tests aren’t ready, nor that coronavirus vaccination is still 12-18 months in the future. More future danger is a reasonable expectation for the rest of us.
Dave L. Wegner
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Sioux Falls
