Re: 'The coronavirus – Who's really at fault?' [Village News, Letter, 4/23/2020]

There is no doubt that COVID-19 originated in China and that China was not forthcoming about it. The World Health Organization naively accepted China’s statements and Jan. 14 said: “Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus (aka COVID-19).” Regardless, President Donald Trump is 100% responsible for America’s botched response to this terrible pandemic.

First, it was naive in the extreme for Trump to accept China’s statement at face value: before Trump, our standard was to accept but verify. That’s what our intelligence agencies are for. But, as usual, Trump went with his gut. And he did the same with WHO. Perhaps if we had had a representative at WHO, Trump might have got some insight, but we haven’t had anyone there since 2018.

Until effective control measures are implemented, the number of infections and deaths from COVID-19 will increase exponentially. It is axiomatic that time is of the essence. And that is where Trump really blew it. At a time when days and hours really counted, Trump spent weeks in his evolution from denier to believer. It is documented.

His first gambit was “It’s a Democratic hoax;” next, he said, “It’ll all blow over in a week or two” and finally, “If we’re lucky, there’ll be less than 100,000 deaths.”

I don’t call that lucky at all. I would have much preferred prompt action, rather than depending on luck, and only a fraction of that mortality.

And with our “luck,” we can expect a second wave of infections as states open too early.

John H. Terrell