A few misstatements in editorial on coronavirus

After reading your editorial in The Democrat, I thought I should write you a letter. Initially, I wanted to just point out some apparent mis-statements, but then I remembered your very good recent article with coronavirus humor, and so I want to show some appreciation also for your positive contributions.

I am historically a Republican. I don’t really like Trump, but I voted for him, and while I am aware of many of his faults, I do believe he receives less credit than he deserves for some of the good things that have happened since his election.

As to The Democrat’s editorial, here are two examples of apparent misstatements: “… Donald Trump … started this crisis by dismissing it,…”

Some have said Trump called the coronavirus was a hoax. Snopes was ambivalent: Trump was calling the criticism of his handling of the coronavirus a hoax, not the coronavirus itself. Furthermore, the slowness in American reaction to the coronavirus was largely due to the Chinese being slow in sharing its true nature, according to one of our leading epidemiologists. Trump is not to blame for that.

Another statement: “It would help if there were sincere signs of empathy coming from the White House … That means, for example, forcing manufacturers to ramp up production of all critical equipment, …”

Trump did invoke the Defense Production Act on March 20 to force GM to make ventilators. Earlier he had done a lot to get voluntary help from American companies. His office has interacted extensively with all the governors, including our Governor Newsom, who has given the White House deserved credit, and received credit in turn from Trump, who praised Newsom’s quick action. Trump quickly moved US Navy hospital ships to California and New York to help out when it became clear that our hospitals were likely to be overwhelmed.

In the last paragraph, the editorial states that the uncertainty of what lies ahead is scary. True, and we need each other more now than before. In order to bring out our best combined effort, shouldn’t we follow the lead of our Governor in calling a truce to political finger-pointing, and appeal to our shared values, like you have done elsewhere, such as with your humor article?

— David DuBois, Woodland

Editorial bashed Trump on handling coronavirus

In reading the April 4 Daily Democrat’s editorial “State leads in fighting COVID-19” I agree with the headline of the article. The headline itself was misleading. Oddly enough the article was not at all about the job Gov. Gavin Newsom was doing with battling the virus. It was largely about bashing President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus.

I will admit I’m no big fan Gov. Newsom. I disagree with many of his views and policies. Having said that, I believe he has done well in combating this virus here. Gov. Newsom’s administration has been attacking COVID-19 very much like the president’s administration has been. The state has set guide lines for the counties and cities, and left it to them to enforce these guidelines as they see fit, much like the federal government has done with the states.

Did the President say that the coronavirus was a hoax as claimed by the paper’s editor and many liberals? A fact check through Snopes states ‘False’ he did not. This claim came out of a Feb. 28 political rally in South Carolina where the President suggested that the Democrats would use the coronavirus as a hoax to try to impeach him again.

President Trump was dismissive of the virus back in January and into the first part of February as the editor stated. Lets go into the “why” that the he was.

President Trump surrounds himself with hopefully smart people as should all presidents. One of those people was Dr. Anthony Fauci the director since 1984 of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. If you have been watching TV, you see him nearly as much as the President. Dr. Fauci was himself very dismissive of the virus back in January and into late February, as was the World Health Organization and our own CDC. All thought China was being transparent about the virus. China were being complimented for being so. That was a big mistake.

Fast forward to now. We now know that the Chinese Communist Party lied for over a month about the dangers of the virus. Our experts were initially wrong about this virus. It happens. Dr. Fauci and CDC have done a complete reversal of their opinion on this virus. WHO appears to still be covering for China.

My own personal opinion of WHO is that it is a worthless organization and we are wasting millions of taxpayers dollars in support of it. By the time this pandemic is over, and hopefully it will be sooner than later, we may be in huge trouble going forward economically. I don’t think you can turn the economy on and off like a light switch. With the trillions of dollars it will cost to repair the damage this virus will have inflicted both physical and economically on this country, the national debt will grow to $30 trillion.

Place the blame for this world wide pandemic where it belongs, squarely on the shoulders of the Communist Party government of China.

— Gary Eagleton, Woodland