Will xenophobia shutter Chinese eateries forever?

My favorite Chinese restaurant is in danger of going out of business, bringing in only $50 to $100 per day.

Apparently, xenophobia may put many Chinese restaurants out of business permanently, restaurants owned by Chinese Americans who have lived here for generations in many cases.

Please support them; put on a mask and go out and buy takeout to supplement all those home-cooked meals as we hunker down through this crisis. Together, we will survive.

— Lawrence Koepke, San Jose

Daily coronavirus tracker a key snapshot of state

Re: “Coronavirus daily tracker” (published daily):

I would like to thank the Mercury News and your reporters who prepare the daily coronavirus tracker. On one page you can get a good idea of where California is in terms of coronavirus cases.

It’s nice to see some irrefutable facts on this important issue.

We are keeping each of these and yesterday I laid them out. It was amazing to see the spread of the coronavirus in our state over the last few weeks.

Please don’t stop publishing these pages for the time being.

— Joe Hall, Santa Cruz

$35B for nuclear weapons better spent on doctors

What do you choose? The 2020 U.S. defense budget is $738 billion. How many unemployment checks would that pay? How many small businesses would that save?

The U.S. annual cost for nuclear forces is about $35.1 billion. That would provide 300,000 beds in intensive care plus 35,000 ventilators plus 150,000 nurses plus 75,000 doctors.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talks about military escalation in Iran. How can we support talk about war when thousands of people worldwide are sick and dying? Which do you choose?

Talk to your Congress members about co-sponsoring legislation for no war with Iran. Ask them to reconsider the huge amount of military spending.

National security is important, but our military budget is not providing for our safety or our health in this time of fear and pandemic.

— Elizabeth Martinson,

San Jose

Trump using briefings for reelection campaign

Donald Trump is front and center at the daily coronavirus briefings, spreading inaccurate information, attacking reporters for asking difficult questions and refusing to respond to the governors’ concerns about lack of needed equipment.

And on April 1, in a stunning about-face, he switched from the issue of the pandemic to drug interdiction, taking the opportunity to announce that there is going to be a concerted effort to keep drugs out of the country and that 161 miles of the wall have already been completed.

One thing is clear: Daily briefings have become a campaign event for Donald Trump. — Lorraine Dambruoso,

San Jose