COVID-19 will be with us for a while

The COVID-19 road ahead is long and arduous. Infections are surging nationally and hospitals are quickly becoming overwhelmed with patients, particularly in Florida, where the governor has demonstrated an inability to effectively lead.

In 2018, the Trump administration disbanded the Global Health Security and Biodefense unit, established by the Obama administration, with the responsibility for advising the

White House on pandemic preparedness.

The unit created the Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents. The document assists leaders in coordinating a complex government response to an emerging disease threat anywhere in the world. Today, Americans are experiencing the consequences of the Trump administration's decisions to disregard the information left by the Obama administration.

Based on the trajectory of the surge in COVID-19, containment most likely will not be achieved until the so-called herd immunity — when most of a population is immune to an infectious disease — is reached.

However, based on the history of infectious diseases, the total number of COVID-19 infections in the United States, and the failure to act sooner and more aggressively to contain the disease, we are at the very beginning of this health crisis.

Without the existence of a vaccine, the absence of a national containment strategy, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention no longer receiving COVID-19 data from hospitals, Americans should prepare for face masks and social distancing to be the new normal for years to come.

– Jonathan R. Burrs,

Palm Bay

SAFE ALTERNATIVE

Do as I say, not as I do. That is President Trump’s message regarding vote-bymail. It is such hypocrisy. The man has voted by mail — along with 16 of his family members and many staffers — in recent elections, including the 2018 midterms.

This is just one of Trump’s many efforts to make it difficult, particularly for Latino and Black voters, to cast their ballots. Interestingly, these also are the populations most affected by the coronavirus and the main reason why voting by mail must be the main option this year.

Voting by mail couldn’t be safer.

A Washington Post analysis of three vote-by-mail states found that officials identified just 372 possible cases of double voting or voting on behalf of deceased people out of about 14.6 million votes cast by mail in the 2016 and 2018 general elections, or 0.0025 percent.

So what the heck is Trump talking about?

– Joshua Mercado,

Weston

REGALADO’S REDO

Four years ago, Miami Herald journalist Doug Hanks reported that Raquel Regalado was running for Miami-Dade County mayor while hosting a daily radio show. She’s doing it again, only now she’s running for a seat on the County Commission.

If she shows no ethical responsibility to suspend her radio show while running for public office, why should voters expect her to act ethically as a commissioner?

– Mike Pryslak,

Miami

ARTS DON’T MATTER

On July 29, we were treated to Sen. Rick Scott’s incisive and forward-leaning reflections on stimulus money: “I just don’t understand it. How is it tied to coronavirus? I never understood why we were giving money to the Kennedy Center or National Endowment for the Arts. During a pandemic, let’s concentrate on solving the problem.”

Apparently, people who perform aren’t part of any “problem” Scott will address. Entrenched in the longstanding Republican hatred of support for the arts, public schools and universities, Scott sees a chance to defund yet another national institution.

Although awash in support for the absurd millionaire tax cut, he predictably musters no energy for that which feeds our national life and national good.

After four years of the most disastrous presidency in our history, much needs to be done to make America function again.

So far, Florida has chipped in a visionless Scott, devious Sen. Marco Rubio and incompetent Gov. Ron DeSantis.

– Randal McChesney,

Bellevue, WA

FIREBRANDS

Re the July 30 letter “Go home:” There are some real deep thinkers writing to the Herald, like the woman who wrote that protesters should go home until after the election to “disarm the Trump/Barr gambit,” whatever that means.

Here’s an idea: The socalled protesters should go home because they are not protesters, they are rabblerousers burning down our cities with the full support of Democrat mayors and governors.

– Dave Schaublin, Key Largo

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FANTASY FOOTBALL

The University of Miami, an institution of higher learning, whose president holds a doctorate in public health, is going to send students onto the gridiron from a school in the hottest spot in the world for COVID-19?

Really?

These athletes can’t play if they have a concussion, but they’ll play in an environment that could cause them death or permanent injury from a known health hazard.

Is the ACC nuts?

This is beyond stupid. Higher learning of what, exactly?

– Jim Crowder,

Miami

TROUBLED ECONOMY

The U.S. economy contracted at an annual rate of 32 percent for the second quarter, the worst decline in record, as consumer spending continued to decline as a result of the pandemic.

In addition, new claims for unemployment rose 1.4 million for the last week, as the recovery continues to flounder, despite assurances by White House

Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow and President Trump that a rapid Vshaped recovery is in place.

So what is the response from Trump and the GOP?

They want to end the emergency $600 a week in federal unemployment benefits, which has been a lifeline for many during the past months.

Trump says we are at war with the pandemic. He is right, but we need a leader, not a Tweeter, to win this war.

– Barry Rabinowitz, Plantation

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CAIN WASN’T ABLE

Unfortunately, a relatively young Herman Cain believed, like our president, that COVID-19 is a hoax.

Had Cain — a onetime Republican presidential candidate and former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza — worn a mask and had a more open mind, well, he might still be alive today.

– Marshall Sober, Bay Harbor Island

RUSSIAN PROSE?

The unbelievably bad Senate Republican-proposed Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act appears to be written by an enemy of our nation.

Unemployment benefits cut by $400 a week. No food assistance for families. No extension of eviction moratorium. No state and local funding to prevent layoffs of first responders. Liability immunity for corporations and no OSHA protections to make sure workers are safe.

No resources to allow schools to reopen safely. No funding for the Postal Service, which has already slowed service because of employees contracting COVID-19. No funding for increased COVID testing.

What the proposal does have in it is a businessmeal tax deduction for wealthy corporations. It also has $260 million for the Navy’s Expeditionary Fast Transport ship, plus other military funding to replace funds the president funneled for his wall.

This is the best they can do?

This bill was certainly not crafted by friends of the American people. Perhaps the ideas originated from one of those phone calls with Vladimir Putin.

– Joyce Groves,

Lauderhill

IN DENIAL

To those who insist COVID-19 is just another flu and that we are living in unnecessary fear, I ask: How many people do they know who died of the flu?

How many do they know who died of COVID-19 during the last five months?

– Zulma Lopez-Freyre,

Miami

WHERE’S THE LOVE?

If wearing a mask is patriotic, and the president and Cabinet don’t wear masks, then they are not patriots. I don’t think they even love our country.

– Art Young West Kendall