Apr 17, 2020 2 min read

The coronavirus has cost us more in lives and money than it should have.

We had good strategic warning about “the next epidemic” and there were preparations in place for such. Those were dismantled by the Trump administration.

We had good tactical warning, beginning as far back as late 2019 (even if, perhaps, the Chinese authorities were not as forthcoming as they might have been). Experts warned that measures should be taken promptly in preparing for it – stockpiling gear and preparing for widespread testing and possibly mass hospitalizations. Yet, even as the coronavirus disease spread from China across East Asia and into Europe, Donald Trump and his administration ignored those warnings, did nothing through that critical early period. Even worse, Trump and his mouthpieces launched into a campaign of denying, belittling, and painting the coronavirus threat as a hoax, as the “leader” went on multiple golf outings and held political pep rallies.

As COVID-19 became a global pandemic, Trump said, “…we’re prepared (we were far from it), and we’re doing a great job with it (they were not). And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away (it did not – as was predicted by rational people).” This was not leadership. This was worse than a simple absence of leadership. It was a head of government speaking from his own little fantasy world providing “negative leadership.”

So, Bob Heim’s April 15 letter to the editor, being so thankful for Trump’s “leadership” during this crisis, borders on laughable. For one, I would much prefer the experienced leadership of Joe Biden or, for that matter, Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren – over that being sold as “leadership” by an inept, egomaniacal con man who has only made all of this worse than it need have been while he tries to take credit for others’ efforts.

Thomas R. Moore

Waynesburg