Apr 23, 2020 2 min read

Is there something inherent in being a Republican that produces immunity from reality? Both Camera Bartolotta and Dave Ball are inveighing against the social distancing which is blunting the effects of the coronavirus which had initially been denied by and dithered about by Donald Trump until it was established and doing its damage. The tests he said “anyone” could get are still not available to most. (I asked my doctor for one this week, and was told I couldn’t get one unless I had symptoms. Nevermind that many people are asymptomatic.)

A writer of a letter to the editor Sunday said she “trusts” Trump. She apparently hasn’t heard of his multiple bankruptcies, all of which harmed people, or his fraudulent “Trump University,” the salesmen for which particularly preyed on the older and the uneducated who could least afford it, and urged them to spend tens of thousands of dollars on that fraud, which was shut down by legal order. Oh, and the “Trump Foundation,” which was also shut down by legal order. “Trust” this person with 18,000 documented lies, just since he took office.

Trust? That? Surely you jest.

Neither Bartalotta nor Ball is an epidemiologist. When Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is, who had decades of experience in the field, says that social distancing will prevent sickness and death, well, in Fauci I trust.

But, hey, Republicans should feel free to expose themselves to this virus all they want, starting at the top, although apparently Trump is surrounded by a coterie of people to test everyone coming anywhere near him. But, by all means, have political rallies, shake hands, stand cheek-to-jowl with each other, and forget about those silly masks. What do medical personnel know about sickness, anyhow?

COVID-19 isn’t political, hasn’t ever read the Constitution, and is utterly indifferent to human cost. I will avoid it as best I can. If Bartolotta thinks people are metaphorically “sick” of the isolation, wait until they are quite literally sick from premature mingling.

Carole McIntyre

Waynesburg