Dear Donald,
Today is Monday April 6, 2020 and ever since it became clear that our country was on the verge of being besieged by this coronavirus thing, I have been wondering how the best country in the world was not better prepared.
I’ve heard you talk about how nobody could have been prepared for this. It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen. It’s unprecedented. UNPRECEDENTED is the word you used.
After all of the warnings over the years and decades that referred to this very thing occurring, you had the gall to say nobody could have prepared for it. That may be, but it would have been nice if someone at least tried to prepare for it.
Have you ever heard of a guy named Peter Navarro?
Think hard! I know you have a habit of claiming not to know people who you’ve buddied around with.
Peter Navarro is your trade adviser and it appears that he created a memo which expressed his concerns about the possibility of the novel coronavirus taking hold here in the US of A. According to the New York Times, this memo was dated January 29, 2020 and the subject line of the memo was “Impose Travel Ban on China?”
Two days later, January 31, 2020, you announced a travel ban on China, which I have already shared my appreciation for in a previous letter.
Let me take a moment here and remind you why I’m writing you.
Writing is therapeutic for me. I'm writing to you because I'd like to understand how you could be so negligent. I don't expect I will ever find out but writing helps me sort through things and maybe reach an understanding on my own.
Yep, I’m still angry.
I am betting you are angry too. You have to be because Peter wrote in that January 29th memo about one worst case scenario where more than a half million Americans could die. He went on to mention the history of pandemic flus and the elevated chance for a pandemic due to what was happening in China. He then went on to suggest “aggressive action” be taken to contain the outbreak.
This was on January 29, 2020.
AGGRESSIVE ACTION!
Your version of aggressive action was to issue the China travel restriction, create a task force and then hope the virus goes away by April.
Dude, what the hell were you thinking?
Peter spelled out some fairly prescient possibilities about this virus that should have made the hair on the back of your neck stand like the national anthem was being blasted by a 60 piece orchestra right there in the oval office. But my guess is those prickly hairs took a knee in protest and you did too. Talk about America First. When we needed you to take action, you did the absolute minimum.
The only thing that’s UNPRESIDENTED about this whole thing is our country.
In case you are not aware, please note that as of April 6 at 8:41pm EST under your leadership there are almost 11000 Americans killed by Covid-19 and 365,000 - 367,000 CONFIRMED cases with over 19,000 recovered.
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