Writer: Trump lied about COVID

Mindy Walker

Willard

Editor:

When President Trump declared COVID-19 to be a hoax, when he publicly discouraged the use of face masks and continued to hold rallies with tightly packed crowds, when he encouraged schools to open with in-person classes, when he publicly denigrated the advice of medical experts, we thought he was simply ignorant and refusing to accept the facts. We were wrong. He was lying to us.

He is on tape acknowledging the coronavirus is many times more dangerous than the flu, that it is an airborne virus spreading through the air we breathe and that it affects children. All of those public statements were part of Trump’s biggest lie, that COVID-19 would simply disappear, that it was nothing to worry about. He is the President of the United States and people believed him, but he was lying. Trump knew the virus was dangerous and he refused to take appropriate action. If he had taken action similar to what Canada or Europe did, it is estimated we would have 100,000 fewer American deaths, millions of fewer unemployed workers and our schools would be reopening with a much higher level of safety and confidence. But he lied.

Day after day, month after month, he lied. His job is to protect the American people, but he knowingly put the nation’s people and its economy at risk. Thousands have lost their lives. Millions have lost their homes, their jobs, their savings and their dignity because Trump thought he could lie his way through a pandemic instead of facing reality.

He is not responsible for the virus, but he is responsible for how this country reacted to it. He is responsible for untold hardships suffered by millions of American families and for America to have the greatest rate of COVID deaths in the world. Trump has failed and the country is suffering because of it.