How long can we let this go on?

Linda Osegard

Neillsville

Editor:

How long are we going to tolerate having misinformation that endangers the lives of all of us to be distributed by the highest levels of our government? Just last Monday President Trump said the coronavirus “affects virtually nobody.” He said in some states “nobody young.” As of this writing, over seven million Americans have been infected with COVID-19 and roughly 590,000 of them have been under the age of 17. Of those seven million, 206,000 have died.

Does the president actually think losing 206,000 American lives is “virtually nobody?” Fortunately, the younger a person is, the more likely they are to have only mild symptoms, but children contract the virus, carry the virus and transmit the virus at the same rates adults do.

It is as dangerous to ignore facts as it is

Please see Letter, page 19 to ignore the advice of medical experts. President Trump ridicules people wearing a face mask while nearly every reputable medical expert in the world tells us face masks and social distancing are currently our best defense. President Trump says it is safe to open our schools and urges people to do so across the nation, even as infection rates are rising in 35 states due mainly to opening schools.

If all of this wasn’t bad enough, President Trump’s Justice Department is attempting to destroy the Affordable Care Act with a case that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court just one week after Election Day. In the middle of a pandemic with almost 1000 people dying every day just from COVID-19, there is an attempt to strip health insurance from millions of Americans with no plan to replace it. All of this is very dangerous. How long will we allow it to go on?