Re: 'Trump's legacy' [Village News, Letter, [12/10/20]

The subject letter claims the COVID-19 pandemic “is clearly a state issue.” It definitely is not: it is a global issue, and coordination at the international and federal levels would have helped greatly. The 50 states, left to their own devices, went off in 50 different directions with correspondingly different results.

The subject letter also says, “Left without national emergency resources by the previous administration, this president reached out to American businesses...” And when was this lack of resources found out? Three years into Trump’s time in office! So, who, might I ask, was minding the store?

The letter goes on to say the supplies produced by American businesses were distributed expeditiously. They were not and still are not. According to the AMA: “1 in 3 doctors say it’s ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ difficult to get their hands on the PPE they need to limit Covid-19’s spread” (16 Nov 2020)

The letter goes on to say, "Not since 1915, has there been a world-wide pandemic and, even then, not with the twisted strains of this China virus which spiral into other links.” That’s true but irrelevant.

Obama had been warned that a pandemic was coming and his medical team prepared for it. In 2017, Obama’s pandemic team briefed Trump’s transition team and gave them a playbook to work from. Trump can’t truthfully say they weren’t warned. Search on “Obama's pandemic team preps trump's Transition team” to find several articles documenting this.

Continuing, the subject letter says, “Our president inspired the big pharms to churn out a vaccine in under six months." The only inspiration Trump provided was throwing money at the problem. More importantly, science has made great strides, including the application of DNA technologies, and that has been instrumental in reducing development time.

Now the big hurdle is the logistics of getting the right vaccines to the right people, in sufficient quantities quickly. Fortunately, the Biden team will soon be on the job.

The subject letter goes off the rails with this comment: “he [Trump] got the economy going. Again.” Before the pandemic, Trump’s economy was simply following the steady upward trend set by Obama. Since the pandemic, the economy has been in shambles – unless you hold a lot of stock. Trump, in keeping with GOP practices, has stoked the stock market, providing evermore profit for the already wealthy elite.

And finally, the letter claims, “They allowed Biden to get away with quid pro quo when he threatened Ukraine to withhold billions in funds if they didn’t fire a certain staffer." There was no quid quo pro. Hunter Biden, his son, was not being investigated nor charged with any wrong-doing. And Biden wasn’t the only one calling for the staffer (Shokin) to be fired.

“By late fall of 2015, the EU and the United States joined the chorus of those seeking Mr. Shokin’s removal as the start of an overall reform of the Procurator General’s Office,” Herbst testified. “U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke publicly about this before and during his December visit to Kyiv.” Search for “Trump twists facts on Biden and Ukraine” for the source.

And as I said before, Trump’s numerous political failures pale in comparison with what will be his legacy: the needless deaths resulting from his failure to address the pandemic and his encouragement of others to flout the COVID-19 protocols.

John H. Terrell