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Letter to the Editor: ‘I Am Uncomfortable’

I am uncomfortable watching Trump lie (give misinformation) about matters related to the pandemic and politicizing everything involved with it while he continually ignores the obvious need to begin a public discussion about how we’re going to distribute the essential items needed to move forward in fighting this virus, but which are in short supply. 

Given his performance to date, I can only assume he is going to distribute money, tests, therapeutics and vaccines first and foremost to his base – to the red states. He and McConnell have already revealed that these are the un-American and divisive considerations guiding their responses to the crisis.

You and I need to be pushing our representatives to begin a very public and transparent discussion about the criteria that we, as a society, think we should be using in making these decisions. It’s essential. We need a forthright discussion of the priorities and the criteria for establishing how we go forward, and we need to have those priorities guided by epidemiology and not political affiliation. 

We need to stand up and fight for what America is all about, or America will be gone. That’s not hyperbole. These are fraught and dangerous times. Recognize it. Act on it. Don’t be complacent. 

We need to prioritize those most at risk. We need to be testing daily all who are on the front line: health-care providers, police officers and firefighters, people working in food stores and meat-processing plants, nursing home residents, people in jails and prisons, people of color and the elderly. 

Then we need to identify and trace the people within these populations who have tested positive and whom they have interacted with. We’ve been dithering for four months now. Look where waiting has gotten us.

Enough! Let’s get to it! Write, email or call Baldwin, Johnson, Gallagher, Kitchens, Evers, your county representatives and your state and county health departments. We need prioritized tests and tracing – now. I’ll be the first to sign up.

Carol Jensen-Olson

Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin