To the Editor:

Trump’s attack on the WHO (World Health Organization) is classic Trump. Make bad decisions and then blame someone else for the consequences.

The reality is that the WHO issued warnings about COVID-19 long before Trump took any action whatsoever to do anything about it. WHO issued its first warning on Jan. 9. On Jan. 18, Health Secretary Alex Azar tried to brief Trump on the virus, but Trump ignored him. On Jan. 22, Trump said the U.S. had the pandemic “totally under control.” On Jan. 23, WHO updated warnings regarding human-to-human transmission. On the previous day, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arizona) urged the White House to issue a China travel ban. Jan. 30, WHO declares COVID-19 a “public health emergency” but the same day Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary, says the virus in China will be good for the US economy. On Feb. 2, Trump finally restricts travel from China — almost a month after the first WHO warning.

Why is Trump attacking WHO when it is he who delayed? One reason is because Trump wants credit for everything good and the responsibility for nothing bad. The other reason might be that new WHO guidelines consisting of five prerequisites for opening up the economy are far from where the U.S. currently is. We fail even the first guideline, which is containing the spread. The second is widespread testing. Meeting these two alone will take at least a month — if ever, given that some Republican governors following Trump’s lead regarding an open economy are doing nothing.

On the topic of testing, Trump rejected the WHO offer for tests and insisted that tests had to be developed in the U.S. That first effort resulted in faulty tests that delayed any testing for weeks. It soon became clear that producing and distributing testing for COVID-19 was beyond the capability of the lackeys at the head of the Trump administration. So, Trump declared that testing had to be the responsibility of the states via the governors.

Trump is great at exercising magical thinking whereby whatever he says suddenly becomes real. Fortunately, Mother Nature cannot be gaslighted. COVID-19 does not follow daily rallies disguised as briefings. Trump and company can make all kinds of pronouncements and brag about what they are doing, but then reality rears its ugly head. People have died for lack of ventilators. People will die due to lack of testing. There are locals with a lack of medical equipment and tests. The fault for this is a failure of national leadership. Pence and others can butter up Trump about his great leadership, but there is not enough lipstick to put on this pig to make it anything else.

Norman Hoffmann

Waynesville