America’s emergency health response system has been gutted | Letters

In response to the recent letter praising President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus emergency:

▪ In 2018, the Trump administration cut 80% of Centers for Disease Control funding to fight global pandemics. Just last month, Trump proposed another 16% cut, including $3 billion for global health programs.

▪ In 2018 and 2019, the individual on the National Security Council responsible for coordinating responses to global pandemics, the director of medical and biodefense preparedness, and the director for global health security and biodefense were fired or resigned and the positions remain unfilled. So now, the Coronavirus Task Force is led by Vice President Mike Pence, who has no training and a record of poor health care decisions. Its staff includes individuals who have actively worked to repeal the Affordable Care Act and restrict Medicaid.

▪ Early in the coronavirus outbreak, government workers sent to care for infected citizens returning to the U.S. were without training or proper protective gear.

▪ Early coronavirus test kits sent to local authorities were defective and production of improved kits is grossly inadequate. Just 15,000 kits may be available nationwide at this writing; meanwhile, South Korea has already tested hundreds of thousands of people.

Perhaps worst of all, late in February, Trump patently misled the American public when he said coronavirus cases were declining and that a vaccine was coming soon.

Far from America’s responding from a position of strength, we are all at greater risk than ever before due to the president’s misguided gutting of our health emergency response system.

Richard Granse M.D.

Bluffton

Three cheers for the Democratic primary dropouts

In the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary, voters gave Joe Biden a surprisingly strong victory. Immediately afterward, Pete Buttegieg and Amy Klobuchar halted their campaigns, endorsing Biden.

Biden’s South Carolina victory apparently gave him enough primary momentum to outdistance Sen. Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday. The day after, Mike Bloomberg packed it in, throwing his support to Biden. On Thursday, Elizabeth Warren ended her campaign.

It seems evident now that Biden, rather than Sanders, will be the Democratic candidate for president. That is good for the Democratic Party and for the country.

A Trump defeat is essential to the political health of the USA. Our president has repeatedly shown himself to be a classic narcissist. Psychologists describe narcissism either as a personality disorder or a form of mental illness. Severely narcissistic leaders always create trouble.

In 2016, Trump purchased the presidency with his own money. In 2020, Bloomberg also tried to buy the presidency. Fortunately for all of us, he had the wisdom to realize his successful candidacy was not to be, even though he spent over half a billion dollars in the attempt.

Biden is a highly qualified, decent, honest, forthright, skillful politician, although not a great speaker. His rival for the presidency has none of those good traits, and suffers from legions of bad traits. Let’s hope we never again have any presidential primaries in which billionaires, however able they might be, try to purchase the presidency.

John M. Miller

Hilton Head Island

Traffic violations too rampant here

I had a visit on Hilton Head Island to see one of my doctors. Everyone complains about the road system, and it does need work, but so do drivers who are going as fast as they can to get nowhere.

I was surprised that there was not any accidents on my way out, and it was the same when I returned to Beaufort.

These people are crazy and do not understand vehicle violations. What are headlights for? Nighttime driving and when it is raining, but no one seems to know the law. Turn signals were installed so we don’t have hand and arm signals, but they are abused.

I am sorry we do not have enough law enforcement to handle these situations. Next, it is the illegal parking in handicap parking spots and fire lanes. Foot patrols would help on this but we don’t have the funds. I could go on and on about violations I have seen, and maybe I need to contact the governor, which would do no good. A vehicle inspection would provide money for the roads and save us from the uninsured and under-insured.

Robert E. Williams

Beaufort