History may judge the handling of the covid-19 pandemic as the greatest failure of an American president in modern times.

The Trump administration’s failure to heed warnings of a pandemic in early January allowed 70 days to pass before President Trump admitted how serious this crisis is. He attempted to diminish the seriousness of the crisis by downplaying the advice of experts, saying opposite of what they would say, telling us that most of the experts’ advice was voluntary, and telling governors who failed to issue stay-at-home orders that he trusted their decisions. It adds up to total incompetence.

The fact the Trump administration ignored existing pandemic plans from prior administrations housed on the CDC website is further evidence of incompetence. Was it Trump’s arrogance that prevented him from utilizing resources from another president?

These documents, titled “A Federal Response Plan for a Pandemic” (dated 2005, from the Bush administration), outlined a federal response with department/sector- specific roles. They emphasized the importance of a defined structure and mechanics for effecting coordination among federal, state, local and tribal authorities. They identified the importance of full support from the Defense Department, including its transportation systems. The plan identifies the federal agency responsible for coordinating federal operations and resources while establishing conduct for communications. With this plan implemented early, how many deaths may have been prevented?

We have to ask ourselves: How did we go from 15 cases that Trump declared would be gone in one week to the United States having the most cases of any country, with 10,000-plus dead?

Bob Grottenthaler

Springdale

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