Sound Off for March 3, 2020

Unfettered info

It is wrong to compare the outbreak of COVID-19 with other diseases that have manifested themselves in the past. We don’t yet know what the potential of COVID-19 is in susceptible populations. It appears to be highly contagious, and if many people become infected at once we could have a crisis like China has gotten itself into, with inadequate facilities to treat all patients. This is no time to hand over either coordination or public information functions to politicians. We need the unfettered action of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps to respond to the outbreak.

In shock

We read about the USM Chorale going to South Korea. We are in total shock! How could the president of the university have allowed this to have happened? With this coronavirus spreading like wildfire we send our young, gullible students to sing and tour this area! Then to bring them back home and tell them to “self quarantine.” I have been a strong supporter of USM for 40 years, having educated our two children and our grandchildren at that university. This kind of decision makes me wonder what kind of leadership we have.

Get a grip

I am sick and tired of hearing about the coronavirus. Decades ago it was hepatitis, Ebola, scarlet fever, polio and more. The fake news will not tell you that over 19 million people have gotten “influenza” this year, and in 2019, of those, over 10,000 died. Why all the worry, after all, isn’t the planet due to expire in the next 12 years from climate change or global warming, or whatever it’s called this week!

Budget cuts that kill

When Trump cut funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2018, Dr. Tom Frieden, its director, said, “those cuts would significantly increase the chance an epidemic would spread without our knowledge and endanger lives in our country” as well as around the world!

Let them work

Why can’t the Democrats in Congress just shut up for a while and let the president and the medical folks get their arms around the coronavirus.

Real crime

I got a speeding ticket in Gulfport driving 39 miles per hour. Shame on you GPD, let’s fight real crime, geez.

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This story was originally published March 2, 2020 at 2:14 PM with the headline "Sound Off for March 3, 2020."