It’s only a matter of time
It is not a question of if COVID will be re-introduced to Kaua‘i by the governor’s plan, but when.
COVID cases are growing on the mainland, and it is only a matter of time before one or several visitors contract the disease during the three days between their test and flight. Then they will blithely travel around the island spreading the disease to hardworking residents and their families.
For what? So we can lock down again after several of our kupuna have suffered and died? If killing off our elders is the goal here, we’re taking a big step in the right direction.
John Patt, Koloa
Trump might be angling for an ‘October surprise’
Is Trump positioning himself to claim a coronavirus victory right before the election or is the White House withholding vital information on the president’s health?
Over 209,000 people in the United States have died from the coronavirus, and the toll is rising. Trump has held super-spreader campaign events and demeaned people for taking the simple precautionary measures (masks and social distancing) that the CDC has said could save 100,000 lives by January.
By his words and behavior, he has actively encouraged the spread of the disease, with fatal hot spots following his campaign and states eschewing minimal CDC guidance experiencing pronounced spikes in the virus. Trump has failed to mobilize the vast resources of the government to create a cohesive and effective response to the virus.
As shown by the polls, Americans, observing his callous and incompetent response to the virus, have decided he does not deserve a second term.
Now Trump is either reaping what he has sown or he is preparing an October surprise in which he will claim that he was gravely ill, but then miraculously cured.
Trump has been stating that a vaccine would be available by the election day or soon thereafter, a statement debunked by Dr. Redfield, his own CDC director, who states that a vaccine will not be widely available until next summer or fall.
Trump constantly spews disinformation. As his conversations with Bob Woodward show, he is willing to intentionally mislead the public if he perceives a political benefit. If Trump is ill, then he callously attended a fundraiser in Bedminster after he knew his aid Hope Hicks, with whom he had been in constant contact for debate prep, tested positive for the corona virus, an action in violation of CDC protocols.
His physician, Dr. Conley, stated Trump had tested positive prior to the fundraiser. Did the president viciously expose major donors to potential death by disregarding appropriate quarantine protocols? Would Trump make such a decision just hours before the White House acknowledged Trump had also tested positive? A compassionate, rational person would not engage in such egregious behavior. However, we are living in a norm-busting era where the president has deemed it acceptable to recklessly harm others for his own political gain.
President Trump’s condition may be much more serious than we have been informed. The White House asserts that Trump went from feeling very energetic to requiring hospitalization within seven hours. We know that Trump is taking two drugs: Remdesivir, which has received emergency-use approval from the FDA for hospitalized coronavirus patients, and Regeneron, an experimental polyclonal drug in Phase III clinical trials.
Is the president using experimental drugs because of severely diminished physical condition or is he simply setting us up for an October surprise?
Mona Clark, Loveland, Colorado
