President Trump claims his pandemic response was good and most of the carnage was caused by China’s opacity. A simple comparison with Germany tests that claim. It has one fourth our population and a similar combination of federal and local governments. On Jan. 1, the entire world learned of a viral infection in China. Researchers went to China. By Feb. 1, the World Health Organization declared a “global health emergency” and Angela Merkel’s Germany had produced its first COVID-19 test kits. Trump blocked most travel from China. The primary infection on our East Coast arrived from Europe in early February, exploding to thousands of confirmed cases by Feb. 12, when Trump imposed the ban on travel from Europe. As of late August, the U.S. had logged five times as many total deaths (per million) as Germany. Trump’s leadership is an abject failure.
Gerald BaumannDurango
