To the Editor:

Re “Trump’s Son-in-Law Puts Himself in Middle of Response” (news article, April 3):

Your report that supplies needed by hospitals to deal with the Covid pandemic were being dispatched to states that had not even submitted requests “based on which governor got Mr. Trump on the telephone” is deeply troubling. Most obviously, allocating scarce resources without oversight and triage by knowledgeable experts puts lives at risk. Moreover, there is a risk of further politicization of the nation’s response to the health care crisis.

With the Department of Health and Human Services preparing to distribute $100 billion of CARES Act funds to hospitals and other health care providers around the country, it is appropriate to worry that the Electoral College map might play a large role in the allocation.

Thomas L. Greaney

Santa Cruz, Calif.

The writer is a law professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law and a former assistant section chief, Antitrust Division, with the Justice Department.

To the Editor:

Re “Updated Guidelines Show Tensions Between Trump and His Medical Advisers” (news article, April 4):

So Jared Kushner believes: “The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile. It’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use.”