Letters to the Editor: Reopen Alabama's closed hospitals during coronavirus outbreak

Letters to the Editor | Montgomery Advertiser

Jim Carnes made a superb list of tools in the Montgomery Advertiser that Alabama Medicaid should use to save lives. In view of Dr. Deborah Birx's explanation of the impending cases of COVID-19, subject to affect all cities and towns in the U.S. in the next few weeks, I implore the governor to use one additional tool: reopen the 23 hospitals that have closed in Alabama for various reasons.

The governor would accomplish two important tasks: The hospitals could be used for non-COVID-19 patients who are in need of hospitalization, and importantly aid Alabama’s economy by the rehiring of those medical personnel and other essential hospital employees whose jobs were lost when the hospitals were closed.

Our governor made national news recently when she refused to declare a shelter in place “because we are not California.” It did not appear that the governor was aware that the virus is spreading nearly as fast in Alabama as in New York over the past week. (Not saying that AL has reached same number of cases as New York, but the rate of the spread is the same). Over the past seven days, the number of confirmed cases in CA has increased by an average 22% each day, Los Angeles has grown by 29% and In New York the rate has averaged 33% - slightly higher than the 32% average increase in Alabama.

Josephine Bolling McCall

Montgomery

Grateful lieutenant governor approves of school closures

I am so thankful that Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth approves of the decision to close our schools for the remainder of the school year. The last thing we need in this historic pandemic is members of our state leadership and of the Governor's COVID-19 Task Force for Alabama debating our actions in the media.

William Wade

Wetumpka

This is not the America I have known

Critical few weeks were wasted that could have been effectively used for preparing infrastructure, for testing for the virus, educating the public, and developing effective control measures to address Covid-19 pandemic.

Elected officials and influential media personnel systematically minimized the impact and ridiculed those that were sounding the alarm of impending catastrophe until very recently. I am thankful that the leadership is now taking it seriously.

I realize most of you are thinking about current coronavirus pandemic and stock market crash. But outbreaks of contagious diseases are not permanent, and the stock market will rebound eventually.

There is another crisis in our nation, which is insidious, deep rooted and more damaging on the long run. What I am referring to is the erosion I have noticed over the years in our collective psyche. In the U.S. we now consider our scientists as pseudo intellectuals, and ethical and patriotic civil servants are "deep state." Anyone who disagrees with us is the enemy of the society. Anyone who dares to question our beloved leaders is a traitor, and the news of our disliking is "fake news." Leaders are pandering to our darkest instincts and we are reciprocating with our unwavering loyalty. Our aversion to science is mind boggling. Our gullibility to propaganda and conspiracy theories is astonishing.

How did we get here? To what end? This is not the America I have known, experienced and loved. Since most of us are likely to have plenty of time on our hand during this outbreak, maybe we should ask ourselves how we as individuals — irrespective of whether we are conservatives or liberals, Democrats or Republicans, whites or non-whites, Christians or non-Christians — are contributing to this tribalism, cynicism and erosion of societal norms.

What legacy are we leaving to future generations?

N. Rao Chava

Montgomery

We are our own worst enemies

An article reports in 2003, a Wuhan doctor claimed “patients exhibiting symptoms akin to SARS — severe acute respiratory syndrome — were in quarantine at the central emergency department.” China did not immediately share that information.

SARS was also diagnosed in 2012 in Saudi Arabia — a fact known to CDC, but we don’t know what action was taken.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases says “novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was identified as the causative agent of an outbreak of viral pneumonia centered around Wuhan, Hubei, China. That disease is now called COVID-19” aka coronavirus pandemic!

This pandemic is a wakeup notice that Mother Nature can destroy homo hybrids she created unless they work together.

Pogo was correct; we are our own worst enemy, not aliens from space or other countries!

Joe Boyett

Montgomery

Trump's response was slow and messy

Mr. Hooper's reference to President Trump's swift response to COVID-19 turns out to be anything but swift and certainly as messy as the President's tariff war with China.

Mr. Hooper was correct when he said many U.S. businesses were moving out of China. Unfortunately, most of them are relocating to Vietnam, India, Mexico, or wherever the cost of labor is cheap. Some have transferred a part of their operations back to the U.S., while leaving a portion of the business in China. Others simply cannot afford to leave China.

While it might be great if we were totally self sufficient, I doubt the average citizen could afford the price tag.

By the way, haven't seen any funding from Mexico for that wall.

Robert Paschen

Montgomery

President telling lies about coronavirus

For the last three years, Donald Trump has lied to the American public almost daily. He has lied about a wide range of subjects. From trying to sweep his extra marital affairs under the rug to climate change, he has lied.

Now he is telling lies to the American public concerning the coronavirus.

In February he said the virus was under control. That was a lie. He claimed that a vaccine was coming soon. That was a lie. He claimed he had reversed a decision made by the Obama administration to impede coronavirus testing. There is no Obama-era decision that impeded coronavirus testing. He said General Motors and the Ford Motor company can quickly produce ventilators and some auto manufacturers are already making them. That was a big fat whooper of a lie. These are just a few examples of the many lies he has told about this terrible pandemic.

To lie to the American people in this time of crisis is disgraceful. There is an old saying that goes like this: follow, lead or get out of the way. Trump needs to stop lying and get out of the way.

Ron Yeomans

Montgomery