Shortsighted view on the coronavirus
I must offer a response to Ms. Thompson’s letter on her experience with COVID-19 (“I think I caught coronavirus and here’s how it felt,” letters, aspentimes.com).
Let me start by saying I am glad she and her husband recovered. Over 73,000 have not. The Washington Post’s Trump Death Count at this minute assigns the president the blame for more than 44,00 of those deaths. She and her husband were lucky.
Having said this, I have to wonder at her statement “the common cold kills people.” Has she seen the pictures of the refrigerator trucks holding victims of COVID-19? Has Ms. Thompson read the stories of the health professionals who have sacrificed their lives fighting for the rest of us?
Ms. Thompson worries about “risking a wonderful tourist spot, the lives of our young and the future of America.” Given these worries, let me ask Ms. Thompson the following questions.
How many doctor’s lives are you willing to sacrifice for the “wonderful tourist spot?”
How many nurses and nurse’s aids lives are you willing to sacrifice for the “wonderful tourist spot?”
How many medics’ lives are you willing to sacrifice for the “wonderful tourist spot?’
Ms. Thompson, the common cold does not kill medical personnel. COVID-19 does. Think more of the people who are keeping us alive and less about yourself.
Philip Verleger
Denver
