To the editor:

I can’t help wondering how many Americans would still be alive if our president had listened to our intelligence community in January. As usual, they did not tell him what he wanted to hear so he fired them. He continued to downplay warnings because he was too obsessed with the economy rather than the health of our citizens. He continued to give us false reports.

Feb. 25 he said a vaccine would be available soon. Dr. Anthony Fauci contradicted him, saying it could be a year and a half before a vaccine is available.

Feb. 28 Donald Trump said the coronavirus will disappear like a miracle and the warm weather will kill it. He kept insisting the virus was nothing to worry about, and months later nearly 20,000 Americans are dead. The man said he did not know the virus killed people when it’s common knowledge that as many as 50 million died in the Spanish Flu of 1918, including Trump’s grandfather.

In March, Trump declared that the flu kills more than the coronavirus. Again Fauci corrected him and informed the public that COVID-19 had 10 times the mortality rate of a seasonal virus. Trump proposed cuts to the CDC and the National Institutes of Health!

I would have a lot more respect for Trump if he admitted mistakes. But his ego won’t allow it. He has seriously endangered the health of this country by his ignorance and his inability to act early when he had plenty of warning!

Craig Tucker,

Lawrence