“CALCULATED DECEPTION” NOT “PASSIVE INCOMPETENCE” -MY LETTER TO THE NYTIMES

LETTERS Covid in America: ‘A Tale of Two Worlds’

Readers are outraged that the president and the vice president continue to hold rallies where people are packed together and often maskless.

Oct. 26, 2020

To the Editor:

Language describing the Trump administration’s approach to the virus as “downplayed,” “cavalier” or a “verbal shrug” imply passive incompetence instead of calculated deception.

As confirmed by President Trump’s taped comments to Bob Woodward, this administration made a political decision in the early stages of the pandemic that manipulating re-election imagery was more important than saving lives.

While medicine and science race for a vaccine and improved treatment options, the president determined that getting re-elected was more important than driving down the infection rate with an evidence-based public policy of lockdowns, social distancing and masks.

The virus has proved itself immune to Mr. Trump’s “optics is everything” blizzard of disinformation. Voters are now rendering their judgment, as will history.

Robert Salzman
New York