Letters to the editor | Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020: Stopping COVID starts at the top
Leaders set tone for COVID compliance
Re “Pastor’s mayor campaign videos show no virus safety protocols” (Front Page, Aug.4): Kevin, thanks for your article in today’s Modesto Bee. We will never get this COVID-19 virus under control until people start taking it seriously. That has to start with city, county and state leaders. We need to hold our leadership’s feet to the fire. They have to set the example. If we can’t get compliance by asking, then it’s time to take necessary steps to enforce protocols required to end this pandemic.
The sooner we get this pandemic under control the sooner we get all our lives back. Back to school: educate our children. Back to work: get the economy back on track. Play: normalize our free time.
We are in this together. Your freedom to choose should not infringe on the freedom of others. None of us is immune.
Ernest Pinkston, Modesto
No-mask story overreached
Re “Pastor’s mayor campaign videos show no virus safety protocols” (Front Page, Aug.4): Are you kidding me? Front page above the fold news? Is this all The Bee has to report on — a mayoral candidate’s Facebook Live videos? It sounds like my 6-year-old daughter tattling on her older brother. What will The Bee report on next? That Countryman touched his face in the grocery store? Or how about while taking a stroll through the park Countryman didn’t cover his sneeze completely?
This article seems like a desperate attempt by The Bee to make this man look unqualified to lead Modesto. The writer “raises the question of what kind of example Countryman is setting as he seeks to lead Modesto.” If Countryman’s worst offense is not always wearing a mask and not practicing social distancing in his own home I would say he would make a fine leader.
No one is perfect, and I honestly believe people are doing their best to navigate through this pandemic. I do not attend this man’s church and I won’t be voting for Modesto’s mayor but I find The Bee’s article shameful.
Melissa Lathrop, Turlock
Easy-peasy SoCal COVID test
I visited my children in Southern California, and at my daughter’s suggestion, took a COVID-19 test while there. The process was very simple and streamlined. I made an appointment online (plenty of spaces), went to Dodger Stadium at appointment time and was in line less than 30 minutes from start to finish. I completed the oral self-test and had the result back in 24 hours. I was impressed!
I know of folks in our community who cannot get a testing appointment without a doctor’s order, who suffer long waits to be tested and days to receive results.
Considering our escalating number of cases and deaths right now, you’d think we could do better with testing. It is one of our few lines of defense.
Wendy Allen, Modesto
He ridicules our core values
With pandemic deaths over 150,000, Trump reassures Americans that deaths represent a very small percentage and the pandemic will disappear.
In November, voters will oust the most corrupt, heartless president ever to hold office. The odious stench of narcissism and ego that has trumped American democracy for four years will be eradicated along with the Republican mantra of publicly mocking, besmirching and ridiculing our core values of truth, honesty, and common decency.
Our constitution that Trump spit on, crumpled and crammed into his cavernous back pocket will once again see the light of day. Democracy under President Biden returns in January 2021. President Biden will assign a team of doctors, scientists, and medical experts to draw up a detailed plan of action that will successfully lead our country out of Trump’s den of death and despair onto a sunlit, well-planned and thought-out road to recovery.
What of his followers? Historians will unite them with those who willingly embraced Hitler and Mussolini while denouncing American democracy.
Brooks Judd, Turlock