Don’t blame Donald Trump; China and media are the chief culprits

I WAS disappointed to read your ‘Open Letter’ supposedly addressed to ‘American Citizens’ (The Yorkshire Post, April 20).

I have assiduously followed the daily White House briefings on the coronavirus epidemic and I’ve seen how President Trump is closely following the advice of his experts.

It’s also worth pointing out that Trump closed American borders to most flights from China on 31 January, a move that was roundly derided at the time as xenophobic, including by his potential opponent in November, Joe Biden.

You claim that the USA has the highest death toll from the virus, which is correct in terms of absolute numbers.

But if we look at the more relevant measure of deaths per million of the population, then Belgium has the highest rate of the major nations with 496, Spain has 440, Italy 385, France 288 and the United Kingdom 232.

The United States, by comparison, has had a death rate of 119 per million population, which is well below that of most major European nations. And it would be much lower were it not for the cluster in New York.

You make two other criticisms of Trump, claiming that he has “withdrawn” $400m of funding from the World Health Organisation. In fact he has suspended that funding, pending an investigation into the WHO’s role.

And you claim that Trump is in conflict with state governors in America. Governors have an important role in the USA, and there will be differences, but California governor Gavin Newsom and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, both Democrats, have praised the Trump administration.

Trump is by no means perfect, and his style can grate, but he understands the problems facing Americans who are not part of the east coast elite far better than most, and he doesn’t deserve the criticism that you aimed at him.

From: AJA Smith, Cowling.

FIRST and foremost it is the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing that is endangering the lives of every one of us and wrecking the world economy too, but the mainstream media seem to be shamefully turning a blind eye to this fact.

As for President Trump halting US funding of the World Health Organisation – what took so long? The only health the WHO seem interested in is the health of the Chinese regime. It is time Britain followed Trump on this one. There is no need to create the panic and anxiety that the media has created.

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