Please stop supporting actions that are harming and killing Americans

To the Editor:

I was recently diagnosed with stage three colon cancer and am presently undergoing chemotherapy which will, at a minimum, last six months. I am also 76 years old. Because of these two factors, I obviously need to do everything possible to avoid contracting the coronavirus.

I cannot express my rage at people who now want to sacrifice me and tens of millions of other Americans so that they can get a manicure, go bowling, or buy a gun. Perhaps, most disturbing, is that these people who are demonstrating have the gall to wave American flags at their rallies when what they are doing is the most unpatriotic act possible. Of course I have no idea how many of these deluded “true” Americans are Trump supporters, but when the President said that three Democratic states should be “liberated” to protect their gun rights, and right-wing provocateurs are clearly behind these demonstrations, you have to wonder what these “true” Americans really believe in.

Only two courses of action are without doubt effective in containing this virus – universal safe distancing and wearing masks in public situations. Yet, the president and vice-president routinely ignore these simple guidelines. What example does that set? As Noble Laureate Thomas Friedman recently wrote, “At a time when we desperately need to be guided by the best science, Trump’s daily fire hose of lies, and his denunciations of anything he doesn’t like as 'fake news,' has contributed mightily to the loss of our 'cognitive immunity' — our ability to sort out truth from lies and science from science fiction. At a time when we need a globally coordinated response to a pandemic, Trump has wrecked every alliance we have.”

Please protesters, stop. Very simply your support for actions which are harming and killing many millions of Americans is the opposite of Making America Great Again.

Dr. Robert J. McCallum

Milford, Pa.