Don’t Inject Disinfectants!

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/opinion/letters/coronavirus-trump-disinfectant.html

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To the Editor:

Re “Trump Says Look to Light. Experts Urge Caution” (news article, April 24):

It would be helpful if President Trump’s advisers explained to him the difference between medications and external disinfectants, which are designed to destroy viral particles as well as other microbes, on surfaces and in the air, using potent chemical and mechanical disruption methods.

Introducing disinfectants into the human body, especially by injection, is nothing less than a painful, prolonged and possibly unsuccessful attempt at suicide.

I can attest to this from over five decades of my own clinical experience, and I could not believe I was seeing this suggested at Thursday’s briefing.

Herschel FlaxGreat Neck, N.Y.The writer is a professor of anatomy at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

To the Editor:

Re “No Rallies and No Golf, Just the TV to Rankle Him” (White House Memo, front page, April 24):

In a time when the paper is full of scary stories, this is one of the scariest. It is a devastating portrait of the president: glum and vindictive, unfocused, out of touch, watching TV constantly, and hoping idiotically for miracle cures. And worse, the president is apparently out of sorts because he can’t play golf.

No other president, Democratic or Republican, would have looked at this crisis in this way. Every previous president would have risen to the challenge: some better than others, but no one I can think of would have done so little to help the American people in their time of greatest need.

I hope that Americans all over the country will remember this come November and that we will finally be rid of this cynical, childish, incompetent, cruel man, the worst president in the history of our country.

Tim ShawCambridge, Mass.

To the Editor:

Re “McConnell Wants States to Consider Bankruptcy” (news article, April 23):

A crisis often brings out the best in people. We are witnessing this now, for example, with our many heroes in health care giving everything to help those in need. Unfortunately, however, the Trump administration is choosing to take a different path. Bipartisanship in the face of a global pandemic was apparently too much to ask for.

Rather than helping states with the greatest financial need, Mitch McConnell sends out a press release talking about “Stopping Blue State Bailouts.” Setting aside the disgraceful lack of sensitivity and naked partisanship of his recent statements, he might want to consider the impact of those blue states on the national economy.

Some of the hardest-hit states — New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan, California — are among the top contributors to the U.S. gross domestic product. So if Mr. McConnell can’t manage a little compassion for the residents of those states, perhaps he can coldly consider their impact on America’s economic future and send some much-needed assistance their way.

Dorothy SuppCincinnati