Letter to the Editor, The East Hampton Press, September 23

Grounded In Science

More than 200,000 Americans are dead from the coronavirus — a staggering number, with no end in sight — and, yet, for Donald Trump, this is little more than an inconvenient footnote to the “amazing” job he’s done fighting an “invisible enemy.”

How is it that the United States, with less than 5 percent of the world’s population, accounts for more than 20 percent of coronavirus deaths? That other countries have managed to subdue this invisible enemy, and are returning to some semblance of normalcy?

It’s because those countries have leaders who relied on the medical experts, were honest with their citizens, and helmed comprehensive national responses — while our president “took no responsibility at all” and left it to the states to employ a whack-a-mole strategy, resulting in an ongoing wave of infections and death.

If you’ve had enough of Donald Trump, then you’ve had enough of his ardent cheerleader, Lee Zeldin, as well.

Nancy Goroff, the Democratic candidate running against Zeldin, has spent more than 20 years at Stony Brook University in teaching and leadership positions (most recently as chairperson of the Chemistry Department). Electing Ms. Goroff to Congress will ensure that we have a representative who supports policies that are grounded in science and fact, not in the wishful thinking that got us here to begin with — because, no, Mr. President, the virus is not just going to disappear “like a miracle.”

Carol Deistler

East Hampton