A22 eZ re THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAy, MARCH 21 , 2020
letters to tHe eDItor[email protected]loCAl oPInIonsS
OME OF the most devastating impacts of the
novel coronavirus pandemic could hit the
Trump administration’s leading foreign ad-
versaries. Iran is already being ravaged by the
coronavirus, with more than 18,000 cases and
1,200 fatalities as of Thursday, including a dozen
from among its political elite. No o ne believes North
Korea’s claims to have escaped the epidemic; one
South Korean report says hundreds of its soldiers
have been killed by it and thousands of people are
quarantined.
Then there is Venezuela, whose authoritarian
regime imposed a national lockdown on Monday
after reporting 33 confirmed cases — and hundreds
more pending. The apparently rapid spread of the
epidemic there presents a particularly frightening
prospect, given that the country’s health-care sys-
tem already was in a state of collapse, its citizens
have been fleeing to other Latin American countries
at the rate of thousands per day, and its illegitimate
and corrupt government is entirely incapable of
meeting the new challenge.
Hospitals in the United States and other devel-
oped countries worry they may not have enoughrespirators or intensive care beds to cope with the
severely ill. But in Venezuela, according to one
survey, more than 30 percent of hospitals lack
power and water, and 80 percent l ack basic supplies
or qualified medical staff — many of whom are
among the 4.8 million people who have fled the
country.
Humanitarian agencies have already been bat-
tling outbreaks of measles, diphtheria and malaria
in Venezuela. Meanwhile, one survey of people older
than 50 in September showed that 80 percent lacked
adequate supplies of food, meaning the population
most vulnerable to the virus is already weakened.
The regime’s response to the crisis has been a
familiar mix of repression and propaganda. After
President Nicolás Maduro announced a national
quarantine on Monday, the same security forces
that have brutally suppressed opposition demon-
strations were dispatched to keep people off the
streets of Caracas and set up roadblocks along
highways. Mr. Maduro then dispatched a letter to
the International Monetary Fund requesting
$5 billion from its emergency rapid financing
instrument — an appeal he must have known wouldbe turned down.
Sure enough, the IMF swiftly issued a statement
saying it could not consider the request, since it was
unclear whether the Maduro regime is recognized
by the international community; more than
50 countries have accepted the claim of opposition
leader Juan Guaidó to be the acting president.
Mr. Maduro may now seek to blame the IMF and
President Tr ump for medical shortages — but that
won’t prevent the epidemic from escalating.
If the regime actually wished to address the
health emergency, there is a way forward: It could
enlist Mr. Guaidó’s cooperation in seeking interna-
tional aid, while pledging to hold internationally
supervised elections for president and the National
Assembly once the crisis passes. Such a deal could
lead to the lifting of U.S. sanctions that are
strangling Venezuela’s vital oil industry.
S adly, the regime is unlikely to accept political
compromise, even in this emergency. That means
that a country of about 30 million people
1,000 miles from Florida could soon become a new
epicenter of covid-19 — and an even greater danger
to its Latin American neighbors.The epidemic reaches Venezuela
With a collapsed health-care system and an illegitimate government, catastrophe looms.
T
HE OLYMPIC flame arrived in Japan on
Friday, but there was none of the traditional
fanfare that normally accompanies the cere-
mony marking the official start for the
global sporting event. Because of concerns about the
spread of the novel coronavirus, the event was
closed to the public, and 200 schoolchildren who
had been invited were not allowed to attend. We
would like to say it is good that precautions were
taken, but it is completely ludicrous — n o, make that
completely irresponsible — that Olympic and Japa-
nese officials are acting as if the Games can go on as
the world battles what threatens to be a historic
pandemic.
The To kyo 2020 Summer Games are slated to start
July 24, and that apparently has inspired some
magical thinking by the International Olympic
Committee and the government of Japanese Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe. “We are committed to the
success of these games,” I OC President Thomas Bach
told the New York Times after a recent meeting of
the executive board in which, he made clear, the
words “postponement” or “cancellation” were not
mentioned. “Our basic stance,” said organizing
committee chairman Yoshiro Mori, “is to proceed
with our preparation and to hold a safe Olympics.”
W ith athletes coming from 200 countries around
the world and expected spectators numbering in the
millions, the Summer Games have all the makings of
an incubator for the coronavirus that will lead to its
further deadly spread. “You bring a lot of people
together, and then you ship them back all over the
world. That’s the perfect way to transmit,” warned
Yvonne Maldonado, an infectious-disease specialist
at Stanford University.Even if there is some breakthrough in combating
the coronavirus in the next 4½ months — which
science and health experts say is quite unlikely —
there have already been disruptions in the athletic
community that necessitate postponement of the
Games. Global sports leagues have shut down.
Olympic athletes have been unable to train. Qualifi-
cation events and trials have been suspended. The
South Korean national fencing team announced this
week that three of its members have tested positive
for the virus.
So obvious is the need to postpone or cancel the
Games that even President Trump has suggestedthey not take place as planned this summer. That
Olympic and Japanese officials refuse to recognize
this reality is rooted in the money and prestige that
are at s take. Japan has made massive investments in
building venues and improving infrastructure, and
Mr. Abe has made the Games a point of national
pride. The IOC is banking on billions of dollars in
broadcast rights.
Olympic officials have never been particularly
forward-thinking or willing to put other interests,
including those of their athletes, ahead of their
bottom line. Surely, though, even they will — a t some
point — realize that the Games cannot go on.The Games
cannot go on
Postponement or cancellation
is needed in the face of p andemic.ABCDE
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The Olympic torch is lit north of Tokyo on Friday.The March 16 editorial “Secret charges to the
Secret Service” s tated that rental charges paid by the
Secret Service to properties owned by President
Trump constitute “an unprecedented business rela-
tionship between a president and his own govern-
ment.” It went on to state that “previous presidents
have not charged the Secret Service to use space on
their properties” Well, what about vice presidents?
According to the Secret Service agent in charge of
government and public affairs, the Secret Service
paid former vice president Joe Biden $2,200 per
month for the use of a cottage on his property in
Wilmington, Del. Through September 2017,
Mr. Biden was paid between $113,300 and $171,600
under this lease agreement.
The editorial said that, in the president’s case,
“the decent thing would be to accommodate — not
take advantage of — the officers who protect him,
and the citizens who pay their way.” Okay. What
about Mr. Biden? Should he be allowed to charge the
Secret Service r ent for his property? What’s good for
a president should be equally good for a former vice
president.
William Coleman, AlexandriaThe bill for Secret Service quarters
In his March 16 letter, Michel Daley raised the
important question of CareFirst’s role in helping
residents of the region address the coronavirus
pandemic. But his letter misunderstood what that
role is.
In 2009, the D.C. Council passed a law requiring
the D.C. insurance commissioner to determine
whether the D.C.-based affiliate of CareFirst had
accumulated more surplus than needed to ensure
the company’s financial soundness and efficiency.
The council required any surplus above that
amount that is attributable to the District to be
devoted to addressing pressing community health
issues.
In 2014, the insurance commissioner concluded
that the company’s surplus was excessive by
$267.6 million. The commissioner relied on the
company’s own statistical model to determine how
much surplus the company would need in case
various unforeseen contingencies occurred, includ-
ing a pandemic.
N ow that the pandemic has arrived, CareFirst
should be prepared to use its surplus to address
community needs brought about by the pandemic.
Unfortunately, though, the D.C. commissioner has
yet to enforce the 2 014 determination that the
company has excess surplus. Meanwhile, the com-
pany has increased its surplus to a record $1.44
billion. Therefore, we believe that now is the
moment for the commissioner to determine what
more the company could and should be doing with
its surplus to comply with the council’s law and
support residents of the region as they face the
pandemic.
Mary M. Cheh, Washington
The writer, a Democrat, represents Ward 3 on
the D.C. Council.
Walter Smith, Washington
The writer is executive founder of DC Appleseed.The March 18 editorial “Covid-19 won’t stay
behind bars” was exactly right. Ye t the U.S. Parole
Commission, which has control over all inmates
being held at the D.C. jail on charges of violating
their parole or supervised release, is not doing
nearly enough to respond to this emergency.
The Parole Commission must act now to release
all people currently held on technical (i.e., non-
criminal) violations, misdemeanor arrests, nonvio-
lent arrests or any criminal arrests that have been
no-papered, dismissed or acquitted in court. They
should release all people currently held who are 60
or older. They should release all people who have
medical conditions or disabilities that impact their
immune systems, respiratory functioning, heart
functioning, mobility or that otherwise make them
susceptible to severe cases of covid-19. And they
should suspend the issuance of any new warrants
and withdraw any parole warrants that have
already been sent to the U.S. Marshals Service, save
for urgent threats to public safety.
These steps are necessary to keep us all safe, and
there is no excuse for inaction in this time of crisis.
R ebecca Vogel, Washington
The writer, a criminal defense lawyer, is a
member of the Criminal Justice Act Panel in
D.C. Superior Court.It’s wonderful that much-needed meals are
available for pickup at some local schools, but the
difficulty for many children is getting to s chool. The
system that Seattle is using is much better in two
ways. The meals are being brought t o the usual
pickup bus stops by the regular drivers, which
means easy availability and jobs for the drivers.
Linda Kostrzewa, BurkeI am appalled by the shutdown order from
Maryland Gov. L arry Hogan (R) affecting bars, spas,
restaurants and theaters. The order, justified by
health concerns, abruptly deprives thousands of
workers of their jobs and income for an indefinite
period without providing any safety net for them.
Highly paid workers can telecommute and keep
their jobs, and suffer barely at all.
Why must the cost of combating the epidemic
fall primarily on the shoulders of those workers
who are the least capable of bearing it? Mr. Hogan’s
plan should have provided f inancial support for
those who must lose their jobs. The plan is grossly
unfair.
Peter Drymalski, Silver SpringTim Morrison’s defense in his March 17 op-ed,
“The pandemic response office was n ot ‘dissolved,’ ”
of President Trump’s reduction of force in the
National Security Council office that oversaw the
“counterproliferation and biodefense office” is a
moot point now. What is important is that the
president, within the course of a few days, went
from calling the coronavirus outbreak in the United
States a hoax to declaring it a national emergency.
Actions and words are much more important than
mea culpas from one of his appointees.
Even if the president had strengthened the
biodefense office before this outbreak, his present-
day lies before his recent epiphany hampered the
recovery in this country.
Peter Bucky, AshburnFears in the time of coronavirus
A
T ROUBLESOME bottleneck threatens t o un-
dermine all the hard work of health-care
workers and others to respond to the novel
coronavirus pandemic. Reports from across
the country reveal dire shortages of personal protec-
tive equipment, including masks, chemical reagents
needed for testing and other supplies essential to
coping with an expected onslaught of illness. The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been
reduced to suggesting scarves and bandannas where
masks a re unavailable.
The dimensions of the supply problem approach
wartime i n size and s cope. No o ne was prepared for a
pandemic; now everyone must shoulder extra effort.
The government has estimated that if the pandemic
lasts a year, 3.5 billion respirator masks may be
necessary to protect health-care workers and pa-
tients. The United S tates has about 12 m illion N95 r es-
pirators and 30 million surgical masks, with an
additional 5 million N95 respirators that may be
expired. This is not enough. Already, at major hospi-
tals in Seattle and the District, mask shortages have
become so acute that doctors and patients are beingasked to reuse them, not dispose of them as previous
guidance f rom t he C DC r ecommended.
At a Los Angeles emergency room, doctors were
given a box of expired masks and when they tried to
put t hem on, the elastic b ands s napped, the New York
Times reports. At Memorial Sloan Kettering in Man-
hattan, doctors were informed t hey were d own to one
week’s supply of respirator masks.
Masks and other e quipment are n ecessary to protect
front-line health-care workers from infection. If they
are sickened, the whole system could buckle. A surgeon
told the Times, “We are at w ar with no ammo.”
Shortages are also reported in the chemicals
known as reagents for virus test kits that isolate
fragments o f the virus’s genetic material. The Interna-
tional Reagent Resource, established by the CDC, is a
system that distributes the chemicals and assures
quality. But sources told T he Post there are shortages
and the supply chain is backed up. Also running out
are the swabs needed to carry out the tests. Again,
these supplies are the linchpin i n any successful effort
to carry o ut w idespread testing t o blunt the s pread of
covid-19.President Trump suggested in a news conference
this week that the shortages are a problem for the
governors to deal w ith. “The f ederal government’s n ot
supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of
items and then shipping,” he said. “You know, we’re
not a shipping clerk.” Then on Friday he said the
government had ordered the production of millions
of masks and that t hese would be d elivered directly to
states. He o ffered contradictory statements about the
Defense Production Act, a 1950 law allowing the
government to address supply shortages by giving
directives to industry to ramp up production, first
asserting he had invoked its authority and then
saying he had not used it because companies had
responded voluntarily.
We are told that factories making masks are al-
ready running at full tilt; it may take time and
investment to create new assembly lines to manufac-
ture needed supplies. Instead of passing the buck to
governors, M r. Trump ought t o deploy every tool at h is
disposal to address the s hortages now.
If this is a wartime scale of a problem, where is the
wartime r esponse?A dearth of critical supplies
America faces dire shortages of protective equipment and testing agents.
ABCDE
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eDItorIAls Letters and Local opinions: [email protected]
op-eds: [email protected]Regarding the March 17 Metro article “Montgom-
ery lawmakers criticize Elrich’s proposed tax hike
amid crisis”:
T he Montgomery County Council’s r eaction to the
proposed budget irritates. Council Vice President
To m Hucker (D-District 5), however, had the reason-
able response: first, read it and understand its
underpinnings and then decisions can be made.
No one wants a tax increase. But we all want the
services. A proposed budget necessarily and profes-
sionally anticipates community needs and lays those
out.
It is the council members’ job to weigh needs and
priorities against tax rates. To instead draw angry
(political posturing?) lines before digesting the full
proposal is needlessly antagonistic and, therefore,
counterproductive. I expect better from my council.
The council members’ complaints about timingrelative to the novel coronavirus outbreak are also
false issues. The budget date is a statutory require-
ment; every council member knows that. And odds
are, 12 months from now, we will still be dealing with
virus fallout; council members should know that,
too.
Let’s not be disingenuous, council members. Just
buckle down and do your job.
Nancy Grimmer, BethesdaGet to work, Montgomery County Council
It is the council members’ job
t o weigh needs and priorities
a gainst tax rates.