a2 2 EZ RE the washington post.friday, april 3 , 2020
letters to the editor[email protected]local opinionsJoin the debate at washingtonpost.com/local-opinionsThe March 30 editorial “An unheard-of judicial
order” s upported Arlington Commonwealth’s Attor-
ney Parisa Dehghani-Ta fti and castigated the four
Arlington County Circuit Court judges for judicial
interference i n the l ocal prosecutor’s p owers.
These four judges are attempting to prevent
Ms. Dehghani-Tafti from using her power to decide
whether to criminally charge a person or to keep a
person in jail pending trial. She is an excellent,
experienced a ttorney and should be given a chance t o
reform our broken system of j ustice in Arlington.
Many Arlington voters supported Ms. Dehghani-
Ta fti because w e want an end to prosecuting l ow-level
marijuana possession, an end to jailing mentally ill
and addicted people, and an end to the cash-bail
system that keeps low-income people in jail awaitingtrial. We c hose her, not these four u nelected judges, to
decide prosecution, bail and such issues. If these
judges do not understand this, they should resign.
J ohn Reeder, ArlingtonUnder Virginia l aw, a prosecutor d oes not have the
discretion to never pursue charges against people
engaged in conduct deemed to be criminal by the
General Assembly. T hat would be nullifying a proper-
ly passed law. That is how and why the referenced
order was issued by the circuit court. It could well be
that it is the prosecutor who is second-guessing the
elected members of the General Assembly. The prop-
er way to challenge the status quo is to work with the
General Assembly and change t he law.
William Barnes Lawson Jr., ArlingtonThe role of an elected prosecutor
T
HE “DEMOCRATIC transition framework”
for Venezuela laid out by the Trump adminis-
tration this week was described by some as a
compromise, since it proposes that both
regime leader Nicolás M aduro and U.S.-backed oppo-
sition head Juan Guaidó give up their dueling claims
to be president in favor of a transitional government
in which the two sides would share power.
In essence, however, the new U.S. plan has the
same premise as previous strategies: that elements of
Mr. Maduro’s p arty a nd Venezuela’s armed forces can
be induced to overthrow him, purge his closest
associates, release all political prisoners, expel
Cuba’s agents from the country and agree with the
opposition on democratic elections. In more than a
year of applying “maximum pressure” on Caracas,
the administration has not come close to achieving
that outcome. That raises the question of why the
State Department’s initiative has appeared at a time
when both the United States and Venezuela are
under severe threat from the covid- 19 pandemic.One answer is that administration officials hope to
leverage the emergency. “ There’s a lot more pressure
on the regime,” Elliott Abrams, the State Depart-
ment’s special envoy for Venezuela, told reporters.
He w as referring to the recent collapse in the price of
oil, which has made it harder than ever for Venezuela
to market its principal export, which was already
impeded by U.S. sanctions. Mr. Abrams said the
pandemic “ had nothing to do with the timing.” Yet, of
course, the administration is aware that Venezuela,
which by Thursday had reported 144 coronavirus
infections and three deaths, faces a catastrophic
outcome if the disease spreads widely; 80 percent of
its hospitals lack even basic supplies, including soap.
The administration has come under some pres-
sure, including from the United Nations, to ease
sanctions on Venezuela so that it can more easily
obtain medical supplies. Meanwhile, some observers
are saying the rollout of the new strategy, combined
with the Justice Department’s announcement last
week of indictments against Mr. Maduro and otherregime figures, has served to derail the possibility of
cooperation between the de facto government and t he
opposition in combating the epidemic. Mr. Guaidó
has embraced the U. S. plan, and the Maduro regime
has threatened to bring charges against him and
arrested several of his close associates.
The State Department flatly rejects the calls to
relax sanctions; Mr. Abrams argues that given the
documented corruption of the Maduro regime, its
political use of food and other resources, and its
ongoing repression, it cannot properly manage any
aid. But Mr. Abrams acknowledged to us that it will
likely take time for the transition plan to gain
traction, if it does. I n the meantime, the United States
should be looking for innovative ways to get help to
Venezuelans; one possibility is to channel now-
f rozen Venezuelan funds t o humanitarian groups via
Mr. Guaidó. If this already stricken country suffers a
catastrophic attack by the coronavirus, n either “max-
imum pressure” nor a maximalist political plan will
be of much help.A bid for regime change amid an epidemic
The Trump administration refuses to ease ‘maximum pressure’ on virus-threatened Venezuela.
T
HE U NITED STATES needs tens of thousands
more ventilators in the coming weeks to
handle the expected wave of covid-19 pa-
tients, and the question of which states and
hospitals receive them — and c an t herefore save l ives
— comes down t o this: Who w ill play God?
Will it be U. S. and foreign medical device-makers,
whose overwhelmed order books position them to
determine which hospitals, states or nations will get
the v entilators they need? In t he United States, will it
be the states, which have been thrust into what New
York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) called an eBay-style
bidding war against o ne another?
The best alternative would be the federal govern-
ment, which could play a constructive role in equita-
bly allocating a scarce, lifesaving commodity — but
has so far abdicated that responsibility. In fact, ac-
cording to Mr. Cuomo, the Federal Emergency Man-
agement Agency has been bidding for ventilators
against the states, competing rather than coordinat-
ing with t hem.
Americans c an ill afford such d ysfunction. Accord-
ing to the analytics company GlobalData, the United
States needs an additional 75, 000 ventilators to cope
with the pandemic’s serial punches, in city after city
and s tate after state, o ver t he coming months. A nd t he
rest of the world will need at least 800,000 more
ventilators. Even with a full-court press by medical
device makers helped by the U.S. automakers, some
of which are pitching in to help accelerate produc-
tion, it appears unlikely that adequate numbers of
ventilators, which help people breathe when they
cannot do so for themselves, will be available soon
enough.
Mr. Cuomo has pleaded for FEMA to play the role of
a purchasing agent for ventilators — “Buy everything,
and then allocate by need to the states.” FEMA or
another arm of the federal government, perhaps the
Defense Logistics Agency, could also step in to man-
age the supply of respirator masks, gloves and other
critical medical supplies.
The crisis i s imminent in New York, but other states
face similarly d ire predicaments. L ouisiana G ov. John
Bel Edwards (D) said his state’s ventilator supply willnot last the week; his state has procured fewer than
300 a nd n eeds a t least 14,000, he said.
Without adequate numbers of ventilators, hospi-
tals and doctors will face agonizing choices, guided
by criteria that differ from state to state — a grim
lottery that determines which patients will be given
the assistance they need to draw breath. In Britain,
where the ventilator shortage is also acute, a doc-
tors’ union has proposed that younger, healthier
patients get priority access to the devices ahead of
the elderly and those with underlying illnesses.Under those guidelines, even a patient whose condi-
tion is improving may be removed from a ventilator
in favor of another judged to have a better chance at
survival.
The worldwide ventilator deficit represents a fail-
ure of foresight and planning. Assigning blame for
that failure i s less important than addressing it in t he
present. In the United States, the urgent priority is to
manage the shortfall as rationally as possible. For
now, the federal government is flat-footed, a spectator
to an unspooling catastrophe.Playing God
There is a ventilator shortage.
Doctors will bear the consequences.ABCDE
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the Washington post
1301 K St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 (202) 334-6000Washington-area construction industry officials
claimed in t he March 2 9 Metro article “Classified as
‘essential,’ construction continues” that the indus-
try’s work is essential and that they can protect
workers from the coronavirus. Neither claim holds
up to scrutiny.
We n eed to go f orward with construction directly
connected to the pandemic. But the Purple Line?
The new Marriott headquarters in Bethesda?
Luxury condominiums in the District and the
suburbs? These can be paused.
The claim that workers are practicing physical
distancing is also wrong. I live across the street
from Marriott’s headquarters and see workers
clustered every day. The same is true at nearby
projects. A few extra wipes o r bottles o f disinfectant
will not protect them. They are endangering
themselves and the rest of us.
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) wisely
suspended nonessential construction. Our govern-
ments should do the same.
Marc Gunther, BethesdaRegarding Dana Milbank’s March 31
Wednesday Opinion column, “How is 100, 000 -plus
dead a ‘very good job’?”:
Twice last week, my household received the
same special postcard. The message side bore
familiar coronavirus prevention tips. On the other
side was a headline in large print: “President
Trump’s Coronavirus Guidelines for America.” Bur-
ied in the lower right corner within a bold blue
wedge was a tiny white Centers for D isease Control
and Prevention logo — the single reference to an
agency actually qualified to deliver public health
advisories.
Given the gravity of this pandemic and the way
this president has conducted himself, he is the last
person who should distribute health-care ad-
vice. He has zero credibility. He is not a health
expert and denigrates those who are, including
those r isking t heir l ives for us. He postures, lies and
dismisses data-driven facts. To put his name on
health advice during a pandemic that has already
killed thousands would be laughable if this were
not so dangerous.
With this postcard, Mr. Trump is cravenly
hijacking a worldwide crisis and using taxpayer
funds for what can be described only as a blatant
election campaign mailing. Again, he sets a new
low for incompetence and corruption as he tries to
dodge the deadly results of his failure of real
leadership.
Dory Hulse, Earlysville, Va.In his March 30 op-ed, “All choices are bad, but
some are worse,” Robert J. Samuelson said “we’ve
been here before” and compared our current
situation to that of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
That is simply fatuous.
They are as different as night and day. Of course,
that earlier period was disastrous. (I lived through
it myself.) But to compare that era to the current
one — unprecedented in modern history — makes
no sense. To day, the entire world is shut down.
There is barely any international travel. Many
are locked down in their homes throughout the
world. Nothing remotely close to that happened in
the era Mr. Samuelson cited as our having been
through before.
There are many reasons his analogy to that earlier
era was incorrect, but I’ll cite one: Mr. Samuelson
said in that era, unemployment spiked to more than
10 percent. Current estimates have the unemploy-
ment rate going to 30 percent — higher than in the
depths of the Great Depression.
I understand Mr. Samuelson’s point about for-
mer Federal Reserve chair Paul Volcker that tough
medicine was required to tame inflation, but it was
simply inapposite to compare what is happening
today to the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Marc Chafetz, WashingtonRobert J. Samuelson provided an insightful
overview of the nation’s predicament in suppress-
ing the novel coronavirus while reviving the
economy. He’s right: The current dilemma should
engage us all.
His 2008 book, “The Great Inflation and Its
Aftermath: The Past and Future of American
Affluence,” analyzes extreme movements in the U.S.
economy and what drives them. It has lessons for
today.
Perry L. Weed, AnnapolisPerhaps Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell (R-Ky.) was right and impeachment
distracted the president’s attention from the coro-
navirus [“Task force’s best-case death toll is dire,”
front page, April 1].
If so, some alternative headlines come to mind:
“Trump focused on keeping his job rather than
doing his job at a critical moment.” Or, “Trump put
staying in power ahead of the health and welfare of
the American people.”
This was a staggering and telling admission by
Mr. McConnell. President Trump couldn’t focus on
a grave threat to our country — in plain sight
around the world with alarms being sounded
everywhere, including by the media, health experts
and, yes, Democrats. That was an admission of
gross negligence and incompetence.
David C. Paris, Greensburg, Pa.The time to pause noncritical U. S. military
training is now. The March 31 front-page article
“Stay-at-home orders for capital region” noted a
coronavirus outbreak at a Marine Corps boot camp,
confirming that the Defense D epartment i s not ade-
quately considering t he safety of our military
personnel.
D uring World War I, more soldiers and Marines
died from the flu pandemic than were killed in any
battle. We were at war then and could not pause,
but we can now. A 3 0-to-60-day pause should
include all recruit and advanced training, exercises
and temporary training deployments. Maximum
numbers should be put on excess (nonchargeable)
leave.
This smart action would save many lives but not
have any more adverse effect on readiness than
when a recruit is delayed several months in
reporting for training or military members take a
30 -day leave.
The Defense Department is continuing to con-
duct training exercises, including the Defender-
Europe 20 exercise. This is wrongheaded. De-
ployed ships, aircraft and troops should remain in
place, isolated and carefully resupplied. That is the
critical readiness. Put the rest on pause until it
is safe to gather them together again.
Robert R. Sarratt, AlexandriaRedefine ‘essential’
W
HEN A group of public health experts sat
down last year to imagine a pandemic
caused by a highly transmissable respira-
tory virus, they foresaw m uch o f what has
occurred in the past few months. The experts, writing
for the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security,
predicted health-care systems could be over-
whelmed, medical supply chains stressed and the
need for vaccines and drugs urgent. But in one area,
they were uncertain — would social distancing work?
The experts, in a report published last September,
predicted that governments would turn to social
distancing and other so-called non-pharmaceutical
interventions, o r NPIs, including limits on travel and
strict quarantines. But they said not enough was
known about whether such measures would be
effective, and expressed concern about downsides.
While governments would naturally act to reduce
contact among people to slow the disease spread,
they wrote, “there is a broad lack of evidence of
efficacy and a lack of understanding about secondary
adverse impacts.” They were particularly critical ofquarantines such as that attempted in West Africa
during the Ebola outbreak, which turned chaotic.
Their views also reflected a long-standing assump-
tion that authoritarian regimes could more readily
implement strict social distancing, while it would be
nearly impossible for democracies.
One o f the most surprising lessons of the coronavi-
rus pandemic so far has challenged this assumption.
Social d istancing has never b een tried o n such a scale
as now, and there is evidence that it can work, in
democracies and dictatorships. Where people have
followed the guidance to stay home, close schools,
refrain from going into restaurants and bars, shutter
workplaces and businesses, they have begun to slow
the growth in infections, hopefully averting hospital
overload. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) of California, who
imposed a statewide stay-at-home order, said Mon-
day, “We know what does work, and that’s physical
distancing.” In Seattle, officials said strict contain-
ment strategies imposed in the earliest days of the
outbreak were paying off. Hospitalizations are start-
ing to decline. A company that charts reports offeverish illness levels across the country — fever is an
early symptom of coronavirus infection — found that
once social distancing began, the level of observed
illness in the population declined.
No o ne can declare victory. T he strategy of “flatten-
ing the curve” doesn’t work if people ignore the need
to practice social distancing and thus allow the virus
to spread. If politicians and p eople ignore the restric-
tions, or tire of them too soon, more cities will flare
like New York. A research paper by Michael Green-
stone and Vishan Nigam a t the University of Chicago,
based on previous modeling of the pandemic, con-
cluded that moderate social distancing “would save
1.7 million lives between March 1 and October 1, with
630,0 00 due to avoided overwhelming of hospital
intensive care units.” Even if social distancing
achieves only a fraction of that, it seems to be worth a
try.
Yes, the distancing is disruptive and demands
sacrifice. The only worse outcome is a failure to
distance, more contagion and even higher costs in
lives, treasure and prolonged crisis.Keep your distance
Once questioned by experts, social distancing shows it can work.
ABCDE
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