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I am a past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a practicing pediatrician, and a proud Kingston High School graduate, class of 1964.
				This is the most important presidential election of our lifetime. A president has no higher duty than to protect the lives and livelihood of Americans, all Americans regardless of where they live, how much money they make, and how old they are. No one should be forgotten.
				President Donald Trump agrees having said: &ldquo;The most basic duty of the government is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead.&rdquo; (speech, July 21, 2016)
				Therefore, I want to share with you my perspective on the COVID-19 pandemic and how Trump has responded to this crisis. This perspective is based on my personal experiences caring for children during this time, helping craft public health measures to slow down the spread of the virus, as well as carrying out research to better understand how the virus spreads and how our immune system responds to the infection.
				Our current president has failed us.
				His mismanagement of the COVID- 19 pandemic has already led to the deaths of over 190,000 Americans and the loss of millions of jobs. He tries to bury his failure under a campaign of deceit, deception and scapegoating.
				First, he tried to tell us not to worry because the new coronavirus is like a mild case of influenza. But the truth is that it is both more contagious and more serious than influenza.
				This coronavirus is killing about 6 to 10 times the number of people that influenza kills.
				Second, Trump says the numbers of people dying from COVID-19 are inflated. But public health experts say that many more people are dying because of COVID-19 then are recorded in the official statistics. And this doesn&rsquo;t count the non-COVID deaths that occurred when people were afraid to see their doctor or go to the hospital emergency room.
				Third, Trump pronounced himself a coronavirus clinical expert and encouraged people to ingest or inject toxic disinfectants to kill the virus. These toxic agents will result in severe harm and even death. He encourages everyone to take hydroxychloroquine despite objective evidence that this medicine is not effective at preventing or treating the infection and may cause harm.
				Fourth, instead of developing a national strategy to prepare and respond he blames China, the World Health Organization, Democratic governors and Tony Fauci for his administration&rsquo;s failures. His failing to plan is the same as planning to fail. He has not done a great job. He never acknowledges that we have more infections, hospitalizations and deaths based on the size of our population (per-capita) than other wealthy nations. We have had twice as many per-capita deaths as Canada and five times as many as Germany.
				As of Aug. 28, 3,753 cases of the virus were identified in Luzerne County and 188 friends, relatives and neighbors have died. Tragically many of these people died alone, yet Trump provides little or no sympathy or empathy for these families.
				His reported comments that our soldiers who died defending our freedom were losers and suckers is consistent with his lack of feelings for families that have lost their loved ones.
				If Trump cared about the people of Luzerne County who are unemployed, struggling to pay rent and unable to buy enough food for their children, he would support needed pandemic relief legislation designed to help these desperate families. He would also address the dire financial conditions of Pennsylvania and most other states caused by soaring unemployment, more Medicaid enrollees and greatly reduced tax revenue projections. He would not continue trying to take away health insurance coverage from you and millions of Americans by court challenges to the Affordable Care Act.
				Wyoming Valley has hard-working, patriotic, and proud people who deserve hearing the truth from their president and having competent leadership.
				The outcome of Pennsylvania may determine the presidential election and the election in Luzerne County will play an important role in that outcome. Trump should be held accountable for his failures in leadership. He should not get a free pass or get-out-of-jail card.
				Remember when voting that science and facts do matter.

Their view: Science and facts do matter when voting