To the editor:

Thanks to this paper for bringing us facts, so we can try to deal with fears in this uncertain time.

A friend shared with me the current Forbes magazine. In it, an article points out that seven of the nations that have had a very low COVID rate of fatalities are countries which have elected women to lead them. Angela Merkel early told her people that this was a serious situation which could affect up to 70% of her fellow Germans. “It’s serious. Take it seriously.” Germans paid attention to the facts, and testing began quickly, with lower rate of fatalities than most neighbors. President Tsai of Taiwan moved quickly. Only six (six!) Taiwanese have died of COVID, and Taiwan is now sharing 10 million face masks with other countries. Prime Minister Jacobsdottir of Iceland also moved her government quickly, all citizens got coronavirus tests, and only eight people died in that nation. Prime Minister Solberg spoke via television and internet to all the children of Norway and reassured the kids why it is OK to feel scared as we work together, says this article.

Do we find such kindness around here? On March 26, Aaron Cerbone’s article reported that young Elise Stefanik wants to charge the mainland Chinese government money for all the impact of this virus. This is apparently because the virus was discovered there, or perhaps because that government did not move fast enough to invent a cure. Massive numbers of people were killed by the so-called “Spanish Flu” in 1918-19, which flu began near a U.S. Army base in our Midwest, but I don’t recall any European leaders talking of suing us because our troops carried that.

We can all only solve this pandemic by working together, not by standing on the sidelines pointing fingers. This is something we learn as parents as we wipe the kids’ noses while we try to figure out how to pay the bills with the available income.

Perhaps Ms. Stefanik will choose some day to be a parent. Perhaps she will then see the harm she has done with some of her immature acts in Congress, including her vote to not cover preexisting conditions in health care coverage and her recent opposition to sharing personal protective equipment with areas of our state that needed help because they had more patients with COVID than did we in the North Country. If she won’t do better, perhaps the rest of us can do better in November.

Warren L. Allen

Watertown