Dear Editor:
For war against an unforeseen enemy, we need a war administration.
If the framers of the Constitution had foreseen the current lack of steady and effective leadership, they surely would have included a mechanism to replace this Administration with a crisis oriented team capable of winning this war. Yet, we see daily examples of a "perfect storm" of events and circumstances leading our nation towards a political, economic, public health and social breakdown.
First there was interference by a foreign adversary bent on destroying democracy that helped put a proto-dictator in the White House. Unable to see beyond his own fragile ego and corrupt self-interests, Trump surrounds himself with a cabinet and advisors hand-picked from his family, cronies and the industrial centers under federal regulation, with loyalty to himself rather than our nation being the primary qualification. Caught abusing his powers to damage the likely opposition candidate in this fall's presidential election, a Senate controlled by members fearful for their own survival turned the impeachment trial into a farce, signaling their total surrender to Trump's deliberate disregard of the separation of powers required to protect our democracy. And our finest career scientists have to walk on tiptoes in order to correct Trump's constant stream of disinformation in order to stay inthe room.
Now we see the results of month's of denial, lies, blame-shifting and corruption that has made our nation vulnerable to an enemy that can pierce any wall and lays bear the systematic looting of our treasury and public-health systems. With a free press sidelined by threats, disrespect and "alternate realities" spun by the unholy Trump-FOX News alliance, it's time to say "Enough is enough!" The more this White House resembles Elsinore, the clearer it is that no one will survive unscathed.
David G Ostrow, MD PhD LFAPA ( ret. )
Chicago
Note: The writer of this letter led the City of Chicago's responses to the AIDS epidemic with establishment of the Chicago AIDS Task Force in 1982. In 1983, at the invitation of then-U.S. Reps. Dianne Feinstein ( D-California ) and Mark Green ( D-NYC ), I testified before the House PHS Appropriations Committee ( chaired by then-U.S. Rep. William Natcher ) on the failure of the NIH to fund research into the cause and natural history of AIDS—and the testimony led to the first Congressional appropriation of AIDS-specific research funding.
I was a developer of the first hepatitis B vaccine, and am currently part of a joint US-Ca team developing coronavirus treatments and "universal" vaccine candidates..
