LETTER from TIMOTHY GIBSON

Flippant Headline

On Serious Topic

To The Editor:

I find it unruly that Tom Morgan would headline his column (“Nothing to Fear but Flu Itself”) attached to the coattails of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (a man crippled by the polio virus and consistently polled as one of America’s five greatest Presidents) in an attempt to attract reader attention to a very deadly and communicable virus and at the
same time disparaging legitimate responses to it.

Mr. Morgan tritely lures his reader into believing coronavirus is the culprit in a massive statistical death toll only to reveal, alas, he is referring to the common flu virus. Point made, if only to assuage the fears of everyone who has to deal with this other unknown killer but no, his real emphasis is to blame the media for hyping this national emergency for the sake of advertising dollars. Really, Mr. Morgan – the cheap shot ‘blame-game’ for something this serious?

Perhaps Mr. Morgan should confine his pat beliefs within the purview of which he proclaims to know (finance) and leave the spheres of medicine and journalism to those who do know.

TIMOTHY GIBSON
Oneonta

Editor’s Note: Mea culpa. The editor – identified in masthead on Page 4 – actually writes the headlines.
Sorry, Tim and Tom.