LETTER TO EDITOR from JUDITH PACHTER

The Answer: Choose

People Over Money

To the Editor:

As a former registered nurse and a retired financial adviser, I see both sides of this horrendous dilemma. But in my mind, there is no amount of money that is worth one death that could have been prevented.

We sit in our isolated homes in rural Central New York and feel a bit sorry for ourselves because we cannot do or should not do what is usual. But what we really should be doing is feeling extremely fortunate that our numbers are few.

Why is that?

Because our governor chose people over money. The projections have changed because most of us are doing what we are supposed to do. The number of those who have “croaked” as Mr. Tom Morgan put it are much fewer than our federal government originally projected because many of the states took the lead.

Think of how many fewer cases there would have been if our president would have taken the warnings of the WHO (the truth and not the propaganda) and his experts seriously. If we had a leader who had locked this country down instead of relating this to the flu, we would not be where we are today.

I don’t know about you, Mr. Morgan, but I have family members affected by this virus. I have a cousin who is a New York City school teacher who has been very sick for four weeks. My brother-in-law’s brother is also struggling with COVID-19 (not “WuFlu”). My niece and nephew are physicians and they have been exposed through their work and have two small children and awaiting test results. I have many, many friends in Rockland County who must stay in their homes because of the thousands of cases and deaths in that area.

And I am on the Board of Directors of United Hospice Inc. that is now taking care of those with no hope of recovery, both in their homes and in a residential facility. We have had three or four staff that have tested positive. All of this might have been precluded had our government taken swift and country-wide action.

But instead, our leader is promoting civil disobedience that in itself is divisive and dangerous. He has not once talked about the people who have died – only about numbers. And Mr. Morgan, you would argue that the mainstream press has blown this out of proportion. I think not and I think that people are much more important than money.

I know that it will be extremely difficult for this area to recover from the closing of Dreams Park and, at first, I did not understand that decision and thought that a rolling closure would be a better solution. But I personally would not want my grandchild in a dorm with dozens of other children that have come from all over the country in just four to six weeks’ time. Would any of you?

As a financial adviser, I never sat with a person who was gasping for air, but as a nurse I sure did. Feeling like you are drowning is probably the most horrendous feeling (yes, ladies, worse than childbirth) in the world. We need to continue to heed the advice of our scientists and not our business leaders and stay home and away from each other.

We need to thank our Governor for caring and we need to thank our first responders who are getting sick and we need to thank all those who are working hard to take care of the sick, sitting with the dying. And most of all, we need to thank the scientists who are working hard towards medication, testing and finding a vaccine so that we go back to life as we know it. And we need to listen to those experts who care about our well-being.

JUDITH PACHTER
Oneonta