As is true all over Maine, the more cases of coronavirus are confirmed in Waldo County, the more exponential the threat grows. In response I think we’re doing an admirable job of keeping respectful distance, sanitizing our hands, and hugging friends from six feet away. Yet Fox News and many others in right wing media criticize taking these precautions. Talk show host Glenn Beck recently said that as an older person he would gladly sacrifice his life for someone younger, implying that Trump’s plan to end current sheltering practices is just what we need. Speak for yourself, Glenn Beck, but not for the rest of us.

The fact is that coronavirus is several times more dangerous than the flu with no available remedy at the moment other than personal quarantine. How dare Trump ignore the health needs of Americans in order to get the economy “back on track!” Just who does he think he is, anyway?

Flinging his customary verbal attack on any reporter who questions him, on March 25 Trump said “I think there are certain people that would like it to not open so quickly, I think there are certain people that would like it to do financially poorly, because they think that would be very good as far as defeating me at the polls,”

He urged people to fill the churches on Easter Sunday, saying it would be beautiful and it would resurrect our economy. The symbolism here is nauseating. This man is anything but a Second Coming.

Yet he will continue to claim he is pro-life —and many in this country will continue to believe him even though there’s really only one life he cares about.

Beverly Roxby lives in Belfast