Senator Tillis, stop dodging tough coronavirus questions at town hall meetings online

Sen. Thom Tillis

Sen. Thom Tillis has held some telephone town halls since the coronavirus crisis started. Tuesday, I joined his audio livestream and submitted several written questions about the need to provide medical treatment to COVID-19 patients regardless of income. All were ignored.

Tillis spent time reviewing CDC guidelines and stimulus checks, but did not once discuss how he will help safeguard the lives of N.C. residents by ensuring that people can seek treatment and survive without the burden of large bills.

Lives are at stake! Tillis should face real questions like: “How will you ensure N.C. residents receive the tests and treatment they need without going bankrupt?” Or, “Could our state legislature better respond to this pandemic by expanding Medicaid, which could keep more rural hospitals open?”

Stacie Borrello, Fuquay-Varina

President’s postcard

Regarding the Forum writer “appalled” to receive the postcard with the coronavirus guidelines with President Trump’s name on it. Is she appalled that funds from the coronavirus relief bill were granted to the Kennedy Center and National Endowment for the Arts? Was she appalled when President Obama’s stimulus plan strongly urged installation of metal signs advertising that projects were part of the Recovery Act? I don’t recall letters about that.

John MacPherson, Cary

A very good job?

President Trump says that if 100,000 Americans die from the coronavirus, we will have done a “very good job.”

No, a good job would be if he had become interested in the virus two months earlier, like some countries. A good job would have been to accept virus tests offered by Germany instead of refusing. A good job would be if he provided enough tests to match South Korea, which tested 15,000 people per day while Trump golfed.

Nick Gervase, Holly Springs

Expand Medicaid

More than 300,000 of our fellow North Carolinians don’t have health insurance and can’t afford to be sick.

N.C. Senate leader Phil Berger may not care, but COVID-19 makes it clear that we should. Lack of insurance takes lives and leads to people going untreated. Besides increasing the risk of infection for all North Carolinians, blocking Medicaid expansion left our medical system less prepared. Since 2005, 11 rural hospitals in N.C. have closed, leaving remaining hospitals to treat the uninsured, who are more likely to have underlying conditions. They’ll require more resources and cost more to treat.

Sen. Berger, all that hoarded toilet paper can’t clean up this mess. Doing the right thing will!

Marc Segre, Raleigh

Food donations

Shepherd’s Table Soup Kitchen in downtown Raleigh has remained open during this time. We prepare bag lunches and distribute them to our guests outside our facility.

Remaining open amid so many closures presents challenges. Most of our partners have temporarily ceased operations or no longer have the excess supply that enabled their generosity in the past. It has created the unanticipated expense of having to purchase bag lunch contents rather than rely on donations from our restaurant, corporate and grocery partners.

I invite Raleigh’s civic and corporate leaders and anyone with the means to think outside the box to ensure we remain able to provide our food-insecure neighbors with community and a good solid meal during these hard days.

Distance should be no obstacle to sustaining our mission of feeding those neighbors. What will you do to help keep that mission strong?

Tamara Gregory, Executive Director

Developing nations

Regarding “COVID-19 could kill 2,400 in NC and strain available hospital beds, projection model says,” (March 29):

As Congress crafts an economic stimulus package, it must include resources to support partners in developing nations deal with the immediate crisis and strengthen their health care systems. We already fund USAID programs and multilateral organizations that do this well. We should build on these efforts for COVID-19. Congress must prioritize global health systems, alongside the domestic response. People living in poorer settings must not bear the brunt of this pandemic. We all have a responsibility to not leave them behind.

Dilani Logan, Durham

Giving thanks

A good friend and I took an Alaskan cruise. He’s 98, I’m 91. We wore our World War II veteran’s caps. At the airport, the ship terminals, and onboard people said: “Thank you for your service.” Some offered to buy us dinner or drinks.

Now that we are in a war of a different kind it’s time for us and all our fellow Americans to say to the doctors, nurses, other medical staff, and companies making devices and vaccines: “Thank you for your service.”

David R. Cockman, Raleigh