On coronavirus, stop spinning a false narrative. Americans are in urgent need of truth.

Stop trying to spin virus narrative

Early last week our president assured the nation the coronavirus was contained. His economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, re-enforced that message.

Now, we find ourselves enmeshed in a pandemic and we learn that his highly-touted, robust nationwide testing is, in reality, more talk than testing.

It’s one thing to have been caught unprepared and short-staffed when the crisis began. It’s quite another to spend time spinning the narrative when truth-telling is the obvious and urgent need.

Geoffrey A. Planer, Gastonia

Virus will impact rural NC hospitals

The coronavirus may hasten the end of North Carolina’s rural hospitals.

In red states like North Carolina that turned down Medicaid expansion, hospitals are forced to absorb the costs of care for patients of lesser means. As a result, many of our rural hospitals have been teetering on insolvency for some time. Now, a sudden flood of uninsured patients is about to threaten their very existence.

All this could have been prevented had Republican members of our legislature voted to accept Medicaid expansion. But for today’s Republican Party dogma often trumps reason and fealty takes precedence over compassion.

Sadly, we are about to witness the severe damage to our healthcare system that results from their intransigence.

Jeffrey Zalles, Southport

Facing up to a failure to plan

The Trump administration and the world has known about COVID-19 since the first cases were confirmed in Wuhan, China on Dec. 31, 2019. President Trump prides himself on the aspects of “America First,” but that did not occur in regards to this global pandemic.

Time is the greatest weapon in government response, and the ability to gauge and plan is more effective from a strategic position rather then tactical. The U.S. government has a multitude of agencies that could have been coordinated at the direction of the president. Yet what our country is witnessing is failure in motion each and every day.

Benjamin Cook, Charlotte

What this pandemic should teach us

Coronavirus should be a wake-up call to the world that the ways we divide ourselves - by economics, race, nationality, sexual orientation, political viewpoint, religion - are less important than we think. We are all the same species. Eventually, this pandemic will end and there will be a vaccine and treatment. To prevent a future worldwide catastrophe, we must learn to cooperate and help each other, rather than distance ourselves from those who look, think, worship, speak, or love differently than we do.

Dianne Mason, Matthews

Systemic response needed on housing

Mandating affordable set-aside units in expensive downtown housing projects is a superficial response to the affordable housing problem.

The more spent on downtown set-aside units, the less money available for other projects. A more systematic response is needed, including zoning laws which encourage lower cost housing, revolving down payment funds, better public transportation options, and policies supporting higher wages.

Higher wages are the real key to the problem. But these solutions require more work and planning. So, we shouldn’t be surprised that politicians turn to band-aid options instead of real solutions.

Kenneth Raynor, Charlotte

What I learned on my CATS bus ride

After attending this year’s “Affordable Living Charlotte” conference, I learned from the Sustain Charlotte session that economic mobility is directly tied to personal mobility.

If someone cannot physically get to work, the grocery store, or doctor, how can they advance?

I was curious to see how public transit in the city of Charlotte helped peoples‘ lives. So I hopped on board CATS to learn. What I saw: people in their employee uniforms, going to pay the bills they held in their hand, and thanking their bus driver for getting them there as they got off.

Transit is truly a lifeline. Let’s support it!

Aaron Kohrs, Hickory

Here’s the issue Warren must address

Elizabeth Warren says she will have much more to say about sexism now that she has withdrawn from the presidential race.

I’ll point out that while I, a white male, voted for the female presidential candidate in 2016, more white women in this country voted for Trump, a poster-child for sexism, than for the woman candidate.

Warren needs to figure out how to get women to vote for women before crying about male sexism.

David Duncan, Fort Mill

This story was originally published March 13, 2020 at 2:37 PM.