“Demand testing. It’s what matters. Take it from people in an outbreak zone.” That was TPM Reader RS’s sign off on March 2nd, writing from his home a few hundred yards from the Kirkland, Washington nursing home that was the first epicenter of the crisis in the United States. You can see his whole note here.
This evening RS writes again, almost three weeks on …
I went back to read this message I sent you three weeks ago and I actually wept a bit.
To see what’s happening in NYC makes me so angry and sad for the people there. So sad that we begged to be listened to in Seattle but no one listened.
I hope our letters to you one day will form a record, time stamped, that will never allow Trump to rewrite history. I urge you to publish it as a unified record to fight back against the efforts to erase the history of this debacle.
I know I’m just a random person, surely many other far more knowledgeable people deluged you with much more thoughtful warnings. Your readership is very talented.
I feel so very sad for what is coming to NYC. We had time. We had a chance to stop this. We should never stop saying this aloud. The arrival of the virus was inevitable. This extent of the crisis was not.
Wuhan, Iran, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Seattle. The red lights blared almost without stopping.
Be well, be safe and take care of yourself. Thank you for your journalism!
