Entire pandemic mismanaged

President Trump said anyone who wanted a COVID-19 test could get one. I got a free test and was told it would take two weeks to get the results. After two weeks, I called the Flathead County Health Department and was told it would take three weeks. Finally, after 33 days and several calls, I found out that I was negative and the lab had an 8,000 to 10,000 testing backlog. What an exercise in futility. I could have infected an unknown number of individuals or become re-infected in that amount of time.

The entire pandemic has been mismanaged from the beginning. With no leadership in Washington, the testing process has been plagued by a lack of swabs, lack of testing medium, not enough envelopes to mail tests and an inability of labs to process the tests. President Trump could have invoked the Defense Production Act and used the vast power of the federal government to address the breakdowns in the supply chain, but did nothing. Unfortunately he and his team of enablers have tossed us all into lifeboats, cut them adrift and left us to fend for ourselves. In the meantime, 183,000 fellow Americans have perished including 104 Montanans.

We need leaders who will listen to the experts, make decisions based on facts and care more about lives than re-election. Biden, Bullock, Williams and Cooney understand that our economy cannot get back on track until the pandemic is defeated. I hope those of you who have lost friends or relatives, worried about the virus infecting your children, lost your job or are suffering financially will remember this could have been avoided if President Trump and his entourage of yes men had not ignored the experts and acted decisively months ago.

Jan Metzmaker, Whitefish