Letter to the editor: We must be bold to beat covid-19

I have my doubts that having all the requested tests would be enough to do effective contact tracing.

I don’t accept that covid-19 is “like the flu.” We have exceeded the 58,200 death toll of the Vietnam War. The death total of British civilians in the “Blitz” in World War II was anywhere from 40,000 to 55,000 over a period of 11 weeks! So far in the U.S. alone, the covid-19 pandemic has killed over 75,000 and has been with us only several months.

We need to be more proactive. That path would be human challenge vaccine trials, where after a volunteer received a vaccine or a placebo, he or she would be exposed to a live virus.

Winston Churchill took bold action. His resoluteness in defying Hitler was near singular in the early days of WWII. He threw the Royal Air Force at the Luftwaffe. He looked past the inevitable loss of young British men; the consequences were too great if bold action wasn’t taken.

The risks of harm to a group of 20- to 29-year-olds in a human challenge vaccine trial would be low. Only eight people in the 20-29-year-old age group died in Italy of covid-19.

Also I would encourage people to explore where the Walter Reed Hospital got its name.

Wade Guisbert

Mifflintown

The writer is a former Trafford resident.