By John J. Duncan Jr.

I saw Jane Fonda on television saying “COVID was a gift to the Left.”

Coronavirus should never have been used in a political, partisan way, but it certainly has been.

The Democrats tried for about three years to bring Donald Trump down with the hoax of Russian interference in the 2016 election and through impeachment.

But nothing worked, not even the constant drumbeat by the national media implying all sorts of false scandals.

But then came the “gift” of coronavirus and the Democrats and the national media latched onto it for all it was worth.

Approximately 8,000 people die every day in the U.S., and each death is sad in its own way and many are horrible.

I watched my Dad die from cancer and his last several months were terrible.  I watched one of my brothers-in-law die a very slow death with Lou Gehrig ’s disease, being unable to do anything for himself in the last year or two.

I believe coronavirus is terrible with its victims suffocating to death alone in hospitals, not even being allowed family visits.

But I also have read that the CDC has said only six percent of coronavirus deaths have been with the virus as the only cause.

All the others have been with comorbidities such as heart failure, pneumonia, or simply even old age as possibly the main cause.

Some people seem to get angry if you say there is any good news about this virus, but it should be seen as a good thing that even after all the testing, only slightly over two percent of Americans have tested positive and about 97% have recovered or will do so.

And I read that 99.9% of those under 50 who have had it have recovered and in some countries about 90% of the deaths have been in people over 80.

You may have read in one of my earlier columns about Dr. Harvey Risch, a highly-respected public health expert and professor at Yale, who expressed his dismay that thousands have died needlessly because of refusal to use the simple, inexpensive Hydroxychloroquine, primarily because Donald Trump advocated it many months ago.

I heard about one couple in Knoxville who signed up to be tested but then decided the line was too long at that point.  They were later notified that they had tested positive when they had not even been tested.

Also there have been numerous reports about false positives, and it was a bad mistake to pay hospitals more money – i.e. bonuses – for coronavirus patients.

Many doctors and public health experts now say the lengthy lockdowns have been a mistake due to delays in other medical care and the economic and psychological damage that has been done.

And the longest and most comprehensive lockdowns have been by very pious, holier-than-thou Democratic mayors and governors.

Obviously, they have known that President Trump’s strongest point for re-election was the booming economy and these lockdowns would be very harmful to that economy.

Most of those who have supported and even continue to support lockdowns have been government employees and others who have continued to draw paychecks and/or pensions throughout the life of this virus.