I sent a longer version of the following on 9/14. How far does your silence about the numbers of dead Arizonans and your publishing of an article criticizing Australia go toward letting Arizonans know that it could have been different?

Rich Lowry writes, "Australia goes insane!". My daughter, in Melbourne wrote, "Where's his head? He never mentions the numbers." I explain that commentators and leaders, like our Governor, don't seem to cope with the numbers. Their rallying cry is, "Give me liberty or give me death." The US is doing very well, lots of liberty and lots of death. Proportionately for every 1 Australian who dies from Covid, 46 Americans die. Because those deaths occur privately in hospitals, the general public ignores the news. Doctors and nurses remind everyone but their warnings fall on deaf ears. When I questioned my daughter about Melbourne's public healthcare policies she replied. "Lockdowns in Melbourne are area and time specific to isolate infections. Families do suffer. But a majority of Australians agree with the strict rules because they save lives. There has been resistance but it's been confined. It's a shame that it's been politicized in the US when the main object should be to save lives."

Australia's public health care strategy may seem draconian and undemocratic but when the battle against this virus is over and we have retuned to normality, saving lives should be the ultimate criterion. Using a pandemic to advance a political agenda is callous especially when the dead are ignored as some sort of acceptable statistic. We made much of the deaths from 9/11. Should we not also lament the loss of nearly 20,000 of our fellow citizens here in Arizona from Covid?