Grieving with the parents of Skylar Herbert

American Girl "Kendall Doll"
looks a lot like Skylar.
I don't have permission to use Skylar's photo.

I grieve with the parents of Skylar Herbert.  Their little girl died two days ago of meningitis and brain swelling caused by infection with the corona virus. 

Her mother, LaVondria Herbert, has been a police officer in Detroit for 25 years.

Her father, Ebbie Herbert, has served as a firefighter for 18 years.

They first took her to their pediatrician on March 23 and she tested positive for strep throat, but antibiotics didn't help.  She had a bad headache.  

The next day they took her to the ER of Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital, where she was tested for the covid-19 virus.  The next day she was given a positive diagnosis.  

On the third day, Skylar was sent home, but the family returned to the hospital because her father was coughing and had shortness of breath. While he was being treated, Skylar's headache returned and she had a seizure.  In the ER, her parents learned that she had meningitis.

See the full article in the Detroit News.  Or the New York Times.  Or the Washington Post.

A parent's greatest fear is the loss of a child.

Skylar was their only child, born when her mother was 41 years old. 

She would not have died if Hillary Clinton had been president of the United States.  

Hillary would have heeded the warnings early in January before the US had any cases of Covid-19 infection.  She would have taken serious measures to prevent its spread in the US.  

Hillary was alert to health issues--she formed a healthcare reform plan in 1993 that was defeated by pharmaceutical and health insurance companies.

In September 2016, a website called To the Point compared the different outcomes for Americans if she were elected with her plan to expand the Affordable Care Act vs. if Trump were elected with his desire to repeal Obamacare.

As it turned out, Trump couldn't even be bothered to read the memos given to him in January about the looming pandemic.  Read "How Trump let the U.S. fall behind the curve on coronavirus threat" in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, April 19.

Any normal president would have ramped up testing in January, traced contacts, and issued stay-at-home orders.

Trump thought only about his impeachment, the economy, and his reelection.

His selfishness and lack of interest in the dangers of a pandemic resulted in the deaths of 45,318 Americans so far--including little Skylar Herbert.