Opinion editor's note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

Ari Schulman's commentary seemed a little fanatical to me ("Why Fauci's COVID legacy is a failure," Opinion Exchange, Sept. 1). I respect Schulman — he surely knows more about science than I do — but to condemn the entire COVID response as a failure? That's a little overboard.

He admits that Fauci was dealing with a pandemic in real time but denies Fauci the right to make mistakes in dealing with a previously unknown, highly contagious disease the whole world was fighting. Mistakes were made, but the understanding of the new disease was evolving. Was Fauci not allowed to make mistakes? Where in the world were health officials doing it right, according to Schulman?

There are a lot of scientific questions still left unanswered, questions that should be far easier than dealing with COVID: Does vitamin C stave off colds? Is caffeine bad or good for you? What killed off the dinosaurs? Yet dealing with a new infectious disease is supposed to be straightforward and clear? That's unrealistic.

Schulman also states we need infectious disease leaders who won't tear this country apart. I don't agree that they shoulder all the blame. We had a president touting dubious, snake-oil cures. Podcasters, politicians, clergymen and talking heads, people who probably could not name three parts of a cell, were telling people not to get vaccinated or use masks, but all the blame goes to Fauci?

I think Fauci owned his failures. I also respect how he had to shepherd a divided country through the worst pandemic we hopefully ever live through.

•••

Schulman's recent commentary will resonate with the COVID deniers and vaccine skeptics. But the article is not an objective evaluation of our COVID experience and ignores the overarching issue: Why did the richest country in the world, with the largest and most capable health care system, experience the highest mortality among economically advanced countries?

Schulman touches on some, but not all, of the possible root causes and offers no perspective of their relative impact: The country's pandemic response system had been stripped of resources prior to the onset of COVID; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been politicized and was unable to consistently provide independent, scientifically based policy advice; the federal government's executive branch, and, ultimately, politicians in Republican Party-dominated states, countermanded and hobbled essential public health measures, including vaccine distribution. The result was hundreds of thousands of excess American deaths.

Dr. Anthony Fauci provided rational, sensible leadership under two presidents. Despite being contradicted and overruled by a president espousing nonsense, Fauci did not quit or waver.

The pandemic presented unprecedented challenges that were met with expertise and sound logic. Would touting the value of masks when none were available been wise? Probably not, but certainly implementing universal vaccination when excellent vaccines became available would have had a huge impact. The failure to do that falls directly and only on Trump and Republican leadership.

Thomas Green, Winnetka, Ill.

In response to a letter titled "Apparently I'm the enemy" (Readers Write, Sept. 5), let me say I was disappointed not only in the tenor of the letter but also in its top position in the letters column. While it purports to urge readers to examine sources of information, it actually quotes a number of cherry-picked statements it claims to weigh equally with the lies and insults leveled by the former president at real or imagined enemies, along the lines of, "Here are the real guilty parties." The letter writer charges President Joe Biden of characterizing people like her as the enemy when he was calling out those who would destroy democracy, not the majority of conservatives. If the writer is not an insurrectionist, then she should have no problem when an actual insurrectionist is called out. If she is not a white supremacist, she should not have a problem with acknowledging the danger imposed by support of one.

It is interesting to me to note that supporters of the former president are so quick to claim they have been insulted or maligned when they are aligned with the most unforgiving, insulting, dishonest, vengeful politician on the planet, the former president. Perhaps the writer should email the former president and his enablers with the quote from Luke 11:17. There are also quotes in the Bible on truth, forgiveness, mercy and sacrifice.

Gay Blouin Clapp, Minneapolis

•••

So please relax. You may support Donald Trump without being a MAGA anything.

Elaine Frankowski, Minneapolis

•••

In response to the letter "Apparently I'm the enemy": I have many Republican friends who, like the writer, have good conservative values and who, like her, are not the enemy. However, if you did not storm the Capitol, please speak out against those who did. If you are not a white supremacist, please speak out against those factions of hate. If you are not a thug or an outlaw, please speak out about how wrong it is to allegedly steal classified and top-secret papers from the government. And please beg all of your Republican representatives and senators to speak out against all of the above.

You are not the enemy that President Biden was talking about. I know you love your country as do I. We all need to remember that it is not the tyrant who is the greatest danger, but all those who stay silent and do not stand up to stop him.

Reading a restaurant review in Thursday's taste section made me chuckle as to how a martini (gin, vermouth and an olive) morphed into something called an espresso martini (the restaurant's version contains Vietnamese drip espresso, vanilla vodka, something called Liquor 43 and Kahlua). ("A first look at Em Quê Viêt in St. Paul," Sept. 1.) I'm sure it's delightful and would give it a try, but it's not the martini famously enjoyed by Humphrey Bogart or James Bond. It is said that Winston Churchill instructed that his martini be made by pouring gin over ice, and for the vermouth part, he would simply bow in the direction of France.

Gregory Sater, Shoreview