America's optimism may have blinded it to the coronavirus. Now, with suffering a part of our daily life, we have a chance to become a mature nation.

Easing sanctions on Iran, hard hit by the coronavirus, would be a humanitarian act that reminds the world of what America truly is.

Trump can't 'reopen' the economy, but Republican governors can follow his lead. If they do, Newsom must continue to protect Californians.

Warning memos were written. Research was funded. But what good is any of this if American leaders fail to act?

Trump justifies his actions on coronavirus by saying he's a businessman who doesn't like having a lot of employees. But government is not a business.

A tent city for homeless veterans? It should not have taken a deadly pandemic for local leaders to come up with that solution.

An LAUSD teacher who once campaigned against Austin Beutner gives the superintendent credit for his leadership during the pandemic.

Clean energy wants a level playing field with fossil fuels and nuclear power. It needs government funding for that to happen.

It's insane to think life can return to normal soon when we haven't even figured out how to get enough milk and toilet paper into stores.

A writer criticized atheist activist Ron Reagan. In a sign of the times, that letter drew howls of protest from readers.

Some of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks have been linked to religious services, and the public's health trumps every other right.

People who blame the president for failing to prepare the country ignore an important fact: We didn't want to believe America was vulnerable to COVID-19.

A program for one-time assistance to undocumented workers affected by the pandemic is a start, but California must do much more.

A reader says it's nice to know she wasn't the only one who was apparently duped after she bought packages of toilet paper on the Amazon Marketplace.

The Postal Service is as important to the United States as its language and its highways. Losing it would forever change the country for the worse.

Participants in the Stanford study self-selected, among other flaws. Its results do not reveal anything meaningful about the coronavirus.

No Democratic candidates called for social distancing before Super Tuesday, and now the left is Monday-morning quarterbacking the president.

Governments across the U.S. have simply not saved enough to deal with coronavirus-induced budget shortfalls. They need to start taxing the rich more.

Even when he was being impeached, Trump still had a job to do. Nothing justifies his failure to take early action against the coronavirus.

Cloth masks are not nearly as effective as N95 respirators and they give wearers a false sense of security against the coronavirus.

The study authors are reckless to say we need to "recalibrate" public health approaches because the actual COVID-19 mortality rate might be lower.

State preemption has been used against local governments on a number of issues; it would be a mistake for that to happen now amid coronavirus fears.

A 2006 law requiring the Postal Service to pre-fund future retirees' health benefits has accelerated the agency's financial decline.

A call to split the U.S. into separate republics based on our deep political divisions draws support from readers.

Gov. Gavin Newsom's daily coronavirus news conferences may drag on, but he's hitting all the right notes with the public.

If you're a cancer patient, you should not avoid treatment because of the pandemic. Surgery and follow-up care cannot wait.

The Los Angeles County district attorney says work was already underway on reducing L.A.'s jail population before a zero-bail order was issued.

It's too dangerous to have Trump remain president for another eight months during a pandemic. Let Mike Pence take over.

An Inglewood teacher distributes food to families before doing hours of instruction work online. She deserves praise and help.

Not everything has to go back to normal after the pandemic, including L.A. traffic. More businesses need to make working from home permanent.

A patient who had server abdominal pain has a warning: If you think you need to do so, go to the ER, even with a pandemic raging.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a full-blown disaster, but if shortages mean Americans eat less meat as a result, then so be it.

The author of the Americans With Disabilities Act warns that coronavirus treatment that takes disability and age into account is immoral and illegal.

Someone wearing gloves and an N95 mask likely had a stockpile at home before the pandemic hit.

We don't know enough about the coronavirus to experiment with deliberately infecting volunteers with COVID-19.

There's no evidence that the use of plastic bags prevents exposure to the coronavirus, so why use them instead of reusable bags?

Coronavirus: Los Angeles is doing better than New York, but much worse than San Francisco. Our experience with COVID-19 is not an argument for sprawl.

Sprinkled in the deluge of negatives letters are uplifting tales of gratitude, humanity and service. This is a selection of those letters.

A professor's suggestion for college student to take time off and turn out the vote is nice, but why not help them with the loan debt first?

Readers weigh in on a cellist's front-porch concerts and TV ads in coronavirus time, pop-up bookstores vs. bookmobiles; renegade designs for anew LACMA and more.

It's simply wrong when a much younger person dies. Let younger patients take the ventilator if there's a scarcity -- and let doctors make the decision.

The people waving the American flag at lockdown protests are using it as a symbol of selfishness.

The Brown Act doesn't give officials any excuse they want to shut out the public from their meetings.

We're comparing the number of Americans to have died from COVID-19 to war casualties. Why not consider AIDS?

You can't explain away your support for Joe Biden despite a sexual assault allegation without talking about Brett Kavanaugh.

Sweden's death rate is high compared with those of its neighbors, who took much more drastic and appropriate action against the pandemic.

An anti-war student in Ohio at the time of the Kent State massacre explains why the protests were led largely by well-off whites.

Why the argument that we should reopen the economy because we don't shut it down over the thousands of car deaths every year is wrong.

The president brooks no criticism and disregards inconvenient facts, much like the Chinese government he opposes.

In one article, wealthy private schools get government aid. In another, desperate citizens beg for funds online.