Nursing homes across the nation, and here in Ray and Clay counties, have endured the COVID-19 pandemic with varying degrees of success. Without a doubt, success would have been far greater if nursing home leaders had been warned early on by those in the know – as revealed in tapes from the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward – about the threat to life the virus represented. The first U.S. death from the virus occurred Friday, Feb. 28, 2020, in Kirkland, Washington. The victim, in his 50s, lived at Evergreen Health hospital. He had an underlying chronic health issue. Woodward’s Feb. 7 on-the-record taping revealed Donald Trump saying the coronavirus “is more deadly than ... your strenuous flu.” Trump also told Woodward, “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down ... because I don’t want to create a panic.” Trump did not create a panic, and that is to his credit. But he went to the opposite end of the spectrum by not acknowleding the deadly consequences of the easily…