Taking the Lead

The new messaging from the Republican party is that the President always knew that this was a pandemic and purposely distracted the nation in order to calm them and avoid panic. Dr. Deborah Birx, senior member of the White House COVID-19 team, even went so far as to say it was the President who ordered that the upgrades be applied to the test kits being made available before they were released. So, when the President told us that those test kits were available and being released, he knew they weren’t? When he called the outbreak and risk to the US a “hoax” and suggested that Americans (even with symptoms) continue to go to work – blaming the Democrats for exaggerating the peril – he already knew that such actions could easily spread a nascent virus into a pandemic? When he reinforced conspiracy theories about the virus, he actually knew better? Wow! What a prescient leader! And thanks Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump for closing the US/Canadian border except for essential traffic. Just what a hoax needed.

“Trump [also] appears to have disavowed his 2016 pledge that ‘I alone can fix’ America’s problems. On Friday [3/13], when asked about the administration’s failure to deliver tests for the virus, he said, ‘No, I don’t take responsibility at all.’… That not-my-fault approach hasn’t helped his political prospects… A Pew Research poll released Wednesday [3/18] showed 52% of American adults believe Trump has not taken the risks from the outbreak seriously enough, while 37% say he has assessed the risks correctly.” Los Angeles Times, March 19^th.

As the above 37% number suggests, there are still plenty of Americans who think this COVID-19 thang is still overblown. Like the Z-generation “nothing can hurt me” spring breakers who congregate on Florida beaches (which are finally closing) because it is party time? That they could carry the virus and decimate, even kill, their parents or grandparents, doesn’t enter their minds? “An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll taken March 13 and 14 showed a majority of Republicans, or 54 percent, now viewed the threat from coronavirus as being blown out of proportion, with only 40 percent believing it to be real.” NationalMemo.com, March 18^th. Where did these folks get that idea? It wasn’t enough to see college and professional sports pretty much cancelled across the land?

It does seem as though the President’s earlier nonchalance lingers. It’s that China virus (probably traceable to bats, by the way). Even as Italy is now experiencing more deaths than China? Oh, say the Trumpers, we have a better healthcare system, so that cannot happen to us here. Really? Italy has more doctors and more hospital beds per capita than do we. Their access to high end medical technology and medications mirrors our own, but their citizens already have universal healthcare, so there is no argument that government needs to cover more people as we are having here.

A Harvard study suggests how we just might not have enough beds to withstand even a lesser onslaught than faced by Italy: “In 40 percent of markets around the country, hospitals would not be able to make enough room for all the patients who became ill with Covid-19, even if they could empty their beds of other patients. That statistic assumes that 40 percent of adults become infected with the virus over 12 months, a scenario described as ‘moderate’ by the team behind the calculations.

“These numbers are not exact predictions. In many ways, they reflect a worst-case scenario, since they do not take into account the efforts hospitals can make to quickly increase capacity during an emergency. Around the country, hospitals have begun canceling elective operations and speeding home patients with less critical ailments. Those efforts could increase the number of free beds available for coronavirus patients. In a half-dozen interviews, hospital executives estimated that they could increase their capacity between 20 percent and 70 percent.

“Yet the Harvard estimates suggest that the coronavirus outbreak could require significantly more resources than that. In hard-hit Italy, hospitals have been rationing care for older patients who are severely ill with the virus.” New York Times, March 17^th. Thanks for the two Navy hospital ships deployed on each coast, Pres, and it is a start. But why aren’t you using your powers you invoked to release government stores and accelerate the private sector into emergency manufacturing of simple but necessary items like cotton swabs, hazmat suits, respirators, etc?

“The Defense Production Act gives the president broad authority to shape the domestic industrial base so that it is capable of providing essential materials and goods needed in a national security crisis. The law allows the president to require businesses and corporations to give priority to and accept contracts for required materials and services.” Associated Press, March 19^th. But Trump is hesitant to use that power. “There’s a lot of executive power,” said Trump after invoking the act, “If we don’t have to use it, that would be a good thing, not a bad thing.” We have to use it, Donald! Now!

Instead, the businessman Trump believes himself to be kicks in. While Congress rejected his payroll tax cut as fairly unrelated, and while his $1000-$1500 contemplated to be released to individuals who “need” it won’t do much, he is planning to bail out entire industries… but… business fans… he expects the government to get equity in those firms as the price they have to pay. An investment!

Maybe that’s cool, but how about focusing on people first, not companies! Congress is passing bills, on their own, that Trump should have suggested. But that would be leadership, and if there is any lesson in this, it has to be that people who really understand what’s going on just do not trust Donald Trump’s words or deeds. That could explain why the stock market has plunged to pre-Trump-election levels despite all this “leadership” Trump is tell the world he is showing. In his own words, he considers himself a “wartime president.” Good thing we this is not December 7, 1941 or we all might be speaking German or Japanese.

Trump also tells us that the federal government is not a “shipping clerk” on required medical protective supplies. That, he says, is job for state governors. Needless to say, this attempt to shift responsibility for implementing solutions isn’t his thing. Gee, Donald, sorry it is inconvenient for you and your administration. You should be doing this with state leaders! The attempt to push the problem on others is NOT leadership. This pandemic requires massive centralized coordination and direction. Another Trump fail that could and probably will increase the number of those who get infected with this diabolical virus. Does he still think he should get the Nobel Peace Prize?

Trump tells us that headway is being made with test on treatment options like the antimalarial chloroquine, excited as if this were the answer. Mr. President, there are a whole host of existing drugs for other diseases (noted above – cited in FastCompany.com) that have been the subject of testing way back when you were calling all this a “hoax.” These aren’t the exciting discoveries of federal agencies under your aegis, but studies reported by the World Health Organization in February. Private and public research, in the United States and in other nations, may just provide some treatment options, but it is a global response that is required. And trust me, Mr. President, the rest of the world is not waiting for you to solve this crisis.

            I’m Peter Dekom, and I remain terrified that this spinmaster/autocrat-wannabe, so inept in his overall approach to this COVID-19 outbreak, just might convince enough people that they should not change presidential horses in the middle of a “war.”