Originally Posted by James Lacey
Hi Jim,
Ethics and integrity in leadership are essential, and it certainly matters during a crisis. The example set by Trump and the now apparent willingness of all us just to shrug our shoulders and say, "Well, that's just Trump being Trump," is what enables all of the bad behavior that Russ pointed out. We should never normalize or accept that the right can smear a person like Dr. Fauci for political purposes. The chaotic and dyslexic response by the White House and Trump is not helpful. For example, Trump began his remarks while visiting a PPE factory in PA yesterday by mocking and trivializing the measures that his own White House and the CDC recommended. This event was an official tax-payer funded White House event. He took cheap shots at the press, railed against "globalists," claimed that coronavirus testing was overrated, and said it was a beautiful thing to see nurses running into death just like soldiers running into bullets. He then said, "When you test, you have a case. Whey you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn't do any testing, we would have very few cases." Oh, and he never wore a mask either. It's hard to imagine that any of this behavior is helpful.
Regarding the knuckleheads in Wisconsin, it only takes one asymptomatic person to turn a gathering like that into a super-spreader event. In South Korea, one person infected 53 other people while bar-hopping. In an incredible feat of public health prowess, the South Koreans found and separated all of these people and prevented what would have been a severe outbreak. To do so, they had to test many tens-of-thousands of people in a short amount of time. Even after having to deal with this virus for five months now, there is no way the US could pull this off anywhere. South Korea's unemployment rate has remained below 5% while ours is moving towards 20%. The most successful countries have serious national test, trace and isolate protocols in place.
Hi James:
I agree with your post. I want to comment on the bolded part. Although I agree with your sentiment, I have to point out that unjust smearing is simply an ingrained part of the American political scene. You can rail against it, but who is really the Pollyanna then?
Counter examples from the left are legion; for example, is Governor Kemp really engaging in
"human sacrifice"? https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/why-georgia-reopening-coronavirus-pandemic/610882/
You follow Trump's dysfunction much closer than I do. I'll concede that his behavior is not helpful. I don't think it makes as much difference as you do.
South Korea is remarkable - but you are arguably cherry picking an unreasonable model to hold us up against. There are a lot of differences between the social structures of S. Korea and the US. Korea has recent experience with SARS, I think. Even given our haphazard and poorly executed response, the US death rate/M is significantly less that most European countries. There are a lot of moving parts here that call any country v. country comparison into question.
I can agree that our response at the federal level was haphazard and I can certainly agree that Trump is saying foolish things. I can agree that the politicization of this event by both sides is repugnant. I can't agree that a better federal response would have made more than a marginal difference in the outcomes we are experiencing. For example, I don't blame Cuomo for the world-leading
1 1500 deaths/M in NY. I doubt you blame him either. Sometimes the pudding hits the fan and you do the best you can with a lousy situation. 7 weeks ago a collapsed health care system was a 50/50 possibility or maybe even more likely. The US did pretty good.
Jim
1. Assuming the death toll in Wuhan is not something astronomical/M. We'll never know.
