The “War” on the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Commander-in-Chief was AWOL
There is no shortage of scientific, sociological, political and conspiratorial discussions and reporting on the pandemic of covid-19. Vaccination is our way back to normalcy.
One of the early metaphors as the pandemic became evident was that we would have to go to war with the virus. That was expressed by the U.S. Commander-in-Chief, Donald Trump, who in March 2020 when the virus became apparent in the United States referred to the virus as “the enemy” and the fight as “a war”. Going on to say “One day we will be standing up here and say “Well we won”. “If we do this right, our country---and the world frankly---but our country can be rolling again pretty quickly. Pretty quickly.” Having said that the federal government looked like it went to war, but on the virus’s side.
Trump quickly changed tack and started talking about a hoax, then that there were only a few cases. He indicated that the virus would disappear, spontaneously, in a short time. The implication of this rapid change in tone and substance led to his becoming the leader, actual and symbolic, of the naysayers who felt this was not a significant infection. Certainly, he and they said that one need not be asked to modify one’s activities in any way. That sort of intervention was unnecessary and frankly un-American. Public health officials warned that this was going to be a very significant epidemic in the United States based on its behavior in China, where the new corona virus, dubbed SARS-CoV-2, was identified and its RNA genome sequenced.
Trump’s failure of leadership will be the subject of books and other retrospectives. He was a president who was scientifically illiterate and naïve. He displayed no understanding of infectious diseases, public health measures, the importance of listening, carefully, and relying on experts in infection control. He started talking about a hoax and about spontaneous resolution. He suggested, illogically, that cases were rising because we were testing for them, as if having them occur was only significant if we knew they were occurring. He tried, in some instances, to muzzle expert consultants, which was not successful, only because they had access to the news media. Trump had his agents intrude on the independence of the Center for Communicable Diseases (CDC) and at times the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He promulgated unproven treatments that not only did not work, but carried significant risks. He proposed that disinfectants, lethal if used parenterally, such as Clorox, could somehow be used internally as an antiviral. He belittled public health measures and, in fact, encouraged and arranged White House gathering on multiple occasions that spread the virus. He undermined his own infectious disease experts and health agencies by making straightforward and harmless measures important to stem viral spread a political issue. He implied personal freedom, not the need to follow public health guidelines was transcendent. Machismo over good sense. His followers, unfortunately measured in the millions, bought it. They, in fact, wanted it and he sensed that and led by following their misguided views. The result has been a leaderless and dysfunctional approach. He so politicized the approach to management that cities, counties and states led by Republican office holders felt obliged to follow Trumps views and minimize or actually interfere with public health measures that most experts indicated would have saved a significant number of lives.
He failed to set up anything approaching a national command center with rational goals, buttressed by cooperating expert opinions that extended to governors and from them to county and city officials. He failed to lead, to support his public officials’ consensus on steps to take and behaviors to follow. He failed to use his authority to manufacture ample masks, gowns, and other protective equipment and suits to protect medical and nursing staff. In places, this shortage persists. The response to ventilator needs was sluggish, initially. He had no plan for testing, contact tracing and using quarantine and willfully blocked those efforts, mindlessly wanting to minimize testing to minimize the official reports of cases. Instead of facilitating the medical device industries need to ramp up testing capacity, to develop simpler, faster and cheaper tests with more rapid turn-around time, he ignored those aspects of the methods to control spread.
The result is a far more costly epidemic in lives and treasure than is necessary. Not just are the accumulated deaths astounding, but the hospitalizations, near deaths, severely affected persons, some with lasting organ dysfunction, is massive. The emotional toll on patients, families and caregivers cannot be quantified. The economic ramifications, closed small businesses, the complete disruption of the travel and leisure industry, the impact on large businesses, e.g. the airlines, department store chains, the layoffs, the unemployed, the displaced and homeless, those made food insecure or worse, the lost schooling and the public and private institutions unable to weather the revenue shortfall are staggering. The emotional toll is unmeasured but enormous.
Most objective observers indicate that toll was made profoundly worse by Trump’s inadequate and irrational failure of leadership. What follows are the effects, thus far, on mortality from the virus.
The data in these two tables are a tally of the mortality statistics of covid-19 in relationship to other American “wars”. Table 1 provides comparative mortality statistics, recognizing this metaphorical war on covid-19 is not yet over. A projected death toll from covid-19 through next March is shown, however.
Table 2 shows the daily death rate in World Wars I and II compared to covid-19. These data highlight the inadequacy of the federal response. Thank heavens for an astounding worldwide scientific establishment with the United States at the lead. Several observers have commented that the sacrifice at home in fighting wars has been enormous. After 9/11, at which time approximately 3000 lives were lost, a one-time event, the home front went berserk and enacted The Patriot Act, which intruded profoundly into our lives. The process to board an airplane is another example. I am not criticizing the latter, just comparing the proportionate intrusion into our lives, accepted by Americans, when wearing a mask when in contact with others was considered “un-American” by many. The politicization of covid-19 resulted in a “war” that a substantial fraction of the American population thought was a hoax, could be ignored, not worth any sacrifice, not even worth adhering to simple public health protocols: wearing a mask outside or in if with others, distancing, hand washing and avoiding crowded spaces: not exactly life threatening battle tactics. Some of the same people would go to war, a shooting war, willingly, sacrificing life or limb. Many of the naysayers have sacrificed in a shooting war. Yet, they would not wear a mask to help stem the spread of this virulent virus. An astounding failure of the human mind’s ability to think rationally.
Let us hope, the Trump Administration’s ineptitude does not affect the pace and cost of vaccine roll out.
His failure to include the President-Elect, Joe Biden’s, transition team in forward planning for vaccine acquisition and distribution is a blatant act of obstruction to a smooth transition to the next administration responsible for the procedures on January 20, 2021, just 31 days away. As I write this article, Pfizer is blaming the Trump administration for the failure to determine where the boxes of vaccine sitting on their shipping docks should go!
Written December, 2020