Special Issue on COVID-19/Coronavirus — April 15, 2020

The COVID-19/Coronavirus Crisis – A Failure of National Leadership and Accountability

(This first-ever special issue is to update readers on COVID-19/Coronavirus developments which break almost daily.  It is also prompted by the news that the virus is impacting black and brown (e.g. Filipinos) persons in hugely disproportionate numbers.  Moreover, the president is promoting cutting back current “stay-at-home and social distance” mitigating policies in some states, perhaps by the end of April.  I hope my views on COVID-19 will be of assistance to you as we face each day under quarantine…….Your faithful pinoy blogger.)

As a soon-to-be nonagenarian with underlying health issues, I am at high risk in this Age of Coronavirus.  Like you, I am trying to understand how is it that a country as great as the United States is now leading the world in persons with COVID-19 and in the number of deaths per capita — but without a clear path to solving the crisis.  The chronology of my April blog described Donald Trump’s bewildering statements: first denying the existence of COVID-19, then calling it a hoax, and finally blaming the testing debacle on President Barack Obama, etc. Since then, the crisis has worsened as reflected by the following events:

• Preliminary data indicate that black and brown people are disproportionally represented in coronavirus cases and death rates.
• Because Trump refused to heed the National Security Council’s early January warning of the COVID-19 threat, America is several months behind in fighting the virus, resulting in increases in infections and loss of life that could have been avoided.
• The Trump Administration has been slow to implement testing with less than 1% of Americans tested thus far.  Consequently, we don’t know the extent to which those among us are infected and asymtomatic. Until there is more data, the “return to normal”  Trump regularly touts at his daily TV briefings is realistically not in the foreseeable future.
• Hospitals are overwhelmed — doctors and nurses must wear the same protective masks for days.
• Masks, ventilators, and other protective gear promised by the federal government failed to reach states and communities in most need. And when protective gear was received, many were inoperable.
• The Trump Administration contracted with the private sector to distribute stockpiled protective gear. As a result, states were forced to engage in expensive bidding wars against other states, foreign governments, and even the federal government itself.
• Trump assigned his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to the Coronavirus Task Force despite his having no expertise in medicine, science, or disasters. The following embarrassingly false statement by Kushner occurred on April 4: “The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be ours. It’s not supposed to be states stockpiles that they then use.”
• The work of the Coronavirus Task Force to coordinate a national effort to fight coronavirus has been hampered by Trump’s contradictory and/or overly optimistic statements.
• The president’s confusing mixed messages have resulted in the nation’s infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci spending much of his daily TV briefings diplomatically explaining Trump.
• Yet another confusing and contradictory Trump position. He urged the American people to wear masks in public but refused to wear them himself.
• Trump shunned federal leadership in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, declaring states should be the primary lead with the federal government in a supportive role. A  bewildering example: Declaring himself as a “wartime president” Trump refused to call for nationwide “stay-at-home” and “social distance” mitigating policies that have proven effective in many states.
• At the White House daily briefing on April 10, the president said he is seriously considering cutting back current “stay-at-home and social distance” mitigating policies, perhaps by the end of April — despite respected scientist Dr. Fauci’s belief that doing so prematurely would result in disastrous consequences to the country.
• The New York Times on April 12 published a wide ranging documented criticism of Trump’s failure to heed early warnings from his health officials and others in his administration on the COVID-19 threat.
• At the April 13 coronavirus briefing, rather than speak of the virus, Trump devoted almost two hours in perhaps his most egomaniacal rant to date as he fumed about the Times article.  Included in his tirade: inventing his own facts; declaring that he alone had “total authority” in fighting COVID-19 — not governors; berating reporters who criticized his positions; accusing the press of writing “false news”, blaming former President Barack Obama for the pandemic, and showing a campaign-like video exaggerating his contributions in fighting the pandemic.
• The very next day Trump completely reversed his “total authority” position but also called governors who disagree with his plan to reopen the economy, “mutineers.”

“Denial and Dysfunction” is how the New York Times described the Trump Administration’s inept record.  Is there any doubt?  Your comments are invited.