Dropping the Ball, and the Virus

ACCORDING TO THE HARVARD school of public health, and to anyone who's been paying attention, the response to the virus by the Trump administration has been catastrophically, chaotically inadequate. Not enough people are involved in leadership; the president is exercising his usual penchant for under staffing a project, believing himself capable of personally handling any and all situations, as witnessed by the fact that many cabinet level departments, notably the department of state, are seriously understaffed. Assigning the vice president to head the response was a mistake; only the president has sufficient recognition, a sufficient platform, his bully pulpit, to be the spearhead of a circumstance of this magnitude. Then too, the president's message that "relax, when the weather warms up, the threat will "go away", hardly inspires confidence, particularly considering that this is the exact opposite of what the medical profession is telling us. Despite the widespread belief among Trump and his supporters to the contrary, the president is far from being an expert on everything, or, for that matter, anything. Canceling all public activities, from concerts to baseball and basketball games to church socials, schools, and bingo afternoons is all well and good, but far too late; according to pandemic experts, taking this action now is tantamount to locking the house after the criminal has already entered; it should have been done long ago, weeks ago, when the virus first made its appearance and began to spread in China. The problem was obviously destined to come to America, and all other destinations, because of the global nature of economics and travel.There is in the United States a tragic shortage of medical testing kits, hospital space, and general preparation, and a shortage of doctors whose specialty is fighting epidemics; the level of preparedness and response in the United States has been rated the worst in the world, by not only the Harvard school of public health, but by public health experts across the country and around the world. There are certain advantages to living in a country with an authoritarian government and highly centralized system of government. There are disadvantages to living in a country with a great deal of personal freedom, a multi layered governmental system balanced between local, state, and national governments, and a culture in which everyone is free to think and act as he or she pleases, and everyone is an expert on everything, with more knowledge about medicine than the so called experts. China has all the advantages, the Untied States none. As a result, the virus is already on the decline in China, and in the United States, clearly, the worst is yet to come.