Amid the worst of the pandemic, our mad king rages
only about himself
Opinion by
Columnist
November 16, 2020 at 3:25 p.m. CST
This is
becoming like Greek tragedy. The nation is on fire with covid-19,
cases and hospitalizations are soaring to unthinkable new highs, and our leader
does nothing but rage and moan about his own punishment at the hands of cruel
fate.
If it
is true that “those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad,” then
President Trump is finishing his shambolic term in office as Mad King Donald.
Cumulative U.S. covid infections leaped from 10 million to 11 million
in just six days,
signifying uncontrolled spread. Hospitals are crowded with nearly 70,000
covid-19 patients — more than ever before — and medical systems, especially in the Great
Plains and the Mountain West, are wavering under unbearable strain. The morgue
in El Paso is so overwhelmed with bodies that inmates at the county jail
there are being pressed into service as
helpers, pending arrival of the National Guard. Yet Trump spent Monday
morning on Twitter, pitifully howling “I won
the Election!” about a contest he clearly and decisively lost.
We have
reached the point in the pandemic that epidemiologists warned about months ago.
They begged Trump to do everything he could to push infection rates as low as
possible before autumn arrived and cooler temperatures forced people indoors,
where the virus is transmitted much more easily.
Rather
than heed the scientists, Trump listened only to the sirens of his own vanity
and ambition. He marginalized the experts of his coronavirus task force,
declining even to meet with them for the past several months. Instead, he found
faux experts whose advice was more to his liking, chief among them Scott Atlas,
a neuroradiologist — not trained or experienced in fighting epidemics — who on
Sunday called on the people of Michigan to “rise up” against a
three-week curb on social gatherings announced by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D).
Trump
wanted the economy up and running, with everything back to the way it was, in
time for the election. His insistent pushing toward this unrealistic goal
disastrously turned the adoption of sensible public health measures into a
political wedge issue. Republican governors who wanted to remain in Trump’s
favor had to accept his framing of the issue: Restrictions were bad, “freedom”
was good. Those governors’ constituents are now paying a terrible price.
A
responsible president would have used his megaphone to urge all Americans to
wear masks and practice social distancing; would have understood and explained
how full cooperation with burdensome shutdowns earlier in the year could allow some
institutions, including schools, to return to more normal functioning in the
fall; and would have valued patience and resolve over instant gratification.
And a
president who was compos mentis never would have made the nonsensical claim
that the United States had more covid-19 cases than other countries only
because we did more testing. Rather, a president grounded in reality would have
insisted on a vastly expanded, nationwide testing program as a way to hasten
our safe return to offices, stores and restaurants.
The
Trump administration did one thing right by pushing hard for rapid development
of vaccines. Two drug companies — Pfizer and Moderna — have announced highly
encouraging results from formal trials, and the federal government’s commitment
to purchase millions of doses means these vaccines, assuming they are proved to
be safe, will be available in record time.
But
Moncef Slaoui, co-chair of Trump’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine effort, said
Monday that, under a best-case scenario, roughly 20 million doses of the two
vaccines will be available per month, beginning in December. And initially they
will go only to high-risk groups. There are 330 million Americans, meaning that
most of us may remain vulnerable to covid-19 for some time.
The
United States is once again averaging more than 1,000 deaths a
day. A smaller percentage of covid-19 sufferers perish now than did back in the
spring — doctors and nurses know much more about how to treat severely ill
patients — but this remains a deadly disease. If you don’t believe me, ask
anyone who works at your local hospital. They’ll tell you.
President-elect
Joe Biden has no magic wand to make covid-19 go away. But he does understand
that no attempt to return to normal life can succeed unless we first get the
virus under control, and that controlling covid requires following the advice
of public health professionals.
At the
moment, however, there is nothing Biden can do. The Mad King, clinging to the
fiction that he has not been deposed, will not even allow federal officials to
begin sharing data with Biden’s incoming coronavirus team.
The theme of his failed reelection campaign should have been “Make America Sick
Again.”