How the US is Managing the Coronavirus Crisis — a Look from the Outside
What America should do, and why it is not doing it
I am not American, but I have a few friends there and I am worried about them. I read and see how the US is managing the Coronavirus crisis, and I am amazed by how such a strong nation is dealing so poorly with the pandemic.
First, let’s talk about the primary tool to fight the pandemic — the lockdown. As we see the virus spreading, there is more and more evidence leading to this conclusion: lockdown is the most effective tactic against the exponential growth of the virus.
In a clear and straightforward article published two days ago (April 2nd), Bill Gates suggests these three essential action items:
- A consistent nationwide approach to shutting down.
- The federal government needs to step up on testing.
- We need a data-based approach to developing treatments and a vaccine.
He writes:
“…Despite urging from public health experts, some states and counties haven’t shut down completely. In some states, beaches are still open; in others, restaurants still serve sit-down meals.”
The fact that as of today, restaurants in the US still serve sit-down meals is to me unbelievable. It is a two-fold failure: One is the lack of national strategy, which leads to each state declaring its own lockdown rules. The other is the people themselves who are going to eat in these restaurants, disregarding the risk they are taking by sitting there.
Bill Gates mentions data-driven approach. Unfortunately this is far far away from the current administration’s mindset. Donald Trump sees data, and Truth in general, as a subjective matter, not as an entity that is objective and absolute. Facts are harnessed to political agendas, and then everything becomes relative, negotiable, and subject to manipulation. This is why it is so hard for him to accept what the health experts are desperately trying to tell him.
The economic harm the lockdown creates is obvious and heart breaking, and one can respect the dilemma between the two choices — shutting down the economy to save lives, as opposed to scarifying more lives to keep the economy running. But this is a hypothetical dilemma, not a real one. The way it’s presented in the US media is a manipulation for itself. The suggestion to release the lockdown for economic reasons, ‘letting more people die’, is actually the choice of ‘letting millions die and by this, killing the economy even harder’.
I recommend you to read a Medium article called “The Hammer and the Dance” by Tomas Pueyo. He describes the short-term and the long-term strategies to deal with the virus. I Also recommend a fascinating story in National Geographic about the 1918 Spanish Flu. Cities that implemented lockdown in 1918, and did it fast, did so much better than cities that didn’t. The numbers are mind-blowing.
A third read recommendation is Andy Slavitt, Former Medicare, Medicaid & ACA head for President Barack Obama. He writes: “The severity of the next several weeks depends on our actions now.” Every day counts, every decision is critical. This is what makes the situation so frustrating. It is not God’s will that tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people die. The number of deaths is the direct result of the decisions we make today. Simple as that.
The exponential growth of Coronavirus and the human inability to grasp its impetus, reminds me of the story about the inventor of chess. It’s an old fable that goes like this:
When chess was presented to a great king, the king offered the inventor any reward that he wanted. The inventor asked that a single grain of rice be placed on the first square of the chessboard. Then two grains on the second square, four grains on the third, and so on. Doubling each time.
The king, baffled by such a small price for a wonderful game, immediately agreed, and ordered the treasurer to pay the agreed-upon sum. A week later, the inventor went before the king and asked why he had not received his reward. The king, outraged that the treasurer had disobeyed him, immediately summoned him and demanded to know why the inventor had not been paid. The treasurer explained that the sum could not be paid — by the time you got even halfway through the chessboard, the amount of grain required was more than the entire kingdom possessed.
The king took in this information and thought for a while. Then he did the only rational thing a king could do in those circumstances. He had the inventor killed, as an object lesson in the perils of trying to outwit the king.
I leave you with the analogy. I will just say — it is not too late. So far.
We have only made a few moves on the chessboard. But please hurry up, time is not on our side.
