When I was an undergraduate, I worked nights on a men’s maximum security ward at the University of Iowa Psychiatric Hospital. One of the skills I learned was to chart behavior if it was irregular, especially if such behavior might cause harm to self or other patients.. That skill has stood me in good stead over the years when writing and speaking about the behaviors of presidents of the United States.
As if our collective anxiety about COVID-19 were not enough, we are today being held hostage in a high stakes situation by our current president. Watching his dominance of daily coronavirus news conferences is painful. It seems that he just can’t stay away even though the report is supposed to come from medical professinals and the head of the task force, the vice-president. He cannot help himself from spouting his own opinions, even when they contradict the facts, good science or the very task force standing behind him.
As many have noted, he requires a kind of obeisance — a “Thanks to the president’s quick thinking.” oath when others, including the vice president, approach the podium. He shakes hands with visitors to the podium regularly, and no one is spaced six feet apart.
When we thought things presidential could not get much worse, he tweeted this last evening: ““WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!” The end of that 15 day period is next Monday. If he believes that the crisis will be over by then, he is flat out wrong.
He tardily declared disasters in key states last week, which has led to FEMA taking over the mechanics of distribution of badly needed supplies and equipment, and to the ability in key states for the governor to deploy the National Guard. A growing number of cities and states are asking its residents to stay at home, to work remotely, but it will take several weeks for the impact of those decisions to appear, for the curve to begin to flatten. To repeat, it will be several more weeks after the two week crunch period that his administration set expires next Monday.
When the president implies we can get back up and running again in the not too distant future, those statements introduce further uncertainty in the markets at a time Congress is trying to pass a bill that will deal with economic fallout from the pandemic.
Each of us should be grateful that the Constitution leaves certain powers to states, for without action by governors the curve would be even higher than it is right now. I worry about the leaders of the CDC and the NIH amidst such personal vilification from the president. The president has shown in many instances that he has the power to remove dedicated public servants, and there is no reason to believe he will not be discussing that option as you are reading this blog. He may, however, come upon a situation in which even he can see that he needs the medical experts running the show, despite the stock market’s performance. The market is, after all, responding to the chaos and uncertainty he has created.
I highly recommend everyone read George Packer’s article, “How to Destroy a Government” in the April 2020 issue of The Atlantic magazine.