Respecting the one in charge

We are well into Summer 2020 and the worst fears of Yours Truly and so many others are coming to fruition in the ugliest of ways. Thanks to weak, misguided or otherwise absent competence in leadership, the USA now leads the entire World in the total number of Covid-19 cases and fatalities! Anyone who claims they did not see a disaster of this magnitude coming is either not operating with the same grasp on reality most of us have, is indulging heavily in wishful thinking and/or is simply not being honest with themselves and the rest of humanity.

I must admit that I never thought the lyrics to a sleeper hit song by a certain 70’s-era rock group would ever be as handily applicable as they are now:

“History shows again and again how nature points up the folly of men”—from Godzilla by Blue Oyster Cult.

Too bad we can’t trade our confrontation with Covid-19 for a showdown match with a monster like Godzilla. All the damage could be contained and the cause isolated and dealt with but alas, we are stuck with dealing with a dangerous virus that has our number and government leadership that has no clue that it needs to be prioritized over economic and political interests.

The lethal contagion confronting us doesn’t care who you are, who your parents were, how many children you have, which deity you worship, what your grade point was in school, how much you earn, where you live, who you live with, what your job qualifications are, how big your fan base may be or what government office you may have been elected to. If you do not respect it, it will certainly not respect you. Just ask Governor Kevin Stitt! Hmmm, I wonder where he could have gotten exposed to such a catchable bug?? The Governor was not the only attendee of the ill-advised June 20th Tulsa BOK political rally to pop positive for Covid-19. His infectious company includes a former Presidential candidate, six rally staffers and, three weeks hence, a record number of Oklahomans!

The last major flu outbreak that we have as a point of reference and metric is the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. In my youth my own grandfather told me horror stories of when he was a U.S. Army private posted at Fort Polk, Louisiana. His tale of woe underscored the harsh reality that you didn’t have to get shot, blown up or gassed to die in anyone’s army in 1918. One of his more riveting stories that has stayed with me all these years was of how he stayed up all night with a fellow soldier from his home county in Arkansas who was suffering with the flu and how at 6 AM the following morning the guy was a corpse!

Much like today, in 1918 there was no vaccine or even any antibiotics to treat secondary infections for those afflicted with that strain of influenza. Also like today, mitigation measures were instituted. My grandpa actually described the Army’s method of social distancing with a dozen guys quartered in a tent. Their cots were two rows of six placed with their heads together. Mitigation dictated that their head be away from each other. He didn’t say they were made to wear masks but there is ample evidence masks in 1918 were part of the mitigation protocol. Even with with all that, it is estimated that a third of the World’s population was ultimately infected with that strain of the flu.

Due to failure to prepare and failure to implement early mitigation, the Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc and done an egregious amount of preventable damage in and to the United States. Wishful thinking and half measures pushed by egotistical and incompetent leadership must be abandoned and a stringent universal mitigation strategy must be implemented until a vaccine becomes available. This situation is projected to last several more months and without implementing universal mitigation look for the infection rate to only increase. Speaking as someone who is weary of being “safer at home” and who yearns for a return to the “old normal,” I realize that mitigation protocols are not much, but when they are all we have to protect us we go with them!

As has been demonstrated repeatedly since the pandemic was declared on March 11th, we cannot depend on our government to act responsibly in our best interests, be they individual or universal. Normally I would not care so much, but this is now a matter of life and death—OUR OWN! If self-preservation is an instinct you possess you had best marshal all you can muster NOW! This especially applies to any and all elected officials, particularly those seeking reelection at whatever level of government. Failing to appropriately prioritize and pushing or supporting punitive policies that seek to undermine the efforts of scientific government agencies will forever be associated with your failure of leadership in the face of disaster. The professionally qualified spokespersons of long established government agencies like CDC and NIH amongst others who say things you don’t like to hear like true but unflattering facts about a badly mismanaged crisis that occurred on your watch, how you relate to them publicly matters a great deal. It especially matters when history ultimately proves they were right all along. Such is the reputation you have established, the specter of which will forever accompany the utterance of your name. Do not look for history to be kind. Success or failure of your policies implemented to deal with this uncontained lethal organism that threatens EVERYONE will ultimately be judged in terms of body count, a numeric which thus far is only increasing. Accountability for the damage it inflicts, ALL OF IT, will be laid squarely at the feet of whoever was in charge whether they accept responsibility for it or not. Weak or absent leadership emphasizes who is really in charge, and it is NOT anyone who has been democratically elected! Everyone, please choose wisely and please stay safe!