No Sense of Decency

Donald Trump is changing from an incompetent response to the coronavirus pandemic to an incompetent response to the economic problems caused by his incompetent response to the pandemic. If he had responded competently rather than ignoring the multiple warnings he received from his own people months ago, he may have been able to save ten of thousands of American lives. But his incompetency has even trumped Trump's self-proclaimed mythical genius.

According to experts, accurate and prolific testing is necessary to contain the pandemic and to reopen the country. Available in late February, tests developed by the World Health Organization were shipped to nearly 60 countries. But the United States declined their tests and instead relied on tests developed by our Center for Disease Control. The CDC tests were late and not accurate resulting in widespread infection, currently at 1.53 million cases and over 91 thousand deaths (1). Why Trump declined to use the WHO tests has not been determined.

A Yale epidemiologist, Gregg Gonsalves, wrote that "what is happening in the US is purposeful, considered negligence, omission, failure to act by our leaders," and "How many people will die this summer, before Election Day? What proportion of the deaths will be among African-Americans, Latinos, other people of color? This is getting awfully close to genocide by default. What else do you call mass death by public policy?"

A high proportion of deaths are people who tend to vote Democratic. Intentional or not, the outcome seems to be a form of permanent morbid voter suppression that an unprepared reopening will accelerate. Trump may be hoping for a "Mission Accomplished" moment but instead may be fast approaching one of "You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

(1) - the # of cases and deaths are updated periodically to show current figures.

John L. Ferri

jlferri@epix.net