Viewpoints: Lessons On True Leadership During Times Of Public Health Crisis; Prevent Pandemic From Lowering Medical Standards
Opinion writers weigh in on these health care topics and others.
The New York Times:
In The Coronavirus Crisis, True Leaders Stand Out
Leadership may be hard to define, but in times of crisis it is easy to identify. As the pandemic has spread fear, disease and death, national leaders across the globe have been severely tested. Some have fallen short, sometimes dismally, but there are also those leaders who have risen to the moment, demonstrating resolve, courage, empathy, respect for science and elemental decency, and thereby dulling the impact of the disease on their people. The master class on how to respond belongs to Jacinda Ardern, the 39-year-old prime minister of New Zealand. On March 21, when New Zealand still had only 52 confirmed cases, she told her fellow citizens what guidelines the government would follow in ramping up its response. Her message was clear: “These decisions will place the most significant restrictions on New Zealanders’ movements in modern history. But it is our best chance to slow the virus and to save lives.” And it was compassionate: “Please be strong, be kind and united against Covid-19.” (4/30)
The Washington Post:
Trump Trots Out His Latest Pandemic Fall Guy: Anthony Fauci
At President Trump’s campaign infomercial Fox News town hall Sunday night, in which he declared his superiority to all predecessors, Trump explained why he didn’t act sooner against the coronavirus. “Everybody, even Tony Fauci, was saying, ‘It’s going to pass, not going to be a big deal,’” Trump said, naming the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases along with Democrats to his list of those to blame for his own delayed response. And how does Dr. Fauci defend himself? Let’s ask him.“Mmmph. Mmmph! MMMPH!!!” Ah, of course. I had forgotten. Fauci, who in February said he’s never been “muzzled,” has been muzzled. (Dana Milbank, 5/4)
The New York Times:
How Dr. Amy Acton Helped Save Ohioans From Coronavirus
The coronavirus has turned several public health officials and local leaders into bona fide celebrities, and perhaps no one is more compelling than the Ohio Health Department’s Dr. Amy Acton. She wasn’t just the brains behind the state’s early, aggressive coronavirus response; she was also its most effective messenger. In the video above, we deconstructed Dr. Acton’s daily briefings to find out why this previously unknown public health official now has her own Facebook fan club, T-shirts, chalk drawings and ’70s sitcom parodies. (Adam Westbrook and Sanya Dosani, 5/4)
The Wall Street Journal:
Personal Responsibility And The Coronavirus
When Jerome Adams, the African-American U.S. surgeon general, made an impassioned appeal to segments of the black community to take more responsibility for their actions as a means of reducing their risk, he was demeaned and attacked by the black elite race-grievance merchants. Nikole Hannah-Jones—coordinator of the New York Times’s “1619 Project,” which declares that all the current problems of blacks in America are part of the inevitable, irrevocable legacy of slavery—and a band of other opportunists took to the airwaves and social media to condemn Dr. Adams and anyone else who dared suggest the fate of black America could be altered by any force within its control. To assert that blacks have the power to affect their own destiny was deemed racist, heartless and outrageous. (Robert L. Woodson Sr., 5/4)
The New York Times:
You Can Beat Coronavirus Quarantine Fatigue
There have always been those who wrongfully believe that Covid-19 is nothing more than a glorified flu, and that no restrictions were ever necessary to fight it. But as the coronavirus spreads and the crisis deepens, more people — even those who take the pandemic and the science about how it’s transmitted seriously — seem to be growing weary of social distancing guidelines. Quarantine fatigue — exhaustion and waning discipline surrounding the restrictions to daily life needed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus — is entirely understandable. Staying home is stressful, boring and, for many, financially devastating. ...Unfortunate as it may be, we have to ignore the overly optimistic messages of politicians and fight the urge to return to socializing and normal life. (Syon Bhanot, 5/4)
The Washington Post:
‘Dying Of Whiteness’ During The Coronavirus Pandemic
In his book “Dying of Whiteness: How the politics of racial resentment is killing America’s heartland,” Jonathan Metzl, the director of Vanderbilt University’s Center for Medicine, Health and Society, put a human face on the opposition to many policies that would save lives and livelihoods. We talked all about it when I interviewed him back in January. I brought Metzl back because the novel coronavirus is amplifying his argument. “It was kind of a warning of the lengths to which white working class voters could either have underlying racism or be manipulated to vote in support of wealthy donors and corporations, but against their own lifespans,” Metzl told me in the latest episode of “Cape Up.” “And it’s just been on steroids since this pandemic started.” (Jonathan Capehart , 5/4)
Des Moines Register:
Immigrants And Iowa: Honor Front-Line Workers By Helping Families Stay
We have been forced by COVID-19 to dramatically change everything, including our definition of who our heroes are. In addition to the armed services personnel and first responders, heroes now include front-line soldiers in this war against the “invisible enemy,” as President Donald Trump described COVID-19. Health care soldiers are applauded and honored every night at 7 p.m. in New York City and elsewhere.Here in Iowa, we have increased appreciation for those who take care of our parents and grandparents in our nursing homes — some of the hottest infection spots. The latest additions to the honorees are our meatpacking plant workers. We have come to a somewhat belated realization of how essential these workers are in those plants in Iowa — again, some of the worst-hit hot spots.Honor is rightly due to these new American heroes.But what if they are not Americans? In fact, many of these heroes are not Americans. (Ta-Yu Yang and Jeanne K. Johnson, 5/4)
Los Angeles Times:
Coronavirus Shouldn't Lower California Medical Standards
In the midst of the coronavirus emergency, hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare providers want California Gov. Gavin Newsom to use some of his extraordinary power to sweep away their liability for substandard care and bad decision-making. They claim to need broad immunity because the pandemic requires them to divvy up limited lifesaving equipment and care. If they are to save as many lives as possible, they argue, they need to know they will not be second-guessed by criminal and civil juries some years after their heat-of-the-moment decisions to prioritize the care and resources available — for example, by selecting which critically ill patients should get ventilators and which should not when there aren’t enough to go around. (5/4)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California Leaders Must Prioritize Children In Upcoming Budget
Children depend upon elected officials more than adults do. While children may have parents who wish to advocate for them politically that advocacy is unorganized. In contrast, adults run or are stockholders in corporations and run or are members of trade associations that dominate politics. Simply put, Newsom and the Legislature must cut programs aimed at adults before cutting programs aimed at still-growing children. Such programs include those that keep families — and hence children — out of poverty. (Robert Fellmeth and Jessica Heldman, 5/4)
