If the Trump administration and the nation at large have been slow to recognize the importance of early action on the coronavirus, the evidence is now clear. No corner of the nation is safe from the consequences of the health or the economic effects.
It is obviously necessary to practice “social distancing,” including limiting attendance at large events, and even at smaller occasions where people are in close contact, including mass transit, airline travel, board and committee meetings, and dining at restaurants. This reduces spending, lifeblood of the economy. Reduced spending means reduced income, reduced production and reduced employment — a downward spiral leading to recession, and possibly to economic depression.
This repressed spending and resulting unemployment will continue until, hopefully, a cure and/or preventive vaccine can be formulated. This will take time. Meanwhile, the economic fallout will be huge, requiring extraordinary public policy measures to enable people to meet expenses and survive economically.
Approximately 75% of the American economy is composed of the services sector that includes leisure, hospitality and tourism services. The restaurant industry alone approached $900 billion in sales in 2019, employing 15.3 million people, approximately one in 10 working Americans. Most of these are small businesses. According to the National Restaurant Association, more than nine of 10 restaurants have fewer than 50 employees. Seven in 10 are single-unit operations. Incredibly, about 51% of American food expenditures are accounted for by the restaurant industry.
A small portion of the restaurant industry might be salvaged by take-out services, but this is of small consequence.
The airline industry and hotel and lodging sectors are similarly hit.
It’s easy enough to look back at the obvious mistakes that have been made in not recognizing the potential impact of this virus, and failure to move rapidly to stem spread of the virus. One can possibly forgive misplaced optimism that this was just another type of flu that would soon pass. But it was pure demagoguery to disparage this as a political hoax. Surely, it’s clear that some politicians knew better as they unloaded stocks even as they were feeding the nation happy talk.
Some critics are railing at the media for “scaring people,” and “blaming Trump for the virus.” We all have our gripes about, especially, the electronic media. However, in defense of the media, one has to distinguish between “scaring people,” in contrast to reporting facts and alerting people to the problem. And one has to distinguish between “blaming Trump for the virus,” and legitimately criticizing the administration for its checkered response.
Mistakes made early on by the administration and state and local officials cannot now be erased. It is certain that a future commission will be established to review what happened in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes another time. Such commissions investigated the Pearl Harbor disaster, the Kennedy assassination, and the 9/11 disaster.
While this intractable situation has no simple solution, and the response under the best of conditions will be difficult, public health professionals are making recommendations that continue to be resisted, or met with reluctance.
The governor of Florida neglected to close beaches during spring break when the more affluent college students travel to Florida and hit the beaches. Governor DeSantis said the delay was because President Trump didn’t insist on closing down. DeSantis clearly deserves the “sycophant in chief” award. Can he not think for himself?
After 4,500 confirmed cases, Georgia’s Governor Kemp finally delivered a “shelter-in-place” order. He explains that he just found out that COVID-19 could be transmitted by people before they show symptoms. The Center for Disease Control, located a few miles from Georgia’s capitol building, has been warning of this since early March. Clearly, Kemp earns the “not paying attention” award. Nevertheless, his order allows Georgia’s Beaches to remain open to revelers — much to the anger of local officials.
Upon approaching 1,500 confirmed cases, Alabama’s Governor Ivey finally issued a “stay-at-home” order. Before that, she didn’t believe it to be warranted. But since neighboring states did it, she believed it was time. She deserves the “let’s follow the leader” award.
An obvious failure, reminded daily by New York’s Governor Cuomo and other governors is the frustration of each governor having to compete with other governors, and even the federal Emergency Management Association for personal protective equipment and ventilators. This has resulted in convenient opportunity for price gouging by vendors.
Clearly, the federal government should purchase such equipment at an administered price, and distribute it according to need. Never in an emergency such as this should states have to fend for themselves and compete with each other — and the federal government that should be serving them — to get what they desperately need.
The federal government does have a stockpile of needed equipment. The response of the Trump administration is illustrated by the latest incompetence of Jared Kushner, the junior real estate developer whose chief qualification for anything, is that he married the president’s daughter.
Kushner stated, “The notion of the Federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile; it’s not supposed to be the state’s stockpile that they then use.”
C’mon Kushner, that Federal stockpile is payed for by taxpayers who reside in states of this country — it’s for use in emergencies such as this.
The official government webpage for the Strategic National Stockpile was altered — conveniently reflecting Kushner’s asinine statement. The Trump family proceeded to scold hospitals for not having on hand the necessary ventilators. These ventilators are terribly expensive and most hospitals cannot afford to provide for such contingencies. That’s the rationale for the federal government to hold this stockpile and allocate it when needed.
In a crisis such as this, surely we can expect some error. No administration would be able to deliver flawlessly, either on prevention of the health effects, or remedial economic policy. But this administration’s record of dragging its feet and consistently placing blame elsewhere demonstrates its performance to be clearly subpar.
— John Waelti’s column appears every Saturday in the Times. He can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net.
