Leadership matters. Competence matters. Preparation matters—especially when you’re given advance warning.

Above all, organized action by a capable government matters. It’s what happened during past natural disasters, financial crises, and terrorist attacks.
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As citizens, we have every right to expect that President Trump and his administration would have spent January through mid-March mobilizing for COVID-19 as a looming natural disaster. Instead, the Trump administration wasted precious time minimizing the threat (“We have it totally under control.”) despite clear, advance warning. Reports in December of COVID-19 in China should have triggered intensive preparation for testing to detect and contain the disease (as was done in South Korea). And before that, an October 2019 US government report summarized months of exercises that simulated a pandemic of respiratory disease (influenza, in that case), according to The New York Times. The report analyzed the magnitude of the potential disaster, identifying massive shortfalls in equipment, supplies, facilities, and the supply chain.

Appropriate preparation would have markedly reduced deaths and economic devastation. Empty (if not misleading) rhetoric cannot substitute for concerted action among federal, state, and local agencies. Waiting until mid-March to begin putting ourselves on a wartime footing was way too little, way too late.

The earliest COVID-19 hotspot in the US—the Seattle area—provides an inspiring case study illustrating how leadership, honest communication, and concerted action make a huge difference, even if it doesn’t result in a panacea. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, local elected leaders, and public health officials all deserve enormous kudos for their responsible actions.
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Effective action requires clear, consistent communication dictated by public health and science, not public relations.
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Time is truly of the essence. Delay costs lives. Leadership matters. It’s that simple. - GlobalHealthNow