The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is a medical crisis. It is not a political crisis. It is the medical community that allowed this to be worse than it needed to be by not properly preparing and therefore, in essence, turning over the response to it to the politicians. Historically politicians have nearly always mishandled such occurrences. They are not trained to understand it early on and political machinery is nearly always self-serving, lumbering, and inefficient.
Throw in President Trump who clearly interpreted the virus - at least in the crucial first months - as an affront to him personally and to his presidency and who attempted to will it away by ignoring it and repeatedly lying about its seriousness and you have 40,000 dead in six weeks.
The government’s response to this crisis has been criminally negligent - as led by Trump - and it should be investigated and those responsible punished. But let there be no doubt. This is ultimately a failure of the medical community. We have known this was coming for years - and we did not prepare. We have known about this particular virus since December, 2019 - and we did not prepare. We have been warned of critical shortages in ventilators and PPE for years should something like this occur - and we did not prepare. Our research apparatus is woefully inadequate to respond to such a crisis in real time, needing to be completely constructed from scratch for each new study - with precious little permanent infrastructure and in place cooperative networks to expedite clinical research, and we have done little about it, for years.
But lets not forget the corporations who own the hospitals. They are at fault for not stock piling adequate PPE and life saving equipment, in order to save money and perhaps insure bonuses, for what we have known was coming for decades now.
The response to such a crisis should be nearly automatic and therefore in essence taken out of the hands of the politicians. It is up to the medical community and hospitals to prepare in order to do so.
Trump’s response has killed thousands, it should be investigated, and there should be consequence. But so too should the medical community and the hospital corporations for their utter lack of leadership and preparedness.
