Coronavirus -- If I Were President

I know ... I said I was done with my coronavirus newsletters, but don't worry. This is just a random coronavirus post, which I warned would come as needed.

It's no secret that I find Trump's record on coronavirus to be abysmal. And nearly every time I bring up my thoughts, someone invariably asks, "Well, what would you do differently that Trump hasn't already done?" I usually give a short answer like, "Well, just about ANYTHING." No one seems happy with that, so here we go ... now, I'm President of the United States, and it's up to me to get on top of this COVID19 pandemic. What would I do?

#1) Clear and consistent messaging from the top.

People deserve to know the facts. They don't need sugar coating and to be told lies like "we're doing just fine" and "the end is just around the corner." I would personally give frequent short updates, provide words of encouragement, and echo sound advice for fighting the pandemic. If necessary I would warn about misinformation and explain why errant allegations are wrong. I would present the message of "Let's work together to bring this pandemic to an end."

In my "private" life and tweets, I would remain consistent with the messages. None of this "masks are recommended" one day and "doesn't Mr. Johnny John look like an idiot in his mask?" the next day.

#2) Let my team of scientists and experts navigate the pandemic.

There is no place for politics in any kind of emergency. I would allow the CDC to perform to its full potential -- none of this altering their warnings to fit my agenda. I would let my coronavirus task force shine and have them appear frequently to help us get through the pandemic. I would listen to the council from these experts and provide them with what they needed in order to help bring us to the quickest end of the pandemic.

#3) Testing, testing, testing.

In order to be effective, testing needs to be done quickly with fast results so that we can have the much-needed information to fight this disease at the source. Today, a sick person must wait a couple of days just for an appointment to be tested, and then wait a few days for the results to come back. By then, he could have infected several other people.

A person should be able to wake up one morning, decide to get tested, and get results by the end of the day. And all completely free of charge. I would help provide whatever was necessary to bring this to pass.

#4) Masks everywhere.

This one is specific to COVID19 and other respiratory viruses. I would encourage mask wearing anywhere in public in inside or crowded situations. (In other words, masks not required outside when people can remain far, far apart. And no masks for younger children.)

I wouldn't push mandates, but would urge, "It's the right thing to do." Though, I would support a business's right to refuse service for patrons not wearing masks.

Masks would no longer be encouraged (locally) when certain numbers drop below specified thresholds.

#5) Effective contact tracing (behind the scenes) and quarantining.

Our current team of contact tracers is so slow, the next generation of spread has already occurred by the time they finish their sleuthing. I would ensure that teams of contact tracers across the nation are adequately staffed and trained to speed up the process, so that they can actually stop the next vectors. 

I would also urge the public to cooperate with contact tracing efforts, reminding them that it's one of the easiest ways we can work together to fight the virus.

I would also provide the message that quarantines should be honored, whether it be for five days or two weeks, and let people know that it's better, faster, and more effective to quarantine individuals than to resort to an economy-destroying lockdown of everyone.

#6) Nationwide secure contact tracing mobile app.

To aid our team of contact tracers, I would have a nationwide mobile app developed using a secure and private shell, much like the current Apple/Google shell being used in several countries throughout the world. And though it wouldn't be compulsory, I would encourage everyone to use it. (You can see my thoughts about privacy concerns and other considerations here. The Apple/Google shell actually protects your privacy more than just about any other app on your phone.)

This app would be able to identify some exposed individuals faster than human contact tracing. The indications would then help to quarantine individuals, and businesses would be allowed to require certain statuses for patronage.

Up to here, I think Biden will definitely up the game with steps #1-#4, and I suspect #5 may also be part of his behind-the-scenes plans, but I haven't heard anything about #6, which is kind of disappointing (to me, a process improvement/automation guru). Either way, Trump has woefully failed in all 6 steps.

#7) Financial support for people in quarantine.

Those forced or requested to go into quarantine should receive immediate financial support if they are unable to work from home. For every day off of work, they should receive the same payment they would have received. For exempt workers, credits would be paid to the companies so sick days can be preserved. (This may be subject to caps.)

No employer would be allowed to fire anyone for being placed in quarantine.

#8) Work to keep everything open.

Doing all of the above are all bare minimum requirements for getting on top of a disease like COVID19. It is what I frequently like to call "Stage 1 understanding." And it's been one of my biggest frustrations with my country's handling of this situation. We've been spending an inordinate amount of energy trying to get all Americans on the same page, but it's only the First Page. Failing to achieve this minimum has been a disaster, helping us to achieve one of the top ten spots for deaths per capita in the world.

The countries that have been successful have already incorporated steps #1-#7 in some shape or form, and in each case it helps to bring everyone to the Second Page or "Stage 2 understanding." With everyone paying attention, the people can then be educated on how to keep everything open while still navigating the plague, until it's entirely eradicated. I'm talking dining inside, schools open, less need of social distancing, masks not needed in some circumstances -- because people would be employing other mitigation factors such as increasing air flow in buildings to dissipate aerosols (some places in the US are already doing this, BTW).

If we had we instituted steps #1-#7 immediately starting in late January 2020 or maybe even early February, we could have AVOIDED all the lockdowns in March, and we would be enjoying positive GPD growth, and then we would have been a huge example to the rest of the world, which would have helped to inspire others to take similar measures and possibly even help to bring a worldwide end to the pandemic by the close of 2020.

We are only in our current situation because we let it get bad in the early stages, and it hasn't gotten better since.

#9) Continued Monitoring.

At the end of the pandemic, the job would not be done. Sure, masks would come off, the automated contact tracing app would be disabled, and so on, but teams would still be on the lookout for the next pandemic behind the scenes. And when the next one comes (and it will), we would be ready. It would be like invoking some Order 66 and the American citizens would immediately know to institute steps #1-#7 in order to achieve #8, kill off the plague, and save lives. Depending on the nature of the outbreak, any modified steps would be quickly communicated.

Final Thoughts

I realize that a lot of this relies on 20/20 hindsight (yeah -- boo!), which is very easy for me to do right now. When COVID19 first started out, we didn't really understand how bad it could get. Would mitigation measures harm or do good? Would we be reacting over "nothing"? Everyone throughout the world was slow to take this seriously: China, the WHO, the CDC. Even though it was novel and already causing death, people were just afraid of overreacting.

In only a couple of months, China had a breakout worse than all other SARS outbreaks that proceeded it until they admitted it existed and stopped trying to cover it up. And then they quickly clamped down on it with much success, but not before it was already unleashed to the rest of the world.

Other Asian countries such as Korea and Japan acted quickly -- masks came up, and just like an Order 66, the public seemed to already know what to do to stem the spread. This is because these countries had real experience from prior outbreaks. They knew what they did wrong previously and they made sure not to do it again. They WORKED TOGETHER.

In April 2020, I was willing to give Trump a Mulligan, because we haven't really had that experience with a deadly virus. (Except for Ebola, which was immediately eradicated in the US because of some awesome very fast action by our government behind the scenes -- we knew that bug was dangerous and took care of it from Day 1.) I could see that Trump was trying. Perhaps I would have likewise been caught off guard. I've learned most of my knowledge on outbreaks after March 1, when it was already too late. But then again, I probably would have been more open than Trump to listen to epidemiologists who were already sounding warning bells as early as January.

I did try to get people to support Trump in April, because he was kind-of going in the right direction with his daily briefings, though he was still struggling. I feared that if he were to ever give up, we'd be doomed, so I tried to get people to reinforce Trump's good actions and make him want to keep on going. But when he was ridiculed about the detergent, he gave up entirely, and after that (since May), he hasn't really done anything. 

Well ... except for some of behind-the-scene things he did such as supplying certain emergency equipment, perhaps helping to get some financial aid passed, and also providing financial incentives to help produce a vaccine ... Trump does get praise for these actions. However, I see these as the super minimum things any president would have instituted, and so, I didn't include any of that in my steps above. Also, I did say I'm focusing on things Trump hasn't done that I would do. As it stands, we lost far more lives through Trump's inaction than we saved lives through what he did right.

However, I can say this going forward. We now have experience ... recent experience with a deadly pandemic, and hopefully we will be able to see our successes and our mistakes, and next time hopefully we'll do what we know works. If I were president, I would make sure it would happen as detailed above.

And now that we have come to the end of this blog post, I'm no longer president. It was fun while it lasted. Did I tell you they have really good breakfasts?