Test of leadership

In the US, it is hard to watch or read any news these days that isn't focused on the novel coronavirus. The total number of confirmed infections in the country is almost at 750,000, and the number of dead is over 40,000 and growing.

Yet, the impact across the country has been uneven. Large metropolitan areas such as New York, Detroit and Chicago are badly affected while rural areas have had much less health impact so far. These cities also happen to be areas with majority Democratic Party supporters.

President Trump, never to miss an opportunity to push his divisive agenda, has started to exploit this. Knowing full well the dire situation of many large cities, he has started to call for opening the economy. “The medicine cannot be worse than the disease,” he has said. A couple of days ago he transgressed all limits of responsible leadership and tweeted “Liberate Minnesota”, “Liberate Michigan” and “Liberate Virginia”. All these states happen to be led by Democratic governors who have implemented statewide lockdowns to keep the virus from spreading.

The president’s tweets have encouraged rallies and agitation by his supporters in several states. Imagine the president of any country trying to incite a wide-scale insurgency in the middle of a pandemic! And, none of these states where the president wants his supporters to agitate for opening the economy have met the criteria set up by the White House itself of at least 14 days of declining infections.

Some states such as California and Washington have been able to manage the crisis much better than others. Surely there are learnings here that should be applied across the country, if only there was a central authority playing a leading role.

Very much on the president's mind is the upcoming election in November. His opponents in the Democratic Party have quickly lined up behind Joe Biden, the former senator and vice president. In the past week Biden received endorsements from Bernie Sanders, his main opponent, as well as Elizabeth Warren and former president Barack Obama.

While all of this is going on, the real heroes of the country are hard at work. These are the millions of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers who are showing up every day to care for the sick and dying. The same is true for the many essential workers who are keeping our food and medicine supply going. There has been widespread shortage of protective gear for these frontline workers. So, even at great risk to themselves they are continuing to cater to the sick and needy.

There are also heartwarming stories of average citizens raising funds to acquire and donate protective gear for healthcare workers. I've also heard the Ali Baba foundation from China has donated badly needed protective gear and equipment to New York City.

At a time when American leadership in the world is expected and truly needed, the federal government here has been largely missing in action. Trump’s last few weeks have been spent deflecting the blame, and picking fights with governors of different states, usually all from the opposing political party, and finally ending with suspension of US financial support for the World Health Organization. Reporters asking pertinent questions from the president are routinely subjected to insults.

The country will ultimately get through this pandemic, thanks to the resilience of citizens and the selfless dedication of healthcare and other essential workers. Dealing with this pandemic is a test of resilience and dedication of our healthcare workers. It is also a test of leadership for those responsible for leading the country.

The writer is a freelance contributor based in Washington DC.

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