Patrick J. Buchanan
“We have met the moment and we have prevailed,”
said President Donald Trump this week, as he supported the opening of the U.S.
economy before the shutdown plunges us into a deep and lasting depression.
Tuesday, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s
leading expert on infectious diseases, made clear to a Senate committee his
contradictory views.
“If states reopen their economies too soon,
there is a real risk that you may trigger an outbreak that you may not be able
to control,” said Fauci. “My concern is that we will start to see little spikes
that might turn into outbreaks of the disease (and) the inevitable return of
infections.”
Fauci is talking of the real possibility of a
second and even more severe wave of the pandemic this summer and fall, if we
open too soon.
There is evidence to justify the fears of Fauci
and Dr. Robert Redfield of the Centers for Disease Control, who told the same
Senate committee, “We are not out of the woods yet.”
Yet, there is a case to be made for the risks
that Trump and red state governors are taking in opening up sooner.
The Washington Post daily graph of new deaths
nationally has been showing a curve sloping downward for a month from April’s
more than 2,000 a day. On no day yet this week did the U.S. record 2,000 dead
from the virus. On some days, there were fewer than 1,000.
The graph for new coronavirus cases, which was
showing more than 30,000 a day in April, is now closer to 25,000.
Also, hospitalizations and ICU occupancies are
not as high as they were. Hospitals put up in Central Park and the Javits
Center seem not to have been needed. There was and is no shortage of
ventilators. The Navy hospital ships Comfort and Mercy are returning to their
home ports.
Also, not all states are suffering equally, nor
are all communities in the hardest-hit states. There have been three times as
many COVID-19 cases in New Jersey as in Texas, though New Jersey is a fraction
of the size and has a fraction of the population of Texas.
There are twice as many cases in Massachusetts
as in Florida, the nation’s third-most populous state with one of its highest
percentages of retirees and elderly. There have been five times as many cases
in New York as in California.
It is the nursing homes filled with the elderly
and ill that have proven to be the real killing fields of this virus. According
to The New York Times, one-third of all deaths from COVID-19 have come among
residents and staff of nursing homes. Beyond these are the meatpacking plants
and the prisons where social distancing is almost nonexistent.
Moreover, while Fauci and Redfield are
specialists in epidemics, Trump’s portfolio goes far beyond that.
He is chief of state, head of government and
commander in chief, responsible for the security and defense of the nation. His
portfolio is broader and deeper than those of Fauci and Redfield.
In the first hours of the Normandy invasion,
General Eisenhower must have been rightly alarmed about the high U.S.
casualties on Omaha Beach. But he also had to concern himself with the failure
to capture the Port of Caen to bring ashore the armor to stop any German
counterattack that might turn D-Day into another Anzio.
Ike could not worry about casualties alone.
According to The Washington Post, economists
already project that 100,000 small businesses have shuttered, never to reopen.
“(D)eeper and longer recessions can leave
behind lasting damage to the productive capacity of the economy,” warned
Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday. “Avoidable household
and business insolvencies can weigh on growth for years to come.”
Ultimately, Fauci is not “The Decider” here.
Trump is.
It is he who is accountable to the nation for
weighing the losses, both human and material, due to his decisions.
Fauci may be the best at what he does, but he
is still only an adviser. As John F. Kennedy said after the Bay of Pigs, it is
the president who ultimately bears responsibility for what he does and fails to
do, while “the advisers may move on to new advice.”
Believing he can do no more than his White
House is now doing to contain the incidence of cases, hospitalizations and
deaths, Trump has decided his primary job is to prevent the nation from a
catastrophic economic collapse from which it might take years to recover.
The country is slowly moving in Trump’s
direction, slowly opening. And he will be responsible for whether the policy
succeeds or opens the floodgates to a second and worse wave, should it come.
As Abraham Lincoln put his situation: “I mean
to keep going. If the end brings me out all right, then what is said against me
won’t matter. If I’m wrong, ten angels swearing I was right won’t make a
difference.”
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of “Nixon’s White House Wars:
The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever.” To
find out more about Patrick Buchanan and read features by other Creators
writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com
GOP USA, May 16, 2020
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário
Não publicamos comentários de anônimos/desconhecidos.
Por favor, se optar por "Anônimo", escreva o seu nome no final do comentário.
Não use CAIXA ALTA, (Não grite!), isto é, não escreva tudo em maiúsculas, escreva normalmente. Obrigado pela sua participação!
Volte sempre!
Abraços./-