A Contrast in Leadership

Germany is being led by a physicist (Angela Merkel) with a doctorate in quantum chemistry and America is being led by a spoiled rich brat who played the role of an entrepreneur on a reality TV show and who believes he knows more than anyone in the scientific community.  During a March 3rd visit to the CDC in Atlanta Trump was quoted as saying, “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, 'How do you know so much about this? ' Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president."  He prefaced these remarks by saying that he is so scientifically clever because his uncle, Dr. John Trump, used to be a professor at MIT.  Perhaps he is channeling his late uncle with clairvoyance or his psychic abilities.  Physicist or psychic, what a choice.

Trump channeling his late uncle

Ms. Merkel went on national television for the first time in her 15-year political career to calmly address her nation with facts and the clear thinking typified by someone with a background in the sciences.  Her handling of the pandemic crisis was ranked in a recent poll with an 89% approval.  Germany’s health care system has been in good enough shape to be taking in patients from overwhelmed Italy and France, with intensive care beds still available.  Germany’s success is partially attributed to widespread and early testing for the virus, among other measures.  When Trump finally declared a national emergency in mid-March but took no further action beyond the declaration, Ms. Merkel closed all public spaces and banned religious gatherings.

Our polymathic Donald Trump went on national television for the one gazillionth time March 12th and announced that the United States was suspending all travel to Europe.  He did this reading from a teleprompter.  It caught everyone off-guard and had to be retracted almost immediately.  Instead of steadying a rattled nation, he sowed the seeds of fear, uncertainty, and doubt.  In this address, he also announced that insurance companies would be waiving copayments for all Coronavirus treatments.  This too was blatantly wrong and had to be later corrected by White House staff.  It would seem that there is a good bit of a difference between all “treatments” and mere testing which is what he was supposed to say.  Those missteps coupled with his attempts to sugar-coat reality with distorted information that is tactfully “restated and clarified” by Anthony Fauci, don’t instill confidence in a nation that is desperate for leadership.

It's Official

Finally, on March 13th, Trump declared a national emergency but failed to use his position as president to coordinate the national relief efforts.  Instead, he has left it to be a free-for-all at the state level to compete with FEMA for scarce resources.  It didn’t occur to him to use the military to act as an emergency quartermaster to properly inventory things like ventilators, PPE gear, testing reagents, and supplies, and to either commandeer those critical emergency items or at least restrict their sale and distribution.  A military quartermaster could use the national inventory that would include all equipment regardless of ownership and could be responsible for moving such equipment where it was most critical.  Under our current guidelines, we will probably find out that people were left to die because of shortages while supplies were available elsewhere.  To paraphrase the Captain in Cool Hand Luke, “What we got here, is a failure in leadership.”

Strother Martin quote from Cool Hand Luke, paraphrased.

Today, Dr. Trump went on national television and recommend that people take the drug hydroxychloroquine.  Dr. Trump is not a real doctor but he plays one on TV.  Among the side effects listed, “taking hydroxychloroquine long-term or at high doses may cause irreversible damage to the retina of your eye.”  Trump sparked confusion Saturday by claiming a study suggested that people with the autoimmune disease lupus were not as affected by coronavirus—presumably because they commonly use the drug hydroxychloroquine—but then immediately backtracked, saying “maybe that's correct, maybe it’s false, you’re going to have to check it out,” and his own medical advisor downplayed any connection.

The Doctor is In

Anthony Fauci stepped in to tell the audience that there was as yet no proof that the drug was effective.  Then Trump stepped back in to say he “hopes” hydroxychloroquine will be used because it’s been “used for a long time” and that people are “in bad shape” and “what do [they] have to lose?” he asked.  Now that's what we all want our doctors to say, "what do you have to lose?"

Trump has now on several occasions touted the antimalaria drug as a possible game-changer.  The CDC has warned against taking non-pharmaceutical chloroquine phosphate without a prescription and the supervision of a healthcare provider because it “can cause serious health consequences, including death.”  One person has already died after listening to Trump’s recommendations and taking a similar chemical.  Such conflicting advice and rhetoric are not helpful.  This is not leadership, this is a confused man grasping at straws on national television.

Trump grasping at straws

Leonardo da Vinci was a polymath of the Renaissance and Donald Trump is a polymath of our New Age of Enlightened Ignorance.  This enlightened ignorance, or EI, is typified by a profound feeling of superior intellect within an individual while acting in a manner that would otherwise question that person’s sanity. In his position as the leader of the Enlightened Ignorance movement, he is able to display such a high level of confidence in his own powers of reason and deduction that he is able to convince others of like or lesser intellect that he is invincible and worthy of his position of leadership.  Nothing is more dangerous than an ignorant human in a position of power over others who are convinced, beyond all evidence to the contrary, that he is infallible.