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By: Jack Buchanan

During the last several weeks we have written about the leadership crises in the United States and its effects on the evolving Covid-19 crises. During the first few weeks of this crises, we were initially optimistic that the lockdowns many of us went through for five, six or more weeks, would have methodically brought this pandemic under control by mid-summer.  Non-essential businesses that could safely open by carefully observing CDC guidelines including the use of masks, social distancing, and sanitation practices would bring the economy back, with some government financial assistance, by that time.

We did not anticipate that everyone would not be on the same page in wanting to work together to put this killer pandemic behind us as soon as possible.  Then, in the United States, by mid-April, we began to see a difference between what the medical experts recommended and what the President of the United States wanted to do.

Each had their own agenda.  One was public health and the other politics. Initially it was subtle, then it became profound and politicized.  There is a great divide between those who support the President’s open early and no mask policy and those who strictly follow the medical experts’ recommendations. The wearing of a mask, designed to protect the wearer and others, became a symbol of what side you were on. That is when we lost the battle to conquer this disease in the U.S.

It did not take long before it became apparent who went down the wrong road. In those no mask states that opened early including bars, restaurants, and other high-density gathering places, the virus has come back with a vengeance breaking records almost daily now for the most new Covid-19 cases.  In the meantime, those states and countries that followed the medical experts’ recommendations have done extremely well in drastically reducing the number of new cases every day.  The evidence could not be more compelling. See this week's comparative graph.  Also, let’s compare the statistics in Europe with the U.S. They were initially hit harder and earlier than the U.S. and most of their countries quickly implemented tough lockdown or stay at home policies. They hit their peak of daily new cases on April 4, 2020 of 40,311.  The U.S. on that date was at 30,000 new cases. From there, Europe gradually improved, reducing their daily count to 17,500 as of last Thursday, July 16, 2020.  The U.S. continued to climb for a while, but as New York and some of the other initially hard-hit states also implanted tough control policies, their daily count continued to decline as shown on our graph. Then the big political divide occurred and all that changed. Last week, on July 16, 2020, the U.S. broke a record for the most Coronavirus cases in one day at 71,135.

That brings us to the profound question of today, July 20, 2020.  We know what works and we know what to do. Despite overwhelming evidence against the President’s open early and no mask policy, will he change his mind and lead the country in the right direction? Probably not based upon his actions during the past two weeks when this new aggressive surge took hold. Some think that he has abandoned his post regarding this issue and is more concerned about protecting confederate monuments than the Covid-19 virus.

If that is the case and we must wait until November when the leadership in the U.S. is reshuffled, then a lot of damage will likely occur in the meantime.  A lot more new virus cases will occur and a lot more people will die than need to.  More jobs will be lost, and more companies will likely fail. Maybe we will see another crash in the stock market.

As lawyers, how will this affect our clients and our law practices? As leaders in our communities, how can we help? At the very least, we can certainly wear masks, observe social distancing, avoid crowded places, and set good examples.