Leaders are infected with COVID-19 hypocrisy

Nine months into the pandemic, we now know the most effective tool to blunt the COVID-19 coronavirus.

It’s not masks and social distancing, nor washing hands and avoiding large gatherings, as they are tactics - not strategy. In order to defeat a virus, the most important weapon is credibility. Sounds simple enough, since common sense plays a huge part in earning credibility. But as Voltaire famously quipped, “Common sense is not so common.”

Problem is, when asinine leaders do the opposite of what they mandate for others, their hypocrisy crushes whatever credibility they had. All too often, the result is people jettisoning the idea of “doing the right thing” under the mentality of “if our leaders aren’t doing it, neither am I.”

The reality of combatting a virus doesn’t change, however. In other words, just because leaders are hypocritical doesn’t mean that the rules are wrong. But those rules become a hard sell, as many choose convenience over doing the right thing.

Here are just a few examples of why we’re facing such an uphill battle, and why COVID rates continue to rise.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: In what is perhaps the biggest slap to the American people, Ms. Pelosi went inside her San Francisco salon to get her hair done, despite that being against the law. In doing so, the speaker made four huge mistakes:

A) She claims she didn’t know the salon regulation. But given that Ms. Pelosi is the third-most powerful person in the world (via presidential succession), and a top lawmaker (who is supposed to know the law), that excuse is simply farcical. It was her duty to know - period. And even if she didn’t know what damn near every woman in California certainly did - that there were indoor restrictions on hair salons - her staff certainly should have.

B) She failed to take accountability for her actions, which epitomizes why America is declining. Rather than owning up to her error and issuing a genuine mea culpa - which would have limited the fallout to a one-day story - she dug her heels in and was defiant in excusing her lawbreaking behavior. It’s the same mentality that many use to justify the violence sweeping America.

C) She cast blame on everyone else by claiming that she was “set up.” That’s right. In her words: “This salon owes me an apology… It was clearly a setup. I take responsibility for falling for a setup by a neighborhood salon I’ve gone to for many years.” Sure, Ms. Speaker, sure it was a set-up, because it makes perfect sense to deliberately antagonize a long-time client - one who just happens to be the most powerful woman in America, and who could make your life a living nightmare.

D) The speaker just handed Donald Trump and every Republican perfect fodder for a campaign ad. The message that wealthy elitist incumbents - with their hypocritical double standards (Ms. Pelosi also wasn’t wearing a mask) are personally benefitting at the expense of the Average Joe, would play extremely well in battleground states. And that’s not just speculation, since that sentiment helped propel Mr. Trump to victory in 2016.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney: Mayor Kenney created an uproar after he was spotted dining indoors at a Maryland restaurant - with no mask, and without social distancing. That’s bad enough, but what makes the sin mortal is that the mayor has been adamant about not allowing indoor dining in his own city. So he enacts regulations that hurt restaurants and their employees - justified by his preaching about how indoor dining is unsafe - but then breaks his own rules by dining in another city, without proper precautions.

Venerated Philadelphia restauranteur Marc Vetri said it best by slamming the mayor on social media: “Glad you’re enjoying indoor dining with no social distancing or mask-wearing in Maryland tonight, while restaurants here in Philly close, suffer and fight for every nickel just to survive. I guess all your press briefings and your narrative of unsafe indoor dining don’t apply to you. Thank you for clearing it all up for us tonight.”

Well said, sir.

But let’s not forget that early on, the mayor was just as imbecilic. As this column pointed out on March 18, at a time when most leaders were urging people to stay home and businesses to shut down, Jim Kenney did the opposite. At the height of the pandemic, he was telling people to shop, eat and visit parks, stating, “Go out and have dinner and tip your wait staff, because they’re struggling right now … we may be healthier (if we isolate), but the economy will be in the tank, and we can’t have that.”

Here’s an idea. Maybe Jim Kenney should concentrate less on being the city’s biggest hypocrite, and more on doing something - anything - to stem Philadelphia’s skyrocketing murder rate (second-highest of America’s largest cities, with more killings than New York) and close down the ridiculous homeless camps that are plaguing law-abiding citizens.

But he won’t, and things will only get worse.

Sea Isle City Mayor Leonard Desiderio: Good - Mr. Desiderio, in his role as mayor, continually imploring people and businesses to abide by COVID rules, such as wearing masks and social distancing. Bad - Mr. Desiderio, in his role as owner of a bar in Sea Isle, allowing patrons to pack the joint, side by side, without wearing masks. A video of his bar went “viral,” causing the media and citizens to demand why he wasn’t enforcing his own rules.

His response, via a CBS3 interview, as to whether he thought people were social distancing: “I think they’re doing the best they can, and I think people want to get out, and there are only so many things they can do.” Gee, Mr. Mayor, thanks for telling us what we already know. Everybody wants to get out. Everyone is sick of the pandemic. Everyone wants it to be over. But it won’t end when bar owners allow customers to break all the rules just because “people want to get out.”

When asked by the interviewer if he thought his bar was following the rules, he stated three times that he “followed the rules,” even saying that he follows the rules “more than anyone else.” Well, with that kind of rule-following, it’s clear we’re going to be in this fight for a very long time.

Dr. Anthony Fauci: Even the nation’s top infectious disease expert made a huge mistake, but, rather than apologize, tried to rationalize. After throwing out the first pitch at a baseball game, he was spotted in the empty stands next to his wife and friend - wearing no mask. Sitting by his wife is obviously acceptable. But Dr. Fauci justified sitting next to his friend because he had gotten tested earlier and was negative. Really? And what if he, or the friend, had contracted COVID in the intervening time period? If so, and if Dr. Fauci had become infected (or worse), the reverberations would have been titanic. Yet the controversy could have been avoided had the Doc simply worn his mask and sat six feet from his friend. But by ignoring the very same guidelines that he has been hammering home to the American people, Dr. Fauci lost tremendous credibility credibility that had to be re-earned after originally telling people not to wear masks.

Our leaders can and must do better. Their intransigence has contributed to an attitude of complacency throughout the nation, so much so that more than half of all Americans are reluctant to take a vaccine that they see as rushed, or altogether unnecessary.

One thing is certain. Coronavirus isn’t going away anytime soon, and we are heading into what could be the most dangerous period. If our leaders don’t start leading, and we don’t get a handle on this virulent disease, then the health of everything - people, political futures, and the economy - may soon be on life support.