Mourn the dead, and prepare for what’s next

More than 200,000 Americans are dead because of COVID19, a grim milestone reached this week and largely unacknowledged by the president.

To President Donald Trump, the pandemic has been handled and now is the time for campaigning. He flits from state to state, holding large, in-person rallies. Most attendees are unmasked, with only the people in camera shots covering their faces. Bodies are too close together, even at outdoor rallies — which are safer in terms of disease spread — and it’s designed to leave the impression that the coronavirus is conquered and behind us.

Rather than admit to any errors in fighting the pandemic — everything from abandoning a thorough pandemic playbook inherited from the Obama administration, failing to ramp up testing or manufacture sufficient personal protective equipment — Trump uses his stump speeches and interviews to praise his team for a job well done.

“If we didn’t do our job, it would be threeand-a-half, two-and-a-half, maybe 3 million people,” Trump said Friday. “We have done a phenomenal job with respect to COVID-19.” That is not true.

And public health experts are warning that as winter arrives, the reality could grow bleaker. Some predictions project the number of COVID-19 deaths could double by the end of the year — 400,000 dead. Already, 200,000 dead means that Americans account for 1 in 5 COVID-19 deaths in the world. Hardly a success.

Many of these deaths could have been prevented, compounding the grief. A competent administration, directing response to the pandemic using science and accepted public health practices, would have saved lives.

Instead, the United States is being run by someone more concerned about reelection than dealing with this crisis. In March, even as he knew COVID-19 was more deadly than seasonal influenza, Trump continued to hold in-person rallies and downplay the deadly nature of the virus in public.

His Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials meddle with the science, spinning facts for political gain. Earlier this year, the agency put up information stating that people exposed to the coronavirus but without symptoms did not necessarily need to be tested. That was bad advice, since the CDC also admits that 40 percent of infections are found in people without symptoms. It has been rescinded, but trust in a once-trusted agency is being eroded.

Most recently, the CDC posted guidance that states the virus is airborne, and then removed it, saying a draft was posted in error. This was significant, since the CDC previously had stopped short of saying the virus could be airborne. The language read that common modes of transmission are “respiratory droplets or small particles, such as those in aerosols, produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, sings, talks, or breathes.”

As we head into winter — especially as the president wants schools open — this information is crucial.

Anyone wanting people to gather indoors will have to consider being able to distance folks and improve ventilation. Respiratory droplets fall to the ground more quickly, which is why 6 feet is considered a safe distance. Aerosols, on the other hand, can be carried with air currents and inhaled.

Mask wearing becomes more critical — with the type of mask important. N95 respirators provide 96 percent protection, according to scientific study, but we barely have enough of those for health care workers. Teachers in a classroom could use them, too, as could office workers stuck in a room all day with other people. Public health guidelines about how to make cloth masks more effective — double layers of fabric and a filter — would be useful. Consistent messaging will save lives, as will public officials who set the example. That’s not happening.

Once again, the United States is unprepared for the next stage of this pandemic. Leadership has failed, starting in the Oval Office.

Now, as the U.S. surpasses 200,000 dead, we are left to mourn and prepare ourselves for what comes next. The president, on the campaign trail in Ohio, has these cold words of comfort: “It affects virtually nobody.”