In COVID-19 crisis, do as they say, not as they do
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was all but grinding his teeth as he recounted people in New York City parks blithely defying social-distancing safeguards designed to prevent the pandemic coronavirus from spreading.
“I don’t know what they’re not understanding. This is not life as usual,” Cuomo said Sunday in a news briefing. “It’s insensitive. It’s arrogant. It’s selfdestructive. It’s disrespectful to other people, and it has to stop and it has to stop now.”
He could have just as easily been speaking to the spring breakers crowding beaches in Florida. Or officials crowding together at the White House coronavirus briefings. Or, for that matter, to a certain member of Congress.
Let’s be clear. The nation should be very grateful that Sen. Rand Paul appears healthy and asymptomatic after contracting COVID-19. We hope the Kentucky Republican stays that way.
Congress’ work grows only more crucial as the pandemic sweeps through or threatens the nation’s largest metro areas. But Paul’s conduct, in the six days between choosing to be tested March 16 and learning last weekend he was positive, begs the question: What does the senator not understand about separating yourself from others if you’re at risk for infection?
And Paul is a doctor.
While awaiting his test result, Paul continued to cast votes on the Senate floor. He made a speech, met and lunched with other GOP senators, worked out in Senate gym and was spotted in the Senate swimming pool. After learning Paul was infected, two senators self-quarantined, a Virginia golf course cleaned and disinfected its facilities, and fellow members of Congress were furious that Paul didn’t act more responsibly.
Sadly, he isn’t the only public figure failing to lead by example.
Members of Congress routinely defy federal warnings to gather in groups no larger than 10 when they assemble for strategy and other sessions. Utah Jazz basketball star Rudy Gobert joked about coronavirus before touching reporters’ microphones days before testing positive for COVID-19. And President Donald Trump addresses the nation with key leaders crammed side by side on a dais despite government advisories about social distancing.
Not only should public figures lead by example in this crisis, but Congress risks its very ability to function if it doesn’t take steps to guard against the disease spreading through Capitol Hill. Most of its leaders, nearly half the Senate and more than a third of the House are older than 65 and, as such, at higher risk from COVID-19.
They need to begin planning now for ways to vote remotely as their ranks begin to thin with either members who are infected (Paul in the Senate and two members of the House so far) or those who are self-quarantined because of potential exposures.
Congress without functioning members is a ship already run aground.