People, not politics, must come f irst in COVID-19 war
Last week was as confusing as it was aggravating, as frustrating as it was lifethreatening. The level of misinformation, suspect information and, perhaps, outright lies coming from the people we elected to competently guide us through such crises as the coronavirus pandemic was simply stunning.
Among those recently testing positive was Miami’s young leader, Francis Suarez, the first American mayor to contract the coronavirus. He announced Friday that he tested positive for COVID-19.
He told the Editorial Board on
Saturday he is experiencing a slight fever, body aches and flulike symptoms. We wish the mayor who told a mild case of the disease and a quick recovery.
“I have been concerned about the people who cane in contact with me,” he said, but was heartened to hear no one else has tested positive, so far. Though he meant to reassure people, we were initially concerned that he publicly said to those who did not come in direct contact with him at Thursday’s City Commission meeting that, “There is no action you need to take whatsoever.” We think that given how the coronavirus spreads, attendees must, at the very least, vigilantly watch for symptoms.
Saturday, the credibility mashup continued.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, of all people, said that Florida is among the states that have experienced “community spread” of the coronavirus — the transmitting of the illness among people who aren’t sure how they got infected.
For instance, they did not travel to any countries, including South Korea, China and Iran, where the virus is rampant.
Pence’s comment affirms that of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who said exactly the same thing. Fauci is the world-renowned head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. So his word carries at least a little weight. But for some inane reason, Gov. Ron DeSantis asserted that there was no community spread in the state.
That gave Floridians the impression that they were somewhat safer than they actually were.
And on March 5, DeSantis’ office itself lamented the lack of testing kits in the state and the overwhelmed testing labs. The next day, he sent Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez to assure Floridians that, “At this time, we don’t have any unmet needs for testing capacity.” Did the administration scold DeSantis for complaining?
Pence mentioned Florida’s coronavirus cases during a press conference as he spoke about federal resources to be allocated to hot-spot states.
“Now we’ve seen community spread in Massachusetts and also Florida,” Pence said.
We hope Pence continues to speak soberly and truthfully about the march of the coronavirus across the United States, because his boss, appallingly, cannot be trusted to do so.
President Trump finally declared a national emergency to free up virus-fighting funds to the states. This comes, unfortunately, after two weeks of his dismissive comments about the deadly virus, his cavorting with people later found to have contracted it, his spurning the test, then flip-flopping to say he got tested. The White House said Saturday that it came back negative. Trump also mis-explained his most befuddling travel ban.
But testing has been the Trump administration’s Achilles’ heel. That cannot stand. The federal government has gone a ways to correct the limited policy of who gets tested and who does not in its wobbly war against the spread of the coronavirus. However, it just has not gone far enough.
What we are seeing, unfortunately, is a perfect storm of a nonpartisan infectious disease meeting too many Republicans’ political pussy-footing during an election year — with science shoved to the sidelines.
We all are still in danger.