Pandemic Politics - Adapt or Not Adapt? That is the question.

by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

Many people don’t understand that nothing about the virus has changed since the pandemic began. Conditions for the exponential spread of infections are exactly the same now as the day it arrived. The graphs below really measure the impact that human behavior has on infection rates. Countries and states that can adapt do well. Countries and states that resist change do poorly. If we in the United States revert to our pre-COVID-19 behaviors, as so many people are in a frenzy to do, the next month will look just like the early months before we knew how to protect ourselves.

It is so tragic that our adaptations to the pandemic, such as wearing masks, has been politicized. There should be a special place in hell for politicians who exploit our proper responses to the virus with false claims of government overreach in order to draw support for their own designs on power and control.

Countries and states where the population adopts self-protective behaviors do well in controlling infections. New York and New Jersey are good examples. They were our first hotspots in the U.S. with the exponential growth of COVID-19. Dramatic science-based actions were taken by both governors. The policies weren’t popular nor easy, but compliance was good and the results brought infections back under control. Their success looks more like success in many EU countries.

The national failure of leadership in the United State, and the rejection of science-based policy recommendations at both state and federal levels, has resulted in exponential infection rates around the country to look similar to that seen in less well-developed countries, such as in Uzbekistan. In fact, if you subtracted New York and New Jersey from the nation's daily new case data, the growth of infections in the U.S. would look more like the situation in Brazil.

It is understandable that small business owners are angry. They have been caught in the middle of a Congressional compromise that gave most of the cash support to giant corporations and their unemployed workers. They got caught in the middle of our polarized politics. But politics or not, no one will flourish if the virus rages out of control. We must set politics aside and do what is necessary to protect our health and safety until an effective treatment or a vaccination is developed.