I had just finished skimming a couple of articles that discussed the difficulty the administration has been having in selling its position on Iraq because of distrust of the President. I went on to read an opinion piece in today’s New York Times entitled, “We Must Prepare for the Next Pandemic.” It’s subtitled, “We’ll have to battle both the disease and the fake news.”
Among other things, it discusses the use of social media to inform the public in the event of an outbreak, and the potentially disastrous results of spreading unfounded rumors and deliberately false information.
Re the probability of a pandemic: “Experts agree that it’s not a matter of if — it’s only a matter of when.” The article tells why.
Thought experiment: An epidemic has broken out. An effective vaccine is being manufactured. How much, you do not know. Donald Trump steps up to the lectern, and announces, “There is plenty of vaccine available folks. Stay home and we’ll distribute it to you.” Do you, (1) Relax with your family and wait for delivery, or (2) Jump in your car and burn rubber to get to the drugstore? Would you believe the announcement even if it came from the CDC or the PHS, knowing that they were under the control of Trump appointees? Would there be rioting in front of drugstores, clinics, and hospitals?
Dependence on alternative medicine, the existence of the anti-VAX movement, the popularity of homeopathy, politicians who are willing to permit religious exceptions to vaccinations for communicable diseases, all take on more sinister significance when I think about how people would react during a major epidemic. Would they follow instructions from public health authorities? Would they take a vaccine if it was available? How many would decide that it was all a plot by big Pharma to sell them on necessary and possibly harmful drugs?
It doesn’t help that pharmaceutical companies have done just that.
One of the biggest problems in planning to deal with a pandemic is that Trump has deliberately and systematically set out to destroy the public’s confidence in experts, including scientists.
Here’s another thought experiment: You’re an American citizen working in a restaurant in Chicago as a waiter. Lots of contact with the public. You just got back from visiting family overseas. You’re not feeling very well. You’ve got some unpleasant symptoms, including headache, some muscle pain, you think you’re running a fever. You don’t have health insurance or paid health leave.
Do you take time off to go to the emergency room? Your cousin went to the ER a while back, and after all the tests and an overnight stay in the hospital, got a bill for USD10,000. You probably tough it out, keep working, and promise yourself that if you’re not feeling better by tomorrow, you’ll go to the hospital. Or not.
You think you might have the flu. Unfortunately, Ebola has the same early symptoms as several diseases, including the flu. And you're the index case.
What I am meandering around to are two points. One is that there are situations where it is absolutely imperative that we be able to believe and trust our government. And to accomplish that we need to be utterly intolerant of being lied to by our politicians, even in relatively minor ways. It’s not just Donald Trump whose responsible for the fact that we don’t have the level of trust we need. But he’s the first President who’s managed to convince his followers that truth simply doesn’t matter. He’s Cyrus the Great, isn’t he?
Is it possible to convince a substantial number of people who have voted for Trump that his lying can have major consequences for them and their families? Can they be convinced that the fact that so many Americans do not trust the president has a serious downside for them, regardless of what judges he appoints? Can they be persuaded to bring the ninth commandment (eighth, for Catholics) out of retirement?
My second point is that universal medical care isn’t just important for people who receive care or their families. A medical system that enables every US resident to seek medical care promptly is a form of national defense against infectious disease. And for that purpose, it doesn’t matter whether or not they are here illegally.
Can we convince people who see universal healthcare as just a gift to, “those people, ” that it’s a way of protecting themselves and their families? Can they be brought to see it as a form of herd immunity, and that they are part of the herd?