A Different Way Forward

The loss of any life is tragic. With the spread of the COVID-19 virus here in the United States, we are now all living with the fear that someone in our circle of family and friends will be sickened by the disease or worse. However, the potential loss of life is not the only disturbing impact of this virus. Friday morning, I heard from three twenty-somethings, who were living paycheck to paycheck, that were terminated from jobs in their budding careers because of the business lock-down in response to the virus. This too is tragic. With each passing day more news will come about victims of this viral infection, but there are also real victims of the economic shockwave moving through the country. We are staring into the abyss of an unknown future, without a timetable, metrics or plan.

But does it have to be this way?

The Wall Street Journal editorial on March 20th, 2020 titled, “Rethinking the Coronavirus Shutdown” is a must-read. The paper argued that while the shutdown provided the public a crucial education in hygiene and disease prevention, the national costs are growing by the hour with the economic devastation being everlasting. The Wall Street Journal believes a more economically and socially sustainable virus-fighting strategy is needed—quickly.

As an executive with decades of experience in the healthcare industry, that strategy is clear to me. We must first set a date to end this national lockdown. April 12th would give authorities three more weeks to (finally) get a strong testing regime on-line everywhere; the maximum hospital capacity by then should be freed up to handle the wave of infected patients requiring hospitalization; a set of smart quarantine procedures would be developed for our elderly and sick to limit their exposure to the virus for the foreseeable future; and finally, certain elements of the current shutdown/social distancing directive, such as limiting larger gatherings, would remain in effect for another month or two. 

But importantly, the rest of us must get back to what we do every day which is productive work. Our country has always managed public health in an appropriate way by balancing the actions to contain an outbreak with lives affected. We are humane people that believe in the sanctity of life, but we’re also pragmatic people that know we can’t save everyone from disease, infection or accident.

Pivoting to that more measured approach becomes tougher every day with our political leaders trying to outdo one another on how they can show action. Governor Cuomo of New York recently said, “I want to be able to say to the people of New York—I did everything we could do. And, if everything we do saves just one life, I’ll be happy.” These political leaders hope you see them as strong, noble and very caring. I hope you see it for what it is -- a political calculation -- where there will be no political downside to overreaction. Unless, of course, you hold them accountable not for what they say, but for what they do to properly balance caring for lives while protecting livelihoods.

When this is over there should be a day of reckoning for the government. The billions per year we invested in the Centers for Disease Control is a failure of colossal proportions. We had money, we had professionals, we had warnings as far back as 2015 from Bill Gates to get ready for a pandemic. And yet, here we are completely unprepared for a virus we all knew was coming months earlier. Instead of well-thought-out mitigation actions, we’re now dealing with dramatic economic shut-down responses that will destroy the standard of living millions of Americans have worked hard to earn.

Let us hope in the coming days more sensible thinking prevails with clear timetables, targeted actions, and leaders that step up and speak to us candidly about the earnest work they are doing to balance battling the virus with the economic risks to contain it. Otherwise, we will survive this virus in time, but we won’t survive the deep economic winter that is sure to follow.