Leadership is not about your title, it’s about your behavior.

Robin Sharma wisely stated, "Leadership is not about your title, it’s about your behavior." America is clearly suffering from a leadership deficit as evidenced by miscommunication, missteps, and poor crisis management of the Coronavirus.

This very challenging but manageable public health problem is clearly becoming more a public communication and leadership crisis when the advice, guidance, and warnings provided at daily Coronavirus Task Force briefings are continually disregarded, dismissed, and contradicted by our science denying commander in chief.

Albert Schweitzer said, “The three most important ways to lead people are; … by example … by example … by example.” So while President Trump's Coronavirus Task Force advises everyone to stop shaking hands during outbreaks the President says, "I love the people of this country, and you can't be a politician and not shake hands during outbreaks. And I'll be shaking hands with people - and they want to say hello and hug you and kiss you - I don't care."

During a recent Sean Hannity interview President Trump said "A lot of people will have this and it's very mild. They'll get better very rapidly. They don't even see a doctor, they don't even call a doctor. You never hear about those people…So, if, you know, we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work. Some of them go to work, but they get better."

After telling Sean Hannity there could be as many as hundreds of thousands of infected people with very little or no symptoms, the President explains (1:50) in the video below that his reason for not getting tested for the Coronavirus even after he interacted with two GOP lawmakers who have self-quarantined is; "I don't think it is a big deal. I don't feel any reason - I feel extremely good. I feel very good … there’s no symptoms there’s no anything.” Just like the hundreds of thousands of infected people he believes are out there with very mild or no symptoms? Could it be our President believes that someone infected with this highly contagious virus doesn't pose any risk to public health until they are actually identified and officially counted?

Unfortunately public confidence is further eroded when a health official appears more concerned with flattering his boss than providing accurate and reliable information such as the interview below when the mid-40s Surgeon General asserts (5:25) that our obese 73-year-old commander in chief with a fondness for junk-food and ice cream is "healthier than what I am."

When a public official appears prepared to exaggerate, perhaps even lie, seemingly out of loyalty and deference to a leader, it does raise serious doubts and concerns regarding the veracity of other guidance and assurances.

Perhaps even more distressing and problematic is when the President chooses to adopt a wait and see approach when it comes to managing the spread of the Coronavirus, rather than introducing more disruptive but effective testing and quarantine strategies to try to contain and control the spread. President Trump clearly stated (46:08) his preference for more passive monitoring rather than proactive and aggressive mitigation during his visit to the CDC.

Our Vice President also struggles to communicate directly and unambiguously regarding the overall risk to the community, whether he is delivering Trump mandated talking points or not.

When the Vice President repeatedly says; “To be clear: If you are a healthy American, the risk of contracting the coronavirus remains low.”

Does that mean...

A) It’s unlikely that healthy Americans are going to get infected by this highly contagious virus.

Or

B) If you are a healthy American, contracting this highly contagious virus is not very risky since 70-80% of you will have mild symptoms or none at all.

There is a significant difference and distinction between these two interpretations and how they might impact and influence public behavior. It would seem likely that the Trump administration would prefer the public go with interpretation A.

Some are expressing concern the U.S. seems very poorly prepared for more intense screening and widespread surveillance testing because we failed to stockpile a sufficient supply of reliable tests and set up a robust national distribution system to deliver them in a timely manner.

Even if we do finally roll out enough tests HHS Secretary Alex Azar emphasized (30:40) at the 3/10/2020 Coronavirus Taskforce Briefing that these tests will only be used for responsive diagnostic purposes and not for proactive screening and surveillance purposes to try and determine the actual number of infected people and better track the spread. “That’s not how diagnostic testing works here in the United States…We’ve always been clear if their doctor or public health official believes they should be tested, it needs to always be clinically indicated to receive a test.”

On 3/8/2020 the CDC released Updated Guidance on Evaluating and Testing Persons for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) which explained, “the criteria for testing for COVID-19 have been expanded to include more symptomatic persons” and “Priorities for testing may include: Hospitalized patients who have signs and symptoms compatible with COVID-19” along with “Other symptomatic individuals such as, older adults (age ≥ 65 years) and individuals with chronic medical conditions.”

If our leaders are intentionally not attempting to collect comprehensive data measuring the actual number of symptomatic people AND asymptomatic people, all of whom are believed to be contagious, how could they possibly expect to effectively track and curb the spread of the virus by using isolation and quarantine to disrupt community spread?

In the video below President Trump's comments might provide some insight and an explanation for what appears to be a deliberate and coordinated effort to undercount and suppress the actual number of infected Americans.

During his recent tour of the CDC President Trump stated that his preference was not to let people off the Grand Princess cruise ship because he doesn't want the number of coronavirus cases in tour country to go up. "I like the numbers being where they are. I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship."

In contrast South Korea has been much more effective in slowing the spread of the virus through more extensive and widespread testing including drive-through testing. This Week in Asia reported on 3/10/20 that daily infections in South Korea were falling for a fourth consecutive day which was attributed to mass testing, improved public communication, and the use of advanced technology.

“South Korea has also come up with creative measures, including about 50 drive-through testing stations across the country, where it takes only 10 minutes to go through the whole procedure. Test results are available within hours.

Covid-19 tests are prohibitively expensive in many countries but in South Korea, all tests are free. The country is also capable of processing up to 15,000 diagnostic tests a day, and the aggregate number of tests has reached almost 200,000.

This testing capability has enabled the country to identify patients early and minimize the harmful effects, health experts say. But this also led to South Korea having the second largest number of confirmed infections in the world after China, although this was superseded by Italy this week.”

Personally, I believe the lack of preparation of the Trump Administration is more about a lack of candor in that our leaders are not prepared to have the difficult conversation with the public that perhaps thousands or tens of thousands of infected people (70-80% who have mild or no symptoms) and people they have had direct contact with, should not go to work, go to restaurants, attend large gatherings, go to the movies, see your dentist, go shopping, ride the subway etc. for 14 days.

Just my hunch, but the Trump team appears to be reluctant or not prepared to potentially trigger the very severe and significant economic consequences of introducing an effective Coronavirus mitigation and containment program that relies on more proactive widespread testing and quarantine of infected individuals, many of who will have very mild symptoms or none at all, but are still contagious. Unfortunately, greater confusion and lack of public confidence will have a much greater impact on our economy resulting in a prolonged period of instability.

When a policy decision is made that is as consequential as this one which could potentially impact every American directly or indirectly, surely President Trump owes the American public an explanation as to why our government has decided to implement a more passive and responsive diagnostic testing program rather than a much more proactive and robust surveillance or screening program.

Could it be the prohibitive cost or particular design of our Coronavirus tests? Could it it be the severe economic consequence of identifying and quarantining much larger numbers of both symptomatic and asymptomatic infected people? Could it be our President is reluctant to take any action or impose any social distancing restrictions that could negatively impact the economy for fear of hurting his re election campaign?

That might explain why the NBA, NCAA, along with numerous courageous state and local officials around the country have stepped up and introduced more strict public gathering policies for the sake of public health whatever the economic consequences may be.

That’s called leadership.

Just in time for another election, there is a very important lesson to be learned here about the life or death consequences of electing a boss rather than a leader. While I would never say never, it is highly unlikely that President Donald J. Trump is even capable of being a leader because first, he must be a good example (stop shaking hands, get tested, no more MAGA rallies, etc.) and second, he must have the capability to feel empathy for others.

During this time of great danger a boss like President Trump, uses his Twitter account to continually attack or blame others for his shortcomings, while constantly complaining about how he (the leader of the free world) is being picked on and mistreated.

A leader would recognize that this is a time of great risk and uncertainty and then seize this moment to comfort our nation and rally the troops by Tweeting and modeling things everyone can do like social distancing that can have a powerful impact to "flatten the curve" or slow down the virus which will provide much needed time and support to our courageous health care providers taking the fight to this virus on the front lines.

There is no clearer proof or evidence of this wait and see or "Que sera, sera" approach to this very serious public health problem than the text and images our President chooses to Tweet at this time of great risk and consequence.

It surely would prevent further confusion and even avoidable deaths, if the President or Vice President would be much more emphatic and speak directly to the 70 - 80% of people who will have very mild symptoms or even be asymptomatic but are still very contagious and remind them that they have a responsibility to practice social distancing in order to slow down transmission or "flatten the curve" to protect all of us, but especially our vulnerable populations.

They should explain that the risk of infected “healthy” people (mild or no symptoms) unknowingly and unintentionally transmitting the virus to the elderly and people with underlying conditions is significant, especially since we are only implementing responsive diagnostic testing of symptomatic people rather than a more proactive and widespread testing program to interrupt transmissions and slow down community spread like South Korea.

Even if an individual believe's they are not infected it is best practice to behave as if you are infected especially when it comes to contact with friends, family, and neighbors who are in the high risk categories.

This message is critically important at a time when colleges around the country are closing and tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of young people who have been somewhat contained and isolated living on college campuses are now being told to leave and will be dispersed in our communities. Many elementary, middle school, and high school students who's schools are closing may now be supervised by relatives who are vulnerable, or even be asked to be a caregiver for vulnerable family.

I believe the unpredictable nature of this novel virus is much less concerning to the public and business community than the "all is well" and "everything is perfect" talking points of the administration that clearly contradicts the more dire predictionss of health officials along with the more aggressive and proactive responses of other leaders around the world.

As Terry Duffy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, CME said (1:05) earlier today in a CNBC interview, "You can't have 500 cases reported here in the United States and 16 million quarantined in Italy and saying they are both correct."

In the interview below HHS Secretary Alex Azar advises local leaders to make critical decisions regarding social distancing policies "based on science and evidence" and using the data you are seeing in your local community. 

He also referred to recently released evidence based and peer reviewed guidance for employers to keep the workplace safe that included “Consider adjusting or postponing large meetings or gatherings.” at the same time the Trump campaign is preparing to announce a new rally.

After stressing the critical importance of making data based decisions relying on evidence, the Secretary acknowledged (6:15) “We don’t know exactly how many (people have been tested)…but we are working with the CDC and other partners to get an IT reporting system up and running hopefully this week where we would be able to get that data to keep track of how many we are testing.” 

Mixed messaging regarding the risk of attending large social gatherings and the importance of collecting data to make informed public health decisions only serves to confuse the public and undermine confidence regarding the Trump Administration’s response to this unprecedented threat to public health and safety.

There is little doubt that more intensive and aggressive data collection in the form of widespread surveillance testing of Americans to get a much more accurate count of infected people and more precisely track the spread of the virus has not been a priority of an administration that urges local and state community leaders to make informed evidence based decisions using the best possible data.

There is something disingenuous about a President who lashes out at Democratic leaders for not being able to accurately count Iowa ballots but then he accuses the media and other leaders of trying to scare the public, weaponise the virus, spread fake news, and promote a hoax because they raise legitimate concerns regarding his own Administration's apparent lack of urgency when it comes to ramping up testing and getting a much more accurate count of infected people.

As New York Governor Cuomo recently commented; “Our testing is lagging the reality, we are not testing enough people to know where it is.”

Hopefully there is still time to head off a worst case Coronavirus scenario in the United States but if this situation continuous to deteriorate, our country is in for more difficult times with a science denying, serial tweeting, hoax busting, stable genius leading the way armed with a set of alternative facts and a box of sharpies.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

?~ Maya Angelou