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| Leader of the Herd |
Herd
immunity in the face of a pandemic is a good thing in the same sense that
winning a war is a good thing. It is not so much a time of joy as it is a
moment of relief. A long nightmare—and that is what all wars are, even ones we
win—is over. It is the point a nation arrives at only after a period of
suffering, destruction and unnecessary loss of life.
There have been leaders in the past who were victorious because they were willing to sacrifice wave after wave of their own citizens against the enemy. Good leaders seek victories that come with minimal casualties. Winning at all costs is not a goal, only a last resort. Reaching herd immunity is gaining victory through attrition because all else has failed.
Yes,
herd immunity in a pandemic is a good thing when a nation arrives at that
point, but it comes at a high price. It’s a victory not attained through smarter,
less destructive means, but rather by senseless inaction.
Trump
has been promising since day one that the coronavirus will go away—first in a
few days, then by Easter, and most recently when we reach a state of herd
immunity.
Actually,
what he said was, "And you'll develop, you'll develop herd—like a herd
mentality. It's going to be—it's going to be herd developed—and that's going to
happen. That will all happen," Trump said.
I
can’t imagine what Trump would say if Biden explained herd immunity this way.
Maybe
it will happen, but there are things we can do, more pro-active measures that
make more sense than waiting around for herd immunity.
Wearing
a mask and social distancing might push the moment of herd immunity further
into the future, but it would save lives until a possible vaccine provided a
victimless herd immunity.
In
my book, Trump Dismantles Washington,
there is a chapter where I describe Trump as the laziest man in America. His
need for slogans, nicknames, easy solutions to complicated problems point to Trump,
at his core, being a very simple man too lazy to rise to any occasion. For him,
an insult is always preferable to an idea.
Waiting
around for herd immunity, while at the same time ridiculing mask wearing and
social distancing is probably the laziest thing a leader can do. It takes no
courage, no strategy, and no particular skill. Someone who, when talking about
the pandemic says, “It is what it is,” will also conclude herd immunity is our
only way out. He’ll wave his hands around, as if he were holding a wand and
say, “It will go away like magic.”
What
do we say to a man so lazy, so ignorant, so out of touch?
We
could say, “You’re fired.”
We
tried that a month before coronavirus landed on our shores. In fact, we were
told at the time that if we didn’t get rid of him, things would only get worse.
That was way back in the good old days of January.
We
couldn’t fire him then because the Republican Party was suffering from herd
mentality and Trump was leading the herd.
Wear
a mask, social distance, be safe. Don’t wait for 250-million Americans to
become infected to take a victory lap.
