American dream lies in chaos

This is an editorial in The Tablet of May 16.

By comparison with the British, Americans have every reason to feel profoundly depressed. There have been more than 80,000 deaths from coronavirus in the United States so far, and epidemic modelling at the University of Washington (admittedly an inexact science) predicts 140,000 by August. The economy is shrinking fast and unemployment is soaring. Yet political authorities, not only in the White House, have abrogated their responsibilities for the common good and decided now is the time to start returning the economy to normal. 

That is despite a warning from Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, that a premature return to work will cost many lives. Premature means now. But that is not the advice they are hearing from Donald Trump. The biggest reason for American citizens to feel depressed is the chaotic leadership of their President, whose single priority seems to be his own re-election in November rather than steering his country through its most severe health crisis ever.

As in Britain and indeed throughout the world, governments have to find a fine balance between the safety and wellbeing of the population and reviving the economy, on which lives also depend. The issues are subtle and complex. The view in much of Europe is that the safety of the population has been more or less secured by lockdown and social distancing, with the disease reproduction rate (R) at or below one. So businesses, schools, places of worship and even cafes and restaurants may gradually reopen, provided the necessary precautions are taken. 

This caution has been thrown to the wind in much of the United States, where local lockdowns are being lifted by county and state authorities – public health in America is hugely fragmented – regardless of the disease transmission rate. This is a climate of denial, and is being fostered by President Trump. Sometimes he accepts the need for monitoring and testing; sometimes he is dismissive of it, worried that the more testing there is, the more cases will be discovered. 

Mr Trump is even more worried that his one ticket to success in November, the booming US economy for which he is undoubtedly entitled to some credit, has turned to dust. His deeply unattractive alternative is to pin the blame on China, where the disease appears to have originated. The Chinese authorities did not act promptly enough, for sure, or with transparency, but many other governments – including the US and the UK – reacted with similar hesitation. Donald Trump’s watchwords are “divide and rule” and “pass the buck”. He is banking on these as his road to re-election. His latest target is ex-President Barack Obama, whom he has accused of the “crime of the century”, while declining to specify precisely what that crime is.

Demonising his opponents may or may not be politically profitable, but it is deeply damaging to the American spirit, at the heart of which is national unity and solidarity. And it gives a free pass to coronavirus to do its worst, to a people large numbers of whom are already wounded by poverty, inequality and ill health.