Don’t be afraid of COVID,” President Donald Trump said when he left the hospital and returned to the White House. “Don’t let it dominate your life.”
Much of the national media got the vapors over this statement. But the second sentence was as important as the first.
This was a perfectly appropriate thing to say. If Dr. Anthony Fauci said it, or even Joe Biden said it, certainly almost no one would object and absolutely no one would freak out.
The offense is that Mr. Trump said it. Those who hate him find the mildest and most sensible of his remarks a gargantuan offense.
The second problem is that Mr. Trump says so much, and so much with so little preparation or reflection, that he often gaslights himself.
The obvious truth is that there is and must be a balance. To live in fear is a bad plan for a person or a nation.
A good leader, doctor or parent will always advise that we rise above our fears. Don’t get paralyzed.
To live in denial is also a bad plan. Don’t kid yourself. No rational person can deny that COVID-19 is a mortal threat to the elderly, the overweight and the poor or that it has killed over 200,000 of the American people.
No rational person would deny that it threatens even healthy, young people. No reasoning person denies the efficacy of Dr. Fauci’s four rules: Wear a mask; practice social distancing; dine or socialize outside rather than in, if you can; and wash your hands.
It is a shame, and it is bizarre, that fighting the virus has become a red vs. blue matter.
World War II was not. It is obviously true that the government and the scientific and medical community need to keep learning and keep adapting the fight against the virus. Nobody got everything right from the start.
Moreover, all Americans should remain vigilant, especially older Americans. At the same time, there are age groups and geographic areas where the level of acceptable risk is higher than for other groups and places. Some people are comfortable in restaurants where tables are set far apart. Others are not. Each person must make his own calculation.
We cannot simply shut down whole swaths of the economy again. We have not done that with other pandemics and plagues. And we can’t do that with this one, a second time. For this disease will be with us for a while.
As both individuals and groups — families, schools, colleges, churches — we have to calibrate and balance. And that is what most Americans are doing — using their heads.
Were a whole lot of people at the White House more cavalier about the four rules than they should have been, including the president? Yes.
Like a lot of people who hit the bar scene a few weeks back, they are now dealing with consequences. But telling people not to live in fear and that we can beat this thing together, is not a bad thing to say. It is a good thing to say.
Fear is not helpful. Denial is, also, not helpful.
Franklin Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.”
After Japan attacked U.S. Forces at Pearl Harbor, he also said: “As commander in chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us … the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.”
We seek to overcome fear so that we may win through to victory.
