Sixty-two years ago, when I was in the 5th grade, I decided I wanted to study science. Through my personal journey of studying biology, chemistry, physics and math in high school, pre-med biology in college, medical school and residency training inspired by gifted researchers and clinicians, I never encountered such a barrage of attacks on the truth that is science as I have experienced during the past 3.5 years. There is climate change denial, relentless relaxation of pollution control regulation, endorsement of the use of coal and the preservation of fossil fuel energy sources, the de-emphasis of renewable energy use, and finally, the catastrophic refusal to listen to the counsel of some of our country’s wisest and most astute scientists and public health officials with respect to the current Covid pandemic crisis. These are all examples of the repudiation of basic scientific facts, which have become contaminated by the base agendas of politicians.

I have followed the career of Lasker Award winning Dr. Anthony Fauci (who is not that much older than I), and I am appalled at politicians and pundits who call him confused and unnecessarily pessimistic about the progress of the coronavirus epidemic. Fox News’ broadcast host, Tucker Carlson, called Dr. Fauci a “fraud and the buffoon of the professional class.” Senator Rand Paul, a physician himself, who even contracted the coronavirus, does not consider Dr. Fauci an authority on Covid-19 issues, even though he is the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Sen. Paul believes in herd immunity at the 21% population infection rate in places such as New York City. He did not believe there would ever be a surge of cases, and he is not so sure that a vaccine is our hope for ending the crisis. He must have slept through his public health classes during medical school!

More important than ‘which political pundit disparaged which accomplished and distinguished scientist’ is the tragedy of over 200,000 dead Americans as a result of Covid. Did this really need to happen? Failure to recognize the seriousness of the pandemic soon enough by the leadership in our country is largely to blame. Then, the attempts to place favorable, political spins on the consequences of the epidemic paralyzed U.S. leadership into a disjointed and politicized response, which served no good purpose. I am still trying to figure out why the richest and most technologically advanced country in the world leads all countries in both the number of cases and deaths due to the coronavirus. The first mistake in my opinion was putting the economy above the safety of the American people. Failure to close down high risk activities in the community, reopening too soon, and then politicizing mask wearing vs. non-mask wearing has resulted in needless extra numbers of dead Americans. Case in fact is the Sturgis, South Dakota motorcycle rally where nearly nobody wore a mask: 250 of the 500,000 attendees contracted Covid, and then caused 250,000 infections in the 11 states they went home to!

More scandalous is the nationwide lack of PPE for healthcare workers. The Trump Administration has always maintained that we have always had enough PPE to keep our healthcare workers safe, and that we have access to unlimited stockpiles of this equipment. You, the readers of this article, working Florida’s EDs, may know best whether this is true or not. Over 1,200 healthcare workers have died from Covid since March in this country. The lack of a widespread uniform procedure for testing the U.S. population in order to more accurately gauge the extent of infectivity among the population as a whole, and not making a sufficient number of coronavirus tests available with quick turnaround results, is regrettable. I am thankful that I am tested every two weeks and that the result takes only three days to come back. Meanwhile, my adult children in Texas and Tennessee have never been tested!

It doesn’t take rocket science to listen to the advice of public health experts. Other countries seem to have handled the coronavirus crisis more efficiently and safely for their populations. Germany, for instance, who has tested many more of their people than the U.S., is one such country. Their rate of deaths is 9.24/100,000 people, while that in the U.S.—with probably far fewer tested people — is 24.66/100,000. In order to deal with the economic fallout of the pandemic, Germany instituted a nationwide program called “Kurz Albeit,” which in German means “short work.” The German government spent lots of money (not unlike the multi-trillions of dollars the U.S. has spent) to pay all laid-off workers and businesses required to close between 60-80% of their usual pay.

I like the idea of giving temporary government subsidies to ensure that employees and employers of pandemic-closed businesses stay economically viable while keeping everybody safer. Thanks to the Federal Reserve, interest rates are so low that leveraging huge debt for the future is a little less unpalatable.

If General Motors can turn their assembly lines into making ventilators, I see no reason why other U.S. industrial sites could not turn themselves into super PPE manufacturing sites to ensure sufficient supply of this commodity for healthcare worker safety. Finally, there should be a nationwide strategy led by public health experts to conduct widespread and regular virus testing in order to more precisely guide therapeutic and quarantine measures. Let us hope that the winner of the upcoming election can help us right the course of our misguided nation during this pandemic, and that a safe FDA- and CDC-approved vaccine will soon be able to save us from this deadly scourge. ■