April, 2020
Washington, Lincoln, Berlin – Although I'm in the Maryland suburbs of Washington until travel is once again possible, this post will look at three responses to the coronavirus pandemic by the German chancellor and by the governors of Maryland and Nebraska. All three leaders describe themselves as political conservatives.
• Chancellor Angela Merkel has been a model of leadership in directing the German effort. She acted early and decisively. Berlin developed the first Covid-19 tests; contact tracing was started immediately; all but essential businesses were closed; stay-home and social-distancing orders were put quickly into effect and enforced by police. Merkel addressed the nation to explain the science behind the combating the pandemic – she is a physicist by training – and has urged national unity. Germany, along with South Korea, Taiwan, and New Zealand, has to date been notably successful in the fight against the infection. Germany is looking to reopen its economy, cautiously.
• Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland also acted early to put social distancing and stay-home orders into effect, along with school and business closings. He has been hampered in performing tests by a shortage of testing supplies, but has not hesitated to focus attention on the source of that problem: the U.S. federal government's slow response to the pandemic and its failure to take charge of supply chains under the Defense Production Act. Governor Hogan made arrangements with the government of South Korea for testing and protective equipment. He is currently chairman of the National Governors Association and speaks for many governors. Maryland has flattened the curve of the infection rate somewhat, for which Hogan gets much credit, but it is not yet at a point to re-open its economy significantly.
• Governor Pete Ricketts of Nebraska got a good head start on controlling the coronavirus because Nebraska schools were out of session when the virus started its spread. He closed non-essential businesses and limited group gatherings, but only recommended stay-home measures, rather than enforcing them. When a virus outbreak occurred in Hall County and over forty local doctors asked the governor to enforce a stay-home order, he refused. His surprising metric for success was whether local hospitals were being overwhelmed, not a decline in the number of cases. Ricketts has also made an issue of keeping meatpacking plants open, suggesting that there will be "civil unrest" if they are closed and a meat shortage ensues. Inexplicably, although he insists that the packing houses are essential (and they are for farmers with hogs ready for market), he has done nothing to ensure by enforcement that packinghouse personnel stay home when not on the job, and not travel between packinghouses. Meanwhile, it is no coincidence that Nebraska is witnessing the spread of Covid-19 from county to county and the state as a whole is now unable to bend the case curve downward. Ricketts has also said his decisions are "best practices" as recommended by the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Really? Does UNMC oppose Hall County doctors' pleas for tougher measures? Now Covid-19 has invaded the state's correctional system, dangerously overcrowded even in the best of times, which Ricketts has done little to relieve. Moreover, Ricketts has refused even to recommend against the early re-opening of the Nebraska Crossing shopping mall between Omaha and Lincoln, whose owner is a large contributor to Ricketts' political campaigns. Ricketts has even crossed the line into making false and misleading public statements that Nebraska has flattened the infection rate curve, when the opposite is actually the case and the situation is getting worse.*
It may be that despite the best efforts of any leaders, the coronavirus will continue to tear through populations with death and economic destruction. Merkel and Hogan are nevertheless exemplary leaders in the struggle against it. Ricketts is rapidly becoming a failure and I'm afraid Nebraskans are going to pay for it grievously.
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* Nebraska's latest (4/28) Covid-19 reproduction rate (Rsub-t or R0) is 1.10, highest in the nation. Four of the top ten states in the country have no stay-home (shelter in place) orders, suggesting a causal relationship between the policy and the reproduction rate. Maryland's rate is .88; Germany's is .79.
