At the beginning of Act Five of Shakepeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is washing her hands of imaginary blood to clear her conscious, given the people she has murdered in the previous acts. “Out, out damn spot” she furiously cries as she walks in her sleep. As we begin our second act of the Covid-19 pandemic, I began to think which others leaders have blood on their hands?
Gustav Freytag described the classic five act structure as an upside-down “V”. Act 1 is the introduction of the drama with tension beginning to rise in Act 2. The third act contains a climax or turning point, after which there is a return to normalcy in Act 4, and finally a resolution in the final act.
Writing the ongoing story of our drama, we ended Act 1 with the end of home quarantine and an opening of the economy. The surge in cases across the southern states prognosticated the beginning of Act 2 with a rise in tension as several states consider lockdown again in order to stem the upward trajectory. Historically, the flu virus kills abut 30,000 – 40,000 per year in the United States according to the CDC. The estimates for the US, as stated by Fox News, are that 140,000 people already have died from the disease in the past five months.
The rise in infections could have been better contained.
At the State level, several governors’ negligence and refusal to institute basic health measures to protect their populations has led to spikes in cases.
- Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona initially avoided mandating wearing masks in public and also prevented local municipalities from instituting their own policies. He eventually reversed his decision given the rise in cases.
- Governor Greg Abbott of Texas in May allowed several businesses including restaurants, gyms, and bars a to reopen with reduced capacity and banned cities from arresting people that violated virus regulations. By the end of June he had to pause reopening given the surge in cases.
- Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida kept beaches opened in the Spring and claimed that Florida had won the battle back against the virus in April/ May; only to be faced with over 10,000 new cases a day by mid-July.
- Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia signed an executive order banning local city councils and counties from mandating that people have to wear a mask when in public, and filed a law suit to prevent Atlanta’s mayor from doing so.
These governors may simply be acting in their own political self-interest rather than the general public interest. But, their negligence to institute basic public health measures for their states seems hard to justify. In addition, their push to prevent local governments from instituting policies seems pure hubris.
The defunding and erosion of the public health system in the US has occurred for a decade now, leading to a frail support framework. By delaying Federal guidelines, the Administration has effectively delegated management of the virus to State governors. Unfortunately, the actions of these State officials along with the relative inaction of the Executive Office means that they all have blood on their hands for the negligence that they have demonstrated.
The climax (Act Three) of our collective play may be coming in November. Let’s hope that we have a voice to reflect how we think leadership has been handling the crisis.
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