The new president, Joseph R. Biden Jr., said he would reaffirm a federal strategy to control the virus, including a call for everyone to wear masks in the next 100 days and a coordinated plan to expand vaccine delivery. “We are going to run this operation like hell,” said Biden on Friday. “Our administration will lead with science and scientists.”
The strategy signals a change from last year, during which the Trump administration largely delegated responsibility for controlling the virus and reopening the economy to 50 governors, fracturing the country’s response. Interviews with more than 100 health, political and community leaders across the country and a review of emails and other state government records provide a more complete picture of everything that went wrong:
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The severity of the current outbreak can be traced back to the rush to reopen last spring. Many governors acted quickly, sometimes acting against the objections of their advisers. The national reopenings led to a wave of new infections that grew over time: the country’s average would never drop below 20,000 new cases per day.
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Science has been marginalized at all levels of government. More than 100 local and state health officials have been laid off or resigned since the pandemic began. In Florida, top scientists offered their expertise to the governor’s office, but were marginalized, while governor Ron DeSantis turned to Dr. Scott W. Atlas, a Trump adviser, and others whose views were adopted in conservative circles but rejected by many scientists.
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Although the president publicly downplayed the need for masks, White House officials in particular recommended that certain states with worsening outbreaks require covering their faces in public spaces. But records show that at least 26 states have ignored the White House’s recommendations on masks and other health problems. In South Dakota, Governor Kristi Noem, bragged to political allies not to demand masks, even when her state was in the midst of an outbreak that has become one of the worst in the country.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis said states faced tough choices to balance the virus – often hearing competing voices about how to do it best – and said Trump left them without the political support they needed while urging public to accept masks and social distance. “The most important thing that would have made a difference would be the clarity of the message from the person at the top,” Polis said in an interview.
The pandemic, in fact, came with significant challenges, including record unemployment and a dynamic disease that continued to circle the globe. Without a national White House strategy, it is unlikely that any state could have completely prevented the spread of the pandemic.
But most deaths in the United States occurred because the strategies needed to contain it were clear to state leaders, who had a range of options, from ordering masks to targeted shutdowns and increased testing. Disparities have arisen between states that have taken restrictions seriously and those that have not.
America now represents 4% of the world population, but is responsible for about 20% of global deaths. While Australia, Japan and South Korea showed that it was possible to keep the death toll low, the United States – armed with wealth, scientific prowess and global power – has become a world leader: it now has one of the highest concentrations of deaths, with almost twice as many reported deaths as any other country.
Spring
The rush to reopen was ‘the opportune moment that was missed’
The country has already had a chance to put itself on the path to defeat the virus.
There were many initial errors. The United States failed to create a vast network of testing and tracking contacts in January and February, which could have identified the first cases and perhaps contained the crisis. Then cases quietly exploded in New York, while Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio waited crucial days to close schools and businesses.
Thousands of lives could have been saved in the New York metropolitan area alone if the measures had been implemented up to a week earlier, the researchers found. Driven by the sudden rise in spring, New York and New Jersey still have the worst death rates in the country to this day.