Opinion | How Donald Trump’s incompetence breeds coronavirus denial in the US

When students on spring break rebel against social distancing measures, it may be because the US administration does not inspire trust

Although Trump fancies himself a ‘wartime president’, he doesn’t quite understand the enemy he is up against

Reading Time:4 minutes

Published: 3:00am, 24 Mar 2020Updated: 5:56am, 24 Mar 2020

Adept moral leadership at the top, whether in Washington or Hong Kong, is central to any serious public health strategy. As the poet W.B. Yeats wrote in 1919, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…”

Some 100 years later, here we are, all of us more or less in the coronavirus crisis together, even as many of us have all but ankle-braceleted ourselves to our homes.

We are socially distanced in the extreme – spaced out by this new world order. The erosion of the authority of Donald Trump’s presidency proceeds apace, the poignancy heightened now by the unexpectedly higher stakes.

In the United States last week, young college students on spring break blatantly ignored or rebelled against the social distancing recommendations of the authorities by crowding beaches or jamming public parks.

But there may be more to this than adolescent irresponsibility. It may be that the system of governance, to many young (as well as some older) Americans, lacks sufficient credibility and trustworthiness. In effect, incompetence could breed “corona criminals”: felony plague-spreaders.

With the Trump administration in power, the credibility issue is not just at the forefront, it has been thrust into the spotlight by the public health crisis. The almost daily pandemic task force briefings from the White House have brought both informative ups and embarrassing downs: Anthony Fauci, respected National Institutes of Health immunologist, telling it like it is, and Trump telling it like it isn’t.

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