COVID-19 Can You Say "Hurricane Katrina?" Post #3

Hurricane Katrina and now COVID-19 demonstrates the  difference between leading and managing. Leading suggest providing guidance. That could be an elected official, the head of a business, or to really get the sense, a member of the clergy.

Managing is much different. It evokes someone in charge who is accomplishing something. Right now this nation needs a manager and a leader, we have neither.

For over two hundred years as New Orleans sank and the levees destabilized there were contradictory recommendations, lack of preparedness, planning, and  execution.The only thing that everyone knew was that New Orleans could not stand a direct hit from a Big One.

For decades health experts and some politicians recognized that a pandemic was a real possibility.   System established to prepare for a pandemic were underfunded, dismantled, and ignored.

When Hurricane Katrina hit, no was in charge. Michael ("Brownie you're doing heckuva job.") Brown  headed FEMA. Governor Kathleen Blanco controlled the state agencies and the National Guard. Mayor C. Ray Nagin headed the city. They failed to coordinate, they waited for one another, they couldn't find the resources,and they contradicted one another.

With COVID-19 we start with multiple press conferences where three or more people contradict one another. Clearly there is misdirection from the federal government, especially when it come to medical resources, that either arrive too late or not at all.

The best functions of government are systems deigned to repeatedly provide a repetitive consistent service. Garbage collection. Snow plowing. Fire protection. Building and heath inspections. The better ones continue in a time of crisis - hurricanes, blizzards, droughts, and explosions. 

The problem is that while the public employees are trained to operate in a crisis, they are not provided the tools and resources. We can discuss blame later, but those in authority, for a multitude of reasons failed to fund and build a SYSTEM to withstand the impact if a pandemic. They knew the storm was coming but they

• hate government and do not want to give it more authority
• want to keep taxes low because they valued something else
• they denied the science because it was inconsistent with their world political view
• their horizon of responsibility did not extent to next year(s)
• they did not have the will to do the right thing