...and you will be told no lies, it is said. It follows that if Donald Trump is one of the parties to a debate, one should be prepared for a barrage of lies. In this post I want to write about one of the many lies Trump told during the last presidential debate. He said that we have to get back to work and school and that we can't be holed up in the basement, like Joe Biden, for ever. On its face this statement is true, except for the part about Mr Biden. However, the implication is that we must choose between a return to pre-pandemic normalcy and a total shut-down. This is a false choice. It arises from his politicization of the measures that must be taken in order to re-open the economy, schools, restaurants etc. He convinced his followers that wearing a mask, maintaining a distance from others, frequent hand-washing and other public health actions are an infringement of their rights and a sign of weakness and political correctness. This is the same person who told us in the spring that the virus would disappear in the summer heat "like the flu"; the same person who recommended injecting bleach to treat the virus. That several world leaders who presumably had higher levels of protection than the average citizen got infected did not dissuade him from holding crowded events endangering the health of those attending while he himself was protected by physical distance and frequent testing. And when he finally got infected and recovered after receiving the kind of care unavailable to most people, he tried to use his recovery to support his downplaying of the disease. Inexplicably, his supporters continue to believe his lies.
The course of the pandemic in different countries shows that a total shut-down of society and the economy is not necessary. Work, school, entertainment etc. can resume if most, if not all, people accept recommended public health measures as a condition of return to normalcy. The rise and fall in the number of cases in different parts of the country and the world seems to coincide with the degree to which these measures are implemented by the public. This has to be voluntary since we do not want to live in a country where it has to be enforced. Even the arrival of a vaccine may not put an end to the disease if we insist on ignoring common-sense measures because of political or other considerations. And that brings us to the election of 2020. Control of the pandemic in our country is inextricably connected to a resounding defeat of this president and his enablers.