COVID-19: Mourning to Morning
PAUL DIETZEL II
The screeching halt brought to the global economy did not manifest its full impact for most Americans until Major League Baseball, the College World Series, the Masters, the NBA, family vacations, haircuts, and toilet paper were all gone in the blink of an eye.
For the more than half of Americans who own stock – either directly or as a part of their retirement savings accounts – years of wealth were erased in a matter of hours. The COVID-19 pandemic has been described as a public health crisis. That is true, but it is more than that.
The façade of American invincibility and an inevitable ascendancy toward ever-increasing economic prosperity has been smashed in a reality that cannot be denied.
Everyone agrees that times are tough. A medical emergency morphed into a fiscal catastrophe that changed (unfortunately) into a political standoff. In their boredom and angst amidst unemployment levels that could surpass the Great Depression a century ago, Americans are glued to their televisions. What they see is disturbing. As a result, average Americans have rediscovered civics. Issues of federalism, constitutional order with its enumerated powers, the Tenth Amendment, the power and energy of the Executive Branch, legislative power and the scope of and significance of subsidiarity have made their way into the everyday conversation of a quarantined populous.
The year 2020 will become etched into world history and American history in particular as a (perhaps the) focal year of change. The modern era will be defined by a fundamental divide: before and after COVID-19. What a “new” normal will look like is beyond the ability of even the most prophetic futurists. Awash in data and financial models that seek to order the chaos of the moment, the post-viral era is and will be difficult to navigate. Sooner rather than later, the dramatic restructuring of the nation’s economic and social order will touch almost every facet of life – from access to life’s necessities (of which hand sanitizer will be present on the list alongside food and water) to education (both K-12 and higher education) to medicine (telemedicine has finally come into acceptance) to the world of work (Zoom is now a noun), a new stage of life has been born.
The watchword of the day: survival. This primal reduction of life to survival can pass through stages that can, if contemplated and understood, catapult the United States to a new era of innovation and advance. If not, the devastation already experienced will further crater into a generation-long fight that will further divide an already unstable national nightmare. What to see and what to do?
Resolve
When President Abraham Lincoln stood on Gettysburg’s battlefield in 1863, the stench of death loomed in the air. Breathing was a reminder of the horror that happened a mere four months before his standing to speak. He called the nation to a corporate resolve. This word means more than to try again. It carries with it a moral vision that calls for a new direction based on a new reality. Knowing what is known post COVID-19, the path forward is, at bottom, one of simplicity and frugality. Investment in strong business models that have potential for expansion and scale all the while being careful not to indebt the country toward insolvency are the broad lanes for action. In short, determine the way forward and move!
Resilience
The American founders were not perfect men. Far from it. They did, however, think institutionally. They set up mediating institutions that would outlive them for the sole purpose of structuring life in ways that would create a unique American order amid the forms of government that had washed over world history. The formative genius of the Founders was the resilience of American institutions like the military, the local school, college, or university, the hospital, the company, and the legislature. The family, the church, the community association can also be described as institutions. In the words of Yuval Levin, institutions are “durable” and “formative” in their necessity for the flourishing of life. COVID-19 has revealed just how fragile American institutions have become. It is time to rebuild them.
Reform
The COVID-19 battle is a call to reform. For too long the endless complexities of government bureaucracies masked corruption and allowed for an insider club of relationships that shut out good ideas. Faced with the reality that the game could finally be called out for what it is: a network parlor game of intrigue that doles out money under the table to well-connected insiders, the COVID clause in history has opened the tent so others could see what is and what (now) could and must be!
This list is long, but manageable. The modern American healthcare system has changed very little since its post–World War II inauguration. The COVID-19 surge in patient volume has exposed the fragility of that aging system. As a result, both in-person and virtual care will need new protocols put in place very quickly. This will require doctors, hospital systems, and insurance companies to work together like never before in modern history.
The failures of the past cannot frame the priorities of the future. America must build. Public health strategies founded on an epidemiological realism in an increasingly interconnected and mobile world, must reform and adapt or people will die for no reason other than a stubborn refusal to do what is right. Perhaps the most obvious reform: America’s reserves of key medical supplies, medicines, and stockpiles of equipment must be addressed immediately.
America’s financial system and economy must learn from the failures of this global financial crisis. To strengthen its spine, it must be rebuilt to withstand severe external shocks such as another global pandemic. America’s educational institutions must now reform and modernize into an integrated classroom with quality online learning. This list goes on.
COVID-19’s aftermath will determine the future for generations of Americans. With God’s help, rise. Let us build.
Paul Dietzel II is Founder and CEO of Anedot.