As of this writing, New York’s infection rate has been at 1 percent or below for months, enabling us to authorize the reopening of schools in the fall if the infection rate stays low. The reality is, we don’t know what the fall will bring. I hope we will be able to keep the virus under control but with travelers bringing the virus here from out of state, the fall flu season and colder weather, and the continual federal denial, even if we remain New York Smart, COVID can come back here and start spreading again.
But even if we see a second wave in the fall due to factors beyond our control, it is inarguable that New York’s success is an antidote to Trump’s message of nihilism. In the test of the two theories, the results are clear: New York tough, strong, united, disciplined, and loving defeated Trump’s approach of division and fear and retaliation.
We have for two and a half centuries built the strongest nation on the globe. America’s only threat is from within, from the growing division among us. People’s frustration is turning to fear, and the fear is turning to anger, and the anger is turning to division. It is impossible to overstate how dangerous this is. I don’t actually fault our federal government for causing the fear and frustration, but I fault them for a failure of leadership and government malfeasance. I fault them for deepening the division for their own political purpose. They didn’t cause the darkness, but they have exploited it.
At the end of the day, we were right, and Trump was wrong. This isn’t only a philosophical argument; it is quantifiable: Look at what New York managed to achieve and what Trump’s denialism produced across the country. If you can do it here, you can do it anywhere—not because the song says so, but because we are a microcosm of everything that’s happening in this country.
New York is living proof that in the end love wins.
A BLUEPRINT FOR GOING FORWARD
PROPOSED FEDERAL PROGRAM TO ADDRESS COVID AND FUTURE HEALTH CRISES
AS I SAID IN MAY when we began our reopening, the hard truth is that the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped our nation and transformed our daily life. This statement was in recognition that to simply reopen to how things were before COVID-19 would be misguided—the world today is not the same world it was before the crisis began. I said that while COVID had brought unprecedented challenges, we must recognize the opportunity to “reimagine” and build back better than ever before. We must seize the moment to transform our health, education, and housing systems, our economy, and much more.
Most urgently, we need to reexamine and restructure our public health infrastructure to combat future pandemics and viral outbreaks, using the lessons we learned over the past months. Below I detail eight priorities that I believe must be addressed as part of building back America’s public health system better and stronger than ever before.
We must draw clear lines of responsibilities and authority between the various levels of government during a health crisis; the people must know who is in charge and when.
An early detection system of domestic and international public health threats is essential.
The leadership of public health organizations tasked to respond to future public health threats must be able to operate free from political interference.
Government’s response to public health threats must be informed and guided by data.
The federal government must build a public health emergency operation team and program with the capacity to coordinate and respond to major health crises.
The country must have a health screening system as part of its border patrol control system.
State governments must reinvent the public health capacity.
Citizen action is essential.
1. We must draw clear lines of responsibilities and authority between the various levels of government during a health crisis; the people must know who is in charge and when.
During the pandemic, the federal government on several occasions created unnecessary public confusion—at a time when there was no room for error—by attempting to overstep its authority. The U.S. Constitution, specifically the Tenth Amendment, reserves broad authority for the states including over matters of public health. In a pandemic, the federal government should issue data-based uniform standards to give states the information and guidance they need to make decisions, such as closing businesses or schools. Once state government has set the rules, local governments must actively monitor and enforce compliance in their communities. This responsibility of the local governments is critical, because failure to ensure businesses and individuals are adhering to public health mandates and guidelines will result in viral spread.
Issuing data-based uniform standards and guidance is just one of the federal government’s roles during a pandemic. It is also the federal government’s responsibility to set national travel standards for both international and domestic flights during an emergency. When a pandemic is identified overseas, any delay in quickly stopping international travel activity can lead to rapid virus spread in the United States. As COVID demonstrated, federal inaction or delay in stopping international flights from hot spots overseas to the United States places states in a position where they are unable—both legally and practically—to control the virus from coming in. During a pandemic, the federal government must exercise its authority to conduct robust airport screenings of both domestic and international flights.
COVID demonstrated the need for states to redesign their public health care into a more coherent system and provide resources to modernize the system using technology. The federal government should provide
