February 16, 2022

In The New York Times on February 7, Ezra Klein writes about the key missing ingredient in America’s response to the coronavirus pandemic—trust. We don’t trust the government and we don’t trust each other. Countries with greater trust ratings did better in the pandemic, particularly in Asia (Japan, South Korea, and Singapore).

Trust was undermined almost immediately in the US. First, we didn’t need masks, then we did. Then schools were closed down for unclear reasons and people had to work from home. We were disinfecting our groceries when it turned out this virus was transmitted through the respiratory route, not on surfaces. Then there’s the whole question of vaccine mandates which probably would have been better handled by not needing them because the case for vaccines was effectively made by the CDC and NIH which obviously did not happen. Oh, they tried, but it didn’t work. Many did not trust the government.