EDITORIAL: Leaders, do your part

Mar. 22--During a natural disaster, people's lives depend on the competence and transparency of civic leaders. The spread of the new coronavirus in Colorado has seen reassuring examples of officials performing admirably. It has also found leaders failing to serve the best interests of constituents.

Boulder County Public Health officials, along with Mike Chard, director for the Boulder Office of Emergency Management, have exhibited professionalism and preparedness as COVID-19 began last week to appear in the county. During a Boulder City Council meeting on March 3 -- two days before the first positive case of the disease was identified in Colorado -- City Manager Jane Brautigam and other city officials discussed publicly and frankly the potential for extraordinary emergency operations in the face of COVID-19. Councilwoman Rachel Friend made the prescient observation that the disease could become "pandemic quicker than we think."

Gov. Jared Polis has not shied from extreme restrictions meant to enforce social distancing as public health officials recommend them as necessary. His administration has shut down schools, downhill ski operations, sit-down restaurant service, gyms and other businesses that attract groups of people, and last week it prohibited gatherings of more than 10 people. His decisive action will be economically painful, but his willingness to take it in the end will protect Coloradans, and his transparency has been a source of comfort for an anxious state.

With how the coronavirus has since infected an ever-growing number of Coloradans, brought the economy to a near-standstill, and threatens to hold the social, commercial and educational life of the state in suspension for an extended period, it might even be tempting to accuse state officials of failing to act quick enough. But they relied to a large degree on the performance of national leadership, which too often downplayed the threat or bungled the response. President Trump has proved dangerously inept and deceptive in his handling of the crisis. On Thursday NPR reported that Sen. Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee (on which Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet also serves), said privately on Feb. 27 that the coronavirus would probably be "akin to the 1918 pandemic," even though the president the same day said publicly, "It's going to disappear. One day, it's like a miracle. It will disappear."

But Coloradans have seen some of their own elected leaders behave with ignorance or recklessness in response to the pandemic. Longmont mayor Brian Bagley on March 15 -- a day before Polis closed restaurants and bars in response to a dire escalation in COVID-19 cases -- threw a fit on Facebook about people ceasing to patronize businesses and tried to argue that dining out and clothes shopping were "necessities" on par with essentials like medicine. "Restaurant for those who can't cook? Necessity," he wrote. "Clothing store when a parka is lost and a snow storm is coming? Necessity." Meanwhile, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment warns that people can have asymptomatic COVID-19 and they "may place other vulnerable members of the public at significant risk."

The Colorado official who might look the worst when the history of COVID-19 is written is Ken Buck, the District 4 congressman and head of the state's Republican Party, who chafed at directives that discouraged patronage at businesses. "It's just craziness to shut down businesses or parts of the economy that are absolutely necessary," Buck said Wednesday, well past the point when there was any ambiguity about the need in Colorado for strict social distancing.

It is inexcusable at this point for elected leaders to undercut the urgent message from public health officials that social distancing is critical to slowing the spread of the coronavirus. Yes, this comes at the cost of severe economic hardship, but the alternative is corpses piled high, and any official who refuses to acknowledge this reality or lacks the mettle to lead accordingly should step aside.

Do not believe the "this is like the flu" counterarguments, which, like a plague, continue to infect the coronavirus conversation. An influential report last week from the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team predicted that, left unchecked, the coronavirus would kill 2.2 million people in the United States -- the flu claims about 59,690 annually -- and that drastic suppression measures, such as population-wide social distancing, are required for many weeks to prevent a surge of COVID-19 cases from overwhelming the health care system. So much is still unknown about the coronavirus, but it's currently understood to be more contagious and more deadly than the flu. And scientists are, at best, a year away from developing an effective vaccine.

These are hard realities to digest. Even harder to act on. But while Coloradans need their leaders to make sober, difficult choices, it's within their power to battle COVID-19 through their own behavior. Last week Polis launched a campaign, #DoingMyPartCO, which encourages residents to help stop the spread of the disease. The governor said, "It's not going to be easy, but the more seriously we take this public health emergency, the better we can weather the storm and get through this crisis with as little damage as possible."

Individual Coloradans already have shown strength and sacrifice in heeding this call. Their leaders in government should all do the same.

Quentin Young, for the editorial board, [email protected], @qpyoungnews.

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