Trump could still save thousands of lives. All it would take is an ability to learn from the Woodward book.

Because a responsible leader could still turn things around.

It isn’t actually that difficult to imagine. A responsible leader would begin by acknowledging what is apparent to everyone: He should have acted sooner, and he shouldn’t have tried to hide the truth.

We have never had a national strategy, but a responsible leader could still announce one. Yes, it should have been done many months ago, but we can still navigate from where we are now, and it helps that we know much more than we did before. We know that a state-by-state, piecemeal approach doesn’t work. We know that we can’t eliminate covid-19, but we can manage it. We know that any road map for economic recovery begins with keeping the virus in check.

How? Start with testing. A responsible leader would make available to all Americans the rapid daily testing that the White House enjoys. He would announce the biggest mobilization for testing in history, with the goal to mass-produce and distribute fast, point-of-care tests by the tens of millions every day. We could reopen many more schools within a month if we tested all students and teachers twice a week. We could watch consumer confidence rebound if everyone were tested before boarding a plane, dining out or going to the movies. America could go from laggard to the worldwide leader in testing.

The United States can also do much more around treatment. Instead of promoting therapies that aren’t effective (hydroxychloroquine) or have not yet been shown to be (convalescent plasma), a responsible leader would speak about the two proven treatments we do have. Several randomized, controlled trials have demonstrated that readily available corticosteroids reduce mortality by as much as a third. Remdesivir also reduces recovery time and may improve survival, yet hospitals in the United States are having to ration the medication because the only company that produces it can’t keep up with demand. It’s within the president’s powers to allow other companies to make generic versions and immediately scale up production. It’s obvious what a responsible leader would do.

Then let’s talk about vaccines. Instead of aiming only for speed by claiming an arbitrary deadline of Election Day, a responsible leader would instead reassure the American people that all steps will be followed to ensure safety and efficacy. He would make the case that a vaccine doesn’t save lives unless people feel confident enough to get vaccinated. To that effect, he would launch a national public education campaign with a particular focus on communities disproportionately affected by covid-19.

Our responsible leader would also express a change of heart around masks. This is something that many public health experts have had to do, too. At the beginning of the pandemic, I and many others didn’t recommend masks for everyday use because we didn’t know about asymptomatic transmission and the degree to which the coronavirus can spread just by breathing and talking. We changed our guidance once the science became clear. Given how politicized mask-wearing has become, it would make a huge difference to hear our responsible president talk about how it’s a small sacrifice we all must make to get schools open and the economy back on track.

What difference would all of this make? An influential model predicts that there will be at least 200,000 more deaths by the end of the year if we continue on our current trajectory. Universal mask-wearing can save 100,000 of those lives. On the other hand, if restrictions were loosened further, we could face an additional 200,000 fatalities.

It is an unbelievable tragedy that so many lives have already been lost in this pandemic. It is an even greater tragedy that many more will continue to be lost. Any president could have made decisions in the uncertain early weeks of the outbreak that, in hindsight, would be deemed significant mistakes. But other presidents would have had the humility to learn and to course correct. Another leader might have used the Woodward revelations as a call to action to turn things around, but with Trump, I’m afraid it will be yet another lost opportunity.

It’s not only the choices he has already made, but the choices he continues to make, that will lead to more pain, suffering and death.

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