Rhode Island’s Lose-Lose Decisions - Nick Landekic

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Nick Landekic, Guest MINDSETTER™

 

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As was reported here this week, Rhode Island has the dubious distinction of having both the worst performance of all states for jobs recovery from the pandemic h and also continues to have one of the worst public health records with the fourth-highest COVID death rate in the country and the second-highest per capita infection rate in the country, just barely behind North Dakota.

The harsh reality is that Rhode Island’s policies through the pandemic have failed to either protect our health and lives, or to save jobs. The result is both a public health catastrophe and an economic fiasco.

This stands in sharp contrast to Vermont, which has the opposite experience on both counts. Vermont is ranked first in jobs recovery from the pandemic, and has also had the second-lowest per capita COVID infection rate.

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This is not a coincidence. These results are a direct outcome of the decisions and strategies made by each state’s government.

Governors Raimondo and McKee have both failed to realize that being safe is good for the economy. The experiences of Vermont, Maine, and other states and countries have shown that economies thrive not only when people feel safe, but actually are safe to go out and spend money. The pushes by the Governors to prematurely reopen bars and restaurants in the belief that was ‘good for the economy’ were unfounded, mistaken, and very short-sighted.

As a result, we have paid the price both with our health and lives, and economically. If RI had followed the more sensible policies of states such as Vermont or Maine, with a priority to safeguard the health and lives our infections and deaths might have been much lower - perhaps around 47,000 COVID cases instead of 151,258, and 530 deaths instead of 2,704.

It’s a hard and painful way of looking at it, but the unpleasant reality is that RI’s virus-friendly policies may have cost us 2,200 more deaths and well over 100,000 more infections than we otherwise might have suffered if our leaders had been more prudent. In addition to fewer illnesses and deaths, the experiences of other states show that our economy would likely have been stronger as well. We suffered and died for nothing. 

Rhode Island’s Governors have a habit of doubling down on bad decisions and making the same mistakes over and over again, repeatedly loosening safety restrictions before it was prudent to do so. Such as, reopening too soon in the spring of 2020; delaying necessary safety measures in late 2020 that resulted in RI having the highest infection rate anywhere in the world; and again reopening too soon in the winter of this year. The good fortune we are now having with the recent decline in infections may be more just luck and not the result of our actions. 

It usually works out better to learn from mistakes than to keep making the same ones over and over again. Real-world experiences show that the interests of protecting health and lives, and the economy, are aligned and not contradictory. If Governor McKee is truly serious about “jobs”, then maybe he should learn from both our past mistakes and the undeniable successes of others and make Rhode Island one of the safest states instead one of the worst pandemic public health debacles.

Rhode Island has received $1.25 billion from the federal Coronavirus Relief Fund (CARES Act). This is a one-time grant, a non-recurring windfall that gives us a chance to try and do things better than the dismal performance so far. How about:

1. Redouble vaccination efforts.

Rhode Island’s vaccination efforts have been good, ranking 7th in the country for first shots and 5th for fully vaccinated.

Despite that laudable performance, it’s not good enough. Given that we have one of the highest both infection rates and death rates in the country, we must do even better. Once again Vermont leads the way and is number one in the country both for first shots and fully vaccinated, again showing that the interests of health and jobs are aligned.

Rhode Island should use the CARES money to expand current vaccination efforts, going door to door if needed, to make sure that every possible person willing to be vaccinated in the state receives it.

Consensus is building that regular booster shots will be needed to maintain protection – vaccination against COVID will need to be ongoing, just like it is for the flu. Rhode Island must establish a working database of all residents and create a management, communications, and scheduling system to facilitate people getting future booster shots. Otherwise, this winter it will be the same chaos all over again.

2. Shore up the flagging testing program and take action when and where needed.

As reported here this week, Rhode Island’s COVID testing is collapsing.

It’s important to realize that while we are celebrating the ‘end of the pandemic’, infections today are more than double what they were last July. Last summer we were experiencing about 30-40 new cases per day – now we are having over 100.

Now is not the time to give up on testing. As Dr. Michael Fine has counseled we must redouble our testing efforts as an early warning system to spot problems and do something about them before they skyrocket into much worse situations, such as India and Brazil are experiencing.

Testing is even more important because of variants. These are different situations from what we faced before. There are several variants already found in Rhode Island that are more easily transmitted, can cause more serious illness, and show varying degrees of resistance. These include the P.1 “Brazil”, B.1.1.7 “U.K.”, and B.1.617 “India” variants, all of which have been reported here. Cases of P.1 have been increasing and are up 30% over the past week. Now is not the time to let down our guard, and testing is a tool to protect us.

Rhode Island should use CARES money to increase the availability of rapid testing centers, place them in locations such as malls and shopping plazas to make it as easy as possible to get tested, and educate people on the importance of continued testing. Everyone should be getting tested weekly, and we must do whatever it takes to approach that goal.

Even more importantly, Rhode Island must be willing to take action when needed. Testing in the past has mostly been aimless, more simply about generating large numbers of tests but without any meaningful response. Testing for the sake of testing is pointless. The purpose of testing is to identify hot spots and then implement necessary safety measures to contain it. Otherwise, it’s just a lot of numbers in a spreadsheet.

3. Set a state goal of reducing the infection rate to one of the lowest in the country.

The experiences of other states such as Vermont should teach us that the interests of public health and the economy are the same. Rhode Island’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism. Why not commit to making Rhode Island one of the safest states in the country instead of one of the most infected, and use that to promote tourism?

Governor McKee should make it a formal state goal to do whatever is needed to reduce infections to one of the lowest in the country. Vermont, Maine, and others have shown that if we are serious about this, jobs and economic benefits will follow. Rhode Island’s strategies to date have not worked. Let’s do things better going forward, while we have the chance.

We are not out of the woods yet. Let’s take advantage of this apparent seasonal decline in infections to intensify our vaccination and testing efforts to drive out the virus while we can. Let’s emerge from this crisis as a winner and not a continued double loser. The opportunity is ours to grasp or to lose. When it comes to pandemics, the price of hubris, or ignorance, is very high. 

Nick Landekic a retired scientist and biotechnology executive with over 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

 

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