April 15, 2020 Issue, Page 4 of 8

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Page 4 The Elk City News, Elk City, Oklahoma Wednesday, April 15, 2020 Opinion Page The key to beating the coronavirus? Innovation “ElkCituNews By Thomas D. Kuczmar- ski, Chicago Tribune worn World War II analogy, people I would say,” he re- there. It is a travesty that so many people still say they plied. “There is no patent. we did it with millions of Serving Western Oklahoma since 1901 We call ourselves a nation have symptoms but cannot troops and supplies. We can Could you patent the sun?” of innovators. As one who get a test. Even if we are certainly do it now. The leader of the COV- Feed, comfort ER has taught and written about the innovation process for late in getting this testing underway, it is still needed - Reopen the economy: This innovation is based ID-19 vaccine effort would take into account everything workers and save your more than 30 years, I believe as new hot spots emerge it can be a lens that provides and more feasible as testing on building confidence and again testing is key, but test- from coordinating and fund- ing the massive research ef- a strikingly different view of techniques improve. At the ing of a different type. It is fort already underway to a favorite restaurant at all that is being done to fight Centers for Disease Control the testing that will tell us, fully funded plan for making the same time COVID-19. and Prevention in March, before controls are lifted, ifa it available to all. Innovation starts with President Donald Trump region is virus-free or if it is Leadership is clearly an is- By Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon, Los Angeles identifying unmet needs and said that “as of right now just waiting to explode into sue. We see a lot of speakers Times designing and putting into and yesterday, anybody that a hot spot. It will include at Trump’s daily press brief- practice what is needed to needs a test (can have one).” tests that can be used by in- ings, but I challenge you to As we shelter in place, hunkered down, washing our meet those needs. It wasn’t true then and it still dividuals to see if they and tell me who is responsible hands, it’s easy to feel helpless, and worse, to feel useless. Overcoming COVID-19 isn’t. It should be. the people they interact with for what. Imagine a briefing We endlessly refresh our browsers and inboxes for news is the ultimate unmet need. Testing data will set the are free of the virus. It will about the progress of this pandemic. in which the president said: What has become clear from stage to flatten the curves, reveal who has antibodies. “My friends, as you know, Overwhelmed hospitals and health workers. Unemploy- the painful experience of and provide the informa- With widely available and ment and economic instability. we face three huge overlap- the last three months is that tion needed to build the top- easy-to-use testing, people The news is all there, all the time, along with the pain and ping needs as we meet and there are three key innova- to-bottom logistics system will have the confidence to beat the COVID-19 chal- suffering. But what can we actually do to help, when we tions needed to meet its chal- this innovation calls for. It go back to work, school or lenge. I will now let the can’t even leave our homes? lenge. includes knowing what is dinner with a friend. There leader of each of these three A couple of weeks ago we got an email blast from Tanya — Flatten the curves: There needed and where, and the is plenty of talk about the is not one big curve, there supply chain that will move elements update you on need to reopen the economy, Holland, a friend and local chef, the owner of Brown Sugar Kitchen, a restaurant at the heart of the vibrant restaurant are many. This innovation each item - protective equip- but no sign of a clear plan to progress and challenges.” would focus on the many ment, ventilators and any- meet such an obvious need. Imagine also an organiza- scene in Oakland, Calif. tion chart that would show The order to close bars and restaurants had just come hot spots where the fight is thing else needed to fight the Sure, it would be expensive, down, and fearing the devastating impact to her small busi- already underway. The na- battle at hand - to exactly but cheap compared with the each of the key people, their tion has health care provid- where it is needed when it is alternative. primary responsibility, and ness, she was imploring her customers to order takeout. We duly placed a lunch order. ers who are fully engaged, needed. — Develop the vaccine: to whom each reports. It capable and heroic in treat- This nation has enormous This is the innovation that would have the president at While Ayelet was on her way to pick it up, she happened the top with three people im- ing COVID-19 victims. But expertise in logistics. There will eliminate our fear once to hear from a friend who is an emergency room doctor. He they can’t get ahead of the is no reason we cannot know and for all. In the early mediately below. told her that someone - a stranger - had just showed up at virus without fully funded exactly where each piece of 1950s, fear of polio was sec- We are seeing a lot of ac- California Pacific Medical Center’s emergency department and comprehensive testing equipment is going from the ond only to fear of nuclear tion, but action is not a sub- with dinner from a fine restaurant. It was the first thing he to learn who has the virus, moment it is manufactured war among the American stitute for strategy. Innova- had eaten in days, he said, that wasn’t out of a vending including when no symp- to the person who will use people. The sense of relief tion is needed to get us to the machine. toms are present. The per- it. There would be no more when Jonas Salk announced other side of the COVID-19 We had been wrestling with feelings of helplessness and son leading this part of the health care providers saying his vaccine was enormous. challenge as quickly as pos- uselessness. Ayelet saw at once that this might be a solu- effort would be clear about they need masks and federal When he announced the sible. tion. There had to be a way to nourish the front-line health the enormous scale of test- officials saying the masks vaccine in a radio interview Thomas D. Kuczmarski is care heroes putting their lives at risk in our community ev- ing needed and the resources exist, go find them. Each with the legendary broad- the president of Kuczmarski ery day and save our local restaurants at the same time. required to get the job done. state would be integrated caster Edward R. Murrow, Innovation, an internation- Ayelet ordered 25 meals from Brown Sugar Kitchen and It is one thing to say there into this federally led logis- Salk was asked who would al innovation consultancy drove them over to Oakland’s Highland Hospital emergen- are millions of tests out tics plan. To use the well- own the patent. “Well, the based in Chicago. cy room. The first nurse she saw when she arrived at the ER began to cry when Ayelet told the nurse that she had a delivery of food, which, of course, made Ayelet cry too. Disconnect grows between Trump, We don’t know if the coronavirus can be passed through tears, but we're glad nonetheless that they were standing scientific advisers more than 6 feet apart. Four days after that impromptu delivery, www.eastbay- By Carl P. Leubsdorf, tary. “I leave it up to the some materials were deplet- to massive rates of death and feeder.org was up and running. We began with one meal The Dallas Morning News governors,” he said. ed by use during the Obama disability, severely affect the It was one of many days years, Trump has had three world economy.” For three years, Trump has a day delivered to the staff at Highland Hospital, ordered that U.S. deaths from the shown himself to be a differ- years to fill any lack of -Trump’s slow response. from a local restaurant at full price (plus a generous tip). novel coronavirus hit a new ent kind of president. Now, equipment. For more than two months, Now, two weeks after that first meal delivery, East Bay peak, but President Donald he is showing he is a differ- He’s lately used his daily he downplayed the threat, FeedER’s 40 volunteers feed the staffs of five East Bay Trump seemed determined ent kind of “wartime presi- briefings to push his person- ignoring warnings from po- ERs and intensive care units with food from the kitchens of to maintain a positive tone. dent.” al panacea, a drug called hy- litical allies, officials like five different local independently owned restaurants every droxychloroquine that treats Health and Human Services “It’s a beautiful day in This is no Franklin Roo- day. malaria and lupus, though its Secretary Alex Azar and Washington, D.C., and sevelt, invoking federal use against this virus is nei- even a top White House We have raised $200,000 of the $400,000 we think we'll powers and naming “czars” we're getting better every ther proven nor approved. aide, Peter Navarro. Just one need to continue this project for the next six weeks to two day,” the president said an to manage wartime produc- “What have you got to month ago, Trump declared, months, through this phase of the pandemic. early April daily briefing on tion, prices and wages, nor a lose?” he asked Sunday. Dr. “we're prepared, and we're Most of us volunteers have jobs we are still trying to do the virus that has crippled George H. W. Bush mobiliz- Fauci has been among the doing a great job with it. remotely. Many of us have children whose education we the nation. “You'll see bad ing a global coalition against skeptics but, when reporters And it will go away.” Even must oversee. We've taken on this extra task for a few rea- things and then you’re go- Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, nor sought his view, the presi- his Jan. 31 China travel ban sons. First, it’s a way to show our profound gratitude to ing to see some very good a Harry Truman proclaim- dent blocked the 79-year-old from China was only partial; ing, “The buck stops here.” expert from replying. thousands have flown here the people who risk their lives every day to save us, our things.” At times, he resembles Two days later, Trump Herbert Hoover repeatedly Trump showed concern since then. friends, families and neighbors. was even more optimistic. about how his management -His mismanagement of Second, the independent restaurants of the East Bay are a “We see a light at the end saying the worst was over of the crisis may be judged the crisis. Trump has re- defensively jected proposals to name vital part of the ethnically diverse and inventive culture that as the depression deepened, sustains this community. of the tunnel,” he said. But or Lyndon Johnson seeing a by reacting a single person to manage earlier Sunday, the govern- bright light at the end of ev- when House Speaker Nancy But we think that for many of us, a third reason is just as ment’s top infectious disease ery Vietnamese tunnel. Pelosi announced a special the situation. Authority is divided among two task important: We’ re doing it because being of use feels like a expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, In reality, it is the same committee to monitor ad- forces, one under Vice Pres- survival strategy, a way to make it through this lonely and said on CBS’ “Face the Na- Donald Trump, repeatedly ministration dispersal of bil- ident Mike Pence, one under long period of social isolation, a reminder of how it feels to tion.” “We are struggling to commending himself for do- lions in federal aid funds. He son-in-law Jared Kushner. be part of a community that nurtures its own. get it under control.” ing “a great job” (or being called it yet another “witch Trump invoked the Defense When people used to ask Fred Rogers, of TV’s “Mister As the virus spreads and “No. 1 on Facebook”) while hunt,” perhaps confusing Production Act, under which Rogers’ Neighborhood,” for his advice with helping chil- afflicts more Americans in blaming shortcomings on the panel with proposals for the government can compel others, be it Barack Obama a 9/11-style commission to private firms to produce dren confront scenes of horror and disaster in the world, more states and cities, the or the governors he accused study how the administra- he would say, “When I was a boy and I would see scary disconnect between Trump of exaggerating their needs tion has handled the crisis. needed items, but only used things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for and his own scientific advis- for lifesaving equipment or In time, there’ll be some- it sparingly. And he under- the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” ers has grown as the presi- failing to do enough testing. thing like that. When it does, cut warnings from scientific Those words are comforting for children, and they can dent presses to “open our Trump has repeatedly down- these three main areas seem advisers for more extensive be comforting for adults, too, when we face some terrible country up” and restore the played the federal govern- likely to command its atten- restrictions by repeatedly vibrant pre-virus economy ment’s leading role in cop- tion: expressing hope the country calamity. he hoped would spur his re- ing with what he proclaimed —The administration’s lack could soon reopen for busi- But the heroic doctors, nurses and other practitioners throwing themselves body and soul into the fight against election. as a national emergency and, of preparedness. Despite ness. Trump’s statement “Nobody Throughout his business When Trump announced with it, his own responsibil- COVID-19 remind us that looking for the helpers isn’t the Centers for Disease Con- ity for the disaster that has knew there would be a pan- and political careers, Trump enough. overtaken the country. demic or epidemic of this has displayed a Houdini-like trol recommendation that We have to find ways - however circumscribed by quar- all Americans wear a face “J don’t take responsibility proportion,” Obama officials ability to escape the conse- antine or ability - to be helpers ourselves, not just out of a at all,” Trump declared when briefed his aides in January quences when economic or covering outside, he said he political disaster threatened. sense of duty to our neighbors and our communities, but would ignore it. asked about the administra- 2017 of the potential dan- because there’s comfort to be found in helping, in feeling tion’s lag in providing test ger. In 2019, the intelligence The coronavirus crisis is that you can also be of some use. After Dr. Fauci declared kits to determine who had community warned “the challenging all his abilities on CNN, “I don’t under- the virus. United States and the world to keep doing so. Ayelet Waldman is the author, most recently, of “A Re- stand why all states are not When he took over, he will remain vulnerable to the Carl P. Leubsdorf is the ally Good Day.” Michael Chabon is the Pulitzer Prize-win- under stay-at-home orders,” said, “the (government’s) next flu pandemic or large- former Washington bureau ning author of “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Trump indicated his guid- shelves were empty” of nec- scale outbreak of a conta- chief of The Dallas Morning Clav.” Thev live in Berkelev. Calif.. with their children. ance there too was volun- essary equipment. While gious disease that could lead News.