The Wall Street Journal - 14.03.2020 - 15.03.2020

C2|Saturday/Sunday, March 14 - 15, 2020 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

There

has to be

some

middle

ground

between

saying

it’s all

Trump’s

fault and

claiming

it’s all a

hoax.

EDITOR

AT LARGE

GERARD

BAKER

REVIEW

A National

Crisis

Met By

Political

Finger-

Pointing

of rural values, who found odd com-
fort amid the carnage. “The yellow
fever will discourage the growth of
cities in our nation,” he wrote a
friend, “& I view great cities as pes-
tilential to the morals, the health
and the liberties of man.”
Americans were stumped by its
spread. The fact that a vector as tiny
as a mosquito could cause a catastro-
phe of this magnitude was simply be-
yond anyone’s comprehension. Physi-
cians blamed the disease on miasmas
—the noxious vapors arising from
corpses, rotting food, and swamp and
sewer gases—that were believed to
form dangerous airborne clouds. The
diaries these doctors left behind
show how completely they missed
the signals that now seem so obvious
today. All complained about mosqui-
toes swarming and biting, relentless
and inescapable. One remarked that
he’d never seen as many people “cov-
ered with blisters from their venom-
ous operations.” Yet it would be an-
other full century before Dr. Walter
Reed confirmed the transmission of
the disease by mosquito, which led,
in turn, to the draining of
swamps, the screening of
windows, the development
of insecticides and eventu-
ally a vaccine.
New York City also saw
its share of epidemics.
Hardly a decade went by in
the 1700s without a serious
smallpox eruption. One out-
break in 1731 killed more
than 500 of the city’s 10,000
residents, roughly three
times the percentage of New
Yorkers who would die in
the influenza pandemic of
1918.
As the city grew, quickly
becoming America’s largest,
observers described a puls-
ing new energy—“a sea of
masts” in the harbor,
“streets jammed with carts
and wheel barrows, buildings “rising
everywhere.” But that harbor became
something ominous as well: a mag-
net for the world’s microbes and
maladies. Diseases like scarlet fever,
measles, typhus and “throat distem-
per” (diphtheria) came in giant
waves. Yet for sheer terror, nothing
quite matched cholera, which repeat-
edly brought New York to a stop.
A bacterial disease, spread
through food and water contami-
nated by the excrement of infected
victims, cholera causes the body to
expel enormous quantities of liquids
through vomiting and explosive diar-
rhea. There is no incubation period.
The victim can be fine in the morn-
ing and dead by nightfall.
Having not a clue as to its cause,

Continued from the prior page

Above right, a New York City

cholera notice from 1849.

Right, a woodcut showing a scene

from Philadelphia’s yellow fever

epidemic in 1793.

giving New York official, “& being

chiefly of the very scum of the city,

the quicker their dispatch, the

sooner the malady will cease.”

How did other New Yorkers ap-

proach cholera? In medieval fash-

ion: They quarantined the victims

and then humbled themselves be-

fore God. Sermons, prayers and

fasting were highly recommended; if

all else failed, run like hell. One ob-

server compared the exodus of

“well-filled stage coaches” during

the summer of 1832 to the stam-

pede from Pompeii “when the red

lava flowed.” Social distancing fa-

vored the rich. Those with means

weren’t inclined to stick around.

Two decades later, a brilliant

British physician named John Snow

would introduce the modern field of

epidemiology by mapping cholera

deaths surrounding a polluted well

in central London. He showed that

the disease was transmitted not by

noxious fumes in the atmosphere

but rather by something in the

drinking water, which he couldn’t

actually see. His so-called Ghost

Map convinced local authorities to

remove the well’s pump handle—

THE CHORUS OF CRITICSpre-

dicting doom because of Presi-

dent Trump’s handling of the

coronavirus pandemic would

be more convincing if they

didn’t include many of the

same people who have been

telling us for the past four

years that his presidency

would, among other things,

precipitate an immediate re-

cession; drag us into wars on

multiple fronts; turn us into a

satellite colony of the Kremlin;

and generally bring about the

enslavement of women, the

dismantling of the U.S. Consti-

tution and the collapse of

Western civilization.

If these political foes of Mr.

Trump had been giving us a

steady diet of measured, judi-

cious observations on events

rather than rending their gar-

ments over every tweet,

speech and executive order,

they would be more credible

end all about politics. His mes-

sage was simple: He’s done ev-

erything right—perfect, you

might say. If there is a crisis,

we can blame foreigners for

exporting the coronavirus to

the U.S. (keep the Poles out

but the British in); Democrats

for failing to agree on the

right response; and the media

for turning it all into a politi-

cal weapon. The White House

gives the impression that it

now sees things as a win-win:

Either the virus turns out to

be less lethal and disruptive

than we fear, or, if it doesn’t,

others will bear the cost of it.

Meanwhile, the president’s op-

ponents are gearing up to en-

sure that whatever happens,

he gets no credit.

For those of you who hoped

that our modern political dis-

pensation—where there’s no

longer objective reality but

simply a Democratic truth and

a Republican truth—might not

survive a real national crisis,

don’t get your hopes up.

In a curious way, perhaps,

we had better hope for all our

sakes that the Mr. Trump and

his critics are right—that this

escalating scare will in the end

be remembered as a political

event. Because if it isn’t, if the

tedious, demoralizing name-

calling and finger-pointing is

in the end eclipsed by unimag-

inable tragedy, the president

will not be the only one pay-

ing the price. JIM WATSON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

now when they

criticize Mr.

Trump for his

uneven re-

sponse to the

crisis.

There’s

something es-

pecially ghoul-

ish about the

current politi-

cal spectacle.

Politicians are

often accused

of wrapping

themselves in

the flag. Today

we have the spectacle of polit-

ical leaders and many in the

media adorning themselves in

shrouds. I’m sure they don’t

actually want millions of

Americans to die, but it’s hard

to avoid the unsettling impres-

sion that the hearts of at least

some of the president’s oppo-

nents beat a little faster with

each new doleful report of

more cases of the virus as it

metastasizes around the coun-

try.

Along with the spectacle of

some Democrats and media lu-

minaries morbidly willing on

the next Black Death is the pa-

rade of presidential defenders

and sycophants denouncing

the worst public-health scare

in decades as a hoax, a devil-

ish plot to turn a mere bout of

seasonal flu into the plague

that will defeat the president

in November. You don’t have

sode in the po-

litical drama of

our time: It’s

either Mr.

Trump’s fault,

or it’s all a

hoax.

It ought to

be possible to

believe that we

have a serious

and escalating

health crisis

now, of uncer-

tain ultimate

scale and

reach; that the

government’s

response was

appropriately

aggressive at

first—with the

initial travel re-

strictions on countries most

affected—but then became dil-

atory and perhaps even com-

placent as the infection hov-

ered unpredictably offshore;

and that, above all, with infec-

tions and deaths rising and

economic confidence collaps-

ing, urgent further measures

should be taken to address it.

But instead, as things stand,

the primary objective of our

leaders and influencers is to

apportion responsibility in the

hope of political gain or a few

more clicks.

With his prime-time Oval

Office address on Wednesday,

the president doubled down

on making sure this is in the

to go to the weirder

corners of the inter-

net to find conspiracy

theories that the

whole thing has been

the work of CNN pro-

ducers, Joe Biden supporters

and disaffected academics—

aided and abetted, of course,

by malevolent “Never

Trumpers” in the deep state.

It’s an interesting theory. If

you think for a second about

it, this state would have to be

deep indeed to encompass the

Italian government, just about

everyone in global financial

markets, the National Basket-

ball Association, Tom Hanks

and his wife Rita Wilson, and

that hapless soul with the cor-

onavirus who attended the re-

cent Conservative Political Ac-

tion Conference.

Thus the coronavirus crisis

becomes merely the latest epi-

Trump during a tour

of the Centers for

Disease Control and

Prevention, Atlanta,

March 6.

authorities blamed it on mias-

mas and slum-dwelling immi-

grants—in this case, the Irish.

“As a class of people,” wrote

one New York physician, “they

are exceedingly dirty, exhausted

by drunkenness, and crowded

together in the worst portions

of the city.” Certainly his last

charge was true. Fleeing the ru-

ral starvation of Counties Cork,

Kerry and Sligo for the slums of

New York City, the Irish lived in

ghastly squalor, using whatever

water was at hand. In Five

Points, their primary neighbor-

hood, that meant a series of

shallow wells polluted by fecal

waste from backyard privies.

The result was predictable.

The foreign-born accounted for 71%

of the deaths from the 1832 cholera

epidemic, at a time when immi-

grants were barely 10% of New York

City’s population. Sympathy was in

short supply. Indeed, the response

from many quarters was even

harsher than Jefferson’s view of

Philadelphia. “Those sickened must

be cured or die off,” wrote an unfor-

America’s Long Fight

Against Contagions

and the epidemic ceased. In 1884,

German researcher Robert Koch

identified that mysterious agent,

Vibrio cholerae, under a microscope,

a discovery that helped to demolish

the miasma theory for good.

Some deadly diseases came and

went; others, such as tuberculosis,

typhoid fever and smallpox, lingered

for centuries, despite medical break-

throughs that included

Edward Jenner’s mi-

raculous smallpox vac-

cine. In comparison to

Europe, where bacte-

rial research had be-

gun in earnest by the

mid-19th century,

American medicine

proved somewhat slow

to give up old habits

and ideas, from bleed-

ing and purging the

patient to the accep-

tance of germ theory,

which stipulated that

invisible organisms

caused specific diseases and that an-

tiseptic methods might be employed

to halt their spread. In 1870, one

child in five born in New York City

would not live to see his

first birthday, and 25% of

those who did reach adult-

hood would die before the

ageof30.

The unfettered optimism

surrounding the era of Salk

and miracle drugs was un-

derstandable, if somewhat

premature. The U.S. had re-

cently survived a depres-

sion and won a two-front

global war. The atomic age

had dawned. Science and

technology were riding

high. Nothing now seemed

beyond the reach of the lab-

oratory to heal or to pre-

vent. Some spoke openly of

a future without infectious

disease. “Will such a world

exist?” asked one prominent scien-

tist. “We believe so.”

It hasn’t turned out that way.

AIDS, SARS, MERS, Zika, Ebola,

swine flu, superbugs—all bear wit-

ness to the arrogance of that remark.

And yet it’s equally true that until a

month or two ago, Americans went

about their business without the

slightest concern that an epidemic on

the scale of smallpox

or cholera or yellow

fever might randomly

strike them down.

There’s a reason

we’re emotionally un-

prepared for what

may lie ahead: We

simply haven’t experi-

enced the extreme cy-

cles of infectious dis-

ease that previous

generations were

forced to endure.

We’re in frightening

new territory, won-

dering if there is

enough protective equipment for

medical personnel and first re-

sponders, if there are enough test

kits and ventilators for possible vic-

tims, if an effective vaccine is really

a year or so away.

Many wonder as well about the

new dangers unleashed by globaliza-

tion. Germs travel, and the conse-

quences can be severe. But that’s the

way it’s been for centuries, at an ad-

mittedly slower pace. Yellow fever

and malaria came to North America

from Africa; cholera and typhus rode

the steamers and “coffin ships” that

discharged immigrant cargo at our

shores. History assures us that

Covid-19 will be conquered by sci-

ence and that another virus, origi-

nating in a bat cave, a pig farm or

an open-air poultry market some-

where in the world, will rise up to

take its place. That’s the nature of

the beast.

In times like this, when anxiety

turns so easily to fear, it sometimes

helps to focus upon an optimistic vi-

sion of the future. For me, it’s the im-

age of a war hero turned president

tearfully thanking a selfless re-

searcher for helping to save the chil-

dren of the world. FROM TOP: GETTY IMAGES; ALAMY; BETTMANN ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

We haven’t

experienced

theextreme

cyclesof

infectious

diseasethat

previous

generations

endured.

Dr. Jonas Salk receiving

a special citation from

President Eisenhower at

the White House in 1955.