Idaho Gov. Little’s lack of action a failure of leadership, failure in public safety

With coronavirus cases spiking in Idaho, death rates rising and Idaho’s health care capacity reaching its breaking point in some areas, one would think that Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s press conference Friday was going to be used to announce drastic measures in response to the crisis.

That wasn’t the case.

Little, himself, set the stage for what seemed like a more urgent, much-needed response from his office.

“Alarmingly our hospitals are telling us it is only a matter of weeks at the current rate of spread before they must start rationing care,” Little said. “This means they will have to turn away people from the ER, or they will be unable to provide the best care for patients with COVID, heart attacks, strokes and other health issues. This is unacceptable, and more must be done.”

But then he didn’t really do more.

Little announced that about 100 members of the Idaho National Guard were going to help hospitals screen patients and disinfect buildings.

He announced that Idaho was moving back to Stage 2 (sort of) in the reopening plan, but with exceptions allowing all businesses to remain open, including bars and nightclubs, which had to be closed in the original Stage 2.

Most disappointing was what he didn’t do.

He didn’t issue a statewide mask mandate, as many were hoping for, even though “education” and “personal responsibility” admittedly aren’t doing the trick.

“What we’ve been pleading every two weeks obviously hasn’t been working as well as we like to see it,” the governor said.

To help his case, Little introduced Amelia Cortez, a recovering COVID-19 patient, and Rachel Thain, a St. Luke’s respiratory therapist, who gave heartfelt and emotional testimony about the seriousness of the disease.

“And both of them were very credible and very sincere, and we’re hopeful that that will have a bigger impact,” Little said.

But if there is any indication of how little effect that likely will have on some Idahoans, one need look no further than the sickening comments on Facebook that scrolled past during Little’s press conference.

Commenters continued their misguided chants of tyranny and communism, spread disinformation and conspiracy theories, questioned the truthfulness of health officials and even shot insults at Cortez and Thain.

It’s still shocking how some Idahoans could listen to these stories and not feel some sort of empathy.

Unfortunately, those commenters have some of our state politicians as role models, including members of Little’s own party, such as Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin and many Republican legislators, who are undermining public health by resisting mask mandates and criticizing many of Little’s emergency orders.

And here, again, Little failed to demonstrate the leadership Idaho needs in this crucial moment.

“They are all independently elected, and they can do what they do, and I do what I do,” Little said.

Unfortunately, this isn’t just a failure in leadership. It’s a failure in protecting public health, which is one of the highest callings of the government.

We’ve used this analogy before, but if the far right of Little’s party suddenly decided that driving on the right side of the road were an infringement on citizens’ inalienable right to drive on the left side of the road, we wouldn’t suddenly simply “ask” people to drive on the right side of the road.

Wearing a mask during a pandemic is important in protecting public safety. It should be required. It’s not an infringement on anyone’s right any more than requiring people to drive on the right side of the road.

At one point, in noting that half of Idaho’s population is under some sort of local mask mandate, Little conceded, “But we are seeing noncompliance with these local orders, or people are wearing their masks in public but then taking them off in social settings, such as parties and other gatherings with friends, where the virus is more likely to spread.”

But then he contradicted himself just moments later: “I continue to have great confidence in the people of Idaho to do the right thing to protect themselves and their loved ones during this challenging time of our history.”

That confidence appears to be misplaced.

Little stressed how important it is to keep children in school, and he noted that the risk of spread within the schools is less than spread outside the schools.

Unfortunately, without stronger measures to slow community spread, this is just going to get worse, and more cases, especially among our teachers, administrators and substitutes, means that schools will be forced to close even if spread is not occurring there.

As Little pointed out, closing schools means doctors and nurses might have to stay home with their children and not report for work, further burdening our health care system, which affects everyone, whether it’s COVID-19, a heart attack or a car crash.

Protecting public health is a proper role of government, and the governor still has an opportunity to take stronger measures and fulfill his duty.

In short, what we’ve been doing isn’t working. A watered-down version of Stage 2 and another round of begging people to wear a mask isn’t going to cut it.

A failure of leadership is also a failure to keep the public safe.

This story was originally published November 13, 2020 at 5:32 PM.