Quotes exemplifying political leadership, or not

From the 2017 March for Science protest.

From Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address in 1933, at the height of the Great Depression:

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is … fear itself.”

Winston Churchill in 1940, as the United Kingdom military retreated from France (Dunkirk), brought back to the UK in large part by citizen boaters, with the fear of a Nazi invasion:

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

And President John F. Kennedy, during the Cold War between the US and the USSR:

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

JFK also created the Peace Corps...

President Trump:

"No I don't take responsibility at all."

WRT President Trump's overall statement, it seemingly isn't really problematic. He doesn't take responsibility, stating that the government is incapable of creating lab tests quickly in extranormal situations, that you need the private sector to do it ("I ran the White House pandemic office. Trump closed it," Washington Post.

That's not true. Other countries and other government agencies like the World Health Organization developed tests and systems just fine.  Although others did not.

Charlie shares with us a great article from the Financial Times, "Containing coronavirus: lessons from Asia," although because it is an article normally behind a paywall, it might not work.

It discusses best practice response by Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Because these countries dealt with SARS and MERS, they maintained epidemic response systems which were allowed to atrophy in the US.

The piece cites a medical journal article on the Taiwan response to Covid-19, "Response to COVID-19 in Taiwan: Big Data Analytics, New Technology, and Proactive Testing," Journal of the American Medical Association.