Fighting Pandemics is a Federal Role and Duty.
- The reasons are simple:
- Pandemics are worldwide epidemics and a threat to all United States and territories.
- Pathogens are extremely good at ignoring borders.
- The costs of dealing with any emergency disaster (including pandemics) is more than any one state can handle, but bearable if treated as a national issue.
- The opportunities for bribery, graft, profiteering and other piratical activities prey on the weaknesses of fractured government.
- Yes, the tactics at the local level should be commanded by local officials, but General strategy is always best managed at a General Level.
Fighting Pandemics is National Security
As illustrated by the disaster that is COVID-19, pandemics are a security issue. And while input from the CBREN community is valuable, treating them as a chemical, Biological, Radiological, Explosive or Nuclear attack is usually counter-productive, because usually the first victims of a pandemic are the people who originated it. So if they created a pandemic to attack someone else, they wound up attacking themselves. Viruses and other contagious disease, as already mentioned, don't respect borders. Moreover, fighting a virus, is easiest if one starts at the source, so Federalist principles apply at the world level as well as at the national level.
Democratic Subsidiarity and Emergency Response
The Federalist principle of democratic subsidiarity, means that general support must be given to local decision makers so that they can have the material, resources, training and personnel necessary to respond to local threats. Applied in the case of an epidemic, the federal government needs to be on-hand with guidance, financial and material support when a local issue arises and should assume a support role. Stepping in only when local authorities are overwhelmed, fail, or ask for help. Before crises, locals should be trained as first responders, should stockpile Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and be cross trained in necessary capabilities. Local institutions should be encouraged to build in engineering controls to make their response easier and as a prophylactic against death and infection, before a response can be mounted. As we are seeing in the current COVID-19 crisis, suddenly people we don't usually think of as essential workers, are essential. Such people need to be trained in responding to emergencies and in protecting themselves. This is another reason why we need to make Medical Health a National Guard/Reserve Function. It is also why Universal service should include Healthcare and Emergency Services as part of the basic training and options. The people closest to an issue, should be the people equipped to handle that issue, as they already know the context and people involved. We are seeing heroic work being done by doctors and nurses with respect to COVID-19. Unfortunately we currently to not have the depths of immediately available resources to treat a large load of cases much less to quickly test, isolate and trace contacts to try to slow the pandemic spread.
Central Government Power of Abstraction
The role of centralized authorities comes from their power of strategy. Which is the exercise of the power of abstraction. Locals see tactics. Generals Generalize from experience. Locals can adapt quickly based on applying flexible principles to practical conditions and taking action. But central authorities can calculate material needs, stockpile material, track where material is stockpiled, and move it around as needed. Central authorities can also store information and tell people how to respond to a situation that they may not have experienced, but someone else, somewhere has. A flexible response system sets up reserve Emergency rooms in Clinics not normally used as hospitals, uses the reserve system to train health care providers and trains local people to be ready when needed for an emergency. Even private companies can be part of such a system. If hospitals are to be directed to keep a 90 day supply of PPE and factories be prepared to shift to producing vital components for an emergency response, the best way to do that is through a reserve system. During ordinary times you drill for possible or forecasted emergencies. And the local officials inspect stockpiles and make sure that inventories are kept refreshed FIFO, and not depleted or allowed to age.
This pandemic is showing how our lack of a flexible response system organized on a Federal level, and lack of trained personnel, is hampering response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Training Up Preparation for Hazards
Locals should be involved in their own self defense. That includes local policing and local healthcare. So locals should be trained as reserve fire, rescue, safety and healthcare first responders and for those able to, for positions as providers or support personnel. The military solves job gaps, by directing personnel to fill them. A reserve system can ensure that public goods and goods that are not proper goods for distributing through markets, get where they needed. This system has the added benefit of training doctors, who after doing their required full time duty, can go into more elective work until needed for something serious. As we are seeing in this pandemic, people taken for granted, suddenly become essential workers. But that means that people in most communities across the nation should be part of our essential response.
Lessons Learned from COVID-19
I've been talking of these subjects since 2010 when I started analyzing the big picture on our country's emergency response systems. Our national security is as much dependent on healthcare as it is on guns and ammo. The Assyrians were felled by a communicable disease when they attacked Jerusalem, not force of arms. The Battle of Yorktown was won by disease. The USA, working with allies around the world, defeated Small Pox, Polio, and a host of other pathogens by working together. Walter Reed got his start fighting Malaria. This COVID-19 would have been a bear even if we had someone competent at the helm of the country, but we must learn from his gross errors if we don't want it to happen again. The Pandemic Response team should be a part of the National Security Council, with it's own cross agency team and resources, and under the command of the Surgeon General. the Military Health System should be part of the National Health System, and we are so close to having these things working together. But we aren't their yet because of ideology, profiteering and privateering. Some things need to be done by public government and not be in private government hands or absent checks and balances. That is the only way to make sure they are done in an accountable fashion.
As usual I have a lot to say but this will do for now.
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