In an editorial titled "Dying in a Leadership Vacuum," a prestigious peer-reviewed medical journal condemned President Donald Trump's administration for its response during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a test of leadership, American leaders have failed, editors of the New England Journal of Medicine wrote in their editorial published Wednesday. "They have taken a crisis and turned it into a tragedy."
The editorial board said testing failures, dismissal of scientific experts, weak enforcement of preventive measures such as social distancing and mask wearing, as well as the politicization of vaccines and science, have led the U.S. to fail "at almost every step," compared with other nations less financially and technologically advanced.
"Covid-19 is an overwhelming challenge, and many factors contribute to its severity. But the one we can control is how we behave. And in the United States we have consistently behaved poorly," the NEJM editors wrote.
"Our leaders have largely claimed immunity for their actions. But this election gives us the power to render judgment. Reasonable people will certainly disagree about the many political positions taken by candidates. But truth is neither liberal nor conservative. When it comes to the response to the largest public health crisis of our time, our current political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent," they continued.
As of Oct. 7, there are more than 211,000 coronavirus deaths in the U.S. and more than 7.5 million confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins. The death rate is more than double that of Canada's, surpasses Japan's "by a factor of almost 50" _ "a country with a vulnerable and elderly population" _ and "even dwarfs the rates in lower-middle-income countries, such as Vietnam, by a factor of almost 2,000," the editors wrote.
They blame America's late isolation and quarantine measures after the disease had taken over several communities across the country, "lackadaisical" rules on social distancing and the exclusion of scientists and scientific organizations such as the National Institutes of Health from important decision making.
"And in much of the country, people simply don't wear masks, largely because our leaders have stated outright that masks are political tools rather than effective infection control measures. ... Instead of relying on expertise, the administration has turned to uninformed 'opinion leaders' and charlatans who obscure the truth and facilitate the promulgation of outright lies," the editorial reads.
Dr. Eric Rubin, editor-in-chief of the medical journal and an author of the new editorial, told CNN that the journal has never published an editorial about elections but "the issue here is around fact, not around opinion."
"There have been many mistakes made that were not only foolish but reckless and I think we want people to realize that there are truths here, not just opinions," Rubin told the outlet. "We rarely publish editorials signed by all the editors."
It's not the first time a medical journal has spoken up about the upcoming election.
The Lancet published an editorial in May asking Americans to "put a president in the White House come January, 2021, who will understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics."
Scientific American, the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the country, also released an article that endorsed a presidential candidate for the first time in its 175-year history. It chose Joe Biden.
