J. Larry Brown: A tale of leadership in two states

To The Daily Sun,

President Trump's failure to provide national leadership to address COVID started as far back as March 2020. He first denied the pandemic altogether (“it’ll be over in a few days”), and then washed his hands of leadership (“it’s not my responsibility”), pushing responses off onto each state governor. Scholarly studies in the near future will likely show that tens of thousands of Americans died unnecessarily by Trump’s dishonesty and lack of leadership.

Not surprisingly, statewide efforts to address COVID varied greatly, much of it due to differences among states in financial resources, personal protective equipment and acute care beds—disparities which could have been significantly alleviated by an overall national plan and federal leadership.

But lack of leadership also played a role at the state level, with some governors preferring to let citizens have the “freedom to die” (and to cause others to die), rather than enforcing mask mandates. Some governors led, others failed to do so. A comparison of Vermont and New Hampshire is instructive, particularly since the states are both small, adjacent to one another, and each is led by a Republican governor.

Gov. Phil Scott of Vermont led from the start, assembling the top medical people working in state agencies to educate and assist the public. Scott has also held two press conferences each week for months, accepting any and all questions from television, radio and newspaper reporters. Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire took a very different approach. Staying largely below the COVID radar, he exerted almost no statewide leadership. Sununu held few press conferences, delayed vaccine distribution, and was the last New England governor to issue a mask mandate.

Results in the two states tell the story of leadership and its absence. John Hopkins University reports that as of Jan. 18, 2021, NH has had 56,864 cases of COVID, and Vermont has had 10,057. This significant difference cannot be explained by population differences. New Hampshire has a rate of 4,182 cases per 100,000 people, while Vermont’s rate is 1,612, more than two and a half times lower than the NH rate.

In terms of actual deaths per 100,000 people, Vermont’s rate is 23, while New Hampshire’s death rate is 69—precisely three times higher. Clearly not all differences among states can be attributed to leadership alone, but like for the U.S. itself, New Hampshire residents experience more COVID and more deaths because its governor—like the president— failed to take responsibility to protect the public.

J. Larry Brown

Lancaster