RI Doubles Down on a Failed Strategy - Nick Landekic

RI Doubles Down on a Failed Strategy - Nick Landekic

An old saying (often attributed to Albert Einstein) is that a definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. It seems that Governor Raimondo is repeating something that has been proven to fail by not only cancelling the ‘Pause’ too soon but easing pandemic containment measures before it is safe to do so.

On the day the Pause started, Rhode Island’s rate of new infections was 82.9/100,000/day. Just a few days later, by December 3rd it had soared to 113.3, earning the state the horrendous achievement of literally having the highest infection rate not only in the country but the entire world. This past Thursday when the Governor announced the end of the Pause, the infection rate had decreased to 108.5, the second highest in the country and the world, and 31% higher than the day the Pause started (yesterday it further decreased to 94.3, still 14% higher than at the start of the Pause). 

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One would think that a rational person would look at this and conclude what was needed were stronger containment measures continued for a longer period of time. If a little bit was beginning to work, then more should work better. 

Instead, Rhode Island is repeating the exact same mistake from this past spring, reopening too soon, too fast, when infection rates have begun to decline but are still dangerously and  unacceptably much too high. The following graph compares what Rhode Island did this spring with Maine, which, like Vermont, stayed closed for a longer period of time. The results and starkly different infection rates speak for themselves:

 

Many public health experts have repeatedly warned that the next few months will be dark and painful times, with unimaginably high numbers of infections and deaths. The hospitals are strained to capacity, and doctors and nurses are pleading for help. Limited supplies of vaccines until later in 2021 means that we must continue to rely on containment measures to protect our health and save our lives – there will not be enough, or soon enough, to vaccinate our way out of this. Other states are doing anything and everything possible to save lives, using tools that have been proven to work, such as closing indoor dining and certain businesses, implementing remote learning for schools, and stay at home orders. These are unpleasant but necessary, and if done right, are needed only for a short time. 

Indoor dining at restaurants has repeatedly been shown to have an extraordinarily high risk for spreading infection. A recent study showed that COVID-19 infection was spread in a restaurant across 20 feet of distance in just 5 minutes (Journal of Korean Medical Sciences, Nov 23, 2020).  Being indoors with other unmasked people is one of the most dangerous things you can do, with the highest risk of getting sick. Despite such compelling evidence, Rhode Island not only continues to allow indoor dining but is increasing restaurant capacity to 50%.

Hoping that infections will somehow magically decrease this time despite making it easier for the virus to spread is foolish and delusional. Increasing indoor dining from 33% to 50% of capacity, and reopening gyms and casinos, will almost certainly lead to more infections and more deaths. Is that what we want? Is that what is in the best interests of protecting the health and lives of Rhode Islanders?

Since the Pause started nearly 20,000 more Rhode Islanders have become infected and 116 have died. 77,812 Rhode Islanders have become infected and at least 1,625 have died since the start of the pandemic. Having the third highest infection rate in the country is not a cause for celebration. This is not a time to take a victory lap and reopen, not when the pandemic is extracting such a terrible cost in health, suffering, and lives lost.

Mistakes happen. That’s life. But repeating the same mistake instead of learning from it is stupidity. When someone keeps making the same flawed choices, they are no longer mistakes. They are intentional decisions. We are paying for the Governor’s proven faulty, and fatal, decisions with our health and our lives. 

Nick Landekic is a retired scientist and biotechnology executive with over 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.