Did COVID forever destroy public trust?

We humans are driven by incentives. We imagine ourselves as rational beings who make choices after measured consideration of a problem before us.

We humans have lovely imaginations. Too bad they’re not based in reality.

Sure, some among us lean rational in our decision-making while others lean emotional. Mind and heart are not mutually exclusive, but when pressed, I think just about everyone desperately wishes they can claim to be more logical rather than heart-baring.

Incentives: those things that encourage one to action. Or inaction, I suppose.

Lately, the COVID pandemic has popped up in conversations with a few friends. Six years on from the start of the lockdowns, the question that’s occurred to me is this:

After all that, what incentive do we have to trust what any political authority says about anything ever again?

I temper that distrust with an admission that I would have had no desire to be in charge during that brand-new crisis. However, I can’t shake from memory my disgust with the fact that many in political power almost immediately were exposed as wholly incapable, or at least indecisive.

In fact, indecisiveness is worse. It’s a weakness that can’t even allow someone to resign from office.

Others in power were trigger-happy to implement restrictions. Never forget how many elderly Americans died confused and alone in nursing homes.

Never. Forget.

When voters vote, they do so with the expectation that those for whom they cast ballots will know how to handle a sudden, swift, sharp shock. Even if it’s a problem never before faced, the understanding is those in power will know how to figure it out. It’s foundational. It’s the prerequisite for leadership. Policy and beliefs matter, but we need to know those in power will know what to do when – as Sue in the television show Veep so eloquently put it – “the S is about to hit the F.” (No, that’s not censored.)

I think this implied agreement between government and citizens is why just about all of us were willing to go along with what many now admit were some clearly irrational ideas in an attempt to contain the virus. (Remember when Governor Holcomb tried to enact an order that would have made a mask mandate violation a class B misdemeanor, thus carrying stricter penalties than committing a first-time OWI or indecent exposure?) Quickly the public’s sensibility became “We will stop this virus because we’re all in this together!” The irony! Good grief.

Here’s when I knew we all were living in Crazytown:

I went to a restaurant in August 2020 after some restrictions had been lifted. It was crowded, which was expected. From what I can remember, there we no limits on party size or procedures to keep tables distanced from each other. Everything was normal – except you had to wear a mask if you got up from the table.

Now wait a minute. While I’m at my table in this crowded restaurant, I’m safe, but as soon as I get up from the table, I’m dead? The air is different between my table and the rest of the restaurant?

I pointed this out to the people at my table and everyone laughed, which is the proper response to the absurd.

I don’t blame the restaurant for this policy. The policy didn’t violate any government mandate or such a violation would have made it back to the health department right away. My guess is this was what the restaurant did in order to remain in compliance with what was clearly a thoughtless, toothless, useless public health order.

Again, I don’t mean to instill distrust in people working in public health now. Many good people were doing what they genuinely thought was best for everyone then.

The fact is we’re all susceptible to collective fear.

Yet the question remains: what is our incentive for ever trusting authority again?

Here I am, six years later, and I can’t think of a good answer.

Isaac Taylor is one of the owners of the Hamilton County Reporter, as well as the Circulation Director and page designer. You won’t find him anywhere online, so don’t bother looking. However, he welcomes your comments on his columns at ReadTheReporter.com.