Organizational leaders, whether in business, politics, or non-profit, often miss some important things when managing their organization. In almost all cases, it’s because they 1) don’t have a good “30,000 foot view” of what is going on and 2) a diverse group of advisors is not assembled and consulted.

Take Vladimir Putin for instance. He’s making a big mess. I originally gave him much more credit as a leader than he deserved. But he chose to surround himself with “Yes Men” and the result has been catastrophic. If you have any doubt of this, I encourage you to watch Putin Scores 8 Goals.

I made a “Stupid List” for the company I worked for that detailed the top 10 things the company did not address. It was mostly in my head, but it helped me keep my sanity. One of the things on my list was that we never really sat down and addressed the big problems facing our company. It was like the company was running on automatic and continued patching an archaic operating system.

This all changed when one of the managers got the idea to hire a consulting firm. The first thing the firm did was sit us all down and have us diagnose our own problems and then implement solutions.

We needed an outsider to tell us all to sit down and talk about how we can improve. Wow. That was a big miss.

Hiring consultants is a great idea for any business. It’s like hiring a marriage counselor or a therapist. Outside perspectives are great. They can solve big obvious problems that can’t be seen by insiders.

In our case, the obvious issue was that we didn’t sit down together and discuss what was wrong with the business.

And that’s exactly what we should be doing with the pandemic – sitting down and thinking about the things we can improve on.

With this in mind, I have made my own list for the pandemic:

Top 12 List of Stupid Things We did During the Pandemic:

12. Did not take the virus serious enough from the start. Some people put this higher on the list, but in reality we were stunned by the virus – just like we are stunned with Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Our actions in the beginning are somewhat excused as we tried to figure things out. It was our actions as the data started flowing in that truly made some of our reactions real stupid.

11. Shelved freedom in the face of adversity. How quickly we were receptive to giving up freedoms to the government when being confronted by the virus! People justified it with scare tactics by indicating how many people were dying. Now we know that we can achieve a better outcome with less draconian measures by following examples from other free countries such as Sweden¹. For instance, letting individuals make choices to protect themselves rather than the false security of a lockdown is proving to be more effective at reducing infection and less detrimental to society.

10. Divided we fall. We did not stand together through this crisis. Instead, we picked each other apart. They say a good family is one that pulls together during a crisis. That’s not us. The main divisive issue was personal freedom (above). As pointed out, other free countries worked together and found solutions that were more effective and did not impose on personal freedoms.

9. Followed the science as interpreted by politicians. The population was manipulated in the crisis as politicians and the CDC picked which science to promote. We were told the vaccines were 98% effective, but no one was told from the start efficacy would wane in about 6 months. Obesity was known early on as co-morbidity but the message to get healthy was not promoted as it was unpopular.

8. Ignoring the unintended consequences of our actions. Who knew that giving money to people with addiction problems would cause so many deaths? I’m sure someone did. What did they think people were going to do when you took their jobs away? Netflix is a lot more entertaining when you’re drunk or high. And if you don’t have a job to go to in the morning, all the better.

7. Put our National Debt on steroids by doling out cash (and then deny it caused inflation.) We printed and spent at least $5T to “combat” the virus. Two things to bear in mind: 1) COVID had a lower death rate at its peak than heart disease or cancer and 2) “Combating” means paying people while obesity abounds.

6. Surrendered power to the government in a crisis. Many in this country believe it’s ok to surrender power to our government leaders in a crisis even though they have proven their incompetence. Rent moratoriums are an example. Not only did we pay people to stay home, governments also told people they didn’t have to honor their lease agreements. The result: people didn’t pay and landlords raised the rent on everyone else to cover. Brilliant. We all know that Big Pharma, Big Food, and The Military Complex run our government, yet we are hell-bent to give them authoritarian control over us. One of the main issues with surrendering power to government is their One-Size-Fits-All mentality when it comes to crisis management. As the crisis progressed and we realized that we could not afford to keep paying everyone to stay home, state governments started to adapt by identifying local areas with high infection rates. These tools should be expanded on in the future and coupled with individual responsibility for effective control.

5. Politicized the virus. I believe it is likely that ideology has killed more people unnecessarily than anything else. I know people that clearly should get vaccinated due to their risks, but don’t because of politics. This is insane. To be clear, there are no reputable Republican leaders that say someone should not get vaccinated, yet the numbers of Republicans not vaccinated is much higher than Democrats. Even Rand Paul, the most outspoken of Republicans regarding Dr. Fauci’s missteps, is only unvaccinated because he has proven natural immunity with antibody testing.

4. Did not educate about risk management of the virus. Everyone should have done their own risk calculations regarding the virus. This includes evaluating risks before getting vaccinated. Forcing someone to get a vaccine and then having them die or get long term complications from the vaccine makes the forcing party (governments, schools, businesses) blood-guilty. Having someone choose based on the risks makes the issue one of personal responsibility. Thousands of people were killed by forcing vaccinations. Think about this: How receptive would you be to getting a vaccine if someone close to you died because they were FORCED to get one. If that same person CHOSE to get vaccinated, you would look at the situation entirely differently. A much better path would be to promote tools like the CCF Risk Calculator.

3. Did not recognize natural immunity. Natural immunity was the only way to fight viruses for thousands of years. Sure, vaccinations are a much smarter option, but to not recognize those with natural immunity was simply insane. We CONTINUE to deny the efficacy of natural immunity even though it was the Omicron variant that is putting the virus behind us. There are risks to vaccination! To require vaccines or boosters of someone who has already had the virus is extra risk that need not be taken.

2. Ignored overall health in our fight against the virus. Optimizing our immune systems by getting healthy should have been a focus. Instead, we closed gyms and locked down states, causing people to gain weight. Never mind that countries with high obesity rates are 10X more likely to suffer serious problems from the virus, including death. Information regarding improving your overall health to combat the virus was extremely hard to find (unless you read my blog).

1. Disregarded treatment protocols for outpatients. If someone tested positive with the virus, they were locked down and told not to come out until told otherwise. No treatment recommendations are made other than monitor symptoms. How many people died because they weren’t given help from the onset? There are a host of therapeutics, such as monoclonal antibodies, and yes, Ivermectin, that are proven effective to reduce viral load of COVID and thereby reduce the severity. Maybe NOW that Pfizer has a “new” pill, more prescriptions will be made.

The top 4 reasons above can be lumped into one big stupid mistake: All focus was placed on vaccination as the cure for virus.

Unlike previous vaccines, this one was far from a panacea. It should not have been a surprise as the vaccines were not like any other vaccine that has had broad-based success. It was experimental from the onset with no long-term testing.

A multi-faceted approach should have been employed:

• Education: The message from the government should be clear: Obesity kills. Get healthy! Do your risk assessment with Natural Immunity considered. Get the vaccine if you exceed a risk threshold. Don’t hang out in public places during a pandemic!
• Remove the politics. Vaccines are effective but not near as effective long term as the other ones it was compared to (small-pox, polio, etc). Personal freedom is paramount. We did not react fast enough to the virus initially. The government should not be trusted. Throwing printed money at an issue has severe consequences in both short and long term. These facts are not up for debate. They are givens. Work to find solutions from here.
• Holding people responsible at an individual level is part of the solution. Given the right tools and information, individual responsibility is the surgical approach to solving the problem. Businesses can choose to require masks for both customers and employees. School boards can do likewise. No more government mandates.
• Get Big Pharma out of the equation. We need better “If You Are Infected” Protocols. Forget the one-trick pony of vaccinations. Offer options, like monoclonal antibodies, that are proven to work.
• No more One-Size-Fits-All Solutions. Broad based solutions have broad based consequences. Throwing money at a problem causes more problems (drug abuse, inflation, increased debt). Allow decisions to be made at local levels. Don’t lockdown Upstate New York if the problem is confined to Downstate.

Ron

¹ Sweden’s response was not perfect – in fact in the beginning the guidance from the government was not accurate as they did not advise public places such as bars to consider closing. But Sweden really hit their stride in the middle of the pandemic having one of the lowest rates of infection and death of Europe. It’s total death rate is about 1/2 that of New York State, which lead the country in lockdowns and mandates.