America’s culture of individualism is key to turning coronavirus around | Expert Opinion

As coronavirus infections surge around the country, we, as a nation, stand greatly divided. The fundamental transfer of responsibility for containing this virus from governments to individuals is failing.

If we had a shared goal when we reopened, it was to ensure that our children could return to the classroom, a key checkpoint for getting people back to work. As Philadelphia joined other cities last week in closing their schools, we know that is slipping away, and our prospects for a difficult fall and winter seem more likely every day. We desperately need a new plan.

The recent turn of events is disheartening. We feel defeated and resigned to whatever may happen as resurgence threatens Philadelphia, which had done so much work to lower case counts from the spring. Some state and local officials nationwide have privately told me that tightening restrictions at this moment seems futile if one neighboring state or county is unwilling to make the necessary sacrifices to contain this virus. Our failure to agree on even the most basic interventions, including masking and reducing gathering sizes, has made it impossible to chart a collective vision to move forward.

For better or worse, though, we need to accept that intense expressions of individualism and strong beliefs in liberty, which have been the basis for our growing division during this pandemic, have been threads of our history since our nation’s founding. These ideals are also the key to turning this around.

In recent months, I’ve had the opportunity to share my team’s work to forecast the spread of the coronavirus in over 500 U.S. counties with governors, White House Coronavirus Task Force members, public health experts, local officials, parents, and others who are just trying to get by. During one of these conversations, a county commissioner and veteran remarked to me: “Many years ago, my country asked me to go to war to protect our freedoms. I didn’t have a choice. I think I can handle them asking me to wear a mask.”

Choked up, I recalled my family members who fought in World War II, including one who was in the famed Hogan’s 500 Army unit that was surrounded behind enemy lines — and valiantly escaped — during the push into Germany. That moment with the commissioner stays with me.

External forces, particularly summer temperatures, were always unlikely to save us from a resurgence of this virus, as shown in my colleagues’ and my study published this summer. Our analysis offers a sobering illustration of just how much social distancing would be required to contain COVID-19 transmission.

Truth be told, no matter the strength of our governmental response, our ability to defeat COVID-19 was always going to be about our collective individual sacrifice for the good of our country. Past tragedies, such as 9/11 and deadly hurricanes, have been punctuated by the American spirit to lift communities up together. In that spirit of patriotism lies the foundation of unity that defines us as Americans and helps us regain our liberty.

“We have four weeks left of summer to regain control of a runaway pandemic that requires a unified, bold approach.”

We have four weeks left of summer to regain control of a runaway pandemic that requires a unified, bold approach, combining strong public health policies and individual action. Our data shows that the recommendations the White House Coronavirus Task Force recently shared with state governments, like our own, for enforcing limited gathering sizes to 10 or fewer people, closing bars and nightclubs, and requiring universal masking in public locations can reverse this epidemic if our states embrace them universally and allow the necessary recovery time.

For many, these national requirements and expectations will inevitably feel like they are eroding our individual liberty. Some may object that the response is worse than the disease. However, we have now seen enough to know that the only way to succeed against this virus is if everyone recognizes the role they play in stopping transmission.

At Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, we call these relatively simple actions the Five C’s of COVID-19 Prevention:

Normalizing these behaviors is the most important thing we can do. We desperately need not only our government but also news outlets and celebrities to unite around this messaging to give us a fighting chance in the fall.

If we can’t develop that common purpose, the irony is that we will not regain our freedom, but lose it. Widespread and growing transmission, followed by overwhelmed hospitals and further loss of life, will inevitably require more painful and prolonged intervention, as we have seen in the pained decisions of governors, Republican and Democrat, who are rolling back their reopenings.

We need to accept where we are right now and determine the sacrifices we all need to make to defend our freedom.

David Rubin is the director of PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.