A timely read about shared, human frailty: failure to act, even when we have the benefit of foresight and/or complete clarity of the risks faced.

The article doesn't focus purely on politicians (as noted, we all suffer from shared biases/instincts), but this anecdote is prescient:
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While politicians have access to the best advice, they may not feel obliged to take experts seriously. Powerful people, after all, feel sheltered from many everyday concerns. Heffernan argues that this sense of distance between the powerful and the problem shaped the awful response to Hurricane Katrina. Leaked emails show the response of Michael Brown, then the director of Fema.

One subordinate wrote: “Sir, I know that you know the situation is past critical. Here some things you might not know. Hotels are kicking people out, thousands gathering in the streets with no food or water… dying patients at the DMAT tent being medivac. Estimates are many will die within hours…”

Brown’s response, in its entirety, was: “Thanks for update. Anything specific I need to do or tweak?” That’s a sense of distance and personal impunity distilled to its purest form.
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#covid19 #mindsets #biases #leadership #humanfrailty #foresight

https://lnkd.in/gkZuFQe