Acknowledgment – We won’t get anywhere until the people who affected these catastrophic errors acknowledge their harm. This isn’t about “being right” – it’s a matter of human decency. Admitting a mistake - especially one that hurt people - goes a long way toward healing. The longer people refuse to admit their errors, the more the harm will continue to compound.
Accounting – We need to know what decisions were made and by whom. I cannot emphasize enough how crucial this is to moving forward. We cannot solve problems if we don’t know who or what caused them. And it should be understood that anyone who resists this process does not have problem-solving as their primary motivation.
Accountability – The people who made those decisions need to be held accountable. Leadership is not just about the right to make decisions – it’s about taking responsibility for those decisions. If an elderly person died alone at your direction, you are disqualified. If children were denied schooling, safeguards, and social interactions under your watch, you’ve already had your interview and failed. People who were hurt don’t want those who caused the disaster in charge of the recovery efforts. The judgment of these ‘leaders’ has been tested and found lacking.
New Leadership/Representatives – The people who orchestrated and carried out these policies should step down/be removed and replaced, ideally with people who, throughout the hysteria, kept a cool head and proposed viable solutions. Without new leadership, we can expect the same results next time.
Safeguards – We need policies that check the powers that allowed this to happen. Endless emergency declarations and science funding mechanisms that hold researchers’ careers hostage to a prescribed narrative, for example, both need to be eliminated.
Commitment – The clean-up required here is immense and may take generations of repair. We must commit to checking out every second and third-order effect and correcting it to stay on course.