Times readers awoke to the subject line/headline “The Left’s Vaccine Problem” as the lede in Friday’s morning briefing. Writer David Leonhardt asked, “Why aren’t progressive leaders doing a better job at mass vaccination.”

Leonhardt opens pointing out that the “right-wing governments were suffering some of the worst outbreaks,” at the start of the pandemic as they rejected science, while “more progressive and technocratic countries” had more successful strategies.

Yes, everything is relative, but Leonhardt also uses the descriptor “center-left” and “center-right” to describe the leadership of these countries. If only there was some word that encapsulates that spectrum of left and right — somewhere in the middle. Like, say, “Centrist”

Of the eight nations Leonhardt points out to prove this thesis, only one’s leadership, New Zealand, could truly be called Left and progressive. Certainly ultra-religious, anti-gay rights Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who ran a “Stop the Boats” campaign against asylum seekers is not on the Left. Generously he might be described as a “Conservative Pragmatist.” Or, say it with me: Centrist.

Germany’s Angela Merkel is famous for her centrism and even Trudeua in Canada is a center-left liberal.

There is a reality at play that a Britain-first approach has been better at gobbling up vaccine supplies than the balanced regional approach taken by the EU. It also helps when a country rolls over and waives all liability for the pharmaceutical companies, and that vaccine makers have prioritized timely delivery to the UK over fulfilling contracts with the EU. But the UK is also benefiting from a robust socialized medicine system for distribution.

Israel has one of the speediest vaccination rates, but only if you discount the Palestinians. In short, a nationalist approach to securing vaccines has it’s advantages — except for everyone else.

Still, Leonhardt is on the right track pointing to global and U.S. state-level reporting showing more technocratic governments lagging behind. Gov. Cuomo is a “progressive” by Leonhardt’s skewed metrics, but his fines-based approach and obsession with prioritization has been a dismal failure. Cuomo threatened health-care providers with $1 Million fines if they did not properly follow prioritization protocols and effectively allowed anyone to skip the queue. This approach resulted in vaccine doses going to waste prompting Cuomo to create new fines of $100,000 for providers who did not administer all doses under a “use it or lose it” policy. He finally loosened restrictions.

Centrists like Cuomo and the other liberals Leonhardt is calling out celebrate complex government programs utilizing their favorite policy tool: means testing. Just look at then-candidate Kamala Harris’ student loan forgiveness program.

The New York Times should be touting the failure of centrism to mobilize for the scale of this crisis. A truly Left, or progressive response would prioritize getting the most people vaccinated and worry less about the ‘right’ people. By conflating the terms Leonhardt is continuing in that time-honored Times tradition of blaming the Left for the policy failures of technocracy at a time when actual policies from the Left could save lives.

Posted on February 5, 2021   #Narrative