Originally Posted by
rickair7777
Common fallacy these days.
The job of leaders is to lead, which often means hard decisions in the face of no clear right answer.
A leader who is a sock puppet for "experts" is no leader at all, at best an administrator. I used quotes on "experts" because they are not the end all/be all, they are often academics with narrow perspectives and strong opinions in their own fields, but little balanced perspective for other fields or what's really important: the big picture.
A good leader is absolutely going to be informed by expert opinion and should actively seek that out. But he/she has to consider all issues and make the call.
An epidemiologist is obviously not the right person to determine the fate of the economy, or assess the mental health and well-being of a population in lockdown. He might be able to tell you how to end a pandemic, but he can't tell what that's going to cost in other terms.
Kind of like building a house... the GC and architect have to consider the needs of the electrician but they don't let him design the house or set the schedule. If they did, the house would have a very good electrical system which would be very easy to maintain... but there might be some other issues. The needs of the plumber, drywall guy, framer, roofer, mason, etc all have to be accounted for. Oh yeah, and the needs of the people who will ultimately live in the house.
He could say 'Wear the damn mask". Or, is that bowing too low to the pencil-necked epidemiologists?
Yeah, of course leaders lead, and experts advise. But is our leader even weighing the expert advise? Is he listening at all? Cuz he could easily tell people to wear the mask, to socially distance as much as possible. He could explain that just because you can't be perfect in one instance doesn't mean you should give up on all preventative measures. He could try to unite us in our efforts.