Politicians ask for public help to fight Covid – before going out to dinner or on vacation

While elected officials plead with voters to wear masks, maintain their social distance and avoid indoor gatherings, some have not followed their own message on coronaviruses.

A growing list of elected officials have been caught traveling, enjoying dinners and exotic vacations as America embarks on what could be a gloomy winter of the deadly pandemic outbreak.

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday introduced sweeping stay-at-home orders that will take effect when intensive care beds fill in the coming days with people infected on vacation trips.

Newsom’s decree came weeks after attending a dinner party with a dozen friends at a luxurious French Laundry restaurant in the wine country north of San Francisco.

When asked directly if he had lost his credibility on the issue, Newsom, a Democrat, dodged the question on Thursday, saying: “I’m doing my job, I’m going to keep doing my job, that’s what that I need to do”.

Dr Vin Gupta, of the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, said political leaders were losing the fight to gain the trust of Americans.

“When you see a Gavin Newsom say ‘Do what I say but not what I do,’ then goes to Napa Valley and has his private party, it’s deeply damaging to trust,” Gupta told NBC News Friday.

“If someone says, ‘Hey we’re going to lock down, we’re going to shut down your small business, you have to shut it down for the benefit of the pandemic’ or ‘You are the parent of two teenagers, you have to organize home schooling.’ and then you see that they themselves don’t behave in the same guardrails that they impose on you, how are you not going to push back? “

And Newsom is not alone in its mixed messages.

• San Francisco Mayor London Breed, a Democrat, admitted on Thursday that she attended an indoor dinner and birthday party, also at French Laundry, on November 7. The contrite mayor tweeted: “I need to hold myself to a higher level and I will do better.”
• Earlier this week, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, was pictured wearing his mask incorrectly, sometimes exposing his nose and mouth, while few in Oklahoma City. His office did not immediately respond to calls for comment on Friday.
• Austin Mayor Steve Adler, a Democrat, apologized Wednesday after The Austin American-Statesman revealed he visited Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in early November – and overseas, even had recorded a message urging his constituents to stay home to fight the spread of the coronavirus.

“I have to give a clearer example to make my post unambiguous, and for not doing so, I sincerely apologize,” Adler said in a video posted Wednesday.

While these political leaders have not broken any laws, medical ethicist Arthur Caplan said on Friday that these examples “delay compliance and make people skeptical” of a number of coronavirus warrants.

“It’s the politicians and celebrities who define the message in our social media and our media,” said Caplan, professor of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center. “And what they do matters, for better or for worse.”

More than 278,000 Americans have died from the pandemic on Friday.

Matthew mulligan contributed.