Try to Be a Little More Compelling Dr. Fauci

Dr. Fauci what you are telling the American public not only deserves to be listened to, it deserves to be acted upon and with people wearing masks at the very least. But it’s not happening to the degree it needs to.

One reason for that is that talking about “what the data or what the science shows” is informative, but it is not very compelling at least to non-scientists.

You need to be compelling to open people’s minds to what you’re saying and then considering it and hopefully then taking action based on it. And you know the action we’re talking about… wear face masks, keep social distance and wash your hands.

Yes, you’re a man of science. Yes, you’re a tad on the emotionally reserved side and maybe even a bit shy and introverted. However, you owe it to the information you are sharing to do it in a manner that people take notice and act upon.

You remind me of the saying, “When Cicero spoke people listened. When Caesar spoke, people marched.” You’re Cicero and BTW, Governor Cuomo is Caesar.

Here is some unsolicited Monday Morning coaching I wish I could have given you when you and Senator Rand Paul faced each other. It may not be too late to use it in another venue.

Following one of Senator Paul’s most aggressive challenges to you, what would have happened if you did the following?

1. Look him squarely in the eye, firmly but not defensively.

2. Pause for two full seconds before you begin to speak.

3. Say to him, “Senator Paul, I hear the challenge in your voice and I accept it, but before I respond, might I offer you a challenge in return?” Hopefully, he would be at least intrigued enough to grant it or the leader of that Senate hearing would be curious enough to grant it.

4. At that point, hand Senator Paul a drinking straw in a clean wrapper and ask him to please take the wrapper off.

5. Then say, “I am about to respond to your questions and believe that what I have to say will take a few minutes. What I would like you to do while I am speaking, is to breathe through that straw. That will give you a bit of the experience of being in some respiratory distress. There is a saying that ‘You can’t understand someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.’ I’m calling upon you as a medical doctor to have the experience of being in respiratory distress before you have us take steps that would increase that possibility happening to more Americans. If of course it becomes too distressing, you can stop. And since this is being watched by the American public I would ask anyone who is watching and who is refusing to wear a mask or keep social distance to go find a straw and breathe through it for just a single minute, because if you don’t like the feeling of having Covid-19 inflicted on you and causing that respiratory distress by someone who isn’t wearing a mask, don’t you do it to someone else.”

Why is it so difficult to get Americans to practice what all the public health officials are recommending?

Some would say that those Americans who aren’t cooperating resent having their freedoms taken away.

That is partially true, but there is also possibly a deeper reason.

In recent years many Americans have lost the desire and, in many cases, even the ability to empathize with others. In fact, the exercise described above was exactly an effort to force people to empathize with others by giving them a deep and distressing physical experience that someone else was feeling.

One of the reasons Americans no longer choose to empathize, a quality that is constantly being looked for in President Trump, and sadly never seen, is that empathizing runs the risk of actually seeing another person’s point of view and being so moved by it that you will need to change your attitudes and behavior.

Currently too many Americans, and I mean both Republicans and Democrats, are too headstrong in their beliefs to be willing to do that.

But until Americans as a society rediscover and practice empathy, or as Stephen Covey advised, “Seek first to understand and then be understood,” our nation will continue to be deadlocked with more people dying and with the future we could have falling through the cracks of discord.