ABSTRACT
As of the submission of this manuscript for publication, 4.55 million people have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates that number will reach 5.3 million by December 2021. The Delta variant has been dubbed one of the most contagious respiratory viruses in humans and is the primary driver behind the fourth wave of infections that swept the world. The lamba variant that ravaged South America might be impervious to our current vaccine, and in many countries such as the United States, the fourth COVID-19 wave was the worst of them to date. All of these findings lead to a natural question: how did we get here? Some of it is obvious: Areas with low vaccination rates experienced the highest case spikes and deaths, and early vaccine export bans kept resources in wealthy countries. As discussed in other chapters, projective identification has plenty to do with how leaders managed the coronavirus pandemic. One of the most far-reaching examples of this defensive maneuver occurred when President Trump first addressed the impending consequences posed by COVID-19. He was not the only global leader who badly mishandled the pandemic. This chapter will examine how he and other leaders, whose mismanagement was rooted in unconscious projective identification, caused many people to die who could have survived with more conscientious leadership.
