The problems are real, the concerns understandable, but the timing could not have been worse.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, state Sen. Elizabeth Little and Assemblyman Dan Stec have engaged in a series off conference calls in recent days to address economic concerns around the region.

With an emergency health crisis fast approaching, their priorities were misplaced.

The North Country Chamber of Commerce hosted a tele-town hall on Friday with the three elected representatives, while Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce moderated a conference call with the three leaders on Tuesday.

The Lake George event came on the same day Gov. Andrew Cuomo sounded the alarm that New York City had become the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, with the state facing a shortage of hospital beds, equipment and staff to adequately combat the emergency.

Right here in Glens Falls, hospital nurses were concerned they were not being issued masks to protect them from the coronavirus, and coronavirus tests had been suspended unless patients were symptomatic.

While this gloomy outlook was unfolding, Assemblyman Stec was saying he hoped the region could be back to “something close to normal” by mid-spring.

Did he mean Easter?

Phone callers wanted to know about summer tourism and how the federal government bailout would help them. While it appears we will all get checks, Gov. Cuomo said that New York comes out on the losing end of the $2 trillion bailout passed by the U.S. Senate.

Oh, and probably a lot of people are going to die because we can’t take care of them. Some of them may be front line health care workers.

Hopefully, Rep. Stefanik will have something to say about how she will protect New Yorkers’ interests when the bailout is voted on in the House of Representatives.

At the Friday event, Rep. Stefanik said her priority was making sure relief is provided to small businesses. If they can afford health care, of course.

As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, surely Stefanik was briefed back in January about the probability of parallel economic and health-related calamities.

She did not sound any warnings that we heard.

I was hoping at one point that one of the three would have interjected their concern about being asked the wrong questions.

I was hoping they might demand that the health crisis coming up the Northway be addressed, and that questions about business bailouts and tourists would have to wait because lives were at stake.

Real leadership would have asked the business community what it could do to deliver hospital gowns and masks, because in the coming weeks the lives of their friends, neighbors and relatives might be at stake.

Early Tuesday, I was watching historian and author Jon Meacham commiserating with his television hosts about the direction of the country.

“Character is destiny,” Meacham said, quoting a Greek philosopher.

Ultimately, our government leaders need to understand that the most important role of the federal government is to protect its citizens, and when they don’t do that, it says something about their character.

Our leaders’ first concern should be keeping us all safe.

It would have been nice if just one of these esteemed political leaders had said that.

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Ken Tingley is the editor of The Post-Star of Glens Falls.