As many of you have heard, schools have been shut down due to the coronavirus, among other things. However, I believe this could’ve been prevented by the United States government, or at least the impact could have been reduced. Especially due to the fact we witnessed how the disease impacted China through social media, our government should have taken note of that and prepared better.
I am not talking about what China said about how the United States started the coronavirus and more. The Trump administration began firing its leadership and dismantling the pandemic response team in 2018. Even though Trump gave away his salary to combat COVID-19, without this essential group, we were totally blind sighted. This caused disturbing unpreparedness from the United States government as we have tested a small number of people after the virus had already been in the country.
Moreover, President Trump has also downplayed the seriousness of this crisis on social media and his address to the citizens of the country. As usual, again, he promoted falsehoods to his people. For example, he stated that the disease is a hoax and that the death rate is much lower than projected based on his intuition.
Other Trump policies could affect this as he tries to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). With this pandemic going on, it has become more evident that the lack of universal healthcare in our country significantly hurts us as a people. Such as how COVID-19 testing is extremely expensive, and a lot of people cannot afford it.
In addition to the sheer lack of competence from the administration, the way the government is handling this is costing people their jobs and education. Pretty much everything has been shut down, so no one can work because of the advisories of how many people should occupy a space at one time. I know as someone who works in a campus fast food place, my access to education and money have been compromised. Another example is my friend, who told me that her job would eventually only be doing drive-thru to create social distance.
I also find it interesting that dozens of Republicans, including Trump, are proposing “socialist” ideas such as giving money to out of work Americans and pausing college loan interest. Moreover, you see thousands of United States citizens calling for policies to help them with healthcare and other basic human rights during this time. With the current presidential race and with Bernie Sanders running again, it makes you wonder if this will have any impact on how people vote in the future, being that a lot of Sanders’ policies would have helped the American people as we go through this.