The United States Government’s Response to Coronavirus
The coronavirus has affected almost every family in America one way or another. Front line workers like nurses and grocery store workers have continued to put their lives on the line for us. The latest developments related to the coronavirus have led many to question whether or not the government could have done anything differently in their response to the pandemic.
The first thing that I believe the government should have done differently is that they should have prohibited all travel and shut down the country much earlier than they did. The United States went on lock down in mid-March, but the government had been briefed on the potential threats posed by the coronavirus as early as November of last year. The government had multiple opportunities to enforce a nationwide lock down, but decided not to. It was not until over a 1,000 cases were reported that the country was closed and a national emergency was declared.
Many European countries such as Denmark closed down their borders as soon as cases began to spring up outside of China. Now their cases are going down and they are slowly opening up shops and schools. In Denmark, schools opened on April 15th, but officials have remained cautious, banning crowds of 10 or more people. Austria is also beginning to open their shops starting May 1st, but citizens are still required to wear masks. Had the United States followed suit, we could have been slowly opening up schools and workplaces by now.
In addition, it is my belief that the government should have refrained from giving people false hope of a quick resolution to the pandemic. On March 24th, Trump said that he would like to reopen the country by Easter. He made this statement despite expert opinions that reported the exact opposite. Recently, President Trump has been asked whether the country would be open by April 30th to which he had no comment. The United States surgeon general, Jerome Adams, stated: “The next week is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment. It's going to be our 9/11 moment. It's going to be the hardest moment for many Americans in their entire lives. And we really need to understand that if we want to flatten that curve and get through to the other side, everyone needs to do their part.” In doing this, Adams let the American public know just how severe the pandemic will likely become and that the only way to handle it is to stay inside. Providing the American public with factual evidence and guidelines rather than giving people false hope is the best way to produce results.
Government officials must address these shortcomings going forward so that if another pandemic occurs, the government and the public will be prepared. Moving forward, I think future administrations will draw upon what happened during this period in order to improve their strategies.
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