Coronavirus Blunders
Given it’s dominated the news cycle this past week, I felt I should write a short piece on Coronavirus and how this administration has made several irresponsible decisions that will cause it to be worse than it needs to be.
For starters, back in 2018, Trump fired the the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) pandemic team to cut costs. This is the team that would’ve been responsible for containing the spread of Coronavirus. Beyond that, information from a whistleblower has come out that the administration sent untrained workers to the epicenter of the Coronavirus outbreak without protective gear, then sent them home on commercial flights without testing them for the disease. Some were sent to Travis Air Force Base and inadequately quarantined, with “some of the exposed staff members moved freely around and off the bases, with at least one person staying in a nearby hotel and leaving California on a commercial flight.” Travis AFB is 40 miles from Sacramento, where the first known transmission on US soil happened, and there’s speculation that this is not a coincidence.
Going forward, there’s little reason for optimism that this will be handled properly, with Mike Pence being put in charge of Coronavirus efforts, including what information the American public is allowed to hear. This is the sort of information control we’re used to hearing about in China and North Korea, and will only make it harder for Americans to properly assess the threat and prepare accordingly. Keep in mind, this is the same Mike Pence who thought praying was an effective method of solving the HIV epidemic in his home state of Indiana. This is also the same Mike Pence who denies the science community’s teachings on topics like disease transmission and evolution, among others. Evolution is a critical idea when it comes to pandemics, as diseases can evolve at rapid rates, and we need to keep up if we hope to contain them. As for disease transmission… I don’t think I need to explain why that one’s problematic.
That’s not all. If/when a vaccine is created for Coronavirus, it may be inaccessible to a section of the public. Secretary of Health Alex Azar, who is known to have engaged in price gouging as an executive at Eli Lilly, said that he can’t guarantee the vaccine will be affordable. If we don’t have an affordable vaccine, we will lose out on herd immunity, and the disease will likely persist for longer than it would with an affordable vaccine, costing the country more than it would if we had an affordable vaccine.
Path Forward
The 21st century has seen its fair share of epidemics - avian flu, swine flu, Ebola, to name a few - and the USA has handled them pretty well, all things considered. This time, it already looks different. So far, the stock market has taken a significant hit from the Coronavirus fears, with the S&P 500 having the fastest 10% correction in history. If things continue to be mismanaged, the downward economic trend could also continue. While the outbreak is obviously not entirely due to this administration, the impact it has will be heavily influenced by the administration’s handling. It’s important to remember this if we continue to see the infection and death rates climb and the economy fall. Trump and his administration are actively putting the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans at risk with their decisions, and that should be kept in mind when deciding who to support in the 2020 election.
