Coronavirus Cases in the United States

By Lois Chun

Cypress High School

As the number of cases nears a grand total of 5 million in the United States, America has failed to protect its own people. Despite the hundreds of opportunities that were given, the U.S. has managed to blow all those chances away. While countries such as South Korea, New Zealand, and Iceland have worked hard to curve the amount of infections downwards, the U.S has only increased the amount of cases since March. So how did a virus a thousand times smaller than dust get to affect so many people?

For starters, the sluggish response from the government has allowed for the coronavirus to gain a foothold over us. While many other countries started to get control of the virus when it was in its first stage, our president, Donald Trump, assured the citizens of the United States that the coronavirus was under control. On March 16, 2020, President Trump had finally put the U.S under lockdown. It was after 85 deaths in the United States and 871 deaths worldwide, when Trump finally decided to take action against the virus. Although the Trump administration has taken action, even five months later, the pandemic has only gotten worse in the United States. Even today, some cities are back on lockdown because of the worsening situation. 

However, the problem doesn’t all fall into the hands of the government. Erin Choi, a junior at Orange Lutheran High School explains, “ I think the reason why the amount of cases are so high is because of the lack of information they are educated with. Many still do not realize how severe this virus has spread and how detrimental it is to the country.” Some citizens of the United States don’t understand how severe the virus is because many haven’t been exposed to what the virus could do to our bodies.  On the other hand, some people are continuing to disregard government orders. “I think that the majority of the people believe that the coronavirus is real, but they choose to be selfish and ignore that the virus is bigger than the individual,” states Eunice Kim, a junior at Cypress High School. As more people ignore this pandemic, it only becomes worse. 

The coronavirus isn’t something that we should be taking lightly. A nationwide recovery from the virus is needed right now. We need to be striving toward better health, but that’s only possible if people listen to the government’s order. COVID-19 is not something that only targets colored people or people living in low-income areas. Everyone needs to be wearing masks, social distancing, and understand that this could affect anyone at any time of the day. Continuing to hope that this is something that will one day pass, is not be the answer to our problems.