Public Response to COVID-19

By Andrew Shin

Northwood High School

"During a pandemic, the proper role of the federal government is to intervene early with a nationwide response against the virus."

In our world, there have been numbers of cases of pandemics that affected thousands of people. For example, Ebola has affected about 33,000 people and 13,000 people have died, and H1N1 has affected more than 740,000,000 people and about 240,000 have died. And, today, believe it or not, we are in the midst of another pandemic.

Nowadays, COVID-19 has been a big issue in our world. Hundreds and thousands of people are being infected and dying from the virus, and our government came up with numbers of solutions; For example, being in a lockdown, which helped people to keep distance from others, and requiring people to wear face masks whenever they are outside. The solutions have been helpful to the country and helped the coronavirus to spread less.  Even though the government has come up with solutions that are helpful to our society, some people think that the lockdown is an exaggeration and that people should be able to go outside without any restrictions. 

Some say that the government is over-protecting people from the coronavirus and people should not be on a lockdown. This is because they think that even if the government limits outdoor activities, some people will think that the virus is not a big deal and still go outside. Health officials have no idea how deadly the virus can be when infected so they decide to ignore the lockdown, and this can possibly lead to more people getting infected. On the other hand, others say that the lockdown is the right thing to do at this moment. This is because since the virus is spread through physical contact and/or close contact with people and the vaccine for the virus is not yet found, the best way of keeping everyone safe is to be on a lockdown.

In the end, the best approach is to view this issue through an objective lens (as much as possible). During a pandemic, the proper role of the federal government is to intervene early with a nationwide response against the virus. However, we can see that the federal government did not take the appropriate actions in order to effectively prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the US. Just months ago, president Trump stated that the virus was “very much under control.” However, the US now has the highest amount of cases climbing up to approximately 3,400,000 people infected and about 130,000 dead. This is all due to the lack of a strong nationwide response against the virus and the federal government’s late intervention. During this pandemic, all 50 states have acted with varying safety measures. This has led to traveling and spreading the virus within borders. A because each state and county is handling the situation differently. In today’s world that’s not a good thing because travel is so easy. While traveling has been cut today, it has not halted. People traveling from place to place can’t keep up with the rules and regulations of each district so mishaps inevitably happen. Originally, COVID-19 was not taken seriously by the general public as well because the media downplayed the severity of the virus. This caused us to react when it was too late and created a division among the people as to just how serious this sickness is. If the federal government had intervened and came up with a solution earlier instead of trying to downplay the media about the virus and state that it was “very much under control”, the US would not have the highest number of COVID-19 cases. 

The biggest issue we see today is division. The United States of America is a big country and every constituent under its rule has a different opinion and policy regarding the pandemic. Under these circumstances, we will not be able to eradicate the sickness.