The Government’s Response to COVID-19 Pandemic
Many would not dispute the fact that a pandemic causes considerable economic, social, and political disruption. People consider it a massive epidemic of infectious illness that can significantly increase morbidity and death across a vast geographic region. Evidence may suggest that pandemics have become more likely over the last century due to increased global travel and integration, changes in land use, and more exploitation of the natural environment. Humanity has had numerous significant pandemics, including the Black Death, Spanish flu, and, nowadays, COVID-19. The term “pandemic” refers to a grouping of several unique types of incidents and public health concerns, each with its own severity, frequency, and other disease features. Every unusual type of incident necessitates its own ideal preparedness and responding method. Thus, different countries require various strategies to prevent and control the pandemic spread.
Authorities might have assumed that the COVID-19 occurred in the United States with some travelers from China. At first glance, the epidemic seemed to be not as crucial as it eventually became. Thus, the government was in no rush to accomplish proper measures. Moreover, people in the US have underestimated the overall situation and may have disregarded it. Even though some ways to prevent the COVID-19, such as denying flights from China, were accepted, Trump declared that it would be over before Easter 2020. As a matter of fact, the under-evaluation of the severity of COVID-19 might have resulted in one of the most significant reasons why the US experienced extreme pandemic spread.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported the first instances of a new coronavirus in early January. Till now, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have become the world’s most significant disease catastrophe in more than a century. Despite accounting for just a tiny part of the world population, the United States accounts for almost a quarter of all COVID-19 cases. Moreover, it has been established first among high-income countries in terms of cases per person. Furthermore, in the US, most states were classified as hotspots with continuous, considerable public spread. Daily life in America was enormously influenced by COVID-19, along with the business and educational shutdowns, and has emerged as a critical element in the 2020 Presidential election. Some evidence may suggest that most Americans tend to disagree with President Trump’s management of the epidemic and favor Joe Biden to deal with the pandemic.
The Trump Administration has preferred to delegate primary responsibility for the COVID-19 response to states. Accompanying the federal government served as a backup instead of a coordinated, national plan to ascend and execute public health measures to regulate the spread of coronavirus. The absence of a national approach and clear government directives has resulted in a disorder of regulations and outbreak dynamics throughout the country and increased community spread. Trump’s immediate response to the current epidemic was to close US borders and prevent the virus from entering the country. In January 2020, he issued an executive order suspending entrance from China, which has been followed by other countries subsequently.
Nonetheless, with society infection well ongoing in the United States and difficulties in checking arriving travelers, border controls were ineffective in limiting the spread in the United States. In the meantime, the virus began to circulate in the United States at that moment. The federal government was sluggish to strengthen public health capabilities such as testing and contact monitoring. The gap between what was required and what was available increased rapidly as the number of cases and deaths increased.
Throughout the first months near the beginning of the pandemic, Mr. Trump repeatedly underestimated the virus’s severity and decided to focus on other concerns. The President was hesitant to accept the risk level and respond accordingly, concentrating instead on controlling the message and safeguarding economic benefits. Perhaps, he did so because this issue appeared out of nowhere, and many people, including authorities, might not have been capable of predicting it. Eventually, from senior White House aides to specialists inside cabinet departments and intelligence agencies, everyone detected the threat, raised the alarm, and emphasized the necessity for immediate action.
On the other hand, according to Biden’s one of the first proposals, the federal government should respond quickly and forcefully. In addition, public health emergencies should have been provided with trustworthy management organized in the investigation. His strategy demanded not the states, as Trump required, but the federal government to take foremost responsibility for several parts of the COVID-19 approach. This method included increased testing and contact tracing, supplying and managing essential supply distribution, and establishing solid national standards.
President Joe Biden r Federal agencies were instructed by Biden to utilize possible legal authority to reduce management shortages, including applying the act, which increased the production of goods such as personal emergency equipment with testing kits and vaccine syringes. He formed a pandemic research board to enhance testing capacity, and he instructed government agencies to assist in the development of new COVID-19 therapies. An executive order requires face masks to be worn on interstate public transport services such as airplanes and trains and requires foreign travelers to prove a negative COVID-19 test to enter the country.
In contrast, Donald Trump, after his hesitations, has also signed four emergency spending acts enacted by Congress. These proposals supplied billions of dollars to solve COVID-19 while also providing additional flexibilities and relief to people, corporations, and states. However, he still mentioned that the pandemic would not last long, and there is no point in worrying. Meanwhile, Biden’s approach and belief were quite the opposite. Later, Trump published some aims for his plan to exterminate COVID-19 as part of his second-term agenda. Those goals considered developing a vaccine by the end of 2020, returning to normal life in 2021, and refilling stockpiles to prepare for future pandemics.
In conclusion, there is no actual need to compare different approaches which deliver how to deal with COVID-19. Perhaps, Donald Trump frequently underestimated the virus’s cruelty and decided to concentrate on other concerns due to the reason that he wanted to prevent unnecessary panic and save economic benefits. Nevertheless, nobody might have observed the drastic and unexpected consequences of the pandemic. In contrast, in the first week of being a president, Biden signed ten executive orders targeted at enhancing the administration’s response to the epidemic, which were meant to prevent the COVID-19 from the spread and push local officials to manage the epidemic situation. Overall, it is hard to parallel both Biden’s and Trump’s responses because, at the start of the pandemic, it was incredibly difficult for Trump and his administration to reply to the situation correctly. Whereas, nowadays, Biden has comprehended all the outcomes and capacities of the COVID-19.