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Two Views: Coronavirus Recovery
As the U.S. slowly succeeds in combating the COVID-19 epidemic, are we taking the best path towards a full recovery?
NO
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Commentary by Jonathan Mesa, Staff Writer
Surely, no student could have predicted losing a quarter of their 2019-2020 school year. Many parents and teachers have expressed concern for their students’ education, but what they fail to consider is that these precautions must be taken to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. As can be seen through current consequences, there has already been a lack of action taken to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus and more should be done to slow its spread.
Now, it is clear to see among countries that have had the longest time exposure to the virus that the ones that acted the fastest and most efficiently are in the best state of recovery from the pandemic. An example of this is Thailand, one of the first countries to be exposed, and now has the widest available testing for its citizens according to the World Health Organization. Countries like Thailand are arguably in the best position because of their immediate action and testing of citizens.
Instead of following their example, the actions of the U.S. are slug-ish in comparison. As of mid-May the virus is already widespread within the U.S. and the death toll is just above 85,000.
Immediate social distancing came in the closure of gathering places such as schools, gyms and restaurants. The mistake on the part of the U.S. government was enacting these changes too late. These implementations will help to slow the spread of the virus, but if they had been implemented earlier, it is likely that there would be a much smaller threat to deal with in the states.
Meanwhile, the heads of the U.S. government are busy arguing with each other over the U.S.’s handling of the situation, with Democrats calling the Trump administration’s reaction to it one of incompetence, and President Donald Trump accusing the left of politicizing the Coronavirus.
In recent news, the government is making the foolhardy decision to reopen social spaces like beaches in some places in Florida, such as Jacksonville. This preemptive decision to reopen social spaces is not only careless but dangerous.
The opening of social spaces before a decline in the spread of the virus has even happened could very well lead to a second, deadlier wave of contaminations. If other places here in Florida choose to follow Jacksonville’s example, Florida may become the new COVID-19 hot spot.
Understandably, the longer the population is quarantined, the more it economically falls into decline, with certain businesses like restaurants and movie theaters having been predicted to fall into bankruptcy should the shutdown continue for several more months. But the government should be able to make the correct decision and prioritize people’s safety. Stimulus checks were a good initiative to at least slow down the decline of the economy but perhaps the government should provide more assistance to the businesses in need to keep them on their feet until quarantine ends.
Recently, it has become more common to see anti-quarantine protests of people who want the country to be open again. As to be expected, whenever one of these protests happens, the number of new cases in the areas where it happens spikes, such as in Kentucky, where governor Andy Beshear announced 273 cases had emerged post-protest, the highest spike at the time. Protesting itself is not the problem , though, and many of these protestors have just cause, wanting to go back to work. What causes these spikes is that many protestors don’t follow appropriate guidelines, gathering very clustered together without masks and not washing their hands after being near others. Since it is the people’s right to protest, the government could at least help them to protest in a way that minimizes danger to them and the people around them.
On the larger scale, all the actions taken by the government to help contain the virus and slow its spread have been done much too late, rendering them ineffective, as evidenced by America now leading the world in the number of publicly confirmed cases. The most logical course of action now is to stay quarantined and follow all safety precautions. This is not only to protect us but the people around us as well.
YES
Commentary by Dilan Denham, Staff Writer
As of May 1, the United States has around four times the amount of confirmed COVID-19 cases than any country in the world. Standing at a monumental 1.4 million cases, there is no doubt that U.S. leadership has been shaky and less graceful than we would have hoped; however, the U.S. has done an upstanding job in mobilizing emergency care and procedure to contain the virus. Contrary to popular belief, our country made the best decisions with the information available, and is continuing to follow this trend in order to save the lives of people and its economy.
It is important to understand that the U.S. has some of the most traveled to locations in the world, and the virus traveled in silently before any precaution could have even been labeled. At the time, the U.S. harbored several million travelers around the country for business and leisure travel before the coronavirus could even reach American media. Without the proper information, it would be extremely hard for the government to make effective decisions.
Although it is important for the government to make fast decisions during these times, it is also just as important that the government does not make poor decisions in haste. It would have been an ill-advised decision had the government closed down the country prematurely with only one reported case in the country. Now that we have gone through the greatest phase of coronavirus, we can see that the timing was spot-on, even though most media outlets are still criticizing the government for a situation the world could never have expected.
Now that the pandemic is being controlled, we need to put America’s focus back on the economy. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. payrolls fell by a massive 22 million jobs just last month. After decades of lowering the American unemployment rate successfully, the efforts have been slashed in weeks by the coronavirus — a catastrophic result of the pandemic the U.S. is facing.
In perspective, during the 2008 recession, the worst monthly loss only amounted to 800,000 jobs. Even when comparing the current monthly loss to the worst loss in the history of the U.S. in September of 1945, which reached a catastrophic two million jobs, the U.S. has never seen a loss in jobs this brutal. What used to be a 50-year low unemployment rate of 3.5% turned into a staggering 15%.
Numbers of this caliber are not even the only threat impacting the U.S. economy. The U.S. has seen the worst decline in gross domestic product in a decade and its worst retail sales report on record. It is currently impossible to foresee what the effects from this crisis will be. However, taking note from the miniscule-seeming recession of 2008 — which caused major bankruptcy around the nation and mass homelessness — the future does not currently look jovial for the U.S. economy unless action is taken to expedite the opening of the country.
Concern for the economy does not mean it is of any greater importance than the lives of the people; however, to ensure safety and security of the country, measures need to be taken to smooth out this pandemic’s impact. Seeing just how frightening the impact of the 1945 and 2008 recessions had on the country, this is a problem which needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
Luckily, through the long and arduous months the citizens of the U.S. so valiantly endured quarantining and social distancing, the U.S. should be ready to reopen within the next month. Although it is still uncertain what the effects of reopening the country will be for the pandemic, one thing is for sure; it will greatly help combat the ongoing economic crisis that needs to be resolved.
In all, the U.S. now needs to focus on opening up the country to return things to normal. The U.S. is managing the pandemic tremendously well and now we have a new crisis to defeat— an unpredictable economic crisis. The U.S. now needs to come together as it did in fighting the frightening COVID-19 pandemic and fix the economy.
BY THE NUMBERS:
Miami-Dade’s unemployment rate more than doubled in March, from 1.5% in February to 3.7%
Miami-Dade accounts for 36% of of Florida’s COVID-19 cases, with 71 in the school’s zipcode.
Sources: Florida Department of Health; Florida Department of Economic Opportunity
