LETTER TO THE EDITOR: The Current Administration Downplayed The Threat Of The Virus

The Current Administration Downplayed The Threat Of The Virus

by Aulden Nance 

 A University Of Evansville Student

The current administration downplayed the threat of the virus numerous times. Instead of taking leadership, the President constantly lied to the American people about having the virus under control. As the leader of the free world, the President could have taken the bull by the horns and taken action. He did not because the following happened:

Since the first reported case of the virus as on January 21, the Administration had around fifty-days until the State of Emergency was declared by the President to be proactive about the situation. Due to the lack of action by the Administration, the virus had nearly a fifty-day head start to spread all over the country.

The federal government was prancing around and not responding. Take for example, on February 28 the President told his supporters at a rally the increasingly growing worry of the virus was the newest democratic hoax. At this point, more than 80,000 people worldwide had been diagnosed with Coronavirus. It is worth noting that a majority were in Wuhan, China but it is still alarming. A competent administration government would have been working since the very beginning of when the virus started to infect people in China to work with other countries and show leadership to the American People.

The constant lying and downplaying have given the virus a head start that is causing state officials to make decisions before the federal government. See, take a cousin virus to coronavirus: SARS- when the virus started to spread, it was taken very seriously, and the order was in store. As a result, entertainment services were not impacted, schools did not cancel classes, and most importantly, the virus was contained and only a few cases were reported in the United States.

Many college and high school seniors will not be getting proper graduation now. Their educational career will not be recognized in the traditional way. Due to the school closings, millions of children now have to hope their school district is providing meals for them, as more than an estimated twenty million children rely on school meals every day. This forces millions of families to adjust their already hectic schedules that usually include a child being at school for half of the day. Now, these families are forced to explore other options such as a nanny or having a parent taking time off work to care for them.

Another failure of this administration has been the amount of action put forward in recognizing the virus, or more lack of it. While already discussing if the threat of the virus itself was legit, this caused the administration not to put forward any protections and precautions to combat the virus.

In turn, Governors, sports administrators, and local leaders were forced to make decisions before the administration would. Over a dozen states declared states of emergencies and suggested guidelines among crowd gatherings before the administration did. Sports administrators had to decide to postpone the NBA season and cancel the NCAA tournament before the government recommended any guidelines about social distancing or gatherings.

Now, millions of people are concerned about what the future holds for their lives in the next few months. Millions are out of work and must rely on savings or having a generous boss. Worldwide, thousands have already passed due to this virus. Though many of them are elderly, it does not matter what age or nationality they are. It is good that their life was long, but they have now robbed another opportunity to see their children and grandchildren. With the closings of bars and restaurants, many local owners are now left in a kerfuffle on how to pay their employees and pay the bills.

This could have all been avoided, or at the very least, contained to very minimal damage. The failure and lack of leadership of this administration have caused a great deal of inconvenience for millions of people.

FOOTNOTE: THIS LETTER WAS POSTED BT THE CCO WITHOUT OPINION, BIAS OR EDITING