By Coby Sylvester
In November there were many reports of the first case of a deadly virus that began in Wuhan, China, toward the end of 2019. This virus was no other than COVID-19 which is a type of common virus that infects humans, typically leading to an upper respiratory infection. The first case of the virus in the US was confirmed on January 21 and by that time six people had already died from it in China. The first city to be put in lockdown was Wuhan City, on January 23.
Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said, “We don’t want the American public to be worried about this because their risk is low.”
Me and my family were on top of this when this statement first was released and we didn’t agree with it at all because at this time people had already died from this virus and cities in China had shut down with millions in population, so why wouldn’t they take precautions early and prepare for the worse?
The first death of an American came from a 60-year-old man on February 12, when he was reportedly diagnosed with the coronavirus in Wuhan. On March 26, the US was confirmed to have the most cases of the virus with 83,836 cases, then no more than 24 hours passed and the US surpassed 100,000 cases which means the White House was going to have to do something now before it got worse.
Right on cue, the White house implanted social distancing rules on the US which includes staying at least 6 feet (about 2 arms-length) from other people, no gathering in groups of more than 3 people, and staying out of crowded places and avoiding mass gatherings. The CDC also recommended that people start to wear mask when outdoors because of how easily the virus can be transmitted. Trump also put us in lockdown where we were not supposed to be outdoors past 8 p.m. and he closed all non-essential businesses.
On April 8, the city where the virus originally came from, Wuhan lifted their lockdown after 76 days of lockdown. As I said before the government has closed all non-essential businesses, for example theaters, recreation centers, salons, malls, bowling alleys and sporting venues, which means all of the people that were once employed and had a steady income didn’t have that anymore.
In the article “Here’s how the government wants to spend $2 trillion to protect the economy from coronavirus’ effects” it talks about all the things the government is trying to do to keep the economy from plummeting and one thing they are doing is “The new $2.2 trillion stimulus package signed into law last month will allow people to claim an extra $600 per week in unemployment benefits through the end of July 2020.”
So, I guess the government is doing all they could at this point of time, but I think they should have prepared for the virus better than they did. Maybe we would be in better circumstances.
