Response to COVID-19

 

    The one thing I have thought about a lot in the past year is how the U.S. dealt with coronavirus. As someone in the science and medical field, I think we did not respond well to the virus at all. We were definitely aware of the first case in December 2019. So the fact that we didn't start a lockdown until mid March is absolutely crazy to me. I understand that a lockdown would affect the economy, but it still ended up negatively impacting the economy and so many people died too unfortunately. When I found out that President Trump signed a bill that cut more than a billion dollars for Prevention and Public Health Fund, I was so angry. We are so privileged to even have a program that helps prevent pandemics and the fact that he tried so hard to get rid of it is really upsetting.

    Since I saw how the U.S. was handling the pandemic, I was curious to see how other countries were handling it. From what I saw, it looked like Australia was handling it really well. The most cases they've had in one day is around 700 cases while the most cases we've had in one day is 300,600 cases. That is such a significant difference. They've lost about 900 people to COVID-19 while we've lost around 530,000 people. Overall, you can see how much damage has been done. The reason their numbers are so low is because they were extremely strict when it came to the lockdown. They didn't let people leave their homes for a while, people would get fined $1,300 tickets if they broke any rule, and they forced businesses to shut down. They were definitely worried about the economy, but they knew their lives mattered more. They mandated masks in the first week of the pandemic and nobody really complained about it. They trusted science and realized how easy it was to do that. I think that's a huge key considering how many people don't believe in science in America. Personally, I feel like people feel entitled here, however, it unfortunately cost a lot of lives because of it. Now Australia barely has any cases and they live pretty normal lives there now. I always wished we did what they did, but hopefully things get better now with people getting vaccinated.

Snigda Thyagaraj