Month: March 2020

COVID-19 or the Coronavirus has quickly made its way into main steam media as 2020’s new biggest threat. The disease that exhibits flu-like symptoms has spread rapidly out of Wuhan, China and now has reached all around the world, wrecking havoc in countries such as Italy. Italy was quickly over-taken and now is on a nationwide quarantine to prevent further deaths from the disease. Italy’s current death toll is in the thousands and cases are in the tens of thousands.

Diseases such as COVID-19 are often thought to be fantasy-like, seemingly impossible despite the terrifying risk that they pose to the well-being of humanity. Sure we made it through Ebola, and another black death couldn’t be possible, right?

The terrifying thing about the last two weeks is how truth-revealing they have been about just how prepared humanity truly is, especially within the United States. While Americans are quick to consider themselves residents of one of the best and most capable countries in the world, the ineptitude of our government’s response shows just how wrong we have been about this.

President Trump has disconcertingly stated that the virus will eventually inexplicably disappear like a “miracle” in April, confident that it would just pass over. He even stated that the Coronavirus was “politicized” by Democrats as a “hoax.” Within several weeks, the situation has changed drastically as the Coronavirus is now rapidly spreading amongst the United States. Now, US citizens are to be under self-quarantine until further notice to slow the spread of the virus.

Politics

It is incredible just how unprepared the US truly is to respond to this situation, as tests for the virus have become incredibly difficult to receive in spite of public opinion. According to CNN as of March 21, around 170,000 Americans have been tested, and while this number may sound impressive, more than 300,000 South Koreans have been tested despite being a much smaller country. And while testing is invaluable in many cases, there are still myriad issues with it, ranging from inaccuracy to lack of proper testing populations. While the CDC may have its own statistics regarding Coronavirus cases, there are without a doubt many, many more as tests are conducted mostly on older populations as the death rate among seniors is drastically worse than that of teenagers and children.

The driving issue behind much of the US’s response to COVID-19 is the unnecessary political warfare going into it. I don’t care if the president is a Republican or Democrat, so long as they are capable of keeping US citizens safe, and Donald Trump’s lack of seriousness going into the pandemic has proven him unfit to protect the people. America’s pride has caused us to be blind to the many threats that we may face and now is the time to change that, be it disease, hurricanes, or even solar flares.

It is important going forward that leaders around the world take risks like this very seriously BEFORE damage is done. We can’t afford to be reactionary in this day and age, especially as a global leader.

Politics aside, it is very important for everyone to be conscientious about just how much the individual can do to prevent the spread of the virus. As you have undoubtedly heard from family members and the media, staying home and keeping distance from others while out. Washing hands is also imperative to stopping the spread as soap is capable of penetrating the lipid bilayer and destroying the virus. On top of this, it is very important to avoid spending time around the elderly or those with known respiratory difficulty as COVID-19’s main symptoms affect the lungs.

Stay Safe.

With election day coming later this year, the news has been in a frenzy about which democratic candidate will ultimately face off against Trump in the election. Over just the past few days and to the surprise of many, many candidates have suspended their campaigns due to their lack of support from American voters. Several of the big names have included Michael Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar.

There is one thing all of these candidates have in common: they endorsed former vice-president Joe Biden in his campaign after dropping out.

What is so fascinatingly dangerous about this election is just how much of an inner-party schism has begun to form, starting in the last election. Democratic voters are beginning to turn more on one another as the election is less about the presidency, and more about fixing our broken government. While candidates like Warren and Sanders are focused on expanding government programs to help those in need such as universal healthcare and fighting to eradicate student debt, many of their potential voters are scared away by their passion in these various fields.

CBSN News coverage of Super Tuesday

It seems that the American public can’t seem to agree if the focus of the 2020 election should be a political revolution, or just securing the presidency.

In my opinion, there are 3 major concerns heading forward in this electoral season.

1. Age-

Age has proven to be a major point to consider going into the next election as Biden stands at 77 years, Sanders at 78 years, and Warren at 70 years. Even current president Donald Trump is 73 years old. This means that should any democrat win office later this year, they would be the oldest president ever inaugurated.

Now how does this effect us voters? First off, the presidency is an extremely taxing job that demands a powerful incumbent, and as these candidates continue to age, they will be capable of putting forward less and less to their job. While it has been made clear that Sanders and Warren still have a sharp mind, numerous concerns have been raised about Biden’s age showing through in some of his speech. While this is mostly speculation, it can be said without a doubt that the high ages of all candidates make them poor representatives of the American population as a whole.

2. Can they win-

As mentioned earlier, the Democratic voter base is now largely split between their moderate and revolutionary options. And while many democrats claim that it is their ultimate goal to defeat Trump, it remains unclear just how many staunch Sanders supporters would be willing to support Biden if he gains the nomination and vice versa.

This concept was also present in the 2016 election as 12% of Sanders supporters in the primaries ended up voting for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. This may come as a surprise to many – and for good reason – as Bernie was considered a more liberal option than Hillary in that election. This begs the question, will the same happen in 2020 if Bernie doesn’t win the nomination?

One further note: New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has even said that “in any other country, Joe Biden and I would not be in the same party.” AOC has been considered one of the most influential and liberal representatives in the US Congress. In spite of this statement however, she has stated that would support Biden should he beat out Sanders.

3. What’s going to change?

It seems that many voters are willing to flock to Biden as he is the most prominent moderate running in the 2020 election, and unlike other candidates, Biden isn’t campaigning on the ideas of drastic changes to daily life, allowing much of the voting population to feel comfortable voting for him, at least compared to Biden.

While I personally think change is needed in various parts of the government, I think that the focus should be on winning the election first.