Hi class! My name is Elizabeth Prior and I am a junior at Brunswick High school. Today I will be analyzing an article by Paul Krugman titled, "How America Lost the War on Covid-19" which can be found on The New York Times page.
In this podcast I will be discussing Krugman's main point in writing his article. I will also be talking about his main purpose and give examples to explain my reasoning.
In this article Krugman goes into explaining the rise of the corona virus and different examples as to how it spread so fast. When the virus first became an issue people began to get laid off. Then, after places began opening back up businesses in some areas started hiring again. Krugman explains that Trump and his administration were the main ones pushing to re-open because they believed this would help with job gains leading into November. Now that places have re-opened some states have decreasing labor in their businesses because of the fast increase of people coming in contact with covid-19.
I believe Krugman's main purpose in writing his article was to inform but also persuade his readers. He gives a lot of good factual information in his writing but he also gives his own opinions on some topics. In his article he states, "By the second week of June new Covid-19 cases were surging in Arizona and clearly on the rise in Texas."(Par 5) Krugman uses this statement to help support his claims about the Covid cases rising in many states. He gives many opinions, for example, he states that, "The main driving force behind reopening, as far as I can tell, was the administration’s desire to have big job gains leading into November."(Par 12) We can tell that this is an example of Krugman giving his opinion because he says, "as far as I can tell."
Krugman's main point in writing this article was to explain the rise in covid-19 cases and how this has affected America. Throughout his article he explains how the president has dealt with different situations throughout this ongoing pandemic. For example, Krugman goes into detail about how some places weren't requiring people to wear their masks because Trump didn't enforce it. Krugman writes about the work labor in states and how it has increased and decreased due to the pandemic. He states here that, "Reopening did lead to large job increases in May and June, as around a third of the workers laid off as a result of the pandemic were rehired."(Par 16) Just when people began to get hired for jobs again the number of cases shot up causing the labor to decrease once again. The article title "How America Lost the War on Covid-19" might not have been the best title to use considering were still going through the pandemic and we haven't "lost" yet. Although the readers could look at the title in a different means, "lost the war" could've gone into the work labor issue and how it has declined in some states.
Krugman did a great job at explaining Covid-19 and how it has caused us many changes. I believe he also did a great job with explaining Trumps involvement and how what the president does or says is always put into account. A larger group of people might be more involved in wearing masks if Trump were to be for wearing masks for protection. Krugman helps his readers understand the rise in Covid-19 with his reasonings and examples he uses throughout his writing.
Krugman Paul "How America Lost the War on Covid-19" The New York Times, July. 6th 2020 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/opinion/covid-19-trump.html?searchResultPosition=1