Returning to Normalcy After Coronavirus

The novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic will greatly affect the state of our country – and quite possibly the world – once it disappears. Currently, there are 4,376,183 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with 294,484 deaths. The United States is in first place with 1,411,148 cases and 83,564 deaths. This disease has caused not only an economic depression but has also turned our country into a ghost town.

Burial pits from Iran’s outbreak have grown so large they are visible from space. Piles of lime can be seen in satellite images, which is used to slow decay and reduce odor in the pits. The largest mass grave in the U.S. is on NYC’s Hart Island, with more than 1 million people lined in wooden caskets, spread out over 131 acres. New York City offered prisoners at Rikers Island Jail $6 an hour (a fortune in prison standards) if they helped build the mass graves.

Considering the state we are in, it is difficult not to think about whether or not this could have been avoided. It is important to recognize the following (condensed) timeline when contemplating this:

1. December 31, 2019: The Associated Press is one of the first news accounts to report that China is investigating an “outbreak of respiratory illness in the central city of Wuhan.”

2. January 21: The first case of coronavirus is confirmed in Washington state.

3. January 22: President Donald Trump states that he is handling the coronavirus “very well”.

4. February 6: The first U.S. citizen diagnosed with the coronavirus dies in Wuhan, China.

5. February 25: Trump says that the coronavirus is “well under control” and that there are “very few people with it.”

   1. San Francisco declares a state of emergency; 57 cases in the U.S.

6. February 29: First U.S. death related to the coronavirus is announced after an individual in Washington state dies from the illness.

7. March 9: The Grand Princess cruise ship docks in Oakland, California, as passengers head to hospitals and quarantine.

8. March 13: Trump declares a national emergency.

   1. 2,183 confirmed cases in the U.S.

This timeline only dates up to March;, however, it is clear when action should have been taken. For example, the WHO began shipping out coronavirus tests during the first week of February. The United States, however, opted to develop its own test, but the distribution was limited. The U.S. test was approved by the FDA on February 4, but a problem with one ingredient in the test led to inconclusive results. The FDA allowed academic hospital labs to develop their own tests on February 9. By March, doctors reported that they still hadn’t received enough tests to diagnose potential cases.

For context, Singapore successfully created a test kit by February 9.

However, it is important to be optimistic in these dire times. Perhaps this can be a learning experience for our government – to respond to a threat the moment it is detected. To not wait until everyone around you is unsafe to act. To not pretend everything is under control when it is evidently not.

Perhaps this can be a wake-up call for future presidents – pushing them to reform the ways of the government and themselves. Pushing them to adopt the ways of countries like Singapore, whose government covered the costs of testing and treatment, had aggressive but targeting quarantine measures, and pushed out daily WhatsApp messages to the phones of their citizens so they were informed on the pandemic.

Perhaps this can cause Americans to adopt the norm of wearing face masks whenever they are sick, similar to the culture in Asian countries like Japan. Maybe it can make citizens warier of who and what they are affecting whenever they are sick and doing something as simple as putting on a surgical mask before they step outside.

On the other hand, the coronavirus could worsen our country by backtracking on the progress we have made on social justice and racial equality.

After 9/11, Muslim Americans suddenly went from being one of the least targeted religious groups in the U.S. to seeing hate crimes against those associated with Islam jump 1,600 percent. Today, Islamophobic hate crimes remain five times more common than they were before 9/11. The phrase “go home” became familiar to many.

In the midst of the pandemic, harmful xenophobia is spreading against Asians, specifically Chinese Americans. For example, UC Berkley issued a tweet in late January acknowledging common and normal reactions to the coronavirus. One of those reactions included “Xenophobia: fears about interacting with those who might be from Asia and guilt about these feelings”. The question is, however, when is xenophobia ever a “normal reaction”?

In the end, the coronavirus pandemic will affect the state of the world. For better or for worse? We will have to wait and see.

Related Articles: