by Will Li (’23) | April 6, 2020
The spread of the coronavirus has undoubtedly dramatically altered this country. Although America’s current executive branch seems to be trying to combat the disease, it is evident that it has been horribly mishandling the coronavirus pandemic. The Trump administration has repeatedly demonstrated inconsistency and promoted misleading communication regarding the pandemic.
When the virus was first reported in China and made headlines around the world back in January, the Trump administration did not regard the news as a serious threat. On January 22, Trump said during an interview with CNBC that America had coronavirus “under control” and would be “just fine.” The coronavirus, however, soon after spread to other Asian countries and, later, other countries in the world. The first case in the U.S. was reported on January 19. Despite news reports detailing its unprecedented and contagious nature, the administration still downplayed the pandemic and did not take sufficient measures early enough to stop its spread. Since then, the administration has shown its inconsistency in dealing with the situation and its inaccuracies in communicating with the public.
As the epidemic worsened throughout February and turned to a pandemic, the stock market witnessed some of its worst declines since the Great Depression. Since then, it seems as though the Trump administration began to look at the coronavirus more seriously. During a press conference on February 29, Trump talked about the U.S. taking some of the “most aggressive [measures] taken by any country” to combat the coronavirus. These measures, however, were far from being aggressive compared to those taken by other countries. At the time, the Trump administration had mentioned nothing about expanding testing capabilities, equipping hospitals, closing schools, or enforcing social distancing, which other countries such as South Korea and Japan were already implementing. Also, Trump blamed the so-called “mainstream media” and Obama for the COVID-19’s increasingly drastic effect on America. Additionally, he made an extremely controversial and racist statement by repeatedly calling COVID-19 the “Chinese virus,” implying that Chinese people are the source of the pandemic. This statement is very offensive and is inappropriate for a U.S. president to say.
In early March, as schools closed and life in the nation began to be impacted by the order to stay at home, the Trump administration completely reversed its verbiage on dealing with the pandemic. On March 24, despite warnings from health experts, Trump publicly communicated his false hope that America would reopen its economy and return to normal by April 12, Easter Sunday. A week later, however, he started to show his willingness to talk about the seriousness of the disease, and he said that America will suffer “a very, very painful two weeks.” The Trump administration’s inconsistency and inaccuracies in dealing with the pandemic proves that it is mishandling this crisis. A good president is one who thoroughly understands the challenge at hand, formulates effective, realistic solutions in time, and communicates the truth to the American people with consistency. This administration is not doing its job.
