After achieving less than 25,000 daily cases in the United States during the month of September, COVID-19 continues to manifest itself in a more frequent presence. Since the week of Oct. 16, COVID cases continue to resurface in the United States. Between that given week and Oct. 31, the country added 1,000,000 new reported cases of COVID-19 since March 2020, bringing the total number of infected at 9,000,000 by Halloween.
On Nov. 4, the United States reached a new milestone. For the first time since the arrival of the coronavirus in the country, more than 100,000 new daily cases were reported on that day, 107,800 to be exact. From that point on, cases continued to increase everyday by six digits.
Medical experts criticized President Trump’s laissez-faire approach towards COVID-19. Dr. Anthony Fauci stated last week the lame duck president’s absence in coronavirus task force meetings for the past five months. Dr. Ashish Jha, Brown University’s school of public health dean, criticized Trump’s refusal to implement a national lockdown that could save the lives of thousands of Americans.
On his Twitter account, he posted on Nov. 17 that the president did not impose any “national lockdown. Targeted, Michigan-style restrictions.” Rather than support medical experts’ support for lockdowns, the president has dismissed himself from the issue. He believed that enforcing mandatory lockdown procedures was entirely the matter of state governors, not his. It was up to the latter to decide whether such a proposition was effective in combating COVID-19 or not.
Critics berated his stance for the rising number of cases still occurring across the United states. Had he had taken the pandemic more seriously, they argue that less people would have died. As of Nov. 21, more than 250,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, reported by the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention .
President-elect Joe Biden proved to be a stark contrast to President Trump. He has repeatedly vowed to cooperate and create policies based on the advice of medical experts. Biden and his team claim they will not politicize the coronavirus. The Biden-Harris administration even promised in their COVID transition plan website to always “listen to science” and “ensure public health decisions are informed by public health professionals.”
A few of their plans include: gratuitous COVID testing for all Americans with trustworthy quality; doubling testing sites; investing in new testing methods such as take home testing; implementing the Defense Production Act to accelerate personal protective equipment (PPE) production; and assuring all Americans of different economic backgrounds equal access to high-quality affordable COVID care.
The Biden-Harris administration is also seeking to implement a nationwide mandatory mask-wearing policy. Almost all medical experts agree that wearing masks limits the spread of the coronavirus in the body. Whether Americans are in favor or against these ideas, the effectiveness of the Biden-Harris proposition fight against COVID-19 can only be assessed for its success through implementation.