The United States of America, is it too late?

Many nations around the world have taken extraordinary steps to prevent COVID-19 aka the Wuhan Virus from spreading around their countries. The United States is no different, except the Trump administration was days behind reacting to the available information. Several weeks ago, the Trump response was not to panic, no need to worry and it will disappear with warmer weather. Well, it never did and to this date, 310,000 people have infected and reported death are over 8,000. Then again a few days ago President Trump shocked most Americans with his remarks of wanting to “Open” the country back up for business by Easter. “Lots of people tell me that they want to go back to work, hummm… they are ready” the tune has since been changed to extending the federal social distancing guidelines till April 30^th.   Finally on March 31^st, at the White House daily COVID19 Task Force press briefings, President leveled with his experts and the American public accepting that “It is going to be bad”.  The Center for Disease Control experts predict that the death toll will be anywhere from 100,000 to 240,000 in the United States according to the latest available modeling data. 

The unemployment claims have been surging, high enough to crash several of the state’s unemployment websites. People were on hold with the state’s unemployment offices for hours on the phone simply for most of the calls to go unanswered.  According to the Common Dreams, a non-profit news center last week there were 3.3 million jobless claims filled in the United States and predicts to go even higher. Economists of St Louis federal reserve warns that if the rate continues the current rate it could surge up to a staggering 32.1% or 52.8 million people unemployed significantly higher than the Great Depression era of the unemployment rate of 24.9%. Early this week, the 880 page Corona Virus Stimulus package was passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives and signed by President Trump bringing much needed financial support to the American public. The 2 trillion dollar bill includes $1200 payment to each taxpayer with less than $75,000 annual gross income or $2400 per married couple earning less than $150,000. Each parent of the $75,000 to $150,000 earnings bracket will be eligible to receive $500 per each child. The two trillion dollar stimulus is also included of 500 billion dollars to the US industries, 100 billion dollars to the hospitals and 85 billion dollars to the airline industry. The state governments will also receive 250 billion dollars to fight the pandemic. 

As for right now, the health care system is barely holding on to the pressure of ever-increasing cases of COVID19. Lack of Personal Protective Equipment, lack of ventilators and the lack of available hospital beds have put pressure on the system to act quickly. The hospital systems are getting dangerously close to been overwhelmed and deprived of necessary Personal Protective Equipment.  State Governors are pleading with the federal government to do more but the response is slow.  As of right now, in few cities there are several public arenas had been converted to makeshift hospitals to treat the surge of COVID-19 cases. More than 5000 outpatient surgery centers have been cleared to treat COVID19 cases or simply to help ease the pressure from the hospitals struggling to cope with the surge. The US Navy hospital ships, USNS Mercy & USNS Comfort docked Los Angeles and New York adding 2000 beds to the system and almost 2400 US military medical personal to the much needed fragile system. Both US Navy Hospital ships to ease the pressure on the hospitals by taking on non-COVID related cases freeing up almost 2000 beds system-wide. “We need to triple our hospital bed capacity in New York City by May,” New York City’s Mayor de Blasio said in front of the Comfort on Monday. “It’s a daunting task, but we got a big, big boost with the arrival of the Comfort. This is like adding a whole ’nother hospital to New York City” California Governor Gavin Newsom said during a press briefing on Friday that “ I want to just want to thank the president, personally, on behalf of a grateful region, on behalf of a grateful state for sending this ship and the incredible resources that reside within this ship to the state of California,".

Abbott Labs unveiled its five minutes COVID19 testing at the White House press conference on Monday stating that their FDA approved technology will assist many in launching an efficient testing system. The Vice President of Research and Development John Frels “This is really going to provide a tremendous opportunity for front-line caregivers, those having to diagnose a lot of infections, to close the gap with our testing - A clinic will be able to turn that result around quickly, while the patient is waiting.” Despite all evolutions in testing,  there is a clear disparity between what Trump administration has to say about the availability of COVID19 testings compared to the local hospitals, state governments, and the health experts. Republican Gov Larry Hogan publicly rejected the Trump administration's claim of there are no testing issues in the United States. On an interview with National Public Radio Gov. Hogan said that the claims of Trump administration that there are no issues in the US with testing is simply not true. “We know that they are working creating new tests, but they’re not actually produced or distributed to the states. State Governors on a conference call with the White House on Monday the March 30th raised serious concerns about not having the capacity to continue testing. The US State labs mostly receive its testing kits from the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  So far the Center for Decease Control has issues about 500 to 600 test kits per day creating a mass shortage on the horizon. President Trump in response said that he has not heard about testing in weeks. Even though some anecdotal evidence suggests that hydroxychloroquine is the answer to help with new COVID19 patients, Federal Drug Administration approved vaccine or medication is still about 12 to 18 months away. 

As a country, how did the United States get here? Is it the Trump administration to blame for suggesting everything is great and it will all go away of its own or is it the American people to blame for not taking the virus seriously? Could it be the government of the People’s Republic of China for intentionally downplaying the severity of the virus by misinforming relevant data to the world until it is too late to reverse its course? Could the Chinese have done a better job on the containment of the spread? Regardless of who to blame the world is now at a dangerous place struggling to take care of the sick, the vulnerable, the first responders and the front-line health care workers. May God help us all ! ! 

– R.Doe