Daily life has changed. Our once normal activities have been completely altered and replaced in the span of a month. Humanity is being faced with something so new and deadly–and we are completely unprepared. The coronavirus is ravaging the world, with many countries caught off guard. 

For the United States, it’s not looking good.

The Trump administration has been very slow responding to COVID-19, something the president likes to refer to as the “Chinese virus.” Other countries have been fairly proactive, shutting down shops and limiting travel, but none match China’s response. Aside from the total lockdown of several million people, there are reports of police welding people into their apartments and nets being placed in rivers to catch people trying to escape. Their efforts, as harsh and extreme as they were, have helped slow the infection rate drastically. 

Our government, in contrast, has taken a lackadaisical approach to the coronavirus. When cases began to pop up across the United States, Trump stated that he “had it totally under control.” 

He was wrong. 

Trump’s slow response to send out the necessary amount of equipment to hospitals around the country will undoubtedly cost lives. There were less than 500 COVID-19 tests conducted during the entire month of February. Now, in April, there are almost 250,000 confirmed cases in the United States, which is more than anywhere else in the world. It seems to me that Trump is either more concerned with the economy or just willfully ignorant. 

He finally invoked the Defense Production Act, ordering General Motors to start making ventilators and sent two naval hospital ships to cities where the effect of the virus will be devastating. The sad thing is, he could have done this a lot sooner but chose not to. Most of the “shelter in place” orders are coming from states, not the federal government. Even Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves put down the Bible and ordered the state to shelter in place.

In 2018, the pandemic response team was disbanded by John Bolton, the head of the White House National Security Council. He claimed it was to streamline the NSC, but I think most would agree that he did away with a necessary tool seeing as, in the last five years, the world has had several outbreaks, including some that have reached America like the Zika virus and Ebola.  

Experts say 200,000 to 1.7 million people could die from COVID-19. The only way to minimize deaths is to take protective measures now. Everyone must do their part to flatten the curve through social distancing and closing public places. 

Please, please, stay at home. If you’re young, you have a good chance at surviving, but you could transmit the virus to someone older who is much more likely to die from it. So, don’t panic-buy, stay in virtual contact with your friends and family and wash your hands!