Covid-19 Challenging the United States

By: Rifa Berliana Arifin, Editor in Chief of MINA (Arabic Desk)

The United States is the top country in the case of Covid-19. On 29/3, there were 123,578 cases in the country, the highest number surpassing China 81,439 cases and Italy 92,472 cases.

The population of the United States is 329 million.The third most populous country in the world after China and India. Indonesia is in fourth place after the US. So if the combined population of Britain (66 million), France (67 million), Italy (60 million), Spain (47 million) and Germany (83 million) is not as much as the US.

Currently, Covid-19 has killed more than 2,400 Americans, but the H1N1 virus that occurred in 2009-2010 in the US killed 12,469 people. Lives are still lives, the death toll is huge, but for the US this is not the end of the world.

If we look at a map of the US, the state worst hit by COVID-19 is New York with 52,318 cases. It can be concluded that New York accounts for nearly half of the total Covid-19 cases in the US.

If New York is a country, it would occupy the sixth position with the most cases of COVID-19 after Italy (92,472), China (81,439), Spain (73,235), the US (without New York) and Germany (57,695).

Apart from New York, the states most affected by Covid-19 are the states that are most “globalized” such as California and Washington. The two states have always been a magnet for people visiting the United States, because there are Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Silicon Valley, the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Empire State Building, Manhattan, Central Park, Harlem, Brooklyn.

In addition, New York is also the center of world attention politically and economically. It is as if the capital of the world, because the UN Headquarters is in this metropolitan city. Thousands of foreign diplomats are based here. So many foreign nationals from various countries and international organizations, are in contact with the UN Headquarters. New York is also one of the largest stock markets in the world known as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). And now politically, President Donald Trump is also from New York.

Washington is a state in the US, in contrast to Washington DC (District of Columbia) which is the capital of the US. Although not as big as New York and California, Washington is home to giant multinational companies such as Microsoft, Boeing and Starbucks. People always travel to the region for business meetings, so it is only logical that the first Covid-19 case in the US came from Washington.

Meanwhile, other US states that seem “rural” and “outback” are those that are not affected, such as Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, West Virginia. In this state easier to find wheat and maize than it is for humans to expect that there are buildings scratching the sky. Maybe because it is separated from interactions with outside, it is difficult for these areas to be infected with Covid-19.

The way Covid-19 virus spreads is undoubtedly like the MLM (Multi Level Marketing) business, also there are the countries most affected by the disease (New York, California, Washington) will remain the largest affected areas, while the slower countries will remain the least affected countries. Like the MLM in the upline will benefit more than those in the downline.

States held by Republicans have fewer Covid-19 cases compared to states held by Democrats. Eight of the ten states affected by Covid-19 are Democrat-controlled: New York, New Jersey, California, Washington, Michigan, Illinois, Louisiana, and Pennyslvania, while Republicans hold only two, Massachusetts and Florida.

The Covid-19 virus does not recognize political parties. But the fact is that each party carries a different ideology. This ideology influences the direction of policy and authority, especially in a situation of this epidemic, in the end the results will be different.

States in the US have their own autonomy, states are given the authority to manage their domestic policies such as regulations, taxes and excise, so they can have their own policies in dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak.

Trump as head of the federal government can only take action in relations with foreign countries, such as barring foreigners from entering the US, such as his ban on Chinese and European citizens. However, internal policies such as control of movement from one country to another are under the jurisdiction of the state.

The state which controlled by the Democrat Party enforces a stay at home policy for its citizens. In contrast to the Republican Party, which does not oblige its citizens to stay at home, but it is obligatory for citizens who come from the red zone such as New York.

The Democrat Party did not do the same thing as the Republican Party did because of its opinion that the stay at home policy violates human rights, in this case the right to travel, so that it is considered an attempt to discriminate against its people.

On the other hand, the Republican Party did not enforce stay at home because they were worried that the economy would die or not move. Please understand. The Republican Party is also known as the capitalist-dominated party.

The Democrat Party is largely composed of legal advisers and lawyers. Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden they are lawyers. Lawyers have daily “wirid” in addition to “freedom”, “rule of law”, “human rights” and in this case, “state rights” become an issue.

Since there was Covid-19, Trump had planned to ban travel between states, but the Democratic Party protested because it was not within Trump’s authority. Only the state government can enforce that, the state government can prohibit entry and exit of its citizens. The US constitutionally is correct, but the US is currently dealing with a serious COVID-19 crisis.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo did not stop blaming Trump for the Covid-19 case, especially when Trump only sent 400 ventilators for Covid-19 patients in New York. Governor Cuomo was furious and went berserk because all he asked for was 30,000 pcs. He said this meant that Trump would indirectly let the rest of the Covid-19 patients in New York die because of limited ventilators.

Pro-Democratic Party media such as the New York Times raised Cuomo who cornered Trump. Cuomo’s own brother, Chris Cuomo, a host on CNN Media, also praised his brother’s temperament. Maybe you now understand more about why Trump often gets angry with the media, he even said they were “fake news”.

New York is the first state to help Trump with a ventilator, although Trump could ignore it and give priority to Republican-owned states such as Florida and Massachusetts which also have many Covid-19 cases there. But Trump has a hidden agenda. With ventilators becoming a rarity these days in the US, Trump asked General Motors to produce 100,000,000 ventilators in the next three months.

After being traced, since March 17th Trump has asked Cuomo via his Twitter account to “do more”, but Cuomo instead replied back with a tweet “You have to do something! You’re supposed to be President. ” Cuomo actually quipped who was my President or you Trump.

And last night Trump again asked New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to quarantine their chart states. This means not allowing its citizens temporarily in and out of the state. And again Cuomo tweeted “We’re not in China, and we’re not in Wuhan” “This would be a federal declaration of war on states” is a federal state).

Covid-19 is a test for the US, which has always glorified Liberty and human rights, both of which have become bombardments for the US. However, this does not mean that we glorify China’s authoritarianism.

This difficult situation must be able to generate wisdom in taking steps, sorting out what is priority and what is not. We find many people who are knowledgeable but weak in doing wisdom. It will be even more terrible if people in power are unable to carry out a policy to solve an urgent problem.(A/RA-1/RE1)

Editor: Sajadi (Editor in Chief of MINA on English Desk)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)