On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak to be a global pandemic. The same day the number of confirmed cases in the United States passed 1000. Fewer than 40 Americans were known to have died from the disease.
That evening, then-president Donald Trump addressed the nation from the Oval Office. In typical Trump fashion his speech was littered with hubris and falsehoods. Having downplayed the virus for several weeks, wrongly comparing it to the flu and asserting “like a miracle, it will disappear”, Trump boasted about his team being the “best anywhere in the world”, blamed the European Union for permitting the spread of the virus into the United States, and without any consultation declared that all travel from Europe to America would be suspended two days later.
Trump’s pronouncement sparked an immediate panic as Americans abroad scrambled to secure flights home to avoid being stranded. While the order was soon amended to exempt American citizens and residents, it still resulted in thousands flooding airports nationwide without masks, social distancing, or any other checks or safeguards. It was the perfect petri dish for supercharging the virus’ spread.
By late April 50,000 people were dead. Twenty million were out of work. A month later fatalities topped 100,000, with another 100,000 taken in summer. Trump and his acolytes responded with partisan war. They discarded the comprehensive pandemic plan they had inherited from the Obama administration. They mocked masks and refused to wear them. They doctored data and sidelined officials to soft pedal the medical and economic emergency. They lied, day after day.
Every action was viewed through the prism of politics. Disaster response was outsourced to the states, under the rubric of federalism, which Trump hoped would insulate him from blame. His most insidious move went completely unnoticed: exploiting the privacy provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, he threatened hospitals with millions of dollars in fines if journalists revealed any patient identities, directly or indirectly, without advance permission.
Overwhelmed hospitals were in no position to argue, so they locked the media out. No pictures, no proof. Out of sight, out of mind for the American public.
Instead Trump bet the farm on a vaccine, which would allow him to take full credit for ending the pandemic and the recovery that would follow. It almost worked. Dubbed Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration shovelled $18 billion into pharmaceutical companies to expedite development of vaccines and treatment therapies to curtail the virus.
This public-private partnership — accelerated by unprecedented international scientific collaboration — has been an astonishing success. Prior to COVID-19, the fastest vaccine created was for mumps, which took four years to devise and only came after more rudimentary vaccines had been circulating for almost 20 years. By contrast, the first coronavirus vaccines were approved in just nine months. Just not soon enough to save Trump.
A year on, where does America stand? With COVID-19 deaths still exceeding 1500 per day, the nation yearns for a return to normal. But normal will never return. White-collar workers have become the Zoom generation. Employers are rethinking their need for spacious offices in expensive cities. Habits formed over decades have been upended overnight.
Blue-collar workers, long underpaid and overworked, have been rebranded as essential. Parents have been thrown into the deep end of home schooling. Few will take teachers for granted again.
Frontline health care workers have witnessed more trauma and death in a year than many might see in an entire career. They have grieved with loved ones and held the hands of patients as they died. They have watched their friends and colleagues die too. They have struggled through tears and fury as millions of their fellow citizens wilfully ignore basic precautions and denounce the pandemic as a hoax. The aftershocks from their service will be profound.
In the most pivotal inflection point of 2020, a record turnout of 158 million American voters — 22 million more than in 2016 — rejected Trump’s bid for a second term. Instead they elected Joe Biden to lead America out of the nightmare and into the new decade.
Following a turbulent transition, President Biden has hit the ground running. On inauguration day, only 12 million vaccine doses had been administered during the first five weeks of the rollout. Biden pledged to reach 100 million doses in his first 100 days in office. At the halfway point, this target has already been met. Following recent approval of a third vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, officials predict the daily rate will soon reach 3 million doses.
This week Biden signed the American Rescue Plan, a comprehensive $1.9 trillion relief bill that will provide ongoing support for workers and businesses, and inject stimulus into the economic bloodstream. Despite endorsing similar aid packages in March, April and December 2020, and widespread support from the American public, not a single Republican in Congress voted for Biden’s plan.
The political danger of the initiative is clear to them. After 40 years of denouncing government, they know that if the plan works and the sky does not fall in then their jig is up. Republican efforts to drown government in a bathtub will be over. Democrats know this too.
How do we measure a pandemic year? More than half a million lives lost in the US alone, a 20% surge on the typical annual toll. More than 100 million people infected according to epidemiologists. The highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression, cresting 20 million at its peak. More than 100,000 bars, restaurants, hairdressers, salons and spas, movie theatres, hotels, retail stores, gyms and other small businesses shuttered. Life expectancy, which declined each year of Trump’s tenure — another first — plunged further still.
Meanwhile 661 billionaires are $1.3 trillion richer thanks to surging stock prices. The richest of them have so much spare change they now vie with NASA to explore space.
One life taken every minute, of every hour, of every day. That’s 525,600 dead. Lives ruined, industries rocked, businesses destroyed, and a populist president ejected from office by a record turnout. However we measure this pandemic year, what follows will never be the same.
What will it take for the US to recover from the pandemic — and the last four years? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for Crikey’s Your Say section.
What I found absolutely astounding was how much political traction there was in blaming other nations for the pandemic – particularly China – as cases mounted, hospitals became overwhelmed, and the body count steadily rose. The complete abdication of government responsibility was on display, and this was cheered along en masse.
And thanks to America’s media-driven society, we got a front row seat to this chaos, seeing first hand at what fools in the media like Adam Creighton were advocating Australia does. Nothing says “cautionary tale” better…
When Covid was first heard about in China quite a lot of Washington gangsters were smiling thinking it would collapse the Chinese economy … meanwhile the US goes into another 2 to 4 trillion in debt this year, so wonderful to watch.
The author “worked in corporate finance” – is the past tense because of his facility with those number thingies?
The article states “More than 100 million people infected according to epidemiologists…” as if that referred to the USA where it was, in fact, under 30M with 532K deaths as of March 12, 2021 – a mortality rate of 1.75%. (For comparison global cases for are shown as 119M with 2.6M deaths, a mortality rate of under 2%.)
The age cohort of those deaths is heavily at the upper end of normal life expectancy.
Factor in other indicators such as co-morbidities and, being the Benighted States, obesity & income and the risk to the general population seems to be unexceptional.
Far too glib. The deaths, indeed the infections, from the virus vary greatly from state to state and from regions of high population densities to low population densities. There is no correlation as a search and a play with the data from Wikipedia will reveal.
Secondly, you might have compared (by State) deaths by collisions on the road, cancer, rabies and other viruses, and dying in ones sleep as a ratio to C19 deaths (or permanent disability) which amount to circa 5% of infection or 95% recovery. Although bacterial, recovery from the plague was less than 15%.
Agreed, Trump was not the man to administer the matter but neither is any other politician; no NZ is NOT an example. Countries have health services for such purposes and they need, in such circumstances, to be seen to act independently of the politics but such is unlikely to occur.
Your lack of empathy for over 500,000 people dead who would not have died in 2020 must run as deep as your denial. The author’s premise is correct, would Trump have survived without Covid, probably. With Covid not a chance. Just because someone could have died by being hit by bus doesn’t mean you let them die of something preventable 1 month earlier. Although as they said in Yes, Prime Minister – it is cheaper that way.
(1) The characteristics of viruses are described in any text on the subject. Deaths are going to be inevitable and such is a matter of fact.
(2) It is not a matter of empathy one way or the other. Ascertain the number of deaths this century from (basic) flu (as an exercise).
(3) Even Howard acknowledged Trump’s idiocy over the issue. He offended his own support base (over 60s and the age group at risk).
Had Trump pulled his head in and said “I’m going to leave it the the Health Professionals in each State” it is highly likely that Biden would have lost.
What a silly Woke comment. The figures you are quoting are from MSM who dio NOT report factually. For your information the overall death count in the USA for all of 2020 is not much different from any other recent year. The MSM have been stupidly playing this up for over 12 mths now. Are you even aware that Hospitals in USA were PAID $$$ to describe deaths as from Covid.
I’m a fact seeker & with good reason I don’t trust offhand what is being parroted in the MSM.
The Vaccinations are untried & potentially dangerous. How is it that a vaccine for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which under normal conditions would take years to develop, was promptly launched in early November 2020? The mRNA vaccine announced by Pfizer is based on an experimental gene editing mRNA technology which has a bearing on the human genome.
Were the standard animal lab tests using mice or ferrets conducted?
Or did Pfizer “go straight to human “guinea pigs.”? Human tests began in late July and early August. “Three months is unheard of for testing a new vaccine. Several years is the norm.”
Before you vote- Google the following Fact that you won’t hear (why not?) on MSM :
7 European Nations Halt AstraZeneca Jabs On Reports Of “Serious” Blood Clots
If you want more Facts Google this :
The 2020 Worldwide Corona Crisis: Destroying Civil Society, Engineered Economic Depression, Global Coup d’État and the “Great Reset”
If you don’t read alternative information you’ve got a closed mind -which could be dangerous.
It is certainly true that a closed mind could be dangerous.
As you, more than adequately, demonstrate.
More charitably, James, I think Agni is requesting your report as to the histology of the lab analysis. Then, with a bit of mathematics, we will be able to compare your assessment with those whom you quote.
Not everything found on google is authorative. Agreed, it is a grade above FB. The long answer is : time will tell; i.e about another 18 months!
Seems the two popular vaccines used in the US don’t work very well against the South African strain, so its all going to start over again. You would expect to US to get its own mutation shortly because of the vast numbers who have been infected.
I treated the staff and the subscribers to a long tutorial on virus mutation about a year ago (my mistake).
In a nutshell, it is an arms race between the vaccine (which is a cut-down version of the virus) and the virus itself. To mutate, effectively, is to “escape” the vaccine. The same for basic flu. As the virus mutates significantly, the vaccine must change in tandem.
On the other hand the virus can over-do it and kill the host which is not actually “intended” by the virus. The virus needs the host in order to “live” Viruses are the ultimate free-riders.
No one reads history (anymore) but in another 18 months or so they will get the message!
Quite correct. I’ll thumb you up until someone else thumbs you down.
Thanks but it didn’t take long for my ankle nipper(s) to strike.