President Donald Trump. White House photo.
President Donald Trump addressed the nation and outlined new steps to protect the country from the Coronavirus outbreak, including a ban on travel to Europe. USA Today. The biggest news is a new travel ban to Europe that excludes the UK. Italy has a major outbreak and France, Germany and Spain are catching up with many new cases. The ban will last for 30 days and will begin this Friday at midnight. President Trump also said that he would be taking action on paid family leave to ensure that people who are sick, in quarantine, or caring for someone who is sick are taken care of financially and he would be asking congress to extend the relief. Trump also said he would extend the tax filing deadline and called on congress to give Americans temporary payroll tax relief. He also instructed the Small Business Administration to provide capital and liquidity to businesses effected by the virus.
My Comment:
The travel ban is the biggest news from this address and I support it. It's very clear that Europe doesn't have the Coronavirus outbreak in hand. They haven't really done much to stop travel and the outbreak in Italy has now spread to Spain, France and Germany. Though America has our own outbreak to worry about, a travel ban will ensure that we won't get new outbreaks from outside of our country.
Leaving the UK out of this ban will be controversial. Though they don't have as many cases as the European countries effected by the ban, they do have cases which seem to be community transmission. They are probably only a few days to a week behind countries like France and Germany and I assume this ban will be updated to include them as well. My guess is that they weren't included due to the fact that they are somewhat insulated from Europe due to being an island and the fact that they have the "special relationship" with the United States.
It's unclear how this travel ban will work. I am assuming that we will still try to evacuate our citizens who are in Europe. There are people who are stuck there on vacation or in study abroad programs. If the do come back though, they are going to be quarantined.
The economic relief is probably more important. The paid family leave is extremely important as many people in America don't have sick days or even paid time off. We don't want sick people to work because they don't have any options and President Trump specifically said that sick people should stay home.
The best idea Trump put forth was also the least likely to happen. The payroll tax cut would be a huge deal for any workers that are able to continue working. They would have more money to buy supplies and would be able to help prop up the economy. But it likely won't happen as Democrats in congress will not vote for it.
As for the speech itself, President Trump seemed more than a little tired. I think this outbreak is taking a toll on him and it seemed pretty obvious from his voice and posture. He's got a huge responsibility right now and it's going to be very hard for him to deal with. It was a good speech, with good policy recommendations but I do hope that President Trump is taking care of himself as well.
As for the outbreak, I'm still not sure how it's going to turn out. Italy is showing us how bad it can get, with triage for old people and some people even being turned away. But China and South Korea have shown that the virus can be slowed considerably by enforcing quarantines. We aren't there yet in America but we could be soon.
I honestly expect lockdowns at this point. The outbreaks in California, Washington and New York will likely spread across the country. President Trump's actions here have bought us some time, especially now that Europe is off the table, but the virus is already here. It will spread and the only action that will stop it will be quarantine. I still believe the virus will die out once summer hits, as it is not spreading well in the Southern Hemisphere and in hotter climates, but we still have 2-3 months before then and the virus could spread quite a bit. And if it continues to spread in the Southern Hemisphere, it might come back to America this fall...
Thankfully, it seems like the government is trying to handle things. They had some issues with testing which seems to be under control now, but these travel bans have and will help. The economic assistance will be nice as well and even if the virus becomes widespread I think we will have a better chance at containing it than other countries will.
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