There are signs as projected by some models that America is going to see some slowdown in the spread of the dreaded Coronavirus in a week or two - subject to folks still maintaining rigorous social distancing. Yet it's going to get worse before it gets better. I see things starting to stabilize and get a whole lot better after June, if not sooner. But now it's time to smell the Coffee and wake up, analyze why America was caught like a flummoxed Rabbit in front of headlight and given its technological advantage why it failed to see Coronavirus which even microscope can see.
First and the foremost - America's arrogance as the forefront nation, the most powerful Superpower, so nothing gonna happen to it. The first part is true, America is still the superpower and the land of opportunity. But the second part is not. This overtly supercilious attitude of American exceptionaism has now backfired big time. It led to lowering its guard and in 3 weeks we have nearly 1/2 a million of its population having tested positive of COVID-19, 18,000 dead and counting as I write. The victims include numerous NRIs and at least one dead NRO (Non Resident Odia) I am aware of.
Secondly, the United states was grossly underprepared to handle such pandemic. It's not a terror attack with a visible target which America can prowl using its technological prowess, use bunker busting bombs through guided laser on COVID-19 virus and destroy it. Inspired by the Conservative principle of role of small government, The White House disbanded the National Security Council's pandemic response team in May 2018, two top officials in charge of response were either fired or abruptly left the administration.
I too believe that Government's role must be limited. From closed quarters I have seen how Big government in India has done anything but promoting ineptness and corruption, encouraging mediocrity in place of meritocracy. But Government still has a role, especially in the area of Disaster management. Credit should be given where credit is due. In my state back home Odisha, the local government has done a spectacular job in the area of crisis management. This is certainly an area where government's role, its expertise and experience comes handy.
Thirdly, the response of US government was tardy from the beginning. Rather than owning it, Trump and his Right Wing sidekicks blamed the virus going viral on Democrats, liberal propaganda. Not so long ago he proclaimed - "The virus will magically vanish". One of the President's raucous lackeys, Rush Limbaugh, a popular Right wing talk radio host with a vast following went a step ahead describing the virus, "It's just common cold folks". Neither this common cold virus has magically vanished, as it kills no less than thousands a day in America.
The "pooh poohing" of the initial scare, allowing the disease to progress into a stage which can very well e described using the Odia phrase - NEDI GUDA KAHUNI KU BOHI JIBA (Allowing Jaggery from the palm to flow into the elbow). It simply means, knowlingly allowing a problem to persist and get out of hand, until it reaches an unrecoverable stage. The US authorities exactly did that, only reacted when the epidemic had already spread its tentacles far and wide enough to bring a $21 trillion economy to a screeching halt.
America has conquered many frontiers, including the killer Spanish flu exactly 100 years ago. I am sure it will be successful in controlling this invisible adversary. A vaccine will come sooner or later, most likely from American soil. Hope the nation learns from the pandemic, mitigation the scourge and stay better prepared for the next epidemic. If not its Superpower status is at stake.
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