The coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, quickly spiralled into a global pandemic resulting in a major economic downfall. Local and chain businesses are forced to shut down while many workers, including health, grocery, cleaning and rescue workers are tasked with risking their lives to help people. As many people know, this virus started in Wuhan, China, and from there it spread around Asia and then up to Europe where Italy was hit the hardest. Italy shut down their entire country after China. China and Italy took major precautions including people’s dogs and cats not even being allowed to walk outside. The president and America watched these other countries be inflicted by this virus. People watched their hospitals being forced to choose who gets to live and who gets to die because of limited space, supplies and doctors. According to film director and entrepreneur Tom McCarthy, “president Trump was personally warned about the growing crisis beginning in mid-January – but continued to give false assurances to the American public.” 

Trump’s goal was to keep everybody calm and assumingly did not properly warn state officials and the American public about the virus. His actions are similar to that of Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, in the fictional series Harry Potter. Even though the wizard Dumbledore and the teenager Harry Potter personally saw the evil villain Lord Voldemort, Fudge continued to live in ignorance and told the public everything was fine. 

The country watched how heavily other countries were affected by this virus. The president had the inside scoop, however, and America still did not go into lockdown. It was treated lightly and people had parties and people socialized. The only way to prevent a pandemic from destroying jobs and the economy is to practice social distancing. If America had taken this virus as seriously as China, the country would not hold the spot for the highest death rate in the world. There were even ample warnings from Italy on what would happen if the government didn’t put the country on lockdown. 

When this virus became more serious president Trump shut down all flights in and out of the country. That was a smart and obvious action to take. The country needed a president to take it seriously from the beginning, to procure supplies and funding needed to combat this, and he needed to recruit the help of the American people to prevent a fast hitting pandemic. 

Even with all this considered, people still continue to get together and hangout with friends. I see people from my own school on social media posting with their friends and not respecting the staying six-feet-apart rule. They might think it’s not a big deal, but Ohio had death rates reportedly skyrocket after two families got together for a birthday party and funeral. 

President Trump needed to warn the country when he had a personal warning about this virus.  If Trump had warned America, people would have taken social responsibility and possessed the moral obligation to help the country. Going forward, people need to continue to social distance and isolate so the spread doesn’t get any worse and to get back to “normal” sooner.