Over the past week, The White House has faced a lot of criticism for its response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the United States. On Thursday, President Trump challenged the the 3.4 percent death rate provided by the World Health Organization, saying: "Well, I think the 3.4 percent is really a false number," and he eventually concluded it was "way under 1 percent." Last week, he called the virus a hoax crafted to harm his re-election prospects. The government's response has also been criticized for a lack of coronavirus test kits in hospitals across the nation. This is all happening while coronavirus cases continue to rise in the United States. According to the New York Times, there have been over 250 confirmed cases of coronavirus nationwide. Washington State, New York, and California are among the states which are reporting the most cases. Washington State, in particular, has reported 14 deaths from the virus, causing The University of Washington to cancel physical classes, instead resorting to digital means. If that weren't enough, community spreading is beginning in many of those same western states, with many speculating that mild cases are dangerously going undetected. Understandably, the public is becoming increasingly worried about the exponential spread of the virus in the United States. Particularly, scientists and health officials are concerned about the government's response to the virus. They have said they believe people will not take the virus seriously enough due to Trump's responses, leading to lenient measures and more infections. Others are worried that Trump's regular dismissal of science, such as ignoring warnings about the climate crisis and misinterpreting the cause of California's wildfires, will continue. The White House has disputed these claims and insisted that they are both following the science and holding meetings every day with prominent health officials. Since the story of coronavirus has already changed so much in the past month, one can only imagine what it will be like in the future. Use both this article (for disease updates) and this article to answer the following questions.
1. How do you think the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. will continue to progress? Do you think it will become as bad as it is in China? Why or why not?
2. Since coronavirus is progressing in the U.S., what do you think should be done to help stop infections? What would you do if you were in charge?
3. What do you think about The White House's response to the outbreak? Do you think their response to coronavirus is adequate? Why or why not?
4. Have you ever felt as though you were responsible for something that you were unfit to handle?
Although the U.S is trying its best to moderate the coronavirus, I still believe the number of infected Americans will continue to progress. With an incubation period like the coronavirus, it is difficult to contain infected individuals. Also, a person can spread the virus without being symptomatic. China did a poor job of encasing the virus, but it will still spread similarly in the U.S due to the incubation period and free travel. Unlike China, it is harder for the American government to control the transmission of the virus. As China represents a centrally planned government, they have no issue in quarantining whole cites and regions. The U.S has taken a better approach to the coronavirus, but it will likely spread as bad china due to transmission.
ReplyDeleteWith a virus this contagious, people should use multiple tactics to reduce infectivity. As the virus is spreading quickly, former president Barrack Obama commented on twitter to prevent, "from coronavirus with common-sense precautions: wash your hands and stay home when sick" (Kenen). Aside from simple precautions, public areas should also be sanitized. The movement of infected people is the main issue for disease control, so all elements of transportation must be disinfected. Another aspect is people still coming into work when they are sick, therefore, infecting others. If I were in charge, I would make businesses provide paid leave for those who are infectious. Overall, limiting transmission and increasing sanitation will lead to lower infectivity.
Initially, I thought the white house's response to the virus was inadequate, but now that the virus is spreading, they are beginning . to take it seriously. When the coronavirus hadn't reached America yet, President Trump claimed that a hotter climate would wipe out the virus. Now that the virus has reached almost every continent, Congress passed an 8.3 billion dollar bill for test research. The White House's initial repose to the virus was poor, letting the virus spread, but now they know that the virus is a serious matter.
One time I had to write .a song in music class, and I had no idea what the notes were. I felt unfit to handle this assignment as it took me a while, from searching up how to write music. On a bigger scale, the coronavirus is hard to control, but I think our government is fit for the job.
The coronavirus is an extremely contagious and harmful virus. Due to Trump's inability to react appropriately and take the correct repercussions needed in order to accurately warn the public, many people are uneducated on the status of the virus in our country. Since this virus is so contagious and dangerous, if one isn't properly quarantined there is no doubt that it will rapidly spread. Although the U.S is trying it’s best to contain the virus, the incubation period makes it difficult for one to detect whether or not they are infected. If a cure isn't formulated, and President Trump continues to fail on taking action the virus will spread even more than it already has, and our country will be in the same position as China.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rhys, that public areas should be properly sanitized and people coming from forign countries where there have been cases of the virus, shouldn't be allowed to enter. However, the most effective plan of action would be to formulate a cure. This is the best tactic one can take in order to prevent the virus from spreading even more.
The White House’s initial response to the virus was inadequate. Their uneducated response to the virus shocked the public, and worried a variety of U.S. citizens. However, now that they know how serious and extreme the coronavirus is, The White House has started to take action. They have continued to promote test research, as well as managing the virus to the best extent they can.
Yes, in the lower school we did a project called genius hour. This being the first real project we had ever done, I felt unfit to handle the challenge. However, as I started to research the topic I realized how to successfully execute the project. Despite my experience I believe that the White house is heading in the right direction. They are starting to realize what steps need to be taken in order to contain the virus.
I agree with Rhys, that although the U.S is trying its best to help the coronavirus come to an end, the amount of people that have the virus with rapidly spread. Many U.S citizens haven't been fully educated on the details of coronavirus, such as the incubation period. This is a major setback because without symptoms you can never be sure who has the virus or not, allowing it to spread at an increasing pace. I believe that if the President doesn't begin to take bigger measures to help our Nation, eventually the virus could escalate and become as bad as it is in China.
ReplyDeleteTo help the infectivity rate begin to decrease, I believe that simple precautions need to be taken. Such as, little things like washing your hands multiple times a day, or not hesitating to take a day off if you feel a bit sick. These could seem minor, but this will help germs stop spreading. Transportation is another big thing. While you are in the airport there is a high chance that at least a few or multiple citizens have contracted the virus and may not know it yet. So, knowing this, if you still decide to travel, make sure you stay sanitized, and maybe even where a mask to prevent germs from spreading.
The White Houses initial response was inadequate, leaving citizens uneducated on the topic, and scared of what may occur next. Now that the virus has continued to grow more serious, the White House has began to notice that more action needs to be taken. Having meeting with Health Officials is a great step to helping the nation more, and trying to minimize the amount of citizens that become infected.
Not feeling fit to handle something you are responsible for is something I have felt on various occasions. Having this feeling brings your confidence down, and it feels like you aren't worthy enough, but speaking from experience, I have learned that all you need to do is give it your best shot, and you will realize it's much more simple than it seems.
1. I agree with Rhys that the virus will continue to spread quickly in the US until there is a cure. The virus has an incubation period of 14 days and is also extremely contagious which makes it very difficult for people to know that they have the virus which could result in them infecting other people. For example, someone could go to a party and touch many people and it would spread unnoticed. If people use common sense and listen to advice from health officials the speed at which the virus spreads could be reduced. Even if people do that if no cure is found the virus could become as bad as it is in China.
ReplyDelete2. If I was in charge of stopping the disease from progressing the first thing I would do is prevent travel to and from China which would reduce the spread of the virus. Furthermore, I would also invest money into finding a cure to the virus which is the only true way to get rid of the virus. The last action I would take to prevent the spread of the virus would be to encourage people to use common sense: wash your hands for 20 seconds, don’t touch your face and stay home when sick.
3. I agree with Rhys and Sophia that at the start the White House wasn’t taking the virus seriously as there were very few cases. The White House is beginning to realize how detrimental the virus could become so they are now taking the virus seriously. Trump recently signed an $8.3 billion aid to find treatments and other necessities. Now that there are over 300 cases in the US I think that the White House is starting to do a better job concerning the virus.
4. There was a time where I was responsible for something I couldn’t handle. In the 4th grade I had to do a project of one of the breaks. I totally forgot about the project until the night before it was due. I ended up doing a very sloppy and poor job on the project because I had to do too much work in a very small amount of time.
1. I think that the corona virus will inevitably spread with the cases of it already jumping to 500 in the US but the numbers won't be as bad as China's. Because of the knowledge the US already has on the corona virus, the government will learn to take more precautions to ensure what happened in China won't repeat it self in the US.
ReplyDelete2. If I was the president of the united states, I would make sure that large public meeting are no existent and lower the opportunities of human interaction. I wouldn't want to make people feel like they are under house arrest and affect their mental health, but make sure the virus has a low chance of spreading.
3. I agree with Rhys and many others that congress initially thought that this wouldn't really affect the US but now due to the rapid rise in confirmed cases, I think congress have changed their minds and the recent signing of the $8.3 billion aid proves it
4. When I was 7 I was on a fencing sleep away camp and there they allowed ipads. At the time I had really poor self control and would often play until early in the morning. After accumulating around 4 hours of sleep a night over the course ce of the first few days, I almost fell asleep while standing on the last few days.
1. I agree with Rhys that the virus will continue to spread around the U.S until someone finds a cure. Everyone already knows how contagious this is and although most people are being more careful about their health, there are still people who aren't taking this as seriously as they should be and that believe nothing will happen to them. I also don't think things in the U.S will get as bad as they are in China. Coronavirus came to them with no warning while we had some time to get a little more prepared.
ReplyDelete2. I think events that require lots of interaction between people should be canceled. Like school, sports games, bus rides, train rides. I also understand this would probably mess with a lot of peoples only way of getting to work but if something big isn't done to try and prevent this from getting any bigger the virus will continue to spread and will become uncontrollable.
3. I don't think the White House's response to the outbreak was good enough. Trump believes the numbers are false and is making this seem less important than it really is. If anything he is making the virus more likely to spread around the U.S. by making people think it is okay to go out and act like everything is normal.
4. Yes, my dad acts like I know how to do all the things he knows how to do and sometimes he makes me fix things around the house that I have no idea how to do, but like Rhys said, the government is capable of dealing with this.
I think that the coronavirus outbreak in the US will continue to progress, as it's very difficult to stop illnesses from spreading. However, it will not reach the level of China due to the fact that the population there is much greater, and it's a smaller country, so the population density is higher, meaning that people are closer to each other, making it easier for them to get infected.
ReplyDeleteBecause of how rapidly coronavirus is spreading in the US, I think that it would be a good idea to temporarily shut down schools. School is one of the places where people are very close together, and if one person has the virus, it will spread like wildfire.
I think that Trump's response to the outbreak is a great example of his ignorance. He frequently says things without considering their meaning, even if it is not true.
In seventh grade, my sleep schedule was really bad. Even worse than it is now. I would more often sleep in class than not, and my grades suffered for it. A prime example of this is a math test we had. I had barely been sleeping, so I was sleeping in math. When the test came, I only knew half of the things on it. I ended up pretty much failing it, so yeah, that happened
1. I agree with Rhys that the virus will keep spreading throughout the U.S. Like others have said I don't think it will stop spreading until we find a cure. Also it is said that we won't find a cure for about a year, so there is no really affective way to stop the virus until then. I think by the time we find a cure if the virus spreads like it is, it will be worse here than in China now.
ReplyDelete2. I think to really stop it from spreading we need a cure, but that is probably the hardest thing to do to prevent the spread of the virus. People need to constantly wash their hands and they should probably keep their hands away from their face as much as possible. Anyone who feels symptoms of the virus or is sick in any way to should stay home so they don't infect anyone else. And also like Rhys said, transportation should be disinfected so it is safe to use.
3. Like others have said, I think that the initial reaction to the virus outbreak was bad. trump showed that he wasn't taking this major problem seriously. He was also saying that he didn't think it was as bad as it was. This scared lots of U.S. citizens for sure seeing that their leader wasn't taking a worldwide problem seriously. Now I think the virus is being handled a lot better especially with the 8.3 Million dollars for research and testing. I think that will put us in the right direction.
4. I can't think of anything specific, but in the past Im sure I have been given a task or a project that I didn't think I was capable of completing. I'm sure it was stressful and hard not understanding or at all knowing what I needed to do. I think that the virus is something our government can handle though.
1. I agree with Thomas that the the coronavirus will keep spreading throughout the U.S. Once a virus of this kind is in progress it is very difficult to stop it, this will put much of the elderly in danger. Another reason the virus will keep spreading is because of Trump's reaction and his lack of worry about how severe it could be. Even though the virus will keep spreading I don't think it will make it to how bad it was is china, because the population density is much higher there than here. We don't have a cure right now for the virus, and he still won't for at least a year so until then it will be very difficult to keep it contained.
ReplyDelete2. During the time of a highly contagious virus, it is even more important to wash your hands, and stay as hygienic as possible. It is also important to not go to huge crowds of people you don't know if there is word of people near you getting infected. If I was in charge I would exactly what Congress did, which was put a lot of money into finding a cure, but I would have made sure to do it sooner.
3. I think the White House was late on taking action to stop the virus, and now they have made it very difficult to go back and fix now that it is in the U.S. When Trump was talking about the virus he did not seem to think of it as a big deal, which is scary for the citizens of the U.S., it is like the President is saying he is not there to help the people. Lately though the Government has seemed to turn around and see the virus for what it is, a serious threat. They showed that it was an important issue when they put the 8.3 billion dollars into it.
4. Sometimes if there is something that I am not to confident on or a topic I don't know to much about and someone asks me about it, it feels like I am unfit to handle it. It is difficult to do a task that seems daunting or something that seems like it is too hard for you to do.
1.) I agree with Nick that the coronavirus is going to spread a lot throughout the USA due to its incubation time of 14 days. This will cause a person to have the disease and spread without knowing until 14 days have passed. Even if you have it yourself, you wouldn’t know that you have it until 14 days later. I think that it’ll be worse in the USA than China soon because China is doing a good job of treating the coronavirus, many people have recovered and at this rate, the USA will be worse than China. China has dealt with it well.
ReplyDelete2.) I think in order for people in the USA to stop getting infected is that they should carry hand sanitizer and they should not go outside unless it’s absolutely needed. Not keeping yourself clean increases your chances of coronavirus a lot. Even if you’re clean, you can still get infected. That’s why it’s better to stay inside then risking it and going outside.
3.) I believe that the White House’s response to coronavirus was very underestimated. Their response was not adequate because now the coronavirus is spreading through the USA at an alarming rate. The ratio of people dying and recovering here in the USA is worse than the ratio in China right now. Many people in China are recovering rather than dying. The White house needs to do something about the virus.
4.) I felt unfit to handle taking Arabic this year due to how different it was from english and latin-based languages. I thought that I was going to do very poorly in that class but as of now, I’m doing well in Arabic. It is not as difficult as it seems.
1. I agree with Rhys that the number of Americans affected by this virus will only continue to rise. Trump has openly stated that he is trying to keep the number of cases in the US small, and because of the limited coronavirus test kits, there may be many more cases than have been reported. I think that if the pandemic is not already as bad here as it is in china the virus will continue to spread to that level as an infected person can appear healthy and freely travel and interact with other people.
ReplyDelete2. The most concrete way to stop the spread of the coronavirus is to create a vaccine that combats it, however, that may not happen for a while as the process for creating a vaccine that can be used on humans is very complicated. Until a cure is found everyone should wash their hands often and avoid touching their faces. If I were in charge I would allocate more funding to organizations like the CDC, and make test kits more publicly available so that people can be diagnosed and quarantined if necessary.
3. I think that the White House's response to the coronavirus is misleading to many Americans and dangerous to the general public. Because Trump is downplaying the virus some Americans may not take this as a serious threat and continue to spread it across the country. His decisions and public view of this issue have also sparked increasing doubt in his leadership abilities as he is ignoring and downplaying the severity of the threat of this virus.
4. There have been times where I have been given a task that I did not feel I could complete. For example, last summer my dad put me in charge of a project for his company that I had given him the idea for, but since he was busy he couldn't help me and I had to figure it out on my own.
1. I agree with Nick that the coronavirus will spread until there is a cure for it. Trump has stated in the articles and news that he is trying to keep the number of cases low and small because of the limited materials and nurses that the U.S. has. I also think that it could spread as much as China, but it all depends on how we handle this situation. Also because we get a lot of our resources and objects from China so it could also spread from that way. Also if there is a serious case and that person doesn't report it, they could be putting hundreds or even thousands of people in danger.
ReplyDelete2. I think the most effective way we could stop the coronavirus from spreading is creating a vaccine for it or an antibiotic to help prevent it. If this is created, it could be saving many lives and help it from preventing the massive spread. If I was in charge, I would also try to have a lot of people get tested to see how many cases there actually are. Until a cure is found, people should wash their hands and use lots of hand sanitizer. I would also recommend keeping your hands out of touching your face.
3. I think that the response of the White House is very irresponsible this kind of situation. The people of America will only directly listen to Trump because he is the biggest person in the country right now. If he says that this virus is "not dangerous" then people won't think to worry about this big of a problem and that will cause it to spread a lot faster.
4. Yes, this year actually. I was taking a foreign language for the first time at a school. At the beginning of the year, I thought I was really going to fail the class, but I started to find the methods that worked with me for studying. Although I did this, I was very stressed and didn't think I could handle memorizing a whole new alphabet.
I agree with Rhys that although the United States is taking measures to stop the Coronavirus, it will continue to spread throughout our country. The Coronavirus is extremely contagious, as it already has taken other countries by suprise and has infected thousands of people around the world. It is also difficult to tell whether you have the virus, as the symtoms often don’t show up right away. Although I believe that the virus will continue to spread through the US, I don’t believe our situation will become as bad as Chinas. Unlike China, the US has taken effects to quarantine people who are suspected to be infected.
ReplyDeleteI think that quarantining people who are suspected to have the virus was a good step to preventing it from spreading. Other than that, I would suggest that people try to wash their hands and use sanitizer whenever it is possible. The next move that should be taken is to try to develop a cure or vaccine for the virus. However, this could take a while, as a vaccine could take up to a year to develop.
I think that the White Houses original response to the outbreak was not sufficient, as Trump believed that it would die out as the summer approached. However, the virus is beggining to spread in Australia, which has a pretty hot temperature. Now the White House is taking the situation more seriously, as they have passed a bill to fund research on the Coronavirus.
There was a time last year where I had to do a science lab by myself, as my partner was absent. I was unable to handle the workload by myself, and I was really worried about the outcome of the project. Thankfully, I was moved into someone elses group.
1. I agree with Rhys that the coronavirus will continue to progress and get as bad as China. While China’s situation is not good, and the virus has continued to spread, that is because it originated in a wet market there and has been hard to prevent. However, since China has discovered the outbreak they have been taking extreme precautions to try to stop it. I think that the U.S. could be able to prevent the virus from getting as bad here as it is in China, but since the President is trying to wash away all precautions, I think that the epidemic will get much worse before it gets better.
ReplyDelete2. Because the virus is so contagious the virus is spreading quickly. People should use common sense with washing their hands and staying home if they are showing symptoms, also I agree with Rhys that public areas should be sanitized more. Because of the incubation period, many people with the virus have probably passed through the public area letting many more people get infected. I also agree with Rhys that if I was in charge I would make businesses provide paid leave so that people would not feel the urge to go into the public while they are sick.
3. I think that the White Houses’ response to the virus was bad. Trump continued to say that the disease was not a big deal and that it would just disappear like a miracle. I think that now the White House is beginning to take it more seriously, however, I think that there needs to be a line between not believing the disease is a threat and causing the whole country to be in major fear.
4. Sometimes I do feel like I am given a task that I cannot handle and sometimes I do need help. However, I don’t think that a task given to an eighth-grader is a good comparison to a task given to the entire government.