Another American War.
Its 1971, President Richard Nixon just declared drug abuse and prevention “Public enemy number 1” declaring the beginning of the “War on Drugs.” September 11, 2001 begins the “War on Terror.” With nearly 700,000 people sick and 22 million unemployed, January 31, 2020 will go down in the history books as the beginning of the “War for Health.”
The United States government has called upon the public multiple times in the past. The creation of the programs in the 70s in an attempt to hinder drug and substance abuse by the American people and airport security being heavily increased in the early 2000s are broad examples of what the government has done in the past to solve problems.
Covid-19 is spreading so fast due to the public’s lack of knowledge on how it was spread and how contagious it is. It is not uncommon for people to go-to work and continue their every day life when they are experiencing symptoms of the common cold or the flu for example. Everyone has done it at least once in their life, either not wanting to miss class or trying not to use up their sick days for the year at work, regardless it is wrong to do, and in this specific situation, aided the spread of a virus which became a global pandemic.
Now we find ourselves locked inside our homes, socially distancing from one another, working 9 to 5 from our couches in an attempt to slow the spread of this virus that slammed hospitals and drained the national stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE). Social distancing, lock downs, curfews, and everything we are doing now to slow the spread of Covid-19 is great. But when I think about it, Watching my school and workplace shut down only to watch the virus spread rapidly, all of the preventative measures went into effect too late.
The measures we have in place currently at the time of this article being written such as working from home, temperature checks and quarantine periods are great ways to combat viruses and disease that can be spread easily. I believe that pushing harder for these measures and taking illness very seriously should be the way to go from now on. Stopping the spread of disease and viruses is something everyone must be on board with, individuals and corporations alike.
Increasing the amount of sick days in a given year or completely removing them in favor of working from home whenever you feel sick, and putting pressure on the public to stay inside away from everyone else when they are, are simple ways that the American people can keep each other healthy and alive.
My name is Patrick McDonough. Thank you for reading my article! I hope everything is well in your life and I hope we can all look back on this like it was all one bad dream. Stay healthy, stay safe and stay busy!
