Negative Impact of Decision-Making during the COVID-19 Pandemic - Essay Example

Negative Impact of Decision-Making during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In managing the COVID-19 pandemic, the main aim of decisions has been to tackle the health consequences that the disease causes. However, these decisions have an impact on social, political, and economic interests of the country as well. For instance, a decision that is aimed at reducing the rate of infection has a negative economic impact because businesses have been closed to ensure that people do not come into close contact. The situation implies the importance of setting priorities between the different interests as well. In the case of the United States, creating the right balance between science and politics has been particularly tricky. The health professional advocate for stricter social countermeasures that require that people stay home. From this perspective, saving lives is the topmost priority for the country. However, this approach has been faced with a lot of political interference. The effect of this is that the country is experiencing devastating effects on not only its economy but health as well.

According to the President of the US, Donald Trump, the measures undertaken to control the disease should not have worse effects on the country than the problem. The President implies that it is essential to have trade-offs between saving lives and rescuing the economy (Holsten, p.2). This approach by the President has become a significant issue in managing the pandemic in the country. Advocating for the economy to be opened even as other measures to control the disease are being put into place has resulted in an increasing rate of infection in the country. The US currently has the highest prevalence and mortality rate from the coronavirus. More than 3 million people in the country have been infected with the disease with those who have succumbed being more than 130,000 people (Shambaugh, p.1). This is devastating because other countries, such as neighboring Canada, have managed to control the disease within a shorter period. Even the epicentre of the epidemic has survived to stop the infection.

Additionally, avoidance of responsibility has been noted in how the disease has been addressed in the US. Experts were quoted by the President saying that the condition would not affect the US but three months into the pandemic he expressed concern that the experts had got it wrong (Collinson, p.3). President Trump said that a lot of people did not think that it was going to be as dangerous as it had gotten. These are comments made out of poor judgement and avoidance of responsibility. The current situation in the country exposes the President's political approach to the pandemic. Resisting advice from experts and only learning from the devastating impact of the disease has now resulted in untold suffering in the country. Today, healthcare facilities are overwhelmed with the millions of cases that they are handling but were not prepared to handle. The doctors and other health professionals had warned that this would happen, but it was ignored, and now they are suffering for it. Thousands are getting infected in the line of duty which is causing further inadequacy of health professionals to serve the affected population. The initial failure of the country was downplaying the seriousness of the crisis.

Other than the impact on the health sector, the economic sector is also suffering, and the situation continues to get worse. This situation is also as a result of the initial failure to handle the disease as seriously as it deserved. The recommendations by scientists were not followed, and therefore, the country could not go through the first phase of the disease as expected. Countries such as Canada and China, which took immediate measures to control the disease are gradually opening up their economies without fear that the situation will get worse. Soon, such countries will be back to normality, and their economy will not have been hurt as much. However, in the US, the number of cases is continually rising and therefore, the economy cannot even start working towards the regular operation. By the first quarter of the year, the country's GDP fell by 4.8%, which is the worst contraction of the economy since the Great Recession (Shambaugh, p.2). This situation has continued to get worse because people cannot go back to their healthy, productive lives with the disease still registering such a high rate of infection and mortality. The efforts to reduce the economic impact of the disease is also facing opposition because some people feel that there was no need to close the economy in what they termed as learning to live with the virus. This is based on the notion that the disease will be in the country for a long time, and therefore, businesses cannot remain closed forever.

Politically, the country has also been affected negatively by the way that the pandemic is being handled in the country. In need to control the spread of the virus, politicians in the state suspended legislative procedures because the sittings would pose a risk of infection to the leaders (Holsten, p.3). This has made it challenging to draft law and pass bills in the country because legislative procedures are not ongoing as usual. This will affect the country not only now but in the future because such laws were meant to be implemented shortly. The judiciary has also been affected because court proceedings cannot continue as usual. The impact of this is that a lot of cases will pile up, and the courts will be overwhelmed when things go back to normal. However, this has been opposed by notions that some of the measures being taken to control the disease go against the democratic procedures in the country. Asking people to stay home in respect of the health procedures of stopping the spread, for instance, is being viewed as an infringement of people’s liberties. US citizens even held a protest against the directive to close down businesses and the economy because it was against their rights.

The economy of the country will suffer devastatingly even as the President keeps saying that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Acting like the disease does not exist is only going to make it worse for the country because as more people are infected, they cannot go back to work. With a projection of 150 million cases in the country, the pandemic is nowhere close to leaving the country (Atkeson, p.20). The health sector will continue to suffer because of the high number of patients with limited resources. The impact of the coronavirus on the US is not yet totally felt because the situation is getting worse. It has been noted that the second wave of infection has started in the country following recent events. This is a trend that is going to make it even harder to contain the disease because a lot of people are going about their usual business as if the condition does not exist.