Introduction
Topic: Initial Social Media Response to Covid-19 by the American Government
Stakeholder: Joe Biden – the representative of the American government
Disagreement within stasis: We disagree with how the government used social media, downplayed the pandemic’s dangers in its early days, and sidelined experts when WHO raised concerns about COVID-19’s disruptive effects on daily life. Stasis proposes that there should be an equilibrium between the facts from the real world and information presented in social media. Their information in the first days of COVID-19 spread significantly, and panic appeared. Even though WHO tried to decrease the rate of panic, mass media ensured people that they were in danger.
Thesis: Based on the American government’s initial reaction to the pandemic, future responses to combat infections should be approached as urgent, robust, and professional to mitigate the effects, both from health and economic perspectives. The pandemics were not taken under serious consideration by the previous USA president, and the number of cases started to increase significantly. The paper will present the causes of lack of treatment and what strategies were applied when the governmental representative has changed.
Profile
Government Reaction: On March 11, 2020, when the World Health Organization (WHO) first called the world’s attention to the pandemic, social media showed that very few people understood what was at stake (Lewis). More attention was paid to the elderly and patients with chronic health conditions as they are the most vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic. Stanley Pearlman, a virologist at Iowa University, said, “In the beginning, when this started a year ago, we knew it was spreading. And we knew that it was lethal in some percentage of people. But I don’t think we had a full appreciation about how bad it was” (Lewis). The country’s reaction was not immediate, but more approaches started to appear to find more about the virus and possible ways of treatment.
Mistakes were often associated with the initial social media response by the government on how to deal with the pandemic, and governmental authorities needed to give correct updates to citizens. When Joe Biden became a president, more correct and reliable news started to be revealed. Moreover, every unique case is deeply analyzed. Monica Gandhi, a California University medicine professor, reported that the country had encountered nearly 530,000 deaths and over 29 million infections (Lewis). As the country raced to combat the effects of the pandemic, the then president, Donald Trump, and other figures in authority actively minimized the threat attributed to COVID-19. In his dismissal, President Trump said the pandemic was “no worse than the flu,” and it would be over by Easter (Lewis). The downplay of the infection was liquidated when the president was changed. All mistakes made by Donald Trump are currently being fixed by new legal authorities, and this lesson guides people to trust correct and analyzed information.
Stakeholders in the USA were affected by poor regulations regarding COVID-19. According to the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2021), the funding rate has decreased by 34%. This problem was related to multiple organizations and businesses, and many partnerships were destroyed. Nevertheless, when the situation started to be reanimating, the importance of stakeholders in industries has increased to previous numbers. Consequently, these days, the situation is improving because government representatives have changed.
Flawed Testing: The C.D.C. developed testing kits; however, they were flawed compared to the German-make used by WHO. Health officials already knew the fault with the testing kits, and distributing them when no other had been authorized majorly contributed to result in errors (Anthes). The impact of the errors set back health officials’ efforts to detect and track the effects of the pandemic. Based on Dr. Benjamin Pinsky, Stanford Health Care virologist, the kits “delayed the availability of more widespread testing. I think it’s important that they got to the bottom of what went wrong” (Anthes). In many cases, people traveled to high-risk regions and were hospitalized with severe symptoms (Lewis). Due to the challenges, the virus spread fast in the first few weeks before testing became more available to people.
Structural Racism: Like every other infectious disease in the U.S., the high impact rates were associated with people of color. The African Americans were highly exposed to the pandemic compared to their white counterparts. The root cause for the trend, among many others in the country, was structural racism (Dickinson et al. 2). Structural racism has permeated the economic, medical, and social systems in the country, and during the initial spread of the pandemic, it was considered one of the reasons for the high infection and death numbers (Lewis). Many black and brown communities in the U.S. comprise many essential workers and are in the frontline industries with inherently high exposure risk to the pandemic.
Proposal
Stasis: The American people deserve more than the government’s opinion, or acting leaders at the time, in fighting COVID-19. Listening to science provides a platform where the government responds to the pandemic with the deserved urgency, robustness, and in a professional way (The White House). President Biden believes that aggressive and swift actions by the federal government play a significant role in supporting Americans and protecting them in the face of the pandemic. Science is critical in ensuring public health decisions are informed by professionals in the sector. In the face of the pandemic, the importance of such decisions is vital since it creates awareness and promotes trust, common purpose, transparency, and accountability on the government’s part.
Personal Ethos as an American: Using social media to address the public on COVID-19, President Biden and his vice have developed a seven-point plan to help combat the pandemic. The purpose of the plan is to ensure every American has access to reliable, regular, and free testing (The White House). The American government has also invested in next-generation testing to scale up its ability to test its people. Within the same plan, the government has established a U.S. Public Health Jobs Corps aimed at mobilizing a minimum of 100,000 Americans throughout the country (The White House). With support from community-based trusted local organizations, the government performs culturally competent approaches to protecting at-risk populations and contact tracing.
The other points within the plan are establishing lasting solutions to the personal protective equipment (P.P.E.) problem and protecting every older American and other at risk. Subsequently, the government provided evidence-based, consistent, and clear guidance for how the pandemic should be navigated at community levels and school, families, and small businesses resources to make it through (The White House). One, scientists are at the frontline of efficacy and safety decisions, and two, every F.D.A.-approved vaccine will be released to the public. Three, career staff are authorized to provide a written report for public review and permit them to appear before Congress and speak openly to the public (The White House). The remaining two points are rebuilding and expanding predictive, mitigative, and preventive defenses against pandemic threats and implementing nationwide mask mandates by working with mayors, governors, and the public.
Pathos: The government uses social media to show that another approach to combating the pandemic is sharing vaccines with other countries. As long as the virus keeps spreading globally, it threatens people everywhere. The understanding informed President Biden’s decision to announce that his administration would share more than 1.2 billion doses with other countries across the globe (United States Department of State). By March 8, 2021, the government had donated more than 486 million vaccines doses to over 110 countries, around 30 for Africa, approximately 25 for Western Hemisphere, and close to 20 for Eastern and Southern Asia countries (United States Department of State).
Logos: The use of social media by the U.S. government against COVID-19 is goal-centered. Through the media, the U.S. shows it is dedicated to leading how the world deals with the pandemic by becoming a vaccine arsenal. The aim is to ensure that leadership in the fight against COVID-19 is realized locally and internationally (United States Department of State). Moreover, the U.S. government intends to combat the secondary effects of the pandemic while consolidating the biosecurity infrastructure by addressing the existing challenges associated with COVID-19 and future health-related issues.
Conclusion
As a result, it is necessary to emphasize that it is people who are interested in the treatment and solution of the problem. Thus, it was the Biden administration that managed to establish a close connection with society, paying the necessary attention to the coming of the fall. Of particular note, the Biden administration not only approached the pandemic promptly, reliably, and professionally but also controlled it locally and is working with other countries to help minimize its spread around the world. In this way, the president and his government managed to show both the world community and the Americans that the views and tasks of the two sides are common and do not contradict each other. Biden’s admin in this way showed respect for the points of view of citizens who were afraid and confused because of the virus.
Works Cited
Anthes, Emily. “C.D.C. Virus Tests Were Contaminated And Poorly Designed, Agency Says”. Nytimes.Com, 2021, Web.
Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2021). The impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on stakeholder engagement for the SDGs. United Nations.
Dickinson, Katherine L, Jennifer D. Roberts, Natalie Banacos, Lindsay Neuberger, Elizabeth Koebele, Danielle Blanch-Hartigan, and Elizabeth A. Shanahan. “Structural Racism and the Covid-19 Experience in the United States.” Health Security. 19.1 2021. Web.
Lewis, Tanya. “How The U.S. Pandemic Response Went Wrong&Mdash; And What Went Right&Mdash; During A Year Of COVID”. Scientific American, 2021, Web.
The White House. “Combating COVID-19”. The White House, 2020, Web.
United States Department of State. “COVID-19 Vaccine Donations”. United States Department Of State, 2021, Web.