US response to virus splinters into acrimony and uncertainty

Six weeks after US President Donald Trump declared a national emergency over the spreading new coronavirus, the United States is deeply divided over the correct economic and health response.

What was meant as a grand experiment in fast action, nearly $3 trillion in federal support to keep US companies and individuals afloat as economic activity froze, is slipping into a morass of finger-pointing and uncertainty.

According to Press TV, millions of workers in the world’s largest economy are wondering when their unemployment benefits will arrive or even when they might be able to register for them. Groups of businesses are squaring off to compete for help. State and city governments are going their own, sometimes conflicting, ways in decisions on when to let business reopen during an infectious national health crisis that does not respect borders.

As a health matter, the approach has also become a mosaic, with a president prone to recommending off-the-cuff and even potentially dangerous remedies, and state officials who agree generically that “more” testing is needed but not exactly on how much more would be required for public safety.

Meanwhile, the United States’ more than 50,000 COVID-19 deaths are the most in the world, though on a population-adjusted basis its roughly 160 deaths per million as of last week are well below major European nations like Italy, France and Spain.

Congressional approval in late March of the $2.3 trillion CARES Act was an initially optimistic sign that the US government was united and ready to replace workers’ wages and firms’ revenue with few questions asked as the country battled the coronavirus pandemic. A follow-on package worth nearly $500 billion passed Friday shows the spigot is still open.

But old fault lines reappeared this past week and may get worse in days to come. Oil and other industries are lobbying for more cash, states are demanding aid, and what was meant to be a moment when help rolled out fast has instead generated outrage over who has and has not been helped.

Harvard University, singled out by President Donald Trump for the size of its endowment, sent back $8.6 million allocated according to a formula that applied to all colleges and universities. Several other elite institutions, including Yale and Stanford, followed suit.

ME