COVID-19 Insecurity

COVID-19 has really hit the United States Food production industry, where dozens and even hundreds of employees working the meat processing plants on the very foods, we depend on everyday to eat. Closing the food production plants is not the answer but adds to the lack of jobs and shortens the U.S. ability to continue producing foods.

Many of our political leaders are reluctant to decide and at the same time being super cautious in not opening the economy too soon for fear of an increase of infections and deaths. Many politicians have not reviewed or read of how America handled the Spanish Flu of 1918, that killed 500,000 citizens and 50 million deaths worldwide. Most of the U.S. required for everyone to wear a face protection mask and social distancing. In the City of San Antonio and Bexar County, the city mayor and the county judge has mandated that people were masks to protect and to stop the spread of COVID-19.

The Attorney General of Texas, AG Paxton sent a letter to the city mayor and the county judge that they did not have the legal right to require people to wear a mask and it was a violation of civil rights. Politicians seemed to be more informed and more willing to take a uniform action to stop the Spanish Flu of 1918, than during the COVID-19 of 2020. The lost of jobs, the slowness of distribution of unemployment checks, increasing domestic violence, a rise in mental health issues, and a rise of suicide is adding to the COVID-19 dilemma.

The politicians that continue to keep the economy closed and not fully open, my not be reelected to office by the people, because of their lack of ability to decide to move forward, will not be reelected again. We cannot stop the rise of COVID-19 infection cases, or the deaths, but we can slow it down, and hope a vaccine is made soon. If we were to follow the best practices of the Spanish Flu of 1918 today, we can greatly reduce the amount of infection cases and deaths in a few weeks. What the politicians had was a uniform consensus decision, but not technology or social media. And people had a strong faith in God.

Today during COVID-19 of 2020, we less people having faith in God, we have technology and social media that was not available back in 1918. If politicians were to take the lessons of the Spanish Flu of 1918, utilize the trained emergency management planners, utilize technology and social media, we could be ahead of this COVID-19 problem.

What cause the problem to increase was the reduction or not using medical contact tracing teams, and mandatory COVID-19 testing, to see the patterns and the direction in which this virus would travel through the community. All levels of governments need to take uniform action like the politicians of 1918, and the people also has a responsibility to be complying if we want to try to return to pre-COVID-19 conditions. Since this problem started in China and the government was not forth coming with the truth of this virus, may be everyone affected should send the bill to China and let them pay the cost of fixing this COVID-19 problem.

The problem is that all the governments of the world, businesses were not expecting for a 100-year pandemic to strike our global community. Many agencies and business had little or no planning in their emergency operations plans on how to handle a pandemic. The greatest affected in the world and in the U.S. are the poor, those left without a job, and undocumented workers in the U.S. that still pay sales taxes on the goods, products, and services they buy. Have not heard if the U.S. Congress is willing to take a pay cut to help the American people. President Trump is working for free for the American people and turns his check back to the U.S. Government. The only two presidents that have worked for free and returned their paycheck back to the U.S. Government, are President John F. Kennedy and President Donald Trump. The common theme between these two presidents is that they have a deep love for the United States and what this country stands for.

As citizens of the United States, we need to demand elected officials to take more action, make sure those unemployment checks are sent out, assist more small businesses since they are the largest employers and job providers. If the current elected officials cannot do their job, it’s time to elect people into office that will do the job and take care of citizens.