America is in the middle of a global pandemic right now.
Depending on who you ask, we are either in a resurgence, a second wave, or the first wave never ended.
Maybe it is more testing, maybe it is fewer people wearing a mask, and maybe there is nothing we can do.
There are a million thoughts flying around about COVID-19, where we are currently in the crisis, and where we are heading.
What is unquestionably true is that the American economy has taken an absolute beating and President Donald Trump was going to attempt to ride a booming economy, great job numbers and a strong stock market into a second term.
The coronavirus pandemic changed that. Trump and his allies can now hardly point to 47.2 million unemployed claims in the last 14 weeks and claim success.
They can point to the pandemic and lay credible blame on that as the reason for the economic slide and hope for a rebound to push him over former Vice President Joe Biden, who barely has to leave his basement to jump in the polls.
When people talk about the pandemic damaging the economy, they are right, but then the argument jumps to “What did President Trump do to end the pandemic, blunt the impact of it, and help the nation recover?”
U.S. Representative Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) was asked about this Thursday on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show” and said the answer was “easy” to see.
According to Palmer, President Trump “shut down all travel between the U.S. and China, and then immediately after that shut it down between the U.S. and Europe,” and the people angry at him now criticized him for doing that early on.
Palmer is right.
Palmer emphasized, “The models were showing in March that we could have 1 million to 2 million, 2.2 million, people die from this.”
“The objective of the task force was to flatten the curve,” he said, adding that it was a “fantastic success.”
Palmer is right.
But what about now?
Now we are seeing record numbers in cases — not deaths — but cases. Deaths are dropping steadily due to better methods and the “flattening of the curve.”
Alabama saw multiple record days this week alone.
It almost appears that most Americans and the president himself are beyond this pandemic as if it is over. It’s not.
Hopefully, the number of deaths continues to decline, but if the cases continue to grow, it will be hard for the president to claim he has handled this issue effectively. This will cost him dearly in November.
It may be time for the president to reverse himself on the mask issue and declare the mask to be an essential part of both fighting this and getting him reelected.
Yes, on March 3 the authorities were wrong and lied (that is what it was) when they said masks don’t work to slow the spread because they didn’t want to see a run on masks.
That bad information persists to this day, and it could be deadly.
The latest estimate says that 30,000 people could be saved if we move towards more masks. A complacent society is not going to do that on its own.
President Trump could lead the way on this issue, and he should. It would be the best thing for the country and his reelection.
Listen:
Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN.
