Everyone has their fingers pointed at governors all over the country, claiming that they are responsible for this or that during the pandemic, and not realizing who is ultimately responsible for it all. Let’s look at some facts.
Fact number one: all governors were put in a situation that they should not have been in. What I mean by this is the pandemic put undue stress on states when it should have been handled before it became an issue at the state level.
Fact number two: that put the governors on the defense. Even though the United States makes up only 4.1% of the world population, we have 25% of the cases. This is solely because of the reaction by the White House to the pandemic.
Fact number three: Donald Trump downplayed the pandemic, creating an even larger divide in this country. The move pitted the governors against his followers, shifting the blame onto those governors for the country being shut down.
So, who is to blame for the situation that we are in, and how are they responsible and not the governors? The easy answer is Donald Trump, because he is the president. Now I’ll explain how.
There were actions taken, but they were not done with the purpose of assuring the safety of Americans. This goes back to before COVID hit, so here’s that timeline:
- In May 2018, he disbanded the white house pandemic team leaving us without a scientific response.
- Then in July of the following year, the CDC’s epidemiologist in China—birthplace of COVID—left her post, and the position was eliminated by the White House.
- This past February 2nd, Trump announced that “we pretty much shut it down coming from China”.
- On the 24th of the same month, we got a better idea as to what was important to him with his statement, “the coronavirus is under control in the USA, the stock market starting to look very good to me.”
- Two days later he falsified information by claiming that we had 15 cases. In actuality, we were at 60.
This is a small portion of what Trump has done to put us in this situation. If he would have acted presidential and locked the country down in February or March things would be completely different. Schools would be opened, people could get their hair cut, we would have regular sports, and we could have everything else that people are complaining that the governors are taking from them.
Torrey Brown is a loving husband, father, and son, and also an outspoken champion for the black cause and all social injustices.
Any views or opinions expressed in “Tuesdays with Torrey” are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Watershed Voice staff or its board of directors.
