The coronavirus is taking the United States by storm. It is controlling our lives and it is very hard to get rid of due to major increases in patients with the virus and not a lot of tests or doctors to treat them right away. State governors have banned public gatherings, like church, and declares orders for isolation to decrease the spread of the coronavirus across the United States.
These declarations to ban large gatherings help shape how public health officials can respond at the state and local level, allowing them to act fast while instituting forms of social distancing. Officials usually have to go through legal processes to close an establishment or shut down public gatherings, but with states from California to North Carolina being under a state of emergency, everything is expedited.
When someone chooses to ignore high recommendations to remain inside their home, public health authorities can seek a court order mandating their compliance. These measures aren’t undertaken without due process, which is fair treatment through the normal judicial system.
People seem rather okay with undermining core civil liberties in order to fight the pandemic. The measures taken to decrease the number of patients with COVID-19 limit individual freedom and may violate rights guaranteed by national constitutions. The threat by leaders of Newark, New Jersey, to prosecute people who spread false information about the virus, could violate the First Amendment. Even the U.S. Department of Justice “has quietly asked Congress for the ability to ask chief judges to detain people indefinitely without trial during emergencies.”
 |
| In the picture above is Dr. Li Wenliang. He was the first doctor to speak out about the coronavirus before he passed away from it. |
In the first few weeks of discovering this new virus, China implemented social media censorship, which concerned the failures of China’s leadership in controlling the outbreak. Since this is a new virus and China didn’t have access to information about it when if first broke out, they didn’t know how to take precautions. This censorship on social media prevented the world from preparing to avoid getting the coronavirus. Now that the virus is spread nationally, we must take action and listen to officials in order to eliminate or even decrease our chances of getting it. Although COVID-19 is very powerful, there are ways to diminish it. We must stay inside and continuously wash our hands.
COVID-19 is probably the most talked about concern in the news right now. I feel that more than ever people are tuning into technology to see these daily updates about it. Through these updates, we are told that COVID-19 is dictating people’s lives because once you catch the virus, the incubation period is long and dreadful.
Related Articles:
No comments:
Post a Comment