US President Donald Trump is reluctant to implement a nation-wide shut down to slow down the spread of the coronavirus, despite his administration's projections that tens of thousands of Americans are likely to be killed by the disease.
Colorado, Illinois, Georgia, California and Florida are some of the states that are in a state of lockdown, with residents allowed to venture out only for essential errands. Services like grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations, banks, convenience stores and laundry services remain open in most of these states that also include Washington, Idaho, Montana, Connecticut, New York and North Carolina.
US states, however, are implementing their shutdown orders. As of Wednesday, Florida, Nevada and Pennsylvania announced stay-at-home-orders.
President Trump, on March 25, said that he wanted the US to be open for business by Easter. On Wednesday, Trump said that Americans should brace for “hell of a bad 2 weeks.”
On Monday the president said that he and members of the administration had discussed whether to impose a nationwide stay-at-home, but said that the option was “pretty unlikely, I would think, at this time.”
Governor of 38 states has declared state-wide stay-at-home orders. According to a White House official, Trump, a believer in federalism said, it was up to governors of each state to set restrictions for their states. The official was quoted as saying in an AP report that, since the virus has hit the state in varying degrees of severity, they are best able to adapt policies accordingly.
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On Wednesday former president Barack Obama took a veiled swipe at Trump while criticising those who, “denied warnings” of the deadly coronavirus pandemic. Obama, while being critical of Trump for rolling back fuel efficiency standards had tweeted, “We've seen all too terribly the consequences of those who denied warnings of a pandemic. We can't afford any more consequences of climate denial. All of us, especially young people, have to demand better of our government at every level and vote this fall.”
As per a research published by the US Centre for Diseases and Control, which was conducted by researchers in Singapore, the lack of collective response by all states collides with the evidence that around 10 per cent new COVID-19 infections may be spread by asymptomatic carriers of the virus.
Vice President Mike Pence in an interview to CNN said that the White House models for toll due to the coronavirus show the US on a trajectory similar to Italy, that saw more than 13,000 deaths.
Harvard researchers, in the Harvard Business Review, have written regarding Italy’s piecemeal approach in tackling the virus, “The selective approach might have inadvertently facilitated the spread of the virus. Consider the decision to initially lock down some regions but not others. When the decree announcing the closing of northern Italy became public, it touched off a massive exodus to Southern Italy, undoubtedly spreading the virus to the regions where it had not been present.”
According to experts, if Trump chooses to exercise the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, he could impose a national lockdown, but, such a move under minority interpretation might be challenged as unconstitutional.
