Coronavirus Pandemic and U.S Government Response

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Political Science

The Government’s Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic
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See this from a recent AP story: The San Francisco Bay area,
encompassing about 7 million people, is now on lockdown. This means that
these people have been ordered by the government “to shelter at their
homes and only leave for ‘essential reasons’, the strictest measures in
America so far, mimicking orders already in place across Europe in a
desperate attempt to slow the spread of coronavirus.” And Dr. Fauci, the
head of the federal government’s National Institutes of Health, said
that he would like to see a similar order put in place for the entire
country for 14 days.

We are currently covering the module on civil liberties. The question to
be asked here is obvious: How are can, or maybe how far should, our
government (national, state, and local) go when it comes to responding
to a disaster like the currental public health crisis? We all know that
during times of war, for example, civil liberties often go out the door
(see the internment of Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl
Harbor, or the backlash against Arab Americans and Muslims after 9/11,
or even President Lincoln unilaterally suspending habeas corpus in
certain parts of the country during the Civil War). Is this one of those
moments when we should place our civil liberties in abeyance while the
various levels of government enact restrictions on our liberty for the
good of society as a whole?

Even President Trump, who initially downplayed the situation and
encouraged people to go about their business, has now stated publicly
that Americans should avoid gathering in numbers greater than ten
persons. That says a lot–that a President who has generally disregarded
science and expertise in general is now taking the advice of experts
like Dr. Fauci very seriously and promoting strict public health
measures (albeit he has yet to issue the sort of national mandatory
restrictions that Fauci seems to favor).