It’s hard to run an election during a pandemic, let alone stay healthy. In 1918, as Spanish influenza wreaked havoc in one of the greatest health disasters in US history, politicians were sidelined as bans on public gatherings made it impossible to hold campaign rallies. There was no vaccine for that virus, which killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, and the best officials could do was keep people away from each other to limit the microbe’s spread.
Now, for the first time in a century, a US election faces the unusual threat of being upended by a potential pandemic as a new coronavirus has shocked the global economy, tested President Donald Trump’s administration and fuelled Democratic attacks on both his leadership and the private healthcare system’s ability to protect all Americans.
Should the virus spread, experts are also raising concerns over Americans’ ability to participate in the political process should the nation undertake the kind of isolation measures that could make it more difficult to hold campaign rallies, nominating conventions and in-person balloting.
Business leaders are already cancelling large conferences as a preventative matter, and health officials are warning that disruption to daily life could be “severe,” raising questions about a pandemic’s potential impact on the nation’s democracy.
“If we’re unfortunate enough that the virus becomes prevalent in the United States, it could affect both campaigns and the election itself potentially, and affect how campaigns are run, affect who turns out to vote, and potentially affect even the outcome of the election,” said Richard Hasen, a professor specialising in election law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law.
In the best-case scenario, the one still hoped for by American health officials, the virus’ march can be stopped, or at least slowed long enough for the development of an effective vaccine, which would likely take more than a year. That would allow Americans to carry on with their lives and limit the damage to the domestic economy from the drastic isolation measures taken by China and other nations. It would prevent deaths and, as a political bonus to Trump, boost his argument for reelection.
“Because of all we’ve done, the risk to the American people remains very low,” Trump said last Wednesday at a news conference with medical experts at the White House, who nonetheless warned that the virus’ trajectory in the US was “uncertain” and that they were bracing for more cases.
But as evidence emerges that the virus may have gained a toehold inside the US in addition to other countries, Democratic candidates have slammed Trump’s sunny outlook on containment, while also arguing that the patchwork, costly nature of the nation’s private healthcare system poses a threat to the country’s ability to manage a deadly pandemic.
“We need a president who does not play politics with our health and national security,” Democratic front-runner Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said in a statement last Thursday. He urged support for his “Medicare for All” plan to create a national healthcare system “so everyone can see a doctor or get a vaccine for free’’.
As stories circulate of some coronavirus tests costing as much as $1,400, Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said that insurance costs and coverage barriers could “get in the way of the opportunity to delay the spread of infection’’.
Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has attacked the administration’s “outrageous” refusal to promise a coronavirus vaccine would be affordable for all Americans. In a USA Today op-ed, former vice president Joe Biden slammed Trump’s attempted budget cuts to national health and disease-prevention agencies. — DPA
Matt Pearce
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
