Should America Help Those In Need?

By Sean Flint

Currently, we live in a state of concern for our lives because of the recent pandemic that has been thrown in the United States’ way, but the media has not yet put out a concern for possible natural disasters. As of 8/2/20, a hurricane by the name of Isaias is hitting the coast of Florida and has already hit places such as Cuba and the Bahamas. Now, these tropical storms that turn into hurricanes are not uncommon whatsoever, but how does one manage a natural disaster during our current Covid-19 pandemic and how do we manage our own that are struggling during the pandemic?

How We Have It

Many of us forget how great we have it in the US, especially with matters as big as a natural disaster. We have money to donate to those in need and have a willingness to send out help for those who might’ve lost everything. Hurricane Katrina is quite possibly the worst-case scenario, having dealt $160 billion in overall damage, not to mention the breaking of a community that had lost everything they had. Homes were flooded, the streets turned into pools, and boats had to be used to prevent a much higher death count due to the disaster.

At this very moment, we face an issue of African Americans disproportionately dying from Covid as well as the poor. Focusing on these groups should be important to us just as Hobbes said we should be doing. The Government should have a priority on its people at all times, but when in a pandemic, the focus should be heightened to ensure we can create equal outcomes for all communities.

The Dangers of a Disaster and How We Help

Now, a hurricane or tornado can happen at almost any moment if the weather allows for it. Not to mention the rise in dust storms throughout the pandemic as well. How can we treat these people if we can’t even treat ourselves?

In most cases, the way to help those who have been affected by a natural disaster is pretty consistent. We provide shelter, send out food and resources, and allow families to reunite so that they themselves can plan out what to do next after such a life-altering moment. This way of going about a natural disaster has been a consistent trend and for good reason, because it works. A pandemic on the other hand has never been seen like this ever, which explains our current struggle with Covid-19 being that we have nothing to work off of like we do for natural disasters. 

The Problem at Hand

The issue is that we can’t use the same strategies for natural disasters. We can’t allow everyone to be clumped up for a long period because it allows Covid-19 to have the chance to manifest itself with that large group and create a possible spread that could bring the US back many steps. Moving back would create a bigger public outcry than there already is at this very moment.

Not to mention the economic crisis in our hands. We have already lost so many jobs and we are spending so much money to get out of the pandemic safely, how would we come up with the money to support a state after a disaster. How do we replace even more jobs lost after such an event and how do we give money back into the pockets of the people who might’ve lost everything that they had? Things like this have never been dealt with on such a level and adding a disaster to our pandemic would be brutal.

We also couldn’t help out other countries because we lack resources to even help ourselves. So a country like Cuba and the Bahamas will have to suffer even longer due to a lack of many resources and their location allows for more damage to be dealt with by a hurricane.

What do we focus on?

There are many things we could set out to do though. If this hurricane or any disaster gets worse or even gets better by not doing much damage, we must create a plan. We can’t allow for many shelter areas due to Covid-19 so we would have to allow for social distancing in these shelters and provide areas for the others to go, such as temporary housing in hotels and such. We then have to create a plan to have the money to supply these people with food, water, and overall support in any way possible. We would have to dig into our debt a bit but nothing cost more than American life. 

We also have to help these people get jobs and start circulating money back into their community so that the economy in the said area can recover alongside America’s overall economy. Sadly, the hardest thing we would have to do is not help out other countries. Over time once we improve and get back to normal, we can start sending help to others but we can’t risk the lives of Americans just to save others in a different country. We would have to take priority in ourselves.

In concerns to the pandemic, we should create a plan to help lower class citizens and African Americans. We need to create plans to get vaccines out for these citizens so that we can help out their communities in concern to the virus, this should also include every citizen with the opportunity to choose to get the vaccine.

The biggest issue with this problem is that we don’t even know if it will happen. For all, we know the sun will be out every day with a nice beautiful rainbow to cover our blue sky, but we must prepare and have policies in place that allow flexibility while not only in a pandemic but also with just regular natural disasters as well. Planning for the future events that will affect the citizens of the US is the smart thing to do, which is why we should prepare more for a natural disaster and maybe some future pandemics now too.

Bibliography

Bowman, Steve, et al. “Hurricane Katrina: DOD Disaster Response.” CRS Report for Congress, 2005, www.everycrsreport.com/files/20050919_RL33095_77a7ab9d21ba64eef7298ee7e76db8df6778c4c0.pdf.

Goldstein, Lauren. “Analysis | Black Communities Have Been Hit Hard by the Coronavirus. Some Think Black Americans Are to Blame.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 15 May 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/05/14/black-communities-have-been-hit-hard-by-coronavirus-some-people-think-they-are-blame/.

Palimaru, Alina I., and Marcus Dillistone. “Vaccination and Coronavirus: Where the Public Good Clashes with Choice and Freedom.” RAND Corporation, 22 May 2020, www.rand.org/blog/2020/05/vaccination-and-coronavirus-where-the-public-good-clashes.html.

Watson, John T, et al. “Epidemics after Natural Disasters.” Emerging Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Jan. 2007, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2725828/.

Williams, David Lay. “Analysis | What Would Hobbes Say about the Pandemic? Governments Should Protect Lives – and Help the Poor.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 18 May 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/05/18/what-would-hobbes-say-about-pandemic-governments-should-protect-lives-help-poor/.