WASHINGTON (Reuters) – 6 weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump stated a national emergency over the spreading brand-new coronavirus, the United States is deeply divided over the right economic and health reaction.
FILE PICTURE: People who lost their tasks wait in line to declare unemployment following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at an Arkansas Workforce Center in Fort Smith, Arkansas, U.S. April 6,2020 REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo
What was implied as a grand experiment in fast action, almost $3 trillion in federal support to keep U.S. business and individuals afloat as financial activity froze, is slipping into a morass of finger-pointing and uncertainty.
Countless workers on the planet’s largest economy are wondering when their unemployment benefits will get here or perhaps when they might be able to register for them. Groups of companies are squaring off to compete for assistance. State and city governments are going here their own, often contrasting, ways in decisions on when to let business reopen during an infectious nationwide health crisis that does not respect borders.
As a health matter, the method has likewise become a mosaic, with a president prone to suggesting off-the-cuff and even potentially unsafe solutions, and state authorities who agree generically that “more” testing is required but not precisely on how much more would be needed for public safety.
Meanwhile the United States’ more than 50,000 COVID-19 deaths are the most on the planet, though on a population-adjusted basis its approximately 160 deaths per million as of recently are well below significant European nations like Italy, France and Spain.
( Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus: here)
Congressional approval in late March of the $2.3 trillion CARES Act was an at first positive sign that the U.S. government was united and ready to replace workers’ wage