A 

fter four hours of driving 

from my overnight stop 

in Des Moines, Iowa, I 

crossed the Big Muddy into my 

home state of Nebraska. The leafless 

gray trees paired with the overcast 

sky made the usually lush riverbank 

appear strikingly different from 

how I had always seen it driving 

to and from my mom’s apartment 

in Denver. The view was yet 

another change brought on by the 

coronavirus’s 
dizzyingly 
rapid 

transformation from something 

restricted to distant news reports 

to sending me home from school 

months early. After Spring Break, I 

watched my semester and summer 

plans topple like dominoes as the 

virus spread uncontained. By the 

time I left Ann Arbor with my life 

hastily packed into the back of my 

Mini Cooper, there was only one 

plan left standing in the way of the 

pandemic completely canceling my 

summer: my 21st birthday. While I 

knew the day of my birthday would 

almost surely be spent locked in 

the apartment, it was my mother’s 

present to me, a four-day trip to New 

Orleans, that held my excitement. 

Planned for late May, enjoying the 

bountiful bars and history of New 

Orleans was my final foolish hope.

Defying 
health 
officials’ 

suggestions 
and 
government 

orders aimed at reducing the 

number of people predicted to 

swamp Louisiana’s health care 

system, a group of 1,200 people 

gathered in the state capital of Baton 

Rouge. Shoulder to shoulder, the 

congregation at Life Tabernacle 

Church listened to pastor Anthony 

“Tony” Spell. “We’re free people. 

We’re not going to be intimidated. 

We’re not going to cower. We’re not 

breaking any laws,” he preached. 

In response to the backlash, 

Spell 
says 
his 
congregation 

has a “constitutional right to 

congregate” and they believe that 

the 
coronavirus 
is 
“politically 

motivated.” As they defiantly and 

foolishly gathered to pray, COVID-

19 cases in Louisiana reached 

3,540 on Sunday afternoon. In late 

February, when the confirmed 

number of cases in the United States 

numbered in the 50s, over a million 

people flocked to New Orleans to 

partake in the city’s 321-year-old 

celebration of Mardi Gras. After 

experiencing the fastest increase 

in COVID-19 cases in the world in 

the final weeks of March, the seeds 

of this disaster seem to have been 

sown on Bourbon Street.

A city still suffering from the 

effects of Hurricane Katrina from 

15 years ago, New Orleans is bracing 

to be ground zero of yet another 

natural disaster. While the number 

of cases in New York far outweigh 

those in New Orleans, the death 

rate of COVID-19 patients is seven 

times higher than in New York. The 

reason is simple: “we’re just sicker,” 

explains Rebekah Gee, former 

health secretary for Louisiana. Of 

those who died of the disease in the 

city, 94 percent had a pre-existing 

health condition, and New Orleans’s 

population exceeds the national 

averages for obesity, diabetes and 

high blood pressure. Health officials 

fear that the rapidly declining 

situation in New Orleans is just 

an early taste of what’s to come 

throughout the South.

A region known for its infamously 

decadent cuisine, high rates of 

heart disease make this region of 

America the most susceptible to the 

deadly effects of COVID-19. While 

grandma and grandpa have been 

painted as the likely victims of this 

pandemic, pre-existing conditions 

make anyone that has them — no 

matter how young — susceptible to 

the deadly effects of the virus. These 

groups of individuals are the people 

that other governors have acted so 

proactively to save.

Despite 
this 
alarming 

information, many of the region’s 

state governors have been the most 

stubborn to implement public health 

measures. Outside of Louisiana 

Gov. John Bel Edwards’ quick, 

foresightful actions, almost every 

other governor in the South has 

been a role model on how not to act 

during a global pandemic. Georgia’s 

Republican governor, Brian Kemp, 

admitted that he had just learned 

about asymptomatic carriers on 

April 2. While his ignorance is 

seemingly the most inexplicable, 

others have been equally resistant 

toward letting facts steer their 

decision-making through this crisis.

Gov. 
Ron 
DeSantis, 
R-Fla., 

drew criticism the earliest when 

thousands of students on Spring 

Break 
were 
filmed 
crowding 

beaches. Despite early warnings 

that the state would become a 

“hotspot” 
if 
measures 
weren’t 

taken quickly, DeSantis languidly 

issued a state-wide stay-at-home 

mandate to his 18 million citizens 

on April 2, after 30 other states had 

already implemented precautionary 

measures.

This 
inaction 
by 
Southern 

governors puts those with pre-

existing health conditions at high 

risk. Because of existing health 

disparities 
that 
make 
racial 

minorities more likely to have 

these risk factors, the burden of this 

disease will not be shared equally 

among citizens. The disparities 

can be seen far outside the South in 

our own state of Michigan, where 

African Americans make up 70 

percent of COVID-19 fatalities in 

places like Chicago and Louisiana. 

Similarly, Native Americans, who 

have the highest rates of pre-

existing health conditions, are 

seriously concerned for the survival 

of their communities. “When you 

look at the health disparities in 

Indian Country… we could get 

wiped out,” said Kevin Allis, chief 

executive of the National Congress 

of American Indians. 

With the response to this 

disaster now in the hands of the 

states, there is no way to ensure that 

these disparities will be accounted 

for in our responses to coronavirus, 

greatly exposing the need for 

federal action that lawmakers and 

governors struggling with this crisis 

have been requesting for weeks. Rep. 

Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Sen. 

Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called 

for the federal government “to step 

up in a big way,” in addressing these 

potential inequalities, including 

access to testing and treatment. 

While President Donald Trump has 

been infamous for trying to flex his 

executive power, he is refusing to do 

so at the most significant point in his 

presidency.

As the country braces for one 

of the worst nationwide disasters, 

my 21st birthday is likely to fall as 

another, altogether unimportant 

victim of the virus. While life in 

the “Big Easy” — New Orleans — is 

becoming more difficult by the day, 

it would be a lot harder if not for the 

swift action of their government. 

Other cities throughout the South 

may not have it so easy thanks to 

their inept leaders. With cases 

resurging in parts of Asia that 

thought they had it under control, 

federal inaction could lead our 

nation to the same fate.

A 

s the United States continues 

to 
battle 
the 
COVID-

19 pandemic, millions of 

Americans working essential jobs put 

their lives on the line every time they 

go to work. In particular, hospital 

and health care workers across the 

country have risked their lives daily, 

working to treat patients fighting 

the coronavirus without the critical 

masks 
and 
personal 
protective 

equipment they need. In a recent 

interview on “60 Minutes,” one 

medical worker from a New York City 

hospital described the scene inside 

the hospitals as “Hell on Earth.”

With the COVID-19 pandemic now 

claiming more than 30,000 lives 

across the nation — including a 

high but unknown number of health 

care workers who have succumbed 

to the virus — the coronavirus has 

set off a calamitous chain of events 

for our nation. Many Americans 

have questioned what the federal 

government has done over the years 

to prepare for the kind of event we 

find ourselves in today, along with 

the resulting medical and economic 

implications.

While 
our 
nation 
continues 
to 
grapple 

with the effects of the pandemic, it’s 

clear that our government wasn’t 

prepared to fight a highly contagious 

respiratory 
disease 
like 
the 
coronavirus. 

If the proper steps had been taken — 

and 
our 
stockpile 
of 
N95 
masks, 
personal 

protective equipment and ventilators 

had been maintained — our hospitals 

and health care workers wouldn’t be so 

overwhelmed right now. As one nurse 

said in the same 60 Minutes interview, 

“Every health care worker infection, 

every health care worker death is 

preventable.”

In 
response 
to 
the 
federal 

government’s 
clear 
lack 
of 
preparedness, 

the Trump administration, which 

currently 
oversees 
the 
nation’s 
response 

to COVID-19, has gotten the brunt of 

the blame. The New York Times wrote 

a recent article detailing what so many 

Americans believe to be countless 

missteps by the current occupant of the 

Oval Office.

It 
is 
true 
that 
President 
Donald 
Trump 

has had a lot to do with our country’s 

response 
to 
the 
coronavirus 
crisis. 
While 

many critics claim he should have taken 

action sooner, Trump has done the 

best job possible with the tools he was 

given by his predecessors and the data 

available at that time. The president 

has taken a number of common-sense 

steps that have protected millions of 

Americans 
from 
contracting 
COVID-19, 

as I detailed in my last column. 

The truth is that in order to really look 

at our nation’s response to COVID-19, 

we have to look back in time. Long 

before Trump was elected president, 

history shows that our government 

had the chance to prepare for a 

pandemic like the coronavirus a 

decade ago, after the worst of the 

2009 H1N1 pandemic.

According to the Centers for Disease 

Control and Prevention, the H1N1 

influenza virus was first detected in the 

U.S. in the spring of 2009. By April 2010, 

the CDC estimates that over 60 million 

people within our borders were infected 

while 12,000 people died. While the 

situation caused by H1N1 cannot be 

compared to the national shutdown 

we are currently experiencing today, 

this virus was considered a pandemic 

nonetheless.

In the midst of the spread of H1N1, 

which hit younger people who didn’t 

have the antibodies to fight off this flu 

strain harder, the federal government 

turned to its stockpile of critical medical 

supplies and equipment that is typically 

only used in extreme situations (like a 

pandemic). According to a study in the 

journal of Health Security, “75 percent 

of N95 respirators and 25 percent of face 

masks contained in the CDC’s Strategic 

National 
Stockpile 
(100 
million 
products) 

were deployed for use in health care 

settings over the course of the 2009 

H1N1 
pandemic 
response.” 
Despite 
calls 

from medical experts to build up the 

national stockpile in order to prepare 

for the next pandemic, President Barack 

Obama’s administration failed to do so, 

according to a USA Today Fact Check 

in response to a Daily Wire article 

published in March.

The truth is that Barack Obama was 

president during a medical event similar 

to COVID-19. His administration knew 

the risks of failing to rebuild the national 

stockpile of masks and other equipment, 

but failed to actually replenish that 

critical stockpile. While this inaction is 

not solely to blame for the fallout from 

the coronavirus, it undoubtedly has 

contributed immensely to the calamity 

we are living through today. Sadly, our 

depleted stockpile, paired with this 

highly contagious respiratory disease, 

has created the perfect storm, a storm 

that was somewhat preventable.

Ultimately, our society has had 

enough warnings. We lived through 

the H1N1 pandemic and continue to 

confront 
the 
COVID-19 
pandemic 
today. 

Meanwhile, we remember other health 

crises that threatened millions across 

the world in the past, including SARS, 

MERS and Ebola. There will be another 

pandemic, sooner than later, that makes 

its way into our country. Before that 

happens, we owe it to ourselves and future 

generations to invest in medical supplies 

and prepare ourselves, so we don’t have to 

watch 
thousands 
die 
and 
millions 
risk 
their 

lives at the expense of our inaction.

Once 
COVID-19 
subsides, 
we 
must 
begin 

conversations immediately about how we 

will begin to rebuild our national stockpile 

of emergency medical supplies, because 

we cannot make the same mistake twice. 

We have an obligation to learn from 

our inaction after H1N1 and prevent 

something 
like 
the 
current 
pandemic from 

ever happening again.

4 — Friday, April 17, 2020
Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Alanna Berger
Zack Blumberg

Brittany Bowman
Emily Considine
Jess D’Agostino

Jenny Gurung
Cheryn Hong
Krystal Hur
Ethan Kessler
Zoe Phillips
Mary Rolfes

Michael Russo
Timothy Spurlin
Miles Stephenson

Joel Weiner
Erin White 

ERIN WHITE
Managing Editor

Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building

420 Maynard St. 

Ann Arbor, MI 48109

 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

ELIZABETH LAWRENCE

Editor in Chief

EMILY CONSIDINE AND 

MILES STEPHENSON

Editorial Page Editors

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of The Daily’s Editorial Board. 

All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

EVAN STERN | COLUMN

What we can learn from the H1N1 pandemic

Evan Stern can be reached at 

erstern@umich.edu.

The South’s stubbornness is why federal action is needed

RILEY DEHR | COLUMN

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