While the electorate of the United States of America, with itching fingers, is ready to vote for their next administration, the most potent issue during the campaign of their leaders fighting this heavily polarised battle was Corona Virus and its handling. In an already divided United States, Covid-19, and the way Trump and his Democratic opponent Joe Biden are approaching it, have separated Americans further and spawned an election year like never before in the history of US elections. Yes, it is Red versus Blue but with a colour of “Chinese virus”.
Donald Trump’s decision to let go a nationwide strategy to combat the corona virus in favour of allowing state governors to form their own plans has allowed him to distance himself somewhat from the response but it has not gone unnoticed by his 77-year-old opponent. Biden has made the virus and Trump’s handling of it as his main political campaign plank.
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While Trump is self-patting by claiming that he has done a “great job” of handling the virus and of focusing on recovery, therapeutics and vaccines in development, this October made it even more difficult for the 74-year-old 45th President to avoid addressing the growing numbers of infections after he contracted Covid-19 and many White House and campaign staffers tested positive – including himself and five of Vice President Mike Pence’s close top staff.
Reports say that over 80 million Americans have voted by mail or early in person till Thursday, surpassing the 57 million total early votes cast in the last 2016 polls. The shift towards early voting has been going on for years, but the shift to mail-in voting has progressed rapidly since this spring’s primaries, when the pandemic first hit and states allowed and urged more voters to cast their remote votes.
The US Postal Service cuts threaten to affect the timely delivery of this election’s ballots, though to this point, many voters are seemingly getting the message and returning their mail ballots well ahead of time, dropping them off at designated drop boxes or taking advantage of voting in person before Election Day on November 3. Is that fair if the technology or services cannot match up to the faith of the voters, even during heightened Covid-19 risk? Democrat Joe Biden will surely call this lapse as “rigged” and it could be seen in coming days.
Over the spread of Covid-19, England enters a second national lockdown from Thursday after United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced it as a second wave of corona virus cases continues to grow. In a speech on Saturday the British prime minister detailed the new rules which will be in place from November 5 until December 2. France, Germany, Belgium and Greece have also announced their second lockdowns. Severe measures have also been announced in Spain and Italy, among other European countries.
Prime Minister of United Kingdom Boris Johnson was advised by his scientific advisory group in the third week of September that a circuit breaker “should be considered for immediate effect” alongside a ban on all household mixing and the closure of bars, restaurants, cafes, indoor gyms and hairdressers to “return Covid-19 incidence to low levels”. It was a clarion call. In fact it is a giant U-turn from a prime minister that for weeks has been insisting a national lockdown would not just be unnecessary, but a “disaster” for the country, bringing with it huge misery. Now here comes the second lockdown. He had earlier decided to ignore that advice, even as some of his allies whispered that a national lockdown looked inevitable. Now, five weeks later, he has been forced to act to save the citizens from this menace of corona virus.
Back home in Bihar we are having elections and so far no such allegations have been levelled against our Election Commission, primarily because elections is India have evolved more due to its complexities and constant watch by the political parties and the voters. However, the virus will continue to spread if there are election rallies and there are “no masks” or no “physical distancing”. Irony is, the political parties are chest thumping themselves by calling out “massive rally”, “great turnout”.
