Two Countries That Have Done Well Against The Coronavirus Pandemic Are India And The US. The Top Leadership In The World’s Two Largest Democracies Has Taken Adequate Precautions Without Having Created A Panic. However, The Systems In The Two Countries Have Responded In Diametrically Opposite Manners. While In India The Entrenched Statists Are Trying To Tighten Their Stranglehold Over The Economy On The Pretext Of Fighting The Pandemic, In The US The Authorities Are Seeking Help Of Big Business For The Same Purpose.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Has Rightly Urged Citizens To Take Precautions And “Say No To Panic.” He Tweeted: “Say No To Panic, Say Yes To Precautions. No Minister Of The Central Government Will Travel Abroad In The Upcoming Days. I Urge Our Countrymen To Also Avoid Non-Essential Travel. We Can Break The Chain Of Spread And Ensure Safety Of All By Avoiding Large Gatherings.”
Maybe Indians Physically Enjoy Higher Immunity Than Other Peoples When It Comes To Various Kinds Of Flu; But, Given Our Dilapidated Health System And The Generally Chaotic Nature Of Governance, It Is Still Creditable That At A Time When Death Toll In A Developed Country Like Italy Is Almost 1,300, In India Even The Number Of Cases Has Not Touched The Three-Figure Mark. We Hope It Never Happens.
US President Donald Trump Has Also Acted In Earnest. He Announced Friday A National Emergency. This, He Said, Would Allow Him To Use $50 Billion For Governments At Different Levels To Fight The Pandemic. In Tweets, He Blamed The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention And The Obama Administration, Holding Them Responsible For Needless Deaths In HIN1 Swine Flu In 2009: “For Decades The @CDCgov Looked At, And Studied, Its Testing System, But Did Nothing About It. It Would Always Be Inadequate And Slow For A Large Scale Pandemic, But A Pandemic Would Never Happen, They Hoped. President Obama Made Changes That Only Complicated Things Further… Their Response To H1N1 Swine Flu Was A Full Scale Disaster, With Thousands Dying, And Nothing Meaningful Done To Fix The Testing Problem, Until Now. The Changes Have Been Made And Testing Will Soon Happen On A Very Large Scale Basis. All Red Tape Has Been Cut, Ready To Go!”
He Is Right. Within Three Weeks Of The Outbreak In The US, Trump Announced Emergency And Banned Travel To And From Europe. In Contrast, Former US President Barack Obama Took Six Months, After The Death Of 1,000 Americans And Tens Of Thousands Of Hospitalizations, To Declare A National Emergency After The Outbreak Of H1N1. The Disease Ended Up Killing About 12,500 Americans. As Many As 60.8 Million Americans Got Infected, Of Whom Over A Quarter Of A Million Were Hospitalized.
So Far, So Good. But How On Earth Are The Systems In India And The US Responding To The Crisis? The Deep Pink State In India—That Is, Statists Entrenched In The System—Has Already Decided To Make Its Obnoxious Presence Felt. It Has Categorized Face Masks And Hand Sanitizers As Essential Commodities. “Government Has Notified An Order Under The Essential Commodities Act To Declare These Items As Essential Commodities Up To June 30, 2020, By Amending The Schedule Of The Essential Commodities Act 1955,” The Consumer Affairs Ministry Said In A Statement. It Is For 100 Days, But Then No Bad Thing That Government Does In India Is Temporary.
The Pretext Is Typical—Ordinary People. The Consequence Is Inevitable—Price Control. “It Will Enhance The Availability Of Both The Items To The General People At Reasonable Prices Or Under MRP [Maximum Retail Price],” The Ministry Said.
In The US, However, Top Corporations Have Joined Hands With The Trump Administration To Fight The Coronavirus. Walmart Would Make Its Parking Spaces Available For Drive-Thru Testing. Target, CVS, And Walgreens Have Also Pledged To Help The Government.
Yet, Trump Is Slammed By The Liberal Establishment. Modi, On The Other Hand, Is Being Undermined By The Deep Pink State
