Coronavirus, the SARS strain virus that broke out in China in 2019, has become a global pandemic that spread rapidly and continued into 2020. It has become an increasingly large problem for governments to control the pandemic within their own countries. While the government focuses on the pandemic, many of their typical duties are put aside. 

In the United States, there has been a plethora of actions made by Republicans and Democrats together, where they have passed significant pieces of legislation. Some of the legislation referred to government funding for testing that allocated primary governmental funds toward local COVID-19 testing in major areas. To add, the legislation gave paid sick leave and more unemployment benefits. Finally, small businesses will receive tax credits for their loss of business (npr.com). 

President Donald J. Trump reacts to the legislation by praising the Democrats’ and Republicans’ ability to work with each other. However, one of the biggest effects of COVID-19 has been specifically on his presidency. President Trump has been criticized heavily during this time for the downplaying of this virus while praising himself. He made many claims about testing being available for anyone who wanted but has not been able to keep that promise true. He has since claimed that not everyone should even get a test (Washington Post). Danielle Huizar (10) says that “Hearing contradicting information on whats is really happening confuses me and makes me wonder which information from political leaders is true.”

Besides a wide variety of criticisms from Democrats and Republicans on how President Trump has been handling this global crisis, the 2020 election has largely changed. Both of the main Democratic contenders, former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, have made statements about what is going on. In addition to both of them criticising the president, Sanders talked about the need to follow science to get America back to normal and combating the virus through medical advancement. Biden focused on the people’s perspective about the virus and what he is going to do if he wins the presidency. This benefited him in the long run because it caused a rise in numbers for him as well as a variety of people claiming they trust Biden more than Sanders during the exit poll (Washington Post). 

This unfortunate time has opened the eyes of many people and has exposed the ability for our government to adapt to changes. The election will continue on as planned, but many rallies and campaign strategies have clearly been changed because of COVID-19. The president claims to be trying his best, but to what extent is his best enough to pull the American people out of the global disaster?