By Alex P. Vidal
“America’s present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration.” —Warren G. Harding
FILIPINOS who continued to monitor the events in the United States since March 2020 about the pandemic and before and after the November 3, 2020 U.S. presidential election can learn many things and lessons about the issues and crisis the Americans are facing today.
On the day the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) reached a record 23 million cases in the United States and with a one-day high of 4,327 deaths, President Donald Trump became the first U.S. president in the history to be impeached twice on January 13.
The latest pandemic data was so scary, but the country’s attention was largely focused on the fallout from the deadly uprising at Washington D.C.’s Capitol Hill, where Congress impeached the President on a vote of 232-197 for inciting the insurrection on January 6 that killed five people, including a federal police officer.
Seven days before President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will officially take over the reigns of the White House, thousands of National Guard troops have been deployed in Washington D.C.
Like the country is preparing for a civil war, local and federal security officials expect about 20,000 National Guard members to be involved in securing Washington, D.C., for Biden’s and Harris’ inauguration next week.
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There are Filipinos here who continued to root for Mr. Trump despite what happened on January 6, and some of them have disagreed with the decision of the congress people to impeach their idol.
“Sa media lang natalo si Trump,” a female friend from the Orange County in California insisted in her private message.
She said the impeachment was “unnecessary because even if the election was stolen from President Trump, the President is now willing to pave the way for the new administration because he loves America.”
She then started to send links from websites that promote conspiracy theories and other lies perpetrated against the Democrats and the election in 2020.
Rioters and those who have been misled that the election was rigged were believed to be getting their false and incredible information from the dubious websites.
It was a sad day for America indeed because of the two battles it is facing: the COVID-19 pandemic and the terrible misinformation and lies about the election which many experts and most Americans learned was the most secured and successful in history in terms of turnout of voters.
According to Johns Hopkins Hospital, America’s overall death toll from COVID-19 has eclipsed 380,000, and was closing in fast on the number of Americans killed in World War II, or about 407,000.
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Confirmed infections have reportedly topped 22.8 million as Arizona and California have been among the hardest-hit states.
The United States is now reportedly in the most lethal phase of the outbreak yet, even as vaccines are being rolled out.
US News reported that the country was averaging about 249,000 new cases per day, and about 3,300 deaths.
The death toll in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic now stands at more than 381,000.
USA Today reported that even as the coronavirus is running rampant through large swaths of Southern California, a substantial number of health care workers—who are first in line for the vaccine—are rejecting the shots.
“About half the hospital workers offered the COVID vaccine in Riverside County, southeast of hard-hit Los Angeles County, have turned it down. With a population of 2.5 million, Riverside County on Tuesday became the eighth county in the nation to exceed 200,000 coronavirus cases,” reported the USA Today.
It was further learned that facing a slower-than-hoped coronavirus vaccine rollout, officials around the United States shifted gears January 12 to accelerate the delivery of shots to more people.
The U.S. government was reported to be asking states to speed up COVID-19 vaccinations to people over 65 and others at risk instead of holding back vaccines for a second dose.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)
