- Position‹2 of 2
- Joe Biden will be better for the coronavirus pandemic
The lack of a national plan and strong federal guidelines have significantly contributed to a patchwork of policy, supplies, and outbreak trajectories across the US.
The argument
The Biden administration will implement policies we know work: testing, tracing, masks, and social distancing - all of which the Trump administration has failed to do successfully. The US has struggled to build up its testing capacity over the course of the pandemic. Although improvements since the start of the pandemic have been made, testing has not exceeded 1 million tests a day and it can still take days to get test results back. This can sometimes be weeks if demand, due to a new outbreak, is high. A large part of the problem comes down to supply line problems — shortages for swabs, reagents, testing kits, and other much needed equipment throughout the pandemic has created inefficiency and unnecessary disaster. There was also an economic element to building too much infrastructure to aid the fight against the virus. If the pandemic is over in a few years, the US economy will be left with too much unused infrastructure which does not generate any profit. Joe Biden could address these problems, using the powers of the federal government to coordinate the supply line and maintain its stability. Joe Biden would publicly show his support for social distancing and the wearing of masks. This would signal to American citizens that this is the right thing to do and they would be more likely to follow strict guidelines put into place by the Biden administration if he were to follow the same rules.
Premises
Counter-arguments
Although Joe Biden tested negative for COVID-19 after potentially being exposed to the virus at the first presidential debate, official guidance suggests that he should be quarantining for 14 days. Party leaders are encouraging Joe Biden to keep his campaign going, despite his possible exposure to the virus which could be risking the health of other American citizens he comes into contact with. The virus' average incubation period is four to five days, and cases may not register on tests until after that time. Therefore it is possible that Biden did catch the virus from Trump and it's just too soon to know. Biden's failure to quarantine following his potential exposure to coronavirus indicate that he may not be able to successfully virus-controlling policies such as isolating and distancing.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P1] Testing, tracing, masks and distancing were not federal programmes to be delivered or withheld — in the US public health powers over closures, mandates and contact tracing sit largely with states and localities. The premise attributes to one office an outcome produced by fifty different policy regimes. [Rejecting P2] Supply-chain coordination is offered as a solution without a mechanism. The body itself identifies a genuine obstacle — that capacity built for a temporary emergency has no use afterwards — and then does not explain how a different administration overcomes it rather than simply choosing to bear the cost. [Rejecting P3] The modelling claim assumes public health behaviour follows presidential example. By late 2020 mask use had already become a partisan marker, which makes it likely that endorsement from either candidate would move his own supporters and few others. [Rejecting C] The counter-argument on record questions the consistency of the example itself, pointing to the decision to continue campaigning after a possible exposure at the first debate rather than completing the quarantine period then advised.