As with anything these days, politics has created its own pandemic parallel to the one that is currently going on. From day one, Republicans and Democrats argued over whether or not a shutdown should happen, if masks should be worn, if social distancing is effective, and whether or not it is safe to reopen back up. With a collapsing economy, the Republican Party urged businesses to reopen while the Democrat Party favored staying closed to keep the public safe. Both political parties had valid arguments: the American economy is extremely important across the world and people die from U.S. recessions but the wellbeing of our people matters too. Trying to manage this delicate balance between economy and public welfare led to a great deal of debate during a time when we needed to come together as one and it created misinformation being given to the public. Biased news sources shared the statistics that they wanted their viewers to hear. For example, FOX News, a news source with a right-sided political bias, often shared facts regarding how many small businesses had to close and how only a handful of children have died from COVID-19 thus far. Meanwhile, CNN, a news course with a left-sided political bias, showed statistics that regarded the exponential growth of positive cases and potential deaths if we didn't stay shut down. Both FOX News and CNN may have shown accurate statistics, but they only showed one side which can sometimes be just as dangerous as showing incorrect facts.
Even the government wasn't presenting accurate information. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, held nearly daily press briefings with President Donald Trump sharing information and giving out guidelines for the public to follow. Early on, he advised against the use of masks. Later on, he later revealed that masks are necessary to help slow the spread of the virus and only steered Americans away from it initially so that medical staff would have enough access to them. While it may have been the best call, it still made Americans wary of what the government was advising them to do and some even still believe that masks will not help. Aside from a few little hiccups like these, government agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were the best source of reliable information. They provided accurate and detailed statistics that were able to reflect all of America. Local governments also did a fantastic job of reporting positive cases and keeping their own data. Below are several screenshots I've taken of Western New York COVID cases throughout the past few months:
April 3, three weeks after shutting down:
May 5, almost two months after the shutdown:
June 5, three months after the shutdown:
July 6, four months after the shutdown:
September 14, six months after shutdown:
