Coronavirus, COVID-19, all anyone can talk about these days as tensions heighten with more people testing positive every day, and thousands dying. The latest news story, when just typing coronavirus into the search bar is Governor Cuomo stating that there is a “tsunami” of cases coming. Rushing to set up makeshift beds and treatment centers, New York City is struggling to help everyone who has been diagnosed. As the virus finds its way up north, with two aunts, both parents, one sibling, and many family friends all on the frontlines of the outbreak, it’s hard not to feel the stress of the virus weighing down on your shoulders. However, the international communities have seen such comradery, encourage one another it is a good way to see the positives in dark times such as these. New York is doing all it can to keep up with the coronavirus outbreak, as NYC is being hit the worst. Governor Cuomo, and NYC mayor de Blasio have enacted new policies trying to slow the spread of the virus, also known as flattening the curve. Comparing state versus national government responses states appear to be doing more to help protect their people. For this blog we will be examining the different policies states have enacted for the coronavirus. As well as, if there are any future policies in case of another pandemic.
Before going forward a brief explanation of past pandemic responses might be helpful. Influenza, or the flu, is nothing new. It has been the source of previous pandemics. The 1918 influenza, or Spanish flu, was caused by the H1N1 virus with avian origins that affected around 500 million people and had an estimated death toll of 50 million worldwide. During this time there were no vaccine and no antibiotics. The first real sort of policy seen was when the New York City’s Board of Health adds the flu to its list of reportable diseases and requires people to be isolated in their houses or at a hospital. Chicago was the second place to enact public policy for safety by closing down the movie theatres, night schools, and prohibit public gatherings. From there we see San Francisco require public workers to wear mask and Salt Lake City place quarantine signs on affected houses.
Moving to more modern policies, during the years of 2007 and 2008 states were provided with pandemic preparedness workshops. Then the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices conducted an assessment of the state’s preparedness level. You can read more about it here. To sum this paper up it tells us that states are more prepared now than they were a few years ago but the preparedness only went so far, and places can improve. If the assessment were to take place now, policies would probably be much different. From the National Conference of State Legislatures website, it provides a list of “State Action on Coronavirus (COVID-19).” 35 of 50 states, plus DC and Puerto Rico, have introduced legislation to support state action related to the coronavirus outbreak. While not all of these policies relate to public health, like Florida’s Senate declaring the Florida State University Seminoles Basketball team NCAA champs, there are enough to show that states have enacted new legislation. The first public policy that comes up is Alabama encouraging people to fist bump rather than shake hands. Adopted on March 12, 2020, the policy reads that after this virus was spread from China and can be contracted through physical contact, like when shaking hands, state citizens of Alabama should fist bump for the duration of the coronavirus time. Moving on to Alaska, while this isn’t exactly public policy directly, they appropriated around $4 million from the general fund to the Department of Health and Services for the division of public health, emergency programs, cost of responding to the outbreak and mitigating risks of COVID-19. I could continue on about the different public policies enacted by the states, but it just goes to show that the states are leading the response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Looking into future health care public policies caused by the coronavirus, there really isn’t a lot. States are focused on the now and will most likely enact policies once the “curve” has gone back to a near flat line.
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