Federalism is a compound mode of government. Its mandate is to provide leadership, maintain order, provide national security, and provide public service. Federalism in the United States government has acknowledged its origin, purpose, and function, specifically in fighting and responding to the coronavirus. Covid-19 pandemic challenges form workable American federalism. The pandemic has made brought much attention to federalism from the US government. Federalism makes the rights that should be put in place to ensure that all human rights are preserved and regulated (Cigler,2021). State’s federal system helps in ensuring that the decisions taken by the government upon approach to national or country disaster should be in line with protecting the people’s rights and state of well-being. For instance, the public health shortcomings in the public health system under the Trump administration led to the fragmented responses to the coronavirus pandemic among the states. The federalism assisted in bringing in the necessary policies to fight against the coronavirus outbreak hence shaping the state public health and resulting in differences in the public health outcomes.
The corporation between the state-federal system and the local governments work hand in hand in ensuring that the coronavirus pandemic was adequately adhered to, protecting masses of losses associated with the pandemic. The federation gives volumes of important information and insights into how the waves of the covid-19 pandemic have to be handled. It explores the different roles and responsibilities of different levels of the United States government based on the variations the government is taking to innovate in dealing with the health crises (Cigler,2021). The Government of the United States has the mandate to ensure that every citizen receives health protection against any disease. Therefore, the purpose and function of federalism in the United States helped make rules and regulations that contributed to reducing the spread of the coronavirus. Federalism explores the measures that must be taken in order t control the spread of coronavirus, contain the pandemic, and control the management of the health sector and education of its people.
The United States government stands for the responsibility and the authority roles in taking up the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The government, through its initiatives, stands as the first department that should address the crisis of coronavirus at first. The government is mandated to manage the policy of response to any pandemic with the focus of sorting ways that will lead to coordination and planning, decision making, and communicating decisions made to the public. The decisions should not be violative of any of the citizen’s bill of rights. The use of evidence of how the planning will be a measurable take to control the crisis is the government’s responsibility to alert its citizens to secure many people’s lives and curb any losses that might be associated with the coronavirus (Human Rights Watch,2020). The government takes the approach of the policy after keen consideration of the measures taken to tackle the crises and their aftermath. Government taking responsibility for responding to any crisis through audacious policies help maintain the functioning of the healthcare systems, guarantee the continuity of education, businesses, and jobs, and overall maintenance of the financial markets.
The United States had to take constitutional rights to respond to the coronavirus crisis to safeguard citizens from adverse infection and loss of lives. The government progressively put restrictions like lockdowns to regulate movements in and out of the state. Tightening of the containment issues was activated, which included a screening of the ports of entry, quarantine for the infected people, and closure of public places for gathering (IMF,2021). The above restrictions are all constitutional that were put in place to control and reduce the pressures of the crises. The introduction of the vaccination doses for coronavirus is also constitutional action that has helped in the severe spread of coronavirus. For instance, since the report of the first case of coronavirus disease in Wuhan, China, the pandemic has been reported to have alternating waves. The waves are all severe in terms of strength; hence, vaccinating United States citizens has reduced the severe infections and enabled the control of the coronavirus crisis. Actions taken by the government have been all rated to have worked well in controlling the spreading of coronavirus but vaccinating the people have worked much better. Vaccination helps young, and older people’s bodies resist any form of coronavirus wave that might come recently or in the future (IMF,2021).
Working from home as a form of governmental measure to control the crises failed. A greater percentage of American citizens work from companies that need daily reporting to the workplace, which can not be tolerated by working from home regulation. Other means like wearing masks had to be introduced to allow people to respond to their jobs and maintain the country’s economy. Working from home would suggest that people will stay at home. Hence, the companies and organizations will have no people to report to the work, which will make the companies collapse, leading to the state’s economic downfall. Therefore, wearing masks and advocating for coronavirus vaccinations are at stake.
References
Cigler, B. A. (2021). Fighting COVID-19 in the United States with Federalism and Other Constitutional and Statutory Authority. Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 51(4). https://doi.org/10.1093/publius/pjab021
Human Rights Watch. (2020, March 19). Human Rights Dimensions of COVID-19 Response. Retrieved from Human Rights Watch website: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/19/human-rights-dimensions-covid-19-response
IMF. (2021). Policy Responses to COVID19. Retrieved from International Monetary Fund website: https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/imf-and-covid19/Policy-Responses-to-COVID-19
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