An Australian National University (ANU) expert has predicted Donald Trump’s pandemic mismanagement will cost him the election, as voting in the United States comes to a close today, 3 November.
The ANU School of Philosophy’s Dr Ben Bramble, a pandemic ethics expert, has said the leading examples of Australia and New Zealand during COVID-19 would be Trump’s downfall.
“More than 230,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus on President Trump’s watch. The top infectious diseases adviser in the US, Dr Anthony Fauci, recently singled out Australia and New Zealand’s efforts in grappling with the coronavirus pandemic,” he said.
“He said Victoria’s lockdown and mandated mask-wearing provided a model response for the US to follow. And he’s absolutely spot on in his assessment.
Without the success of countries such as Australia and New Zealand, it might be possible to think that the US had been merely unlucky, rather than culpably negligent.
Unlike the decrease of COVID-19 cases we are seeing in Australia, as of 1 November the USA had experienced an average of 82,829 cases per day in the week prior.
The cases were an increase of 45% from the average two weeks earlier, and a climbing tally of 236,979 deaths.
Dr Bramble said lockdowns were the only sensible government action during a pandemic, despite being faced with the challenge of where to lockdown and the economic impacts.
He said however, both the UK and US had shown no example of a stronger economy without prolonged lockdowns.
“Keeping businesses open and resisting lockdowns – as has been the case in the US and other places such as the UK and Europe – does not result in economies surging back,” he said.
“Good government policy that supports those affected by lockdowns can help to mitigate its negative effects, while measures such as mask-wearing, contact tracing, and testing can support the relaxation of measures and bring back normality sooner.”
It is still uncertain when the 2020 US election result will be made clear, with more than 60 million Americans voting before election day on 3 November.
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