The decision to social distance has seemingly become a topic that carries much more political significance than it did at the beginning of the pandemic. Understandably, each state has been handling the pandemic in their own individual ways, ones that are best for that specific state. Each state has its own culture that influences its politics, which influences the state’s response to issues like the novel coronavirus. Politics has a way of getting into everything, contaminating, and bleeding into people’s opinions. Just as people’s political preferences are more likely in some areas than others, as are their views on social distancing.
“71% of Republicans surveyed said they were willing to practice social distancing as long as needed, even if it means damaging the economy; Democrats were at 89%,” according to Ariel Shapiro from Forbes. People’s opinions are mostly just products of how their biology and impacts from their environments interact to respond to the world around them. It’s the classic nature vs. nurture theory, in which both influence a person’s tendencies. Therefore, the state in which a person grows up in would influence their political standing. For example, someone that grows up in Wyoming may embrace the largely conservative ways of the state, or the exposure might have the opposite effect, totally repelling them from it. Either way, a person can typically see best from where they’re standing, and not understand their opposers because they haven’t experienced the same things. In contrast to the state of New York, which is still on lockdown, Wyoming has begun reopening and lifting the quarantine.
According to reports from BBC News on May 6, 2020,
“US President Donald Trump has said the coronavirus task force would shift its focus to reopening the economy, a day after suggesting it would be disbanded. Mr Trump said the group would “continue on indefinitely” and “focus on safety [and] opening up our country”. It is not clear how exactly the task force will change but Mr Trump said “we may add or subtract people to it”. New confirmed infections per day in the US currently top 20,000, and daily deaths exceed 1,000. US health officials have warned that the virus may spread as businesses begin to reopen. The US now has 1.2 million confirmed coronavirus infections and more than 71,000 related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the pandemic.”
As expected, people that support Trump are more likely to agree with what he’s saying than those that don’t support him. Since most of his supporters are republicans, a large percentage of people who support lifting quarantine lean more to the right on the political spectrum.
The decision to boost the economy is dependent on the state, store owner, and consumer. For some areas, it would be unsafe to lift quarantine and reopen stores; however in other areas of sparsely populated towns, people might feel safe enough to reopen stores and support those businesses. It’s all dependent on the attitude and feeling of the safety of both the producer and the consumer.
