This post is a response to the question “How do you think the states handling COVID in different ways was beneficial to the country as a whole? In what ways was it disadvantageous?” by @apfeff.
I believe that the states handling COVID individually was overall not beneficial to the country as a whole.
Advantageous in terms that each state could handle COVID on a more state-by-state basis. For example, rural Wyoming may not have to undergo nearly as strict restrictions like large urban centers like New York City. Citizens in Wyoming don’t live as densely populated places like urban New York City, therefore they do not have to endure the same strict restrictions. I believe that more detail protocols and restrictions should be done by the states, but the overall fight against should have been a more federalist approach
However, the states handing COVID in different ways was largely not beneficial to the country as a whole. Some states implemented far too loose restrictions, especially when their positive cases were exploding. Those loose restrictions attracted Americans from other states to visit, to which they likely brought back positive COVID cases to their home state. If the federal government had more control over COVID protocols in each state, I believe that our nation’s pandemic situation would have gotten as bad as it did. National governments in countries such as the United Kingdom and France spearheaded the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, the United States’ approach was more on a state-by-state basis. If our nation had a more federal government-led approach, then I believe that our situation would not have gotten so dire. If the federal government could approve of a nation-wide mask mandate, then we would have gotten a better grip of the pandemic in our country. The national government would have also better coordinated emergency supplies to each state rather than having the states fight each other for the last ventilator.
It's interesting that you look to France and the UK as examples of nations that spearheaded a positive approach against covid-19, when the citizens of the UK look to what New Zealand did as a shining example of how to tackle a pandemic. Do we all look elsewhere hopeful for something better than the raw deal we feel we were dealt in our own countries or are there definitely better approaches out there and countries which have just done things better? I believe Jacinta Ardern has done a stellar job under the circumstances.