Americans must vote to redefine their democracy and restore trust in public institutions
Today’s election is America’s opportunity to reject the Trump administration’s failed response to the pandemic and write a more hopeful future for the country
By Anson Cheung and Negin Shahiar
At meetings of the United Nations Security Council last year, we felt the gravity of the actions being weighed within its four walls. We covered briefings on the International Criminal Court’s prosecution of war crimes in Libya, the bombing of medical facilities in Syria, and the work of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize laureates on sexual violence in conflict. These meetings scrutinized decision-making at the highest echelons of power and held international leaders accountable by defending the rights of individual citizens.
On the cusp of one of the most significant and divisive elections in American history, and in the midst of the worst public health crisis in a century, it is clear that a similar reckoning is well overdue in the United States. This election is an opportunity for the U.S. to begin the process of re-instilling trust in public institutions serving public health, the economy, and the law. Without restoring that bond of trust, America will continue to falter.
We grew up in Toronto and San Francisco, on opposite sides of the longest undefended land border in the world. But in 2020, the U.S.-Canada border has come to represent more than a mere geographical boundary between our two countries: it has grown into a symbol of our rapidly deepening divide in health and social outcomes from the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, on election day, America has recorded around 9.3 million coronavirus infections and over 231,000 deaths.
By comparison, Canada, a country with around one-ninth of America’s population, has seen around 243,000 coronavirus cases and just over 10,000 deaths. From the very start of the pandemic, the Trudeau government turned to its public health leaders to guide its response. Public health officials have always been content avoiding the limelight, but throughout this pandemic, Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, and other top health officials have become a permanent fixture on the news. Canadians trust and respect our public institutions — and by proxy, our government — because we are constantly reminded that they are working together to guide us through this crisis.
This is not the case in America. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Trump administration has repeatedly dismissed the recommendations of its public institutions and misled the nation it was elected to serve. Despite early knowledge of COVID-19’s potential impact, the administration has simultaneously ignored and attacked the counsel of public health leaders such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, and failed to adopt basic practices such as mask-wearing and physical distancing even among senior administration officials. As future professionals in medicine and law, we are deeply concerned by the mistrust this has sown and for the message it sends to those aspiring to work in public institutions for the benefit of all.
Furthermore, the Trump administration has consistently chosen economic gains to benefit the elite in America over equitable policy to protect the majority of the population, including the most vulnerable. President Trump has repeatedly pointed to a booming stock market as evidence of his administration’s successful response to the pandemic while failing to emphasize that, simultaneously, unemployment has continued to skyrocket. While the wealthy continue to prosper financially as stock prices rise, many other Americans are waiting in miles-long lines at food banks. The Trump administration has neglected to offer adequate financial support to those most at risk, providing only one $1200 stimulus check to Americans over the eight-month span since the pandemic started. Perhaps what is most egregious is that in the middle of a pandemic, instead of working to increase access to healthcare, the administration has sought to take away the health coverage of thirty million Americans by repealing the Affordable Care Act.
A return to pre-pandemic life in America will require a tried-and-true approach led by a president who is ethical and humble enough to place the electorate above his own private interests. It will require taking measures that have proven successful elsewhere in the world: sharing consistent and evidence-informed guidelines, promoting physical distancing and the ubiquitous use of masks, scaling up testing and contact tracing efforts, providing equitable support to the population and particularly the most vulnerable, and ensuring that a vaccine is fairly distributed once available. While all of these strategies are part of Biden’s plan to beat COVID-19, the Trump administration has repeatedly dismissed and failed to emulate them, and this must change if America is to turn the tide on the coronavirus.
The U.S. is at a crossroads, and in today’s election, Americans have the power to determine how the rest of the pandemic will unfold. This is America’s opportunity to define the future of its democracy and its standing on the world stage. As individuals determined to one day shape public health and create equitable law, it is our hope that America will choose Biden as its leader, because he has demonstrated the character and trust in public institutions needed to guide the country out of this dark moment.
Anson Cheung is a medical student at the University of Toronto. Negin Shahiar holds a master’s degree in global governance from the University of Oxford and is a Fellow with the Biden campaign.
