Introduction
Presently, COVID 19 has been considered one of the worst diseases ever to emerge. The rate at which the disease continues to spread causes human suffering and devastated the global economy has continued to create several puzzling questions. The documented statistical data indicate that the confirmed Corona Virus cases in the United States of America surpass 3 million people (Yang et al. 11860). Some of the highly hit states in America include Florida and Arizona. These states are emerging as the country’s latest epicenters for experiencing new infections. Nevertheless, despite the struggle, the two states have adopted varied measures to contain the disease. Their main aim is to use the best interventions to contain the virus’s spread and return the nation to normalcy. Therefore, this paper aims to compare and contrast the measures and policies adopted by Florida and Arizona to contain the COVID 19 pandemic. The essay will further explore the effectiveness of these measures and recommend the best strategies that can be used to achieve the results.
Policy Indices of COVID 19 Responses in Florida and Arizona
Health Care Policy
Health Care Policies are mechanisms that are usually put in place to help protect the citizen’s health and contain the spread of the virus. In America, four indices were to reveal the aggregate measures used by states to contain the disease. The approaches include testing policy, contact tracing, investment in the COVID 19 management, and contact tracing. The adoption of the approaches has proved to have a powerful effect in containing the disease’s spread and arresting the affected cases. They have played a critical role in testing and treating the confirmed cases, thus improving the recovery rates among America’s affected members.
On March 13th, 2020, American President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency on the COVID 19 pandemic to reduce the virus’s spread. At that time, many states, including Florida and Arizona, had already adopted the mechanisms. By March 16th, 2020, all these states had made a state of Public Health Emergency. The declaration of such an emergency provided these states with the opportunity to measure social distancing, contact tracing, and improve the states’ testing policy. As the disease’s surge continues to hit these states, Florida and Arizona have continued to roll back the measures to ensure that they win against the disease’s spread.
As a result of the surge in Coronavirus cases across the globe, every state’s role is to make the right preparation. All countries should ensure that they adopt the right testing and contact tracing mechanism that will help in the discovery of the real numbers of infected individuals. Consequently, these nations should provide the right financial and medical resources geared to promote the treatment of the affected persons. Further, the public should be sensitized to the need to protect themselves against the deadly virus. Finally, the provision of this important equipment such as ICU beds, ventilators, and Protective Kits will be the ultimate solution to the possible cases admitted to the hospital (Yang et al. 11860). Preparation of such a level will promote the chances of saving millions of lives in America. It will show how these states are ideally prepared to fight this virus.
Nevertheless, despite the move, it is notable that Florida has invested heavily in COVID 19 health management mechanisms. Statistical data suggest that Arizona has implemented better policies regarding the vaccination and provision of the insuring the members against diseases. Despite having Obama care, the state has adopted the well-established Medicaid expansion decisions that have promoted the overall health care delivery in the nation. Further, Florida has continued to implement better vaccination efforts on COVID 19 related diseases such as pneumonia and influenza. As a result of the provision of these mechanisms, it has been observed that the number of deaths experienced in Florida has continued to reduce tremendously.
The above table shows the two states’ possible strides to contain the spread of the virus. As shown, it is evident that despite having a high population susceptible to the disease, Florida has done very little to ensure that the better part of the population is insured. Further, they have failed to adopt the Medicaid expansion decision. The trend has continued to show inadequate service delivery to the member’s members who have been attacked by the COVID 19 pandemic. Finally, the state of Florida has also failed to vaccinate a majority of the population. Failure to immunization has continued to make a majority of the members susceptible to the disease.
The Containment Strategies and Response Policies
Both Florida and Arizona took the opportunity to promptly and efficiently institute some containment and mitigation guidelines for the disease. The most commonly adopted approaches include restricting social gatherings, staying at home requirements, and restricting internal and international travel. These states’ main aims in adopting the strategies were to maximize social distancing and reduce the disease’s possible contraction (Yang et al. 1189). The above methods, which were formulated and developed by the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were properly implemented to ensure that the disease’s level was drastically reduced in all states. Later they were adopted by the Federal government as the best methods that could be used to help in reducing the spread and mortality rates caused by the virus.
Despite the provision of the above containment measures, it has been noted with much concern that the State of Florida has continued to record the highest number of new cases of the disease than any other country in America. According to the most recent statistics, Florida experiences 20% more cases daily (Yang et al. 1189). This trend has doubled what is experienced in Arizona. One of the main reasons why Florida has experienced the highest surge was due to rapid reopening and public complacency. Research studies suggested that most of the people in Florida were not keen on taking the provided guidelines regarding the disease’s containment. In most cases, they failed to follow instructions and were inconsistent with the physical distancing and wearing the mask. Finally, the state reopened too early in the name of rejuvenating its economy. The first pace of opening made most people get infected and technically harder to evaluate the COVID 19 pandemic spread.
The wearing of masks in Florida has been highly politicized despite the proven scientific evidence on their effectiveness. On the one hand, the health care officials have continued to extol the virtues of masking, while on the other hand, the political leaders continue to disapprove of the entire program. The continued criticism has resulted in a longstanding relatively low response to the disease (Yang et al. 1187). The above trend is contrary to Arizona, which has served as a perfect model for the rest of the nations. The citizens have acted as responsible people by implementing effective public health protocols that are ideal for reducing virus cases. They have continued to avoid crowded areas, keep social distance as well as regular wear face masks.
The governor of Arizona State has continued to set the best example while at the same time urging the public to continue adhering to the rules. Consequently, Arizona health care personnel introduced meticulous contact tracing and testing on the public members who may have contracted the disease. The State of Arizona has also taken strict measures to contain the members who have been infected by the disease by issuing strong quarantine procedures. Finally, the citizens have continued to maintain social distance while at the same time wearing masks. The above approaches have helped contain the disease and reduce the number of cases compared to what is observed in Florida (see table 1 shown below).
The Economic Policies and Responses Policies
Several economic policies have been suggested to help in containing the disease. These procedures include debt relief for households, income support, and international support to the highly affected nations. All these measures have proved to be quite critical in reducing the rate of the COVID 19 pandemic while at the same time promoting the overall economic growth of the nation. The debt relief has helped save most of the entrepreneurs interested in borrowing loans from the backs at relatively low-interest rates. Consequently, income support has played a critical role in providing salaries to the less fortunate members of society who have been affected by the virus.
Based on the available data, it was notable that Florida was more aggressive in implementing the economic policies than Arizona. The governor of the state’s major worry was maintaining the nation’s economic performance despite the continuous challenges attributed to the virus. On the other hand, Arizona also worked on the best mechanisms of promoting local and international economic progress but with a high level of cautiousness (Chowell et al. 1094). The governor ensured that they provided debt relief and income support to the local and international communities affected by the virus but at a moderate state. The administrator’s best interest was not to uphold the economy but to save as many lives as possible. As a result, Arizona managed to contain the disease and reduce the mortality rates in the nation.
Impacts of the Policies
Both Florida and Arizona managed to respond exceptionally well in their bid to contain the deadly virus. They both tried their best to employ government standardized interventions to save millions of Americans’ lives. Nevertheless, it is evident that despite the provision of the varied policies, Florida has been highly hit by the COVID 19 pandemic as compared to Arizona. According to the presented data, the mortality rates in Florida almost doubled what was experienced in Arizona. This trend is worrying as an increasing number of Americans continue to experience high death rates related to the virus. Therefore, the two states need to continue adopting the best strategies to promote the best health among these members.
The above variation has majorly been created by how the government and the states’ members have perceived the regulations. In comparing the two, the Arizona state has been positive about implementing the positive approaches expected to contain the disease. Therefore, it is high time for all states to adjust and adopt a unified approach towards implementing the public health care strategies of mitigating the COVID 19 pandemic, such as masking, keeping social distance, and frequent hand washing. Besides, no single state in America should be driven by the need for economic progress. Instead, they should achieve a well-coordinated national lockdown for a sufficient duration to help reduce the virus’s spread.
Recommendations
It is also critical for the Florida government to avoid politicizing measures regarding the disease’s policies. The continuous politicization of the CDC formulas is causing more harm than good to the long-lasting reputation of America’s response to emergencies. Instead, they should act as a perfect model in response and containment of the disease. The governor should work together with the citizens to control and prevent the spread of the disease (Chowell et al. 1094). They should work to show the global community the right mechanisms that should be used to limit the spread and effects of the Coronavirus. By effectively implementing these efforts, all states, including Florida and Arizona, will reduce the exponential growth in the number of deaths caused by the virus experienced over the past years. In fact, the approach will save millions of lives while at the same time promoting the economic growth of the nation.
All states need to continue with their efforts to sustain the health standards of the nation. That means both Florida and Arizona should continue with vaccination, contact tracing, and testing of the coronavirus cases. Through the ministry of health, the federal government should continue to provide the necessary resources required to fight the disease. These resources should include both the financial and health care Personal Protective Kits (PPTs) to help the first respondents, such as doctors and nurses, against contracting the disease. The adoption of the mechanisms will help relieve the nation of the suspected cases, treat and reduce the number of deaths resulting from the disease. Further, it will reduce the rate of disparity in fighting the pandemic that has been shown in Florida and Arizona.
Conclusion
In a conclusion, this paper concurs with the Center for Disease and Control on the need to have a unified approach to deal with COVID 19 in all states worldwide. Every state should adopt simple measures such as hand washing, wearing a face mask, and maintaining social distance to reduce the spread of the disease. These strategies should be coupled with the right health measures such as vaccination, testing, and contact tracing. Failure to adopt these mechanisms and mitigate the COVID 19 pandemic will result in increased death toll rates in these states and paralyze the nation’s socio-economic progress. Therefore, these states should continue with their efforts and work on these policies and strategies to arrest the spread of the disease and reduce mortality rates across America.
Works Cited
Chowell, Gerardo, and Kenji Mizumoto. “The Covid-19 Pandemic in the USA: What Might We Expect?” The Lancet, vol. 1, no. 2, 2020, pp. 1093-1094.
Yang, Chaowei, et al. “Taking the pulse of COVID-19: A spatiotemporal perspective.” International journal of digital earth. vol. 13, no. 10, 2020, pp. 1186-1211.