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Introduction

Impact of Coronavirus on Elections

The 2020 elections as a whole have faced many challenges due to COVID-19 and the restrictions that have come with it. Along with 2/3 of Americans think the election will be interfered with due to COVID (“Two-Thirds of Americans Expect Presidential Election Will Be Disrupted”). A big impact that COVID will have on the elections is the amount of mail-in ballots that are expected to be used which roughly 80 million Americans are expected to vote based on mail-in ballots (Love et al.,2020). States like New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Iowa expanded their mail-in voting to fit the demand that was expected. The amount of mail-in ballots that are expected to be cast will cause a delay in election results and could ultimately push back the outcome of the election days or even weeks. Not only has COVID impacted the US elections but it has also caused some countries to postpone and cancel in-person voting (“Global overview of COVID-19: Impact on elections”).

Campaigning 

There is no doubt that the Coronavirus has had a major impact on political campaigns across America. Necessary precautions have been put into place by both parties to try and limit the spread of COVID like wearing a mask and trying to social distance accordingly. Connecting with people in person has been delayed but thanks to zoom, meeting with people within the community has made the process a lot easier. Not only has connecting with supporters and the community been hard but fundraising has also been a tough task, websites and online events have helped most campaigns tremendously by holding live streams, sending emails, and producing ads to get their name out to Americans. Ads have been very helpful with campaigning due to COVID making Americans stay home. So far nearly $14 billion has been spent on advertising for this year’s campaign races for the Senate, House of Representatives, and the race for the White House (Goldmacher 2020).

Each candidate had a different style of campaigning depending on what they deemed safe according to them and their advisors. Donald Trump and his campaign held large rallies that thousands of people attended despite COVID protocols and safety. States and settings where Trump rallies are held have begun to fine the owners of the location of the Trump rallies due to too many people attending (Riechmann 2020). Donald Trump stated at a rally in Tampa, Florida, “If you get close, wear a mask” despite questioning whether mask-wearing which is recommended by the CDC is effective or not (Vazquez 2020). Joe Biden was very cautious when holding rallies due to COVID-19. He held drive-in rallies that consisted of hundreds of cars which was significantly less than President Trump’s rallies which were in person and Joe was ok with that (Shear and Kaplan 2020). Not only were the Presidential candidates putting their names out there, but Lindsey Graham and Jaime Harrison also had a long hard-fought campaign battle against each other. Jaime Harrison raised a record 57 million dollars in one quarter alone and spent $60 million of it while Lindsey Graham raised $28 million. Television and Youtube ads leading up to the election were neck and neck considering Jaime Harrison spent $34 million out of his total raised $57 million on advertising alone (Kinnard 2020). Jaime Harrison in the last month leading up to the election is set to outspend Graham 7 to 1 overall (Bustos 2020). Despite all of the money raised by both candidates, it came down to Jaime Harrison averaging $118 per vote and Lindsey Graham $73 per vote (Lovegrove 2020). With Lindsey Graham winning the South Carolina election by 10 points Graham quoted, “You wasted a lot of money, This is the worst return on investment in the history of American politics” (Kinnard 2020).

Debates

The presidential and vice-presidential debates were held accordingly to limit the spread and infection of coronavirus. There were originally supposed to be 3 debates between Trump and Biden but due to COVID concerns, they were rescheduled due to President Trump testing positive following the first presidential debate. A virtual debate was proposed but Trump ultimately did not like that. Strong COVID regulations were put into place to protect everyone involved in the debates. Standard regulations like being 6 feet apart, mask-wearing, pretesting, glass being in between the candidates, no handshakes, and HVAC systems being near each candidate to improve the airflow were all put into place allowing everyone at the debate to be protected (Haglage 2020). The audience attending the debates were limited to 80 people who consisted of reporters, family, and supporters who were tested before attending the  debates.

Coronavirus Impact on Healthcare

 With COVID-19 being the greatest public health threat that the United States has faced since the Spanish flu, American healthcare has expressed its flaws. The U.S. government did not control the spread of COVID by way of not making testing broadly available throughout the US. Socially distancing and mask-wearing was late to the table when it should’ve been enforced sooner rather than later. The U.S. healthcare system took a hard hit when it came to COVID with systems like hospitals losing on average $50.7 billion a month due to COVID (Bainbridge, 2020). Hospitals and health centers were not the only systems affected by COVID. Nearly 10 million people were forced to file for unemployment due to COVID-19 closures (Rainey and Mccaskill 2020). According to Elizabeth Newman with the American Hospital Association, the US healthcare system could lose upwards of $125 to $200 billion due to COVID related concerns (Newman 2020).

The Recovery Time for Hospitals

Hospitals have been struggling a lot ever since the global pandemic was underway. Hospitals losing on average 50.7 billion dollars a month is outrageous and uncovers the real faults the U.S. healthcare system has in place. Since the global pandemic has hit America a lot of hospitals have had to conserve and save empty spaces to prepare for increases in patients diagnosed with COVID (Farr 2020). Safety has been a top priority for all Americans fearing COVID-19 and that is why a lot of sick and injured people have avoided hospitals and doctor’s offices due to possible exposure (Farr 2020). This impact has caused medical equipment and necessities to skyrocket creating vacant healthcare jobs and hospitals filing for bankruptcy (Farr 2020). For example, gowns are now offered at $11 due to the pandemic, and before they cost less than 25 cents (Farr 2020). With all of this going on it could potentially take many hospitals years to see a rise in profit and overcome these hard times.

Policy Changes due to COVID-19

With America’s healthcare system expressing its flaws it was time for American policymakers to take action. One of the policy changes is paid sick leave which the Families First Coronavirus Response Act was put into place for, allowing employers to provide 2 weeks of paid leave at full pay if they tested positive for COVID, two weeks at 2/3rds pay if they’re caring for someone who has COVID, or up to 10 additional weeks of pay at 2/3rds the amount if their child’s school or care provider is closed due to COVID-19 (“Families First Coronavirus Response Act”). In March, President Trump signed the CARES Act that provided relief for student loan payments during COVID. This act allowed for the suspension of loan payments, stopped collections, and set interest rates to 0% for 60 days (“Coronavirus and Forbearance Info for Students”). During the pandemic renter’s protection was established to protect homeowners and renters from eviction if payments were not collected. This allowed people to temporarily stop payments on homes and apartments during COVID-19 while being protected from eviction (“Protection for Renters”). During the pandemic, the IRS has sent out approximately $269 billion worth of stimulus checks to 153 million Americans to benefit people affected financially during the pandemic (“Peter G. Peterson Foundation”).

Telehealth becoming more available to citizens that won’t risk going to the doctor due to exposure.

With COVID impacting how much people go out in public doctors offices have converted to online telehealth which allows doctors

to meet with patients scared of COVID exposure of platforms like zoom and skype. Adapting to changing healthcare is a very important process to help limit the spread of COVID-19 to patients and staff. There are a total of 3 ways that telehealth can be provided. The first way is synchronous which is present time over the phone or computer. The second being asynchronous which is where you send in information about what is wrong and the doctor will get in touch with you later. The third and final way is called remote patient monitoring which is similar to synchronous sessions although patients in one place produce information and provide it to healthcare professionals safely (CDC 2020). With telehealth being in such high demand considering the circumstances healthcare professionals have seen from 50 to 175 times more patients using the platform for concerning reasons (Zarefsky 2020).

References

Bainbridge, R. (2020, May 04). US hospitals losing around $50 billion a month due to COVID-19. Retrieved November 5, 2020, from https://www.itij.com/latest/news/us-hospitals-losing-around-50-billion-month-due-covid-19

Bustos, J. (2020, October 01). Harrison is set to outspend Graham 7-to-1 on SC airwaves in last month of election. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/election/article246101160.html

Coronavirus and Forbearance Info for Students, Borrowers, and Parents. (n.d.). Retrieved November 5, 2020, from https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/coronavirus

Families First Coronavirus Response Act: Employee Paid Leave Rights. (n.d.). Retrieved November 5, 2020, from https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/pandemic/ffcra-employee-paid-leave

Farr, C. (2020, May 05). U.S. hospitals are losing millions of dollars per day in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic – and recovery may take years. Retrieved November 10, 2020, from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/05/hospitals-losing-millions-of-dollars-per-day-in-covid-19-pandemic.html

Global overview of COVID-19: Impact on elections. (2020, March 18). Retrieved November 10, 2020, from https://www.idea.int/news-media/multimedia-reports/global-overview-covid-19-impact-elections

Goldmacher, S. (2020, October 28). The 2020 Campaign Is the Most Expensive Ever (By a Lot). Retrieved November 5, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/us/politics/2020-race-money.html

Haglage, A. (2020, October 22). COVID-19 safety precautions at the presidential debate are ‘adequate,’ but may leave some in danger, experts say. Retrieved November 5, 2020, from https://sports.yahoo.com/covid19-safety-precautions-presidential-debate-adequate-some-danger-experts-201140353.html

Hospitals and Health Systems Face Unprecedented Financial Pressures Due to COVID-19: AHA. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2020, from https://www.aha.org/guidesreports/2020-05-05-hospitals-and-health-systems-face-unprecedented-financial-pressures-due

How Many Coronavirus Stimulus Checks Have Been Sent Out So Far? (2020, September 16). Retrieved November 10, 2020, from https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2020/09/how-many-coronavirus-stimulus-checks-have-been-sent-out-so-far

Jlovegrove@postandcourier.com, J. (2020, November 10). Harrison spent $118 per vote, Graham $73 in SC’s historically expensive Senate race. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/harrison-spent-118-per-vote-graham-73-in-scs-historically-expensive-senate-race/article_8dd94928-1fb6-11eb-ba09-bf208756a2eb.html

Kinnard, M. (2020, October 22). Harrison: Record $57M haul in US Senate race has been spent. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-senate-elections-jaime-harrison-elections-campaigns-fa41fac7f4e23c3caac73f4fd0a8b79c

Love, J., Stevens, M., & Gamio, L. (2020, August 11). Where Americans Can Vote by Mail in the 2020 Elections. Retrieved November 10, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/11/us/politics/vote-by-mail-us-states.html

Protections for renters. (n.d.). Retrieved November 5, 2020, from https://www.consumerfinance.gov/coronavirus/mortgage-and-housing-assistance/renter-protections/

Rainey, R., & McCaskill, N. (2020, April 02). ‘No words for this’: 10 million workers file jobless claims in just two weeks. Retrieved November 4, 2020, from https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/02/unemployment-claims-coronavirus-pandemic-161081

Riechmann, D. (2020, October 29). As virus surges, Trump rallies keep packing in thousands. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-rallies-virus-surges-50e79fabd46472c51ecc1444184082de

Shear, M. D., & Kaplan, T. (2020, November 01). Both Candidates Agree: Trump’s Crowds Are Bigger, and They’re OK With That. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/01/us/politics/trump-biden-rallies.html

Two-Thirds of Americans Expect Presidential Election Will Be Disrupted by COVID-19. (2020, October 01). Retrieved November 10, 2020, from https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/04/28/two-thirds-of-americans-expect-presidential-election-will-be-disrupted-by-covid-19/

Using Telehealth to Expand Access to Essential Health Services during the COVID-19 Pandemic. (2020, June 10). Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/telehealth.html

Vazquez, M. (2020, October 29). Trump seems to strike a new tone on masks: ‘If you get close, wear a mask’. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/29/politics/trump-masks-election-2020/index.html

Zarefski, M. (2020, August 26). 5 huge ways the pandemic has changed telemedicine. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/digital/5-huge-ways-pandemic-has-changed-telemedicine