Reconciling HSDA and COVID-19
By: Jack Greenspan
Tags: Coronavirus, High School Democrats, Democratic Party, High School, Current Events

By Jack Greenspan

HSDA President and The Progressive Teen Contributing Writer

Pass through many towns and villages in China, and one may find a similar sight: lines of people waiting for meat products, animals stacked over each other row after row, and hungry customers hauling dead animals back to their homes. Wet markets have often been criticized for close contact between humans and uncooked wildlife animals who may be carrying a disease. It is likely that the novel coronavirus, also widely known as COVID-19, originated in one of these markets in Wuhan, China in late 2019.

The novel coronavirus is a coronavirus, a family of viruses that can infirm both humans and animals. Past coronavirus outbreaks include Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), although neither reached the sheer prevalence of cases that this year’s novel coronavirus has. Like COVID-19, SARS started in a Chinese wet market and spread across the world.

Researchers believe that the novel coronavirus originated at this Wuhan wet market. (AP Photo/Dake Kang)

Past disease outbreaks have scared the world. After a breakout of SARS, the Chinese government instituted a temporary wet market ban in 2003 and the Bush administration streamlined the legal methods the CDC can use to quarantine infected patients. After the 2014 ebola outbreak, the Obama administration institutionalized the position of Rob Klain, the ebola czar at that time, by establishing the Directorate for Global Health and Security and Biodefense.

Donald Trump has continually ignored the warnings of public health leaders, facilitating the dire situation the United States is currently in. He dismantled the Obama-era pandemic response unit and has proposed a 15% cut in the CDC budget as recently as a month ago. Mr. Trump has claimed that “[n]obody knew there’d be a pandemic,” despite warnings from public health experts about a “Disease X” that could soon devastate the world and dozens of reports being released in the past half-decade detailing the US’ lack of pandemic preparedness. Due to a lack of leadership, the outbreak that started in a Chinese wet market became an acute American problem.

The outlook of the disease in the US is bleak. As of today, April 8th, there are 1,447,000 cases worldwide and 400,000 in the US, with 13,000 deaths in the US alone. Experts warn that the world may be grappling with COVID-19 for another 12–18 months, and that even then, the disease may never go extinct. Even after reaching the peak point of infection, countries need to maintain stringent social distancing measures in order to prevent new outbreaks.

Like businesses, politicians, students and workers, HSDA leaders are making sense of this outbreak with the available information at hand. HSDA Chief of Staff Caroline Harding told The Progressive Teen that “I read the NYTimes daily briefing, talk to my family members that are doctors and read various headlines throughout the day. I try my best not to get wrapped up in it though.”

The novel coronavirus has already had a tangible effect on HSDA programming. The annual HSDA Summit, which typically takes place in Washington, D.C., is moving online. HSDA Vice Chairman Jackson Humphreys said “George Washington University, who typically lodges Summit, has closed down all summer housing.” A statement released by HSDA furthered that “There were countless reasons that we had to cancel Summit 2020, however, the rescheduling of the Democratic National Convention to August was a major turning point in our planning process.”

State chapters have also felt the effect of the novel coronavirus, causing the cancellation of events such as the Pennsylvania High School Democrats annual Summit. Divya Sood, the Chair of the Pennsylvania High School Democrats, told The Progressive Teen that “the college we were hosting [HSDPA Summit] at closed… before they announced the official closure, we were going back and forth on this because the counties where our membership is most concentrated had a few reported cases.” She added that a two-week close of schools by the Governor was another factor in their decision to cancel the Summit.

The 2019 High School Democrats of Pennsylvania Summit. (High School Democrats of Pennsylvania)

The ultimate determinant for any programming decision is the safety of HSDA members. On the cancellation of HSDA’s 2020 in-person Summit, national Communications Director Sabrina Schoenborn wrote that “the safety of our members matters more than anything to [the Executive Board].” National Chair Jack Greenspan agrees, and adds a note of encouragement: “stay involved in our other programs, such as phone banking, our Climate Emergency Task Force, and our caucus system.”

HSDA, like most other organizations, is being greatly affected by the novel coronavirus. While the pandemic will pass with time, the work of activists does not stop.