Trump silent on Coronavirus in the US
Statistics show the news exposure of the rapidly spreading novel Coronavirus (2019-nCOV) in the international media, including Singapore, the USA, Philippines, China, Australia, and Europe. As of time of writing, the total number of fatalities due to the virus was at 426 deaths.
Although the outbreak was first detected on December 31, 2020, the crisis became a worldwide phenomenon a few days before the Chinese New Year’s celebration with different countries headlining their first confirmed cases of patients infected with 2019-nCOV.
As seen in the data, ‘Coronavirus SG’ has the highest number of news in January 2020. At second place is ‘Coronavirus EU’ which covers the European countries that were infected by the virus. This, among others, includes Germany, France, and Italy which have so far reported 14, 6 and 2 cases respectively.
The dependency shows the influencers of the Coronavirus for each respective country. From the statistics, it is observed that the Coronavirus issue in the USA and the Philippines are both controlled by health personnel.
In the past 30 days, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, who is the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases leads in managing the public’s perception of Coronavirus in the US while Secretary of Health Francisco Duque takes full charge in The Philippines.
Meanwhile, Singapore’s Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong, alongside Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong constantly updates the Singaporeans on the Coronavirus.
Just like the US and the Philippines, the issue of Coronavirus in Australia is also controlled by its health personnel. Brendan Murphy who is the country’s chief medical officer takes charge in managing the people’s perception of the virus. Besides that, its Prime Minister Scott Morrison also plays his role with regard to the crisis.
Morrison had earlier said (January 29) that the Australian government would initially provide “some assisted departures for isolated and vulnerable Australians” with help from Chinese authorities and airline Qantas. On February 3, almost 300 Australians were flown out of Wuhan on a chartered Qantas evacuation flight that took them to Christmas Island via Western Australia.
In China, renowned respiratory scientist Zhong Nanshan provides updates on the rapidly spreading virus in the country. Prime Minister Xi Jinping also plays his role.
While each country has its leader controlling the perception of the people towards the Coronavirus, President Donald Trump is nowhere to be seen in talking about the crisis in the US. As the world’s most powerful country, this may paint a negative light on the country which will likely fuel conspiracy theories.