On Monday my governor issued a stay at home order. This doesn’t change much for me, as I’ve been diligently socially distancing since the 13th. But it does mean my fellow citizens who haven’t been taking this seriously must do so, at risk of imprisonment or fines.
Save a blood donation I’ve not left my neighborhood in 2 weeks – these photos are from the park behind my house – so what I’ve witnessed in person is limited. The only time someone blocked the path I think it was cluelessness rather than deliberate flouting of social distancing. However, I don’t think everyone on my local Nextdoor is lying. Evidently some people still think dinner parties and soccer games can’t possibly hurt, that covid19 won’t affect them, and that we’ll be snapping back to The Way Things Were any day now.
Well, no. We’re only a month in and given projections it’s going to be at least a month yet. And if the pandemic goes both as long and as bad as predicted I question whether a “normal” that led to the mismanagement of the pandemic is worth going back to.
American exceptionalism can’t be part of a new normal. The “it can’t happen here/personal freedom/USA USA USA!” attitude is why local governments are having to bring the hammer down regarding stay at home/shelter in place. Rugged individualism does not apply to public health because it affects us all. This unwillingness to face reality and stubborn “I’ve got mine” approach hobbled efforts to get on top of the pandemic.
The pandemic is also a result of distrust of experts biting us in the collective ass. I get the rampant distrust. Between the conventional press and social media, a thousand conflicting voices have all weighed in on the crisis. Working out credible from crap is exhausting and not everyone has time for it. But infectious disease experts and the medical establishment have no motive to lie to us about this. It’s not like they sit around looking forward to pandemics, if anything they try like hell to prevent them. I think the best science communicator in all this is Dr. Fauci, and wish the Mango Mussolini and his handlers would stop trying to spin this and just let him speak.
The covid-19 crisis also vividly illustrates just how poor the American health “care” system is. I’ve thought for years that health care access shouldn’t be for-profit or tied to employment. So many people are worried that if they get sick they can’t pay for it, including people with insurance.
And yet, many insurers are assuring that they will cover treatments and vaccines. Which is good, but just illustrates that a lot of conventions thought too ingrained or “radical” to change are easily reversed during a crisis. Covid-19 reveals how many seemingly arbitrary injustices and restrictions really are arbitrary, often based on either greed or petty cruelty.
How many people are going to want to go back to taking off their shoes in airports, prison for non-violent offenders, working while sick or begging for paid time off, among other indignities?
And do we really want to go back to a “normal” where money matters more than human lives? I think I’m pretty cynical but I’ve never seen that cold calculation spelled out so blatantly as I have this past week.
“Going back to normal” may well be a conservative fantasy anyway. Friends have joked that they never expected the apocalypse to include rampant baking and pet adoption, but sci-fi authors have noticed that in progressive narratives the world is never the same after a disaster, and sometimes that’s a good thing.
While life doesn’t always imitate art my inner Pollyanna hopes that after this mess at least we’ll remember that we’re all interconnected and health care and time off will be rights and not luxuries.
So what are your predictions? How will we come out of this – cooperating for a better world or doubling down on our worst impulses?
