Social Analysis and the COVID-19 Crisis by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Health & Well Being, Medical, Reference, Public Health, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Sociology
ISBN: 9781000260151
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2020-11-26T05:00:00+00:00

Peter H. Tu (12 April 2020, Niskayuna, New York State, United States)

These are odd times. Trump has a talent for saying what other politicians are surely thinking but dare not utter: ‘The cure might be worse that the disease’.14 The threat of 1930s-style poverty brought on by a worldwide depression seems most unpalatable. But one can’t help but feel that the poor are not the ones tugging at Trump’s heartstrings; rather, it is the oligarchs who need the masses to be harnessed and tethered to the machines of production in order to keep their fortunes afloat.

For re-election purposes, Trump was planning to thump his chest over a triumphant economy. Oddly enough, consolidation of power with the goal of authoritarianism does not seem to be taking place in the US. Instead, Trump is doing as much as he can not to take responsibility for anything. He says that the states and not the federal government must be the ones to find the resources needed to fight this virus. He fears putting down any form of national shelter-in-place directive, probably because his state news agency Fox has made rural voters feel that this is an urban problem…. The hardest-hit states like New York and New Jersey are told that they must make do with the ventilators and PPE that they have, while swing states such as Florida and Kentucky are denied nothing.15 One of the great villains of the Trump regime is his trade advisor Peter Navarro – he seems to be behind much of the politicization of the Covid-19 crisis.16 You might have seen the spectacle in Wisconsin.17 The Democrat governor wanted to postpone the primary elections; the Republican state senators would have none of it. The governor then tried for a mail-in ballot, and the Republicans howled against this as well – they fear anything that makes it easier to vote. The US Supreme Court, now firmly in Republican hands, sided solidly with their Republican brothers. So Wisconsiners had to line up for hours to vote. Most of the poll operators are elderly volunteers, so many of them did not show up. As a consequence, Milwaukee, one of the largest cities in Wisconsin, only had four operational polling stations…. Well I could go on and on about this type of craziness.

So how do we get things going again? In some ways, Covid-19 feels a bit like the old Roman practice of decimation. One in 10 of those that are infected will end up being hospitalized, and maybe 1 in 5 will not survive. It is kind of like being given a bag of Skittles with the mild warning that one or two of those candies are poisonous – most of us would forego the pleasure of such treats. And so we shelter in place. Part of me also wonders if this is an opportunity to rethink things in general. It seems to me that certain life-sustaining industries are more Covid-19 resistant than others. Agriculture and rural life (at least in

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