I rarely comment on Covid anymore, because I‘ve become conflicted. I recognize that it is a deadly disease, but I do sympathize with those who fear a 'new normal', in which we live in constant fear, socially distancing and covering our faces from each other. Is living like this really worth it? Is it really 'living'?
Are we pinning our hopes on a vaccine that might never come? Is policy being influenced by profiteers? Is it unreasonable and overly conspiratorial to be concerned by the fact that Bill Gates, who profits from vaccines, is the biggest funder of the World Health Organization? (And by the fact that he and others are taking advantage of the crisis and profiteering from things like this).
Is the response to the virus doing more harm than the virus itself would’ve done? (Increase in poverty, increase in non-Covid related deaths, destruction of small businesses). Was this inevitable, or a consequence of neoliberal incompetence, and globalization?
Is the transfer of wealth and power upwards, that the lockdowns have enabled, going to make it even harder to escape that neoliberal, globalized system, (which is also the root cause of new diseases, via the corporate plunder of nature)?
It seems anyone who doesn’t 100% agree with the strategy of locking down, or at least, heavy social distancing, until a vaccine is created, is instantly demonised as a right-wing sociopath. It’s funny that those doing this demonizing are often (neo)liberals, who’ve never shown much interest in putting people before profit previously! (Their entire ideology is all about the opposite of this). But then, as mentioned, it is definitely too simplistic to say that their Covid strategy is a case of putting people before profit. Many corporations and billionaires are doing fantastically, whilst small businesses struggle and millions lose their livelihoods.
It’s not just neoliberals; it’s the left. From Cubans to Jeremy Corbyn, most are on board with the strategy of long term lockdowns. I fear that they’re looking at things too simplistically. But I do recognize that there are no easy solutions here, and nobody wants to be the one to ask the kind of questions I'm asking.
In any case, the fact that we‘re now in a world in which it looks like we will all increasingly have to wear masks, and stay away from each other, to protect ourselves from all the diseases that come from our mistreatment of the natural world, and urbanization etc, is very depressing. This crisis should be a wake up call.
Are we pinning our hopes on a vaccine that might never come? Is policy being influenced by profiteers? Is it unreasonable and overly conspiratorial to be concerned by the fact that Bill Gates, who profits from vaccines, is the biggest funder of the World Health Organization? (And by the fact that he and others are taking advantage of the crisis and profiteering from things like this).
Is the response to the virus doing more harm than the virus itself would’ve done? (Increase in poverty, increase in non-Covid related deaths, destruction of small businesses). Was this inevitable, or a consequence of neoliberal incompetence, and globalization?
Is the transfer of wealth and power upwards, that the lockdowns have enabled, going to make it even harder to escape that neoliberal, globalized system, (which is also the root cause of new diseases, via the corporate plunder of nature)?
It seems anyone who doesn’t 100% agree with the strategy of locking down, or at least, heavy social distancing, until a vaccine is created, is instantly demonised as a right-wing sociopath. It’s funny that those doing this demonizing are often (neo)liberals, who’ve never shown much interest in putting people before profit previously! (Their entire ideology is all about the opposite of this). But then, as mentioned, it is definitely too simplistic to say that their Covid strategy is a case of putting people before profit. Many corporations and billionaires are doing fantastically, whilst small businesses struggle and millions lose their livelihoods.
It’s not just neoliberals; it’s the left. From Cubans to Jeremy Corbyn, most are on board with the strategy of long term lockdowns. I fear that they’re looking at things too simplistically. But I do recognize that there are no easy solutions here, and nobody wants to be the one to ask the kind of questions I'm asking.
In any case, the fact that we‘re now in a world in which it looks like we will all increasingly have to wear masks, and stay away from each other, to protect ourselves from all the diseases that come from our mistreatment of the natural world, and urbanization etc, is very depressing. This crisis should be a wake up call.
.....
Since writing the above, I have been listening to a lot of interviews with a doctor called Zach Bush. His take on the virus, and on our approach to health in general, is very different, but very compelling: Read and watch here.
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