Weaponizing Covid Left Americans Worse Off — Too Foreign For Home
There’s a famous old saying that essentially says that the only certainties in life are death and taxes. While I generally agree with the sentiment, especially as a globe-trotting expat, I think it might be time for an amendment. Perhaps the idiom should add something to the aforementioned death and taxes: politicians weaponizing anything and everything. There’s no need to look any farther than the ongoing Covid pandemic.
While politicians’ bread and butter is arguing for argument’s sake, the battle over Covid is something altogether more dangerous. A disease that has killed over 600 thousand Americans seems like an issue that should be easily coalesced behind. Unfortunately, that is me giving American politicians too much credit. As the great Winston Churchill said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste”.
I am now living in my third country during Covid times and the difference in how they’ve handled the pandemic is as disparate as their languages. I was in Cambodia in the early days and there was a relatively lax attitude as there was little information on the virus. Once an outbreak flared up earlier this year, though, there was a lockdown swiftly put in place and contact tracing was implemented quickly. Mass vaccination efforts were also enacted, resulting in nearly every adult in the capital city Phnom Penh having received the vaccine.
When I left Cambodia and arrived in Hungary, I was quarantined in my apartment for two weeks. Any time an employee at my wife’s school got sick and tested positive for Covid, the staff was tested and distance learning was implemented. Mask wearing in public was strictly enforced, even when completely alone. I saw people well over 20 feet away from other people be told to put their mask on by police officers. The Hungarian government even announced a third booster shot being made available. Needless to say, Hungary is taking things seriously.
My latest stop, Morocco, is somewhere in between. There is a 9 o’clock curfew and mask wearing is mandatory, but many people wear it incorrectly or only put it on when confronted. The country has signed deals to help produce vaccines and outpaces countries like France and Italy in vaccination rates. At the same time, though, undocumented immigrants are not able to receive the vaccine. So, lots of good effort that is a bit undermined by the actual follow through.
Why do I bring up these countries when I’m talking about Covid being used as a wedge issue in America?
While there has been resistance in these countries to Covid restrictions by some of the population, it’s been nothing on the scale of America. Wearing masks and getting vaccinated has not been equated to being unpatriotic by one faction of the political system there. People don’t go around attacking others and calling them sheep. It’s so bad in the US, Americans are having to disguise their identity to go get vaccinated so they aren’t berated by anti-vaxxers.
From the very beginning of the Covid pandemic, some politicians set out to downplay the dangers of the virus. As time went on they stuck to their claims and told constituents to rebel against any mask mandates or quarantine efforts. They said it was little more than the flu and that losing any bit of personal freedom was the real danger. And then the vaccine came around and it was attacked as the tool of some leftist propaganda machine designed to track you. They seemed to have forgotten that they were given access to the vaccine months before everyone else and many within their party chose to get them.
This isn’t an attempt to blame one side or another for the lackluster response to Covid and the fallout from it. The issue at hand is the fact that American politicians once again saw an opportunity to wield another issue like a bludgeon and didn’t hesitate. While countries around the world put aside issues and worked to slow the spread, Americans bought toilet paper and burned masks. They demonized world-leading immunologists and virologists for telling them to stay away from people when possible and mask up when not.
In the end, the political points scored by American politicians have been far outweighed by the hundred of thousands of Americans who have died, including many of their supporters. As the more infectious and deadlier delta variant continues to spread, the numbers will only go up in leaps and bounds. The world will eventually move on from Covid and life will fully return to normal, whatever that may be. An opportunity to come together and unite against a common enemy, though, was wasted for a year’s worth of soundbites. And we are worse off than we could have been for it.
Originally published at https://tooforeignforhome.com on August 18, 2021.
