Pandemic notes 7; It Doesn’t Need to be this Hard, Folks!
It has been awhile since I added to my published “covid notes.” There are still aspects to this fiasco I am not sure about, therefore reluctant to blog much about. But enough things have been happening that it is time to comment on them.
I am ready to refine my views about why the pandemic has been such a mess in Canada and in many other countries, and no big problem in others. I think there are two related factors at work, and I will briefly examine which matters more. One is efficient government. The other is how easy it is to live in a given country; how much things are run for the country’s people.
Where is it easier?
Of course, some countries have effective governments but a brutally exploited population. Japan is the best example, but is probably an outlier, an exception which proves the rule. Usually the most effective governments are the ones also oriented toward the needs of its people, thus less stressful countries in which to live and work.
Most of East Asia has handled the pandemic quite well. This capability seems to have rubbed off somewhat onto the Anglo transplant Aussies and Kiwis, due to their closeness to successful cases like China.
There is a western perception that in China and other Asian countries, people are worked almost to death. Evidence does not seem to bear this out. Check the article https://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/17/chinese-workers-chill-as-japans-workers-stress-report.html about which Asian peoples obsess least about their jobs. Stress related illness and mental disorders seem to be much less in these countries, despite the sensational stories such as of people leaping out the windows in large numbers at the Foxconn iPhone factory in China.
Why is it hard here?
Stress and crowding, of course, indicates lack of freedom; lack of capacity to choose. Lack of freedom to take time off work when feeling wrong. Lack of ability to maintain some distance from people who are not close acquaintances. And of course, lack of power to object to and refuse unsanitary and disease spreading conditions.
Further on crowding, in North America we actually have a considerable problem with people being crammed in too close. This is exacerbated by our reluctance to follow some basic rules, especially regarding masks. In contrast, in many Asian countries it seems like much of the populace wear masks whenever they are in public, pandemic or not.
I am a strong proponent of socialism. So I find it easy to make the generalization that countries with effective governments, committed to the well being of the population, not to serving the interests of oligarchies, are alone able to deal effectively with pandemics such as covid.
So, for countries like Canada which have got really screwed up by Covid, the solution, and the prevention of future fiascos, is change in society. One way or another, we are coming to the end of the age of…no, not just capitalism, but oligarchy in general. There are other ways by which cliques of sociopaths organize themselves into oligarchic elites than just by the methods of capitalism. North Korea is a good example.
What needs to change?
I am not going into a pitch for a revolution in Canada or in most countries tied to the Atlantic system. I will do that elsewhere. I am not doing an update on Adorno’s “Critique of Ordinary Life.” But I am convinced that the way in which people are forced to live under capitalism is the main thing that makes the covid virus so hard to control.
The logic of maximizing profits and minimizing expenses leads to people being so crammed in together; in bars, in public transit, in shopping malls, and so in. Everything must be kept wound up to the maximum. People on the margins cannot afford to take a day off if they feel ill. Small businesses cannot just shut down for a few weeks. When we get everything loosened up, with some redundancy built into the system, and people’s material needs given priority, it will become much easier to deal with epidemics.
Yet we also need proper public health, social, and emergency services. All these things are brought about by strong and competent government. Capitalism does not want strong and competent government that might interfere with it. I have read many times now that capitalism is the real pandemic, and there is much truth in that.
In one of my earlier blogs on Covid, I went into the topic of people needing to use our government’s incompetence as a springboard to a serious revolt and revolution. I think that is underway, too, but it can not happen just yet. We need to get past the pandemic itself first. We do not need to be in a hurry about storming the Bastille.
Hard cases.
For now, we experience life in the second year of the great plague. I disagree that people are becoming careless or skeptical about the covid bug. They are getting wiser. They have understood the primary importance of masks. In fact, lately I have been seeing people with one mask over the other.
In my neighbourhood, anti maskers are not very popular and do not win over many followers. But they are intractable. I had a problem with one the other day who tried to get on the elevator with me. The thing is he wouldn’t move so I could get off. He became very menacing. He seemed to be on drugs. The housing cops have located him and had a word with him.
Generally, people have learned how Covid gets around and what they need to do. This is despite all the misinformation going around. Government has, of course, been as much a source of misinformation, as have the anti-mask, anti-vax, anti-government, anti-everything crowd. It has been noted that the worst official misinformation comes from the highest levels. Remember the World Health Organization started out telling people not to wear masks.
About Vaccines.
The big concern now is the vaccine rollout. Governments seem just as incompetent at organizing mass vaccination as with the other aspects of dealing with the pandemic. Our provincial government of Ontario has now received just enough vaccine to allow them to make their usual colossal mess out of getting it into people’s shoulders.
I had thought that I would want to get any vaccine at the earliest opportunity. Now I am not so sure. What frightens me is the complex handling required of the two vaccines so far available. I may want to hold off for a little while until they have this figured out better.
Both have to be stored at super cold temperatures. If they are left for a few hours, they are useless. This makes organizing the vaccination sessions complicated. It is hard to bring the vaccines to the patient. If you have the patient come to the vaccine, many may not show up and vaccine could be wasted.
Another concern is that they both have to be given in two doses, three and four weeks apart. Of course, the pinheads have decided they don’t really have to be; we can spread it out so we do not have to leave the second dose sitting.
Then one of the companies, Pfizer, announced they will shut down or slow down production for perhaps a month to do an upgrade so as to be able to produce more of their fine wares. They have hemmed and hawed a bit, but say it will probably be alright to extend the time between doses a bit.
There are two problems with this. First, running around with only the first dose means you only have partial immunity. The bug can still catch up with you in that time.
But a bigger concern is that this can help to breed strains of covid which are immune to the immunity; which have adapted and passed on their adaptation. Already we have more potent forms of our special friend Rona popping up in exotic locations. At least one has now found its way to Canada.
It seems to be about the same as when antibiotics are not used correctly. Resistant strains develop. Then we have to develop new vaccines for that. It becomes like the problem with the flu bug; it keeps mutating and spinning off variants. The concern is that this disease might never really go away.
I think that concern is too dramatic. I think in the near future we will find a solution for epidemics. In part, this is because we are getting so good at quickly developing really efficient vaccines and testing equipment that we can be on top of bad bugs as soon as they emerge.
Malign influence.
But, back to the present. Much of the Twitter talk about conditions in Canada is trending toward the need to get pinhead politicians out of the way. Lately people have even become able to conceptualize a federal intervention against some provincial governments.
These regimes seem to lean toward the “Great Barrington” and “Swedish model” mentality. It is more important to keep business open than to protect the health of the vulnerable. A little pandemic now and then will help to cull the unfit.
Here is the basic problem when politicians try to run crisis measures instead of getting out of the way of the experts who are supposed to be running it. It becomes all about who has status and pull. This is why we have all this vaccine grabbing going on right now.
It would seem fairly obvious that the priority for the pokes would be to those who are over-represented in the hospital covid wards. These are the residents of the long term care homes. The province has received enough of the Pfizer pokes to get them all immunized and has had enough time. But most of them are still not immunized.
Meanwhile, vaccine is diverted to hospitals and to some research institutes who are able to pressure the government. Many people who are not at a particular risk, but have lots of status and pull, are getting vaccinated. Some intensive care nurses have even objected and refused to take the vaccine until all care home residents are protected.
There is so much that can be said about the so many ways that Doug the Thug and his clowns have made all this so bad. The worst would be the very obstinate refusal to reinstate the law allowing paid sick days. This was passed by the previous administration after much struggle by labor groups. Ford scrapped it as soon as he came into office.
More than anything, the spread of the disease is being driven by the inability of precariously employed workers to take time off when they are sick without losing a days pay. These are of course often the “heroes” of the pandemic, the people who keep food coming and vital services working and are at greater risk of exposure to Covid.
Toward the end.
Such is life under capitalism and oligarchy, in pandemic times. We will likely not clear it up until into 2022. Covid will still be going on in poor countries in 2024.
There is just too much to say about it. But there are some excellent sources of information if you need to keep up with the story. It will be quite a story when all this is done.
Twitter is still of some use. Here are a couple of good accounts from people who are actively involved in the struggle to protect the public from the pandemic and from the amoral misuse of power which makes it so much worse.