Viral Content (02/06/2020): Black Lives Matter

So, uh…stuff’s happening.

I’m going to avoid commenting on the wider issue so as not to drown out more important voices, except to encourage anyone who’s able to do so to donate to protester bail funds. Instead I want to focus on one specific topic: the way the protests currently spreading across the US have the potential to impact the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Of the many negative responses towards the protests I’ve seen, one stands out: the claim that the protesters are going to worsen the COVID-19 situation in America, which remains one of the worst-hit countries in the world. To be honest, this is something that occurred to me the moment this all started and as far as I’m concerned it’s the only legitimate criticism of the protests I’m willing to consider. People are currently congregating in large numbers in urban centers, sometimes having travelled long distances, and it goes without saying that social distancing in a protest is not really feasible. The frequent use of tear gas by the police is going to leave anyone infected with a compromised respiratory system, lowering their chances of fighting off the virus.

However, the situation is a lot more complicated than “the protesters are making the pandemic worse”, which is probably the line we’re going to be getting when the second wave hits. Remember, the US dropped most of its quarantine measures (which I assume the government is now regretting) long before the inciting incident of George Floyd’s death occurred. This is not a situation where everyone else is sitting at home observing social distancing measures while the silly protesters take to the streets; if that’s what was happening then we’d be having a different discussion. Instead, employees are forcing their workers back to work and people are flocking to the beaches. Outside of some snarky news stories, this background radiation of exposure isn’t getting put in the spotlight the same way that the protests are.

When the second wave comes, if America is particularly badly affected by it then the fault will lie chiefly with the government’s incredibly poor handling of the pandemic up to this point. Will the protests result in infections and deaths that wouldn’t have happened otherwise? Yes, in all likelihood. But Karen and Aiydyn Smith from Suburbiaville taking their 2.5 children to the beach will have far more of a negative impact in the long run.

Lastly, some people have tried to be clever dicks by pointing out that some of the people (such as myself) criticising the “reopen America” protests are now siding with the Black Lives Matter protests. Again, if America was still in quarantine mode then maybe this would hold some water, but as it is we’re left to consider the moral validity of protesting because you want a haircut versus protesting because the police keep murdering people in your community. Real head scratcher we’ve got on our hands there.

Viral Content (30/03/2020): Lockdown

Well, it finally happened: Ireland has joined several other European countries in entering a state of semi-quarantine. I was actually starting to get my hopes up that it wouldn’t be necessary—the government’s forecast of 15,000 infections by the end of the month turned out to be hugely pessimistic and there were a few days last week where the rate of new infections was holding steady—but less than 24 hours after a grim assessment of the country’s ICU capacity (which basically concluded that there isn’t any) went public, the announcement was made.

In case this hasn’t happened yet where you live and you want some idea of what to expect, it’s actually not as restrictive as you might think. People are allowed to go up to two kilometres from their homes for exercise, which easily encompasses the usual route I go on for my daily stroll, and there’s no driving restrictions on traveling to buy food. We’re just not supposed to travel anywhere for non-essential reasons.

This is obviously kind of hard to enforce, and there so far hasn’t been any clear indication of what would happen to people who are egregiously breaking the rules. I passed a police checkpoint in the middle of my town earlier today, and it looked like drivers were just being asked where they were going.

It’s been kind of funny seeing people online freak out about the idea of being stuck in their homes for weeks on end, given that this has frequently been my experience over the last three years due to my neurological condition. I spent the month leading up to this not really going anywhere except for walks around my local area simply because I didn’t feel up to doing anything else.

You could say that I’m the perfect quarantine candidate. You could even go so far—and I’m not saying I’m doing this, but one could if so inclined—to suggest that I’m the best at staying at home for long periods of time. I’m better than everyone else in the world at it. It’s me.

Anyway, the pace of the pandemic internationally has taken off over the last week or so; total numbers of confirmed infections are now increasing by more than 100,00 in less than 48 hours and several countries are experiencing alarming numbers of deaths every day. We’re well into the phase of algorithmic growth, and now all we can do is wait for the peak.

But thanks to China and Italy, we know what that peak looks like. As grim as the situation is, the virus can be brought under control…as long as strong quarantine measures are taken. As of this writing the UK has quietly walked back the herd immunity plan I complained about last time, and someone finally managed to convince Trump that his plan of getting things back to normal by Easter was utterly ridiculous. Apart from edge cases like Brazil’s Bolsonaro, world leaders are finally taking this seriously.

That is, despite the efforts of a disturbingly large number of prominent capitalists, think tanks and business people, many of whom are really letting the mask slip and just straight up admitting that they value the economy more than people’s lives. I’m hopeful that when this is all over, people will remember that.