Some folks are obsessed with determining who is at fault for the coronavirus pandemic.
Biologists are certain that the actual cause is zoonotic in nature: a disease transmitted from a non-human organism to a human receptor. There have been a number of these over the years: the Bubonic Plague; West Nile Virus; SARS; MERS; HIV/AIDS, and so forth. A human being is bitten or scratched by a non-human or makes contact with an infected surface and the virus is transferred.
Shit happens: it’s basic biology. Epidemics and pandemics have occurred ever since human beings have occupied Earth and will probably happen more frequently in the future as more humans encroach on territory occupied by non-human species.
So, who is to blame for this?
We could blame God, because He created humans and non-humans and all the viruses, bacteria, germs and such. That would be logical, I guess. Maybe He’s sending a message? Typically, when a disaster takes place, pious televangelists will blame the catastrophe on homosexuals or non-Christians…because God is mad at them.
We could blame the Jews. That’s what Christians did in the Middle Ages when the Bubonic Plague killed forty percent of the people in Europe. The Jews were accused of poisoning the wells and causing widespread havoc and suffering (which they succumbed to, as well). Hundreds of years later it was determined that freight-hauling ocean ships, infested with rats carrying a deadly bacterium, brought the Black Plague to nations near and far. That information came a bit late for the Jews, however, who were persecuted and killed for centuries by angry Christian mobs.
Republican politicians in the United States initially blamed Democratic politicians for creating a “hoax” to derail the Trump 2020 re-election campaign. They claimed that Covid-19 was just the “flu”, too much attention was being paid to it, and it would go away in the Spring like flus always do. Later, they changed their tune: Covid-19 was exaggerated, every death from anything was being attributed to it, etc. Even later, they just gave up the pretense of caring: re-open businesses even if people will die, because the economy is more important than human beings. (After that, they tried to invalidate the election by intimidating Congress and State election officials. They are a determined lot, except when it comes to fighting viruses.)
We could blame the Chinese. That’s where this latest pandemic started, based upon information that we have right now. It is well-established that the first cases of Covid-19 were observed in China late in 2019. Someone was either bitten or scratched by an infested non-human species or that person could have obtained the virus by transfer from an infected surface. Whether that was in a “wet market” ( a place where exotic animals are sold for consumption) or in a laboratory (where epidemiologists were studying viruses), no one knows for sure.
Conspiracy theorists/Trump Republicans would like us to believe that the Chinese government purposely released Covid-19 as a biological weapon…upon America and, simultaneously, its own citizens and China’s allies, as well. That sounds implausible to me, but those Chinese are “inscrutable”…according to some people.
If the Chinese can be blamed, perhaps the ineptitude/hubris of the Trump Administration can be overlooked?
Maybe someday there can be a determination of Patient Zero: the first victim of the Covid-19 pandemic. Or maybe that will never happen. Who was the first SARS, AIDS, or Bubonic Plague victim? Does it really matter?
What matters is what society does when it realizes that an epidemic (or pandemic) is underway. Hopefully, government is prepared for such disasters and can quickly mobilize resources to contain the damage.
What we’ve discovered via the Covid-19 pandemic is that most governments were not adequately prepared, nor could they quickly address the myriad legal, technical, social, and economic fallout from the plague.
The United States did not do a very good job handling the pandemic. More people died in “The Greatest Country on Earth” from Covid-19 than in any other, although it is likely that India will, in the end, take the mortality crown. Of course, they have four times the population we do.
Politicians in America spent an inordinate amount of time debating the reality of the pandemic, how lethal it was, whether or not to employ precautions (like masks, social distancing, business shutdowns, etc.), and who was to blame for the catastrophe. Meanwhile, millions of citizens got sick and hundreds of thousands died. Had strict measures been put in place early in the pandemic to flatten the infection curve, the socio-economic devastation would have been minimized. Unfortunately, the politics of “freedom” trumped science at the Federal, state, and local levels. A half-assed counterattack against the coronavirus was assured and many more people suffered than had to.
WE are to blame for the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on our Nation. Let’s face it, Folks: we did not pull together as one and we paid the price.
The latest distraction of “Who’s to blame?” typifies politics and government in America. When problems arise, it is easier to seek blame than solutions, and it is easier to kick the can down the road than immediately address the issue. Solving problems requires consensus-building, something that America is woefully short on.
Many other nations who found out about the coronavirus epidemic in China at the same time that America did were more successful at containing Covid-19. Thus, our delay in tackling the virus, and the ineptitude of our response, is the problem, not who got the first infection in China and how that happened. We need to get our act together for the next pandemic, which could be right around the corner.
Covid-22 could germinate in Canada…or anywhere. So, what?
If a burglar enters your home in the middle of the night, does it really matter who he is or where he came from?