A lot of people are playing the “If we had only…”
game these days about C19. I completely get it, because such thoughts
occur to me as well. If we had only shut down travel from Europe
earlier…If we had only gone for intense quarantining of those in
assisted living or nursing homes…I am reminded of a friend who designs
wargames discussing the futility of most alt-history. It is only meaningful if it is something that actually
could have happened in any real world. Maybe it would have been a great
thing if America offered sanctuary to six million Jews during the Great
Depression, but it is unlikely we would have offered such to even 1% of
that number.
It is not too much imagination, but too little,
as it does not play out the real details. One fantasy making the rounds
now is how much better it would have been had we quarantined all of the
NYC metropolitan area – or, I supposed just Manhattan. How do folks
think that was going to play out? Would we block all the bridges or even
the roads in NJ and CT? What would those locked inside do next about
that?
What does this mean? Some places in the
discussion the age of those who are dying is being stressed, in others,
there is stress on reporting that younger people are also dying.
I can see why the latter occurs in a “man bites
dog” sense, but is there another motive as well? Are they trying to
impress upon us that “we’re all in this together” mentality? People
quite naturally worry greatly about their children, even if those
children are not much in actual danger. I would say that’s just human
nature, but that would be an exaggeration. It is human nature in
Western societies over the last few centuries, perhaps. Regardless, such
appeals do work well on us. If that is the case, that such
sources hope to inspire us to care more by bringing the children and the
young into the picture, then those who resist that framing by insisting
on the age and prior vulnerability of those who are dying will be
perceived as generally uncaring, wouldn’t they? That such people are
being accused of “wanting grandma to die” would be something like
projection, then. Not that the accusers secretly want grandma to die
either, but they might have in the back of their minds that “if I was
trying to undermine this great strategy for reminding everyone we’re all
in this together, it would mean that I don’t care as much about my
fellow-humans. We should want this sales pitch because it’s good for us."
2 comments:
This is a quote from one of my offspring: We'd never be able to forgive ourselves if we brought the virus to you.
I can tick off most (if not all) the high-risk factors. My offspring were extra panicked because I had a heart attack in December, so I allowed them to "lock me down" on Mar 10. Other than missing the hugs from my grandchildren, this wasn't a huge hardship for me. My two remaining 'jobs' were all done by computer, I'd been ordering groceries delivered for years, and staying home is one of my favorite things. My granddaughters sent me a video of them performing various types of hugs -- from awkward side hugs to the rib-crushing "Nonna" hug.
Since the great Halloween carnival of 2017, after which I was laid low with a virus that made me not care whether I died or not, we've jokingly referred to my grandchildren and all their friends as the cutest little viral vectors ever. Now, I wonder if it's not their parents, some of whom have had to go into the 'office'.
We've now found ourselves to be in the “don't tell me I can't” mode. That doesn't mean I didn't wear a mask to my doctor's appointment today. It means I went to the bank lobby (also wearing a mask) and that I'm going to spend time with my grandchildren and their parents without a mask, though we're planning to do most of that outdoors.
It means that, as semi-intelligent adults, we're going to do the best we can to mitigate risk and promote general mental and physical health. Of course, we're going to be doing this while drinking adult beverages and playing trivia games.
"One fantasy making the rounds now is how much better it would have been had we quarantined all of the NYC metropolitan area – or, I supposed just Manhattan. How do folks think that was going to play out? Would we block all the bridges or even the roads in NJ and CT? What would those locked inside do next about that?"
This was a relatively mild epidemic, but if we'd had 20% death rate, then yes, armed quarantine would have been on the table.
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