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Diseases without borders

The Digital Alarmist
Last Updated 15 April 2021, 06:46 IST

It seems to me that while entire populations are focused on the economic devastation and the ever-increasing numbers of infections and fatalities brought on by Covid-19, some other pandemics also sweeping the world are largely being ignored. These other pandemics have to do with a mindset centred on the belief that certain lives are more valuable than others.

Donald Trump’s talk of ‘retaliation’ if the Indian government did not lift the ban on hydroxychloroquine, and India’s almost immediate capitulation, is a case in point. As to what form the ‘retaliation’ would take, one can only speculate, but sanctions and travel bans come to mind. The message that clearly came across is essentially this: American lives matter, Indian lives don’t. The Czech government’s seizing of face masks from an airliner bound for Italy while transiting through Prague is yet another example, except that the nationalities involved are different. The same may be said of French, German and Canadian lives vis-a-vis American ones. A French official’s suggestion that any putative coronavirus vaccines be first tested in Africa is perhaps the most egregious example of all since it shows utter contempt for African lives and an expression of racism in its crudest form. At least, the French official was being honest – it is no secret that medical research projects conducted by companies and universities have always involved men, women and children in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, India, and Cameroon as guinea pigs for testing purposes.

A mindset crossing international borders, no visa required and no wall to stop it.

The same mindset applies within a country’s borders. Across boundaries demarcating states, cities, towns and villages. Across racial and ethnic lines. Across income levels. Across the digital divide. And, of course, political and religious affiliations. The list keeps growing. Just like the coronavirus.

So, what does all of the above have to do with the current pandemic? Well, they represent a ready-made set of criteria which can be used in determining who among those infected (or has the potential for being infected) will get preference when it comes to distributing medical supplies, medical equipment administering coronavirus tests and the vaccine, when one becomes available. It is already happening in India, the US and elsewhere. Just think of the migrant workers who were subject to all manner of abuse as they trekked home, or the wealthy flying off to remote islands to isolate themselves without a care for what might happen to the locals. You may wish to supplement your knowledge of world history by finding out how smallpox got to the Americas and the ultimate impact it had on the natives. Perhaps you knew that already.

Isn’t it curious that the coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, did not get labelled as the ‘China virus’ until the virus reached American shores? Recent genome studies have shown that most New York coronavirus infections came from travellers in Europe, mainly Italy. Perhaps, in the US, the pandemic should be called ‘Italian virus’, but it is not. After all, making China responsible for the virus-related economic fallout in the US and requiring it to pay could result in a significant reduction in the China-US trade imbalance. Name-calling is both good politics and may prove economically beneficial, given the right circumstances.

Globalisation can tear down barriers quickly, but xenophobia and racism can put them back again, equally quickly. Meanwhile, social media disinformation, hoarding and price-gouging continue unchecked, unabated.

According to the 18th century Swiss philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau, during the French Revolution, when starving peasants were demanding bread, Queen Marie Antoinette is reported to have remarked, “Let them eat cake”? The veracity of the remark notwithstanding, I wouldn’t at all be surprised if modern-day emperors without clothes subscribe to similar sentiments.

May we live in less interesting times.

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(Published 11 July 2020, 19:21 IST)

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