Sitting here watching the second wave of the pandemic spiral with those in power doing little to nothing, I find myself increasingly surprised that the lockdown actually happened back in March. Given the apparent lack of political will to return to the now-familiar lockdown when numbers are skyrocketing and the seriousness of COVID is clear, I'm amazed that they initiated the then-unprecedented lockdown back when it still seemed possible that the threat of COVID might be overblown.
It makes no sense whatsoever!
Which makes me wonder: might racism be at play?
As I've blogged about before, I'm not nearly as good as I should be at spotting racism. I've been trying to learn, but it's slow going (especially since I don't want to, like, actively seek out racists to see what they're saying). However one thing I have learned is that when I feel a specific shade of "This makes no sense whatsoever!", it usually means that what I'm missing is recognizing how racism is at play in the situation. And this is the specific shade of "It makes no sense whatosever!" that I'm feeling here.
So, if it is a question of racism, how might that be playing out?
I see two possibilities, which are not mutually exclusive:
1. As far as we know, the pandemic began in China. Maybe back in March there was a sense that COVID was foreign, and the lockdown was motivated by keeping that Bad Foreign Disease away. Now that community transmission is by far more common, they don't see it as as much of a threat.
2. Here in Toronto/Ontario/Canada, COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting marginalized people, including racialized people. Black and brown people have disproportionately high COVID numbers here in Toronto, and white people have disproportionately low numbers. So maybe those in positions of power and authority are thinking "It won't affect us", or even "The people it will affect don't matter."
As I said, I'm not as good as I should be at spotting racism, so there are almost certainly going to be nuances here that I've missed.
But, conversely, if someone as clueless as me thinks this situation makes so little sense that I'm arriving at the idea of racism, it's probably a sign that those in power should, at a minimum, make the situation make more sense.
2 comments:
There is racism embedded in many official decisions, but personally I don't see that here. I thought the reason we haven't had to lock down again is because more is known about the virus now, so public health officials feel that distancing, hand-washing, and masking are adequate is reasonably effective, balanced against daily needs.
Also, cases of infection are up, but the death rate (percentage of people who die from the virus, against everyone who has it) has decreased, from this better understanding.
I think the disproportionate effect on POC and marginalized people mirrors all health outcomes. And racism is definitely part of that picture.
Given how numbers are increasing, I don't think they can reasonably say that the current measures are reasonably effective - if they were, the numbers wouldn't be increasing.
I'd be disappointed if they're focusing on death rate rather than infection rate given what I'm hearing about long tail COVID, but you may be right that they are. I've been finding that medicine focuses on survival rather than quality of life all too often.
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