I can’t remember exactly when the word “disinformation” became the esteemed buzzword to describe the poor nutritional quality of our public discourse. The most plainly simple things are now passionately contested, leaving reasonable people with the choice to either roll their eyes or patiently explain the obvious. For example, how do we really know that the Trump administration botched, bungled and criminally assaulted the American public in their response to the pandemic? I will refrain from rolling my eyes.
To be fair, there are many other nations that have handled COVID dreadfully — Italy, Spain, The UK, France, etc.— while some have responded brilliantly — Cuba, Vietnam, South Korea, and many more. To illustrate, as of Jan. 5, 3,175 Italians, proportionately, have died of COVID for each Vietnamese victim of the pandemic. Italy has reported 76,329 COVID deaths to Vietnam’s 35. Italy has (like much of the capitalist world) suffered from a shift to the right that entailed increased austerity, the gutting of a once world class medical system, and the intrusive presence of an increasingly individualistic right wing assortment of activists. Of the 30 largest nations in the world, Italy purportedly has the highest COVID death rate per capita. But my intention is not to point to Italy as being the worst country on earth in their response to the pandemic, but to set the standard to argue that the United States has done even worse.
COVID statistics are merely estimates and we have many examples of Republican governors “cooking” COVID stats to minimize the public’s anxiety about “reopening” businesses. Notably, Florida Gov. Disantis fired statistician, Rebekah Jones for refusing to distort COVID numbers. Many scientists argue that COVID deaths in the US have run about 36% higher than those figures that are “officially” reported. Even the imperfect statistics that we have will almost certainly show, within a short time, that the US COVID apocalypse has eclipsed that of Italy. Our shame will be singular.
Maybe the comparison with Italy is not really the right one to make because the U.S. has five times the population of Italy and it is much more difficult to sustain a terrible result over a big sample size than a small sample size. The U.S. is the third most populous nation on earth, and if we look at COVID statistics for the 10 most populous nations, the U.S. is the worst of them all. Mexico and Brazil may also qualify for the pandemic apocalypse tier, but neither of them have remotely attained the abrupt COVID death spikes unique to our nation, despite having perfect ingredients for an awful COVID reaction: corrupt leadership, vast swathes of third world level poverty and huge informal economies that make it urgently necessary for millions of people to risk their lives — even during lockdowns — in order to earn enough to avoid starvation.
Going back to the comparison with Italy— that nation has six times the population density of the U.S. Population density is not inevitably a deal breaker in COVID containment. In countries that have evolved cultures of social responsibility and that, thus, have well intentioned citizens who follow basic protocol like wearing masks and social distancing — i.e. Japan, Nigeria — densely packed communities do not impede successful responses to COVID outbreaks. Nonetheless, sparse population density offers citizens an easier time social distancing and helps thwart pandemic spread — it has, therefor, required an absolutely horrific display of systematic blundering to supersede the death toll of sardine packed Western Europe.
Nowhere else on earth have tens of millions of people been painstakingly convinced to go maskless in a pandemic, as if exposing a naked face were an act of heroism. Trump’s theater of science denial has accomplished the unprecedented feat of inflicting death cult rituals upon the rural communities of the heartland. The U.K. has over 70 times the population density of North Dakota and yet, North Dakota has 65 more deaths per every hundred thousand citizens than does England. COVID is everywhere and anywhere and tens of millions of Americans believe that masks make things worse, or that COVID is a hoax, or that hospitals get secret cash payments for claiming that cancer victims died of COVID.
If you want to blame it all on Trump, go right ahead, But countries like Italy, France, the UK, Spain and tiny Sweden have taught us that the U.S. does not have a monopoly on socially irresponsible policies and behavior. The pervasive struggles of other affluent nations should give us all pause as we place big expectations on the incoming Biden administration.
Phil Wilson is a Northampton resident who has worked as an outreach therapist in Greenfield for 25 years prior to his recent retirement. Last month he published a brief memoir of his work in Greenfield for Current Affairs.