[WSMDiscuss] The madness raging in the US, from just across the border : Lockdown protests add fuel to the US’s fire (Konrad Yakabuski) / Canada must protect itself from America’s response to COVID-19 (Robyn Urback)

Sun Apr 26 19:11:23 CEST 2020

Sunday, April 26, 2020

Viruses in movement…, Canada in movement…

At the time of writing, the total deaths per capita in the U.S. is nearly three times <https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality> that of Canada. At the same time, we have fewer hospital beds <https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/march-2020/coronavirus-is-about-to-reveal-how-fragile-our-health-system-is/> per 1,000 people than the U.S., and daily testing numbers that are a third <https://globalnews.ca/news/6804864/coronavirus-ontario-16k-tests-per-day/> of where they need to be to reopen the economy. From a public health perspective, we simply cannot open our borders until we open our country internally – and even then, it must be done with the utmost caution and concern. Otherwise, we won’t simply be witnesses to the irrational whims of the US pandemic response. We very well could be victims of it. 

[Here, following my post just now (‘Reopening the Economy Will Send Us to Hell (Mike Davis)) on what is unfolding in the US at the moment in the face of the corona virus epidemic, are just two views of what is happening in the US from across the border, in the Canada…  The view is deeply grim – and especially given the biological nature of this virus, which doesn’t respect US American exceptionalism.  Canada has always lived in the shadow of the US; but in the emerging conditions – not just ‘differences in ways of looking at things’, and as the US so dramatically unravels, within the country and globally, and in full view of a world looking on – the shadow is getting increasingly dark…

[Necessarily, both these articles are written for a Canadian audience; but I urge people located elsewhere to nevertheless read them, and to try and imagine that you are in Canada (alternatively, with such a country – and such a situation - neighbouring yours…, and where, as the second author says, the cultures and economies of the two societies and countries are so deeply interconnected) :

·      Lockdown protests add fuel to the US’s fire (Konrad Yakabuski)

·       Canada must protect itself from America’s response to COVID-19 (Robyn Urback)

Lockdown protests add fuel to the US’s fire

Konrad Yakabuski

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-social-distancers-vs-anti-lockdown-protesters-the-us-spectacle/ <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-social-distancers-vs-anti-lockdown-protesters-the-us-spectacle/>

A demonstrator calls on state and local officials to reopen the California economy during a protest near Los Angeles City Hall on April 22, 2020.  (MIKE BLAKE/Reuters)

If you caught Anderson Cooper’s interview this week with Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, you were treated to a tour de force of non sequiturs that likely left your head  spinning. The host of the eponymous CNN show called out Ms. Goodman for being “ignorant” and “irresponsible” for wanting to end the coronavirus shutdown that has crippled her city’s economy.

“I get the financial losses people are suffering, which is awful, but you’re encouraging, I mean, hundreds of thousands of people coming there in casinos, smoking, drinking, touching slot machines, breathing circulated air, and then returning home to states around America and countries around the world,” Mr. Cooper said. “Doesn’t that sound like a virus petri dish?”

Ms. Goodman, who is 81 and no shrinking violet, in turn accused Mr. Cooper of being “an alarmist.” The world we live in is full of risks, viruses among them, and we cannot put the economy on hold because of it, she seemed to be saying, though it was hard at times to know exactly. “A neighbour of mine died of West Nile,” she said, apropos of absolutely nothing.

Coronavirus guide: Updates and essential resources about the COVID-19 pandemic <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-coronavirus-covid19-latest-news-canada-explainer/>
What are the coronavirus rules in my province? A quick guide to what’s allowed and open, or closed and banned <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-coronavirus-rules-by-province-physical-distancing-open-closed/>
How many coronavirus cases are there in Canada, by province, and worldwide? The latest maps and charts <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-coronavirus-cases-canada-world-map-explainer/>
Updated Apr 26, 2020 10:29AM EDT - COVID-19′s rapid spread in global and Canadian populations has put public-health agencies under pressure to save lives. Check back here for morning, afternoon and evening updates on the numbers - Published Mar 18, 2020 12:36PM EDT

Still, the spectacle – it was not really an interview, after all – provided a perfect illustration of the polarization in American society that has doomed all serious debate over how to deal with COVID-19. The closing of the American mind is apparent on both sides of the political divide and the pandemic has become just another excuse for cable news hosts to exploit it.

“Are we watching a flu d’état?” Fox News host Tucker Carlson quipped this week. “The press should get to the bottom of it. But they’re not. They’re cheering on the repression.”

Mr. Carlson was apparently referring to Facebook’s move to prohibit “events that defy governments’ guidance on social distancing” from being posted on the social media platform, preventing its members from publicizing the end-the-lockdown protests that have been springing up across the country in recent days. Those are the same protests that Republican President Donald Trump has promoted on Twitter, with calls to “liberate” the Democratic-led states that have issued the most extensive stay-at-home orders.

It would be wrong to dismiss these protesters as simply as ignorant pawns – the coronavirus equivalents of climate change deniers – in a political scheme concocted by deep-pocketed organizations on the right to rig the 2020 election in Mr. Trump’s favour. Millions of Americans are, indeed, suffering incalculable financial losses because of stay-at-home orders aimed at “flattening the curve.” Millions may never get their jobs back, their livelihoods forever lost.

The economic costs of the shutdowns are not being shared equally. Working-class Americans feel they are once again getting the short end of stick, for reasons that many of them simply do not buy. The political ramifications of the shutdowns ordered by state governors could define the 2020 elections, especially as the people most likely to favour an extension of social distancing measures for weeks or months tend to be those who are least hurt by them financially.

Unfortunately, you cannot tell people to simply follow the science. So much remains unknown about the novel coronavirus that it is impossible to assert that economic shutdowns will ultimately minimize the number of deaths it causes. There is no doubt that social distancing measures have slowed transmission of the virus, thereby preventing most hospitals from being overwhelmed. But no one knows whether that will reduce the virus’s toll in the longer term.

Sweden’s experiment in allowing schools, restaurants, parks and shops to remain open may look wise, if it leads to faster herd immunity than in other countries, especially if an effective coronavirus vaccine takes years to develop. But no one can know for sure until widespread antibody testing is available to determine just what percentage of the population has been infected with the coronavirus but remains asymptomatic. Only then can the true fatality rate be calculated, and policy adjusted accordingly. Until then, decision makers can only use their best judgement.

“I never imagined having to use the levers of my office this way to protect the people I serve,” Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer wrote this week in a New York Times op-ed. “Each action taken weighs heavily on me. Each action has been informed by the best science and epidemiology counsel there is. These choices have been tough. They haven’t always been popular. And we will never know precisely how many lives were saved as a result.”

That is one of the more honest declarations made by an American politician during this crisis. Too bad it, like everything else these days in American politics, gets twisted beyond recognition.

SEE VIDEO AT LINK

President Donald Trump on Wednesday applauded steps by a handful of Republican-led U.S. states to reopen their economies, but New York's governor, wary of a potential second wave of coronavirus infections, cautioned that it was 'no time to act stupidly.' Chris Dignam reports. Reuters 

Canada must protect itself from America’s response to COVID-19

Robyn Urback

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-canada-must-protect-itself-from-americas-response-to-covid-19/ <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-canada-must-protect-itself-from-americas-response-to-covid-19/>

US American flags wave from vehicles as demonstrators protest lockdown measures at the New York State Capitol in Albany on April 22, 2020.  (BRYAN R SMITH/Reuters)

Many beaches in Florida reopened last weekend, as if they existed on a planet not infected with a novel coronavirus. On April 14, the state reported its worst <https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241999721.html> day yet – 72 new COVID-19 deaths. Yet three days later, Governor Ron DeSantis would give the go-ahead to slowly resume normal activities. Live shots of Floridians congregating <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/18/florida-beaches-hundreds-coronavirus> on beaches that afternoon were like frozen CCTV clips of the seconds before a traffic collision.

It’s a bizarre thing to watch unfold from Canada, where even provinces and territories with flat or receding tallies of COVID-19 cases have yet to relax their physical distancing measures. The U.S., which is rapidly approaching one million active infections, is seeing some state governments already moving in the other direction. 

Protesters <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-give-me-liberty-and-give-me-death-the-enduring-legacy-of-americas/#comments>
Loading...
have taken to the streets in multiple states to express their enraged opposition to stay-at-home orders.

These appear to be symptoms unique to the American experience with COVID-19. Nearly 200 countries now struggle <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-coronavirus-cases-canada-world-map-explainer/> with the same disease (along with the economic devastation and social turmoil that come with it). But we see just one infected country where protesters don flags and semi-automatic rifles to challenge government restrictions, and only one elected president who encourages <https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1251169217531056130> his citizens to revolt against their regional leaders. It’s not a great time to be America’s next-door neighbour.

What are the coronavirus rules in my province? A quick guide to what’s allowed and open, or closed and banned <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-coronavirus-rules-by-province-physical-distancing-open-closed/>
How many coronavirus cases are there in Canada, by province, and worldwide? The latest maps and charts <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-coronavirus-cases-canada-world-map-explainer/>
Loading...
Coronavirus guide: Updates and essential resources about the COVID-19 pandemic <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-coronavirus-covid19-latest-news-canada-explainer/>
Canada has its own serious problems with COVID-19, but fortunately, for the next almost-four weeks, U.S. dysfunction will not be among them. Last Saturday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Canada and the U.S. had reached an agreement to extend <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-canada-us-agree-to-extend-border-restrictions-to-may-20/> cross-border travel restrictions until May 20, meaning that, for now, we are just bystanders to the U.S. experiment in severely disjointed and partisan disease control.

But that won’t last. Our geographic proximity to, and economic dependence on, the U.S. means Canada is never really a bystander to what’s going on in the United States. And with an impetuous president eager to get things going again – regardless of what it might mean for domestic and international COVID-19 spread – the U.S’s problems could very quickly become our own.

Indeed, President Donald Trump appears to perpetually struggle with the notion that COVID-19 is not an ephemeral concern. He insisted <https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/04/politics/trump-covid-response-annotation/> in February that the total number of infections would be “close to zero” in a couple of days. He touted <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/22/trump-hydroxychloroquine-study-coronavirus> hydroxychloroquine as a miracle treatment throughout all of March. On Wednesday, he suggested the virus could be gone <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-fall.html> by the fall (which was quickly corrected by the U.S. coronavirus task force’s top infectious-disease expert).

Readers can decide if Mr. Trump is a victim of his own unyielding optimism or ferocious stupidity. The point is, he’s going to want that border with Canada open as soon as possible to feed the mirage of his country’s return to normalcy.

That could be disastrous for Canada. Last June, U.S. residents made roughly 2.1 million <https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/190821/dq190821d-eng.htm> trips to Canada. If even a fraction of those tourists decide to make their way north again this year (and let’s face it, those inclined to travel now are probably not the type to abide by physical-distancing directives), the provinces’ careful, gradual reopening plans could quickly go awry, with deadly consequences. Canada doesn’t yet have the capacity to properly test and contract-trace its own citizens. Reintroducing travel-related infection on a massive scale will just exacerbate pressures on a system that already can’t cope.

A normal president would recognize the mutual benefit of restricting nonessential travel until both countries can contain their COVID-19 outbreaks. But this is a president that didn’t hesitate to slap tariffs <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/politics/trump-national-security-tariffs.html> on Canadian steel in the name of national security and who tried to ban <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/06/us-blocks-face-masks-canada-n95-protection-equipment> the export of N95 respirators to Canada. It is not implausible that Mr. Trump would retaliate in some sort of petty but potentially grave economic way – on supply lines for essential goods, for example – if Canada refuses to lift restrictions on nonessential travel if and when the president decides that time is up. It will be an exceedingly tough needle for Canada’s government to thread.

At the time of writing, the total deaths per capita in the U.S. is nearly three times <https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality> that of Canada. At the same time, we have fewer hospital beds <https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/march-2020/coronavirus-is-about-to-reveal-how-fragile-our-health-system-is/> per 1,000 people than the U.S., and daily testing numbers that are a third <https://globalnews.ca/news/6804864/coronavirus-ontario-16k-tests-per-day/> of where they need to be to reopen the economy. From a public health perspective, we simply cannot open our borders until we open our country internally – and even then, it must be done with the utmost caution and concern. Otherwise, we won’t simply be witnesses to the irrational whims of the U.S. pandemic response. We very well could be victims of it.

____________________________

Jai Sen

Independent researcher, editor; Senior Fellow at the School of International Development and Globalisation Studies at the University of Ottawa

jai.sen at cacim.net <mailto:jai.sen at cacim.net>
Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded and unsurrendered Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900) 

CURRENT / RECENT publications :

Jai Sen, ed, 2018a – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/>
Jai Sen, ed, 2018b – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ? (Indian edition). New Delhi : AuthorsUpfront, in collaboration with OpenWord and PM Press.  Hard copy available at MOM1AmazonIN <https://www.amazon.in/dp/9387280101/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522884070&sr=8-2&keywords=movements+of+movements+jai+sen>, MOM1Flipkart <https://www.flipkart.com/the-movements-of-movements/p/itmf3zg7h79ecpgj?pid=9789387280106&lid=LSTBOK9789387280106NBA1CH&marketplace=FLIPKART&srno=s_1_1&otracker=search&fm=SEARCH&iid=ff35b702-e6a8-4423-b014-16c84f6f0092.9789387280106.SEARCH&ppt=Search%20Page>, and MOM1AUpFront <http://www.authorsupfront.com/movements.htm>
Jai Sen, ed, 2017 – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?.  New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press.  Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/>
SUBSCRIBE TO World Social Movement Discuss, an open, unmoderated, and self-organising forum on social and political movement at any level (local, national, regional, and global).  To subscribe, simply send an empty email to wsm-discuss-subscribe at lists.openspaceforum.net <mailto:wsm-discuss-subscribe at lists.openspaceforum.net>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.openspaceforum.net/pipermail/wsm-discuss/attachments/20200426/fcf0d1c0/attachment.htm>