A May 3 New York Times article quotes Jon Grinspan pointing out that “democracy” and “pandemic” share the same root— “demos,” Greek for people. What affects us all should reflect us all.
Although we’re all in this pandemic together that potentially affects every aspect of our lives, the impact and ramifications of the disruption vary greatly among us.
Unemployment claims have zoomed into the headlines. Clearly those who’ve lost their jobs are worse off than the employed. In April the highest rate of unemployment was recorded since jobless tracking began in 1948, the highest since the Great Depression.
Furthermore, the inequities in the workforce are fully exposed: those who serve with their hands and bodies are more likely to come in contact with the virus than the computer-technically savvy who work with fingers and brains in virtual offices.
Families with small children and two working parents experience much more stress than a grandmother who has to take care of only her pets and plants.
Many teachers experience stress from online teaching and students from online learning and the loss of peer interaction.
We’ve had to rate essential services and cut out (like diseased organs) those considered non-essential—theatre, concerts, operas and museums and restaurants that add enormously to the quality of our lives—leaving thousands of actors and musicians and restaurant workers without jobs.
One of my clients bemoaned the reality that our nation is no longer a first world-power highlighted by the government’s response to the pandemic. What has become blatantly apparent, is that we are now a third world power in light of the president’s response and anti-scientific attitude.
Everything changed after 9/11, as prize-winning journalist Laurie Garrett points out. She is referred to as the pandemic Cassandra, after the Greek prophetess who issued dire warnings. She sees part of our current predicament as stemming from the fact that America has never been sufficiently invested in public health. Even so, she is shocked that America “isn’t in a position to lead the global response to this crisis, in part because science and scientists have been so degraded under Trump.”
The pandemic has underscored the inadequacies of our health system, and the relationship of health insurance which depends on one’s state of employment.
Siddhartha Mukherjee, physician and author of the best seller, The Emperor of All Maladies, comments that the medical infrastructure of one of the world’s wealthiest nations fell apart, “like a slapdash house built by one of the three little pigs.”
Andrew Cuomo suspended usual record-keeping requirements, which suggests that the EHR can be an obstacle to care. It focuses on obtaining reimbursement for services rather than transmitting vital information about patients. Nor do we have a standardized digital database of patient-care records, searchable across hospital and medical-care systems.
In the May 4th New Yorker, Dr. Mukherjee credits the clinicians, who in spite of having to “wade through the muddy slop of fake news” during this crisis, have made good use of twitter and Facebook, to cobble together an informal medical bulletin board for the pandemic.
Elisabeth Rosenthal, author of An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back agrees with Mukherjee. Summarized in a New York Times article, her opinion is that whether it’s run by government or motivated by new incentives, the system we need is one that responds more to illness and less to profits.
The pandemic has caused us to question the value of a college education. According to journalist Masha Gessen, the pandemic has shattered “the myth of college in America.” She points out that college education does not necessarily guarantee a clear path to the future.
On a more personal level, I’ve spoken to people now working remotely from the comfort of their homes who, in spite of fears about being infected, have felt relief since liberated from oppressive bosses and work environments.
On the other hand, I’ve worked with people who are more oppressed than ever, as the virtual work load has increased and the expectation that they will devote well over 50 hours a week to meet the demands. Grateful to have their jobs, and afraid of losing them, they comply.
I’ve spoken to mothers now juggling child care and turning out the same quality and quantity of work. (Daycare centers aren’t an option now, and they dare not allow the nannies to come into their homes.)
In addition, working parents have to be more involved in their children’s education as classes move online.
Instead of experiencing relief from their commute, the teachers are embroiled in phone conversations with students and parents and feel impotent to help the 30% of the students who remain unengaged in their schoolwork.
Some clients have temporarily dropped out of treatment because their lives have become monotonous and they decide they have nothing to talk about.
Others flock to therapy because they are anxious and depressed by the radical changes and uncertainty about where they’ll be, fearing they will be left stranded high and dry on an alien beach after the dangers of the pandemic recede like ocean waves.
What Should We Expect?
The April 3 issue of Boston Review quotes Alex de Waal: “Epidemics are inflection points in evolution across different scales, from the microbial to the planetary. The post-pandemic world is a changed ecosystem.”
At best, the outcome on many fronts is nebulous. How health, environment, and politics will intersect is unpredictable and renders the outcome unknowable. If Trump and his opinions prevail, the devastation will be greater.
Most of agree, however, that the pandemic is going to affect how we think about all kinds of things, and that life after we emerge is going to be different. The territory is wide open for speculation on many fronts. What changes will persist for years after COVID19? Which will be integrated to make up the new normal? Which will vanish entirely?
Although much about the new normal is now as unsettled as a muddy puddle, some major changes are apparent on the horizon.
Quite likely, some of us will continue to Zoom and work remotely from home at least some of the time.
How will the arts fare? Will theatre, concerts, opera ever recover their pre-pandemic grandeur?
Will the subway system still be shut down to allow the trains, stations and equipment to be disinfected? How will the resurgence of infection be prevented if we’re once again, packed like sardines in the subway cars? And how will these changes impact the homeless?
Nature has had a resurgence since fewer of us clog the streets, sidewalks and parks. I see some brilliant-colored birds frolicking and singing loudly from their perches in the trees of Central Park. Some animals have dared to show themselves during lockdowns—
a fox in the middle of a London street. Will wildlife go into lockdown after we re-emerge?
Regarding the economy, few experts are willing to predict with much certainty the current behavior of the stock market. With GDP down on a par with the Great Depression of the 1930’s, what will a recovery look like? Will it be long or short? Some businesses are closing their doors forever. Will jobs be available for the unemployed?
Warren Buffet, one of the greatest investors of all time, assures us that our future is not all downhill as some of us fear during this Covid19 time. His viewpoint is unusual for an 89 year-old, since older people tend to be more pessimistic than younger ones.
We’re in the middle of a tunnel, he says, and gratefully, he is one who sees the light at its end. He believes that we will emerge from the darkness for the better.
We’ll evaluate our use of mass transportation including the pros and cons of travel for work and for pleasure. (The thought of even a short ride on the subway arouses my anxiety).
We’ll attend business meetings with masks or perched behind plexiglass. We’ll question whether college Is a necessary and natural step for our high school graduates as well as question whether our kids should go out of state?
If the rich get richer by benefitting from this debacle, and neglect the welfare of everyone else, Garrett suggests that we could have massive political disruption. Massive unemployment may evoke collective rage.
Now the people celebrated as heroes are “essential workers”—doctors and nurses, grocery store clerks, bus drivers, mail carriers. But will we continue to recognize their importance and reward them accordingly?
(Tragically, after 9/11 the heroes of the day, the firemen and policemen suffered years of serious physical illnesses /cancers, chronic lung and digestive disorders. Those in power denied that their illnesses were directly related to exposure to the noxious chemicals that spewed into the atmosphere and inhaled into the lungs of the heroes who pulled the victims from the burning rubble.)
A New Era for Labor
Political commentator Andrew Yang says that we are going to be faced with a national rebuilding project at a scale that has never existed in our lifetimes. The biggest battle in politics now is over who will control that project, and who it will prioritize.
Writing this blog has helped me understand why many younger people rallied behind Bernie Sanders. Some of his points have special relevance now. Perhaps he failed because he wasn’t able to combine a style with his content that would appeal to the majority of Americans.
The time is critical for the essential workers and the unemployed to band with the young people, among whom are the Sanders’ supporters, to usurp some political power to bring about a more equitable political system: to guarantee accessible health care, childcare, and college or relevant job preparation, and environmental protection (for the ecology, our water, our climate, our oceans and our animals). Andrew Cuomo has proved himself as savvy, sane and scientific, a savior in this time of turmoil. Hopefully, he’ll pursue and impose justice in the face of rampant political corruption and overt racism.
Conclusion: With many of our assumptions about the way our country works collapsing around us, we are going to be faced with a national rebuilding project that has never existed in our lifetimes, as Yang has said. The biggest battle in politics now is over who will control that project and whom will it prioritize.
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