Someone recently asked me why the United States leads the world in coronavirus infections and deaths yet comes in last for implementing effective measures to control and eliminate the virus and get our lives back to some level of normalcy. Other countries are enjoying restaurant dining, socializing, shopping, and other pleasures which until March 2020 we all took for granted. Other countries also will have their schools open for business as usual this fall. Many of those same countries currently have travel bans against U.S. citizens because we are seen as a public safety risk. An August 9 Newsweek article places Americans at the top of the list of “at-risk travelers to Europe.” Now that’s humbling. So the question “What did these other countries do that we didn’t?” is one we’re compelled to consider.
From what I’m reading, I’d say there are two main answers: (1) Other countries have a centralized plan for fighting the virus and protecting citizens’ health; and (2) the United States is and always has been ruggedly individualistic in our attitude toward the social structure, whereas many other countries live by a more collectivist philosophy. Professor Michael Baker, epidemiologist at the University of Otago in New Zealand, sums up the qualities which have determined success in countries where the virus is under control: a combination of “good science and great leadership.” Sadly, the United States has had neither.
As for great leadership, countries which have seen significant decreases in their rates of infection and death have instituted nationwide policies. Italy, for example, flattened their initial curve by giving shelter-in-place orders for the entire country. Before our U.S. quarantine began, we saw images of Italians holed up in their homes, but it wasn’t just residents of scattered regions here and there; it was the whole of Italy. France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Croatia, Austria, Greece, the Netherlands, Denmark, and many others also issued nationwide stay-at-home orders. Germany had already made face masks mandatory by the end of April. Norway and Denmark are cited in a July 11 New York Times article as “good examples” of countries that were able to reopen schools within only a month after closing them, and “neither country has seen an increase in cases.”
By contrast, the United States has struggled because of the leadership vacuum at the national level, which has forced state and local officials to make policies for those in their own jurisdictions, knowing how easily their directives can be circumvented when other states or counties are still open. New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo agonized early on over how many restrictions he should place on New Yorkers because those who didn’t wish to comply could simply go elsewhere, then bring back whatever infection they picked up, potentially exacerbating the problem. I spoke to my doctor last week about her experience during this crisis, and she heartily agreed that her job would be infinitely easier if our country had a top-down strategy that would keep everyone “on the same page.”
At the risk of sounding overly crass, I appreciate this analogy I’ve seen often: “Having some states lock down and some states not lock down is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool.” Exactly!
Anthropologist Wade Davis, in an August 6 article published in Rolling Stone, says this about COVID’s effect on our country:
“In a dark season of pestilence, COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism. At the height of the crisis, with more than 2,000 dying each day, Americans found themselves members of a failed state, ruled by a dysfunctional and incompetent government largely responsible for death rates that added a tragic coda to America’s claim to supremacy in the world.”
So not only has our current leadership failed to stop COVID-19’s spread in this country, the systemic weakness has destroyed our standing in the world.
According to an Associated Press article on August 9, New Zealand, on that date, was marking its 100th day of no new reported cases. The country is not only completely back to normal but is daring to use the term “stamped out” in regard to the coronavirus within their borders. In late March, 100 people tested positive; so Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern imposed a strict lockdown nationwide which immediately stopped the spread.
The article says, “From early on, New Zealand pursued a bold strategy of eliminating the virus rather than just suppressing its spread.” Because of Prime Minister Ardern’s philosophy “Go hard and go early,” the total infections for that country are just under 1500, and the death toll is just 22. On July 29, Reuters reported the U.S. is experiencing one death every minute; at that rate, the U.S. death toll every 22 minutes is equal to New Zealand’s for the last five months.
Italy, as of August 9, reports just 150-300 new cases per day nationwide, down from their high of 6500 per day on March 21. By contrast, the United States is currently seeing 54,000 new cases per day–more than 8 times the number Italy had on its highest day. And we are close to setting a world record of 5,000,000 confirmed infections. I can think of so many other ways I’d like to see my country set a world record! Italy’s success in reducing new infections can be attributed to their strict ten-week nationwide lockdown.
Also in Italy’s favor is their acceptance of science, something more and more Americans view with skepticism. According to the same Newsweek article, Italians blame Donald Trump and other politicians for undercutting medical professionals who they say should have “been allowed to operate” but instead “were not allowed to proceed unchecked.” We’re seeing the devastating long-term effects of anti-science and anti-intellectualism that have marked much of American thought for decades.
Whereas other countries accept the findings and advice of their medical experts, some Americans applaud Donald Trump’s harassment of Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top infectious disease expert, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, and public health adviser to six presidents. In addition to, or because of, Trump’s ignorant tweets, Dr. Fauci has had to hire security to protect himself and his family because he has received death threats and his three daughters have been harassed. NPR quotes Dr. Fauci:
“I wouldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams that people who object to things that are pure public health principles are so set against it, and don’t like what you and I say, namely in the word of science, that they actually threaten you. I mean, that to me is just strange.”
I can think of a more accurate term than “strange,” but I’ll try to keep this family friendly.
Andy Slavitt, former acting administration of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under President Obama, is quoted in a July 27 Huffpost article: The U.S. can “virtually eliminate” the coronavirus “any time we decide to.” He says the process could be done in four to six weeks if we just “throw the kitchen sink at COVID-19.” He has issued a 38-tweet thread listing the steps to be followed and says that, if we followed that plan, “the light at the end of the tunnel would be blinding.”
These are the six steps he suggests would not eliminate the virus in 4-6 weeks but would reduce it to “embers”:
- Universal mask wearing;
- Keeping bars, restaurants, churches, and transit (all hot spots) closed;
- Prohibiting interstate travel;
- Prohibiting travel into the country;
- Having hotels set up to allow people to isolate from their families at no cost; and
- Mandating a 90% lockdown, instead of the 50% lockdown we had in March and April.
So why are we stuck in neutral, spinning our wheels?
Benjamin Fearnow, in his August 9 Newsweek article, says Europeans are shocked by American citizens’ behavior during this crisis. They are questioning whether we care about our own people’s health.
“Public health experts and everyday residents said they ‘always saw America as a model’ for the world, but the pandemic has exposed a country with horrendous infrastructure and no coherent public health system.”
With so much death and destruction surrounding us and evidence that the keys to stopping the spread of COVID-19, as other countries have done, are mostly simple measures, the question every reasonable person has to ask is “Why on earth are we prolonging our suffering and sacrificing our fellow citizens’ lives instead of doing the things we need to do to stop it?” The answer to that question lies in my second point: Americans’ fierce individualism. Fearnow, in the same Newsweek article, cites several European doctors who say “Americans’ individualist spirit has backfired and led the country to the top of both infection and death toll lists.”
Malcolm X, minister and 1960s civil rights activist, said “When ‘I’ is replaced with ‘we’ even illness becomes wellness.” Cultures in which group well-being is more important than individual well-being understand those words; Americans are sadly not among that group.
Kara Alaimo, Ph.D., in an article on prsa.org, explains:
“Individualistic cultures stress the importance of the individual, while collectivist societies place greater importance on the group that one belongs to. In collectivist societies, such as China and South Korea, people tend to grow up with members of their extended family, who share resources like their salaries. By contrast, in individualistic societies, such as the U.S., U.K. and Australia, people see their identities as distinct from those of others.”
Ava Rosenbaum, in an October 31, 2018, article published in The Brown Political Review, says:
“The United States has one of the most individualistic cultures in the world. Americans are more likely to prioritize themselves over a group and they value independence and autonomy.”
Anthropologist Wade Davis says in his August 6 article:
“More than any other country, the United States,” during the years following World War II “lionized the individual at the expense of community and family. It was the sociological equivalent of splitting the atom. What was gained in terms of mobility and personal freedom came at the expense of common purpose.” In summing up the effects on family life, he says, “Only six percent of American homes had grandparents living beneath the same roof as grandchildren; elders were abandoned to retirement homes.”
In countries like Japan, multigenerational households are the norm; here, they are increasingly rare. According to Davis, economic disparities and other factors which strain a nation can be “mitigated or even muted” by the “elements that reinforce social solidarity — religious faith, the strength and comfort of family, the pride of tradition, fidelity to the land, a spirit of place.” Sadly, America shows less evidence of social solidarity today than at almost any other time in our history. Politicization of issues which concern all of us and which should call us to seek common ground only further polarize us, because our concern for our individual “freedoms” is far greater than our concern for the group safety, welfare, and survival.
One need look no further than our national love of guns and resistance to nationalized health care to find abundant evidence of our unconcern for group welfare. Davis points out:
“The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness.”
Even the shooting of 346 students and teachers on school grounds is insufficient to persuade hard-core gun lovers to sacrifice a little of their personal “freedom” for the greater good.
Paul DeVries, in a May 22 opinion piece published on the japantimes website, contrasts Japan’s success in fighting the virus with America’s failure. For one thing, he says, Americans are less likely to practice safety measures when they themselves don’t have symptoms or have not tested positive, because doing so “requires people to endure discomfort for the sake of the collective good.” We all know that’s something Americans are not very good at.
DeVries attributes Japan’s having daily infection numbers in the single digits to characteristics of their national ethos: “Three of the motivating factors that induce Japanese nationals to adhere are courtesy, obligation and shame.” Americans can be courteous, though recent events may have caused us to think otherwise; and we do have a sense of obligation, though it all-too-often extends only our own narrow circles instead of to the nation as a whole.
Where Americans differ drastically from the Japanese is in our ability to feel shame, and there has never been a more glaring example than our current “president,” who shamelessly takes no responsibility for failure, has never uttered an apology, and despite his appeal among certain Christian groups has admitted to never asking God to forgive him. DeVries tells a story to illustrate the effect of shame on the Japanese people’s behavior.
When in late January the Japanese government began repatriating its citizens from Wuhan, China, officials requested that evacuees undergo testing and two weeks of self-quarantine. All but two complied, and the government lacked the legal ability to issue a mandate. No problem. The two resisters’ families stepped in, and they quickly changed their minds. “The irresistible force of liberty, it proved, was no match for that of Japanese collectivism.” Shame is not always a bad thing, when it compels individuals to act in the best interest of the whole.
One of the sadder manifestations of Americans’ stubborn individualism is the tendency, when confronted with scientific facts which can’t logically be disputed, to look for ways to deny and circumvent the facts. All too many have accepted Donald Trump’s claim that the coronavirus is a hoax, while others have accepted all manner of conspiracy theories meant to relieve them of any responsibility to inconvenience themselves by following safe practices. I’ve even heard that the Democrats produced the whole thing just to defeat Trump in November. Yes, of course we killed 160,000 of our friends and family members just to get rid of an elected official whom we can vote not to re-elect. As desperately as our country needs to rid of this national menace to our democracy, even the evil “demon-crats” wouldn’t kill 160,000 people.
However, that brings me to another favorite end-run around accepting facts and making inconvenient adjustments to our individual lifestyles. On June 19, the New York Times published an article titled “Is the Coronavirus Death Tally Inflated? Here’s Why Experts Say No.” Authors Amy Schoenfeld Walker, Lisa Waananen Jones, and Lazaro Gamio begin by citing New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo and Donald Trump as two people who have questioned the accuracy of publicly reported death counts. They quote Robert Anderson, head of the mortality statistics branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics: “Everything is so politically charged, people are looking for excuses to question the data.” The article goes on to detail the methods by which cause of death is determined and the collective numbers are reported as evidence that doctors and scientists are being highly responsible in their work and their reporting.
In an April 16 article published in Rolling Stone, author EJ Dickson cites a couple of others who have helped to spread the inflated death toll theory. One is David Icke, “who is most notable for his endorsement of the idea that the world is controlled by a cabal of ‘reptilian elites,’ or lizard people.” Another is far-right Candace Owens who tweeted on April 6: “Turns out everyone is only dying of Coronavirus now. Gee. I wonder why.” Wink, wink. Dickson further cites Montana physician Dr. Annie Bukacek who, in a video widely circulated on social media, claims, “Based on inaccurate, incomplete data, people are being terrorized by fearmongers into relinquishing … freedoms.” Even though Dr. Annie appears in the video decked out in her white lab coat and flaunting her stethoscope, further searching reveals the channel that published the video is a religious organization, not a medical one. Remember what I said in my last post about checking the credentials and credibility of your sources?
In fairness, I know from personal experience that death records are not always accurate. When my mother passed away in 2011, my sister and I were irate when we read that the doctor had attributed her death to a condition she never had. We demanded a correction and were told that death certificates cannot be altered (no matter how inaccurate). We persisted and got an addendum with a cause of death that was closer to the truth. So yes, I agree death certificates are not always correct.
But my question is why are we looking for excuses to ignore an obvious problem and to abdicate our responsibility to the whole of the society which has given us life and livelihood? Why is taking simple precautions such an infringement on our “freedoms” that we’d rather let thousands more people die than wear a mask at the grocery store or limit our social contacts for a while longer?
Other evidence shows that some deaths which have been caused by COVID have been attributed to other causes on death records, so the inaccuracies cut both ways. But again, my question is “So what?” What percentage of those 160,000+ deaths would have to be legit to make it worth slightly inconveniencing myself for a few months? In Japan, people wear face masks during flu season, even though no medical evidence has shown face masks to be effective against the spread of influenza. In America, some refuse to wear face masks even though there is abundant medical evidence that universal mask wearing could significantly reduce the spread of COVID. What’s the difference? It’s as simple as “we” versus “I.”
One last American problem worth mentioning here is something I’d call weird religion. I’m not an expert on world religions, but America is the only country I’m familiar with that has the brand of weird religion that has recently gained a voice in national affairs. Among the “Don’t tread on my freedoms” folks are those who believe “God will get you if you tread on my freedoms.” Creating a false dilemma between faith and fear (they’re not mutually exclusive); creating an equally false dilemma between God and science; proclaiming that God will take care of us, so we don’t have to take care of ourselves; and advising anyone with a problem to “just pray about it” have led to responses too inane to warrant serious discussion. But just for kicks, here’s an example.
State representative Nino Vitale of Ohio won’t wear a mask because “This is the greatest nation on earth founded on Judeo-Christian Principles. One of those principles is that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. That image is seen the most by our face. I will not wear a mask.” Really?
I recently lost brain cells watching a video in which multiple speakers expressed their disdain for mask wearing on the grounds that it interferes with their God-created respiratory system and therefore is an affront to God.
But for balance, let’s look at this statement by Clare Johnson, who says she wears a mask in public because of her faith in God: “Mask-wearing is an exercise in the spiritual practice of love of neighbor. I wear my mask as a sign of my love and care for others, especially those who are most at risk. Jesus tells us that when we care for ‘the least of these,’ we are really serving him. I believe that by caring for the most vulnerable among us, I am following Christ’s example.” That’s the kind of Christian I’d like to hear from more often.
No matter how you stir this pot, the fact is the United States of America leads the world in COVID-19 deaths and has no coherent plan for taking control of this deadly virus. Other countries have, through “good science and great leadership,” limited the number of deaths and returned to a somewhat normal version of life. As Andy Slavitt says, we can “virtually eliminate” the coronavirus “any time we decide to.” What’s the solution to ending COVID? We have to want to.
So wear the damn mask.