JAZZMAN CHRONICLES:
CORONAVIRUS CRISIS
WHEN THE DUST SETTLES
By Jack Random
When the dust settles, if the
dust settles, there will be time for recriminations. There will be time for blame-seeking and
there are plenty of villains in this story who richly deserve their portion of
blame. So much so that anyone remaining
in the current administration should face criminal prosecution for their
culpability in this deadly coronavirus crisis.
As important as accountability
may seem, however, it is not the first order of business after we bury the dead
and mourn their passing. It is not the
second or third order of business. In
fact, after the dust settles it will almost seem irrelevant. Let the historians grapple with the question
of blame. Let the history books draw the
obvious conclusion that this American president was grossly and deliberately
negligent in the execution of his fundamental duty to protect the American
people.
The more pressing matter once
the dust settles and the dead are placed in their final resting places will
be: How do we reorder society? How do we restore the social bond? How do we redefine the relationship between
society and government? How do we
rebuild our institutions so that they function in a global crisis? How do we reinforce those institutions so
that no elected president can dismantle them at a whim?
It is a daunting task that lies
before us. Those who believe we can
safely go back to normal have not appreciated the critical nature of this
crisis. More than a game changer, this event
is an earth changer. It fundamentally
changes the lives of all human inhabitants on the planet. Because humans are the dominant species, it
alters the lives of all inhabitants from domestic pets to farm animals to
wildlife. In the wake of the coronavirus
nothing on earth remains the same.
I do not pretend to be an expert
on social change though I am certainly as qualified as our president. I offer these concepts not as prescriptions
but as topics for discussion. We will
need a great deal of discussion to reach consensus and avoid the kind of deep
divisions that could tear the nation apart.
Regardless, whether it comes by peaceful means or by violent eruption,
whether it is for better or for worse, change is coming and it will transform
every aspect of society.
NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS
The one thing we should be able
to agree on is the one thing we cannot agree on due to the political
divide. If we are to begin to reach
consensus on the path ahead it must begin here:
The administration of Donald Trump was desperately unprepared for a
global pandemic. The New York Times has
chronicled and documented the inadequacies of our national response. [1] If
you’re a supporter of the president, you may not like the Times but it remains
the best and most objective journalism left on the planet after years of
bloodletting reporters.
The president wants us to
remember one thing and one thing only:
That he cut off travel to and from China at the end of January. Had that action been more aggressive (it was
compromised) and the first in a series of aggressive actions, we would be
witnessing a different story. The story we have is obvious: The president was more concerned with the
stock market, his pending trade deal with China and his reelection campaign
than he was with the pandemic.
Was he warned? Yes.
Repeatedly. How did he
respond? He threw a fit and attacked
anyone who expressed a different opinion or in any way criticized his
actions.
Our government was deliberately
and forcefully unprepared. This
administration fired the agency charged specifically with pandemic
preparedness. This administration cut
funding to all health related agencies, including the Center for Disease
Control and the World Health Organization (WHO). It was not an oversight that allowed our
emergency supplies of critical materials, including masks, gloves and
respirators, to be depleted; it was the result of deliberate action or willful
neglect.
That the president has announced
his decision to cut all funding of the WHO in the midst of an ongoing pandemic
is beyond appalling. It is a crime
against humanity.
The Trump administration’s
actions and inactions are derelict of duty and those responsible must be held
to account. In the future, even if it
takes a constitutional amendment, we must be fully prepared for such critical
events. We must not allow any
administration to attack or diminish that preparedness.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Traditionally, we have defined
the limits of free speech with the example of crying “Fire!” in a cinema. Americans prize free speech as well we should
but too many on the worldwide web as well as Fox News, One America News and
other media outlets have abused that freedom to a dangerous degree. They denied the science behind the danger of
the coronavirus. They presented false
evidence that it was nothing more than the common flu. They encouraged their viewers and/or readers
to assert their independence by gathering in large groups, discarding social
distancing recommendations and refusing to wear masks or shelter at home. How many lives have been sacrificed in the
name of free speech? We can be sure it
was a significant number. We can also be
sure that there will be and should be great pressure to reign in the dissemination
of false and dangerous information at a time of pandemic.
No American can be pleased with
any curtailment of free speech but the irresponsibility of these corporate
media entertainment entities masquerading as journalism must have
consequences.
THE END OF PRIVACY
The right to privacy is also a
dearly important value in American life.
We have witnessed a constant attack on this right in proportion to the
advancement of technology. Facebook and
other social media outlets know more about us than we know about
ourselves. Aldous Huxley warned us about
a Brave New World. Now we are witnessing
the transformation of a society that values convenience over all privacy
concerns.
The coronavirus has added a new
and critical layer to the assault on privacy.
Once the pandemic took hold, it became necessary to track the
person-to-person contacts of all individuals afflicted with the virus. South Korea developed a program or
application to be installed on an individual’s mobile phone. If all individuals are required to install
and activate the app, it is a simple matter to trace all contacts by a given
individual.
There is great pressure to use
such an app in America. Google and Apple
are engaged in a joint effort to develop contact tracing technology for mass
use. It would enable us to resume our
normal economic activities much sooner.
It is a tradeoff most Americans would make. The catch is that once the application is
installed and used, it will be difficult to disable it when the pandemic threat
is over. We must make every effort to
limit such a bold invasion of our privacy and potentially our freedom of
movement to the duration of an emergency event.
ZERO RESET: DEBT CANCELLATION
Nations, individuals, businesses
and civic organizations will be confronted with debt levels beyond any we have
seen since the Great Depression. If
nations allocate funds to pay down the extraordinary debt it would simply
transfer the harm and extend the crippling effect for decades.
I propose a new approach. This is an extraordinary event at a time when
the planet can least afford it. We need
extraordinary measures to address it. It
will require accepting that fundamentally our global economy is an abstract
concept, the invention of brilliant minds but an invention nevertheless. There was a time when our monetary units were
based on the concrete values of gold or silver.
That time is long past. Now our
money is based on a promise, an implied contract governed by a complex set of
rules and overseen by institutions that determine monetary policy.
If all parties agree, we can
reset the debt of all nations, all businesses and all individuals at zero. We can achieve this by simply moving the
decimal point in all accounts. Those
with less debt or no debt would be given credit accordingly. Under the circumstances created by this
crisis debt will be so pervasive that nearly all parties should readily agree
to comprehensive debt cancellation. The
world economy must be empowered to start over.
END OF MONEY
This has been coming for a very
long time. Money is dirty. It is exchanged from person to person. It is a carrier of disease. It enables those who operate under or beyond
the law. Even criminals now have an
option in crypto currencies on the dark web.
Under normal circumstances advocates of privacy and civil liberties
would fight back hard against such measures.
It enables government and financial institutions to know and regulate
everything individuals do with their money.
However, these are not normal circumstances. Money spreads disease. It must come to an end.
CONTROL OF THE NET
As a corollary to limits on free
speech, the internet is the most prominent disseminator of false
information. We have long resisted all
efforts to curtail regulation of content on the worldwide web. We have always known that false and misguided
messages and information have the power to do great harm. For example, the use of false information
from bad actors on the international stage may well have placed the most
incompetent individual ever to rise to power in the White House. During the pandemic the web has hosted rumors
that the coronavirus is a hoax created by the Chinese and propagated by the
Democrats to damage the president and that the coronavirus is no more dangerous
than the common flu. During a global
health crisis there must be a way to eliminate false messages that result in a
significant loss of life.
ROBOTIC WORK FORCE
As presidential candidate Andrew
Yang warned us, the robots are coming for our jobs. After the pandemic it is coming far faster
than even he imagined. Robots do not get
and cannot transfer a virus to others.
Robots can continue to produce essential goods and services when humans
can no longer safely do so. Society must
find jobs that humans can do at home or in safe working environments. In the meantime, a guaranteed sustaining
income is an excellent idea.
GLOBAL PROTOCOLS
The American government was not
the only government to respond poorly in the early stages of the pandemic when
it mattered most. The Chinese seemed
more concerned with their own trade and economic interests than alarming the
world that a deadly disease was headed their way. There were early reports of a strange new
coronavirus in Wuhan province but they abruptly ended when the alarm should
have been sounded. Indications are the
Chinese government ordered their epidemiologists to cut off communications to
their colleagues around the world. [2]
This should never happen
again. We cannot trust an authoritarian
government to place its own interests above the interests of the world on
matters of global health. There must be
stern and punishing consequences for such unconscionable behavior.
SHARED SCIENCE
When medical research and
development is placed in the hands of private profit-motivated corporations the
only incentive is to protect useful knowledge and innovation, including
medicines and vaccinations, from all others.
While the profit motive may be powerful in pushing research forward,
withholding critical information from general knowledge in a time of pandemic
is deadly. It is supremely
unethical. When lives are at stake,
knowledge must be shared in the interest of the human race.
NURSING HOMES
With this deadly virus
victimizing so many nursing homes and senior facilities, it is time to rethink
how we treat our elders. There is no
easy solution here. As an elder, I would
rather be in my own home or the home of my loved ones for as long as humanly
possible. In light of what has happened
in our old folks homes, we must ask ourselves:
Is it really wise to concentrate the most vulnerable of our fellow
citizens in relatively confined and restricted spaces? We must find a new way.
HOSPITALS AND CLINICS
One of the first things I
noticed as the pandemic guidelines began to take effect is that the emergency
rooms at the local hospital had fewer visitors.
The last place you want to be with a highly contagious virus on the
loose is anyplace where sick people gather.
I’ve heard reports that the local clinics and urgent care centers were
turning down people and sending anyone with flu symptoms straight to the
hospital.
It has become clear that neither
our clinics nor our hospitals are designed to respond effectively to a
pandemic. Hospitals have made
adjustments as we go along. They need to
be able to separate those who might be infectious from those who have other
health concerns. Clearly, the entire
system needs to be rethought and redesigned.
This will require massive funding.
REMOTE VOTING
Enabled by a Supreme Court
decision, Republicans in the Badger state of Wisconsin gave their citizens a
grim choice: Participate in democracy
and risk your life or stay home and stay safe.
No one should ever have to face this choice again. All elections must be by mail only until
technology is sufficiently developed to protect the ballot in online
voting.
WORKING AT HOME
Many Americans who work in
non-essential jobs have continued working at home during this pandemic. Many have become familiar with online tools
for communicating with their fellow workers.
This trend is compelling and will continue.
FARMWORKERS
During an epidemic it is
critical to maintain essential services.
Beyond the healthcare industry and the traditional first responders, the
food chain begins not only with farmers but with farmworkers. It is time to recognize that we need
farmworkers especially in a time of crisis.
We need to protect them from illness by providing gloves, masks and
sanitizers. We need to value them by
granting them citizenship and paying them decent wages. During a pandemic they deserve hazard
pay.
VIRTUAL SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
In the wake of the pandemic, the
viability of large-audience events, including concerts, plays, cinema, dance
and sporting events, is in question. It
will certainly be a long time before such events are allowed again. If they are allowed, they will have to be
phased in and those who wish to attend will have to be warned of the experimental
nature of large-group gatherings. It may
well be that such events will not be permitted until an effective vaccine has
been developed.
In the long run I believe that
large gatherings will give way to smaller venues. Eventually, as technology advances, sports
and entertainment may become virtual events.
We will still need actors and athletes as the basis of virtual
recreations but the events themselves will be virtual. Art museums and galleries may also become
virtual. The phenomena of virtual viewing
is already in process and is becoming more realistic all the time. The development of virtual gathering and
audience participation will come soon.
These are but a handful of the
changes that are coming. We are in the
beginning stages of what Huxley called a Brave New World. It is up to us to engage the process of
transformation so that the changes are not as destructive of individual freedom
and civil liberties as Huxley and fellow visionary George Orwell foresaw. [3, 4]
We have not yet defeated the
coronavirus. All efforts must now be
concentrated at slowing its deadly spread and mitigating the harm. We must all do our part in this battle. We must maintain social distancing, wear face
coverings and honor the call to stay at home as much as humanly possible not
only for our own health and well-being but for the safety of all. Indeed, we must do what we can for the
survival of our species.
When an effective vaccine is
developed and disseminated to the world, we must be ready for the changes to
come.
1. “He Could Have Seen What Was
Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus.”
By Eric Lipton, David E. Sanger, Maggie Haberman, Michael D. Shear, Mark
Mazzetti and Julian E. Barnes. New York
Times, April 11, 2020.
2. “China is Avoiding Blame by Trolling the
World.” By Shadi Hamid. The Atlantic, March 19, 2020.
3. Brave New World. Aldous Huxley. Chatto & Windus 1932.
4. 1984.
George Orwell. Secker &
Warburg 1949.
JACK
RANDOM (AKA, RAY MILLER) IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES, A SERIES OF
COMMENTARIES ON POLITICAL AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS.
HE HAS WRITTEN NOVELS, SHORT STORIES, POETRY, ESSAYS AND CHILDREN’S STORIES.
