#3: Disproportionality of SARS-COV-2 outcomes causes insurmountable divisions
The most socially destabilizing factor that is preventing us from controlling COVID-19 is that age and wealth groups are so extremely disproportionally affected.
Pandemics are similar to wars in their mobilization during hard times, but wars are unifying because everyone on one side shares the same danger. The bomb can hit young and old the same. On the other hand, this pandemic is uniquely disruptive by rupturing society due to its extremely disproportional outcomes.
Without specifying numbers that are often misinterpreted, or manipulated, I think we can all agree that COVID-19 kills fewer of the youngest and healthiest, and more of the oldest and sickest population. So, at first glance, this pandemic's response depends on young people sacrificing their youth years' experiences for the benefit of society. Then again, someone should explain to the young they should be more careful for their own sake and shouldn't wish to get infected just to get over with it (as I hear more and more often). It is wrong of them to conclude that just because they don't end up immediately in the hospital, SARS-COV-2 won't leave long-term consequences in their body. Also, as time passes, the young will one day become middle-aged. And middle-aged will become old.
It goes even further. This virus affects whole families, so in the same city, there could be a family wiped out because of a birthday party and a family that doesn't have a single member infected. How can the second family relate to the unthinkable suffering of the first?
An even greater challenge is a huge gap in outcomes depending on your social status and wealth. We don't hear about many famous, rich people or politicians dying. COVID-19 is a complicated and unpredictable disease, but if you get constant care and the latest treatments, and your doctors and nurses have enough time and resources for you, you will most likely survive. If you, like many ordinary people around the world, end up in a hallway, waiting for admission for hours, or you are turned away from the hospital when there are no available beds, your survival chances diminish. No wonder that lower-income minorities are so disproportionally affected.
That is visible in statistics. The mortality rate is low while hospitals are operating normally, with few patients. The moment they come under stress and become overloaded, with too few nurses and doctors on too many patients, the dead start to pile up.
All of this creates in different groups in society feelings of injustice and mistrust, which is the greatest obstacle in defeating this virus. Will those who feel oppressed and cheated willingly take the vaccine if they don't believe it's given to them for their benefit? Will those who think it's all a hoax ever wear a mask?
If many people don't see personal advantages in measures they have to obey, then the success of the pandemic's response relies on collective empathy. But SARS-COV-2 managed to bluntly unmask many narcissistic sociopaths living amongst us that have no empathy, and are annoyed when the suffering of others interferes with their plans and schedule. Trump and Musk come to mind, but there are many more and are from all sides of the political spectrum. Globally there is now more than ten thousand dead of SARS-COV-2 in a day, but the biggest problem for many people is the inconvenience of wearing the mask and the fact that they cannot drink coffee, eat in a restaurant, or party.
So how can we rely on empathy? Chinese, of course, didn't. They just forced their people into complying for the greater good of the community. The rest of the world cannot do that, at least not yet, before abandoning personal freedoms and rights as the basis of our civilization.
At the same time, some probably think we could get rid of the problem by closing our eyes and isolating (euthanizing?) the old and the sick so that the rest of us can continue to live normally as before. But the basis of our civilization is also the idea that all humans are created equal. And thus, nobody should be left to die.
These two unbearable choices are irreconcilable, so how much longer can we dance between them? We need to stop this virus as soon as possible because the more it continues, the more extremism will flourish, and the hatred inside every country will build until it destroys liberal democracy and market capitalism and reverts us to totalitarian tribalism.