Eric Vilmer
9/22/20
Professor Simpson
Covid 19 Response Paper
All four of the essays for Covid-19 brought up good points about what this virus has done to
societies globally. A common theme with each essay is how Covid 19 influences class structure within
countries.We can again look at Covid 19 as a spatial issue as people of all different classes are affected
differently by this virus. In a lot of places people are required to wear a face mask whenever they walk
into a public space. "The Covid 19 Pandemic" has caused a lot of fear about going into public spaces
especially for people with health problems and the elderly because of the fear of dying as stated by
media outlets.Now it is considered proper etiquette to give six feet of space between other people to
avoid contact with germs. We are taking all of these precautionary measures to prevent the spread of
this virus, but we do not even truly understand it yet. The news says that this virus goes through the
body in a max of two weeks yet there are people who have had this thing for months. The fear of this
virus has had a drastic effect on many nations economies and if people were not driven by fear of the
virus and fear of our government as well as each other following the necessary protocols to prevent
getting sick, we may not be in a recession. People may actually be able to go back to work and get the
economy moving again. Until people develop an understanding of what is at stake we cannot develop
a solution on how to fix it. Only time will tell on the outcome of the "Covid 19 Pandemic."
I believe that the issue is not the information anymore but the news. There has been an extensive amount of research done on COVID-19 and a lot is known about it. Uncertainty in this situation does not mean that we aren't sure if it's a big deal, uncertainty means we do not know how big the effects will be until they are done. The news will report whatever sounds interesting and many outlets are not concerned about getting the correct information out there. If you want to understand COVID-19 talk to someone in healthcare, because they understand a lot at this point in the pandemic.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that the pandemic has been presented in certain conversations as a decision between life and the market, but this should invite a connection to the argument we have found in Hardt and Negri, Foucault, Wallace, Patel and Moore and others. Also, it is important to specify who "we" is in your post. There are different practices in different places--it might worth zooming in on case studies or examples, ok?
ReplyDeleteYou point out that those who get the virus often have symptoms for much longer than two weeks and it appears it can cause long term damage on the body in some cases. We do know much about it, as Sadie points out. The political question of how governments and people respond to that risk is the one that we are witnessing historically and participating inside of.