Pandemic

I went shopping today, in the early morning as is my habit. I hate shops, shopping and crowds, so I like to get in there as early as possible, get it all over and done with quick smart, and get out as fast as I can. That’s the ritual, once a week on the Saturday morning.

In a considerable break with tradition, there were eight people lining up already, waiting in front of the closed roller doors. I was number nine. While I sat down and waited for five minutes or so another seven people turned up, one of them wearing a virus-proof face-mask. Normally there might be one or two people in the first fifteen minutes of the shop’s opening. To see such a group gathered is highly unusual.

People are scared out of their wits by the Corona virus pandemic. And it’s understandable. Overnight in Italy, epicentre of the pandemic, 627 people have died. Yesterday their thirteenth doctor died of the disease. The army has been called in to keep order in the streets and keep people indoors, and the crematoriums are so full and overloaded that large numbers of coffins are now being moved around with bulldozers to make way for more. It is, by all definitions, scary stuff, reminiscent of the Black Plague.

So overhere in Australia we are taking to panic shopping. People rush the shelves of pasta, rice, flour, baked beans, spaghetti in a can, panadol and, most bizarrely, toilet paper. Shops have introduced restrictions on the amount of certain items like rice, pasta and toilet paper people are allowed to buy in one go. Even so they run out, and signs apologising for empty shelves and cautioning calm and reason are everywhere. Most tellingly, there were two security guards at the doors of the shop this morning. In a town about 50 km from here, two days ago, a fifty year old man assaulted and rammed with his shopping trolley not one but two old-age pensioners, people over seventy, just so he could get to his desired product on the shelf. When the manager tried to intervene, the bloke grabbed him by the throat and started strangling him. The police was called and he was locked up.

Elsewhere people from the city are raiding unsuspecting stores in country areas not yet affected by the mania, and there are reports of people arriving in vans and trucks, emptying out entire shelves of the perceived necessities, and returning to the city to sell these goods on the black market at insanely inflated prices.

It is symptomatic of the mood among people. Everyone seems to be fearing for their lives, and people lapse into irrational behaviour, fuelled by a selfish urge for what they perceive as their own personal survival. It seems civilisation is a very thin veneer indeed, really only skin-deep, if that.  Even in the 21^st century, the Age Of Information, the Age Of The Internet. People are going feral, and showing their ugliest face.

Meanwhile the entire world is shutting itself off. Australia’s borders were closed last night at midnight, and no overseas visitors will be allowed in. Several countries are in complete lockdown: not just Italy, but also France, Spain, Germany. Europe now seems to be bearing the brunt of the outbreak, with the total deaths in Italy now exceeding the total number recorded in China since the beginning of the epidemic. Stock markets everywhere are recording record losses, followed by manic returns to form with significant gains, only to be dropping to new record lows again. Everywhere governments are in panic-mode, imposing emergency measures to try to cope with what is steadily amounting to a complete shut-down of the economy.

And this is where we seem to be hitting a brick wall of ideological idiocy. It would seem that the best thing to do to slow down the spread of the virus and contain the infection is for everyone to go home, stay home, self-isolate and quarantine, so the virus doesn’t spread and the existing health care infrastructure and staff can cope with cases as they arrive. Places like Italy are inundated and people are dying because there are too many cases too suddenly, all at the same time, and the hospitals are not big enough and there are not enough doctors and nurses to look after everyone at once. The UK is shutting down all schools, universities, cafes, bars, restaurants, pubs and any and all businesses where people meet and congregate, which is, really, everywhere and everything. This seems like a sensible thing to do. They have also, in a move that is unprecedented in all of British history, right from Cassiuellaunus, King of the Catuvellauni who resisted the invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar in 55 BCE all the way down through to Brexit and the puppetry and charade of modern politics, promised to pay 80 percent of the wages of every single person who loses their job because of the economic downturn caused by the spread of the virus.

And this, finally, seems to be the most sensible thing to do. It is also, astonishingly, an unheard turning away from the principles of neo-liberalism so dearly held by all conservative governments around the world today: the notion that everything has to pay for itself, that there is no such thing as free services for the public good, that each and every person is out to fend for themselves, and that the greatest good for all is to be achieved and determined by predatory capitalist competition. In this context the notion of “the free market” is hailed as the highest divinity, and is worshipped unquestioningly by gullible masses around the world. That this mirage of free-marketeerism is sustained only by supply lines resting on ingrained inequality and exploitation of the defenseless in distant developing countries in a globally connected economy is now coming home to roost hard. With countries all around the world closing their borders in a desperate attempt to stave off infection and contamination, the inevitable question is now rearing its ugly head: how many of those countries can actually feed themselves with the resources contained within their borders, and do now rely on imports from faraway places, kept cheap because of the lack of protection of workers’ rights and decent living wages in those countries? In this world where ‘everything’ is ‘made in China’, because Chinese people work for five bucks a day, as soon as the supply line from China, or wherever, is cut off, the whole world will fall on its arse. This whole scenario is making a powerful case against the very notion of globalism, and the argument in favour of self-reliance and protectionism, protection of local industries and products, is stronger than ever.

More urgent, however, is how the world is aiming to cope with this public health danger. Some places are in complete lock-down and are battling for their lives, like Italy. Other places, like Singapore, are riding the onslaught of the disease out calmly and with composure. They were hit particularly hard in 2003 with the SARS virus, when they were caught unprepared and suffered. In the wake of that disaster they lifted their game and took precautions: they constructed several new hospitals purpose-built to deal with infectious diseases, and had testing kits prepared and at the ready. When the virus struck, they went back at it, and aggressively and pro-actively tested anyone and everyone, and proscribed rigorous isolation and quarantine for all those found to be positive. They enforced this isolation authoritatively, not only through police patrols, security cameras and three-times-daily face-to-face screen calls with sequestered patients, but also, and this is important, through a culture of compliance with government directives. Apparently Singaporeans are used to taking strict orders from their government, and put up with it. And while this may seem restrictive and authoritarian and scary in terms of individual and societal freedom, at least here and now it is paying off in a big way: Singapore recorded 350 cases early on, and no one has died. Moreover, and bafflingly, everyday life continues much as it always has: streets are full, cafes and bars are open, and everyone goes about their habitual daily business as if nothing had happened. It is impressive, and, in terms of human lives saved, a clean and incontestable win.

Compare Singapore’s situation with the one prevalent here in our country, Australia. The number of cases has risen rapidly from about 40 a week ago to 969 right now at the time of writing. No more than a few days ago the entire complement of passengers from a cruise ship, 2647 of them, was allowed to disembark in Sydney and walk away with not a care in the world. After they had disappeared into the sunset four people from the passengers and crew tested positive, and one of them is currently in a serious condition, in a hospital in Tasmania, no less, which is a good indication of how fast these people would be able to spread out. A couple of American citizens are known to have flown directly to Brisbane in an attempt to get home to the US somehow, instead of self-isolating as they were told to do. So much for containment.

It’s a mess, and it may well be a disaster waiting to happen.

Our response, as a nation, as a government, has been slow and lax. And while it is easy to sit on your arse and comment and criticise what other people do without actually lifting a finger yourself, such as is the case with me right now, there are nevertheless a few glaring issues that need addressing. A week ago, on the ominously-dated Friday 13 of March, the federal government came out and declared that they had been advised by the nation’s chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, to ban all public gatherings of more than 500 people. The response of this government to that essential item of urgent frontline medical advice in one of the worst cases of public danger of the past two centuries was typical of the calibre of fuckwits that we, year in year out, choose to elect to public office:

‘... so, because we’ve been told today that it is a matter of national health and security, and of saving the lives of potentially huge numbers of people in our country, to ban all public gatherings of 500 people or more ... we will implement this ban in three days from now, AFTER I myself have gone to the footy on the weekend.’

This particular bit of retardedness is so enormous it is almost beyond comprehension. If there is such a huge risk to public health that it is deemed necessary to eliminate all public gatherings of such a size, wouldn’t it be the sane and reasonable thing to do to implement that ban immediately, right here right now straightaway at sight (in the immortal words of Mulga Bill from Eaglehawk)? Putting off such an incredibly important safety measure just so the person leading this government can go and indulge in a bit of personal pleasure is not just selfish, egotistical, irresponsible and unjustifiable in the extreme, it is also an indication of extreme idiocy and lunacy, and an a lightning-bolt red-flag warning sign that this person should not be allowed to be in charge of two kids making a vegemite sandwich with plastic knives, let alone an entire country. As it turns out, the planned visit to the footy did not take place, but it doesn’t take much imagination to figure that this would have been out of a worry of how bad it would look in the eyes of the voting public and what potentially irrepairable damage it would do to the reputation of the person who chose to have a secret and secluded holiday in Hawaii while the whole country was burning to ashes shore to shore, rather than out of genuine concern for fellow humans or any notion of basic decency and understanding. Mind you, we’re talking about a person here who fullheartedly buys into shouting ‘Halleluyah, I’m saved’ at gatherings of deluded morons who believe that the earth is flat and that science is a hoax designed to destroy economies, prevent the accumulation of wealth, and serve Satan.

So, the lessons we should be learning from the situation in countries overseas are clear. The only thing that works to save lives and to prevent catastrophe is containment through rigorous testing, isolation, and quarantine. This virus is spread out on droplets of saliva, in which it can, apparently, stay alive and viable for up to 72 hours on some surfaces. That’s three days. There is some research that tentatively indicates it may also, in addition, be airborne, staying alive in the form of tiny droplets expelled by, say, a cough, for three hours, floating around and being sucked into and distributed by air conditioning systems. The bottom line seems to be that people need to stay away from each other: those who have it should keep to themselves so they don’t spread it, and those who don’t have it should stay by themselves so they don’t get it. It’s a win-win situation.

Or is it?

Because in the dialogue spouted by the powers that be no emphasis is placed on the medical aspect of the virus. Instead all attention is given to the economical ramifications of this epidemic.

Because, as people stay away from each other, businesses will shut down. They won’t get customers, they won’t have any money coming in, they won’t be able to pay their staff, and they won’t be able to meet their bills, including rent and loan repayments. I see it in my own work place. We work with large groups of people who participate in group activities. Not surprisingly, all our bookings have cancelled for the next two months at least. Any business that relies on people visiting a location physically is doomed: cafes, bars, restaurants, pubs, clubs, gyms, pools. Schools, colleges, universities. Any business that relies on visitors from overseas landing here and spending money in hotels, motels and caravan parks or on guided tours on the ocean or in the bush will fail, as our borders are closed and no one can get in or out.

So therefore our government has addressed the economic ramifications of the situation. They have promised to hand out money, so people can keep on spending money, so the economical never-ending ghost dance can continue to go around in circles endlessly, without ever getting anywhere. To this end they will give money to the banks, so these can then provide cheap loans to businesses, so these in turn can keep their heads above water and stay afloat. And that is well and good, but it doesn’t go anywhere near far enough and it won’t save anyone. Because that whole notion is predicated on keeping the economy going as it is, maintaining business as usual, at all cost. And that, to my layman’s eye, seems to be the exact wrong thing to be doing.

Instead of focussing on the economic downturn that is taking place, we should be concentrating on keeping people alive and healthy, and containing and controlling the disease. We should not be giving money to institutions so the merry-go-round can continue to go around merrily, we should be stopping the ride altogether. If we can only overcome this epidemic by staying inside, then that is what we have to do. So we should forego all economic activity, instead of trying to stimulate it. And that means we should make sure that people don’t find themselves in situations where they are forced to compromise their own health or public health.

We should therefore do the following:

- suspend all mortgage repayments

- suspend all loan repayments

- suspend all rent payments

- suspend all insurance payments

- cease all non-essential activity

- contain people in their homes

- close all businesses

- close all schools and learning institutions

- keep open only essential services: food shops, pharmacies, medical centres

- maintain all vital supply lines for food and medical equipment.

And hole up and sit tight.

If we do that, than sooner or later the virus will stop spreading, and will be able to be contained, and we’ll be able to cope with the demand on our hospitals and medical services.

And this whole notion depends on two concepts:

Point 1: All the banks and financial lending institutions comply with a directive to immediately suspend all credit repayments.

And point 2, which is the big one: the payment of a universal living wage to everyone. And this is the one thing where ideology will rear up its ugly head and bite us on the arse. For those people who are bitterly opposed to the notion that people in a human society should look after each other will howl and scream and kick and bite at the notion of giving anything away for free. But that is exactly what we should be doing right now: pay people to do exactly nothing. Go home and stay quiet. Keep the cars of the road, keep the streets empty. Only engage in absolutely essential activities, such as buying food. And with that universal living wage, as a temporary measure to see us through this event, in the secure knowledge that there are no bills that need paying, and all we have to do is sit and wait, and, preferably, not get sick, all the people will be able to sit back, put their feet up, and ride out the storm without dying or killing anyone by accident.

So that’s what we need right now.

Will we have the political will and ability to do so?

See next week’s exciting episode.