Trevor Noah’s video about the coronavirus pandemic and introduced some really daunting parallels between government response to the Spanish Flu and Covid-19. One similarity that I found very interesting was Wilson’s and Trump’s respective downplaying of the severity of the given pandemic. What I don’t quite understand about this is that while Wilson had a pretty firm political motivation for this (i.e. maintaining support for WW1,) Donald Trump’s passive response to the coronavirus pandemic has seemed to have more abstract motives, expressing primarily that he didn’t want to cause a panic. Clips from historical documentaries that Trevor Noah included in his video described somewhat similar reasoning from President Wilson, and this leads me to the question as to what genuine harm comes from panic in response to a genuinely grave global situation. Why do certain government officials express more fear toward the idea of panic than toward its cause, especially when as justifiable as in the case of a pandemic? Perhaps the idea is that fear threatens national morale, but is this worth upholding at the expense of human lives?
I was also interested in Trevor’s precautionary reference to instances of U.S. public reopenings as Spanish Flu cases became less prevalent. If certain cities held public events and caused a second wave when cases were almost down to zero, how can we be sure when it’s safe to fully reopen? I think the lesson to be learned here is that the transition until pre-corona life should be as gradual and methodical as possible, so it’s important to emphasize that with every milestone of successful pandemic response, we should still be careful. On another note, I was surprised to learn that certain cities issued fines for citizens who went into public areas without wearing masks. I think that this could be a really effective incentive to follow mask mandates, but I don’t believe this would be enforced in many U.S. communities today. If it could be, how might citizens respond?
With the significant advances in medical technology over the past century, it’s fascinating to see the direct parallels in the United States’ response to these two pandemics. Considering the pressure of the Sedition Act on early 20th century Americans in remaining passive about the Spanish Flu and the continual sentiment among certain Americans that mask mandates are an infringement upon civil liberties, how significant of a role has the extreme promotion of patriotism and its associated ideals played in the United States’ difficulties in responding to this pandemic?
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