The Coronavirus

[Eric the Green]

(05-15-2020, 04:47 AM)Blazkovitz Wrote:

(05-13-2020, 02:25 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: The gun-toting demonstrators against necessary precautions taken for the coronavirus do not represent the people.

People don't protest against the lockdowns because they love big guns and want Reagan back. People are sick and tired of staying at home and spending all the day looking at screens. People are sick and tired of not being able to participate in a live music event, or kiss a cousin's cheek to say hello. People are also scared of what's happening to the economy, both in the UK and the USA.

Also the precautions are mostly necessary to protect old people, because young and middle aged people rarely die of Covid. Why didn't the government simply isolate old people, and let the rest enjoy normal life? Maybe this would be the case if the Covid pandemic happened in 2005, or 1995, or 1985.

It is obvious that these demonstrators do not represent the people at all. Bringing their Trump signs and hats and their guns show they are militant right-wingers. They are also financed by Betsy DeVoss and other right-wing financiers. Do not be fooled; they do not represent people having real concerns about the economy and not being able to go to concerts and kiss people.

Polls have shown that 70 to 80 percent agree that opening the economy too soon will spread the pandemic. Precautions are necessary to protect everyone, since everyone and not just old people are at risk, and older people should not be discriminated against and allowed to die just so the economy can reopen. Trump wants to open the economy to help his election chances.

Of course we all want to reopen the economy and be able to get out and talk with people again. I can't go to church which is about my only real contact with people, besides visiting a friend. We hoped that this situation would be temporary. Distancing from people for a couple of months and putting people infected in quarantine should have stopped the virus. But since Trump and other government officials delayed action, and have not provided what people need (economic support, PPE, testing and tracking, etc.) and have relaxed the restrictions, and too many people have gathered at beaches and parks and restaurants, and some businesses are defying the rules, it looks like this virus will continue to infect and make people sick for many months to come. If we had what we need, we could reopen some businesses, but we don't. It's a sad and pathetic fourth turning we are in, and who knows when it will end, especially if people are not allowed to vote in November. According to reports from Reuters and Thomson, 67 people were infected with coronavirus after voting in Wisconsin in the April primary. The economy will continue to slide, and this prolonged shutdown will soon cause a financial collapse and knock over the dominoes of our neo-liberal "free market" economy that has not been sufficiently reformed. Too big to fail banks will fail again. 

And the virus is just too contagious. Even though the number of cases and deaths have been reduced by the lockdowns, the disease is still spreading and many thousands of people are infected in almost every state and country. Almost 90000 people have died in the USA alone, and well over 300,000 in the world. And we have no vaccine yet, and treatments are not being made available. We have a libertarian neo-liberal, pro-market president and political party in charge in the USA, the UK and Brazil, so cases continue to rise in these countries and around the world. We needed national mobilization, but we have an "executive that doesn't act," and so violent rebellions from the left and the right are possible in the months and years ahead. "Some honest citizens of Marseilles could undertake the amazing feat of marching in a sweltering July all the way to Paris, tugging two pieces of canon, and singing a new song." This time in the USA, UK and Brazil.