How COVID-19 is Quickly Turning the World Into a 2020 Dystopia and Highlighting Economic Disparity That America Has Been In All Along
The NBA is suspended indefinitely because Rudy Cobert touched microphones and recorders during a press meeting, so now him, Donovan Mitchell and other players tested positive for COVID-19, Ohio governor Mike DeWine has banned all mass gatherings,all K-12 Ohio schools closed for 3 weeks beginning on 3/16, all NCAA games are either canceled or being played with no spectators in the stands, nursing home visits are reduced to one visitor per day, colleges across Ohio like Wright State University in Dayton OH, Youngstown State, BGSU and others are closed with classes moving online. Harvard University and Ohio State University told their students to pack up their things and not come back to campus along with a few others.
Wendy Williams and other famous talk show hosts are taping without a live audience until further notice, and both the Twitter and Google staff are working remote and globally from home until further notice. Chains like Trader Joes and Starbucks are sending out emails detailing what they’re going to do about keeping crew and customers safe (Trader Joe’s gave all of their crew members additional paid sick leave) and Italy is the first country to go on a complete lockdown due to rising death tolls. Disneyland, national concerts and tours and the SXSW music festival are all postponed/closed until April and later.
Sounds like a scary dystopian fantasy, right?
It’s actually the latest plight in America right now.
First announced in late December 2019, Coronavirus disease (one strain of human coronaviruses, just this one has a different name) or COVID-19 is a respiratory disease with parallels to the flu, but definitely not similar in any way. It was first identified in Wuhan, China and has since spread globally to Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and Italy with about 1,500 diagnosed cases in the U.S in different states, including Ohio- 67 caes and counting.
There have been deaths tolls in global countries like Italy totaling more than 10,000 in and they’re steadily climbing. Twitter users are taking to social media to talk about relatives and friends dying from the virus- one Italian actor posted a graphic video showing his deceased sister’s face as she lay in bed-he had been trapped in the home for a couple days after she passed away from COVID-19 and other health complications and had to be carried out in a hazmat suit with a private funeral. It was shocking and a testament to how serious the virus is.
The virus has caused mass hysteria and shutdowns- Ohio being one of the most serious. Libraries in Dayton and surrounding cities are temporarily shutdown until April, grocery stores are empty due to paranoid and inconsiderate folks buying enough food and toilet paper for a zombie apocalypse, popular concerts and events/concerts like SXSW are canceled (leaving the city of Austin and creators of color expecting to get revenue at a multimillion dollar deficit), and sports conglomerates like the NHL and MLB have suspended their seasons, so there will be no sports for a while, to the dismay of many avid sports fans looking forward to spring season openers.
The two most interesting points amid all the COVID-19 hoopla are the media’s sensationalism and the ugly exposure of capitalism, consumerism and the effects disasters of this magnitude have on the most vulnerable/poor populations.
The media has by and far been the top worst proponent of this madness. Each headline you look at is either fake news or a sensationalized headline.
“100,000 Ohioans test positive for COVID-19”
“America to begin a Country-Wide Quarantine”
Those are just a couple. Dr. Drew, celebrity doctor recently went on the Daily Blast Show to slam the media on their misinformation during this pandemic deemed by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Dr. Drew was furious and criticized the media for inducing panic and spreading false information.
“The press needs to shut up-they should not be reporting on medical stories as though they know how to report them,” Dr. Drew lamented. “More people died on the streets of Los Angeles from homelessness-if that were coronovirus, people would freak the hell out. Listen to the CDC, health experts and epidemiologists- if there’s a problem, they;ll let us know.”
Dr. Drew is correct- as a journalist but also consumer of media, I can wholeheartedly say that a lot of independent media, blogs and a couple major media outlets are inducing panic and making everything an emergency, which is irresponsible to the people following the news for updates. This virus is SERIOUS- most who contract it will not die unless they have a compromised immune system, other underlying health issues or are elderly, but it still does not need to be so sensationalized. It’s inducing hysteria and folks are now unnecessarily buying up entire grocery stores especially toilet paper. STOP. You do not need enough food to last for a war. That's selfish and inconsiderate for others who need food too-the elderly who are afraid to go into markets for fear of getting sick, college students, single mothers and regular folks who just want dinner. If you need to turn off the tv and stay off of social media for a few hours a day, please do so. Fearful and self interesting headlines drive sales and irrationality-the government has taken hold of folks lives just like that. Be cautious but remain calm and smart-you are your strongest ally to get through this.
The other most concerning part (and saddest to me) is this un-altruistic display of capitalism, inhumane practice and greed that have expedited the interruption of marginalized folks lives.
While I applaud Governor Mike DeWine for closing colleges and K-12 schools, government officials did not stop to consider the overwhelming burden that was just placed on families to find childcare/daycare for their children.
Daycare and childcare is already expensive-with COVID-19 now posing a threat, the daycare center/child care providers that are even willing to take on more children will fluctuate higher in price due to supply and demand- but DeWine even advised that parents should begin devising an alternate back up plan to pull their children out of daycare due to the risk of sickness, despite children not being able to carry the virus. Ohio may receive a grant to assist with food for the meal impoverished children and local businesses are devising plans, but we also forgot that some kids will go home to abusive/dangerous situations when school was their only refuge. Most folks do not have the means to find adequate childcare for their babies/children out of thin air.
Then, there’s the matter of universities closing. All of these closed universities that are telling college students to pack up and leave campus for the rest of the semester and converting their classes online have no idea the devastating impact COVID-19 sanctions have on their education and lives. What about the students workers who depend on campus work to pay their rent? What about the students who are low income and don’t have the finances to get a bus or plane ticket home? The students who are homeless and have no storage places or place to live? Students who will return to violent/abusive environments? Students who are food insecure? Students who live in their cars and have no access to Wi-Fi or other educational materials? UHaul is providing free storage and moving services to students which is great, but these students are stressed out, broke and in tears due to the governments mismanagement-this situation highlights the inequality of the education system-the poor students are always hurt first and the worst.
COVID-19 is doing nothing but revealing the inequalities that were already in place and how unprepared America is to handle disasters. It’s interesting how giving workers paid sick leave and emergency fund assistance was always “too costly,” but we’re seeing how it actually isn’t and how it can save both businesses and people money, but it’s costing even more now due to the corporations refusal to take care of their employees. The fact that the CDC only tested 77 people so far and there’s no tests available, yet the Utah Jazz basketball team got their hands on 58 tests in a matter of hours, the fact that state rep Katie Porter had to shame and fact prod lawmakers to agree to free government COVID-19 tests for all Americans regardless of insurance, the fact that Republicans are only concerned about the bottom dollar and not folks livelihood by being hesitant to sign a deal on a COVID-19 economic relief package that would benefit Americans and add to the economy, the fact that Trump is an absolute mess regarding the virus and downplaying the significance, the fact that major cell phone companies like Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T are waiving late fees, increasing data for students and not giving penalties to folks who can’t pay their bills for March and April, the fact that Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is halting water and utility shut offs and Miami-Dade County is halting eviction processes proves that processes we consider normal are actually cruel and there is higher power to stop them. It took COVID-19 for Detroit to restore water to 3,000 homes that went without it for 6 years! Let’s not forget incarcerated folks who are at high risk of catching the virus and homeless folks who have no resources but want to be healthy as well.
Wi-Fi is now a necessity vs a luxury. Companies could have been waiving bills and late fees. Schools could have been sending laptops home with students. Corporations could have been letting sick employees work from home and giving paid sick leave. Grocers could have been giving senior citizens a special hour to shop uninterrupted. Schools could have been giving low income students free lunch and breakfast without making them pay off debt to eat lunch first. Humanity should have been humane-it shouldn’t take a pandemic for companies to actually treat their employees like compassionate humans instead of robots and the government to actually care about Americans vs the bottom dollar. This is proof that if companies, corporations and institutions really wanted to have compassion and assist poor and working class folks, they not only have the power to, but it’s as easy as pumping billions of dollars from the federal reserve and the government to keep us from struggling. Capitalism is overwhelming, devastating,strange and cruel.
If nothing else, please look beyond the panic and hysteria at the inequalities this is exposing in America and how we can fight together to eradicate them. We shouldn’t want to come together in unity during a time of tragedy but murder, laugh at, disrespect and have no compassion toward humans and circumstances any other day. Be a responsible shopper-grab extra but be mindful of other shoppers. If you work from home, take the burden off of a single mother’s hands and offer some childcare help. Take groceries to your elderly neighbor, take a lunch and book to a child in need. Offer money and resources to displaced college students. Stay home and bless the displaced workers, too your UberEats and DoorDash drivers. Eat local carryout from businesses in your community. Save money. Keep a schedule to stay sane for wellness and mental health- learn a new skill, deep clean, read a book, build a business-take this time to grow, re-evaluate and reflect to come back stronger.
We have a new virus every 2 years during election time- Zika, Ebola twice, SARS, MERS, H1N1/swine flu, Avian and now COVID-19. Nothing is new under the Sun. Think smart and critically, be easy on the media and stay safe. Once we get out of this, pay special attention to the media and how we come back-it’s deeper than a virus-it’s about control, fear mongering, economic disparity and how fragile America really is.