Reading the news over the past couple of days, I cannot help but to note the images of the people protesting quarantines. Hatred and anger distorts the face in ways that we respond to viscerally. For me, as for many, my instinct is to react with anger as well. Once I get past the visceral response, I still have a strong emotional response: What are these people thinking? Don’t they understand that their actions put others at risk for a disease which in a few months has killed as many people as the entire Vietnam war? Are they really just contemptible fools?
Anyone who lived through the 70s and 80s can attest that epidemics can trigger radical massive shifts in behavior. HIV/AIDS caused a huge culture shift as sexual behavior rapidly morphed from the carefree 70s to the fearful 80s. Condoms became a thing, and for a while, even kissing another person was thought to be a source of exposure. Importantly, though, HIV/AIDS made its appearance just as LGBT rights were experiencing major expansions, from legal protection to increased societal acceptance.
The disease changed things. I remember very well when HIV/AIDS was only predominant in the gay community. The Reagan administration refused to recognize it, or even say the name. Conservatives across the land pilloried gay men as rightfully receiving their comeuppance for being abominations in the eyes of their god. Anti-LGBT groups grew increasingly loud and powerful, with hate messages being spewed from church pulpits and politicians’ podiums.
I also remember encountering a gay friend of mine from college. His eyes were hollow, his face haggard. No, he wasn’t infected, he explained; he had just spent every weekend for the past six months attending the funerals of friends, friends of friends, and eventually, his boyfriend. His agony was palpable, and my heart hurt for him.
Of course, during that time, HIV/AIDS was still being called “gay cancer.”
I don’t want to be too cavalier about drawing parallels between then and now. Epidemiologically, HIV and SARS-Cov-2 are radically different diseases. SARS-Cov-2, the virus causing COVID-19, spilled out of its initial infectious reservoir much more rapidly than HIV made the transition to heterosexual transmission.
But humans will scapegoat, and find an outlet to translate their fears into hostility, and 2020 appears to be set on a similar course. First was the administration’s initial refusal to use the medical term for the disease, instead calling it the “China Virus” or the “Wuhan Virus,” and Trump’s initial – and utterly ineffectual – closing of our borders to Chinese nationals. Now, of course, we see an attempt to shut the borders down entirely to immigrants, as if it that step would have any effect whatsoever on the spread of a disease already firmly implanted in this country.
Not being able to fit solely on racist platforms, it has been difficult for those inclined toward hatred to restrain themselves to a distinctive target. At least until it eventually involuted onto those who are most involved with fighting the disease. Conspiracy theories abound on the real “purpose” of the virus, and how the measures to stem its growth are somehow predetermined, coordinated steps to steal citizens of their rights.
Certainly, chaos is a prime time for bad actors to wield greater influence, but to any sane person, these protests, with the desire to increase the risk of infection, to increase the number of deaths, to propel our health care system further into disarray – well, it just looks crazy.
It is crazy. But we’ve seen this before. And we’ve also seen the outcome.
From the deaths and the tragedies of the 1980s came a resurgence of advances in civil rights. From anti-discrimination laws to acceptance into the military, LGBT people made great strides forward.
Certainly, the years preceding this pandemic has seen a rise in bigoted sentiment along all fronts, but those gains were not entirely rolled back. Those that have been were accomplished in relatively temporary ways which can be restored with concerted effort.
So what is the answer to the hatred fanned to further flame by COVID-19? How on earth can we stop this horde of angry faces from becoming the face of America? How do we cope with the idea that there are those among us who would destroy those very people who are trying to protect us?
First, remember this: News and media outlets, by their very nature, tend to magnify. Yes, there are thousands of people demonstrating. But there are far, far more of us who are following reason over emotion, and that alone is encouraging. The news media doesn’t wander by the front porches of the people ringing their bells every evening and it doesn’t run feature stories on commonplace behavior.
Even if hate does have the upper hand, it cannot last for long. Hate eats its young and sooner or later, collapses into its own hollowed-out soul.
The answer to the pandemic is to keep everything at a standstill. If you keep the wood from the flame, it eventually burns itself out, as will COVID-19. And where government fails to help your neighbor or your friend, step in. When you see a friend suffering, comfort them. And when the time is right – when the time comes to establish a new normal -- remember the lesson of this disease.
This lesson: By putting on masks, by staying at home, we are not protecting ourselves so much as we are protecting each other. The quarantine isn’t for you, it’s for the man with heart disease, the woman with diabetes, the essential worker facing a constant flood of viral load.
And when this ends – as it will – you will be able to hug closely and smile maskless at all the other people that you, through your selfless actions, are protecting.
Take care of each other. It’s the best we can ever do in our lifetimes.