Thread by @iAvimanyu

#Reviews on the use of #war metaphors for health workers amidst #coronaviruses & #CoViD19, explain why using #hashtags such as #CoronaSaviours and #CoronaWarriors can fuel the coexistent #infodemic, graver than the #pandemic itself!

@UN @deespeak @fayedsouza @iHrithik

#Thread👇

"Of course, we all want to contain the virus, posthaste, and to treat as many as patients as we possibly can. But to do so under the banner of war implies the necessity of a heedless approach that leaves both doctors and patients open to an indefensible level of risk."

Via:

blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/m…

"Militaristic imagery increases anxiety levels"

"As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, hospitals are being described as war-zones, the virus as an enemy. Patient numbers become battlegrounds and nurses are front-line troops deserving medals."

"Why is this imagery used? One purpose is to gain large-scale cooperation from the public, to ensure they are suitably frightened by the threat of the virus and to assure passage of a raft of legislation and policy changes as speedily as possible."

Via:

rcni.com/nursing-standa…

"This pandemic is 'terra incognita'"

"The parallel is quite dangerous, because the virus is not an ideology, it's not a war against the state," says Martin Evans, professor of modern European history at Sussex University, UK.

"Total war maximized mobilization; now we minimize mobilization. We also know that this shutdown is temporary, indeed we are already emerging from it in several countries. It does not damage equipment, infrastructure, or human capital."

"Therefore, governments aim to keep businesses afloat so that they can restart when the crisis is over."

"This is why the wartime rhetoric today is so misleading, in politics as in business. This is a public health emergency, not war, no matter what some world leaders tell you."

"War-economy logic prevails only in the emergency services. Doctors, nurses, and police are ordered where to go and what to do, forced to work extra hours, and prevented from taking holidays, but they are 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 #prioritized in the allocation of essential supplies and funds."

"The limits of the war metaphor"

"The danger is that the war language simplifies a very complex situation, and encourages extreme, irrational actions such as stockpiling and panic buying."

"Some world leaders and experts have been using 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬. The Danish Queen referred to the virus as "𝐚 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬.""

Via:

newseu.cgtn.com/news/2020-05-0…

"War waging, nonetheless, is such a tempting analogy precisely because so many of us and so many of our cultural and political leaders cherry-pick their wars and cherry- pick what they want us to remember about each war."

"Today, one can imagine that waging “a World War II-type war” against a fast-spreading disease is a desirable strategy only if one willfully ignores the findings of feminist historians and refuses to absorb the crucial political lessons they have taught us about...

...the actual costs of turning any collective civic effort into a “war.” To mobilize society today to provide effective, inclusive, fair and sustainable public health, we need to learn the lessons that feminist historians of wars have offered us."

"To do that, we need to resist the seductive allure of rose-tinted militarization."

Via:

wilpf.org/covid-19-wagin…

"by invoking the ‘war’ allegory, a powerful political leader may use the situation as a carte blanche to adopt draconian measures with scant regard for humanitarian issues or civil liberties."

More at:

theweek.in/news/india/202…