One of the more depressing things about covid, from a political-psychological & sociological point of view, is just how little many Americans’ support for public health (the bureaucracy, professionals, and safety measures) has risen over the course of 400k deaths.
https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1350936312849838084
Covid has tested our commitment to each other in a bleak, dispiriting way. After a year of deaths, partisanship & conspiratorial thinking are still the leading predictors of whether people will even wear masks. Makes you wonder what could really prepare us for the next pandemic.
If a virus that kills over half a million Americans by the end of its pandemic stage isn’t enough to significantly shore up bipartisan funding for public health, expand access to healthcare, and significantly raise opinion for a robust public response, what is?
The past year has also taught us a lot about the limits of partisanship (there don’t appear to be any) in a way that is equally dispiriting when thinking about the future of our shared American identity (to use a charged word). If covid can’t bring people together, what can? Etc
(This is not to equate membership in the Democratic v Republican parties, because they clearly do not represent equal extremes on each ideological axis.)
/end You can believe both that (i) the current Admin has been remarkably irresponsible and (ii) that opposition to good things like covid guidelines, expansion of public health workforces, and universal healthcare has been stubbornly, worryingly stable.
https://twitter.com/BaYouCanCallMe/status/1351373131869405185?s=20
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