Covid and Climate Change: Lessons on extemism.

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The narrative of the political left makes comparisons between covid-19 and climate change. They see these two issues as global crisis, and this comparison is not without merit. But let's look at this in detail.

In perspective, with any reasonable view in the context of history, The response to Covid-19 has been a unquestionable success.

1) We have had a global response including unprecedented levels of masks and social distancing. Major economies have had shut downs. Millions of people worked from home. These steps have saved hundreds of millions of lives.

2) We have a public health system that that accessible to almost everyone in the US. Across the globe, access to emergency health care is better than 50 years ago, 100 years ago or at any time in history.

3) We have medical technology including ventilators and anti-virals and plastic protective equipment that was unavailable in any previous pandemic.

4) And we have a vaccine. For the first time in history a pandemic is being combated with a safe and effective vaccine. This vaccine is being offered free of charge in the US (and most other countries including developing nations). Two thirds of adults in the US now have received the vaccine.

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@maxdancona,

The ideological narrative from the left is based on outrage. Success and progress are seen as threats; everything needs to be viewed as apocalyptic disaster.

I will concede the point... If humans acted like robots we could get 100% compliance with mask mandates and vaccination. In a perfect utopia no one would question vaccines or walk out of their house without a mask. In an authoritarian state a central authority could dictate social policy around public health.

But we don't live in a perfect world.

That is why the outrage is ridiculous. Instead of looking at the hundreds of millions of lives being saved by a vaccination effort with more than two thirds of the US population participating, they focus on something someone said on Twitter.

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Quote:

The response to Covid-19 has been a unquestionable success.

It's too early to make the claim of an "unquestionable success" as the virus is still spreading, still mutating, and still killing people. The RNA-derived vaccine technology has been very successful but that's only part of the total response, the easy part. The article maxdancona is referring to is much more reasonable than he would have us believe:

Quote:

Climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic are two crises that bear striking similarities. In 2020, we all watched the world try and fail to absorb the blow of COVID-19. We saw how fragile many of the systems and basic infrastructure of civilization really are.

COVID-19 not only put immense pressure on our health care system, but also drove supply line crunches, labor shortages, and a run on essential items. There were culture war fights over masks, anti-lockdown protests, and an explosion of conspiracy theories. You could see this as just a stroke of poor luck borne of a one-in-a-century pandemic, but the coronavirus is more than a speed bump. It’s a harbinger of things to come.

This has nothing to do with "extremism".

1 Reply

@hightor,

I didn't say the pandemic is over. I said the response saved hundreds of millions of lives. We did several things correctly.

1) We leveraged technology to solve the problem with medical technology such as ventilators and a whirlwind sprint to produce several safe and effective vaccines.

2) We leveraged our industrial base to create, distribute and administer billions of vaccines.

3) We used government institutions to enact public policy and public messaging.

None of these things were perfect. I am personally frustrated at the inconsistent public messaging.

But compared to the last big pandemic 100 years, we have made unmistakable progress.

Now, I am going continue the link to Climate change. I will argue that the same three parts of the response will work; new technology, using our industrial base to create solutions and public policy.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

Quote:

I will argue that the same three parts of the response will work; new technology, using our industrial base to create solutions and public policy.

Yeah, that'll work for sure. Until voters see the price tag on the new technology, the industrial base falls victim to supply chain bottlenecks and investment fraud, and the public rebels against international mandates and rejects the idea of personal sacrifice for the common good.

This has nothing to do with "extremism".

1 Reply

@hightor,

I am comparing the Covid case with the Climate change case.

In the Covid case, Corporations developed the technology (in this case a cutting edge vaccine) because they expected a profit from it. The US government is spending at least $100 billion (between development and distribution) on their covid vaccination rate which is being administered for free to everyone.

This should make you feel good. It is a case where reality is far more positive than your narrative.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

Scientists developed the technology and government paid for it. Corporations were merely the middlemen. If they didn't already exist government would have developed an alternative, probably a combination of medical universities and government-owned manufacturing facilities.

Quote:

This should make you feel good.

Yeah, it sure makes me feel good to see people rejecting the "cutting edge vaccine" and choosing horse wormer instead. Or watching people resort to violence rather than wear a mask. Or hearing arguments about "personal freedom" being more important that public health.

This has nothing to do with "extremism".

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Interestingly, right-wingers, market radicals and climate deniers fall back on similar conspiracy ideas: for them, climate protection and Covid are proof of state despotism.

Today, about 1,500 persons took part in a protest march against covid and climate change "restrictions". The signs and banners of QAnon supporters referred to the satanic and paedophilic world conspiracy of the US elite, amongst other things.
Neo-nazi groups, however, did not have any (banned) nazi logos on their posters this time.
Demonstration participants repeatedly tried to stop the documentation of the assembly by fisticuffs.

1 Reply

@Walter Hinteler,

In case you haven't noticed; I push back on the extremism of the right as well.

The left exaggerates climate change. The right denies it. The psychology is similar.

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@maxdancona,

Quote:

The response to Covid-19 has been a unquestionable success.

1. Your above statement can very easily be seen as Extremist.

2. A more reasonable assertion might be, so far we have a had some success
in our response to Covid-19.

3. A more reasonable assertion might be, although we have made some mistakes along the way,
we did do a lot of things right.

4. Terms such as "fairly successful" might be a more reasonable statement.

5. Another term that could have been used is "mix bag"

6. Another term that could have been used is "it's too early to determine the full extent"

7. Or you could have said we have made a lot of progress, but we still are not out of the woods.

8. I am merely stating that the wording you chose to use to articulate your point of view
can very easily be seen as Extremist.

9. Remember that we are all part of the response.

10. Every city, every state, every country, every government, every individual, every company, etc.

11. One company response may be different from another.

12. One nation or government response may be different from another.

13. One city or state's response might be different from another.

14. One individual person's response may be different from another.

2 Replies

@Real Music,

Real Music wrote:

1. Your above statement can very easily be seen as Extremist.

Exactly. maxdancona makes claims (in boldface, no less) which simply don't match the facts on the ground.

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@Real Music,

Thats a reasonable reponse about Covid, RealMusic. I accept your point that different people may judge the covid reaponse differently.

Do you feel the same way about Climate Change?

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

Quote:

Thats a reasonable reponse about Covid, RealMusic.

1. You asserting that "the response to Covid-19 has been a (unquestionable) success"
might be seen as a political narrative.

2. Don't get me wrong. I'm not necessarily opposed to you, me, or anyone else
expressing a political narrative.

Quote:

I accept your point that different people may judge the covid reaponse differently.

Thank you for that acknowledgement.

Quote:

Do you feel the same way about Climate Change?

1. I'm not sure what you are asking.
2. Yes, I believe that climate change is serious and real.

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maxdancona wrote:

4) And we have a vaccine. For the first time in history a pandemic is being combated with a safe and effective vaccine. This vaccine is being offered free of charge in the US (and most other countries including developing nations). Two thirds of adults in the US now have received the vaccine.

Thank you Mr. Trump.

1 Reply

@oralloy,

oralloy wrote:

maxdancona wrote:
4) And we have a vaccine. For the first time in history a pandemic is being combated with a safe and effective vaccine. This vaccine is being offered free of charge in the US (and most other countries including developing nations). Two thirds of adults in the US now have received the vaccine.

Thank you Mr. Trump.

What a joke as Trump and his merry men had zero plans for getting the shots into 300 millions arms and also downplay getting the shots. Just shipping the vaccines to the states.

2 Replies

@BillRM,

Quote:

What a joke as Trump and his merry men had zero plans for getting the shots into 300 millions arms and also downplay getting the shots.

Exactly. Any president could have signed a bill authorizing funds to develop a vaccine – it's their job. But notice how Trump failed every subsequent test of his ability to manage a pandemic – and we're still paying the price, with 68 million USAmericans, mostly Republicans, still unvaccinated.

1 Reply

@hightor,

It's your fault that people do not trust the vaccine and remain unvaccinated.

Shame on you.

0 Replies

@BillRM,

No joke. Mr. Trump is responsible for the early development of most of these vaccines.

Mr. Carter Biden is responsible for stagflation.

0 Replies

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