pandemic 2

COMMUNISM OR BARBARISM, AS SIMPLE AS THAT!
more destructive than the virus itself.” 4 Dan Patrick, the
lieutenant governor of Texas, went on Fox News to argue
that he would rather die than see public health measures
damage the US economy, and that he believed “lots
of grandparents” across the country would agree with
him. “My message: let’s get back to work, let’s get back
to living, let’s be smart about it, and those of us who are
70-plus, we’ll take care of ourselves.” 5
The only occasion in recent times that a similar
approach was taken, as far as I know, was in the last years
of Ceausescu’s rule in Romania when retired people were
simply not accepted into hospitals, whatever their state,
because they were no longer considered of any use to
society. The message in such pronouncements is clear: the
choice is between a substantial, if incalculable, number
of human lives and the American (i.e. Capitalist) “way of
life.” In this choice, human lives lose. But is this the only
choice? Are we not already, even in the US, doing something
different? Of course an entire country or even the
world cannot indefinitely stay in a lockdown—but it can
4. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/23/trumpsocial-distancing-coronavirus-rules-guidelines-economy.
5. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/24/olderpeople-would-rather-die-than-let-covid-19-lockdown-harm-useconomy-texas-official-dan-patrick.
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