"When a society regrets the economic loss more than the loss of life, it doesn't need a virus, it is already sick." Mohamad Safa
We’ve seen
clips of American freedom-fans (with their submachine guns) gathering in packs
outside City Hall and calling for the right to ignore quarantine rules (or
guidelines, depending on where they are). ‘These are great people’, says Trump here.
They will vote for him in November, they say, those who manage to stay alive
until then.
We’ve seen Brazil’s Jair
Bolsonaro smother
a cough as he tells his fans not to fear crowds.
We see our boy Santiago
Abascal call
for all quarantine to be lifted in Spain forthwith.
Who do these leaders speak
for – the ordinary people or the captains of industry?
Certainly we are heading for
the Mother of all Recessions. Worse, no doubt, the longer we stay inside; yet,
worse too, if we come out too early.
Politics is more or less
following the same division. The left seeks to save lives (they’ve not done a
particularly good job of this in Spain), the right seeks to save jobs, the
economy and, in short, capital. If you can’t eat, they say, you’ll die anyway.
But, answers the left, the simple
choices are poor and alive, or rich and dead. Politics. This division is
creating huge tensions, which spills
out into a non-collaboration policy from the opposition. A policy which not
only weakens the country, it also weakens its response to the coronavirus.
There will be some gentle
loosening of restrictions in the coming weeks. Children up to the age of 14 will
be allowed out (briefly, with face-masks, and under parental supervision) from
April 27th (El País in English here)
and, further ‘…there will be a “cautious and progressive” de-escalation of
confinement measures from May 11th’. But, does letting us out earlier carry the
risk that we are going to end up being in quarantine for longer (HBO’s John Oliver here)?
It’s a bit like the storyline for Jaws – the resort needs to open again…
Of course, no one knows.
There’s no vaccine. There’s only hope against the worst. Perhaps the plague will
return after the summer, or we shall slowly build up a resistance, or maybe
it will mutate into something worse
The far-right (and pro-business)
Zero Hedge asks here
‘What will you do if they try to extend Covid-19 lockdowns into next year?’
Jeez, that’s a hard one. It notes ‘…These lockdowns may be slowing down the
spread of the virus to a certain extent, but they are also absolutely crushing
economic activity…’.
The maverick American
politician Ron Paul pens a piece called ‘what if the lockdown was all a big
mistake?’ here.
A regular presence on BoT is Marc Stücklin who has just
recovered from a three-week bout with Covid-19. He
says ‘…Although I understand the need for an initial lockdown to give the
health system a chance to prepare, not least to give medical staff a chance to
catch and recover from the virus before they are overwhelmed with sick people
coughing all over them, I fear the cure will end up worse than the disease. An
economic depression will come at a high price in terms of human health and
happiness…’.
On the other hand, the
left-leaning Common Dreams says
‘…We must protect ourselves and others, especially the most vulnerable.
Solidarity and common sense dictate that we change what up until now has been
considered “normal” behaviour…’.
Some regions in Spain have
had fewer
cases of coronavirus, and they lean towards easing up on their
restrictions. Andalucía is one such and the president Juanma Moreno says
that the hospitals are now coping but businesses are not.
A map of the incidences by
regions is here…
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