- Joined
- Jul 30, 2018
To me, it is no surprise that the word pandemic was only used at the prospect of 1000+ US cases and the CDC sitting on their ass. It could have justifiably been used far earlier, and justifiably be used much later, given that there is no longer a formal definition of it ever since the WHO retired the 6 stage classification after swine flu. Using the word is merely a formality, and the WHO says it should not mean containment is a lost cost and control is impossible, especially given that some countries have limited transmission, few cases or even none at all or none anymore.
The world as a whole continues to be highly Americentric, and American Hegemony is not going anywhere in our lifetimes. By far, the US is the largest economy by a wide margin; it is unprecedented in it's scale. 1 million Chinese can die, 100 000 Europeans, and the world will look the other way, but 1 American and everyone loses their minds. The WHO, and UNICEF are very dependant on American funds and organization to run. It was not the inaction of the EU or the UK that led to the declaration, else we would have been here two weeks ago. We would be here much much later if the most conservative definition of "contract tracing is impossible and every human in every country faces the risk of community transmission." Abandonment of containment as a lost cause also does not make sense when China and SK have demonstrated containment is a good strategy and Italy has moved to drastic action. It had to have been America's inaction in particular, the CDC's lack of testing, and Trump's downplaying of the virus in favor of preserving the economy that pushed the WHO passed the tipping point. Trump is not a man of science by profession, he is a man of commerce, and that's the only language he knows how to speak. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. There needed to be a clearer way to communicate the danger to him as he has no concept otherwise.
I therefore conclude that the designation of COVID-19 as a pandemic was not necessarily a scientific move, based on any strict definition of severity or spread. The timing of the designation was likely more political in nature.
The world as a whole continues to be highly Americentric, and American Hegemony is not going anywhere in our lifetimes. By far, the US is the largest economy by a wide margin; it is unprecedented in it's scale. 1 million Chinese can die, 100 000 Europeans, and the world will look the other way, but 1 American and everyone loses their minds. The WHO, and UNICEF are very dependant on American funds and organization to run. It was not the inaction of the EU or the UK that led to the declaration, else we would have been here two weeks ago. We would be here much much later if the most conservative definition of "contract tracing is impossible and every human in every country faces the risk of community transmission." Abandonment of containment as a lost cause also does not make sense when China and SK have demonstrated containment is a good strategy and Italy has moved to drastic action. It had to have been America's inaction in particular, the CDC's lack of testing, and Trump's downplaying of the virus in favor of preserving the economy that pushed the WHO passed the tipping point. Trump is not a man of science by profession, he is a man of commerce, and that's the only language he knows how to speak. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. There needed to be a clearer way to communicate the danger to him as he has no concept otherwise.
I therefore conclude that the designation of COVID-19 as a pandemic was not necessarily a scientific move, based on any strict definition of severity or spread. The timing of the designation was likely more political in nature.
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