Monday, January 4, 2021

Has The Covid-19 Pandemic Exposed The West's Lack Of Resilience?


Andrew A. Michta, National Interest:
Coronavirus Exposed that America Lacks Resilience 

The West has largely bungled the coronavirus crisis. 

Nearly a year into the Covid-19 pandemic we have learned that the United States and Europe were woefully unprepared to deal with the rapid spread of this pathogen. Country after country has struggled with a shortage of hospital staff, beds, and emergency equipment. As we lunged from lockdown to lockdown, inconsistent and at times random guidance has politicized the crisis and sapped trust between the governing and the governed. Setting aside the questionable legality of de facto martial law lockdown measures, the blatant arbitrariness of some of the official Covid-19 guidance concerning business shutdowns, curfews, or regulations has had a disproportionate impact on people’s lives, health, and their ability to earn a living, making some fabulously wealthy and impoverishing others. Each passing month, infighting among our political class, when paired with breathless reporting and panic mongering by the media, has deepened partisan divisions and undermined societal resilience. 


WNU Editor: This pandemic has clobbered every country in the world. And while it is easy to say that the West has largely bungled the handling of this crisis, we need to remember what the experts were saying only 9 months ago. 

2.2 million Americans dead within a year. Millions more worldwide. Lockdowns and closed borders that may last for a year or more. A 2 to 3 year roll-out for a vaccine. In that context. We have done far better than what the experts have predicted.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Donnie Trump, “the virus would magically disappear’.

RussInSoCal said...

I don't know about exposing the West's lack of resilience. But the Wuhan Flu did expose the West's leadership's penchant for tyranny. And it exposed the West's population's penchant for acquiescence to the elimination of basic rights. EG: the rights to speech, worship and the right to earn a living.

The Chinese disease aside - I am very sad and disappointed at the speed and ease at which the removal of our freedoms was done to us.


"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - B. Franklin.

B.Poster said...

What Russ said, nailed it!! The Chinese system not order us to do any of this. Our reaction to this is a gift that keeps on giving to them.

B.Poster said...

I meant "the Chinese did not order us to do any of this."

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the virus disappears. It recedes or diminishes with herd immunity.

B.Poster said...

While a reliable vaccine, can speed up the process of developing herd immunity, the key is going to be to get people exposed. Once infected and recovered, they develop antibodies.

Of course steps will need to be taken to protect the most vulnerable during this process. The inconvenience to them should be relatively minor as most of them are retired anyway and compliance with "stay at home" suggestions are vilouhtary anyway. Essentially "lockdowns" were/are about the stupidest and/or malicious ideas ever conceived by a "western" government.

Fortunately some states such as TX realized early on that the models were flawed regarding infections and deaths and lockdowns don't have positive utility to contain the virus and they carry enormous costs to the health of a society. As a result, the idea of lockdown as a primary tool to contain the virus was quickly abandoned.

Anonymous said...

Texas is a total mess and you are bullshitting here

Anonymous said...

Texas: 1,837,303 Confirmed cases

28,753 DEAD
yep, they sure do things right down thataway

Anonymous said...

Have you noticed the trend of societal destabilisation the more women enter politics and key economical and societal positions?
Maybe there's something to be researched. The large number of women suddenly committing violence and crimes. Throwing molotov Cocktails. Beating people. Intimidating them. That used to be attributes reserved to, you know, "toxic masculinity".
What about corruption? Hillary Clinton certainly comes to mind. How about that wealthiest CEO lady? Made her money off a fake blood testing system, billions they, people died.
I think we really need to be able to question the dogma of women are the future. We should be honest to the disaster that is female leadership..from business to politics, the track record is divisive, authoritarian, corrupt and sadistic. How about the first Korean female prime minister. .in jail for corruption. Merkel, almost single handedly destroyed the EU with her immigrating policy, led to unrest in Germany and brought about Brexit.
The record of failure is outmatched in length only by reasons given:men are bad, toxic and WE are more inclusive. REPEAT OR ELSE
That's what the west has become rapidly in the last 10years.

Joking of course ;-)

Anonymous said...

Just following California and New York's examples.

Anonymous said...

Jealous!