What, Exactly, Are You Protesting?

Issue 58

newsweek.com

I confess, conscious politics practitioner, that I am not excited to write about public health today. But as an American citizen feeling quite less free while continuing to live in a pandemic and with so many of my compatriots believing themselves to be experts on numerous ways to, I don’t know, manage/ignore/quash a pandemic, I can’t help but believe that broad swaths of our society have been missing the point. Entirely.

Let’s first get clear about what’s wanted because the law of attraction is always on and intentions matter and it’s a best practice. I hope you’ll pile on here: I want to live in an America that has a well-reputed, cutting-edge, trusted public entity within its government (e.g., the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) upon which we can rely for clear direction about human health issues that affect American communities large and small, whenever they arise (just as we rely on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for direction and assistance during and after “natural disasters” or just as we rely on police and sheriffs for direction with traffic when major incidents disturb its flow).

What strikes me about so much “covid rebellion” throughout the nation during the last 18 months or so seems like protestation against the very system of public health we had in place in America when this pandemic hit in early 2020. People say they’re rebelling against quarantines and lockdowns because they impinge on freedom and hurt business owners and the economy writ large. People say they’re rebelling against masks because “they kill” or “don’t work” and impinge upon freedom. People say they’re upset that governors, mayors and other duly elected, sworn executive officeholders are overreaching. People say that the current Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, is discredited because he’s in bed with the pharmaceutical industry. People say that alternative prevention and treatment approaches and protocols are not being developed, considered, or shared. It’s a lot.

In other words, nothing that has been protested against during all of this time is even a little bit out of regular order with American public health policy. Nothing. So what is out of order?

But quarantine and isolation as a disease mitigation tactic dates at least to the 14th century. It has been used throughout American history from the Quarantine Act of 1878 “giving the Marine Hospital Service responsibility to stop disease from coming ashore via sailors from ships” to to the Public Health Service Act of 1944. It seems we learned a lot about the efficacy of masks during the Great Influenza pandemic of 1918, though we mostly tossed it away in 2020. American law has a long and well-established constitutional legal framework for imposing “coercive measures” like the quarantines enacted recently by the governors of New Jersey (R) and Connecticut (D) during the ebola outbreak of 2014-2016. And U.S. Supreme Court precedent “allows nonconsensual measures to stop an epidemic.” Further, the entire American scheme of public health policy defers to public health experts who rely on the executive branch to bring their recommendations to bear. In other words, nothing that has been protested against during all of this time is even a little bit out of regular order with American public health policy. Nothing. So what is out of order?

As for the undue influence of the pharmaceutical industry in public health, I agree, it’s a travesty. But America has long been subservient to the pharmaceutical industry. “Ask your doctor about…” advertising and “opioid crisis” come immediately to mind. And did you catch how three “moderate Democrats” on the House Energy and Commerce Committee threw the human infrastructure bill currently being crafted in Congress into disarray the other day by aligning with the pharmaceutical industry against a majority of Americans on the issue of negotiating lower prices for Medicare? I will align with anyone who wants to extricate corporate money and influence from our political system. Today. But Dr. Fauci as the face of this in-our-political-DNA phenomenon? Please.

I will also happily align with anyone who wants to advocate for expanding our notions of public health to study all manner of “alternative,” “holistic” approaches at parity with everything else. Bring it. Please! But don’t attack elected officials for enacting measures they swore a duty to enact in keeping with the system we have now. Do what we conscious politics practitioners do: accept what is then springboard to what’s desired.

As for restaurants and other small businesses who have been hit hard or even decimated, two things: it’s not your mayor or governor or county executive who’s to blame and compliance with pandemic restrictions speeds economic recovery. Also, this: it’s called public health and it kicks in when the needs of the public supersede the needs of the individual. And that’s it right there — these protests are all about the needs of the individual. Me not we. Old consciousness on full display.

I happened to have been in New York City, the epicenter of the covid epicenter, when the city that never sleeps went into a coma. We worked our way through a few days of don’t wear/wear a mask; we kept our distance; we washed our hands; the virus stopped spreading. All the while, infectious disease experts who work for we the people toiled to understand the traits and characteristics of this novel virus and we adjusted as we went. All the while, ambulance sirens blared for weeks without interruption, makeshift hospitals appeared in Central Park and in the Port of New York, and refrigerated trucks as portable morgues lined the streets. All the while, we clamored out our windows every evening to show solidarity, support for essential workers, and to feel connected.

It was not fun or convenient. Many who were already struggling mightily endured profound additional hardship. But there was sense enough that we were in it together. There was knowing enough that it would all be temporary. There was evidence enough that what we were doing was working. We were informed well enough and trusted the information enough. It wasn’t terribly complicated.

To be sure, our experiences have laid bare some issues with our public health system. And that’s fine, because we know how to advocate for meaningful change.