The Pandemics: Blame, fears and prejudice. (Part 2)

(Nurses at Blackfriars Depot, Chippendale NSW, Australia during the Spanish Flu  epidemic 1919.)

On the first wave of the Spanish flu in 1918, there was of course no vaccine or cure for the emerging outbreak that was to have thought originated from Spain after World War 1, yet it had already become prevalent amongst returning troops throughout Europe and America.  It was initially played down as a mild form of flu, with misinformation and blame associated to its first wave, so was the medical response at the time. There was an apprehension for the populous to wear masks,  when it was later enforced as the more deadly second wave emerged in 1919.  To which, many resisted, as doctors scrambled to try and offer what might be a cure against the devastating influenza, they administered large doses of Aspirin to patients, that some medical historians believed actually contributed to the massive death toll from the Spanish Flu pandemic.  As discussed in "The Pandemics: Blame, fears and prejudice", a virus although dissimilar to a bacterial pathogen, both have an uncanny ability, once they become a global pandemic, to throw a society into chaos.  The underlining reasoning for the bases of fears, which in turn leads to misinformation and prejudices, is the extreme uncertainty overlayering what we once knew.   When a new viral outbreak starts from its initial first wave, the discourse is largely felt both socially and politically, however it is the later second wave that begins to offer a harsher realization that a deadly pathogen is upon us.  As the outbreak takes it toll on the sociological and psychological structure of our society – with an urgency for a cure, while the scientific process in studying an emerging pathogen is a slow process, virologists and scientists attempt to map this new viral DNA and begin creating a vaccine.  It is the complexity of dealing with the ever changing DNA, particularly a respiratory disease like Covid-19, that becomes a greater challenge.  This, as mentioned, is not a quick process.  Antibody trials with volunteers and research for a new vaccine maybe a year in development, with, particularly the extremely high infection rate of Covid-19 globally, an immunization program could take a following two years in implementation for the entire human race. What makes this scientific process harder is the commentary of denial, which is mostly always reflected by the political divide.

One such apparent cure for Covid-19, early on in the pandemic, was Chloroquine, the antimalarial and rheumatism drug, is a perfect example of how a poorly research paper by two non scientists, promoted the drug as the cure and a preventive measure to this highly infectious respiratory disease, was quickly embraced through the social media platforms. In its similarity to the danger that large doses of Aspirin were used to treat the Spanish Flu over 100 years ago, Chloroquine as a possible cure was based off very limited trials which occurred in China, France and Brazil. With mostly right wing leaders emphasizing that Chloroquine medical trials, limited as they, were the turnaround cure.  The actual trials ended from all scientific research, when it was discovered that the drug was considered toxic in high doses, with some of the test patients dying.  Still, there has been a desperate clinging to the idea that Chloroquine, in readily available doses, sans the overstocking that has depleted the crucial malaria stockpiles, may still offer a miracle cure.  Yet was not endorsed by any of scientific research body's, has now morphed into a widespread conspiracy theory.  An important lesson in understanding how fears manifest in the first place, when in a sense it is society's inability to cope with a crisis, reduced further by an unseen entity which causes sickness and death.  Throughout history a mantra of deprival and bedlam has always remain the same.

When Covid-19 first occurred in the Chinese city of Wuhan, it was reported in the State controlled media that a new and mysterious respiratory virus was discovered as early as September 2019.  Due to the secrecy of the Chinese political system, it was later declared an epidemic in December 2019, as countries throughout the world slowly became aware of this new virus, with traces of Covid-19 discovered in the wastewater of Milan in Italy at the same time China locked down Wuhan to contain the virus.  It had already spread globally.  So in the weeks that followed, governments galvanized a plan for countries and cities, in a synchronized manner, to go into quarantine.  In an effort in containing the first wave of the virus, amidst the panic and confusion around this pathogen, so began the misinformation, these included fears of authoritarianism, mixed with rushed news reports of cures thst occurred in earnest at the onset.  The greatest concern, from all aspects of society, was the end of a familiar social structure and its economics.  Even though this has happened before in its history of pandemics, the difference now,  is a fast paced digital landscape and its interconnectivity – has only exasperated the hysteria.

In the months when infection rates and deaths were mounting throughout Europe and America, the pandemic was becoming more and more politicized, with both camps utilizing the outbreak as an opportunity in criticizing the responses from either side.  However it was the rushed reopening of economies and allowing the gathering of large crowds, reinforcing what essentially was anti-quarantine riots to manifest, should be a general critique aimed at both sides of the political spectrum that may have ensured that a 2nd wave may indeed be the worst to come from this virus.