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How Covid Has Exposed the Fragility Of America

How Covid Has Exposed the Fragility Of America

Last updated on: February 10, 2025 at 7:34 am by Henry Karlson

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How Covid Has Exposed the Fragility Of America 2025-02-10T07:34:36-05:00 Henry Karlson

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Felipe Esquivel Reed: COVID / Wikimedia Commons

As I am writing this, I am sick with covid. I have been sick for several days, but only got the covid diagnosis yesterday. After the confirmation, I have been thinking about the time which has passed since covid first made its appearance in the world, and what we have seen happen ever since. It is from these thoughts which I plan to write about here, perhaps in a way which is less organized than normal, and in a way, I am sure, many of my critics will say I have not substantially explained the connections I am making so that they will deny them instead of considering them and exploring them for themselves. But, I hope others will appreciate these thoughts, understand where they come from, and will try to address the issues brought up, perhaps by finding the solutions necessary to deal with the problems which lie before us today.

When covid first was recognized as a serious threat, Trump was president. While he initially mishandled covid, when it became clear it was a pandemic affecting the United States, he came to feel the pressure to deal with it. He reluctantly listened to the scientific and medical community, and followed their advice in promoting a lockdown, which was needed (even if it was mismanaged and started later than it should have been), even as he gave funds to help develop a vaccine and to make sure Americans could be vaccinated. Today, Trump seems to regret the good things he did, as many of his backers hated his response to covid; they thought people should just get infected and bear with it, to treat it like a cold, even though the dangers associated with covid were far greater than the common good (not only due to the massive amount of deaths associated with covid, but the long-term harm which it is known to cause people who have been infected by it). Trump is now listening to those who deny sound medical advice, those who deny basic science, especially those who deny the value of vaccines and say vaccines cause more harm than good. Trump now is cutting off scientific and medical research, as well as those organizations which track and deal with deadly contagions (like the World Health Organization), saying that they (and not Trump and those who resisted sound medical advice) mishandled the pandemic. He wants to deflect the responsibility for his early inaction to others, and in doing so, he is making the situation far worse for the world, as he dismantles governmental agencies which are necessary for the tracking and engagement of contagions and other medical concerns. Perhaps no greater example of the way he is now undermining the health care of the American population is the way he has promoted Robert F Kennedy Jr to the Department of Health and Human Resources (an anti-vaccine ideologue who constantly denies basic medical science for his own private crusades). Similarly, the way he is seeking to deny the poor the health care they need will affect not only the poor, but everyone else, as the poor will not be able to afford the vaccines they need, making herd immunity impossible.

I can’t believe how far we have gone astray. Trump, to be sure, already made things bad during his first administration. He famously he cut back the early warning system which was meant to detect and warn against the potential of pandemics three months before covid-19 was first detected. Now, he calls agencies set up to look after and protect the American people a waste, which is why he is taking a sledge-hammer (Musk) to those agencies, hoping to destroy them one by one. If Trump gets all he wishes, most of the regulations set up to protect the people will be destroyed, be it consumer protections protecting them from fraud, or regulations which protect workers from unsafe working conditions. I wonder if we would be here if covid-19 did not happen, because covid-19 gave a voice and power to those who pushed back against the government and the regulations it put in place to protect society as a whole. This hostility towards the government, in one context, was used to have the same people become hostile to the government in other contexts, so that now, Trump (or Musk) need only use the logic they used against covid-19 regulations and they find they have a vocal group of people willing to back them in their endeavors. To be sure, this has been the long-term goal for many within conservative circles, that is, there has been amongst them a desire to undermine the government and its institutions, cutting back the social safety net, civil rights, and the like, but only after covid does it seem they have the people they need to back their efforts and implement their plans.

This is where we are today. And while I can understand how those who are greedy, those who would love to have the ability to manipulate and control people, would love for the American system to change so that it no longer offers protections to the people but rather gives every protection to those with money and power, it is amazing and sad how many Christians have followed them with this madness. Instead of looking to Christ, and the way he resisted oppression, helping promote the poor and the vulnerable, they look to the rich and powerful and believe any resistance to them is somehow a resistance to the order God set up in the world. Instead of taking care of those in need, looking to heal the sick, and give relief to those unjustly imprisoned, they think the sick must suffer, and if this means people will die, they should die, just as those who are imprisoned are rightfully imprisoned for violating the laws put in place by those God put in positions of power. These Christians do not reflect upon the message of the Gospel, and they do not consider the inconsistency of their interpretation of the Christian faith with basic Christian history: following their argument, if Christians are to obey authorities without question, they should have sacrificed to Caesar, and if they didn’t do so, they alone are at fault for their breaking the law.

Yes, I am sick. And it is ironic that, as far as I know, I am finally infected with covid under Trump’s second presidency (if I ever had it before, it would have been asymptomatic). It makes me think of how things have changed between his first and second administrations. For his first administration, there remained some oversight and pushback against Trump’s worst instincts, something which seems to have angered him so that now, we see him fighting against all those who restricted his power, dismantling those agencies which he feels hindered his power grab. We are seeing the beginning of the destruction of the American system. It is possible to challenge Trump and put a stop to all that he is doing, but that will require the American people to know and understands what is going on, to see the existential threat, and give a collective no to Trump and what he plans to do. There is time, but right now, so many of those who will be hurt do not understand the threat; they believe what they are being told, and so they rejoice every time Musk declares an agency set up for their own good is destroyed. I fear when they experience the fall out of all that Trump and Musk has done (illegally), it will be too late, and the damage not only will be done, but it will have become the new norm.

* This Is Part XLII Of My Personal Reflections And Speculations Series

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N.B.: While I read comments to moderate them, I rarely respond to them. If I don’t respond to your comment directly, don’t assume I am unthankful for it. I appreciate it. But I want readers to feel free to ask questions, and hopefully, dialogue with each other. I have shared what I wanted to say, though some responses will get a brief reply by me, or, if I find it interesting and something I can engage fully, as the foundation for another post. I have had many posts inspired or improved upon thanks to my readers.

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