Opinion – Paul Krugman: What to do with our pandemic anger

After so many years, New York City remains the United States’ biggest gateway to the world — a situation that brings many good things, but also makes it a place where new strains of the coronavirus can spread quickly.

The good news is that the city appears to have weathered the rapidly receding omnic wave relatively well. The hospital system was overwhelmed but not broken; according to city hall data, “only” 2,846 people died of Covid-19 between December 5 and January 22.

It’s a very different story from what happened during the first wave in 2020, when several observers suggested that New York was uniquely vulnerable because of its high population density and reliance on public transport — a diagnosis that proved false when the coronavirus spread. all over the country.

This time, the city was able to react much better, in part because the vast majority of its residents are vaccinated and generally follow the rules about wearing masks in public spaces, showing proof of vaccination before dining in closed restaurants, etc. In other words, New Yorkers have behaved quite responsibly by American standards.

Unfortunately, American standards are pretty bad.

The United States has done a lousy job in dealing with Covid. We’ve had more deaths, as a percentage of the population, than any other big, rich country, with the disparity even greater during the wave of the omicron than before. Why? Because many Americans have not behaved responsibly.

I know I’m not the only one who is enraged by this irresponsibility, which has been spurred on by politicians and other public figures. Certainly many Americans feel a fervent anger against the minority who have put the rest of us at risk and degraded the quality of life in our country.

There has been remarkably little research on how Americans who are acting responsibly view those who are not — the stance and occasional violence of those against masks and vaccines make all the headlines — but the available research suggests that during the delta wave most vaccinated Americans became frustrated or enraged with the unvaccinated. I wouldn’t be surprised if that number has increased with the omni, so Americans who are tired of their countrymen not doing the right thing today are a silent majority.

Oh, and don’t tell me that the way you behave during a pandemic is merely an individual choice. I don’t claim any special expertise in this science, but there seems to be clear evidence that wearing a mask in certain settings has helped to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Vaccines are also likely to reduce the spread, in large part because those vaccinated are less likely to become infected, even if they could be. More crucially, not getting vaccinated greatly increases a person’s risk of becoming seriously ill and overwhelming already overcrowded hospitals.

Also think about the burden of proof here. You don’t have to have 100% faith in the experts to admit that getting on a plane without a mask or having dinner indoors without getting vaccinated can put others at risk — and for what? I know some people in the red (Republican) cities imagine that the blue (Democrat) cities have become places of insane tyranny, but the truth is that at this point New Yorkers with vaccination cards in their wallets and masks in their pockets can do pretty much whatever they want, at the cost of minimal inconvenience.

What that means, in turn, is that those who refuse to take basic precautions against Covid are being, at the very least, selfish — ignoring the well-being and comfort of their fellow citizens. At worst, they are engaged in deliberate aggression — putting others at risk to defend a point of view. And the fact that some people around us are deliberately putting others at risk takes a psychological toll. Tell me it doesn’t bother you when the person sitting in front of you in the aisle or standing behind you in line is ostensibly without a mask or keeping it down.

Much of this behavior is political. Republicans, fed by a constant diet of disinformation from the partisan media — did I mention that Fox News since last summer requires its employees to disclose their vaccination status? — are four times more likely than Democrats to not be vaccinated, and are much less likely to wear a mask when they go to the market. So the serious pandemic in the US largely reflects a bet on the part of right-wing politicians and opinion leaders that they can reap benefits from using basic public health precautions as part of the culture war.

The question is, isn’t there a way to make this cynical gamble backfire? Many Americans are enraged by the bad behavior that helped keep the pandemic going. This silent anger from those responsible should be a recognized political force.

I know that Democratic politicians are very reluctant to criticize any bloc of voters (Republicans don’t seem to have that problem). And it makes sense to loosen restrictions as the omicron dissipates. But I can’t see any reason not to charge politicians who encourage bad behavior. Early indications are that Virginia’s new governor, Glenn Youngkin, is already paying a price for his Covid policies that have loosened restrictions. Let’s hope this happens more.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves