Siegel - Covid: The Politics of Fear and the Power of Science

COVID

THE POLITICS OF FEAR AND THE POWER OF SCIENCE

TURNER PUBLISHING COMPANY

Nashville, Tennessee

www.turnerpublishing.com

COVID: THE POLITICS OF FEAR AND THE POWER OF SCIENCE

Copyright 2020 Marc Siegel

All rights reserved

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Cover design: Rebecca Lown

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Upon Request

9781684426867 Hardcover

9781684426874 eBook

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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COVID

THE POLITICS
OF FEAR
AND THE POWER
OF SCIENCE

Marc Siegel, M.D.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

O n the 27th of January, 2020, I warned my TV viewers about a virus that had originated in Wuhan and spread to several other countries, with five reported cases in the United States at the time. Ive been studying contagions for a really long time, and Ive never seen anything like this, I said. At the time, the Chinese government was reporting that at least 106 deaths had been attributed to the coronavirus, with more than 4,500 confirmed cases in the country. The state department urged Americans to reconsider traveling to Wuhan and ordered all non-emergency U.S. personnel and their families to leave China immediately. I called Chinas delay in imposing quarantines and travel restrictions reckless and really, really scary, and indicated that I felt that the actual number of cases in China was far greater than was being reported. I also brought into question the role of the World Health Organization in obscuring the truth about the emerging pandemic and irresponsibly calling it a regional problem only.

Unfortunately, the information coming out of China proved to be unreliable and, in many cases, inaccurate. Meanwhile China restricted internal travel but continued to allow international travel including to Europe (where the virus soon spread).

Not only did we learn too late that you could easily acquire this virus from asymptomatic carriers and patients right before they developed symptoms (the rationale for increased mask use and enforced social distancing), but we also had to learn, here in New York City on very ill patients that this was a multi-organ inflammatory disease that often caused blood clotting and a vasculitis.

It also became clear how important travel bans in advance of the virus taking root were, since once this transmissible virus was in your community it would continue to spread despite lockdowns. New Zealand understood this better than perhaps any other country, and instituted an almost total travel ban that has kept the case numbers close to zero for months.

Here in the U.S. and elsewhere, lockdown had a tremendous economic, physical, and emotional cost, as routine medical care was delayed, jobs lost, and depression and suicidal thoughts soared, especially among our young, who were out of work or out of school, living in a state of relative isolation.

Any attempt to put this pandemic in proper medical context was immediately overcome by politics. The virus itself humbled us the more we learned about it. Here in the U.S., it ravaged New York first, hitting the media nerve directly, and our suffering was felt everywhere as this respiratory virus ravaged us before moving on. Would the cold weather bring it back? We learned that it was a wildly contagious virus that caused inflammatory sequelae. It inflamed the inside of blood vessels and could damage the lungs, the heart, the brain, and other organs. It was hard to dismiss most cases as being mild when it turned out that some people went undiagnosed until a mental fog or fatigue or shortness of breath persisted (known as long haulers). This virus preyed on the defenseless, ravaging defenseless nursing homes most of all. Daily case numbers were trumpeted by the New York Times and the Washington Post, the slowly decreasing number of hospitalizations or deaths were obscured.

Mask wars ruled; those who believed they offered almost complete protection from this virus and those who insisted on the personal freedom not to wear them, despite the risk. And the freedom to protest racial injustice was positioned versus the freedom to attend a presidential rally or attend a church gathering, all events risking spread of a virus if it were there in the crowd. Rioters looted and burned cars and buildings, definitely not socially distanced.

Of course, both passionate protesters or shouting ralliers were more likely to take few precautions, potentially spreading virus. Public health was supposed to triumph in all cases but gave way to political expediency. Meanwhile, the inexpensive arthritis drug hydroxychloroquine was attacked by the presidents opponents because he praised it and then took it himself, before it was fully studied. Others swore by it despite the lack of proof. When news that an anti-viral drug, remdesivir, which cost thousands, had a moderate effect against COVID, the results were trumpeted beyond the actual real world use. The politics of fear obscured the science of a widely spreading virus which gummed up the health care system and interfered with life-saving treatments for cancer, heart disease, etc. As Spring gave way to Summer and Summer to Fall, heedless young people spread the virus, putting older or sicker people at risk. There was the hope of a new, cheap rapid accurate antigen test for screening that was due to be distributed widely, and there was growing hope for a vaccine, meanwhile, there were large outbreaks at college campuses. The presidential election polarized everything to the nth degree. The Republican National Convention took place on the lawn of the White House with nary a mask or physically distant attendee or COVID test in sight. And the unruly riots that broke out afterward seemed more likely to spread the virus if there was any in the crowds. And though the Democratic National Convention took place virtually, at the same time, the Democrats supported the cheekto-jowl protests. The rule of the day was the politics of fear and intimidation trumping the absolute need for public health. As we approached the Fall, we remained in a dark place in America, with many of our restaurants, theaters, schools and workplaces still shuttered, awaiting the promise of a vaccine, and with only physical distancing and masking and personal hygiene to protect us. There were many COVID treatments in the pipeline, but there was nothing for prevention or early treatment that we can all agree on. We needed to stop all the finger pointing and ridiculing, and replace all the dogma and self-righteousness with kindness and respect, with courage instead of fear, but that wasnt so easy for such a politically divided nation.