Boomer doomer and Watching your health: COVID-19 II

As I sat down to write another post, and despite having covered it pre definitely, I couldn't help but feel inadequate if I didn't further address the topic that has streamed in and taken a permanent spot on our screens, in our papers, our conversations, texts and thus our conscience- the Coronavirus. There simply isn't anything else left to talk about, or more accurately there isn't any time, as people and governments around the world actively battle, or put on their shields in anticipation of, this aforementioned virus.

And it seems to be valid, we haven't seen a pandemic since over a decade. Many readers may have vivid, or perhaps little depending on which end of the coronavirus risk scale you fall upon, recollections of 2009 Swine flu pandemic. It had given people a second taste of a flu pandemic, the first being the Spanish Flu of 1918 which remains the most deadly pandemic in history, and left 1.4 billion infected and killed between 151,700 and 575,400 people. While deadly in it's own right, the 2009 Swine flu had a mortality rate of 0.02 percent, which pales in comparison to Coronavirus's 2 percent and was less contagious. Another key difference is that most deaths from the Swine Flu were children and young adults, while as many might have already been made aware of, Covid-19 is most deadly to those over 60.

So yes, Covid-19 is rather worrying once you ponder upon it, but how it has impacted the world is worth noting. The cracks within our society, social and governing system are all coming to the surface.

There has always been a generational gap, one that I expect will maintain when our new generation ages and feels the uncomfortable shove of a newer era that we may not understand or care for. However, it has been awfully profound within the newest Gen Zs and the baby boomers. They've seen wars, poverty and troubles that thanks to the constant human evolution we might not have to personally face (of course there are still wars in the middle east, poverty is rampant, yet we all could argue the world is a right better place to live in now), but along with that we've inherited broken and corrupt systems, ever-rising house prices making ownership only a fever dream and the unsettling fear of never being good enough.

Add on the constant blast of information that the internet has afforded us and an odd political era, and you'll have yourself a generation of desensitized, depressed yet still angry kids. A recipe bound to anger the nanas, and grandpas. But what does this gap have to do with this pandemic?

You see this virus, which targets the elderly, has been labelled by many online as the 'boomer doomer' or some other variation. Of course, that isn't very ideal at a time when governments hope to lead united nations to fight, this 'war' as it has been referred countless times. But it's true that other than a few outlying cases, such as the 21 year old victim in the U.K. with 'no underlying health conditions', the majority of the death toll consists of the elderly. The vindictiveness or for a lot others the indifference they hold for those that are more vulnerable has lead to the them skirting a lot of public health advice to take advantage of these days of quarantine and cheaper flights.

It's easy to blame all the rebellion on the young however, there are many others- middle aged and even elderly- who are finding it easy to overlook government advice. Santa Monica in the US had to close the parking lot in it's beaches because of overcrowding. This brings to question of what extent can these 'stay at home' orders and others important services during a pandemic, such as government access to health data, be efficiently carried out in a free democracy.

We've seen a range of reactions across the governments of the world. The first case in hand is of the source- China. To say that, if official data is to be trusted, they've handled the virus well is an understatement. There actions have been swift, almost prophetic, and widely successful in curbing the virus. It has only 55 new cases as I type this, quite little when compared to nearly 9000 in the US, 6000 in Italy, 6200 in Spain and countless others around the world. It has only around 3000 deaths, which seem to have come to a proper halt, compared to Italy's ever growing 9000 and Spain's 4000+ deaths.

So how did they achieve this marvelous feet? Well, in China's "boal approach" as labelled by WHO (world health organization), it has had strict social distancing and aggressive month long quarantines. Not too different from what other countries are doing you might think, however, China has implemented a level of intrusion that many democracies couldn't even dream of. The government has incorporated technology to dystopian levels, with people having to sign in to get into their homes, reporting all travel history simultaneously. Facial recognition technology has been tracking people, flagging those without masks and spotting high temperatures in crowds. So any exempt from the stringent lockdown implemented throughout Wuhan, the hub of the virus, have no chance slipping through with the governments eyes constantly affied upon them. “When we go out or stay in a hotel, we can feel a pair of eyes looking at us at any time," an activist says. Many expect that this creepy watch will continue even as China begins to lift quarantine.

So is this level of surveillance something people across the western world willing to accept if it could help the pandemic efforts? Is basic privacy something we'd be willing, or for developing countries without resources for such high-tech, able to trade in for efficiency in times of crisis? If not now, then possibly in preparation of a future, potentially worse, crisis.

Perhaps that's a question we all should be pondering during this long quarantine break.