The Dangers of Politicizing the Coronavirus

“It is not often that everyone in the country faces the same towering life-and-death challenge all at once, which is why we should drop the cheap partisan smears and start talking honestly about the greatest threat we have confronted in a generation.”

It is July, and the Coronavirus (COVID-19) is back on the front pages. A recent glance at The New York Times’ homepage revealed that “Florida Reports High Number of New Daily Cases,” “Texas Orders Bars Shut,” and “Younger People Account for ‘Disturbing’ Proportion of U.S. Virus Surge.” Beneath these headlines, there were helpful articles with titles like “What are the symptoms of the coronavirus, and what should you do if you have them?” and “Pandemic parenting was already relentless. Then came summer.”

A few weeks ago, the headlines were different: George Floyd had just been killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, and the country was erupting. Beyond the mass peaceful protests, there was widespread rioting and looting. Senator Tom Cotton wanted to send in the 82nd Airborne, Chris Cuomo demanded to know “where it says that protests are supposed to be polite and peaceful,” and the debate over the riots and the measures to get them under control was as bitter as it was polarized. It seemed like every newspaper homepage, Twitter feed, and Facebook status was about police violence, racism, and the chaos in American streets.

One day, the pandemic was all we could talk about. The next, COVID-19 was in the background—an important piece of context and something to bear in mind, sure, but a second-order concern.

This shift in emphasis was jarring in its immediacy and extent. One day, the pandemic was all we could talk about. The next, COVID-19 was in the background—an important piece of context and something to bear in mind, sure, but a second-order concern. Perhaps the most striking moment in this mass realignment of priorities was when a group of almost 1,300 public health professionals signed an open letter which expressed concern about “emerging narratives that seemed to malign demonstrations as risky for the public health” and stated, “As public health advocates, we do not condemn these gatherings as risky for COVID-19 transmission.”