Last Seen Blogs
Text
Should we Politicize Global Health Crises?
Should the politicization of COVID-19 stay or should we eradicate it? This is the question we should be asking ourselves for the next global health crisis. Most of us can’t imagine another global health crisis happening again but COVID-19 shocked the world and no one saw it coming. The next step is asking ourselves whether politicizing COVID-19 is helpful or detrimental to the U.S. I will talk about the pros and cons of politicizing COVID-19 and how your final decision might change.
Starting off with a positive, the politicization of COVID-19 had many people rethink what the government gives them. The COVID-19 vaccine is the one in question. The vaccine was rushed out in many people's personal opinions I have gathered. The rushed vaccine made people doubt that it even worked or was even safe and started questioning why they trusted the government so much. People started questioning authority, hurray… right? Well, yes a victory for Conservatives since they don’t like the government telling them what to do. Also, this could be considered a negative since people started to believe other people online who had no medical background. Many of you probably saw people drinking bleach, taking horse tranquilizers, Hydroxychloroquine, and many other sketchy remedies. These so-called cures for COVID-19 stemmed from questioning the government which was positive until people started believing people with even less knowledge about COVID-19. You would think the people that question the government would wait and see what happens with the COVID-19 vaccine since scientists are working around the clock to perfect the vaccine. But no, people went straight to the internet and believed any random person.
Now starting with the most blatantly obvious negative is the division it created. As if we needed any more division. After George Floyd died which sparked the black lives matter movement (BLM), it created major division among everyone. This division was necessary, unlike the COVID-19 division which could have been disregarded if people could have civilized conversations. The division was mainly anti-vax and vaccinated people. The vaccinated side said we should take what the government gives them and the anti-vax side claimed that they rushed the vaccine out too fast and it is dangerous. The positive that relates to the division from politicizing COVID-19 is that you always have something to talk about. All family reunions these days are about COVID, masks, vaccination status, and life in general.
A negative about us as humans in regards to politicizing COVID-19 is that we are close-minded and refuse to listen to other people with different viewpoints. Everyone has experienced it because when I express my viewpoints, they always try to explain why they are right and they never are… Jokes aside, these days we have become so close-minded since politics have been at each other's necks since the past election in 2020. There are some people that are open-minded and civilized interactions can occur. Too many people are one-sided including everyone in my family and it makes civilized discussions impossible to happen. Already starting at a disadvantage, politicizing COVID-19 would be a horrible idea. Actually, we are made to discuss and argue so politicizing COVID-19 adds to things to talk about and gain information from others.
People stood up for the right of America to be a free country. What I mean by that is the vaccine mandate was a mandatory vaccination. When President Joe Biden said it wasn’t going to be a forced vaccination months before making an Executive Order for the vaccine. President Biden created division amongst his own team and “notable members wouldn’t sign off on the Executive Order” (Krieg). Krieg from CNN stating the quote above shows that most of them thought it was the wrong way to approach mass vaccination status.
The positive about this is when the vaccine was mandated it created political outcries from truckers, school administrators, private, and public offices to revoke the Executive Order. I would also be thinking how the hell is this a positive, well the political outcries were heard, and eventually, the mandate was taken down. It totally wasn’t from the overwhelming court cases and the courts siding with the people. What sucks is that it took court cases and the courts siding with the people to finally force President Biden's hand to remove the vaccine mandate. So was politicizing COVID-19 in this case worth it since it ended up forcing President Biden's hand to remove the vaccine mandate and let the people choose if they want to receive the shot or not. What I should say is 5 shots or whatever number ends up being in the future. With the vaccine, mandate lifted many people kept their jobs since they did not have to be vaccinated. On the downside, the people fired for not adhering to the guidelines ended up being fired for a 2-month fling for the mandate.
In general, there are many good points on each side to keep politicizing the global health crisis or to stop politicizing COVID-19. So, in conclusion, there is no right answer. I will not take a side since I am taking an exploratory stance on this subject. After reading the pros and cons, what are your ideas? Will politicization stay since we always bring politics into everything? Respond below and or share it with friends and family, Thanks!
1 note
·
View note