The way we talk about the virus makes it harder to kill

The coronavirus pandemic is a unique social circumstance in that it impacts everyone on earth to some degree. But our American culture – one that values the rights of individuals over our collective responsibility to each other – offers an especially target rich environment for a disease whose eradication relies so heavily on universal action.

The story of the pandemic in America is far more complicated than an infected traveler importing it to our shores. America’s failure to meet the moment is as much a story of systems as it is of individuals: the incentives that fuel our healthcare system, the culture of work in our country, even the way we choose our government leaders.

But that isn’t how we hear those government leaders talk about the virus. We hear metaphors like “invisible enemy,” and we repeat them, placing the story of the virus and its defeat in a wartime frame. War is highly episodic. It is a moment in time. It starts and it ends. When social ills are framed in this way, it limits our ability to access appropriate solutions. We search for reactive responses rather than systemic reform. It’s like talking about addiction as an outcome of individual behavior vs. a condition resulting from mental health impairments, generational poverty, and a lack of access to quality healthcare. The former places the onus of the problem on the addict, in which case the solution must be theirs, as well. The latter places the addict within a system, inviting the kinds of solutions that might actually make a difference: policy reform, structural change, and public investment.

When we talk about the virus using episodic or individualist frames, we shift blame away from systems and towards individuals. Many of us (myself among them) like to blame the president and his incompetence as reason for the severity of the pandemic in America. We aren’t wrong. But the truth is the structures that offered an avenue for the virus to infect far too many came long before this administration. Inequitable healthcare distribution, disinvestment in poorer communities, even the design of our food system are all contributing factors to COVID ravaging some populations more than others. And our cultural obsession with individual rights – seeded early in how young students learn about the origins of our nation – leads to a society where government mandates, even in the name of public health, are met with suspicion and scorn.

Individualism makes it easy to blame our problems on people rather than systems. And it gives us license to blame other people’s problems on their own behavior. We are doing it now with the virus. How many of us instinctively seek out the origin story when hearing of an individual’s COVID diagnosis? When hearing about how a relative of mine was infected, my initial instinct was: “What was she doing there without a mask?!?!”

In these moments, we lose sight of our society’s lack of preparedness, our inability to equip our hospitals, or our shared responsibility to protect each other. We give the systems a pass when they don’t deserve one.