Double victim of virus and social injustice

The viral underclass: human suffering when inequality and disease collide Stephen W. Thrasher Celadon (2022)

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how social, economic, racial and political disadvantage arises and contributes to inequalities in health conditions and healthcare. People living in crowded environments, individuals with pre-existing conditions, and those working in unprotected public-facing environments were all hit earlier and harder than others.1950s From polio in the United States to the HIV epidemic of the 1980s to the Ebola disaster of the 2010s, viruses have run amok along structural inequalities.

by Stephen Thrasher viral underclass We explore these inequalities through powerful case studies of people in the United States who have been doubly affected by both the virus and the circumstances surrounding the disease. An example is from college wrestler Michael Johnson, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for engaging in unprotected sex while he had HIV, and that he would catch his COVID-19 even if he escaped to the countryside. Examples range from black residents of Brooklyn, New York, who were unable to lower their risk. Or improvise your home office.

The book contains Thrasher’s original work, an analysis of the work of others, a discussion of political and economic structures, and a discussion of analytical and philosophical concepts. Thrasher has a PhD in American Studies and has published in academic journals, but is primarily an investigative journalist. viral underclass It is primarily an advocacy descriptive work. Evaluated as a social scientist, I find it to be accurate and insightful, but analytically incomplete. I kept scribbling notes like, “But what about XXX?” in the margin. When I assess it as a political and moral plea, it’s moving and unabsorbent, but I find it inadequate.”But what do we do?”

Thrasher begins with key observations made during the COVID-19 epidemic in New York in March 2020. The map of areas with the highest risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and death was the same as the map showing where people were most likely to become infected. You get HIV, you go to jail, you get harassed by the police.

Like other disasters such as floods and fires, viruses don’t consciously discriminate, Thrasher says. But “their effect discriminates against the bodies of the lower class, because they are placed in near danger by powerful human structural design”. Racism, environmental destruction, speciesism, disabilityism, heteronormativity, personalized shame, and “captivity” (where the population is controlled by fear of criminalization and imprisonment), and whites are immune contains the myth that there is Social ills ranging from disease to injustice. Synergy is what Thrasher describes as the United States’ unique and damaging insistence on individual responsibility, even in the face of shared needs and many inequalities.

Johnson’s story spans several chapters. He was a black athlete recruited to a small college in Missouri. In 2013, he was accused of having unprotected sex with at least five men without telling them he had HIV, and although he pleaded not guilty, each of his 30-year-olds was found guilty in 2015. He was sentenced to two years in prison at the same time. Johnson was released in 2019 after many protested the verdict and an appeals court deemed his trial “fundamentally unfair.”

The case of Democratic former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo illustrates another dynamic in which decisions by those in power affect many powerless individuals. Under Cuomo, a state recommendation issued on March 25, 2020, calls for New York City to accept hospitalized people with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 as long as they are medically stable. directed to an orphanage. Nursing homes were not allowed to test prospective residents for coronavirus. By May 8, 2020, more than 6,000 of her with COVID-19 had been moved from hospitals to nursing homes as he changed policies. An official in the Donald Trump administration at the time accused Cuomo of sowing “the seeds of an infection that has killed thousands of grandmothers and grandfathers,” an opinion shared by some Democrats.

Thrasher is a good investigator. Readers see how and why the story unfolds in certain ways, leaving them feeling angry, hopeless, and occasionally glimmers of hope. Isn’t Johnson’s biggest exploit the fact that he was allowed to graduate from high school despite being nearly illiterate and was sent to college just to shine on his wrestling team? How much blame should Cuomo have (according to him and his followers) for following the best medical advice for rehabilitating the elderly during these panicky months?

Thrasher assumes that if other people had the right perspective and information, their values ​​would lead them to support his social and policy proposals. Knowing the context would surely lead us all to agree that Johnson did not deserve a large prison sentence and that the US government has failed broadly to make HIV drugs available. public prevention”. Thrasher may be right on both counts, but if recent U.S. politics has taught us anything, those who share a commitment to justice and dignity are more likely than not to realize them. It means that we cannot assume that we will agree to appropriate policies and practices.

viral underclass It provides motivation and evidence for those who already agree with Thrasher’s views, but may not be convincing for others. Something more is needed for those who aren’t sure that members of groups like this aren’t responsible for their situation. The list of unjust structural design books is mind-bogglingly long and deep. It is not enough to conclude, like Thrasher, that our hierarchy may melt away if we believe that ‘you’ and ‘I’ are not separate and that we face common challenges. . Yes, I hope, but as history shows, a commitment to the collective good does not mean a rejection of hierarchy.

Thrasher, of course, knows that his moral commitment is neither a plan of action nor the beginning of a plan of action. So he presents another proposition. Viruses “offer perhaps the best potential for new therapeutic ethics.” They “have the potential to help us create a world based on love and mutual respect for all living things”.

I hope Thrasher is right, but I still believe there is an urgent need for serious discussion of the structural reforms he advocates for collective punishment.

competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.