Patriots Who Aid, but Will Not Fight, an Invading Enemy Virus
Surely it is our patriotic and humanitarian duty to vanquish the virus causing Covid-19.
A significant number of Americans, especially in the South, object to lockdowns and wearing masks, and refuse to take the vaccine for Covid-19, in denial of near universal scientific and medical opinion. Americans are not alone in this regard, but they may be the worst offenders. Such behavior spreads the virus more quickly than otherwise, and therefore kills more of our fellow citizens. Why then do we, who claim to love our country, do this? It may all come down to basic instincts.
In the past, when fellow citizens have been threatened with attack by a foreign power or foreign terrorists, patriots of all political persuasions have been quick to respond by signing up to fight the enemy. As an example, note the enthusiastic response from American patriots after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor during World War II and after foreign terrorists brought down the World Trade Center.
It is conceivable that evolution equipped tribal Man with a basic instinct to repel invaders, and when the tribe expands to a nation state, this instinct is called upon by State and media propaganda in wartime. Such instinctive behavior is often strong enough to overwhelm cultural norms and rationality. Note how the people of Europe plunged headlong into World War I in 1914, despite the existence of civilized culture and widespread religious observance at the time; and soldiers from both sides continued to bravely hurl their bodies against machine gun bullets for four long years, despite the irrationality of such carnage.
If this patriotism is such a strong instinct programmed into we humans, then why does it not seem to work so well against an invading enemy virus that is killing our countrymen? Why did primitive Man not evolve with a behavioral response when the invader was in the form of a pandemic? One obvious reason was that the enemy behind a pandemic was invisible and therefore its identity was unknown at the time. Primitive Man had no concept of micro-organisms. He attributed pandemics and epidemics to spirits and other supernatural causes, and behaved accordingly. As such, few instinctive and effective behavioral responses could be programmed in by evolution.
So what happened as a result? In the distant past, large swathes of the population were wiped out. Only those who had a natural resistance or immunity to infection, or who were able to distance themselves from the outbreaks, survived. This was a brutal example of natural selection and survival of the fittest. Nonetheless, we today are descendants of those primitive men and women who survived previous epidemics and pandemics by being lucky enough to have a resistance or immunity to all the infections. This was the origin of Nature’s protection for the human race against invisible viruses and other microbes.
Our immune system today does provide biological protection, but this is likely to fail against a novel virus, as we have found. So, this aside, we humans seem to have few natural instinctive behaviors to fight against viruses in a dynamic social setting to which most of us belong. This is especially the case when viral infections can spread from asymptomatic persons. So, we have to fall back upon socially engineered or forced behavioral responses such as mask mandates, social distancing and vaccines, to fight the virus.
In opposition to such measures, other basic instincts may come into play, possibly to our detriment. These may be strong enough in many cases to override cultural norms, and in some cases to even reinforce them. For example, evolution may have programmed us to have a visceral fear of creatures that inject venom directly into bodily tissues, such as spiders, scorpions and snakes. No doubt this instinctive avoidance behavior has saved many lives. It may also be behind the aversion of some people to hypodermic needles.
Also, evolution has programmed us humans to seek food and shelter for our own survival and that of the family, and this has morphed into seeking paid employment in the modern world, and to the promotion of related economic activity providing essential goods and services.
Moreover, we have evolved as social animals, thus enhancing our survivability through cooperating with each other. The fact that we humans have always worked in teams was responsible for our dominance over the Neanderthals and other primates during evolution. However, this has its downside when it comes to a pandemic, because we are strongly driven to congregate.
If any of these latter three basic instincts are frustrated by government efforts to curb the spread of the virus, such as vaccination programs, lockdowns and social distancing, then those efforts may be resisted strongly by some elements in our community. This we have observed.
Layered over these basic instincts, and reinforcing them, are cultural traits. For example, some among us distrust their government and the authorities, whom they see as force-feeding them with potentially harmful substances. Others believe that government intervention in matters of health is wrong, and health decisions should be left to the individual. Then again others have religious objections to vaccines. Churches, which leverage upon humans’ social instincts to congregate, continue to hold religious services, which may spread the virus, often with the support of their congregations.
Confounding the problem further, in these days of social media, advocacy media and shock jocks, misinformation and conspiracy theories are being spread about the virus and the side effects and efficacy of vaccines, through mischief, attention-seeking, validating one’s own screwball views, political pandering or just plain ignorance.
In some cases, there may be an element of misplaced bravery, or bravado, at play in those of you who defy the virus, or even death, by sticking to your normal routine and forgoing the vaccine. You may see this as emulating soldiers at war. Whilst humanitarian bravery during the pandemic by health workers, first responders and essential workers is commendable, when an ordinary Joe like you does it, then this does your fellow citizens no good at all; in fact it is counter-productive and spreads the disease, prolongs its outbreak and thereby facilitates mutations of the virus into more harmful variants.
So, what is to be done? Let us harness our patriotic and humanitarian instincts to prevent the spread of the virus to our fellow citizens and beyond, and thereby to save their lives. These are among the strongest basic instincts we possess.
If the appeal to patriotism, humanity and fear of the virus are not enough to change the behavior of recalcitrant people, then society needs to step up and play upon their other basic instincts. If they wish to socialize and congregate then they must be vaccinated before being allowed entry into indoor or crowded outdoor venues, except for the under-aged. Employers can also get to them through their need to earn their daily bread, by mandating vaccinations and masks in workplaces. Those who choose not to comply would be terminated, with exceptions for genuine medical cases. These measures are already in place in some parts of the US, and seem to be increasing vaccination rates. These might seem like wartime measures; but this is war, against the virus.