I admit to being surprised that this column in today's New York Times was not featured in the pundit roundup, nor have I seen anything else written about it.
I think people should read it. As is the case with much of Blow's writing, it is very much to the point.
Consider"
The absolute hysteria surrounding the Ebola crisis underscores what is wrong with our politics and the policies they spawn.
We aren’t battling a virus in this country as much as a mania, one whipped up by reactionary politicians and irresponsible media. We should be following the science in responding to the threat, but instead we are being led by silliness. And that comes at heavy cost.
Since there is no real threat in this country - so far 9 case of whom only one died, a person who contracted the disease in Nigeria and was originally misdiagnosed, the real issue should be fighting Ebola in Africa, which our hysteria and stupid quarantines may make more difficult.
Blow writes powerfully about Kati Hickox:
Hickox is a paladin being treated like a leper.
As Hickox wrote in the Dallas Morning News:
“I had spent a month watching children die, alone. I had witnessed human tragedy unfold before my eyes. I had tried to help when much of the world has looked on and done nothing.”
He nails Chris Christie and Anne Coulter. He reminds us that oceans are not perfect buffers.
There is more.
I am going to push fair use a bit. Consider these two paragraphs:
As the World Health Organization’s director general, Dr. Margaret Chan, recently pointed out: “The outbreak spotlights the dangers of the world’s growing social and economic inequalities. The rich get the best care. The poor are left to die.”
Chan also pointed out that there is no vaccine or cure for Ebola — some 40 years after it emerged — in part because “Ebola has been, historically, geographically confined to poor African nations.”
For me two things jump out from those two brief paragrapnhs:
The rich get the best care. The poor are left to die. That has been all too true of our domestic health care system as well, something I have seen in my volunteering in free dental clinics in Appalachia.
But then there is also this: “Ebola has been, historically, geographically confined to poor African nations.” The racism displayed by being unwilling to provide the resources to develop vaccines (Ebola after all is caused by a virus) and provide appropriate resources has been because it is "other people" meaning poorer people of color on another continent.
Blow also talks about the politics of Ebola, and more.
You can and should read the entire column.
There is also the manipulation of fear, about which Blow writes:
Fear has become — and to some degree, has always been — a highly exploitable commodity in the political and media marketplaces. Both profit from public anxiety.
Perhaps it is time to remember words from 8 decades back, from one of our greatest presidents, that "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
Read the Blow column.
Pass it on.
Peace.