Politics and Outbreaks
POLITICAL INFLUENCE WITHIN OUR SOCIETY
For one of my final papers in my biology course, I decided to research and discuss the connection between politics and outbreaks such as pandemics and epidemics. The more I researched, the more intrigued I became so I thought it would be fun to write down a little summary of my findings.
COVID-19
As we all know, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic took a big toll around the world, and mass hysteria was the initial reaction. Within America, our government quickly called for a country-wide quarantine as well as mask mandates. Even though such responses were made by our government, citizens were quick to fully question how our country was handling things. Conspiracy theories were made, and some political actors heightened them through public speeches and social media posts.
Former President Trump is one of the biggest examples of how a political actor heavily influenced the public when it came to Covid-19. He tried to belittle the virus by saying it is just like the flu and within days the cases would become nonexistent, which did not happen in the slightest. Supporters of Trump began to consume this misinformation and even started to question the virus’s existence as a whole. People actually thought Covid wasn’t real, or they thought scientists developed it in a laboratory. These theories led to lack of care, which led to a decrease in mask usage and social distancing, and overall led to more spread.
At the end of this article, I linked a timeline of former President Trump’s responses to SARS-CoV-2 overtime. It is a pretty interesting read.
One excerpt from the timeline that I personally find the most interesting is Trump stating, “We will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization” on May 29, 2020. Also don’t forget that he publicly suggested injecting bleach into our bodies.
OPIOID EPIDEMIC
Issues regarding opioid use and addiction has been ongoing for over a decade now and not many political actors address it. According to studies that I researched for my paper, political actors tend to address health concerns if it directly affects the area they represent. Political polarization comes into play as well, specifically within individuals that identify as Republican. Poor health is associated with less participation, which directly is contributed to those who identify as Republicans. Those in the Republican party do not necessarily prioritize health related issues, which includes the ongoing concern with opioid use disorder.
What I find the most saddening about this epidemic is the fact that opioids are still being prescribed to patients, regardless of the risk of addiction. By the year of 2016, the use of opioids increased in which 11.2 million Americans were misusing them, 2.1 million were labeled as opioid use disorder (OUD), and over 42,000 died from opioid-related overdoses.
OVERALL
Recent outbreaks within America turned into mass hysteria and misinformation due to political actors and the conspiracy theories that spread across social media. We human beings are highly influential, and when a crisis occurs we will follow anything a person in higher power says. I might write more surrounding this topic because it is very interesting to me and people should become more aware of how influential politics can be.
