This isn’t a war, coexistence with virus is the way to get through this pandemic

Published 18 July 2020, Last update 5 June 2022

The idea that we humans are at war against virus isn’t so suitable at this moment. In order to lessen the social negatives in society, coexistence is better to be proposed rather than war or fight. We are not sure about how long it will take to end this pandemic and how many waves will come. Stricter confinement imposes too much struggles or burdens on people, the balance of preventive measures and liberties of people need to be shared by society.

Human societies have experienced spreads of plagues in the history. In 21st century, the pandemic of COVID-19 hit literally the globe. The wave first began in Asia, and the epicenter moved to Europe, and then to South America[1]. Historically the population on the earth increased tremendously, while we came to be able to take very little time to travel the globe[2]. The spread of virus from one place to another is most likely to be seen anywhere now. Countries made decisions related to movements of people and ceasing non-essential life activities ordered or requested by authorities. A variety of non-essential commercials had to be closed and authorities started to control citizens’ actions.

At least some parts of Europe and Asia relaxed lockdowns and state of emergency in May. Japan’s state of emergency was lifted in all regions on 25th[3]. UK has different standards of easing lockdown measures depending on nations as national governments in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland decides to what extent they relax lockdown[4]. Although the first wave of the pandemic which Asia and Europe faced now slowed down and governments decided to move to the eased measures; citizens are called on to take social distancing and other preventive measures. The relaxation would be likely to cause the number of the infected to be up again.

What matters is that to what extent we refrain from taking activities, caring about the risks of infecting others and having concern on whether the second wave would happen as referenced with the Spanish Flu which the second wave had “several times higher” “mortality rates”[5] — the Spanish Flu by which 50 million people passed away[6] had three waves: the first from the “spring of 1918” to the “summer or late spring”[7], the second from “the last part of August” “towards the end of the year”, the third “started from “early months of 1919”—, while we take activities as we cannot continue our life being completely isolated.

From early phase of the pandemic, Hiroki Azuma, Japanese critic and philosopher suggested coexistence[8]. Coexistence with virus is different from the confrontation which often is perceived from remarks of politicians.

Emmanuel Macron, French president, said on 16 March, “we are at war”[9] and expressed “all action of the government and the parliament has to be turned, from now on, toward the combat against the epidemic[…]”[10]. The German chancellor Angela Merkel also expressed “fight” in her podcast on 28 March[11]. The New York governor Andrew Quomo said “we are at war”[12] on 30 March. The mindset that we are at war or fighting puts us on the frame of binary opposition: we human beings fight against the virus. However, what matters is to what extent we take and restrict our social activities so that the negative effects are minimized. Even if human beings try to fight against virus or beat it, the end of the fight is difficult to see as virus evolves: viruses mutate[13] which is, needless to say, one of the concerns on COVID-19. And the war against virus has people overwork for fighting against it that is too much burdens to bear for the continuity of their society and life, in fact we are in the state of being not sure about how long the unstable state will continue.

In this circumstance, restricting people’s activities by the central government oppresses citizens’ liberty. Compared with the description of the plague “at the end of seventeenth century”[14] written by Michel Foucault, French philosopher, in terms of technology or more democratized societies, the life is changed from 17th century but the situation of lockdowns in the COVID-19 pandemic can still look like “Everyone locked up in his cage[…]”[15] that people are required to stay at home[16], though there wasn’t need for citizens to answer from window of house to syndic on street who everyday comes to check “the state of each” person. This time, a large number of people have been supporting or at least not (so much) protesting against the governments’ actions that centralizes social system. It has to do with “communovirus”[17] written by Jean-Luc Nancy, French philosopher, that is “the virus which communize us”[18]. Communism and democracy, two different forms of social structure vary in terms of recognition of people. This is related to dignity of each person, and in the COVID-19 pandemic, it got closer to centralized form of social system since people are given orders by authorities and follow them, centralized structure tried efficiently to prevent the spread.

Unlike lockdowns, Sweden took a different approach to the epidemic. Their life is not the same as the before-epidemic and they are taking preventive measures including social distancing and working at home, but different from other countries, schools and businesses including restaurants and cafes are open[19]. In the data of Total confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people from Our World in Data, as of 15 June, the figure in Sweden is 482.61 worse than 103.07 of Denmark, and 44.64 of Norway, lower than 614.24 of UK, 568.04 of Italy, and 580.39 of Spain[20].

Lockdown restricts liberty of persons. We prefer democracy rather than communism has to do with dignity. Central governments strictly regulates peoples’ activities and lock up persons in their homes and permits to go out when necessary gives impression of treating animals. It would not lead to well-being of people. Declaring it is a war, and give extremely top-down decisions ordered into our life makes people extremely struggle and distorts societies. The distortions are accumulated to those who are in vulnerable or disadvantaged positions in the pandemic. Usually what we cannot do by ourselves rely on others outside of our houses, but isolation which is promoted to all in lockdown makes difficult for us to request help outside. Of course, preventive measures including wearing mask and avoiding crowded places would be better to be taken so that we can prevent the spread, yet in the meantime we should not give exceedingly social negatives to our society. We cannot defeat the virus as the number of the infected couldn’t be zero even if we invent vaccine at this moment. We, human beings, have to coexist with virus anyway.

[1] Reuters. South America a new COVID epicenter, Africa reaches 100,000 cases. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-who-regions/south-america-a-new-covid-epicentre-africa-reaches-100000-cases-who-idUSKBN22Y2IV Published 23 May 2020, Accessed 7 July 2020.

[2] Darwin College Lecture Series. Plagues and history, by Chris Dobson and Mary Dobson. Around 7:40-. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVVr096kZtg Published 24 February 2020 Accessed 5 June 2022.

[3] AP. Japan lifts coronavirus emergency in all remaining areas. https://apnews.com/ea1e26e3d06c2c7170cd4e49d0ad1e94 Published 25 May 2020. Accessed 7 July 2020.

[4] BBC. Lockdown update: All you need to know about new measures. https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-52530518 Published 10 June 2020. Accessed 13 June 2020.

[5] World Economic Forum. What happened in the Spanish Flu Epidemic in 1918. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVePfdimMOo Published 15 May 2020 on YouTube. Accessed 13 June 2020. Around 1:10-.

[6] World Economic Forum. What happened in the Spanish Flu Epidemic in 1918. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVePfdimMOo Published 15 May 2020 on YouTube. Accessed 13 June 2020.

[7] World Economic Forum. What happened in the Spanish Flu Epidemic in 1918. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVePfdimMOo Published 15 May 2020 on YouTube. Accessed 13 June 2020. Around 0:22-.

[8] For example, a tweet by Hiroki Azuma. https://twitter.com/hazuma/status/1255454986202419200 Posted on 29 April 2020. Accessed 4 May 2020.

[9] Emmanuel Macron. Adresse aux Français. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEV6BHQaTnw. Around 9:41-. Broadcasted on 17 March 2020. Accessed 5 May 2020. BBC. Coronavirus: ‘We are at war’ – Macron. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/51917380/coronavirus-we-are-at-war-macron Published 16 March 2020. Accessed 5 May 2020.

[10] Emmanuel Macron. Adresse aux Français. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEV6BHQaTnw. Around 9:41-. Broadcasted on 17 March 2020. Accessed 5 May 2020. Around 10:01-. L’Élysée. Adresse aux Français, 16 mars 2020. https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2020/03/16/adresse-aux-francais-covid19 Published 16 March 2020. Accessed 6 May 2020.

[11] Transkript Audio-Podcast „Corona“. https://www.bundeskanzlerin.de/resource/blob/822020/1736006/7d89bc115a396ccdefd63dc073f84f92/download-pdf-data.pdf Accessed 6 May 2020. ドイツ連邦共和国大使館・総領事館. 新型コロナウイルス感染症対策に関するメルケル首相のメッセージ（Audio Podcast). https://japan.diplo.de/ja-ja/themen/politik/-/2331266 Published 29 March 2020. Accessed 6 May 2020. A tweet explains the podcast on 28 March 2020 by Andy Eckardt. https://twitter.com/ameckardt/status/1243834404390285315 Posted on 28 March 2020. Accessed 6 May 2020.

[12] CNBC. Cuomo says he doesn’t want to fight with Trump over politics in coronavirus response: ‘I think it’s anti-American’. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/30/coronavirus-cuomo-says-he-doesnt-want-to-fight-with-trump-over-politics.html Published 30 March 2020. Accessed 14 June 2020.

[13] Ian Sample & Nicolas Davis. Will Covid-19 mutate into a more dangerous virus? Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/10/will-covid-19-mutate-into-a-more-dangerous-virus. Published 22 May 2020. Accessed 20 June 2020.

[14] European Journal of Psychoanalysis. Coronavirus and philosophers. http://www.journal-psychoanalysis.eu/coronavirus-and-philosophers/ Accessed 15 June 2020.

[15] European Journal of Psychoanalysis. Coronavirus and philosophers. http://www.journal-psychoanalysis.eu/coronavirus-and-philosophers/ Accessed 15 June 2020.

[16] European Journal of Psychoanalysis. Coronavirus and philosophers. http://www.journal-psychoanalysis.eu/coronavirus-and-philosophers/ Accessed 15 June 2020.

[17] Jean-Luc Nancy. Communovirus. https://www.liberation.fr/debats/2020/03/24/communovirus_1782922 Published 24 March 2020. Accessed 16 June 2020.

[18] Jean-Luc Nancy. Communovirus. https://www.liberation.fr/debats/2020/03/24/communovirus_1782922 Published 24 March 2020. Accessed 16 June 2020.

[19] Channel 4 News. Is Sweden’s controversial approach to coronavirus working? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCOSlfbOfm4 Around 0:30-. Posted on 30 April 2020. Accessed 10 May 2020. Reuters. Sweden’s COVID-19 approach explained. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMwBw9iwQQw Posted on 30 April 2020. Accessed 17 June 2020.

[20] Our World in Data. Total confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-covid-deaths-per-million?tab=chart&year=2020-05-10&country=NOR+DNK+SWE+ESP+ITA+GBR Accessed 17 June 2020.