I Won’t Give It Up, I Won’t Give It Up

My heart is like a stone, as the old song goes. In the first weeks of the pandemic, I wrote that we faced a test of our collective and individual responsibility, judgment and solidarity. Today I am increasingly worried that I was right. If, in the first weeks of uncertainty and worry caused by a then unknown virus, there was still hope that people would trust science, expertise, facts and reason, today they share the wisdom and advice of Dr. Werner, head physician, and of Der Bergdoktor Potrč on social networks. The phenomenon of celebrity medicine is, of course, not present only in Slovenia. The Bollywood star Akshay Kumar, for example, swears by drinking cow urine against the coronavirus and a whole host of other health problems. You can’t sink any lower, my dears, at least as far as judgment in a serious health crisis is concerned. And please don’t talk to me about the importance of different opinions. It doesn’t move me, it doesn’t move me. Without knowledge of and respect for facts, the freedom of different opinions is a farce. That is not me saying it, but Hannah Arendt. Nodding along to the musings of amateur epidemiologists is part of the revolt against knowledge and science, which of course began long before this pandemic broke out. Unreason as a revolt against “elites” and conspiracy theories are the thread that connects the “truth” about face masks, vaccines, the deep state and the flatness of our planet.

This by no means implies, of course, that experts are infallible or that the public has no right to a critical attitude towards scientists and experts. Not all the responsibility can be laid on the shoulders of the Werners, Kumars and Potrčs. They are merely victims of their own self-confidence and pride, and of our stupidity. It is, however, good to distinguish between assessing scientific claims and achievements, which is probably still best left to peer review by other scientists, and assessing responsibility, consistency, integrity and communication, on which the lay public of course has every right to take a position and to judge critically.

Off the top of my head, I would divide the experts’ missteps during the pandemic into three groups. In the first are the glory-seekers and opportunists. There are many doctors in the world, and in large numbers there are always a few who do not do their profession much credit. Small minds who, in the shock and fear of a new virus, sensed an opportunity for self-promotion. In the first weeks of the crisis, a white coat, a stethoscope around the neck and the most extravagant statement possible, ranging from “it’s nothing” to “we’re all going to die,” were enough for a flash of local or even global attention. They were irresponsibly helped not only by social networks, which long ago turned into a distribution system for the informational equivalent of cow urine, but also by traditional media, which in their cutthroat battle for clicks are often prepared to publish anything and anyone. If it weren’t for Covid-19, I would never have known how many “renowned experts from renowned universities” exist in this world.

In the second group are the know-it-alls. I don’t in principle attribute bad intentions to them, but that does not mean that excessive and unfounded self-confidence cannot do more harm than good. Remember the inflation of overnight graphs and projections, which devalued trust in the expert methods we so badly need to overcome this health threat. On masks, too, we heard all sorts of things from experts, from the claim that no one except health workers needs them to the claim that we mustn’t go even to the mailbox without one. Such changes in expert opinions and instructions, which in the uncertainty of facing the unknown are easy and possible to understand and accept, turn, when combined with excessive self-confidence that the public may experience as arrogant, into a gift to distributors of conspiracy theories and other fighters against reason. People are not sheep, at least not all of them, and frankness, including about doubts, risks and possible mistakes, can do much more for public trust than insisting on infallibility and false self-confidence.

In the third group are the pliable. Experts who are prepared to subordinate their expertise to the political interests of the authorities, out of their own ambition or lack of backbone. Perhaps the most opportunities for his medical advisers and the relevant agencies to violate the Hippocratic oath are offered by President Trump. It is quite distressing to watch their wriggling, their silence, or even their loud and formal support for his desperate search for a cure for his political problems, from drinking disinfectant to other magic medicines and therapies. Unfortunately, one Dr. Fauci does not make a spring. The greatest danger is, of course, still ahead of us. If political pressure prevails over expertise and responsibility in the vaccine approval process, things look very bad for us. Not only does it increase the risk of ineffective or even dangerous vaccines; very probably, many who otherwise do not believe stories about international conspiracies of pharmaceutical companies will hesitate to be vaccinated with politically approved substances. He who laughs last may be an anti-vaxxer.

After the experts, second in this random order is the responsibility of the authorities. First, there is the temptation to use the health crisis for political purposes. How this can be done in complicity with experts I have already described. Another vivid example is the plan to attribute the colossal damage that the ideological project of breaking away from Brussels will inflict on the British economy and society to the colossal damage caused by Covid-19. That neither the economy nor society will be able to withstand the double blow evidently does not interest those responsible. As long as they are not to blame. Indecent attempts to use the pandemic to settle scores with the previous government were also present in Slovenia and are now coming back at those in power like a boomerang. The equivalent of the inappropriateness of such behavior is the revolt against any measures to contain the epidemic simply because we don’t like those in power, as certain village eccentrics clamor on the internet.

The way the authorities communicate with the public is also very important. Condescension, arrogance, intimidation and underestimation often do not make the best impression on people. How we are doing in this respect in Slovenia, judge for yourselves.

The most crucial thing for success in the fight against the virus is public trust. And there is no faster and more devastating way to lose trust than attempts to use the crisis to undermine democracy and line one’s own pockets.

Finally, my friends, let us hold up a mirror to ourselves. In facing a crisis, it is easiest to point the finger at others, but the time we are living through is also, and above all, a test of our individual responsibility, rationality and solidarity. The revolt against masks and swearing by all kinds of conspiracy theories is not only a defeat for reason but also a defeat for solidarity. I am neither a doctor nor an epidemiologist, so I offer no medical assessments or claims. I experience this epidemic as a human being, as a citizen. I live in a country that a few days ago passed the threshold of ten thousand new cases a day. I wear a mask even when I go to the bins. If it can help ensure that we don’t shut down public life again, and above all if it helps protect the health of the most vulnerable, the people in care homes, I am prepared to wear it at night too. Dr. Ihan has explained why the mask is important. It is not an intrusion on our personal freedom but, at this moment, the most important and effective way of defending that freedom and public health. Covid-19 is not ordinary flu. I don’t say this as an expert but as a human being. I have colleagues who fell ill and barely survived. I have colleagues who lost parents and other relatives. I also have friends who lost their jobs and incomes because of the epidemic. All these people need not only our responsibility but also our reason, and above all our solidarity. We will sooner or later defeat the virus, but if in this fight we lose fundamental civilizational values, all we will have left is cow urine. As Dr. Werner would say, bye-byeee.