Of course, the Corona-Crisis is not affecting everyone equally. On a basic medical level people of so-called “risk-groups” are far more likely to die to the virus as average persons with stable physical health. And on a social level marginalized and poor people are more affected by the socio-economic effects.
This
can mean a variety of effects, for example the basic question of
income without wage-labor or getting medical treatment without
insurance. This can also mean an increase of gendered care work – as
feminized people have to do the majority of care work for sick people
but also childcare at home, which is no longer provided by the state
due to quarantine.
Also, we see increased racism, even
physical attacks against Asian communities and people of color. The
strengthening of far right nationalist discourses and practices of
protecting the “national health” against the “foreign” virus
etc.
Most likely the virus itself will be most disastrous
where 1) measures of containing are not effective and 2) the social
infrastructures of health care are generally in a weak condition. I
agree with people that think this is why China – after a first
period of denial – was capable to react to virus effectively and
western countries are struggling more. Western societies are
generally speaking more disintegrated and individualized. I guess
that within countries with the most advanced so-called neoliberal
reforms and the most privatized health care system the virus will be
deadliest.
On a medical level I’m not worried for myself. While it’s likely that I will get the virus at some point, it looks like there is more than a 99% chance of surviving it with an average physical health. I’m much more concerned for others of so-called risk-groups, elderly people and people with chronical physical health problems. And of course, people in camps, people who have no access to medical care or people in places with less medical infrastructure in general.
All
in all, there is not “one” shared human experience of the
Covid-19 and the Corona-Crisis, but a variety of experiences that
differ heavily depending on social class, race, gender and ability.
While this last point is often lost in traditional left thinking a
genuine health-crisis can bring the everyday struggle of the
chronically ill people to awareness. Because within the crisis we
truly have to change our practice and mode of social reproduction to
help the sick.
That said I still think that within the
Corona-Crisis there is a chance for more general understanding of the
human condition as frail and depended on others. While my life as a
chronical ill person is hardly changing at all, a lot of people are
confronted with what it means to be sick, to be worried about sick
friends and family, to not be able to leave the house, to not know
what will happened. To feel less souverain in general.
To
be able to have an impact on the situation we have to organize
ourselves. To organize our reproduction, and health care and also
transfer knowledge. For example, there are more and more telegram
groups of neighbors trying to give help and share knowledge with each
other. And while this micro-organization of solidarity, of course, is
limited and not sufficient to deal with the Covid-19, destroyed
health infrastructures or the coming economic crisis this is
important.
I think even if not all of the left has made
this progress in the last years there has been a lot of movement in
general to develop feminist, anti-racist and ecological perspectives
and praxis. The Corona-Crisis can be a turning point for
understanding also the struggle of the ill, more awareness what it
means to lack health, to be sick, or to be afraid for sick friends
and family. And on basic level this crisis also asks the question:
how can we do politics when we can’t leave the house? How can we
include and care for people who are isolated?
This turn
is, of course, not implemented in history. Neither is a more state
authoritarian government or a more nationalist discourse and praxis
of exclusion. It’s how we react to the crisis. And how we are able
to offer praxis and discourse of solidarity and help that are also
anticipations of a different social reproduction and thus to come a
different society.