My family, friends and acquaintances in the USA cover most of the spectrum of the coronavirus belief system. The categories are roughly the following: (1) those who believe that the Covid-19 is a threat and should be taken seriously; (2) those who believe that Covid-19 could become a threat if people do not follow protocols; (3), those who believe that Covid-19 is bad but that a failed economy is worse; (4) those who believe that Covid-19 is not a threat and that it is fake news.
Very often, one’s beliefs depend on one’s immediate context. Covid-19 evidently exists for people who live in Brooklyn, New York, but maybe not so much, for those living in Fairbanks, Alaska. And for people in Turkmenistan, it does not exist at all. Everything depends on whether the number of deaths per million is 1063 or 12 or 0.
I know that this is true because my son, the cargo pilot, and his family moved to Texas last year. Thanks to living in Texas, he now belongs to the third category in the coronavirus belief system: the economists. If he still lived in Spain, he would probably think otherwise. To be fair, considering that Texas is about the size of Spain (with 482 deaths per million), it is a state that has not been particularly hard hit (21 deaths per million).
My son, like most of his neighbors in Texas, thus worries more about the economy rather than about catching Covid-19. The philosophy seems to be that if Texas is all right, then the USA is all right. He is beginning to sound like a (decaffeinated) Republican. Nevertheless, my consolation is that he does not as yet pontificate about making America great again. Nor has he bought a gun or think that a person with coronavirus can be cured by injecting disinfectant into his lungs simply because the president said so. There is still hope for him yet.
In any case, I rarely argue with my son about such things. Once he makes a decision, it is impossible to sway him from his course of action. He was born that way.
For example, when he was 12, he decided that he wanted to be a pilot. No child ever received less encouragement in his chosen career path. In Spain, if he had decided to study anything else, he would have had free college tuition (sigh). At 17, even after five years of intense discouragement), flying an airplane was still his goal, and so we paid for his studies. That is what parents do. He thus became a pilot, and then joined the Spanish Air Force, where flight hours are fortunately free.
At the age of 30, he had another epiphany. He decided that he wanted to marry a Russian girl. It did not matter that he knew no Russian girls, had never been to Russia, and spoke no Russian. He went to the Pushkin Institute in Madrid for six months, learned to speak Russian, and then traveled to Moscow about three times. The following year, he married his current wife. Against all odds, statistics, and predictions, both of them managed to successfully overcome the obstacles of intercultural marriage, and have been together now for ten years. She is a lovely girl, who cannot live without him, and who thinks that he is always right.
Last year, he had a third revelation. He decided to leave the Spanish Air Force, get a job in the USA, and move the whole family there. Surmounting all obstacles placed in his path by the USA government (and there were many), he was successful. U.S. Immigration obviously had no idea whom they were up against. Yesterday, the green cards for his wife and two daughters finally arrived in the mail.
So, once his mind is made up, no force on Earth can change it. I am aware of this and thus merely try to understand his views. He enjoys living in Texas though he has observed that many of the inhabitants are somewhat crazy. (Since I have never been to Texas, I have no idea whether this is true.)
Precisely for this reason, he thinks that mandatory confinement is not feasible. Since almost everyone has guns in Texas, people who lose their jobs or who cannot work, for whatever reason, would probably go insane, and start shooting others as well as themselves. In his opinion, this would be more dangerous than the coronavirus. He is thus happy about the governor’s decision to ease restrictions.
In all fairness, his opinion that the coronavirus is not a dire national emergency stems from videoconferences with the directors of his cargo airlines. Despite being an essential worker, he has not been flying much because car production at General Motors stopped in March. Instead of cars, GM has now been producing medical gear. His airline company reasonably believed that if they could no longer transport vehicles, they would transport medical equipment.
They then contacted the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to negotiate a contract to transport medical equipment. To their astonishment, the FEMA replied that there was no need to transport medical equipment around the country. They said there was no health emergency because everything was “under control”. And if the FEMA (whose job it is is to manage emergencies), says that there is no emergency, there is not much left to say. So, game over.
Fortunately, the company then decided to get in touch with acquaintances in the Senate, who said exactly the opposite. (How many governments are there in Washington DC?) The senators finally admitted that an American Airlines plane with all passenger seats removed (even if airlines did need to be bailed out) would never have the same capacity as a real cargo plane with a hold where various automobiles can fit.
Buttons were pushed, and the senators then told them that, yes, there was indeed a health crisis, and that their services were needed. And presto…..just like that, all of a sudden, they got the contract.
This all means that in May, my son will be flying again. In doing so, he will be transporting medical equipment to combat Covid-19 (regardless of whether the health crisis is real or fake), and he will also be working to boost the economy. In the end, he will have the best of both worlds. As I said, he invariably accomplishes his goals.
