The latest Covid omicron surge puts our problem into stark relief: two incompatible approaches to the pandemic are being pursued simultaneously. A strong conservative movement sees Covid as a matter of individual choice, while the rest of us see a gargantuan crisis of public health. It is the latter, in fact, that correctly defines our situation. A collective action problem can’t be solved by enabling self-interested individuals, on their own personal timetable, to choose appropriate behavior. If you get to pick your paddle and decide upstream is the way to go — while your companions are yelling about the waves buffeting the boat— no one is getting to where they want to be.
Our public health experts are excruciatingly aware that ending the pandemic requires coordinated, collective action. But in the US, communicating this requires public health authorities to walk across minefields on eggshells made up of broken glass.
What are we missing? Social solidarity, a common framework for civility, and the ability to cooperate with each other to address big problems. Huge problems, in fact, that impact our capacity to live in an orderly society and persist as a species.
Notes:
Your Individually Rational Choice is Collectively Disastrous by Yascha Monk.