“But the greatest of the sins” is the sin of transmission. Ethnic cleansing is taking place at this moment, a novel genocide by a novel virus. The foot soldiers in this crime against humanity are we, the privileged, who have begun to travel too soon.
The unforgivable relaxation of our restrictions socially has led to large amounts of travel. This is heartbreaking. The virus will not be contained sufficiently if the privileged who know how and are capable of protecting themselves accelerate transmission to those less fortunate.
Just under one million people visited Yellowstone National Park in July, 2% above 2019. Camper sales are way up even though from Kokomo to Anchorage packed campgrounds with waiting lists are growing increasingly unable to enforce local hygiene regulations. Many families enjoyed much of this summer with wonderfully lengthy visits by close relatives. Many came through airports.
Bary Diller, Expedia’s CEO, told CNN a few days ago that the social distancing required to mitigate the virus was “simply impossible” on any aircraft, “even those” keeping middle seats empty in economy or further spreading out business class.
The shrapnel spinning off airline PR statements regarding the quality of the air in the interior of a cabin cannot compensate for the dangers of no social distancing or irregular wearing of masks.
There are no studies that have determined for how long an effective transmitter remains an effective transmitter. There are studies showing that the white race is less likely to succumb to disease from the virus than other races. (Most often stated in the inverse: non-white races are succumbing to the disease at a greater rate.)
There certainly are both biological and social reasons for this. The social reasons are easy to describe: more privilege, more money, more education equips one with greater protective abilities. And that becomes the world’s problem: whites do better.
Problem? To be able to protect oneself better?
Yes, when with sinful abandon the white race relieves its lock-down with the advantage given by its biology and circumstance. The reason even now we should not be traveling isn’t about ourselves.
No one in any endeavor will be 100% careful. Increasing the vectors of transmission is undeniable when you step out of your house. More stepping out of houses aggregates the greater risk and the result is that with greater efficiency the non-white races get sick and die.
We don’t even know the long-lasting effects of Covid-19. We don’t know if it can reside for years in someone’s body then erupt as a lethal disease. But everything we do know includes that more non-white people who become infected die and are seriously hurt than white people.
The reason the president of Kenya shut his country down with a strict curfew with only 400 reported cases, the reason the prime minister of New Zealand closed that country’s largest city because of only 31 cases, the reason South Korea clamped travel restrictions on a citizenry of 55 million people with only 400 reported cases… all of these “imprisonments” of the citizenry were to protect above all the most vulnerable.
Traveling through an airport even in a Hazmat suit can expose the toilet cleaner to your virus. Flying in an airplane even wearing an N95 mask can expose the staff cleaning your seat when you leave. Walking through an airport terminal even wearing a cloth mask is almost certainly going to spread your aerosol breath to porters.
Stopping to pump gas increases the risk of infection to the store clerk. Overnighting in a motel no matter how carefully prepared increases the risk of infection to the house keepers. Lattes in sidewalk cafes, letting kids go to school, returning to work on a meat packing line … they all spread infection.
Some of these things reasonable minds will determine must be done even if doing so supports the genocide, and they may be right. I don’t question that lives matter only if lives can be lived. But my sense is that such good decisions are not being made now. Personal, egotistical and selfish are the decisions being made.
America is flaunting its privilege because the privileged remain in power. It is leading the evil forces of the world in the genocide against the non-white races, however unintentionally, however caused by lazy ignorance.
When this is all over, even if America is blessed with a fundamental change of government for the good, history will reveal for the first time in a century that the percentage of white growth increased whereas the percentage of non-white growth decreased.
It may be very tiny. I hope it isn’t incremental for the future. But it could represent the greatest genocide in the history of mankind.