Unequal enemies

Corona Virus Photo: canva.com

All animals are equal,” George Orwell wrote in his 1945 classic, Animal Farm, and the one place that prides itself highly on the equality of all is a ship in distress. Nevertheless, some famous experiences tell a different tale.

When the almighty, unsinkable RMS Titanic began its final descent into the depths of the freezing waters of the Atlantic Ocean, large numbers of steerage passengers among its 2,224 human manifest were still locked below.

Although they had not been incarcerated in their holes in the bowels of the ship to prevent a rush on deck, as Hollywood likes to portray, locked gates permanently isolated lower fee-paying passengers from first and second class in a nod to the mores of class distinction, fear of lice, odour and prejudice.

While some gates had been opened, others remained closed and as a result, steerage survivors represented less than half the percentages of first and second class. As Orwell indicated, while all animals are equal, “… some animals are more equal than others.”

Just over a century later another luxury liner, the MV Diamond Princess, was quarantined in Yokohama, Japan, as people on board had been diagnosed with COVID-19 (Coronavirus 2019). With a much bigger human manifest than the Titanic, it had 2,666 guests and although there was no steerage, its place in the bowels of the ship was taken by a crew of 1,045.

The virus spread easily around the ship and, despite strict quarantining of passengers, in the short space of a couple of weeks infected 710 people, or 20 percent of those on board, to date the highest recorded rate of infection for one definable space.

However, strict quarantine measures did not include what was arguably the most significant group on board - the crew. They continued to sleep cheek by jowl, two to three in small cabins, share bathrooms, work 16-hour days, prepare food, eat from common serveries, greet passengers when making deliveries and disinfecting cabins, collecting laundry and helping the infected prepare to disembark. If any were ill, they were not quarantined, as there were no spare cabins to house them.

Time Magazine quoted Michael Mina, an epidemiologist from Harvard University, as saying, “The crew cannot self-quarantine and room together. Clearly this has transmitted among them placing all at unacceptable risk.” The practice was later to be criticised by Japanese health authorities.

First and second class on the Titanic may have been accidentally protected from the onrush of steerage passengers by the locked gates, but the pampered of the Diamond Princess could not be protected from the ship’s virus-carrying cellar dwellers.

The inequality in this case was to prove deadly to some, costly to others and fearful for all.

We listen daily to health experts and politicians explaining how to protect ourselves. They speak of social and physical distancing, obviously most easily complied with by the wealthier sections of societies.

But for the vast swathes of squalor that at least one-third of the population of the world lives in, or even the bottom 95 per cent that shares less than 30 per cent of its wealth, compliance can be difficult and even nigh on impossible.

COVID-19 does kill and strikes indiscriminately. It is a grave danger to the world economy, food-producing capacities, manufacture and distribution of products needed for daily survival, as well as medical supplies.

With medical facilities, money, social discipline and isolation, damage can, to some extent, be mitigated and losses contained. However, with the inequality that exists in this world, placing all hope in these measures seems to be somewhat churlish.

The President of China, Xi Jinping, has declared this a people’s war in China. Other world leaders are mounting their forces to wage their battles. Donald Trump has declared war on what in his polemical crudity he terms the 'Chinese Virus', but perhaps the real enemy is the inequality of resources available to populations around the world and that is what his war should target.

The Titanic floundered on arrogance, but also on what hindsight may judge stupidity. On the Diamond Princess, it was those on the human manifest that received the least protection and despite their diligence to duty of care for the ship’s guests who became the real threat.

In his 1947 novel, The Plague, Albert Camus tells of a mediaeval monastery where some priests used tongs to give Holy Communion in order to protect themselves, whereas others continued to distribute with their fingers. All those using tongs caught the plague and died, whereas the others all survived.

We should treat the story with the same intrigue as Camus, as it does have poignant lessons. Firstly, our duty of protection extends beyond our own well-being and, secondly, a plague is a threat from which selfish action cannot protect.

In our world, there are no tightly sealed spaces. The virus is spreading into populations where people die every day from easily preventable diseases without ever seeing a doctor or taking a sip of medicine.

It will not be known how many bear infection, let alone the real number or cause of many deaths. Nor can it be known where it will strike next.

If this really did call for war, it could not be fought with guns, political wrangling, panic buying or mere economic aid. It calls for an entirely different manoeuvre - an outbreak of selflessness. Had the priests used the tongs to protect their parishioners rather than themselves, Camus’ story may well have had a different ending.

Today, we call for a cessation in resource pillaging, over consumption, the massing of obscene wealth and build-up of huge armament stockpiles, social prejudice, mistrust and hate.

The virus may be an unequal enemy. Invisible movement disguises its path, but it moves more easily among the ill prepared and it shows its hand only when firmly entrenched.

Those who bear it hold no ill will towards neighbour and wish them no harm. However, they do pose a threat that can only be addressed in a world where no animals are more equal than others.

Columban Fr Jim Mulroney resides at the Columban house in Essendon.

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