Depressing thoughts on Pandemic

General hope/view is that this will be 2 - 4 month thing. That we all lock down & it will pass. But that is very bubbled view of what is going on

Because right now the 1st wave of cases & the reaction to it is mostly from well to do perspective

The initial spread outside of geographical epicenter has been via global travelers & in global conferences & such

It has yet to fully & really hit (outside of China & neighbors), poorer less connected countries & the poorer residents in wealthier countries. That sadly can't last

In both cases they have a lot less resources (money, time) to do what we here on twitter can do, like shelter in place & stop doing anything. We (rich countries & rich people) can spend to make sheltering in place possible

Bankers can go to their country home & buy a deep freeze

The poor & working poor in US can't shelter in place. Some don't have a place. Some can't spend 3 months in a tiny apartment with X family members. Can't go without work, don't have the space to store food, etc

Homeless community, in particular, is gonna get absolutely crushed

Same is true at national level. South Africa, Indonesia, Bolivia, Bangladesh, don't have resources to fight this. They can't print money like US, Europe, & Japan can

Go to Kampungs of Jakarta. They can't socially distance. It is physically impossible. And sanitation?

When the wave hits those countries. What then? And it certainly will.

Now most of those countries have much better public health policies & infrastructures than most people think. Often better than US & they have dealt with stuff like this before

But they can only do so much

Beyond the awful moral consequences of this -- so many killed and dead. I worry that there is the simply reality that this isn't going away after all us wealthy people emerge from our countries homes in 3 months

By then it will be in the Kampungs of Jakarta & in LAs skid row

Then next worry will be it coming back from those poor communities & countries

Which we wealthy will surely try to stop via global travel restrictions & nasty stigma & state actions against the poor residents in our own countries who can't go to luxury homes to sit for 3 months

Simple put it is a luxury to be able to hole up in your house with supplies for 3 months. The poor can’t do that (lack of resources, need to work, dysfunction, etc) & then after awhile they simply won't do it

It is also a luxury to live in a country that can just print money

What also gonna face a big backlash against needed social distancing that is much much harder for many to do

You can embrace the quarantine if you have big home with lots of deep freezers, supportive family, a bank account that can hold you over

But if you don't? Much harder

Everyone needs something to make them feel ok in a crisis as survival/coping mechanism

We wealthy feel ok by quarantining & yelling at those who don't. I get that. It is smart science!

But many poor can't do that & need to feel ok by saying this is silly & I gotta fucking work

To end. This is gonna be with us for awhile, unless there is a medical breakthrough. It is gonna cause a lot of deaths & destruction, mostly in poorer communities & countries

I hope I am very wrong. I hope by stepping outside my area of expertise I am getting this very wrong

Uh-oh. This is not good at all. On many levels https://twitter.com/mrochabrun/status/1247984914009595908?s=20