Epidemics as the Hidden Agents of COVID-19 and Social Change

Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Cultural Studies Program, Teaching Member and Anthropologist Ayşecan Terzioğlu provided information in the assessment text regarding epidemics experienced by humanity throughout history and the contemporary COVID-19 pandemic.

  Epidemic diseases have not only caused great fear and panic in society during the periods in which they occurred throughout human history, but have also led to fundamental social transformations in the long term. Historians today view epidemic diseases as an important factor that has brought about and accelerated many social changes; in fact, due to the long-term effects of epidemics not being immediately apparent, they regard them as a kind of "hidden subject" underlying these changes. For example, in Medieval Europe, the plague played a major role in causing kingdoms' political power to cover smaller geographical regions and in shifting the economy from growth to self-sufficiency. The plague killed hundreds from every social and economic stratum of that era. During this period, noble families retreated behind thick and high-walled castles and châteaux to protect themselves not only from enemy armies or bandits, but also from the plague that ravaged the population. Epidemics also have a structure that amplifies pre-existing social and political inequalities and discrimination. Again in Medieval Europe, the belief that the plague came from the Far East led to many Jewish merchants who conducted trade with Far Eastern countries being accused of bringing the plague to Europe, and some of them being burned to death as a result. By the 20th century, we see that developments in fields such as physiology, pharmacology, public health, preventive medicine that combated infectious diseases effectively through easily implemented measures such as vaccines and hygiene, granted healthcare workers important successes, particularly in preventing the spread of infectious diseases, and the great confidence that resulted from these successes.

Unfortunately, this confidence was significantly shaken in the 1980s by the emergence and rapid spread of a new global epidemic, or pandemic, namely HIV/AIDS.

Even today, this disease, which cannot be fully cured but is controlled through medication in the HIV stage, still causes great fear and panic because it kills many people from every segment of society. Due to HIV/AIDS, which gave rise to urban legends with no medical basis that some people still believe today—such as "it spreads from swimming pools" or "sick people deliberately infect healthy people"—homosexuals, who were widely seen in the early stages of the disease in various parts of the world, including Turkey, were blamed just as Jews were blamed in Medieval Europe. This blame initially led to their being further excluded and isolated from society, but over time, different social tendencies also began to emerge on this issue. For example, British doctors entered into cooperation with homosexual patients and their relatives to understand how the disease was transmitted to humans, how it progressed in the body, and what problems it caused at different stages, and they benefited from their observations and disease experiences. At the same time, homosexuals, who were socially marginalized and subjected to discrimination, developed effective organizational mechanisms to support each other both on this issue and in living with HIV/AIDS, defended LGBTI+ rights, and brought about significant questioning of the heteronormative system that imposed gender as a binary understanding of "male and female." Today we are again facing a pandemic: a virus called COVID-19 that has deeply shaken the world with its transmission speed, panicked us all with its death toll approaching 14,000, and prevented us from leaving our homes and going outside unless necessary, and it appears that it will affect our lives for a long time to come.

The emergence and spread of this virus has some important social reasons and consequences that we must not overlook.

These social reasons and consequences are so important that perhaps—and hopefully—they will lead us to question the choices we have made in our daily lives up to today; and will lead institutions such as hospitals, universities, and civil society organizations, as well as states, to reconsider their operations and political mechanisms. How can this be? Let me explain, starting first with the smallest unit in this framework, namely ourselves: In our daily lives, we make many decisions that we do not notice because they have created a routine that comforts us. Should I invite my friends over, or shall we go to a restaurant? Should I walk to the restaurant, drive, or take a taxi? Should I order my favorite burger again, or shall I go "vegetarian" today and eat a salad instead? Will I come home late? I haven't spoken to my mother in days—if I come home early, will I have time to call her? The choices we make in answering many such questions determine our lifestyle and identity. But as 7.7 billion people in the world, to what extent do we think of other people or other types of living beings when making our daily life decisions? What is the significance of these decisions in terms of the balance of the world and the sustainability of this balance? What does COVID-19 have to do with the burger I ate at a restaurant in the evening or whether I called my mother in the evening or not? To answer these questions, I must first say that this virus is a fully anthropocene virus, that is, a virus of the human age. Humans, spreading everywhere on Earth and becoming increasingly transformative and destructive in nature; have rapidly polluted the world with their residences, dams, ports, and industries, thereby significantly limiting the habitats of other living species such as plants, animals, bacteria, and viruses. This problem, starting from the Industrial Revolution, has become a struggle for dominance that has accelerated in the age of globalization, and the survival of other species has become dependent on human existence, choices, and conscience.

For this reason, COVID-19 emerging in China, the world's most populous country and a significant actor in global industry in recent years, is not a coincidence.

Of course, it is not right at all to blame the Chinese for this with a Medieval reflex, because in restricting the habitats of other living species and making it difficult for them to survive, all of us—that is, all people living under the influence of the neoliberal globalization system, even if we don't realize it ourselves and whose daily life choices are determined by the impositions of this system—are responsible to different degrees. However, state and institutional policies that guide people's daily life choices are also responsible for the emergence of COVID-19, which, by attaching itself to humans and passing from person to person, can survive. Growth-oriented policies, competitive approaches imposed at every level, rankings made on every subject, and people, institutions, and countries competing fiercely to be at the top of these rankings or, if not, in the upper ranks… States that consider themselves superior to others, borders between states determined by increasingly thick lines because people of other countries are unwanted, borders emphasized by high fences and walls… In this entire competitive environment, while perceiving life as an individualistic race, perhaps when we came literally face to face with the reality of COVID-19, we all understood how exhausting and isolating this way of life truly is.

No matter how advanced medicine becomes, we still feel fragile and helpless in the face of certain diseases and death, and this loneliness that comes with the new, dystopian world order reinforces these negative feelings.

I know I have painted a very dark picture in this last paragraph, and if you have managed to read this far, I am sure you seriously considered stopping reading at this last paragraph. But don't give up just yet—there is a way to break the vicious cycle of our individualistic, competitive, and isolating tendencies that further destroy the world. The most important method of surviving the countless epidemics, disasters, wars, and massacres throughout human history for centuries has actually been this: Solidarity with one another, that is, acting collectively, making our daily life choices while thinking of other people and living beings as much as we think of our own inclinations, pleasures, and comfort. We can only overcome the disruption to our social life caused by this virus and the loneliness it has caused in us, as Dr. Yeşim Yasin, Public Health Expert, says, by being "other-regarding."

We can only ease our helplessness in the face of illness and death by acting together, showing solidarity, and not only with other humans, but with other living species as well.

I know we have all locked ourselves in our homes, but those under 65 can go out for basic necessities such as grocery shopping. Is there someone over 65 in our family or circle who needs something from the market? Now that restaurants and many shops have closed, can we feed the street cats and dogs they were feeding? Staying at home is even more difficult for those living in old houses with poor infrastructure and in crowded conditions and those experiencing domestic violence. Similarly, refugees and those detained in prisons are experiencing the COVID-19 fear on a very different scale, in addition to other life difficulties. What can we do for them? How can we show solidarity with them? As we frequently read on social media, we are all as strong and healthy as the weakest link in society. That is why even the tiniest contribution we make to improving another person's living and health conditions will have positive effects on us as well, not just to ease our conscience, but because in this ecosystem "we are all in the same boat," we depend on one another to sustain our lives. I hope that the long-term social consequences of COVID-19 will be in the direction of increasing solidarity and sharing tendencies by somewhat breaking the competitive, individualistic, and isolating order imposed by the global neoliberal system. The medical team and supply assistance that China, where the epidemic first emerged, is providing to Italy and Iran, which are currently most affected by the epidemic, and the concerts given from one balcony to another are perhaps the first signs of these tendencies. But we need much more and effective, organized solidarity now. Come on, this call is for all of us!

SOURCES: The sources I used while writing this text may also be useful for those who want to learn more about these topics.

A classic in this field that I read during my postgraduate education at Boğaziçi University, Department of Sociology, and which reinforced my desire to specialize in Medical Anthropology: Epidemics and Ideas: Essays on the Historical Perception of Pestilence, Terence Ranger & Paul Slack (eds.), Cambridge University Press, 1992.