Blog #7
The presence of a virus only reinforces biopolitical strategies. Biopolitics is a way in which the state can intervene in the public’s health. A common example of biopolitics is the government’s role in controlling women’s reproductive rights. Now with the growing threat of coronavirus, states have issued political measures to control people’s actions to slow its spread. One such measure states have implemented is the “stay at home order”. This order mandates that people must stay at home and can only leave the home if it is necessary. People who do not follow the “stay at home order” may be subject to legal repercussions. The government has also instituted measures to close down the boards, give businesses stimulus relief and mandate automotive industries such as General Motors to begin producing ventilators. These are many of the biopolitical strategies national and state governments use to control the public’s health.
Increasing the government’s role in biopolitics can be a slippery slope as it may lead to more invasive measures taken in response to public health needs. The virus also complicates biopolitical strategies because its effects extend beyond the public’s health. One of the largest consequences of coronavirus is the downturn of the economy. Fear of the virus has caused employers to layoff millions of workers. The present unemployment rate now stands at nearly twenty percent. The Stock Market at one point fell more than thirty percent entering the United States into a recession for the first time in twenty years.
Another factor that complicates biopolitical strategies is media bias. The media has played a large role in America’s perception of coronavirus. While it is never a good idea to downplay the lethality of a virus media coverage has revolved around its high death rate. Television is consumed by updates on the number of cases and deaths due to coronavirus and the corresponding death rate. The media has consistently reported a death rate of around three to four percent, this is almost impossible to calculate because there is no way to know the actual number of people infected by the virus. New York recently conducted an antibody test in which three thousand people were randomly tested for coronavirus antibodies. The study found that around twenty percent of the New York population or 2.7 millions people have coronavirus antibodies. With about 16,600 deaths, this puts the mortality rate at 0.6%. This is substantially less than the four percent death rate frequently reported by media outlets. The death rate that the media reports fails to acknowledge people who are asymptomatic and people who do have virus symptoms but never get tested.
The media also regards information out of China about the coronavirus as true. China has reported that despite its spread all over the world, coronavirus cases stand at 84,000 and deaths at 4600. It would be almost impossible for a country with over a billion people to contain such an infectious disease. If we apply the same percentage from the antibody test by New York to China, we would find that almost three hundred million people have contracted the coronavirus. Humans themselves are “viral” in a biopolitical sense. Ultimately humans are the ones affected by biopolitics. It governs the way we live. Also people are the ones that spread biopolitical ideas.
South America 