<
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/pandemic-preparation-social-conditions/>
"When a single flame fell to the floor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on
March 25, 1911, it found the ideal conditions to spread: crowded rows of
garment workers feverishly stitching flammable fabric in poorly ventilated
rooms locked by managers to prevent theft. The fire worked with devastating
efficiency; in just 18 minutes, 146 workers lay dead—some so badly burned that
they could not be identified.
Future secretary of labor Frances Perkins was one of the first witnesses to
arrive on the scene of the fire. She would later recall a collective sense that
“something must be done. We’ve got to turn this into some kind of victory, some
kind of constructive action.” Within a year, New York State began to enforce
comprehensive new workplace safety standards that laid the groundwork for the
establishment of OSHA. A newly formed Factory Investigating Commission pursued
legislation “to prevent hazard or loss of life among employees through fire,
unsanitary conditions, and occupational diseases.” Out of the ashes of the
factory rose the architecture of modern labor protections.
More than a century later, the SARS-CoV-2 virus tore through the fissures of
American society just as brutally as the fire tore through that building in
Lower Manhattan. Once the virus breached biosafety systems that had been lauded
as impenetrable, it encountered decrepit social infrastructure. It found
“essential workers” laboring in meatpacking plants, shipping facilities, and
grocery stores. It followed them home to multigenerational households in
disproportionately Black and brown communities. Those low-paid workers made up
most of the deaths among working-age Americans in the first year of Covid-19.
The pandemic also ripped through neglected nursing homes, whose medically
fragile residents accounted for up to 80 percent of total deaths in some states
in 2020. It engulfed prisons in devastating outbreaks that functioned as
“epidemic engines,” sending the virus on into neighboring communities.
The US government declared the Covid-19 pandemic officially over on April
10—terminating the national health emergency. But experts predict the
likelihood of a similar pandemic occurring in a given person’s lifetime at 38
percent—and suggest that this already high probability “may double in coming
decades.” Yet, unlike the policy response to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
fire in 1911, our preparation for future pandemics remains largely focused on
the spark—infectious pathogens—and
not on the combustible social conditions
that have made Covid-19 so devastating in the United States."
Via Cass M, who wrote "It focuses on the US and talks a bit about the need for
universal healthcare but rightly focuses on
the social vulnerabilities that
enabled the disease to spread unchecked in this country. Important because
that did happen in many countries"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
