Apple pie

With Espresso House giving out apple pies for 5 SEK, I guess the recession to end all recessions has come to Umeå as well, in the most postmodern of forms (especially as the gym remains packed with people).

Irony aside, I do not think the seriousness of the moment can be overstated as the global economy is brought to a screeching halt. Sometimes, I have felt tempted to write an op-ed about the politics of the epidemic but, unlike with climate change, there are some very real and immediate ways in which one can be wrong. Much, for instance, turns on the extent to which immunity is possible and what long-term health effects that Covid-19 sickness may have.

For the developing world, strict quarantine measures may be counterproductive and lead to greater suffering than the pandemic itself. A new study from Yale suggests that, with relatively younger populations and limited access to health care, low-income countries do not have as much to gain from social distancing measures. With health care systems already overwhelmed to begin with, it simply becomes less important to “flatten the curve“.

One additional concern is the disconnect between urban elites and the rural poor in many countries. Members of such elites may be able to financially sustain prolonged periods of lockdown and may also want to signal to the rest of the world that their country is “modern” and capable of taking drastic measures. As with climate change, elites in developing countries often adopt post-material Western values and show little interest in broader socio-economic development (the most extreme example of this phenomenon may be Vandana Shiva and her fetishization of agrarian poverty).