Democrats Need to Provide Clear Leadership on COVID That Reflects Democratic Values

Last week my parents had a COVID scare. They were both sick, but my mom was really, really sick. On the advice of Nashville's Coronavirus Task Force chief Dr. Alex Jahangir, I loaded them in the car and took my mom to the walk-in clinic. Long story short, she got tested. It was just a cold. And they kindly gave it to me, so I’m writing this between naps.

But in the time before the test results came back, my parents had a bunch of questions. If they did have COVID (they were operating under the assumption that, if my mom had it, then my dad did too), what then? Should they isolate for the five days and then, regardless of symptoms, feel free to go back out in the world? Is it five days since they started feeling sick? Five days since they got a positive test result? My dad and I were both thinking that the CDC must mean isolating for five days after exposure to see if you get sick, but then, if you do get sick, surely, you should stay home until you are well.

Here’s the thing. It’s my job to be aware of issues that affect politics so that I can comment on them here. I also, you know, spent a whole year with a mystery ailment that made breathing difficult, and I was utterly terrified of coming down with COVID on top of that. So for just a regular person in the general population, I am very motivated to pay attention to COVID news. And I didn’t know the answers to the questions my parents had. Even when I Googled, all I got was a bunch of contradictory information. If I don’t know what the right thing to do is, I guarantee most people don’t.

As much as I blame Gov. Bill Lee for the abysmal situation here in Tennessee, the buck now stops at Joe Biden. Where are the clear guidelines? Where are the home testing kits? Why is the director of the CDC saying that it’s "encouraging" that “the overwhelming number of deaths, over 75 percent, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities — so really these are people who were unwell to begin with"?

My God. The federal government’s stance is that we have reason to be optimistic because it’s only the unwell who are dying? Is anyone under the impression that most Americans are healthy? If 75 percent of the people who are dying of COVID have at least four comorbidities, it seems quite likely that a lot of Americans have comorbidities. In fact, the CDC’s own website says that 6 in 10 Americans have one chronic disease and 4 in 10 have two or more. If we let COVID ravage the “unwell,” we’re accepting the deaths of an enormous amount of Americans.

And this isn't to mention the fact that everyone who gets COVID and lives could be stuck with long-term COVID effects as a comorbidity for the rest of their lives. So if you can only have three comorbidities, and after that you’re lumped into the group the CDC considers unwell and therefore less concerning when you die, getting COVID can now bring you down to two. And God forbid you develop diabetes in the wake of COVID. Then you’re down to one.

It’s frustrating and infuriating that Democrats are all “Well, we’re done trying to deal with COVID — people just need to get back to work, sick or not.” Our choices are: 1. A party of white nationalists and the grifters who exploit them who are killing themselves and others with COVID; or 2. a party that is fine with the “unwell” dying. Y’all, this is America! We have always defined “unwellness” with a racial component. Think of how many racial stereotypes depict a group as “dirty” or “diseased" — how even, say, sharing the same bathroom or swimming in the same pool could “contaminate” white people.

The line between “We want a white Christian nation” and “We’re fine with doing nothing about a disease that is overwhelmingly affecting the lesser-than” is thin, perhaps dotted, perhaps imaginary.

Democrats need to provide clear leadership on COVID that reflects Democratic values. People should have access to accurate information laid out in ways that are easy to understand. The people in charge of providing that information should be committed to keeping as many Americans alive as possible, and not finding reason for optimism when it’s mostly the unwell who are dying. We should be finding ways to support people who are sick and keeping them at home until they’re well, because — and I can’t believe this needs to be said — sick people get other people sick. It may be bad for the economy if some people with COVID don’t work, but it WILL be bad for the economy if many people get COVID and can’t work. It’s not less devastating to people’s loved ones if they were old and had high blood pressure and used to smoke and had arthritis when they died of COVID. It’s not easier to handle a child’s death from COVID if they had asthma, a heart murmur, a peanut allergy and chronic pink eye.

That’s not how people love or value each other.

Some folks view America like a country club — that it’s members-only, with a lengthy application process and all kinds of probationary periods and we only want the “right” kind of people. And other folks, like me, view it more like the Olive Garden — you’re here, you’re family. Democrats, it seems, can kind of almost see that the country-club standards are wrong, but they seem to think that the problem is just that the standards aren’t fair, that the standard for the “right” kind of people isn’t broad enough. The Biden administration is still fine with the idea that some folks deserve our full concern and some don’t.

That’s wrong, and we deserve better — even and especially the “unwell” among us.