Why wearing a mask should not be a political statement

The only thing we learn from history is that human beings learn NOTHING from history!

The words of the 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Hegel, famous for his writings on the philosophy of history - and infamous for his wholesale dismissal of ancient African history - still ring true as we examine the impact that the coronavirus pandemic is having on the world today.

There are heroes – men and women whose response to the pandemic is considered exemplary. A few names stand out, including one Jacinda Ardern, prime minister of New Zealand. That aside, I think the Chinese leadership has done an outstanding job, too - their initial false steps aside.

Similarly, one could mention the names of institutional leaders such as Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, director general of World Health Organisation (WHO), and the soft-spoken Dr Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to ex-President Donald Trump and now President Joe Biden of the United States. In this divided world, these men have become the face of sense and reason in the fight against this deadly pandemic. There are some common men who have also risen to this great challenge of our times. For example, the Capt Tom Moore who, at the age of 100, mobilised a fund raising campaign that raised over $35m for frontline healthcare workers in the UK, by walking along his garden. While the captain has fallen victim of the very disease he was fighting... But his legacy shall live on.

How about Jack Ma who, just as the people of Africa were reeling in despair, not knowing how to proceed at the time when every nation was standing on its own, sent the much needed testing kits and protective gears to dozens of nations in the continent? A friend in need indeed.

However, just as crises tend to bring to light the best of human characters, it also tend to bring to light the worst of them too. So, while you have heroes, you also have zeroes – the thanks-for-nothing men who, despite their privileged positions, have been of great disservice to humanity in these trying times.

A few names stand out. The usual suspects from the African continent and the former American president, Donald Trump who, quite inexplicably, deserves the honour for being the biggest zero out there. (He would have made a great African President, wouldn’t he?)

We can understand Africa. We can understand its leaders – we don’t expect too much from them. But the president of the United States? Playing Russian roulette with a deadly pandemic? Confusing the public with mixed messages? Promoting useless concoctions? Americans have paid a heavy price for their leader’s lack of wisdom.

To put that into perspective, while the US has about 4 percent of the world’s population, it has over 27 percent of the known coronavirus cases and 20 percent of the number of deaths in the world. At least 460,000 Americans have succumbed to the disease, five times more than what would have been expected otherwise.

Ill thought-out government policies can result in millions of deaths.

In the 20th century, about 70 million people died because of famines. Out of all those famines, the Chinese Great Famine of 1959–1961, infamous for being deadlier than any other famine in history, killed up to 45 million people by some estimates.

Two factors made that famine very deadly: one, the government’s over-procurement of foods from areas which had suffered poor food production. Two, the government’s blocking of all channels of communication which would have raised the alarm against the situation.

Some scholars have concluded that almost 70 percent of those who perished could have been saved by eliminating the first factor alone. Again, thoughtless government policies can result into deaths of millions.

That’s why management of crises should not be politicised. If something is incredibly wrong, and no one can point that out, who is expected to pay the price for that? It’s the people of course, in their millions.

One would think that the world would have learnt that from history by now but, alas, as Hegel observed, human beings don’t learn anything from history. Ultimately, leaders unwisely go on to repeat the very things which history teaches so emphatically against.

Today, in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, one of the lessons we can draw from history is that the wearing of masks or not cannot and should not be a political statement. People should not be put in a situation where they have to choose between protecting their very lives or appearing loyal to the leadership. But we have witnessed that issue recurring in many nations.

There is a reason why the vast majority of victims of famines in the 20th century have occurred in non-Democracies. History shows that the policies of the respective governments directly contributed to the number of deaths. However, ultimately, there was a time of reckoning, the time when all that happened was laid bare. And the leaders in question ended up being publicly exposed for their misrule.

There is good politics, bad politics, and dumb politics. When a person’s decision to protect his very life from a deadly disease by wearing a mask is considered a politically incorrect move, that’s just dumb politics.