Politics Against Public Health: How viral outbreaks reveal true measures of democracy

There is little disputing that democracy has coincided with the enjoyment of greater freedom and a higher quality of life for its fortunate denizens. Democratic nations have benefitted not only from more economic freedom, but also more individual rights and transparent governance.

World War II, a major test of political ideologies, highlighted the strength of democratic systems. In a non-zero sum world, the West hadn’t won the Cold War, the Soviets had simply lost it. The stronger system had remained, able to withstand enormous external pressure without self-immolating.

In the wake of the novel coronavirus, the world’s ideological systems are once again being tested, with clear winners and losers.

Public Health issues as they relate to viral outbreaks have long been a proxy that measures a country’s actual level of political transparency and the availability of information to the public that is free from bias, propaganda or nefarious government interference.

During the 2003 SARS outbreak, the Chinese government was criticized as being the reason the virus was able to spread so rapidly and have such a fatal impact. Not only did the Government of China attempt to conceal the existence of SARS from the WHO — with doctors in Beijing being ordered by authorities to hide SARS patients from WHO officials during inspections, they further exacerbated the problem by denying information to their own citizens. SARS was only reported to the WHO eighty-eight days after the first case in China, and Chinese officials took at least 4 months to institute quarantine measures. By then, the damage had already been done and the virus had spread across the globe, killing 774 people.

What greater sign is there that a government cares more about holding onto power than of its own citizens than a willingness to let the citizens die in the name of maintaining the illusion of control?

A similar story unfolded in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is currently facing an outbreak of the Ebola virus. Despite the Congolese Ebola outbreak being the second-worst Ebola outbreak in the world, over 40% of people living in Congo do not believe Ebola exists. Some Congolese politicians have spread that myth among citizens to foster mistrust of NGOs operating in Congo that strive to prevent the embezzlement of donor funds and stymie government corruption. As a result, many people in Congo refuse Ebola treatment and even attack the Ebola treatment centres, which makes it difficult to suppress the spread of the virus and increases fatalities. Over 2,000 people have died of Ebola in the DRC.

Although sharing biological similarities to the SARS virus, the novel coronavirus which originated in the Wuhan province of China in December 2019 has been handled in a much different manner by the Chinese government. Albeit Chinese persons who initially spoke out about the coronavirus have disappeared, been arrested or silenced for their dissent, the speed with which this virus has been identified and quarantined by the Chinese government is a testament to changes in public health policy and praxis in China since SARS. Chinese public health experts quickly shared the new coronavirus’ genetic information with researchers around the globe to increase vaccination efforts. It took 4 months for the SARS genome to be published.

Although the novel coronavirus is far more contagious than SARS, it is less deadly, with an average fatality rate of around 1–2%. Most of the virus’ fatalities have been people who are already immunocompromised, with a median age of 75. However, it appears politics also has a strong role to play in the variance of fatality rates.

Iran has the highest coronavirus fatality rate — 11%, compared with China’s 3.5%. To emphasize on the dramatic margin, South Korea’s coronavirus fatality rate is just 0.7%. This raises questions about how the secretive regime is handling the public health crisis.

Doctors in Iran have indicated that they believe the total number of those infected is likely substantially higher than is being reported by the Iranian government. The head of Medical Science University in Qom, Mohammad Reza Ghadir, said on state television that the Health Ministry had banned releasing figures on the outbreak in the city. It would seem that reporting on cases of infection in Iran is lagging behind the reporting of cases of death. A shortage of surgical masks and hand sanitizers is also a contributing factor, along with Iran’s president stating that he had no plans of quarantining infected cities.

It remains evident that dishonest politics is a major threat that exacerbates already dangerous public health issues. Unless these issues can be addressed free of bias, government propaganda and interference with the facts, the virus will be the only winner, claiming citizens’ lives as its prize.

While Trinidad and Tobago is not currently under any immediate threat of the coronavirus, the handling of the swine flu (H1N1) resurgence bears some resemblance to that of less democratic nations’ handling of viral outbreaks.

There have been 40 flu-related deaths in Trinidad and Tobago for this flu season to date (October 2019-May 2020). In November 2019, it was reported by the Health Minister that there were 3 deaths for the 2020 flu season and thus there is no sign of any outbreak. However, that the official reported number has increased so rapidly to 40 as at February 2020, is a cause for concern.

Are citizens well informed of the risks of exposure to the influenza, particularly those that fall into the most vulnerable category — elderly, children and immunocompromised persons? Are public hospitals well equipped to handle an increase in swine flu cases, coupled with the potential of the coronavirus spreading to the island? Are suspected flu cases and fatalities even higher than what is being reported?

While there is no need for panic, at the same time there is even less need for sweeping public health issues under the carpet. Has the Trinidad and Tobago Government given the public a full and accurate picture of the current flu situation and the hospitals’ level of preparedness (or lack thereof)?

The first step in the fight against viruses — swine flu et al, is increasing the dosage of the truth. Governments who attempt to downplay the effects of diseases on their own citizens purely for optic purposes, do so to their own detriment. Attempting to window-dress public health concerns for political points is not only inherently immoral, but also extremely dangerous.

But there is some silver lining; widespread panic concerning the coronavirus may have the unintended benefit of making citizens more vigilant when it comes to protecting their health, reducing the amount of swine flu cases.

The autocratic Chinese government was able to learn from the mistakes of 2003, will Trinidad and Tobago’s government take heed? After all, a democracy is only as strong as its populace is informed.