Do we cancel? Should we go anyway? Should we cancel in-person classes? Should we go online? Should we go into the office? Should we encourage remote work? How many people together is too many? Is it time to be deciders? How will we know when it’s the right time to decide? Who will decide??
It’s a difficult time. No one wants to make the wrong decision, no one wants to be unpopular. I think many of us don’t want to look silly, overly alarmed or dramatic… that is the short vision.
And the medium vision is feeling pressure from other elements: the economy, industry, and leadership confront public health, ethics and decision-making. Many are bound to lose money on deposits for events made far in advance. Travel dollars will be swallowed and will disappear. We might unnecessarily overreact and thus spread anxiety and fear and worldwide economic disruption. Be wary of those voices with a vested interest in there being little (or massive) disruption. This is a moment when some will take advantage.
But, the vision we have the most trouble with — the long vision is that we risk under-reacting and further spreading the virus and creating a larger public health risk. And those people we will spread it to who will feel the most impact will be the elderly, people with disabilities, people with vulnerable immune systems, people who live in precarious situations with respect to sources of food, shelter, healthcare and more.
To act differently, we must see how our actions will benefit —we’d be more comfortable if they were measurable. But the impact of our changing actions will be in the absence of readily measurable impacts. We won’t go to the conference and therefore MIGHT not infect anyone. Is MIGHT enough?
And so we should ask, where is the power? Who are the deciders? Whose voice is loudest? And we see those in high-profile positions and with loud voices happily using our attention: see Elon Musk, Trump, University administrator and others offering opinions about a virus and its spread. We give people without credentials as loud as, or sometimes louder, amplified voices on topics that they do not know about.
Meanwhile epidemiologists are poised. They know what needs to happen. And I can imagine that now they hope that this slogan will help — ‘flatten the curve.’ We know that a HUGE part of public health is PUBLIC COMMUNICATION.
This has pushed us into an Ethical moment. And as ethical moments go, there are NOT going to be clear moments that will DICTATE to us what we SHOULD do. We have to make hard decisions and those decisions will have an impact on many, many others.
If we were tuned in more to our own role in ethical decisions, perhaps we’d be better prepared for this moment. Perhaps we’d be more circumspect, transparent and clear about what we’re deciding and why. If we took other risks and ethical moments more seriously (and took our role in them more seriously) we would already have practice with this phenomenon (e.g. flu shot and global warming). But we know how good we collectively are at addressing those things… and we know that those two don’t seem as immediate or present as coronavirus…
What decision will you make? And how? And why? Or who will make the decision for you?