When countries besieged by the coronavirus shut down, people across the world, isolated in their homes, found ways to express their solidarity. Italians came out onto their balconies to applaud the healthcare workers who confronted great risks as they sought to save patients in overwhelmed hospitals. Britons drew rainbows and urged their fellow citizens to stay at home. In the United States, too, rituals of solidarity emerged. At 7:00 p.m. each night, New Yorkers lean out their windows to clap and bang on pots to show their appreciation for healthcare workers. Children across the country draw rainbows of thanks, placing them in windows for passersby to see. National emergencies inspire solidarity, the lessons of the Great Depression and World War II teach us. The pandemic is no exception.“Although we are early in the public responses to the pandemic, the variable prospects for producing solidarity across different nations are already coming into focus.”
But enduring solidarity does not emerge automatically from shared threats: It is produced through public action. The experience of the mid-twentieth century tells us that public leadership during emergencies plants the seeds of solidarity and that new public institutions must be crafted for this solidarity to be sustained over time. The Western welfare state emerged as the signal achievement from a decade and a half of economic depression and war, creating a postwar world that offered unprecedented and broadly shared social protections. Conversely, the omissions and unsavory compromises, particularly around racial inclusion, during that pivotal era mattered too; they have haunted liberal democracies ever since.1→Desmond King and Rogers Smith, Still a House Divided: Race and Politics in Obama’s America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011).
→Ira Katznelson, When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History Of Racial Inequality In Twentieth Century America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005). Although we are early in the public responses to the pandemic, the variable prospects for producing solidarity across different nations are already coming into focus.
A comparison of the United Kingdom and the United States underscores the importance of existing institutions, strategic decisions, and public leadership regarding racial and ethnic differences in producing solidarity. Prior to the pandemic, the two countries appeared to be on similar political tracks, with solidarities forged in the 1930s and 1940s all but depleted.2Frances McCall Rosenbluth and Margaret Weir, eds., Who Gets What? The New Politics of Insecurity (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). Once the virus hit, neither country responded effectively. The United Kingdom’s early embrace of “herd immunity” left it with an exponential rise in Covid-19 cases and the highest death rate in Europe. Similarly, President Trump’s failure to respond to the early warnings of national security and health advisers allowed the numbers of sick to explode and the death toll to soar. Neither country has secured adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) for their beleaguered healthcare workers, and neither has generated the testing capabilities needed to keep their populations safe. Yet, differences in institutional starting points, newly devised strategies, and public leadership position the United Kingdom to emerge from the emergency with stronger solidarity while developments on all three dimensions deepen the obstacles to solidarity in the United States.
Differences between the two countries start with their healthcare systems. Studies of welfare states have confirmed the political strength of universal programs, which aim to serve all citizens on equal terms.3Walter Korpi and Joakim Palme, “The Paradox of Redistribution and Strategies of Equality: Welfare State Institutions, Inequality, and Poverty in the Western Countries,” American Sociological Review 63, no. 5 (1998): 661–87. Although chronic underfunding by Conservative party-led governments had left the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) in a precarious condition in the decade before the virus hit, support for the NHS has remained strong. Much as the postwar architects of the British welfare state had hoped, the NHS became a prized national institution. A 2013 poll found that the NHS beat out the army and the monarchy as the institution that made respondents “most proud to be British.” The current challenges facing the NHS as it confronts the coronavirus have provided a focal point for broad-based solidarity around a cherished, if tattered, public institution. The postal service now inscribes mail with a stamp that reads, “Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives.” A call for volunteers to help the NHS—by delivering food and other supplies to allow the elderly to stay home—gave citizens a chance to act on solidaristic impulses. Hoping for 250,000 volunteers, the government was inundated with over 750,000 responses. Public media, in turn, has celebrated both the NHS and the volunteers. Public commentary is pressing Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who sang the praises of the NHS after his successful treatment for coronavirus, to make good on his promises to fund the system.“The public-private healthcare system in the United States, despite its massive public funding, has become emblematic of the greed, dysfunction, and inequality built into the private institutions that dominate healthcare delivery”
Americans, too, appreciate healthcare workers. Cities across the country have lit up local landmarks in blue as a show of support and chefs have taken over shuttered restaurants to prepare meals for healthcare workers. Yet, these efforts remain abstract and personalistic, unconnected to a specific public institution that embodies solidarity. Instead of a universal public institution, the job-linked public-private health system in the United States is dominated by private insurance companies, hospitals, and medical facilities all seeking to maximize profits. Indeed, the public-private healthcare system in the United States, despite its massive public funding, has become emblematic of the greed, dysfunction, and inequality built into the private institutions that dominate healthcare delivery. Hospital systems, faced with fiscal stress, have furloughed workers even as they struggle to treat coronavirus patients. Rural hospitals, long in precarious financial condition, have closed down as profitable elective and nonemergency surgeries were cancelled in preparation for coronavirus patients. Private donations have boosted the capacities of hospitals in wealthy communities while those in poor neighborhoods—home to the bus drivers, home healthcare aides, and other workers deemed “essential”—struggle with dilapidated facilities, insufficient supplies, and patient overload. These experiences do not build solidarity; rather, they compound inequalities and breed mistrust.
Economic strategies for supporting the stay-at-home orders differed dramatically in the United Kingdom and the United States. In the United Kingdom, the Conservative party government issued a surprise decision to keep nonessential workers on their employers’ payroll, supported by government funding of up to 80 percent of their wages and capped at £2,500 per month. The payments amounted to just over the median income. In announcing the new Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the chancellor of the exchequer, Rishi Sunak, explicitly noted the collective nature of the crisis: “We are starting a great national effort to protect jobs. We want to look back on this time and remember how in the face of a generation-defining moment we undertook a collective national effort and we stood together.” In launching the program, the United Kingdom followed the example of other European nations, which guaranteed wages for workers sidelined by the stay-at-home orders. To be sure, the United Kingdom’s economic response has left vulnerabilities, especially among the self-employed. Yet, the unexpectedly expansive response succeeded in creating a widely shared sense that UK residents could count on the government for economic support.
The United States, too, took unprecedented action to address the economic vulnerability created by stay-at-home orders. The US Congress, which had previously proved unable to enact much beyond tax cuts benefiting the wealthy, swiftly moved to approve one-time payments of $1,200 and instituted generous supplements to unemployment insurance. Yet, one-time payments, welcome as they were, did little to improve the economic security of families facing many weeks of reduced hours or no work at all.“Rather than seeding a sense of collective fate, the US economic programs breed frustration, suspicion, and division.”
Other measures meant to provide economic security fell short as well. Layered on top of weak state systems or reliant on private actors to deliver the assistance, the programs magnified all the flaws in the “submerged” welfare state, which delivers variable benefits through the states or through the private sector.4Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011More Info → Unemployment claims had to be processed through creaky state unemployment insurance systems. Long the target of cutbacks, these agencies were woefully ill-prepared to process the deluge of new claims. Indeed, some, like Florida’s, had been purposely designed to limit access to benefits. The $659 billion Paycheck Protection Program, intended to keep small businesses afloat with resources to pay their workers, also left gaping holes. The initial reliance on large banks to administer the program allowed these middlemen to layer on requirements designed to serve their own interests, such as requiring that applicants hold an existing line of credit with the bank. Not surprisingly, large businesses swooped in to capture the lion’s share of the initial benefits and many small businesses found themselves shut out. The complex rules surrounding the program and the weakness of the federal agency overseeing it all create doubts about its effectiveness and its fairness. Rather than seeding a sense of collective fate, the US economic programs breed frustration, suspicion, and division.
Public leadership around race and ethnic patterns of Covid-19 infections and deaths
A stark contrast is also evident in leaders’ response to the racial and ethnic disparities surfaced by Covid-19 in the United Kingdom and the United States. This divergence is surprising since both Boris Johnson and Donald Trump won office after campaigns that appealed to native white grievances. Welfare state scholars describe both countries as “liberal welfare states,” in which poverty is attributed to individual failings rather than broader social conditions.5John Wiley & Sons, 2013More Info → In the United States, however, views about individual responsibility and economic misfortune are deeply racialized.6Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2009More Info → This feature of US political culture is evident in a distinct thread running through the country’s reaction to the virus. In both the United Kingdom7Lucinda Platt and Ross Warwick, Are Some Ethnic Groups More Vulnerable to Covid-19 than Others? (UK: Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2020). and the United States, racial and ethnic minorities have disproportionately suffered from Covid-19, but only in the United States have leaders used this pattern to dismiss rising infection rates and death tolls as cause for public concern.
When early data showed that African Americans accounted for 70 percent of the deaths in Louisiana, Senator Bill Cassidy pointed to the higher rates of obesity and diabetes among Black Americans, brushing aside questions about underlying social and economic conditions. The long history in the United States of branding immigrants of color as “unassimilable” has also surfaced in public comments on the outbreak of Covid-19 in immigrant-staffed meat processing plants.8Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012More Info → In South Dakota, a spokesperson for Smithfield’s pork processing plant attributed the high incidence of Covid-19 among Latine poultry workers to the fact that “living circumstances in certain cultures are different than they are with your traditional American family.” As Wisconsin’s Supreme Court considered the legality of state’s stay-at-home order, the Chief Justice questioned evidence about the rapidly rising infections in a rural county, noting that cases concentrated in the immigrant-staffed meat packing plant and not among “the regular folks.” Meanwhile, physical and verbal attacks on people of Asian descent have mounted in the wake of the president’s repeated reference to the “Wuhan virus” and his efforts to cast blame on China.
In the United Kingdom, by contrast, the disproportionate incidence of Covid-19 among members of Black and ethnic minority groups has drawn widespread public attention to the large share of people from these groups on the front lines fighting the virus. Boris Johnson’s public thanks to the immigrant nurses who cared for him in hospital underscored their critical role. The government also announced a public inquiry into the causes of the racial and ethnic disparities. These probes may well encounter controversy, but there is no doubt that the political leaders of both major parties in the United Kingdom acknowledge the disparities as a matter of public responsibility. The United Kingdom has seen some verbal and physical assaults on people of Asian appearance, but anti-Asian sentiment has been largely confined to the fringes. It has not become a significant talking point for the governing party.“The pandemic has exposed the barriers to solidarity in the United States. It may yet provide the opportunity to repair them.”
The coronavirus pandemic is barely four months old. It is likely that governments in the United Kingdom and in the United States will struggle with the health and economic consequences for years to come. While the initial responses in the United Kingdom position it to build solidarity, predictions of the deepest depression in 300 years will test the government and its people. In the United States, future public action can remedy the divisive responses adopted early in the pandemic. Many state and local governments have modelled inclusive assistance and leadership. Temporary federal programs adopted during the emergency, such as paid sick leave, provide a template for a sturdier safety net. The public health emergency has laid bare the forces that fracture Americans: yawning gaps in social policy that disproportionally harm low-income people; free rein for the strong-arm tactics of business intent on profit; and the deep exploitation of low-wage workers, disproportionately people of color. The pandemic has exposed the barriers to solidarity in the United States. It may yet provide the opportunity to repair them.
Banner photo credit: Tim Dennell/Flickr
→Ira Katznelson, When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History Of Racial Inequality In Twentieth Century America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005).
Wakati nchi zilizozungukwa na coronavirus zilifungwa, watu kote ulimwenguni, waliojitenga katika nyumba zao, walipata njia za kuonyesha mshikamano wao. Waitaliano wametoka kwenye balcony zao kuwakaribisha wafanyakazi wa afya ambao wamekabiliwa na hatari kubwa wakati wakijaribu kuokoa wagonjwa katika hospitali zilizojaa watu. Waingereza walichora upinde wa mvua na kuwaomba raia wenzao wabaki nyumbani. Katika Marekani pia, desturi za mshikamano zilitokea. Kila usiku saa 7 jioni, watu wa New York hujipinda kutoka madirisha yao na kupiga makofi na kupiga mikate ili kuonyesha uthamini wao kwa wafanyakazi wa afya. Watoto kotekote nchini huchora upinde wa mvua wa shukrani, na kuziweka kwenye madirisha ili wapita-njia waone. Hali za dharura za kitaifa huchochea mshikamano, masomo ya Mshuko Mkubwa wa Kiuchumi na Vita vya Pili vya Ulimwengu yanatufundisha. "Hata ingawa tuko katika hatua za mapema katika majibu ya umma kwa janga hilo, matarajio tofauti ya kutengeneza mshikamano katika mataifa tofauti tayari yanakuja kwa umakini, lakini mshikamano wa kudumu haujitokezi moja kwa moja kutoka kwa vitisho vya pamoja: hutengenezwa kupitia hatua ya umma. """ Uzoefu wa katikati ya karne ya ishirini unatuambia kwamba uongozi wa umma wakati wa dharura hupanda mbegu za mshikamano na kwamba taasisi mpya za umma lazima zifanywe ili mshikamano huu uweze kudumu kwa muda. Serikali ya ustawi ya Magharibi ilitokea kama mafanikio ya ishara kutoka kwa muongo mmoja na nusu wa kushuka kwa uchumi na vita, ikiunda ulimwengu wa baada ya vita ambao ulitoa ulinzi wa kijamii usio na kifani na ulioshirikiwa sana. "Kwa upande mwingine, kutokujulikana na makubaliano yasiyofaa, hasa kuhusu ujumuishaji wa rangi, wakati huo muhimu pia yalikuwa muhimu; wamekuwa wakishambulia demokrasia za huria tangu wakati huo. "" - Desmond King na Rogers Smith, Bado Nyumba Imegawanyika: Mbio na Siasa katika Amerika ya Obama (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011)." Ira Katznelson, When Affirmative Action Was White: Historia isiyoelezwa ya Ukosefu wa Usawa wa Jamii katika Amerika ya Karne ya ishirini (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005). Ingawa tuko katika hatua za mapema za majibu ya umma kwa janga hilo, matarajio tofauti ya kutengeneza mshikamano katika mataifa tofauti tayari yanakuja kwa umakini. Ulinganisho wa Uingereza na Marekani unasisitiza umuhimu wa taasisi zilizopo, maamuzi ya kimkakati, na uongozi wa umma kuhusu tofauti za kikabila na kikabila katika kuzalisha mshikamano. "Kabla ya janga hilo, nchi hizo mbili zilionekana kuwa kwenye njia sawa za kisiasa, na mshikamano uliotengenezwa katika miaka ya 1930 na 1940 ulikuwa umepungua kabisa. "" - Frances McCall Rosenbluth, Margaret Weir, Mhariri, ""Who Gets What?""" The New Politics of Insecurity (Cambridge University Press, inakuja). Mara tu virusi vilipotokea, hakuna nchi yoyote iliyoitikia kwa ufanisi. Uingereza ilichukua mapema "kinga ya kundi" na kuibakia na ongezeko la kasi la kesi za Covid-19 na kiwango cha juu zaidi cha vifo huko Ulaya. "Kama ilivyo kwa rais Donald Trump, kushindwa kwake kujibu maonyo ya mapema ya washauri wa usalama wa kitaifa na afya kuliruhusu idadi ya wagonjwa kuongezeka na idadi ya vifo kuongezeka. """ Hakuna nchi ambayo imepata vifaa vya kutosha vya kujilinda kwa wafanyakazi wake wa afya, na hakuna ambayo imepata uwezo wa kupima unaohitajika ili kuwalinda watu. Hata hivyo, tofauti katika hatua za kuanzia za taasisi, mikakati mpya iliyoundwa, na uongozi wa umma huweka Uingereza kutoka kwa dharura na mshikamano mkubwa wakati maendeleo katika vipimo vyote vitatu huongeza vikwazo vya mshikamano nchini Marekani. Tofauti kati ya nchi hizo mbili huanza na mifumo yao ya huduma za afya. "Walter Korpi na Joachim Palme, ""The Paradox of Redistribution and Strategies of Equality: Welfare State Institutions, Inequality, and Poverty in the Western Countries,"" American Sociological Review, 63." (Mwanzo, sura ya 5; Zaburi, sura ya 6; Zaburi, sura ya 6; Zaburi, sura ya 7; Zaburi, sura ya 8; Zaburi, sura ya 9; Zaburi, sura ya 9; Zaburi, sura ya 9; Zaburi, sura ya 9; Zaburi, sura ya 9.) Ingawa ukosefu wa fedha wa kudumu na serikali zinazoongozwa na chama cha Conservative uliacha Huduma ya Afya ya Kitaifa ya Uingereza (NHS) katika hali mbaya katika muongo kabla ya virusi kugonga, msaada kwa NHS umebaki nguvu. Kwa sababu ya kuanzishwa kwa serikali ya ustawi wa Uingereza baada ya vita, NHS ilibadilika kuwa taasisi ya kitaifa yenye thamani. Uchunguzi wa mwaka 2013 uligundua NHS ilishinda jeshi na ufalme kama taasisi ambayo iliwafanya waliohojiwa kuwa na fahari zaidi kuwa wa Uingereza, na changamoto za sasa zinazokabili NHS wakati inakabiliwa na coronavirus zimetoa kitovu cha mshikamano wa msingi wa jumla kuzunguka taasisi ya umma inayopendwa, ikiwa imeharibika. "Tume ya posta sasa inaandika barua na stempu ambayo inasoma, ""Kaa nyumbani, linda NHS, kuokoa maisha"" wito kwa wajitoleaji kusaidia NHS kwa kutoa chakula na vifaa vingine ili kuruhusu wazee kukaa nyumbani, ""aliwapa wananchi nafasi ya kutenda kwa msukumo wa mshikamano." Serikali hiyo ilitazamia kuwa na wajitoleaji 250,000 lakini ilipata majibu zaidi ya 750,000. Vyombo vya habari vya umma, kwa upande wao, vimeadhimisha NHS na wajitoleaji. "Boris Johnson, ambaye aliimba sifa za NHS baada ya matibabu yake ya mafanikio ya coronavirus, amewasukuma kutekeleza ahadi zake za kufadhili mfumo wa huduma za afya za umma na za kibinafsi nchini Marekani, licha ya ufadhili wake mkubwa wa umma, imekuwa alama ya pupa, dysfunction, na usawa uliojengwa katika taasisi za kibinafsi ambazo zinatawala utoaji wa huduma za afya. """ Miji kote nchini imeweka taa za bluu kwenye vituo vya utalii ili kuonyesha msaada na wapishi wamechukua mikahawa iliyofungwa kutayarisha chakula kwa wafanyakazi wa afya. Hata hivyo, jitihada hizo hubaki kuwa za kipekee na za kibinafsi, zisizohusiana na taasisi fulani ya umma inayowakilisha mshikamano. Badala ya kuwa taasisi ya umma ya ulimwengu, mfumo wa afya wa umma na binafsi uliounganishwa na kazi nchini Marekani unatawaliwa na makampuni ya bima ya kibinafsi, hospitali, na vituo vya matibabu, vyote vinavyotaka kuongeza faida. Kwa kweli, mfumo wa huduma za afya wa umma na binafsi nchini Marekani, licha ya ufadhili wake mkubwa wa umma, umekuwa ishara ya pupa, dysfunction, na usawa uliojengwa katika taasisi za kibinafsi ambazo zinatawala utoaji wa huduma za afya. Mifumo ya hospitali, ikikabiliwa na shinikizo la kifedha, imewatoa wafanyakazi likizo hata wakati wanajitahidi kutibu wagonjwa wa coronavirus. Hospitali za vijijini, ambazo kwa muda mrefu zilikuwa katika hali mbaya ya kifedha, zimefungwa wakati upasuaji wa kuchagua na usio wa dharura uliokuwa na faida ulifutwa kwa ajili ya wagonjwa wa coronavirus. Michango ya kibinafsi imeongeza uwezo wa hospitali katika jamii tajiri wakati zile katika vitongoji maskini - nyumbani kwa madereva wa basi, wasaidizi wa huduma za afya nyumbani, na wafanyakazi wengine wanaochukuliwa kuwa "mahitaji" - wanapambana na vifaa vilivyoharibika, vifaa visivyo vya kutosha, na mzigo wa wagonjwa. Maono haya hayajengi mshikamano; badala yake, yanaongeza ukosefu wa usawa na kuzalisha kutokuaminiana. Mkakati wa kiuchumi wa kuunga mkono amri za kukaa nyumbani ulitofautiana sana nchini Uingereza na Marekani. Serikali ya Uingereza ya chama cha Conservative imetoa uamuzi wa kushangaza wa kuweka wafanyakazi wasio muhimu kwenye orodha ya mshahara wa waajiri wao, ikiungwa mkono na ufadhili wa serikali wa hadi asilimia 80 ya mishahara yao na kufungwa kwa £ 2,500 kwa mwezi. Malipo hayo yalifikia kiwango cha juu zaidi ya kipimo cha mapato ya wastani. "Katika kutangaza Mpango Mpya wa Kudumisha Kazi ya Coronavirus, waziri wa fedha, Rishi Sunak, alibainisha wazi asili ya pamoja ya mgogoro: ""Tunaanza juhudi kubwa ya kitaifa kulinda kazi." "Tunataka kutazama nyuma wakati huu na kukumbuka jinsi, mbele ya wakati wa kuamua kizazi, tulifanya juhudi za kitaifa za pamoja na tulisimama pamoja. ""Katika kuzindua programu hiyo, Uingereza ilifuata mfano wa mataifa mengine ya Ulaya, ambayo ilihakikisha mishahara kwa wafanyakazi waliopuuzwa na amri za kukaa nyumbani." Bila shaka, majibu ya kiuchumi ya Uingereza yameacha udhaifu, hasa miongoni mwa wafanyikazi wa kujiajiri. Hata hivyo, majibu ya kushangaza yalifanikiwa kuunda hisia ya pamoja kwamba wakazi wa Uingereza wanaweza kutegemea serikali kwa msaada wa kiuchumi. Marekani pia imechukua hatua isiyo na kifani ili kukabiliana na hatari ya kiuchumi iliyoundwa na amri za kukaa nyumbani. Bunge la Marekani, ambalo hapo awali lilikuwa limethibitika kuwa halikuweza kutekeleza zaidi ya kupunguzwa kwa kodi kwa manufaa ya matajiri, lilihamia haraka kuidhinisha malipo ya mara moja ya dola 1,200 na kuanzisha nyongeza za ukarimu kwa bima ya ukosefu wa kazi. Hata hivyo, malipo ya mara moja, ingawa yalipendekezwa, hayakufanya mengi kuboresha usalama wa kiuchumi wa familia zilizokabiliwa na wiki nyingi za saa zilizopunguzwa au hazikuwa na kazi hata kidogo. <unk> Badala ya kupanda hisia ya hatima ya pamoja, programu za kiuchumi za Marekani huzaa kukata tamaa, kutokuwa na uhakika, na mgawanyiko. <unk> Hatua nyingine zilizokusudiwa kutoa usalama wa kiuchumi pia zilishindwa. "Mipango hiyo iliongeza kasoro zote katika ""jimbo la ustawi lililotiwa maji"" ambalo hutoa faida tofauti kupitia majimbo au kupitia sekta binafsi. ""Chicago: Chuo Kikuu cha Chicago Press, 2011"" - Habari zaidi ""Madai ya ukosefu wa ajira yalipaswa kusindika kupitia mifumo ya bima ya ukosefu wa ajira ya serikali." Kwa muda mrefu lengo la kupunguzwa, mashirika haya yalikuwa na wasiwasi mbaya wa kutayarisha mafuriko ya madai mapya. Kwa kweli, baadhi yao, kama ile ya Florida, walikuwa wamekusudiwa kupunguza upatikanaji wa faida. Programu ya Ulinzi wa Paycheck ya $ 659 bilioni, iliyokusudiwa kuweka biashara ndogo ndogo juu ya maji na rasilimali za kulipa wafanyakazi wao, pia iliacha mashimo makubwa. Kutegemea kwa benki kubwa kuendesha programu hiyo kuliruhusu waingiliaji hao kuweka mahitaji yaliyokusudiwa kuwahudumia maslahi yao wenyewe, kama vile kuhitaji waombaji kuwa na mstari wa mkopo uliopo na benki. Haishangazi, biashara kubwa zilijishambulia ili kupata sehemu kubwa ya faida za awali na biashara ndogo ndogo zilijikuta zimefungwa. Sheria ngumu zinazozunguka programu hiyo na udhaifu wa shirika la shirikisho linaloisimamia yote yanaunda mashaka juu ya ufanisi wake na haki yake. Badala ya kueneza hisia ya hatima ya pamoja, programu za kiuchumi za Marekani huzaa kukata tamaa, kutilia shaka, na mgawanyiko. Uongozi wa umma kuhusu mifumo ya rangi na kikabila ya maambukizi na vifo vya COVID-19 Tofauti kubwa pia ni dhahiri katika majibu ya viongozi kwa utofauti wa rangi na kikabila ulioonekana na COVID-19 nchini Uingereza na Marekani. Tofauti hiyo inashangaza kwani Boris Johnson na Donald Trump wote wawili walishinda baada ya kampeni zilizopendeza malalamiko ya wazungu wenyeji. "Wanasayansi wa hali ya ustawi wanaelezea nchi zote mbili kama ""nchi za ustawi wa uhuru,"" ambapo umaskini unahusishwa na kushindwa kwa mtu binafsi badala ya hali pana za kijamii. ""John Wiley & Sons, 2013"" - ""Kwa hivyo, katika Marekani, maoni juu ya wajibu wa mtu binafsi na bahati mbaya ya kiuchumi ni ya kikabila sana.""" "Kwa mujibu wa utafiti uliofanywa na Lucinda Platt na Ross Warwick, ""Kuna makundi ya kikabila ambayo yanaathiriwa zaidi na COVID-19 kuliko mengine.""" (UK: Taasisi ya Mafunzo ya Fedha, 2020). Katika nchi za Ulaya na Marekani, jamii ndogo za kikabila na za kikabila zimesumbuliwa sana na COVID-19, lakini ni nchini Marekani tu ambapo viongozi wametumia muundo huu kukataa viwango vya kuongezeka kwa maambukizi na idadi ya vifo kama sababu ya wasiwasi wa umma. Takwimu za awali zilionyesha kuwa watu wa asili ya Afrika-Amerika ndio waliosababisha asilimia 70 ya vifo huko Louisiana, Seneta Bill Cassidy alionyesha viwango vya juu vya unene wa kupita kiasi na ugonjwa wa kisukari miongoni mwa watu weusi wa Marekani, akipuuza maswali kuhusu hali ya msingi ya kijamii na kiuchumi. "Hata hivyo, katika taarifa yake, msemaji wa kiwanda cha kusafisha nyama cha Smithfield, Dakota Kusini, alisema kuwa ""kiwango cha juu cha maambukizi ya COVID-19 miongoni mwa wafanyakazi wa kuku wa Kilatini ni kwa sababu hali ya maisha katika tamaduni fulani ni tofauti na ile ya familia yako ya jadi ya Amerika."" - Washington Post" Kwa upande mwingine, katika Uingereza, idadi kubwa ya watu wa jamii nyeusi na wa makabila madogo wameambukizwa Covid-19 na hivyo kuvutia umma kwa kiasi kikubwa kwa sababu ya idadi kubwa ya watu kutoka makundi hayo katika mstari wa mbele wa kupambana na virusi. Boris Johnson amewashukuru wauguzi wa kigeni waliomtunza hospitalini Serikali pia ilitangaza uchunguzi wa umma kuhusu visababishi vya tofauti za rangi na kikabila. Uchunguzi huu unaweza kukutana na utata, lakini hakuna shaka kwamba viongozi wa kisiasa wa vyama vyote viwili vikuu nchini Uingereza wanakubali tofauti hizo kama suala la wajibu wa umma. Uingereza imeona baadhi ya mashambulizi ya maneno na ya kimwili dhidi ya watu wa sura ya Asia, lakini hisia za kupinga Asia zimekuwa zimezuiwa kwa kiasi kikubwa kwenye pembe. Haijawa suala muhimu la mazungumzo kwa chama kinachotawala. Janga hilo limefunua vizuizi vya mshikamano nchini Marekani. "Hata hivyo, bado inaweza kutoa fursa ya kurekebisha. ""Janga la coronavirus lina miezi minne tu." Inawezekana kwamba serikali za Uingereza na Marekani zitapambana na athari za kiafya na kiuchumi kwa miaka mingi ijayo. Wakati majibu ya awali nchini Uingereza yanaweka nafasi ya kujenga mshikamano, utabiri wa kushuka kwa uchumi kwa kina zaidi katika miaka 300 utajaribu serikali na watu wake. Katika Marekani, hatua za umma za baadaye zinaweza kurekebisha majibu ya mgawanyiko yaliyopitishwa mapema katika janga hilo. Serikali nyingi za majimbo na za mitaa zimekuwa mfano wa msaada na uongozi wa umoja. Programu za muda za serikali za shirikisho zilizopitishwa wakati wa hali ya dharura, kama vile likizo ya ugonjwa inayolipwa, hutoa kiolezo cha mtandao thabiti wa usalama. Hali ya dharura ya afya ya umma imefunua nguvu ambazo zinawavunja Wamarekani: mapungufu makubwa katika sera za kijamii ambazo zinawaumiza sana watu wenye mapato ya chini; uhuru wa mbinu za nguvu za biashara zenye nia ya faida; na unyonyaji mkubwa wa wafanyikazi wa mshahara wa chini, kwa kiasi kikubwa watu wa rangi. Janga hilo limefunua vizuizi vya mshikamano nchini Marekani. Bado huenda ikawa na nafasi ya kuyarekebisha. "Mfano wa picha: Tim Dennell, ""When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth Century America"" (New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2005) "