Coronavirus: A pandemic is not a war – but it can save us from waging one

A period devoid of human contact could teach people to value life irrespective of differences

Dr.Li Wenliang who died from Coronavirus. Wuhan, China

Excavators and workers are seen at the construction site where the new Huoshenshan Hospital is being built to treat patients of a new coronavirus on the outskirts of Wuhan, China. Reuters

A policeman wearing a coronavirus-themed outfit composed of helmet, mace and shield, walks at a market to raise awareness about social distancing, during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus in Chennai, on April 2, 2020. / AFP / Arun SANKAR

The quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship at Daikoku pier cruise terminal in Yokohama.  AFP

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - APRIL 3: Residents stand on white lines on the ground spaced to enforce social distancing as they queue to enter a slum area on April 3, 2020 in Manila, Philippines. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday ordered law enforcement to "shoot" residents caught violating quarantine rules during a month long lockdown in the country to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The Philippines' main island Luzon, which includes capital Manila, has been on lockdown for more than two weeks. Land, sea, and air travel has been suspended, while government work, schools, businesses, and public transportation have been ordered shut in a bid to keep some 55 million people at home. The Philippines' Department of Health has so far confirmed 3,018 cases of the new coronavirus in the country, with at least 136 recorded fatalities. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

epa08325517 General view of the empty Piccadilly Circus in London, Britain, 26 March 2020. Britain's prime minister Boris Johnson has implemented social distancing measures banning social gatherings and groups of more than two people amid the ongoing coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. People must stand more than two metres apart. Several European countries have closed borders, schools as well as public facilities, and have cancelled most major sports and entertainment events in order to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus causing the Covid-19 disease. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA

An electron micrograph of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles, also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes Covid-19. EPA

A security guard stands outside the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market where the coronavirus was detected in Wuhan on January 24, 2020. AFP

A cyclist travels down a nearly deserted road in the Chinese city of Wuhan on January 26, 2020. AFP

The World Health Organisation has warned all governments to be on alert and screening has been stepped up at airports around the world. Getty Images.

Mr Ghebreyesus announced that the coronavirus outbreak can now be characterised as a pandemic. AFP

Members of a medical assistance team from Jiangsu province chant slogans at a ceremony marking their departure after helping with the COVID-19 coronavirus recovery effort, in Wuhan.

People wearing face masks walk at a riverside park in Wuhan of Hubei province. Reuters

Staff members line up at attention as they prepare to spray disinfectant at Wuhan Railway Station in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province.AFP

The Diamond Princess cruise ship was placed in quarantine off the port of Yokohama after a number of the 3,700 people on board were confirmed to have coronavirus. Getty Images

Lee Man-hee, leader of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, speaks during a press conference. The leader of a South Korean sect linked to more than half the country's 4,000-plus coronavirus cases apologised on March 2 for the spread of the disease. AFP

Army soldiers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in front of a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu, South Korea. AP

View of Palacio de Hielo ice skating centre in Madrid. The facilities will be used as a morgue for coronavirus fatalities. EPA/CHEMA MOYA

A student takes classes online with his companions using the Zoom APP at home during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in El Masnou, north of Barcelona, Spain. Reuters

A boy with an Italian tricolor flag stands on a balcony during a flash mob launched across Italy to bring people together and try to cope with the emergency of the coronavirus, in Rome. EPA

A nurse wearing protective mask and gear comforts another as they change shifts on March 13, 2020 at the Cremona hospital, southeast of Milan, Lombardy, during the country's lockdown aimed at stopping the spread of the COVID-19. EPA

A worker wears protective gear to spray disinfectant on Piazza Duomo in Milan.AFP

A police officer walks across an empty Seventh Avenue in a sparsely populated Times Square due to COVID-19 concerns in New York. AP

Stocks markets around the world have swung wildly in recent weeks as the coronavirus outbreak hammers global economy. Reuters

US President Donald Trump, center, at a Coronavirus Task Force news conference at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, on Friday, April 3, 2020. Bloomberg

The military field hospital outside the Emile Muller Hospital in Mulhouse, eastern France. AFP

This picture tshows the Eiffel tower and the deserted place du Trocadero in Paris, on the twelveth day of a lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) in France. AFP

Health workers wearing protective gear transport a patient on a stretcher toward a tent used as the reception of the emergency services of the Aix Hospital Centre, Aix-en-Provence, southern France. AFP

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attends a meeting about Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics at the prime minister's office in Tokyo. AFP

People wearing a mask walk near the Olympics' mark in Odaiba, Tokyo on February 22, 2020, amid the outbreak of a new coronavirus in Japan. AFP

NHS workers applaud on the streets outside Chelsea and Westminster Hospital during the Clap for our Carers campaign in support of the NHS as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, London, Britain, Reuters

The ExCeL London has been transformed into a field hospital. AFP

Boris Johnson on a screen as he remotely chairs the morning novel coronavirus Covid-19 meeting by video link, in Downing Street. AFP

A man sits at New Delhi's border barricade during lockdown by the authorities to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in New Delhi, India. Reuters

A migrant worker carries his son as they walk along a road with others to return to their village, during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in New Delhi, India,F Reuters

Police community support officers talk to a person as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, Brighton, Britain. Reuters

Medical staff celebrate after all patients were discharged at Wuchang Fangcang Hospital, a temporary hospital set up at Hongshan Gymnasium to treat people infected with the coronavirus and COVID-19 disease, in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. AP

Atmosphere of empty Westfield World Trade Center during coronavirus pandemic in New York City, NY, USA . Reuters

The Central Park field hospital constructed by members of Samaritan's Purse are seen in New York. The hospital began taking patients on Tuesday and is equipped to accommodate 68 beds with ventilators. Reuters

Chinese travellers wear protective masks as they bow their heads at 10 AM for three minutes of silence to mark the country's national day of mourning for COVID-19 at Beijing Railway Station. Getty

On the 20th day of a lockdown in France, a cemetery, exceptionally open for Palm Sunday, April 5. AFP

War metaphors are everywhere you look in the age of coronavirus. It is a war against a hidden enemy, US President Donald Trump declares. Doctors, nurses and hospital staff are frontline workers, our first line of defence. China designated healthcare workers who died fighting the pandemic as martyrs.

I do not know where the desire to declare war on every challenge facing our societies comes from, but it does make some sense. Wartime rhetoric can make it easier to accept the radical measures needed to “flatten the curve” and control the pandemic. It elicits confidence in public institutions at a time when deep uncertainty reigns, with the knowledge that the government will spare no effort or expense to protect citizens.

This "rallying around the flag" effect, the greater propensity for sacrifice, the sense of solidarity that comes from knowing we are all in it together, can be enhanced by the war metaphors. The sweeping and extraordinary restrictions on movement in place require compliance, and that can only be achieved through serious reckoning with the crisis at hand.

And with that reckoning, the belief that the war can be won.

And yet, the dangers and limitations of wartime comparisons are also readily apparent. They inspire the sort of hoarding and run on essential goods over irrational fear of rationing that in the West has led to toilet paper shortages. It is still hard in some places to find diapers, baby wipes and infant formula.

The rhetoric of war can also lead to the demonisation of minorities. Mr Trump has frequently described coronavirus as the “Chinese virus”, an epithet that is particularly concerning amid rising reports of attacks against Asian immigrants in the US that are purportedly prompted by the pandemic. There are historical parallels to this scapegoating of minorities, such as the pogroms of Jews in Europe during the Black Death.

We are also particularly attuned in the Middle East to the limitations of this rhetoric. The so-called war on terror sparked limitless misery and instability throughout the region because of the failure to imagine solutions to religious extremism that go beyond dropping bombs on faraway countries. When war is the norm, every problem then looks like it can be solved with drone strikes.

The rhetoric also risks creating the conditions for authoritarian, abusive governments to cement their power, and for the erosion of civil liberties and privacy rights. The “rally around the flag” effect of national crises and traumas can make it easier for some governments to concentrate power under the guise of fighting the pandemic.

Things rarely go back to the way they were once a national crisis is over, either. Just look at the US and the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

And it does not really feel like a war for most of us, does it? We are not being drafted into the military, or forced to work extra hours in artillery factories, or having to ration food and tea. This war is being fought by the few on behalf of the many, but the job of the many is to sit at home and forego the evolutionary imperative of human contact, of embracing loved ones, of mingling with strangers. The great sacrifice is one of enduring absence and loss, not action and martyrdom in defence of land and country.

Are we at war, then? It is hard to pinpoint an answer given how unprecedented this all is. But I will venture that perhaps the wartime metaphors miss the point. Because I do not know about you, but I feel like right now I need a dose of the human touch. To hug a friend I ran into at the corner store, to be drowned out by the noise in a crowded restaurant, to people-watch at the park. To step outside without being afraid.

Is that not what war inspires in most of us? Fear, panic, great acts of cruelty and inhumanity. I do not want to be afraid for too much longer every time I walk out the door to buy milk and bread. It helps, though, when I step onto the footpath and I see, through the windows of the houses nearby, the drawings of the children. They say, “everything will be alright” and "ca va bien aller".

Perhaps we will come out of this more tender, more kind to our neighbours and tolerant of difference because we crave human contact, any human contact. Perhaps our dealings with them will be redolent of greater tolerance and understanding. We will realise that it does not matter if our neighbour is liberal or conservative, Muslim or Hindu, Sunni or Shia, black or white, we will still need their help if the going gets tough. We are all in it together. I am reminded of that reality with the multitudes of stories of generosity in this pandemic.

Perhaps this war will be won if we emerge from it truly healed, as avatars of the better angels of our nature. Perhaps human life will be more valuable, and we will start trying to save it instead of going to war.

Kareem Shaheen is a former Middle East correspondent based in Canada