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22-05-2022, 10:01 AM
By MICHELLE R. SMITH
yesterday
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — After mass shootings killed and wounded people grocery shopping, going to church and simply living their lives last weekend, the nation marked a milestone of 1 million deaths from COVID-19. The number, once unthinkable, is now an irreversible reality in the United States — just like the persistent reality of gun violence that kills tens of thousands of people every year.
Americans have always tolerated high rates of death and suffering
......
But the sheer numbers of deaths from preventable causes, and the apparent acceptance that no policy change is on the horizon, raises the question: Has mass death become accepted in America?
......
Certain communities have always borne the brunt of higher death rates in the United States. There are profound racial and class inequalities in the United States, and our tolerance of death is partly based on who is at risk, says Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, a sociology professor at the University of Minnesota who studies mortality.
“Some people’s deaths matter a lot more than others,” she laments.
......
“You expect us to keep doing this over and over and over again — over again, forgive and forget,” ...... former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield, Jr., told reporters. “While people we elect and trust in offices around this country do their best not to protect us, not to consider us equal.”
That sense — that politicians have done little even as the violence repeats itself – is shared by many Americans.
......
With COVID-19, American society has even come to accept the deaths of children from a preventable cause.
......
Dr. Mark W. Kline pointed out that more than 1,500 children have died from COVID-19 ...... despite the “myth” that it is harmless for children.
......
“There was no acceptable pediatric body count,” he wrote. “At least, not before the first pandemic of the social media age, COVID-19, changed everything.”
......
There are many parallels between the U.S. response to COVID-19 and its response to the gun violence epidemic, says Sonali Rajan, a professor at Columbia University
......
“We have long normalized mass death in this country. Gun violence has persisted as a public health crisis for decades,” she says, noting that an estimated 100,000 people are shot every year and some 40,000 will die.
Gun violence is such a part of life in America now that we organize our lives around its inevitability. Children do lockdown drills at school. And in about half the states, Rajan says, teachers are allowed to carry firearms.
When she looks at the current response to COVID-19, she sees similar dynamics.
......
It’s important, she says, to ask what policies are being put forth by elected officials who have the power to “attend to the health and the well-being of their constituents.”
“It’s remarkable how that responsibility has been sort of abdicated, is how I would describe it,” Rajan says.
The level of concern about deaths often depends on context, says Rajiv Sethi, an economics professor at Barnard College
......
He points to a rare but dramatic event such as an airplane crash or an accident at a nuclear power plant, which do seem to matter to people.
By contrast, something like traffic deaths gets less attention. The government this week said that nearly 43,000 people had died on the nation’s roads last year, the highest level in 16 years.
......
“The result is that nothing is done,” Sethi says. “The result is paralysis.”
Dr. Megan Ranney of Brown University’s School of Public Health calls it a frustrating “learned helplessness.”
......
She wonders if people really understand the sheer numbers of people dying from guns, from COVID-19 and from opioids.
......
more than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021, setting a record.
Much better to read the full article at: https://apnews.com/article/is-mass-death...0d1d3d559f
yesterday
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — After mass shootings killed and wounded people grocery shopping, going to church and simply living their lives last weekend, the nation marked a milestone of 1 million deaths from COVID-19. The number, once unthinkable, is now an irreversible reality in the United States — just like the persistent reality of gun violence that kills tens of thousands of people every year.
Americans have always tolerated high rates of death and suffering
......
But the sheer numbers of deaths from preventable causes, and the apparent acceptance that no policy change is on the horizon, raises the question: Has mass death become accepted in America?
......
Certain communities have always borne the brunt of higher death rates in the United States. There are profound racial and class inequalities in the United States, and our tolerance of death is partly based on who is at risk, says Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, a sociology professor at the University of Minnesota who studies mortality.
“Some people’s deaths matter a lot more than others,” she laments.
......
“You expect us to keep doing this over and over and over again — over again, forgive and forget,” ...... former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield, Jr., told reporters. “While people we elect and trust in offices around this country do their best not to protect us, not to consider us equal.”
That sense — that politicians have done little even as the violence repeats itself – is shared by many Americans.
......
With COVID-19, American society has even come to accept the deaths of children from a preventable cause.
......
Dr. Mark W. Kline pointed out that more than 1,500 children have died from COVID-19 ...... despite the “myth” that it is harmless for children.
......
“There was no acceptable pediatric body count,” he wrote. “At least, not before the first pandemic of the social media age, COVID-19, changed everything.”
......
There are many parallels between the U.S. response to COVID-19 and its response to the gun violence epidemic, says Sonali Rajan, a professor at Columbia University
......
“We have long normalized mass death in this country. Gun violence has persisted as a public health crisis for decades,” she says, noting that an estimated 100,000 people are shot every year and some 40,000 will die.
Gun violence is such a part of life in America now that we organize our lives around its inevitability. Children do lockdown drills at school. And in about half the states, Rajan says, teachers are allowed to carry firearms.
When she looks at the current response to COVID-19, she sees similar dynamics.
......
It’s important, she says, to ask what policies are being put forth by elected officials who have the power to “attend to the health and the well-being of their constituents.”
“It’s remarkable how that responsibility has been sort of abdicated, is how I would describe it,” Rajan says.
The level of concern about deaths often depends on context, says Rajiv Sethi, an economics professor at Barnard College
......
He points to a rare but dramatic event such as an airplane crash or an accident at a nuclear power plant, which do seem to matter to people.
By contrast, something like traffic deaths gets less attention. The government this week said that nearly 43,000 people had died on the nation’s roads last year, the highest level in 16 years.
......
“The result is that nothing is done,” Sethi says. “The result is paralysis.”
Dr. Megan Ranney of Brown University’s School of Public Health calls it a frustrating “learned helplessness.”
......
She wonders if people really understand the sheer numbers of people dying from guns, from COVID-19 and from opioids.
......
more than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021, setting a record.
Much better to read the full article at: https://apnews.com/article/is-mass-death...0d1d3d559f
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