Declassified Pandemic Survival Guide

Declassified Pandemic Survival Guide Yago Evangelista

Ten years after H1N1 we’re facing one more pandemic crisis, but this time the expectation is that we are facing the deadliest disease since Spanish Flu. At the same time, we have watched a rise of governments discrediting science and being supported by fake news, such as Trump, Orban, Erdogan, Bolsonaro, Modi. I’m writing this Survival Guide not only supported by my own experience dealing with the Brazilian government, but also looking at the global media news about the worst decisions made by global leaders in this pandemic. So here are some tips on how to survive a deadly virus and the worst global leaders at same time.

1st tip: Don’t buy easy solutions.

Tractors, herbs, vodka, saunas, inject disinfectant, tea, sugarcane juice and chicken soup. Often some leaders would suggest some easy, but useless, ways out of this crisis.

The thing is, if they think the solution is that easy, the public politics fighting the crisis by demanding better public policy will probably not be enough. Fortunately, some countries, as Brazil and the USA, are federative republics, that maintain a certain level of independence between states, cities and federal government, and some cities and states are making hard policies during the crisis. We should take this lead: decisions shouldn’t be made only by a central government. Pulverizing power is the better way, so that the power doesn’t end up in the wrong hands. And more importantly, believe only in science for a cure, don’t drink disinfectant! 2 nd tip: If possible, stay at home.

Since we still do not have a vaccine, or any kind of proven treatment, the better way to defeat the virus is by social distancing and staying at home. At this moment we can see a lot of people around the world protesting for the end of quarantine, even the Brazilian and American President.

It’s reasonable to be concerned about your job, how you will pay your rent and buy food, but we must pressure our governments into sustainable actions, like basic income, and a freeze on residential rent increases. It makes me think about how important social networks are in political movements. Since we can’t go outside, how we do mobilize together? Creating online support networks is a way out of this situation without risking our lives. Right-wing groups did this organically over the years, so now we should do the same. 3 rd tip: we’re not the virus, please stop repeating this.

Ok, this is not coming from any government, as far as I know, but we shouldn’t buy into this ecofascist rhetoric so easily.

I would love to write another series of tips here on how to survive this quarantine, but in fact, I still don’t quite know how to survive it either. But hopefully we can get through it despite our leaders, and come out of it safe and well.