Understanding Covid 19 as a Social Construct
Thoughts on Bari Weiss Interview with Dr. Vinay Prasad
"Social construct" is a term that I hear often but have not bothered to examine. I guess, in a way, that qualifies it as a cliché. Something you hear often, think you knew what it means, and then move on.
In fact, I didn't quite know what it meant, so I looked it up.
Warning: deep research dive ahead.
Here's a dictionary definition (Merriam-Webster) and a little explanation (yourdictionary.com):
Social construct is an idea that has been created and accepted by the people in a society.
Social constructs develop within a society or group. They don't represent objective reality but instead are meaningful only because people within the society or group accept that they have meaning. Simply put, social constructs do not have inherent meaning. The only meaning they have is the meaning given to them by people.
So I'm thinking about this term because it came up in a Bari Weiss podcast interview with Dr. Vinay Prasad (link below). During the interview. Dr. Prasad referred to the pandemic as a social construct.
One thing I like about Bari Weiss is she does bother to examine things. Her interviews are often sprinkled with things like, "What do you mean by that?" or, "Here's what I hear you saying."
True to form, Bari asked him to explain what he mean. After listening to the podcast twice, I think I get his point. Here's how I understood what he said.
Dr. Prasad said that we should try to imagine the exact same scenario happening in the 1990's. In the 90's, there could not have been an option of shutting down the economy in order to stay safe. There was no Zoom. There was barely an Internet. We would have had to figure out a way to carry on, keep going to work, regardless of what kind of occupation we had. White collar, blue collar—what was true for one was true for the other.
In 2021,
technology has permitted the kind of class division we’re seeing. I think
that’s what he means by a “social construct.” Not the virus itself, but the
societal reaction, the class division, us. vs. them. Us—those of us who can
still bring in a paycheck while working from home, can order food or groceries
to be delivered to our doorstep. Them—those who work in the kitchens (wearing
masks!), or deliver the food to the rest of us, who stock the shelves, take our
money at the grocery store. Us—we can shelter in place, recover from the virus
if we get it (and still get paid). Them—what happens if they get sick? Or small
business owners whose businesses had to close?
I think this
is what Dr. Prasad means when he talks about the virus being a “social
construct.” In both cases, the (hypothetical) 90’s and the 2020’s—the actual
virus is the same. It infects us individually exactly the same way. But it
infects society differently: because we have different survival options
(economically speaking), it creates a class schism. So when he refers to
"the poor” and the role of the government helping them, I don’t think he’s
talking about the idea of giving handouts. Rather, I think he's wondering what
more could have been done to protect those who didn’t benefit from the advances
in technology that shielded the white-collar worker during a time of pandemic
and shut down.
************
Vaccine Hesitant? A Doctor Responds
September 22, 2021
