For almost two years now we’ve been dealing with a global pandemic and a good percentage of our population has been actively taking measures to prolong our trouble even as they want things to go back to normal. At the same time Russia and others have been helping to spread the misinformation that supports those opposing public health measures. While I support free speech and acknowledge the danger of limiting speech, foreign governments do not enjoy first amendment protections.
Spreading misinformation to meddle in the affairs of another country is one thing, and a thing the US is guilty of itself. But spreading misinformation known to amplify the effects of a biological agent against a population is an attack on our country. If the Russians physically destroyed a vaccine production facility, we would see it as an attack on our country. If they directly targeted health care workers we would see it as an attack on our country. If they were to employ American individuals to willingly and knowingly carry out these attacks on Russia’s behalf, these individuals would be guilty of treason. We spent 20 years fighting a war in Afghanistan because a few individuals there (not even the government) planned and executed an attack killing several thousand people. But now, we have foreign propaganda programming citizens with misinformation designed to spread a deadly disease. They are attacking us. It is not vaccine “hesitancy”. It is not “culture wars” or a debate on “freedoms”. It is a cold blooded calculation by some to encourage people to spread a horrible disease resulting in hundreds of thousands of dead.
Now the comparison is not one to one. Planes being used to take down buildings is a very visible and discrete action making it obvious to all that it was, indeed, an attack. Amplifying a natural biological agent is far more murky and harder to make clear to all it is an attack. It’s not like the Russians have individuals dressed up as Cossacks running around the streets spraying people with anthrax. Furthermore, the people we most need to protect from the misinformation are the individuals who are willingly taking it in. They are already programed to believe false information and have been shown to quickly and willingly take on new misinformation that their sources tell them to believe. It’s a mass Manchurian candidate scenario.
But even though it is difficult to combat, it does not mean we should do nothing about it. Facebook, Twitter and the rest have shown they are unwilling or incapable of handling this threat. Kos has his regular diary showing how individuals are responding to this programming. But we’re keeping it at a personal decision level, or at best trying to show how FOX, DeSantis and others profit from these “personal decisions”. But these are not personal decisions. Our people are victims (granted, plenty are willing victims) of a biological act of war.
Some may accuse me of hyperbole, but the Biological Weapons Convention states in article III that
Each State Party to this Convention undertakes not to transfer to any recipient whatsoever, directly or indirectly, and not in any way to assist, encourage, or induce any State, group of States or international organisations to manufacture or otherwise acquire any of the agents, toxins, weapons, equipment or means of delivery specified in Article I of the Convention.
Seems to me that encouraging individuals to spread disease in another country is a violation of this treaty.
I am exhausted with this pandemic. I am exhausted with a lack of apparent repercussions for those who prolong our suffering and kill thousands. In March of 2020 COVID was a natural and regrettable phenomenon. But now, after vaccines and masks have been clearly shown to halt the disease, we have left natural and we have left accident. Multiple countries (New Zealand and Taiwan come to mind) showed it was possible to nearly eliminate COVID using masks and social distancing alone. Vaccines, prior to omicron, have been shown to limit COVID’s ability to kill and spread (nothing is perfect). Both together, vaccines and masks, can bring the effective R value below 1. Or they could have.
Now omicron is on the scene and I see even less reaction by people at all levels than any of the previous surges. I get it, we’re tired. No-one wants to keep doing this. Okay, then let's take on those spreading deadly misinformation. Whether through existing law, new law, or boycotts, or whatever, we need to realize it’s not going away unless we fundamentally change our strategy at all levels. We need to acknowledge that we can’t continue to fight a disease while essentially ignoring the bad actors helping to spread the disease.