Coronavirus: True or false: "We're all in this together"?

A perspective on the pandemic written by Robert Fullilove III and Mindy Thompson Fullilove, April 6, 2020. 

There is a growing contemporary debate about the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.  Some contend, “We are all in this together.”  Others argue that we are not all in this together because "Some of us face much greater suffering.”  We turned to the rules of logic to understand the relationship between these ostensibly contradictory propositions.  We would argue that, because both propositions are true, this is not a contradiction but an antinomy. An antinomy occurs when two ostensibly opposing, even contradictory, arguments are held to be both valid and true (valid meaning that the argument’s conclusions have been generated correctly and true meaning that the conclusion describes the true and correct state of the world). For example, the expression, “There is no absolute truth,” is a statement that appears to assert an absolute truth – mainly that there is no such thing – but is itself presented as an absolute truth (“It is an absolute truth that there is no absolute truth.”)

Let us examine the two propositions to see if, indeed, they are each valid and true.  We are all in this together, we would assert, because of two facts: that wealth, fame, good fortune will not spare anyone the impact of this virus and that we will not get out of this horrific situation without solidarity. If only the poor and disadvantaged were being slammed, if the cases of the novel coronavirus were only in impoverished and medically underserved communities, the notion that we are all in this together would seem sharply and obviously false. But the headlines belie this notion. If the prime minister of the United Kingdom, one of the most powerful men on the planet, can be infected and even hospitalized, it is evident that the power of his office did not spare him the ravages of this virus.  At present, our efforts need to be in solidarity with everyone who has been sickened and is at mortal risk from Covid-19. To support efforts to combat this virus wherever it exists, here or overseas, is to express the will to fight together, not just from the confines of our own communities, to assure that we have a future worth living for. The rules for social isolation have to be followed and demanding a cogent national response from the president on down are all responsibilities that each of us must shoulder. A cogent collective response means that the places that have been hardest hit become our top priority and committing ourselves as a nation to do what we must to prevent a future tragedy of this dimension becomes our mutual responsibility.

Now let us examine the second proposition that “Some of us face much greater suffering.” There is no question that Covid-19 mortality follows the fault lines of all societies, not just ours. Several synergistic factors raise the risk of morbidity and mortality for the poor and people of color:  their higher rates of existing chronic conditions which exacerbate the risk of death from Covid-19; the likelihood of living in crowded conditions; the disproportionate employment in high risk jobs; and the lack of access to preventive measures.  The failure to have a rational, early response to this pandemic that would have provided high levels of testing, isolation of those who are ill, and contact tracing – indeed, the failure to rush aid of all kinds to the most vulnerable – is particularly significant in such settings because much of this illness and mortality might have been prevented.

Thus, we have established that both propositions are valid and true. How does thinking of this issue as an antinomy help us to confronting the pandemic? Too much of what is occurring in the discourse about this pandemic is engaged in trying to affix blame. But we need to be clear: naming those who have failed us in this battle is not a cure. It will not save a life today that is currently at enormous risk from this virus. We must be about a united response in which we allocate treatment and prevention resources rationally. Such an approach will obviously assist to lessen the impact in communities that are especially hard hit by this pandemic. And we all need to be clear that we face an enduring and ongoing struggle to resist and attack the evils of American Jim Crow capitalism which has created the vulnerabilities that Covid-19 is exploiting.