Coronavirus and Culture War: Blunders, Defiance, and Glimmers of Solidarity

The health epidemic of 2020 set off a culture war and, like all national crises, revealed exactly who we Americans are. This essay examines Danielle Allen's Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus, a wise, humane, and indispensable guide for negotiating a health pandemic—if not this one, the inevitable next one. It reflects on her five-point guide to handling pandemics, comparing her ideals to the national experience. This essay places Allen's monograph in the context of the larger literature on the coronavirus in America. The essay traces how and why public health fell into the American culture wars, notes the brief glimmer of a genuine social welfare safety net that briefly emerged during the crisis, and summarizes the epidemic's dismal toll on American lives, suggesting why even much poorer nations did a better job of protecting their citizens.