Politicization and Pariah-tization of Epidemics - A Recipe for Legal and Policy Disaster: Comparing the 1892 Cholera Epidemic with the Handling of COVID-19

28 Pages Posted: 12 Sep 2022

See all articles by Barbara Pfeffer Billauer

Barbara Pfeffer Billauer

Institute of World Politics; International Program in Bioethics, U. of Porto; Foundation for Law and Science Centers, Inc.

Date Written: September 11, 2022

Abstract

As we begin to disentangle disastrous COVID policies, it behooves us to investigate whether we are politically programmed to behave in self-defeating ways in terms of epidemic management. This article tells the story of an epidemic as it affected New York and its battles with a President intent on implementing his own politically-motivated policies. This story is not specifically about COVID, but rather about a very similar situation presented by the Cholera epidemic of 1892. The article also discusses the phenomena of “pariah-tization” -- the false depiction of a vulnerable section of the populace as uniquely vulnerable to a disease to avoid addressing larger issues affecting the populace at large. In the case of the 1892 Cholera epidemic- immigrants were scapegoated, particularly Russian Jews. In the case of COVID it was the elderly. The pariah-tization practice seems to be entrenched, manifesting in scapegoating Italians, and African Americans, in earlier generations, as well. The battle of competing interests, the intersection of the police powers of the state, the unique knowledge of a locality and the political drives of a President seeking to win re-election, play out in 1892- in a manner reminiscent of present day. As George Santayanya once said: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Keywords: epidemic, pandemic, COVID, cholera, quarantine, lockdown, politics, policies, police power,

JEL Classification: I1, I12, I14, I18, K32

Suggested Citation

Billauer, Barbara P., Politicization and Pariah-tization of Epidemics - A Recipe for Legal and Policy Disaster: Comparing the 1892 Cholera Epidemic with the Handling of COVID-19 (September 11, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4215877 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4215877

Barbara P. Billauer (Contact Author)

Institute of World Politics ( email )

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International Program in Bioethics, U. of Porto ( email )

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Foundation for Law and Science Centers, Inc. ( email )

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