Turkey’s winning the war by not fighting battles

Embracing uncertainty and community in the time of Coronavirus

Turkey officially announced its first recorded case of Coronavirus late on March 10. The next day the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic. From the beginning many countries, their politicians and their media have framed the pandemic in combative terms, using the idea that if everyone fights together, we can resist the effects of the virus, and we will win. Phrases like “We are waging a war against the Coronavirus” and “We have to battle Covid-19” are commonplace. They are used with the intention of rallying people, as though they were troops, to create a sense of unity.

Unlike in real wars, this enemy is invisible and seemingly everywhere at once. No one is exactly sure how it transmits. Is it through touch, off hard surfaces, from sneezes, in droplets of sweat or attached to particles of polluted air? Scientists have been correlating data as fast as possible so we do know older people, and people with pre-existing conditions regardless of age, are in the high risk category. Yet science can’t explain why seemingly healthy children have died after contracting the virus. Worldwide, different leaders have implemented health department approved measures such as testing, contact tracing, stay at home orders and social distancing. The success of the latter two is predicated on the idea citizens will do as they’re told. However the world is made up of people not soldiers so unquestioning obedience isn’t a given. Additionally, there is…