What if the vaccine thats eventually developed is so large in scope it includes the words of UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres and Pope Francis?

I revisitGuterres words of a week ago: The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war. That is why today, I am calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world. It is time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives. We must, he said, silence the guns; stop the artillery; end the airstrikes . . . to help create corridors for life-saving aid. To open precious windows for diplomacy.

And several days later,the pope, delivering his weekly blessing not from St. Peters Square but from the papal library, called on the world to stop every form of bellicose hostility and to favor the creation of corridors for humanitarian help, diplomatic efforts and attention to those who find themselves in situations of great vulnerability.

"What if war and xenophobia were understood to be not business as usual, the equivalent of self-defense and always necessary (at least when we do it) and thus something to be funded without questionyear after year, decade after decade, century after centurybut rather, the Pandemic That Doesnt End?"

My heart, hearing such pleas, cries: what if . . . what if . . .what if?

What if idealism were the essence of human politics, not its scapegoat? What if war and xenophobia were understood to be not business as usual, the equivalent of self-defense and always necessary (at least when we do it) and thus something to be funded without questionyear after year, decade after decade, century after centurybut rather, the Pandemic That Doesnt End?

Just to clarify the matter, I would make a slight amendment to the words of Pope Francis and Secretary-General Guterres: We need a global ceasefire right now not merely so that we can address, and halt, the spread of COVID-19 after which we can go back to murder, torture, sanctions and such . . . the business of teaching our enemies their lessons and/or simply eliminating them but rather, we need a global ceasefire because this is what we have always needed.

I would make a further clarification. Ceasefire sounds like a temporary halt. We need a permanent halt: to war, xenophobia, the false divisiveness of national borders. And this will not happen merely by political authorization, any more than the coronavirus can be ordered by some powerful leader to cease and desist its destructive impact on the human race. Just as much as we need medical vaccines, we need social vaccines.

And even as we talk about waging war on COVID-19, that is not what is going to work. Remember all the wars weve waged over the last half century or so? Weve waged a war on drugs, cancer, crime and poverty even obesity, for Gods sake. And, oh yes, terror. Indeed, evil itself. How did those wars turn out?

In America in my lifetime, war has not been a vehicle for positive outcomes, but for normalizing a particular kind of process in which a White Houses caprices and a populaces complacency expand indefinitely,Adam Weinsteinwrote recently at The New Republic. He makes note of Joe Bidens dismissal, in his latest debate with Bernie Sanders, of Medicare for All as crucial in dealing with COVID-19.

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It has nothing to do with Medicare for All, Biden declared. That would not solve the problem at all. Were at war with the virus. Were at war with the virus. It has nothing to do with co-pays or anything. . . . People are looking for results, not a revolution.

Weinstein writes: This argument was couched as common sensedeal with the problem in front of youbut it was the opposite. Rather than lay out an achievable but ambitious long-term goal to protect Americans, Biden is focused on an impossible and open-ended mission: victory over a virus. Affordable health care for all? Theres no time for that malarkey now, jack. Havent you noticed theres a war going on?

In other words, Biden was calling for the opposite of a ceasefire. He seemed to be revving up all that war requires of us, whatever that might be. His declaration of war against a virus sounded excruciatingly like George W. Bushs declaration of war against evil, and the axis thereof. Well take it out with some shock-and-awe bombing. What could be simpler?

And this, precisely, is the problem with war. Before its a realityfire and blood, severed limbs and collapsing infrastructure, anguish, death and hell (for some)its a declaration, a call for national unity against, ta tum, THE ENEMY. This mixes ever so nicely with politics. A leaders job is a lot easier if he or she has a good enemy to rally his constituents against.

In President Donald Trumps Oval Office address yesterday about the threats of the novel coronavirus, he went out of his way to label it a foreign virus,Ben Zimmerwrites at The Atlantic, pointing out that members of the Trump administration have routinely called it the Wuhan virus or Chinese coronavirus.

When it comes to the popular naming of infectious diseases, xenophobia has long played a prominent role, he writes, quoting Susan Sontag that there is a link between imagining disease and imagining foreignness. It lies perhaps in the very concept of wrong, which is archaically identical with the non-us, the alien.

Another twist on this is that members of Team Trump, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have been pushing, according to theNew York Times, for aggressive new action against Iran and its proxy forces and see an opportunity to try to destroy Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq as leaders in Iran are distracted by the pandemic crisis in their country.

The irony here is savage. The calls for ceasefire are not coming from those in command of armies, who instead are looking for whatever opportunity might exist in the current crisis. Yet when I think of what will save humanity from the looming pandemicand from everything else that endangers them, including themselvesI can see this much: Developing a vaccine requires studying andunderstandingthe virus, not waging war against it.

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The Fury and the Folly: We Need a Vaccine to Stop Endless War - Common Dreams