2/2/22
Billikens "How things ought to be"
As I was moving some things from my clinic office to home, I found this little walrus ivory carving called a Billiken. When I was in Juneau, Alaska a few years ago, I fell in love with these small carvings. I couldn’t resist this particularly cute one with the gold nugget belly button. It turns out, Billikens were a popular image more than a hundred years ago beginning in Kansas City. They came to symbolize “How things ought to be”. Somehow, the image made it to Alaska and the native carvers took it on.
I am thinking about the Billiken today when I read the statistics of COVID deaths in the US versus other countries. We have the highest death rate compared to all other wealthy nations, more deaths per capita during the Omicron phase, and the lowest vaccination rate. In my version of “how things ought to be”, people would wear masks, be happy to vaccinate, and show concern about others, not just themselves, when they make their choices. Several hundred thousand lives could have been saved and countless suffering could have been avoided.
Some researchers feel that some nations did better with COVID than others because of trust. This story about a study in the British medical journal Lancet which led researchers to propose that trust in government was a big factor in success or failure of a government’s efforts against COVID. Viet Nam’s citizens have higher trust in government and the country has done well in preventing deaths and getting people vaccinated, despite the challenges it faces because if its population size and relative lack of wealth. New Zealand and Australia also have lower rates of infection and deaths because of their citizens’ trust in government.
I can’t say the same for the US. The deep political divisions here have harmed trust in the government, leading to the polarization of trust in science. This has lead to acceptance of disinformation, and ultimately denial of the effectiveness of masks or the vaccines. Initially the people dying of COVID in the US were in cities and/or people of color. Now, that has reversed. Rural areas, especially Republican dominated ones, are more vulnerable to infections due to vaccine refusal and resistance to wearing masks. Ultimately, the areas resisting the government are now the areas suffering the most. You can track the deaths by state. Two COVID Americas seem to exist, based on politics and acceptance of vaccines and masking. For some reason, empathy also is a casualty of the pandemic. Many seem unconcerned and unmoved that 888,000 people have died from COVID. People seem defiant about the risks to themselves and their loved ones. Many say “vaccines don’t work” because breakthrough infections still occur, despite data showing that Omicron infections are much less severe if fully vaccinated. Sadly, people still resist vaccines despite the strong evidence that they prevent serious illness and death.
In my Billiken world, people would trust the government and believe peer reviewed data from scientists. They would be skeptical of information from someone on Facebook, Tik Tok, or cable news, and they would understand that masks protect them and people around them. Even more, they would feel empathy for people who are suffering and for the health care workers who care for everyone despite their choices.
Wash your hands, cover your nose, get your boosters, show you care, and help your neighbors and friends to trust the data.
And finally, my caveat is that this is my experience and my opinions, which are subject to change as more information is available, and not related to the organization I work for. Thanks for reading.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billiken
http://www.alaskafurexchange.com/billikens.htm
https://www.slu.edu/about/key-facts/what-is-a-billiken.php
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/u-s-has-far-higher-covid-19-death-rate-than-other-wealthy-nations/
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/02/01/science/covid-deaths-united-states.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/brand-studio/wp/2022/01/12/protecting-immunocompromised-patients-in-the-covid-19-pandemic/
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/researchers-asked-why-some-nations-were-better-prepared-for-covid-one-surprising-answer-trust/
https://kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/2021/10/30/the-polarization-of-death/
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/human-sacrifice-ritual-mass-vaccination/621355/
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/covid-death-toll-us-empathy-elderly/616379/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/coronavirus-us-cases-deaths/?itid=hp_pandemic_gfx/&state=US
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/25/briefing/covid-behavior-vaccinated-unvaccinated.html
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19vaccine/96968 23 X
unvaxhttps://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/01/world/covid-19-cases-vaccine/study-finds-that-vaccines-provide-robust-protection-against-omicron
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220201115144.htm covid less severe