It feels like we are all playing a waiting game. Waiting for things to go back to ‘normal’. Waiting to go back to work. Waiting for the day we no longer have to keep our loved ones at arm’s length. Waiting in lines, six feet apart, for those items deemed essential. In the United States, some of the longest lines are at hospitals, supermarkets and gun shops.
This pandemic is taking panic buying to a whole new level. Why does our idea of essential necessitate owning weapons and hoarding resources? Both US citizens and the US government are sinking money into arms and weapons while our hospitals are at overcapacity.(1, 2) In a culture where we are told that what we consume is what we value, I am afraid of what this means. We’re seeing the world turn inward. In the US there’s a physical and metaphorical closing of borders happening, from our in-home quarantines to our foreign policy. Even more concerning, it’s marked by selfishness, nationalism, patriarchy and militarization. COVID-19 is simply exacerbating issues that already existed: healthcare and food security have long been neglected and underfunded as ‘feminine,’ domestic spheres, while the military continues to be prioritized, with limitless financing, as the personification of ‘masculinity,’ patriarchy, and control.(3, 4) For example, the 2021 Budget of the United State’s, released in February, allocates a whopping $705.4 billion for the Department of Defense, an increase of $0.8 billion since last year. On the contrary the budget allocated for the Department Health Human Services (HHS) has decreased by 10-percent, leaving $94.5 billion for the HHS.(5)
Personal, national and international perceptions of security need to be rethought. If the US government can spend billions of dollars on weapons to ‘keep us safe,’ then why can’t they provide fair and equal access to life-saving medical equipment and food? Why would governments cut promised aid at this critical moment when ensuring their safety and working together protects global stability? Our investments are costing thousands of lives.
On the Home-Front: How US Citizens are Reacting
In the wake of the US government’s unwillingness to provide the necessary resources for its citizens, there has been a rush to stockpile goods. Everyone thinks they need a mask, a basement full of canned food, and an arsenal of firearms more than the next person.
With schools shut down, families must find ways to feed children that typically depend on free meals from the cafeteria. Food banks are under new pressures and families relying on food stamps anxiously await their disbursement. Even so, people with the financial means are still taking more than they need and food shortages are apparent.
Personal protective equipment has also been in demand as people covet the tools medical professionals need, with doctors and nurses forced to wear the same masks day after day.(6) Meanwhile, the FBI has recently formed the ‘Justice Department's COVID-19 Hoarding and Price Gouging Task Force.’ Recently, they arrested a man for selling medical face masks to health professionals at as high as 700% markup.(7)
Stories are circulating about people fighting over toilet paper down aisle three, but the real threat is the violence that goes unreported at home. According to the FBI, 3.7 million background checks were completed in March, signaling some of the highest rates of firearms sales in US history.(1) A firm that tracks the firearms market reported that nearly 2.6 million guns have been sold during the COVID-19 crisis.(8) Ammo.com, an ammunition website, has experienced a 1,000% increase in sales in numerous states.(9) While the stock market is crashing, shares in gun and ammunition manufacturers are actually rising (8); taking the term ‘stocking up’ to another level.
A 2016 survey found that the main reason people buy guns is for protection.(10) People are feeling the pressure to protect what’s theirs because of the economic crash happening due to the impacts of COVID-19.(11) However, this depends on your definition of ‘security’- having a gun in a home with a history of domestic violence, increases the chance of a woman in that household being murdered by 500%.(1) Increased rates of domestic violence due to COVID-19 are already a major concern, as isolation can be used as a tool to control victims and it is more difficult to reach out for help.(8)
When institutions such as the US government fail to make citizens feel safe and secure, citizens take matters into their own hands which can have devastating effects. Having a gun or one hundred cans of soup will not prevent someone from contracting COVID-19, however, the lack of access to food, an ill-equipped nurse, or the flagrant use of a gun will increase deaths. It is up to the US government to budget for mandatory services like healthcare and food assistance, above military expenditures, and to demilitarize US society: hopefully, this pandemic is a wake-up call for the system that is already failing so many.
On the Battle Front: How the International Community is Adjusting Foreign Policy
The world is fraught with doomsday comparisons, likening COVID-19 to a world war. From the World Health Organization’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to country leaders like Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, and Donald Trump, the consensus is clear: “we are at war”.(12) As a result, emergency powers have been deemed effective, borders are closing, and quick decisions are being made. But who are we treating as enemies? Rash decisions are being made by governments leaving no time for push-back or consideration over the repercussions especially to the most vulnerable, a process referred to as the “patriarchal wield of urgency”.(13) The urgent greed is perpetuated by US citizens acts in parallel to the actions taken by the US, and other state governments.
Hoarding takes on new dimensions when it is considered on a global scale as some countries start to withhold aid and domestic food supplies. The US has already slashed aid to Yemen as well as removed $1 billion worth of aid to Afghanistan.(14, 15) Yemen’s aid is projected to halve as other countries follow the US’s lead, even though more than 12 million Yemenis depend on aid programs for food.(14) An unstable Afghanistan is now left high and dry amidst the COVID-19 pandemic that is ravaging through refugee camps, where social distancing is not an option.(15) The US-Taliban peace deal is now at risk of upending.(15) COVID-19 is at risk of disrupting many fragile conflict areas if they are not properly supported through this crisis. While there is ample food to support the supply chain, lack of workers, frenzied buying, and wartime attitudes laden with nationalism are all putting pressure on the global food system. Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Serbia and possibly Russia now too, have all suspended certain food exports.(16) If continued, this ‘food-nationalism’ will increase the price of food globally and thus incur more political instability.(16) Countries need to prioritise foreign aid, especially in the form of food access, as a legitimate security issue to prevent conflict and violence.
Despite an international ceasefire called by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, countries are still readying for war. Conflict-ridden countries will face this crisis on multiple fronts between the virus and violence, while other countries are capitalizing off of fueling the conflict through weapon sales and ignoring the human rights violations of those they are selling them to in favor of profit. Canada has recently lifted bans on weapon exports to Saudi Arabia in favor of a $14 billion contract (17); Saudi has been responsible for over 130 attacks on medical facilities in Yemen since 2015.(13) Arms companies in Italy, the UK, and US are all still open for business. Italy has continued work on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Plane during the COVID-19 outbreak, though it equals the cost of 2200 ventilators.(2) The US and Canada are beginning to militarize borders as an attempt to keep COVID-19 out: an attempt almost as feudal as constructing a wall around the southern border.(18)
Waving the White Flag: No choice but to Change
While military spending will continue, the damage is already done; the US, along with the rest of the world, was utterly unprepared for a situation like this. In 2014, following the Ebola epidemic, Bill Gates warned the world’s leaders that the next catastrophe ‘won’t be missiles, it will be microbes’. He put forward ideas for prevention including investing in our healthcare system the way we do in our military and practicing germ simulations the way NATO does for war.(19) This clearly did not happen. The US spends $35.1 billion on nuclear weapons annually that are never supposed to be used, yet paying for more ventilators and hospital beds seems unacceptable to the Government.(20)
We can’t keep waiting. Whether it’s in our communities nationally or globally, we must reimagine our approaches to this pandemic and all other crises going forward. It’s been said, but ‘normal’ was never working. We need to emphasize feminist alternatives by rethinking security as solidarity. Working together, countries can equitably distribute necessary resources to ensure conflict and unrest is mitigated and that COVID-19, and its secondary impacts, are addressed globally. Treating COVID-19 as a war is only deepening divisions and making distance seem endless. Adapting our notions of security to include will save lives. We know that we have the capacity: we need to go to the same lengths for securing healthcare and aid for all, instead of securing arms.
Kendall Trelegan
Kendall Trelegan is a recent graduate from Northeastern University, holding a Bachelor’s in Political Science and minors in International Affairs and Global Social Enterprise. She is currently interning at the Boston Consortium on Gender, Security, and Human Rights. She is most interested in the intersection of gender, politics, development, and climate resilience.
Follow Kendall on Twitter: @KendallTrel
References
(1) Dix, Griffin, “COVID-19, Gun Sales and Guns in Homes,” The Hill, April 11, 2020.
(2) Acheson, Ray, “COVID-19: From Ceasefire to Divestment and Disarmament,” WILPF, April 3, 2020.
(3) The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, “The Care Economy: Women, Wealth and Work,” 2020.
(4) Reaching Critical Will, “Bringing feminist perspectives to disarmament,” 2020.
(5) Office of Management and Budget, “A Budget For America’s Future,” February 2020.
(6) Karlamangla, Soumya, Chabria, Anita, and Emily Baumgaertner, “Despite promises of more masks, doctors and nurses have to reuse N95s,” Los Angeles Times, April 14, 2020.
(7) Perez, Evan, and David Shortell, “HHS Redistributes Medical Supplies Seized from Seller Suspected of Hoarding,” CNN, April 3, 2020.
(8) Edelman, Adam, “Buckling to Pressure, Many States Deem Gun Stores 'Essential,' Allow Them to Remain Open during Pandemic,” NBCNews.com, April 8, 2020. (Small Arms Analytics and Forecasting)
(9) Volpe, Allie, “A Legacy of the COVID-19 Pandemic Will Be That Even More Americans Own Guns,” RollingStone, April 8, 2020.
(10) Martin, Greg, “Study: 70M More Firearms Added to US Gun Stock over Past 20 Years,” News Northeastern, September 26, 2016.
(11) Irwin, Neil, “It’s the End of the World Economy as We Know It,” New York Times, April 16, 2020.
(12) Tisdall, Simon, “Lay off Those War Metaphors, World Leaders. You Could Be the next Casualty…,” The Guardian, March 21, 2020.
(13) “Feminist Alternatives: Challenge Militarism to Save Our Planet,” filmed April 2020 at PeaceWomen, video, www.peacewomen.org/node/103838.
(14) Laforgia, Michael, “U.S. Cuts Health Care Aid to Yemen Despite Worries About Coronavirus,” The New York Times, March 28, 2020
(15) Dozier, Kimberly, “Washington's Aid Cut Comes At A Bad Time for Afghanistan,” Time, April 4, 2020.
(16) Almeida, Isis, and Agnieszka Sousa, “Countries Starting to Hoard Food, Threatening Global Trade,” Bloomberg, March 24, 2020.
(17) Ljunggren, David, “Canada Lifting a Freeze on Arms Exports to Saudi Arabia, Opposition Wants Big Deal Scrapped,” Reuters, April 9, 2020.
(18) Petersen-Smith, Khury, “How Wars, Sanctions, and Militarism Made the Coronavirus Crisis Worse,” Common Dreams, April 13 2020.
(19) Gates, Bill, “The next Outbreak? We're Not Ready,” filmed March 2015 at TEDX Conference 2015.
(20) “Nuclear Spending vs Healthcare,” International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, 2020.