My Response to COVID-19, or Friends Who Think This Is Over Hyped
Let me say who I am. I am a person who is leading a triple life. I am a dad and husband. I am involved in several arts organizations, one of which I am the founder and director of. I am an Educational Technology Analyst for one of the largest Universities in Southern California. On top of my mother canceling her trip to see her granddaughter, those second two have given me direct consequences with this COVID-19 situation, and the first one provides me the motivation to keep going to the best of my limited abilities.
I have now experienced the cancelation (or postponement, though I wonder how many “postponed” events will be able to happen in the last half of the year) of events I both love and am involved in. I had a wonderful sidebar at the 27th Annual San Diego Latino Film Festival planned, including three repertory films that I couldn’t wait to screen for people. Seeing that event shut down ON THE DAY it was supposed to open was quite a blow. TCM Classic Film Festival, a festival I volunteer for as a “TCM Ambassador,” and one of my favorite events of the year, has similarly had to close. There are many others, but I am most closely hit personally by those.
Then there is Horrible Imaginings Film Festival. That doesn’t occur for several months, and quite a lot could happen before then. Chances are quite good, though, that this pandemic will continue to wreak havoc to varying degrees throughout the remainder of the year. It is completely within the realm of possibility (perhaps even probability) that we might have to join the list of events that had to, crushingly, close the doors on a year’s worth of work, preparation, fundraising, and planning. As a modest event, such a financial shock could put us on an indefinite hiatus for the foreseeable future (and increase my personal debt).
I say all this to make clear how much this all would affect me and my family--including my family at home and my filmmaking/festival families. So, why would I think we would close? Isn’t this just another flu? Isn’t it a “low death rate?” Doesn’t it just affect old and sick people? Isn’t this just media hype/hysteria/panic?
While the way this is reported 24/7 as a horror film probably isn’t helping, this is a real crisis with unprecedented consequences--at least in recent memory. I have gained perspective on this because of my other job at the University. Partly because our national leadership has failed miserably--to this day--to provide any semblance of appropriate response to this, it has fallen on local governments and institutions to attempt to stem the flood of infection. Part of this is the closing of college campuses and the move to remote teaching.
The efforts to get our instructors, some of whom have been involuntarily thrust into a seemingly impossible situation, ready for moving their classes to an entirely remote or electronic environment has been a monumental task. I would say even Quixotic, and certainly inadvisable--but a necessary response to an extreme situation. Because part of this has been to attempt to predict, with analysis of the limited evidence we are able to glean, how far-reaching and long this could last, I have been doing lots of research about this particular pandemic, talked to people affected, and heard from friends in countries that are really struggling.
I completely understand the responses some of my loved ones have had to this. First of all, it is easy to try to compare this to Swine Flu, Bird Flu, and other similar super flus. There are also people who are venting because they are in very real danger of losing their livelihoods, or have already lost them. Maybe they are close to people in those situations. I want to be very understanding of those situations. It is unthinkable and terrifying, and I realize my position of privilege here. Maybe you are just devastated that your favorite horror convention--the only place in the entire year you don’t feel alone--has been canceled. You deserve the right to vent your sadness. Still, I hope people can please understand some things.
Comparing this pandemic to others is a false equivalency. These all act differently and can have vastly different consequences. Pandemics HAVE had major consequences.
The death rate is small (or less than the flu). First of all, we don’t know the death rate because of the lack of data. This is partially the fault of glacial governments, and partially the reality of a brand new strain of virus. Second, it’s just not true. The estimated death rate is actually higher than seasonal flu, it is just (so far) killed fewer in raw numbers.
It only affects old and sick people. First of all, it is terrible to talk about people as expendable. Second, the definition of “sick” includes, for one example, people with high blood pressure. That is 1 in 3 Americans. I would fit that profile. We haven’t been testing basically at all, statistically speaking, so we have really no clue how expansive this spread is as I type this, let alone how it will go.
Do you have friends in Italy? Please talk to them (if you don’t believe the stories that are being told on social media/traditional media). Morgues are full, so bodies are being kept in homes/churches/other places. When Governor Jay Inslee said (about stringent social distancing policies in Washington state), “The penalties are you might be killing your grandfather if you don’t do it,” he was not being melodramatic.
“Telling healthy 20-somethings they can’t go out is ridiculous. They will be fine!” This one is probably one of the one’s I have been seeing most. It is also directly tied to all these events closing. Here is the thing about social distancing: It is not about you.
Keeping large gatherings of people from forming is about preventing many people at once from becoming vectors. We know that this virus is transmitted through proximity, so one person showing up to a group of 100 means that several other people (healthy or not) could leave that gathering a vector. They then go to work, go to the gym, go to the store, and potentially create more and more vectors. This is about an exponential growth of contagion.
The death rate may be low. The illness may be mild for most people. Many of them will be, and not only should we care about their welfare, but we should care about the strain on our healthcare system. If you have heard about “flattening the curve,” this is largely about that. The virus progressing from mild to severe happens quickly and requires weeks in special care. This means overtaxed health care providers, capacity hospitals, and people who need care with any challenge (COVID or otherwise) getting turned away or prioritized against other people.
Attempting to prevent that is the reason for these closings. It is not a panic move, it is not a “fear-mongering” move. It is a tested strategy that is being asked, practically begged, of us by the doctors, scientists, medical professionals most qualified to ask.
A pandemic is a terrible thing with terrible consequences. We have to accept the least evil of those consequences. Losing my festival for a couple of years is better than losing my parents, having my loved ones lose their parents, or even leaving my daughter fatherless. The best case scenario is these extreme social distancing strategies work, and we weather this storm with few major problems. Then the most irritating thing will be all the people say, “see? It was all hype,” while the reason it seemed like hype is likely BECAUSE we did these things. And, you know what? I can deal with that.
If you are a filmmaker who has submitted a film to us, or is thinking of submitting, we are going to make regular statements as we monitor this situation. Please keep in contact.
In the meantime, stay safe everyone.
With genuine concern and support,
Miguel Rodriguez
Founder and Director
Horrible Imaginings Film Festival