Bug zappers atop the border wall? The politics of the next world health emergency

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

That’s the message that we’re being bombarded with everyday, and it’s a consistent strain throughout the Republican presidential primary campaign.

Despite living in the safest, most secure time in history, news reports of crime, disease, terrorism and war dominate news coverage and political debate.

From Gov. Paul LePage’s vigilante plea for armed Mainers to dispatch out-of-state drug dealers, to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s pledge to “carpet bomb” ISIS in Syria, it’s no wonder that it’s becoming difficult to accurately judge the risks we face in an uncertain world.

Now, just in time for the heat of the primary season, there’s a new crisis that’s grabbing headlines in Maine and around the world.

It’s the Zika virus, a mysterious and dangerous mosquito-born virus that’s spreading particularly in South and Central America.

An Aedes Aegypti mosquito in a lab in Cali, Colombia. Jaime Saldarriaga | Reuters

An Aedes Aegypti mosquito in a lab in Cali, Colombia. Jaime Saldarriaga | Reuters

Earlier this week, the World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency and the first known case of the disease in the United States was detected in Texas. In that case, it appears the disease was spread by sexual contact, adding a new, scary dimension to the Zika.

Zika appears to pose a risk to pregnant women and there’s a possible link to birth defects, including babies being born with small heads (microcephaly) and brain damage. WHO describes the link between the disease and the increase in the microcephaly in Brazil, where Zika has taken hold, as “hazy.” And some researchers worry that the danger is being overblown.

There’s no vaccine against Zika, and there’s no quick and reliable test to catch it. The World Health Organization is calling for a coordinated international response.

Infectious diseases are scary, and public health is not very well understood by most Americans. But one thing we are good at is freaking out about the crisis du jour.

It’s only a matter of time before Zika jumps from being a public health issue to becoming a political issue.

The ground is already fertile.

The disease, right now, is centered in Brazil and South and Central America, which makes it a convenient weapon to bash new immigrants to the United States, playing into old tropes about how disease spreads.

For politicians, particularly those like LePage, Cruz and Donald Trump, who capitalize on a xenophobic, nativist message that blames all manner of ill on “people from away,” the target will prove too tempting.

Social science research tells us that voters behave more conservatively when confronted with the fear of infectious disease — real or imagined. We revert to our base instincts of self-protection and tribalism.

Writing for Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, Susan Greenberg says that the fear of contagious disease makes people behave irrationally and has been used throughout history as an excuse to attack “out” groups and minorities.

“In medieval Europe, for instance, Jews and gypsies were among those accused of spreading the deadly bubonic plague. In 1793, during the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, local officials singled out actors, vaudevillians, and artists for transmitting the disease,” Greenberg wrote last year.

And lest we forget, Maine saw firsthand how the irrational fear of disease can be used to impact an election.

In the final weeks of the 2014 gubernatorial election, Nurse Kaci Hickox found herself in the center of a crazy political storm. LePage and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie exploited fear of the deadly disease Ebola for political gain.

Hickox returned to the U.S. after a tour treating people with Ebola in Sierra Leone during a stint with Doctors Without Borders. She should have been treated as a public health hero. Instead, she was illegally quarantined by Christie and, when she came home to Maine, LePage.

Hickox was never sick. All the science told us she posed no risk to anyone. But “protecting” the public was too good of an opportunity to pass up. LePage even went on an inflammatory tirade during the period, explicitly blaming immigrants for all manner of disease — claims that were quickly debunked but nevertheless caught political fire.

While there are many reasons why Maine and the entire country turned considerably more conservative in the final days of the 2014 campaign, there’s no question in my mind that the fear of Ebola and the way the public health emergency was exploited for political gain played a role.

The threat of Ebola has subsided. But it won’t be long before Zika takes its place as the new bogeyman to justify xenophobia and strike fear into voters.

Maybe Trump will even add bug zappers to the top of his huge wall. That’ll keep us safe, right?

David Farmer

About David Farmer

David Farmer is a political and media consultant in Portland, where he lives with his wife and two children. He was senior adviser to Democrat Mike Michaud’s campaign for governor and a longtime journalist. You can reach him at dfarmer14@hotmail.com.