The real threat in times of COVID-19

This week, citizens of different ages came together to protest in 11 states of the US territory (Utah, Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohaio, California, Minnesota and Washington) against the recommendations and restrictions that Federal authorities have implemented strategies to control community spread of COVID-19 in the United States.

Certain sectors of the population expressed their repudiation in the streets regarding the use of personal protective equipment, P.P.E, for its acronym in English; restrictions on free movement in public places and social distancing. The protesters showed their disagreement with these measures through posters that read “My body, my decision. Trump 2020” along with a hand-drawn drawing of a face mask. In another case, a woman wearing a shirt alluding to the fictional character, Captain America, fervently held up a sign in which the phrase "My body, my risk, my decision" was embodied.

Despite the fact that these recommendations have been promoted and endorsed by the World Health Organization to guarantee the safety of the world population, in the United States there remains skeptical groups that question the existence of the virus that has paralyzed the economy and altered the global interpersonal and social relationships. Such groups fall into two categories: anti-government groups and religious groups.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, individuals who are active members of anti-government groups define themselves as opposing the "New World Order." The anti-government movement is made up of militias and, in some specific cases, xenophobic and racist traits are glimpsed.

These groups, in addition to voluntarily adhering to radical anti-government doctrines, subscribe to conspiracy theorizing that lacks rational foundations and, therefore, provides unverifiable information. To exemplify the above, it is pertinent to mention that one of the most popular beliefs among these movements refers to an alleged global plan implemented by the United Nations Organization in conjunction with State governments that aims to abolish citizen rights and their liberties. It is clear that most of the conspiracy theories of this type reflect one of the most sensitive historical concerns for a wide sector of the population of the United States: the control of firearms.

As for religious groups, these are subdivided into 2 categories: Christian groups and New Religious Movements (NRM) for its acronym in English. The former have defied the security measures of the US federal government and have refused to cancel Sunday congregations and Easter festivities.

The CNN television network has given greater clarity to the situation that the country is going through through an interview with a woman who was leaving a parking lot after attending a religious mass without any personal protective equipment. She was asked if she was concerned about the possibility that she could infect other people due to the exposure she found herself in during the meeting, but her answer deviated from the question. She claimed that she was protected by the blood of Jesus and left the scene without giving the reporter a chance to reply. This is a brief sample of the religious ideas that predominate in much of the United States, it shows the magnitude of the neglect and the clear overlap of religious faith on the recommendations of health and science.

However, Christian congregations are not the only ones challenging federal authority. There are religious groups in the United States (New Religious Movements) that center their beliefs around the end of the world. Sociologists and academics who specialize in religion emphasize the use of the term "New Religious Movements" instead of "cults" since the latter has negative and discriminatory connotations. The NRM are those religions that have a short period of existence and that are incompatible with the predominant religions of a society.

According to information provided by the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service, apocalyptic religious movements are defined as religious movements that share the belief that human suffering will be eliminated in an imminent cataclysm, guaranteeing the salvation of humanity. It is important to mention that, although there is a great variety of groups that can be called apocalyptic religious movements, it is possible to identify certain similarities between all of them: apocalyptic beliefs, the existence of a charismatic leader and hostility against the authorities when the group considers that their predictions are threatened by their actions.

From the state perspective, these groups in some cases must be monitored because they represent a threat to public safety in different ways, this happens when:

1.- The movement threatens governance by associating abstract enemies with state entities, which implies disruption of order and revolts against the state.

2.- Weapons are acquired (firearms, explosives, chemical and biological weapons).

Although these social phenomena are not new, it is pertinent to point out that in the case of anti-government movements, starting in 2008, when Barack Obama, the first black president became president of the United States of America, there was a clear increase in the number of adherents to these currents of thought mainly because the feelings of hatred and racism against American citizens with African descent were exacerbated. In this sense, it could be affirmed that the Anti-Government Movements (MA) have always presented hostility against the authorities.

However, during the term of Donald Trump there were substantial changes regarding the relationship that the State has with the most radical and conservative groups in the territory. For the first time in modern times, the highest figure in the US government demonstrated not only to support these sectors of the population (nationalists, rural middle class, Christian, xenophobic and racist), but to be part of it. President Trump's racist, misogynistic, Christian and conservative comments have had a special resonance with this audience. These new political conditions have served as a breeding ground for the resurgence and strengthening of different currents of thought in the United States. The republican government has given back the force to the social movements and to the most conservative causes.

Despite the fact that the militias and the MA find strong incompatibilities with the public health and safety measures implemented, these groups do not perceive Donald Trump as an enemy of the state. This argument is even graphically verified when reading the posters that, on the one hand, reject the restrictions and, on the other, support Trump's candidacy in 2020.

In the current context, it can be affirmed that this type of currents of thought and movements are a threat to the security of the United States due to the fact that a correlation is found between the places where protests were carried out (therefore it is inferred that they did not the recommendations of the WHO and the Health authorities are followed on a daily basis) and the states where the highest cases of infection have been registered. See Table 1.1 and Graph 1.1

US COVID-19 case number

Table 1.1

Source: Own elaboration based on data from the CDC

Graph 1.1

US COVID-19 case number

This map shows confirmed and probable cases reported by the United States. Each state health department reports the extent to which the virus has spread in their community.

April 21, 2020

Source: CDC [https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases -updates/cases-in-us.html)

Given this extremely worrying scenario, we add that President Trump made statements through his Twitter account in support of some of the states where there were demonstrations. The facts raised give the impression that Donald Trump has been treating the COVID-19 crisis as a campaign issue and has failed to project a position of unity and consistency with the recommendations of the World Health Organization.

It is estimated that a total of 2,000 people gathered to demonstrate in Washington alone. This implies that the estimates regarding the number of infections and deaths from COVID-19 will be even higher than what experts from the University of Massachusetts Amherst carried out on April 15. Before the protests, 47,500 deaths as a result of COVID-19 were predicted in the US territory by May 1.

In this scenario, the United States has the obligation to manage and establish specific action strategies to face the complex challenge represented by the New Religious Movements, the most conservative branches of Christianity and anti-government movements to avoid harming national public security. However, the real threat is not COVID-19 or these radical sectors of the population, it is the irresponsible leadership of the president of the United States, the flawed effort of the US government to prevent the spread of false news and the terrible mistake of invalidate science for his entire tenure.

This aversion for science is an element that has characterized the government of Donald Trump, it is enough to remember those statements in which he affirms that Climate Change is a construction of the Chinese government or to bear in mind that, who has been in charge of coping with the Crisis of COVID-19, Vice President Mike Pence is also skeptical of the science. It is worth mentioning that during his administration as governor of Indiana, one of the worst HIV crises in the state to date was recorded due to negligence.