The Coronavirus is Not an Equalizer
The Coronavirus is Not an Equalizer
“The answers to all of your questions is: money.”
Tony Kornheiser says something every now and then on his podcast that I think about a lot, and it’s true in most cases. He quotes the late Don Ohlmeyer – the former NBC producer and president – saying, “The answers to all of your questions is: money.”
It’s why I thought the NCAA would never cancel its annual tournaments for men’s and women’s basketball, even amidst the coronavirus pandemic. I figured, there’s far too much dough at stake – mostly from television – that the NCAA and its schools would lose out on if they scrapped the tournaments. Turns out, I was wrong. The NCAA made the right decision and put safety first, even if it meant denting its piggy bank.
Kornheiser saying that phrase ran through my head recently when I saw that CNN anchor Chris Cuomo tested positive for the coronavirus this week. I thought to myself, I don’t personally know anyone who has the coronavirus, but these stories about famous people getting it keep popping up. Why?
Andy Cohen. Kevin Durant. James Dolan. Idris Elba. Rand Paul. On and on and on and on…
Ah. Money. These people have money.
The reality is, I probably do know someone who has the coronavirus, but they haven’t been tested because they can’t afford it or because a test isn’t available to them. Maybe they don’t have symptoms and are carrying it, but they have no way of knowing without being tested.
To be clear, I don’t wish this horrific virus on anyone. I hope all the folks who have it get healthy and stay safe.
However, I had to call B.S. when Chris’s brother Andrew – the Governor of New York – said on Twitter that the virus “is the great equalizer.” That’s simply not true.
The fact is, someone who has the salary of a television personality, or a politician, or an actor or an NBA player has avenues open for them that simply don’t exist for, say, a mechanic, or a nanny, or a cashier at Burger King. Money has allowed the far upper class to skip the line. Even if they don’t have symptoms, these people have gotten tests, simply because they can. TV personality Heidi Klum is among those who were asymptomatic and got a test anyway, which came back negative, according to the New York Times. Whatever loopholes there are in our healthcare system, money can help you find your way through and around them. Money can turn you into Bo Jackson, and the U.S. healthcare system into feathers.
Perhaps what Governor Cuomo meant is that no one is exempt from the coronavirus. Anyone can contract it. It impacts all of us. This is a battle we’re all fighting.
Sure.
But the way that we deal with it and the way we can acquire treatment is very different and it’s unfortunately based on class, celebrity and pay scale. While millionaires and billionaires can get tested and treated quickly, others who don’t have access to testing or can’t afford health insurance are being left to fend for themselves. Some of them are dying. Contrary to what Cuomo and Politico say, the coronavirus is not an equalizer. If anything, it’s crystalizing the gap between the haves and have-nots.
Some people are privileged enough to work from home, but bartenders, truck drivers, nurses and construction workers can’t do that. Rich folks can afford to hop on a private jet and isolate in their vacation homes. Delivery drivers and grocery store workers don’t have that same luxury.
After Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus last month, 58 Jazz players and staff members were immediately tested by an Oklahoma City health department team. Those 58 tests used up 60 percent of the state of Oklahoma’s daily testing capacity at the time. The 76ers, Lakers and Nets tested their players soon after, paying a private company to do so, according to a March 18 story from Vice.
In that same story, a doctor told writer Laura Wagner: “The current practice in New York is no one who's not getting admitted to a hospital is getting a test… Except for basketball players.”
On March 20, Vice published a round-up of celebrities who had been tested for the coronavirus. The site tried to reach out to these famous folks and – shocker! – most of them didn’t respond to a request for comment, to tell the regular people how they got tested so quickly.
But we know the answer.
How did these people get tested? Money. That’s how.
Read more
The Atlantic: It Pays to Be Rich During a Pandemic
Some good, of note
Some NBA players who tested positive for the coronavirus and then beat the disease, like Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics, will donate their blood for research for a vaccine. (ABC News)
Stay safe. Stay Inside. Y’all be good.
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“Man, money ain't got no owners. Only spenders.”