![]() ![]() This is because those norms are the material from which ways of life are made. In general, a political community such as a state ought only to suspend its established and desirable norms where such a suspension is in the wider service of those norms. A response to such emergencies that falls short will be ineffective, and unethical. But more to the point, it is right that such impacts are evoked by this virus. It seems remarkable that the protein generating requirements of a string of RNA could so directly impact upon established socio-political norms. As a result of this, thousands have died, thousands more have fallen ill and will fall ill, and we have witnessed a pan-national suspension of socio-political rights and freedoms. We all know now that among the host cells amenable to Covid-19’s survival are human cells. ![]() Covid-19 is what’s called a messenger RNA virus, meaning it fools a host cell into creating not the proteins required by the host organism, but those of the virus. ![]() This involves hijacking the mechanisms of the host cells. Like any other virus, covid-19 requires the cells of other living things in order to generate the proteins it needs in order to multiply. Whereas plants are practically self-sufficient, in generating their own energy, and most other life requires the consumption of plant or plant derived materials to thrive, viruses are utterly dependent upon colonising the mechanisms of cells in order to survive.Ĭovid-19 is a string of ribonucleic acid (RNA), with a fatty coating, and a spiky crown of proteins. Viruses are not really organisms in the sense of living things with which we are broadly familiar. Coronavirus presents more such circumstances, so it’s worth revisiting those earlier thoughts, and looking at how the responses stack up in light of them. The idea was that politics could owe debts to citizens that might prompt suspension of established, and in themselves desirable, norms under certain circumstances. Recently, I wrote about some possible limits of democratic politics in the context of climate change science. ![]()
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