The Case Against Waging ‘War’ on the Coronavirus
Leaders invoking battle terminology to galvanize national action risk achieving the opposite.
by Yasmeen Serhan
Mar 31, 2020
4 minutes
If curbing the spread of the coronavirus is akin to being “at war,” then it is unlike any war the world has ever fought.
Still, the irregularity of this particular fight hasn’t stopped leaders from invoking wartime imagery. In China, where the outbreak was confirmed earlier this year, Xi Jinping vowed to wage a “” on the coronavirus. As the disease spread across the globe, the battle allusions followed. France’s Emmanuel Macron declared the country at war with an “” enemy. Italy’s special commissioner for the coronavirus emergency said the country must equip itself for a “.” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Britons that theirs was a fight in which each and every.”
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