Fake news, ignorance, and bipartisan politics will make defeating COVID-19 and climate change impossible.

The argument

State governments are ordering citizens to stay home to prevent the spread of COVID-19 until a vaccine can be found- but the principle of personal freedom and responsibility has been so deeply ingrained in American culture that governments are now struggling to control those who are misinformed and those who consider their right to freedom to be more important than the health and safety of those around them. In addition, there's no guarantee that people will get the COVID-19 vaccine once it's discovered, due to the increasing popularity of the anti-vaccination movement. The American political system is so divided that the pandemic is now a partisan issue. "Republicans are, as would be predicted, much more positive than Democrats about the way President Donald Trump and the federal government are handling the virus situation. Republicans are much less likely than Democrats to report isolating themselves, adhering to social distancing, avoiding public places and wearing masks. Republicans are more likely to be out and about going to stores and others' houses. Democrats are much more likely to say they are worried about getting the virus (more than twice as likely as Republicans in Gallup's latest survey), much less likely to believe the virus situation is getting better, and much more likely to believe that social distancing saves lives." Americans are struggling to understand medical research, so they're looking to their governments and their political parties for answers regarding COVID-19, and since the government isn't taking COVID-19 seriously, neither are citizens. Similarly, the government is not taking climate change seriously, so Americans now have a false sense of security. America can never eliminate the virus entirely because it's too difficult to convince every person in the country to practice social distancing, or have empathy for those who are more at risk. People are unwilling to sacrifice their freedom, and there is too much ignorance and misinformation. Climate change similarly will never be defeated, because it's impossible to convince every person in the world that climate change exists due to the prevalence of fake news. In addition, people are unlikely to be willing to sacrifice their basic comforts, conveniences, and personal freedoms. Ignorance is easier.

Premises

Counter-arguments

The conclusion is about mankind and the evidence is entirely American. Every element cited — the partisan divide over the virus, the personal-freedom rhetoric, the Gallup findings about Republicans and Democrats — describes one country, and one that is an international outlier on the politicisation of both issues. Across most of the world, large majorities accept that climate change is happening and human-caused, and pandemic behaviour did not divide along the lines the argument treats as universal. A claim about the species cannot be established from the most polarised case available. The premise that success requires unanimity is also false for both problems. Neither controlling a virus nor limiting warming depends on convincing every person: vaccination programmes, building codes, emissions standards, carbon prices, procurement rules and technology deployment all operate through institutions, industry and prices rather than through individual conviction. The historical precedents make the point directly — the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances, the removal of lead from petrol, and the sulphur controls that ended acid rain were all achieved without universal public agreement, and mostly without the public noticing. 'Never' is a very large claim resting on a snapshot. It requires that no future technology, price shift, treaty, extreme-weather experience or generational turnover changes anything — while the argument's own account attributes attitudes to media environments and political leadership, which are among the most changeable things there are. And part of it has been tested. Vaccines were developed and administered to billions within a year; elimination was never a realistic standard for a respiratory virus with animal reservoirs, and mortality reduction, which was the achievable goal, was substantially delivered. Renewable electricity meanwhile became the cheapest new generation in most markets — a change accomplished by cost rather than by persuasion, and invisible to a model in which only convincing everyone counts.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The evidence is entirely American while the conclusion is about mankind, and the United States is an outlier on the politicisation of both issues: large majorities elsewhere accept climate change, and pandemic behaviour did not divide along the lines described. [Rejecting P2] Neither task requires universal agreement. Emissions standards, carbon pricing, procurement, technology deployment and vaccination programmes operate through institutions and prices, and the successful precedents — the ozone treaties, leaded petrol, sulphur controls — were achieved without universal public conviction. 'Never' also requires that no future technology, price change or generational shift alters attitudes the premise itself attributes to media and political leadership.