Pandemic Lessons Lost in Translation
A grisly granola of raisins, toilet paper and religion
Roger LeBlanc (author of The Punter’s Tale)
I once read that Japanese publishers of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath translated the book’s title as Angry Raisins. Idioms have always been a bugger to translate, but what about emergency instructions?
Lately we’ve seen that translating something as vital as a “Pandemic Playbook” might be a tougher grape to skin than renaming classic American novels. Basic steps some countries followed to handle COVID-19 definitely got lost in translation.
Step 1: Containment — The Key to Saving Lives
It turns out that Vietnam and Taiwan learned valuable lessons from the SARS epidemic in 2002 and MERS in 2012. Their leaders knew that walling off their country from the source of a deadly virus while quarantining and caring for the infected was step 1. Within days of discovering COVID-19 in their midst, these countries shut down most travel to and from the worst-affected areas of China, closed schools, implemented contact tracing and shut down towns.
Somehow the response from China’s neighbors of, “Oh my god! Let’s stop that from happening here!” got translated in other countries as, “Thank god that could never happen here!”
Leaders in the U.S. from President Trump on down kicked “containment” far down the pandemic To-Do list when it should’ve been the top priority. Blame it on racism. Or ego. Or wishful thinking. Or lack of thinking. They were very slow in reaching Step 1.
As of the end of March, Vietnam and Taiwan combined reported only 550 cases, with just 5 deaths.
Step 2: Stock Up on Hard-to-Replace Necessities
Hong Kong citizens began hoarding toilet paper last February. They weren’t being irrational, though. Nearly 100% of Hong Kong’s TP gets imported from five facilities in China and, by mid-February, China was quarantining entire cities with populations in the millions. Running out of paper was a legitimate worry in Hong Kong.
TP-hoarding mania quickly spread to other countries, but the least logical hoarding took place in the U.S. Unlike Hong Kong, the U.S. meets its own TP needs, producing about 90% of the toilet paper it consumes.
Hoarding pasta or Chianti would be a more sensible reaction by Americans. Or maybe we should demand universal healthcare access as aggressively as we pursue individual toilet paper excess.
Step 3: Pray If You’d Like, But Keep Your Distance
South Korea’s outbreak traces to a Christian church group that had branches throughout the country and in Wuhan, China. Upon witnessing serious illness among their congregation, church leaders decided to pray their way out of the outbreak. The result was that 60% of the first 4,000 people infected in South Korea were church members.
Shouting “Amen” repeatedly in response to the preacher helped spread the disease among the faithful via virus-tinged spittle.
Now churches in Louisiana and Florida have ignored government bans on large gatherings to hold religious services. One Louisiana pastor complained that he can’t serve his congregation without “laying hands” on congregants. Perhaps he believes the southern U.S. Jesus wields more antiseptic powers than the South Korean one.
Here’s one principle we shouldn’t lose in translation going forward: We should borrow the wisdom and learn from the mistakes of those who successfully fought this fight before us.
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