Dread Scott & Jenny Polak

This statement is not an art statement. It is beginning thoughts on HOW TO SURVIVE COVID-19.

1. In a pandemic, thinking only about yourself will make matters much worse for everyone. Leave the house when you need to, but assume you are carrying a communicable virus when you do, AND ACT ACCORDINGLY. Anything that stands in the way of Principle 1 should be ignored.

2. Demand immediate surveillance testing for COVID-19. Testing to develop targeted mitigation strategies should continue, but testing only those showing symptoms places us several weeks behind the curve of the outbreak. The primary mitigation strategy is surveillance testing.

3. Without science we’re doomed. All policy and action should be based on science. Learn everything you can about it. Study the data, not the political spin of the data.

4. Change people, laws and motivation. COVID-19 is a deadly virus that will kill many. The laws, economic motivation and thinking (including of people in decision making positions) are structured to exacerbate the pandemic as opposed to solve it. We must change this.

5. People above profit. No one and no corporation or business should put profit above ending the pandemic as quickly as possible. If you have resources or knowledge, share them. Any vaccine or treatment should be public property internationally. I

6. Laws and customs should be changed to meet people’s needs and help people survive. When laws can’t be changed quickly enough, they should be ignored.

7. Epidemiology is the tracking of disease. The government agency in charge of epidemiology (Centers For Disease Control, or CDC) has failed during other pandemics and is failing now. Pay attention to independent epidemiological analysis coming out of early epicenters like Washington State. They are far ahead of the curve.

Anything that stands in the way of Principle 7 should be ignored.

8. Government and institutions should share information and knowledge. American scientific research institutions are highly competitive. The NIH, FDA, and CDC rarely acknowledges, relies on, or shares data with other governments. Demand that every elected and appointed policymaker, every local hospital and clinical lab, every health services researcher and funder, and every federal bureaucrat insist on data sharing.

Force them to comply.

9. Demand that federal and local governments approach COVID-19 as an International health crisis and that their aim should be to help the maximum number of people survive. If their policies are undermining that, they should be ignored. In the US, local government may be better poised to meet people’s needs than a federal government that denies science, puts profits before people, is fighting partisan wars with each other, and which is ruthlessly nationalistic.

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36. People need art in times like these. Make the art count.