Michelle R. Smith - The Associated Press
Last weekend, following mass shootings that killed and injured people shopping for groceries, going to church or just going about their lives, the country hit a milestone by surpassing one million deaths from COVID-19.
The number, previously unthinkable, is now an irreversible reality in the United States, as well as the persistent reality of gun violence that kills tens of thousands of people a year.
[A Latino friend of the alleged Buffalo killer speaks: "He led a double life, I don't know how he could be friends with a race he hates"]
Americans have always tolerated high death rates among certain segments of society, such as the economically disadvantaged, or racial and ethnic minorities.
But the sheer number of deaths from preventable causes and the seeming acceptance that no policy change is on the horizon begs the question: has mass death in America normalized?
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"I think the evidence is unequivocal and pretty clear. We will tolerate an enormous amount of killing, suffering and death in the US, because we have in the last two years. Just look at our history," says Gregg Gonsalves, an epidemiologist and Yale professor who was a prominent member of the AIDS advocacy group ACT UP.
"If you thought the AIDS epidemic was bad, the American response to COVID-19 is a display of the grotesque nature of the country."
Gonsalves says.
"Seriously, a million people have passed away? And you're going to talk to me about needing to get back to normal, when most of us have been living our lives in a pretty limited way for the last six months?" expert.
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Some communities have always borne the brunt of higher death rates.
There are deep racial and class inequalities in America, and our tolerance for death is partly based on who is at risk, says Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, a sociology professor who studies mortality at the University of Minnesota.
"Some people's deaths matter a lot more than others. I think that's what we're seeing in a really brutal way in this day and age," he says.
In Buffalo, the suspected shooter was a racist hell-bent on killing black people, according to authorities.
The relatives of Ruth Whitfield, 86, one of the 10 people killed, channeled the pain and frustration of millions, while demanding more action from the authorities.
This is the map of the main shootings of the weekend in the US.
May 17, 202200:23
"They expect us to keep doing this over and over again: forgive and forget," said Garnell Whitfield, a former Buffalo fire commissioner and son of the slain woman.
"Meanwhile, the people we elect to high office in this country go to great lengths not to protect us, to not consider us equals," Whitfield said.
[“Abhorrent to the very fabric of the nation”: Biden condemns racist shooting in Buffalo. The attacker left a chilling document]
That perception that politicians have done little, despite the fact that episodes of violence continue to happen, is shared by many Americans.
According to Martha Lincoln, an anthropology professor at San Francisco State University, that sentiment is embodied in the "thoughts and prayers" that unwilling leaders offer to victims of gun violence.
"I don't think most Americans feel good about it. I think most Americans would like to see real action from their leaders on these pervasive issues," says Lincoln, who sees a similar "political vacuum" in around COVID-19.
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With the pandemic, American society has even come to accept the deaths of children from preventable causes.
Pediatrician Mark W. Kline wrote in a column for The Advocate newspaper that
more than 1,500 children have died from COVID-19
, recalling a time in pediatrics when "children weren't supposed to die."
"There was no idea of an acceptable pediatric body count. At least, not before COVID-19, the first pandemic of the social media age, changed everything," he wrote.
[A young man from New Mexico convinced the FBI that he was not dangerous. Months later he shot two young Latinos in a school]
Gun violence is such a part of life in America that we organize our lives around its inevitability, says Sonali Rajan, a Columbia University professor who researches school violence.
Children hold lockdown drills at school.
And, according to Rajan, in almost half of the states, teachers can carry firearms.
She points out that approximately
100,000 people are shot annually and some 40,000 die
from such incidents.
The expert sees a similar dynamic in the current response to COVID-19.
Americans, she says, "deserve to be able to travel to work without getting sick, work anywhere without getting sick, or send their children to school without getting sick."
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Rajan says it's important to ask what policies are being put forward by elected officials who have the power to "look after the health and well-being of their constituents."
"It's remarkable how that responsibility has been abdicated, that's how I would describe it," he says.
[YouTube videos teaching Buffalo shooting suspect how to modify his gun are still online]
The level of concern about the deaths often depends on the context, says Rajiv Sethi, an economics professor at Barnard College.
And as an example he points to a rare but dramatic event, like a plane crash, that people seem to care about.
Sethi says there are more gun suicides in the United States than there are homicides, an estimated 24,000 gun suicides compared to 19,000 homicides.
But even though there are policy proposals that could help within Second Amendment confines, the gun debate is politically deadlocked, causing "gridlock."
"Until when the shootings?".
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"We get divided when people think there's nothing that can be done," says Megan Ranney of the Brown University School of Public Health.
Ranney points to some false narratives such as denying that the deaths were preventable or suggesting that those who die deserved it.
There is an emphasis in the United States on individual responsibility for health, says the expert.
"It's not that we put less value on an individual life, it's that we're hitting the limits of [security] approaches," he says.
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In his opinion, the death or disability of any individual affects the community.
Similar debates occurred in the last century on issues such as child labor laws, worker protection and reproductive rights, while in the 1980s, during the AIDS crisis, there was a lack of political will to address it in a comprehensive way. environment where discrimination against homosexuals was rampant.
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Wrigley-Field points out that activists were able to create a movement that forced people to change their minds and forced politicians to implement other ways of operating.
"I don't think those things can't happen now. It's just not very clear if they're going to come up. I don't think giving up is a permanent situation. But I think right now we're in that situation," Wrigley says. Field.