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Society

Time To Tally COVID's Deadly "Side Effects"

The unexpected rise in highway deaths, even with far fewer drivers on the road, is a reminder of the many ways the virus is killing us even if it doesn’t enter your body.

Photo of a car flipped over on the side of the road after a traffic accident in Hockenheim, Germany

A traffic accident in Hockenheim, Germany

Carl-Johan Karlsson

-Analysis-

Last Tuesday afternoon, 20 ambulances were racing from all directions toward a highway tunnel in the province of Tolima, in central Colombia. A chain collision had left a mangled scene of death and wreckage after a truck had lost control, causing 15 vehicles including several freight trucks to crash. The pile-up left 8 dead and 33 people wounded, Colombian daily El Tiempo reports.


It was a brutal start to 2022 for the South American nation, but follows a pattern from last year: While fatalities from traffic accidents fell every year between 2018 and 2020, a major road safety organization reports that already by the end of October, the year 2021 was set to become Colombia’s bloodiest in two decades, with 5,900 road deaths reported. According to El Espectador, ignoring traffic signs was the main reason, followed by speeding and driving under the influence.

Fewer cars but more accidents

However, Colombia isn’t the only country that has seen a recent surge in traffic accidents. In the U.S., 38,680 road fatalities were recorded in 2020, the highest since 2007 — despite the pandemic lockdowns and travel restrictions that dramatically reduced driving. That trend continued into 2021, with more than 20,000 deaths in the first six months — an 18.4% increase from last year and the most drastic six-month spike since the government began recording fatal crash data in 1975.

COVID-19 is killing us without the virus even entering our bodies

While it’s counterintuitive that fatalities increase with fewer vehicles on the road, the pandemic has amplified many of the main behaviors that lead to accidents. For example, speeding or talking on the phone while driving is reported to have increased in countries around the world during lockdowns, including in Australia, Denmark, Belgium and the UK. In the U.S., the percentage of injured road users with alcohol, marijuana or opioids in their system all increased during the pandemic's first year.

Photo of a respiratory therapist in COVID protective attire in an emergency room at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, U.S.

Emergency room at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, U.S.

K.C. Alfred/San Diego Union-Tribune/ZUMA

The indirect toll of COVID

Of course, traffic accidents are only part of a long list of ways in which COVID-19 is killing us without the virus even entering our bodies. Indeed, as if the global death toll of nearly 5.5 million people wasn’t grim enough, the pandemic has indirectly killed many more. All around the world, sick people die as they are turned away from overcrowded hospitals or refrain from seeking care due to fears of infection. And in addition to what has been labeled a global mental health crisis, more people than expected have died during the pandemic from diabetes, Alzheimer’s, high blood pressure and pneumonia.

Still, as we continue to try to vaccinate and socially distance our way out of this crisis, paying attention to the indirect loss of life reveals pre-COVID issues that should also be the focus of our global efforts. That includes ramping up hospital capacity and readiness, better compensating medical workers, improving road safety, treating mental health and drug abuse, and — above all — reducing the economic inequality that has further worsened since the pandemic struck.

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Geopolitics

Why The Political Left In Poland Is So Perennially Weak

For years, Poland’s political scene has been dominated by divisions between the centrist Civic Platform (PO) and the conservative ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS). Now, on the eve of national elections, a far-right party Konfederacia is also rising. Where is the progressive left in Polish politics?

Photo of a Lewica ("Left") meeting in Warsaw, Poland, with a flag from the left-wing party in focus while members of the crowd and participants are out of focus

At a Lewica ("Left") meeting in Warsaw, Poland

Ziemowit Szczerek

-Analysis-

The latest results of the United Surveys poll for Polish news website wp.pl were divided between the current ruling party, the Catholic right-wing Law and Justice (PiS), which is supported by 33.8% of Polish voters, closely followed by the centrist opposition coalition, KO, currently trailing behind at 28.1%. The far-right Konfederacja, running on a free-market, nationalist platform, is in third place, with the support of 8.8% of voters. Only 8.7% of Polish voters are presently expected to turn out for the Left.

With neither of the two major parties expected to gain a majority in Parliament, Poland’s political future may well be determined by smaller parties who could form a ruling coalition with either of the two. Currently, Konfederacja’s success has caused worry from opponents who fear the ruling party’s potential alliance with the potential emerging kingmaker, which has expressed controversial anti-Ukrainian, antisemitic and ultra-nationalist viewpoints.

Though not unique in the ranks of post-communist countries, many of which have also been wary of venturing into what they believe to be better left to the historical past, journalist and author Ziemowit Szczerek argues that, with a realigned message and greater attention to common causes, the political Left could have a fighting chance in a country that has been under right-wing rule since 2015.

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