COVID-19 and Mass Burial Susveillance
This is a link to a YouTube video which shows the mass burial of unclaimed bodies as a result of the overflow of New York City's morgues. As it stands currently while the city's infection rate is or is projected to be peaking in the next couple days but the fact of the matter still remains that the city is dying, both literally and figuratively. Thus while that projection is good people are still getting sick and injured in all the other ways they do normally so the overfilling of the morgues is projected to continue, or if anything, increase in the short term. Now, while this isn't an issue of government overreach or some other thing of national importance I think it is still important, and seeing as this blog is all about witnessing the pandemic I think it is pertinent.
I think this is especially true when it comes to surveillance. The morgues are overflowing because the number of deaths is so high and no one is coming to claim the bodies for all the usual reasons coupled with those pertaining to the pandemic. All of which indicates that the mass burial of unnamed US citizens on public land will continue in the short term. Now while these people are dead so, in some cases literally, they don't have skin in the "game", and the City claims that people can come retrieve dead bodies I think this is a good a time as ever to point out all the problems with that system. Firstly, all the myriad moral conundrums aside, as can be clearly seen by the PPE the workers are wearing the city and the workers know that not only are these bodies toxic but that they pose a risk of infection. So while yes the idea of burying them far from the major population center is good, they aren't really doing that and pollution spreads and this is just another example of what may on paper look the best from a utilitarian standpoint actually just ends up hitting the worst off members of society the hardest.
Now, I know this blog is primarily about surveillance and this isn't a super surveillance post but I do think it highlights an important act and piece of susveillance and is a great demonstration of something Perry brought up last week and a discussion we and various other class members had concerning drones. There were too many things mentioned to briefly state but one of the problems raised was how they could be used for both good and bad and how that will make them much harder to reinforce and I think this is a perfect example of private citizens using them to watch the state which throws a wrench into any all good or all bad narrative.