Opinion
COVID-19's Becoming Our Chernobyl
Partisan politics creates a U.S. crisis like the Soviet catastrophe
In April 1986, a nuclear reactor in the Soviet Union Chernobyl power plant experienced a catastrophic malfunction. The accident blew off the top of the reactor, spewed radioactive chunks of the reactor into the surrounding city of
Pripyat, and spread highly toxic nuclear particles into the Soviet Union and then into neighboring European countries.
During the initial days of this event, the Soviet government worked casually through approved and rigid channels to control the information that was disseminated to its citizens. Reactor workers, firefighters, and other service workers were sent to perform useless tasks to shut down the reactor and put out the fires. This is despite the intensity of the radioactive exposure from the destroyed reactor that caused acute radiation sickness. No one was warned initially about the danger of the crisis because the government discouraged citizens from breaking protocols to address emergencies.
