Covid-19 & the Concept of Latent Function
Relevance: Sociology: Sociological Thinkers: Robert K. Merton- Latent and manifest functions, conformity and deviance, reference groups. & G.S paper II: Health & governance
CONTEXT
It isn’t just fewer accidents. In Covid times, the number of emergency cases rushed to hospitals too has come down drastically and so have the number of deaths. This fall in the number of heart attacks, strokes and emergency procedure is not a trend unique to India.
NEWS ANALYSIS
Doctors gave possible explanations for this phenomenon, some obvious — like less stress and reduced pollution — and others not so obvious like fewer medical interventions, including unnecessary procedures.
According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the number of people who died owing to diabetes, hypertension and heart problems in the month of March was 729 in 2017, 833 in 2018, 937 last year and just 595 this March.
A recent Reuters report found a similar trend in many cities across India with fewer burials and cremations during the lockdown period than during the same period last year.
Several doctors in their discussion groups and on Twitter have remarked on the sudden reduction in emergency admissions by 50-60% even though the emergency services of most large hospitals have stayed open. They felt that the difficulty in transportation and moving around alone could not explain this sufficiently.
So what explain it?
Lack of unanticipated exertion in daily life, reduced work- related stress, drop in pollution, not eating out and hence cutting out trans fats, and people getting to spend more relaxed time with families would definitely have helped bring down emergencies, such as acute coronary events or stroke.
It can’t be that people are staying back home despite an emergency, as they would definitely rush to a hospital.
The triggers for heart attacks and strokes related to our lifestyle have disappeared. Plus we have to admit that we were overdoing with our medicine.
Concepts such as performance linked payment in many large hospitals could be driving over treatment. The medical profession needs to introspect.
In this lockdown period, people are not coming in contact with us and they seem to be doing better.
Dr Reddy too referred to “iatrogenic complications” or caused by treatment. “In the US, it was found that medical errors were the third major cause of death leading to 2 lakh deaths per year. Medical errors could be leading to deaths in India too. In this period, those deaths too would come down,” said Dr Reddy, adding that postponing elective surgeries would also bring down deaths.
Any elective procedure or surgery would have some risks or fatality. If the mortality rate is 3% for a surgery (or chance of three deaths out of 100 surgeries), you are postponing those deaths to a period after the lockdown ” he said.
A huge increase in mortality because of smog was recorded in London, about 4,000 more deaths. Conversely, a reduction in pollution would mean that a large number of deaths are averted. With physical distancing, there would be a substantial reduction in pneumonia and associated complications and deaths.
“Though cases of stroke heart attack and some fevers are still coming to the emergency, the numbers have come down, especially of heart attacks. Trauma cases, respiratory disease exacerbations, gastrointestinal bleed and pancreatitis cases triggered by binge drinking too have come down in this period. Infections such as pneumonia flaring up from communicable disease have gone down significantly because of physical distancing and frequent handwashing and cases of complications from surgery which are rushed to emergencies have stopped,” said a senior consultant in a private hospital.
SOCIOLOGY
Robert Merton’s Latent And Manifest Functions
The function can be explained as the result or consequence of people’s action. These consequences can be either latent function or manifest function in any social institution. The distinction is explained by Robert K. Merton in his book, Social Theory and Social Structure, in 1949.
Latent functions are those functions which are unintended or unrecognized consequences of any social pattern. They are present but are not immediately obvious. On the other hand, the intended, conscious, or deliberate functions of the social policies or action which are created for the benefit of the society are called manifest functions. Manifest functions are generally expected from the institutions to be fulfilled.
For example, hospitals are expected to provide better healthcare to the people or treat the patients going through any kinds of diseases, or those who met with an accident, etc. Similarly, an example of latent function can be that in a hospital the doctors while treating a patient suffering from a certain kind of incurable disease somehow saves the patient, thus, discovering a new method of treating that particular disease. This distinction between the latent function and the manifest function is the reason sociologists tend to study beyond the reasons the individuals, institutions, etc normally offer for their actions. They tend to search for the social consequences that lead to the various practices of society.
In case of manifest functions, the actor is aware of the consequences of his action while in the latent functions, the actor is not aware of his actions. For instance, if a rule is made, the manifest function will be the intended function for the fulfillment of which the rule is made. On the contrary, the unintended function is the latent function, e.g. if the rule is made in order to maintain peace, but it harms the public, that harm will be the latent function. Manifest functions are beneficial in nature, whereas, latent functions can harm as well as benefit society. Latent functions therefore have the tendency to turn into dysfunctions. However, this is not always the case.
Dysfunctions are the latent functions which harm the society, create social disorder and conflict. Latent functions often go unnoticed, unless they are dysfunctions or functions resulting in negative outcomes. It is not unnatural for manifest functions to be dysfunctional at times; in many cases, it is already known that policy or action might lead to some kind of a negative consequence. But, it is the latent dysfunctions which are of greater concern because being unknown and unpredictable, they tend to bear more harm to the society which is often irreparable.
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