![]() "This is not a bailout we are considering providing certain things to certain companies" The distress calls to the White House by the mayor of New York – with 15 times more cases than the rest of the cities – and his governor asking to nationalize the production and distribution of medical equipment, account for the fact that they are well aware of the disaster that is to come. have already gone through the disaster of collapsed hospitals and tens of thousands of deaths has not mattered at all. The fact that China, Korea, Italy, the Spanish State. Each state acts in an independent and uncoordinated manner, recommending not to go out in some states but without making any real effort to make these measures effective and, of course, capitalists keep companies open until the last minute. In fact, already with more than 92,000 infected and 1,300 dead, the government's attitude is truly astonishing. And this is only the beginning.įaced with this emergency situation, there has not been a single preventive measure in the United States. ![]() Not to mention other ingredients: the US has 2.5 hospital beds for every 1,000 inhabitants (compared to 3 in Spain, 3.4 in Italy, 6.5 in France or 8.3 in Germany) adding to the shortage of beds is the lack of medical equipment: the number of respirators across the country is less than 70,000, and in New York City doctors and nurses are already making isolation suits out of garbage bags. The lack of insurance, the lack of money and the fear of losing a job are a real explosive cocktail: millions of people will not ask for medical assistance due to the impossibility of facing an impossible bill, and many others will go to work sick and transmit the disease. Even more so if we take into account that in the US there is no right to sick leave either. The fact that 20% of the US population does not have or has limited health coverage suggests that the scope of this pandemic can be absolutely savage. To illustrate the magnitude of the disaster that will kill tens of thousands –being optimistic – in the US, here’s some figures: according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation (one of the US healthcare providers), the calculated cost of treatment for someone with health insurance who has tested positive for coronavirus is $9,763 for those who develop a complication during treatment, the cost rises to $20,292 and for those who do not have any type of coverage, the total amount reaches $34,927. This is not an isolated case or an extraordinary story.īut a pandemic like this is going to blow up the seams of this already precarious situation. A sick leave or an unpayable medical bill means losing one’s job, not being able to pay the rent or the mortgage, and even ending up in destitution. The fact remains true that the absence of public healthcare literally means the ruin for many. Not by chance, the Democratic primary candidate Bernie Sanders who has demanded a public and universal healthcare, has been obtaining great reception. The spread of the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the precarious situation of most of American society. Such are the results of the policies that “solved” the 2008 crisis: a massive impoverishment of the working class and the middle classes (65% of the population lives worried about being able to face the bills) and a massive enrichment of the great magnates, thanks to measures such as Donald Trump's tax reform, which gave away $205 billion to the 20% of the population with the highest income. Behind the propaganda that, until a few weeks ago, was selling us the economical situation of the US as the highest growth in history, we can see the 40 million people who live in poverty, the 18.5 millions living in extreme poverty and the 5.3 who survive in typical third world poverty conditions. All this in the midst of an open war with China, which threatens to take away the US’s position as world leader, something that senile American capitalism will try to avoid at all costs by passing the bill to the working class and causing effects of historical significance in the class struggle, inside and outside its borders.Ĭoronavirus uncovers the “trap” of the longest economic growth in historyĪccording to UN reports, the United States is the wealthiest country with the highest levels of inequality in the world. As if this were not enough, the economic recession that is advancing by giant steps in the world's leading power announces disastrous consequences, even greater than those of the crash of 1929. In a country with more than 27 million people without any kind of health insurance and with a health system in the hands of private profit, it is difficult to quantify the magnitude of the disaster, but millions will pay with their health and their lives for decades of neoliberal policies. The US has already become the first country in the world with the highest number of cases of the coronavirus, and the worst is yet to come.
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