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MORNING MESSAGE
Joy Blackwood, Natasha DeJarnett, Surili Sutaria Patel
There’s been a massive failure of leadership in the United States in preparation, containment, treatment and protecting our residents from the cascading effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. Our administration refused to prepare for a pandemic, or act when COVID-19 first appeared last year. As a result, many lives will be lost. Strong leadership makes a difference in health outcomes: As public and environmental health professionals and women of color, we have a unique understanding of how voting can empower populations, change communities, and transform nations. We acknowledge that one of the most significant actions we all can take in the COVID-19 pandemic response, and what’s necessary to change our level of preparedness is asserting the urgency of voting. We have hope, because 2020 is a vital election year. The power is in our hands, and here’s what we can do: VOTE. That is the only way we can respond to the current crisis, and prepare the U.S. for future crises.
As the coronavirus spreads across America, the poor bear the brunt of a pandemic that’s exposed the deep class lines in U.S. society. The rich have big savings accounts and quality health care. They’ll emerge from the crisis just fine. But Americans at the margins, including homeless vets who rely on a frayed safety net stretched to the breaking point by COVID-19, now face an even greater struggle to survive. While the COVID-19 crisis is unprecedented, the slapdash response underscores how fragile the safety net for America’s homeless really is. As cities struggle to adapt, the ranks of the homeless likely will grow because of the economic slowdown, putting more stress on the overtaxed system. The government’s response to COVID-19 must include injecting funds into programs that support homeless veterans and keep other vets from losing their homes. But federal officials also must think about what the economy and social-service network will look like after the pandemic. That means better funding a system now overly reliant on fundraisers like taco dinners and poppy sales. It means comprehensively addressing the problems servicemen and servicewomen face when they leave the armed forces.
The coronavirus crisis has turned the fact that we don’t make anything in America anymore from a topic for philosophical and political debate into a crisis in our hospitals causing people to die and endangering our frontline health care workers. Even worse, there’s nothing to catch us as and after we fall, because we don’t have a manufacturing base to fall back on like we did the last time a crisis like this happened—in the late 1930s. The coronavirus crisis will pass within a year or three; after a great toll, enough of us will have immunity, or a vaccine will be widely available, or both. And when it does, the pent-up demand for goods will pop. We should reorganize our trade systems now (or in the next administration) to make sure most of those goods will again be made in America. Now that we are again “rediscovering” the lessons of the Herbert Hoover’s market crash of 1929, if we don’t begin to move manufacturing capacity back into this country we will be, within a few years, far worse off than Americans were in 1932. If we succeed in rebooting American manufacturing through the measures used by Hamilton (and emulated by China over the past 30 years), our recovery from this crisis could mark a new dawn for the American middle class.
A few days ago, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick went on Fox News to deliver the message, “Let’s get back to work. Let’s get back to living. Let’s be smart about it, and those of us that are 70 plus, we’ll take care of ourselves. But don’t sacrifice the country.” As he explained to host Tucker Carlson, this means that senior citizens should be “willing to take a chance on [their] survival” in order to restart the economy. If this seems gruesome and even sociopathic, that’s because it is. But to Patrick’s “credit,” he was one of the few Donald Trump allies who was frank enough to publicly support the logical and inevitable result of Trump’s proposed policies. In a few weeks or months, Americans will see a tremendous number fall sick and die, while millions will be financially ruined. All of a sudden, public policy is not distant or about some vague group, it’s about them, personally, right now. And Americans will be looking for someone to blame for their misery. Obviously, the right-wing will try to lock in their messages that government cannot work and that elites, experts and the media cannot be trusted. They will also use absurd narratives that blame Obama/Biden, continue to race-bait and blame people of color and immigrants, and suggest that God is punishing us for gays, abortion, and whatever else they fear. If our side does not push back hard, we can lose this argument and a significant political realignment could go against us. If you want to persuade, don’t focus on Trump’s lies, immorality or bigotry. Focus on how he is risking the health of the person you’re talking to, and his/her family and friends. It is Donald Trump who is trying to throw grandma from the train. YOUR grandma.
There’s much we don’t yet know about COVID-19. But we do know U.S. taxpayers have already paid for the research and testing of the most promising treatments. These treatments should be available to everyone who needs them at no cost. But the Trump administration’s drug policy is led by two former pharmaceutical executives, and that is having devastating consequences for potential access to treatments and vaccines for the pandemic. During his 2016 campaign, Trump loved to talk tough on pharma and say he would fight for lower drug prices. But then he put Alex Azar, a big pharma CEO infamous for doubling the price of insulin, in charge of regulating health care. Several weeks ago, Azar refused to guarantee that a coronavirus vaccine will be affordable for all, citing the need to protect big pharma’s profits. Over and over again, Trump now talks up big pharma corporations and thanks them for their work on COVID-19 treatments and a potential vaccine. He refers to them as “great companies” and their executives as “geniuses.” Trump fails to mention that taxpayers have spent nearly $700 million on coronavirus research through the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Nor does he mention that big pharma corporations spend more money enriching themselves through stock buybacks than they do on research and development.
In 2020, we can take back our country for the values we all share – solidarity, justice, and a fair economy – state by state, seat by seat, and vote by vote. But we can only do this with your help. Give now to support People’s Action at this critical time.
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