By Dr. Bill Honigman, Healthcare Human Rights, Coordinator – Progressive Democrats of America

COVID & MFA REALITY CHECK

917,943 Total COVID19 deaths in U.S. to date*

367,177 U.S. COVID19 deaths prevented with MFA**

*Harvard University Daily Tracker

**Lancet Commission, Feb 2021

This is our 105th weekly PDA Online Town Hall since #COVID19 first hit the U.S. in the spring of 2020, and today once again, we must report that the U.S. continues to lead in global pandemic deaths. 

We are currently at 917,943 total COVID deaths in the U.S., which means, of course, that some 367,177 Americans did not have to die of this disease, and would still be alive today if we had a #Single Payer expanded and improved #Medicare for All system in place to deal with this continuing public health emergency.  That’s according to social scientists and public health experts of the Lancet Commission published one year ago.  Which begs the question, why are the Biden/Harris White House and our Democratic majority Congress not following that science?

The U.S. today has only 65.12% of our population fully vaccinated, and that puts us at No. 59 in the world.  Hey, 59 is fine, right?  That’s just behind El Salvador, and just ahead of Colombia, with Alabama still the worst state in the nation, at only 49.8% fully vaccinated, which is shamefully behind the global average of 54.6%.

Here in the U.S., the Omicron variant, continues declining from its winter surge, although related hospitalizations are still high and, in many areas, greater than last summer’s surge, that was due to the Delta variant at that time.  And the new sub-variant strain of Omicron, known as BA.2 and other emerging variants still threaten to erase those gains.

Nonetheless, improved numbers have prompted state and local officials to relax some public health restrictions, although most are still adhering to protecting especially younger children and their families, with mask wearing in schools.

This week, Pfizer-BioNTech announced another delay in the release of its study on vaccines for children in this 5-years-of-age and under group.  That’s a major setback in further suppressing the pandemic, domestically and abroad.  

And considering this country’s poor performance both in overall vaccination rates, and in booster vaccine compliance, it makes the recent spate of Astro-turf trucker blockades and other vaccine protests all the more disturbing.  Misinformation is most certainly not unique to the United States.

Unfortunately, however, when it comes to public health, or Healthcare in general, we are uniquely unbalanced in that regard here in the U.S., precisely because we have a political system that restricts access to personal medical providers and medical care in this country.  Commercial interests not public needs still dictate who and what kind of Healthcare we get in this country.

Isn’t it time to fix all of that?  Hasn’t COVID19 shown us that by now?

Thanks all, and onward!

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Watch the previous PDA Healthcare Emergency Town Halls here.

Watch the previous PDA Sunday Progressive Town Halls here.