MFA and COVID19 Update – January 25, 2021
This week #COVID19 cases reported worldwide rose by just less than 2 million new cases compared with last week’s almost 5 million reported new cases, with total deaths reported up by only 36,255 this week. And, despite earlier reassurances to the contrary, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this week that they now have evidence that the new variant known as SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 “…may be associated with a higher degree of mortality” than was previously believed.
All this as the new Biden/Harris administration assumed power, and COVID cases in the US surpassed the 25 million mark and deaths passed the 400,000 mark as had been tragically predicted months ago, thanks in no small measure to Trumpublican and other corporate interests’ failure to adequately protect and serve the vast majority of working-class Americans in this time of extreme need.
Nonetheless, the new administration did, within the first 48 hours of its assumed role, put into place an impressive list of executive orders covering among other things supply chain provisions for PPE, testing, and vaccines, safety measures for workplace, schools, and travel settings, standards for data collection, global response cooperation, and FEMA and National Guard commitments. None of this had been proposed beyond nominal mention by the preceding federal government.
This, along with the assignment of countless scientific and professional managers to the team, and a reference by Biden/Harris themselves to the fight against COVID19 as on footing with a war-like effort in amassing resources as well as skilled personnel, might be reassuring. However, unless those resources and personnel are allocated in an equitable fashion, we are still unlikely to see results such as with the universal healthcare systems in all other advanced countries around the world, that are controlled by public interests not commercial ones as they are here.
Of course, a #SinglePayer expanded and improved #MedicareForAll system is how that can be done, effectively and equitably. And with Sen. Mitch McConnell now in the back seat, we will see as many are now saying, what actually can be done to get us there with only corporate Democrats standing between we the people and #HealthcareJustice.
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Watch the previous PDA Healthcare Emergency Town Halls here.
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