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

COVID & MFA REALITY CHECK

882,990 Total COVID19 deaths in US to date*

353,196 US COVID19 deaths prevented with MFA**

*Harvard University Daily Tracker

**Lancet Commission, Feb 2021

Hello everyone, I’m Bill Honigman (he/him), retired Emergency Room physician from occupied Tongva and Kizh land in Orange County CA, for a very quick update on COVID19 for January 30, 2022.

This is our 103rd weekly PDA Online Town Hall since #COVID19 first hit the US in the spring of 2020, and today once again, we must report that the US continues to lead in global COVID19 deaths. 

We are currently at 882,990 total COVID deaths in the U.S., which means of course that of those 353,196 Americans who have died would still be alive today if we had a #SinglePayer expanded and improved #MedicareForAll system in place to deal with this continuing public health emergency.  That’s an additional 7,140 Americans who died just this week from COVID19 who would still be alive today if we had Medicare for All now.

The U.S. today has only 64.44% of our population fully vaccinated, and that puts us ranked at No. 58 in the world.  Hey, 58 is great, right?  That’s just behind the countries of Iran and El Salvador, and just ahead of San Marino, with Alabama now ranking the worst state in the nation, with only 49% fully vaccinated, which is shamefully behind the global average of 52%.

Here in the U.S., the Omicron variant, while declining now in its rate of new infections, continues to infect vast numbers and strain hospitals and pre-hospital systems nationwide.  And a new sub-variant strain of Omicron, known as BA.2 or “Stealth Omicron” which was reported this week by the WHO as increasing in many countries worldwide, is now known to be present in this country, with contagiousness thought to be slightly worse but little known yet as to the severity of illness for this new strain, compared to the original Omicron BA.1

Meanwhile, the culture wars emanating largely from the extreme “Live Free AND Die” faction of American politics continue unabated, despite the full measure of devotion to their cause being exacted in the form of severe disease and needless deaths especially still largely being among their unvaccinated.

And finally, at the state level, all eyes continue this week to be focused on the progressive Left Coast, where California’s Single Payer Universal Healthcare bill #AB1400 or #CalCare is set to have its day for a floor vote of the full CA Assembly tomorrow Monday January 31st.  With a history going back as far as the 1930’s, when then Republican Governor Earl Warren tried three times unsuccessfully during his two terms in office to pass a similar plan as a response to what they had just gone through then with the Spanish Flu, we’ll see if there are enough unbought and unbossed CA Assemblymembers to do the right thing and finally get ALL the care to ALL the people, at least for Californians.

Thanks all, and onward!

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