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MFA and COVID19 Update – November 22, 2020

Nov 23, 2020

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

 

We at Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) know that the crisis of COVID19 is literally screaming out for the solution we all know as Medicare for All.  Additionally, we know that without a Green New Deal we will be woefully unprepared for the pandemics yet to come as predicted by climate scientists, that are coming our way due to rising global temperatures.

This week, there is both good news and bad news as worldwide cases of COVID19 have leveled off or are even decreasing in some areas.  This is especially noteworthy in those countries that put more severe lockdown measures in place such as in France, the U.K., Spain, and India which now show significant improvements well ahead of the traditional holiday season and winter months ahead.  The bad news, of course remains here in the U.S. and with our closest partner in pandemic paralysis, Russia, where numbers are also still very much on the rise.

Total US COVID19 deaths are now past the one quarter million mark and daily deaths have reached the 2,000 per day mark, which means COVID19 is now the leading cause of death in this country.  Hospitalizations have increased once again to about where they were prior to the early summer peak, putting new demands on personnel (e.g. nurses, doctors, therapists, technicians), physical plant (e.g. beds, ICU beds), devices (e.g. PPE, ventilators), and the all-important available treatment modalities that may or may not be available to us depending on regional and socioeconomic considerations, as we have discussed here many times in previous forums.

A bit of good news however, is that treatment and survivability of COVID19 has significantly improved since our experiences earlier this year, with your chance of dying once hospitalized of about 40% back in the spring, down to about 10% now.  Claims by big pharma of new effective coronavirus vaccines that are now being tested for safety, await scientific validation.  Science, not commercial markets must prevail in that particular battle for public approval as well.

Meanwhile, our federal government and most states do nothing, or close to nothing, as almost half of the country is being led to believe that we have no recourse, or any effective action in need of taking.  That we either don’t have the collective resources to deal with a national or international emergency, despite the fact that over the course of history we have had most of our proudest moments when we were challenged to do exactly that.  Or for some reason, we can’t allow ourselves to care enough or be concerned enough about our families, friends, co-workers, and fellow community members to make concessions on our personal freedoms for the collective good.  Or worse yet we somehow can’t see that we can’t possibly have our own personal freedoms if we’re too sick to take advantage of them, or worse yet, if we’re dead.

Which brings us back to the question we’ve been addressing now every week since the Nov 3rd elections of where do we go from here?  What’s next to be done for those of us who won’t sit idly by and simply canvass for the next swing-state or swing-district challenger, but want direction and purpose that puts us significantly closer to attaining those real solutions to the real existential threats of climate, health, racism, poverty, and war?  

What say you to that??


Watch the PDA Healthcare Emergency Town Hall, November 22, 2020

RSVP HERE for the next PDA Healthcare Emergency Town Hall, on Sunday, November 29, 4pm ET.

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