More shock and awe this week due to #pandemic2020.  The world is up another 2 million known cases of #COVID19, over 34 million now, and over 1 million dead.  And despite, continuing to underperform in testing and contact tracing for the disease, the U.S. still leads all other countries in known cases with those countries joining our ranks most notably distinguished by similarly wide disparities in wealth gap coming in right behind us, being India, Brazil, and Russia, respectively.

Also, here in the U.S. while new COVID19 deaths this week doubled last week’s increase, we have been caught quite literally with our masks down by the recent revelation that our mask-denier-in-chief has tested COVID positive, as well as has a significant number of his West Wing and campaign staff.  For most humans, this might be a humbling experience.  I think no American could expect that of this White House.

Nonetheless, it should bring into sharp focus how it is that we, the richest country in the world, have performed so poorly in Healthcare outcomes, not only for the COVID19 pandemic and how we might expect to perform for those pandemics and other public health challenges yet to come with further global temperature rises, but also the many other public health challenges of our generally underserved communities, our “Healthcare deserts”, and the institutional racism specifically that exists in American Healthcare.  Why does our commercial interests first-and-foremost system of Healthcare financing in this country leave us so poorly able to provide and especially poorly able to prioritize the resources needed to deal with these public challenges?

In many states, new daily cases of COVID19 are again on the rise, alarming most experts to warn for even more comprehensive methods of prevention of spread as we approach the colder months.  The IHME (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation) is reporting that the country is currently seeing about 765 daily deaths from COVID19, but that number could jump to 3,000 daily deaths by late December with a total of 363,000+ COVID19 deaths for the US by January 1 of 2021.

So once again I ask, where is the leadership to put the systems into place that provide and prioritize the resources needed to deal with this newest existential threat?  Where is the leadership, not just from a woefully inept, corrupt, immoral, and disingenuous White House, but from our own Congress, our own Democratically controlled House of Representatives, our own state houses, some of whom have so-called “Democratic supermajorities” and are still failing to take action to protect our people?

And how about our local leaders?  Do they understand that Medicare for All and the Green New Deal will save money and save lives?  By all means of social science assessments we know this to be true, and even more so in this situation of magnified time of extreme social need.  Do they “get it” that they will not earn our support until they demonstrate to us their understanding that the money that we are currently giving away to disaster capitalists, and the lives being sacrificed for their fortunes must be saved?

In the midst of the continued shock and awe of COVID19, where is the #HealthcareJustice?  The struggle continues…

Click here to watch PDAs Healthcare Emergency Town Hall, Oct. 4, 2020