PDA’s Dr. Bill Honigman – CA Dem Party Senior Caucus Presentation 2018

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

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COVID & MFA REALITY CHECK

1,049,861 Total COVID19 deaths in US to date*

419,944 US COVID19 deaths prevented with MFA**

*Harvard University Daily Tracker

**Lancet Comm, Feb 2021

This is now our 136th consecutive weekly PDA Online Town Hall that began when #COVID19 first hit the U.S. in the spring of 2020.  And once again today, we must report that the United States continues as the world leader in deaths due to the virus, and is by far the world leader in preventable deaths due to COVID19 when compared to all other advanced countries of the world, and even among many of the less advanced countries of the world.

The Harvard University daily tracking center is reporting the U.S. COVID19 total death toll today at 1,049,861, which means that now some 419,944 Americans have died from COVID19 that would still be alive today if we had a Universal Healthcare system of #SinglePayer expanded and improved #MedicareForAll (MFA).  

That’s once again over a thousand more, specifically, this week, 1,429 more Americans who died unnecessarily from COVID just this week.  That’s because we still don’t have Healthcare that includes proactive public health, like repeated testing and monitoring of all symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals and families, contact tracing with medical databases accessible to all necessary infectious disease and public health agencies, and universal treatment for medical conditions that put us all at risk for worse outcomes once infected, even after vaccination, in this country.

This week, world new cases due to COVID and death rates again generally declined, with only Russia showing increased numbers among the developed countries.  OurWorldInData.org is reporting only an estimated 67.9% of world population have received at least one dose of the COVID19 vaccine, and still only 22.5% of those who happen to live in low-income countries have received their first dose.  The U.S. still has only 67.6% with a complete initial series.  That’s no significant change since last week’s reporting.  

And, the Johns Hopkins Resource Center ranks COVID19 vaccinations this week with the U.S. once again back down to No. 67, still just behind India and Sri Lanka, and just ahead of El Salvador and Mongolia.  That puts us well behind the rate of vaccination for the other advanced countries, of course, but we’re also trailing many less economically privileged countries like Laos, Iran, Peru, Panama, and of course Cuba – clearly a statement that the U.S. prioritizes public health far below the world standard by anyone’s estimation.

And U.S. worst state status for COVID19 vaccination continues to be Wyoming, at only 51.9% of its population fully vaxxed, no change and therefore no improvement whatsoever from last week.

This week, the new bivalent COVID19 booster vaccines, which now cover both the earlier variants as well as the more recently prevalent and more infectious Omicron variants, continues to be given to all who qualify, which according to the CDC is basically everyone 12 years old or older who are not currently under treatment or still in isolation from a recent COVID19 infection.

And according to White House COVID Coordinator, Dr. Ashish Jha, the goal should be for everyone to get the new booster prior to Halloween, especially to provide maximum protection during the holiday period to follow.

Finally, champion of U.S. epidemiology and disease prevention, Dr. Anthony Fauci, felt it necessary once again this week to warn Americans that “the acceleration of an anti-vaxxer attitude…might spill over into that kind of a negative attitude towards childhood vaccinations…and that’s where you wind up getting avoidable and unnecessary outbreaks.”

Call me crazy, or as Bernie would say, this might be a radical idea to some, but couldn’t Dr. Fauci use some help in his fight against medical misinformation, with universal Healthcare that puts unlimited primary and preventive care in the hands of everyone in this country, so that every American has the opportunity to weigh what they’re told by their own trusted medical providers against what they might have read and heard online?

Once again, the lesson of this pandemic is that MFA in the U.S.A. can’t come one more preventable COVID19 death too soon.

Thanks again and onward!

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