photo: PDA’s Dr. Bill — Sacramento Single Payer Rally 6-15-21

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

COVID & MFA REALITY CHECK

1,052,381 Total COVID19 deaths in US to date*

420,952 US COVID19 deaths prevented with MFA**

*Harvard University Daily Tracker

**Lancet Comm, Feb 2021

This is now our 137th 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.

The Harvard University daily tracking center is reporting the U.S. COVID19 total death toll today at 1,052,381, which means that now an estimated 420,952 Americans have died from COVID19 unnecessarily, who would still be alive today if we had #SinglePayer expanded and improved #MedicareForAll (MFA) in this country.

That’s once again over a thousand more, specifically, this week, 1,008 more Americans who died preventable deaths from COVID just this week.  And that makes us special, or especially bad, because we’re the only advanced country in the world that does not have Universal Healthcare, that provides ALL of the care to ALL of its people.

This week, world new cases due to COVID and death rates again generally declined, although Russia continued, and now France and Germany as well, are showing some new increased numbers.  OurWorldInData.org is reporting only an estimated 67.9% of world population have received at least one dose of the COVID19 vaccine, which is essentially unchanged from last week, and only an estimated 22.3% of those who happen to live in low-income countries have received their first dose of a COVID19 vaccine.  The U.S. has only 67.7% with a complete initial series.  Also, unchanged since last week’s reporting.  

The Johns Hopkins Resource Center has changed their posting of data this week to ranking countries by percentage COVID19 vaccinations as first dose only, with the U.S. once again back down to No. 43, in this category, which puts us at just behind Thailand and Israel, and just ahead of Panama and Laos.  Also, notable are many other countries that we Americans might consider to be non-advanced and likely to suffer from resultant supply-chain issues, like Vietnam, Ecuador, and Rwanda, are far ahead of us in this basic public health measure.

And the U.S. worst state status for COVID19 vaccination continues to be Wyoming, now estimated at only 52% of its population fully vaccinated, which is also essentially unchanged from last week.

This week, President Biden, in an interview for 60 Minutes, declared the pandemic as being “over”.  Except, as the group Physicians for Human Rights points out, it’s not.  

Per PHR, “…this pandemic is far from over.  There is likely significant under-reporting of COVID cases at this point.  The United States has one of the lowest vaccination rates among industrialized countries. Four hundred people are dying from COVID19 every day, tens of thousands are still getting infected, and millions are grappling with the impacts of long COVID.”

The downstream effects continue to be hardest felt by our most vulnerable, communities of color and seniors.  An expose’ in today’s Guardian, notes that “…about one-fifth of all COVID deaths are related to nursing homes.”  And that, “Long-term care facilities were plagued with staffing shortages and low morale before the pandemic started, and COVID sharply amplified the cracks in how America cares for its senior population.”

Also considering known vaccination data, as was reported by the Kaiser Family Foundation back in 2021, that showed those without health insurance are about twice as likely to be unvaccinated, isn’t it particularly dangerous to return to a state of dominance by commercial insurance in providing for our public health needs, rather than building on those few things that we did as universal in the pandemic these past 2 years, such as free and accessible vaccines, test kits, and anti-viral therapies?

No, President Biden and the present administration are sorely mistaken if they think we can now rest on our laurels, rather than to keep pushing forward with Healthcare that includes proactive testing, monitoring, and treatments, not only with anti-virals, but also with treatment of all comorbid conditions and social and political determinants of health.

And that, Mr. President, will only happen with a Universal Healthcare system, where ALL of us living in this country, get ALL of the Healthcare, as we will have with Single Payer expanded and improved Medicare for All.

Thanks again everyone, stay healthy and onward! 

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Watch the previous PDA Sunday Progressive Town Halls here.