The tragic distinction
Robert Reich presents some blunt truths:
With 4.25% of the world population, America has the tragic distinction of accounting for about 30% of pandemic deaths so far.
And it is the only advanced nation where the death rate is still climbing. Three thousand deaths per day are anticipated by 1 June.
No other nation has loosened lockdowns and other social-distancing measures while deaths are increasing, as the US is now doing.
Much of this is because we’re not really an advanced nation, not in all senses. Technologically we’re hot shit, but socially and politically we’re a disaster.
We now know Donald Trump and his administration were told by public health experts in mid-January that immediate action was required to stop the spread of Covid-19. But according to Dr Anthony Fauci, “there was a lot of pushback”. Trump didn’t act until 16 March.
Epidemiologists estimate 90% of the deaths in the US from the first wave of Covid-19 might have been prevented had social distancing policies been put into effect two weeks earlier, on 2 March.
That’s a lot of premature deaths that are Trump’s doing.
And they’re Trump’s doing not even for any reason. It wouldn’t have cost him anything to pay attention to what the experts were telling him and do what needed to be done. He didn’t because…what? He got it into his flatulent head that paying attention to experts is a Democratic thing? He was too busy watching Fox and tweeting? He didn’t understand what the experts were telling him? He didn’t feel like it? What? Just sheer incompetence and stupidity and not giving a fuck, apparently.
No nation other than the US has left it to subordinate units of government – states and cities – to buy ventilators and personal protective equipment. In no other nation have such sub-governments been forced to bid against each another.
We like to be special.
In no other advanced nation has Covid-19 forced so many average citizens into poverty so quickly. The Urban Institute reports that more than 30% of American adults have had to reduce their spending on food.
Elsewhere around the world, governments are providing generous income support. Not in the US.
Oh but you see this is where we’re so clever. Having this massive impoverished underclass means the bosses can pay lousy wages for working in dangerous conditions. They get rich! They buy golf resorts and airplanes! It’s all worth it!
The coronavirus has been especially potent in the US because America is the only industrialized nation lacking universal healthcare. Many families have been reluctant to see doctors or check into emergency rooms for fear of racking up large bills.
That puts it too mildly though. It’s not “fear of” racking up huge bills – it’s certain knowledge that huge bills will be the result. There’s no element of chance here.
America is also the only one of 22 advanced nations failing to give all workers some form of paid sick leave. As a result, many American workers have remained on the job when they should have been home.
Adding to this is the skimpiness of unemployment benefits in America – providing less support in the first year of unemployment than those in any other advanced country.
American workplaces are also more dangerous. Even before Covid-19 ripped through meatpackers and warehouses, fatality rates were higher among American workers than European.
What I’m saying. Shit pay and protections, dangerous conditions, all so that a few people can amass more money than they know what to do with.
Pretty much, I’d say. He doesn’t have the intelligence or work ethic to delve into this himself, and he doesn’t like delegating because then someone else gets the attention (plus he doesn’t trust the few people who might actually be competent to delegate this to).
Add in the fact that Trump is notoriously short-sighted. He goes through life only concerned with what will get him what he wants in the next five minutes. That’s why he says things at rallies and press conferences and in tweets that are obvious lies or otherwise not really helpful to him in the long run — he just needs that adrenaline high of the crowd cheering, or the catharsis of yelling at a journalist or rage-tweeting about an enemy. It’s why he’s burned his bridges his whole life with business partners: just grab their money now, let them sue you later, and who cares about reputational damage, there will be some other sucker to do business with.
Trump wants to “win the news cycle” every hour, not just every day. And for him that means nothing but happy, happy, everything is awesome, best economy ever, etc., with the exception of when they need to rile up the base by adding in “but the evil Democrats want to [open the borders to the caravans of scary brown people, etc.]”
To do anything of the things the experts were urging him to do would have generated headlines (“Trump Orders Increased Stockpile of Ventiliators As Government Braces for Virus Impact”) that might be sensible policy but would worry people or cast a cloud on the happy good times or even, god forbid, might have caused the stock market to go down on that particular day.
‘With 4.25% of the world population, America has the tragic distinction of accounting for about 30% of pandemic deaths so far.’ Holy shit. We’re the worst in Europe…but that’s really bad.
The thing (one of the things) that baffles me is how little imagination it would have taken to do the right thing. He could have cast himself as the Protector, the Guardian, ever watchful, the Tireless Sentinel. Wouldn’t his people have loved him just as much for looking out for them, keeping them safe as “no one else” could? It would have had the minor upside of saving thousands of lives, too.
The virus is just getting going in India, and the country is rising through the “rankings” for total cases and total deaths. With four times the population of the US, it’s almost certainly going to take over the top spot eventually. I wonder what the Trump rhetoric will be then. Crowing about how successful the US efforts are? Anger over not being on top anymore? Either seems likely.