Progress in the Time of Coronavirus
Two nights ago Vice President Joe Biden said that the people of the United States wanted “results not a revolution” in response to Senator Bernie Sanders’s call for overhauling the US-American economy and healthcare systems as a response to the Coronavirus epidemic. In stating this consultant written soundbite, Joe Biden revealed his political inadequacy (vulnerability) for the times we live in, and telegraphed his weakness in the coming general election.
We live in a time of extremes, and the COVID-19 crisis is no exception. I cannot remember another moment in my lifetime where this kind of slow-moving disaster paralyzed the country. Although I was just a child when 9/11 happened, I remember the acuity of the crisis, unlike this chronic build up of anxiety and doubt we are currently experiencing.
I want to respond to the Vice President’s myopia with a call to not only meet the demands of the crisis but also to see beyond it and begin to address the structural violence that undergirds the failures of our healthcare and economic systems to adequately prepare us for COVID-19. As Bernie has said, repeatedly, now is a time for solidarity, and to pay careful attention to the needs of those most vulnerable in our society. We are only as safe as the least among us.
To that end, I propose that in any action we take to remedy this crisis we center on the needs of marginalized populations, with special care and attention given to rural communities like those in Indian Country, the Black Belt, and Appalachia; communities that remained economically depressed and marginalized prior to the arrival of COVID-19 and the subsequent disruptions in the modern global economy. If we center the needs and challenges of these communities during the crisis, we will be better able to assure that no issue is forgotten or cast aside.
In addition to matters of quarantine and other issues that arise on an hourly basis, we need to expand welfare benefits universally with additional actions such as utility payment moratoriums, rent and mortgage suspensions, and student debt forgiveness so that those most burdened by the crisis are freed from daily living expenses.
As the People’s Policy Project has recommended, I would like to see states and the federal government purchase cheap stocks to create a sovereign wealth fund that pays US-Americans dividends in the future.
We need to pass a comprehensive single-payer health system (Medicare-for-All) that guarantees healthcare for diagnosis and treatment to all residents of this country, and if that fails, nationalize private hospitals and medical practices to fight the disease at no upfront cost to patients.
We should direct the armed forces to begin setting up temporary hospitals and producing ICU equipment (in particular ventilators) in quantity for states and municipalities to purchase at cost for overwhelmed hospitals and health systems.
We should explore requiring corporations to have a three month ‘rainy day’ fund for future crises. Why should a family be expected to have three months of expenses saved while airlines are allowed to spend down cash reserves on stock buybacks, which are a blatant manipulation of the market? Any bailout for carbon intensive industries should require decarbonization and regardless of industry, require the placement of workers on the companies board in the codetermination model laid out by Senator Warren.
We need a Green New Deal stimulus package focused on decarbonization and public transit with limited to no funding for automobile infrastructure and gasoline consumption. New subway and high speed rail lines MUST be central to any transportation and infrastructure package passed by congress.
We should expand provider training programs and subsidize the cost of medical, nursing, and pharmacy education, bringing down the price of public professional schools for these degrees to our international peers if not eliminating them.
Finally I would like to see the US Congress (or potentially large states such as California, New York, or Texas) create a public lab to mass produce cheap generic pharmaceutical drugs, and use revenue to subsidize clinical education for providers.
There are doubtless other ideas and ones that should be included here that I’ve forgotten. However, the point is that we must not let this opportunity for “big structural change” go to waste. Indeed it is our moral obligation to address the maladies that allowed for the situation to get this dire if we are to avoid this kind of pandemic again in the future.
