By Steven Halpern
The news media has consistently portrayed Dr. Anthony Fauci as a sane voice coming out of the White House. While President Trump has made absurd statements about how the current pandemic is, “totally under control,” Dr. Fauci has given factual information based on decades of experience.
Clearly, we all need to understand the facts about the current pandemic. However, Dr. Fauci is on President Trump’s task force to fight this pandemic. So, since he is a member of the President’s Administration, he is also responsible for the totality of actions taken by this administration.
To place this in perspective, I will use the analogy of, “The good cop and the bad cop” used to describe a strategy employed by the police. When someone is arrested, the police oftentimes initially use an abusive and arrogant police officer in the first interview. Then, a seemingly more compassionate officer interviews the suspect. The goal of this procedure is to get a suspect to, “cop a plea.” This technique has convinced many suspects that it is better to serve relatively short sentences in prison, rather than take a chance at serving a long sentence. Many clearly innocent people have agreed to cop a plea.
President Trump made several statements attempting to minimize the effects of the pandemic. This was before he declared a National Emergency. He then stated that he would have liked things to return to normal by Easter in April.
On the other hand, Dr, Fauci has estimated that there might be as many as 100,000 deaths due to the disease. Dr. Fauci says he does not know how long the pandemic will last.
We can also say that Dr. Fauci has legitimate credentials with respect to contributing to fighting against infectious diseases. He has headed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, (NIAID) tasked with doing this research for 36 years. So, a legitimate question to be asked is: What is the problem with Dr. Fauci’s role on the President’s task force to fight the pandemic?
What are the facts?
First, before the current pandemic about one out of every ten people in this country did not have enough food to eat. Both Presidents Obama and Trump signed legislation cutting back on the Food Stamps program. With an unemployment rate of about 30% the number of hungry people is bound to increase. Not having access to food makes people more susceptible to COVID-19, as well as many other harmful medical conditions.
While the government had recommended that evictions from people’s homes be postponed for one month, literally tens of millions of people will be threatened with evictions in May. This will add to the horror of adding to the millions of people to those who are already homeless. Not having a place to live makes people more susceptible to COVID-19.
Today, one of the places where the pandemic is spreading the fastest is in the prisons. So, being in prison makes people more susceptible to COVID-19.
In the United States there is institutionalized discrimination against Black people, Latinos, Native Americans, and immigrants. A rational approach to fighting this pandemic would seek to ensure that every single person in these communities has access to all that they need.
Women need to have the right to decide if and when to become mothers. The state and federal governments have worked diligently to restrict access to abortion and therefore compromise this basic right. This only makes the battle to fight the pandemic more difficult.
The pandemic affects the entire world. Today about half of the world’s population lives on between $1 and $10 per day. About 800 million people don’t have enough food to eat. There are hundreds of millions that to not have direct access to electricity, or running water, or health care. Certainly, these conditions create breeding grounds for the pandemic.
What is the government response?
The Congress, the Senate, and the President have approved legislation that gives literally trillions of dollars to corporations. At the same time as this obscene amount of money is going to some of the most affluent people in the world, there are shortages of face masks, respirators, COVID-19 test kits, and health care workers. Has Dr. Fauci protested against this horrendous state of affairs? If he has, I’m not aware of it.
Dr. Fauci recommends that everyone wear facemasks. He understands that this is not effective protection for those wearing these masks. He argues, persuasively, that we need to wear these masks to protect people from those are infected but have no symptoms. He argues that we, “have a social and moral obligation.” Well, doesn’t the government have a social and moral obligation to work to ensure everyone’s needs are provided for during the pandemic?
The so-called news media is determined not to even ask these basic questions: How is the corporate bailout of trillions of dollars effective in giving the poorest people in this country and the world all the things we need? Why is this corporate bailout more important than using this money to battle the pandemic?
The supporters of capitalism will argue that if corporations are not bailed out, there will be no jobs. The facts are, that workers from around the world produce literally all the goods and services we need and want. The people who own and manage those corporations produce nothing useful. Yet, as always, it is some of the most affluent people in the world who will continue to benefit, as thousands of people are dying from the pandemic.
Cuba has been treating some of the poorest people for sixty years
Since the first years after the Cuban Revolution, that nation has been sending health care workers to over 100 nations to care for some of the poorest people in the world. As a part of that effort, Cuba sent 256 health care workers to three nations in West Africa to treat patients who had the Ebola virus. This is a highly contagious and deadly disease. These Cubans were effective in radically decreasing the number of people who had this disease.
Since the 1980s, Cuban scientists have been developing an interferon drug called Alpha 2B. This drug has been shown to be effective in preventing COVID-19 patients from getting pneumonia. The Cubans are working with the Chinese to mass produce this drug. Because of the trade embargo against Cuba, this drug is not being imported to the United States.
An article in the New York Times complemented Cuba for sending doctors to West Africa and treating Ebola patients. Dr. Fauci has given talks on the disease of Ebola. Has he ever even mentioned the Cuban initiative? If he has, I’m not aware of this. Has Dr. Fauci ever mentioned the Cuban drug Alpha 2B? I f he has, I’m not aware of it.
The so-called news media would like us to believe that Dr. Fauci has different ideas from his boss President Donald Trump. However, Dr. Fauci is a member of the President’s Administration. That means he shares responsibility for literally all of the policies of the President. This raises a legitimate question: Is it more effective to work inside or outside of the government to battle the pandemic?
In my opinion, when we look at the gross disparity between the massive corporate bailout, and the severe shortages of medical supplies, there can only be one conclusion. At all levels of government, there is a concerted effort to ensure that the needs of millions of the least affluent people will not be provided for. Given this reality, we need a massive movement demanding that the needs of everyone take priority over the corporate drive to maximize profits.
Yes, Dr. Fauci has given us useful information about COVID-19. However, his efforts on the President’s task force to fight COVIC-19 fail to address many of the most essential needs of working people in this country and around the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment