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Study Guide: COVID-19 Situation in the US

Note: This was written as the pandemic first arrived in California. Surprising how much is still true.

The COVID-19 pandemic will probably be impossible to contain once it gains a foothold in the US. There are several factors that make the spread of this virus particularly hard to control in the US:

1. Poor Political Leadership

• Government incompetence, misinformation and inaction
• A shortage of test kits, the delivery of flawed test kits, and bureaucratic delays in performing required tests
• A global shortage of personal protective equipment

2. Bottomline-Driven Healthcare System

• A profit-oriented healthcare system more focused on corporate growth and shareholder returns than preparing for expected emergencies
• The most expensive healthcare in the world that leaves about 30% of the population without care
• A profit-oriented pharmaceutical system, that results in the highest drug costs in the world, leaving many patients to suffer needlessly

3. Anti-Worker Economic Framework

• A “tough it out” work environment in which workers must go to work even when sick, thus spreading disease
• A large number of underinsured and uninsured people who often delay seeing a doctor until it’s to late
• A large number of politically-criminalized residents, who must avoid contacting healthcare providers out of fear of entrapment or deportation
• The largest prison population on earth, and the highest number of prisoners per capita (about 1 in 100, or about 1 of every 40 adults), who are housed in overcrowded centers–ideal breeding grounds for contagion.

The global situation

Li Wenliang, a 34-year-old ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, China, shared his observations about a possible new virus on with other physicians in social media. The Chinese government censored his posts, and he was ordered to a police station to sign a confession that he had made “untrue statements”. At least seven others were similarly harassed by the Chinese government over the same facts. Days later, Li Wenliang contracted COVID-19. He died on February 6th. His death sparked widespread criticism within China of the government’s suppression of the courageous whistleblower. The good doctor soon died from the virus.

Once foolish denialism no longer served the needs of the clerical class that fancies itself “the leaders”, actors within the Chinese bureaucracy organized a massive response. They built multiple 1000-bed hospitals in a matter of days, locked down several major cities, and quarantining hundreds of millions of people. China spent two months doing all they could to contain the outbreak. As a hierarchically organized society, they are better able to organize on a scale that is difficult to imagine in more litigiously-organized empires, such as occupied North America.

Even with these drastic measures, the epidemic soon spread to every region of China. Partly, this is the result of another–relatively unspoken–aspect of Chinese society. The Chinese have learned to adapt to centuries of authoritarian rule. The government makes their rules, and like water the people flow around. No doubt this “adaptability” contributed to the rapid spread of COVID-19 within China.

Not long ago, an infected and undiagnosed person arrived in South Korea. Soon, over a thousand Koreans were likewise infected, and the government imposed an extraordinary lockdown on Daegu, a city of about 3 million. Meanwhile the virus spreads…

Soon after, a single infected and undiagnosed person arrived in Italy. The Italian government has since quarantined tens of thousands in Italy’s industrial and tourism heartland. Given that Italy is a modern, Western “democracy”, it was necessary to quickly deploy militarized police and the national military itself to stop Italian citizens from fleeing the infected regions.

FAQs

Is the spread of the virus certain?

Despite misspelled tweets to the contrary, the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) advises that it is virtually inevitable that COVID-19 will sooner or latter become a pandemic in the US, and around the world.

What’s so bad about the federal government’s response?

To combat the spread of COVID-19, the CDC has offered the following advice: “Stay home when you are sick.” So far so good, but…

One of the most critical actions a functioning society can take to prevent or limit a pandemic is to communicate accurate information. As the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the US grows, there is a growing pattern of late, inaccurate, and contradictory information coming from our “selected” employees in the federal government.

As of today (Feb 27, 2020), we are still waiting for test kits and we don’t know how many are infected because we can’t test all the suspected cases. This is a recipe for accelerated contagion.

Given that we had more than adequate warning from China about what to expect, why is the US response so late and misguided?

According to Pulitzer Prize winning science journalist Laurie Garrett as reported in Foreign Policy, Trump fired the US government’s entire pandemic response chain of command. Currently, no coherent structure exists for the US to address a rapidly spreading pandemic. Professionals at the US CDC and US NIH are doing their best to inform the public, but their effectiveness is blunted when new misinformation continues to contradict the experts and befuddle the deluded.

I have to work when I’m sick. What can I do about that?

Tens of millions in the US working class toil with zero paid sick leave within a “tough-it-out-in-silence” workplace culture. This mentality is a massive obstacle when COVID-19 can be spread with as little as a cough.

The US is one of only two empires within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that does not guarantee universal paid leave for its working classes. In fact, 39 US states leave it up to the capitalists (euphemistically termed “employers”) to decide if they will “offer” sick leave to “their” employees. This leaves about 1 in 3 US wage slaves with no paid sick days.

Doesn’t the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act protect US workers?

Not enough. The Family and Medical Leave Act offers some job protections for some health situations, but these protections only cover some wage slaves, and include stipulations around job tenure and size of the employing organization. Significantly, the act does not cover illnesses such as the flu–even in a pandemic!–unless “complications” arise.

How likely is there to be a COVID-19 pandemic in the US?

According to the US CDC, it is almost certain. (Very soon after this was written it became a certainty.) Many think it is already upon us, but due to the lack of test kits we don’t know how bad the situation is.

Working conditions in the US create near perfect situation for the spread of epidemics. To maintain their ever-tenuous wage slave status, struggling workers ignore public healthcare warnings and trudge to work as best they can, regardless of symptoms. Some workers are so deeply indoctrinated that they feel their right to work is being infringed on by those who advocate more affective and equitable measures.

This is what causes so many manageable health crises in the US to spiral out of control. It happened most recently during the H1N1 swine flu outbreak in 2009, when at least 3 out of 10 workers in the private sector were afraid to take time off even though they were sick with the virus. This contributed to up to seven million additional infections and surely extended the outbreak.

Note: The CDC concluded that H1N1 and related complications resulted in 12,469 deaths in the US in 2009 and 2010 alone. Many of these deaths were preventable.

Do healthcare workers and service workers die first?

Yes. Those who are more likely to go into work when sick are service workers because their jobs are usually impossible to perform at home. Fewer than half of US service workers receive any paid sick days. These are the people who prepare food in restaurants, take care of the young, sick and elderly, remove our trash, and clean our buildings. As the first line of defense against contagions, they play a vital role in maintaining public health. However, their efforts and sacrifices are undermined by short-sighted pressures that discourage the low wage working classes from staying home when they are sick.

Is “working while sick” only a problem with the COVID-19 virus?

No. Norovirus is the leading cause of food poisoning in the US. It infects at least 20 million US inhabitants each year. But the CDC has estimated that 1 in 5 food service workers will go to work even “while sick with vomiting or diarrhea”.

Wouldn’t treating workers better hurt the economy?

No.

The Center for Law and Social Policy conducted a survey that found companies that provided employees with paid sick leave reported higher levels of productivity and lower turnover.

A study of the impact of Connecticut’s 2011 paid sick leave law found employers reported little or no increase in costs as a result.

The economic dynamism of more advanced societies, such as Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Singapore, New Zealand, Taiwan, and now China, shows that strong worker protections can improve an economy and make it more competitive in the global marketplace.

Remaining Healthy, Active, Engaged and Learning

Maintain a healthy rhythm

1. Maintain a good daily rhythm.
2. Go to bed early; get up early. “Early to rise…”
3. Develop an exercise routine.
4. Start a healthier diet.
5. Go outside each day for at least an hour (while maintaining safe physical distances).
6. Create a daily and weekly schedule of what you want to accomplish.
7. Do your school work at a regular time each day, in a quiet, well-lit location.

Maintian strong social connections

1. Maintain quality social contact with others in your home.
2. Play more board games with others.
3. Don’t isolate yourself in a room or behind a gadget.
4. Write letters to long-lost friends.
5. Remember and celebrate birthdays.
6. Help others with their chores
7. In stressful times people become stressed. Practice patience and compassion.

Maintain physical sistance

1. Avoid crowds.

2. Maintain more than six feet of distance. ¹

3. Wash your hands early and often.

4. Reduce the risk of infecting others by wearing a mask or face covering. ²

5. Avoid touching your face.

6. This guideline is often misinterpreted as “maintain six feet of distance”. The correct interpretration is to maintain more than six feet of distance. This is because early research showed that a majority of infections occur within six feet. But that does not mean that six feet is safe. Many factors affect the safe distance. For example, cough droplets can quickly traval over 20 feet, drift through ventilation systems, linger in the air for hours, survive on surfaces, and collect in mask fibers, hair and clothes.

7. Do not be lulled into thinking that the masks commonly warn can provide adquate protection. Still, they can reduce the risk, and are better than nothing. The correct mask, warn correctly is an important part of a more comprehensive defense stratgegy. For more on this, listen to the experts, ignore self-serving polititians, do your own thinking, avoid wishful thinking, and study what successful states have done to control the spread of the virus.