The Hammer

The Hammer

If we take nothing else from this catastrophe we should at least realize that having a national health care service that could be quickly mobilized to deal with the increasing risk of viral and bacterial pandemics would be a good thing.

Just as the 1918 Flu epidemic, Sars, Mers, H1N1 and now Covid 19 all jumped from animals to humans this virus is aided by the increasing pressures for land and food forcing humans into closer contact with animals and in closer contact with each other. We haven't seen it yet but there are viruses and bacteria thawing in what used to be permafrost. Tiny enemies that have been in the deep freeze for millenia. Climate change will force humans to live in ever closer surroundings that will maximize transmission of any disease and especially those for which our species has not developed resistance.

I don't know that Climate Change contributed to this outbreak but other pressures brought on by increasing populations and demands for food certainly did. We fool ourselves if we think that our globally sourced food supply has been vetted in the same manner that our domestic supply has. In Southeast Asia food production and humans exist in the same space. Many places use human waste to fertilize crops and serve as food for animals. In our own country the use of inspections has been drastically reduced and in many cases left up to the producers themselves to decide whether or not their product gets to market. Upton Sinclair, who wrote The Jungle in 1906, would be horrified to see the worker abuse and lack of food preparation still rampant in the United States food industry. It is getting worse, not better.

After the Wall Street crash and the onset of The Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt was elected President in 1932 and took office in 1933. It took him and the Democratic Party two more years to enact the Social Security Act. It was passed over the objections of the Republican Party and their howls of socialism. It was far more limited than today in its scope but it provided some help to the elderly destitute people. Soon the ideal of a National Health Care plan began to take shape with the support of both Republican and Democratic administrations but it took until 1965 for Lyndon Johnson and the Democratic Party to pass the National Medicare Plan, again over the howls of the Republican Party and cries of socialism.

Presidents as diverse as Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton advocated for a National Health Care Plan to cover all citizens with President Clinton failing to do so over Republican objections during his administration. Finally, with the Presidency of Barack Obama some semblance of what was to be a National Health Care plan was passed, again over the howls of the Republican Party and cries of socialism. The plan came under immediate attack in the courts and some key provisions of the act were held to be either illegal or unconstitutional which decreased the number of citizens covered leaving several million without access to medical care.

And here we are today. In the throes of uncertainty and calamity, not knowing what our risk is or how we may be affected. In the middle of a Presidential campaign where health care is a key issue and, still, the Republicans are howling and crying socialism. One Democratic candidate wants to do away with all private insurance and enact a Medicare for all while the other wants to reinforce the Affordable Care Act as a transition to a National Health Care plan. Republicans would prefer to do away with all forms of government intervention except to support business. In my opinion, strengthening the Affordable Care Act is the most likely to get done but, make no mistake, my goal is National Health Care.

In the flu epidemic of 1918-1919 50 million people died globally out of a population far less that what we have now. Yes, medicine is vastly improved but population is far greater and we still don't know what we are facing with this virus. The fatality rate for flu is one tenth of one percent. .1%. For Covid 19 it is somewhere between 2% and 4%. At least 20 times greater. It is projected that 60 million to 150 million of our citizens will be exposed. Depending on the infection rate that is 1,200,000 to 3,000,000 fatalities. In Italy, one of the hardest hit countries so far, they have come to the point of being unable to treat all their sick and are having to make decisions on who gets treated and who doesn't.

Does it sound like I'm angry? Well, I am. I don't blame President Trump for Covid 19. He didn't have anything to do with that. I do blame him for his inept and corrupt administration and his incessant lies in an effort to diminish the importance of early testing and treatment. I am angry that he rejected using the already available test from the WHO. I am angry that he disbanded the agencies that were established to protect us from these types of things. I am angry at what this is going to do to our economy and the lost lives. I am angry at his Republican enablers that have known all along what kind of threat he is to our republic. And I am very angry that all he is concerned with are his polling numbers. It is my sincere prayer that the President and his enablers bear the burden of their infamy heavily and without cease.

My Take is that the only way this can be made useful is to elect a Democratic wave as was done in 1932, 1964 and 2008. A wave large enough to push National Health Care over the finish line.