The
COVID-19 pandemic is stretching national health systems to their
limit across the world. In some countries that have been particularly
affected by the pandemic, such as Italy and Spain, legally enforced
lockdowns have been imposed to help slow the spread of the virus and
ease the pressure on public health services.
The
United States, where all 50 states have confirmed cases, however, is
more susceptible to the impact of this public health emergency than
any other industrialised nation. If its leaders do not take swift
action and implement fundamental reforms, the pandemic will cause
more devastation there than it already did in Europe.
European
nations are struggling to respond to the crisis despite having
relatively well-functioning social security systems and universal
health coverage. The US, however, has neither. Neoliberal policies
implemented by consecutive administrations, which prioritise
maximisation of profit for corporations and the rich over the
wellbeing of ordinary citizens, have left the country completely
unprepared to tackle a health crisis of this scale.
45,000
Americans are dying
each year because they do not have health coverage. 30 million people
are living
without medical insurance and a whopping 137 million are facing
financial hardships due to medical debt. One
in four
US workers - more than 32 million - is not entitled to paid sick
days.
As
COVID-19 rapidly spreads across the country, these pre-existing
weaknesses put the US on course for an unprecedented socioeconomic
catastrophe.
However,
there is opportunity in crisis. As it exposes the nation's flaws,
weaknesses and moral blind spots like never before, the coronavirus
pandemic can make Americans of all walks of life realise that
neoliberal policies that value profit over human life are a threat to
national security. This realisation can in turn pressure the US
leadership to implement the necessary reforms to ensure all Americans
have social security, comprehensive labour rights and access to
adequate healthcare.
The
Trump administration tried to tackle the pandemic as if it is merely
an economic threat. Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve Bank of
New York announced that it would offer
$1.5 trillion in short-term loans
to banks to "address highly unusual disruptions in Treasury
financing markets associated with the coronavirus
outbreak". There has also been talk of bailing out airlines that
are facing bankruptcy as a result of the pandemic. This approach,
however, already caused a considerable backlash, with many pointing
out that the bailout money could be better spent on other priorities,
like student debt relief or universal healthcare.
Just
weeks ago, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders's
"Medicare for All" universal healthcare proposal was being
dismissed by many as unrealistic, unaffordable and even un-American.
However, such schemes do not appear so far-fetched now that the
country is dealing with a virus that can potentially kill more than a
million and collapse the economy.
There
are growing calls for the federal government to change the way it
treats its citizens and local administrations across the country
already started implementing measures to address some of America's
most fundamental weaknesses that are being exacerbated by the deadly
pandemic.
Some
cities and states have halted evictions, mortgage payments and
student and medical debt, and they are now considering suspending
utility bills, water shutoffs and bank fees. Some jurisdictions have
delayed arrests for nonviolent
offences,
and federal immigration officials have halted most arrests. And with
the coronavirus pandemic poised to become a humanitarian crisis in
the nation's prisons,
jails
and migrant
detention centres,
there are renewed calls for decarceration.
Moreover,
as the coronavirus pandemic threatens to exacerbate socioeconomic
inequality and vice versa, some lawmakers even proposed implementing
a policy of basic universal income
to counter unemployment and prevent an economic depression.
In
addition, as the virus complicates in-person voting and threatens to
disrupt the US election, there have been proposals to allow voting
by mail - a policy that would expand voter participation across the
country.
Policy
proposals that would have been swiftly dismissed as fringe left-wing
fantasies merely a few weeks ago are now being discussed in the
mainstream. This shows that long before reaching its devastating
peak, the coronavirus pandemic has already changed US politics.
And
there is no reason for the change to stop here. The coronavirus
pandemic could be the wake-up call the US has long been waiting for.
Some
80 years ago, Japan's unexpected attack on Pearl Harbour finally
convinced the US to stop ignoring a war that was about to reach its
shores and devastate its people. In response to the military attack,
Washington embarked on a campaign to prepare the country for war. The
industry was mobilised to manufacture military equipment
and all Americans were encouraged to help the war effort in every way
they could.
The
coronavirus pandemic can be this century's Pearl Harbour moment for
the US. In the face of this crisis, Washington can choose to
acknowledge the threat neoliberal policies, growing inequalities and
injustices pose to the nation and take action. Just like it made
manufacturing of military equipment a priority all those decades ago,
it can now shift
its defence spending to public health as a matter of national
security.
In
a worst-case scenario, coronavirus can kill
1.7 million Americans and infect 214 million others. But if
Washington chooses to hear the growing calls for change and swiftly
moves to implement the reforms necessary to address the problems that
make this public health emergency particularly deadly, this tragedy
can eventually pave the way for a new and more just America.
This commentary was originally published by Aljazeera.com
|