It’s fairly settled by now that a pandemic-like coronavirus, Covid-19, can get around the world without much difficulty, what with air travel and globalization of economies and manufacturing and just travel for education and pleasure.

But when it comes to the protection of countries like the U.S., the U.K., the rest of Europe, Japan, and China, there are mostly discussion, talk, and directives about the people of those countries, mostly the rich and privileged and, in the case of China, rapidly developing. In the U.S., most of the talk and news reporting is about Americans and the effects on them of the coronavirus and its aftermath. In fact, despite the mutterings about life after coronavirus by the so-called leader of the free world, no one really knows what will happen or even how the pandemic will be handled.

What Americans have received from their president, Donald Trump, has been confusion of disinformation, misinformation, nonsense, and, of course, lies. One thing that has become quite clear, however, is that, as the old saying goes, “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link,” that is, the country will only be as healthy as its poorest and unhealthiest state or region. The argument for single-payer universal health care has been made over and over, especially in this time of Covid-19. It appears to be the best way to protect public health against pandemics and simply for keeping the people’s health at an optimum level at all times.

Republicans, the nation’s right-wing politicians, and Trump will have none of it. That element of American society has fought against universal health care since it was first proposed decades ago. It seems that there is too much profit in sickness to provide health care that takes into consideration maintaining good health in the first place. The money is in the drugs that flow from Big Pharma to “cure” the sickness that is largely created by the lifestyle that has developed in the “advanced” nations. Senator Mitch McConnell is the place holder at this time to fend off any semblance of universal health care, and he controls the U.S. Senate for his boss, Trump. Yet, he is just one in a long line of politicians who have lined their pockets at the public trough by keeping the money flowing to the rich and to Corporate America.

The struggle for universal single-payer health care continues in the U.S., but what about the rest of the world? Because of globalization of life (even though that means different things to different people), it would be wise to see to the health of the other countries, the poorer countries, the “developing countries.” There are scores of countries that are struggling to provide the minimum of health care to their people, let alone fight off a pandemic like coronavirus and its ills.

For example, in the past week, the InterPress Service (IPS) has reported that many of the poorer countries are spending much of their expendable treasury (as much as half) in service of the debt to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and rich countries, in general. The news service reported that the Central African Republic (CAR) has just three ventilators, the breathing machines that were much in the news, when New York Governor Andrew Cuomo requested thousands of them and Trump as much as said, “Find them yourself.” The CAR has just three...for the whole nation. That’s the condition of much of the world and the hands of the rich nations are not clean in this regard, since they have entered these nations and societies with the aim of wrangling from them the minerals and other natural resources that they need for their electronic and technological lifestyles. For the most part, the takers have left little for the nations to care for their own people’s health and welfare.

This is why the rich nations need to start thinking of the needs of the poorer nations, if not for the people of those nations, but for the general health of humanity and the planet, including themselves. Considering the attitudes of many Americans about lifting up those who are at the margins of their own society, it’s a difficult task ahead to get them to consider peoples of other nations, especially in the time of Trump, who declares “America first!” and (he doesn’t say this out loud) let the rest of the world wither on the vine. “It’s not my problem.”

A case in point: A man retired from union work in the New York City metro area and moved to rural upstate New York. On the back bumper of his car were two stickers, a union sticker and a Republican sticker, apparently unaware that the GOP is the party who, if they had their way, would have prevented him from earning a union wage all his life and retiring on a union pension. On one occasion, he was engaged in a conversation about the disparity of his country’s use of the world’s resources, that the U.S. is about 5 percent of the world population, yet uses some 25-35 percent of the world’s resources.

His response was quick and simple: “Good! We earned it. We deserve it!” In 2020, before the pandemic shut down his convenience store hangout, he spent part of most days with his like-minded cronies (old, bitter, and white) drinking coffee, some wearing their red MAGA hats and proudly supporting Trump. In these parts, there is the occasional Trump flag or a Confederate battle flag flapping in the wind. Probably, they don’t have any rationale for such displays, even if they thought about it, but their attitude is clear: America First! and screw the rest of the world and don’t even ask about equalizing any economy, including the one in which they live.

This is only anecdotal evidence of the attitude of many in the U.S., especially those in thrall to the Orange Buffoon cult. This is the education project that must be undertaken, if ever the nation is to see some kind of equalizing of economics, wealth, income, and opportunity. The project that lies ahead in making some headway toward equalization of nations is even more of a rough road to tread.

The generosity of the people in the U.S. has come to the fore in this pandemic, despite those who follow the impulses of Trump and think those impulses are normal. There are numberless examples of that generosity from every quarter and the gestures of assistance, especially in providing food for the hungry and visits to those who are alone and lonely and often desperate for human contact. These are bright examples of a people who believe themselves to be exceptional, in an exceptional nation.

Unfortunately, they may be exceptional, but those who rule over them are not so exceptional and they have fixed it so that these acts of kindness and generosity are only extended person-to-person. The rulers have set up the political and economic systems so that the generosity does not emanate from the principal philosophies of the nation and its founding (for the health and welfare of the people and their pursuit of happiness), but what their policies have given us is a dog-eat-dog capitalist system in which it is nearly impossible for government to provide what the founders claimed to desire in self-government.

The only way to save ourselves from this and future pandemics and many of the other problems facing humanity is to take care of the least among us and that includes all nations. We can say we’ve tried it before and failed, taking the United Nations as an example, but the greed of the rich has upended most attempts to provide for the weak and the poor. Time is running out, though, and solidarity among the nations is a vital need to protect most life on Earth.