By Jasper Smith (April 9, 2020)
To be in the United States during a pandemic:
– People without homes are told to stay home.
– People without clean water are told to wash their hands.
– People lose their job and with it their healthcare.
– Most people don’t have enough savings to cover two weeks of lost income to quarantine without paid sick leave.
– Hospitals overflowing with sick patients lose money and threaten to close because they have to cancel elective surgeries.
– People must risk their lives to work and even to vote.
– Kids without internet and computers are told to do school online.
– The market drives up the price of essential consumer and medical supplies.
– Scammers target vulnerable people to cheat them out of what little they have.
– Current and historic inequities compound the losses in communities of color.
– Gun sales surge and some people fear getting shot if they wear a mask for safety.
– Women and children suffer abuse in their homes.
– Politicians vilify immigrants even when a third of our doctors were born in other countries.
– Environmental regulations are suspended to compound the impeding climate crisis.
– Members of Congress use access to information to buy and sell stocks and enhance their wealth.
– Misinformation is more prevalent than information.
– Leaders see a financial crisis and pass a stimulus bill for the wealthy rather than a health crisis needing relief for those in need.
– The president fires the independent oversight for $2 trillion in spending.
– We waste time developing our own test that doesn’t work when functioning tests from other countries were available.
– The president hawks an unproven drug in which he and his allies have financial interests after having previously disbanded the government’s pandemic response team.
– For two months the president tells us there is nothing to worry about and now we lead the world in the most cases and will soon lead in most deaths.