As of writing, ~229,000 people in the US have died due to COVID-19. The US Civil War had ~215,000 combat deaths and World War II lost ~291,000 Americans in combat, putting COVID-19 up there with the bloodiest wars in American history in terms of death count.
But COVID-19 did not have to be this morbid. Globally, there have been 1.18 million deaths due to COVID-19, meaning the US holds 19.4% of the world’s deaths due to COVID-19, but we are only 4.25% of the world’s population. We must hold our elected officials accountable for that overrepresentation in the global COVID-19 death count.
COVID-19 in America
The Democratic party in America committed early to trusting scientists and taking the precautions necessary to flatten the curve, while the Republican Party stoked anti-science sentiment and mocked mask-wearing and social distancing, claiming that Democrats were overreacting to the virus. Here in Wisconsin, Governor Evers tried to institute a statewide stay-at-home order only to be struck down by the conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court. A conservative militia in Michigan wanted to kidnap Governor Whitmer (and Governor Northam in Virginia!) due to restrictive policies that slowed the spread of coronavirus.
The rest of the world prevented cases much more easily than we have in America, and I truly believe the difference is the prominence and presence of the Republican party in America. Through decades of climate skepticism and sowing distrust in scientific authorities, the Republican party’s logical endgame when COVID-19 arrived was to belittle the gravity of the virus and to kick and scream as our nation’s scientists explained the steps we all needed to take to save lives. Out of a desire to have things go back to ‘normal’, Republican politicians across the country have challenged mask mandates and have reopened businesses only to then preside over outbreaks in their backyards. The virus doesn’t care what your politics are, and as the virus spread from the mostly Democratic cities in March to now the Upper Midwest in October, setting new records as we head into flu season, it is clear that we as a country have failed to meet this challenge. The next nine months or so until we get a vaccine will be dark, and I’m not naïvely thinking that Biden winning will immediately end the virus. But when Fauci suggests this week that we should consider a national mask mandate, I know Biden would take that advice seriously.
At this point, we all know the story of how we got here. Trump knew COVID-19 would be bad in February and he downplayed it. He suggested it would be gone by Easter. Then he said warmer weather would make it go away. Seriously, the list of his lies about COVID-19 are incredibly sad. He desperately wants this to go away, and I do too! I wanted to believe him when he said we’d have a vaccine before the election. But his constant, unapologetic lying only leads to more deaths. As President, the buck stops with him, but he’s desperate to avoid blame. At the last debate when asked about the deaths from COVID-19, he, absurdly, responded, “I take full responsibility. It’s not my fault.”
Republicans claimed throughout this year that the economy needed to remain ‘open’ and that the ‘cure can’t be worse than the disease’, but those strategies to keep states ‘open’ even in the spring ruined our chance at containing COVID-19 and then opening up businesses after the virus got under control. A number of countries around the world took the appropriate steps to test, contract trace, and issue public health guidelines that people took seriously, and those countries are now closer to normal than anyone. Look at how New Zealand handled it. Or South Korea. A quick, intense public health response in the spring could have made a world of difference and could have allowed more businesses to reopen sooner, saving workers’ jobs and promoting well-being.
Instead, we have a record 40 million people filing unemployment due to COVID-19, obscene numbers of evictions and homelessness, and billionaires earning half a trillion dollars during the pandemic while workers suffer. The Trump administration did do one thing right, and that was the $1200 stimulus check sent to each American earning under $75,000. While only a single payment, we need to consider direct payments to citizens as a form of social security more often; it’s why I’m a huge proponent of a universal basic income. I wish the Trump administration had made the stimulus check a monthly tool to keep people afloat in the midst of economic turmoil and job loss.
The Economy
But if you look at Biden’s and Trump’s actual plans for the economy, even the Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs agrees that a Democratic sweep would lead to a faster economic recovery than continuing to entrust our government to the Republican party. And Moody’s estimates that Biden’s plan would create 7.4 million more jobs than Trump’s plan.
Biden understands how many jobs can be created in sectors like clean energy, education, and caregiving while also committing to policies that will help working people like a $15 minimum wage, universal sick leave. And his anti-poverty plan actually gets me pretty excited. According to analysis, it could life 20 million Americans out of poverty, cutting the poverty rate in half through interventions like universal section 8 housing vouchers, a $3,000 per year child allowance, and Senator Harris’s LIFT act that will provide new tax credits for low-income households. This is genuinely big deal — for the wealthiest country in the world to still have 41 million Americans in poverty is a testament to our inability to empathize with those struggling to put food on the table and an overreliance on rugged individualism as the explanation for who’s successful and who isn’t.
Healthcare
But perhaps the issue most brought into focus by the COVID-19 pandemic is healthcare. We saw this year how poorly our healthcare system is set up to handle a massive pandemic. When someone has to rely on their job for their health coverage, losing your job often means losing your health coverage. And this year, a lot of people lost their jobs, and thus their healthcare. In the middle of a pandemic. And beyond the immediate health crisis of potentially contracting COVID-19, we are also facing a second surge of healthcare needs as financial insecurity, social isolation, and other social determinants of health have seen dramatic increases in prevalence due to the pandemic, leading to a tidal wave of mental health issues. We need to separate employment from benefits generally, but thankfully due to Obamacare we have more folks covered by Medicaid and an ability to purchase healthcare coverage on the insurance exchange. Now that’s under threat too. Trump repeatedly has said he wants to get rid of Obamacare, and he might get his chance shortly after the election, when the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court decides on a case that may wipe away Obamacare, throwing even more people off of their insurance in the middle of a pandemic.
So on one hand we have Trump, looking to throw millions of people off of their insurance, but on the other we have Biden aiming to build upon Obamacare and add a public option that will drive prices down and force private insurance companies to stay competitive with a government-run plan. Is it a perfect plan? No. Do I wish it was a single payer plan? Of course. But in the middle of pandemic, we’ve seen how our healthcare system isn’t equipped to meet our country’s needs right now.
So the Trump administration’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic led to more deaths than expected and his economic plan is decidedly worse for average working people. Trump wants to throw people off of health insurance while Biden wants to drive costs down and make insurance more widely available.
It’s pretty clear who would save and improve lives if elected.
Purple State Progressive 