covid in pindostan

Pindostan posts a one-day high in COVID-19 cases with health systems on the verge of collapse
Benjamin Mateus, WSWS, Jul 17 2020

Cars forming a line for COVID-19 testing in Texas.
(Photo: Verónica G Cárdenas)

With Pindostan leading the way as the worst-affected country, the number of coronavirus cases and deaths worldwide continues to soar, reaching 14m infections today, and threatening to reach 600k total deaths by tomorrow. Yesterday, 5,736 more people succumbed to COVID-19, according to the Worldometer tracker. Three countries, Brazil, India and Pindostan, account for more than 50% of all new cases. Yesterday, Pindostan posted its highest one-day number of new cases with 73,388 and 963 fatalities, approaching 3.7m cases, with 141k deaths. Almost alone among major countries, Pindostan has significant sections of its political elite who are acting as open advocates of spreading the virus so that the population will be forced to achieve “herd immunity,” regardless of the cost in human lives. This is the de facto policy of the capitalist ruling classes all over the world. But few have gone as far publicly as Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, a Thug allied with Trump, who issued an executive order that combines pigheaded stupidity and criminal indifference to public health. It forbids city governments in his state to require the wearing of masks by people who are out in public places. Perverting the slogan of “individual freedom,” Kemp explicitly singled out cities like Atlanta, Savannah, Athens and Augusta, whose mask requirements are now rescinded. Kemp upholds the “right” of the “free individual” to contract COVID-19 and then pass it on to friends, relatives, workmates, and people passing by in the street, without imposing the “heavy hand of government” through requiring a simple facemask. Earlier in the month, over 1,400 health-care workers signed a letter warning the governor that the state was ill-prepared to face a surge of new cases. Georgia reported 3,871 new cases on Thursday. At Navicent Health, the largest health-care system in the state, a health worker told Georgia Public Broadcast News:

They were lined up along the walls in the ER … when you have to start shipping patients out of state, it’s bad. When the hospitals are full, that’s when it becomes really dangerous for everybody.

Not only Georgia, but Florida, Alabama, Texas, Arizona and California are seeing a continuous influx of patients into emergency rooms. Except for California, these states are recording positivity rates in their COVID-19 testing above 15 percent with Arizona at 24 percent. These figures demonstrate that the pandemic is spreading uncontrollably through the population as a consequence of weeks of reopening businesses and encouraging people to resume normal activities and drop their guard against the killer virus. Alabama’s Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth publicly rebuked Governor Kay Ivey’s statewide mandate to wear masks in public for a month. he declared:

The mandate is an overstep that infringes upon the property rights of business owners and the ability of individuals to make their own health decisions.

Meanwhile, the number of cases in the state has exploded since the end of June. On Wednesday, Alabama reported its largest single day of deaths from COVID-19 with 47 fatalities. The Alabama Dept of Corrections announced the death of two inmates on the same day. Thirty-four inmates have tested positive since Jul 10. Also, a COVID-19 outbreak at Alabama’s largest food bank, serving 35 counties and over 300k residents, threatens their operations. Louisiana reported 2,280 new cases of COVID-19 with 24 deaths. The demand for testing is skyrocketing, and the state is moving to cut back the number of tests available at community testing sites to preserve a critical supply, limiting them to people with COVID-19 symptoms. This is leading to delays in reporting, which many epidemiologists have noted confounds the ability to contact trace. According to a recent 55-page report released by the Rockefeller Foundation:

Pindostan faces an impending disaster. The extraordinary scale of COVID-19 crisis is evident in the growing deaths and economic losses the pandemic has wrought in every state.

The report states that Pindostan needs to reach the ability to perform 30m tests a week with a turnaround time of 48 hours. Presently, Pindostan is conducting 4.5m COVID-19 tests a week with many patients having to wait more than seven days to get results. Mara Aspinall, a professor at Arizona State University and co-author of the report, said:

This is just unacceptable because, by the time you get test results back, you’ve already infected many, many people.

Many health professionals and public health officials have called for another lockdown to gain breathing room to deal with the growing crisis in earnest. However, the Trump administration and state governors, Demagog & Thug alike, are opposed to such measures. Even in Texas, where the state is facing a collapse of its healthcare infrastructure, Governor Greg Abbott walked back his assertion from last week that “the next step would have to be a lockdown.” He told KRIV-TV in Houston emphatically:

Let me tell you, there is no shutdown coming.

On Jul 14, Texas posted a one-day high of 10,751 new cases. On Jul 15, it also grimly noted 110 new deaths, its highest one-day toll since the beginning of the pandemic. Meanwhile, several hard-hit counties in Texas are bringing in freezer trucks as makeshift morgues. ICUs and hospitals are attempting to find room in their facilities that are brimming with patients. Ambulances are on bypass or have to hold patients in their cabins for several hours before a bed is located for them. Many of these new COVID-19 patients come from low-income populations who have to work with their hands and suffer from chronic diabetes and high blood pressure. Though the number of cases in Arizona seems to have plateaued, 90% of hospital beds are in use, and with the scarcity of resources, there is rationing of medical care. Dr Murtaza Akhter, an emergency room medicine physician at Valleywise Health Medical Center in Phoenix, said:

The fear is we are going to have to start sharing ventilators, or we’re gonna have to start saying, “You get a vent, you don’t!” I’d be really surprised if, in a couple of weeks, we didn’t have to do that.

Several counties in southern California are also facing shortages of resources for COVID-19 patients. Like his Thug counterparts, Demagog Governor Gavin Newsom is putting into place half measures, closing some businesses and issuing a statewide mask mandate. Cases in the state of Washington are also on the rise. Since the middle of June, Washington has seen more than 700 new cases each day. The pandemic’s impact would be multiplied many times over if states go ahead with plans to reopen public school systems in August and September, bringing 50m children into an environment where they will be unable to social distance and otherwise protect themselves from infection, which will spread to teachers and other school staff, and will go home to parents, grandparents and other caregivers.

Trump has threatened to cut funding from schools if they don’t open. Asked by the press about his response to an Arizona teacher who contracted COVID-19 at a summer school and died, Trump seemed to feel nothing, and reiterated his demand that all schools reopen for five-day, in-person instruction. This is demanded by corporate Pindostan, in order to push through the back-to-work drive against the resistance of the working class. The Demagogs seek to profit politically from Trump’s obvious indifference to sickness and death, as well as the sheer incompetence of the White House response, but they represent the same class interests. No prominent Demagog is calling for a second national lockdown to stop the virus transmission and use the opportunity to begin the implementation of a broad public health initiative that would include mass testing, contact tracing and isolation of those who test positive. According to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll, only one in four Pindos believes it would be safe to reopen schools this fall, while more than half felt such a move would be dangerous. 40% of parents polled said they would probably keep their children home if classes are back in session. At Monday’s WHO briefing, Dr Mike Ryan replied as follows to a question on school openings, in words that apply most directly to Pindostan:

The problem we have in some countries right now is that it is very difficult to determine the safety of any environment because there is just so much transmission going on that all potential environments that people mix are essentially problematic. There are real issues in how schools can be reopened safely, but the best and safest way to reopen schools is in the context of low community transmission that has been effectively suppressed by a broad-based comprehensive strategy. Schools are a hugely important part of this. They are a hugely important part of our social, educational architecture. They are the baseline of our civilization, but we can’t turn schools into yet another political football in this game.

White House declares that “science should not stand in the way” of reopening schools
Evan Blake, WSWS, Jul 17 2020

At a press conference Thursday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany reiterated the Trump administration’s mandate that schools resume full in-person instruction in the fall, crudely expressing the anti-scientific outlook that guides the ruling class response to the COVID-19 pandemic (no, watch the tape, she said “the science is on our side.” – RB). McEnany declared:

The president has said unmistakably that he wants schools to open, and when he says open he means open and full. Kids being able to attend, each and every day, at their school. The science should not stand in the way of this.

These statements were made as the pandemic spirals out of control across Pindostan. On Thursday, another 73,331 people tested positive for the virus, a new daily record for the country, while 962 people died. Over the past week a total of 470,056 people became infected and 5,326 died. The drive to reopen schools is a crucial component of the broader “return to work” campaign of class war against the working class, which has already produced mass infections and deaths to achieve “herd immunity.” The principles of public health and science, which are in alignment with the social interests of the working class, stand diametrically opposed to the insatiable need for profit of the financial oligarchy. There is no safe method for resuming in-person instruction in dilapidated schools that have been systematically defunded for decades.

In fact, there is a growing body of proof that school districts across Pindostan are fully aware of the lethal risk posed to educators and students by the resumption of in-person instruction. On Tuesday, it was revealed that Hazelwood School District in Missouri is mandating that parents sign a waiver of liability relinquishing their rights to hold the district responsible if their child becomes infected and dies from COVID-19. The waiver is meant for students participating in sports and other special activities, and exempts the district and any of its employees, even if the infection is found to be “caused by the negligence or carelessness of the Releasees.” Last week, the Canyons School District in Utah briefly had a list of “Crisis Communications” on its website, which has since been removed. Among the communications being planned was a “Template letter for the death of a student or teacher.” In Tampa Bay, Florida, a law firm has begun providing free living wills to teachers forced to return to schools after the Florida Dept of Education issued an emergency order requiring school districts to reopen all “brick and mortar schools at least five days per week for all students.” Attorney Charles Gallagher told Fox40 local news that he decided to offer these services after hearing of the tragic death of Arizona teacher Kimberley Chavez Lopez Byrd, who along with two co-teachers contracted COVID-19 while sharing a room for summer school. Regarding the dangers teachers face, Gallagher stated:

It’s not physically possible, with the room they have logistically, to distance and it’s not physically possible for them to be apart from other teachers, other kids.

While the Trump administration continues to justify their demand that schools reopen by claiming that children do not transmit the virus, all evidence points to the contrary. Earlier this week, it was revealed that one-third of children tested in Florida were positive. Around the world, countries that have reopened schools in places with community transmission have had to quickly shut them down following outbreaks of infections. In Israel, health ministry officials have attributed the major spike in COVID-19 cases in that country to the unfettered reopening of schools in early May. At least 1,335 students and 691 staff have been infected, and government figures indicate that in June the second-highest known place of infection outside people’s own communities was schools. A Christian summer camp in Missouri, which adopted a 31-point plan to try to prevent any infections, nevertheless saw more than 80 campers, counselors and staff test positive. Similarly, a pair of YMCA summer camps in Georgia left at least 30 camp attendees infected with the virus.

In response to the homicidal policy of reopening schools, educators are once again becoming radicalized and striving to unify across districts and states. The hashtags #NotMyChild, #KeepSchoolsClosed and #notmykid began trending on Twitter following McEnany’s press conference. The Facebook group “Texas Teachers United Against Reopening Schools” continues to expand, with over 10k members and roughly 100 posts per day. A Facebook-organized “Rally for Safe School Opening” in Austin, Texas, scheduled to take place Saturday, lists over 1k planning to attend with another 10k interested in attending. Responding to this growing pressure from educators and parents, on Wednesday Houston Independent School District Superintendent Grenita Lathan announced that the first six weeks of the school year, which begins Sep 8, will be fully online. Dylan Lomangino, an elementary orchestra teacher in East Hartford, Connecticut, told the WSWS:

I’ve been talking to other teachers at my school and it’s an atmosphere of complete uncertainty at all levels. We need to get rid of the idea of putting everyone back to school in the fall, it’s not feasible.

Describing the horrible conditions in his school district, Dylan noted:

Windows in inner cities are often shut permanently. A lot of the school buildings are already ‘sick’ with mold or asbestos that aren’t rectified, and we go back in late August when it’s really hot and filled with mold or other airborne pathogens because districts haven’t been able to deal with things, and now it’s coupled with wearing masks which will make learning impossible.

Dylan expressed agreement with the need for a nationwide strike against reopening schools, stating:

I realize we have to fight against capitalist interests.

In opposition to the interests of educators, the Pindo Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA), the two national teacher unions that oversee the various state and local teacher unions, are fully complicit in the criminal plans by the ruling elite to reopen schools. The NEA’s national convention on Jul 2-3 focused primarily on promoting the campaign of Biden and did not mention the issue of reopening schools in the fall. NEA President Lily Eskelsen García recently stated:

The Pindo economy cannot recover if schools can’t reopen.

García has worked closely with the Pindo Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten to try and channel teacher opposition into support for Biden and the Demagogs in the coming election. The truth is the Demagogs have no more solution to the pandemic than Trump. In no region, from Demagog-controlled California to the Thug-held Deep South, was the time bought by social distancing used to prepare the necessary health-care infrastructure to contain the pandemic. Now, under conditions far more dangerous than when schools were closed in March, as districts across the country face a total $230b shortfall, teachers are being told to risk their lives to cover over the politicians’ malign neglect. Under conditions of unchecked community spread, schools cannot operate in person without sharpening the crisis. In order to safely resume in-person instruction, the pandemic must first be brought under control, followed by a massive investment in education. To make up for lost time and prevent further outbreaks, class sizes should be halved, facilities renovated, nurses hired for each school, and free universal testing must be provided to detect asymptomatic carriers among students. In the coming weeks, the dire crisis facing educators will greatly intensify as the semester starting date approaches for school districts and budget cuts are put into effect. In order to carry out a genuine struggle against the unsafe reopening of schools and the broader economy, educators and parents must form independent, rank-and-file safety committees to take control of the situation. These committees should establish connections across districts and states, to prepare for nation-wide strike action. Above all, educators must recognize they are part of a broader movement of the working class, including autoworkers, logistics workers, meat packers and health-care workers that are also resisting unsafe conditions. This fight must be guided by a socialist perspective directed against the system.

First-time jobless claims in Pindo top 1m for 17th straight week
Jessica Goldstein, WSWS, Jul 17 2020

First-time official jobless claims in Pindostan dropped to 1.3m for the week ending Jul 11, according to the Department of Labor in its weekly unemployment insurance claims report released Thursday. Though a decrease of 10k from the revised level of the previous week, the numbers demonstrate a state of deep economic crisis for Pindo capitalism, with the past week being the 17th in a row in which new applications for unemployment reached over 1m. The official new jobless claims very likely represent an undercount. The official numbers reflect only those claims filed through state unemployment offices and do not include 928,488 applications filed through the temporary Pandemic Unemployment Assistance federal relief program, placing the unadjusted first-time application filings at 2.43m for the second week of July. Official unemployment in Pindostan still stands in the double-digits at 11.9%, somewhat higher than the official figure for June at 11.1%. Although lower than the unemployment rates in April and May, 14.4% and 13% respectively, more Pindo workers are out of work than at the peak of unemployment during the last recession at 10.6% in Jan 2010, following the 2008 Wall Street crash. First-time applications for unemployment are used as a rough gauge of layoffs. Economists are not so exuberant about the slight drop, as the real number of new claims outpaced predictions of 1.24m new applications for July. Furthermore, economists are warning that the decrease is likely to be only temporary and workers can expect to face higher unemployment in the coming months due to the scaling back of economic reopening by many US states following a major upsurge in new daily case counts of COVID-19.

Continued claims for Pindo unemployment benefits rose on an unadjusted basis by more than 838k to 17.3m over the past week. The real unemployment numbers in Pindostan are also very likely undercounted as official numbers do not include workers out of work who are not eligible for state or federal unemployment assistance for any reason, including having hours drastically scaled back, or undocumented workers who have lost their jobs in Pindostan. According to MarketWatch, Florida, Georgia and California saw the highest new unemployment claims over the past week, a reversal from the week prior in which all three states recorded decreases in the number of new unemployment claims filed, which suggests a strong relationship between the tumultuous roller-coaster of unemployment for workers and the premature reopening of the states’ economies by Demagog & Thug boxtops. Pindostan recorded 72,063 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, with 37 Pindo states reporting a rising number of new reported cases, causing several state officials to move back on the reopening of restaurants, bars, salons, gyms and other businesses that opened in the past month. In some states, such as Michigan and Ohio, Demagog & Thugs have hinted at scaling back other key industries such as manufacturing that were deemed “essential,” which state governments recklessly reopened before lockdowns formally ended and played a major role in the increasing number of cases in the United States over the following weeks. With or without the massive surge in cases, the possibility of an increase in real unemployment numbers in the following weeks remained. Many of the jobs created month-over-month in May and June were those brought back by small businesses forced to close under state lockdowns through loans granted by the federal Paycheck Protection Program, which covered only eight weeks of wages and other expenses, and their expiration was expected to usher in a new round of lay-offs.

In addition to the announcement of 61k planned layoffs in the Pindo airline industry in the past week, several other corporations, such as motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson, have also announced plans to lay off workers in Pindostan and around the world this year. Dozens of corporate bankruptcies announced since the pandemic took hold in Pindostan in March will also result in job cuts. The $600 weekly federal unemployment benefit for Pindo workers is set to end at the end of July, with the potential to throw millions of workers out of their homes, increasing food insecurity and making medical care farther out of reach during a public health crisis. In spite of the relentless spread of the pandemic in Pindostan due to the hasty decisions to reopen state economies, Wall Street profits continued to climb over the past week. While the wealth of the capitalist class has risen during the course of the pandemic, the working class is given no relief and faces rising unemployment and increased danger of infection. In the wake of rising unemployment and the ending of inadequate temporary benefits, state governments acting on behalf of big business interests will use economic blackmail to force workers back into unsafe workplaces. This is a trend repeated throughout the world, in Latin America, Asia and Europe, revealing the true nature of the global capitalist system, which has no answer but to sacrifice the lives of the working class for the profits of a few.

Retail bankruptcies and closures accelerate during COVID-19 pandemic
Trévon Austin, WSWS, Jul 17 2020

The economic catastrophe spurred by the coronavirus pandemic continues to devastate the lives of millions of workers. A combination of falling consumer demand and mandated store closings presents retailers with challenges they may collapse under. The pandemic marks a bleak turn of events for the retail industry in Pindostan, which already faced severe troubles prior to the spread of COVID-19. Analysts from Coresight Research, which collects data on retail closures, predicted that about a quarter of malls in Pindostan would permanently close within the next three to five years. A report in June found that as many as 25k stores could shutter their doors in 2020 alone. Closures on this scale would be almost three times as many closures recorded in 2019. Experts state that high-end malls with luxury retail tenants are in the best shape to withstand the downturn due to higher profit margins. However, malls with less affluent clientele and more vacancies are facing a high risk of closure. According to CoStar Group, which tracks real estate, nearly 500 of the 1,793 enclosed shopping malls in Pindostan are at risk because of their location or dependence on office workers or tourism for traffic. Even before the economic impact of the pandemic hit, the mall vacancy rates were at the highest level recorded in two decades, with 9.7% of storefronts empty in January, according to Reis Moody’s Analytics. The uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 across the country leads experts to believe the damage could be more extensive. In an interview with USA Today, Coresight CEO Deborah Weinswig stated:

The percentage of malls closing could rise to as much as 50% if we can’t stop the bleeding.

A small number of traditional brick-and-mortar retailers that offer essential services of some kind, including Walmart, Target, Kroger, and Home Depot, have flourished during the pandemic. However, department stores and apparel retailers, which are concentrated in malls, have been struggling. Major retailers such as JC Penney, Neiman Marcus, Brooks Brothers, and J Crew have already filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this year. The companies have stated that they intend to restructure to cut debt and become more sustainable. However, this process includes shuttering hundreds of stores, throwing thousands of workers out of their jobs in the middle of the pandemic. JC Penney alone plans to close 242 stores. Most of the retailers that have filed bankruptcy faced challenges before the pandemic, including JC Penney, Neiman Marcus, and J Crew had already been loaded up with billions of dollars in debt. The failure of larger retailers like JC Penney threatens to exacerbate the problems facing malls. Not only do the larger chains attract more customers, but also many malls have clauses in their leases which allow smaller stores to leave if an anchor disappears. Retailers have already announced closures impacting more than 80m sq ft of real estate in 2020 so far, compared to 114m sq ft in all of 2019. In 2019, 17 major retailers filed for bankruptcy including Payless, Gymboree and Charming Charlie, but at least 21 have already filed for bankruptcy this year.
The companies that have announced closings and restructurings this year include:

• Modell’s Sporting Goods: Founded in 1889, the company plans to liquidate its 134 stores.
• RTW Retailwinds: The owner of the women’s apparel chain New York & Co, along with Fashion to Figure, and HappyxNature brands, plans to close many or all of its stores and sell its e-commerce unit.
• Lucky Brand: The company will close about a dozen stores and plans to sell itself for $140m.
• Brooks Brothers: In business for over 200 years, the oldest men’s clothing store in Pindostan plans to permanently close 51 locations and is actively searching for a buyer.
• Muji USA: The US subsidiary of the Japanese-based retailer that sells minimalist home goods and apparel will trim its physical footprint and promote online sales.
• J Crew: The company filed for bankruptcy with more than $1.7b in debt.
• GNC: Operating since 1935, the health product retailer plans to close up to 1,200 stores and to reorganize under lender ownership or sell itself to its largest shareholder.
• Pier 1: The homeware retailer announced plans in May to liquidate all 450 of its remaining stores.
• Sur La Table: The kitchenware retailer announced plans to close 51 stores with an acquisition bid from a private equity firm.
• True Religion: The company closed 87 locations before the pandemic, and this year’s bankruptcy is its second since 2017.
• Neiman Marcus: With $4b in debt, up to 29 of the company’s 57 stores could close.
• Art Van Furniture: All of the company’s stores were closed with liquidation sales announced in March, putting 3k workers suddenly out of a job.

Millions of Pindos are losing health insurance as joblessness skyrockets
Alex Johnson, WSWS, Jul 17 2020

Over the course of the past five months, millions of Pindo workers have lost their health insurance as the coronavirus pandemic has ignited a jobs bloodbath and threatened wide layers of the population with destitution. Ever since mid-March, Pindostan has seen an exponential spike in joblessness due to the acceleration of the pandemic’s spread. For 15 straight weeks, more than a million people have filed for unemployment insurance. An estimated 32m Pindos are currently receiving federal and state financial aid. These conditions have produced a health-care crisis of unprecedented dimensions as more Pindo workers have been stripped of employer-based insurance at a number higher than any recorded full year of insurance losses. The pandemic has left approximately 5.4m Pindo workers uninsured between February and May, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the non-partisan consumer advocacy group Families Pindostan. Their data found that the number of uninsured during this period was nearly 40% higher than the 3.9m reported at the peak of the great recession of 2008 and 2009.

The study released under Families Pindostan found that nearly 46% of the coverage losses from the pandemic came in only five states: California, Texas, Florida, New York, and North Carolina. In Texas alone, the number of uninsured rose from 4.3m to nearly 4.9m, and three out of every 10 residents in Texas are considered uninsured. For the 37 states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, 23% of workers that were laid off became uninsured. This percentage jumps to 43% in the 13 states that did not expand Medicaid, including Texas, Florida, and North Carolina. It’s worth noting that both Texas and Florida are experiencing massive surges of COVID-19 infections as a result of the reckless and premature reopening plans prosecuted by the political establishment. Families USA also discovered that five states have experienced increases in the number of uninsured adults that exceeded 40%. In Massachusetts, one of the hardest hit states, the number of uninsured rose by 93% after business shutdowns and lockdown measures were imposed, which accelerated the massive joblessness and removal from employer-based coverage. Massachusetts has been one of the most significant hotspots for the spread of the coronavirus since mid-March, with confirmed cases currently standing at 112k and nearly 9k deaths.

The report identifies eight states where 20% or more of adults are without health insurance: Florida, Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Nevada, South Carolina and North Carolina. Of these states, all except Oklahoma are among the 15 states that are experiencing the highest spike in COVID-19 cases. In addition to this analysis, Families Pindostan notes that this situation has worsened given the fact there is no federal relief program in place that could reverse the harrowing conditions workers and their families face. This neglect, they acknowledge, is the conscious policy of both capitalist parties, which are well aware of the connection between insurance and improved health outcomes, financial security and economic recovery. Even though official data won’t be released until 2021 when the federal government produces its report on health insurance enrollments for the previous year, current numbers from medical journals and scientific studies in Pindostan estimate that 16% of Pindo adults, or 1 in 7, are without any health insurance at all. Authors of the Families Pindostan research study borrowed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and raised alarm in their published paper on the high rates of individuals without health insurance, stressing:

This is particularly problematic during a pandemic involving a highly infectious deadly disease, especially in states that are allowing residents to be in closer personal contact by attempting to reopen their economies. These are often the same states that are now experiencing significant spikes in COVID-19 infection rates.

Health scientists and medical professionals have cited the health dangers that the population faces not just due to the unabated spread of the virus from the ruling class’ homicidal back-to-work agenda, but also the harmful consequences of delays in diagnosis and treatment because of lack of insurance for individuals and communities. The researchers continue:

Diseases such as cancer and heart ailments are more likely to worsen until hospitalization is required or treatment becomes ineffective. Losing health insurance thus makes permanent health problems, and even early death, significantly more likely for conditions unrelated to COVID-19.

These are forcing families that are already under significant economic strain to decide between paying for critical medical treatment out of pocket or buying other essential necessities. In early May, the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation conducted an analysis that included workers who lost Employer-Sponsored Insurance (ESI), and the potential consequences for those who lost dependent coverage due to a family member losing a job and ESI benefits. That study estimated that nearly 27m people, including relatives and spouses, signed on to a worker’s ESI could potentially become uninsured in the oncoming months. KFF noted that some individuals who otherwise lose ESI are able to retain job-based coverage by switching to a plan offered to a family member. This is only viable for a very small portion of people, 1.6m, who have another source of coverage in their family beyond their own loss of insurance. Even with this maneuver, it’s incredibly unlikely in Pindostan for someone to find adequate health-care coverage, if any at all. Data from the Census Bureau indicates that 27.5m Pindos had no health insurance in 2018. Those who are losing coverage would face unsustainable costs if they are struck with COVID-19, which has sent most of the seriously ill to ICUs for weeks and some even months. The average cost to treat a person with the novel coronavirus can range up to $30k, according to a released in April by Pindostan’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group of insurers.