The COVID-19 Pandemic Highlights the Widening Divide in the US
The world will not be magically fixed on January 1, 2021
While it is SO good to have a light at the end of the tunnel with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, it is crucial we all realize that everything won’t change just because 2020 ends.
We all know 2020 has been a dumpster fire shitshow of a year. Despite any and all good news that came through this year, there has also been devastation.
Shootings, explosions, a divisive and exhausting election, and — of course, the global pandemic.
As we look forward to getting vaccinated and resuming normal life, it’s important that we know just how much our government has failed us this year.
The US Did (& is Doing) a Horrible Job with COVID-19
Starting at the top, the leadership in the US downplayed the severity of COVID-19, sowed seeds of discontent, and the actual president of our nation told people it was no big deal and pushed back against COVID restrictions and lockdowns.
Whether you agree with me or not, the results speak for themselves.
As reported by NPR: “A new report in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that in the past five months, per capita deaths in the U.S., both from COVID-19 and other causes, have been far greater than in 18 other high-income countries.”
“The United States really has done remarkably badly compared to other countries. I mean, remarkably badly,” says Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, an author in the study and health policy and medical ethics professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Researchers from Harvard and UPENN studied deaths in the US against the other 18 higher-income countries and found “that COVID-19 deaths and excess deaths from any cause in the United States likely were due to a poor pandemic response rather than an early surge of coronavirus cases before virus prevention and treatment methods were improved,” according to CIDRAP.
CIDRAP goes on to report: “In another editorial in the same journal, JAMA Editor-in-Chief Howard Bauchner, MD, and…
