https://socialistaction.org/2020/04/08/death-toll-worse-than-reported-in-the-u-s/
Death Toll Worse Than Reported in the U.S.
Socialist Action / 20 hours ago
Healthcare workers in New York City transporting deceased patients
earlier this month.
By BARRY SHEPPARD
One week ago, the official death toll from COVID-19 in the United States
was 3,700. Today, April 7, the number has risen to well over 12,000.
But this underestimates the real figure. An article in yesterday’s New
York Times reports “… hospital officials, doctors, public health experts
and medical examiners say that official counts have failed to capture
the true number of Americans dying in this pandemic. The undercount is a
result of inconsistent protocols, limited resources and a patchwork of
decision-making from one state to the next” and limited availability of
tests.
In short, there is no national overall plan to confront the pandemic, or
even to collect true information. Another indication of the abject
failure of the Trump administration, which literally has blood on its hands.
The article gives some examples. “A coroner in Indiana wanted to know if
the corona virus had killed a man in early March, but said her health
department denied a test. Paramedics in New York City say that many
patients who died at home were never tested for the corona virus, even
if they showed telltale signs of infection.
“In Virginia, a funeral director prepared the remains of three people
after health workers cautioned her that they each had tested positive
for the coronavirus. But only one of the three had the virus noted on
the death certificate.”
In addition, prison authorities, including those in for-profit private
institutions, have an interest in under-reporting cases and deaths among
the huge prison population where there is no possibility of “safe
separation.”
The same is true for the immigrants being held in crowded facilities,
most private for-profit, under the control of Immigration and Customs
enforcement (ICE). They especially want to cover up sickness and death
of the children being held in crowded cages.
The undocumented, homeless and uninsured also are susceptible to dying
from the virus, without ever having been tested and counted.
Dozens of immigrants at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma,
Washington, have been on hunger strike since April 3 to protest their
continued imprisonment at the for-profit facility. This is a striking
immigrant prisoner: “We’re just asking for deportations to be postponed
while the pandemic passes. We are not asking for anything more. I think
we are human. We are not animals to be treated as the worst thing in
this country. We are asking for a humanitarian visa.”
It is just now being reported that among the hardest hit are African
Americans. Today I saw on CNN three reports. In Louisiana, Blacks make
up one-third of the population, but 70 percent of the deaths. In
Illinois, 15 percent of the population and 42 percent of the deaths. In
the city of Milwaukee, 26 percent of the population and 71 percent of
the deaths.
Those are only the reported deaths. Blacks are disproportionately
represented among the above categories of the under reported.
African Americans have significantly worse indicators of general health,
including for conditions that make the sickness more dangerous,
including high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, asthma, and more.
Latinos are also being hard hit. One district in New York City is in the
borough of Queens, and has become an epicenter within the larger
epicenter of the city. This is one area in the district represented by
Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (AOC).
Her district also includes the notorious jail on Rikers Island, where at
least one prisoner has died of the virus. Hundreds have tested positive
out of a total of 5,000. Many are there for parole violations or serving
less than a year for low-level offensives, or are even being held in
pre-trial detention and haven’t been convicted, because they don’t have
money for bail.
AOC recently tweeted, “COVID deaths are disproportionately spiking in
Black + Brown communities. Why? Because the chronic toll of redlining
[around these communities], environmental racism, wealth gap etc. ARE
underlying health conditions. Inequality is a co-morbidity. COVID relief
should be drafted with a lens of reparations.”
In a recent interview on Democracy Now, host Amy Goodman introduced
Ocasio-Cortez: “Can you talk about your district? We have heard a lot
about Elmhurst Hospital. The doctors and nurses, like so many around the
country, and the sanitation workers in these hospitals are not properly
protected. We have not heard as much about the community that it serves.
In just the last week, I’ve heard about three men — two Mexican brothers
who died in their home, not even in the hospital, their bodies just
recently taken out; a third died in the hospital — but fears of even
going to hospitals, knowing what could happen to them, who have been
hard-working members of our communities for so many years. Talk about
your community.”
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: “Thank you for the opportunity to discuss
the actual community surrounding Elmhurst Hospital and Elmhurst, Queens.
This is one of the most working-class and Blackest and Brownest
communities in New York City. It is extraordinarily dense. Even for New
York City, it is a very dense and densely populated community.” It also
has many undocumented workers.
“It’s no surprise that in the wake of this pandemic the Trump
administration announced a public charge rule that basically said if you
are undocumented and seek public services, public healthcare, SNAP [food
stamps], WIC [nutritional program for women, children and infants],
etc., then you will be essentially put on a fast track to either denial
of citizenship or outright deportation ….
“After we pushed the Trump administration, we were able to secure
confirmation from the administration that they would not refer
COVID-related cases and treat them under the public charge rule. But
there’s so much confusion already that many are scared to go to the
hospital. These are the same people who are preparing our food. They’re
the same people who stock our grocery shelves. They’re the same people
who deliver our goods. And the idea that we can deny them care, as
though the pandemic will not affect them in greater ways because of
that, is naive, and it’s unscientific.”
There is an ironic twist to the administration’s dealings with the
undocumented. It is an open secret that agriculture relies on
undocumented workers. These workers have now been declared part of an
“essential” business. Most have been working the fields for years and
decades, are part and parcel of the U.S. population, but are denied
citizenship rights.
Agribusiness likes to keep them that way, so they have difficulty
asserting their rights as workers concerning wages and working
conditions, for fear of deportation – but they are now recognized as
“essential” to the United States while still called “aliens” like they
are from Mars.
In addition to the many protests and demonstrations by nurses, doctors
and other medical workers demanding personal protective equipment, other
workers who need such protection have staged wildcat strikes and
protests. These include such essential workers as those delivering food
to those quarantined because they have the virus.
Grocery store workers who have to deal with large numbers of people have
demanded protective equipment, and in some cases have gotten it.
Others are protesting overcrowded conditions that make contagion more
likely, including in some auto plants. Some have walked out due to
coworkers being tested positive.
At Amazon, workers are protesting because they have to handle very many
boxes that can carry the virus from the outside, and need gloves and
masks, as well as overcrowded conditions that prevent safe spacing. Jeff
Bezos, the richest person in the world, is the head of Amazon, and can’t
cough up the money to meet the workers’ concerns. Amazon is one company
which is profiting from the pandemic since people saying at home are
turning to delivery services like Amazon.
Chris Smalls, a Black worker, was fired for leading a small walkout at
one of Bezos’ plants. Management launched a racist campaign to discredit
him in the plant, planting rumors that he was stupid and “inarticulate.”
These protests and walkouts have been small, but they indicate that
anger at businesses and the government over the pandemic may portend
more in the future.
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April 8, 2020 in Uncategorized.
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Thomas Paine
“One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.”
― Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
