America brags about being exceptional. Saying it does not make it so. COVID exposed us. Investing in our people will. Why don’t we?
COVID exposed America as less than exceptional
As I saw the countless dead from COVID, I wondered how those who knew better still chose pilfering and selfishness. How do they sleep at night? I could not. Our healthcare system had the time that had they taken the disease seriously and had Americans not gotten indoctrinated by Right-Wing quacks, could have avoided the slaughter.
As he always does, Chris Hayes prepared a segment that hits home.
“We are just days away from what would have once been considered an unfathomable toll of 900,000 Americans killed by the Coronavirus pandemic,” Chri Hayes said. “Among large wealthy countries since the start of the pandemic and some small ones as well. The U.S. is now at the top of the chart overtaking Belgium and the U.K. with the highest COVID death toll relative to our population. Why is our death told so high? Why is it so much worse here?”
The answers are straightforward to come by.
- The vaccination rates in America comparatively is low even as we have vaccines in abundance. “Fully vaccinated Americans are 14 times less likely to die of COVID-19 than those who haven’t gotten the shots. Boosted Americans are 97 times less likely,” according to the CDC. Right-Wing and Anti-vaxxer hacks like Joe Grogan have blood on their hands for misleading many Americans to their deaths.
- The vaccination irresponsibility spills into other behaviors, like lax masking, spacing, and hygiene. This allows more rapid spread of the disease.
- The American population is less healthy than the other industrialized nations. Thia ia true mainly because of draconian privitized healthcare system where profits are more important than health.
Hayes asks the important question.
“The pandemic is exposing the dark parts of exceptionalism,” Hayes said. “And we now have highest death rates in one of the richest countries in the world. What does that say about us, about what kind of country we are.”
Yesterday in our monthly “Ask Egberto Anything” monthly call, one of our PDR Posse members recounted a story that almost led me to tears. His neighbor had a heart attack. The hospital in their small community could not take care of him. He was sent to a major city in Michigan. He waited over 8 hours in the emergency room. When they finally got to him they could not find a cardiologist. They said it is hard to find one on the weekend. The man died a few hours later. The nurse told his wife, “Welcome to the American healthcare system.”