COVID19 - What is there for the Capitalists?
By Saswat Pattanayak
“We have a simple message to all countries: Test, test, test. The most effective way to prevent infection and save lives is breaking the chains of transmission, and to do that, you must test and isolate. You cannot fight a fire blindfolded. And we can not stop this pandemic if we don't know who is infected. We have not seen an urgent enough escalation in testing, isolation and contact tracing which is the backbone of the response.”
- Dr. Tedros Adhanom, Director General of the World Health Organization.
Despite WHO’s recommendations for extensive testing, most western governments have not come forward to conduct those in the desired manner. More than the logistics, the intentions of the governments have emerged questionable. While continuing virulently anti-China rhetoric that are racist and politically motivated, the Trump administration and other European powers (UK/Italy/Spain) are deliberately slowing down the process of COVID19 testing - a measure which could prove pivotal in limiting the spread, and in making the battle against this virus effective.
Three months delay in taking action in the US and UK is not just an incidental folly. Going by the way these governments were undermining the scope of a pandemic by not calling it so, instead by calling it hoax, or by comparing it with flu, or simply affording to dismiss it for such a long time in the post-China phase - what is signaled in this pattern is an utter, deliberate, and systematic attempt to ferment and materialize a man-made disaster. Why such a disaster needed to be allowed and encouraged to occur is worth pondering over.
COVID19 may already have become an unprecedented crisis for the majority of workers under capitalism, but it is equally significant as a tremendous opportunity for the ruling class here. The inordinate delay in implementing testing (and refusing to test most patients with symptoms) is an open admission of inadequacy on part of the two most powerful governments (US and UK) in the world. Sufficient warnings were always issued by the WHO and being China’s primary trading partner, Trump’s administration always knew about the impending dangers with lackluster preparedness. And yet, not only did the US refuse to accept WHO’s testing procedures, it waited for three months before inviting private business partners to develop the kits instead.
Despite spending most per capita on healthcare, why the US federal government failed to produce required testing kits, masks, ventilators, surgical gowns, coveralls, gloves, and face shields ahead of time is not an astonishing puzzle, but a predictable behavior under capitalism.
Profit over People - Capitalism is designed to work for the wealthy where only the fiscally fittest survive well. Profit at all costs is the driving force behind capitalism. It is not a system which the people desire or vote for. People are asked only to vote for one of the parties that do not question the status quo of the political economy. Whether Republicans or Democrats, the mantra of capitalism still is the same - little wonder that Nancy Pelosi has on record vocalized how “Democrats are capitalists - that’s just the way it is”. The illusion that one of the parties stand for the interest of working class while the other is not, is just that. The electoral campaign fundings and official allowance for lobbyists to shape corporate agenda of the society are symptomatic of the profiteering system and there is no greater occasion to cash in on the desperations than during the times of disasters. Profit hunger does not get regulated by morality; quite the opposite.
Electoral Agendas - Both the parties have a lot at stake here. That is why reaching a consensus over stimulus plan had to become so crucial. Whether Trump or Biden, both parties need to work together to make sure the Wall Street runs. Following 2008 recession, when stimulus money was offered ($600 as direct deposit), the real bailout money worth billions were reserved for the big corporations and banks. Every recession is a way for the big businesses to make hay. COVID19 offers the biggest such opportunity to corporations thus far in modern human history. Election promises therefore have to be so worded that the voters don't feel agitated even while Senators indulged in insider trading. At least four Senators have thus far traded stocks after coronavirus briefings. Senator Kelly Loeffler who started selling equities on January 24, not so surprisingly is the wife of New York State Exchange’s chairman. To what extent the political parties will take a position on these is highly suspect. Come November, it will be business of elections, as usual, and a plutocracy will yet again be rechristened world’s greatest democracy.
Privatized healthcare - Lack of political will on part of public office holders eventually allows for private players to take over. Instead of nationalizing healthcare or ensuring Medicare for All, leading candidates across both the party lines are waiting for and hoping to engage Big Pharma and private insurers. Instead of universalizing healthcare, what is going to happen in coming years (and decades) is a substantial increase in cases of “preexisting conditions” where patients will eventually be denied reduced-cost healthcare despite having private insurance. COVID19 is more than a goldmine for the private health insurance companies. During this time of course freebies are being offered by means of free testing - but once the virus has subsided in its impact, the real horror stories of backlogged healthcare costs will beginning to enslave Americans like never before, and a healthcare disaster of such enormity would show up as unprecedented.
Market Monopolies - While social distancing is a great way to slow down the spread, there should have been no reason to create a financial distancing as well. The basic notion being, people who stay home are essentially doing a favor to the society by slowing down the scope of the virus. Just like pregnant women do a great favor by taking off from work to tend to maternity needs so that they can give rise to the next generation of human beings. In return, pregnant workers in the US face discrimination, just as during the time of disasters (as witnessed in the past during hurricanes), workers continue to be penalized through loss of wages, inability to pay rent, mounting healthcare costs, and so on. The US has over 27 million workers in gig economy, temporary work situations, and freelance jobs. They are directly impacted by any governmental directive to stop “non-essential works”. Works can be non-essential; no worker is - this is something which is often forgotten under capitalism. Small businesses are going to be gobbled up by big corporations and such monopolistic acts are likely to be called an act of kindness, which is yet another feature of normalized capitalism.
Workers’ Rights - 2.5 million Americans filed unemployment claims in the initial week itself in the US. This is because of the largely unorganized sector which employs a significant workforce. There is no employment guarantee, no financial incentive to stay home, no safety measures for those who are part of the “essential services” sector. Indeed, many workers in the hospital sectors, including those in dining department, work without any masks or gloves. They put others in health risks as well as themselves. Many city workers have to report on duties because of their hourly wages. Transit workers are being declared positive in large numbers because of inadequate preparedness. The health crisis from COVID19 is escalating at alarming proportions, and hundreds of deaths are being reported in the US at the moment. It is a harrowing fact that workers lives continue to be treated cheap and there is absolutely no concern for their health. The workers who are considered essential must have been provided with adequate gears to protect themselves from January onwards. Even towards the end of March, there is no sign of that happening and the worst sufferers mostly are turning out to be the working class poor. In numerous instances, they are refusing hospital treatment even to patients with positive result, and recently a man Teodosio Torres, who was sent back home from New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital died four days after he was refused admission. In such situations, what are the workers’ rights? Would Mr. Torres have been refused admission, if he were a celebrity?
Media as Stenographers - It was well known that Novel Coronavirus (COVID19) can live in the air for several hours and on some surfaces for upto 3 days. And yet the US government through its health experts kept insisting on every media that no one needed to wear masks unless they were infected. The media by and large in a democracy are required to hold the government accountable and could have asked critical questions no matter how tough. And yet they failed entirely in carrying out their tasks when all they kept doing was parrot the official versions, and assume them to be accurate. The truth is, healthy people need to wear masks precisely because they have not been tested, and there is a likelihood that they may pass on the virus to others. It is because there is an incubation period when everyone appears to be asymptomatic. Health reporters and political correspondents have worked long enough to realize this, or at least to develop an inquiry-based acumen towards these issues, and to at least pay serious attention to WHO’s developing recommendations; yet they completely avoided offering insights for a much-needed dialogue.
Regardless of how many hundreds or thousands of lives we lose to COVID19, a crisis of this proportion could have been minimized. The fact that even after adequate warnings from WHO and lessons from China - the US and Europe continued to function their businesses as usual to not hamper the stock exchanges, and allowed people to use mass transit and attend church masses and gather for celebrations and parties, and allowed them to take off on vacations, and let the schools remain open until the teachers unions threatened to sue - COVID19 will become the biggest tragedy of modern times; and by the way it was handled, it is also slated to appear as the biggest farce.
(NEXT: COVID19 - What is there for the working class?)
