U.S. Covid Response Continues To Be An Unmitigated Disaster

Congress gives tens of billions to Ukraine but won't open its wallet to combat a pandemic that as of Thursday had killed 999,225 mostly older Americans

Photo by Gabriella Clare Marino on Unsplash

It says something that Democratic President Joe Biden held a national summit Thursday to pressure the Democratic-controlled U.S. Congress to allocate new emergency COVID-19 relief funding.

He ordered flags to be flown at half-staff and tried to convince the nation that it matters that almost a million Americans have died since 2020.

Why was Biden’s appeal necessary?

Perhaps it has something to do with the people who are dying. The Centers for Disease Control Reports that three quarters of those who died from COVID-19 were older Americans - more than a quarter were aged 85 and above.

Would people care more if we were losing babies and children?

So far, the U.S. response to COVID-19 has been an unmitigated disaster.

The U.S. has experienced far more deaths from COVID-19 per 100,000 population than any other wealthy industrialized nation. The U.S., which has a population of 329 million people, is tied with India, a third world country with 1.4 billion people. In both countries, the COVID-19 death rate is 1.2% per 100,000 population.

Yet, the Biden administration last month was unable to secure $30 billion from Congress to fight COVID, an amount that since has been whittled down to $10 billion. He says the money is needed for vaccines and testing and to fight new variants.

If it doesn’t care about COVID-19, what does Congress care about?

The House passed a $40 billion spending package for Ukraine earlier this week virtually without debate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said “[t]ime is of the essence… With this aid package, America sends a resounding message to the world of our unwaving determination to stand with the courageous people of Ukraine until victory is won.” That’s three times the amount sought to fight COVID-19 in the U.S..

Disastrous U.S. Response

According to John Hopkins University’ Coronavirus Resource Center, the U.S. coronavirus death rate is far higher than that of Canada (1.0%), United Kingdom (0.8%), Germany (0.5%) and Japan (0.4%).

Only five countries have a higher death rate than the United States and India. These countries are Mexico (5.6%), South Africa (2.6%), Brazil (2.2%), Russia (2.1%) and Poland (1.9%).