Coronavirus Pandemic: Revealing the Chilling Truth about when Socialism Matters
Although not transitioning into a full blown anti-establishment socialist, the pandemic seems to have gotten many people and surprisingly even some mainstream politicians interested in left-wing policies. Even former Vice President and 2020 Democratic Presidential nominee, Joe Biden, has ensured “wide availability of free testing; the elimination of all cost barriers to preventive care and treatment for COVID-19”. Keep in mind, this is the same person who has, in addition to his problematic political history to the current legitimate rape allegations, continues to oppose Medicare for All since his campaign and into the pandemic. He even went as far as to state that, as president, he would veto the bill if it ever reached his presidential desk.
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Medicare for All is a single-payer, government run healthcare system aiming to provide healthcare to all people living in the United States and simultaneously eliminating all (employer-provided) private insurance plans. Under the current broken for-profit healthcare system, more than 27 million people are uninsured and around 44 million people are underinsured. In a country with millions of unprotected people and one of the most expensive healthcare systems in the world, a pandemic is already proving itself to be extremely deadly, especially for working class people and other marginalized communities. Providing free access to testing and treatment would be the bare minimum expected in times of a pandemic.
After all, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness is one of the basic tenets this stolen land was founded upon. Instead, those who have been denied this since its foundation—Black, Indigenous, and People of Color—are further oppressed during this pandemic rather than protected. It’s important to not only think about how these tenets are receiving more attention now than ever before, but also how the right to life has always been a privilege in the United States. It has been a privilege ever since the country’s founding on stolen land, genocide, and slavery and continues to be a privilege as millions of marginalized people die every year from lack of access to healthcare, climate catastrophe, incarceration and other structural violence.
The current pandemic is no exception, with the abominably higher rates of Black and Latinx people dying from COVID-19 and lack of access to clean water, electricity, and health care putting Indigenous communities at a higher risk. Unlike our socio-economic system, the virus does not discriminate—it is a contagion which can ravage through all sectors of society, and most easily through already disparaged places affecting neglected populations. We cannot fight this contagion without making sure everyone,especially those historically neglected and further put at risk by the current healthcare system, gets access to adequate care and treatment. As long as our underinsured, unprotected, and marginalized comrades do not have access to adequate care and a living wage with paid sick leave, we will all be at a higher risk. As Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley said, “this is a crisis within a crisis exacerbating every inequity that already existed.”
Not only neoliberal politicians like the “progressive” darling of white liberal women, Elizabeth Warren, but even many conservatives have agreed to some welfare measures. At the beginning of March this year, the bipartisan Families First Coronavirus Response Act was signed into law, offering paid sick and childcare leave for certain workers as well as unemployment benefits and availability of free testing. Criticisms from conservatives in the senate led to modifications and stricter guidelines on who qualifies for paid sick leave. The United States does not mandate paid sick leave and universal healthcare, therefore these new steps albeit their restrictions are unique to the country’s current political landscape. This effort is an example of the many measures being taken to limit the spread of the virus, and protecting essential workers.
However, why did it have to take a deadly pandemic to mandate such basic healthcare needs? Perhaps it's because our current economic and socio-political structures put more value on some lives than others, such as the minorities who are disproportionately affected by and often unable to access treatment for diseases like Diabetes. It's only when privileged folks start to become affected do universal healthcare and other socialist policies start receiving more positive mainstream attention. Federal and state governments should have always prioritized the protection of marginalized communities, and we need this crisis to be an alarming wake and action towards this shift. The current measly effort towards supposedly “aiding” these communities by limiting the spread of the virus is counterproductive and shameful to say the least, given the many institutional loopholes within the COVID-19 relief efforts that still make many people of color and working class people more vulnerable to the virus and have difficulty accessing relief.
The brutality of the pandemic is also coupled with the additional crises such as the increasingly inhumane conditions in our Prison Industrial Complex putting incarcerated people in ever more dangerous situations. Rikers Island, a jail complex in New York City is one of the hardest hit spots in the state. A physician said the breakout of the virus on Rikers Island is a “public health disaster unfolding before our eyes” and that all “vulnerable people” must be released immediately. Social distancing or any possibility of humane treatment has not been an option for the over 2.3 million incarcerated people crowded in privately owned prisons across the country. The welfare policies being passed right now, might be a step in the right direction. But they are manufactured to do just enough to support a white heteropatriarchal order while effectively leaving out incarcerated people and citizens of the global south exploited by U.S. foreign policy (such as sanctions on Iran that have worsened the pandemic). These populations are rendered nearly invisible in the mainstream discourse and have not received enough support from congress, media or other sectors of American society. It’s past time that they do, and those of us who are in the safety of our homes and health continue to join a collective, take action, and urge our representatives to stand up for all of us.
About the Author
Himaja (She/her) is a third year student studying International Affairs and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies at George Washington University. Himaja is passionate about creating more intersectional feminist spaces rooted in anti-imperialism.
