SARS-CoV-2 Makes the Case for Socialized Medicine Democrats Couldn’t or Wouldn’t Make
Tags: Socialism, Healthcare, Health, Virus

SARS-CoV-2 Makes the Case for Socialized Medicine Democrats Couldn’t or Wouldn’t Make ATrigueiro Follow Mar 12 · 4 min read

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Yes this is the real name of what we are facing SARS-CoV-2. It is related to the deadly SARS outbreak from earlier this century. This new coronavirus — dubbed SARS-CoV-2 — is now reminding us of how dangerous coronaviruses can be. SARS-CoV-2 causes a disease called COVID-19.

Now we see the actual consequences of privatized healthcare beginning to come home to roost. The reason case counts are so low in the United States right now is due to inadequate testing as well as the cost of testing. The case for a more unified healthcare system, a UNIVERSAL healthcare system is now overwhelming.

Healthcare driven by capitalism has been revealed to have a number of flaws at this point. The growing list would include:

1]Healthcare driven by capitalism leaves many people uninsured.

2]Healthcare driven by capitalism means uninsured people do not seek out medical aid

3]Healthcare driven by capitalism does not test people for free.

4]Healthcare driven by capitalism does not overproduce tests in anticipation of a crisis.

5]Healthcare driven by capitalism is not allowed to give out information which could damage the stock market.

I could go on and on here, but I want to move on to the case the SARS-CoV-2 is making for socialism in general. I call myself a libertarian-socialist, because I was a long time card-carrying libertarian. However, over time I began to see the wisdom of some collective action in a society.

I also had to admit my own life, especially my early childhood had been supported by America’s greater social safety net in the mid-20th century. I had gone to Head Start programs as a child. I could look back and see what a huge benefit they had been to me and my struggling single mom. I also watched privatization and deregulation of the California electricity market lead directly to manipulations by corporate entities at the beginning of this century.

With the current health crisis facing our nation, would it not be nice to know a social safety net existed for our citizens. People could actually stay home from work when they were sick instead of dragging themselves to work while sick. All hourly workers know how costly being sick can be. They may even have some empathy for their employer having to pay for workers not being there.

In good times, ruthless capitalism is the most efficient for markets and countries. However, this means that during the good times no amount of money is set aside for the bad times. Collectively, it would be nice to create a nest egg for future problems which may occur during an economic downturn.

Instead, the ruthless unregulated capitalism being practiced in the United States led to rate cuts to juice the markets. These rate cuts were mostly about making sure the current occupant of the White House was well-positioned for re-election. These rate cuts artificially raised the markets and made it near on impossible to NOT be in the market. My own “fear of missing out” was not small.

In any case, here we are. We have not been testing adequately. We are still not ready to be testing adequately, because there was no profit in getting ready. We did not catch early cases because it cost thousands to be tested. We as a society had a vested interest in getting people tested whether they could afford it or not, but that would violate the basic tenets of ruthless capitalism.

Finally, we have to be realistic. The virus is in America. It has been in America for some amount of time already. The only reason we think it is JUST starting is inadequate testing. Doubts about that should be put aside. This Beverly Hills rector has tested positive.

She is Mathew Broderick’s sister, which speaks directly to the obvious nepotism and insular nature of “rich and famous” social circles, but I digress. We know she has ministered a lot of people. She is just GETTING OVER IT. That means she was infected at least three weeks to a month ago. a week or two for incubation, a week of getting sick and now recovering. The timeline is obvious while her personal infection vector is completely unknown and must be presumed to be acquired domestically…most likely at this event last month. This event was in Kentucky mid-February, so the virus is indisputably out and among us.

At this time, please do not get hysterical. Please realize it has been here for awhile. Please take the normal precautions you would take during an especially bad influenza season where you failed to get vaccinated. I think POST-exposure things like zinc swabs make sense, because it seems unlikely America will be able to institute the necessary quarantines to stop the spread. Lets stay cool and try to be tolerant of each other…or better yet, let us try to be nice to each other in these trying times.