By Ashlee Pintos
The current conditions for workers in the United States leave us extremely vulnerable to sickness and disease. With the lack of comprehensive, if any, healthcare, no guarantee of paid sick days, and demanding daily responsibilities on top of low wages, it is no wonder the majority of us are terrified of contracting an illness as unknown as the new coronavirus. While we have real, valid reasons to be concerned about the spread of any life-threatening virus, we should not allow our vulnerability to be weaponized into racism or paranoia.
The truth is that the United States government will use anything that they can to divide us. The latest coronavirus (COVID-19) is no exception. COVID-19 starts with flu-like symptoms such as fever, dry cough and in more extreme cases, shortness of breath. COVID-19 is a mutation of one of many existing coronaviruses. The majority of the population has already experienced a different strain of coronavirus which usually produces symptoms similar to the common cold.
Since the virus first appeared in China, it has spread to over 60 countries and killed over 3,000 people. While this number is seemingly high, context matters. Just this season alone, the flu has killed 10,000 people in the United States. While the capitalist owned media run to fan the flames of anti-Chinese sentiment, they have done very little to provide U.S. residents with scientific information and tools to prevent the common flu, which has killed as many as 60,000 people in recent seasons.
While China built a hospital in 10 days to address the threat that the coronavirus poses to its residents, Trump initially claimed that the outbreak was a “hoax.” Meanwhile Trump is pushing for massive cuts to Medicaid which will leave millions more without health insurance. Because the Chinese government has undertaken extraordinary steps to contain the spread of the virus within their country, the number of new cases outside of China now exceeds the number of new cases within, which are on the decline, according to the World Health Organization. This means that it is now the duty of other governments to cooperate in order to prevent a large-scale global outbreak. Socialist Cuba shows the way forward: while the U.S. did not offer China assistance, Cuban medical teams traveled to China. Cuba has produced antivirals that were used to treat people infected with the coronavirus and they are actively working to develop a vaccine.