Pandemics, climate change and presidential vision have significant consequences for the future as we address our existential threats. There are stark differences being presented in our current presidential campaign from incremental movement forward to bold proposals necessary to address the scope of the problems we face in an interconnected world.
The Covid-19 pandemic challenging our nation and world is simply the latest crisis and certainly not the last. Following prior coronavirus outbreaks of SARS in 2002 and MERS in 2012 this represents simply the latest global health threat that comes at the interface of human health, animal health and the environment. This evolving crisis currently in its early stages will take months before its ultimate impact on our world is known. We find ourselves woefully behind as we react to the daily exponential spread of this virus that knows no sexual, racial, economic, temperate, political or geographic boundaries, racing to get ahead of its scourge. Certainly the most vulnerable among us including elderly, poor and those with preexisting conditions are the ones most at risk. I will not even attempt to cover the potential shortage of hospital and critical care beds the nation faces, most of which are filled at any given time even before the pandemic, let alone ventilators for mechanical ventilation should this crisis reach its full potential.
In the U.S. those who survive the current pandemic will be left to rely on our existing healthcare system. Our current patchwork of piecemeal health coverage leaves people to gamble with the outcomes of their diagnoses and their economic future.
Many are losing their jobs as a result of this crisis. How many of them will lose their health insurance as well? And how many will be left bankrupt from this illness or any other health crisis?The reality is that all of us may find ourselves one illness or injury or job loss away from bankruptcy. Four in five Americans who have suffered bankruptcy due to medical bills and illness had health insurance when they became ill.So in addition to being a health crisis, we find ourselves in an economic crisis as well, without sick leave, a living wage and income guarantees during our time of need.And when this pandemic passes, without systemic change there will remain 90 million or more with the resultant job losses in this country who have either no insurance or who are under insured. And we will return to the reality that approximately 70,000 people die in this country each year prematurely due to lack of health insurance.
We must recognize the interconnectedness of the health of our nation and planet to the economic security of our citizens. Unless we make the connection, our future is in doubt.
For the cynics in our nation, it should now be obvious that it is in our own self-interest to want everyone in our community to be healthy to protect ourselves. As a community, nation and world we are, in the words of Senator Sanders, only as safe as our least insured person.
What is called for is a systemic shift from a reactive response to a prospective approach to health with universal healthcare that covers every American Medicare for All, integrated with a fully funded public health and global pandemic planning office as we prepare for the next inevitable pandemic.And rest assured, there will be another and another pandemic as our world responds to the Anthropocene. In the end, this is not a political choice, it is a survival choice. Yet we have allowed all medical choices to become political choices in how we choose to allocate our treasure in taking care of the most vulnerable.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
Get our best delivered to your inbox.
The global crisis of climate change demands an equally bold action and is also presenting a health crisis around the world that effects every medical specialty and organ system on a daily basis. It especially effects women, most notably pregnant women and women of childbearing age, children and the elderly. The last five years have been the hottest five years on record. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report identifies that we have from 8 to 10 years to dramatically alter our use of fossil fuels to curtail catastrophic climate change averting disastrous outcomes. In the United States, the Green New Deal sets forth the necessary aggressive campaign that we must undertake in order to avert such calamity moving to a carbon free economy by 2050. Only one candidate understands the gravity of the situation and is willing to take on the root cause of the problem while putting into place the solutions necessary to match the change in course that the scientists tell us is necessary.
Rather than address the severity and urgency of the problems we face, an attempt to protect the economics of the fossil fuel industry and confuse and frighten those less versed in the crisis, the response has been framed as posing a revolution versus incremental progress.This attitude was seen in previous bold societal initiatives such as ending slavery and giving women the right to vote labeled as radical ideas that needed to wait their time in history rather than recognizing the sentinel moment in history that each of these challenges represented to our nation and world.
Finally, the ultimate existential threat is the threat of nuclear war. Interestingly, the existential threats of climate change and associated pandemics are not disconnected from nuclear risks and war as each one results in conflict from resource depletion to global economic crises. When these crises bring nuclear nations into conflict, nuclear war is an option. As a physician dedicated to raising awareness about the dangers of nuclear war, I must state that there is no effective medical or public health response to nuclear war, no matter how small and prevention is the only response. Even a suitcase nuclear device detonated in one of our major metropolitan areas would overwhelm our entire national health and critical care system. Such a device in a city like Los Angeles would cause tens of thousands of severe burns requiring round the clock intensive burn bed care, yet the entire U.S. has less than 2,000 burn beds. Any nuclear war, by intent, accident, or cyber-attack would be far worse potentially ending civilization. The only way to prevent this scenario is by the complete abolition of nuclear weapons. Such a global movement banning nuclear weapons is underway around the world as nations are ratifying the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Senator Sanders has said time and time again, Maybe instead of spending $1.8 trillion a year globally on weapons of destruction money to kill each other, maybe we pool our resources and fight our common enemy, which is climate change.
Thesebold ideas throughout history have been criticized as being too much too soon. The same is being said of the current proposals to provide universal healthcare through a Medicare for All program or boldly addressing the climate threats taking on a global leadership role through the Green New Deal while guaranteeing the economic wellbeing and safety of our people, and yes abolishing nuclear weapons, when in reality the future generation may decry we did too little too late.
This is indeed a sentinel moment in our world.The status quo is not acceptable. We must recognize the interconnectedness of the health of our nation and planet to the economic security of our citizens. Unless we make the connection, our future is in doubt. We must wake up to the reality that we are one human family and this is not about one man or one idea. This movement is real and it is unstoppable. If there ARE future generations, when your childrens children look back and ask, when the planet was threatened, what did you do? What will you say? Its about us, ALL of US! #NotMeUs
View post:
Coronavirus and Our Existential Threats This Presidential Season - Common Dreams
- wage slavery - Why Work - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- Pudzer isn't looking at the big picture - Las Vegas Sun - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Scheme for fishing crews is 'legitimising slavery' - Irish Times - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Living off the grid: Neo-peasants in Daylesford, Victoria take on ... - NEWS.com.au - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Attending College Doesn't Close the Wage Gap and Other Myths Exposed in New 'Asset Value of Whiteness' Report - The Root - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Why Do We Take Pride in Working for a Paycheck? - JSTOR Daily - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- An interesting life through the eyes of a slave driver - Irish Independent - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Attending College Doesn't Close Racial Wage Gap, Says New Report - Post News Group (blog) - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- The Rule of Law and The Working Class - Anarkismo.net - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Wolf budget proposal calls for $12 minimum wage - Scranton Times-Tribune - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Where did capitalism come from? - Socialist Worker Online - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Aussies working too hard and we're headed for disaster - Bundaberg News Mail - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- The Two Types of Campus Leftists - National Review - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Month of the Presidents - PrimePublishers.com - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Believing is seeing - Arkansas Times - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Uncomfortable truths: The role of slavery and the slave trade in building northern wealth - Daily Kos - February 17th, 2017 [February 17th, 2017]
- Point/Counterpoint: On Liberal Capitalism - The Free Weekly - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- To make Trump's America ungovernable, African American struggles are key - Green Left Weekly - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians against fascism: continuing the culture of resistance - Straight.com - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- What Chaos? The Trump Steam Roller has it Under Control - AmmoLand Shooting Sports News - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- 31 Life Lessons After 30 Years - The Good Men Project (blog) - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- No Room for Compromise on Lower Tipped Minimum - Eater Twin Cities (blog) - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Netflix is Allowing 13th to be Shown to the Public Without a Subscription - The Urban Twist - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Mayor Betsy Hodges says tip credits are bad for women - City Pages - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Washington State Rep Endorsed Slavery When Confronted by Voter - The Pacific Tribune - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Tesla warns that 'thousands' of Model 3 reservations holders will go outside of Connecticut to buy without direct sales - Electrek - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- National Prison Strike Exposes Need for Labor Rights Behind Bars - Toward Freedom - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- New: Berkeley's New Ideology: A critique of the Strategic Plan - Berkeley Daily Planet - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Column: Farmworkers, immigration and local food - GazetteNET - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- Forced to work? 60000 undocumented immigrants may sue detention center - Christian Science Monitor - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Slavery 'lieutenant' jailed for 'heinous offences' - Bradford Telegraph and Argus - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- The Confederacy was a con job on whites. And still is. - News & Observer - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- VIDEO: Street cleaners fight for London Living Wage from ... - Wandsworth Guardian - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- VIDEO: Street cleaners fight for London Living Wage from Continental Landscapes - Your Local Guardian - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Restaurant-backed campaign enters minimum wage debate - Southwest Journal - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- VIDEO: Street cleaners fight for London Living Wage from ... - Your Local Guardian - March 4th, 2017 [March 4th, 2017]
- Erica Armstrong Dunbar Talks Never Caught, the True Story of George Washington's Runaway Slave - Paste Magazine - March 4th, 2017 [March 4th, 2017]
- Fountain pen prices 'write' out there - Sault Star - March 6th, 2017 [March 6th, 2017]
- Role of servers' tips fires up Minneapolis debate over $15-an-hour ... - Minneapolis Star Tribune - March 6th, 2017 [March 6th, 2017]
- Carson receives backlash after appearing to compare slaves to immigrants - WCVB Boston - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- Wash Post: At Least 60000 Immigrants Were Forced to Work for $1 or Less Per Day - Newsmax - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- Italian Nationalists Vent Fury Following Migrant Camp Fire - Breitbart News - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- Ben Carson Says Slaves In America Were Just Low Wage Immigrants - The Ring of Fire Network - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- Child labor in Seattle: Mexican girl kept in near slavery - seattlepi.com - seattlepi.com - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- 10 Ways American Crime Season 3 Exposes Modern Slavery - Rotten Tomatoes - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- Daily Reads: Trump Fills Government with Lobbyists; It's Been a Hot Winter, Blame Climate Change - BillMoyers.com - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- America the Ahistorical: Ben Carson and the Dangers of Willful Ignorance - Rewire - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- How a Mini-Retirement Brought Meaning to My Life - Entrepreneur - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Capitalist Globalization of Labor is Modern Colonialism - Truth-Out - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Gumtree pulls 'slave labour' domestic worker advert - Times LIVE - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Reese vs. Nicole vs. Bette vs. Joan? It's Not Too Early to Get Psyched for Best Actress at the Emmys - Decider - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Readers sound off on slavery, the CIA and Mike Francesa - New York Daily News - March 12th, 2017 [March 12th, 2017]
- Raped, beaten, exploited: the 21st-century slavery propping up Sicilian farming - The Guardian - March 12th, 2017 [March 12th, 2017]
- It's Alive! It's Alive!: Our Film Critic Previews The 60th San Francisco International Film Festival - East Bay Express - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- LETTER: Getting our history wrong - Leavenworth Times - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Small World: Ranking the rank - The Bridgton News - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Is Passover Broken Beyond Repair? - Forward - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Caribbean Reparations Movement Must Put Capitalism on Trial - teleSUR English - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Two Democratic hopefuls for Va. governor on schools, Metro and the minimum wage - Washington Post - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- The Myth of the Kindly General Lee - The Atlantic - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Big business backs Labor call for new anti-slavery legislation - The Sydney Morning Herald - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Paying Inmates Minimum Wages Helps the Working Class ... - Bloomberg - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Slavery law to protect supply chains backed by big companies - The Australian Financial Review - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Filipino Women Against Modern Day Slavery - Workers World - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Paying minimum wage to inmates helps the working class - Chicago ... - Chicago Tribune - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Nova Ruth Wants To Free Us From The Bondage Of Wage Slavery - Village Voice - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- A Myopic View Of Robert E. Lee - National Review - June 8th, 2017 [June 8th, 2017]
- Jeff Sessions Says Social Media, Encrypted Apps Hamper War on 'Modern Slavery' - Reason (blog) - June 8th, 2017 [June 8th, 2017]
- Modern-day slavery alive in Cambridge as couple refuses wages to domestic worker: AG - Metro US - June 8th, 2017 [June 8th, 2017]
- Education & Wage Slavery | The Middle Finger Project - June 8th, 2017 [June 8th, 2017]
- 21 sad and shocking facts ahead of World Day Against Child Labour - ReliefWeb - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- Australia: Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Inquiry into ... - Human Rights Watch (press release) - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- 4 Signs You are a Slave to Your Job | The Unbounded Spirit - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- It's True: Black Women Are Working Harder And Getting Less In Return - Essence.com - June 10th, 2017 [June 10th, 2017]
- Taxi drivers are hit by '21st century slavery' in Uber row over fares - expressandstar.com - June 10th, 2017 [June 10th, 2017]
- The eco guide to prison labour - The Guardian - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Fashion doesn't empower all women - The Guardian - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Slave wages in Zimbabwe farms - The Standard - The Zimbabwe Standard - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Exeter car wash owner in court accused of posing modern slavery risk - Devon Live - June 12th, 2017 [June 12th, 2017]
- The scout system at Oxford must be scrapped - Cherwell Online - June 12th, 2017 [June 12th, 2017]