The USA has just passed a sombre milestone – 100,000 deaths from Covid-19. So what does this outcome show us about the intersection between health and politics?
In a reflection which is echoed in reportage and analysis by many from all over America, CNN’s Stephen Collinson says:
“A Columbia University study released last week found that had the US started social distancing a week earlier, it could have prevented the loss of at least 36,000 lives.”
“In the New York metro area alone, 17,500 fewer people would have died if the US had acted one week earlier, Columbia epidemiologist Jeffrey Shaman said.”
To read Collinson’s full report go to:
They didn’t have to die, a moment of reflection as US Covid deaths reach 100,000. Analysis by Stephen Collinson CNN.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/27/politics/100000-deaths-moment-of-reflection/index.html
In a blog on another topic for the Journal of Medical Ethics. Andrew Peterson, Adrian M. Owen, Charles Weijer said: “Covid-19 kills not only by attacking the respiratory system, but also by attacking the health care system.”
But you could also add that it exposes the flaws in each nation’s health care system – a subtle contract between its people, its political leadership and its political history.
For today’s world Covid-19 update, including that of the USA, see: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
“A decade after Obamacare became law, California has vastly expanded health coverage; Texas has resisted. Such regional differences have had a huge impact on many people’s lives,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
For this story, which shows another take on the way politics impacts on health, go to: Coronavirus widens healthcare divide between red states and blue states.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-05-25/california-and-texas-decade-obamacare-two-visions
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