US COVID-19 Response Was Set to Fail Even Before Trump

The COVID-19 crisis was set to hit the US worse than most other countries even if the President would have been other than an incompetent clown.

Country deaths/ million

Spain --- 366
Italy --- 332
Belgium --- 263
France --- 215
UK --- 159
US --- 63
Denmark --- 49
Germany --- 36
Canada ---19
Finland ---12
Turkey --- 6
South Korea --- 4
China --- 2
Singapore --- 1
Hong kong --- 1

While it looks like the US is doing better that western Europe, the numbers are misleading because, except for the UK, most western European countries are past the “peak” of the infections curve and now seeing lowering hospital admissions and deaths. US numbers are still going uphill.

In the 70 days during which the Trump administration refused to recognize the problem, the virus was spreading and being spread by millions of low paid workers in the retail and fast food industries.

Most jobs in these industries do not provide any paid sick leave. Many workers, not being able to forgo any pay, went to work sick. This, combined with the extensive public contact these jobs required made for extensive virus transmission.

Note the following partial list of major companies that do not offer paid sick leave, names ubiquitous in the commercial landscape.

Ace Hardware
Amazon
Applebees
Best Buy
Burget King
Chipotle
Costco
CVS
Dillards
Disney
Dollar General
Dominoes
Dunkin Donuts
Family Dollar
FedEx
Gameshop
Gap
Holiday Inn
Home Depot
Ihop
JC Jenney
KFC
Kmart
Kohl's
Lowe's
Marriot
Marshalls
McDonalds
Michaels
Nordstrom
Office Depot
Old Navy
Oliva Gardens
Payless Shoes
persmart
Pizza Hut
Ross
Safeway
Sams Club
Sears
Starbucks
Stop & Shop
Subway
Taco Bell
Target
TJ Max
Trader Joe's
Victoria Secret
Wallgreens
Walmart
Wendy's
Whole Foods

As the President and his minions agitate for "restarting" the economy, once again, they conceal their real calculation. This is that the pandemic kills many more among the low paid black, brown, native American and homeless populations. That is, those who matter less.

We may all be in this together but the extreme inequalities in our society make the consequences very different for some.