Trump
and Pence are approaching this coronavirus in almost the exact same way
Eisenhower, the American Medical Association and the pharmaceutical
industry approached the polio epidemic, as a money-making opportunity,
which Dr. Salk described as “doing everything wrong.”
Polio was only eradicated when Dr. Salk and those working with him finally convinced Eisenhower that it would take a massive public effort from research through getting the vaccine out to the people for free to eradicate polio.
The effort to eradicate polio took massive public health measures including:
Public funding.
Public administration and coordination.
Public research and development for the vaccine.
Public and free distribution of the vaccine.
Dr. Salk pointed out that if left to the free enterprise for profit health care industry it was very unlikely polio would be eradicated...
Unfortunately, many people had to suffer the consequences of polio before Eisenhower came to his senses and established a public health care approach towards eradicating polio.
Dr. Salk was a firm believer and advocate of socialized health care just like Frances Perkins and Floyd Olson were two decades before him.
Had Dr. Salk not brought this discussion into the public square in a way that convinced the American people to act in a way that forced Eisenhower to come to his senses, polio would not have been eradicated here in our country.
The first thing the moron Trump has done wrong with this coronavirus is to place an ass-kissing imbecile advocate of free market for-profit health care Mike Pence in charge of overseeing this grave (pun intended) health concern.
What we are now getting is “the vaccine will be long in coming” because the pharmaceutical industry has to asses the profitability of developing the vaccine and then whatever the market will bear will determine who will be able to afford the vaccine. Once again, profits come before the health and well-being of the people. Isn’t anyone going to have the courage of a Dr. Salk to come forward and challenge Trump in a way that mobilizes the American people to demand a massive public approach to this dangerous health care crisis?
Is there such a total commitment to for-profit health care now in the health care community that no one dares to challenge the utterly stupid approach Trump has taken which has been proven wrong over and over again?
This is going to require a massive public effort.
It was the American Public Heath Association which mobilized health care workers and the American public to seek a massive public approach to solving the polio epidemic... and they had to fight tooth and nail against the private free market for-profit health care industry and the politicians that were being bribed by this industry in order to win their position.
Why isn’t the American Public Health Association (ALPHA) showing the same kind of leadership role today in fighting the coronavirus that it did with the polio epidemic? Do they fear being branded as “socialists?”
The unhealthy political environment in this country today with attacks on everything “public” in defense of the “free market for-profit” approach may leave many sick and dead... do we really have to live through such a “learning experience,” again?
Just like capitalism itself, the health care system it has spun is sick... the result:
Needless human misery and death from a disease that could be treated and prevented if only the efforts wasted on militarism and wars became a public effort.
By the way, China is a socialist country without a socialized health care system which has largely relied on profit-making entrepreneurs to provide health care with an “insurance” scheme... hopefully this coronavirus has brought Chinese leaders to their senses that they need to get rid of this method of providing health care which was pushed on them by capitalist corporations who found socialized health care to be “too great a burden” in developing joint enterprises... see the article in the Wall Street Journal: “Is Socialism Too Great a Burden for Foreign Investment?” in which a publicly owned Chinese auto manufacturing plant was providing workers with free health care.
Polio was only eradicated when Dr. Salk and those working with him finally convinced Eisenhower that it would take a massive public effort from research through getting the vaccine out to the people for free to eradicate polio.
The effort to eradicate polio took massive public health measures including:
Public funding.
Public administration and coordination.
Public research and development for the vaccine.
Public and free distribution of the vaccine.
Dr. Salk pointed out that if left to the free enterprise for profit health care industry it was very unlikely polio would be eradicated...
Unfortunately, many people had to suffer the consequences of polio before Eisenhower came to his senses and established a public health care approach towards eradicating polio.
Dr. Salk was a firm believer and advocate of socialized health care just like Frances Perkins and Floyd Olson were two decades before him.
Had Dr. Salk not brought this discussion into the public square in a way that convinced the American people to act in a way that forced Eisenhower to come to his senses, polio would not have been eradicated here in our country.
The first thing the moron Trump has done wrong with this coronavirus is to place an ass-kissing imbecile advocate of free market for-profit health care Mike Pence in charge of overseeing this grave (pun intended) health concern.
What we are now getting is “the vaccine will be long in coming” because the pharmaceutical industry has to asses the profitability of developing the vaccine and then whatever the market will bear will determine who will be able to afford the vaccine. Once again, profits come before the health and well-being of the people. Isn’t anyone going to have the courage of a Dr. Salk to come forward and challenge Trump in a way that mobilizes the American people to demand a massive public approach to this dangerous health care crisis?
Is there such a total commitment to for-profit health care now in the health care community that no one dares to challenge the utterly stupid approach Trump has taken which has been proven wrong over and over again?
This is going to require a massive public effort.
It was the American Public Heath Association which mobilized health care workers and the American public to seek a massive public approach to solving the polio epidemic... and they had to fight tooth and nail against the private free market for-profit health care industry and the politicians that were being bribed by this industry in order to win their position.
Why isn’t the American Public Health Association (ALPHA) showing the same kind of leadership role today in fighting the coronavirus that it did with the polio epidemic? Do they fear being branded as “socialists?”
The unhealthy political environment in this country today with attacks on everything “public” in defense of the “free market for-profit” approach may leave many sick and dead... do we really have to live through such a “learning experience,” again?
Just like capitalism itself, the health care system it has spun is sick... the result:
Needless human misery and death from a disease that could be treated and prevented if only the efforts wasted on militarism and wars became a public effort.
By the way, China is a socialist country without a socialized health care system which has largely relied on profit-making entrepreneurs to provide health care with an “insurance” scheme... hopefully this coronavirus has brought Chinese leaders to their senses that they need to get rid of this method of providing health care which was pushed on them by capitalist corporations who found socialized health care to be “too great a burden” in developing joint enterprises... see the article in the Wall Street Journal: “Is Socialism Too Great a Burden for Foreign Investment?” in which a publicly owned Chinese auto manufacturing plant was providing workers with free health care.