Beware the light at the end of the tunnel... . . . ... According to a recent, widely publicized report in *The Lancet* <https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32545-9/fulltext>, about 40 percent of our Covid-19 mortality “could have been averted had the US death rate mirrored the weighted average of the other G7 nations.”
The Lancet’s commission, set up in 2017 to monitor the Trump administration’s health policy impacts, found that “instead of galvanizing the US populace to fight the pandemic, President Trump publicly dismissed its threat (despite privately acknowledging it), discouraged action as infection spread, and eschewed international cooperation.” This is a welcome judgment, but misleading in some respects. Trump not only sabotaged and discredited the efforts of public health officials, but did so with an obvious political purpose: to expand a right-wing base already built on the foundations of climate denialism, religious superstition, and the perception that most scientists are the servants of secretive elites. . . . In the meantime, Republican majorities in statehouses are escalating their campaigns against mask mandates and school closures while going to the courts to strip governors of their emergency powers. The American Legislative Exchange Council is helping to write the legislation, Tea Partiers provide the protesters, and Astroturf think tanks like FreedomWorks continue to link ersatz populism to billionaire super PACs. Where is the countermovement? # Nation magazine, March 4 (March 22/29 issue) https://www.thenation.com/article/society/covid-deaths-anniversary-trump/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#7194): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/7194 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/81277097/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
