More Americans have died from Covid than during the two world wars and that of Vietnam. The threshold symbolic of the half-million dead was crossed on Monday. All the ways of calculating lead to some kind of “American horror” : the country accounts for 4.25% of the world population, but represents 20% of the victims of the pandemic. “It’s terrible. We haven’t seen anything like this for over a hundred years, since the 1918 pandemic (Spanish flu – Editor’s note) “, commented immunologist Anthony Fauci, back in favor since the election of Joe Biden. During the first half of 2020, life expectancy fell by one year to reach 77.8 years, a first since… 1,945.
18 million people received the double injection
“All this grief… all this pain… all this pain…” breathed the new president, during a speech delivered on Monday, before setting a horizon, while the contaminations and deaths curves seem to be weakening in recent days: “I believe we will be getting closer to normal by the end of this year. “ Visiting a Pfizer vaccine factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan, he said he was confident in the ability to achieve full immunization of the country’s residents by the end of July. So far, 18 million people, or 6% of the population, have received the double injection. To reach the 600 million dose mark, it would be necessary to accelerate the current rate (1.7 million daily injections). However, the polar cold wave and the storms that have hit the country for more than a week have hampered the vaccination campaign.
In the same way that the Covid has not struck indifferently according to social status, vaccination does not provide relief to Americans equally. There was no real doubt, but a survey published two weeks ago by Statnews, a site specializing in health, gave a rather terrifying panorama of its extent. The investigation begins in Connecticut, a state in the northeast of the country. In Woodbridge, 20% of residents had received their first injection compared to 7% in the nearby town of Ansonia. In the first, the median income is $ 138,320 per year per family, making it one of the wealthiest cities in the state. In the second, it is $ 45,563.00, a little below the ” standard “national. According to this article, “Four other states – California, Florida, New Jersey and Mississippi – have vaccinated in higher proportions the counties among the richest 10%”. “We see people who have privileges and access, who come before people who do not” , underlines Tekisha Dwan Everette, director of the NGO Health Equity Solutions, member of the special Covid commission set up by the governor of Connecticut, cited in the Statnews survey.
For the left, Joe Biden’s proposals are necessary but insufficient
More precise data are not yet available but there is no doubt that “The immunization gap between rich and poor inevitably exacerbates the racial divide.” The numerous studies on the Covid have already shown that the working classes and minoritieshad paid the heaviest price for the pandemic and the inaction of federal authorities during the Trump presidency. Joe Biden has promised a break and made a number of proposals that the left deems necessary, but insufficient, to address the inherent inequality of the social organization system.
