The U.S. could cut off 40% of deaths from Covid-19, if the country’s death rates were in line with those of other high-income G7 countries, according to a Lancet commission called the duty to evaluate Donald Trump’s health policy agenda.
Nearly 470,000 Americans have died from coronavirus to date, and the number is expected to exceed half a million in the next few weeks. At the same time some 27 million people in the US are infected. Both figures are at the highest level in the world.
In an attempt to respond to the pandemic, Trump has been widely criticized for not catching the pandemic fast enough, spreading conspiracy theories, failing to encouraging the wearing of a mask and weakening scientists and others who are trying to fight the virus.
Dr Mary T Bassett, commission member and director of the FXB Center at Harvard University for Health and Human Rights, told the Conservator: “The U.S. has been so badly affected by this pandemic, but the bungling cannot be ruled out. only Mr. Trump. It also has to do with these social failures … that is not going to be solved by a vaccine. “
In a wide-ranging assessment released Thursday, the Commission said Trump had caused “misfortune to the U.S. and the planet” in his four years in office. The outspoken criticism not only blamed Trump, but also linked what he did to the historical circumstances that made his leadership possible.
“It was kind of a coronation performance at a particular time but it’s not the only architect,” Bassett said, “And so we decided it’s important to put it in context, not to ‘reduce the destructiveness of his policy agenda and his personal fanning. white supremacy flames, but to put it in context. “
The Commission criticized Trump’s response to Covid, but stressed that the country has entered the pandemic with a corrupt public health infrastructure. Between 2002 and 2019, U.S. public health spending fell from 3.21% to 2.45% – about half the share of the cost in Canada and the UK.
To find out how many deaths from Covid USA could have been avoided, the Commission emphasized the average death rate in other G7 countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK – and compared it to the US death rate.
In another comparison, the commission found that if U.S. life expectancy were equal to the average in other G7 countries, 461,000 fewer Americans would have died in 2018.
The Lancet commission on Trump-era public and health policy, launched in April 2017 to catalog Trump’s health policies, will examine the driving forces for his 2016 election and offer policy recommendations . The 33 commissioners are from the US, UK and Canada and work in public health, law schools, medicine, unions, indigenous communities and other organizations.
The Commission spends as much time in the report on its name as it does on the conditions that made it possible.
A line has been drawn from neoliberal policies that have been pushed in the last 40 years, such as those that escalated the drug war and led to superstition, to the health inequalities that Trump grew into. worse while in office. Many of the connections go back even further, to American settlement and the survival of white supremacy in society.
“I really think one of the accomplishments in the report is to tell a historical truth,” said Bassett, New York City’s health commissioner from 2014 to 2018.
Trump’s response to recorded health inequality and growing inequality was to attack programs and policies that were intended to make health insurance more affordable and accessible. In the first three years of office, 2.3 million more people were without health insurance.
Between 2017 and 2018, the level of health insurance coverage decreased 1.6 percent points for Latinos – about 1.5 million people – and by 2.8 percent points for Native American and Alaskan natives, while remaining stable for the white population, according to the commission.
The report not only assesses health policy, but also includes long sections on immigration, Puerto Rico, reproductive rights, racism and the environment. Dr Adam Gaffney, commission member and assistant professor at Harvard School of Medicine, said: “Focusing solely on medical care would override the many other inequalities and references that will lead to health and well-being. illness. “
The commission said there is growing evidence that Trump’s regulatory roles have increased mortality and disease. Between 2016 and 2019, the annual number of deaths from environmental and occupational factors increased by more than 22,000 after years of steady decline.
The negative impact of the repealed rules unfairly affected the states that supported Trump in 2016. These are also the states most affected by rolls in health insurance coverage, which according to the report.
The commission highlighted positively in Trump’s domestic agenda: his support for the First Step Act, a prison and sentencing reform bill that reduced minimum sentences for a number of drug-related crimes among other things.
The Commission also noted that historical advances typically follow a period of conflict and conflict and included recommendations for health care workers to advance progress as a result of Trump’s leadership.
The report includes a list of policy proposals to address the issues it raised, including compensation for trapped African descendants and indigenous peoples, levying taxes on the wealthy, reducing protective spending and adopting a single-payment national healthcare system.
Gaffney said: “I hope this report pushes those with the power to pursue the necessary policies to make this a healthier and happier country.”