[D66] For a globally coordinated emergency response to the coronavirus pandemic!

[A.OUT]

wsws.org:

For a globally coordinated emergency response to the coronavirus pandemic!
28 February 2020

The International Committee of the Fourth International calls for a 
globally coordinated emergency response to the spreading coronavirus 
pandemic. The working class must demand that governments make available 
the resources required to contain the spread of the disease, treat and 
care for those who are infected, and secure the livelihoods of the 
hundreds of millions of people who will be affected by the economic fallout.

The danger cannot be overstated. The number of reported cases is 
approaching 100,000 worldwide, with nearly 3,000 deaths. The majority of 
those infected are in China, but the virus is spreading throughout the 
world. Infected individuals have been identified in 47 countries, 
including hundreds of cases in Italy (14 reported deaths); Iran (26 
deaths); and South Korea (13 deaths).

On Thursday, both Germany and the United States reported their first 
cases of the virus with no obvious source of transmission, indicating 
that it has begun to spread to people who have not traveled to centers 
of the disease. The number of infected in Iran, meanwhile, is far higher 
than reported. The country’s deputy health minister has gone into 
quarantine after testing positive.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom 
Ghebreyesus said on Thursday that it would be a “fatal mistake” for any 
country to believe it will not be hit. WHO advisor Ira Longini has said 
that without aggressive measures to contain the virus, it could 
ultimately infect two-thirds of the world, which would mean hundreds of 
millions of deaths.

The economic damage from the virus could exceed the scale of the 2008 
financial crisis. The recession sparked by the 2008 crisis led to a fall 
in global GDP by 0.5 percent and destroyed the jobs of tens of millions 
of people.

The response of ruling elites and the governments they control to the 
crisis combines incompetence with a criminal level of indifference. 
Nowhere is this more evident than in the United States.

President Trump, concerned above all about the impact of the coronavirus 
on the fortunes of the corporate and financial elite, has sought to 
downplay the danger and grossly overstate the level of preparedness. 
“Whatever happens,” he said on Wednesday, “we’re totally prepared.”

In fact, the US government is completely unprepared for a major 
outbreak. There is no system in place to even systematically test for 
the virus. The individual in California who has been identified as the 
first reported case of unknown origin in the US was not given a test for 
days after symptoms were first expressed.

There is a severe shortage of the most basic health equipment, including 
respirator masks needed by health care workers. The government only has 
about 30 million on hand, while it is estimated that 300 million may be 
required.

The Trump administration has appointed Vice President Mike Pence, whose 
inaction and reactionary religious ideology contributed to an HIV 
outbreak in the state of Indiana when he was governor, as the 
government’s point person for the coronavirus response. The main purpose 
of this appointment is to muzzle any officials whose warnings contradict 
the response of the administration.

The working class must demand and fight for comprehensive and urgent 
emergency measures. The crisis demands:

1. A global mobilization

The response to the coronavirus cannot be coordinated on a nation by 
nation level. The virus does not respect borders or visa and immigration 
restrictions. The global networks of transportation and economic 
integration have turned the virus into a global problem.

The solution must be global. Scientists from all over the world must be 
allowed to share their research and technology, unencumbered by the 
“national interests” and geopolitical conflicts that serve only to delay 
the development of effective countermeasures to contain, cure and 
ultimately eradicate the coronavirus. All trade war measures and 
economic sanctions, such as those imposed on Iran, must be immediately 
lifted. No human being should be denied urgently needed medical 
treatment on account of their national or ethnic origins.

Urgent attention must be directed to the millions of people who are 
being housed in immigrant and refugee camps set up by the major 
capitalist powers in Europe and the United States. These camps will be 
major danger areas for the spread of the virus. All those currently in 
such camps must be given secure housing and access to health care.

Where quarantines must be implemented for those traveling or infected, 
it must be done in a way that respects democratic rights and preserves 
personal dignity.

2. A massive allocation of resources for health care and treatment

Hundreds of billions of dollars must be immediately allocated to ensure 
universal access to the highest-quality medical care for all those 
infected with the virus. An international team of health care experts 
and scientists must be assembled to coordinate care wherever there are 
outbreaks.

The political establishment in the United States is engaged in a 
“debate” over whether $2 billion is adequate (the position of the White 
House) or $8 billion is required (the position of the Democrats). Both 
these figures represent a drop in the bucket compared to the scale of 
the global crisis.

The Trump administration has spent five times more on its reactionary 
wall on the US-Mexico border ($11 billion) than it proposes to allocate 
to the coronavirus. Some $3 billion is spent every day on financing the 
US war machine.

The provisioning of health care and treatment cannot be regulated by the 
insurance, pharmaceutical and health care companies. Treatment, 
including any future vaccine, must be available to everyone, free of 
charge, on an equal basis.

The giant health care companies must be turned into public utilities, 
democratically controlled to meet the urgent social need presented by 
the coronavirus and other health emergencies.

3. Direct financial support and income compensation for all those 
impacted by the economic consequences

Millions of workers face reductions in hours or the loss of their jobs 
due to the immediate impact of the coronavirus and its broader economic 
consequences. They must be compensated in full for their losses.

Governments and the capitalist elites will argue that there is no money 
to finance such an emergency response. This is a lie! The amount spent 
by the capitalist governments on military expenditures runs into the 
trillions of dollars. The annual military budget of the United States 
alone is more than one trillion dollars. Moreover, the major capitalist 
governments, led by the US Federal Reserve, have allocated virtually 
unlimited sums of money to drive up the market value of equities. Within 
weeks of the 2008 crash, the US government doubled the national debt 
overnight to provide liquidity for the stock market and bail of corrupt 
investors.

Moreover, staggering sums of money are controlled by an infinitesimal 
percentage of the world’s population. The wealth of the world’s 500 
richest people stands at nearly $6 trillion, following an increase of 
$1.2 trillion last year alone. The working class must demand that 
governments impose emergency taxes on the fortunes of the oligarchs to 
the extent required by the emergency.

In demanding that capitalist governments implement these emergency 
measures, the international working class does not abandon its 
fundamental aim: the ending of the capitalist system. Rather, the fight 
for emergency action will raise the consciousness of the working class, 
develop its understanding of the need for international class 
solidarity, and increase its political self-confidence.

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