[D66] Europe’s coronavirus death toll passes 10,000

[Antid Oto]

"
Workers throughout Europe must demand a programme directly opposed to 
that of the corporations and the governments that act on their behalf. 
They must reject this unprecedented bleeding dry of the public purse for 
the purpose of funding big business and the bankers. These entities must 
be taken under public control and run by the working class in the 
interests of society.

In a statement Monday, “The spread of the pandemic and the lessons of 
the past week,” the WSWS proposed the measures necessary for workers to 
take forward the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic: “The working class 
must demand universal testing and free and equal access to health care; 
the closure of all nonessential production, with full income to those 
affected; safe working conditions in industries essential to the 
functioning of society; and an emergency program to build health care 
infrastructure and ensure that all medical workers have access to the 
necessary equipment.”

wsws.org:

Europe’s coronavirus death toll passes 10,000
By Robert Stevens
24 March 2020

More than 10,000 people have been killed by coronavirus across the 
European continent. The gruesome milestone has been reached just five 
weeks after the first death was recorded on the continent, in France, on 
February 15.

With yesterday’s 1,414 new deaths, the total for the entire continent 
reached 10,220 deaths from 192,663 cases. Among the European Union’s 27 
countries, 9,720 deaths have been recorded from 172,407 cases.
Members of Military Emergency Unit arrive at Abando train station, in 
Bilbao, northern Spain, Monday, March 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

In Italy, 601 new fatalities brought the total to 6,077 deaths. Almost 
5,000 new cases of the virus were reported. Many more lives are 
threatened even before these new cases, with 50, 418 active cases and 
3,204 classed as “serious, critical.” All told 63,927 people have been 
infected in Italy.

In Spain, the death toll reached 2,206, with 434 new deaths reported, up 
from 391 the previous day. There were 4,321 new cases making for a total 
of 27,528 active cases. Some 2,355 are classed as serious, critical.

The inability of health and social care services across Europe to cope 
with the destructive impact of the virus—after decades of being 
underfunded, privatised and de-staffed—saw soldiers, who were drafted in 
to provide disinfecting and run residential homes in Spain, find elderly 
people dead in their beds, abandoned to their fate with the country 
under a strict lockdown.

In France, there were 186 new deaths, an increase over the previous 
day’s 112, bringing the total to 860. The deaths included another two 
medics, one a GP and the other a gynaecologist. There are over 13,000 
active cases in the country, 8,675 people in hospital and 2,082 people 
in critical condition.

A further 34 people perished in the Netherlands, bringing the total to 
213, and 24 people died in Germany, bringing fatalities to 118.

In the UK, after it was announced that 54 more people had died, and 335 
in total, Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a lockdown 
of the country Monday evening. People can only leave their homes for 
“very limited purposes” including “shopping for basic necessities, as 
infrequently as possible” and “one form of exercise a day.” Only two 
people can be together, unless they live in the same household. Police 
can enforce the lockdown, “including through fines and dispersing 
gatherings,” said Johnson.

The Foreign Office advised the up to 1 million Britons on holiday or on 
business trips abroad to return to the UK immediately. They warned that 
otherwise there would likely be no more commercial flights available 
with air routes likely shutting without warning over Tuesday and Wednesday.

Johnson’s government has refused to take a number of critical measures 
to stop the spread of the virus. Its original plan, before being forced 
to retreat, was to allow the mass infection of the population supposedly 
in order to achieve “herd immunity.” The government still advises all 
who suspect they have the virus not to seek treatment in hospital, but 
to “self-isolate” at home—without being tested.

More evidence is emerging that those who are contracting the virus and 
in some cases dying are from many age ranges, including younger, fitter 
people, from a baby who was born with the virus to a group of three 
30-year-old junior doctors in the same UK hospital who were diagnosed 
Sunday and required ventilators.

In response, the ruling elite is putting into operation draconian 
attacks on civil liberties that set a dangerous precedent, while 
providing no real medical assistance.

Yesterday, the Johnson government was able to pass all stages, in the 
House of Commons, of the Emergency Coronavirus Bill, under which he and 
his ministers are granted extraordinary authoritarian powers, including 
banning any assembly of people, at any time and place.

This week, Hungary’s parliament will hear a bill under which far-right 
prime minister Viktor Orbán is set to receive dictatorial powers 
enabling him to rule by decree. The powers provide no defined cut-off 
date and include imprisoning those deemed to be spreading “fake news” 
for prison terms of up to five years.

No government in Europe or internationally is carrying out the mass 
testing required to successfully quarantine and then treat those 
infected, who may not be showing symptoms, but who are still spreading 
COVID-19. Even front-line medical staff are not being tested. Due to 
health service cuts, there is hopelessly inadequate provision of basic 
medical facilities, including ventilators and personal protective 
equipment (PPE) for staff.

In contrast the banks, corporations and super-rich are being granted 
bailouts that eclipse those granted to the bankers and financial 
institutions after the 2008 global financial crash. In recent days, 
Germany, France, Britain and Spain have announced massive subventions to 
big business, under conditions in which millions of workers have already 
been laid off, with only those in essential services now employed in 
most European countries.

Well over a trillion euros have been made available in a matter of days 
to prop up the financial aristocracy and corporate billionaires. 
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has made available a package worth 
around €750 billion to protect Germany’s banks and major corporations. 
Emmanuel Macron’s French government committed €300 billion and Johnson’s 
Chancellor Rishi Sunak £350 billion.

Spain’s Socialist Party prime minister Pedro Sánchez has committed $219 
billion to the corporations, including €100 billion of guarantees for 
company loans. A further €17 billion of direct support for enterprises 
is available and €83 billion is reportedly being reserved for private 
sector investment.

These represent a gigantic raid on the public purse for the second time 
in a decade. Germany’s bailout is the equivalent of 20.5 percent of GDP, 
Spain’s 15.6 percent, the UK’s 15 percent.

These bailouts followed the lead of the European Central Bank, which 
last week announced a €750 billion new money-printing programme aimed at 
keeping financial markets afloat. The ECB is committed to buying 
government debt and private securities with the new funds by the end of 
this year.

These vast sums are just a down payment, with government officials in 
treasuries in the main European counties stressing that there will be 
“unlimited” funds available. This was confirmed yesterday as Johnson’s 
government agreed to nationalise the losses of every private rail 
franchise in Britain for the next six months initially. This transfers 
all revenue and cost risk to the government but leaves private firms 
able to still reap profits and to be paid a management fee under an 
“emergency measures agreement.”

Workers throughout Europe must demand a programme directly opposed to 
that of the corporations and the governments that act on their behalf. 
They must reject this unprecedented bleeding dry of the public purse for 
the purpose of funding big business and the bankers. These entities must 
be taken under public control and run by the working class in the 
interests of society.

In a statement Monday, “The spread of the pandemic and the lessons of 
the past week,” the WSWS proposed the measures necessary for workers to 
take forward the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic: “The working class 
must demand universal testing and free and equal access to health care; 
the closure of all nonessential production, with full income to those 
affected; safe working conditions in industries essential to the 
functioning of society; and an emergency program to build health care 
infrastructure and ensure that all medical workers have access to the 
necessary equipment.”