[D66] Over 300,000 coronavirus deaths in Europe: Capitalism’s crime against humanity

[R.O.]

wsws.org:

Over 300,000 coronavirus deaths in Europe: Capitalism’s crime against 
humanity
Will Morrow
32 minutes ago

This week, as the coronavirus continued to surge out of control, Europe 
marked the grim milestone of more than 300,000 COVID-19 deaths.

Virtually every European country now faces a resurgence of the virus 
that threatens once again to overwhelm healthcare systems and kill 
hundreds of thousands. In Italy, the country first hardest hit when the 
virus reached the continent, identical scenes to those that occurred 
just eight months ago are playing out. Yesterday, another 636 people 
died, up from 623 the day before and the highest number since April. The 
total number of infections in the country surpassed one million on 
Tuesday, and the total number of dead is now 43,589.

The country’s hospital system is on the verge of collapse. By Wednesday, 
coronavirus patients made up more than 50 percent of patients in nine 
out of 21 provinces, and had reached 75 percent in Lombardy, 92 percent 
in Piedmont and 99 percent in South Tyrol. Ambulances are queuing up 
outside hospitals across the country due to a lack of available beds.

Unlike during the first wave, when the pandemic was largely confined to 
the north, the virus has already overwhelmed a number of regions in the 
poorer south. In Naples, a 78-year-old woman waited for 26 hours in an 
ambulance before being admitted to a hospital this week. A video was 
widely shared online reportedly showing a patient lying dead in a 
bathroom of a hospital ward. Over the weekend, nurses at Naples’ Catugno 
hospital provided oxygen treatment to patients sitting in their cars.

“We are very close to not keeping up. I cannot say when we will reach 
the limit, but that day is not far off,” Dr Luca Cabrini, who runs the 
intensive care ward at Varese’s Circolo Hospital, told the Associated 
Press. Leoluca Orlando, the mayor of Palermo, warned that his city and 
the rest of Sicily were at risk of an “announced massacre.”

In France, 425 people have died in the last 24 hours. More than 10,000 
have died since the start of October, and 42,960 since the beginning of 
the pandemic. The 551 deaths on Monday were the most in a single day 
since the peak of 613 on April 6. In the Île-de-France region around 
Paris, more than 90 percent of urgent care beds are occupied. In 
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the number of occupied emergency beds has reached 
146 percent of official capacity, with patients now being transferred to 
other hospitals.

The UK saw another 525 deaths on Wednesday. The official death toll 
maintained by the government is now over 50,000. The true figure is tens 
of thousands higher. The British Office of National Statistics had 
estimated at least 61,000 deaths as of the end of October.

In Spain, there have been more than 1.4 million confirmed cases of the 
virus, and over 40,000 officially recorded deaths, with 356 reported in 
the past 24 hours. A study published this week in the open-access 
journal PLOS ONE reported that the average life expectancy at birth 
dropped by 0.9 years in Spain from 2019-2020 due to the pandemic. In 
three regions—Asturias, Murcia and Andalusia—the daily death toll has 
surpassed the peak of April.

In Germany, which has long been praised by the bourgeois media as a role 
model in handling the crisis, the situation is increasingly getting out 
of control. As a result of the opening policy, schools have become 
breeding grounds for the virus. Currently more than 300,000 students and 
around 30,000 teachers are in quarantine and the numbers of daily 
infections (21,866 on Thursday) and intensive care cases (3,186) is 
higher than ever in spring. Over 1,800 patients are on ventilators 
struggling for their lives. In some cities and regions no free intensive 
care beds are left and the death toll is rising.

In many smaller countries, the death toll as a portion of the total 
population is among the highest internationally. In Switzerland, one of 
the wealthiest countries in Europe with a population of around 8.6 
million people, 94 people died in the past 24 hours. In a country the 
size of the United States, this would equate to more than 3,000 deaths 
in a day.

How has this situation been allowed to occur, just eight months after 
the first peak of the virus on the continent? The first lockdowns took 
place in March, after wildcat strikes that erupted in Italy and Spain 
forced governments to take action to stem the spread of the virus, for 
fear of a popular revolt at their indifference at the death of thousands.

The European ruling class then deliberately pursued a policy, knowing it 
would lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths. These deaths are not 
inevitable. They amount to a crime against humanity perpetrated by the 
capitalist class and its political representatives.

The European Union used the opportunity provided by the lockdowns to 
push through two trillion euros in corporate bailouts. While lockdown 
measures massively cut the spread of the virus, the ruling elite 
concluded that a confinement stopping production and cutting corporate 
profits was unacceptable, no matter the number of deaths. Across Europe 
and in the US, governments prematurely reopened nonessential workplaces, 
herding tens of millions back to work to produce a continued flow of 
profits. This ensured the continued spread of the virus.

Already in July, the World Health Organization warned that the 
resurgence of the virus could be seen across Europe. However, nothing 
was done.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex expressed most clearly the standpoint 
of the ruling elite, declaring that same month that a lockdown “stops 
the spread of the pandemic, of course, but from an economic and social 
standpoint, it’s a disaster.”

At the beginning of October, as medical authorities warned publicly of 
an approaching collapse of the health care system, governments enacted 
partial lockdowns, but kept nonessential businesses open. Schools are 
also open; the public education system is used as a child-minding 
service, with anywhere up to 35 students crammed into classrooms, so 
parents can be forced to remain at work.

This week, the Italian doctors association publicly demanded a full 
lockdown across Italy. However, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte replied to 
La Stampa on Wednesday that “a generalised lockdown shouldn’t be the 
first choice—the costs would be too high.”

In other words, while a lockdown could save an untold number of lives, 
the “costs”—i.e., the impact on the profits of the corporate elite—are 
unacceptable. As far as the ruling elite is concerned, if the old and 
infirm die, and allow for further cuts to pensions and healthcare, that 
is to be regarded as a positive good.

The response to the pandemic cannot be left in the hands of the 
capitalist class. Against its policy of profits and death, the working 
class must intervene to fight for a scientific response to the crisis. 
The Socialist Equality Parties call for the formation of rank-and-file 
safety committees in every school and workplace across Europe, 
independent of the trade unions, which have helped implement government 
reopening policies in every country. These committees would provide the 
means to organize a Europewide general strike, to compel the closure of 
schools and nonessential production, and allow workers to shelter at home.

Massive resources must be invested to provide a high standard of living 
to everyone throughout the pandemic, including the resources required to 
maintain online learning for students. The claim that there is “no 
money” for such measures is a patent lie. Trillions of euros have been 
handed to the banks and corporations in bailouts since the beginning of 
the pandemic. The resources exist, but they are monopolized by a 
corporate and financial oligarchy.

The fortunes of the rich must be expropriated, and the major 
corporations transformed into public utilities, democratically 
controlled by the working class as part of the socialist reorganization 
of economic life on the basis of social need, not private profit. This 
means the struggle of the working class across Europe to take political 
power and build the United Socialist States of Europe.