America’s for profit, patchwork healthcare system produced a patchwork COVID-19 response after President Trump told governors thet were basically on their own. Trump was simply too lazy to act nationally. Tonight NBC and CBS report that it’s been over two months since Dr. Fauci has briefed President Trump, so it’s a safe assumption that Mr Trump lost interest in fighting the pandemic in early May.
So the COVID-19 response Americans experienced varied by location, and varied more profoundly by income. Here healthcare is still treated like a privilege, excluding millions of poor Americans who fall through the voids in the patchwork, and end up in a hospital fighting for their lives.
Birx: Largest percentage of Inpatient COVID-19 cases have income of less than $25,000
White House coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx on Friday said that the largest percentage of those COVID-19 patients who are admitted to a hospital make less than $25,000 a year.
Citing data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Birx noted that 28 percent of inpatient COVID-19 cases are people who make less than $25,000 a year, making up by far the highest share of patients per income bracket.
Those making $49,000-$25,000 made up the second-highest share of inpatient cases at 19 percent.
Ominous news, particularly for the Sunbelt.
There were 71,787 new cases of COVID-19 today.
Canada with it’s single payer healthcare system has done a far better job.
A Tale of two Countries: How the US and Canada handled the COVID-19 Pandemic