Thread by @ASlavitt

COVID Update June 29: The view that the economy is more important than people’s lives underlies Trump’s every action.

Further it’s what site behind much of the COVID-deniers implicit argument. 1/

All of the “COVID’s not that bad”, “COVID’s just the flu” & “COVID’s just panic porn” is all compared to what.

The implication is that the cost of trying to combat COVID is just way too high. 2/

The complete but temporary cost of managing COVID?

A 99 cent mask
A lot of testing
Contact tracing workforce
Avoiding bars, indoor restaurants & arenas
Paid family leave
Unemployment ins
Symptom checks in airports
Health care for all

Affordable. Very affordable. 3/

What would paying that cost allow?

Most of the economy to be open
including schools

Oh, and it would save lives and reduce hospitalizations. And save our doctors & nurses. 4/

All around the world (Singapore, Vietnam, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, China, Germany, Italy, Czech Repunlic, Greece) have shown a simple thing— manage the pandemic and you can get back to near normal. 5/

As Trump waits for the stock market to believe him that the virus has been defeated here too, he and Pence find new ways to complain about the “cost” of the treatment being worse then the cure. 6/

Pence yesterday shrouded his focus on the cost in fake concern for people’s mental health, suicide & drug addiction. 7/

How do I know it’s “fake concern?” Because mental health is always the GOP head fake.

School shooting: It’s not the guns, it’s mental health.

Can’t open the economy: mental health.

Great! So let’s fund mental health???

Um, no. 8/

Want to guarantee the right to be covered with a mental health issue proscribed in the ACA?

Repeal it.

Fund Medicaid; the biggest provider of mental health.

No. 9/

But want to persuade the country that you’re not an animal for valuing $$ over people’s lives?

It’s because you care about mental healthy. 10/

Are people stressed and feeling anxious because of the pandemic? Of course.

Stressed because their boss is making them work unsafely.
Stressed because people aren’t wearing masks & they have a kid at home.
Stressed because we have an economy that left ppl with no savings. 11/

Pandemics are stressful. 12/

Want to help that?

-Pass paid family leave
-Don’t play poker with renewing unemployment benefits
-Don’t repeal people’s access to health care & Medicaid, the biggest provider of mental health services

That will go a long way for mental health. 13/

And, fund mental health. 14/

Also— don’t lie to people. People don’t like it.

People would rather adjust to a challenging truth than listen to White House bullshit they don’t believe. 15/

30 million people are out of work. More each week. What’s going to get that to stop? There’s only a few things that power our economy & drive hiring.

-Consumer spending & confidence
-Business spending
-Exports/trade
-Government spending 16/

Big purchases— airline travel, hotel stays, cars, signing leases, buying equipment— will not happen in a pandemic that’s out of control.

If people don’t feel safe, see people dying & don’t know that cases will be contained, we will continue to have a 70% economy. 17/

Taking a short cut doesn’t work with a virus. But if you’re unwilling to do the work to make people safe, you have to argue that the price of that safety is too high. 18/

Too high a price to save old people. To high for the Black & Brown community. Too high for people with chronic conditions. Too high for kids in detention.

Too high when a stock market won’t help a president catch a reelection break. 19/

The question of who we’re asking to die and whose doing the asking is one I explored with @BetoORourke & recorded here. 20/

Smarturl.it/inthebubble

Time for the media to make the cost of human life better understood.

Time for the media to push our government every waking hour to answer for every life they discount.

Time for every mental health lie to be called out & for people to be supported the duration of a pandemic.21/

The difference between the US and the rest of the world’s response to the pandemic is that while no one has responded perfectly, ours is the only government that has discounted human lives. /end