Thread by @kendrainmontana

I don't think anyone outside the US realizes just how bad our country's COVID response has been. You've seen our horrific death rates. But these are just the tip of a very brutal, very deep iceberg. /1

The US doesn't have universal healthcare or childcare and most of us are not in unions. The federal minimum wage has been frozen at $7.25/hour for 12 years. Approx. 1 in 6 kids lived in poverty BEFORE the pandemic. It's only gotten worse. /2

cbsnews.com/news/child-hun…

In the US there is little support for raising kids under 5 aside from a minimal tax deduction. Childcare costs major $$. Healthcare for a family of 4 on the open market runs $1,200/month with a $13,000 deductible. Get pregnant? It can *easily* cost your family $25,000+. /3

Our middle class has been shrinking basically my whole life. Rising healthcare & childcare costs coupled with fixed wages and union-busting legislation has pushed more and more families into poverty. This was already the US baseline. Then COVID hit. /4

pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020…

While other countries responded with direct payments, ours has been extremely stingy. We got $1,200 back in May and $600 in December. Again, we don't have universal healthcare or childcare. B/c of this, most of us could not quit working even for our own safety. /5

Meanwhile, many of our politicians were going around saying COVID was a hoax and anyone who wore a mask was a nonsense-anti-patriot. So masks were *actively* boycotted. Churches continued to host giant gatherings. People relished flouting rules.

COVID spread like wildfire. /6

While local and state governments scrambled to control the spread, the federal government offered little assistance. For example, Billings, MT received some back-pay for public safety workers (welcome!), but no direct $$ for hand-washing stations, masks, or mitigation. /7

Our schools were also hit hard. ALREADY underfunded, the pandemic is slowly breaking the backs of America's teachers. In many states (MT included) their pay is peanuts & they just got bumped down the vaccine schedule. I don't know how to make this make sense. /8

The US 2020 response can be best characterized as believing—against all odds—that COVID-19 cares about race, gender, age, and economic status. Since it very clearly doesn't, we as a country have faced a reckoning in the form of bodies. /9