How long, really, can this go on?

Recession

There is a new blog post entitled, “The worst of times and the worst of humanity.”

Dylan Matthews, “Coronavirus could lead to the highest unemployment levels since the Great Depression,” Vox, April 1, 2020, https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/4/1/21201700/coronavirus-covid-19-unemployment-rate

Heather Long, “Over 10 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits in March as economy collapsed,” Washington Post, April 2, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/02/jobless-march-coronavirus/

Kara Seymour, “PA Unemployment Explodes, 1M File For Benefits Amid Coronavirus,” Patch, April 2, 2020, https://patch.com/pennsylvania/baldwin-whitehall/s/h2ig9/pa-unemployment-explodes-1m-file-for-benefits-amid-coronavirus


Pandemic

It’s the neoliberal mantra: Workers must be treated as expendable and as infinitely replaceable. They cannot be allowed to matter. They are mere means to rich people’s ends.

We’re seeing that even with medical workers even in a pandemic as hospitals resist workers compensation claims for COVID-19 exposure on their jobs and pretend that they are keeping their workers and patients safe.[1] So it’s little surprise when “essential” workers at the bottom end of the economy are treated this way.[2]

Meanwhile, there is a rather large problem with reliability even with the tests for coronavirus we have now,[3] let alone those yet to be developed,[4] that means a large proportion, probably something like 30 percent, of people are being told they don’t have COVID-19 when, in fact, they do.[5] This is easily a high enough false-negative rate that I would have to say, unless you have symptoms or a very good reason to believe you have been exposed (probably better even than I have as a Lyft and Uber driver in an area with a large number of infections[6]), you should not seek out testing. And even then, you should not trust a negative result. This completely undermines any hope soon of “reopening the U.S.” by dividing the country between those people who have been exposed and cleared the virus and those who have not.[7]

At the same time, as the economic situation deteriorates,[8] I don’t know how this lockdown can be sustained.

Jason Pohl, Ryan Sabalow, and Dale Kasler, “Medical employees say they’re getting COVID-19 on the job. Here’s why hospitals push back,” Sacramento Bee, April 2, 2020, https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article241692061.html

Christopher Weaver, “Questions About Accuracy of Coronavirus Tests Sow Worry,” Wall Street Journal, April 2, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/questions-about-accuracy-of-coronavirus-tests-sow-worry-11585836001


  1. [1]Jason Pohl, Ryan Sabalow, and Dale Kasler, “Medical employees say they’re getting COVID-19 on the job. Here’s why hospitals push back,” Sacramento Bee, April 2, 2020, https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article241692061.html
  2. [2]Mike Snider, “Work strikes at Amazon, Instacart and Whole Foods show essential workers’ safety concerns,” USA Today, March 30, 2020, https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2020/03/30/coronavirus-safety-drives-strikes-amazon-instacart-and-whole-foods/5086135002/
  3. [3]Christopher Weaver, “Questions About Accuracy of Coronavirus Tests Sow Worry,” Wall Street Journal, April 2, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/questions-about-accuracy-of-coronavirus-tests-sow-worry-11585836001
  4. [4]Carolyn Y. Johnson, “Testing coronavirus survivors’ blood could help reopen U.S.,” Washington Post, March 31, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/31/coronavirus-serology-blood-tests/
  5. [5]Christopher Weaver, “Questions About Accuracy of Coronavirus Tests Sow Worry,” Wall Street Journal, April 2, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/questions-about-accuracy-of-coronavirus-tests-sow-worry-11585836001
  6. [6]Justin Heinze, “12 More Die In Pennsylvania From Coronavirus, 500 New Cases Found,” Patch, March 28, 2020, https://patch.com/pennsylvania/baldwin-whitehall/s/h2bmx/12-more-die-in-pennsylvania-from-coronavirus-500-new-cases-found; Eric Heyl, “Allegheny County Coronavirus Cases Continue To Surge,” Patch, March 27, 2020, https://patch.com/pennsylvania/baldwin-whitehall/s/h2aqu/allegheny-county-coronavirus-cases-continue-to-surge; Eric Heyl, “Allegheny County Coronavirus Cases: Another Large Increase,” Patch, March 28, 2020, https://patch.com/pennsylvania/baldwin-whitehall/s/h2bkm/allegheny-county-coronavirus-cases-another-large-increase
  7. [7]Carolyn Y. Johnson, “Testing coronavirus survivors’ blood could help reopen U.S.,” Washington Post, March 31, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/31/coronavirus-serology-blood-tests/
  8. [8]Heather Long, “Over 10 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits in March as economy collapsed,” Washington Post, April 2, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/02/jobless-march-coronavirus/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.