The class issues in the coronavirus pandemic

[wsws.org]

{As for testing, workers are finding out that even if they have the symptoms of COVID-19—fever, dry cough, difficulty breathing—they cannot get a test.

The coronavirus, which continues its spread throughout the world, does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, nationality or sexual orientation. However, the one factor that is undoubtedly key in avoiding infection and improving the chance of survival is wealth.

This class reality finds expression in innumerable ways. On Friday, the New York Times published an article, “Location Data Says it All: Staying at Home During a Coronavirus is a Luxury,” which documents the fact that the wealthy in the US, now a center of the pandemic, have been able to observe “social distancing” measures much more easily than the poor.

“Although people in all income groups are moving less than they did before the crisis,” the Times notes, “wealthier people are staying home the most, especially during the workweek. Not only that, but in nearly every state, they began doing so days before the poor, giving them a head start on social distancing as the virus spread, according to aggregated data from the location analysis company Cuebiq, which tracks about 15 million cellphone users nationwide daily. “

In many major metropolitan areas, the top ten percent has reduced its movement effectively to zero. For the bottom ten percent, however, it approaches zero on the weekends before spiking back up during the work week. Many low-wage workers have been forced to keep working, under unsanitary conditions and without adequate protection.}

We are expendable. What will it take? From here and now on we should all learn that this is now a very personal matter. We should from this point realize that any remaining compliance to remain ignorant and blissful towards what this virus is exposing to us as to the nature of politics and the ruling class should no longer be acceptable by anyone around us. It's time to make this personal! It's time to call out the main stream media and point out when you recognize their collaboration to our friends, family, and on up the line. Voice you dissent! Squeak we must!