Kerala Leads the Way in India

Bernard's presidential challenge was doomed when years ago he audaciously praised the great demon, Fidel Castro, for his regime's social equity advances.  US Person wishes to point out the achievements of another communist-led state in fighting the corona virus pandemic.  The Indian state of Kerala is governed by the "Left Front", [map] a coalition led by the Communist Party of India since the 1950's.  Its first corona virus case was detected in January; since then Kerala has made impressive progress controlling the pandemic.

Many Kerala residents travel and study abroad, a circumstance that made public health more vulnerable to infections.  Early on, the state engaged in a massive tracking effort using cell phone information and CCTV cameras.  It created a flow chart widely circulated on TV that residents could use to report possible contacts with infected individuals, which filled in the data gaps.  People identified for possible infection were then asked to come in for testing, or remain at home for 28 days depending on the situation.  Also, on April 13th Kerala imposed a "reverse quarantine" in which vulnerable population segments such as the elderly and those with respiratory illness are isolated at home. It has taken other widespread measures such as deploying a 235,000 health worker army to widely distribute PPE and perform testing. The state announced a $2.6 billion economic stimulus package in March.  As a result of these herculean collective efforts, Kerala has one of the highest recovery rates in the world.  Of 497 recorded cases, 383 patients have recovered so far, and only four have died.

Significantly, Kerala has achieved other impressive statistics of social equity.  The state had a 90% literacy rate compared to India's 52.2% by 1990, infant mortality is a fifth of the national average, and life expectancy 10 years greater than the national average. The Kerala Sathra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP), a peoples' science movement, has come out against the use of hypochlorate (bleach) in so-called "sanitizer tunnels" set up by the government. It has conducted a number of useful studies including a household survey on the impact of aerial spraying of endosulfan, a pesticide used on cashew crops.

Would such intensive collective intrusions into privacy and freedom of movement work in the US?  Probably not.  'Mericans are accustomed to great individual liberty and rebel--even brandish firearms, a delusional symbol of liberty that in reality is deeply antisocial--when relatively lax voluntary measures are put into place for a month. But 'Mericans have come to realize, at great loss, that the private sector cannot deliver health care efficiently, or cost effectively when profit is its driving concern. Think Tory Boris Johnson might be thankful for the NHS in Britain?

Medicare for All is not a fiscal pipe dream, it can work in a country that spends more on war than the next five countries in the world. This truth is why the entrenched corporate plutocracy is fighting Medicare for All so ferventl; imense profits are at stake. Making universal health care a reality will take mass engagement in electoral politics beginning at the local and state level, and not just one socialist presidential candidate defeated in a rigged capitalist party system; a future democratic socialist running for president can expect the same treatment Bernie got. Even more fundamental that electoral politics is the radical formation of class consciousness, something only dimly felt by 'Mericans during the crisis. This much is clear: class struggle is glaringly reflected in the world's highest pandemic death toll, claiming most the poor and the dispossessed; rest assured the virus makes no ideological preferences. It is rightly embarrassing when a developing state outperforms the world's richest nation in so vital an undertaking.  US Covid19 Death Toll (est.) 84,000.

Wackydoodle sez: Out of touch, out of mind.