Action on Covid-19

Almost all countries with more-or-less reliable statistics now show a falling or stable Covid death-rate. But Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, Austria, Australia and others show “excess” deaths in late 2022 greatly above numbers attributable to Covid. In Britain, cumulative NHS cuts will have played a big part; but there are probably other factors, common to this range of countries: a “backlog” of medical issues neglected during lockdowns, and a revival of older infectious diseases suppressed during lockdowns. Lockdowns did slow the Covid surge at critical points, but with a cost. We need measures sustaining health across the board:

• a sustained public-health testing-and-surveillance system

• good sick pay for all

• restore NHS funding and repeal privatisation

• requisition private hospitals to augment NHS resources

• bringing social care into the public sector with NHS-level pay and conditions for staff

• specialist public clinics for post-Covid conditions, more research, and recognition of the conditions as a “disability”

• workers’ control of workplace safety (especially ventilation)

• requisition Big Pharma, especially its patents and technical know-how, to speed vaccine production and delivery world-wide.