June 1, 2020
by Ellen Cardone Banks
Pre-Existing Conditions
US Health and Human Services Secretary Azar was asked to comment on the disproportional incidence of Covid-19 among African-American, Latinx and Indigenous people. He replied that many of “them” had pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension. Later, asked if he was blaming them — he indignantly said “of course not” and denounced the reporter for making such a mean suggestion. The important pre-existing condition here is the administration that has been trying to take health care away from millions of Americans. Conditions that could be prevented or controlled early spiral into life-threatening illnesses.
Carbon emissions and black carbon (microparticles from combustion) in the atmosphere are long-known factors in asthma and other respiratory diseases. The pandemic disproportionately affects people living near gas and coal power plants, predominantly people of color and low income, who breathe this polluted air. The Trump administration has attempted to stifle renewable energy and to roll back the protections of the Clean Air Act while continuing to dole out millions to support fossil fuels, making it a pre-existing condition.
The pandemic has sharply revealed how broken the factory farm system is. Pigs, cattle, chickens, milk, eggs and vegetables are being destroyed when their growth and production no longer fit factory equipment, packaging and scheduling. Meanwhile, increasing numbers of people face hunger. Meat-packing and other food-processing factories are major sources of Covid-19 infection and deaths of workers, with few or no penalties for these corporations. Moreover, this administration has tried to roll back nutrition standards for school children. Our chemical-laden, inhumane, long-distance and nutritionally inadequate food supply is a pre-existing condition.
My generation, the post WWII boomers, were taught to respect science. It was a major factor in America’s postwar dominance. Everyday people knew the names of scientists. At seven, I was a Polio Pioneer for the first nationwide clinical trial: the Salk polio vaccine in the face of an epidemic that paralyzed our peers and closed playgrounds, pools and movie theaters. No one picketed the armory where we proudly and bravely lined up to get our shots.
Reverence for science was a mixed blessing, bringing us nuclear power and weapons, chemical-laden processed food, and unimaginable quantities of petroleum-based plastic and polyester. But science in its essence is self-correcting and has shown us the harms of these things and how to go forward in cleaner and healthier ways. The Trump administration is an enemy of science, destroying environmental protections, firing scientists, cutting research grants and shutting down research in many agencies, even the US Agriculture Department. Now it is dismissing and disrespecting epidemiologists who might help solve the pandemic, and encouraging the public to follow fads and authority figures, rather than data. This administration’s enmity to science is a pre-existing condition.
What do we do about this toxic syndrome of pre-existing conditions? Don’t wait for November! Join the Sierra Club 2020 Plan to Win!