COVID-19 Crisis Memory Bank

So much went wrong with the COVID-19 crisis response. So many decisions were made years and decades earlier that made it far worse than it should have been. This page to keep track of what went wrong so we can be sure to remember and learn from the decisions that killed so many and left so many unemployed and destitute.

How we got here

Decades of bad decisions

• Moving Our Pharmaceutical Factories Overseas Was A Huge Mistake
• Decades of Hospital Closures Led to This Disaster
• Doctorow on scams, CDOs and PE firms & Private equity looting public health in a pandemic
• The Tea Party killed pandemic preparedness
• Trump admits voter suppression
• Monopolists stole your respirator

IP for the fail

• Hospitals Need to Repair Ventilators. Manufacturers Are Making That Impossible
• Will Big Pharma Fleece Us On A COVID Treatment That We Helped Fund?

The Failed Response

• Trump Administration Uses Wartime Powers To Be First In Line On Medical Supplies
• Using the private market to distribute pandemic supplies
• Food Shortages? Nope, Too Much Food In The Wrong Places
• Why Private Equity Is Cutting Doctor Pay and Organizing Our Pandemic Response
• Trump FDA Grants Drug Company Exclusive Claim on Promising Coronavirus Drug
• Hospitals say feds are seizing masks and other coronavirus supplies without a word
• PPE and Ventilators Becomes Patronage in Trump’s Hands
• More on the PPE Seizures
• Why Britain’s Coronavirus Strategy is Literally One of the Most Insane Things in Modern History
• How Kushner's volunteer force led a fumbling hunt for medical supplies
• In the early days of the pandemic, the U.S. government turned down an offer to manufacture millions of N95 masks in America
• The Trump administration quietly spent billions in hospital funds on Operation Warp Speed
• Trump administration's delayed use of 1950s law leads to critical supplies shortages

The Corporate Bailout

• Corporate welfare vs food stamps
• Stop the $6 Trillion Coronavirus Corporate Coup!
• 80% of the tax cut in the bailout "went to just 43,000 taxpayers each earning over $1 million a year
• Denmark said that companies which pay out dividends, buy back own shares or are registered in tax havens won’t be eligible for any of the aid programs

Profit Uber Alles

• Leaked Amazon Memo Details Plan to Smear Fired Warehouse Organizer: ‘He’s Not Smart or Articulate’
• Private equity titan squats on empty hospital
• Alteon cuts covid-fighters' pay
• American employment exceptionalism
• In Desperation, New York State Pays Up to 15 Times the Normal Prices for Medical Equipment
• U.S. companies criticized for cutting jobs rather than investor payouts

Surveillance

• DOJ seeks new emergency powers amid coronavirus pandemic
• Naborly asks landlords to report if tenants are “delinquent” on April rent, to build a profile on them
• Problems with Pepp-Pt Contract Tracing App Concept
• Apple/Google Privacy-Preserving Contact Tracing

Death Cult

• Conservative group linked to DeVos family organizes protest of coronavirus restrictions in Michigan
• Reopen domain research

The Effects

On People

• Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases Stats
• Rich sheltered, poor shafted amid virus
• Location Data Says It All: Staying at Home During Coronavirus Is a Luxury
• In Chicago, 70% of COVID-19 Deaths Are Black
• Social Distancing, Internet Access and Inequality
• Global coronavirus death toll could be 60% higher than reported

On the US empire

• Washington’s reputation for expertise has been one of the greatest sources of its power. The coronavirus pandemic may end it for good.

What worked

• A German Exception? Why the Country’s Coronavirus Death Rate Is Low

What to fix

• Unavailable (677-1424-2-PB.pdf)
• How To Structure the Coronavirus Bailout