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This week marks a grim milestone in the Covid-19 pandemic, as the death toll in the U.S. hit 800,000 people. One in 100 older Americans has died from the virus.
Gregg Gonsalves says the Biden’s administration’s attempt to vaccinate our way out of the problem is not working. Gonsalves, a winner of the MacArthur genius award, is associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health and co-directs the Yale Global Health Justice Partnership.
Gonsalves first became involved in public health during the AIDS pandemic when he was a leading member of ACT UP, the AIDS activist group. He sees parallels between the AIDS and Covid pandemics in the way that politics and profiteering have sabotaged public health. He has argued that the Trump administration committed crimes against humanity in its bungling of the early Covid response, especially against vulnerable and marginalized populations. But he is also critical of the Biden administration’s approach.
Gonsalves has also spoken about the backlash against science and public health, including in Vermont, where Gov. Phil Scott and his staff have attacked a prominent public health critic. “There’s been a war on public health. … What politicians have figured out is to point to the other guy and say, oh, it’s their fault. … What this has done is created threats of violence against public health officials who have quit in droves. And it is leading to burnout among health professionals who … just are putting their fingers in dikes as water pours over the edge of the boat. “
Gonsalves is critical but hopeful. “There’s so many people … around the country and, frankly, around the world that are fighting this fight right now. There are there plenty of people like (Florida Gov.) Ron DeSantis and (Texas Gov.) Greg Abbott who preach the gospel of selfishness. But there’s really incredibly generous, community-minded, civic-minded people in our country who really want us to get to the other side of this. And those are the people who give me hope.”
