The United States makes up 4% of the world’s population. That’s just 1 out of every 25 people on Earth.

But the United States accounts for 1 out of every 4 reported cases of coronavirus on the entire planet.

What the hell are we doing?

People are dying by the tens of thousands — and our economy is collapsing around us — as a direct result of the denialism and willful ineptitude of Donald Trump.

At the end of this month, Congress is going to take one more crack at addressing the health and economic devastation wrought by the pandemic.

Congress must step up and take action to:

• Expand Medicare and other government programs so that every American has health coverage throughout the duration of this pandemic.

• Make sure that when a safe and effective vaccine is developed, it is available to everyone on earth — with no outrageous, immoral price gouging by Big Pharma.

• Extend federal unemployment benefits and keep sending stimulus checks so that people can afford to stay home and limit the spread of the virus.

• Prevent Big Business from exploiting the crisis to further enrich executives or to roll back even more of the regulations that protect us from their corner cutting or to insulate themselves from lawsuits when their myopic quest for profits harms people.

• Enhance oversight of the bailout funds going out the door to prop up companies during this moment of economic crisis.

• Direct adoption of a workplace safety standard to protect against the coronavirus.

• Create and fund a federal-state program to enable widespread coronavirus testing and contact tracing of every person who tests positive.

• Provide $1 trillion or more to states and localities to make up for their lost revenue, including extra money to support school systems to open safely.

• Block evictions and utility shutoffs.

• Rescue the U.S. Postal Service from a financial crisis due in large part to previous poor congressional decisions.

• Provide ongoing support to small businesses crushed by the pandemic.

• Protect our democracy by making early voting and vote-by-mail something that every American can do safely and easily this fall.

That’s a long list, and it’s not all that needs to be done. We need support for housing, nutrition assistance, Native American reservations, services for people with disabilities, and more.

This is an ambitious, far-reaching agenda, which is exactly what the times demand.

Can we afford it?

The answer is yes. But that’s the wrong question.

Can we afford not to do all of this?

The answer is no.

If we fail to act now, tens of thousands — or possibly many more — will die needlessly.

If we fail to act now, we face the prospect of a global vaccine apartheid.

If we fail to act now, the cost to the economy will be far greater than the expenditures now — with long-term, painful consequences for families and communities.

We only have a few weeks to build the support we need to win this agenda.

During that time, we’re going to focus on many of these priorities and give you more details.

Right now — not next week, not tomorrow — we need to start building the momentum to win these policies.

Tell Congress:

Take action to ensure our country gets through the coronavirus emergency without any more preventable deaths and without making the economic fallout even worse.

Add your name.

Thanks for taking action.

In unity,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen

P.S. Public Citizen — like many nonprofits and other small businesses — is feeling the financial strain of the coronavirus emergency. If you can, please consider donating to support the critical work we’re doing together. Thank you.
 
 
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