Back to Normal?

Three and a half years ago (April 2020), I wrote an article “What is Normal?” It was the start of the COVID pandemic and people were asking for a return to “normal.” I asked: “Is that what we really want?”

Is it “normal” that tens of millions of Americans have no access to health care? That hundreds of thousands of Americans are homeless? That 11 million children in the U.S. literally do not know where their next meal is coming from?

Is it “normal” that humans are disrupting the climate in a catastrophic manner and that we go about business as usual?

At the start of the pandemic, emergency measures were taken to help the public. To his credit, Trump was willing and able to break the stranglehold of Reaganomics, which had prioritized tax cuts for the rich and budget cuts for the poor for decades.

One of these measures was a Child Tax Credit (CTC) that caused childhood poverty to drop from 9.7% in 2020 to 5.2% in 2021. That is a dramatic 46% drop in serious suffering of children. There were also Economic Impact Payments (EIPs) made to every household, regardless of need.

In the middle of a major economic shutdown due to the pandemic, poverty rates actually fell by the largest amount recorded since 1967.

Biden’s “American Rescue Plan” increased the CTC from $2,000 per child in 2020 to $3,600 for each child under age 6 ($3,000 for older children). This kept poverty rates low for children and their families.

Unfortunately, this assistance is ending, and poverty is rising steeply. The Democrats would like to maintain this assistance, but Republicans are refusing to allow it.

During COVID, my wife and I went to San Francisco for the holidays in 2021. Our usual hotel was unavailable. Because it was being used to house the homeless. We stayed at another hotel nearby. For the first time in my memory, we did not see a single homeless person. But that program ended and now there are more homeless on the street than ever. The only thing worse than being homeless is to be rescued for a while and then dumped back out on the streets.

During COVID, student loan repayments were also put on hold. Those payments are now coming due and young people are feeling despair. Biden had tried to give partial loan forgiveness, but the partisan Republican Supreme Court killed this. Young people just starting out in life are the people most vulnerable to such a financial burden. Conversely, helping these people would be the most powerful investment in their lives and in the overall economy.

Also during COVID, health care was available to a wide range of people who otherwise had no access. Obamacare payments were reduced or eliminated for millions of Americans, including us. COVID medications and testing were free. This is also ending.

COVID also reduced travel, which helped reduce carbon emissions by 5.4% in 2020. People switched to Zoom meetings for conferences and millions of Americans were allowed to work remotely, avoiding wasteful commutes.

As I wrote in 2020, I hoped that these measures would become the new normal. Some of the boards that I am on and some of the conferences that I attend are still meeting via Zoom. But too many went back to the old “normal.” Which is not at all normal for the sustainability of the planet.

Back in 2013, Obama followed the advice of his science advisors and invested $25 million through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to create mRNA vaccines for pandemics in the future.

In 2015, he invested an additional $125 million toward this effort through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). It was this foresight that directly led to the COVID vaccines when they were needed.

Shouldn’t this be the new normal? Big Pharma advertises that it is always investing in new drugs. But this is mostly a lie. Their “investments” are directed at what is profitable, not what is most needed. The last time scientists discovered a novel class of antibiotics that would eventually make it to market was in 1984.

Diseases like malaria kill millions in poor countries, but Pharma sees no profit there. Shouldn’t we be demanding more government investment in the drugs that are needed most? And why should Big Pharma reap windfall profits from drugs that were invented largely with public investment?

As I wrote before: Why don’t we envision and demand a NEW normal?