Socialism or Capitalism? Neither One Seems To Work In A Pandemic!

We all know the debate. It was started most recently by the former President and his followers in the fascist wing of the GOP.  Socialism is terrible, the road to communism and State control. Capitalism is wonderful. It encourages competition, individual success and a market driven economy. Or from progressives, Capitalism leaves out those on the bottom and just leads to a smaller and smaller group of people who are in power. Socialism will solve all of our problems, everyone will be treated equally.

Well it turns out that all we need is a pandemic and a mass vaccination program to prove that neither of these systems seem to work. That's right, the Covid vaccine implementation response in the US is pretty clear proof that no one has very many answers to protecting citizens in the US and that should scare the hell out of everyone.

Operation Warp Speed may have been fast in the development of vaccines, partly by eliminating regulatory hoops for FDA approval, but that's about it. Getting shots into arms has been a disaster. Public Health has failed, federal, state and local governments have failed and so has the private sector through a network of pharmacies. In all of these cases, the incompetence relative to information technology is absolutely stunning. People all over our country are chasing their tails, jumping lines, finding out who they know, trying to help parents or grandparents and driving themselves crazy from early morning to late at night, attempting to get that elusive vaccine appointment.

It's a shambles, from approving more eligible categories than the supply can accommodate, to sending mixed messages about where appointments can be made. Yes, it is and it will get better but it never should have happened this way. People should never have been put through the maze and stress that we've seen up until now. Information technology exists that would have allowed people to fill out a form once, become pre-registered and placed on a wait list tone contacted when their turn came. There are systems we use everyday that would allow the kind of straight forward management necessary. Did anyone ever think of the fact that information on people over 65 is already captured through Medicare? That's just one example. Did anyone realize that the pharmacies being contracted with would all set up their own separate registration processes leaving people to navigate three or four different systems?

Let it sink in. These are the people who are responsible for other agencies that supposedly build fail safe systems for nuclear war or who are able to land a vehicle on Mars. Organized government can accomplish great things but it can certainly also be responsible for great failures and irresponsible behavior. There are over 500,000 souls and 500,000 families that can attest to that. There's no excuse for the failures we've seen and yes, we should expect more.