Coronavirus: Cuts to health and social care crippled covid response

The mismanagement of the pandemic in rich imperialist states continues to be highlighted through the chaos of lockdown easing.

Comrade Ranjeet Brar (@Rango1917), leading British communist and NHS surgeon, talks to George Galloway on his Mother of All Talk Shows (MoATS) about the latest developments in the world pandemic.

In Britain, we are nearing the end of the first wave of covid, but several hundred deaths per week are still occurring. As we enter the colder months and people are less able to socially distance we should expect case numbers to rise.

Masks can help to reduce the rate of transmission of infection and arguments against using them are spurious, says Ranjeet. Cuts and privatisation have severely weakened the health service in Britain, which is why other countries are in a far better position to tackle the virus than we are.

In the USA, cases continue to rise in many states including California, Florida and Texas showing the complete mismanagement of the health crisis in the US, where more than 1,000 people are dying every day.

This discussion was originally broadcast on Sunday 26 July 2020.