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COVID-19 witnesses two opposite sides of American life

By Ye Zhu (People's Daily Online)    20:39, July 21, 2020

The COVID-19 has witnessed two opposite sides of American life.

On the one hand, the painful side of life: currently, nearly 1 out of 100 Americans has tested positive for COVID-19; the cumulative number of the unemployed is more than 50 million, and GDP is expected to fall by 37 percent in the second quarter, the worst slump since the Great Depression.

On the other hand, the fancy side of life: the stock market is performing well; from March to May, the wealth of more than 600 wealthy Americans soared by $434 billion.

The U.S. is the richest country in the world. However, the reality is that nearly 30 million people have no access to health insurance, and 14 percent of the citizens cannot afford medical treatment.

Dubbed the "miracle child" after two months in the hospital, 70-year-old Michael Flor survived COVID-19 only to receive a bill listing out more than $1 million in charges for his time in the hospital.

The U.S. government did not request pharmaceutical companies to cut medical prices. Instead, the US Congress passed a coronavirus-related bill including $3.1 billion to develop drugs and vaccines and expand manufacturing capacity in March. Through lobbying, pharmaceutical companies have succeeded in weakening or removing provisions that control drug prices.

"The rich get richer and the poor get poorer." This is not just America under the epidemic, but America over the last 30 years. Between 1989 and 2018, the share of wealth among the richest 1 percent increased to 32 percent from 23 percent, while net wealth growth for the bottom 50 per cent was virtually zero, according to the Fed report.

Fisher Island, a luxury private island with a per capita income of $2.2 million, provides another example. In April, 800 families living on the island in Florida, including cooks and housekeepers, were tested for COVID-19 antibodies. More than half of the residents are older than 60 and “at high risk,” a spokesman for the island said in a statement.

Senior citizens at Life Care Center nursing home in Kirkland, Washington , who are also “at high risk,”,are not so lucky. In February, 120 senior citizens and 180 employees lived here. However, there were only 45 test kits made available on March 7. As of May 13, more than 29,100 elderly people and staff members in nursing homes across the country have died as a result of the epidemic. 

That's the real America amid epidemic. Capitalists seek to have their bills passed and enjoy their wealth growth through lobbying; whereas millions of poor people face a higher mortality rate, astonishingly high medical bills and the pressure of unemployment. 

One side of American life is Heaven; the other side of American life is hell.  

(For the latest China news, Please follow People's Daily on Twitter and Facebook)(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)

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