The The Hello and welcome to Behind the News. My name is Doug Henwood. Today, of course, the

health and economic crisis. I'll look at the economic dimensions of the thing first.

Then David Himmelstein of Physicians for a National Health Program will explain. of the

Physicians for a National Health Program will explain how he got to the point

of lacking so many aspects of the basic health infrastructure.

And Helen Yaffi, we'll talk about how Cuban interferon

is hopping the fight against the disease in China.

And what the Cuban health system looks like more generally.

First my words, in the crisis.

We're actually facing two crises at once, health and economic that are related in very

important ways. The COVID-19 epidemic has done major damage around the world

but is highlighting some serious structural problems with the US social model

that better-run countries are not quite so afflicted by.

We are plagued by a deep economic polarization complicated by minimal social protections,

severely diminished state capacity with eroded institutional structures and extremely

debased quality of personnel at the highest levels.

Years of under investment in basic infrastructure, both broadly and in health care particularly,

and decades of neoliberal policies

that have shaped a common sense based on competitive individualism with little sense

of social solidarity. That's the longer-term context in which we face this acute crisis.

To recover, we will need to do many things, both short and long term.

To deal with the health crisis, we obviously need testing kits and rapid mobilization

...