Life expectancy in the United States has suffered its largest one-year drop since the end of World War II.

COVID deaths moving towards 500,000.

COVID is not over, but another pandemic is sure to follow.

When?

No one knows, but will the U.S. be ready?

Capitalism and pandemics. What's coming?

We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have sounded

impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. Welcome to The Real Story on the Socialist Program.

I'm your host, Brian Becker.

We're joined today from San Francisco by KJ. No.

KJ is a peace activist. He's also a scholar

on the geopolitics of Asia. He's a frequent contributor to counterpunch and dissident voice

and other journals. KJ. No, welcome. Thank you. Pleasure to be with you. KJ., I was

really happy that you could join us today because, as you know, when I originally reached out to you, I wanted to talk about the next pandemic.

You know, we're still in the middle of COVID-19. There was lots of talk before this year, before 2020, that the U.S. needed to be ready for the next pandemic.

I was looking at PowerPoint presentations provided by health care specialists and institutions

back in 2018 on the 100th anniversary of the so-called Spanish flu pandemic that took the lives of 50 million people.

And the entire PowerPoint is about, let's get ready for the next pandemic.

It's coming.

And of course, a year later, it did come.

And the U.S. was completely unprepared.

And so I wanted to talk about the next pandemic and what

...