Explosive Whistleblower Complaint by Ousted HHS Official Says He Was Pressured to Give Contract to Trump-Friendly Pharma Firm

Vaccine expert Dr. Rick Bright was ousted from his HHS position last month in what he called a "retaliatory demotion."


by
Julia Conley, staff writer

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/05/explosive-whistleblower-complaint-ousted-hhs-official-says-he-was-pressured-give













A federal scientist filed a formal whistleblower complaint Tuesday, weeks after being reassigned from his position at the Health and Human Services Department following a clash with Trump administration officials over untested Covid-19 treatments that the president was promoting.

Dr. Rick Bright, an immunology expert and until last month the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), said in addition to retaliation for objecting to President Donald Trump's public insistence that hydroxychloroquine was effective at treating Covid-19, he faced sustained pressure from HHS officials since the beginning of the Trump administration to steer millions of dollars in contracts to the client of lobbyist John Clerici.


Multiple times beginning in 2017, when Trump took office, Bright was pressured to extend a government contract to Aeolus Pharmaceuticals, a client of Clerici's. In addition to being Clerici's client, Aeolus's CEO was a friend of Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior advisor.Clerici has a "longstanding connection" to Dr. Robert Kadlec, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS, according to the complaint.

Bright refused to extend the contract, leading to discord between him and his superiors at the department. The tension steadily grew as Kadlec and other officials urged Bright to transfer $40 million from BARDA to the Strategic National Stockpile in 2018 to purchase a drug made by manufacturer Alvogen, another of Clerici's clients, among other disagreements.

According to the complaint (pdf), "Dr. Kadlec's frustration with and animus towards Dr. Bright reached its breaking point when, after the emergence of Covid-19, Dr. Bright resisted efforts to fall into line with the administration's directive to promote the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine and to award lucrative contracts for these and other drugs even though they lacked scientific merit and had not received prior scientific vetting."

Bright also wrote in the 89-page complaint that he encountered pushback in January when he called on HHS to begin developing resources in preparation for treatment and vaccine research as the Covid-19 pandemic reached the United States.




"It was clear to Dr. Bright almost immediately that the virus was highly contagious, spreading rapidly, and could have a high mortality rate," the complaint reads. "Dr. Bright and his staff recognized the urgent need to obtain genetic sequencing information about the virus and to acquire viruses and clinical specimens from people infected with the virus to share with laboratories and companies... Dr. Bright initially encountered indifference which then developed into hostility from HHS leadership, including Secretary Azar, as Dr. Bright and his staff raised concerns about the virus and the urgent need to act."

The department leadership grew increasingly hostile toward Bright after he communicated with members of Congress, the press, and some White House officials—including trade advisor Peter Navarro—about the need to act urgently to confront the pandemic.

As CNN reports, Bright is now scheduled to testify to Congress as early as next week on the charges included in his complaint:


Bright filed the whistleblower complaint with the Office of Special Counsel about two weeks after being reassigned to the National Institutes of Health. According to the complaint, after removing Bright from his post at BARDA, HHS officials "unleashed a baseless smear campaign against him, leveling demonstrably false allegations about his performance in an attempt to justify what was clearly a retaliatory demotion."

The complaint calls for a reversal of Bright's reassignment as well as a full investigation into his charges of cronyism at the department.

Despite CDC Prediction of Surging Death Rate to Come, Pence Confirms Trump's Coronavirus Task Force Winding Down

"They are just going to declare victory, let thousands die, and hope nobody cares too much."


by
Eoin Higgins, staff writer

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/05/despite-cdc-prediction-surging-death-rate-come-pence-confirms-trumps-coronavirus




President Donald Trump's coronavirus taskforce is winding down, Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday, with operations expected to conclude by June 1—the very same day an internal document from the Centers for Disease Control predicts will mark a doubling of daily deaths from the disease.

"They are just going to declare victory, let thousands die, and hope nobody cares too much," tweeted journalist Jack Mirkinson.

The New York Times broke the news Tuesday afternoon, reporting that the committee's "gradual demise, which officials said might never be formally announced, would only intensify the questions about whether the administration is adequately organized to address the complex, life-and-death decisions related to the virus and giving adequate voice to scientists and public health experts in making policy."


Pence confirmed the report to the press later Tuesday, saying that the taskforce would aim to end its mission by Memorial Day or June 1 and delegate managing the outbreak to federal agencies.

"It really is all a reflection of the tremendous progress we've made as a country," Pence said of the taskforce's closure.

As of press time, 1.22 million Americans were confirmed infected with the disease and 71,148 had died. The death toll is expected rise, according to internal CDC projections published by news outlets on Monday, which showed the daily death rate could increase from its current 1,700 to 3,000 by June 1.




"Mission Abandoned," tweeted writer Craig Mazin.

Though the White House is wrapping up the taskforce's efforts, a "shadow" group run by presidential advisor and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner will remain in place. That committee, which is expected to continue operations, is reportedly being run by inexperienced volunteer staffers.

According to the Washington Post:



About two dozen employees from Boston Consulting Group, Insight, McKinsey, and other firms have volunteered their time—some on paid vacation leave from their jobs and others without pay—to aid the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to administration officials and others familiar with the arrangement.



Although some of the volunteers have relevant backgrounds and experience, many others were poorly matched with the jobs they were assigned, including those given the task of securing personal protective equipment, or PPE, for hospitals nationwide, according to a complaint filed last month with the House Oversight Committee.

The volunteers are expected to prioritize communicating with Trump allies, including Fox News personalities with ties to the White House like Brian Kilmeade and Jeanine Pirro.

Nurses Call on Pelosi to Enact Remote Voting So House Can Deliver Urgent Covid-19 Relief

"Our government has treated us as if we are expendable."


by
Jake Johnson, staff writer




https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/05/nurses-call-pelosi-enact-remote-voting-so-house-can-deliver-urgent-covid-19-relief




The largest union of registered nurses in the United States on Monday delivered a scathing rebuke to Congress and President Donald Trump for failing to protect healthcare workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic and warned that continued federal inaction could render the nation unable "to return to any degree of normalcy."

In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the leaders of National Nurses United said many "deaths would have been prevented if our government had prioritized the health and safety of healthcare workers."

"Instead," the nurses wrote, "our government has treated us as if we are expendable."


"Registered nurses and other healthcare workers are risking their lives every day to care for patients suffering from Covid-19," NNU said. "The dire conditions under which we are working are unnecessary, and our government has failed to protect us and our patients during this pandemic."NNU urged Pelosi to approve a change in House rules to allow remote voting so that the chamber can safely craft and pass legislation that addresses the desperate workplace safety and economic needs of frontline workers. Last month, as Common Dreams reported, Pelosi abruptly tabled a rule change that would have allowed proxy voting as House members remain in their home districts as a safety precaution.

"For two months we have been urgently demanding that the Trump administration and Congress step up to ensure that healthcare workers get the personal protective equipment (PPE) that they need," the nurses continued. "We've called on Congress and the administration to mandate the promulgation of an emergency temporary OSHA standard to protect frontline workers. For two months, both the Trump administration and Congress have failed to act to protect frontline healthcare workers."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, healthcare workers could account for 11% of all U.S. coronavirus cases. Officially, more than two dozen healthcare workers have died from Covid-19, but the actual death toll is believed to be far higher.

Despite the devastating impact of Covid-19 on healthcare workers and their essential role in combating the virus, the stimulus packages passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump thus far have done little to address the immediate needs of frontline employees. The president came under fire last month for authorizing military flyovers as a "tribute" to frontline workers while nurses still lack adequate masks and other safety equipment.

During a protest in front of the White House on April 21, one NNU member expressed dismay that political leaders continue to call nurses "heroes" while failing to heed their calls for basic necessities.

"I think that right now people think of us as heroes, but we're feeling like martyrs," the nurse said. "We're feeling like we're being left on the battlefield with nothing."

In addition to PPE, healthcare workers have also called on Congress to approve hazard pay for frontline employees. But the Washington Post reported last week that the proposal "has not been seriously considered during negotiations over any of the four bills approved by Congress to respond to the novel coronavirus."

In a speech on the House floor last month following the passage of an interim coronavirus stimulus bill, Pelosi assured the public that the next legislative package—which she dubbed the "Heroes Act"—will address the needs of those "on the front lines of fighting this virus."

"We owe them," Pelosi said.

But it is unclear when another stimulus package could pass given that the House remains out of session. Politico reported Monday that Pelosi told House committee chairs that she hopes to have a legislative package completed by the end of the week, but no specifics on the measure's contents have been released.




"The bill could reach the floor for a vote as soon as next week," Politico reported, "although several top Democrats are skeptical of that timeline given the scope of the legislation and uncertainty over when House members will return to Washington."

Some Democratic lawmakers have expressed frustration with the top-down legislative process as lawmakers remain away from Capitol Hill due to the coronavirus crisis, giving the House Democratic leadership near-total control over the final product with little to no input from rank-and-file members.

"They'll let us know when it's done and then tell us how to vote," one anonymous House Democrat told HuffPost.

In their letter to Pelosi on Monday, NNU wrote that "nurses across the country need legislators to immediately pass a mandate for an emergency temporary OSHA standard and increased production of PPE."

"The nation cannot afford Congress to be paralyzed by inaction," the nurses said.

Read the full letter:


Dear Madam Speaker:

Registered nurses and other health care workers are risking their lives every day to care for patients suffering from COVID-19. The dire conditions under which we are working are unnecessary, and our government has failed to protect us and our patients during this pandemic.

For two months we have been urgently demanding that the Trump Administration and Congress step up to ensure that health care workers get the personal protective equipment (PPE) that they need. We've called on Congress and the Administration to mandate the promulgation of an emergency temporary OSHA standard to protect frontline workers, and the full invocation of the Defense Production Act to urgently increase production of PPE, medical equipment, and testing supplies. For two months, both the Trump Administration and Congress have failed to act to protect frontline health care workers.

The CDC has estimated that between 10 percent and 20 percent of all COVID-19 positive patients are health care workers, and scores of these workers have died as a result. These deaths would have been prevented if our government had prioritized the health and safety of health care workers. Instead, our government has treated us as if we are expendable. If we don’t protect health care workers, the pandemic will not be controlled,and our country will not be able to return to any degree of normalcy.

We are deeply concerned that you have once again postponed reconvening the House of Representatives. To be clear, as registered nurses, we support the reported caution expressed by the Attending Physician of the United States Congress regarding gatherings of Congress, given the continued risks presented by COVID-19 in the District of Columbia and across the nation. We do not want Members of Congress or their staff members to risk their health or their lives.

At the same time, Congress must move forward with the peoples' business during these difficult days. Congress is in a classic Catch-22: You cannot reconvene the Congress as long as the pandemic poses dire risks to Members and their staffs, but the pandemic will not be contained unless Congress reconvenes and passes a CARES 2 bill that addresses the needs of the nation. As such we endorse the proposals put forward by Committee on Rules Chairman Jim McGovern to bring the House back into session temporarily to address the pandemic utilizing proxy voting and remote committee proceedings, while exploring longer term solutions in the face of these challenges.

We urge you to immediately reconvene the House using the safety precautions proposed by Chairman McGovern. Nurses across the country need legislators to immediately pass a mandate for an emergency temporary OSHA standard and increased production of PPE. The nation cannot afford Congress to be paralyzed by inaction.

Court Requests Probe Into Whether McConnell Unethically Pressured Judge to Retire to Pave Way for His Unqualified Protégé

"Justin Walker's nomination was already controversial, but this emerging investigation means an even darker cloud is hanging over his appointment. The hearing on Walker's nomination should not go forward until we know the truth."


by
Jake Johnson, staff writer





10 Comments




https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/05/court-requests-probe-whether-mcconnell-unethically-pressured-judge-retire-pave-way




A federal court has requested an investigation into whether Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unethically pressured a judge on the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to retire to pave the way for the Kentucky Republican's 38-year-old protégé Justin Walker, who is set for a confirmation hearing for the vacancy on Wednesday.

The New York Times reported late Monday that on May 1, Judge Sri Srinivasan—chief judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit—"asked Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to assign another circuit to look into a complaint filed by the progressive advocacy group Demand Justice, which questioned the timing and circumstances of Judge Thomas B. Griffith's retirement announcement in early March."


The group's request came days after the Times reported that McConnell—who has made ramming through President Donald Trump's right-wing judicial picks his top priority even amid the Covid-19 pandemic—"has been personally reaching out to judges to sound them out on their plans and assure them that they would have a worthy successor if they gave up their seats soon." It is not clear whether McConnell contacted Griffith prior to the judge's retirement.On March 19 (pdf), Demand Justice called on Srinivasan to authorize a "prompt inquiry into the majority leader's potential efforts to influence Judge Griffith, perhaps through improper means... particularly because it appears that he has attempted to influence many other federal judges, as well."

In a statement Monday night, Demand Justice urged the Senate to postpone Walker's scheduled Judiciary Committee hearing in light of Srinivasan's request for an inquiry.




"Justin Walker's nomination was already controversial, but this emerging investigation means an even darker cloud is hanging over his appointment," said Brian Fallon, executive director of Demand Justice. "The hearing on Walker's nomination should not go forward until we know the truth about what ethical lines Mitch McConnell crossed to get Walker this seat."

"At the very least," said Fallon, "McConnell should come clean about whether and when he contacted Judge Thomas Griffith prior to his sudden retirement."

Walker, a member of the right-wing Federalist Society and former clerk for now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, was rated "not qualified" by the American Bar Association when Trump nominated him to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky last October. The Republican-controlled Senate disregarded the rating and confirmed Walker anyway, and now the judge is on the path to a promotion.

Lena Zwarensteyn, Fair Courts Campaign director with the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said that Walker's confirmation to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky was "pure nepotism."

"Walker's inexperience and hostility toward access to healthcare and civil rights and public protections make him wholly unfit for this position," said Zwarensteyn. "But equally alarming is the unusual path that has led him to now wield a daunting amount of influence through our courts."

'Outrageous, Callous, and Cruel': Seniors Rip Trump for Holding Covid-19 Relief Hostage to Push Social Security Cuts

"Trump's actions are a war on seniors. He is insisting on threatening Social Security on which most seniors rely for their food, medicine, and other basic necessities."


by
Jake Johnson, staff writer





55 Comments

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/05/outrageous-callous-and-cruel-seniors-rip-trump-holding-covid-19-relief-hostage-push










Grassroots advocacy groups representing millions of retirees and seniors across the United States are speaking out against and urging Congress to oppose President Donald Trump's threat to block desperately needed Covid-19 relief legislation if it does not slash the payroll tax, which funds Social Security and Medicare.

"It is outrageous, callous, and cruel for President Trump to hold the American people, and seniors in particular, hostage if Congress doesn't go along with his plan to gut Social Security for current and future retirees," said Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, an organization with over four million members nationwide.


During a Fox News town hall Sunday night, Trump said he would oppose any additional coronavirus stimulus package that does not include his long-desired payroll tax cut, which would provide zero direct relief to the more than 30 million Americans who have lost their jobs over the past six weeks. The president suggested at a press briefing last month that the tax cut should be permanent."The president's plan is also bad economics. Social Security puts more than $800 billion into the economy each year. Destabilizing the system when we are in the middle of an economic downtown is exactly the opposite of what we need to do," Fiesta added. "The 4.4 million members of the Alliance for Retired Americans call on all members of Congress to refuse to make such a deal. We will fight this attempt to gut Social Security and in November we will remember who was willing to defend and protect our earned benefits."

"We're not doing anything unless we get a payroll tax cut," Trump said Sunday, just days after vowing to protect Social Security and Medicare.

Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said in a statement Monday that Trump's remarks "set off alarm bells for America's seniors and their advocates."

"Make no mistake: by pushing to cut off the program's funding stream, President Trump is taking the first step toward dismantling Social Security," said Richtman. "The president's campaign to eliminate payroll taxes is a violation of his patently false promises to seniors 'not to touch' Social Security. This proposal goes way beyond 'touching.' Choking off Social Security's funding stream is an existential threat to seniors' earned benefits."


The multi-trillion-dollar CARES Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law in late March, contains a provision allowing employers to delay payment of the payroll tax for at least the duration of 2020.

Advocates warned at the time that the provision, which replaces payroll tax revenue with general revenue, represents a fundamental threat to Social Security's long-term financial health. Nancy Altman, president of advocacy group Social Security Works, predicted that Republicans will "undoubtedly use the general revenue to demand cuts to Social Security in the name of 'reining in entitlements.'"

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a proponent of Social Security cuts, hinted in that direction last month, declaring that "the future of our country in terms of the amount of debt that we're adding up is a matter of genuine concern."

In a statement on Monday, Altman said the president's relentless push for a payroll tax cut shows "how desperately Trump and the right-wing ideologues surrounding him want to defund Social Security, so they have an excuse down the road to demand cuts to our earned benefits."

"Trump's actions are a war on seniors," said Altman. "He wants to open up the economy, even though Covid-19 is disproportionately costing seniors their lives. Now he is insisting on threatening Social Security on which most seniors rely for their food, medicine, and other basic necessities. Members of Congress, particularly House Democrats, need to stand strong and call Trump's bluff."

The Trump administration’s war against society

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/05/06/pers-m06.html






6 May 2020

Amidst the expanding coronavirus pandemic in the United States, the Trump administration is implementing a reckless and socially criminal “open up the economy” policy that will result in hundreds of thousands of deaths that could, with correct policies, be prevented.

Trump, in an interview with ABC News aired on Tuesday night, exuded indifference to the consequences of the policies his administration is carrying out. “There’ll be more death,” Trump said, “the virus will pass, with or without a vaccine. And I think we’re doing very well on the vaccines but, with or without a vaccine, it’s going to pass, and we’re going to be back to normal.”

On Monday, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a close advisor to Trump, bluntly told CNN that it was necessary for the American people to “sacrifice” their lives by going back to work. “The American people have gone through significant death before [in World War I and II] … and we’ve survived it. We sacrificed those lives.” The “sacrifice,” he added, was necessary to “stand up for the American way of life.”

When asked whether he thought the American people would accept up to 3,000 deaths per day by the end of this month, as projected by a leaked internal report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Christie replied: “They’re gonna have to.”

Even as the virus spreads, the Trump administration is ending all pretense of prioritizing the saving of lives. To underscore this point, the White House announced on Tuesday that it is planning on shutting down its “coronavirus task force” as the country moves to “open up.” Trump has already cancelled press conferences of the task force, and the administration is clearly preparing to get rid of its most prominent spokesman, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The drive to open up the economy is taking place under conditions in which the spread is accelerating. By mid-day Tuesday, the official number of new deaths in the United States was 2,350, up sharply from 1,324 recorded the previous day. The death toll has now passed 70,000. Less than a week ago, the Trump administration stated that it expected that the death toll would reach 75,000 by August. In reality, that toll will be reached before the end of this week.

The pandemic is expanding rapidly in rural areas and throughout the Midwest. There is a rise in the number of deaths in Texas, which is the first indication of the disastrous consequences of a premature back to work movement.

The New York Times noted in an article published on Tuesday, “Rural towns that one month ago were unscathed are suddenly hot spots for the virus. It is rampaging through nursing homes, meatpacking plants and prisons, killing the medically vulnerable and the poor, and new outbreaks keep emerging in grocery stores, Walmarts or factories, an ominous harbinger of what a full reopening of the economy will bring.”

Dakota County, Nebraska, a center of the meatpacking industry, now has the third-most cases on a per capita basis in the country, after reporting no cases as late as April 11. Nearly 600 meatpacking workers in the region tested positive for the virus last month. The number of cases is increasing sharply in Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, New Mexico and many other states.

In addition to Christie’s statement about the necessity for “sacrifice,” Trump declared on Tuesday afternoon that the American people are “warriors,” with the implication that they must be willing to give their lives to the cause. What is the “war” and what is the “cause”?

The war that the administration is carrying out is not a war against the pandemic. Its policy is that of “herd immunity”—that the coronavirus should be allowed to run rampant with nothing done to stop it.

The war that Trump is waging is a war against society. The “sacrifices” are those demanded by Wall Street. As for the “cause,” it is the enrichment of the corporate-financial oligarchy. The “American way of life” invoked by Trump and Christie that is to be defended has nothing to do with the lives and interests of the vast majority of the population, who want to protect themselves, their families and their coworkers. Rather, it means going back to work and dying for profits.

The Trump administration is articulating a policy with distinctly fascistic characteristics, but it is a policy that is embedded in class interests. After first downplaying the pandemic, the Trump administration and Congress utilized the crisis atmosphere to carry out a multi-trillion-dollar bailout of Wall Street. Even amidst economic conditions and mass unemployment not seen since the Great Depression, and an expanding death toll, share values continue to rise relentlessly.

The homicidal policy of the Trump administration and the new Wall Street Bull Market are two sides of the same phenomenon. The interests of the corporate-financial elite are completely alienated from and opposed to society. The enrichment of the ruling elite is dependent upon the suffering of the mass of the people.

Having vastly expanded the debt level of the United States, the ruling class is compelled to intensify its exploitation and impoverishment of the working class. This is the central force behind the mad drive to return to work. Millions of workers have been unable to receive any unemployment benefits, while small businesses have been cut out of access to loans as part of the Paycheck Protection Program. The aim is to create an economic imperative for a return to work.

The Trump administration has the advantage of not facing any significant opposition within the political establishment. The policy of massive enrichment of the oligarchy is bipartisan. The handout to Wall Street, sanctioned by the CARES Act, was passed unanimously in the Senate, with every single Democrat and Republican voting for it, including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Whatever nervousness may exist in the media over the social implications of Trump’s policy, the back to work campaign is also bipartisan. The campaign to ensure that the “cure is not worse than the disease” was initiated by the New York Times and its columnist Thomas Friedman, who continues to campaign for a strategy based on “herd immunity.” As the Trump administration implements a policy that will lead to widespread deaths, there is no statement of opposition from the Democratic Party.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the fight against the pandemic is inseparable from a fight against the capitalist system. The conflict between the needs of society and the profit system is not just a theoretical question. It is demonstrated in practice every single day.

All social resources must be directed not to bailing out Wall Street, but to securing the needs of the working class. Non-essential production must remain closed as every measure is taken to preserve life and contain the virus. All workers must receive full income and benefits until it is possible to return to their jobs under safe conditions. Mortgages, student loans and other payments to the banks must be cancelled.

The Socialist Equality Party unequivocally denounces the “back to work” and “return to normal” campaign.

The fight against the pandemic is inseparably linked to a struggle against the ruling class and its dictatorship of economic and political life. It is, therefore, a political struggle to mobilize the working class against a lawless government and the capitalist system that it defends.

Joseph Kishore—SEP candidate for US president

US nursing home catastrophe: Increasing numbers of the elderly fall victim to COVID-19

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/05/06/nurs-m06.html






By Kate Randall
6 May 2020

Long-term care homes overrun with COVID-19 infections and deaths, refrigerated trailers holding bodies that overburdened funeral homes cannot accept, nursing home morgues stacked with corpses, seniors left to suffer and die alone—these are just some of the horrors and indignities that face residents of America’s facilities caring for the elderly during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Trump administration has openly stated that up to 100,000 Americans can expect to die in the coming weeks and months as states move to reopen the economy. This shocking revision upwards of the administration’s death projections were recounted by the president on Sunday with cold-blooded contempt for the lives of those who stand to die. And the numbers are likely an underestimation.

Disproportionately included among these countless thousands of deaths will be the elderly, many of them residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. In the US, perhaps more than in any other nation, seniors are not revered by the powers that be for their long years of labor and family care, but rather are seen as a drain on the economy. It can be said with confidence that the wiping out of large numbers of the older population is seen by the ruling elite as a convenient and positive byproduct of the coronavirus pandemic.

An internal report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published by the New York Times projects that 3,000 daily deaths can be expected by June 1. This horrific death toll is the price the American ruling elite says is required to restart the economy under conditions where COVID-19 infections continue to steadily rise.

COVID-19 has already exacted a grim toll among the nearly 3 million individuals living in long-term care facilities across the US, including in nursing homes, assisted living facilities and intermediate care facilities. Another 3 million people work in these facilities, the majority under deplorable conditions and for poor pay, and with little to no protection against contracting the virus themselves.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), in the 23 US states that publicly reported death data in long-term facilities, there were over 10,000 reported deaths due to COVID-19 among residents and staff. In five states—Delaware, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Utah—deaths in these facilities accounted for a staggering 50 percent or more of coronavirus deaths.

Horrific stories continue to emerge from long-term care facilities across the country in the pandemic. Of the more than 25,000 deaths in New York, the nation’s hardest hit state, at least 4,813 residents with confirmed or presumed cases of COVID-19 have died at 351 of New York’s 613 nursing homes since March 1. On Monday the state reported more than 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities.

At one New York City nursing home, the Isabella Geriatric Center in Manhattan’s Washington Heights, nearly 100 of its 705 residents have died. Officials at the nursing home revealed Friday that 46 residents who tested positive for COVID-19, along with 52 suspected of having the virus, had passed away.

This huge death toll, the largest nursing home cluster in New York state, was first reported by local cable news station NY1. The station’s report also revealed that due to delays by overburdened funeral homes in picking up bodies, the center had brought in a refrigerated trailer to store bodies and had concealed the trailer under tarps hung on the nursing home’s fence. An official at the geriatric center said that the deadly situation had been compounded by a lack of in-house testing, staffing shortages and difficulty obtaining personal protective equipment (PPE) for employees.

In Medfield, Massachusetts, north of Boston, COVID-19 has killed 54 residents over the past four weeks at the Courtyard Nursing Care Center. An additional 117 residents and 42 employees have tested positive for the virus. Dr. Richard Feifer, chief medical officer for Genesis Healthcare, which owns Courtyard, told the Boston Globe that the nursing home cares for “largely frail, elderly seniors with multiple health conditions,” a description that applies to virtually all nursing home residents.

Deaths at the Medfield facility have received less media attention than would be expected until recently because of the COVID-19 outbreak that has ravaged the Soldiers’ Home, a veterans’ care facility in Holyoke in the western part of Massachusetts. A shocking 84 residents have died at the facility since the virus outbreak. Eighty-one employees have tested positive for the coronavirus.

The deaths at the Soldiers’ Home were initially hidden from both the mayor of Holyoke and local health officials, who only became aware of the developing situation when employees at the facility reached out to them. Staff said management at the facility refused to provide them with PPE and instructed them to crowd patients together from multiple wards into a single ward as a solution to staffing shortages due to infections. A state investigation into the deaths is underway.

A particularly gruesome discovery took place in mid-April when police found 17 corpses piled up at the Subacute and Rehabilitation Center in Andover, New Jersey. The bodies were stacked in a small morgue designed to hold a maximum of four bodies. The more than 2,000 deaths of staff and residents in New Jersey’s long-term facilities account for about 40 percent of the state’s coronavirus-related deaths.

The Detroit Health Department reported at the end of April that 200 residents along with three workers had died of coronavirus in the city’s 26 nursing homes. All 26 nursing homes in the city have cases of COVID-19, according to Mayor Mike Duggan. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services released data showing a total of 2,637 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among nursing home residents throughout the state.

As the state of Florida began to reopen some of its beaches and businesses this week, a list from the Florida Department of Health detailed more than 300 long-term care facilities where staff or residents had tested positive for COVID-19. Florida reported nearly 1,400 deaths statewide and 284 deaths in these facilities, but these numbers are suspect. They do not correspond to numbers reported by senior facilities and figures from the state’s medical examiner’s office.

Coronavirus cases and deaths in nursing homes and other elder care facilities have been similarly prevalent in Europe. According to the World Health Organization, up to 50 percent of the COVID-19 deaths in Europe have been associated with long-term care facilities. In the UK, official figures only recently began to include at-home and nursing home deaths.

As in the US, many of the elderly are suffering COVID-19 without visits from friends and family, which adds an additional emotional toll. Elders’ dignity is robbed as they take their last breaths hooked up to a ventilator with only hospital staff around them. Despite being overworked and placing themselves in danger of infection, doctors and nurses have been treating those dying with compassion, tending to them in their final hours and setting up phone and video calls with patients’ family members.

This kindheartedness stands in sharp contrast to the cruelty heaped on the elderly by government authorities—local, state and federal—who have underreported deaths in senior care facilities and provided little assistance to nursing homes and their workers in the form of testing and PPE. With the lives of hundreds of thousands of the population seen as the price that must be paid to get workers back on the job to produce profit, seniors who deserve high-quality medical care are instead seen as expendable as their profit-generating days are over.