As the Covid centaurus variant hits Biden, America suffers

In July, President Joe Biden tested positive for Covid. As Covid centaurus variant hits Biden, America's 'viral underclass' suffers, according to a new book.

In July, President Joe Biden tested positive for Covid. As when then-President Donald Trump got Covid in October 2020, Biden’s test felt like an indication of how widespread and seemingly inescapable the virus had become. A new strain of Covid, BA.5, has been racing across the country. Hospitalizations doubled nationwide between May and July. Reinfections spiked. Deaths have increased in some regions as well.

No one is immune. But not everyone’s experience of Covid is the same.

No one is immune. But not everyone’s experience of Covid is the same. Biden has free, high-quality Covid testing. Those in the U.S. without insurance now have to pay for testing. Biden quickly took the anti-Covid medication Paxlovid. In theory, this medication is supposed to be available to all older patients or patients with complicating medical conditions. In practice, patients need medical records and a prescription, and quick access has proven elusive for some.

People with the least access to insurance and to innovative medical techniques are those who are poor, who live in crowded conditions or who are alienated from health care systems. Steven Thrasher, a journalism professor at Northwestern University, refers to these people as the “viral underclass.” His new book, “The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide,” explains how disease exposes and compounds inequality and why we have to address inequality in order to confront the health crises that threaten everyone.

Biden ‘got through Covid with no fear’ due to widely available vaccine, treatmentsJuly 27, 202209:10Thrasher first started thinking about and researching viruses and pandemics in the context of HIV. He did award-winning reporting on the role of racism and homophobia in the case of Michael Johnson, a Black Missouri wrestler sentenced to a punitive 30 years in prison for failing to disclose his HIV status to his sexual partners. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/covid-centaurus-variant-hits-biden-america-suffers-rcna41361

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