Features
Capitalism and Covid Care
Carbon-Health California: A case study of the absurd
by Kumar David
To whet your appetite I will begin with a real life story; I can vouch for every word. Carbon Health a private health-care provider (carbonhealth.com) is paid millions of dollars from public funds to vaccinate folks in California. It is one of many for-profit clinics cashing in on public vaccination needs. The correspondence reproduced below – with adjustments to mask identities – tells it all.
QUOTES May 9, 2021
Dear Carbon Health Support Team,
My name in XYZ, I had my first vaccination on 1 Feb 2021 and my second on 24 Feb 2021 both administered by Carbon Health at 10965 Dronfield Blvd. The Health Pass issued to me on 14 April records only the second jab of 24 Feb and makes NO MENTION of the first (1 Feb). In fact it describes the second vaccine as the first! Please send me a corrected Health Pass that includes notification of both vaccinations. A scan of the white vaccination record card is attached for your inspection.
The subsequent replies from Carbon Health are as follows
Sun 9 May; response from Carbon Health
##- Please type your “complaint” above this line -##. Note by XYZ: “Done but ignored”.
Mon, 10 May, 19:22. After XYZ complained again the following reply was received.
##- Please type your reply above this line -##. Note by XYZ: “Done again but ignored again”.
Thu, 13 May, 18:28. Repetition of the same story.
END QUOTES
Finally XYZ received the following strange reply, a month after the initial complaint.
QUOTE
Melody E. (Carbon Health Support), 7 June 2021
Hello XYZ,
I apologize for the delayed response. Currently, we are not yet able to pull this data into the Health Pass, but we are actively working on a solution. You are more than welcome to keep a photo of your vaccination card in our system in case you misplace your physical card. For now, you will need to save your vaccination card received at the site you went to as your proof of record. I also want to let you know that we have submitted a ticket for you with engineering and our engineers are working diligently to resolve these errors as quickly as possible but we still do not have a time frame on when that will happen. Thank you again for your continued patience in these trying times.
Melody Eisenhauer
Central Support. Carbonhealth.com
END QUOTE
XYZ then complained to the California Department of Health and received the following response.
QUOTE
“Dear XYZ,
Unfortunately, we do not have an answer available at this time. However, there are a few resources where you may be able to find more information. If you’re interested in general COVID-19 information, you can also visit the California Coronavirus Response website. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and concerns and bringing this to our attention. I can understand why you would be frustrated. The pandemic is creating challenges for all of us. Emails like yours help us to become aware of what is happening in our communities. We are aggregating information such as this and are sharing with leadership to ensure that your voice is heard. The pandemic has brought with it many challenges and disruptions to “normal life.” Rest assured we are working hard during this rapidly changing environment to bring you the most up to date information available. We stand with you in these difficult times and will continue to be a resource for all questions related to COVID-19 Vaccination. Thank you for contacting the California Department of Public Health to share your questions and concerns. DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE. Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2021 23:16:45 +0000.
END QUOTE.
The logistics of Carbon Health and other private providers has gone belly-up; there are numerous complaints. It is unsurprising that over 30% of Americans say they don’t want to be vaccinated for reasons that include lack of confidence in the delivery systems. The point is that vaccinators like Carbon Health are raking in millions 
One important new campaign is an initiative demanding that the system of private patents be ended. The ‘End the Private Patent System Manifesto’ calls for a pharmaceutical industry under popular control and free, universal and public vaccination. Among the supporters are Noam Chomsky, Nancy Fraser, Naomi Klein, Arundhati Roy, trade union and community leaders and parliamentarians from 15 countries. More than 250 organisations and 350 well known persons are signatories to a petition. The unusually hard-hitting statement reads:
“Thanks to huge scientific efforts, international collaboration and historic amounts of public money, humanity has been able to develop several effective vaccines against Covid-19 in less than a year. However, this achievement could be overshadowed by the greed of the pharmaceutical industry. The exceptional measures demanded from the population must also apply to the pharmaceutical industry. The suspension of Covid-19 vaccine patents is a priority. Philanthropy and public-private initiatives are not the answer. The capitalist system and neoliberalism have been at the helm at all stages.
“At root is the transformation of the relationship between humans and nature – the ecological and health crises are intertwined. Predatory neoliberalism has exacerbated the crises. To ensure universal accessibility, it is necessary and urgent to suspend patents, nationalise pharmaceutical industries and raise investment in public pharmaceutical industries. We must choose: capital or life. We must act to create a global universal guarantee of high quality health care. Our demand is carried in our poster “#FREECOVIDPATENTS shown here”.
Naught for your comfort
The highly contagious Delta Variant, the Grim Reaper, is on the prowl in the U.S. This variant, dominant in the U.K. and first detected in India now accounts for over 6% of infections in the U.S. according to the Centre for Disease Control. The highly transmissible variant accounts for about 20% of cases in some Western U.S. States.
Here’s how the Delta variant is affecting the world (information extracted from several sources). The UK is considering a delay of up to four weeks from the scheduled June 21 end to all lockdown. Public Health England found that infections from the variant rose by nearly 30,000 in a week. WHO-Europe warned that it is “poised to take hold in the region”. France is racing to contain scattered cases. Zimbabwe HAS announced a two-week lockdown for some districts after detecting 40 cases in three days. A high health official here said that the variant has been found in the island – Chandima Jayawardena, director of Immunology at Sri Jayewardenepura U said that variant was detected in one person in a quarantine facility.
Guangzhou, China has reported over 100 cases of the Delta variant. The All India Institute of Medical Science alarmingly reported that the variant is “predominantly found even after getting a single dose or both doses of the vaccine and is 100 per cent more transmissible than the previous alpha variant”. The situation in Lanka is murky and statistics and news stories inspire little confidence in the authorities. A top Lankan scientist Chandre Dharmawardena in Canada laments: “In this Covid scenario why don’t they give leadership to Tissa Vitarana, the only qualified biochemist-virologist in parliament?” So many inexplicable happenings! It’s as if the regime is hell bent on hara-kiri.
Two months ago I took the initiate and pronounced that the tide had turned against the Gotabaya regime and that presidential cabal and government were in disorderly retreat. Two weeks ago I asserted more confidently that people were fed up with the President (Gotabaya Fatigue I think I called it). The slide since has been faster than anticipated. There is hardly one pro-government Editor in the media, Ministers fight in public like dogs at a garbage dump, SLPP Secretary and Energy Minister brawl while packs of mongrel MPs line behind each imposter. A third bunch of wretches declares “If Basil were here this cock-up would have been averted” – the implication is that Gota has screwed up everything.
I now feel bold to make a third prediction about this mad hatters’ tea-party. Public anger will spill, defiance of regime misconduct will intensify and as the economy worsens – unavoidable – mass demonstrations are but months away. Will Gota shoot? Well, shooting Sinhala Buddhists is not as simple as shooting Demalas! And neither the Lankan population, nor India, nor America will let the (Raja) Paksas impose a military coup. Nor will China ride in on a saffron dragon to rescue drowning Paksas – what for? The real sting however is elsewhere; sooner the pandemic dissipates sooner people will mobilise in numbers; longer it persists, fairly or unfairly Gota and his henchmen will be blamed.