A November study, still awaiting peer review, by UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, linked the lifting of eviction moratoriums in 27 states to 433,000 new COVID-19 cases and 11,000 deaths. The researchers attributed those cases to an increased spread of the virus, the result of people searching for new housing, doubling up with friends or family, or becoming homeless.
The Effort to Recall Gavin Newsom Continues to Gain Steam
Source: AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
The recall campaign against California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom has collected around 1.5 million signatures, more than the number of signatures needed to put the recall question before voters. The signatures will still need to be verified and the campaign is hoping to collect additional signatures to maintain a comfortable buffer.
Fox News reports that organizers of the campaign confirmed the latest recall effort against the governor currently has some 1.5 million signatures and hopes to reach 1.6 million signatures by Sunday. By mid-March, the group hopes to have 2 million signatures to maintain a healthy margin that may be needed during the verification process. The group notes there was a 25 percent disqualification rate among signatures previously collected, according to the report.
As the recall effort nears victory, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said last week that President Biden not only shares a commitment with Newsom on a wide range of issues but opposes efforts to recall the governor.
At the end of December, the group had collected some 911,000 of the 1,495,709 signatures needed to trigger a special election. Organizers said many of those signatures poured in during the weeks following Newsom's now-infamous trip to the French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley in violation of his own coronavirus guidelines.
Those not incensed over Newsom's "rules for thee but not for me" attitude can still fault the governor for the state's rolling blackouts, a deadly wildfire season exacerbated by environmental regulations, the governor's decision to cut pay for firemen while handing out stimulus checks to illegal aliens, his signing of legislation removing automatic penalties for child sex offenders, and the list goes on and on.
If the required number of valid signatures is reached, a recall election will be held to ask voters if they want to recall Newsom and, if so, who should replace him.
More information about the recall effort can be found here.
Over the course of the last year, as the pandemic has raged, representatives from both the Republican and Democratic parties ruthlessly pursued a deadly herd immunity policy while billionaires increased their collective wealth by over $1.1 trillion and the stock market averages hit record highs.
Five public Los Angeles vaccination sites forced to close due to lack of doses
Last Wednesday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that five vaccination sites managed by the city, including the massive operation underway in the Dodger Stadium parking lots, will close for at least two days, beginning February 12, due to a shortage of COVID-19 vaccine doses. Thousands of appointments have been canceled or postponed, and timely second doses for those who received initial vaccinations are in jeopardy.
As of February 10, Los Angeles, with a population of four million, has administered only 293,252 vaccinations, consuming 98 percent of the vaccine supply. Health care workers were injecting an average of 13,000 doses per day across the sites forced to close. According to Garcetti, the city received only 16,000 doses this week, after receiving 90,000 doses last week and 29,000 the week before.
Garcetti stated that he hopes to reopen the drive-through vaccination sites by February 16 or 17, adding, “It is only fair that Los Angeles receives a steady supply to meet this moment.”
That the largest city in the richest state of the richest nation on Earth cannot be provided a steady supply of vaccine doses is the direct result of capitalism’s inability to meet basic medical and social needs for the overwhelming majority of the population.
Over the course of the last year, as the pandemic has raged, representatives from both the Republican and Democratic parties ruthlessly pursued a deadly herd immunity policy while billionaires increased their collective wealth by over $1.1 trillion and the stock market averages hit record highs.
Today, there are over 10 million fewer jobs than pre-pandemic levels, and almost half a million people have died. The huge growth of wealth among the very richest is the direct result of the massive injection of cash by the Federal Reserve Board into the markets and subsidies to big business. At the same time, there has been no significant investment in social resources and infrastructure necessary to save lives.
There is a direct contradiction between the advanced state of modern medicine, which relatively quickly formulated vaccines which are effective against COVID-19, and capitalism’s failure to allocate sufficient resources for the mass production, distribution and inoculation of the population, not only in the United States but throughout the world.
More could be done to ensure that more lives are saved, but the priority of both the Trump and Biden administrations has been to preserve the stock market and put workers back on the job as quickly as possible. The resulting spread of infections has caused new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to evolve, threatening the efficacy of the existing vaccines.
Both Republicans and Democrats have blood on their hands as the death toll continues to climb. To save lives and end the pandemic, workers must unite and fight for their own interests in opposition to the entire capitalist system.
California study highlights dangers of COVID-19 pandemic to the working class
A recent study published by preprint server medRxiv, entitled “Excess mortality associated with the COVID-19 pandemic among Californians 18–65 years of age, by occupational sector and occupation: March through October 2020,” provides further evidence that closing non-essential businesses with full compensation and providing protection for essential workers are necessary to reduce the number of deaths caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The paper is an initial effort to determine the dangers of working in different workplaces, those considered both “essential” and “non-essential.” The authors, who include Dr. Yea-Hung Chen and his team at the University of California, San Francisco, noted that “Despite the inherent risks that essential workers face, no study to date has examined differences in excess mortality across occupation,” a gap this research seeks to correct.
As the title suggests, the authors focused their research on deaths among working-age Californians during the initial lockdown and the first phase of reopening last fall. Overall, they found that essential workers, whom they defined as those in the “food/agriculture, transportation/logistics, facilities, and manufacturing sectors,” experienced a 22 percent higher mortality rate than they did in the four years before the pandemic.
This excess mortality increased to more than 40 percent during the first two months of California’s reopening.
The authors also did a detailed analysis of the risks associated with nine different types of work. “Relative to pre-pandemic time,” they wrote, “mortality increased during the pandemic by 39% among food/agriculture workers, 28% among transportation/logistics workers, 27% among facilities workers, and 23% among manufacturing workers.” Unemployed workers also had a 23 percent increase in their mortality, which includes the hundreds of thousands thrown out of work during the pandemic in California, and millions nationally.
Further into the study, the authors take a more granular look at the dangers posed to workers, observing the increased risk of dying among different occupations. They define a “risk ratio,” which is the number of observed deaths in a given type of job divided by the expected deaths. This value is then interpreted as the increased risk of dying during the pandemic from one’s job.
The most at-risk job was line cook, which had a calculated risk ratio of 1.60. This was followed by “packaging and filling machine operators and tenders (RR=1.59), miscellaneous agricultural workers (RR=1.55), bakers (RR=1.50), and construction laborers (RR=1.49).” Nurses had a risk ratio of 1.34, truck drivers were at 1.32, and other “production workers” stood at 1.46.
The research also listed how many deaths occurred during the pandemic among these occupations. Among the most lethal jobs were hand laborers (2,550 deaths), truck drivers (1,962 deaths) and construction laborers (1,587 deaths). At least 1,360 line cooks and head cooks lost their lives during this time, as did 562 customer service representatives and 378 house cleaners. Even jobs one might consider less dangerous because workers are often outside, such as grounds maintenance workers, suffered 712 deaths, 40 percent more than average.
These data are invaluable for understanding the extent and breadth of the pandemic, as well as providing a scientific appraisal for what workplaces are truly “safe” to open. That line cooks are the most directly threatened, for example, suggests that even take-out dining, much less in-person dining, should be restricted to protect the lives of those workers.
It should be noted that these data do not include a great deal of information on teachers, which is because during the time analyzed by this study (March–October 2020), schools in California were all remote. Even then, 183 teacher assistants died, of which at least 40 deaths were directly attributable to COVID-19.
The paper also cut through the racial narrative being pushed by institutions like the Atlantic and its COVID Racial Data Tracker, which claim that “people of color” are affected more than whites by the pandemic. In fact, the real disparities are by class, with workers dying far more often than those in the upper 10 percent of income earners, much less the top 1 percent or more.
What racial disparities do exist, the research notes, are caused “because certain occupations require in-person work,” such as agricultural labor, and that those jobs are largely held by California’s Hispanic population, many of whom are immigrants. The data further shows that “Though non-occupational risk factors may be relevant, it is clear that eliminating COVID-19 will require addressing occupational risks.”
Many of these occupational risks can be eliminated through the closure of schools and non-essential businesses, as recommended by those such as US President Joe Biden’s former advisor, Dr. Michael Osterholm. This would minimize both the exposure of those workers, including the aforementioned line cooks and manufacturing workers, to the virus, as well as greatly reduce the paths of transmission and mutation.
At the same time, the study notes that “In-person essential workers are unique in that they are not protected by shelter-in-place policies.” This includes those in the food and agricultural sector, where “excess mortality rose sharply…during [California’s] first shelter-in-place period, from late March through May; these increases were not seen among those working in non-essential sectors.” It then stresses the need for “complementary policies” for “those who cannot work from home.”
For all workers, the authors list the bare minimum requirements for safe work, including “free personal protective equipment, clearly defined and strongly enforced safety protocols, easily accessible testing, generous sick policies, and appropriate responses to workplace safety violations.”
They explain that “vaccination programs prioritizing workers in sectors such as food/agriculture are likely to have disproportionately large benefits for reducing COVID-19 mortality.”
The paper ends with the following point, one that directly contradicts the openly pursued policy of herd immunity by the ruling elite: “If indeed these workers are essential, we must be swift and decisive in enacting measures that will treat their lives as such.”
But such actions must be taken by the workers themselves. As the recent struggle by Chicago teachers against in-person learning demonstrates, the entire political apparatus—the Democrats, the unions, the media—is arrayed against them in an effort to fully reopen factories and workplaces, no matter the death toll. There is no section of the existing social system that genuinely listens to the very clear science, that schools and nonessential business must be closed during the pandemic to preserve human lives. It is only the working class, through an understanding of the science involved and the formation of rank-and-file safety committees in their workplaces and neighborhoods, that can carry out such lifesaving action.
Nine arrested in San Jose, California anti-eviction protest
More than 100 tenants and advocates, organized by the Regional Tenant Organizing Network, blocked eviction hearings at the Santa Clara County Superior Court in San Jose, California Wednesday morning, protesting the displacement of renters during the coronavirus pandemic.
Protesters blocking the courthouse entrance effectively shut down the court in the morning hours before being violently removed by County Sheriff’s Deputies. Nine protesters were arrested on the charge of disrupting court operations. In a video on Twitter that gained over 19,000 views in a few hours, a protester is seen being dragged violently away from the crowd by a squad of deputies.
Despite the ongoing pandemic, intensive care units nearing capacity, over 400 daily COVID-19 deaths in California alone and the extension of a federal eviction moratorium by the Biden administration, evictions continue apace throughout the state.
In the heart of Silicon Valley, the home of Facebook, Alphabet/Google, Apple, Netflix and Tesla, impoverished workers are being kicked onto the street while being told to “stay home” to slow the spread of COVID-19.
There were at least 527 evictions in the Bay Area from the start of the statewide coronavirus lockdown on March 19 through the end of December, according to data collected by KQED and CalMatters from sheriffs’ offices in the Bay Area’s nine counties. At least 145 of those evictions—the most of any county in the region—took place in Santa Clara County. Tenants’ attorneys say that figure is an undercount, since most tenants leave or get locked out before law enforcement ever gets involved. There are 25-30 eviction proceedings every week in Santa Clara County, which may or may not result in immediate eviction.
Chad Bolla, one of the organizers of the event, explained “Tenants throughout the Bay Area are being evicted as many landlords are taking advantage of the loopholes in the County, State, and Federal moratoriums, and the spike in COVID-19 cases can be directly linked to evictions.”
Under California’s COVID-19 Tenant Relief Act of 2020, or AB 3088, which expires on January 31, renters can prevent eviction by paying one-quarter of back rent accrued since Sept. 1, 2020. A new State bill, SB91, was introduced on Monday that extends this deadline to June 30. The bill also allocates $ 2.6 billion, providing 80 percent of the rent losses between April 2020 and March 2021 to landlords if they choose to forgive the remaining 20 percent and not pursue evictions. If the landlord does not agree to forgive unpaid rent, the program would still pay 25 percent of rent in arrears.
According to an analysis published on January 20 by the Bay Area Equity Atlas and the Housing Now! California coalition, 1.1 million California tenants were behind on rent at the end of 2020. That’s nearly 1 in 5 renters statewide, including more than 37,000 households in Santa Clara County. Those tenants owe an average of $4,651 for a combined total of $173.5 million. The total estimated outstanding rent for California stands at $ 3.7 billion.
Public Counsel, a pro bono law firm, tweeted that “Amid #Covid19 tenants need FULL rent debt relief. Rather than guaranteeing relief to all struggling tenants, #SB91 leaves the fate of vulnerable tenants in the hands of landlords.”
“This plan leaves tenants to the ‘luck of the draw,’” Christina Livingston, executive director of the tenant advocacy group Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, told the Los Angeles Times. “If a tenant has a landlord who wants them to stay, they will get this federal rent assistance. If the tenant is unlucky enough to have a corporate landlord who wants to flip the building, or a racist landlord who doesn’t like them, they won’t receive the relief.”
While the media have praised Biden’s executive order to extend moratoria on evictions and foreclosures to the end of March, the protest at Santa Clara—and the violent police response it elicited—sheds light on the true nature of the Democratic Party’s response to the growing eviction crisis.
Jennifer Kwart, a spokeswoman for Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) was quoted by the Los Angeles Times explaining that under the executive order signed by Biden, tenants must pay all back rent owed at the end of March in order to avoid immediate eviction. Through SB-91, California’s Democrats are attempting to forestall the immediate eruption of mass homelessness while avoiding any significant interference with the profit interests of landlords.
Debra Carlton, executive vice president of state public affairs of California Apartment Association, pointed to the importance of the subsidy for most landlords, telling the Associated Press, “Without this money, many landlords are at risk of losing their rental units.”
Landlords may lose their property, and indeed support must be provided to small-scale landlords to ensure they financially survive the pandemic, but an evicted tenant could easily lose their life. Several academic studies have documented how the horrifying reality of losing a home in the middle of a pandemic exacerbates sickness and death.
A November study, still awaiting peer review, by UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, linked the lifting of eviction moratoriums in 27 states to 433,000 new COVID-19 cases and 11,000 deaths. The researchers attributed those cases to an increased spread of the virus, the result of people searching for new housing, doubling up with friends or family, or becoming homeless.
Another study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in January found that uniform moratoriums on evictions and utility shut offs through November of last year could have saved 164,000 lives lost to COVID-19. The report laid out a sobering assessment of how the drive for profit has taken needless lives: “We find that policies that limit evictions are found to reduce COVID-19 infections by 3.8% and reduce deaths by 11%. Moratoria on utility disconnections reduce COVID-19 infections by 4.4% and mortality rates by 7.4%. Had such policies been in place across all counties (i.e., adopted as federal policy) from early March 2020 through the end of November 2020, our estimated counterfactuals show that policies that limit evictions could have reduced COVID-19 infections by 14.2% and deaths by 40.7%. For moratoria on utility disconnections, COVID-19 infections rates could have been reduced by 8.7% and deaths by 14.8%.”
Echoing the horrors cited by such studies, and pointing to the contradictions in the policies and palliatives touted by Newsom, Biden and the Democratic Party, Betty Gabaldon, a tenant organizer at Wednesday’s protest, told KQED News, “Evictions are deadly, they’re telling us to stay home to fight COVID, but how are we going to do it if they are kicking us out?”
California is home to some of the richest people on the planet. Elon Musk, the richest man on Earth, increased his fortune 5-fold as 2 million people succumbed to COVID-19 around the world. In May 2020, Gavin Newsom collaborated with Musk to prematurely reopen the Tesla factory, resulting in several documented infections and likely many more, as statistics are not available. Newsom, with an estimated net worth of $20 million, speaks for the capitalist class that Musk belongs to, which has insisted throughout the pandemic that nothing can be done that impinges on profits.
Workers facing eviction and infection must form rank and file neighborhood committees to fight for their rights for housing and safety. The well-being of the mass of society must be placed above the profits of a few. These committees must be guided by the understanding that the Democratic Party represents the wealthy. To put an end to evictions, workers must organize independently of and in opposition to all factions of the Democratic Party, in unity with educators, healthcare workers and other workers across the country and internationally who are fighting for a rational and humane response to the pandemic.
We encourage all those interested in forming rank and file committees to oppose evictions to contact the WSWS today. We will help link these struggles to the growing rebellion of the working class in the United States and internationally.
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