Mexico: capitalist healthcare fails workers

MEXICO, February 16—In December, intent on projecting an image of control over the health crisis, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), presented a vaccination plan for the country.
The first stage would consist of immunization of all healthcare workers, and the second, would pursue vaccination of 15 million older adults concluding in March. Until yesterday, only a little more than 700 thousand people have been vaccinated, which does not even cover all employees in the health sector (Expansion Politica, 2/10).
On display is the liberal deception of AMLO's self-proclaimed fourth transformation, which in reality has taken advantage of his power to maintain his party’s position and to militarize the country by deploying the National Guard. The only transformation that will serve the needs of the working class is communist revolution.
Just as the pandemic unmasks capitalism's reign of terror, the vaccine program demonstrates capitalism’s complete inability to meet the working class’ basic needs.But more deeply it reveals that under capitalism profits matter more than workers’ health. Capitalism cannot hide its criminal nature. Today it is more evident that it’s a matter of life and death to fight for communism: a society that serves the workers, where our health is a social priority not a profit margin.
Capitalism gutted healthcare system
Mexico’s national healthcare system claims to guarantee access to health care for all those living in the country. But in reality, for 40 years the health structure has been abandoned to give rise to privatization turning healthcare into one more commodity of the capitalist system. The Covid-19 crisis made this situation even more visible, demonstrating the mercenary nature of the system. Today hospital saturation of 100 percent and a massive rate of infection continues to devastate the working class (Milenio, 2/8). This crisis intensified recently in January. Given the overflow of hospitals and the near impossibility of finding oxygen tanks due to excessive pricing, many  infected people suffered the disease untreated from home (New York Times, 2/9).
The same corrupt incompetence defines the “vaccination strategy.” The politicians closest to the president, like Marcelo Ebrad, Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced with great fanfare the contracts with Pfizer and AstraZeneca for the acquisition of their vaccines. Two months later Mexico’s vaccination coverage is abysmal. Ebrad is one of the leading candidates to succeed López Obrador along with Claudia Sheinbaum, the Mayor of Mexico City. Both try to present themselves as the most competent officials to face the pandemic, but they can’t escape the reality of an overwhelmed healthcare system.
The AMLO government claims to have contracted for more than 200 million doses of vaccine, but to date, not even 1 percent of the 125 million inhabitants of the country have been vaccinated. The government says it has 10,000 vaccination brigades made up of the military and the so-called servants of the nation. But these brigades, whose 12  person teams include only two healthcare workers, are more likely to solicit the vote for Morena, the ruling party, and create a National Guard presence on the streets than provide vaccinations (Mexico Daily News, 1/6).
Bosses turn vaccines into a commodity
Under capitalism vaccines, like housing and food, are commodities rather than a human necessity. Pharmaceutical hace increased several times over their market value. As a result, vaccine distribution will be motivated primarily by purchasing power rather than disease prevention. Under capitalism this will undoubtedly mean that the poorest sections of the working class will be last to receive the vaccine. Once again, capitalism has demonstrated its inability to manage this crisis.
The Covid-19 pandemic has made it clear that workers are disposable under this system where the only thing that matters is the profits of the capitalists. The consequences are lethal for the working class with almost 2.4 million deaths in the world by February 13 (World Health Organization). Mexico ranks third in the world with 171,ooo official deaths and many more uncounted. The management of the pandemic has been a disaster in Mexico, as in the rest of the world. The Progressive Labor Party continues to call on workers to reject the deception that elections can lead to workers power and change this exploitative system. Let’s fight for workers’ power, communism.