How to Respond to COVID-19
Here in the UK we learned the hard way that health care is national defence. It’s a matter of vital national security. In WWI we were chronically short of healthy young recruits, far too many potential soldiers were too sickly or under nourished to serve. What goes for the military goes for industry too, what use is a sickly, unfit work force, especially in a crisis? This is why universal health care is not controversial in the UK. It’s why lifelong conservative voters like me support universal health care, we were faced with a clear existential threat generations ago. How could we expect the population to fight for a country that didn’t look after them in return? Loyalty has to go both ways. I accept we’re a different case from the US because we’re a much smaller country, the US can manage due to sheer numbers, but that’s a pretty poor excuse. Having a fit, healthy population matters.<p>Now we’re faced with Covid-19. This is a matter of national and international security and defence. Health care spending is national defence spending. It’s just a different type of defence against different types of threats, some mundane, some exceptional.