Marxist analysis can't explain COVID disparities

Vincent J. Curtis

17 Oct 20

RE: COVID burden mimics Code Red Results.  The Spectator is reverting to full People's Daily mode by publishing the opinion piece at reference on the front page, above the fold.  The piece was written by the usually reliable Steve Buist.  The reference to Code Red is to a series are articles published a decade ago that reported on the correlation of poverty, location of housing, and bad health effects.  The Buist opinion piece tries to extend the Code Red analysis to the COVID outbreak in Hamilton.  The result is a Marxist fallacy that collapses upon cursory examination.  Below is the rebuttal.

When the matter is statistics, the best and most meaningful results come from economists and mathematicians, who work with numbers a lot.  Whenever Arts majors play at statistics, the results are often tragic, or risible.  Such is the case with the article.  

These are the bald facts, as reported by the Province of Ontario.  Since the beginning of the pandemic to October 16, Hamilton Public Health Services has reported 1,475 cases, of which 1,248 are resolved, leaving 186 active cases.  There were 47 deaths.  Somehow, these numbers are being spun to fit a narrative that suffering was disproportionately experienced by the poor and the ‘racialized.’

The first question is, what suffering?  Hamilton’s population is over half a million, and 47 people died of the virus over a six month span.  Many of those occurred in the 80 + age demographic in LTC facilities, so where’s the possible connection between suffering and race, and suffering and poverty?  There isn’t enough suffering in the numbers to make the case.  The neglect and the racism simply isn't there.

Let’s carry the theory farther.  Yukon Territory, NWT, Nunavut, and PEI have had no deaths.  Newfoundland has 2, New Brunswick has 4, Saskatchewan has 25, and Manitoba has 38 deaths.  Nova Scotia, 65 deaths.  How does poverty and race cause these regions to have fewer deaths than Hamilton?  The north has a lot of ‘racialized’ people, so why aren’t there any deaths north of ‘60?

The relating of poverty and race to COVID suffering is a Marxist fantasy that collapses upon the most cursory examination.

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