Corona is the Virus, Capitalism is the Crisis

As so many have said before us, we are living in unprecedented times.  COVID-19 is ravaging so many communities, disproportionately impacting the most marginalized among us.  Many POCA clinics are closed right now, some remain open.  We are living in a global pandemic during a time of extreme inequality and a system that continues to prioritize the profit of the few over the health and wellbeing of the many: this affects all of us and some of us are feeling it more than ever.  We know the difficult decisions our clinics are making about whether to be open or closed right now are rooted in the dilemmas that capitalism creates for us, the lack of social safety nets, and the terror we all have about supporting ourselves and our families during this new normal.

We want to acknowledge the differential impact this crisis is having on marginalized communities, especially Black, Indigenous and People Of Color communities, houseless folks, people locked up in prisons, jails, and detention centers, people facing violence in their homes, frontline workers who are already underpaid, underprotected, undervalued (i.e. janitors, grocery store workers, postal workers, warehouse workers, nursing home workers, etc). The disparity and oppression we see right now has been going on for centuries but is spotlighted in grim detail in this moment.