Healthcare is a God-Given right
In Islam, it is an obligation to provide health care to all, based on the following:
Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) sent a physician to Ubay b. Ka'b. He cut the vein and then cauterized it." [Muslim]
"I fell severely sick at the time of Umar b. Al-Khattab, who called a physician for me, he warmed me up to the extent I would suck on date pits due to the intense heat". [Al-Hakim]
In the first hadith, the Prophet (saw) sent the physician as the head of State. In the second narration, Umar (ra), who was the Khaleefah, also sent the physician as the head of State. Consequently, the State must provide health care for all the citizenry.
More broadly, this falls under the responsibility of the State to take care of the issues:
“The Imam (ruler) is a guardian, and he is responsible for his subjects” [Al-Bukhari]
And amongst the most important responsibilities to his subjects is to guarantee the fulfillment of their healthcare.
Unemployment: A looming catastrophe
US unemployment numbers are predicted to be catastrophic. Mark Munro, a Senior Fellow and Policy Director at Brookings, is predicting that “more than 10 million [low-wage, low-benefit, or tip-based] jobs at risk”. In Canada, it’s not much better. They are predicting an unemployment rate to double and then hit a high of 15% in the third quarter of 2020.
Unemployment “is actually one of the most difficult, most devastating experiences." So, it's great that in Canada, we have healthcare – it's better than the US. But it's not enough. These waves of job losses due to the pandemic illustrate that you can't isolate the issue of healthcare from the other basic rights such as water, food, shelter and clothing. The same rights that must be addressed:
“The son of Adam has no right to anything except these: a house to live in, clothing to cover his 'awrah (parts of the body that must be covered in public), a chunk of bread, and water.” [Tirmidhi].
Should have society been better prepared for this?
Yes, it should have.
The threat of disease is not a new problem. In fact, the Islamic practice of quarantine was official government policy during an outbreak of plague in the 7th century. Under the rule of Umar bin al Khattab (ra), the concept of quarantine was implemented. The basis of the ruling was on the saying of the Prophet Muhammad (saw):
"If you hear about it (an outbreak of plague) in a land, do not go to it; but if the plague breaks out in a country where you are staying, do not run away from it.” [Bukhari]
More recently, there were SARs and MERs, but more importantly, epidemiologists have been ringing the alarm for a while. For example, Dr. Mike Osterholm predicted that this was a real risk. In 2017, he published the book, "Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs." where also lays out the following hypothetical scenario:
The virus spreads from Shanghai, China, to the rest of the world.
Sick people travel to other countries before they become aware of the problem.
The virus doesn't have immediately visible symptoms.
Hospitals would be running out of supplies:
"Most hospitals are running low or have exhausted their supply of N95 respirators needed to protect healthcare workers."
The scenario also predicts sports league cancelling games, stock market declines of 50%, the Fed cutting interest rates to zero and a mortality rate of 4% to 6%.
Consequently, this pandemic was entirely predictable.
Society is designed for GDP, not you and me.
So, going back to the question: why are we so unprepared? Why were epidemiologists and pandemic experts ignored?
Society was designed to produce goods and services. It was designed to build “shareholder value” or bring “returns on investment”. It's not designed to take care of our basic needs. The metrics that matter are growth, inflation or the stock indices. For example, economists will say that the economy “did well” when it grew $2.2 trillion from 2007 to 2014. But at the same time, poverty increased by almost 12 million people. Those Joe Six-Packs and Sally Soccer Moms simply don't factor into the spreadsheets used to generate the stats.
But do you remember Pharma Bro, aka Martin Shkreli?
He jacked up the price of Daraprim, the only cure for toxoplasmosis, by 5,000%, defending is actions on the basis that “this is a capitalist society, a capitalist system and capitalist rules.
But he’s the tip of the iceberg. Fox reported that insulin has gone up by 500%, while CBS noted that “drug costs far outpace the rate of inflation or wage growth." AARP also pointed out that the brand-name drug companies make $3.5 billion by paying generic companies to delay the release medications.
Alec Smith is one of the victims of this for-profit society: he couldn’t afford to pay the $1,300 a month cost for his insulin. He started rationing it out, went into a diabetic coma, and then died. The point is: it was entirely legal to extort the masses on pharmaceuticals and let people die if they can’t pay.
If the elites will not ensure that Alec Smith lives, why would they ensure that society is prepared for a pandemic?
The elites could have worked with Dr. Mike Osterholm and prepared for this inevitable. Fifteen years ago, after the SARS outbreak he recommended in the elite publication Foreign Affairs the following:
“…what is needed is a detailed operational blueprint for how to get a population through one to three years of a pandemic. Such a plan must involve all the key components of society. In the private sector, the plan must coordinate the responses of the medical community, medical suppliers, food providers, and the transportation system. In the government sector, the plan should take into account officials from public health, law enforcement, and emergency management at the international, federal, state, and local levels… planning is enormously useful. It gives government officials, private-sector partners, and the community the opportunity to meet, think through potential dilemmas, purchase necessary equipment, and set up organizational structures for a 12- to 36-month response. A blueprint forces leaders to rehearse their response to a crisis, preparing emotionally and intellectually so that when disaster strikes the community can face it”. [emphasis added]
But the elites ignored him. They went on spending on spree trillion-dollar tax cuts, trillion-dollar wars and trillion-dollars’ worth of stock buy-backs. But what’s the difference between ignoring Dr. Osterholm and the reality that 1 out of 8 people must ration their medication? Nothing.
Contrast this Islam, where one’s humanity is more important than objects, than private property:
“Whenever the people of an area wake up with a hungry person amongst them, then they have removed the covenant with Allah” [Ahmed]
If one of the “have-nots” steals from the "haves," then the latter can't claim that crime before the Creator was committed. Instead, what is a bigger crime – as we are witnessing – is that the "haves" don't take care of those who are hungry, sick or impoverished. Society matters most when you are down and out. The elites squandered trillions on tax cuts, buy-backs or the wars of oppression. Instead, they should have spent it on Alec Smith, they should have spent it on pandemic preparedness, they should have invested in the well-being for us all.