Green Party of the United States - National Committee Voting

Home	Vote	Results	History	Contacts	Admin
	National Committee Voting

Login

Proposal Details

Proposal ID	1075
Proposal	Resolution in Support of a Comprehensive Public Health Response to Covid-19
Presenter	Steering Committee
Floor Manager	Margaret Elisabeth
Phase	Cancelled
Discussion	02/21/2022 - 03/20/2022
Voting	03/21/2022 - 03/27/2022
Presens Quorum	0.6666
Consens Quorum	A Majority of Yes and No Votes

Background

The following text is presented to the National Committee of the Green Party of the United States as a proposed resolution in support of a comprehensive public response to the historic Covid-19 global pandemic.

This resolution seeks to build consensus around what comprehensive public health response and policy looks like, including addressing a number of “hot button” issues such as vaccines and mandates (particularly mandates for vaccines and facemasks). With fascist organizations clearly adopting anti-vaccination and anti-mandate stances as part of their extremist right-wing populist message to oppose a socialist response, and, instead, encourage “rugged individualism,” it becomes extremely important for the Green Party to speak out and oppose fascism (as previously adopted by this National Committee in proposal #938), misinformation around the pandemic and necessary public health responses to it. As Howard Zinn said, “Events are already moving in certain deadly directions. To be neutral means to accept that. You can’t be neutral on a moving train.”

Adopting this resolution enables the Green Party to be a leading voice of reason for a positive Green vision for a comprehensive public health policy response against a global deadly pandemic at a time when the bipartisan duopoly has abandoned the working class to the virus and advises “back to normal” despite over 900,000 confirmed deaths as of the time of this writing.

Proposal

BE IT RESOLVED that the National Committee of the Green Party of the United States endorses the Steering Committee statement (https://www.gp.org/statement_from_green_party_us_steering_committee_on_covid-19_vaccines_and_mandates) supporting a comprehensive public health policy to curb and eradicate the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has swept the globe since early 2020. This policy includes extensive economic relief for the working class, including Medicare for All and a Green New Deal to rebuild the post-COVID-19 economy.

We recognize societies are often judged by how they treat their most vulnerable – the elderly, the young, the disabled, and historically marginalized communities – and by this measure, the US is deeply dysfunctional and unjust. Not only has the Biden administration abdicated its duties, but there is also an extreme bipartisan indifference at local, state, and federal levels to take any further action to relieve suffering and prevent illness or long-term disease due to COVID-19.

COVID-19 infections generate a spectrum of symptoms and complications, not only, but most notably, death. We urge communities to work together to implement measures to protect our most vulnerable family members, friends, and neighbors — especially the immunocompromised, and those that can't be vaccinated. We urge these measures as individual choices, as well as a responsibility to come together as a community to take sustained, collective action to save lives.

Ending the COVID-19 pandemic requires two aspects: lessening transmissibility, and lessening severity. Lessening transmissibility means working to minimize infections in the first place by minimizing the transmission of the virus, which is also required to prevent mutations and new variants. Lessening severity means not only reducing severity of illness when individuals do get infected, but also lessening the total number of people requiring hospitalization for the sake of healthcare workers and the community.

Transmissibility of COVID-19 is largely decreased by the use of facemasks, especially N95 or better, as well as indoor air filtration and ventilation. Testing combined with quarantines for COVID-positive individuals, especially travelers, also prevent transmission; we note that current CDC standards for length of quarantine may not be effective at eliminating transmissibility and call on previous standards to be restored.

Severity of COVID-19 illness is largely decreased by the use of preventative vaccines, and immediate medical treatment if symptoms occur. COVID-19 vaccines, including those based in mRNA technology, have been shown through trials and numerous studies worldwide to be extremely safe and effective at preventing serious illness, even against “Delta” and “Omicron” variants of COVID-19. Boosters specifically designed against “Omicron” and other variants are expected to improve protection further.

Mandating adults that are able and with limited chance of adverse reaction and response to take a vaccine to prevent death and hospitalization upon COVID positive transmission is an act of supporting communities that will experience death and/or hospitalization without such community effort.

With an understanding that healthcare practice and study has long historic roots in cultural, racial, and genetic bias that are often still applied in current times, the Green Party recognizes that people who are unable to take the vaccine will benefit most from those around them being vaccinated.

The Green Party therefore strongly recommends vaccination for everyone healthy enough to receive a vaccine, and supports use of masking and vaccine mandates, particularly for employees in workplaces and public places most at risk of transmission such as government offices, schools, and hospitals.

Historically and currently, medical treatment has been used to abuse and harm oppressed communities, and has taken actions that have resulted in generations of harm. Though we recognize these issues happen in various situations where healthcare is necessary, the COVID-19 vaccine has been made accessible in forms and locations that are non-specific to any one population, demographic, or community, and its distribution is too widespread for it to have any other purpose than to respond to a global pandemic.

For those that need treatment, emergency Medicare for All is essential. All patients deserve the best care possible without being saddled with life-long debt. Medicare for All should include not only direct healthcare, but enable everyone to meet with doctors, share any concerns they may have, and have questions about vaccines and other treatments answered. Vaccine hesitancy is an issue that can be addressed through managing misinformation, recognizing fears, and supporting communities of medical professionals that are aware of fears and struggles providing information and advice.

Vaccines and personal protective equipment (PPE) have remained inaccessible to many communities across the country, especially in poor communities with a majority of people of color. These communities experience erasure and minimization from the healthcare industry. It's time for it to end.

The Green Party calls on all levels of government to ensure all communities have access to free, fairly and equitably-distributed COVID-19 vaccines, qualified counseling to address questions about vaccination, and free PPE as necessary to maintain maximum protection, covered by Medicare for All.

Ending this pandemic requires the US to refuse it's historic past of hatred. There must be equitable distribution of vaccines globally; we demand the US cancel all COVID-19 vaccine patents and assist with producing and distributing vaccines worldwide. The days of medical discrimination due to ability, race, class, socio-economic status, and any other systemic obstacle must end.

Resources

Upon passage of proposal, the statement and the position contained therein shall become the official position of the GPUS. This statement and position are to be publicized on the GPUS website and social media.

References

GPUS Steering Committee statement, “Statement From GPUS Steering Committee on COVID-19 Vaccines and Mandates”, December 8, 2021, https://www.gp.org/statement_from_green_party_us_steering_committee_on_covid-19_vaccines_and_mandates

GPUS National Black Caucus statement, “We Say No To Mandates”, December 13, 2021, https://www.blackcaucusgreens.org/we_say_no_to_mandates

GPUS National Committee statement, “Resolution in Opposition to Rising Fascism”, Proposal #938, https://secure.gpus.org/cgi-bin/vote/propdetail?pid=938

“The Hawkins/Walker COVID Relief Program”. https://howiehawkins.us/covid/

“Medicare for All as a Community-Controlled National Health Service”, https://howiehawkins.us/the-hawkins-healthcare-plan-medicare-for-all-as-a-community-controlled-national-health-service/

“The Green New Deal”, https://www.gp.org/green_new_deal

“The Ecosocialist Green New Deal”, https://howiehawkins.us/ecosocialist-green-new-deal/

Contact
Garret Wassermann
garret.wassermann@gp.org

Questions about this system?
Contact the Voting Admin.
The Green Party of the United States voting system is free software, licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
You can download a copy here.
To independently verify a ranked choice vote, or for information about how that works, go to Jonathan Lundell's Voting Page and upload the ballot file from the ranked choice vote result page. JL's ranked choice module is licensed under an alternate free software license.

Green Party of the United States