Culpable Negligence in the US and UK

US President Donald Trump (right) is culpable in the deaths of thousands of Americans by using the coronavirus pandemic to boost his electoral prospects and line the pockets of big business – so says Noam Chomsky, an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

In an interview with the Guardian, the much-respected intellectual (left) argued that Trump was stabbing average Americans in the back while pretending to be the country’s savior during the worst health crisis in at least a century. 

Across the Atlantic, UK deaths of more than 50 hospital and care home workers have been reported to the country’s health and safety regulator, which is considering launching criminal investigations, the Guardian also reported. 

The Health and Safety Executive, which investigate the breaking of safety at work laws, have received 54 formal reports of deaths in health and care settings “where the source of infection is recorded as Covid-19”. 

These are via the official reporting process, called Riddor: Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences. 

Separately, senior lawyers say any failures to provide proper personal protective equipment (PPE) may be so severe they amount to corporate manslaughter, with police forces drawing up plans to handle any criminal complaints. 

Despite weeks of pleading, frontline medical staff complain that PPE is still failing to reach them as hospitals battle the highly contagious pathogen. Senior barristers say criminal investigations should be launched, and that there are grounds to suspect high-level failures. 

I concur. Dereliction of duty cannot be forgiven. It’s the right step to take in order to seek justice so that their deaths have not been in vain. 

And the US and the UK are the two countries with the highest number of Covid-19 casualties. Their combined deaths constitute 39.7% of total fatalities worldwide. 

And as for the Top 7 worst-affected countries, their total deaths represent 76% of the world’s tally!