Before the pandemic, Aaron was a professional musician, performing at several paid gigs every month, where he could also sell recordings and merchandise. But like artists across the US and internationally, Aaron’s artistic livelihood was wiped out, a casualty of the US government’s disastrous and ongoing class-based response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, after more than 1 million people have died from COVID-19 in the US alone, and with the more contagious and vaccine-resistant BA.2 variant spreading around the world, the Biden administration is not only declaring the pandemic over, but also leading the world to the brink of a nuclear World War III.

In this interview, Aaron discusses how the experience of the last two years has impacted his own thinking and explains why he is taking a principled stand against both the pandemic and the drive to war.