Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Tue Sep 28, 2021 12:58 pm

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School Board Disruptions Escalate, Funded By Conservative Dark Money
By Jordan Hopkins, Contributor September 27, 2021

An escalating series of demonstrations focusing on COVID-19 restrictions in public schools have created dangerous and chaotic conditions for school boards across the country in recent months. Egged on by a cadre of right-wing influencers, concerned parents from across the right-wing spectrum have flocked to local school board meetings in order to protest a new round of public health restrictions. As this narrative developed, a movement built to fight the alleged public adoption of ‘critical race theory’ was quickly redirected to target school boards. Behind the scenes, a shadowy network of conservative dark money entities has spent millions attempting to remake public education in their own image. Helped by a constellation of disinformation artists and alt-right celebrities, conservatives have revived a strategy that helped them gain control of thousands of school board seats during the Reagan era.

A complex network of shared influence ensures a steady stream of income for a wide ecosystem of right-wing influencers and parents’ groups. Funded by groups like the Council for National Policy, advertised by conservative celebrities like Michael Flynn and enforced at the local level by a loose coalition of parents and militia members, the right-wing policy machine has focused all of its energy on the foundations of American public education. As confrontations between parents and school administration continue to escalate, the opportunity for violence only grows.

A Proven Model

School boards have long been a theatre for conflict in the American political sphere. In the early 1990s, conservative luminaries like Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed stood hand in hand at the head of the Christian Coalition of America to capture thousands of school board seats for the Republican Party. The sweeping victory helped the right wing build a grassroots coalition that eventually rose up in the ‘Republican Revolution’ of 1994, ending nearly a decade of Democratic control of Congress. Now in the wake of the return to classes amid a Covid-19 viral surge, school boards have again become a battlefield, a natural point of contact where conflict becomes inevitable. Over 170 school board officials have been targeted for recall this year, more than double any of the previous years recorded, according to Ballotpedia.

The heated topic of mask and vaccine mandates adds fuel to this fire, creating chaotic conditions. In an early incident, police had to be called to a Lansdale, Pennsylvania, middle school on August 11 after a school board argument about mask mandates exploded into threats and shouting in the parking lot. On September 7, Arizona police arrested three men for ambushing a Tucson-area school principal and attempting to place him under citizen’s arrest for ordering a mask mandate. Less than three days later, a group of parents in San Diego County stormed a school board meeting and forced members to leave, calling a quorum and declaring themselves board members.

As these incidents escalate, it’s become critical to understand the nature of the monetary forces driving a business model based on paranoia and fear. In many cases, top-level funding provided to influencers and parents’ groups can often be linked to large conservative foundations and think-tanks. These long-established groups funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars towards smaller conservative projects like No Left Turn in Education or Parents Defending Education, but also to other similarly aligned foundations.

Following The Money

One of these top-level funders since the beginning of the modern push against public education is the infamous Council for National Policy (CNP), one of the most active and powerful nonprofits in the country. In 2019, CNP’s revenue totaled nearly $3 million. According to Anne Nelson, author of ‘Shadow Network: Media, Money and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right’, CNP “[connects] the manpower and media of the Christian right with the finances of Western plutocrats and the strategy of right-wing Republican political operatives.”

Founded in 1981 by evangelical preacher and “Left Behind” co-creator Tim LeHaye, CNP’s members list has included some of America’s most influential families, from former CNP President Richard DeVos to Elsa Prince and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. The Prince family foundation still works actively with CNP to this day, and donated over $15,000 to the organization and its subsidiaries in 2019, though it is almost certain that many of these donations may go unreported.

One of the CNP’s most effective recent projects has been the funding of hugely influential anti-lockdown and anti-mask groups, most notably the political group America’s Front Line Doctors (AFLD). AFLD rose to national prominence over the summer as one of the main purveyors of conspiracies surrounding the deworming medication ivermectin, which was falsely promoted as an alternative to the COVID-19 vaccine. With hundreds of thousands of followers on Telegram, AFLD offers consultations for prescriptions for the drug for $90 each. Mass chaos followed as orders and customer complaints were ignored en masse.

The leadership of AFLD includes Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation, Adam Brandon of FreedomWorks, and Lisa Nelson of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)- all three are also members of the Council for National Policy. The CNP also receives funding from other conservative groups such as The Bradley Foundation and the Family Research Council. In 2017, education blogger Peter Green reported on a complex plan for public education posted publicly on the Council for National Policy’s own website. Though the post was quickly deleted, the plan serves as a pertinent piece of the larger picture groups like CNP are aiming for.

As reported in Right Wing Watch, “The group’s big picture goal is to eliminate what it calls ‘the worst abuses in current state systems’ while promoting ‘a gradual, voluntary return at all levels to free-market private schools, church schools and home schools as the normative American practice.’” Former CNP President Tony Perkins is also the leader of the Family Research Council, further solidifying ties between the conservative right wing and the former ‘moral majority’. The FRC is at the head of the fight to retake school boards through its political action committee (PAC), FRC Action. Perkins himself wrote in a recent fundraising letter, “FRC Action is offering urgently needed expertise, training materials, guidance, and personal connections to help conservatives win local political campaigns”. He claimed in the letter that more than 1,200 activists attended FRC’s “School Board Boot Camp” program.

Another conservative group with a huge amount of influence is the Leadership Institute, a training organization for political operatives operating out of Virginia. The Institute was founded by Morton Blackwell, a former CNP member. The Leadership Institute is primarily a project of the Koch network, a group of conservative foundations and PACs organized by the billionaire Koch family. They’ve also received money from the DeVos and Prince families, as well as the Cato Institute and the Bradley Foundation. They are part of the State Policy Network, a Koch donor program that spent over $16 million on campus programs for young conservatives across the country. The Institute has had a huge role in growing a new generation of right wing activists. In the last year they’ve been promoting an online training course to “stop the teaching of Critical Race Theory before it destroys the fabric of our nation.” Famous conservative families like the DeVos-Princes, the Kochs, and others donated large sums of money or even developed programs to train activists to target school board meetings. As reported by Right Wing Watch:
“Intercessors for America and the Center for Renewing America, the latter run by former Trump administration official Russ Vought, are distributing a toolkit that encourages conservatives to ‘reclaim’ their schools by taking over local school boards through campaigns focused on opposition to critical race theory.”
Influencers On The Payroll

While critical race theory does not draw the interaction it once did online, the movement developed in part by the Leadership Institute to fight against it has been repurposed by influencers to push the more relevant cultural talking point of mask mandates in the face of a renewed surge of COVID-19. Mask mandates have proven to be a far more effective culture war issue, especially as the delta variant drives higher infection rates in less vaccinated areas.

Google interactions with terms like ‘mask mandates’ relating to COVID-19 have remained relevant far longer than the term ‘critical race theory’, which peaked in early summer 2021. Research into the psychological nature of conspiracy theories has shown that belief in conspiracy is often tied to complex and disruptive socio-political events – and so as long as Covid-19 remains, it is likely that conspiracy narratives regarding the virus will remain as well.

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Google Trends comparison, “critical race theory” vs “mask mandate” from 1/10/21 to 9/19/21.

A new class of right-wing influencers are largely responsible for building on-the-ground hype around school board meetings, starting almost immediately after the conclusion of the January 6 Capitol riot. Once the paramilitary wing of the American right failed to stop the certification of the Electoral College vote, many right-wing devotees pivoted towards local elections. In the days after the insurrection, the Telegram messaging app was awash with jilted right-wing influencers calling for their followers to run for seats on school boards and other positions of local power. Their followers, many of whom had just been banned from Facebook or Twitter for the first time, were happy to oblige.


A far-right Telegram user encourages running for school boards and local office after the beginning of the Biden administration

A far-right Telegram user encourages running for school boards and local office after the beginning of the Biden administration
Parents’ groups quickly began to form, fueled by the upcoming return to school and a wave of right-wing propaganda about critical race theory. Groups like No Left Turn in Education exploded in growth with hundreds of chapters across the country, intermeshing issues around public education with the larger right-wing conspiracy sphere.

The right-wing media turned quickly to elevate and platform these groups, more than happy to grant interviews to people like Parents Defending Education president Nicole Neily and outreach director Erika Sanzi, both of whom have deep industry ties. As political scientist Maurice Cunningham writes:
“Neily is a well-compensated veteran of numerous right wing organizations, including not only Speech First but the Cato Institute…The Education Post, an online publication originally funded by Eli Broad, paid Sanzi $121,000 in 2016 and $131,000 in 2017. She is also a senior visiting fellow at the Fordham Institute.”
QAnon-linked celebrity and former General Michael Flynn was one of the most vocal proponents of taking the fight to school board meetings, speaking at dozens of events across the country after January 6. At a ‘Reopen/Reawaken America’ tour event, Flynn gave a speech alongside MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. “We cannot allow school boards to dictate what is happening in our schools,” Flynn told the crowd. “We dictate that.”

Flynn called for his followers to get involved in local politics repeatedly, railing against the evils of critical race theory and vaccine mandates. Flynn also has ties to the Council for National Policy, where he appeared on a 2016 panel called ‘Terrorism and the Condition of the Military’. More evidence of Flynn’s ties to the CNP came to light in The Washington Spectator:
“​​Academic researcher Allpress found Flynn listed in a Zoominfo database of ‘email addresses and direct dials for the Council for National Policy employees’ with a CNP phone number (first listed on November 26 and still active as of February 11—throughout the period when he was appearing at the Stop the Steal protests, including in the January 6, 2021 rally).”
Enforcers and Activists

Another important part of the full-court press against public education is the grassroots efforts on the ground, in which conservative community members turn out in droves to school board meetings to voice their displeasure with proposed mask mandates.

One side effect of this groundswell has been a series of viral internet videos, chronicling right-wing parents exploding at school board members for allegedly trying to indoctrinate their children into a leftist agenda. This has proven an effective means of spreading awareness of their cause, with videos racking up hundreds of thousands of views. This is the level where organizing is most organic in terms of funding, driven by merchandise sales and donations from independent followers. This often contributes to the escalation, as influencers feel the need to do more to garner more attention and more donations from followers.

This dynamic has the potential to create dangerous conditions. In one incident in Vancouver, Washington, an anti-mask protest led by Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer members forced three schools in the area to close. Proud Boys also appeared in force at a school board meeting in Florida, where they assaulted a journalist and intimidated others.

These vanguards of the paramilitary right are often prepared to act as enforcers of their agenda on unsuspecting school board members. In Pennsylvania’s Northampton County, candidate for county executive Steve Lynch ignited a firestorm when he appeared at a Northampton school board meeting and threatened to “take twenty strong men and go in there and remove them”.


Proud Boys have been inserting themselves into anti-mask and anti-vaccine efforts around the country.
As schools reopen, protests have only increased in fervor. Surrounded by propaganda designed to convince them that COVID measures are an assault on their freedom, many truly believe that they are exhausting the last legal remedies for their perceived oppressions. Influencers are eager to capitalize on the fear, and top-level funders provide the infrastructure for conservative groups to concentrate forces on the ground.

These tactics have had widespread success in the past, and the heated discussion around mask mandates has provided a spark for more controversy. With a concrete plan to remake the face of public education, a small number of influential Americans have mobilized the conservative base to put pressure on local democratic institutions. These conflicts attract more violent elements of the far-right, which often put students, teachers, and school board members at risk.

A DeVos-Prince funded takeover of America’s public schools presents a bleak future of ever-increasing corporate control into the education of future generations of Americans. With a great amount of energy and resources being poured into the campaign to remake America’s public schools at the local level, the movement is stronger and more organized than ever before.

https://unicornriot.ninja/2021/school-b ... ark-money/

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Covid Funds Spent on Police and Prisons
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist 22 Sep 2021

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Systemic racism and weak movement politics allow states and cities to spend relief funds on police and jails.

The health and financial impacts of the covid pandemic have been enormous. More than 42 million people have been infected and 679,000 have died in this country. Individuals, businesses and every level of government have suffered as they lost income and revenue. Many workers are unemployed and certain sectors of the economy still suffer disproportionately. There is an easy case to make in favor of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP) which was passed in order to relieve these many crises.

The argument is harder to make when those funds are being used for police and prisons, and which is happening across the country. The state of Alabama is poised to use ARP funds to build three new prisons . Philadelphia is paying for police and for jails. The state of Idaho is increasing correction officer salaries. Mesa, Arizona will buy surveillance equipment for its police department. A lawsuit is pending in Kansas City, Missour i which will determine whether relief funds can be allocated to that city’s police department.

The prison building proposal in Alabama is particularly troubling. Only 41% of its population is fully vaccinated against covid. The spread of the Delta variant there has resulted in covid patients utilizing half of all Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds in the state, which means that non-covid patients are also impacted by this lack of capacity. An average of 50 Alabamans die of covid every day. Black people in the state are as hesitant as white residents to be vaccinated and consequently have the same high death rate. One would think that Alabama would be a state eager to bolster its health care system with ARP funds. Alas, incarceration is a priority while sick people literally can’t find a hospital bed.

All of these plans cynically claim that policing and incarceration are health, safety, and infrastructure issues. ARP funds are allowed to make up for losses of revenue but they could just as easily be used for health care, housing or schools. Police departments are very well funded with over $118 billion spent on U.S. police departments as of 2018. The armed forces of Russia, Germany, France, the U.K. and Japan all receive less money than American police departments.

That is because police in this country are a domestic military force. Just as in the days of the slave patrol they are used to keep Black people under physical control. Maintaining that level of control is a constant political priority, regardless of whether any other needs are met. Police can always count on having good paying jobs and all the resources they want while millions suffer from low wage work, inadequate housing, and crumbling schools. No one should fear eviction because ARP funds have been earmarked for rental assistance , but states and cities are slow to spend that money.

The failure here is not just about systemic racism as it pertains to law enforcement. There is also a failure of left wing movements. Mayors and legislators should be afraid of public opposition if ARP funds are used for anything except human needs. In the absence of strong movement politics they can expect little push back and are assured of getting whatever they want.

The huge protests which occurred in 2020 after the police murder of George Floyd now seem to be figments of the imagination. Attention given to the presidential election and the imperative of getting rid of Donald Trump sucked the oxygen out of the room. The movement itself lacked structure and was unable to sustain itself. There are still plenty of reasons to protest but the moment seems to have passed for most of those who were activated last year.

The rallying cry for community control of police must be extended to the entire governmental apparatus. We have a plethora of governments at the city, county, state and the federal level yet they rarely act on the public’s behalf. That is why elected officials from Idaho to Pennsylvania to Alabama are certain they can get away with using the people's money for dubious reasons. New prisons and better paid police are all we have to show for sickness, unemployment, and death.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/covid ... nd-prisons

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BOLSONARO PROMOTED INEFFECTIVE DRUGS AGAINST COVID AND HID DEATH FIGURES
28 Sep 2021 , 5:20 am .

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Bolsonaro holds a drug from the "covid kit" (Photo: Carolina Antunes / PR)

The Prevent Senior scandal has made headlines in the Brazilian media in the last week. Former doctors of the hospital network handed over to the Parliamentary Investigation Commission of covid-19 (CPI) a file with a series of accusations of irregularities .

Professionals denounce that the company used its hospitals as laboratories to test hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and other drugs from the so-called "covid kit", in collaboration with the so-called parallel office of the Ministry of Health of the government of Jair Bolsonaro.

According to the document, Prevent Senior altered the study results to support the claim that the drugs, which had no scientific evidence, were effective in treating the disease.

The company went to the point of altering death certificates to hide the death of patients from COVID-19 after they were medicated. They also did not inform the patients or their families which medications they were going to prescribe.

The GloboNews media had access to the spreadsheet with the names and health information of all the participants in the study. Nine of them died during the investigation, but the authors only mentioned two deaths.

The first results of the study were published by Prevent Senior on April 15, 2020. Three days later, on his personal Twitter account, President Jair Bolsonaro announced the experiment carried out.

"Of a group of 636 patients accompanied by doctors, 224 did not use hydroxychloroquine. Of these, 12 were hospitalized and 5 died. Of the 412 who opted for the drug, only 8 were hospitalized and, in addition to not being intubated, the number of deaths was zero. The full study will be published shortly, "said the president.

Two of his sons, Federal Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, were also advocates of the Prevent Senior experiment.

The CPI parliamentarians promised to forward the documents and evidence against the sanitation operator to the São Paulo Public Ministry (MP-SP), which will continue the process.

https://misionverdad.com/bolsonaro-prom ... fallecidos

Google Translator

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Pandemic causes decline in life expectancy
By JONATHAN POWELL in London | China Daily Global | Updated: 2021-09-28 09:18

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Faces of victims of COVID-19 are projected onto the Brooklyn Bridge during a memorial service called "A COVID-19 Day of Remembrance" on March 14, 2021 in New York City. The event, which includes a virtual performance by The New York Philharmonic, marks the day the first known coronavirus fatality was confirmed in the city. [Photo/Agencies]

Life expectancy in developed nations has declined the most since World War II because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study.

Working men from the United States suffered the most, and men in general suffered larger life expectancy declines than women, according to research published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

Scientists from the University of Oxford looked at death records across 29 countries to identify the pandemic's impact on longevity, and found 27 experienced reductions in life expectancy last year.

The data studied covered most countries in Europe, the US and Chile, whose official death registrations for last year had been published. The only nations to avoid a fall in life expectancy were Denmark and Norway.

The disease had wiped out years of progress on mortality, as prior to the pandemic, life expectancy at birth had continuously increased in most countries for generations, said the scientists.

The study noted that life expectancy refers to the average age to which newborn live if current death rates continued for their whole life.

"It provides a snapshot of current mortality conditions and allows for a comparison of the size of the mortality impacts of the pandemic between different countries and populations," it said.

In a news release from the university, the study's co-lead author Jose Manuel Aburto said: "For Western European countries such as Spain, England and Wales, Italy, Belgium, among others, the last time such large magnitudes of declines in life expectancy at birth were observed in a single year was during WWII."

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A homeless man lies next to a wheelchair as a man wearing a protective face mask, amid the coronavirus disease pandemic, walks by at a subway station in Manhattan, New York, Sept 7, 2021. [Photo/Agencies]

Men in the US experienced a decline of 2.2 years relative to 2019 levels, and women in eight countries and men in 11 countries experienced losses in life expectancy in excess of one year, the research showed.

The scale of the life expectancy losses was seen across most countries as 22 nations experienced losses of life expectancy of more than half a year.

"To contextualize, it took on average 5.6 years for these countries to achieve a one-year increase in life expectancy recently: progress wiped out over the course of 2020 by COVID-19," said Aburto.

The higher figures for the US can partly be explained by the notable increase in mortality among working-age people, said Ridhi Kashyap, co-lead author of the study.

"In the US, increases in mortality in the under 60 age group contributed most significantly to life expectancy declines, whereas across most of Europe increases in mortality above age 60 contributed more significantly," she said.

http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20210 ... 6bf98.html
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Mon Oct 04, 2021 1:16 pm

Nicaragua to Immunize the Child Population With Cuban Vaccines

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People line up at a vaccination center in Managua, Nicaragua, Sep. 20, 2021. | Photo: EFE

Published 3 October 2021 (4 hours 49 minutes ago)

The Cuban vaccines Soberana, Soberana 02, and Abdala will be applied to 2,102,366 children voluntarily.


Nicaragua's Vice President Rosario Murillo Sunday informed the approval of the emergency use of Cuban-developed vaccines Abdala, Soberana, and Soberana 02 on the child population.

She informed that the vaccination day against COVID-19 in children and adolescents from 2 to 17 years old would begin on Oct. 20.

The Cuban vaccines Soberana, Soberana 02, and Abdala will be applied to 2,102,366 children voluntarily.

The Health Ministry (MINSA) noted that works continue to guarantee the immunization campaign on the 18-year-old population. As of Sunday morning, Nicaragua had reported 14,448 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic.


Murillo also announced that 1,540,090 vaccines would arrive through the Covax mechanism in the coming weeks.

"We are ensuring that donated vaccines to Nicaragua entered the country through the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the World Health Organization (W.H.O), and Covax mechanism," Murillo said.

Besides Nicaragua and Venezuela, the Abdala vaccine has been approved by Vietnam, whose government has already authorized the purchase of 10 million doses.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Nic ... -0002.html

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900 thousand doses of Cuban vaccine Abdala arrive in Venezuela

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Venezuela registers 1,326 new cases of Covid-19 with an incidence of 30 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. | Photo: BioCubaFarma
Published 3 October 2021

Abdala joins the country's vaccination scheme that until now included the application of Sputnik V and Sinopharm.

The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, offered the balance of prevention and containment of Covid-19 in the country and thanked the arrival of the 900 thousand doses of Abdala vaccines sent from Cuba.

From a press conference led by the Venezuelan authority, it was announced that Abdala joins the South American country's vaccination scheme that until now contemplated the application of the Russian and Chinese vaccines, Sputnik V and Sinopharm, respectively.

The president stressed that the Cuban vaccine Abdala shows 100 percent efficacy in preventing severe disease and death from Covid-19, as reflected by studies and experts in the field.


The president of Venezuela also called on citizens to comply with health care and protocols in order to avoid contagion of the disease.

He also highlighted the productivity of the 7 + 7 system, which consists of seven days of flexible activities and seven days of confinement to control the circulation of the virus in the territory.


Similarly, it was reported during the conference that a vaccination deployment against Covid-19 House by House has begun in the capital city of the country, Caracas, which currently reaches 79 percent of vaccinated.

It was also announced that face-to-face classes will begin on October 25 at all educational levels, taking into account that more than 90 percent of the capital's teachers have been vaccinated.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/llega-ve ... -0014.html

Google Translator

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COVID-19 breaks records in Russia
01.10.2021

Government cuts health spending

For the fourth day in a row, COVID-19 mortality records have been updated in Russia . On Tuesday, September 28, for the first time, mortality from coronavirus infection reached 852 people per day. Over the next four days, mortality increased, reaching on Friday, October 1, the value of 887 deaths per day. The number of cases is also showing an increase: 24,522 people fell ill per day.

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Obviously, from the current situation in the country, the authorities would have to draw certain conclusions and take measures to correct it. Now this means restoring the network of medical institutions, increasing the number of beds and capacity. However, the authorities are not doing any of this and are not going to do anything (otherwise they must have announced this on the eve of the elections). Instead of specific indicators, we hear from the management only general phrases and slogans, which will then be quickly forgotten. Moreover, health care costs in the new budget have been reduced by 117 billion rubles, or 8.6% in relation to this year's budget. If we take into account the size of inflation, then the reduction will be even more significant. The program for the development of the pharmaceutical industry has also been curtailed - costs in this area have been halved.

This situation is quite understandable. For millionaires and billionaires sitting in the State Duma who sponsor their deputies, there is no particular problem with a lack of drugs or a shortage of hospital beds. For them, as well as for senior officials, there will always be places in hospitals and any existing medicines. And the risk of catching any of the diseases they have is less than that of workers. On the other hand, business has a need to protect its interests both domestically and in the international arena - therefore, funds from the social sphere are used to finance law enforcement agencies: expenditures under the item “national security and law enforcement” increase by almost 17% or by 415 billion rubles ... Defense spending will rise by 129 billion rubles. In total, this is slightly less than the overall reduction in social spending -640 billion rubles .

The result of such a policy will be a further decline in the quality of health care, and, as a consequence, a worsening of the demographic situation in the country, the position of the working people. And only through struggle will the working people be able to defend their interests and achieve a better life.

https://www.rotfront.su/covid-19-v-rossii-bet-rekordy/

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"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Wed Oct 06, 2021 1:55 pm

China Declares Zero COVID-19 Infection in the Mainland

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(Xinhua) Chinese mainland reports 26 new imported COVID-19 cases, no local infections. | Photo: Twitter @InfoseekChina

Published 5 October 2021 (16 hours 47 minutes ago)

Delta variant outbreaks detected in Fujian and Heilongjiang provinces forced China to impose severe sanitary measures in those regions.

China returned to zero local cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday for the first time in nearly a month after Delta variant outbreaks detected in Fujian and Heilongjiang provinces were brought under control.

After nearly a month of fighting the Delta variant of the coronavirus in Fujian and Heilongjiang provinces in the far southeast of the country, China overcame these new outbreaks. Local authorities achieved this goal through a strategy of mass quarantine and general nucleic acid testing and movement restrictions.

These two new outbreaks ended without any casualties as the country continues with its economic recovery after most commercial activities and tourism have regained momentum at a time when China is experiencing a vacation period.


In its daily report, the National Health Commission reported 26 new imported cases. Six were recorded in Shanghai, five in Yunnan, four in Shandong, four in Guangdong, three in Shaanxi, two in Fujian. In contrast, Jilin and Heilongjiang reported one case each.

Shanghai also recorded one new suspected case from outside the Chinese mainland, according to the commission.

A total of 9,166 imported cases had been reported on the mainland by the close of business yesterday. Of those, 8,644 had been discharged after recovery and 522 remained hospitalized. No deaths have been reported among patients from abroad.

The mainland had reported a total of 96,284 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus as of Monday. Of these, 90,792 had been discharged after recovery and 4,636 had died from the virus.

The ministry said that 12,230 positives had been confirmed in Hong Kong, with 213 deaths. In contrast, Macau has reported 74 infections since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Chi ... -0020.html

It come to mind that my state of residence, South Carolina, has had more infections and deaths from Covid than Hong Kong, probably the weakest region of China in regards of social remedies, in two weeks compared to 21 months. USA!

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Nearly 50 Percent of Cubans Vaccinated Against COVID-19

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Cuba has the highest Covid vaccination rate in Latin America, and is the only Latin American country thus far to have produced its own vaccine. Amazing commitment to public health. | Photo: Twitter @agent_of_change

Published 5 October 2021

In addition, the Caribbean island leads the list of Latin American countries with the highest percentage of people vaccinated.


Cuba on Tuesday reached 48.9 percent of its population (5,470,999 people) with the complete Covid-19 vaccination scheme, the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) reported.

The scheme includes people with a third dose and COVID-19 convalescent patients to whom 'Soberana Plus' has been administered. The vaccine was initially designed for those who had overcome the disease and then was used as a booster of other immunizers.

According to the latest reports from MINSAP, 9,500,166 people have received at least the first dose of one of the local immunizers, representing 84.9 percent of the country's entire population (11 million, 180 thousand approximately).

These numbers are for the 97 percent of all people eligible for vaccination, that is, those without any health problem and with all possibilities to have the Cuban vaccines Soberana 02, Soberana Plus, or Abdala administered.

This marker is above the world average, as only 45.8 percent of the globe's population have the initial injection, according to data from the information platform "Our World in Data."

In addition, the Caribbean Island leads the list of Latin American countries with the highest percentage of people vaccinated.


Out of the nine million Cubans mentioned above, there are six million 804 thousand three (60.8 percent) with a second dose applied and five million 245 thousand 735 (46.9 percent) with a third.

By the end of October 3, according to the Ministry of Health, a total of 21 million 549 thousand 854 doses of immunogens had been administered in Cuba.

Months ago, the nation approved a vaccination schedule to reach 92.6 percent of immunization by the end of November.

In addition, the country is the first in the world with a mass anti-Covid-19 immunization campaign for pediatric ages between two and 18 years. The campaign began on September 3 and by the end of the month, more than 1.6 million children had already received the first dose of Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus scheme (0-28-56 days).

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Nea ... -0016.html
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Thu Oct 07, 2021 1:51 pm

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Venezuela Denounces IMF Denial of Funds to Combat COVID-19 (SDR)
October 7, 2021

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, during her speech at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, denounced the refusal of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to deliver $5 billion through Special Drawing Rights (SDR) that Venezuela requested to combat the pandemic.

Vice President Rodríguez stressed that this is a consequence of the United States’ veto against Venezuela.

The Chavista leader stated that Venezuela, together with various organizations and individuals, demands “a correction of the unfair distribution of the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights to address the effects of the pandemic.”

She provided some data explaining the injustice in the distribution of resources: of the $650 billion approved by the IMF in the Special Drawing Rights mechanism, more than 63% has been allocated for rich countries that already have a high vaccination rate. This is a result of the unfair quota allocation scheme.

She decried that in said scheme, “Africa, for example, which has 17% of the world’s population, has received or will receive only 5% of the Special Drawing Rights funds,” while “Europe, with 9% of the world’s population, will receive 36% of these funds.” She added that “out of the $179 billion assigned to the countries of the American continent, $113 billion will be for the United States.”

Rodríguez also emphasized that Venezuela has been the target of over 430 unilateral coercive measures that have decimated its foreign trade. Just in the oil sector Venezuela has suffered losses exceeding $63 billion.

In March 2020, the IMF rejected the request of the government of Nicolás Maduro for financial assistance of $5 billion to deal with the pandemic, with the pretext that “the Fund is not in a position to consider this request,” following Washington’s narrative that Juan Guaidó is the “interim president” of Venezuela.



Featured image: IMF’s “unfair distribution” of the Special Drawing Rights has been denounced by Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez. Photo: AFP

(Misión Verdad)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

https://orinocotribune.com/venezuela-de ... id-19-sdr/

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Cuba Reports Lowest Number of COVID Infections in Three Months

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A total of 9.5 million people, out of a population of 11.2 million, have received at least one dose of one of the Cuban vaccines. | Photo: Twitter/@CubaMINREX

Published 6 October 2021

56.7 percent of the Cuban population eligible for vaccination is now fully vaccinated.


Cuban health authorities reported on Wednesday the lowest number of infections with the virus that causes COVID-19 for a single day in the last three months, while the mass vaccination campaign for all people over two years of age is advancing.

The number of infections reached 3,596 cases during the previous day, the lowest number of confirmed cases since July 5, while deaths amounted to 40, less than half that of two weeks ago, according to the Cuban Ministry of Public Health (Minsap).

This confirms a downward trend of incidence in recent days, as the number of new infections, fell from around 10,000 per day to this figure and the number of deaths from about 95 per day to 35-40 in the last week.

The Minister of Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, assured that September, with the confirmation of 48,108 fewer positive cases than in August, could mean a turning point in the current epidemiological situation in the country.

He recalled that although the September figures show progress in controlling the transmission of the disease in most Cuban provinces, this is not a reason to think that the worst moment of the epidemic, which has left Cuba with more than 7,000 deaths, has been overcome.

Portal Miranda called to accompany the massive vaccination process with the maintenance of hygienic-sanitary measures.


"As of October 4, 2021, 9,524,916 people have received at least one dose of one of the Cuban vaccines SOBERANA 02, SOBERANA Plus and ABDALA. Of these, 6,837,401 have already received the 2nd dose and 5,318,954 have received the 3rd dose. 5,550,385 people are fully vaccinated."

As of Monday, 21.6 million doses of the Cuban Soberana 02, Soberana Plus and Abdala vaccines have been administered in Cuba.

A total of 9.5 million people, out of a population of 11.2 million, have received at least one dose of one of the Cuban vaccines.

Some 5.5 million people, representing 56.7 percent of the total Cuban population, are fully vaccinated.

In the Cuban case, vaccination schedules include three doses, except for convalescents, who receive a single dose of Soberana Plus.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cub ... -0014.html

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Bolivia: Over 60% Of Population Vaccinated Against COVID-19

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Minister of Health and Sports, Jeyson Auza presents the report on the behavior of the pandemic in Bolivia. | Photo: Twitter @ahora_elpueblo

Published 6 October 2021

Bolivian Minister of Health and Sports, Jeyson Auza, noted that the vaccination process is advancing and 47.3 percent of the population has already completed the immunization scheme.

Bolivian Health and Sports Minister, Jeyson Auza, informed that more than 60 percent of the country's population over 18 years of age had been immunized with the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

He noted that the vaccination process is advancing and 47.3 percent of the population has already completed the immunization scheme; that is, the first and second doses, the "Ahora el Pueblo" newspaper reported.

He explained that the pandemic is still latent, which is why he urged the community to continue with biosecurity measures.


Auza insisted on the importance of this process to prevent the constant increase in cases, and recalled that the government of President Luis Arce guarantees the necessary doses for mass immunization throughout the national territory.

He recommended again that the population go to the vaccination centers to be immunized against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes Covid-19.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Bol ... -0022.html
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Fri Oct 08, 2021 1:34 pm

HAVING 4.21% OF THE WORLD POPULATION

WHY DOES THE US HAVE 16% OF THE DEATHS FROM COVID IN THE WORLD?
Eric Zuesse

7 Oct 2021 , 9:10 am .

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A visitor looks at "In America: Remember" by artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg, a temporary art installation made up of white flags to commemorate Americans who have died from COVID (Photo: Jose Luis Magana / AP)

The percentage of deaths from covid-19 in the United States is 3.85 times that of the entire world. While in the United States there have been 2,158 deaths from covid per million inhabitants, the world has had 617 deaths per million inhabitants.

To date, there have been 719 thousand 615 due to covid in the United States and 4 million 481 thousand 499 in the world. The United States, with 4.21% of the world's population , accounts for 16% of all deaths from covid. Of course, if it were an average country, it would represent 4.21%. That's how bad their performance has been.

On September 15, 2020, Pew titled its global survey: " The international image of the United States falls, most say the country has mishandled the coronavirus ."

On April 22, 2020, I titled " Why America Will Have Massive Post-Coronavirus Poverty " and explained that the US government, with the policies it was taking, was concerned about the people and its billionaires, but was even more concerned. in rescuing billionaires than people; and so billionaires would prosper, their stock markets would benefit greatly from the exit of small business owners from the market, even as millions of Americans would lose their jobs and the homeless population would grow ever larger.

I explained why the extremely poor public health system in the United States would become increasingly overburdened as deaths increased, for reasons such as that - because of the relative lack of government protections for the people - workers would be even more desperate to stay in their jobs. even when they know they could get covid and / or spread it to their co-workers and people who serve in restaurants, etc .: they would remain employed where they are for as long as possible. This would produce an exceptionally high rate of the US population in the United States becoming infected with the virus and transmitting it to others.

All of this has happened, albeit more slowly than expected.

In 2000, the ratio of public debt to GDP in the United States was 70%. In 2016, it was 120% . In 2000, the ratio of federal government debt to GDP was 55%, and it rose to 105% in 2016 . After 2016, those proportions haven't changed much, but no further figures have been released since 2019 - in other words, during the covid crisis .

However, the federal government has published that "in fiscal year 2020 the federal deficit was 3,129 billion dollars. But the gross federal debt increased by 4,230 billion dollars"; and that "in this fiscal year 2021, the federal government in its last budget has estimated that the deficit will be 3 thousand 669 billion dollars." A graph there also shows that the federal deficit in 2019 was $ 1 trillion, but that in 2020 that exploded upward to just over $ 3 trillion.

This whole explosion added to the federal debt. Most of the money added to the national debt was added to the wealth of billionaires and centimillionaires; the rest went to everyone else. One of the extreme realities about the American government is that it protects the richest - billionaires and centimillionaires - against risk, more than it protects the people (overwhelmingly being its workers) against risk.

In this way, the richest in the country (investors) are more protected than the general public. The workers bear the worst of it: the greatest risks and without control of any property of some large company. The wealthiest get proprietary control of the major companies, plus the lowest risks of all.

(By the way: the federal debt in 2019 - the last year reported by the US government - was 22.67 trillion dollars. Thus, in 2020, it became 26.87 trillion dollars more, an annual increase rate 18.5%. The federal government has already calculated this data, but has not yet made it public.)

These events are typical of oligarchies, countries that are controlled by their billionaires, or aristocrats. Most countries are like this, but the fact that the United States, with 4.21% of the world's population, has 16% of the world's deaths from covid, shows that it is more so than other countries. A few countries are even worse than the United States.

In these countries, many people are more desperate, in the era of the covid, than they were before, but also many of the people who are not, do not care much about high risk, because in a culture that is more pressing to be an owner of businesses than those who work for those businesses, risk-taking is respected and real hard work is less valued.

Thus, in the United States the poor are despised, no matter how hard they work. This is also common in oligarchies. That is why their governments protect them from risks. The rich have instilled in the population a respect for themselves and a contempt for the poor.

The United States is a typical oligarchy, except that it is bigger than most.

So this is my cultural and economic explanation why the United States, with 4.21% of the world's population, has 16% of deaths from covid-19.

Right now, these are the 20 countries that have the highest percentages of their population so far killed by covid-19:

Peru
Bosnia and Herzegovina
North macedonia
Hungary
Montenegro
Bulgaria
Gibraltar
Czech Republic
Brazil
San Marino
Argentina
Colombia
Slovakia
Georgia
Paraguay
French polynesia
Belgium
Slovenia
Italy
United States of America
All that information is on the same site that also records that the United States, with 4.21% of the world's population, has 16% of deaths from covid-19 in the world.

(This site also documents that, while the death rate from covid-19 per million inhabitants in China has been, so far, 3, the same figure in the United States is 2,158, that is, 719 times higher. Peru has the worst result in the world: 5,945, which is 198 times higher than that of China.)

How many of those 20 countries are true democracies? Are any of those really ? If the citizenry respects "entrepreneurs" more than "workers", then what is the true probability that the nation is really a democracy? Are they not really bowing down to their aristocracy? They have evidently been successfully indoctrinated by the aristocracy. And now they are dying as a result of this, they are dying because their culture accepts (rather than condemns) this aristocratic indoctrination.

There are 223 countries on the list, but some actually have fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. None of the 20 worst countries is that small. In fact, the best performing of all the countries with more than 5 million inhabitants is the most populous country, China, which has a policy of "zero tolerance" with the covid-19 and a rigorous scientific system to carry out that policy. Thus, China is at the opposite end of the 20 nations listed above.

Perhaps, in the long run, this could turn out to be China's greatest advantage as an international economic competitor. But instead of praising and emulating China, the US government tries to command it and - unless it obeys - overthrow its government, and take control of Taiwan and also China's coastal waters.

The United States operates a global empire, but its billionaires are never satisfied and are determined to encompass all nations. Billionaires control their government; American citizens do not.

https://misionverdad.com/traducciones/p ... n-el-mundo

Google Translator

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Over 120,000 US children lose a parent or caregiver amid COVID-19: study
Xinhua | Updated: 2021-10-08 10:16

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A child sits with his mother in an isolation area in a bus station after they tested positive for Covid-19, according to his mother, after their arrival to the US on February 26, 2021 in Brownsville, Texas. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - More than 120,000 children in the United States lost a primary caregiver - a parent or grandparent responsible for providing housing, basic needs and care - due to COVID-19-associated death, showed a study published in the medical journal Pediatrics on Thursday.

In addition to the 120,630 children who were estimated to have lost a primary caregiver, 22,007 lost a secondary caregiver, or a grandparent providing housing but not most basic needs between April 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021, according to the study.

"Children facing orphanhood as a result of COVID is a hidden, global pandemic that has sadly not spared the United States," said Susan Hillis, researcher of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and lead author of the study.

"All of us - especially our children - will feel the serious immediate and long-term impact of this problem for generations to come. Addressing the loss that these children have experienced - and continue to experience - must be one of our top priorities, and it must be woven into all aspects of our emergency response, both now and in the post-pandemic future," Hillis said.

The study was a collaboration between the CDC, Imperial College London, Harvard University, Oxford University, and the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

"The magnitude of young people affected is a sobering reminder of the devastating impact of the past 18 months," said Alexandra Blenkinsop, co-lead researcher of the Imperial College London. "These findings really highlight those children who have been left most vulnerable by the pandemic, and where additional resources should be directed."

http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20211 ... 6d7fb.html
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Tue Oct 26, 2021 2:36 pm

Gunzburg: 80% of those who were seriously affected by covid presented purchased vaccination certificates
10/25/2021

Russians still do not trust the authorities
Director of the National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology Gamaleya Alexander Ginzburg told Tass that about 80% of citizens who claim that the grafted Companion V and at the same time seriously ill coronavirus, bought a vaccination certificate.
“If those vaccinated with the alleged“ Sputnik V ”become seriously ill, as the data show, these are people who, unfortunately, used the certificates they bought, fake certificates. Among them, 80% are those who bought, ”said the director of the NITsEM named after N.F. Gamalei.

Whether a person was vaccinated or not can be determined by analyzing the presence of drug markers.

“We see that people lack these markers in 80% of cases, - said Ginzburg.

Director of NITsEM them. N.F. Gamalei is sure that citizens harm themselves when they buy fake certificates:

“People spend money, and then they get sick and die for their own money. They are deceiving themselves. They seem to have a psychological change in their ideas. They think that they are really vaccinated, relax any quarantine restrictions. And their risk of illness increases dramatically as a result of their behavior changes. They also put others in mortal danger. "

Why do our fellow citizens, observing the real problems of the market health care system - overloaded clinics and hospitals, extremely high relative mortality , seriously ill relatives and friends, canceled operations - still do not believe in the existence of the virus or refuse to vaccinate?

The congestion of the polyclinics led to the resolution of the experiment on remote diagnosis. A new round of optimization - in the Russian regions , patients with significant lung damage began to be discharged for home treatment so that there would be free beds.
Many Russians still refuse the vaccine, because they do not trust the current government and are afraid of any of its initiatives. Their fears cannot be called insignificant, because the truth is - what good did these people in high offices do for us? Moreover, there are enough refusals to vaccinate outside Russia: large demonstrations against were held in France , Estonia , Israel , the United States.and many other countries. It is easier for people to believe that nothing good should be expected from the authorities than to thoroughly study the issue on their own. This fear is political: citizens who refuse to be vaccinated kind of reject the system - next time they will not go to the polling station or refuse to express their will in a referendum. The modern market democratic system implies the confidence of the voter in the institutions of power, but we see that all over the world the voter is dissatisfied, the citizens of even the most prosperous countries do not trust anyone. What will become of such a democracy?
The world is on the verge of significant changes, and the refusal to get vaccinated is just one of the bells that prompt us to think about what the state should be like, which citizens will be ready to trust.

https://www.rotfront.su/gintsburg-80-ty ... kovid-pre/

Google Translator

And how is this any different than the US? It is the lack of trust in their government which drives the anti-vax in all of these capitalist countries. The trust deficit is cumulative, the result of decades of empty promises paired with declining standards of living for the majority.

It's a damn shame that so many will die of this lack of trust and we might instructively compare the trust issue to that of China. In a nut governments that 'deliver', that make good on their promises, will be respected and complied with, whereas those which preside over the gradual but relentless decline of the condition of their majority get the respect they deserve. The deniers may be largely ignorant and reactionary in the US but those conditions are also at the door of a ruling class that prefers to keep it's masses in such a state.

I fully admit that I was skeptical in Feb of 2020 but it was the response of China and Cuba which convinced me of the seriousness of the issue. And I waited until several million guinea pigs took the output of Big Pharma without undo incident before I would, though I'd much rather would have preferred a vaccine from a socialist state which does not prioritized profit. The latest push for 'booster' shots seems to be superfluous for most and another tawdry profit seeking gambit. Or maybe simply 'planned obsolescence'?
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Wed Nov 03, 2021 1:32 pm

Expert says tough anti-virus policy not too expensive
By ZHENG CAIXIONG in Guangzhou | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2021-11-02 14:32

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China's top epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan. [File photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

China will continue to pursue a zero-transmission policy against the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19, as the global fatality rate of 2 percent is still too high, a leading Chinese respiratory disease expert said.

Zhong Nanshan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said he is confident that sporadic outbreaks in China's northwestern and northeastern regions can be effectively controlled in about a month with government help.

A local outbreak of the coronavirus in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, in May and June was controlled in about a month, while another outbreak reported in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, was tamped down within 26 days, he said.

Zhong explained in an interview with CGTN on Monday how China had achieved such success.

Image

"The first is to find the first patient and trace where he or she came from. Second is to determine the infection chain," Zhong said. "Third is to find close contacts in the infection chain, so that they can be screened in a timely manner. And fourth is that all the close contacts are isolated and tested in time to prevent the coronavirus from spreading in local communities."

Zhong said China had to introduce a zero-tolerance and zero-transmission policy, as the current Delta variant spreads fast. It replicates very quickly.

Despite having vaccines against the coronavirus, the fatality rate with COVID-19 is still high and China can not tolerate that, he said.

He admitted it's expensive to pursue a zero-transmission policy in the country, but he said "the cost is higher when we ignore it and let it spread".

Zhong added that imported cases of COVID-19, or sporadic outbreaks, will certainly be reported in the country if China opens to the world in the months to come. Therefore, he said, he thought the policy would remain in place for a long time. Exactly how long must be judged on the basis of observing viral behavior and illnesses all over the world in coming months.

"No matter how well China does, there will be imported cases when the country opens its door. Therefore, under such circumstances, I think China's zero-tolerance strategy doesn't cost too much. It's a relatively low-cost approach," he said.

http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20211 ... 72d52.html

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Slow jabs pace fuels concerns of Africa virus resurgence
By EDITH MUTETHYA in Nairobi, Kenya | China Daily | Updated: 2021-11-03 09:06

Image
A nurse gives a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to a woman at a hospital in Dakar, Senegal, on July 28. ZOHRA BENSEMRA/REUTERS

Despite the number of new COVID-19 cases in Africa decreasing since August, fears of further surges remain in the continent due to low vaccination rates.

According to data from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, only 5.6 percent of Africa's 1.2 billion population have been fully vaccinated, while developed countries have surpassed 40 percent and are even administering booster doses.

The figures clearly indicate vaccine inequality between developed and developing countries, despite a persistent vaccine equity call by the United Nations.

In a statement addressing the 5 million COVID-19 global fatality figure on Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres raised concerns on the vaccine inequality issue.

"While wealthy countries are rolling out third doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, only about 5 percent of people in Africa are fully vaccinated. This is a global shame," he said.

"The best way to honor those 5 million people lost, and support health workers fighting this virus every day, is to make vaccine equity a reality by accelerating our efforts and ensuring maximum vigilance to defeat this virus."

Similar concerns were also shared by John Nkengasong, director of the Africa CDC.

"It will take much longer for Africa to control COVID-19 than previously predicted because of the slow pace of vaccinations across the continent. We are getting to a point where effective control of the pandemic will become more challenging," Nkengasong said.

He warned that vaccination delay will give more room for the virus to continue mutating and could even see the continent start recording surging cases in the next two months as it has been witnessed previously.

On Thursday, the World Health Organization said only five African countries, namely Seychelles, Mauritius, Morocco, Tunisia and Cabo Verde, will hit the year-end target set by the World Health Assembly of fully vaccinating 40 percent of their populations.

The UN agency said Africa is facing a 275 million shortfall of COVID-19 vaccines in meeting its year-end target of fully vaccinating 40 percent of its people.

Nkengasong urged African Union member states to accelerate their inoculation efforts through the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team and COVAX mechanisms, and try to vaccinate at least 70 percent of their populations by the end of next year.

http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20211 ... 72f28.html
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Fri Nov 19, 2021 3:02 pm

China helps international vaccine drive
By WANG XIAOYU | China Daily | Updated: 2021-11-19 07:45

Image
A worker transfers a shipment of China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine at Phnom Penh International Airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Wednesday. PHEARUM/XINHUA

China has been living up to its promise of making COVID-19 vaccines an international public good via donations, sales and joint manufacturing, officials and drugmakers have said.

The beneficiaries include countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

During an online discussion attended by foreign ministers and leaders of international organizations on Nov 11, China's ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, said China has provided more than 1.7 billion doses of vaccines to more than 100 countries. By the end of the year, the country is aiming to provide a total of 2 billion doses, he said.

Qin said China has also supplied over 70 million vaccine doses and donated $100 million to the global vaccine-sharing platform COVAX.

More than 99 percent of vaccines provided by China for global use have been shipped to developing countries.

He said solidarity and cooperation are the most powerful weapons to defeat COVID-19, and called on all countries to take a scientific attitude and oppose stigmatization and politicization of the novel coronavirus.

With COVID-19 infections on the rise in some countries and manufacturing capacity for vaccines growing, the World Health Organization has set the goal of vaccinating 40 percent of the population of every country by the end of this year.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a briefing early last month that the target is within reach if vaccines can be distributed equitably worldwide.

"Through dose sharing, swaps, technology transfers and other priority actions, it is possible to reduce deaths and minimize suffering, prevent health systems from being overwhelmed, resume social and economic activities, and reduce the risk of dangerous new variants," he said.

China has been a steady and reliable force in giving momentum to the realization of that goal, with many countries involved in the BRI receiving different forms of virus containment aid from China.

By early August, China had delivered 350 million doses of vaccines to co-sponsors of a Belt and Road partnership on COVID-19 vaccine cooperation, the Foreign Ministry said.

China has been actively implementing the partnership and has reached agreements with partners on a total of 775 million doses of vaccines, of which 350 million doses had been delivered by August.

Chinese companies have started joint production with four co-sponsors of the partnership and are discussing joint production with other countries.

Four million doses of COVID-19 vaccines made by Chinese drugmaker Sinopharm arrived in Myanmar on Nov 7, marking the final delivery of 24 million doses purchased by Myanmar authorities.

The Chinese embassy in Myanmar said China had helped Myanmar get in touch with Chinese vaccine developers and facilitated its acquisition of vaccines speedily and at the most favorable price.

By early this month, China had provided nearly 38.8 million doses of Chinese-made vaccines to Myanmar, including 8.9 million given as donations, the embassy said.

The first batch of vaccines donated to Tanzania arrived this month, as well as the second batches of doses donated to Rwanda and Vanuatu.

Albert Tuyishime, a Rwandan health official, said during a handover ceremony that the donation was expected to ease the country's vaccine shortage.

"We are happy to receive this second batch, which is again a sign of good collaboration and support from the Chinese government in our fight against this pandemic," Xinhua News Agency quoted Tuyishime as saying.

"We are taking China as one of the leaders in promoting this equitable distribution of vaccines for COVID-19."

Cansino Biologics, a Chinese company that has created a one-dose COVID-19 vaccine, said recently that it had set up vaccine packaging plants in Mexico, Pakistan and Malaysia by September.

http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20211 ... 762f5.html

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‘Moderna Is Trying to Turn This People’s Vaccine Into a Rich People’s Vaccine’

CounterSpin interview with Peter Maybarduk on NIH/Moderna patent
JANINE JACKSON

Image

Janine Jackson interviewed Public Citizen’s Peter Maybarduk about the NIH/Moderna vaccine patent for the November 12, 2021, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

Image
Moderna Moves for Total Credit in Vaccine Patent
New York Times (11/10/21)
Janine Jackson: The front-page November 10 New York Times told us, “Moderna Moves for Total Credit in Vaccine Patent; Won’t Share With US.” It’s an odd thing to read, but corporate news media often present readers with linguistic juxtapositions that accurately, if unwittingly, reflect deep questions about US society.

In this case, it’s the fact that a private company is seeking to deny the involvement of the NIH in inventing the main component of its Covid-19 vaccine, with, as the paper notes, “broad implications for the vaccine’s long-term distribution and billions of dollars in future profits.”

It’s nice that the vaccine’s lifesaving capacity comes first in the phrase, before the billions to be made. But is that the priority of the process at work here?

Joining us now by phone is Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Global Access to Medicines Program. Welcome back to CounterSpin, Peter Maybarduk.

Peter Maybarduk: It’s great to be back.

JJ: Very simply, what is Moderna claiming it did, and how does that comport with your understanding of the invention of this vaccine?

PM: Moderna says that it independently designed the sequence used in the NIH/Moderna vaccine, what we might think of as the vaccine itself. The National Institutes of Health says that it sent over a sequence which Moderna plugged into its process. So it is a technical dispute regarding, essentially, authorship of the vaccine.

Now, what’s not in dispute is that the National Institutes of Health and Moderna have been partners in this process for several years. And it’s important but often overlooked: The National Institutes of Health are the world’s leading funder of biomedical research, with about $40 billion taxpayer dollars invested every year in products that are eventually sold, largely under monopoly conditions, by the pharmaceutical industry.

In this case, federal scientists pioneered research into coronaviruses long before Covid-19. You recall that we had SARS and MERS, and were aware that there was a coronavirus threat, and it was the federal government that pushed much of that research ahead, and also played a role helping pioneer the various vaccine platforms, including MRNA, which has proved so effective.

So in this case, we have a dispute over who is the inventor of the core patent at the heart of the world’s most effective Covid-19 vaccine. And NIH and Moderna just don’t agree. And we are now starting to get rumblings out of NIH that perhaps they will take this to the next level, and seek a legal resolution. What we understand is that the company and the US government have been fighting about this behind closed doors for a year now.
Image
Public Citizen (8/10/21)
JJ: What is the meaningful impact? What would it, for instance, limit the US government from doing if Moderna gets sole credit for invention here? And what would it allow Moderna to do?

PM: If the US government is a co-inventor, it has more formal power, as well as more informal leverage, to insist on certain uses of the vaccine, to license the technology to more manufacturers worldwide, to help scale up production, for example. Or, and to your initial point, to insist on royalty payments to the government in exchange for Moderna’s use of some of this publicly funded technology.

The truth of the matter is that the NIH and the US government actually have broader powers than just what are in this patent. And we believe and have said all along that the US government, under its contract with Moderna, or under the Defense Production Act and the Bayh/Dole Act, and other powers under existing law, has the power to share key vaccine information, license other producers, perhaps simply share the entire NIH/ Moderna vaccine recipe with the World Health Organization, to see production scaled up and this key invention made available to all the world’s people, who so desperately need it.

But there’s no doubt that, in reputational terms, in terms of the story that is told, potentially in terms of dollars, the issue of who really invented the vaccine just has great salience and implications for what kinds of decisions the government makes about that power that we believe it has.

JJ: Back in April, you said:

One of the greatest public health private/profit tensions in this story is the value of “vaccine recipes” and vaccine technology. A company like Moderna isn’t thinking only about the value of its MRNA vaccine–which is actually [you noted] is actually an NIH, a publicly developed vaccine, in partnership with Moderna, paid for by taxpayers over many years already. But they’re thinking about the value of future products.

Which is just my way of saying, I don’t imagine that this twist in the story comes as a complete surprise to you.
Peter Maybarduk: “From the beginning of the pandemic, unfortunately, the US government’s position has been to be extremely deferential to corporate interests.”
PM: That’s right. We’ve been tracking it for some time, and of course the US government and Moderna have been fighting about it for some time.

You know, worldwide, more than 10 million people so far have died as a result of the pandemic. And a core issue there is that there have not been enough vaccines to go around. And NIH/Moderna is the people’s vaccine, or should be the people’s vaccine–publicly funded, publicly pioneered, public science leading the way, and even running the clinical trials. Taxpayers paid for 99% of this vaccine’s development.

But Moderna is trying to turn this people’s vaccine into a rich people’s vaccine. It has been available primarily to wealthy countries, very few doses going to COVAX or to the global relief effort, and the technology not being shared with the World Health Organization, or others that could build on it.

So that’s what’s at stake, and from the beginning of the pandemic, unfortunately, the US government’s position has been to be extremely deferential to corporate interests, rather than noting the scale of the crisis, and noting the government’s own involvement, and saying, you know what? We are co-owners of this vaccine, and we shall make it available to the world, because the crisis calls for that.

Our position always has been that the US government can compensate Moderna for its investment and its scientific engagements, but that we should not allow, that humanity cannot afford, for such an important medical tool to be held corporate confidential, and limited in its rollout at this time.

JJ: This is, I guess, another point on that question. I do believe that for most people, protection from a fatal disease is not seen as like having a fancy car, you know: if you can’t afford it, you just go without it. So it brings us back to an underlying question of private resourcing of public health.

And the news coverage on this latest twist has had a sort of subtheme of, this is so sad because the private/public partnership on vaccines was like the holy grail, and now it’s getting kind of messed up. The New York Times called it “one of the few bright spots of the pandemic.” And I get that. But I also hear, like, God forbid the state just do a thing on its own in the public interest, you know? Because that would mean government worked, and we can’t have that.

And so the problem is being defined, for those who think there’s a problem, as Moderna might get these billions, but if the US got some of these billions, it would go to the Treasury. And the vision that calls up is drugs, lifesaving drugs are a pot of gold, and private companies and governments are fighting over it. And that whole vision seems kind of effed up to me, as a way to resource public health.

PM: Certainly more important is the government’s responsibility for stewarding the technology that it is helping develop, for one. But also, even if the government hadn’t developed this technology, simply recognizing the role of the world’s most powerful government in a time of global crisis–if it were war, we would treat the technology differently. We would not allow any company’s particular rights or investments to prevent us from developing the best defense technologies. So should it be in health. But we aren’t there yet, politically, and it’s a corner that we desperately need to turn, because so many people, of course, are dying in this case.

JJ: We’ve been speaking with Peter Maybarduk. He’s director of the Global Access to Medicines Program at Public Citizen. You can find them online at citizen.org. Peter Maybarduk, thank you so much for joining us this week on CounterSpin.

PM: Thank you.

https://fair.org/home/moderna-is-trying ... s-vaccine/

************************************************

Report from Havana: Despite U.S. blockade, Cuba has 90% vaccinated, opens to world visitors
November 17, 2021 Struggle - La Lucha

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Struggle-La-Lucha reporters and Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly and Socialist Unity Party members. SLL photos.

Lars Bertling, Russell McClain and Sharon Black, three reporters for Struggle-La Lucha, members of the Socialist Unity Party, and representatives of the Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly are participating in the 31st Friendshipment Caravan USA-Cuba IFCO Pastors for Peace.

This is our personal account. Hopefully we will be able to post daily accounts.

Havana, Nov. 16 — It was an all day ordeal on Monday, Nov. 15, on the U.S. side. We waited in grueling airport security lines and spent hours checking in. Two of our representatives barely got their passports. We had to get up at 5 a.m. and drive to the passport office in Miami and keep our fingers crossed.

But when we got to Cuba it was all worth it.

On landing our spirits soared and our energy returned. Cuban people and their leaders were waiting at the airport, along with a bevy of news media. Our group was literally the first delegation to travel to the newly opened Cuba, which had been closed to international visitors because of the pandemic. Nov. 15 was the opening of schools and services in Cuba and is also a day celebrating the anniversary of Havana.

When we got to the Cuban Martin Luther King Center (yes, there is such a thing) young Cuban singers and musicians greeted us along with local Marianao community and political leaders and representatives of the MLK Center .

Today, Tuesday, was our first whole day of learning and visiting. Our entire group was large, over 70 people, so we split up.

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Russell McClain and Gail Walker discuss the display of the CIA biological war on Cuba.
Memorial de la Denuncia

Most people living in the U.S. only equate terrorism with the 9/11 attacks. It’s a sad hypocrisy. Far more Cuban people, many who are young children, have died in terrorist attacks. Only, these attacks were perpetrated by the Pentagon, CIA, the right wing, and U.S. imperialism.

This state-of-the art, modern museum documents those countless attacks.

The entrance has a revolving, updated count of the number of people who have lost their lives to terrorism. This does not cover those impacted by the blockade but strictly through bombings and violent acts of terrorism. Today the count is 3,476.

There were 637 (known) attempts to assassinate Fidel; 21 CIA air raids; 11 CIA bombings; and 581 terrorist attacks aimed at Cuban missions overseas.

A special film documents the March 4, 1960, bombing of the French freighter La Coubre in the Havana port and the loss of 110 lives. Fidel and Che lead the massive street marches to honor those who lost their lives and to defy U.S. imperialism. The families of the victims still mourn their loss.

Terrorist and CIA agent Luis Posada and his accomplices, who were all sheltered in the U.S., bragged of the cowardly bombing of Cubana Flight 455 on Oct. 6, 1976, killing all 73 passengers, many Cuban children and all 24 members of a youth sports team that had just won every gold medal in the Central American and Caribbean Championships.

There seemed to be no end to the U.S. war on Cuba: from Operation Peter Pan that kidnapped 14,000 Cuban children over a two-year span from 1960 to 1963 and later in 2000, the kidnapping of Elián González. The U.S. also carried out biological warfare against Cuba, including the destruction of the pig industry and the sabotage of agricultural crops.

These are just a few examples.

The Memorial will grip your heart and change your view on who the real terrorists are.

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Cuban guides at the Memorial de la Denuncia discuss the museum that documents the 3,478 people who have died as a result of U.S. Pentagon, CIA and rightwing. The crosses in the background of this modern Memorial represent lost lives.

Finlay Vaccine Institute

Our next stop was the Vaccine Institute which helped produce three Cuban COVID-19 vaccines: Soberana, Soberana 2 and Soberana Plus.

So many things stood out in the discussion and presentation by the representatives of the institute.

Under the most difficult conditions due to the blockade, Cuba was able to produce these three highly effective vaccines, rivaling the effectiveness of U.S. vaccines. The blockade had prevented Cuba from importing the reagents necessary for the production of the vaccine. And international patent restrictions blocked Cuban scientists from sharing important information.

In addition, it was nearly the first time that Cuba had to produce a vaccine aimed at a virus (not a bacterial infection) and they were able to do it in a very short time. So you might consider it a miracle.

So how did they do it?

One of the major reasons given was the cooperation between Cuban organizations, the lack of competition and personal profit. In fact, these were some of the same reasons, along with a few others, for the high vaccination rate in Cuba that has now reached an astounding 90% of the population.

At this moment children under 2 years of age are not being vaccinated, so given that 90% includes all the population, the percentage of vaccinations among those who are eligible is even higher.

The people of Cuba trust the vaccines because the country has a long history of preventative health care that is steeped in education and community implementation. There is no profit requirement to block health care in Cuba.

https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2021/ ... -visitors/

Italics added.

Some governments 'deliver', some don't. Those that do are rewarded with trust. Consider the USA, Russia, China, Cuba: which group do those belong in?
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Tue Nov 23, 2021 3:14 pm

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COVID-19: Big Pharma’s ‘Obscene’ Profits
November 20, 2021
By Jake Johnson – Nov 18, 2021

Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech rake in millions an hour while refusing to share manufacturing recipes with low-income countries.

Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech — the makers of the two most successful coronavirus vaccines — are raking in a combined $65,000 in profits every minute as they refuse to share their manufacturing recipes with developing countries, where billions of people still lack access to lifesaving shots.

According to a new People’s Vaccine Alliance analysis of recent earnings reports, People’s Vaccine Alliance, “It is obscene that just a few companies are making millions of dollars in profit every single hour while just two percent of people in low-income countries have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus,” said Maaza Seyoum of the People’s Vaccine Alliance Africa.

“Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna have used their monopolies to prioritize the most profitable contracts with the richest governments, leaving low-income countries out in the cold.”

Moderna — a Massachusetts-based company that developed its vaccine with the help of government research and around $10 billion in taxpayer funding — has delivered just 0.2 percent of its total vaccine supply to low-income countries, the People’s Vaccine Alliance estimates. The coronavirus vaccine is Moderna’s only product on the market.

Pfizer and its Germany-based partner BioNTech — whose vaccine was also helped along by taxpayer money — haven’t done much better than their competitor, sending less than 1 percent of their supply to poor nations while profiting hugely from sales to rich countries.

“Predominantly, right now, we have already signed orders, and those are with high-income countries,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla recently said of coronavirus vaccine sales for next year, blaming poor countries for not ordering shots quickly enough.

“We are negotiating right now with few middle-income countries, and with even fewer low-income countries,” Bourla said.

But public health campaigners argue that bilateral deals and vaccine donations are not sufficient to bring production and distribution into line with global needs. Instead, they say, pharmaceutical giants must relinquish their vaccine recipes and allow qualified manufacturers around the world to produce low-cost generic versions for their populations.

Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech have thus far refused to do so — and lobbied aggressively against a World Trade Organization proposal to temporarily suspend vaccine patents. Bourla, for his part, has dismissed technology-transfer proposals as “dangerous nonsense.”

“Contrary to what Pfizer’s CEO says, the real nonsense is claiming the experience and expertise to develop and manufacture lifesaving medicines and vaccines does not exist in developing countries,” Anna Marriott, health policy manager at Oxfam International, said in a statement Tuesday. “This is just a false excuse that pharmaceutical companies are hiding behind to protect their astronomical profits.”

“It is also a complete failure of government to allow these companies to maintain monopoly control and artificially constrain supply in the midst of a pandemic while so many people in the world are yet to be vaccinated,” she added.

Featured image: Covid-19 isolation center at Bole-Chefe, Ethiopia, April 9, 2020. (UNICEF, Mulugeta Ayene)

(Consortium News)

https://orinocotribune.com/covid-19-big ... e-profits/

Property is theft, and in this case 'intellectual property' doubly so. That Pfizer CEO is a true monster, blaming the victims, dismissing technology-transfer proposals as “dangerous nonsense" while tens of thousands die. Capitalism is a system which does not depend upon any given individual yet it cannot function without such-minded functionaries. There are plenty of walls and lampposts.
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Fri Nov 26, 2021 3:22 pm

Critique of “Leftwing” Antivax Disinformation: Antivaxxers of All Stripes Pose a Serious Threat to Public Health
Cliff Conner

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Yes, the vaccines work? credit: Viacheslav Lopatin/Sutterstock

IN THE UNITED STATES, most of the Covid antivax agitation comes from rightwing sources. It is dangerous and reprehensible because it threatens legitimate public health efforts to bring a pandemic under control that has already killed at least 750,000 people in the U.S. and five million worldwide. The rightwing ideologues who carry out this campaign of disinformation are simply unconscionable scoundrels.

Unfortunately, they have “leftwing” ideological allies who devise rationales designed to appeal to progressive-minded people. A blog post entitled “The Snake-Oil Salesmen and the COVID-Zero Con: A Classic Bait-And-Switch for a Lifetime of Booster Shots (Immunity as a Service)” provides a prime example.

It is a relatively slick piece of virulent antivax propaganda. The bulk of it consists of mansplaining the ABCs of immunology, much of which is not controversial. As its author, Julius Ruechel, says: “What I have laid out here in this essay is pretty basic virology and immunology knowledge.” But every point is embellished with an ideological antivax twist. To deconstruct it in its entirety would be an oppressive chore, but I will try to briefly expose its essence.

Its “leftwing” antivax arguments for the most part boil down to this syllogism:

Big Pharma produces the Covid vaccines.
Big Pharma is absolutely corrupted by its profit motive.
Therefore the vaccines are fraudulent and worthless.

Here is a small sample of how the blog piece in question expresses this position:

“To the eyes of profit-hungry pharmaceuticals and funding-hungry national and international public health institutions, this virus must look like manna from heaven.

“So, what if COVID-Zero and the vaccine exit strategy is merely the global state-sanctioned equivalent of a drug dealer creating dependency among its customers to keep pushing more drugs?

“The holy trinity of pharmaceutical companies, public health, and international health organizations, all egging each other on in their hunger for a reliable flow of cash: shareholder profits, larger budgets, and governmental donations.”

The anti–public health message it seeks to spread is summed up as follows:

“The con is clear. It’s time to focus all our might on stopping this runaway train before it takes us over the cliff into a police state of no return. Stand up. Speak out. Refuse to play along. Stopping this requires millions of voices with the courage to say NO—at work, at home, at school, at church, and out on the street.”

And it buttresses that clarion call by cynically quoting Martin Luther King on the need to confront authority with civil disobedience.

Now, what’s wrong with that argument? I have steadfastly condemned Big Pharma corporations and the deep corruption of their profit-motivated scientific practice. I have damned it, in my recent book The Tragedy of American Science (Haymarket Books, 2020), as “science in the private corporate interest” as opposed to the ideal of “science in the public interest.” So how can it be that private corporate laboratories have created not one, not two, but a number of safe and effective vaccines with the potential to bring the nightmare contagion under control?

The syllogism’s premise that Big Pharma is corrupted by the profit motive does not justify the conclusion that its products must be fraudulent. The multinational industry has demonstrated the capacity to accomplish remarkable scientific feats when it wants to. But there’s the rub: it has to want to. And the only thing that can make it want to is the prospect of material rewards in the form of supersized profits.

That was the point of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed. Billions of dollars were paid out to elite Big Pharma firms like Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson as well as to venture capital startups like Moderna, Vaxart, and Novavax that had never previously brought any vaccine to market. The program was hyped as a scientific “race for a vaccine” among competing research laboratories, but in fact it was a speculative frenzy among competing hedge funds.

It took a massive infusion of taxpayer dollars—public funding, not private capital—to incentivize the research and development of several viable vaccines. But private investors who bore no financial risk were allowed to reap the financial rewards, the extent of which has been deliberately hidden from public view by allowing the Warp Speed profiteers to bypass traditional federal contracting rules and regulatory oversight. Even a partial accounting, however, reveals that Moderna and Pfizer locked in guaranteed Covid vaccine sales of more than $60 billion for 2021 and 2022. Furthermore, analysts forecast a future annual market of $5 billion or more.

The point is that despite all that, the profit-grubbing of the pharma firms does not invalidate the fruits of their science.

The essential lesson of Op Warp Speed was not that the vaccines and the associated public-health programs were fraudulent, but that there was no material reason for funneling all that money through private corporations. The Trump and Biden administrations have allowed private investors to organize and control the vaccine research and production, and to become fabulously wealthy by taking all of the profits for themselves. The rational and equitable approach would be to cut private investment out of the picture entirely by nationalizing Big Pharma and creating the vaccines in publicly-funded laboratories.

The remarkable achievements of Cuban biomedical science demonstrate how even a relatively poor country could—in the absence of the profit motive—mobilize its scientific and financial resources to create and produce a suite of safe, effective Covid-19 vaccines. Cuba was the first country to immunize its population against Covid-19 with its own vaccines. And in sharp contrast to Big Pharma’s relative neglect of poorer countries, Cuba plans to share its vaccines with Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Jamaica, Vietnam, Iran, and others.

The blog piece under consideration here seeks to terrorize its readers by positing a grand conspiracy of “all vaccine makers and public health authorities” and alleges that “the media” is in on it, too, due to the “billions of vaccine advertising dollars floating around.” And not to be neglected is the ever-popular “Bill Gates, his fawning public health bootlickers, and the pharmaceutical companies that whisper sweet-nothings in his ear.”

Author Ruechel lambastes “our health authorities” in these words: “You’d have to be a completely reckless and utterly incompetent idiot, or a cynical bastard with an agenda” to “force us to submit to medical tyranny based on mandatory vaccines, never-ending booster shots, and vaccine passports.” And after all that, he has the chutzpah to accuse “our health authorities” of “shamelessly hyperventilating”!

As I have demonstrated, there are valid, serious criticisms to be made of Big Pharma and U.S. public health agencies, but the essential value of the worldwide Covid vaccine programs is challenged only by scoundrels and demagogues. As for his critique of “the media,” our ersatz contrarian completely leaves out of account the many legitimate investigative journalists who relentlessly scrutinize the activities of Big Pharma and public officials on a daily basis.

Although I have characterized this blog piece as an example of leftwing antivax propaganda, a qualification is necessary. The erroneous critique of Big Pharma is counterfeit leftism; its underlying ideological inspiration is of solid rightwing provenance. Here is how Ruechel expounds his fundamental principles:

“Freedom of speech, individual rights, private property, individual ownership, competition, good faith debate, small government, minimal taxes, limited regulation, and free markets (the opposite of the crony capitalism we now suffer under), these are the checks and balances that bullet-proof a society against the soulless charlatans that fail upwards into positions of power in bloated government institutions and against the parasitic fraudsters that seek to attach themselves to the government’s teat.”

As a colleague of mine, Bob Schwarz, astutely observed, “Whatever the partial merits of one or another pseudo-scientific argument in the article, at the end of the day this is just Ayn Rand dressed up in a lab coat.”

November 21, 2021

https://againstthecurrent.org/critique- ... ic-health/

The distance between libertarianism and the 'infantile disorder' never so great, appears to be shrinking. "Ayn Rand dressed up in a lab coat”, indeed.

Admittedly, I was considering said possibilities until I observed that the Chinese and Cubans were taking covid seriously, good enough for me. Any of these so-called leftists who claim that these socialist governments are in cahoots with US capital have no credibility whatsoever.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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