Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Wed Dec 09, 2020 2:05 pm

Russia Sends Data From Its Second COVID-19 Vaccine To WHO

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Health worker holds sample of a COVID-19 vaccine, Russia, 2020. | Photo: Twitter/ @HCHTelevDigital

Published 9 December 2020 (1 hours 10 minutes ago)

The vaccine does not cause allergic reactions since it has been made from artificially synthesized particles of the new coronavirus.


Russia’s Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection Director Anna Popova announced her country sent the EpiVacCorona vaccine's clinical data to the World Health Organization (WHO).

"On Dec. 8, the documentation of another Russian vaccine was sent to the WHO. It is EpiVacCorona. We are awaiting the decision of the WHO" on its registration, Popova said, as reported by the Interfax agency.

Developed at the Vektor scientific center, the EpiVacCorona vaccine guarantees immunity for at least six months and can be administered several times.

"We believe it can be applied to the elderly and to patients with chronic diseases," Popova stated shortly after the EpiVacCorona was registered by the Health Ministry in October.

#Putin: First #coronavirus vaccine in the world @sputnikvaccine is already being used in ����. We registered another one – EpiVacCorona, a third vaccine is coming. Dozens of countries have already expressed interest in working together to organise supplies & joint manufacturing pic.twitter.com/M5nmCFN6k9

— MFA Russia ���� (@mfa_russia) November 14, 2020
In clinical tests, the vaccine does not cause allergic reactions since it has been made from artificially synthesized particles of the new coronavirus.

"About 1,000 people have received this vaccine during clinical trials and all the volunteers feel fine," Popova said.

Regarding the epidemic situation in the country, she stressed that the fatality of COVID-19 in Russia is 1.7 percent lower than the world average of 2.6 percent.

In the last 24 hours in the country, 26,190 COVID-19 cases and 559 deaths from this disease were registered. Russia is the fourth country with the highest number of infections, (2.5 million) after the United States, India, and Brazil.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Rus ... -0003.html
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Thu Dec 10, 2020 2:43 pm

Coronavirus Protocols as Tools of Repression
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor 10 Dec 2020

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Coronavirus Protocols as Tools of Repression

Covid-19 is a convenient excuse for governments to ban or restrict activities they don’t like.

“The CARES Act further entrenched power upwards by redistributing vast wealth to oligarchs and mega corporations.”

Whatever the scientific truths about coronavirus, state measures to control it undoubtedly have great potential for justifying state repression and surveillance. A friend of mine remarked that “it’s beyond the Patriot Act authors’ wildest dreams." In Africa, it’s been crudely weaponized to suppress elections, as witnessed in Uganda and Ethiopia.

During the third week of November, Ugandan military police arrested pop star and presidential challenger Bobi Wine, alleging that his campaign rallies of more than 200 people violated state protocols for stopping the spread of coronavirus. They then shot dead 56 people protesting his arrest and arrested 836 with seeming unconcern that the virus might spread among them in jail.

This week police and military opened fire on Bobi Wine's campaign convoy in the Ugandan countryside. They struck and disabled the vehicle he was traveling in and injured several of his campaign colleagues. In a Ghetto TV video , shot by his campaign team, he could be heard shouting at police, as munitions exploded around him, “Why are you trying to murder me?”

Aljazeera then reported that Bobi Wine had suspended his campaign because of the state violence, but shortly thereafter, he reappeared campaigning in a helmet and bulletproof vest. In another campaign video, he reported that police had ordered hotels not to admit his team and that they had therefore slept in their vehicles on the streets.

“They then shot dead 56 people protesting his arrest and arrested 836.”

Earlier this year, in Ethiopia, the central government led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed postponed this year’s elections until 2021 because of the coronavirus, he said. Dissidents said, however, that he had used the virus as an excuse to buy time to consolidate power. The Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) , which lost its brutal, minority grip on power in 2018, held regional elections anyway and then attacked an Ethiopian army base in the Tigrayan region, drawing an Ethiopian military response and sending refugees fleeing into South Sudan, where they risk contracting COVID-19 in crowded, makeshift camps.

As of December 8, Coronovirus Worldometer reported that 207 people have died of COVID-19 in Uganda, four per million people, and that 1,766 people, fifteen per million, have died of the disease in Ethiopia .

In both African countries, these coronavirus mortality statistics are far lower than those caused by malaria and/or lack of health care. In Uganda, roughly 10,000 die annually of malaria; in Ethiopia, 883 died of malaria in 2016. Uganda has some of the world’s most shocking maternal death statistics , with 440 deaths per 100,000 live births. Both country’s electoral and social justice movements have far greater potential to lengthen and qualitatively enhance their citizens’ lives than their leaders’ crudely repressive coronavirus restrictions.

Repressive measures in the US?

US coronavirus statistics, again on Coronavirus Worldometer as of December 8 , are 290,443 deaths, roughly 875 per million people. These numbers arguably justify mandatory mask wearing and measures restricting movement, business, and public assembly, but that doesn’t mean that state measures haven’t been repressive. The CARES Act further entrenched power upwards by redistributing vast wealth to oligarchs and mega corporations, just as the bank bailout did, and as future "stimulus" packages likely will, no matter which of the duopoly parties craft them. Workers struggle, small businesses close their doors, long lines queue either in cars or standing six feet apart outside food banks, and we face a dystopic future in which most of us work and shop at a few mega corporations, possibly including an Uber-Lyft-Doordash-Instacart conglomerate before Amazon swallows them all whole. Poor people, people of color, prisoners, and farmworkers all suffer disproportionately from the disease and the economic consequences of the lockdowns.

One of the only positive developments is that the virus didn’t stop Black Lives Matter protestors from rising up across the country in response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other victims of racist police and vigilante attacks. California locked down tight again this week but did not ban outdoor public protest. These protests took place, however, in the context of the fierce polarization on either side of President Donald Trump, which saw mayors and legislators in Democratic majority cities vocally resisting the various operatives and tactical forces Trump dispatched to shut them down. Had coronavirus come along in 2011, it would no doubt have been added to President Obama’s strategy for shutting down Occupy.

In next week’s Black Agenda Report, I plan to look into the surveillance and censorship issues that arise as government moves to control both the virus and the public narratives about it.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/coron ... repression
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Sun Dec 13, 2020 4:34 pm

Science Magazine Report Praises China's COVID-19 Vaccine

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Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan and State Councilor Wang Yong inspect the work on COVID-19 vaccine development and production at Sinovac Biotech Co., Ltd. in Beijing, China, 02 December 2020 | Photo: EFE/EPA

Published 11 December 2020

China developed a COVID-19 vaccine with "outstanding efficacy data," said a report published on the Science magazine website on Wednesday.

The Science magazine website has just published a report praising a Covid-19 vaccine China has developed and referred to its "outstanding efficacy data" as a relevant feature, compared to the other vaccines out in the market. The vaccine, developed by the China National Pharmaceutical Group (CNPG), had been under phase III trials in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since June, involving 31,000 volunteers from 125 countries and regions.

The UAE announced on Wednesday the official registration of the Chinese company's COVID-19 vaccine. According to a statement issued by the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention, the interim analysis of the phase III trials indicates that the Chinese vaccine offers 86 percent efficacy against COVID-19 infections.

The vaccine is also reported to have a 99 percent seroconversion rate of neutralizing antibodies and 100 percent effective in preventing moderate and severe disease cases. Also, it shows no serious safety concerns.

The report on the Science website, entitled "Great efficacy claimed for another COVID-19 vaccine, this one from China," said the company's vaccine is the fifth operational COVID-19 vaccine and that it is using an entirely different technology from the others.
Great Efficacy Claimed for Another COVID-19 Vaccine, This One from China - via @ScienceMagazine https://t.co/9fwPfYCt9T
--#vaxnews #vaccines #COVID19 #CovidVaccine

— Vaccinate Your Family (@Vaxyourfam) December 10, 2020
According to the report, in contrast to the CNPG's inactivated virus candidate, the four other COVID-19 vaccines that have reported efficacy data to rely on the surface protein of SARS-CoV-2, the cause of the disease, to trigger immune responses. Those vaccines, none made in China, use messenger RNA that codes for the surface protein or stitch the gene for it into putatively harmless adenoviral vectors, said the report.

"If CNPG's vaccine indeed prevented 86% of infections and 100% of symptomatic disease, it would stand out as the best efficacy data yet," said the article.

The Chinese-developed vaccine was granted Emergency Use Authorization in September by the UAE health authorities to protect frontline workers most at risk of COVID-19.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Sci ... -0015.html
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Mon Dec 14, 2020 12:49 pm

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Inequality: Cause and Consequence of the Pandemic
December 13, 2020 Editor2 capitalism, COVID-19, Cuba, inequality, Neoliberalism, Pandemic, US Imperialism, Venezuela
By Pasqualina Curcio – Dec 8, 2020

Access to tests allowing an early diagnosis for immediate implementation of isolation protocols to contain the spread of disease has been a determining factor in the levels of contagion, as well as greater or lesser exposure to the virus. It is not the same to have access without charge to the diagnostic tests, as having to pay for them. Those countries where they have given priority to health, rather than to the economy and where they have complied with a strict stay-at-home policy have not had the same results as countries where market values have been held as most important, as is the case in the U.S.The fact that the U.S. continues to head the lists, not only as the country with the most people infected with COVID-19, but also with the highest rates of incidence and mortality, should draw our attention. The U.S. is supposed to be the “most powerful and dominant super-power in military, economic, and energy terms” or at least this is what they keep telling us over and over again. One-fourth of the cases recorded in the entire world are in U.S. territory. Cuba and Venezuela come near the bottom of the list.

The possibility of getting care in a healthcare facility and of getting the indicated treatment has been the decisive factor in determining the death rate. Given that it is not a coincidence that the U.S. is among the countries with the highest rates. The health system is entirely private – those without medical insurance simply have no access to care and treatment. Cuba is just the opposite. Dealing with the pandemic is quite different for the Amazon delivery person than for Amazon’s owner Bezos. The situation is different for part-time and casual workers than for those in the formal work economy. It’s also not equal for those who have been able to keep their jobs compared to those who have been laid off. It is not the same for those who suffer hunger and poverty as for those who have their material needs met and ample savings as well.

RELATED CONTENT: Blood on Their Hands: US Pandemic Policies Kill South America’s Neediest

In this world of great inequalities derived from an exploitative economic system, some are more exposed to the virus and have greater likelihood of becoming sick and dying, compared to others. The current inequalities that derive from the capitalist and neoliberal systems imposed by imperialism have begun to make themselves increasingly evident since the arrival of COVID-19. One year after the first case of Coronavirus SARS-Cov-2, it turns out that inequality is not only the cause of increased illness and death from COVID-19, but that it is also the result.

According to the International Chamber of Commerce, this year a world-wide GNP decrease of 4.8% is predicted. However, this decrease will not affect everyone equally. It is anticipated that there will be 550 million more people living in poverty in 2020, which indicates that the number of poor people in the world will increase to more than 4 billion. According to the World Food Program, this year 12,000 people will die of hunger daily solely as a consequence of the pandemic, exceeding even the number of those who have died daily so far due to COVID-19 (4,181 people.) At the same time, U.S. multimillionaires have increased their fortunes by 637 billion dollars.

The inequalities created by the capitalist system have been made evident by the Coronavirus; at the same time we are hearing about the need to change it. This is a discussion that the owners /possessors of large capital are organizing in the Davos Forum, even before the pandemic. They are addressing the need to re-invent capital to guarantee its survival. They are concerned, but not about the poor. Their concern is that the high levels of inequality, in which 1% of the world’s population has ownership of 80% of total production, has caused a decrease in world consumption which, in its turn, causes a decrease of production and of the accumulation of capital.

They are not proposing to change the system at all; what they are proposing is to offer a little more participation to governments so that they can then be responsible for those activities – health and education – that on the one hand increase productivity, and on the other hand also diminish inequality a little bit. Their goal is to increase consumption, production, and their earnings, but always maintaining the essence of capitalism: exploitation in the process of production and distribution by means of the bourgeois appropriation of the value of the labor of the workers.

Overcoming the capitalist system requires more than the awareness, on the part of the people, that it has failed. It requires a powerful movement of workers and campesinos guided by great leaders who are ready to engage in true class struggle, because that is what this is about.

Decay of the United States Empire – A Change in the World Order

Nonetheless, a second phenomenon that has been observed during this pandemic year is that COVID-19 has contributed to an acceleration of the decay of the U.S. empire, not only in the economic realm, but also in terms of energy and technology. It has been decadent for decades and the Coronavirus is speeding up this process.

With an un-payable external debt of 28 trillion dollars, with international reserves that do not cover even 2% of this debt and which are equivalent to barely 2 months of imports, with a deficit trade balance since the 1970s, currency falling sharply, oil reserves for only 6 years and an internal poverty rate of 40%, the U.S. is losing ground on the international scene. It confronts China, which has been making advances with a new business model, with reserves that are sufficient to cover one and one half years of imports and twice its external debt, with a trade surplus since the 1970s. China is rolling out a digital currency that will avoid the SWIFT System, has recently signed a trade agreement in the Pacific, with even countries that are U.S. allies signing on. At the same time, they have occupied the technological area, with 5G, and well on the way toward 6G.

A new multicentric commercial order is coming into view, with a new monetary system referenced to several currencies where gold seems once again to be the standard, and with diverse systems of offsetting payments blocking the dominance of the SWIFT System under the control of the U.S. Federal Reserve, a principal weapon used by the U.S. to pressure, threaten, and dominate other countries and impose its capitalist model.

Although at this time, in spite of the pandemic, we cannot see a true change in the exploitative means of production and distribution that characterize the world, the fact that the most genocidal empire in history may finally finish falling, along with the Containment Doctrine imposed by Truman in 1947, opens up the possibility that the people of the world may be able to establish and strengthen a more human economic system as an alternative to capitalism, with less difficulty and without threats or interference. And even though the great capitalists continue with their intent to reinvent themselves, socialism, which is a fairer and more equal economic system any way you look at it, may be able to increase its spread with fewer obstacles.

(Resumen Latinoamericano.com)

https://orinocotribune.com/inequality-c ... -pandemic/

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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Fri Dec 18, 2020 2:20 pm

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A BALANCE FROM VENEZUELA
COVID AS A SYSTEMIC SHOCK
Dec 17 2020 , 9:21 am .

The year 2020 will bear the global impact of covid-19 as a historical mark. Some experts have shown that the SARS CoV-2 virus, the origin of this disease, is the product of the practices of intensive production and concentration of goods typical of capitalism.

In factories and mega-farms that produce food, this and many other highly contagious viruses are incubated, the so-called "new coronavirus"; In particular, he traveled rapidly across borders increasingly permeated by incessant world trade, transferred between tourists and businessmen from the Global North.

As if his problems were few, he broke into the lower and working classes who cannot evade social contact in dozens of countries due to overcrowding in cities.

What the global pandemic, declared last March, did make clear is that the systemic crisis of capitalism already warned of its consequences, and that, as a result of it, the global state of exception that has sought to restore its broken metabolism deepened. The impositions of the transnational elites have normalized the collateral damage that impacts large social layers.

That Thatcherian thesis that "there is no alternative" to capitalism ( There is not alternative or "TINA") is questioned, its logic of individualism and free market born in the West and imposed on the rest of the world has not served to face the pandemic.

WE CALL IT A "PANDEMIC" BUT IT IS A SYSTEMIC SHOCK
In the midst of the shaking of the stock markets, the unprecedented destruction of the level of employment, the oil prices trading negative, the increase in inequality, collapsed health centers and speeches that justify the death of hundreds of thousands in the name of the market, the common here and there have witnessed the contradictions of a system that was sold as "civilized", but in which only war is the code to remain.

In the framework of the pandemic, the world economy, which has been designed as a globalized infrastructure of free market economies, has seen its turbulence accelerated, the picture of inequality and a massive loss of jobs, goods and services and financial assets, components essential elements of the material base that keeps the machinery of capitalism running.

If the covid-19 has served anything, it is to show in detail and specifically the changes in the balance of geopolitical power balance, the large-scale economic transition from the West to Asia, the effectiveness of its social and political model to contain the disaster and also the drift of the Global North.

It is the western superiority distorted before the clear evidence that the path of the disappearance of the nation-states and the corporatocracy, offered as redemption, has nothing to do with human aspirations.

The illusion of individual progress and of the global market as a mechanism for the "fair" allocation of resources and rewards disappeared, leaving clear the main doubts that the shocking crisis of 2008-2009 had left about the functioning of the current civilizational model.

A good part of the world's population suffers the economic consequences caused by the covid-19 pandemic, however, the fortune of American billionaires grew by 282 billion dollars (almost 10%), according to estimates by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) from the United States.

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The management of the pandemic in Venezuela during 2020 has helped the population, subjected to the blockade and siege by the United States and the European Union, to reconfigure the exercise of politics in the territory (Photo: Cristian Hernández / AFP)

Meanwhile, hospital collapses and waves of mass deaths from the absence of properly funded care plans collapse the promise of material progress that privatization mechanisms have led to believe.

In August, the United States Government Office of Economic Analysis (BEA) announced an annualized drop of 32.9% in the GDP of the world's largest economy between the months of April and June, around -9% in quarterly terms, and the Office Federal Statistical Office of Germany certified the largest drop in GDP in the entire historical series, dating back to 1970, with a contraction of 10.1% in the second quarter.

The seclusion caused by the pandemic has resulted in the collapse in the second quarter of the year of the GDP of the United States and Germany, the first and fourth economies in the world respectively, which has exacerbated the collapse suffered by the whole of the eurozone, leaving thus to China, which recorded the most intense impact of the crisis in the first quarter of 2020, as the only major economy that has already begun its recovery.

GLOBAL REARRANGEMENT AND CONTRAST OF FIGURES

The United States continues to lead the world statistics of covid-19 with more than 16 million 500 thousand cases reported in mid-December (half of them since mid-October) and more than 300 thousand deaths.

In Europe, Spain has reported 1,700,000 cases and about 50,210 deaths. Italy, with more than 1 million 800 thousand positive cases and 65 thousand deaths, was the initial epicenter of the pandemic in Europe, and is now the second European country with the most deaths from coronavirus and the sixth in the world. The UK has the highest number of deaths and ranks fifth in the world. More than 64 thousand 500 deaths have been registered and according to the Ministry of Health and Social Care, more than one million 800 thousand infected. They are followed by France, the third country with the most deaths in the region and the eighth in the world, registering more than 33,000 deaths and 930,000 confirmed cases.

Entering the autumn, Spain and France returned to massive confinements, while in the United Kingdom the health authorities declared that there were more hospitalizations in October than in March. The dramatic increase in cases from March to May 2020, then their decline at the expense of restrictions, encouraged authorities in several countries to de-escalate control measures into the boreal summer and with it the economic reopening and the August tourist season.

The result was the second major wave in force since mid-October.

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Number of confirmed cases per million inhabitants of some of the main economies of the world, is contrasted between countries that opted for early control in Asia and those that prioritized "the economy" in the West (Photo: Our world in data)

China was the initial epicenter of the pandemic, accumulating some 94,000 cases and 4,700 deaths from covid-19. Meanwhile, Japan accumulates just over 184 thousand cases and 2 thousand 581 deaths. South Korea adds about 44,364 cases and 612 deaths. In general figures, these are countries that distanced themselves from any possibility of a governance crisis due to early control of the pandemic and the continuity of their vigilant policies.

Sanitary control measures were strict in China, they were made up of large-scale deep social distancing actions, state coverage of families (food and medical care in homes) and the accompaniment of the ruling Communist Party in social and community action in the various dimensions of the crisis.

The State action also addressed the propping up of the Chinese health system to the circumstances of a new type of crisis, through the massive attention to cases (including non-asymptomatic ones) and a strict policy of detection and epidemiological siege on a large scale.

VENEZUELA DOES NOT SUCCUMB TO THE IMPOSED "HUMANITARIAN TRAGEDY"
The effective method implemented, outside the neoliberal axis of the West, has consisted precisely in the decisive presence of the exercise of politics and institutions of strong governments and nation-states to manage the health crisis.

Within the framework of a culture of recognition of government directives, social discipline, the use of new technologies and participatory and territorial forms of management of the health system.

The Venezuelan situation, marked by the economic blockade imposed by the Global North and subordinate peripheries against the country, has brought with it exceptional political and economic elements that have disfigured the State that has historically been an oil rentier. The Venezuelan Executive has maneuvered in new scenarios for national life.

The already difficult economic reality was complicated by the measures that the serious global health crisis has forced to take. Government action based on police and military forces, social support and the territorialized social forces of Chavismo have functioned as the main vectors of management in the communities. This has facilitated the application of the social restrictions imposed by the pandemic and reduced the deviations or common contempt in these cases.

While the economic siege has forced the disintegration of the socio-political fabric through the dispute over goods and services that are increasingly scarce and deficient, the forces deployed in CLAP, UBCH, Community Councils and other actors, have redefined their role as political vanguard , displacing the paternal and traditional forms of public management. While the style of government is politically remodeled, political participation networks have also been forced to do so.

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During the pandemic and the economic siege, the formation of the new socio-political fabric has not been stopped by forces such as CLAP, which direct solutions to the lack of access to goods and services (Photo: Archive)

The necessary health containment policies in the country have resulted in new pressures on the public service system itself, which had already been declining as a result of the systemic chaos triggered by the lack of resources that have been withheld in foreign banks or robbed by States. United.

The decrease in access to domestic gas, the electricity supply in vast areas, especially in western Venezuela, the inaccessibility, and in many cases inopportune availability of drinking water have forced a state of perpetual contingency that demands an additional deployment of financial resources and logistics that have put even more weight on the operational capacities and institutional muscle of the country, which has forced the abandonment of other spaces of governance.

Given the obvious shortcomings, the organizational balance of the networks that give life to Chavismo in the territories has made it possible to satisfy a significant number of demands, at least to put their solutions on track, which has reoriented the priorities of traditional public management towards daily.

The 7x7 scheme implemented in Venezuela has been consolidated in the evolution of the pandemic and is positioned as " the Venezuelan method " for managing the health crisis.

The result in figures of the health crisis, the absence of widespread popular shocks, as well as social expectations pointing to recoveries, endorse a strategy that is successful, despite the complexity of the adverse framework. The balance is all relevant, seen what is seen in the global panorama.

Hence, Venezuela, as of December 16, barely exceeds 108 thousand cases and does not reach a thousand deaths, due to the government effort and the cooperation of allied countries such as China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Cuba, among others.

THERE IS ONLY ONE PANDEMIC WAVE IN LATIN AMERICA: NEOLIBERALISM

The figures for both Cuba, with 9,423 cases and 137 deaths, and Nicaragua, with 5,887 cases and 164 deaths, are also eloquent, countries that also resist the attacks of the US elite and its operators installed inside and outside of its borders. Their numbers of cases and deaths are relatively low and have not involved critical situations beyond preventive ones.

Neither of the two countries are governed by States subordinate to neoliberal relations and others inherent to the exercise of economic power over the relations of life in society. They are countries with strong and consistent states, with historical and social foundations built from their political revolutions.

It is worth considering the possibility that in both there are also broad levels of cohesion and social discipline. The importance of State policies to sustain health systems and employment protection, which we know are key factors in the face of the pandemic.

In Brazil, the erratic management of the entire axis of governments aligned with global capitalism in Latin America takes place, where structural violence against the poor, state abandonment and the fragility of the health and economic response configure its main features.

Colombia, Argentina and Peru follow the same pattern of results due to similar handling of the crisis.

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Contrast between countries that opted for measures that favored public health care such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela and those aligned with global capitalism (Photo: Our world in data)

NORMAL (NOT SO NEW) WILL REMAIN THE GLOBAL DISPUTE

Venezuela is heading towards a "new normal" imposed by the pandemic and the state of exceptionality that starts from the new realities and disfigurements that have emerged since the US blockade.

The triumph of Chavismo in the parliamentary elections of last December 6 opens the way to a new political cycle in which it is vital to adapt to the notion of a country under siege in order to create new ways to advance political dialogue and the reconfiguration of the economy.

The imaginary of returning to a previous certainty of supposed stability and prosperity collides with a material reality imposed by the pandemic: the reduction of public budgets, a narrower labor market and a high increase in income and wealth inequality does not augur a future promising in the post-pandemic stage.

While in the rest of the world a " technological fix " to the current health crisis is imposed as an ideology of denial, capitalism cooks the next epidemics in its complex network of industrial production, globalized trade and frenzied consumerism, globalization it continues to reduce states, austericide does the same with health systems, and the geopolitical crisis becomes increasingly unmanageable.

The dispute will be normality, as old as new, in which even vaccines against the new coronavirus are part of that race we call "geopolitics."

China and Russia took the lead in the race for the vaccine against covid-19 while the West does the same, helped by the corporate media that, pretending to narrate, are part of the fair, generating distrust towards some and leaving that myth far in the past of impartiality.

Contrasts and tensions are also evident in this field, the usual "sanctions" of the Trump administration could not be absent. The Office of Industry and Security of the US Department of Commerce sanctioned the 48th Central Research Institute of the Russian Ministry of Defense for participating in the vaccine investigations, desperately alleging that "they are acting against the interests of security. national or foreign policy of the United States. "

For its part, Russia is making progress in cooperating with various actors involved in developing solutions to eradicate or control the virus, and Chinese President Xi Jinping called for closer international cooperation to achieve this.

It came as no surprise that the so-called "rich countries", which represent only 14% of the world's population, have purchased up to 53% of the most promising vaccines to date, jeopardizing the viability of universal access for other countries. Even if some of these governments say that they are going to give a part of what they have bought to low-income countries, it is difficult to trust their good will and that of the pharmaceutical companies.

In the midst of this panorama, Venezuela continues to consolidate its achievements while the challenges are amplifying with the tensions. Reversing the impact of the blockade and the global pandemic is beyond vaccines, but without them it will be difficult to move forward.

https://misionverdad.com/investigacione ... -sistemico

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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Tue Dec 22, 2020 2:10 pm

China and Russia to Guarantee COVID-19 Vaccines for Poor Countries in 2021

December 18, 2020 orinocotribune Alba-TCP, COVID-19, Finlay Vaccine Institute, OXFAM, People's Vaccine Alliance, Venezuela
The rich countries of the planet have bought enough COVID-19 vaccines to distribute doses to their population almost three times over in 2021, according to data published by a bloc of organizations made up of Oxfam, Amnesty International, Frontline AIDS, Global Justice Now, and others.

“Rich nations that represent only 14 percent of the world’s population have bought 53 percent of all the most promising vaccines so far,” says an Oxfam note on the matter, as new evidence of the greed and selfishness of the rich North.

On the other side of the coin, nine out of ten people living in poor countries will not be able to receive any immunization against COVID-19 next year, says a study by the People’s Vaccine Alliance.

The vaccines promoted by the West with the most publicized results are that of Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, and that of Oxford allied with AstraZeneca. Of these, 96 percent of Pfizer’s doses and all of Moderna’s have already been bought by rich countries. By contrast, vaccines from China and Russia have been purchased almost entirely by poor countries.

This scenario adds to a complex global health reality, because before the arrival of COVID-19, at least half of the people in the world did not have access to essential health services.

In this sense, we recall the efforts Venezuela is promoting to guarantee the distribution of vaccines among the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Recently, in the framework of the 18th ALBA-TCP Summit, President Nicolás Maduro proposed that Venezuela and Cuba be in charge of the creation of a vaccine bank to fulfill that objective.

More than 50 countries have sent requests to the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) for 1.2 billion doses of the Sputnik V vaccine. The cost of the two required doses will be less than 20 dollars, ranking as one of the lowest prices on the international market.

The international players who are doing their best to make COVID-19 vaccines a global public good, affordable or free to the public, come from the emerging multipolar world.

Translation: OT/JRE/SL

https://orinocotribune.com/china-and-ru ... s-in-2021/

Cannot help but suspect that the US vaccine program was designed for just this outcome.

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Clinical trials of Mambisa and Abdala candidate vaccines approved
Trials of Mambisa, created by researchers at the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center and administered nasally, will be conducted in Havana, while those of Abdala, administered intramuscularly, will take place in Santiago de Cuba

Author: Orfilio Peláez | informacion@granmai.cu

november 30, 2020 10:11:43

After a careful review of the information presented, including evidence from pharmaceutical development and studies in animals, the Center for the State Control of Drugs, Equipment and Medical Devices (Cecmed), authorized the clinical trials of two new Cuban candidate vaccines to prevent COVID-19, given the names of Mambisa (CIGB-669) and Abdala (CIGB-66).

Trials of the first, created by researchers at the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center (CIGB), affiliated with the BioCubaFarma Enterprise Group, and administered nasally, will be conducted in Havana, while the human studies of Abdala, administered intramuscularly, will take place in the city of Santiago de Cuba.

Dr. Eulogio Pimentel Vázquez, CIGB general director, told Granma that, in both cases, the objective is to determine, first of all, the safety of the candidate vaccines in healthy adults between 18 and 54 years of age, and secondly, the vaccination’s ability to induce the production of antibodies that promote the appropriate bodily response to the SARS-COV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19.

He noted that the effectiveness of the two administration methods and the combination of these will also be explored during the trials.

After receiving approval from the national regulatory authority, the recruitment of volunteers to participate in the study began immediately.

According to one of the most visited sites devoted to progress in COVID-19 vaccine efforts around the world (https://www.covid-19vaccinetracker.org/), as of November 24, 237 projects had been registered, 40 of which have reached the clinical trials stage.

Cuba’s internationally recognized pharmaceutical and biotechnological industry has been involved in the race to develop vaccines against COVID-19 since March, this year, when an accelerated program was launched.

Toward this end, several different candidate vaccine projects are underway, based on a variety of industrial technologies, means of administration and types of antigens.

These projects do not compete for human resources or industrial capacity. They complement each other and make it possible to expedite the process, to reach the goal of vaccinating the entire population, as well as others in need.

Our scientists have developed four candidate vaccines thus far: Soberana 1 and 2, Mambisa and Abdala.

According to the aforementioned web site, there are currently no other vaccine candidates in the clinical stage using the nasal route for administration (hence the novelty of Mambisa), although there is a marked interest and need to do so, Dr. Pimentel indicated.

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2020-11-30/cli ... s-approved

Funny, never heard about this in the US MSM.....
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Thu Dec 24, 2020 2:51 pm

Cuba's Soberana 02 Vaccine Advances to Phase II Clinical Trials

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Cuba begins Phase II of its second Covid-19 vaccine candidate, Soberana 02, which should involve about a hundred people. | Photo: Twitter @CG_CubaMilano

Published 23 December 2020 (15 hours 25 minutes ago)

Cuba's vaccine candidate Soberana 02 began Phase II of Clinical Trials


Cuba's vaccine candidate Soberana 02 began Phase II of Clinical Trials this week, making it the first Latin American vaccine against Covid-19 to advance to this stage following positive preliminary results in the first phase.

It was approved for Phase II on December 17, receiving authorization from the Finlay Vaccine Institute, which reports that the process has proceeded normally and in strict compliance with the established protocols.

Soberana 02 is not the only vaccine candidate in Cuba against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This project has a sister: Soberana 01, which must conclude its Phase I clinical trial before the end of 2020, reports Prensa Latina.

Regarding the progress of the vaccine candidates (Soberana 01, Soberana 02, Abdala and Mambisa), Cuban scientists have reported that Soberana 02 is the more advanced at this point.

General Director of the Finlay Vaccine Institute, Dr. Vicente Vérez Bencomo, has stated that Phase II should involve around 100 people and Phase 2B, between 300 and 600 people (also designed with placebo), while Phase III should include about 150,000 people.

Soberana 02 can be found listed in the Draft of the World Health Organization’s site, a reference for official information on the vaccine’s against COVID-19 which are in clinical trials. Of the 47 candidates registered worldwide, two of them are Cuban.


"This week, the process of the Phase II Clinical Trial of the #Soberana02 vaccine began. Everything has proceeded normally and in keeping with good practices. Currently, it is being evaluated which of the formulations of #Soberana01 will go to Phase II."

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cub ... -0016.html

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Cuban Authorities Establish Epidemiological Alert in Two Provinces

The conditions exist for an upward trend to continue due to the arrival of new visitors to the country.

Cuba's authorities are preparing for a uptick in coronavirus cases. President Miguel Díaz-Canel held a meeting with scientists, in which he was advised on the positive impact of the use of Nasaferon (a nasal version of Interferon alpha 2-b) in health personnel on the frontline and in nursing homes and indicated the extension of its application to other vulnerable groups.

The meeting with specialists took place as the country is seeing a general rise in the number of Covid-19 cases, largely due to infected people arriving from other countries.

As of December 22nd, the island saw a one-day rise of 116 cases, bringing the total number of cases to 10,500 of which 1,049 are active, 9,307 have recovered and 139 people have died since the start of the pandemic.

According to Raul Ghinovart, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computing of the University of Havana, the conditions exist for an upward trend to continue in the coming days due to the arrival of new visitors to the country. In the expert's opinion, it is necessary to assume a 'new normality' when dealing with people arriving from other nations, regarding hygienic measures and the established.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cub ... -0019.html

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First COVID-19 Vaccine Shipment Arrives in Mexico
The shipment landed around 0900 hours (1500 GMT) in Mexico City from Belgium on December 23, 2020.

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The shipment landed around 0900 hours (1500 GMT) in Mexico City from Belgium on December 23, 2020. | Photo: Twitter/ @GobiernoMX

Published 23 December 2020 (12 hours 54 minutes ago)

Authorities assure that all Mexicans will have free access to the vaccine.

Mexico received the firsts doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday and it will start vaccination on December 24.

"Indeed, we are still facing a tremendous pandemic, the worst we have experienced, but today is the beginning of the end of that pandemic," Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard said upon arrival.

The first batch of vaccines from the U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer, with 3000 doses, will be administered to front-line workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and then the rest of the population.

Other shipments are expected in the coming days as 1.4 million doses should enter the country up to January 31. Ebrard assured that all Mexicans will have free access to the vaccine.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit Arturo Herrera reported that the government has invested $1.6 million in the aquisition of new vaccines. Also, the federal government will provide all the logistics and additional materials required for the vaccination campaign.

While Mexico is the first Latin American country to receive the Pfizer vaccine, the authorities confirmed that they are negotiating with CanSino and AstraZeneca companies to guarantee coverage for the entire population.

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

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Pandemic-Induced Nutrition Crisis Could Kill 168,000 Children

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Child receiving food aid in Nigeria. | Photo: Twitter / @UNICEF_Nigeria

Published 24 December 2020

The pandemic's effects may inflate the numbers of child malnutrition in another 9.3 million underweight children and another 2.6 million children with growth problems.


A study published by Nature Food holds that the increase in child malnutrition induced by the effects of the pandemic, as well as a lower coverage of basic nutrition services, can cause the death of 168,000 children under 5 years old (CU5) worldwide between 2020 and 2022.

The Micronutrient Forum Director Saskia Osendarp assures that the social and economic effects of the pandemic can generate a nutrition crisis in low- and middle-income countries, especially in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

It is estimated that the pandemic may inflate the numbers of child malnutrition in another 9.3 million underweight children and another 2.6 million children with growth problems. In addition, the number of anemic pregnant women may increase by 2.1 million until 2022.

"Malnutrition at an early age affects children's cognitive development, their learning in school, and their productivity as adults," Osendarp recalled.


Productivity loss due to child malnutrition could amount to about US$30 billion, to which another US$79 million might be added because of cases of anemia during pregnancy in the period 2020-2022.

"Access to nutritious food will be a challenge because prices will go up, markets can be disrupted, incomes can fall, and the most vulnerable people will have less nutritious food," Osendarp explained.

Deficiencies in the intake of iron, zinc, or vitamins A and D have a great impact on people's lives, since these micronutrients are very important for the growth of the body and the brain.

According to the Nature Food article, countries should invest at least US$1.2 billion annually over the next two years to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on malnutrition.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Pan ... -0005.html

It's a big old world out there but ya wouldn't notice from the coverage in the US media. Cuz when yer the 'Exceptional Nation', who cares?
"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 Dec 28, 2020 5:36 pm

US officials promised 20 million vaccinated against coronavirus by the end of the year. It's going slower than that

(CNN)While the coronavirus pandemic continued to surge throughout the summer and fall, federal government officials repeatedly offered a ray of hope: enough vaccine doses to vaccinate 20 million Americans by the end of December.

But after the first week of vaccine distribution and with only nine days left to meet their self-imposed deadline, Operation Warp Speed is on track to fall well short of 20 million shots in arms. One count, from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shows about 9.5 million doses have been distributed as of Saturday morning and about 1.9 million have been vaccinated -- not even close to the 20 million goal Warp Speed originally set.

https://us.cnn.com/2020/12/23/health/va ... index.html
meanwhile.....
More jabs, more hope for return to normal
By JAN YUMUL in Hong Kong | China Daily | Updated: 2020-12-28 09:58

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A woman receives a dose of a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Dec 23, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]
Wide embrace of Chinese vaccines reflects trust in nation's capabilities

Norman Laquian, a Filipino nurse in Abu Dhabi, is among the hundreds of frontline medical workers who have received two jabs of a Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine that many, like him, are counting on for a return to normalcy.

"For me, getting the vaccine is a way of protecting yourself and your family," Laquian said.

He contracted COVID-19, along with his wife Hershey, in October. She is scheduled to receive the vaccine, which is produced by China National Pharmaceutical Group, or Sinopharm.

On Dec 9, the United Arab Emirates became the first foreign country to approve the vaccine developed by Sinopharm. Other countries are expected to follow as Chinese vaccines complete their trials.

China has joined the World Health Organization-backed COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, known as COVAX. The program is aimed at ensuring equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines.

RPM-VPS Group Medical Director Michael Felfernig, who is based in Abu Dhabi, warned that as a growing number of countries begin receiving vaccines from the major candidates, the trend must not lead to the point that "people start neglecting precautionary measures".

Felfernig, who was inoculated in September, has been administering the Chinese jabs to his staff through his group's vaccination program. He has, so far, not heard of any adverse reactions.

"Both China and the UAE have proven during this crisis that fast and resolute actions are the only ways to contain a pandemic outbreak," said Felfernig. "Scientific collaborations are necessary to gain quick representative valid data."

Bahrain approval

Elsewhere in the Middle East, Bahrain, with about 1.5 million people, has joined the list of countries that have approved vaccines from China. The country has also approved vaccines from US-based Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.

Turkey has signed a deal to buy50 million doses of a vaccine from Sinovac Biotech in China.

In developing countries, the Chinese vaccines do not just symbolize accessibility. They are also seen as logistics-friendly as Pfizer's and Moderna's treatments require ultracold storage, which can reportedly cost up to $30,000.

In contrast, the five Chinese vaccines that have been developed can be preserved for 36 months at temperatures of 2 C to 8 C.

In Indonesia, which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia at over 600,000, its pharmaceutical firm Bio Farma and Sinovac Biotech are conducting the third phase of clinical trials of CoronaVac.

The Philippines, with more than 400,000 cases, aims to secure 25 million doses of CoronaVac by next year.

Philippines-based analyst and Anvil Business Club Chairman Wilson Lee Flores has lauded China's commitment to share its vaccines and the strides it has made in modern technology.

"China's commitment to share the vaccine to the world and most especially to developing countries is benevolent, progressive and noble," said Flores.

National Sanitation Foundation Health Sciences Global Vice-President Martin Lush said China and other Asia-Pacific countries have "certainly led the way and recovered faster and better than those in the West-most notably the EU and the Americas".

"Western governments have a lot to learn before the next pandemic hits," said Lush.

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202012/ ... 9ee9e.html

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Another Chinese adenovirus vector COVID-19 vaccine ready for human trials
Xinhua | Updated: 2020-12-28 16:59

BEIJING -- One more Chinese adenovirus vector vaccine candidate against COVID-19 is ready for human trials at home and abroad, its developers said Monday.

Researchers from Tsinghua University, Tianjin Medical University and Kunming-based Walvax Biotechnology Co., Ltd. have started developing the vaccine since the outbreak of the epidemic. Compared with other candidates, it was produced using chimpanzee blood.

Because there is generally no pre-stored neutralizing antibody against chimpanzee adenovirus in the human body, the vaccine with this virus as the carrier will have the advantages of low adverse reactions, high production capacity and strong immunity after vaccination, said lead researcher Zhang Linqi, from Tsinghua University.

The vaccine makers have completed animal tests and started applying to launch human trials in China and overseas.

"No serious side effects have occurred in animals," said Zhang, adding that the results of the preclinical research support the safety of this vaccine and suggest the potential for further clinical tests.

Zhang noted that phase-3 clinical trials to verify the vaccine efficacy will be performed in pandemic areas abroad. "Like other Chinese COVID-19 vaccines, we are also facing the situation that there are not enough COVID-19 patients in China to participate in phase-3 trials."

An industrialization base of the patented chimpanzee adenovirus vector vaccine was launched Sunday in Beijing's Daxing District. Once the vaccine is proved effective after trials, it will be mass produced in the base.

The manufacturing plants are now under construction, and the vaccine is likely to hit market in mid-2021. The annual production capacity for the COVID-19 vaccine will top 200 million doses, according to a Walvax statement.

China currently has five vaccines entering phase-3 clinical trials including an adenovirus vector vaccine developed by the Academy of Military Sciences and CanSino Biologics Inc., said an official from the National Health Commission earlier in December.

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202012/ ... 9f0bb.html

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The latest figures reported by each government's health authority as of Dec 28, 2020.

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Latest data released by National Health Commission by midnight, Dec 27, 2020.

http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20201 ... 7e357.html
Gotta love that 'capitalist efficiency'.....
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Tue Dec 29, 2020 4:14 pm

Chinese vaccines favored in Latin America
By SERGIO HELD in Cajica, Colombia | China Daily | Updated: 2020-12-29 07:18

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Sao Paulo state Health Secretary Jean Gorinchteyn (left) and Dimas Covas, director of the Butantan Institute, hold doses of the CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Sinovac Biotech, as a plane loaded with 5.5 million doses arrives at Campinas, Brazil, on Thursday. AMANDA PEROBELLI/REUTERS

Vaccine developers based in China are poised to become the main source of COVID-19 vaccines for countries across Latin America due to their cost-effectiveness for a region with limited resources.

In Brazil, a shipment containing active ingredients for the production of 1 million doses of Corona-Vac, developed by Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech Ltd, is being processed by the Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo. Actual use awaits approval of authorities.

On Monday, Premier Li Keqiang called for solidarity of all countries to deal with the common challenge of COVID-19. Li made the remark in a phone conversation with Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad.

No country can escape the pandemic, which is still raging across the world, and there is nothing more important than safeguarding people's health and life, Li said, adding that vaccines are the "gold key" to combat the virus.

China stands ready to strengthen cooperation with all countries and jointly make contributions to enhancing the accessibility and affordability of COVID-19 vaccines, he said.

Chinese government has attached great importance to the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a news conference in Beijing on Monday.

Following strict scientific laws and regulatory requirements, Chinese manufacturers promote research and development in accordance with regulations, Zhao said. The companies follow international standards and laws and regulations in working with other parties.

"There have been several Chinese vaccines currently undergoing Phase III clinical trials in many countries, and progress is proceeding smoothly," he said. "China has also approved the emergency use of vaccines in the country," he said about China," and so far there have been no serious adverse reactions."

He also reiterated China's firm stance that the country will make the vaccine "a global public product" and supply it to the world at a fair and reasonable price, making China's own contribution to the realization of the availability and affordability of the vaccine among developing countries.

Other countries across Latin America are also looking to vaccines developed by Sinovac, CanSino Biologics based in Tianjin or Beijing-based Sinopharm Group to bring their immunization campaigns to fruition.

Argentina is also looking at vaccines developed in China. Sinopharm is running large trials for its vaccine in the country. Meanwhile, Mexico is pinning its hopes on vaccines from CanSino and Sinovac.

"We are moving forward with two Chinese vaccines, one from Sinovac and one from CanSino Biologics," said Daniel Dominguez, co-founder of AllBiotech, a Latin American biotechnology network.

"We are aiming first for the Chinese ones rather than the ones from Janssen (from Belgium) and Moderna (from the United States)," Dominguez said. "We need to have all the available options, given the complexity of the cold chains required for some vaccines."

Geographic challenges, high temperatures and weaker coldchain infrastructure across the region make Chinese vaccine candidates more appealing to Latin American countries than some of the others.

Some of the first vaccines, including the vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech and another developed by Moderna, may not be available. The Pfizer vaccine has to be stored at minus 70 C. For long-term storage, Moderna's vaccine has to be maintained at minus 20 C.

By comparison, Sinovac's vaccine can be stored at between minus 2 C and minus 8 C, the temperature of regular commercial freezers. Similar temperatures are required to store and transport the vaccines produced by CanSino and Sinopharm.

"If the countries are not equipped with the required super fridges, it would be really challenging to distribute the vaccines that require ultra-refrigeration processes to be stored and transported," Dominguez said.

Brazil's state-run Butantan Institute announced last week that the CoronaVac vaccine developed by Sinovac Life Science, a unit of Sinovac Biotech, achieved the levels of efficacy required in trials involving 13,000 Brazilian volunteers.

"The data corroborates that it is the safest vaccine on the market, and we achieved the superiority in efficacy required by the WHO and Brazil's Health Regulatory Agency," Dimas Covas, director of the institute, said at a news conference." It is a historic day for Brazilian science because of the hope it brings to Brazilians."

Peru, like other countries in the region, is looking to the COVAX initiative for support. COVAX is a global collaboration brought together by the World Health Organization and Gavi, the vaccine alliance, to support the research, development and purchase of COVID-19 vaccines. China is part of COVAX, while the United States is not.

Peru joined COVAX, as did many mid-income countries.

Like Peru and Brazil, other countries looking to COVAX are Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela. So are El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, three countries that qualify as low-or middle-income and are part of a group of 92 such countries around the world that COVAX supports.

Mo Jingxi in Beijing and Xinhua contributed to this story.

The writer is a freelance journalist for China Daily.

http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20201 ... 9f1af.html

Cause the USA is so damn 'exceptional'...speaks volumes.
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Wed Dec 30, 2020 2:16 pm

US social divide exacerbates spread of COVID-19
Xinhua | Updated: 2020-12-30 09:48

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A child is tested for the COVID-19 virus at Roseland Community Hospital on Dec 14, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. [Photo/Agencies]

The poor performance of the US in COVID-19 response is no wonder one of the biggest "black swans" of 2020. The "systematic fracture" is believed by the US society to be a major reason why the world's No. 1 economic and tech power failed in this regard.

The BBC warned in a March 24 article that the coronavirus pandemic could mark another 'Suez moment' for the US The New York Times listed 1,000 names of the US citizens who died of COVID-19 on its front page on May 24 as the country's COVID-19 death toll neared 100,000. In late September, the TIME magazine printed its cover with dates and death counts listed back to back to mark an approaching milestone in the coronavirus pandemic — 200,000 related deaths, calling it an "American failure." The New England Journal of Medicine, in an editorial published on Oct. 8, pointed out that the US has "taken a crisis and turned it into a tragedy." In the Nov. 30 issue of the TIME, the magazine once again warned that the US is now locked in a deadly cycle.

Since Nov. 3, the US has been recording over 100,000 new confirmed coronavirus cases a day. The growth exacerbated in December, and so did the daily deaths. So far, there have been over 18.93 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 330,000 deaths in the country.

The TIME pointed out a systematic fracture of the US revealed by the pandemic. "Republicans and Democrats today don't just disagree on issues; they disagree on the basic truths that structure their respective realities. Half the country gets its news from places that parrot whatever the Administration says, true or not; half does not."

A recent report by the Washington Post said public health officials and many political leaders hoped that covid's frightening lethality might unite the country, but the nation's deep divisions — political and cultural — set the country on a different path.

The World Health Organization reiterated the importance of solidarity in facing the pandemic, as divisions would only create opportunities for the virus. However, even the US community admitted that their country has been trapped in larger divisions due to the pandemic.

For instance, the small masks mirror the big problems of political polarization and social divide in the US Some shops welcome only customers with masks, while some prevent them from entering. A survey done by the Pew Research Center on June 25 found 63 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents believed that masks should be worn always, while the figure was only 29 percent among Republicans and Republican leaners.

American analytics and advisory company Gallup also discovered that 94 percent of democrats always use masks, compared to 46 percent of Republicans who said the same.

The Pew Research Center suggested a sharp divide of the two parties' views on US COVID-19 response. Eighty-eight percent of democrats said the country did a bad job in controlling the pandemic, while only 30 percent of republicans supported such point. Sixty-six percent of republicans even believe the impacts from the pandemic were exaggerated.

Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations of the US, said in an article that the America is one country with two nations.

The US has long suffered from political polarization and social divide. What's unfortunate is that when the pandemic is politicized, the country's containment measures are "blackmailed" by political polarization and social divide, and the two amplify each other. Just because of the political polarization and social divide, the US society is always unable to reach an agreement on the choice between saving life and developing economy.

Given the fake news that is highly politicized, truth and science are placed on the opposite side of people's health. Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said it's pathetic to politicize the pandemic. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the US, who received serious threats from people angry over his advice on the pandemic, remarked that these attacks were a reflection of the "divisiveness of our society at political level." Rick Bright, director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, is also pessimistic about the politicization of the pandemic, believing the US is heading toward "darkest winter in modern history."

It is much to be regretted that the social divisiveness and the out-of-control pandemic in the US are continuing accelerating one another, costing numerous lives. What the US citizens need are actions that can effectively curb the virus. However, their interests are still not cared about. No wonder the US media had to comment that "the US is sleepwalking into what could become the largest coronavirus outbreak of the pandemic so far."

http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20201 ... 9f829.html
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