Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Thu Nov 12, 2020 12:56 pm

News > U.S.
Capital of Biggest US State Seeks Medical Exchange with Cuba
Published 11 November 2020

The Mayor and City Council of Sacramento, California passed a resolution Tuesday night urging the U.S. President and Congress to lift restrictions on access to Cuban medical expertise.


The capital city of the most populous state in the United States—Sacramento, California—unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday evening calling for increased cooperation and exchange between the people of the United States and Cuba.

The northern Californian city of more than half a million people joins over a dozen U.S. cities—including Oakland, California; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Cleveland, Ohio and others—in urging state and national leadership to lift restrictons on access to Cuban medical expertise and imports of Cuban biotechnological products, among other demands.

The resolution recognizes not only that the United States, particularly Black and Latinx communities, is suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, but that Cuba "has a long history of providing international medical aid with its medical personnel directly involved in the fight against COVID-19" through its Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade against Disasters and Serious Epidemics.

Citing Cuba's proven track record in its fight against the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, as well as its assistance in many worldwide epidemics including dengue fever, HIV, swine flu and hepatitis, the resolution notes that Cuba's medical system has been recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2005 as a worldwide leader in biotechnology, having made "significant contributions to the international medical field."

Despite Cuba's medical achievments, the resolution states that "the U.S. blockade of Cuba has severely restricted collaboration on scientific and medical research" and that the people of Sacramento "would benefit from Cuban biotechnological, medical and public health expertise in combating the COVID-19 pandemic."

In concluding, the Mayor and City Council of Sacramento urge the United States' legislative and executive branches to "lift restrictions on access to Cuban medical expertise to more effectively combat the COVID-19 pandemic by suspending travel sanctions against Cuba; cease ongoing measures deterring Cuba from importing medical equipment and medicines; and cease attempts to prevent other countries from accepting Cuban medical brigades and assistance."

With Tuesday's resolution, Sacramento becomes the seventh U.S. city to adopt a resolution specifically calling for U.S.-Cuba medical and scientific collaboration in 2020 alone. The California cities of Richmond, Berkeley, San Francisco and Oakland—along with Cleveland, Ohio and Cambridge, Massachusetts—have all passed similar resolutions this year.

Recently, the Cuban monoclonal antibody Itolizumab, developed by the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM) in collaboration with the Indian company Bicon, received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorization to start phase III clinical trials in patients with COVID-19 in the United States, Mexico and Brazil.

U.S. support for medical, scientific and clinical collboration and exchange with Cuba has been growing, as over 200 university professors in the United States released a statement yesterday calling on the Nobel Prize Committee to award the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to Cuba's Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade, which has to date sent more than 3,700 Cuban nurses and doctors organized in more than 50 medical teams to 39 countries throughout the world to treat people with COVID-19 and prevent further contagion.

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

Goddamn commies...this gotta drive the Right nuts, I should be surprised if they don't make hay outta this. And expect Joe Biden to throw shade.

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Oakland, California Calls For Medical Collaboration with Cuba
Published 21 October 2020

The City Council of the U.S. city of Oakland, California, approved a new resolution Tuesday condemning the economic, commercial, and financial blockade that the U.S. has been imposing on Cuba for almost six decades.

José Ramón Cabañas, Cuban Ambassador to the United States, announced the news today on Twitter, highlighting that the resolution calls for bilateral cooperation to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the tweet, Cabañas asks if federal politicians will listen to the city's request to lift the siege against Cuba, sharing the link to Resolution 20-0712 as well as supplementary documents.

"U.S. City Council of Oakland, California approves a new resolution against the Blockade on Cuba and calls for bilateral cooperation to combat COVID-19. Will federal politicians will listen to these demands?" says the diplomat's message.

With Tuesday's resolution, Oakland becomes the sixth U.S. city to adopt a resolution supporting U.S.-Cuba medical and scientific collaboration in 2020 alone. The California cities of Richmond, Berkeley, and San Francisco, as well as Cleveland, Ohio and Cambridge, Massachusetts, have all passed similar resolutions this year.

Introduced by Councilman Dan Kalb, the resolution recognizes the capacity of the Cuban public health system and its successes in controlling COVID-19, stating that the City Council will explore possibilities for cooperation with Cuba to jointly fight the pandemic.

To this end, it includes the possibility of removing restrictions that prevent the start of clinical trials of the Cuban drug Interferon Alpha 2B in the United States, as well as the elimination of economic and travel sanctions against Cuba.

Approved unanimously with a favorable vote from all eight members of the City Council, the resolution is the second one related to Cuba to be approved in Oakland since 2016 and becomes the 23rd one approved in all of the United States, a clear sign of the support from the American people to improve relations with Cuba.

Oakland resident and co-chair of the National Network on Cuba Alicia Jrapko said of the resolution: “We could learn a lot from the accomplishments of Cuba’s approach to the Covid 19 virus both in their country and around the world. Cuba has a lower infection rate than most countries in the northern hemisphere and Cubans are 42 times less likely to contract the virus than people in the U.S. In collaborating with Cuba we will show people in this country the humanistic approach Cuba has to fight the pandemic.”

Helene Maxwell, another Oakland resident in favor of the resolution, said: “Especially in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is unconscionable, that because of the U.S. blockade of Cuba, patients in the U.S. are denied access to medicines that are available in every other country. Oakland’s approval of this resolution for medical and scientific collaboration between the City of Oakland and Cuba is a first step in ending this madness.”

This Thursday October 22, Cuba will present a report titled, "The need to end the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba," which is submitted annually for the consideration of the United Nations' member states and whose vote this year at the UN will be postponed until May 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Oak ... -0017.html

I had missed this earlier. Good for them, go for the best, I sure as hell will not trust US Pharma until several million have tried their products and not grown another head. And have all them Trotskyists not raised a ruckus yet about 'Cuban imperialism'?

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Cambridge, Massachusetts Seeks Medical Cooperation With Cuba

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The Cambridge City Council passed a resolution Monday promoting medical and scientific collaboration with Cuba on COVID-19, urging Congress to remove restrictions on collaboration by suspending economic and travel restriction on Cuba. | Photo: Twitter/@PLprensalatina

Published 6 October 2020

The U.S. city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, approved a policy order Monday night to explore medical exchange and collaboration with Cuba to jointly confront the COVID-19 pandemic that has impacted the entire world.


The document, approved unanimously by the Cambridge City Council on Monday, also calls on the U.S. government to lift all economic sanctions and travel restrictions imposed by the U.S. government on the Caribbean country.

The order, sponsored by Councilmembers Dennis Carlone, Marc McGovern and Quinton Zondervan, as well as Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui, highlights that the city of Cambridge is home to some of the most prestigious institutions in the United States, and highlights Cuba's development of an internationally respected biopharmaceutical industry.

The island, the document adds, uses several successful treatment protocols to control COVID-19, among them medicines produced in Cuba such as Biomodulin T and Interferon Alpha 2B human recombinant, "which has given that country an extremely favorable mortality and recovery rate." The text regrets that none of these drugs are available in the United States due to the continuous and growing restrictions on collaboration with and imports from the Caribbean nation.

The city of Cambridge and its institutions, including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cambridge Hospital, have a long history of direct medical and scientific exchanges of professors and students, as well as direct collaboration with Cuba, the policy order points out.

In addition, it highlights that there are other efforts in the United States that seek medical collaboration with the Antillean nation, as shown by resolutions recently passed in Cleveland, Ohio, and in Richmond and San Francisco, California, which also demand the lifting of the nearly 60-year-old blockade against the island.


The people of Cambridge, the rest of the country and the world would benefit from biopharmaceutical, medical and public health collaboration and exchange between the United States and Cuba, the document states.

For this reason, it orders the city to actively explore collaboration to jointly face the current pandemic, which would include restarting the transfer of knowledge on public health prevention methods, ways to prevent infection of health personnel, and development of new treatments, vaccines and protocols.

It also states that the Council should actively encourage the Massachusetts State Legislature and Governor Charlie Baker to pursue such exchanges, knowledge transfers and collaboration.

Similarly, the city calls on Congress and the President of the United States to lift restrictions on access to Cuba's medical services and biopharmaceutical expertise by suspending all economic and travel sanctions against the island.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cam ... 6W_swbfVvk

More old news, funny how all this slips under the MSM radar.....
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Mon Nov 16, 2020 2:17 pm

China Confident in its Sinovac COVID-19 Vaccine (Brazilian Trick + Pfizer)

November 11, 2020 The pharmaceutical company denied that what happened to a volunteer in Brazil was related to its vaccine.

The Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac expressed its confidence in the experimental vaccine it’s developing against COVID-19, after the National Health Surveillance Agency of Brazil (ANVISA) temporarily suspended the trials being carried out in the South American country.

The suspension of the trial in more than 9,000 volunteers in Brazil was announced this Monday by ANVISA. According to the Brazilian Agency, it “decided to interrupt the clinical trial of the CoronaVac vaccine after a serious incident” on October 29.

In response, Sinovac stated: “We are confident in the safety of the vaccine” and stated that the incident in question was not related to the vaccine.

For his part, this Tuesday the director of the Butantan Institute, a public laboratory in the state of São Paulo, Dimas Tadeu Covas, told the press that the suspension was due to “a death unrelated to the trial, it’s as if the patient died in a car accident,” and they want to stop the trials because of that.

At the time that news of the suspension was communication, ANVISA did not provide other details. It also didn’t specify why the news of the incident was communicated eleven days after the event. The Brazilian influencer Nathalia Urban posted on her Twitter account a thread about how happy Jair Bolsonaro was when the news was announced. and also claiming that the patient’s cause of death was suicide, and not related to the clinical trials.

The decision made by the Brazilian regulator for health surveillance “coincidentally” came on the same day that US pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which is also testing its candidate in Brazil, announced that its coronavirus vaccine is 90% effective. celebrated by international mainstream media as a big success. Meanwhile the Chinese and Russian vaccine candidates have proven more effective, and haven’t the technical difficulties of the announced Pfizer vaccine that, according to Reuters, needs to be maintained in a temperature of minus 80 degrees ºC to be effective, a requirement that not even developed countries have in abundance.

In a televised address Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro also raised concerns about the timing of both events, and the international media campaign with logos of Pfizer in all news coverage, while announcing that Venezuela is planning a massive vaccination campaign for April 2021.

Four vaccines are being tested in Brazil, those developed by Sinovac, Pfizer, the University of Oxford in collaboraton with AstraZeneca, and that of Janssen, a pharmaceutical subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.

According to the data offered by the National Council of Health Secretaries (CONASS), the number of people infected with COVID-19 in Brazil amounts to 5,675,032. Likewise, the total accumulated deaths from the pandemic stands at 162,628.

https://orinocotribune.com/china-confid ... ck-pfizer/

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CoronaVac: Death was not Related to the Vaccine – Chinese Vaccine Trials Resume in Brazil
November 11, 2020 orinocotribune another irresponsible bolsonaro move, China, COID-19, Dimas Covas, Jair Bolsonaro, Ricardo Lewandowski, Sinovac, Vaccine, Wang Wenbin
The Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) reported this Wednesday, through a statement, that it authorized the resumption of tests with the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine, after they were suspended last Monday.

In the note, ANVISA points out that the decision to lift the suspension was made “after analyzing new technical data” provided by the Butantan Institute, responsible for clinical trials in Brazil, developed by the biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech.

“It is important to clarify that a suspension does not necessarily mean that the product under investigation is not of quality, safety or efficacy,” the agency emphasizes in the statement, something they did not do with their statement on Monday. In addition, it added that “the suspension and resumption of clinical studies are common events in clinical research” and “all studies aimed at registering drugs authorized in the country are previously evaluated by ANVISA in order to preserve the safety of study volunteers, they said.”

The suspension was announced on Monday November 9. At that time, ANVISA reported that the decision responded to a “serious adverse event”, of which it did not provide further details, either at that time or in this latest statement, although it did say that it considered:

• The severity of the event.

• The precariousness of the data sent by the sponsor (Butantan) at that time.

• The need to protect research volunteers.

• The absence of an opinion from the Independent Security Monitoring Committee.

Although ANVISA did not explain what this “serious adverse event” was, one of the trial volunteers, aged thirty-three, was known to have died. However, Dimas Covas, director of Butantan, said the death “was not related to the vaccine.”

This information was reiterated by Sinovac Biotech and by the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Wang Wenbin.

This Tuesday, Minister Ricardo Lewandowski, of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) of Brazil, gave ANVISA forty-eight hours to report on the tests with CoronaVac.

Bolsonaro’s celebration

After being informed of the suspension of the trials, the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, celebrated the news, making it clear with a comment he published on a social media network.

“Death, disability, anomaly; this is the vaccine with which Doria [the governor of Sao Paulo, Joao Doria] wanted to vaccinate all the people of São Paulo, forcing them. The president said the vaccine could never be mandatory. One more that Jair Bolsonaro wins,” wrote the Brazilian president in an unsurprisingly controversial tweet or comment.

Bolsonaro has been reluctant to purchase this vaccine from the moment the trials were announced by the Brazilian Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello, weeks ago. The South American country is second in the world for deaths and registered cases of COVID-19, just behind the United States.

Then, after mentioning that Brazil would not buy this vaccine from China, he said that “the Brazilian people will not be anyone’s guinea pig.”

https://orinocotribune.com/coronavac-de ... in-brazil/

Funny how CCN et al haven't seen fit to develop this story after the initial blurb so enjoyable to US jingos.

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President Maduro: Mass COVID-19 Vaccination Planned for April 2021 (Sputnik V)

November 10, 2020 He assured that the trials in Venezuela of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against SARS-COV-2, which causes COVID-19, “are going very well.” The total number of cases in the country exceeds 95,000 with only 830 deaths.

“I have optimistically calculated that in April, I think that in April, we could be able to start, hopefully, vaccination in Venezuela.”

This projection was made by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, when speaking about the impact of the pandemic in Venezuela during an event at the Miraflores Palace. The national total of cases exceeds 95,000 and deaths have reached 830, far below the catastrophic numbers of most Latin American and European countries, not to mention the United States and Canada.

The president explained that, for this purpose, the executive is working to strengthen the public health system, especially the sanitary and epidemiological efforts currently being developed due to the pandemic.

During a working meeting, the head of state stressed that there is a renewed hope in the development of vaccines worldwide, but this Tuesday, November 10, he warned of a curious media occurrence triggered when the Western company Pfizer announced that their vaccine was displaying 90% effectiveness.

“Most mainstream media from the US, Europe and international news agencies have reported that the Pfizer vaccine was 90% effective. That was the information yesterday and today; the stock markets rose, even oil,” he summarized regarding reactions, not only of the pharmaceutical corporation but of the media propaganda around it.

“When the Russian vaccine is 100% effective, there is silence in the world,” he commented, in contrast.

President Maduro, said this Tuesday, November 10, that the trials in Venezuela of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against SARS-COV-2, which causes COVID-19, “are going very well,” and that he hopes to release the results when phase 3 trials finish, although he didn’t announce an estimated date.

In October Venezuela received a first batch of 2,000 doses of Sputnik V, with which the country is participating in phase 3 of the development of this drug. Sputnik V has been received largely with by the United States and Europe, mainly in order to protect the corporate interests of the powerful pharmaceutical lobby.

The President recommended to news agencies that, if the Chinese and Russian vaccines, and those from India and Cuba, are also providing similar levels of immune response, they should evaluate and report on them in the same magnitude and manner that they’ve done for Pfizer.

In relation to the situation of the pandemic in Venezuela and its 7 + 7 reopening scheme—that is, one week of radical quarantine and another of reopening—he added that “we are riding towards Christmas in peace; safe, happy, and fighting the coronavirus in biosecurity.”

https://orinocotribune.com/president-ma ... sputnik-v/
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Thu Nov 19, 2020 5:36 pm

Covid-19 Started in Italy, in September 2019, Not in China in December
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on NOVEMBER 18, 2020
Eric Zuesse

Image
The covid-19, or coronavirus-19, virus didn’t start in Wuhan China in December 2019, as has been widely reported till now. This new or “novel” virus was first infecting people in Italy, by no later than September 2019, according to researchers at the Italian Association for Cancer Research, and published on November 11th, as Current Research, by the National Tumors Institute of the Italian Ministry of Health.

This study is titled “Unexpected detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the pre-pandemic period in Italy”. It reports that:

“The first surge of positive cases was identified in September-October 2019. Evaluation of anti-SARS-CoV-2 functional NAbs identified positive samples in CPE-based microneutralization tests already collected in October 2019. Given the temporal delay between infection and antibody synthesis, these results indicate that the virus circulated in Italy well before the detection of the declared index patient in February 2020. In addition, most of the first antibody-positive individuals lived in regions where the pandemic started.”

In other words: though the first officially noticed covid-19-infected Italians were in February 2020, there had been covid-19-infected people in Italy starting by no later than September 2019. Consequently, one reason why Italy was one of the three most covid-19-infected nations as early as 1 March 2020 (right behind China and South Korea), might be that China and South Korea were the first two countries that noticed this new virus. On 31 January 2020, Italy suspended all flights to and from China and declared a state of emergency, but 26 February 2020 was the first date when Italy reported covid-19 cases, and there were already 147 in Italy on that date. The Italian Government explained its sudden cessation of air-flights by saying that a Chinese couple from Wuhan had arrived in Italy on January 23rd and became diagnosed with the new disease on January 30th. China had started reporting cases already a month earlier, on 23 January 2020: 259 of them. Within two weeks thereafter, China’s leaders established total lockdown and intensive nationwide searches to find possible cases that they had previously missed; so, on February 12th, there was an enormous spike in China’s known cases, 14,108 of them, reported on that date. That number declined down to 573 new daily cases on February 29th. No number even close to that number (573) has been reported after that date in China.

Two weeks after 1 March, on 15 March 2020, Italy had by far the world’s highest intensity of coronavirus infections as calculated at that time, at the rate of 409.3 cases per million residents, and China had 56.2 cases per million. (U.S. had 11.1 per million.) However, the tiny nation of San Marino, which is surrounded within Italy, had 109 total cases, and only 34,232 population (which was too small for that nation to have been included among the ones which were then being calculated); so, that’s a per-million rate of 3,184 infections per million, which was actually (and by far) the world’s highest rate of covid-infections, at that time. Consequently: the first person who became infected by this virus could well have been a San Marinan, instead of an Italian.

As more research is done, regarding this virus, the actual geographical source of it could turn out to be any country, because international travel and tourism are now commonplace, which was not formerly so. Maybe the Italian cases in September 2019 had resulted from a foreign visitor, instead of from an Italian. In the future, global pandemics will likely be far more frequent than in earlier history, but technology (such as vaccines) and the world adjusts so that there might not be a higher percentage of the global population dying from plagues than has been so in the past. Making predictions on the basis of the latest prior mega-pandemic, which was the Spanish flu of 1918-1920, might not be entirely appropriate. The Spanish flu most likely started in America, not in Spain, but, according to Wikipedia, “To maintain morale, World War I censors minimized these early reports. Newspapers were free to report the epidemic’s effects in neutral Spain, such as the grave illness of King Alfonso XIII, and these stories created a false impression of Spain as especially hard hit. This gave rise to the name ‘Spanish’ flu. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify with certainty the pandemic’s geographic origin, with varying views as to its location.” In other words, what the masses of the public believe at any given time can be shaped by the government and by its newspapers and broadcasters, simply by hiding facts that the people who actually control the country don’t want the public to know. Censorship is the core of dictatorship, and almost all countries are actually dictatorships, but the news-media there censor-out that fact, instead of publishing it. So, the reality of censorship is, itself, hidden from the public, in order for the people who control the government to control the masses so that the nation can be called a “democracy.” That’s important for them to do in order to minimize the percentage of the population they’ll need to imprison. However, the United States already has a higher percentage of its residents in prison than does any other country; and, so, its news-media are especially highly censored, in order to be able to prevent an outright revolution. Forcing both the body and the mind could turn out to be too much, but apparently the individuals who are in control feel they need to go that far, in order to remain in control.

But, regardless, any politician who calls covid-19 “the Wuhan virus” or “the China virus” is expressing that person’s agenda, instead of anything about reality, since the actual first case of this disease could have appeared anywhere.

(NOTE: The “gain-of-function” hypotheses, and evidence of Chinese bio-warfare research being funded by the Pentagon and participated in by Canada, do raise questions, which should be answered; but more basic than whether this virus was natural or instead man-made, is precisely where and how it first got released out into the public. We don’t yet really know the answer even to that extremely important question — a question which must be answered BEFORE one can even begin to address the question of whether that event was natural or instead military. This is the basic question, and its answer is still unknown. It’s the first question that must be answered before anything else can become known about how the global pandemic started.

https://moderndiplomacy.eu/wp-content/u ... -italy.jpg

I find the thesis that this is a 'militarized' organism extremely unlikely for two reasons:
1)The extreme unlikelihood of China cooperating with the US on bio-weapons, doubly so on Chinese soil. Disinformation and infantile.
2)I cannot see an effective application, militarily. It is not deadly enough to decimate the ranks in tactical nor the populace in strategic time.Anthrax beats #19 hands down for military effectiveness.

But if the origin of this bug is ever pinpointed somewhere other than China we USAers will be the last to know, whatever the flavor of the capitalist regime.
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Sat Nov 21, 2020 2:36 pm

THEY STEP ON THE ACCELERATOR IN THE RACE FOR THE VACCINE AGAINST COVID-19
20 Nov 2020 , 9:12 am .

China and Russia took the lead in the race for the Covid-19 vaccine. It was barely May when Chinese President Xi Jinping informed the world about the provision of the Chinese vaccine as a global public good . And by August, this Asian country had already patented the first vaccine, from the hand of the Chinese biopharmaceutical CanSino Biologics.

That same month, Russian President Vladimir Putin, announced the registration of the first Russian vaccine for covid-19, developed by the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow: the brand new Sputnik V . The choice of this nomenclature is connected to the achievement of the Soviet Union to open space access to humanity.

Today, the geopolitical role of the vaccine is decisive and transcendental in this race against time.

Image
The China-Russia strategic alliance rises to the global health plane (Photo: DPA)

The campaign of mistrust generated by the mainstream media towards Sputnik V was immediate, much less the application of sanctions , since the Office of Industry and Security of the United States Department of Commerce sanctioned the 48th Central Institute of Investigation by the Russian Defense Ministry for participating in the vaccine investigations, desperately claiming that they "are acting against the interests of national security or the foreign policy of the United States."

In parallel, Donald Trump responded with both Operation Warp Speed to accelerate the development, manufacture and distribution of vaccines, and with the purchase of 100 million vaccines developed by the American Biotech Moderna pharmaceutical company, registering a contract of 1.5 billion dollars.

Technology and scientific advances are key in the geopolitical pulse. Finding the most effective and viable vaccine for distribution will mark the global prominence of the States that achieve such a victory.

VACCINES AND THE MARKET
Since July, the American pharmaceutical company Moderna has established an estimated price for the complete treatment of the vaccine in two doses that ranges from 50 to 60 dollars . Instead, the presidents of Russia and China have remained on the same page, they have put the vaccine developed in their respective countries at the service of humanity.


Putin, in the framework of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, offered Sputnik V free of charge to all staff of that organization, also reaffirming Russia's willingness to work with other governments to share diagnostic methods and treatment of the disease.

The harmony between Russia and China has not only focused on speech or intentions, in fact they have already worked together on the development of vaccines.

In August, the Chinese company CanSino Biologics and the Russian pharmaceutical company Petrovax started trials and are currently in the final stage of clinical studies, which have shown optimal results so far.

It is proven that China and Russia have a solid basis for vaccine cooperation in exchanging resources for mass production.

On the other hand, the United States closed in its own commercial fence and acting as a free electron in the management of covid-19, has promoted the manufacture of several vaccines, the most outstanding being that of the Moderna and Pfizer companies.

Trump, in the midst of electoral work, tried to pressure the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to accelerate the vaccine development processes before November 3.

Even after his apparent trance with covid-19, Trump credited the biotech consortium Regeneron with providing an effective treatment for the virus in an attempt to contain the mismanagement of the pandemic in the United States.

In this sense, and a few weeks after the end of this complex year, the characteristics of the vaccines have covered the media headlines in a swing of which is more effective than the other.

Without wanting to devalue the fight to protect humanity from the contagion of covid-19, there are factors of power and influence typical of geopolitical dynamics. And, of course, the financial market is fundamental in this, because now we are in the phase of placing the vaccine in every space on the planet.

Based on this, we deploy some fundamental keys to each vaccine, recalling earlier this expression by Buzz Aldrin, one of the Americans who apparently stepped on the Moon: "If we reached the Moon, it was not to study it or to collect samples from its soil, but to outpace the Russians in the space race. Everything else took a back seat. "

Trump announces, via Twitter , that Moderna's vaccine is supposedly 95% effective. However, for Sputnik V it was reported to be 92% effective in protection. And for Pfizer, the candidate vaccine is more than 90% effective in preventing covid-19.

Of the five vaccines developed in China, their effectiveness has not yet been reported until different phases of the large trials have been completed.
The world will need cold chain logistical support for distribution on a scale never seen before. At this point, Pfizer has a major disadvantage because the vaccine must be stored at -75 ° C -70 ° C to . This is an unusual and even unreasonable condition for the common distribution of vaccines or medicines, the countries do not have these conditions or the infrastructure.

The reality with Pfizer, experts say, is that the vaccine will likely not be available to everyone. What did happen in the middle of that announcement is that Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla sold 60% of his shares, pocketing more than $ 5 million .

But Pfizer's business is not left alone in that: it has built a storage container to keep the doses cold for up to 10 days in transit, that is, they would sell the combo with vaccines plus the container with their patent. It should be noted that ultra-cold freezers cost around $ 10,000 and their operation is extremely expensive due to their high energy consumption.
On the other hand, Russia and China, even Modern, work with storage capacities around -20 ° C.
As for the German biotechnology company BioNTech, which has participated together with Pfizer in the production of the vaccine, it has not done badly this year because its shares in the market, under the NASDAQ index, have soared close to 150%.

Image
Donald Trump also got into the race for the covid-19 vaccine (Photo: Reuters)

The clash is defined, in the macro, with Western corporations on one side and States on the other; the latter, such as China and Russia, serving as pivots in the containment of covid-19, not only in its orbit, but also reaching out to the rest of the world to control the onslaught of the pandemic in all corners of the world.

Within the struggle to position vaccines, Western pharmaceutical companies with the help of the corporate media arm promote doubts or uncertainties in the vaccines developed by countries such as Russia and China, in view of the clear lead that these two powers gave.

But there is a precedent: the country with one of the worst practices in the prevention and control of covid-19 in the world is the United States, which to date already unfortunately exceeds 11 million cases.

Really, the vaccines manufactured by the big American pharmaceutical companies, will they be a good for humanity or is it about marketing to increase their sales regardless of negligence?

https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/pi ... l-covid-19

Google Translator

I suspect that the US prefers Pfizer product exactly because of it's storage drawbacks. That way the US will not be expected to supply 'shithole' countries because of the difficulty of delivery, relieving the hegemon of accusations of racism andallowing it to service more profitable markets.
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Fri Nov 27, 2020 3:27 pm

The Vaccine Competition Will Be Ruthless
Debs is dead writes:

[T]he pushback against AstraZeneca including the latest link which is all speculation mixed with the same trash talk wall st analysts have been making, is a blatant move by big pharma to edge AstraZeneca out of the market.

There is more testing to be done on the AstraZeneca vaccine. Yes the discovery of a half dose followed by a full dose seeming to be more efficacious was the result of a distribution accident in one particular cohort comprised of Englanders under 55, AstraZeneca have realised that and have undertaken to extend the 50/100 trial across all age groups and ethnicities in the next testing round.

Also despite the fact that the big pharma mRNA vaccines have published no peer reviewed results, AstraZeneca report that they have sent a peer reviewed study of their complete test results thus far, to the Lancet and they expect these to be published in the next edition of the journal - likely within the next few days.

However many people whine, bitch about all others, then salute the results of Russian & Chinese vaccines the simple fact is a great many communities will be denied access to Russian or Chinese vaccines - that is a reality. Some of these states are in no shape to subscribe to the mRNA vaccines without 'aid' (i.e. ripoff loans) because their health budgets are still having to cover the double Tamiflu scam (they had to sign contracts to replace 'expired' Tamiflu stocks used or not after 3 years) and the more recent Remdesivir scam, all perpetrated by Gilead.

In the real world that means if the AstraZeneca vaccine is more than 60% efficacious (which is better than any flu vaccine - 95% is new big pharma BS IMO) and has no major side effects (one case of MS tells us nothing for the reason I outlined above), then it will be that or nothing for a sizeable slab of the world's population.

If everyone falls for big pharma's transparent attempt to stop this possible vaccine in its tracks, prior to testing completion, then that will mean no vaccine for billions of our fellow humans, so rather than joining in the big pharma sabotage, it makes better sense to consider that vaccine more objectively than de Noli, that Harvard minion of corporations seems to do.

Of course for some theoretical Marxist whose crazed ramblings remind me of the immature garbage one could hear around any Lisbon praça, circa 1975, that will mean little. As the humans of Mozambique, Angola and in particular since I lost friends there , Timor Leste, discovered to their cost.

I agree with the above.

Sure, AstraZeneca has not communicated well. They should have published their trial protocols. They should have been more explicit about their dosing 'mistake'. But the results of their trials are encouraging and the explanation for the higher efficacy with a lower first dose, see below, makes sense.

The AstraZeneca vaccine uses an adenovirus as 'vector' to deliver a DNA sequence that human cells then use to create one specific (but harmless) SARS-CoV-2 protein. The immune system will then learn to attack that protein. Afterwards it should be able to protect against SARS-CoV-2 infections.

There are 57 different adenovirusus that usually occur in humans. Most of us have been infected by some of them, likely in our youth, and have developed some grade of immunity against them. An adenovirus that has been modified to become a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 may therefore be attacked by our immune system before it can achieve its purpose. We may have some 'vector immunity' against some of the adenovirus based vaccines.

To avoid that an already existing immunity against human adenoviruses prevents the desired inoculation AstraZeneca is using a chimpanzee-originated version of an adenovirus as a vector. The Russian Sputnik V vaccine, hyped by Prof. de Noli on RT, uses two doses with different human adenoviruses (Ad-26, Ad-5) as vectors to increase the chance of inoculation. Other vaccine developers, CanSino Biologics and Johnson & Johnson, are also using adenovirus vectors. Sinopharm's vaccine uses an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 virus.

AstraZeneca found by chance that its vaccine works best when the first dose is smaller than the second one. Vector immunity can explain why this is the case. A first high dose will create some immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 virus but also some immunity against the vector virus, the chimpanzee-originated adenovirus. When a first high dose has trained the immune system to fight the vector virus the second 'booster' vaccine dose using the same vector will become inefficient. A lower first dose can make sure that the second higher dose is not prematurely defeated by vector immunity but can still do its work.

The AstraZeneka vaccine was developed by Oxford University. It will be a no-profit vaccine as its development was financed by public money. The cost per dose will be below $3-4.

Both of the mRNA vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer are for-profit vaccines. They seem to be quite good (and no, they do not modify your DNA) but they will cost between $25 and $35 per shot. They also require an elaborate and expensive distribution chain as they can only be stored at very low temperatures. The adenovirus based vaccines can be stored in a normal refrigerator.

The mRNA vaccines hyped in the U.S. media are simply too expensive to be used around the world. If we want to limit the global effects of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic we will have to use the cheaper vector based vaccines.

That the AstraZeneka vaccine was immediately attacked in U.S. media by an unqualified writer quoting an investment bank and the U.S. pharma promoting (Remdesivir!) Antony Fauci is quite suspicious. Pfizer and Moderna expect to make billions of dollars with their vaccines. They will use all possible ways and means to defeat any potential competition.

None of the results of the ongoing trials under discussion have so far been published in a peer reviewed format. We will have to wait until the end of the trials and the reviewed publication of the results to judge about their real efficacy and potential side effects.

Until then we should be careful not to fall for misinformation from big pharma interests. Nor should we fall for the nonsense from the anti-vaccine crowd.

So far all of the vaccines under discussion seem to be safe and efficient enough to defeat the pandemic. I for one see no reason to reject any of them.

Posted by b on November 27, 2020 at 11:18 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/11/t ... hless.html

What the cheapshot about 'theoretical Marxists' is about I have no clue and seemingly has no place n the above analysis. And it seems that the communities that will be denied Chinese and Russian vaccines will be mostly here in the USA!. A number of nations are 'signed up & lined up' for those. What China and Russia have to do with scams perpetrated by US Gilead I don't understand.
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Tue Dec 01, 2020 2:25 pm

The Monster Enters

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Joan Eardley, Glasgow Slum

‘The road to death is a long march beset with all evils, and the heart fails little by little at each new terror, the bones rebel at each step, the mind sets up its own bitter resistance and to what end? The barriers sink one by one, and no covering of the eyes shuts out the landscape of disaster, nor the sight of crimes committed there.’

Katherine Ann Porter, Pale Horse, Pale Rider



In The Monster Enters: COVID-19, Avian Flu, and the Plagues of Capitalism, Mike Davis’ updated edition of his 2005 book The Monster at Our Door, Davis puts forward a scathing critique of the driving role that capitalism has played in creating a world in which we are so unnervingly and increasingly vulnerable to pandemics, and how predictable and avoidable this was. The arrival of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) was no real shock to those in this field; its elder sibling SARS-CoV had, as Davis puts it so matter of factly, ‘scared the pants off the world back in 2003’, with MERs – another iteration appearing in Saudi Arabia less than a decade later – taking over 1000 lives. While Davis’ in depth analysis of previous pandemics and the science behind both them and the current COVID-19 crisis is extremely illuminating, what I found to be the most salient argument is that which makes abundantly clear that capitalism has not simply eroded the capacity of the majority of countries around the world to adequately respond to pandemics, but that is has done this while simultaneously providing the perfect conditions for pandemics to increase in both ferocity and number. The former point, while true, is a familiar refrain to those of us on the political left of any stripe; the latter seems to be relatively novel in terms of an actual articulation, and that is why it is so vitally important that we fully grasp the truth of it. ‘The new age of plagues, like previous pandemic epochs, is directly the result of economic globalisation.’ Davis notes that, ‘The Black Death, for instance, was the inadvertent consequence of the Mongol conquest of inner Eurasia, which allowed Chinese rodents to hitchhike along the trade routes from northern China to Central Europe and the Mediterranean.’ This point has been evidenced repeatedly both in the current crisis and those previous to it, where trade routes, travel routes, and the ever increasing confluence of the two spread the virus from one side of the earth to the other in the blink of an eye. The global spread of COVID-19 was essentially inevitable from the moment it emerged due to the nature of the globalised capitalist economic system.

Davis first penned The Monster at Our Door 15 years ago, citing multinational capital as the ‘driver of disease evolution’. The destruction of tropical forests, the disastrous swell of slums and informal employment, and the apparently endless growth of factory farming created an environment that is almost perfect for disease to evolve, spread, and fester. The logging and burning of forests results in the systematic eradication of the necessary border between humans and birds, bats, mammals, and the wild viruses that come with them. If factory farming had been designed with the sole intent of creating an environment in which to incubate novel viruses, it would be considered a resounding success; the obscene density of, to take one example, poultry farms – where in Northern Georgia and Arkansas alone 1 billion chickens are killed each year – has created the perfect conditions for viruses to mutate and spread, in close proximity to human workers. Gargantuan feedlots and factory farming create stress on animals’ immune systems which, beyond being inhumane, accelerate and enhance the evolution of viruses from avian flu to coronaviruses. The density of the global slums ensure that viruses can spread easily, and the poor sanitary and living conditions allow that spread between already immunocompromised people, while informal employment often gives people little chance to isolate and take time off when sick. Poverty is its own comorbidity; not only are the poor more likely to live in these environments and find themselves unable to isolate effectively, but hunger and exhaustion plays its own role in lessening the ability to fight off illness.

The experience of the current pandemic is remarkably similar to that of those previous to it, from the Great Plague of London in 1665 and the Spanish Flu of 1918, to SARS in 2003:

‘urban populations locked inside their apartments, the flight of rich to their country homes, the cancellation of public events and schools, desperate trips to the markets that often end with infection; society’s reliance upon hero nurses, the lack of beds in hospitals, the mad search for masks, and the widespread suspicion that alien powers are at work (Jews, a passing comet, German saboteurs, the Chinese).’

The cramped housing situations that plague vast swathes of the urban poor is compounded by inadequate construction. The SARS outbreak of 2003 found its way inside a Hong Kong tower block home to 264 apartments – in just a few days the number of infected residents was 321. While the exact mode of transmission was never fully verified, the common consensus – and that of the Department of Health – is that it was spread through a defective plumbing system. This faulty plumbing is believed to have spread SARS by bringing the inhabitants of Kowloon’s Tower Block E ‘into contact with small droplets containing the viruses from the contaminated sewage.’ It should go without saying that this is unsanitary at the best of times, but particularly during a pandemic it can be the difference between life and death. ‘The Amoy Gardens incident was particularly troubling’, Davis explains, ‘because it demonstrated that in conditions of extreme urban density – such as those found in high-rise housing, hospitals, and slums – viral transmission might be potently amplified by faulty ventilation and sewage systems, or, worse, by those systems’ absence’. It is clear that while the capitalist drive for profits continues to exist, corners will be cut in construction and maintenance – particularly in areas designed for and inhabited by the global poor. And the ramifications of this will be felt by those most vulnerable, from Grenfell to Kowloon.

A COVID-19 vaccine appears to be on the horizon. Pfizer’s, for example, appears to have a 95% success rate. However, as Davis drives home, given that flu pandemics are both predictable and currently inevitable, a universal flu vaccine must be prioritised in order to not just put an end to the current pandemic but to prevent the next one. The ‘disinterest by bottom liners in the pharmaceutical industry’ has put this vital pursuit on the back burner, and despite the unceasing chorus of voices in the media and politics declaring that capitalism encourages innovation one simple truth remains: the capitalist profit motive hinders investment and innovation. It is no surprise that Cuba developed a lung cancer vaccine rather than any of the myriad wealthy capitalist states that infest our world. A report from the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) quoted by Davis makes this clear:

‘There is a key misalignment between the social and private returns from medical research and development and capital investment in pandemic vaccines. R&D and investment costs are only recouped by sales when the pandemic risk occurs. Part of the value of vaccines that can mitigate future pandemic risks, however, is their insurance value today that provides protection against possible damage. This insurance value accrues even if the pandemic does not occur in the future, and it implies that the social value of faster production and better vaccines is much larger than its private return to developers. This divergence leads to under-provision in vaccine innovation because it does not get rewarded for its insurance value.’

An illustration of this is given by Dr Peter Hotetz, lead researcher of a group of scientists who had previously developed a MERS vaccine and who had developed a SARS vaccine which he believes would have provided cross-protection against COVID if it had been produced in quantity, but who had been unable to find the funding to enable this. This abdication of duty in the name of profit is the same beast that causes nations such as the USA to attempt to create its own COVID-19 tests rather than use ones that have already been proven to work, and the same beast that results in out of date, inadequate, and, in many cases, non-existent PPE.

In Davis’ New Left Review article carrying the same name as his book, he makes clear that COVID-19 has proved, beyond any doubt, that capitalist globalisation is unsustainable on a biological level without a genuinely international public health organisation that exists outside of the realm of profit – something we know cannot be delivered by a capitalist economy. Cuba’s doctors have consistently been the first to arrive at the front line of the fight against public health disasters in the Global South; they are ‘reliable shock troops’, but this alone will not be enough to turn the tide going forwards. China has spearheaded the operation to provide medical experts, testing, ventilators, and PPE to those in need, including Italy, whose European neighbours turned their backs on them. This, too, while admirable and desperately necessary is vastly inadequate when compared to the global system of healthcare we need.

It would seem, now, that an end to COVID, or at least a reduction in the scope of its influence on our day-to-day lives, is just over the hill. We are not there yet, but a vaccine is now expected to be in use within months rather than years – although it is by no means guaranteed that the roll out of such vaccines will be performed adequately, nor that these vaccines will reach all countries or even classes equally. Based on the history of coronavirus colds, Davis writes, the immunity of survivors – and assumably that of those vaccinated – is likely to be short lived, so COVID is here to stay in one form or another. Beyond guesswork about the success that the vaccines may have, though, is the fact that another pandemic is on the horizon, particularly that of an avian flu – H5N1, the ‘original flu monster’, now has siblings that would make it blush. ‘Permanent bio-protection against new plagues’, Davis says, ‘accordingly, would require more than vaccines. It would need the suppression of these “structures of disease emergence” through revolutionary reforms in agriculture and urban living that no large capitalist or state-capitalist country would ever willingly undertake.’ This is the resounding clarion call that runs throughout every page and chapter of The Monster Enters – that without an end to global slums, healthcare for profit, and the dismantling of the current factory farming and agriculture system, there will be no respite from this scourge. Until capitalism is buried, once and for all, we will live in a world in which pandemics continue to rage, with ever increasing frequency. In Davis’ astute words, written prior to COVID-19: ‘now, with a real Monster at our door – as terrible as any in science fiction – will we wake up in time?’ The answer this time was no, we must not make the same mistake again.

https://www.ebb-magazine.com/essays/the-monster-enters
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Wed Dec 02, 2020 2:35 pm

Hesitancy over vaccine grows in UK
By ANGUS McNEICE in London | China Daily Global | Updated: 2020-12-02 09:17


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Reuters journalist Steve Stecklow participates in a clinical trial of the experimental Novavax COVID-19 vaccine at the NIHR/Wellcome King's Clinical Research Facility in London, Britain, Oct 28, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]

Govts urged to build up trust of public to increase take-up of inoculation

People in several countries including the United Kingdom are increasingly hesitant over the prospect of receiving a COVID-19 inoculation, new data shows, despite a number of vaccine makers posting positive late stage trial results in recent weeks.

There is concern among health experts that growing vaccine skepticism could jeopardize efforts to achieve herd immunity. Multiple health departments are working on the assumption that a threshold of between 65 and 70 percent vaccine coverage will be necessary to control the spread of the novel coronavirus.

A new survey from London-based consultancy Kantar found that 75 percent of respondents in the UK viewed vaccination favorably, down from 78 percent in June. In the latest survey, 43 percent of respondents in the UK said they would "definitely" get a vaccination, while 32 percent said they would "probably" agree to treatment.

In the United States, 66 percent of respondents said they would consider treatment, down from 71 percent during the previous survey. In France, 54 percent favored vaccination, representing a four-point drop, while Germany remained unchanged at 67 percent. Of the five countries surveyed, only Italy gained points, increasing from 74 to 78 percent in favor of vaccination.

The latest survey was conducted after widely publicized interim trial results from Pfizer suggested 90 percent efficacy for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. That figure was upped to 95 percent upon conclusion of the trial.

Kantar said the survey results present a "major challenge for governments around the world "aiming to control the COVID-19 pandemic. The most precipitous fall in vaccine confidence was in the US, where those saying they would "definitely" take a vaccine dropped from 47 percent in June to just 30 percent in late November.

Many respondents were concerned at the speed with which vaccines are being developed and produced, according to Kantar, while levels of trust in government correlated with attitudes toward vaccination.

"The findings are potentially alarming for governments around the world," Kantar said in a statement. "When less than half the population of a nation say they will 'definitely' take a vaccine, this implies that governments will have a huge task ahead of them in building up trust in any approved vaccine, and in mobilizing their nations to actually become inoculated."

Some nations have wrestled with the idea of a mandatory vaccine in order to achieve widespread coverage. In August, the Australian government shelved a proposal for a compulsory inoculation program following public a backlash. Serbia debated legislation that would see COVID-19 added to a list of diseases for which vaccines are mandatory, though last week the nation's health department said the move would not go ahead.

In mid-November, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government had "not ruled out "a compulsory vaccine, though on Monday he said there were no current plans to do so.

Some health experts have argued against the merits of a mandatory vaccination program, over fears that such a move would only serve to fan the flames in the so-called anti-vaxxer movement. But there is consensus in the medical community that at minimum governments should invest in education and messaging around the benefits of approved treatments.

http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20201 ... 993c3.html

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Chinese COVID vaccine has 'appeal' for developing countries: Economist
chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2020-12-02 17:25

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FILE PHOTO: A display shows packages of vaccine candidate for SARS-CoV-2 by Sinovac Biotech in Beijing, China, September 24, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]

Developing countries may face a long wait if they want a vaccine made in the West, but there's always the option of turning to China, an economist from the Development Bank of Singapore said.

"Considering the billions of doses needed, and the risk [of] falling at the back of a very long line for Western vaccines, the appeal of the Chinese vaccines is apparent," Taimur Baig, chief economist and managing director at DBS Group Research, said in a note to US business news channel CNBC.

China has five homegrown vaccine candidates in phase three trials, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That's usually the last step before government regulators vet the vaccine for approval.

Sinopharm, or China National Pharmaceutical Group, submitted an application to Chinese authorities last week seeking approval. The firm has two vaccine candidates.

Sinovac Biotech, another vaccine developer, said the company's partners in Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey have established monitoring systems for adverse reactions in accordance with internationally accepted standards. So far, no severe adverse reactions related to COVID-19 vaccines have been reported.

Beijing has already promised its vaccine will be supplied to developing countries in priority as a public good after research and development is complete and the vaccine is available.

Beijing also joined Covax, a vaccine alliance backed by the World Health Organization, which seeks to grant equal access to all participating countries when a vaccine is developed. The goal is to provide a lifeline to lower-income countries that would not have been able to afford these vaccines otherwise.

http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20201 ... 9966c.html
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Thu Dec 03, 2020 12:31 pm

#Special_Edition of the International Bulletin
The activity of the Communist and Workers’ Parties under the conditions of the pandemic and the capitalist crisis, for safeguarding the health and the rights of the popular strata, in the struggle to change society, for socialism!

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oivXo- ... e1wf3/view

http://solidnet.org/multimedia/printings/
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Fri Dec 04, 2020 12:38 pm

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Donate to oppose Amazon censorship and receive a free copy of 'Capitalism on a Ventilator'

Make a tax deductible contribution of $25 or more and receive a free copy of Capitalism on a Ventilator. Books will ship on December 9.

'Capitalism on a Ventilator: The Impact of Covid-19 in China & the U.S.' is a new anthology comparing the effective Chinese response to COVID-19 with the disastrous response in the U.S. It pushes back against the racist anti-China campaign in U.S. media. Amazon is currently censoring the distribution of this book. We need your support to distribute the book and fight back against censorship! Every dollar given helps us break the media blockade.

Due to the growing hostility of the U.S. establishment toward China and the accompanying surge in anti-Asian racism, it was an enormous challenge to find printing and distribution for this anthology, which includes many published authors including Ajamu Baraka, Monica Moorehead, Mumia Abu Jamal, Margaret Kimberley, Vijay Prishad, Lee Siu Hin, Sara Flounders, Carlos Martinez, Kevin Zeese, Deirdre Griswold, Max Blumenthal and more.

The effort to place this challenging book on a large corporate website turned into a several month struggle with the world’s largest online bookseller – Amazon. Amazon Books claims ease of placement, best order fulfillment and lack of censorship, but failed to deliver.

Amazon’s block of this book is a clear example of U.S. corporate censorship. We were notified: “Due to the rapidly changing nature of information around coronavirus, we are referring customers to official sources for advice about the prevention or treatment of the virus. Amazon reserves the right to determine what content we offer according to our content guidelines. Your book does not comply with our guidelines. As a result, we are not offering your book for sale.”

The book’s table of contents and list of authors, along with four chapters, is available here.

Table of Contents: https://iacenter.org/wp-content/uploads ... mplete.pdf
Selected Articles: https://iacenter.org/wp-content/uploads ... ticles.pdf
Contribute: https://solidaritycenter.ourpowerbase.n ... et=1&id=13

Although Amazon claims it publishes only “official sources for advice” on the COVID-19 virus, Amazon has allowed books promoting wild conspiracy theories that the virus is exaggerated, a hoax or human-made and masks and quarantines are useless. During the pandemic Amazon has also listed products that are dangerous quack “cures” for COVID-19.

Hostility to China as national policy impacts every area of discussion. This is reflected in the trade war, sanctions and military operations, and by canceling educational and cultural exchanges and any attention or coverage on any level of China's accomplishments. In retrospect, it is hardly surprising it extends to blocking books and topics of discussion.

Many important chapters in this anthology were written in March, April, and May of 2020 as the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S., and people were actively looking for answers and asking questions.

The questions working people worldwide started asking sent U.S. media outlets and private corporate platforms into a wall of censorship and political repression. Why has China done so much better in containing COVID-19 and saving lives? The answer corporate media gave was an onslaught of racist and imperialist attacks against China including claims of dishonesty, brutality and suppression of information. Several major news sources even went so far as to accuse China of manufacturing the virus. Any evidence contrary to the corporate narrative was thoroughly suppressed.

This book was written by people around the world and edited by a U.S. activist and a Chinese activist. The evidence and data available provide a very different answer from that given the corporate media. China contained the virus because their free medical care and planned economic system is science based and intensely cooperative. By every statistic, countries building socialism did far better in combating the virus -- Cuba, China, Laos, Vietnam and North Korea, to name a few. We hope you read this book and explore the reasons why China and other countries building socialism did far better than the capitalist world did.
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Mon Dec 07, 2020 3:01 pm

Chief physician arrested in bribery case during pandemic
12/07/2020
To whom the war, and to whom the mother is dear

The Investigative Committee of the Trans-Baikal Territory arrested the chief doctor of the regional clinical hospital Viktor Shalnev . The charges were brought in the case of bribes worth 13 million rubles, according to Meduza.

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The investigation accuses Shalnev of taking bribes for “unhindered conclusion of contracts for the supply of medical equipment” with specific firms.

According to the local newspaper Vechorka, the chief physician could receive kickbacks for the purchase during the pandemic: gowns, masks, medical equipment necessary to combat COVID-19. An investigation is underway.

It is natural that against the background of a difficult epidemiological situation in the country there are people ready to arrange a "feast during the plague."

An illustrative example of the size of the "pie" that they are trying to divide is the calculation: the cost of masks in 2019 was 8.7 rubles, and in March 2020 - 77.81 rubles, that is, the price of one mask has increased almost 10 times. Even now, when the government vigorously Reports to the fact that the production of fine, the mask can not be found cheaper fifteen rubles in retail. This means that the price has increased by almost 100% over the year. The country needs nine million masks every day .

If we add to this the need for more sophisticated medical equipment, the scale of financing the procurement sector is not difficult to imagine - billions of rubles.

Of course, the vast majority of medical workers do their job with honor and the stolen money could be their salary .

However, there are no moral principles for capitalism - only profit .

https://www.rotfront.su/glavnyj-vrach-a ... -o-vzyatk/

Google Translator
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Church urged Russians not to cast out demons on their own
06.12.2020
Middle Ages in the XXI century

A representative of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) , live on the Russia 24 TV channel , urged Russians not to drive out demons on their own . Instead, it is better to turn to a priest who has received a blessing from the bishop to conduct such rituals.

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The Church Raises Slaves

Church official Grigory Alfeyev , also known as Hilarion , Metropolitan of Volokolamsk, shared important information about the expulsion of demons on the air of the federal channel . He reported :

“There is a practice in the Church that is called exorcism, and in common parlance - a lecture, when a possessed person is brought to the priest, and he reads special prayers for casting out demons. But, firstly, this order is never performed on children. Secondly, it can be performed even not by every priest, but only by those who have received a blessing from the bishop for this. Third, and most importantly, we must not confuse certain phenomena of the psychic order with demonic possession. Possession is a very special phenomenon that requires a special approach. "

The topic of exorcism was raised in connection with a sensational incident that occurred in the Volgograd region about a month ago. In one family, the parents did not like the increased aggressiveness of their 10-year-old son, so they twisted the child , wrung his hands behind his back and began to pour “holy water” on him, smear him with garlic and bring him to the icons. All this was filmed. When the aforementioned procedures for some reason did not lead to the desired effect, the family, according to the press, posted the video footage on the Internet asking the public to help "exorcise the demons" from their son.


It is difficult not to suspect a representative of the ROC of hypocrisy. Indeed, over the past 30 years, the church has played a huge role in the fight against scientific knowledge, in the turn of the Russian society towards ignorance and obscurantism. The country is now reaping the benefits of this policy. In May 2020, a third of Russians ( 33% ) considered the coronavirus epidemic a fiction . And according to 2015 polls, almost the same number of Russians ( 31% ) believed in astrologers, 16% believed in seances. Also, 48% of Russians believed in the existence of sorcerers and 55% in soothsayers of the future. It is easy to see that church "miracles" are subject to the same article as other superstitions.

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The Church Raises Slaves

True, despite the efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church and REN TV, the number of believers in prejudice is still falling. For example, the second wave of the coronavirus epidemic has reduced the number of "covid dissidents" to 10% . The number of believers in astrology ( 15% ), spiritualism ( 13% ), witchcraft ( 31% ) and divination ( 31% ) also decreased . But recovery is still very far away. Moreover, in the hands of the church there is a police baton, carefully provided by the state - the law on "protection of the feelings of believers", openly violating the principle of freedom of conscience and allowing any atheistic statement and even an inscription on the wall to be brought under a criminal article . And for the most dull ones there isgangs of Orthodox fundamentalists .

The medieval savagery into which Russian society is plunged is very beneficial to the ruling class. After all, ignorant, superstitious, illiterate people are much easier to manage and much easier to rob them.

https://www.rotfront.su/tserkov-prizval ... -izgonyat/

Google Translator
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