COVID-19

The Never Ending COVID Crisis

February 4, 2021 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. Educate! COVID-19, Health Care, Pandemic, Vaccines

It was in early 2020 that the word COVID-19 entered the lexicon. In the past year more than 440,000 people in the United States have died from this disease. The impact of shutdowns meant to end the spread of disease have cost millions of people their jobs, and businesses large and small no longer exist at all. COVID-19 has proven that the political system is devoted to the interests of the billionaire class and is therefore incapable of acting in the interests of the people. The vaccines which hold some promise are distributed by the same for-profit entities that run what passes for a health care system in this country. They are distributed by criteria that each state has developed, resulting in a patchwork of 50 different rules.

Medicare For All Reaches The Crossroads

February 2, 2021 Shamus Cooke, Counterpunch. Strategize! COVID-19, Health Care, Medicare for all, Single-Payer

In 2021 the U.S. healthcare crisis has, again, reached a boiling point. It was already simmering in 2019 when the number of uninsured grew to 33 million. Covid then triggered a job crisis that added anywhere from 15 to 27 million to the ranks of the uninsured. The still-growing job crisis has pushed the number of uninsured near or beyond the 49 million uninsured that existed prior to Obamacare, whose goal was “universal healthcare.” It’s no surprise then that Medicare For All emerged, pre-Covid, as the most popular policy during the Presidential Democratic primaries. But after the Democratic Party organized, once again, to crush Bernie Sanders’ campaign, Biden tried to push discourse away from Medicare For All with plans to “improve Obamacare” a goal as ambitious as “patching up the Hindenburg.”

White New Yorkers Have Received Lion’s Share Of COVID-19 Vaccine

February 2, 2021 Sydney Pereira, Jake Dobkin and Nsikan Akpan, Gothamist. Educate! COVID-19, health disparities, New York City (NYC), Vaccine

Three white residents receive a COVID-19 vaccine for every Black or Latino person in the city, according to new demographic data released by the mayor’s office on Sunday. At a press briefing, Mayor Bill de Blasio said there was a “profound disparity” about seven weeks into the city’s vaccination program. “Clearly, what we see is a particularly pronounced reality of many more people from white communities getting vaccination than folks from Black and Latino communities,” de Blasio told reporters. The vast difference in vaccine coverage shows the city isn’t meeting its pledge for equitable distribution. The mayor said supply problems were central to the challenge of distributing vaccines equitably across communities of color.

Dean Spade’s New Guide To Mutual Aid

February 2, 2021 Renee Feltz, The Indypendent. Create! Book Review, COVID-19, Mutual Aid, New York (NY)

Out of both compassion and necessity, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted many of us to engage in mutual aid projects — such as signing up to buy groceries for an immuno-comprimised neighbor, or helping tutor a child struggling with remote learning — even if we don’t fully understand the concept. Fortunately, Dean Spade has written an accessible primer with practical tips for people who want to start mutual aid projects or who are already in them and want to see them flourish. At just over 150 pages, his book can easily live in your day bag in order to be consulted regularly. It is broken into two parts. The first defines mutual aid as “collective coordination to meet each other’s needs’’ and examines key elements.

‘The Most Basic Form Of PPE’: 1.6 Million Households Face Water Shutoffs

February 2, 2021 Jackie Botts, Cal Matters. Educate! California, COVID-19, Utilities, Water

The first thing Deborah Bell-Holt does each morning is check whether water still flows from her bathroom faucet. It always does, thanks to an April executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom banning water disconnections during the pandemic. But that didn’t stop her utility debt from snowballing to nearly $15,000. “They say you’re safe,” said the 67-year-old retired nurse, who manages finances for her household of twelve in South Los Angeles. “But you see that bill. How is that supposed to make you feel? You’re scared to death.” At least 1.6 million California households, or one in eight, have water debt.

US-Wide Eviction Ban Could Have Prevented Thousands Of COVID-19 Deaths

February 1, 2021 Jake Blumgart, City Monitor. Educate! COVID-19, Eviction Moratorium, Evictions, Housing

Julie Rey has been living on the edge of eviction for much of the Covid-19 pandemic. She’s a 42-year-old mother of two, and her family has also been especially afraid of infection, as her 19-year-old daughter suffers from a comorbid condition and is at greater risk from the virus. In 2021, what they long feared finally happened. At the beginning of the year, Rey and her 14-year-old daughter contracted the virus, and a judge ordered them out of their home by 20 January. The only mercy was that the gears of eviction did not finish turning until their illnesses had faded. They were able to quarantine away from Rey’s older daughter, and she was spared from Covid.

Demand Mass Clemency On ‘National Freedom Day’

February 1, 2021 Antistasis. Resist! COVID-19, health, Prisoners, Prisons

As supporters of the #CagingCOVID campaign, the Antistasis Project is calling for decentralized actions on February 1st across the so-called United States, and internationally, in support of mass clemency for people held in jails, prisons and detention centers. Reports updated as of Jan. 19, show at least 355,957 prisoners have gotten the virus, and more than 2,232 died as a result of it. . The pandemic has resulted in prisons and jails abusing isolation more than ever before. Social distance is necessary but solitary confinement is torture. Crowded quarters, a lack of PPE, inadequate medical care, an aging population, and unsanitary conditions have contributed to an infection rate 5.5 times higher than the already ballooned average in the U.S.

Chicago Teachers’ Struggle At A Crossroads

January 31, 2021 Alexander Fangmann, WSWS. Organize! Chicago, COVID-19, School reopening, Teachers

The drive to reopen Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the third largest school district in the country, has become a pitched battle between educators and the state apparatus, the latter backed up by the corporate media and the unions. The fight by Chicago educators to prevent the reopening of schools is the focal point of the class struggle in the United States, with every other major district in the country looking to Chicago to set a precedent. In this context, it is of the utmost importance for teachers and other educators to organize independently of the unions and join the Chicago Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee, as well as attend this Saturday’s national meeting of the Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee...

COVID-19: How Weaponizing Disease And Vaccine Wars Are Failing Us

January 31, 2021 Popular Resistance. Educate! Capitalism, China, COVID-19, Vaccines

On January 26, 2021, authors and editors of the book "Capitalism on a Ventilator: The Impact of COVID-19 in China and the US" held a webinar to provide an update to the book and answer questions. The moderators were Sara Flounders and Margaret Flowers. Speakers were Lee Siu-Hin, Margaret Kimberley, Vijay Prashad, and Max Blumenthal. Order the book at Bit.ly/CapVentBook and the Ebook at Bit.ly/CapVentEBook.

The Virus Changed

January 31, 2021 Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee. Educate! Canada, COVID-19, Pandemic, Viral Mutations

Are you tired of COVID? I fucking am. But as a longtime science writer and the author of two books on pandemics, I have to report what you probably don’t want to hear. We have entered the grimmest phase of this pandemic. And contrary to what our politicians say, there is only one way to deal with a rapidly mutating virus that demonstrates the real power of exponential growth: Go hard. Act early. And go to zero. Last January, one strain of this novel virus began its assured global conquest, and since then our leaders have hardly learned a goddamn thing. So yes, I am angry, and I will not disguise my frustration with comfortable or polite language.

We Should All Be Outraged

January 30, 2021 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! COVID-19, Health Care, Pandemics, Socialism

Someday the world will be free of the coronavirus. Then, we will glance backward at these years of misery inflicted by virions with spike proteins that have struck down millions of people and held social life in its grip. Much will be debated about the origins of the virus and the rapidity of its spread around the world, a transmission that shows how closely interconnected we have become due to modern transportation technology. There is no going backward from the processes that will continue to shrink the globe, bringing us closer and closer together, bringing other viruses and diseases greater and greater host populations.

Victimized Teacher Speaks Out Against Deadly School Reopening

January 30, 2021 Michael Walters, WSWS. Educate! Chicago, COVID-19, School reopening, Teachers

Chicago Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) ordered 5,800 teachers to return for in-person instruction at the beginning of January. Teachers who refused to return to in-person learning as the deadly COVID-19 virus raged through Chicago were labeled by the district as “absent without leave.” Their pay was docked, and their computer access locked. The World Socialist Web Site recently interviewed Jake, one of nearly 150 locked-out educators. Jake was a physical education (PE) teacher at a CPS elementary school for five and a half years until recently. He quit the profession after being locked out.

Corporate Media Bash Teachers Unions For Resisting School Reopenings

January 29, 2021 Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. Educate! COVID-19, Media, School reopening, Teachers

The seven-day average COVID death toll hit an all time high yesterday, with over 3,400 Americans expected to die on any given day. Educator cases are on the rise. Studies have shown that children are as likely to contract and pass the coronavirus on as adults, making schools potential super spreading hotspots. As a result, European nations like the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Austria, Denmark, and the Netherlands are shuttering schools, despite, in many cases, having lower infection rates than the U.S. President Biden, however, is pushing forward with a new plan to achieve a near full reopening within his first 100 days in office. And the media are attacking teachers for raising doubts about the program.

Strikes Loom For Public Schools

January 29, 2021 Jaisal Noor, The Real News. Resist! COVID-19, School reopening, Student Activism, Teachers

Across the country, a growing number of students, teachers, and parents are resisting pressure to return to the classroom before all teachers and students are vaccinated—and in Baltimore, students are preparing to strike in support of their teachers’ safety. During a Jan. 26 school board meeting, 18-year-old high school senior Joshua Lynn, a former student school board commissioner, announced plans for a student strike against in-person instruction until teachers are vaccinated. “Reopening … should not be followed through …. unless all teachers are FULLY vaccinated,” Lynn, who recently recovered from COVID-19, told The Real News.

CTU Rank-And-File Votes To Save Lives

January 26, 2021 Chicago Teachers Union. Resist! Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union, COVID-19, School reopening

Chicago —In an unprecedented remote electronic vote, 71 percent of Chicago Teachers Union members have voted to continue teaching remotely starting Monday, Jan. 25, 2021. Eighty-six percent of rank-and-file members voted from Thursday, Jan. 21 through Saturday, Jan. 23. With this vote, rank-and-file educators will continue teaching remotely, and safely, as they have been doing for months. A message from Chicago Public Schools this afternoon, claiming that “we have agreed to a request from CTU leadership to push back the return of K-8 teachers and staff to Wednesday, Jan. 27,” and seeking to sow dissent and disrupt collective Union action, is inaccurate.

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