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COVID-19

Democrats Quietly Cut $5 Billion In Global Covid Aid

March 11, 2022 Sarah Lazare , In These Times. , , ,
As the Biden administration falls woefully behind on its pledges to donate Covid vaccines to the world, on Wednesday, the U.S. House slashed $5 billion for the global pandemic response from an omnibus spending bill. The cut to Covid funds underscores the capriciousness of the U.S. government’s promises, and lends credence to public health activists who argue that countries in the Global South cannot rely on the pledges of wealthy nations, and should be given the information they need to manufacture vaccines themselves.

House Approves Package With $782 Billion For US Military, No Covid relief

March 11, 2022 Jake Johnson, Common Dreams. , , ,
The House of Representatives late Wednesday approved a $1.5 trillion government spending package that includes $782 billion in U.S. military funding, the largest portion of the must-pass omnibus legislation. The votes came after a long day of jostling behind the scenes as rank-and-file Democrats expressed outrage over how $15 billion in coronavirus aid was funded in the bipartisan measure: Namely, by repurposing money set aside for states in an earlier relief package.

An Omicron ‘Subvariant’ Is Doubling In New York, Just As Mandates Lift

March 8, 2022 Nsikan Akpan, Gothamist. , , ,
Just as New York case rates drop and officials roll back health requirements for schools and businesses, another coronavirus variant is showing signs of derailing the state’s recovery from the winter COVID surge. Known as BA.2, this virus is an offshoot, or sublineage, of the omicron variant that just swept through New York State. It’s like a kid sister, and some experts even call it “Omicron 2.” But it spreads about 30% faster than its sibling — BA.1 — and is just as severe, according to the World Health Organization. Data from the New York State health department shows that BA.2 is quickly moving to dominate its viral kin. BA.2 is doubling in proportion statewide every two weeks and represents about one in 10 sequenced cases.

The American Political Process Is Disconnected From Economic Reality

February 25, 2022 Richard D. Wolff, Counter Punch. , , ,
The growing disconnect between the capitalist system and the economic realities plaguing the United States is now nearing completion. On the ground, the accumulated problems of U.S. capitalism undermine its empire and challenge its very future. Meanwhile, the ever-deepening inequalities of wealth and income conjure up images of ancient Egypt’s pharaohs. Three economic crashes opening the new century (2000, 2008, and 2020) have shaken the system; so have the two wars America lost against very poor countries in the Middle East: Afghanistan and Iraq. The worst public health crisis in a century during the COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed how unprepared U.S. capitalism was and is, thereby imposing massive new human and financial costs lasting into the future.

Who’s Behind The ‘People’s Convoy’ To Washington DC?

February 22, 2022 Steve O’Keefe, Counter Punch. , , ,
Thousands of truckers are being hijacked by anti-vax loonies and encouraged to parade through red state America in search of any remaining Covid-19 restrictions to protest. The so-called “People’s Convoy” is scheduled to leave Barstow, California, on Wednesday, February 23, and meander eastward, picking up truckers as they go for a final jamboree and road-blocking in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, March 1, 2022 – the day of Joe Biden’s first State of the Union address. Are these the same organizers that brought us Canada’s “Freedom Convoy,” blocking the streets of the capital, Ottawa, for weeks and blocking border crossings to the U.S.? No, those organizers were arrested. Those trucks were confiscated. Those protesters have been debanked and uninsured. This is a whole new crop of American Made truckers.

European Union Prefers Corporate Profits Over Global Health

February 20, 2022 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. , , ,
As the summit between the African Union and European Union (EU-AU summit) came to a close on February 18, the EU’s dedication to ensuring equitable access to Covid-19 products remained murky. While Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, stated that the two unions had a very constructive discussion on the TRIPS waiver, the meeting resulted in little more than a tepid statement and a new deadline for reaching an agreement on intellectual property rights during the pandemic. Von der Leyen also stated, “We share the same goal. We have different ways to reach that goal.” In reality, it would seem the AU and the EU have very different goals. While delegates from different African countries made a point of supporting a suspension of intellectual property rights on key Covid-19 products, EU politicians continue to focus their energies on postponing the TRIPS waiver as much as possible and protecting the profits of pharmaceutical companies based in the Global North.

Freedom Comes To Canada

February 20, 2022 Bryan D. Palmer, Verso. , , ,
Everything happening in the United States comes to Canada, only a little later and a tad more politely. The rage that erupted in a Presidential-endorsed riot in Washington on 6 January 2021 has now exploded to the north. Fueled by a confused swirl of resentment against the array of pandemic protocols that all advanced capitalist states have invoked to curb and contain Covid-19 – including vaccination passports, mandatory masking, business lockdowns, and cross-border restrictions – so-called “Freedom Convoys” have descended on the nation’s capital Ottawa, holding the city hostage. US-Canada border crossings have been blocked in Ontario, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, and the convoys have staged sporadic protests across the country, from Fredericton, New Brunswick to Surrey, British Columbia.

Ottawa Trucker Protests Do Not Represent The Working Class

February 14, 2022 Eugene Puryear and Rania Khalek, BreakThrough News. , , ,
Ottawa truckers have been blocking roads, airports, and border crossings from the U.S. to Canada to protest coronavirus restrictions and vaccine requirements. Despite the many illegal activities associated with the right-wing protests, they have not been attacked or sabotaged by police – in stark contrast to the many Indigenous protests over access to ancestral land and water. Q. Anthony Omene, columnist for The Globe and Mail & co-host of TheKulture.TV, joins The Freedom Side to explain more about what’s going on.

Ottawa Under Right-Wing Occupation: Progressives Push Back

February 14, 2022 Preston Wood, Liberation News. , , , ,
For more than 10 days, truckers opposed to vaccine mandates at the Canadian and U.S. borders have mobilized thousands of supporters to disrupt and terrorize the people of Ottawa. While beginning as a protest against vaccine  mandates, the thousands who have poured into Ottawa have escalated the situation into a major occupation threatening the safety and well being of Ottawa residents. Ottawa’s mayor and police have finally been forced to declare a state of emergency after refusing to take measures for more than a week to quell the violence that has escalated in the nation’s capitol. Here in the United States, right-wing politicians and billionaires like Elon Musk are praising the truckers and the mobs who are rioting in downtown Ottawa and around the Parliament. 

Despite Public Support, Southern Unions Still Face Barriers To Growth

February 14, 2022 Chris Kromm, Facing South. , , ,
Public support for labor unions in the United States is at an all-time high. According to a Gallup survey last fall, 68% of U.S. residents approve of unions — the highest level of support the polling firm has registered since 1965. Pew Research similarly found last summer that 55% of U.S. adults believe unions have a "positive effect" on the country, including 69% of adults under 30. But the latest federal data on union membership shows the share of workers belonging to unions actually declined in 2021. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of unionized workers declined by more than 240,000 between 2020 and 2021, decreasing the share of hourly and salaried workers who belong to unions from 10.8% in 2020 to 10.3% last year.

Working Class In The UK Gears Up To Protest The Cost Of Living Crisis

February 12, 2022 People's Dispatch. , , ,
Broad sectors of the working class in the UK will take to the streets in cities across the country on February 12 against the rise in the cost of living. The protests are organized under the banner of the People’s Assembly Against Austerity and have been endorsed by organizations such as the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), Young Communist League (YCL), Unite Trade Union, Socialist Appeal, Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century, Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Fuel Poverty Action, and others. Around 30 cities are expected to mobilize on this day of action.

Africa Is Bringing Vaccine Manufacturing Home

February 12, 2022 Nature. , , ,
African countries continually find themselves at the back of the vaccine queue, but two developments could begin to change this narrative. Last week, researchers at a company in South Africa said that they have nearly completed the process of reproducing Moderna’s mRNA vaccine against COVID-19. Working with the WHO’s technology-transfer hub, the researchers at Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines in Cape Town made very small quantities of vaccine, based on Moderna’s data, but without the company’s involvement. The WHO advised them to copy Moderna’s vaccine in part because the company, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has said it will not enforce its COVID-19 patents during the pandemic.

Boston Demands ‘Free Leonard Peltier’

February 8, 2022 UAINE, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Jericho Movement Boston,  United American Indians of New England (UAINE), and Boston BDS called for a standout in front of the JFK Federal Building in Boston on Monday, February 7, 2022 at 4:00 pm to call attention to international calls to free Native American prisoner Leonard Peltier, now 77 and ill with COVID-19.  Known internationally as the most famous and longest-serving Native American political prisoner in the US, Peltier has been imprisoned since 1976 on charges that he shot two FBI agents on Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975. Peltier was framed up for a crime he did not commit. Witnesses perjured themselves at the behest of federal authorities, and the FBI suppressed ballistics evidence that would have exonerated him.

A Jail Tested Ivermectin ‘Treatment’ On Detainees Without Consent

February 1, 2022 Charles Hopkins, The Real News Network. , , ,
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a federal lawsuit against the Washington County Detention Center in Arkansas on behalf of inmates who say the jail’s medical staff, led by Dr. Robert Karas, prescribed and gave them ivermectin to treat COVID-19 without telling them what the drug actually was. (Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic drug that the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Pharmacists Association, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and others have repeatedly stated should not be used as a treatment for COVID-19.) As Edrick Floreal-Wooten, one of the inmates at Washington County Detention Center and a plaintiff in the federal lawsuit, recently told CBS News, “They said they were vitamins, steroids and antibiotics.

Striking Massachusetts Nurses Outwait Corporate Giant Tenet

January 26, 2022 Sarah Hughes, Labor Notes. , , ,
Last year’s longest-running strike came to an end in early January when nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, overwhelmingly voted to ratify their new contract and return to work. Seven hundred nurses had walked out over dangerous staffing conditions last March—ten months ago. (See previous Labor Notes coverage from last April and August.) In a year of health care workers organizing amid Covid surges and staffing shortages, St. Vincent nurses stood out for their willingness to strike indefinitely and for the discipline the strikers showed. Open-ended strikes are still a rarity in health care, and Tenet was a formidable opponent: a massive for-profit health care corporation that owns 60 hospitals across the country and is valued at $8 billion.
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