Pandemic

For Small Farms Surviving The Pandemic, Co-ops Are A Lifeline

April 28, 2021 Lisa Held, Civil Eats. Create! Cooperatives, Farming, New Economy, Pandemic

Ian Colburn, Zoey Fink, and Casey Holland all operate small, diversified farms in the Albuquerque, New Mexico area. The farmers already had plants in the ground in March when they realized restaurants and farmers’ markets—two of their biggest sales channels—would likely shut down due to the pandemic. Colburn of Solarpunk Farm worried his acreage was too small to support a robust Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and that he hadn’t planned for the kind of crop diversity that model demanded. Fink works part-time at Farm Shark Farm with her husband. They already had a CSA but didn’t think they could increase membership enough on their own to sell the rest of the vegetables. “It was a scary time,” she said. “We thought: if we work together, we can be scaling up and serving 100 families per week.”

Unresolved Questions About NY’s Excluded Workers Fund

April 26, 2021 Daniel Parra, City Limits. Educate! Excluded Workers, New York (NY), Pandemic, Worker Rights

It has been just over two weeks since the $2.1 billion Excluded Workers Fund was approved as part of New York’s State budget deal and the state Department of Labor, charged with running the program and coming up with the application form, has yet to provide answers to basic questions about the initiative—such as when can the process will begin or what will happen if the number of applicants exceeds the estimated 290,000 people the state expects will be eligible. The Excluded Workers Fund would divide the target population into two groups: the first, known as tier 1, would include those who can demonstrate both New York residency (before March 27, 2020) and lost income due to the pandemic (by showing taxes from previous years; W-2s or 1099s; letters from former employers with dates of employment; or pay stubs).

Epidemiologist Warns That A Fourth COVID-19 Surge Is Under Way

April 5, 2021 Benjamin Mateus, WSWS. Educate! COVID-19, Pandemic, United States, Vaccine apartheid

Leading US epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy in Minneapolis, gave a stark warning of a devastating new stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in interviews Sunday on two national television networks. Dr. Osterholm explained the context and real dangers hinted at in the statement by Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when she declared last Monday that she was afraid and felt a sense of “impending doom” about the pandemic. On Sunday, speaking with host Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press,” Osterholm said, “At this time, we are in a category five hurricane status with regard to the rest of the world.

Study: Canada Is One Big Pandemic Response Experiment

April 4, 2021 Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee. Educate! COVID-19, Finance and the Economy, health, Pandemic

An extensive French study has surveyed nations’ responses to COVID-19 and concludes that those taking an aggressive “Zero COVID” approach fared better than others by both health and economic measures. The study rests its analysis in part on the experience of Canada, where six large provinces face steeply rising infection rates tied to evolved variants of the virus, while provinces and territories that hewed closer to the Zero COVID approach do not. Zero COVID, also called Go for Zero or elimination, employs a range of tactics designed to drive infection rates to negligible. Such tactics include one hard serious lockdown followed by strategic testing, active surveillance and tight border controls.

The Vaccine Must Be A Common Good For Humanity

April 3, 2021 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Create! COVID-19, Pandemic, Public Health, Vaccine apartheid

Nearly three million people have reportedly been killed by the novel coronavirus (SAR-CoV-2) and upwards of 128 million people have been infected by the virus, many with long-lasting health repercussions. Thus far, roughly 1.5% of the world’s population of 7.7 billion have been vaccinated, but 80% of them are from only ten countries. In February, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research warned about the ‘medical apartheid’ that has shaped the vaccine roll-out. Since 1950, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has celebrated Global Health Day on 7 April. Each year, the WHO choses a different theme for the day, with last year’s being ‘Support Nurses and Midwives’. This year, the theme is ‘Building a fairer, healthier world’, which goes to the heart of medical apartheid.

Vaccine Nationalism Is Putting World Health At Risk

April 3, 2021 Laura Lopez Gonzalez, Tribune Magazine. Educate! COVID-19, Global South, Pandemic, Vaccine apartheid

It’s 9:21pm, and the phones of journalists across South Africa are buzzing. The health department has just released the country’s daily Covid-19 statistics in a WhatsApp message. ‘We convey our condolences to the loved ones of the departed and thank the health care workers who treated the deceased.’ The single line has been repeated in every statement, every night, for the last year. Officially, 52,846 people in the country of almost 59 million have died of Covid-19 since the epidemic began in March. But experts warn that the true death toll could be in the hundreds of thousands. Today, just 0.4 percent of South Africans have been vaccinated against the virus. In the United Kingdom, meanwhile, almost half the adult population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine – making it one of the most vaccinated countries in the world.

New Study: Asian Americans Attacked And Shunned During Pandemic

March 26, 2021 Anh Do, LA Times. Educate! Asian Americans, Pandemic, Racism, Violence

Since coronavirus shutdowns began last March, thousands of Asian Americans have faced racist verbal and physical attacks or have been shunned by others, according to a study released Tuesday. The report by Stop AAPI Hate documents 3,795 racially motivated attacks against Asian Americans from March to February, noting that the number is likely a fraction of the attacks that occurred, because many were not reported to the group. On Tuesday, eight people, including six Asian women, were shot to death at massage parlors in the Atlanta area.

The Housing Crisis: One Year After Lockdown

March 20, 2021 David Rovics, Counterpunch. Educate! Censorship, Housing, Pandemic, Systemic Racism

All the folks moving to Portland from California or New York and talking about how great the real estate prices are here may not know it (note: I was once one of them), but this city is the most rent-burdened city in the United States, and it exists within a country that, like this city, is undergoing multiple long-term crises, one of which is a housing crisis. The housing crisis, like so many other crises, got much worse one year ago this week, when the country, and much of the rest of the world, shut down. Although this is a city that lost half of its Black population to the rise in the cost of housing between the years of 2000 and 2010 alone, according to census data, one year ago this week, if we talked about the housing crisis as one neck-deep in institutional racism, we would often be met by blank stares.

We Already Knew Broadband Should Be A Public Utility

March 17, 2021 Aden Hizkias, Public Knowledge. Create! Internet Freedom, Net Neutrality, Pandemic, Public utility

Broadband allows people to participate in the digital world, which encompasses our daily lives. It connects people with their families and friends, news on what is happening in the country and abroad, and gives access to an unlimited amount of important information and resources. During the COVID-19 pandemic, broadband has been critical in supporting online school and work, access to healthcare and medical information, and even vaccine distribution. Eighty-seven percent of people reported that the internet has been important to them during the outbreak, and fifty-three percent of people reported that broadband is essential for critical purposes and everyday tasks. If broadband is so essential, then why doesn’t current federal policy enable the Federal Communications Commission to regulate broadband as we regulate other public utilities — similar to the way we treat electricity, water, and phones?

Dr. Osterholm’s Warning: COVID Hurricane On The Horizon

February 27, 2021 Vincent Emanuele, Counterpunch. Educate! COVID-19, Pandemic, PPE, Vaccines

Twelve months ago, Dr. Michael Osterholm was interviewed on the Joe Rogan Program. At the time, he warned that anywhere from 400,000 to 1.5 million Americans would die of COVID and that the pandemic would last for many years and significantly impact our lives. So far, his predictions have been eerily accurate. Today, Dr. Osterholm is warning that a “Category 5 COVID-hurricane” is on the horizon, with the B117/UK Variant posing the greatest threat. As positive cases and deaths decline, he warns that the media has been negligent in their overly positive reporting. Indeed, the scientific community is engaged in an important debate. On one side, we have scientists who believe enough Americans have been infected and, as a result, have developed enough immunity to avoid a serious surge.

Your Privileges Are Not Universal

February 26, 2021 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! Austerity, Hunger, Pandemic, wealth inequality

Stencilled in red on the walls of Santiago, Chile is a statement of fact: ‘your privileges are not universal’ (tus privilegios no son universales). This is a factual declaration because the privileges of power and property are not shared across the gaping class divide. Consider the fact that before the pandemic struck last year, over 3 billion people – or half the world’s population – had no access to health care. This data appears in a 2017 World Health Organisation (WHO) report that tracks important matters such as access to basic household sanitation (lacked by 2.3 billion people) and medical care for uncontrolled hypertension (suffered by 1 billion people). An Oxfam report from 25 January 2021 called The Inequality Virus points out that ‘the pandemic could cause the biggest increase in inequality since records began, as it precipitates a simultaneous and substantial rise across many countries’.

How One Community Creatively Solved Keeping Its Residents Fed During A Pandemic

February 21, 2021 April M. Short, Pressenza. Create! Canada, Hunger, Mutual Aid, Pandemic

Hunger and food insecurity have increased worldwide since COVID-19 took hold. In December 2020, the United Nations warned of the threat of “catastrophic global famine,” urging worldwide governments to prioritize food security and humanitarian needs in their COVID-19 response plans. The global, industrialized food supply chain is strained and fraying. Production and shipping delays are increasingly commonplace. Given the lack of substantial response by many governments to food insecurity, it has often fallen to individuals to step in and feed their communities. Neighborhood-based volunteer groups across major U.S. cities and beyond have come up with strategies to support themselves from within, working to curb hunger with creative initiatives like community free-food fridges, volunteer grocery deliveries and other mutual aid efforts.

How One Tiny Country Is Beating The Pandemic And Climate Change

February 14, 2021 Kate Yoder, Grist. Create! Bhutan, climate crisis, Cooperation, Pandemic

The small Himalayan country of Bhutan, mainly known for measuring national happiness instead of GDP, is the only carbon-negative country on the planet. Believe it or not, it has only had one single death from COVID-19. Is that a coincidence? Madeline Drexler’s new article in the Atlantic, “The Unlikeliest Pandemic Success Story,” dives into the reasons that Bhutan has managed to fare so well against the novel coronavirus while rich countries and middle-income have struggled to keep it in check. The tiny developing country, landlocked between India and Tibet, wasn’t exactly set up for success. It began 2020 with exactly one PCR machine to test for the virus, according to Drexler’s reporting, and one doctor with advanced training in critical care.

Citizen Scientists Are Filling Research Gaps

February 6, 2021 Theresa Crimmins, Erin Posthumus and Kathleen Prudic, The Conversation. Create! Environment, Pandemic, Science

The rapid spread of COVID-19 in 2020 disrupted field research and environmental monitoring efforts worldwide. Travel restrictions and social distancing forced scientists to cancel studies or pause their work for months. These limits measurably reduced the accuracy of weather forecasts and created data gaps on issues ranging from bird migration to civil rights in U.S. public schools. Our work relies on this kind of information to track seasonal events in nature and understand how climate change is affecting them. We also recruit and train citizens for community science – projects that involve amateur or volunteer scientists in scientific research, also known as citizen science.

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.

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