Epidemics

“Those of Us Who Don’t Die Are Going to Quit”: Facing Piled-up Patients, lack of Gov’t PPE, Nurses Losing Hope

By J. David McSwane | — Almost a year into the pandemic, supply shortages remain so severe that nurse Kristen Cline reuses her N95 for several shifts while her hospital buckles, patients suffer and folks nearby socialize maskless as if the pandemic were already over. ( ProPublica) – Nurse Kristen Cline was working a 12-hour […]

Donald Trump

The Arrogance of Superpower: Trump will “Let” Iranians import Coronavirus Vaccine

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump has given Iran permission to buy the coronavirus vaccine, according to Sharif Nizam Mafi, the head of the Iran-Switzerland join chamber of commerce. Take a moment to let the enormity of this statement sink in. The United States of America will let Iran have the coronavirus vaccine? Iran has […]

Epidemics

The Scientists made the Vaccines; Now can we Get Americans to Take them?

Jill Richardson

( Otherwords.org ) – With the new COVID-19 vaccine available, Dr. Anthony Fauci says Americans can begin to achieve herd immunity by next summer. Herd immunity occurs when so many people are immune to the virus that it can’t spread, because an infected person won’t have anyone left to spread it to. Yet as of […]

Donald Trump

Biden to invoke Defense Production Act for Vaccine manufacture. Trump? Playing Golf at Mar-a-Lago

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Will Feuer at CNBC reports that Joe Biden will invoke the Defense Production Act to ramp up the manufacture of more doses of the coronavirus vaccine. You may ask yourself, why has this not already been done? Trump said on December 9 that he “might” invoke the Korea War-era act, […]

Donald Trump

US Government must Ensure Iranians Equitable Access to Covid-19 Vaccines

Human Rights Watch

( Human Rights Watch) – We, the undersigned human rights and humanitarian organizations, call on all stakeholders to ensure people in Iran have swift, unencumbered, and equitable access to safe, effective, and affordable Covid-19 vaccines. We particularly call on the government of the United States to provide assurances to financial institutions that they will not […]

African-Americans

How COVID-19 Hollowed Out a Generation of Young Black Men

ProPublica

By Akilah Johnson and Nina Martin | – ( ProPublica ) – The Rev. Dr. Kejuane Artez Bates was a big man with big responsibilities. The arrival of the novel coronavirus in Vidalia, Louisiana, was another burden on a body already breaking under the load. Bates was in his 10th year with the Vidalia Police […]

Donald Trump

White House Partying like it is 2021, with a Covid 9/11 Death Toll Every Day

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com) – ‘Tis the season to be folly Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la Don(ald) we now our gay apparel, Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!… It’s party time in the nation’s capital and the Christmas spirit reigns supreme, even if the Texas Republican Party does want to secede from the Union. I mean, who doesn’t? And hey, don’t you want to […]

Denialism

Pence, who backed Muslim visa Ban, gets Vaccine invented by Muslim Immigrants

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Defeated vice president Mike Pence got the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Friday. Here is why he is a hypocrite. Pence served for four years in the Trump administration, which initiated a visa ban against Muslims. Although he had in 2015 called any such ban “unconstitutional,” he folded when Trump insisted on […]

Climate Crisis

How America’s Denialism– Elections, COVID, Climate — is Leading to its Downfall

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – The refusal of tens of millions of Americans to recognize the election results is part of a much larger denialism — of COVID-19, of climate change, and U.S. decline. The presidential election wasn’t close. Joe Biden won the popular vote by more than 7 million votes, which translates […]