Epidemics

Burning Fossil Fuels made Coronavirus Death Rate Worse, and Kills 200K Americans per Year, Not to Mention Global Heating

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Air pollution, producing medical conditions such as asthma and other lung problems as well as heart disease, is responsible for some of the thousands of coronavirus deaths in the United States. This, according to a just-published Harvard study, which is well summarized by Matthew Yglesias of Vox. Yglesias notes that […]

Climate Crisis

Climate after corona: Germany’s green stimulus package could boost the economic recovery

Clean Energy Wire

By Benjamin Wehrmann | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – The coronavirus crisis is driving many economies around the globe into recession, leading policymakers to draw up unprecedented spending plans to cushion the impact and enable recoveries. Activists, environmental think tanks and others warn that battling the economic slump must not come at the […]

Epidemics

Exponential Growth: Bad in a Pandemic, Bad Economics if we Care about Climate and Mass Extinctions

contributors

By Chirag Dhara (The Hindu) – “Because of all we’ve done, the risk to the American people remains very low,” said Mr. Donald Trump on Feb. 26, 2020. About 50 Americans had contracted the virus by then. Today, merely seven weeks later, cases in the US have neared 500,000 and left 18,000 dead. As the […]

Donald Trump

How did we Become so Backward? S. Korea had US Equivalent of 1,311 Coronavirus Deaths as we hit 16,000

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The US is heading for having the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world next week. Admittedly the US is a big country and it still won’t have the highest number of cases per capita. But it won’t even be in the running for the country with the fewest […]

Donald Trump

Why Did Our National Security State Fail on our Health Security?

Harry Blain

(Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Between 1978 and 2018, American presidents declared 58 national emergencies. Their targets ranged from “Transactions with Terrorists Who Threaten to Disrupt the Middle East Peace Process” and “Transactions with Significant Narcotics Traffickers” to “the Anchorage and Movement of Vessels with Respect to Cuba” and “Persons Undermining Democratic Processes or […]

Asian-Americans

From ‘Yellow peril’ to ‘Chinese virus:’ Why can’t People remember that Asian Americans are Americans?

The Conversation

By Adrian De Leon | – In a recent Washington Post op-ed, former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang called upon Asian Americans to become part of the solution against COVID-19. In the face of rising anti-Asian racist actions – now at about 100 reported cases per day – Yang implores Asian Americans to “wear red, […]

Bernie Sanders

To Save America, Top 3 Planks Bernie Supporters Must try to Get into the Democratic Platform

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Bernie Sanders bowed out of the race for president on Wednesday, but he made it clear that he still leads a national movement. Sanders has a substantial delegate count, of 914 as I write. Although he has concluded that he won’t reach the 1,991 needed to win the nomination, his […]

Epidemics

Trump, Eyeing Reelection, Wants to Put us Back to Work too Soon: Our Health vs. Whose Economy?

John Buell

President Trump, who hoped to run for re-election on a booming economy, is being frustrated by a tiny virus. As usual he lashes out with mixed and confusing messages. He acknowledges the severity of the crisis but then he suggests that health restrictions will needlessly derail the economy. He complains the cure may be worse […]

Culture

How the Plague Influenced Shakespeare

The Conversation

By Paul Yachnin | – Shakespeare lived his life in plague-time. He was born in April 1564, a few months before an outbreak of bubonic plague swept across England and killed a quarter of the people in his hometown. Death by plague was excruciating to suffer and ghastly to see. Ignorance about how disease spread […]