Epidemics

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It turns out we need those foreigners after all, despite what Trump thinks. On Sunday British investigative journalist Iain Overton tweeted, The names of the first three doctors to die fighting COVID-19 in the UK Amged el-HawraniAdel el-TayarHabib Zaidi — Iain Overton (@iainoverton) March 29, 2020 The significance is that […]

Donald Trump

Maybe that Imperial Presidency Idea wasn’t so Great: The Coronavirus Reveals that America Long Since Fell Apart

David Faris

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – If you were asked three months ago, when news of the novel Coronavirus we now call Covid-19 was just emerging from China, which rich country in the world was the most defenseless against a global viral pandemic, would you have said anything but the United States? The Coronavirus crisis […]

Epidemics

Coronavirus: Corporate Media ignores how Privatization of Hospitals explains Lack of Beds, Ventilators

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – The escalating total Covid 19 deaths in New York City and the frantic quest to obtain life saving medical gear has rightly captured media attention. New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s impassioned plea for more federal assistance and a need-based system for allocating aid among the states was […]

Epidemics

Italy Coronavirus Deaths Pass 10,000: How Austerity and Anti-Immigrant Politics Created Europe’s Worst Crisis

Conn M. Hallinan

( Foreign Policy in Focus) As the viral blitzkrieg rolls across one European border after another, it seems to have a particular enmity for Italy. The country’s death toll has passed China’s, and scenes from its hospitals look like something out of Dante’s imagination. Why? Italy has the fourth largest economy in the European Union, […]

Epidemics

No Mercy even in a Pandemic: Israeli Occupation Authorities Demolish Makeshift Field Hospital in Palestinian Hamlet

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Demonstrating that the technologies of settler colonialism never take a break, Israeli Occupation forces have demolished an emergency clinic set up by Palestinians in a small town inside the Palestinian West Bank, according to the Israeli peace organization, Btselem. It writes, “This morning, Thursday, 26 March 2020, at around 7:30 […]

Epidemics

Coronavirus Solidarity: A 13th Century Mystical Persian Poem about Humanity Shows why We need a Global Response

The Conversation

By Arshin Adib-Moghaddam | – Coronavirus is all about human connectivity. From a philosophical perspective, I’ve been thinking about how this virus is forcing us to confront our common fate, highlighting our connections in the process. The novel coronavirus defies geography and national borders. There is no escaping it – exactly because humanity is inevitably […]

Epidemics

People are Dying: Why are We Waiting for Medicare for All?

contributors

By F. Douglas Stephenson (The Gainesville Sun)- An old social justice chant, “Why are We Waiting,” is sung to the tune of the beautiful and inspiring Christmas carol, “O Come All Ye Faithful.” The lyrics apply to the situation today: Even with the dangerous coronavirus pandemic, big insurance and big pharma continue opposing legislation for […]

Democratic Socialism

The Novel Coronavirus has a Well-Known Left-Wing Bias

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The character played by comedian Stephen Colbert, back when he was parodying Fox “News” anchors, lamented that “Reality has a well-known liberal bias.” The fact is, the novel coronavirus has a well-known left-wing bias. Given the hoaxes perpetrated on the American people by the Right wing for the past few […]

Epidemics

Coronavirus Proves It: We Need Medicare for All

OtherWords

By Ashar Foley | (Otherwords.org) – For decades, critics of single-payer health care have raised the menace of rationed care, long waits, and “death panels.” Now, in our collective national effort to “flatten the curve” — to slow the spread of coronavirus to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed — we are seeing all three of […]