Health Care

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In remarks this month to Congress, Dr. Deborah Birx, former member of Trump’s White House Coronavirus Task Force, estimated that Trump’s COVID policies cost between 130,000 and 160,000 lives that need not have been lost. World leaders often are responsible for large numbers of deaths of soldiers in war, but […]

Authoritarianism

Brazilian Senate Panel urges Pres. Bolsonaro be Charged with Crimes against Humanity for killing 150K by worsening Pandemic

The Conversation

By Matt Williams | – A Brazilian congressional panel has recommended that President Jair Bolsonaro be charged with “crimes against humanity” over his alleged bungling of the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The near-1,200 page report, formally presented on Oct. 20, 2021, holds Bolsonaro culpable for worsening a crisis that has to date killed […]

Brazil

Our Health depends on Indigenous Botanical Knowledge and Plants that are rapidly being Destroyed

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – While mainstream media celebrate the remarkable development in record time of vaccines spectacularly effective against the Covid virus, knowledge that might contribute to other medical breakthroughs is being steadily undermined. This decline is not the result of some dramatic lawsuit or corporate takeover. It is one of […]

Anti-Vaccination

Wahhabi Saudi Arabia has a More Rational Vaccine Mandate than the US Republican Party

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Republicans, among all Americans, are the most Islamophobic or Muslim-hating, with 72% holding that Muslims are more likely than members of other religions to encourage violence by their community. Republican TV idol Tucker Carlson called Iraqis “monkeys” and “illiterate” and maintains that “white men” invented civilization. That is, Muslims in […]

Anti-Vaccination

Cherry-Picking the Bible to oppose Vaccines is an old Technique for Evangelical Agendas

The Conversation

By John Fea | – A devout evangelical Christian friend of mine recently texted to explain why he was not getting the COVID-19 vaccine. “Jesus went around healing lepers and touched them without fear of getting leprosy,” he said. This story that St. Luke tells in his gospel (17:11-19) is not the only Bible verse […]

Democratic Party

It isn’t Red COVID, it is Republican Necrophilia – Creepy Love of Death

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The United States has crossed the threshold of 700,000 Americans dead from COVID-19 according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Some 43 million Americans have contracted the deadly disease, which can have long-term health consequences. In contrast, the 1918 influenza epidemic killed 675,000 Americans. While this is the absolute number […]

Climate Crisis

At UN, Biden Pivots from 20-year War to Global Alliance against the Climate Emergency

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden addressed the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, laying out his vision of the global challenges facing the United States and the world. Biden, as expected, used his speech to announce a pivot by the United States away from its 20-year “war on […]

Epidemics

Israel was a leader in the COVID vaccination race – so why are cases spiralling there?

The Conversation

By Michael Head | – Israel has been one of the focal points of the pandemic in 2021 owing to its rapid rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. By late February, authorities had administered at least one dose to 50% of the population, with much of Israel’s immunisation programme using Pfizer vaccines. Society then in effect reopened […]

Epidemics

America’s Lost Causes: Misty-eyed Nostalgia for Bounty Hunters, Slave-Holding and Wife-beating

H. Scott Prosterman

We have a conflagration of “Lost Causes” in America. Some people in the South still revere the Confederate leaders who betrayed the United States during the Civil War. Now much of the South is wrapped up in another “Lost Cause” a series of destructive myths – the fiction that the election was stolen from Donald […]