Health Care

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – With the Delta variant of Covid 19 now producing escalating case counts and hospitalizations, talk among pundits has turned to the possibility of a federally imposed vaccination mandate. Many of these discussions and debates have revolved around familiar albeit simplistic dichotomies, such as voluntary choice versus government […]

Children

As Florida’s cases Spike to Unprecedented 21,683, Ron “Satan” DeSantis wants to Kill your Kids

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Jeffrey S. Solocheck at the Miami Herald reports that Florida governor Ron DeSantis on Friday issued a royal decree forbidding school districts to require that pupils wear a mask and threatening to cut funding from any that defied him. DeSantis has also banned Florida municipalities from putting in renewed mitigation […]

Displaced and Refugees

Refugees and Asylum-Seekers are at high risk of COVID-19 infection, but low priority for vaccines

The Conversation

By Yvonne Su | – ( The Conversation ) – In June, the G7 pledged 870 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, or COVAX, to help it meet its two billion vaccine goal for lower- and middle- income countries by the end of 2021. The global vaccine-sharing initiative is pooling funds and […]

Anti-Vaccination

It is Time to Call Republican Rejection of Vaccines and Masks what it is: Selfish

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Washington Post reports that the rate of coronavirus infections is twice as high in Trump-voting counties as in Biden-voting ones. And ABC News reports that the US now has the highest average daily number of new coronavirus cases in the world.. Only about 57% of Americans ages 12 and […]

Health Care

Why we need to stop Warehousing the Mentally Ill in Jail: Only Private Prison Corps. Profit

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Florida (Special to Informed Comment) – By essentially rejecting the provisions of the U.S.Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health, a very well designed 1963 Kennedy era program entitled, “Action for Mental Health” and other attempts to trim mental health budgets and services, many states and localities have opted to spend the same dollars […]

Health Care

Happy Birthday, Medicare: You showed that public, universal health insurance is superior to private insurance in every way

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Florida (Special to Informed Comment) – 56 years ago Congress enacted Medicare to provide health insurance for people ages 65 and older and the disabled regardless of income or medical history. Since 1965, Medicare has become living proof that public, universal health insurance is superior to private insurance in every way. Medicare is more […]

Anti-Vaccination

Anti-Vaxxer Trumpian Pols are Killing their own Constituents for Profit — and Endangering us All

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – Tennessee Governor Bill Lee is killing his constituents by pandering to Donald Trump. He’s following the leads of Texas’ Greg Abbott and Florida’s Ron DeSantis, as state executives, reading the tea leaves of the Tea Party and blowing in the political wind – lives of their citizens be […]

Donald Trump

As CPAC Tinfoil Hat Crowd Decries Vaccines, Delta Variant ‘Velociraptor’ Menaces US Red States with India-Style Wave

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Delta variant of SARS-CoV-II is to the original vanilla COVID-19 strain as velociraptors were to gentle plant-eating sauropods. And it is coming for America. What is worse, the Republican Party and its media arms such as Fox, Newsmax and OAN, are playing the wicked witch to GOP voters’ Hansel […]

Health

Heart health: Cities are badly Arranged — A Redesign can help us live longer

The Conversation

By Tolullah Oni and Rizka Maulida | – ( The Conversation ) – By 2050, it is projected that almost 70% of the world’s population will be living in cities, up from 55% today. The fastest urban growth is happening in Asia and Africa, which is also where we’re seeing a rapid rise in people […]