Health Care

Trump Kneecapped World Health Organization amid Pandemic; Jimmy Carter used it in bid to Wipe out Guinea Worm

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In another petty, destructive and self-serving tirade, Trump announced Tuesday that he is halting US funding for the World Health Organization. He attempted to shift blame for his do-nothing response to the building coronavirus pandemic in late January and February and much of March to the WHO. The organization did […]

Epidemics

Real Security: Wasted Pentagon Trillions that We Could have Spent on Health Care and Pandemic Preparedness

Tom Engelhardt

It is not like we’ve won any wars since 1945, anyway

Donald Trump

If Trump fires Dr. Fauci and installs a Barr-like Toady, what ever will become of us?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – When Jake Tapper repeatedly pressed Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday to say whether earlier social distancing measures, say in February rather than March, would have saved lives, Fauci allowed for the possibility. Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and heads up the Trump […]

Health Care

20% of Americans need Mental Health Care but are Routinely denied it– Medicare for All Should Fix that, Too

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Florida (Special to Informed Comment) – Universal Medicare for All is a concept that a majority of Americans actually support . Of the 25 wealthiest nations in the world, the United States is the only one that doesn’t have it. The majority of these countries use single-payer, including the Netherlands — with its “managed […]

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 […]

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 […]

African-Americans

African-Americans, Victimized by U.S. Racism and Classism, are now preyed on by Coronavirus

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The coronavirus appears to be striking African-Americans at far higher rates than white Americans, write Reis Thebault, Andrew Ba Tran and Vanessa Williams at WaPo. Given that African-Americans are on average younger than whites, they should have fewer cases. But other causes are overriding the youth advantage. The median age […]