Health

Gainesville, Florida (Special to Informed Comment) – April 12, 1955 stands out as the brightest day in the history of vaccine development and public health when news of the discovery by Jonas Salk of a vaccine for the polio virus was made public. The most venerated medical scientist of the 20th century, Jonas Salk, M.D., […]

Epidemics

Stop Calling them Heroes if You won’t give Essential Workers Sick Leave and Health Care like Every Other Industrialized Country

Juan Cole

By Paul F. Clark | – The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated the degree to which we depend on the work of others. This is particularly true of essential workers like truck drivers, grocery store employees and hospital nurses who are ensuring the rest of us stay safe and are able to get the supplies, food […]

Epidemics

Lockdown Singing: the Science of why Music helps us connect in Isolation

The Conversation

By David M. Greenberg and Ilanit Gordon | – “Don’t hold back, sing with all of your heart,” said our colleague Simon Baron-Cohen on a Zoom meeting the other night with his fellow band members. Simon is director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University by day and bass player of the blues and […]

Donald Trump

Americans are Dying to Die: Guard shot for asking Customers to wear Mask as Trump’s CDC predicts 3k death / day by June

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Security guard Calvin Munerlyn, father of six with three step-children, was shot to death Monday in an altercation over Munerlyn’s demand that a 20-year-old woman wear a mask to shop in a Dollar Store in Flint, Michigan. She was there with her mother, who was masked, and with two men. […]

Donald Trump

In Pandemic, Trump Must Choose Between a Global Ceasefire and America’s Long Lost Wars

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

As President Trump has complained, the U.S. does not win wars anymore. In fact, since 1945, the only 4 wars it has won were over the small neocolonial outposts of Grenada, Panama, Kuwait and Kosovo. Americans across the political spectrum refer to the wars the U.S. has launched since 2001 as “endless” or “unwinnable” wars. […]

Donald Trump

Neo-Nazi “Reopeners” would Kill nearly as many Americans as died in All US Wars

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Roughly 1,264,000 US soldiers have died in all the wars this country has ever fought. A new simulation by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School predicts that if all the states completely reopened today and all Americans ceased all social distancing measures, a million people would die in this country […]

Donald Trump

Unionize! Trump has coerced Workers at Covid-19 Hot Spot Meat Packing Plants into Front Lines

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Me. (Special to Informed Comment) – Should we be surprised that Smithfield[s pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota was a hotspot for the Covid19 virus? No, and here is another no brainer. There are many such hotspots among meat processing plants around the US. How we handle such facts will affect […]

Epidemics

Russia: Could the Coronavirus Crisis Loosen Vladimir Putin’s Grip on Power?

Nikola Mikovic

Belgrade (Special to Informed Comment) – The COVID-19 pandemic has already opened the gates for a huge global economic crisis. Russia will not be spared, and its economy is expected to suffer at least until the world oil market stabilizes. How will that affect Vladimir Putin’s popularity? The geographically largest country in the world already […]

Epidemics

Beware the Pentagon’s Pandemic Profiteers: Hasn’t the Military-Industrial Complex Taken Enough of Our Money?

Tomdispatch

By Mandy Smithberger | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – At this moment of unprecedented crisis, you might think that those not overcome by the economic and mortal consequences of the coronavirus would be asking, “What can we do to help?” A few companies have indeed pivoted to making masks and ventilators for an overwhelmed medical […]