Health

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

Authoritarianism

How Saudis and other Authoritarian Middle East Governments are using Covid-19 to Crack down More on Civil Liberties

Global Voices

By Khalid Ibrahim, Gulf Center for Human Rights | – ( Globalvoices.org) – Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain Alhathloul is one of many human rights defenders who remain in jail in the Middle East, despite multiple calls to release them amid COVID-19 fears. Photo credit: Loujain Al-Hathloul via OTRS system / CC BY-SA. COVID-19 cases […]

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 […]

Donald Trump

US is Closed for Non-Essential Industries: Shouldn’t Trump’s Wars be Halted, Too?

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

( Pressenza ) – At least 70 countries have signed on to the March 23 call by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for a worldwide ceasefire during the Covid-19 pandemic. Like non-essential business and spectator sports, war is a luxury that the Secretary General says we must manage without for a while. After U.S. leaders […]

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 […]

Donald Trump

The Ultimate Stress Test: America as revealed by the Coronavirus Pandemic

Rajan Menon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) virus, which causes Covid-19, seemed to emerge from deepest history, from the Black Death of the 14th century and the “Spanish Flu” of 1918. In just months, it has infected more than 1.5 million people and claimed more than 88,000 lives. The virus continues to […]

Climate Crisis

Burning Fossil Fuels made Coronavirus Death Rate Worse, and Kills 200K Americans per Year, Not to Mention Global Heating

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Air pollution, producing medical conditions such as asthma and other lung problems as well as heart disease, is responsible for some of the thousands of coronavirus deaths in the United States. This, according to a just-published Harvard study, which is well summarized by Matthew Yglesias of Vox. Yglesias notes that […]

Climate Crisis

Climate after corona: Germany’s green stimulus package could boost the economic recovery

Clean Energy Wire

By Benjamin Wehrmann | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – The coronavirus crisis is driving many economies around the globe into recession, leading policymakers to draw up unprecedented spending plans to cushion the impact and enable recoveries. Activists, environmental think tanks and others warn that battling the economic slump must not come at the […]