Health

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – On Tuesday, I cast a joyless vote for the very much politically doomed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Illinois primary, in an elementary school where hushed whispers and fearful glances had replaced the normal din of an election day. There was no one standing just outside the perimeter […]

Donald Trump

Trumpandemic: Trump Spreads the Germs of Racial Hatred and Xenophobia

Dan Dinello

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – President Donald Trump has systematically focused on a xenophobic rebranding of COVID-19 as a “Chinese virus” to help cover up his disastrous response to the pandemic. In a mistake-filled, zombie-like Oval Office address last week, Trump looked into the camera with sickly eyes and warned Americans of an enemy […]

Epidemics

Blues in the time of Pandemic, 1919 — “In a few days influenza would be controlled”

Shalom Goldman

Middlebury, Vt. (Special to Informed Comment) – The great influenza pandemic of 1918-19 , which raged in the aftermath of the 1914-18 World War, killed and incapacitated over 50 million people worldwide. In the U.S. over 600, 000 people died in the pandemic. Survivors of that pandemic have left us a rich cultural legacy , […]

Epidemics

Why the ‘herd immunity’ route to fighting coronavirus is unethical and potentially dangerous

The Conversation

By Arindam Basu | – As most of the world tries to suppress the coronavirus spread, some countries are going it alone – trying to manage the pandemic through so-called “herd immunity”. Herd immunity means letting a large number of people catch a disease, and hence develop immunity to it, to stop the virus spreading. […]

Epidemics

Disaster Capitalism and the Real Culprit in the Italian Covid-19 Catastrophe

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Canadian author and activist Naomi Klein worries that the Coronavirus pandemic will provide another opportunity for neoliberal elites to impose more of their right wing agenda on a citizenry scared and confused by this mysterious and dangerous disease. Klein of course is expanding on her award winning […]

Donald Trump

America, the Vulnerable: COVID-19 and the Exposure of a Broken System

Tareq A. Ramadan

The novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 (‘Coronavirus Disease’, virus name SARS-CoV-2 for ‘severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2’), was first identified in Hubei province and the city of Wuhan, China in early December of 2019 (though a case from Nov. 17, 2019 may be the earliest according to LiveScience) and has spread across 151 countries […]

Epidemics

To Help Stem Coronavirus, Lift the Sanctions on Iran

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Ariel Gold and Medea Benjamin, March 13, 2020. (Foreign Policy in Focus) – U.S. sanctions have gutted Iran’s economy and health system. In a pandemic, that’s a global public health threat. The COVID-19, or coronavirus, pandemic is far from the first proof of how intertwined we are as a global community. The climate crisis […]

Epidemics

Social distancing: What it is and why it’s the best tool we have to fight the coronavirus

The Conversation

By Thomas Perls | – As the coronavirus spreads into more and more communities, public health officials are placing responsibility on individuals to help slow the pandemic. Social distancing is the way to do it. Geriatrician Thomas Perls explains how this crucial tool works. What is social distancing? Social distancing is a tool public health […]

Brazil

Not a Hoax After All: Macho Coronavirus Denialists Donald Trump and Brazil’s Bolsonaro were Exposed at Mar-a-Lago

Tori Avila

Sao Paulo (Special to Informed Comment) – Last weekend, President Donald Trump met with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for a private dinner in Mar-a-Lago, his personal residence in Palm Beach, Florida. It turns out to have been less a state dinner and more a disease vector. Ironically, both leaders had stubbornly refused to acknowledge the […]