DELTA COVID 5

8/21

SEE FAIL 3

see 2am res states ladapo florida

see vaxx 4

see campos duffy fox

see morano climate lockdown BS

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J.D. Wolf @ MeidasTouch: GOP Candidate: COVID “Wasn’t Bad Enough” Because Not Enough “Fat People” Died

Brandon Herrera said would had helped the virus spread to target them.

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reboot callback?

Anti-vax conspiracy theorist Mat Staver is now warning that the nation's blood supply has been contaminated by the COVID-19 vaccine: "Many of us who did not get the COVID shot do not want COVID-tainted blood."

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Doctors, policy analysts and members of the media reacted badly to President Donald Trump's administration replacing the pivotal Covid.gov government website with what critics described as an ill-conceived movie poster.

“The United States has, it seems, lost the plot,” wrote Loughborough University professor Duncan Robertson.

University of Washington biology professor Carl T. Bergstrom posted, “One person's ‘in a shameful effort to coerce and control the American people’s health decisions’ is another person's attempt to deal with a president who suggests treating COVID by injected bleach or sticking a UV light up someone's a--."

Christina Pagel, a professor at University College London’s Clinical Operational Research Unit, lamented: “US govt are disinfo kings. Covid.gov website a week ago was pretty normal info about staying up to date with covid vaccines and now [it’s] some bizarre amalgam of Trump and lab leak theories.”

IFrame Content

At the height of the Covid pandemic, Covid.gov provided U.S. residents means to access life-saving information about vaccines and treatment options. It also educated visitors on how to recognize the damaging, sometimes fatal, secondary illnesses and infections that COVID can herald, and it offered a resource for receiving free virus tests.

Today, however, anybody clicking “Covid.gov” will be redirected to a website with the U.S. president front and center on the landing page with the text: "LAB LEAK."

The site includes intense criticism of Dr Anthony Fauci, who helmed the nation’s Covid response policy under not only Joe Biden, but also Donald Trump in his first term. Many Trump voters and MAGA devotees, however, resented Fauci’s recommendations to wear masks in public and his advocacy for the evolving line of vaccines developed to combat the ever-evolving virus that killed more than 1.1 million Americans.

The site also pushes the hotly contested “Wuhan virus” theory describing the virus as created in a Chinese lab, over the more widely accepted theory (and more common occurrence) of the virus emerging from species crossover exposure.

“The White House has turned covid.gov into a conspiracy theory page,” wrote Gizmodo tech reporter Matt Novak.

Washington Post* White House reporter Dan Diamond pointed out the website’s claim is disputed by U.S. intelligence agencies, and “appears to rest entirely on a House GOP report that no Democrats signed.”

Read the Guardian article here.

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Oregon state senators use QAnon-affiliated and far-right shows to promote their lawsuit claiming the federal government inflated COVID numbers | Media Matters for America

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The conspiracy subreddit is full of COVID-19 and anti-vaccine health misinformation that Reddit claims to prohibit | Media Matters for America

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11 23 thom

something terrible and deadly is happening here in the United States, and House Speaker Mike Johnson just announced that he wants to double down on it. More on that in a moment.

If you were born and live in Japan, you can expect to live to 85 years old. For South Korea average lifespan is 83, as are Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Israel, and Australia.

It’s 82 for Italy, Spain, Ireland, France, Finland, and New Zealand.

Cuba (!) and Panama are 79; Uruguay and Croatia are 78.

A total of 61 countries have average lifespans of 78 years or older, ranging from Singapore’s 84 to Estonia’s 78.

And then there’s the United States. Our average lifespan comes in at a paltry 77 years, along with Iran, Tunisia, and Morocco.

And it’s entirely because of Republican policies.

That’s the main conclusion of a new study published in PLOS One, one of the world’s leading publications of peer-reviewed science across a wide variety of fields.

The report, rigorously scientific, was funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a division of the United States’ National Institutes of Health (NIH).

They concluded that if, in 2019, “liberals” (Democrats) had run all the Red states, then 171,030 fewer Americans would have died that year. On the other hand, if “conservatives” (Republicans) had succeeded in imposing their healthcare, tax, labor, and gun policies on the Blue states, there would have been an additional 217,635 dead Americans.

This follows the Brookings Institution study published two years ago that concluded Republican anti-mask and pro-snake-oil (hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, etc.) policies unnecessarily killed 400,000 Americans during the first year of the pandemic.

That study, along with a report from Congress detailing Trump’s incompetent --> malicious response to the pandemic, provoked psychologist Mary Trump to refer to her uncle as a “mass murderer.”

Add to that the Republican anti-vax propaganda and, as The New York Times reports, GOP policies are continuing to kill Americans:

“Since Dec. 1, when health officials announced the first Omicron case in the United States, the share of Americans who have been killed by the coronavirus is at least 63 percent higher than in any of these other large, wealthy nations, according to a New York Times analysis of mortality figures.”

And the majority of those dying are Republican followers. Not the Republican politicians and multimillionaire TV commentators, who are all well-vaccinated (Fox required vaccination for all employees), but the people who listen to them, watch them on television, and believe their lies about vaccines and masks.

None of this is new and none should be surprising.

In 2014 the International Journal of Epidemiology*published a report titled “US Infant Mortality and the President's Party” looking at the years between 1965 and 2010. They concluded:

“Across all nine presidential administrations, infant mortality rates were below trend when the President was a Democrat and above trend when the President was a Republican. … Republican administrations were characterized by infant mortality rates that were, on average, 3% higher than Democratic administrations.”

The results were, they wrote, solid. Very solid, in fact:

“Conclusions: We found a robust, quantitatively important association between net of trend US infant mortality rates and the party affiliation of the president.”

It turns out it’s not just American conservatives whose policies kill their own people.

Back in 2002 researchers looked at 100 years of data from Australia and England in a paper for theJournal of Epidemiological Public Health(JEPH) titled “Mortality and Political Climate: How Suicide Rates have Risen During Periods of Conservative Government, 1901-2000.”

They controlled the study for years of both war and drought, and concluded that more people kill themselves when conservatives are in power — in both countries, even at different times — than when liberals control the government. The subtitle of an editorial in the JEPH about their paper, in fact, was: “Do conservative governments make people want to die?”

The answer, according to the data, is yes. Noting an excess death rate of around 17% among the 238,431 suicides during years of conservative rule, the final sentence of that editorial was:

“[R]oughly 35,000 of these people would not have died had these Conservative governments not been in government. This is one suicide for every day of the century, or more appropriately, two for every day that the Conservatives ruled.”

Drenching the country in blood seems to be a popular sport for conservatives and Republican politicians....

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Church of Bleach” family gets years in prison for deadly “miracle” solution

A federal judge in Miami has handed down years-long prison sentences to a Florida father and his three adult sons who were convicted in July of using a faux church to sell an industrial-strength bleaching agent as a "miracle" solution they falsely...

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ampli neg feedback?

10 23

Arizona Republicans convene a COVID hearing chock full of misinformation — again - Alternet.org

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mma 4 23 plot to make us buy fat pills

on watters

RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY (HOST): Pandemic would have been a really great time to scare America back into shape. We learned early on that one of the biggest predictors of COVID-related deaths was obesity.

But what did Democrats do? They shut down the playgrounds, gyms, and they forced you to stay in your house and order takeout. Instead of focusing on our health, America put on the pandemic equivalent of the freshman 15.

...

If her response sounds strange, this might put some of the missing pieces together. Dr. Stanford has taken thousands of dollars from pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk which manufactures the miracle weight loss drug Ozempic. Can you say conflict of interest?

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RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY (CO-HOST): This entry of RFK Jr. into this race is a real problem for Democrats, but it could also be a problem for Republicans should he become the nominee. And that's a big if, of course, but it's interesting, Will, you often talk about how the left and the right, kind of — there is a circle, a place where left and right actually meet — and I think for a lot of Americans it was during COVID where a lot of Republicans and conservatives who had more faith in corporations sort of lost that faith as they saw how horribly pharma and big government had colludedand in many ways to suppress information and take away people's rights. And then people on the left were also going wait a minute, we're health liberty people, we don't like being forced to take things. And a lot of them are old-school liberals who never trusted big pharma.There are a lot of powerful forces that don't want JFK to get elected because he's been a truth-teller in many ways.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/elon-musk/musk-attempts-court-twitter-advertisers-new-data-media-matters-provides-insight

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no lnx twt

As Musk attempts to court Twitter advertisers, new data from Media Matters provides insight into the prevalence of COVID-19 misinformation on the platform

Media Matters found that 50% of the top 250 accounts tweeting about COVID-19 were right-wing, while nearly 25% were anti-vaccine

WRITTEN BY CAMDEN CARTER & RUBY SEAVEY

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM CARLY EVANS, KAYLA GOGARTY, SHARON KANN, ETHAN COLLIER, NOAH DOWE, SPENCER SILVA, BEN VAN BLOEM, JACK WINSTANLEY & NATALIE MATHES

PUBLISHED 04/24/23

As Twitter’s advertising revenue has plummeted, CEO Elon Musk is trying to court advertisers and assure them that “ads will not appear next to anything remotely negative.” However, as Musk has continued to roll back Twitter’s policies and reinstate previously banned accounts, hate speech and misinformation have flourished on the platform.

In a new study, Media Matters compiled the top 1,000 tweets about COVID-19 each month from October 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023, and analyzed the 250 accounts that earned the most interactions on those tweets. We found that anti-vaccine accounts have made up at least 24% of the top accounts that tweet about COVID-19 and right-leaning accounts have made up at least 50% — meaning that anti-vaccine and/or right-wing accounts are significantly contributing to the discussion of COVID-19 on Twitter.

Last week at the POSSIBLE conference — which was attended by many major companies — Musk reportedly said that Twitter is “a trainwreck sometimes,” while also reiterating that users have freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach and promising that ads would “not appear next to anything remotely negative.”

Twitter’s ad revenue has plummeted since Musk took over the company, with advertisers reportedly concerned where he's taking the platform. Media Matters has found that Twitter has lost nearly 50% of its monthly ad revenue since Musk took over in October, and according to recent reporting from CNN, “More than half of Twitter’s top 1,000 advertisers in September were no longer spending on the platform in the first weeks of January.”

Musk has tried to chalk up this loss of ad revenue to “bad timing,” but advertisers have fled the platform over brand safety concerns as a result of Musk’s actions. Under Musk, Twitter is transforming into a chaotic and poorly moderated platform. Musk has reinstated dozens of accounts that were previously banned for hate speech and misinformation and has allowed users that paid for verification to push hate, while simultaneously removing protections for trans users and removing policies against COVID-19 misinformation. In turn, anti-LGBTQ hate speech has increased on the platform and now, Media Matters data reveals with Musk as CEO, anti-vaccine accounts are contributing significantly to discussion of COVID-19 on Twitter.

This data — along with previous Media Matters findings that as recently as February, advertisements for major companies have appeared alongside tweets of antisemites who have denied the Holocaust — contradicts Musk’s assurance that ads would not be shown next to “anything remotely negative.”

Media Matters found that nearly a quarter of top Twitter accounts tweeting about COVID-19 pushed anti-vaccine rhetoric

Media Matters found that between October 2022 and March 2023, at least 50% of the top 250 accounts that received the most engagement on tweets about COVID-19 were right-leaning accounts, while at least 24% of the accounts were either run by anti-vaccine figures or contained anti-vaccine rhetoric. Just under 9% of the accounts had any medical affiliation.

Tweets about COVID-19 from Dr. Eli David, a COVID-19 conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine figure, earned the most combined interactions. Some of the other top 10 accounts that earned the most total interactions on COVID-19 tweets include well-known right-wing and anti-vaccine figures, such as Catturd, Robert Kennedy Jr., Dr. Simone Gold, Robert W. Malone, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).

Media Matters also found that the COVID-19 tweets from the top 250 accounts earned nearly 70 million combined interactions (retweets and likes). Anti-vaccine accounts earned at least 25 million of those interactions, accounting for more than 37%. Right-wing accounts earned at least 36 of the 70 million interactions, accounting for nearly 53% of interactions.

The top accounts tweeting about COVID-19 pushed dangerous misinformation about the virus and its vaccine

Of the 10 accounts that earned the most total interactions on COVID-19 tweets, 9 belong to known anti-vaccine figures. Popular narratives from these accounts include attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci, pushing unproven and potentially harmful treatments for the virus, and undermining the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine. Many of these tweets came from accounts belonging to known COVID-19 deniers and far-right figures, including:

Dr. Eli David attacked and mocked Fauci, claiming he was “wrong on everything” and that he “has caused more harm to humanity than any other scientist in history.” David also undermined COVID-19 mitigation efforts, falsely claiming that “masks had zero efficacy in preventing Covid" and the vaccine is “5 times more dangerous than Covid itself."

Dr. Eli David attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci

Dr. Eli David COVID misinfo

Alt-right troll and Holocaust denier Peter Imanuelsen managed to tweet himself to the number two spot of accounts tweeting about COVID-19. Some of his many claims included that the COVID-19 vaccine “hijacks your cells to produce a non-human toxic spike protein,” and he pushed the false narrative that the vaccine leads to an increased chance of a heart attack.

Peter Imanuelsen COVID tweet examples

Right-wing troll Catturd frequently tweeted baseless attacks against Fauci, such as claiming he “lied” about natural immunity or calling him “one of the most evil demons in world history.” (While natural immunity can provide some protection from COVID-19, the risk associated with contracting the virus is much higher than that of the vaccine.)

Catturd2 Covic-19 Tweet examples

James Cintolo, who claims in his Twitter bio to be a medical expert, has repeatedly spread misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine on Twitter, including a story about a woman who suffered from a severe case of coronavirus despite being vaccinated, largely because of a pre-existing condition. Cintolo has also repeatedly pushed the false anti-vaccine narrative that people have “died suddenly” from the COVID-19 vaccine, and he has spread out of context information to back those claims.

James Cintolo COVID tweet examples

Dr. Aseem Malhotra is a British cardiologist that used a January BBC News interview on cholesterol medication to spread misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. On Twitter, Malhotra amplified a video of Fox host Tucker Carlson and falsely claimed that the COVID-19 vaccine causes miscarriages and stillbirths. He also baselessly claimed that long COVID, which is a medical condition in which there are long lasting health problems after COVID-19 infection, is “actually synonymous with vaccine injury.”

Dr. Aseem Malhotra pushing COVID-19 misinfo

Anti-vaccine figure Robert Kennedy Jr., who has recently announced a Democratic presidential bid but has earned endorsements from right-wing figures, fearmongered on Twitter about COVID-19 vaccines, attacked Fauci, and sent his followers to his anti-vaccine website. He also shared examples of supposed “injuries” people incurred after being vaccinated against COVID-19.

RFK pushing COVID misinfo on Twitter

Methodology...

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an 3 23 raw

no lnx twt vid

Jamie Raskin (D-MD) blasted a House Select Committee on Covid-19 by noting that former President Donald Trump had refused for months to investigate the virus's origins but praised China President Xi Jinping instead.

:{:{}:

At a hearing to determine the origins of Covid on Wednesday, Raskin wondered why Republicans were not more upset with Trump's mishandling of the pandemic.

:{:{}:

"The COVID-19 pandemic came to America in 2020, of course, when Donald Trump was president," Raskin told the committee. "And that president's policy failures, magical thinking, and total recklessness caused, according to his own special advisor on COVID, Deborah Birx, the unnecessary death of hundreds of thousands of Americans."

Raskin said that answers "must come from objective, fact-based investigations informed by doctors, scientists, and public health experts."

"Whatever the origins of COVID-19, whether it is bats or bureaucrats, no finding will ever exonerate or rehabilitate Donald Trump for his lethal recklessness in mismanaging the crisis in America, which cost us more than a million lives," he continued. "Indeed, if COVID was actually the product of a lab leak, or the worst bioweapon of mass destruction ever invented, as some have argued, and obviously we don't have the scientific evidence to say any of this yet, it would not only not remove Donald Trump's culpability, it would only deepen his culpability in the most profound way."

The congressman offered a list of tweets in which Donald Trump praised Xi in the early days of the pandemic.

:{:{}:

"I'm just giving the committee a tiny taste of Donald Trump's fawning, star-struck, sycophantic embrace of everything the Chinese government was telling him in 2020," he explained. "He could have directed the intelligence community to lead a COVID-19 origins investigation back in March of 2020, three years ago. He did not. He wasted precious time minimizing the risk of the virus and lavishing his praise on President Xi."

:{:{}:

Raskin concluded: "He could have pushed back against the CCP for interfering with the WHO's investigation into its origins, and he could have asked our intelligence community to intervene. He did none of those things. And everyone should remember that. Let's take the politics out of it, and let's get to the bottom of what happened."

Watch the video below from the U.S. House.

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

'Just dreamed that up': Jamie Raskin knocks Republicans over their latest attacks on the IRS ›

Jamie Raskin: Donald Trump must be prosecuted 'because of the magnitude of the attack on democracy' ›

Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene: Jamie Raskin is a 'communist' and unfit to serve due to son's suicide ›

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House GOP did not tell Raskin to remove head covering | AP News ›

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an 2 23

ahead of former President Donald Trump's Wednesday visit to East Palestine, Ohio—where a Norfolk Southern-owned train transporting carcinogenic chemicals derailed on February 3, prompting a mass evacuation and release of pollutants—progressive critics highlighted the key role his administration played in making the fiery crash and its toxic aftermath more likely.

During his speech, Trump—considered a leading GOP presidential candidate for 2024 despite spearheading a deadly coup attempt following his 2020 loss—criticized how President Joe Biden's administration has responded to the environmental and public health disaster unfolding in East Palestine, a poor rural town of about 4,700 people located a few miles west of the Pennsylvania border.

But as critics noted beforehand, the Trump administration's gutting of train safety rules at the behest of railroad industry lobbyists was instrumental in creating the conditions for the derailment and ensuing chemical spill and burnoff, which has provoked fears of groundwater contamination and air pollution.

"He should be apologizing to that community for his administration rolling back rail regulations," progressive stalwart Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator, tweeted prior to Trump's address.

philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch made a similar point in an opinion piece published earlier this week.

"If residents of East Palestine—a modern news desertof downsized or disappeared news sources, which allows misinformation to fester—truly knew the reality, a delegation of townsfolk would likely greet Trump with tiki torches and pitchforks," Bunch wrote, comparing the former president's visit to "the tendency of a criminal to return to the scene of his crime."

Bunch noted that "Trump acted specifically to sabotage a nascent government effortto protect citizens from the growing threat posed by derailments of outdated, poorly equipped, and undermanned freight trains that were increasingly shipping both highly flammable crude oil from the U.S. fracking boom as well as toxic chemicals like the ones that would derail in East Palestine."

"Trump had been in office for less than a year when he moved to killthe 2015 rule change initiated by the Obama administration that would have required freight trains to upgrade the current braking technologythat was developed in the 19th century for state-of-the-art electronic systems," wrote Bunch, who pointed out that this came after Norfolk Southern and other rail carriers donated more than $6 million to Republican candidates in 2016 and spent millions more on lobbying.

"With the investigation into the East Palestine wreck still in its early phases, it's not clear if the modern brakes—originally required for installation by 2021—could have prevented the toxic derailment or whether the specific Obama rule would have applied," Bunch continued. "But experts do believe the new brakes could have mitigated the wreckage—and thus the release of so many hazardous chemicals."

"The rule reversal wasn't the only time that Team Trump sided with Big Rail over the forgotten Americans who live on the wrong side of their tracks," he added. "In 2019, for example, the Trump administration moved to not strengthen but relax regulations on shipping fracked natural gas through communities like East Palestine. The same year, Trump's White House also killed an Obama-era proposal that would have required two crew members in freight-train locomotives."

Ahead of Trump's visit,More Perfect Union also argued on social media that the ex-president's "attempt to portray himself as a friend of the town and as someone who would have stood up to Norfolk Southern... couldn't be further from the truth."

As the progressive media outlet observed, the Trump administration "withdrew multiple rail safety recommendations and moved toward a 'self-regulatory approach' where rail companies could do as they pleased."

"It's no surprise that the Trump years were filled with dangerous deregulation," More Perfect Union asserted, describing his decision to nominate top rail industry executives to lead the Federal Railroad Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration as "a prime example of the revolving door between business and government."

"The Trump approach to the rail industry was to let the companies do what they wanted, which was to avoid regulations, slash jobs, and extract profit," the outlet continued. "This approach, and rail companies' greed, has led to over 1,000 derailments each year. Some are massive catastrophes like East Palestine. But every single one is harmful. And if the industry isn't regulated and forced to change, we'll soon be seeing more disasters."

When Trump "pretends to care about rail workers, or the people of East Palestine, we can't believe him," More Perfect Union added. "His record tells a very different story, the story of his own role in creating this problem in the first place."

Even some conservative critics of Trump have questioned the sincerity of his visit.

"It's clear that it's a political stunt," Ray LaHood, a Republican ex-member of Congress who led the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) during former President Barack Obama's first term, told Politico on Wednesday. "If he wants to visit, he's a citizen. But clearly his regulations and the elimination of them, and no emphasis on safety, is going to be pointed out."

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) wasted little time in doing exactly that, calling the GOP's indignation "fake" soon after Trump announced his travel plans.

Bunch acknowledged that "it's beyond hypocritical for Trump to bring his Harold Hill-huckster shtick to East Palestine when residents are still experiencing headaches and breathing foul air from the kind of catastrophe he didn't lift a finger to stop from the Resolute Desk."

"But also it's a bit baffling why Biden or his Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg—who seems to be channelinghis inner McKinsey & Co**. these days—haven't gone to Ohio," he argued. "Especially when Trump and any other Republicans hoping to make political hay off of East Palestine's misery are coming to town empty-handed."

"None of the anti-Biden critics on this issue have offered a solution, because they can't," wrote Bunch. "The only fix for the kind of runaway abuses of modern capitalism that cause these environmental catastrophes isgovernment regulation, aided by empowering worker safety with strong unions—two things that the Trump-led GOP has opposed at every turn."

Even in the wake of the disaster, Republican lawmakers have refused to demand stronger regulations, as HuffPost reported:

:{:{Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), a vocal Biden critic who represents East Palestine, on Tuesday dismissed immediate calls for stricter rail regulations, saying actions toward accountability will hinge on the findings of a National Transportation Safety Board [NTSB] investigation into the derailment}::{.}:

'That will dictate whether there are laws, regulations that need to be changed, whether there were rules that were violated,' he said during a news conference in East Palestine. 'We don't know any of that yet, and we won't know that until NTSB releases its report.'}:

Hours before Trump spoke, Buttigieg announced that he plans to travel to East Palestine on Thursday. His visit is expected to coincide with the publication of the NTSB's preliminary report about its ongoing probe into the crash.

On Tuesday, Buttigieg unveiled DOT's recommendations for improving the safety of the nation's rail system, though an inter-union alliance of rail workers immediately criticized the plan as inadequate.

Given the scale of the problems—and in light of the transportation secretary's ongoing refusal to exercise his authority to reinstate previously gutted rules along with his consideration of an industry-backed proposal to further weaken the regulation of train braking systems—union leaders have called for nationalizing the railways and implementing their proposed solutions.

Turner, for her part, emphasized that she has "been outspoken about the two years the Biden administration had [to] fix these problems."

"The Trump administration is at fault, as is the Obama administration," Turner contended, referring to the fact that the latter's regulations were also watered down in response to industry pressure.

"The Ohio GOP is to blame as well," she added, echoing recent reporting on Norfolk Southern's campaign to influence state-level lawmakers and officials. "Failure at every level of government and multiple administrations led to this."

:{:{}:

ref dayton

https://www.daytondailynews.com/ideas-voices/marcano-the-importance-of-local-media-following-the-east-palestine-derailment/7ORSBKCMPZGLLPR6NAX3EWXNPA/

:{:{}:

the Norfolk Southern train wreck near East Palestine has received its share of national news coverage.

The Washington Post covered a raucous town hall that the train company inexplicitly skipped. NPR’s “what to know about the derailment” provided an excellent primer on the wreck. CBS, CNN, NBC, and even Al Jazeera have covered the incident.

The train, pulling 150 cars, derailed on Feb. 3. Three dozen cars went off the tracks, and 11 contained hazardous materials — including five with the man-made, cancer-causing substance vinyl chloride. For the roughly 4,800 residents of East Palestine, on the Pennsylvania border some 40 miles west of Pittsburgh, the current short-term angst will soon turn to long-term worry.

But what happens when the story subsides and the big boys go home?

The Lisbon Morning Journal is the closest newspaper to East Palestine, about 13 miles away. The Salem News has covered the story, and they’re 30 miles away. Particle Media’s online site, Newsbreak, aggregates news content, so that’s useful.

But the train derailment highlights a problem that has affected small communities and areas from Tarboro, North Carolina, to Tucson, Arizona.

Some 360 newspapers closed from the start of the pandemic, according to a report published in the New York Times. The problem is so acute thatone in five Americans live in a news desert with limited access to local news, the Times reported.

Ohio has fared particularly poorly. Since 2004, the state has lost 32% of its newspapers, according to a study by Policy Matters. Most of those companies were run by small operators who cared about the communities they covered.

In years past, the Youngstown Vindicator would have unleashed its army of journalists to travel the 30 minutes to East Palestine. The Vindicator once had the staff and resources to support its 160,000 Sunday circulation product. But the newspaper collapsed under the weight of circulation declines and financial losses and closed in 2019, with a Sunday circulation of just 32,000.

The East Palestine train derailment lays bare what happens when the community loses its news sources.

Newsgathering goes far beyond the daily reporting of who said what at a press conference or who spoke to a crowd at a community gathering. That’s fairly simply blocking and tackling.

I wonder who will go more in-depth.

Who will tell the stories of the townspeople who will be scared for years by the wreck?Who will monitor whether residents start leaving, which would have a cascading effect on property tax revenue and the city’s school district? Who will chronicle the families and children who stay behind and worry about their health?

Who will monitor health department reports to see if residents start getting sick?

Who will act as a watchdog to monitor state officials, who will be charged with ensuring that Norfolk Southern makes restitution, in whatever form that takes? Who will file public records requests to examine the records of any settlements? If there are lawsuits, who will go to the courthouse and report on the findings?

Without reporters and news sources, the people of East Palestine don’t have an independent news source that keeps officials on their toes.

When people say that local media doesn’t matter, take a look at what’s happening a four-hour drive east of the Dayton area. The big boys will go home because they have so many other issues to tackle. Eventually, the citizens of East Palestine will feel the frustration of living in a news desert.

Somehow, we need to strengthen local news, not continue to watch it wither.

Dying newspapers mean there are fewer independent avenues to help communities, fewer ways to cover tragedy, and fewer ways to hold companies and agencies accountable through reporting.

Local news matters. Let’s do a better job supporting it.

Ray Marcano’s column appears on these pages each Sunday. He can be reached at raymarcanoddn@gmail.com

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United States Representative Adam Schiff (D-California) on Wednesday refuted Republican vilification of immigrants and expressed gratitude for the life-and-death sacrifices that countless thousands of them made during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Many Republicans in Congress seem intent on demonizing migrant families and asylum seekers, portraying them as fentanyl traffickers and violent criminals. In the real world, asylum seekers are vulnerable individuals and families fleeing political persecution and torture," Schiff said. "And these terrible stereotypes that my Republican colleagues are peddling have real-world consequences and bring real-world harm as they increase the level of hate and violence directed at immigrants here at home."

In April 2022, studies conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development found that "the risk of infection with COVID-19 among migrant workers was twice as high as among native-born workers in several countries. But many migrant workers have had to balance the risk of getting sick at work with the risk of losing employment or income."

Schiff touched upon those socioeconomic inequities in his address.

"Let me just take this opportunity to recognize the many immigrants who risked their lives during the pandemic to take care of us when we were sick in the hospital with COVID, who brought food to our grocery stores and delivered goods to our doors, who worked in our fields so we would not go hungry and who died disproportionately because they could not work from home," he said, adding that "I want to say thank you for your courage. Our country is better off for having you here."

Watch below or at this link.

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In February 2020, the late far-right radio host Rush Limbaugh insisted that COVID-19 was no more dangerous than “the common cold” and that it was “being weaponized” by Democrats “as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump.” Limbaugh, who repeatedly claimed that smoking cigarettes wasn’t dangerous before dying of lung cancer in February 2021, believed that mainstream media reporting on the dangers of COVID-19 was overblown. But according to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, COVID-19 has killed more than 6.8 million people worldwide; that includes over 1.5 million deaths in the United States.

Three years after Limbaugh tried to convince his listeners that COVID-19 was a political issue instead of a health/medical issue, the MAGA far right is still politicizing the pandemic. Libertarian/conservative journalist Cathy Young, who is very much a Never Trumper, calls out MAGA “covidiots” and “conspiracy theorists” in an article published by The Bulwark on January 31.

Young isn’t without criticism of Democrats, liberals and progressives in her article, pointing out that some of them are now acknowledging that they were overly “aggressive” in 2020 when it came to “school closures and lockdowns.” But Young is much more critical of MAGA “covidiots” who continue to push unscientific claims, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk and Twitter owner Elon Musk.

“The covidiot ecosystem on the right — and, to some extent, in ‘anti-woke’ and ‘cultural dissident’ circles that don’t always explicitly identify as right-wing — continues to flourish,” Young observes. “Most recently, it’s been manifesting itself in the rather fanciful notion that people didn’t ‘suddenly’ die of heart attacks and strokes before ‘the jab’ came along.”

By “the jab,” Young is referring to COVID-19 vaccines, which even Donald Trump credits with saving lives. MAGA “covidiots,” she notes, are pushing anti-vaxxer claims while saying that Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s top White House health official, deserves criminal prosecution for his response to the pandemic.

“Once again,” Young writes, “covidiocy — usually dressed up as ‘COVID dissent’ — is not just the province of some radical and marginal right-wing fringe: It also implicates mainstream figures on the right. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s nowadays being touted as kinder, gentler, saner heir to the MAGA mantle, falsely claimed earlier this month that people who get the bivalent booster shot are ‘more likely to get infected.’ And in December, he threw a big, juicy chunk of red meat to the conspiracy theorists by asking the Florida Supreme Court to investigate ‘wrongdoing’ related to the COVID vaccines, including supposedly false claims about their safety and efficacy.”

Read The Bulwark’s full article at this link.

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On Sunday, The Washington Post Editorial Board published a brief piece blasting Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis for waging a political war against mRNA COVID-19 vaccines despite their overwhelming success at saving lives as well as their proven track record for safety.

"DeSantis last week demanded a grand jury investigate 'criminal or wrongful activity in Florida' involving the 'development, promotion and distribution' of coronavirus vaccines. As public opinion shows vaccine hesitancy is growing, Mr. DeSantis’s move is not only absurd but also dangerous," the Board wrote.

"Vaccines work. A mathematical model, based on country-level data, found they directlysaved some 15.5 million lives worldwide in the first year they were available, and millions more indirectly," the editors said, adding that "the speed with which mRNA vaccines reached people was a spectacular scientific achievement, given the history of vaccine development. Three decades of research has yet to produce a viable vaccine to prevent or treat HIV/AIDS."

And while there have been some unanticipated setbacks – like the need for periodic boosters to offset waning immunity – the Board stressed that overall, the inoculations have been a net positive for the population that chose to get the jabs.

"Vaccines remain a bulwark against severe illness, hospitalization and death," the paper's leaders said. "Adults who received the latest booster shots cut their risk of having to visit an emergency room or being hospitalized by 50 percent or more, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Dec. 16."

The editors also tore into DeSantis for instigating public skepticism about vaccines – and science in general – as part of his presumed strategy to challenge former President Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination:

He has taken it a step further with a petition to the Florida Supreme Court seeking empanelment of a statewide grand jury — which in Florida can carry out broader investigations of government — on vaccines. In a crude appeal to the anti-vaccine movement, Mr. DeSantis’s petition darkly implies that public reassurances of vaccine efficacy were driven by 'financial gain.'

The Board further noted that this kind of deceptive messaging has had a devasting impact:

Professor Peter Hotez, who co-led development of a vaccine for low- and middle-income countries at the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, has pointed out that some200,000 Americans 'needlessly lost their lives in the last half of 2021 and into early 2022 because they refused a coronavirus vaccine during our terrible delta wave.'

The Board's conclusion was thusly unambiguous.

"A scientific achievement so overwhelmingly beneficial to humanity ought not be forsaken in the interest of scoring political points," it stated in its closing remarks. "The truth is as simple as this: Vaccines save lives."

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/ron-desantis-and-triumph-anti-vax-right

no lnx vid

fox News founder Rupert Murdoch became one of the first people on Earth to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when he received his first jab in December 2020. He thanked “the amazing scientists who have made this vaccine possible,” in a statement at the time, adding, “I strongly encourage people around the world to get the vaccine as it becomes available.”

Two years later, such unqualified gratitude and support for the miraculous medicines are scarce among American conservatives, even as a new study found that COVID-19 vaccines have saved the lives of more than 3.2 million Americans and prevented more than 18.5 million hospitalizations. Instead, thanks in no small part to the paranoid rants of Murdoch’s employees, Republican anti-vaccine sentiment has spiraled to the point that former President Donald Trump’s role in their development may hurt his chances of gaining the party’s nomination in 2024.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was on Murdoch’s Fox on Tuesday night talking up his call for the state’s supreme court to impanel a grand jury to investigate “any and all wrongdoing” related to the vaccines and “bring legal accountability to those who committed misconduct.” It’s unclear precisely what such a grand jury would target or the impact it might have. As a signaling effort, however, DeSantis’ announcement put him squarely on the side of the anti-vax kooks at Fox and the faction of the GOP they influence.

DeSantis fielded softball questions from primetime hostLaura Ingraham, who praised him for having “fought relentlessly against [the] medical cartel’s silencing campaign.” As the governor spoke, on-screen text touted him as “still leading on COVID” and drawing mainstream press outrage for “challenging Covidians.”

Video

CitationFrom the December 13, 2022, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle.

DeSantis is likely to challenge Trump for the GOP presidential nomination. He enjoys broad support in recent primary polls and across the right-wing media spectrum, from Fox primetime hosts to anti-anti-Trumpers at publications like National Review to, reportedly, Murdoch himself. And it is clear to everyone – including Trump’s advisers – that in preparation for that run, he is staking out ground as the vaccine-skeptical candidate.

DeSantis is following the path blazed by Fox hosts like Ingraham and Tucker Carlson. Anti-vaccine sentiment would likely have become a problem for the vaccination campaign under any circumstances. But it took the network’s patented ability to manufacture grievances to turn it into a compelling primary issue for Republican politicians.

Fox spent the last two years sabotaging the U.S. vaccination effort. The network had a unique moral responsibility to try to convince their viewers to get vaccinated. Instead, its most prominent and trusted figures waged a nightly battle against the shots, stoking fears that they were useless or dangerous and that their distribution was part of a sinister plot to control Americans. The discourse was “great for ratings” – but deadly for Republicans, who were vaccinated against COVID-19 at lower rates and died from it at higher ones.

Some right-wing commentators, even at Fox, tried to push back against that narrative and encourage vaccination. But ultimately, they lost the argument within the movement.

DeSantis followed the shift in right-wing public opinion, choosing to preserve his political viability rather than the lives of his constituents.DeSantis once touted his own efforts to distribute the vaccines, which he credited with “saving lives.” But once he saw which way the wind was blowing on the right, he started trying to appeal to the anti-vaccine right. Meanwhile, Trump himself has been flummoxed, getting booed by a crowd for saying he got his booster and eschewing the word “vaccine” on the stump.

It is a testament to the power of Fox’s propaganda that the network was able to turn life-saving drugs into a poisoned chalice for Trump – and that perhaps his greatest rival adjusted his views on them to appeal to its viewers.

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300K KIA GOP?! 3 million US saved

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following Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R) announcement to launch an investigation into the potential safety risks of the COVID-19 vaccine, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director Dr. Anthony Fauci offered a critical reaction to the governor's effort.

On Wednesday, December 14, Fauci appeared on CNN where he described the potential move as pointless. Fauci, who now serves as the chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, argued that DeSantis' effort would only undermine Americans' confidence in the effectiveness of the vaccine.

“We have a vaccine that, unequivocally, is highly effective and safe and has saved literally millions of lives,” Fauci said Wednesday on CNN. “What’s the problem with vaccines?”

In a new analysis, Senior White House Correspondent Alexander Nazaryan expounded on Fauci's arguments explaining one of the main reasons for the apprehension around vaccinations.

"The problem is vaccines have become part of America’s polarized politics," Nazaryan wrote. "Since the advent of COVID-19 vaccines late in the Trump administration, skepticism of the established medical science has become a kind of creed for many conservatives, as well as for some on the far left."

He added, "Political disagreements about lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccine requirements have hardened into antipathy toward the vaccines themselves."

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far-right Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hasn’t officially announced a presidential run for 2024, but his admirers — from author Ann Coulter to Fox News’ Rupert Murdoch to writers at the National Review — are hoping that he will. As they see it, a DeSantis presidential campaign would be the way for the Republican Party to quit Donald Trump (who announced his 2024 campaign in mid-November) while still satisfying the MAGA base. And if DeSantis does run, he may have found a way to show MAGA voters how he differs from Trump: pandering to the anti-vaxxer crowd.

Never Trump conservative and former GOP strategist Rick Wilson is quite skeptical about DeSantis’ prospects as a 2024 presidential candidate. Wilson, a North Florida resident, believes that DeSantis, for all his bombast, will be crushed in a Republican primary if Trump fully unleashes his cruelty on the Florida governor (who was reelected by 19 percent in the 2022 midterms).

In a biting article published by The Bulwark on December 15, Never Trumper Amanda Carpenter emphasizes that DeSantis’ latest anti-vaxxer theatrics are designed to fire up “fringe” MAGA voters ahead of a likely presidential run.

“As he seeks to elevate his profile further and distinguish himself from potential 2024 presidential rivals, DeSantis is sucking up to the anti-vax crowd and styling himself as a crusader against what he calls the ‘biomedical security state,’” Carpenter explains. “And, like most of DeSantis’ political stunts, his overtures to the fringe are pretty cringey. On Tuesday, (December 13), as the state legislature was embroiled in a complex debate about skyrocketing home-insurance rates,DeSantis hosted a roundtable in West Palm Beach that brought doctors and scientists together with other Floridians to question the efficacy and safety of COVID vaccines.”

DeSantis, Carpenter notes, featured Steven Ordonia — an anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist who claims that COVID-19 vaccines have “horrible side effects” that the “mainstream media” are covering up.

“When the roundtable concluded,” Carpenter observes, “DeSantis made a series of planned announcements. He called for investigations into vaccine manufacturers and public officials who he alleges lied about the life-threatening side effects of shots.”

These theatrics, according to Carpenter, reflect “a desperate wish to kiss up to cranky, conspiracist anti-vax voters.”

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an 12 22 // morano lockdown BS

A new analysis is explaining how Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) could use the COVID-19 pandemic to his advantage if he opts to run for president in 2024.

"The federal COVID response has become a red-meat issue for the party's base, and DeSantis' 2020 actions are much more aligned with the GOP's tone today," Axios’ Caitlin Owens reports.

Owens also noted that the Republican governor has admitted he wished he'd pushed back against Donald Trump and his administration during the critical moments when he disagreed with the former president's course of action in responding to the pandemic. As Owens notes, this includes "the Trump administration's calls for lockdowns early on in the pandemic."

Multiple political strategists weighed in with their predictions about a possible 2024 presidential run for DeSantis, explaining why COVID could be a key platform issue for the Florida governor.

Republican strategist Alex Conant, who worked with Sen. Marco Rubio's (R-Fla.) election campaign back in 2016, noted how DeSantis' conservative values appear to align more with the party.

"DeSantis is a conservative rock star in large part because of how he handled COVID in Florida," said Conant. "He'll certainly make the implicit contrast with Trump. Whether he makes an explicit contrast at some point depends on how the campaign plays out."

A number of other strategists also pointed out different ways DeSantis could use the pandemic against Trump. Brendan Buck, a former adviser to former House Speaker Paul Ryan, recalled the COVID shutdown in 2020 and how Trump initially aligned with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director Dr. Anthony Fauci, who Republicans have widely condemned.

"He introduced the country to Dr. Fauci, and the far right is not going to forget that. Not that Trump handled the pandemic like Dr. Fauci would have wanted him to, but if you're looking at a way to hit him from the right, that's a big fat target," said Buck.

Although Trump was widely popular among Republican voters, Conant noted that the COVID-19 pandemic response was the biggest drawback of his presidency.

"Trump's handling of COVID is clearly one of the president's biggest vulnerabilities with independent voters and conservative voters for very different reasons," Conant said. "No one is going to forget putting bleach in bodies and downplaying the initial threat, and conservatives won't forgive him for pushing some of the more restrictive policies.”

Matt Gorman, a former Republican campaign operative, also offered a brief take on how the political battle could play out. "Trump benefits if you're chasing him down every rabbit role and fighting with him everywhere. If you be strategic and fight with him on terms favorable to your candidacy, that is where you can take advantage of him," said Gorman.

"COVID is one of those examples where, when it comes to DeSantis, where he could fight him on favorable ground," Gorman added.

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jj con dr an 11 22

Thirteen members of the Senate Democratic caucus—including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer—joined Republicans on Tuesday in approving a resolution that would terminate the national emergency declaration for Covid-19, a move that would kick millions of people off Medicaid as experts warn of a winter infection and hospitalization surge.

While the White House said Tuesday that President Joe Biden will veto the resolution if it passes the House and reaches his desk, the Senate vote sparked outrage among public health experts and others who stressed the far-reaching implications of the resolution.

"This is appalling," tweeted Dr. Lucky Tran, a scientist and public health advocate. "This will affect the cost of vaccines, tests, and treatments, restrict access to Medicaid and telehealth, and restart student loan payments."

"Ending the Covid-19 Emergency Declaration will be disastrous for millions of Americans who are struggling to access healthcare, make rent, and pay off their student loans," Tran added.

Joining Schumer in voting for the resolution were Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Angus King (I-Maine), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.),Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Catherine Marie Cortez Masto (D-Nev.).

Every Senate Republican with the exception of Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.)—who did not vote [bailled] —also backed the resolution, which was put forth by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.)[twt]

n a statement

on Tuesday, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) warned that enactment of the resolution would "unnecessarily and abruptly curtail the ability of the administration to respond to Covid-19."

"Preserving our ability to respond is more important than ever as we head into the winter, when respiratory illnesses such as Covid-19 typically spread more easily," the OMB said. "Strengthened by the ongoing declaration of national emergency, the federal response to Covid-19 continues to save lives, improve health outcomes, and support the American economy. Action by Congress to end these authorities abruptly and prematurely would be a reckless and costly mistake."

"If Congress passes this resolution," the agency added, "the president will veto it."

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act, a measure that Congress approved in 2020, loosened Medicaid eligibility requirements and restricted states from removing people from the program for the duration of the national emergency, which is currently set to expire in January.

The legislation's continuous coverage mandate allowed millions of people to obtain and keep health insurance as the pandemic wreaked havoc on the economy, throwing people out of work and off their employer-sponsored plans.

In a report released in August, the Biden Health and Human Services Department estimated that around 15 million people—including millions of kids—could lose Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage once the public health emergency declaration ends.

Advocates have also warned that millions of people across the U.S. could see their food benefits cut substantially once the Covid-19 emergency declaration ends.

"The U.S. must be ready to ensure that it does not jeopardize the health and food needs of households across the country," a trio of experts wrote in a STAT op-ed last month. "Urgent action by healthcare systems, community organizations, and all levels of government will be necessary to stabilize health and food security among those at greatest risk."

"While vaccines and treatments lessen the life-altering threat of Covid-19," they added, "it is important not to lose sight of the imminent danger to health posed by the expiration of effective expansions of Medicaid and SNAP."

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On Sunday’s 60 Minutes, Joe Biden declared the covid pandemic was over. He said, “The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with covid. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over.”

That pronouncement was news to the president’s healthcare staff who scrambled for explanations after Biden's comments went viral on social media and prompted a hashtag #TheCovidIsNotOver.

A half dozen unnamed officials told the Post the next day that Biden’s unequivocal statement undermines his own rollout of a new covid booster campaign and also damages coming efforts to get the Congress to authorize $22 billion in pandemic response funding.

But why do it if the pandemic is over?

Biden’s statement also contravened fact.

On the previous Friday, 107,066 cases of the covid were reported. That number does not include people who took a covid test at home and never reported their cases to local public health departments. So there are tens of thousands of unreported cases as well.

Between 400 and 500 Americans are dying each day from the covid – more than 3,000 a week. On Sept. 21, there were 419. There are about 30,000 hospitalizations daily. Among those, about 10 percent land in ICU. One in five covid cases results in the mysterious and disabling syndrome, long covid, which is, apart from the human toll, costing the economy billionsin lost wages and unfilled jobs.

As disturbing as these numbers are, Biden is right in that January 2022 saw an average of 800,000 cases per day. From that vantage, it does look like the pandemic has ceased to peak.

But we know from three years of pandemic data that covid cases ebb in the summer and surge in the winter when people are more likely to be indoors and confined in unventilated spaces, unmasked.

The numbers rarely discussed are the vaccination numbers. Set aside for now (a story for another time) the uniformly terrible way the Centers for Disease Control has handled the pandemic.

The shift from the Trump administration to the Biden administration was barely noticeable. Major mistakes have been made by CDC Director Rochelle Walensky – so much so that she investigated the CDC herself and found it, but not her, wanting.

The area of biggest failure is vaccines.

By never clarifying that boosters were not boosters at all, but a third and essential shot to have full immunity, CDC botched their rollout.

The CDC also never stipulated that vaccinations were essential public health tools for schools and workplaces, and should not be viewed as arbitrary. Vaccines, already politicized by the MAGA right as a “woke” trend to “take away personal freedoms,” became even more politicized without the agency tasked with teaching the public.

As a consequence, the vocal phalanx of anti-vaccine protesters grew louder and even those who were not vaccine hesitant simply never bothered with the third “booster.” So while poor nations remain desperate for vaccines, Americans are hand-waving their necessity.

While the CDC website states that 79 percent of Americans age 5 and over have at least one shot, it also states that only 34.9 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated with two shots and a booster.

That’s not just redhat Magaland failing to get vaccinated. That’s also a lot of liberals, Democrats and progressives. Only 24.2 million Americans – that’s 7.2 percent – have had the second shot.

Biden’s dismissal of a pandemic that has killed over 1.1 million and disabled another 25 million with long covid unintentionally polarized the country on the issue of vaccines. People who call themselves not anti-vaxxers but “pro-vaccine choice,” “pro-safe vaccine” or “vaccine skeptical” feed off the administration’s convoluted messaging.

Still, if the only issue were vaccine hesitancy, it could be somewhat manageable – at least until the next eventual surge. But it isn’t.

Anti-vaxxers – people who oppose vaccinations for a range of reasons from religious proscriptions to QAnon to Big Pharma conspiracy theories – are in the forefront of a growing political divide over vaccinations and its implications for public health.

Anti-vaxxers are also making us sicker.

The failure to immunize has resulted in more mutations and more – and more dangerous – variants of the coronavirus.

Anti-vaxxers have also brought back measles, mumps and now polio. As Rolling Stone reported in “Polio Is Making a Comeback. Thanks, Anti-Vaxxers!”: “If it seems like infectious diseases are coming at us faster, spreading more widely and persisting longer than they have in generations, it’s because they are, health experts say.”

"There are some more conservative states where we are likely to see other non-covid vaccine mandates under attack, and it is very worrisome," Marcus Plescia of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials told *Newsweek*. "If we have some of these pediatric infectious diseases come back, it will be horrific."

And coming back they are – in outbreaks of measles, mumps, whooping cough and tuberculosis.

The CDC’s own database bears this out.

There are fewer vaccinations among under-50 people nationwide, but those numbers are lowest in red states. The reappearance of polio and other diseases in wastewater underscores Plescia’s view that Gen X parents refusing to vaccinate their kids is a trend.

The World Health Organization (WHO) released a report in July with the alarming statisticthat the the covid-19 pandemic had fueled the largest continued backslide in [childhood] vaccinations in three decades. In 2019, just before the pandemic hit, WHO listed growing vaccine hesitancy as one of its top 10 threats to global health, citing an “infodemic” on social media and internet websites creating distrust of vaccines and urging it be addressed.

While Biden was making his declaration, Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the president, was sounding the alarm over vaccines. In a Sept. 18interview in *Financial Times*, Fauci said, “I’m concerned the acceleration of an anti-vaxxer attitude in certain segments of the population … might spill over into that kind of a negative attitude towards childhood vaccinations.”

A few days earlier, Fauci had commandeered the Twitter account of HHS to discuss this issue. The longtime head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and world-renowned infectious disease specialist said, “If you fall back on vaccines against common vaccine-preventable childhood diseases, that’s where you wind up getting avoidable and unnecessary outbreaks.”

And deaths.

The covid was theleading cause of death among US law enforcementin 2020 and 2021 due to vaccine resistance. For the second year in a row, the covid was the third leading cause of death in all age groups in the US in 2020 and 2021 and in line to be so in 2022 as well.

Misinformation and disinformation related to covid vaccines fomented by Fox, celebrities and conspiracy theories have caused this dramatic uptick in parents refusing to vaccinate children against diseases that only a few decades ago killed kids on a regular basis.

That these parents are often, as one *Times* reportshowed, literal rocket scientists who have still been caught up in these disinformation campaigns and who were themselves vaccinated as children is concerning to pediatricians nationwide.

Kate Williamson, a pediatrician, said she’d seen a rise in vaccine resistance. She told the Times, “I have this worry in the back of my mind — that we’re up against something that we have never seen before. To have something that could be anti-science as part of a political identity and culture is very concerning.”

Peter Hotez, of the Baylor College of Medicine and contributor to CNN and MSNBC, said, “The anti-vaccine movement is so strong, so well organized, so well-funded, I doubt it will stop at covid-19 vaccines.” In August, Hotez published a research paperin *Nature* on the damage done by this movement. He was unequivocal:

“I think it’s going to extend to childhood vaccinations.”

Vaccines have been settled science since the 18th century when British physician Edward Jenner discovered the smallpox vaccine, saving the world from a ravaging disease that had killed more than 20 percent of the world population. George Washington had a vaccine mandate for his troops at Valley Forge.

The monkeypox outbreak, with its painful and disfiguring pustules similar to smallpox, gave people a glimpse into what might happen if long-dormant diseases resurge.

Smallpox was eradicated in the US in 1949, globally in 1980. Polio was eradicated in the US in 1979, measles in 2000, whooping cough in 1945, mumps in 2003 – all due to vaccine protocols. But in recent years, outbreaks of each of these debilitating and sometimes fatal diseases have reappeared due to failures to vaccinate.

Initially, these outbreaks were local to religious communities, but then spread into suburban communities where families fell prey to internet misinformation about links between vaccines and autism.

Some of that misinformation was spread by celebrity parents of children with autism like Robert DeNiro and Jenny McCarthy.

The most prominent anti-vaxxer is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy’s own family has disavowed his stance. He has written an anti-vax book published by Simon & Schuster. He established an anti-vax foundation, Children's Health Defense (CHD). In August, it was kicked off Instagram and Facebook for misinformation. The group had ahalf million followers at the time. Kennedy was kicked off Instagram in 2021 but has an active account on Facebook and CHD is on Twitter.

Regardless of the source of vaccine misinformation, the result could be catastrophic if the 22 diseases children are vaccinated against prior to their fourth birthday begin a comeback.

The herd immunity that eradicates diseases is created when more than 80 percent of a population is vaccinated. Lower that number even marginally and outbreaks turn into full-blown pandemics.

Hotez told the Times that the anti-vaxxer movement is incalculably dangerous. “This is a deadly movement,” Hotez said. “With things like terrorism and nuclear proliferation, we have lots of infrastructure.

“For this, we don’t have anything.”

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https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/facebook-considers-eliminating-its-covid-19-misinformation-policies-even-dangerous-content

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boing no lnx 8 22

The dark money billionaire-funded Tea Party Patriots has an "action guide" for disrupting public health measures

JENNIFER SANDLIN 9:30 AM MON AUG 22, 2022

DALLAS - SEP 04 : A conservative Tea Party Express protest of big government and Obamacare in Dallas. Taken September 04, 2009 in Dallas, TX. Ken Durden]

Where I live (and probably where you live), if you wandered outside and looked around at restaurants, bars, shopping centers, airplanes, airports, municipal buildings, movie theaters, universities, schools, office buildings, and heck, even medical offices, you'd never know COVID is still a 'thing,' despite the fact that official case counts hover around 100,000 cases in the US per day and deaths are consistently around 500 a day, according to the New York Times.

The situation is even worse in reality, though, as many epidemiologists assert that official cases are vastly undercounted, and state that actual numbers of cases might be up to thirty times higher than officially reported. And maybe you're willing to accept that 500 deaths a day is just "the new normal." Death isn't the only bad outcome, however—experts assert that as many as 1 in 5 people who had COVID develop "long COVID," which can be debilitating for months or years.

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Where I live (and probably where you live), if you wandered outside and looked around at restaurants, bars, shopping centers, airplanes, airports, municipal buildings, movie theaters, universities, schools, office buildings, and heck, even medical offices,you'd never know COVID is still a 'thing,' despite the fact that official case counts hover around 100,000 cases in the US per day and deaths are consistently around 500 a day,according to the New York Times.

If you still care about COVID and wonder why the entire country seems to be being gaslit by the folks running the public health system, here's an interesting analysis that helps explain what happened. Journalist Walker Bragman recently posted a link on Twitter to an "action guide" on "stopping medical mandates," created by the "Action" arm of the Tea Party Patriots. The mission of "Tea Party Patriots Action" is:

to equip Americans with the resources and training they need to be engaged citizens and effective activists. Our vision is for a nation where individual liberty is cherished and maximized, where the Constitution is revered and upheld, and where Americans are free to pursue their American Dream.

:{:{}:

They have three main platforms, including "personal freedom," "economic freedom," and "debt free future," as well as a whole host of topics about which they produce action guides, including "National debt, Healthcare, Tax reform, Big government, Immigration, First Amendment rights, and Second Amendment rights." The guide that Walker Bragman is referring to was published in Summer 2021 and is called "I do not consent: Stop UnAmerican Medical Mandates, A How-To Guide for the American People." It includes guidance about how to "Host a Sign-Waving Event," along with sample slogans to put on signs such as:

Tyrants never let a crisis go to waste! They're using Covid to control you!

Let our kids BREATHE! No more mandates!

No more Covid fear mongering! We are FREE AMERICANS!

Don't let the panic porn manipulate you into giving up your rights!

The guide also includes information about how to "Organize Parents & Concerned Citizens," and how to "Make Some Calls" (including scripts) to federal elected officials, governors, state legislators, and more. The guide ends with a request for donations, naturally.

Bragman asserts that this Tea Party activist work helps explains how we got to our current state of affairs regarding COVID. Along with the link to the guide, he tweeted, "Big money has poisoned our national discourse around COVID. This guide was published last summer by the billionaire-funded dark money group Tea Party Patriots Action to help people defeat public health measures like mask requirements." It's probably not the entire reason we've gotten to the point of being told to just 'live with the virus' while cases and deaths rage on, but it's certainly part of the story.

TWEET COMMENTS

TEA PARTY USEFUL IDIOTS

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/coronavirus-wreaking-havoc-economy-republicans/

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/manchin/

strategic use / weaponization of polarization // filibuster minority rule

kos

no lnx twt

Republicans delay everything in order to destroy Democratic agenda ⁠— with an assist from Manchin

Joan McCarter and Daily Kos June 19, 2022

Senate Republicans have been playing a transparent game for months now, using their willing tool of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to drag out negotiations on any number of issues to keep him away from Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and President Joe Biden. To prevent Democrats from moving any significant policies that can help the American people and give Democrats a win.

They’ve done it on voting rights and election reforms. They’ve done it on climate and energy. It’s just one tactic—and a very successful one—Republicans are using to keep the Democratic majority tied up and unable to accomplish anything.

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Case in point: additional funding for the federal COVID-19 effort. Manchin’s good friend and frequent negotiating partner Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) all but killed it this week when he alleged that the Biden administration lied about the government’s ability to secure additional vaccines, treatments, and supplies. That’s because the White House recently announced it was taking money from other priorities to pay for the most pressing needs.

:{:{}:

“Washington operates on a relationship of trust between the respective parties,” Romney said Thursday,. “I hope that there’s an appreciation that for the administration to say they could not purchase these things, and then after several months, divert some funds and then purchase them is unacceptable, and makes our ability to work together … very much shaken to the core.” The pearls are tightly clutched.

The White House, not surprisingly, has a different interpretation on how discussions have been going. “We’ve tried to meet Republicans on their requests, and they keep moving the goal posts,” one official told the Washington Post. Another, spokesperson Kevin Munoz, went on the record. “Going back to January, we’ve been working with members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, on the funding needs for the covid response,” he said in a statement. “We’ve also been crystal clear about the consequences of a lack of funding … including the very real possibility that we would have to reevaluate the planned uses of existing funds.”

There’s one more potential win for the White House—not to mention all the people at risk of catching COVID-19 in the coming weeks and months—Republicans are cynically blocking. It’s nearly as egregious as what they’ve been doing on guns.

:{:{}:

All of that puts this in a “we’ll believe when we sit it” mood. “Senate Democrats are preparing for possible summer action on their still-elusive climate, tax reform and prescription drugs bill, grinding behind the scenes on a new version during high-profile gun safety talks.” Because it’s Manchin, once again, that all this is hinging on and Republicans are on the verge of declaring that partisan Democrats have destroyed any hope of gun safety regulation with their unreasonable demands that guns be kept out of the hands of people who have been convicted of violence.

:{:{}:

That sets up Manchin to declare that the Democrats have been horrible partisans and he just can’t continue to work with them. He’s used far flimsier excuses before, like the fact that the White House included his name in a statement about Build Back Better. That’s what blew up the whole package last December, supposedly. It likely wouldn’t take anything more for Manchin to do it again.

Republicans are counting on that.

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planes and train optimal spreaders?!

aha more regs tossed out for exceeding authority = ~ gubmint? corp laissez-faire pollute? kill workers?

rooted in fed overreach?

jones day, trump fav, clerked for clarence

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's mask mandate for domestic travelers was struck down on Monday by a federal jurist who was appointed by former President Donald Trump. The decision is the latest in a string of blows to President Joe Biden's efforts to curb transmission of the coronavirus.

The CDC last week extended the rule until May 3rd.

Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida wrote in a 59-page ruling that the CDC exceeded its authority in requiring passengers on airlines and any other "conveyance" of public transportation to wear masks to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

Mizelle – whom the American Bar Associated dinged as "not qualified" after she was installed by Trump at the age of 33 – said that passengers who refused to comply and were "forcibly removed from their airplane seats, denied board at the bus steps, and turned away at the train station doors" had their rights against "detention and quarantine" violated.

"The Mask Mandate is best understood not as sanitation, but as an exercise of the CDC's power to conditionally release [from what?] individuals to travel despite concerns that they may spread a communicable disease (and to detain or partially quarantine those who refuse). But the power to conditionally release and detain is ordinarily limited to individuals entering the United States from a foreign country," she proclaimed.

“Wearing a mask cleans nothing,” Mizelle opined, even as cases are once again rising in pockets throughout the country, such as in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which has re-instituted a mask mandate. The virus has also been spreading in the nation's capital, infecting White House officials and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California).

Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas, blasted Mizelle's order in a Monday afternoon tweet.

"This is both a big deal and a truly preposterous (nationwide) injunction. The CDC’s statutory authority is specifically directed at preventing the spread of communicable diseases across state lines," he wrote. "Where else is such spread more likely to occur than transport hubs like airports?"

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/america-has-surrendered-to-fox/

...Also applying Denmark’s “Let’s treat it like a cold” philosophy to the United States neglects the biggest obstacle to returning to any semblance of normal here: The Danes don’t have Fox.

You can’t find fault with wanting to pretend Fox doesn’t exist. Hopefully, you’ve set the parental controls at your parents’ house.

But what we can’t ignore is that for almost a year, our largest cable “news” channel – and the most durable propaganda machine in human history – has been waging a war against covid vaccinations.

Almost nightly, the channel’s hugely popular primetime hosts have flung every speck of feces they can find at the miracle vaccines that have proven to be so incredible at minimizing the risk of death.

And when Fox adopts a misinformation campaign – like, say, make-believing genuine concern for the Benghazi tragedy – it doesn’t soak millions of viewers in filth. It’s more like a black hole, drawing the entire GOP and its right-wing media complex into the darkness.

(All while the channel appears to have covid vaccination mandate stricter than anything President Joe Biden has proposed.)

Vaccinating this country is the closest thing we’ve come to facing a “Dunkirk Moment,” when average citizens step up in a rescue mission that will give us a chance to prevail over an enemy that’s now killed far more Americans than have died in all our foreign wars.

But Fox has convinced a huge chunk of the Republican Party to turn their boats around and block the rest of us from getting to the beach.

Being a Republican makes you less likely to be vaccinated, no matter what demographic group you are in. This is your nation on Fox:

Charles Gaba found that rates of death from covid soared in red areas compared to blue areas, even adjusted for age, since the president’s inauguration. This trend now continues even while Omicron’s highly contagious nature has led to an explosion of cases in big, blue cities.

And what have the rest of us done about it?

Most of us vaccinated Americans, who are the majority of the county, have just watched in horror as we try to get along with our lives, hoping the tide will turn with the next conservative anti-vax talk radio guy who begs for a vaccination as he faces death on a ventilator.

We largely haven’t adjusted our “vaccinations only” approach to fighting the pandemic, even as anti-vax misinformation floods at a pace and furor that no scientific education campaign could match.

Instead, “normalcy” obsesses Democratic governors after watching Terry MacCullife lose in Virginia. They’ve been urging Biden to “move away” from the pandemic, even if the pandemic won’t go away and continues to kill a 9/11-number of Americans almost every day.

The *Times* reports that New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy led the way. In 2017, he won by a blowout, but in 2021, he won by just a few points.

Arranging a series of focus groups across the state to see what they had missed, Mr. Murphy’s advisers were struck by the findings: Across the board, voters shared frustrations over public health measures, a sense of pessimism about the future and a deep desire to return to some sense of normalcy.

These focus groups sound a lot like David Leonhardt of the Times – who constantly inveighs for “normality” while also recently wondering why there has been no urgency to get America boosted – and “Hotline” Josh Kraushaar of National Journal – a Republican who pretends to care about Joe Biden’s political fate while constantly praising Democratic Governor Jared Polis’ rush to normalcy in Colorado.

Polis has declared the covid emergency “over.” The governor said that “if you haven’t been vaccinated, it’s really your own darn fault.”

These focus groups and reporters are at odds with polls showing that mask mandates are consistently popular even in Texas. Parents of school-aged kids have largely embraced them, but are drowned out by screeching right-wing parents with the time, energy and spittle to rant at school board meetings, even if their kids are homeschooled....

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/pfizer/

profiteer, someone's mrna vacc reverse engr from open records? but still need license?!

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Florida senators walk out after DeSantis' surgeon general refuses to answer if vaccines are good

David Badash The New Civil Rights Movement

January 26, 2022

Democrats on a Florida state Senate committee walked out of the confirmation hearing of Governor Ron DeSantis’ Surgeon General nominee, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, a far right-wing anti-science extremist after...

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no lnx twit nice table

https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/us-billionaires/

Top 10 US billionaires got $1 billion richer every day of pandemic

Elon Musk, founder of Space Exploration Technologies Corp.- SpaceX, joins President Donald J. Trump at a launch briefing in preparation for the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon vehicle Wednesday, May 27, 2020, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

Jake Johnson and Common Dreams January 20, 2022

The 10 wealthiest billionaires in the U.S. have added roughly $1 billion to their collective fortune every day—or around $12,600 per second—since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed millions of people across the globe and thrown countless lives into chaos.

The billionaire wealth update comes courtesy of the progressive advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), which released an analysis Wednesday estimating that the combined net worth of the 10 richest people in the U.S. has more than doubled since March 2020, reaching $1.35 trillion this week.

"The pandemic has been very good to American billionaires, especially the top 10," said ATF executive director Frank Clemente, who noted that billionaires' pandemic profits will likely not be taxed because they consist largely of unrealized capital gains.

Sen. Ron Wyden's (D-Ore.) proposal to subject the unrealized capital gains of the mega-wealthy to taxation has gone nowhere in Congress.

"Their obscene rise in wealth—all of it potentially untaxed—stands in stark contrast to the lot of America's working families, who've struggled through almost two years of a health crisis and economic uncertainty including most recently, rising prices," Clemente said. "Chairman Wyden's Billionaires Income Tax would better align the fortunes of America's richest of the rich with the needs of average Americans."

ATF's analysis is the latest in a series of new studies highlighting the extent to which the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the decades-long trend of soaring wealth inequality in the U.S. and worldwide.

Earlier this week, as Common Dreams reported, Oxfam International released an analysis showing that the 10 richest men in the world have doubled their combined wealth since the pandemic began. Meanwhile, the anti-poverty group noted, "the incomes of 99% of humanity are worse off because of Covid-19."

On Tuesday, a coalition of progressive organizations including the Fight Inequality Alliance and the Institute for Policy Studies estimated that a modest annual wealth tax on global millionaires and billionaires would raise $2.52 trillion dollars a year, enough money to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty.

In an open letter published Wednesday morning, a group of more than 100 rich individuals voiced support for such a tax, warning that "history paints a pretty bleak picture of what the endgame of extremely unequal societies looks like."

"For all our well-being—rich and poor alike—it's time to confront inequality and choose to tax the rich," reads the letter, which was addressed to political and economic elites. "If you don't, then all the private talks won’t change what's coming—it's taxes or pitchforks. Let's listen to history and choose wisely."

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11 21

surge in EU, austria lockdown

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10 21 UK has delta mutation?!

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neo-lib fail covid

the conv

https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/capitalism/

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an 11 21

Far right wing columnist and talk show host Dennis Prager is now flip-flopping on his lie that gay men were not treated like "pariahs" during the height of the AIDS crisis, but now he claims Americans refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 are the "most hate group since slavery."

"There were 4000 "FU Dennis Pragers' just on one tweet last week because I had the chutzpah to say that the unvaccinated are pariahs, the way that gays were during the AIDS crisis," Prager said, as the video below shows.

Earlier this month Prager had falsely claimed, "During the AIDS crisis can you imagine if gay men and intravenous drug users, who were the vast majority of people with AIDS, had they been pariahs the way that the non-vaccinated are? But it would have been inconceivable and should have been inconceivable."

Prager's lie earned him a ":{Pants on Fire" rating from Politifact, which among other examples cites "the near-passage of an AIDS quarantine law in California; calls by prominent commentators for banning HIV-positive people from certain jobs or even tattooing them; jokes made about the disease by White House officials."}:

READ: The dark Trumptopia we inhabit is the world science fiction warned us about]

Prager, apparently desperate to play the victim, that the left has "a monopoly on victimhood. There are no non-left wing victims. That's what they believe."

"However, I would argue that they're that the unvaccinated are bigger are bigger pariahs. Were AIDS – or gays or people with AIDS –banned from travel? Were they banned from restaurants? Were they fired from their jobs? Were they were they deprived of a way of feeding their family?" he asked.

The answer to all those questions and more is "Yes."

"The unvaccinated are the most hated group since, I would say since slavery," Prager continued, which is not only false but offensively so, given slaves were legally property and regularly raped, maimed, whipped, murdered, had their families stolen from them, and had no rights.

READ: Charlottesville defendants found liable for civil conspiracy and ordered to pay millions in damages]

"Make me, tell me who would be equivalent?" he continued. "You can say anything you want. You could wish us death. And we are wished death. That's exactly right. They should not be allowed to hospitals – Jimmy Kimmel basically said that."

Many Americans are at this point outraged that the pandemic continues for the sole reason that the unvaccinated are extending the life of the deadly, nearly two-year-old crisis.

Nearly 90,000 Americans on average are still being infected every day, a 16 percent increase over the previous week, according to the latest CDC statistics. More than 1000 Americans every day are dying from the disease, for which vaccines have been widely available for the better part of a year.

Watch:

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an okla?

pentagon to order military members to comply with Biden federal employee COVID vaccination requirements

David Badash The New Civil Rights Movement August 01, 2021

The Pentagon said Thursday evening it will order members of the military to comply with President Joe Biden's requirement that all federal employees get vaccinated against the coronavirus or face a regime ...

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https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/capitalism/

...It's unclear when the pandemic will come to an end. What may be an even more important question is whether the U.S. will be prepared for the next one. The past year and a half suggests that the answer may be no....medical anthropologist who has spent the past 20 years studying how the Chinese government reacts to infectious disease, my research can provide insight into how countries, including the U.S., can better prepare for disease outbreaks.

Researchers agree that a good response starts with a strong public health system. But this is something that has been sidelined by the United States' neoliberal system, which places more value on free markets and deregulation than public welfare.

[vid]

neoliberalism promotes a free market accessible to the wealthy few, making essential services less free for everyone else.

As US neoliberalism evolved, public health devolved

Neoliberal economic policies became popular in the 1980s during the Reagan and Thatcher eras. This new approach aimed to make government leaner and more efficient through measures like market deregulation, privatization and reduction of government provision of public services like health and education – resources that do not necessarily lend themselves to market production.

While neoliberal governments still work to promote the health, welfare and security of their citizens, they place the responsibility of providing those services in the hands of private entities like health insurance companies and nongovernmental organizations. This gives the government space to focus on economic performance.

But placing responsibility for a public good into the hands of a private corporation turns that good into a commodity that people need to buy, rather than a service publicly available to all.

Spending on health care in the U.S., including on hospitals, medications and private insurance, has more than tripled in the past 60 years. But the public health system that helps the nation prepare for the unexpected has been neglected.

U.S. spending on the local health departments that help to avert epidemic outbreaks and protect the health of populations fell by 18% between 2010 and 2021. Two and a half cents of every medical dollar goes toward public health, a figure that has fallen from 1930 levels of 3.3 cents of every dollar. This has allowed the U.S. to manage health risks like chronic diseases that threaten individual's health. But it leaves the nation inadequately prepared for population-level major health threats that have a much bigger effect on the economy and society.

Public health cuts left the U.S with a skeletal workforce to manage the pandemic. Because of this, responsibility fell to individuals. For example, without mandatory workplace COVID-19 safety guidelines, essential workers faced daily exposure to the coronavirus with insufficient to no protective gear and sanitizing supplies. They had to protect both their own health and the health of their families when they returned home, a difficult task without proper resources and support.

And this was not unique to the U.S. There were similar COVID-19 outcomes in other neoliberal countries like the U.K. and India that had shifted priorities away from public health.

How Asian nations learned their lessons

The story was different in many Asian nations where people enjoy the same types of individual liberties as those who live in neoliberal societies. The difference is a collectivist type of mindset that guides these societies and encourages people and government to take responsibility for one another. In her book Flexible Citizenship, anthropologist Aihwa Ong argues that this leads to a societal model where citizens can be independent and self-reliant while also able to rely on a state that supports the collective. Countries like Taiwan and South Korea may have been better prepared to respond to the pandemic because most people are accustomed to protecting themselves and their communities.

Like China, these countries also learned from their recent experience with a pandemic. In 2003, China and much of Asia were caught off guard with the emergence of SARS. Like the U.S., China's public health system had taken a backseat to investment in market reforms for over 20 years. As a result, it couldn't accurately track individual cases of infections.

Following the end of the SARS outbreak, however, the Chinese government improved training for public health professionals and developed one of the most sophisticated disease surveillance systems in the world. This allowed China to respond more quickly to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic and late 2019 COVID-19 outbreaks, once it was able to get past the initial bureaucratic and political hurdles that prevented local doctors and government officials from sounding the alarm.

Some have attributed this swift action to China's authoritarian form of government that allows for greater control over individual lives. But prioritizing public health is not new to China. This became official practice as early as 1910 when it adopted the methods of quarantine, surveillance and masking to respond to an outbreak of pneumonic plague.

Could this work in the US?

Much like SARS did with China, COVID-19 has exposed huge holes in the American public health infrastructure.

Take for example contact tracing. SARS taught China and other affected countries the importance of a robust system to identify and track people who may have been exposed to the COVID-19 virus. The Chinese government sent more than 1,800 teams of scientific investigators to Wuhan to trace the virus, which helped their efforts to quickly bring the virus under control.

In the U.S., on the other hand, poorly funded and thinly staffed public health departments struggled to test and notify people who had been in direct contact with infected individuals. This crippled the U.S.'s ability to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

In my home state of Massachusetts, the local government teamed up with the global health organization Partners in Health to start a contact tracing operation. But even then, people were left to fend for themselves. This became all the more evident as people scrambled for vaccines after their initial approval, through Facebook groups and informal volunteer networks that worked to help people secure appointments. Those who had resources learned how to take advantage of the system while others were overlooked.

This is typical of a U.S. health care system that is consumer-oriented and market-based. Americans are often convinced that the solution to a health problem must be technical and costly. The focus was placed on developing vaccines and therapeutics, which are essential for ending the pandemic, while ignoring lower-cost solutions.

But masking and social distancing – non-pharmaceutical interventions that have long been known to save lives during disease outbreaks – fell by the wayside. Uptake of these simple interventions is dependent on strong and coordinated public health messaging.

As seen in several Asian nations like Taiwan and South Korea, a well-thought-out plan for public health communication is key to a unified response. Without clear, coordinated directions from a public health system, it becomes difficult to prevent the spread of an outbreak.

What it takes to be prepared

Anthropologist Andrew Lakoff describes preparedness as more than just having the tools. It's also about knowing how and when to use them, and keeping the public properly informed.

Such preparedness can only happen in a coordinated fashion organized by national leadership. But the U.S. has seen little of this over the past year and a half, leaving pandemic response up to individuals. In an era where emergent viruses are an increasing threat to health and welfare, the individualism of neoliberal policies is not enough. While neoliberalism can be good for an economy, it's not so good for health.

Elanah Uretsky, Associate Professor of International and Global Studies, Brandeis University

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omfg

no lnx an 11 21

'Pro-death cult strikes back': Right-wing judges block Biden’s vaccine rule for big companies

Kenny Stancil and Common Dreams November 08, 2021

Progressives concerned about workplace safety and public health responded with dismay after a federal appeals court on Saturday temporarily blocked the Biden administration's attempt to require workers at companies with 100 or more employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19 or tested weekly.

Citing "grave statutory and constitutional" problems with the rule, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued the stay in response to a joint petition filed Friday by a coalition of businesses, conservative advocacy groups, and the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Utah.

That legal challenge, and separate lawsuits from Republican-led states, came just one day after President Joe Biden announced that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would begin enforcing its newly unveiled Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) in the coming weeks. Companies with at least 100 employees have until December 5 to require unvaccinated workers to wear masks indoors, and by January 4, they must require vaccinations or administer weekly tests.

Decrying the decision of the "right-wing Fifth Circuit," labor journalist Steven Greenhouse said on social media that "it's terrible for worker safety and public health that three conservative activist judges have suspended Biden's... new rule requiring workers at companies with more than 100 workers to get vaccinated or tested."

"OSHA's mission is to protect workers' health," Greenhouse continued, "but the appellate judges seem to forget that Covid has killed thousands of meatpacking, retail, and other workers."

More than 750,000 people in the U.S. have died from Covid-19 since the pandemic started last March, and the disease continues to kill nearly 1,100 people per day, most of them unvaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Recent studies confirm that vaccines save lives.Last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services analyzed the relationship between county-level inoculation rates and Covid-19 outcomes among U.S. seniors and found that vaccines helped ward off 265,000 infections, 107,000 hospitalizations, and 39,000 deaths during the first five months of 2021.

And in September, CDC researchers found that individuals in the U.S. who were not fully vaccinated last spring and summer were 11 times more likely to die after being infected with the coronavirus—and over 10 times more likely to be hospitalized—than those who were fully inoculated.

Greenhouse said that "the judges evidently sympathize with [Texas Republican Gov.] Greg Abbott's let-people-die stance—that it'soverreachfor OSHA to act strongly to protect workers from Covid."

David Michaels, a leader of OSHA during the Obama administration, also rebuked the federal appeals court, describing its decision as legally dubious and politically motivated.

"The same activist court that refused to stay Texas' law that permits bounty hunters to sue anyone who aids an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy has stayed an OSHA rule that is clearly within OSHA's authority, will save lives, and make workplaces safe," he told the New York Times.

According to the Times, "At the core of the legal challenge is the question of whether OSHA exceeded its authority in issuing the rule and whether such a mandate would need to be passed by Congress."

The newspaper reported:

The suit against the mandate stated that President Biden "set the legislative policy" of substantially increasing the number of Americans covered by vaccination requirements, and "then set binding rules enforced with the threat of large fines."

"That is a quintessential legislative act—and one wholly unrelated to the purpose of OSHA itself, which is protecting workplace safety," the suit said. "Nowhere in OSHA's enabling legislation does Congress confer upon it the power to end pandemics."

Corporate executives asked, and the Biden administration agreed, to delay implementation of OSHA's new ETS "until after the New Year, citing concerns about worker shortages during the important holiday season," Reuters noted.

Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda, meanwhile, said in a statement that the Labor Department, home to OSHA, is "confident in its legal authority" to issue vaccine requirements.

The vaccine rule for companies with 100 or more employees "applies to 84.2 million workers at 1.9 million private-sector employers," Reuters reported. "OSHA estimates that 31.7 million of [those] workers are unvaccinated and 60% of employers will require vaccinations, up from 25% today, resulting in another 22.7 million employees getting vaccinated."

Several million additional workers are covered by the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for employees of the executive branch, federal contractors, and staff at healthcare facilities that accept Medicare or Medicaid funding. OSHA officials say they are considering expanding the jab-or-test rule to include companies with fewer than 100 workers.

"The Occupational Safety and Health Act explicitly gives OSHA the authority to act quickly in an emergency where the agency finds that workers are subjected to a grave danger and a new standard is necessary to protect them," Nanda said. "We are fully prepared to defend this standard in court."

The Fifth Circuit panel's two-page order directs the Biden administration to respond to the request for a permanent injunction against the rule by 5 p.m. ET Monday.

As the Times noted, it remains unclear whether the court's stay "would be a procedural blip for the Biden administration or the first step in the unwinding of the mandate."

The newspaper explained that "after both sides have filed briefs, the court will decide whether to lift the temporary injunction, allowing the rule to proceed as planned, or whether to grant a permanent injunction. OSHA could then take the case to the Supreme Court."

While some legal experts argue that the Labor Department has the regulatory authority to compel private employers to protect the health of workers and the broader public through mandatory vaccination amid a deadly global pandemic,Josh Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law Houston, told Reuters that "there will be so much litigation it will never see the light of day."

Twenty-four attorneys general threatened to sue the Biden administration over the rule back in September, and several followed through immediately after it was published in the federal register on Friday.

In addition to the petition filed with the Fifth Circuit, attorneys general in 11 states—Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming—filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

And in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the states of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia sued, with Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis saying at a press conference that "the federal government can't just unilaterally impose medical policy under the guise of workplace regulation."

Roughly 70% of U.S. adults are fully inoculated against Covid-19, and about 80% have received at least one shot, according to the CDC. Recent polling shows that a majority of U.S. adults favor Covid-19 vaccination requirements, with only about one-fifth to one-quarter of respondents opposed.

OSHA, Reuters pointed out, is "fighting history. The agency has issued 10 ETS over its 50 years. Of the six that were challenged in court, only one survived entirely intact."

Donald Verrilli, U.S. solicitor general during former President Barack Obama's administration, however, told the news outlet that the Biden administration "wouldn't move forward unless they thought that they could defend it legally... I think the constitutional challenges are all going to fail."

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deSantis and his political allies demand credit for Florida’s decrease in COVID cases — there’s just one problem

https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/ron-desantis-2655487561/

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no lnx doc

Feds release Covid reports that destroy right-wing talking points and conspiracy theories

How ‘anti-science’ Republicans are ‘torturing the truth’ with their anti-Fauci hysteria: journalist

David Badash October 30, 2021

The federal government on Friday quietly released two reports that together destroy many right wing conspiracy theories and talking points on the coronavirus and the COVID-19 vaccine.

Contrary to the false claims from right wing extremists that "natural immunity" is more powerful and "better" than the coronavirus vaccines, the CDC released a report finding those who are unvaccinated and contracted COVID-19 are five times more likely to be re-infected than those who are fully vaccinated.

That report, CBS News adds, shows that "vaccine-induced immunity was more protective than infection-induced immunity."

"We now have additional evidence that reaffirms the importance of COVID-19 vaccines, even if you have had prior infection. This study adds more to the body of knowledge demonstrating the protection of vaccines against severe disease from COVID-19," said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

Epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding weighs in with results from the study showing for the elderly "natural immunity" is even worse than for younger patients.

Meanwhile, the Director of National Intelligence also on Friday released a report that finds the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 "was not developed as a biological weapon."

Further destroying right wing claims the DNI's report adds the coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2 "probably was not genetically engineered," and says that "two agencies believe there was not sufficient evidence to make an assessment either way."

"Finally, the IC [Intelligence Community] assesses China's officials did not have foreknowledge of the virus before the initial outbreak of COVID-19 emerged."

The report leaves the door open on exactly how the coronavirus came into being, and how it came into contact with humans.

Different Intelligence Agencies have different position, the report says, with some saying "SARS-CoV-2 infection was most likely caused by natural exposure to an animal infected with it," and other agencies say it "most likely was the result of a laboratory-associated incident, probably involving experimentation, animal handling, or sampling by the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The report also calls for China to be more transparent.

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no lnx doc

Feds release Covid reports that destroy right-wing talking points and conspiracy theories

How ‘anti-science’ Republicans are ‘torturing the truth’ with their anti-Fauci hysteria: journalist

David Badash October 30, 2021

The federal government on Friday quietly released two reports that together destroy many right wing conspiracy theories and talking points on the coronavirus and the COVID-19 vaccine.

That report, CBS News adds, shows that "vaccine-induced immunity was more protective than infection-induced immunity."

Epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding weighs in with results from the study showing for the elderly "natural immunity" is even worse than for younger patients.

Meanwhile, the Director of National Intelligence also on Friday released a report that finds the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 "was not developed as a biological weapon."

"Finally, the IC [Intelligence Community] assesses China's officials did not have foreknowledge of the virus before the initial outbreak of COVID-19 emerged."

The report leaves the door open on exactly how the coronavirus came into being, and how it came into contact with humans.

The report also calls for China to be more transparent.

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recap: herd immunity cover for trump inability to cope, bug is really a feature 2) with good vax 70% we could actually get to herd immunity phase 3 natural immunity (measles party, hugged thousands?) > vax 10/21

// Prager

Amplifying vaccine skepticism and refusal

The Federalist has repeatedly provided a platform to individuals refusing to comply with vaccine mandates and amplified and encouraged vaccine skepticism:

AfterNBA players Kyrie Irving and Jonathan Isaac spoke publicly about their choice not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine despite the basketball’s league requirements, the Federalist heralded them as the “most cogent and principled defenders of liberty, common sense, and basic civic decency in America."

The Federalist published a round-up of various groups of people around the country “using the power of protest to send a message” against “draconian” vaccine mandates. The article also asserted workplace vaccine requirements were attacks on the working class as “companies were lording their firing power” over their workers.
George Mason University professor Todd Zywicki was profiled on the outlet after he spoke out against the university’s vaccine requirements for faculty and staff.The Federalist framed Zywicki’s case as a “blueprint” for others trying to circumvent “anti-science COVID-19 policies” as Zywicki received a medical exemption from the vaccine mandate after he argued that his natural immunity made vaccination unnecessary. Though antibodies from a previous infection can defend against reinfection, experts still recommend receiving the COVID-19 vaccine for prolonged protection across coronavirus variants.
The outlet featured country musician Travis Trittbecause of his efforts in “calling for freedom” against vaccine mandates. The article also highlighted Tritt urging others to speak out against vaccine mandates because such supposed “injustices” can be defeated only “with a unified front against them.”

===

aha note gop sez ppl lazy and moral hazard of soc safe net but at same time quash vax mask andate EVEN WHEN LOCAL PPL /REPS VOTE FOR THEM, THEN PPL QUIT CRAPPY LOW WAGE DANGEROUS JOBS

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/unemployment-2655355131/

The business owners whose blood, sweat, and tears—or at least their fancy, high-priced educations, family connections and access to venture capital—built this country, dammit were hellbent and determined to show American workers who was boss. This COVID-19 nonsense was not going to interfere with their profits any longer. It was time to take a stand.

So they all had their administrative assistants conference in their favorite state legislators, the same ones who helpfully passed legislation a few years back, keeping pesky unions out of their states. They called in their chits for all those campaign contributions to the governor. They called their Republican House reps and senators. Damn that Fauci, they complained. My business is hurting. No more lockdowns, no more of this "social distancing "crap. This state is going to open for business and I don't want to hear another word about body counts or stressed hospitals. I need workers and I need them now. I paid for your damn campaigns, so do something!

And those state representatives and senators leapt into action. In a matter of a few weeks we saw state after state brimming with self-appointed medical experts in their legislatures, railing about the tyrannical mask mandates and business lockdowns. CEOs and white-collar professionals cracked their whips—many still from the comfort of their fine second homes and pools. And thus the support staff, the retail clerks and the service workers, many of whom who had once been adoringly lionized as "essential" at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, were told it was time to return to work. And for added good measure, Republican governors in those statescut offtheir unemployment aid. That'll show them, they thought ...

But strangely enough, not all of those workers heeded the call. In fact, a good many of them quit.

As reported by Alyssa Fowers and Eli Rosenberg, writing for The Washington Post:

*Kentucky, Idaho, South Dakota and Iowa reported the highest increases in the rates of workers who quit their jobs in August, according to a new glimpse of quit rates in the labor market released Friday.

The largest increase in the number of quitters happened in Georgia, with 35,000 more people leaving their jobs. Overall, the states with the highest rates of workers quitting their jobs were Georgia, Kentucky and Idaho.*

As The Post points out, the interesting thing about this data is that service-sector jobs are most highly concentrated in urban areas. So why would people be quitting their jobs at such astronomical rates in such relatively rural states as Kentucky, South Dakota, Iowa and Idaho?

Fowers and Rosenberg offer a clue:

Employees quit or were hired at rates matching or exceeding the national average in the ten states with the highest rates of new infections that month: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee.

So the highest rate of turnover in August—employees quitting or getting hired—was found in the states which had the highest rate of COVID-19 infection for that month. Logically, that seems to make sense. Workers who live in one of those states were also likely to have a governor or, in the case of Kentucky, a Republican-dominated legislaturewho opposed business closures, even while the delta variant ravaged the state's population. Such workers were essentially forced by these states policies to return to work if they could not work from home.

Those people forced back to work in an unsafe environment simply decided to quit—many of them likely before ever venturing back into their workspace. After all, they saw a job the other day that was offering more money. Or their next-door neighbor's cousin got a job that pays more and allows them to work from home. The Post article quotes Nick Bunker, an economist for the job search portal Indeed, who notes that the high quit rate in these red and rural states "may be a sign there's more competition in those parts of the country than other parts."

The other interesting point aboutallof the states having both the highest level of turnover and the highest infection rates? They are all so-called"right to work" states, where legislatures passed legislation to disincentivize and discourage unions.So these workers have essentially no protection, no one to turn to for help remedying unsafe conditions, and no collective bargaining power; they can, for the most part, be terminated at will. That's what "right-to work"has always been about.

As one commenter to The Post story points out:

So, when you have a crappy job, for crappy wages, and a crappy employer who doesn't value you at all, and all of a sudden you find yourself in a labor market situation that actually encourages you to look for work elsewhere--what do you think is going to happen? The 'Great Resignation' is largely about working class people attempting to use what little leverage they have in order to make a moderately better wage for themselves in a mostly hostile, oppressive national work environment.

For employers, the downside of "right to work"— one they never saw coming—was the fact that workers in those states had little, if any, incentive to stay, especially when once-in-a lifetime opportunities arose for them to leave, while competition for higher wages and better working conditions further drove that exodus.

Some employers are responding by antagonizing would-be applicants.

*In Missouri, a group of businesses, still frustrated by labor shortages more than three months after the state cut off the $300-a-week federal jobless checks, paid for billboards in Springfield that said: "Get Off Your Butt!" and "Get. To. Work."

The state has seen no growth in its workforce since ending emergency benefits.

"We don't know where people are," said Brad Parke, general manager of Greek Corner Screen Printing and Embroidery, who helped pay for the billboards. "Obviously, they're not at work. Apparently, they're at home."*

The attempt to force workers back to dangerous, unsafe pandemic working conditions—brought on by short-sighted Republican policymakers for political ends—has collided with a culture where workplace protections and the ability to bargain have been completely devalued (also by Republican politicians), leaving workers as essentially dispensable commodities.

No wonder they're quitting for greener pastures in those states. Republican elected officials and their business donors in those same states have no one to blame but themselves. They created this environment, and now they're going to have to cope and adjust with workers who want more out of their jobs … and know they can get it. They have to keep up and do better, or see their businesses go under.

Funny how that worked out.

===

1021 an kos?

There's a meme commonly shared on social media that goes something like this: "If you drank from a garden hose, stayed outside till dark, rode in the back of a pickup truck, ate dirt, licked random amphibians, taunted apex predators, and slapped yourself repeatedly in the face just to feel something in the midst of your cosseted, banal, utterly meaningless existence, then SHARE." I may be paraphrasing, but the meaning is plain enough. Kids these days need fresh air and a maybe a good dose of COVID-19 to teach them that life is an adventure!

The problem with that meme is that the person who drank from a garden hose and got a parasitic condition that turned their brain to ricotta cheese before they briefly took up prop comedy, and then unceremoniously shuffled off to an Elysian afterlife (where premium champagne flows 24/7 from sketchy garden hoses) never gets to share that meme. Because they're fucking dead.

So, we're a nation of rugged individualists. I get it. Unfortunately, that attitude has put us behind the eight ball when it comes to COVID-19 mitigation. As in, we pretty much suck at it. Because too many of our fellow citizens are, well, pretty fucking dumb.

Enter the Koch brothers. Or, rather, the Koch brother. (David Koch drank from too many garden hoses, apparently, and is no longer with us.) Turns out that the same deep-pocketed creeps who were behind the astroturf tea party are now associated with a burgeoning movement to keep masks off the faces of our precious, cherubic children. And I could not be more depressed.

The Washington Post has obtained a form letter suggesting that the recent "grassroots" effort to turn our schoolchildren into little disease vectors of freedom is not so grassroots after all. The Koch(s) is (are) behind it.

According to The Post, a letter that sounds "passionate and personal" has been circulating among parents who are concerned that their kids might be called nerds or something (really, who knows what the fuck they think?), and they've been pestering local school officials with it.

The Washington Post:

*But the heartfelt appeal is not the product of a grass roots groundswell. Rather, it is a template drafted and circulated this week within a conservative network built on the scaffolding of the Koch fortune and the largesse of other GOP megadonors.

That makes the document, which was obtained by The Washington Post, the latest salvo in an inflamed debate overmask requirements in schools, which have become the epicenter of partisan battles over everything from gender identity to critical race theory. The political melee engulfing educators has complicated efforts to reopen schools safely during a new wave of the virus brought on by the highly transmissible delta variant.

The document offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a well-financed conservative campaign to undermine regulations that health authorities say are necessary to contain the coronavirus. The frustration of many parents who want a greater say is deeply felt, school superintendentssay. But their anger is also being fueled by organized activists whose influence is ordinarily veiled.*

Why? Seriously, why? What is it about the freedom to spread virus globules from sea to shining sea that's so appealing?

The letter has been distributed since Tuesday to members of the Independent Women's Network (IWN), which calls itself a "members-only platform that is free from censorship and cancellation." Unfortunately, these "mothers" don't appear to care if COVID-19 cancels their kid.

You can follow the link to the form letter the group is circulating, but if you'd rather not step into that den of disinformation, here's a particularly egregious excerpt:

It's a great blessing that COVID doesn't pose as serious a health risk to children as it does to adults. Critically, young kids do not significantly spread COVID either. Furthermore, now that the adults in our community (teachers, school staff, parents and family members) have had a chance to get vaccinated, the risk to adults of serious illness from COVID infection is even smaller.

Uh, no. As one doctor interviewed by The Post noted, that's totally wrong. David Kimberlin, a physician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said the data "clearly [show] that children can transmit the virus, perhaps to a lesser extent than older adolescents and adults, but that second part is still not clear."

Kimberlin added that letters like the one promoted by the Koch-funded Independent Women's Network "will cause more deaths, more funerals and more white flags on the National Mall."

Meanwhile, the phony grassroots aura that the IWN has cloaked itself in stands in stark contrast to most parents' attitudes about masking mandates. According to an August Kaiser Family Foundation survey, 63% of parents think unvaccinated students and staff should be required to wear masks in school. But, hey, they tend not to show up on the news, ripping masks off people's faces while screaming anti-intellectual nonsense.

So what's the anti-mask furor about, really? Hell if I know. It's like these people are from another planet. And with an entire major political party already on the side of the virus, knowing that big, evil money is backing this dangerous nonsense is beyond depressin

===

https://www.mediamatters.org/dennis-prager/dennis-prager-more-young-people-get-covid-better-it-them-and-society

===

clark County officials pass resolution declaring the spread of COVID misinformation a 'public health crisis’

Meaghan Ellis

September 22, 2021

Officials in Clark County, Nevada have expressed deep concern about the rapid spread of COVID misinformation campaigns while declaring the issue a "public health crisis."

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mirror BS deflection an 921

Donald Trump, Jr. is falsely claiming President Joe Biden is responsible for the impending deaths of Americans sick with COVID-19 after the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services bought an additional 1.4 million doses of Regeneron's monoclonal antibody treatments. After discovering that 70% of all monoclonal antibody treatment doses were being ordered by just seven states, HHS announced it is taking over distribution of the life-saving drug.

Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana – states that have some of the highest per-capita cases of COVID-19 and some of the lowest vaccination rates, have been limiting the supply of monoclonal antibody treatments to the rest of the nation, CNN reports.

"Given this reality, we must work to ensure our supply of these life-saving therapies remains available for all states and territories, not just some," an HHS spokesperson said.

"HHS will determine the amount of product each state and territory receives on a weekly basis. State and territorial health departments will subsequently identify sites that will receive product and how much," the spokesperson said. "This system will help maintain equitable distribution, both geographically and temporally, across the country – providing states and territories with consistent, fairly-distributed supply over the coming weeks."

That's akin to killing people, Donald Trump, Jr. is suggesting.

"Americans will die because of Biden's despicable decision to punish his political enemies in red states by restricting their ability to secure life-saving monoclonal antibody treatments for all that need them," the former president's son, who is not a medical expert, declared on social media. "Their blood is directly on Joe's hands," he added, disrespectfully refusing to address President Joe Biden by his elected position.

When his father was president Donald Trump, Jr. repeatedly praised the coronavirus vaccine and the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed. But after Joe Biden became President Trump Jr. switched tactics, repeatedly attacking any efforts to promote vaccination or help keep Americans safe through social distancing measures including masks. At least 17 times since Biden was elected Trump Jr. has railed against "vaccine passports" and other methods of protecting Americans' health from the coronavirus that has already killed over 650,000 people in the U.S.

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horse cow dewormer ron johnson?

2 drs frontline bogus

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sturgis 5x spike?!

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That wasn't the only comment offered to Salon from TPUSA. Troy Meeker, the group's administrative director of human capital, sent a statement reading, "Turning Point USA has both vaccinated and unvaccinated employees and the organization does not ask status. TPUSA is in full compliance with both federal and state laws."

It isn't exactly new for right-wing media-oriented entities to violate the rights of their own workers. Most notably, in June of 2019, Federalist co-founder Ben Domenech threatened via Twitter to send his staff members back to "the salt mine" if they attempted to unionize, which would later be deemed unlawful by the National Labor Relations Board.

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https://www.alternet.org/2021/08/why-kristi-noem-now-qualifies-as-one-of-americas-worst-governors/

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cpac BS for 2024 don't let those other gop govs convince you they did not shut down etc

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no lnx

the real reason unvaccinated Americans are dying in hospital beds and claiming they love 'freedom'

John Stoehr August 25, 2021

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new report showing the dominant delta variant of the coronavirus is now making vaccines against catching it less effective. Before delta, they were 91 percent effective. After delta, they are 66 percent effective. The United Kingdom and Israel have reported similar findings. Vaccines are still preventative, the CDC said, and booster shots were already in the works. The Food and Drug Administration is preparing to sign off on a booster campaign set to begin Sept. 20, according to Bloomberg.

The spread of the delta variant is why the nation's top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, went on CNN to say getting the covid pandemic under control might not happen until spring of next year. "As we get into the spring, we could start getting back to a degree of normality, namely resuming the things that we were hoping we could do — restaurants, theaters, that kind of thing," he said. This news, according to CNN's Stephen Collinson, came as a "severe jolt to a weary nation" that elected Joe Biden to take care of this problem.

Collinson's argument is that the delta variant poses a great danger to the president's domestic agenda, but especially his party's majorities in the United States Congress. "The pandemic that he was elected to end could drag on deep into a midterm election year, with all the political and economic destruction that could bring." Collinson added that Fauci's statement "meant that Biden's best-laid plans of triumphing over the pandemic and riding an economic wave into the campaign for congressional election results in November next year now look at risk."

I'll get back to Collinson's piece and the delta variant in a moment. But first I want to bring in a theme I've been writing about this week: bad faith. In a nutshell, the Washington press corps is not biased in the ways that the Republicans Party says it is. It is not liberal. It does not have an agenda (other than the normal ones, like informing the citizenry or turning a profit). But the Republicans are right in one very important way. It is biased to the extent that it tolerates endless bad faith. Moreover, it tolerates bullshit knowing it's bullshit. On the infrequent occasion when reporters do demonstrate "liberal bias," it's when they demonstrate unwillingness to tolerate Republican bad faith.

What does this have to do with the delta variant? First, it's the reason the pandemic isn't over yet. And the reason for delta's dominance is pretty clear. As Collinson himself says: "The latest surge of the virus, powered by the more infectious Delta variant, was able to take hold because Americans in more conservative, southern states — deeply skeptical of government advice and science — declined in larger numbers than their more liberal compatriots to get vaccinated. If such skepticism, fanned by conservative political leaders and conspiracy fueled right-wing media, were to ultimately boost Republicans in next year's congressional polls it would be a bitter irony for the President."

So when it comes to the question of why the president hasn't done what he said he was going to do, we have to take into account, if we're being honest with ourselves and others, that Biden isn't alone here. There are 50 states in the union, each with their own leaders who make choices they think are best for their constituents. Moreover, you could say, again in all honesty, that the president's plan to get the country back on its feet depended on "more conservative, southern states" doing their part in what is and must be a united effort to overcome a disease that will kill a million Americans before it's over.

Again, honestly, they failed to do their part. Those of us who did are going to suffer. Delta's spread means vaccines are now less effective. As I said last week, this minority is stealing the majority's freedom.

Even this might not be so bad if not for the suggestion, illustrated by Collinson's piece, that voters might punish Biden for failing to control the pandemic while at the same time saying in plain English that the reason it's not under control is because "conservative, southern states — deeply skeptical of government advice and science" have put that objective even farther out of reach. A moral press would make it clear to the citizenry who's to blame. An anti-moral press, one that's hostile toward the obligations of the truth, will make-believe it's hard to say.

I said the press corps often tolerates bullshit knowing it's bullshit, but it often does not. Collinson isn't alone in this. He said southern states are "deeply skeptical of government advice and science." Another variation of this that's echoed by the press corps is that residents of southern states fear losing their freedoms. Residents fear it so much they're willing to put their lives on the line. They'll refuse to get vaccinated. They'll refuse to wear masks. They'll defy "government tyranny." This is the conclusion drawn by the Times' Alexander Stockton and Lucy King in a searing new video op-ed. They went to the Ozarks to better understand anti-vaxers. Over and over, they were told they don't want to be told what to do. Living in America means living free! What Stockton and King don't know is it's all bad faith.

The people Stockton and King interview, including the white men literally dying in hospital beds, do not fear losing their freedoms. That it is a put-on. They're hiding what they truly fear, which is humiliation. Authoritarian-minded people — which is to say, those who determine politics in southern states — live in daily fear of being humiliated. By what? You name it. Living in a diverse, democratic and capitalist republic offers opportunities aplenty to be humiliated for those who identify strongly with top-down social control. Anything threatening that threatens them. Since the pandemic started as "a hoax," it is a hoax. Buh Gawd, they'll die before being wrong. And they do.

Stockton and King don't have the insight necessary for seeing what they truly fear, but they do something I haven't seen from other members of the pundit corps. They take "fearing the loss of their freedoms" and superimpose the claims over images of imminent death, as if to suggest that freedom to die from the covid is no freedom at all. At one point the narrator says: "This is what freedom looks like in America today." I have never seen a simpler and more powerful way of rejecting GOP bad faith. It's something we all of us need to see more.

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how a Los Angeles megachurch became a bastion of evangelical coronavirus denial: 'There is no pandemic'

Alex Henderson

August 17, 2021

Coronavirus denial is by no means universal in Christianity. A wide range of practicing Christians, from Catholics to Mainline Protestants such as Lutherans, Methodists and Episcopalians, have encouraged social...

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BAD TRINITY

https://www.alternet.org/2021/08/fox-news-media/

iam sorry to report I've had more than one conversation with progressives who, despite being savvy and well-read, are under the mistaken impression that Fox News has seen the light and has started to promote the COVID-19 vaccine. I've even witnessed speculation that Rupert Murdoch, who is himself vaccinated, had a come-to-Jesus meeting with the Fox News brass about the wisdom of encouraging their own audience to contract a dangerous disease. And while I always enjoy a cheeky opportunity to tell folks they should be reading my work more, overall, it's distressing to see that people are buying into the myth that Fox News has "pivoted" to being pro-vaccine.

But can you blame folks for believing this? Someone who prides themselves on a responsible, fact-based diet of mainstream media sources like CNN, NBC News and NPR likely got exposed in mid-to-late July to misleading stories hyping an out-of-context clip of Fox News host Sean Hannity saying, "I believe in the science of vaccination" and urging viewers to "take COVID seriously." The clip also got shared widely on social media.

Everyone likes a "scared straight" story, and it just felt goodto believe conservatives were on the verge of giving up this anti-vaccination nonsense. Unforutantely, the story was B.S.

As Iand reporters who cover right wing media for Media Matters and Vox pointed out at the time, Hannity's show that night was not only bookmarked by two other shows — Laura Ingraham's and Tucker Carlson's — that openly discouraged vaccination, but his supposedly "pro-vaccine" comments came in the middle of a segment that overall portrayed vaccines as dangerous and a threat to freedom. Even in the edited clip, Hannity instructed his viewers to "research like crazy," which isa common anti-vaxx rhetorical trick. As with creationists claiming they want to "teach the controversy," it's a way to seem reasonable while slyly directing people to engage conspiracy theories and suggesting those conspiracy theories are on equal footing, credibility-wise, as scientific fact. As Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times** wrote, Hannity was basically "encouraging listeners to expose themselves to the wide variety of anti-vax conspiracy mongering accessible on social media via 'research.'"

But in case there was any doubt, a perusal of Hannity's programming in the weeks since his supposed conversion shows that, actually, Hannity is still largely focused on stoking confusion, spreading misinformation, and portraying vaccination efforts as a liberal conspiracy against his audience. As Media Matters documented on Tuesday, Hannity gave an entire hour of his radio show over to two anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists — men who use phrases like "the demon needle" and "poisonous jabs." Hannity presented them falsely as medical experts to people calling in looking for advice. He also sneered at Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical advisor, calling him "flip-flop Fauci" and declaring that his anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists were better experts. The conspiracy theorists discouraged vaccines for young people, implied that dangerous and unproven drugs are superior prevention to the vaccine, and lied about the breakthrough infection rate, implying it's high when it is not.

This in in line with the general approach to the vaccine question on Hannity's show. From the moment that his misleading "pro-vaccine" clip went viral, Hannity has aggressively downplayedthe claim that he's promoting the vaccine, declaring two days after the initial clipthat, "I'm not urging people to get the COVID-19 vaccine" and "I have never told anyone to get a vaccine." In the past few weeks, he's attacked vaccine passport programs, portrayed vaccine advocacy as "threats coming from Democrats," exaggerated the risks of breakthrough infections, and even claimed that vaccine passport programs are racist against Black people. (In reality, Black people are at a higher risk of dying of COVID-19, which is one reason why aggressive public health measures are necessary.)

A visit to Hannity's Facebook page is more of the same. It features a post mocking New York City mayor Bill De Blasio for supposedly playing doctor by instituting a vaccine passport system, Blames undocumented immigrants for the COVID-19 spread when the medical establishment is quite clear that the problem is willfully unvaccinated people, and celebrates Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is selling merchandise mocking vaccine advocates and whose state is paying the price for his idiocy with some of the highest rates of COVID-19 in the country.

Overall, Hannity viewers get a strong message that vaccines are ineffective, dangerous, and getting one is just giving into those damn Democrats. And his firehose of anti-vaccination demagoguery is in line with the rest of Fox News, which continues to take the stance that vaccines are "a menace", ineffective, and that refusing vaccination is a good way to prove one's right wing bona fides.

And yet, this notion that the network has changed its tune has become received wisdom in much of the mainstream media.

Googling "Hannity vaccines" turns up a darkly funny mix of Fox News headlines demonizing vaccination and mainstream media headlines praising Fox News for being pro-vaccination. One of those more recent ones, from Morning Consult, even announces, "Fox News Personalities Started to Promote COVID-19 Vaccines. Viewers Have Taken Notice." The article declares that "some conservative media personalities have gone all in on vaccines," falsely citing Hannity as an example. It credits this supposed shift in messaging for the fact that vaccine "reluctance fell to an all-time low this week among adults who watch Fox News: 27 percent of viewers now say they probably or definitely won't get vaccinated, down from 30 percent the week before and a high of 37 percent in mid-March." That's certainly an improvement, but hard to say if Fox News is really the cause, since their much-ballyhooed "shift" is an illusion propped up to bamboozle the mainstream media and not actually representative of the vaccine-negative messaging their audience actually gets. The comments from his fans on Facebook make quite clear what message they're getting, and it's definitely not that vaccination is good and that unvaccinated people are the cause of the current surge. Instead, it's fear-mongering about the shots, blaming immigrants and not the unvaccinated, and comparing vaccine passports and mandates to Nazi Germany.

As the New York Times reports, fears of the delta variant are also driving a lot of red state Americans to get the shot, clearly deciding that sticking it to the liberals isn't worth getting sick over. The article also points out that "employers and universities have started requiring the shots to return to work and class." Even the phrase "pandemic of the unvaccinated," which is being heavily (and accurately) promoted by the White House and the Centers for Disease Control, likely deserves credit for underscoring to the unvaccinated that it's they, not hated liberals, who are paying the price for listening to Fox News.

So this is probably not a matter of one pro-vaccine Hannity clip in a sea of anti-vaccine messaging changing minds. It's just that even the most devout death cults eventually have some members who start to question the wisdom of sacrificing themselves for some dumb ideology. Let's hope that the number of Fox News fans deciding they have their limits only continues to rise.

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someone says freeDUMB just assertion of white male xian priviledge

Rand Paul tells vaccinated Americans to 'mind your own business'

David Badash The New Civil Rights Movement

August 05, 2021

U.S. Senator Rand Paul blasted millions of Americans who are fully vaccinated, telling them to "mind your own business" after complaining about those who say they don't want to eat in restaurants where everyone...

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he and desantis called out by biden

mengele

https://www.alternet.org/2021/08/texas-public-schools/

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