(2019-08-17). #CloseTheCamps: Protest by Public Health & Healthcare Workers for Migrant Rights. indybay.org Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), 630 Sansome St, San Francisco 94111…
(2019-08-17). #CloseTheCamps: Protest by Healthcare & Harm Reduction Workers for Migrant Rights. indybay.org Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), | 630 Sansome St, San Francisco 94111…
(2019-08-17). Milwaukee VA workers fight union busting. fightbacknews.org Milwaukee, WI – Fifty Veterans Affairs workers and supporters rallied outside the Zablocki VA hospital August 12 to protest union-busting, attacks on high-quality public veteran healthcare, and bad faith bargaining by the VA administration. | The rally was organized by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3 and supported by the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, Milwaukee Area Labor Council, Veterans for Peace and elected leaders including Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, U.S. Congresswoman Gwen Moore and U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin. | AFGE members and representatives detailed shocking accounts of the ex…
(2019-08-17). Australian health workers protest assaults on staff. wsws.org The Health Services Union limited the action and channelled workers' anger into a demand for more security officers, not for increased funding and staffing.
(2019-08-17). UK: Record £9.2 billion of NHS budget handed to private firms. wsws.org A third of hip replacements carried out in the NHS are now done privately and community health and mental health provision have seen five years of continual gains by the private sector.
(2019-08-17). The Answer to Burn Out at Work Isn't "Self-Care" — It's Unionizing. truthout.org | | It's Monday morning and your alarm goes off. As you wake up, the dread of going to work creeps in. You're feeling exhausted, stressed out, underpaid and underappreciated. It's a mindset you can't shake, and no amount of coffee will fix: You have workplace burnout. | The World Health Organization recently included burnout as a legitimate diagnosis in their handbook that guides medical pr…
(2019-08-17). All Out to #DefendModesto From White Nationalist "Straight Pride" Event. indybay.org All out to #DefendModesto from the white nationalist "Straight Pride" rally being organized on August 24th in Modesto, California. While the City has denied a permit due to lack of insurance, bigots are still planning to mobilize!
(2019-08-16). Modern medicine declares war on loneliness with drugs & bots, threatening introverts with extinction. rt.com 
With pharmaceutical and even robotic "cures" in the works for loneliness – a condition once considered part of the normal human emotional range but now framed as a health risk – we risk losing the ability to be alone at all.
(2019-08-16). It's No Wonder the Military likes Violent Video Games, They Can Help Train Civilians to Become Warriors. counterpunch.org 
Following the recent massacres in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, the bestselling author Keith Boykin tweeted: Trump is on TV blaming the Internet, social media, video games and mental health for the mass shootings. Nonsense! Every country has Google, Facebook, video games and people with mental health issues. What they don't have is More
(2019-08-16). US Customs and Border Protection systems down, airports affected nationwide. rt.com 
Hundreds of passengers were stranded for hours at Los Angeles, New York and Washington international airports, as US Customs and Border Protection systems were plagued by 'technical 'issues.'
(2019-08-16). Trauma Counselors Were Pressured to Divulge Confidential Information About Facebook Moderators, Internal Letter Claims. theintercept.com Nearly 1,500 miles from the Menlo Park headquarters of Facebook, at a company outpost in Austin, Texas, moderators toil around the clock to screen and scrub some the most gruesome, hateful, and heinous posts that make their way onto the social network and its photo-sharing subsidiary, Instagram. They are required to view as many as 800 pieces of disturbing content in a single shift, and routinely turn to on-site counselors to help cope with the procession of stomach-turning images, videos, and text. But some members of this invisible army have complained, in a statement widely circulated within Facebook, that the…
(2019-08-16). Warning over facial recognition 'epidemic' in the UK. thecanary.co Facial recognition technology has been used in shopping centres, museums and conference centres around the UK, an investigation has claimed. | Civil liberties group Big Brother Watch labelled use of the technology an "epidemic" and said its use on privately owned sites was "deeply disturbing". | The group said the Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield had carried out trials of the technology last year, while the World Museum in Liverpool and Millennium Point conference centre in Birmingham were also named in its investigation as locations where scans had taken place. | On Thursday, the Information Commissioner'
(2019-08-16). Critics Denounce Trump's "Dangerous" Claim That Locking Away Americans With Mental Illnesses Is the Answer to Gun Violence. commondreams.org In comments that highlighted President Donald Trump's refusal to take meaningful action on gun control, his desire to demonize and detain vulnerable people, and his attacks on Americans' healthcare, the president repeated his claim on Thursday that people with mental illnesses are the cause of the country's epidemic of gun violence. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
(2019-08-16). Medicare for All Proponent Ady Barkan Urges Supporters to Demand Dems Have 'Real Healthcare Debate'. commondreams.org "We want ABC and Univision to put healthcare front and center." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
(2019-08-15). Thursday's Daily Brief: Harrowing terrorist survivors' stories, children first in Mediterranean rescues, Yemen and Switzerland updates, new SDG Advocates speak out. un.org Our main stories today: Boko Haram terrorist survivors tell their stories; UNICEF speaks out for children adrift on the Mediterranean; UN health agency pushes to stem dengue fever in Yemen; Switzerland declines sponsorship deal with tobacco firm; new SDG Advocates on the job.
(2019-08-15). Report: 'No Evidence that Fracking Can Operate without Threatening Public Health'. globalresearch.ca In 2010 when I first started writing about hydraulic fracturing — the process of blasting a cocktail of water and chemicals into shale to release trapped hydrocarbons — there were more questions than answers about environmental and public-health threats. That …
(2019-08-15). French Court Rules Against Linky for Health Reasons. globalresearch.ca The tribunal de grande instance (TGI or the civil court) of Tours considered the case of 121 "anti-Linky" complainants, and threw out 108 of the claims. The remaining 13 were accepted, with the court conceding a possible link between their …
(2019-08-15). The Challenges of Breastfeeding as a Black Person. aclu.org How our workplaces and healthcare system create barriers to breastfeeding. | The fight to protect individual choices about reproductive care, including breastfeeding, is an ongoing battle. The central lesson of the reproductive justice movement is that choice means little without access. That lesson applies equally to breastfeeding. | Though laws, in the workplace and other contexts, are in place to protect the right to breastfeed, many low-income women and w…
(2019-08-14). Wednesday's Daily Brief: Help for Venezuelans, Burundi Ebola vaccine drive, Paraguay poison probe urged, talking disarmament in Geneva, Libya violence down. un.org Our main stories today cover: Scaled-up assistance for Venezuelans; Ebola vaccinations for Burundi health workers; reports of civilian deaths following an Afghan-sponsored security operation; agrochemical spray probe urged in Paraguay; Libya violence abates during truce, and disarmament conference's first woman chief urges Governments to "overcome their differences".
(2019-08-14). Winnie Byanyima 'honoured to be joining UNAIDS' as next Executive Director. un.org The UN programme dedicated to the elimination of AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, has warmly welcomed the appointment of Winnie Byanyima as its new Executive Director.
(2019-08-13). Expanding Involuntary Confinement is Not the Answer to Solve Gun Violence. aclu.org Institutionalizing people against their will is usually a mistake. | In the wake of last weekend's tragic shootings, President Trump did what he does best: stoked fear and cast blame. He proclaimed that "we must reform our mental health laws to better identify mentally disturbed individuals who may commit acts of violence and make sure those people, not only get treatment, but when necessary, involuntary confinement." | There are two things wrong with the idea of involuntary commitment as a solution to gun violence. First, focusing on people with identifiable mental disabilities won't help. The data is clear: men…
(2019-08-13). How to Be an Antiracist: Ibram X. Kendi on Why We Need to Fight Racism the Way We Fight Cancer. democracynow.org 
In his new book, "How to Be an Antiracist," professor Ibram X. Kendi urges readers to break out of the false framework of "racist" and "not racist," instead laying out what it means to be antiracist: viewing racial groups as equals and pushing for policies that create racial equity. Kendi says, "We can't just talk about racism as an original sin. We have to talk about racism as the original cancer, as this original disease that has been killing America."
(2019-08-09). Over 132,400 Opposed Trump's Anti-Trans Health Care Plan. aclu.org A proposed rule would undermine protections for transgender people and others facing discriminatory denials of health care and insurance coverage. | The Trump Administration has shown it will stop at nothing to undermine access to health care for marginalized communities. Most recently, the Administration has proposed to undermine critical protections against sex discrimination in Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, the Health Care Rights Law. Instead of combatting discrimination in accessing health care a…
(2019-08-09). Blood money: How big pharma created the opioid crisis. liberationnews.org 
The opioid epidemic could only have occurred in a society where profit is king.
(2019-08-08). Emergency Doctor to Trump: You Are Wrong, Mental Illness Is Not to Blame for Gun Violence Epidemic. democracynow.org 
President Trump went to Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, Wednesday, where he was met by hundreds of protesters condemning his presence after the mass shootings over the weekend, which killed at least 32 people. Prior to his visits, Trump hinted at the need to strengthen background checks for gun purchases, and doubled down on what some healthcare professionals say is dangerous rhetoric linking illness to mass shootings. Numerous other political figures have pointed to mental illness as a contributing factor in mass shootings. From Montreal, we speak with Dr. Megan Ranney, an associate professor of emergency medi…
(2019-08-07). A Modest Proposal: Taking Aim at Firearm Violence with Gun Insurance. progressive.org It's no panacea, but it can help heal our wounded nation.
(2019-08-05). Take Away My Employer-Based Health Insurance. Please. progressive.org Centrist Democrats like Joe Biden still aim to gin up mass fear over the prospect of leaving behind predatory insurers and the dizzying array of deductibles, co-pays, exclusions, humiliations, and rationing of care that characterizes our current syst…
(2019-07-30). Venezuela: Six Chavista Militants Killed in Fresh Rural Violence. venezuelanalysis.com Landowner violence continues to plague the Venezuelan countryside.
(2019-07-25). This County Criminalized Students for Bad Grades — Until Now. aclu.org Today, we filed a landmark settlement that will end the relationship between the probation department and school districts in Riverside. | Since 2001, the Riverside County, California probation department has been needlessly funneling young people struggling with grades, behavior, trauma, and mental health into the criminal justice system. | This direct line to the criminal system is the product of a partnership between local school districts and the county probation department called the Youth Accountability Team (YAT). Instead of counselors or other school and community-based supports stepping in to support and…
(2019-06-19). House Casts Historic Vote to Repeal Authorization for Endless War. peaceaction.org Washington, D.C. — June 19, 2019 — In response to the House of Representatives passing H.R. 2740 (Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Legislative Branch, Defense, State, Foreign Operations, and Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2020), which includes language to repeal the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) eight months after …