Daily Archives: August 4, 2020

2020-08-04: News Headlines

_____ (2020-08-04). Assange Wins Award, Appears In Court Facing New Charges. popularresistance.org WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's case management hearing yesterday continued the travesty of legal due process to which he has been subjected for more than a decade. | The journalist and publisher is fighting extradition to the United States, where he faces politically motivated frame-up charges of espionage with a combined potential sentence of 175 years. He has not attended hearings via videolink for the last three months on the advice of doctors, due to his fragile state of health and the threat of exposure to coronavirus. | At the previous hearing on June 29, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser had scolded Ass…

Staff (2020-08-04). Public Health vs. Politics: White House Scrapped Nationwide COVID-19 Testing Plan to Hurt Blue States. democracynow.org As the U.S. coronavirus death toll passes 155,000, there is still no national testing program, with widespread shortages and delays hampering efforts to contain the pandemic. This continues months after President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner launched a White House task force with the goal of establishing a national testing plan. We speak to investigative reporter Katherine Eban, whose explosive Vanity Fair report chronicles Kushner's fumbling efforts and the sudden decision to abandon the project on political grounds. "The participants expected that at any moment in early April, the plan would be announced,"

Staff (2020-08-04). Headlines for August 4, 2020. democracynow.org Concerns Mount over Politicization of COVID-19 Vaccine, as Trump Lashes Out at "Pathetic" Dr. Birx, WHO Warns There May Never Be a Coronavirus "Silver Bullet", Trump Threatens to Sue Nevada After It Expands Voter Access, Leaked Video Shows George Floyd Pleaded for His Life, Cooperated with Police, Before He Was Killed, Video Shows LAPD Shot Peaceful Protester in the Head as He Held His Arms in the Air, Prosecutor Clears Arkansas Officers Who Pushed Black Man into the Ground for 6.5 Minutes Before He Died, Census Bureau Cuts Short Collection Efforts by One Month, Mexican Man Dies After Falling from Border Wall, Me…

Staff (2020-08-04). As Prison COVID-19 Cases Rise, A Mental Health Crisis Intensifies. therealnews.com Family visits, job programs, and recreational activities have all been put on hold because of the virus.

Caitlin Johnstone (2020-08-04). Shape Yourself Into The Perfect Weapon Against The Empire. thealtworld.com Do you want to win this thing? Actually win it? | By that I mean, do you actually want to create a healthy world instead of a world where we are ruled by lying, murderous, warmongering, oppressive, ecocidal, omnicidal sociopaths? Is that something you truly, deeply want? | It's okay if you don't, but be real with yourself about it. | A large percentage of the people who get involved in revolutionary political movements and criticism of establishment power structures, if they were honest with themselves, would admit that they do so not out of a sincere desire to replace the sociopathic ruling empire with something…

_____ (2020-08-04). Truman's 'Human Sacrifice' to Subdue Moscow. strategic-culture.org Peter KUZNICK | Sumiteru Taniguchi was one of the "lucky" ones. He lived a long and productive life. He married and fathered two healthy children who gave him four grandchildren and two great grandchildren. He had a long career in Japan's postal and telegraph services. As a leader in Japan's anti-nuclear movement, he addressed thousands of audiences and hundreds of thousands of people. He traveled to at least 23 countries. The organizations in which he played a prominent role were nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize. | Many of the more than 250,000 who lived in Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 were not so…

Patrick Cockburn (2020-08-04). The Government's Failed Track-and-Trace System is a Disaster for England. counterpunch.org Aggressive contact tracing is the strategy that will help most now, although it would have been easier to implement before Boris Johnson's credibility was shredded When I got polio on a farm in the middle of the Irish countryside in 1956, an Irish Health Ministry official visited our nearest neighbour, a farmer called Dick Cunningham, the next

Peoples Dispatch (2020-08-04). US teachers protest against reopening of schools, demand safe working conditions. peoplesdispatch.org Trade unions representing teachers and support staff from 35 school districts undertook the protest against the push to reopen in-person classes. Unions have argued that in-person classes could pose a risk to public health…

_____ (2020-08-04). There Can Be No Equality Without A Renewal Of Employment Opportunity For All. popularresistance.org The employment opportunity that privileged the white male was much more than a job. By the 1960s, growing numbers of white men had employment that gave them steadily rising real earnings, often with decades of tenure at one organization. The "career-with-one-company" (CWOC) that had become the employment norm by the beginning of the 1960s included health insurance and a defined-benefit pension, both funded by the employee's business corporation or government agency. This white-man's world constituted the foundation for the "vast ocean of material prosperity" to which Dr. King referred.

_____ (2020-08-04). Racial And Ethnic Economic Inequality And The COVID-19 Pandemic. popularresistance.org The Democracy Collaborative prepared a report, created for the Healthcare Anchor Network, that looked at how racial and ethnic disparities in the economy are showing up in the COVID-19 pandemic and in the public policy response to the pandemic. The report also covers how the economic effects of the pandemic will likely impact racial and ethnic inequality. | Every passing day brings new, painful evidence of how the COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting people of color in the United States.

_____ (2020-08-04). There Can Be No Equality Without Employment Opportunity For All. popularresistance.org The employment opportunity that privileged the white male was much more than a job. By the 1960s, growing numbers of white men had employment that gave them steadily rising real earnings, often with decades of tenure at one organization. The "career-with-one-company" (CWOC) that had become the employment norm by the beginning of the 1960s included health insurance and a defined-benefit pension, both funded by the employee's business corporation or government agency. This white-man's world constituted the foundation for the "vast ocean of material prosperity" to which Dr. King referred.

Dr. Pascal Sacré (2020-08-04). COVID-19: We have a Treatment: Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). We do Not Need a Vaccine! globalresearch.ca We have a treatment in COVID-19 and it doesn't have the support of Big Pharma and their experts! | Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is effective in treating COVID-19. | It is effective in halting the progression of the disease, provided it is given early …

Labor Video Project (2020-08-03). Shut It Down! Workers Shut Amazon DSF4 For Health/Safety & Living Wages. indybay.org Amazonians and workers shutdown the Amazon DSF4 warehouse on August 1, 2020 to protest the lack of health and safety and slave labor wages…

Prabir Purkayastha (2020-08-03). Trump's Withdrawal From WHO: a Cover-Up for His Abject Failure on COVID-19. counterpunch.org Microbes do not recognize borders. We are all safe only when everybody is safe. In a pandemic, to attack the only body we have for global cooperation endangers everyone. That is why the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) is dangerous not only for the United States, but for all of the world.

RT (2020-08-03). Americans should start wearing face masks AT HOME, Dr. Deborah Birx says. rt.com Families sitting down to watch the evening news might soon have to wear face masks, if the advice of the White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Deborah Birx is turned into a rule, as America's disjointed war on Covid-19 continues. | With cases of coronavirus beginning to tick upwards across the US, Dr. Deborah Birx told CNN on Sunday that the country is entering a new phase in its fight against the disease. | "What we are seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread. It's into the rural as equal urban areas," Birx, told 'State of the Union' host Dana Bash, before suggesting tha…

RT (2020-08-03). Spain plans to roll out its Covid-19 tracing app in September. rt.com Authorities in Spain aim to roll out a contact-tracing app across the country in September. They said on Monday that a pilot showed it could detect almost twice as many potential infections as human trackers during a simulated outbreak on La Gomera, an island next to the tourist hotspot of Tenerife in the Canary archipelago. | Spain used a new system developed by Google and Apple, which holds data on individual devices to ensure privacy, to build an app that it tested in July, Reuters reports. | Now the government aims to offer it to regional health authorities who could have it ready by mid-September, and fro…

RT (2020-08-03). Russia could produce MILLIONS of Covid-19 vaccines every single month by 2021 — Trade & Industry Minister. rt.com Production of Russia's homegrown coronavirus vaccine is due to begin in September, and by the start of 2021, the country could be creating several million doses a month. That's according to Russia's Minister of Trade and Industry. | Denis Manturov told news agency TASS that the vaccine will be produced in three Russian regions – Vladimir, Yaroslavl and Moscow Oblast – with a view to a widespread immunization campaign starting in October. | Moscow's Gamalei Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, which led the research of the domestic drug, has partnered with companies Generium, R-Pharm, and Binnopharm, wit…

Stephen Lendman (2020-08-03). Exempting Big Pharma from COVID-19 Vaccines Liability. globalresearch.ca House and Senate leaders are discussing whether to include this exemption for COVID-19 vaccines under development in new legislation likely to be passed and signed into law in the coming days. | Most likely, tort liability protection for Big Pharma will …

Zero Hedge (2020-08-03). Red Flags Soar as Big Pharma Will be Exempt from COVID-19 Vaccine Liability Claims. globalresearch.ca Last week we

Prof. Bill Willers (2020-08-03). Masks Are a Psychological Preparation for Mandatory Vaccinations. globalresearch.ca This respirator does not protect against the risk of contracting disease or infection. — You have no right not to be vaccinated. You have no right not to wear a mask. You have …

Laura Ingraham (2020-08-03). What They are Not Telling You! The Mask's Impact on Your Health. globalresearch.ca "Masks are considered by governments as a "protection against the transmission of Covid-19″. It is better to wear a mask (any mask) than nothing. People are instructed to obey the guidelines of the Ministry of Health. These guidelines are erroneous.", …

Cesar Chelala (2020-08-03). A Wrong Message for the Pandemic. counterpunch.org Public health messages addressed to the general population should be clear and unambiguous. This is particularly important in times of a pandemic like that caused by the coronavirus. Millions of lives are at stake. One of the messages, "social distancing," widely used by public health authorities during the present pandemic, exemplifies this shortcoming. It should

WSWS (2020-08-03). Baltimore's Mercy Medical Center intensive care unit head physician dies of COVID-19. wsws.org Health care workers have been placed on the front lines of the pandemic as safety precautions such as social distancing have been lifted.

WSWS (2020-08-03). Drive to reopen US schools continues despite mounting evidence of deadly consequences. wsws.org More scientific research shows the immense dangers to the health and lives of teachers, students and parents by reopening schools while the pandemic continues out of control.

Mehr News Agency (2020-08-03). Iran registers 2,598 COVID-19 cases in 24 hours. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Aug. 03 (MNA) — The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has infected 2,598 people and claimed 215 lives in Iran in the past 24 hours, a senior health official said.

Mehr News Agency (2020-08-03). Drive-in movie theater in Qeshm Island. en.mehrnews.com QESHM, Aug. 03 (MNA) — Qeshm Island, southern Iran, has launched its first drive-in movie theater to help cinema aficionados watch their favorite movies while observing health protocols during the coronavirus pandemic.

_____ (2020-08-03). Reclaiming Public Health: The Communalist Healthcare Model. popularresistance.org During the Spanish Influenza outbreak of 1918, Alfred W. Crosby, a Professor Emeritus of History, Geography, and American Studies wrote that nurses were more important than doctors during this period: "[N]either antibiotics nor medical techniques existed to cure influenza or pneumonia. Warm food, warm blankets, fresh air, and what nurses ironically call TLC — tender loving care — [kept] the patient alive until the disease passed away." When Voltaire said that nature cures the disease, I like to think of him referring to care workers' TLC.

_____ (2020-08-03). Nobody Accurately Tracks Health Care Workers Lost To COVID-19. popularresistance.org Anesthesiologist Claire Rezba, scrolling through the news on her phone, was dismayed. "I felt like her sacrifice was really great and her child's sacrifice was really great, and she was just this anonymous woman, you know? It seemed very trivializing." For days, Rezba would click through Google, searching for a name, until in late March, the news stories finally supplied one: Diedre Wilkes. And almost without realizing it, Rezba began to keep count. | The next name on her list was world-famous, at least in medical circles: James Goodrich, a pediatric neurosurgeon in New York City and a pioneer in the separation o…

yenisafak (2020-08-03). One person is dying of COVID-19 every seven minutes in Iran: state TV. yenisafak.com One person is dying from COVID-19 every seven minutes in Iran, state television said on Monday, as the Health Ministry reported 215 new deaths from the disease and state media warned of a lack of proper social distancing.Health Ministry spokesman Sima Sadat Lari was quoted by the state TV as saying the 215 deaths in the past 24 hours took the combined death toll to 17,405 in Iran, and the number of confirmed cases rose by 2,598 to 312,035.State television showed several Iranians in a busy Tehran street without wearing face masks or social distancing.Some experts have doubted the accuracy of Iran's official corona…

WSWS (2020-08-03). COVID-19 "state of disaster" imposed across Australian state of Victoria. wsws.org Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton characterised the sweeping measures as "shock and awe."

Anita Desikan (2020-08-03). 150 Attacks on Science and Counting: Trump Administration's Anti-Science Actions Hurt People and Communities Nationwide. commondreams.org Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies on Capitol Hill on July 31, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Pool/Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

Michelle D. Holmes (2020-08-03). Black Lives Depend on the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. commondreams.org "On the road to making a healthy diet accessible to everyone, the Dietary Guidelines will continue to be an invaluable tool for health professionals, federal nutrition program operators, and many families. But we are far from reaching our destination." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

Julia Conley, staff writer (2020-08-03). As Trump Promises 'Warp Speed' Covid-19 Vaccine, Health Experts Caution Against Political Interference. commondreams.org Public health experts on Monday raised alarm over the White House's aggressive push to rush a Covid-19 vaccine into production, an effort which critics say has been apparent since the first weeks of the coronavirus pandemic. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

Elaheh Farmand (2020-08-02). Insurance industry profits over people's lives: Democrats reject Medicare for All. liberationnews.org What people need is not more profits for private companies and corporate bailouts, but a universal, socialist healthcare system.

Stephen Lendman (2020-08-02). Congress Fails to Agree on Extending Aid to Jobless Americans. globalresearch.ca On Thursday, I emailed the information below to a retired physician/health and fitness expert friend I've known since the 1940s, explaining the following: | Like earlier coronavirus outbreaks (SARS-Cov 2002-04, MERS 2012), SARS-Cov-2 hysteria will pass in time. | Of far greater …

Dr. Harvey Risch (2020-08-02). Early Outpatient Treatment of Symptomatic, High-Risk COVID-19 Patients that Should be Ramped-Up Immediately as Key to the Pandemic Crisis. globalresearch.ca Abstract | More than 1.6 million Americans have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and >10 times that number carry antibodies to it. High-risk patients presenting with progressing symptomatic disease have only hospitalization treatment with its high mortality. An outpatient treatment that prevents …

news.un (2020-08-02). Leaving No Roma behind during a pandemic, and beyond: a UN Resident Coordinator's Blog. news.un.org Roma people in Europe face widespread discrimination in many areas of life, including housing and health. In this opinion piece, Francoise Jacob, the UN Resident Coordinator in Serbia, explains how the UN is helping Roma communities, many of which have no access to safe water or electricity, to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abdul Rahman (2020-08-02). COVID-19 shows the need to rebuild public health systems in Central Asian countries. peoplesdispatch.org Most of the countries in central Asia have been reluctant to reimpose restrictions due to the economic fallout. This has led to a massive jump in the total number of new infections and deaths in late June and July…

Mehr News Agency (2020-08-02). Iran COVID-19 update: 2,685 new cases, 208 deaths. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Aug. 02 (MNA) — The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has infected 2,685people in Iran in the past 24 hours, increasing the total cases to 309,437, said Health Ministry Spokesperson Sima Lari on Sunday.

Mehr News Agency (2020-08-02). Minister urges nation to observe health protocols in Muharram. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Aug. 02 (MNA) — Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli has called on the Iranian nation to fully observe anti-coronavirus health protocols during Muharram rituals.

_____ (2020-08-02). On Medicare And Medicaid's 55th Birthday, Let's Expand Benefits. popularresistance.org On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law. This crowning achievement was both the culmination of a decades-long effort to attain guaranteed universal health insurance and the first step in the quest for Medicare for All. | In the 55 years since the legislation was signed into law, both programs have proven their worth. Before Medicare, about half of seniors lacked health insurance. They were an illness away from bankruptcy. Today, 99.1 percent of Americans 65 and older are insured, thanks to Medicare.

sputniknews (2020-08-02). Senior Trump Administration Health Official Rejects Hydroxychloroquine as Coronavirus Treatment. sputniknews.com US President Donald Trump has long promoted the use of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the ongoing coronavirus. Testing the drug for use in treating COVID-19 has, however, been blocked by international health bodies which have noted the compound's adverse effects on patients.

Staff (2020-08-02). New COVID Cases in US Surged to a Record High in July. truthout.org Coronavirus cases in the U.S. rose by 1.9 million and deaths from the disease by over 25,000 in the month of July, another sign of President Donald Trump's failure to slow the pandemic. | The numbers from July @nytimes | — Chris Jansing (@ChrisJansing)

yenisafak (2020-08-02). Doctors plight mounting in Bangladesh amid pandemic. yenisafak.com The misery of doctors and frontline staff in the war against the novel coronavirus is surging in Bangladesh with at least 92 physicians having died due to the disease.The country reported 2,199 more infections as of Saturday with 21 additional deaths as the virus shows no indication of slowdown, according to the health ministry data.Deaths related to COVID-19 now stand at 3,132 and total infections stand at 240,000.Infections among doctors are raging and have already spread across the country as authorities allegedly failed to stop cases by taking proper measures even after the first COVID-19 case was detected Ma…

yenisafak (2020-08-02). Philippines' confirmed coronavirus cases exceed 100,000. yenisafak.com The Philippines on Sunday reported 5,032 additional coronavirus infections, its largest single-day increase on record, taking the country's confirmed cases to 103,185.In a bulletin, the Department of Health also said the Southeast Asian country's coronavirus death toll had jumped by 20 to 2,059.President Rodrigo Duterte was scheduled to meet key cabinet members on Sunday to discuss a call by medical frontliners' groups to put the capital Manila, which accounts for the bulk of infections, back under a stricter lockdown, his spokesman said.

newsnetwork.mayoclinic (2020-08-02). Mayo Clinic Expands Commitment To Serving Veterans By Participating In VA Community Care Network Beginning August 1, 2020. newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org Veterans in the upper Midwest may now be eligible to receive care in their local communities from Mayo Clinic Health System providers; and veterans around the country may be eligible for unique care for complex health issues at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, Mayo Clinic in Florida, and Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. This expanded access is …

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2020-08-01). 2009 H1N1 Vaccine Caused Brain Damage in Children. Dr. Anthony Fauci on "Vaccine Safety" Issues. globalresearch.ca A lawsuit against the Trudeau Government for its handling of the COVID-19 Crisis has been launched. What is at stake is the violation of fundamental rights of Canadians. | "The mass and indiscriminate containment of citizens, the restriction of access to …

Anand Naidoo (2020-08-01). The Heat: China's Navigation System & U.S. Politics. america.cgtn.com China charts its own course with a new satellite navigation system. And, the surge of COVID-19 cases in the United States. Why health experts say it may only get worse in the weeks ahead.

RT (2020-08-01). Next-level protection: Anti-Covid HELMET uses space technologies to stop virus in its tracks (VIDEO). rt.com Forget about face masks, engineers from Colombia have designed a special helmet similar to those used by astronauts to work as a protection bubble against the coronavirus infection. | The futuristic headgear is intended for use by people who are most vulnerable and who "really live their daily lives with a lot of risk" of getting sick, aeronautical engineer, Andres Felipe Giraldo, told RT's Ruptly video agency. | Yet, according to the helmet's co-creator, Ricardo Andres Conde, it will also fit "anyone who wants to protect him or herself" from the disease, which has already infected around 296,000 and killed ov…

RT (2020-08-01). Russia aims to begin public Covid-19 vaccinations in October, starting with medical workers & teachers — Minister of Health. rt.com Russia expects to start mass anti-coronavirus vaccinations, across the country, by October, the country's health minister has said. Mikhail Murashko added that medical workers and teachers will be given first priority. | Murashko announced on Saturday that clinical trials of a vaccine developed by the Moscow-based Gamalei Institute have been completed and that the health ministry is aiming to begin a public vaccination program in October. Medical personnel and teachers will be the first to receive immunization, he said. "Now, the package of documents for the procedure of registration [of the vaccine] is being…