2021-02-06: News Headlines

Children's Health Defense (2021-02-06). 501 Deaths + 10,748 Other Injuries Reported Following COVID Vaccine, Latest CDC Data Show. globalresearch.ca The numbers reflect the latest data available as of Jan. 29 from the CDC's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System website. Of the 501 reported deaths, 453 were from the U.S. The average age of those who died was 77, the …

Staff (2021-02-06). Biden Aims for US to Produce Millions of At-Home COVID Tests by End of Summer. truthout.org President Biden's pandemic response team announced plans on Friday to use the Defense Production Act to help Pfizer manufacture more of its COVID vaccine, produce 61 million rapid at-home COVID tests over the next six months, and address shortages of personal protective equipment for health care workers. | The Defense Production Act gives the president emergency powers to compel private companies to prioritize supply lines and manufacturing for the benefit of national defense, in this case…

Staff (2021-02-06). Military Metaphors in Health Care Are Harmful — Especially During the Pandemic. truthout.org As the COVID-19 outbreak continues to sweep through the U.S., many have noticed the coupling of military and health. There's been an ongoing conversation amongst oncologists for years about the use of war metaphors in cancer research and treatment. In fact, many public health concerns are framed in these terms — "war on drugs" or "war on poverty," for example. It's argued the use of these metaphors help make it easier for our society to better understand health. But herein lies a follow…

Robert Wheeler (2021-02-06). Vaccine Passports and Health Passes: Is Showing Your "Papers" the "New Normal?" globalresearch.ca First published on December 17, 2021 | Life cannot return to normal until there is a vaccine for COVID 19. | At least, that is what governments, corporations, and their mainstream propaganda media outlets have been incessantly arguing. Interestingly, the development of …

Richard Gale (2021-02-06). The COVID-19 Pandemic as a Psychological Coup d'Etat. globalresearch.ca We have almost reached a full year since the spread of SARS-Cov2 was proclaimed a pandemic. If we are to believe the World Health Organization's and individual governments' official statistics, the number of confirmed cases is reaching 100 million with …

Timothy Alexander Guzman (2021-02-06). Big Pharma and Big Profits: The Multibillion Dollar Vaccine Market. globalresearch.ca First published on January 27, 2016. | Of relevance to an understanding of the Covid Vaccine Initiative | The business of vaccines is soon to become a major source of profits for the world's largest pharmaceutical corporations. A press release (Business Wire, …

Eds. (2021-02-06). Incarcerated and at COVID's mercy: New York must do more for elderly imprisoned people. mronline.org COVID-19 is now raging uncontrolled throughout the United States. New variants that are more easily transmitted have entered the country from the U.K., Brazil and South Africa. Vaccine is scarce.

Get on the Mailing List (2021-02-06). Moscone Center Open for SF Vaccine Appointments. indybay.org The Moscone Convention Center at 747 Howard Street, San Francisco, allows everyone in San Francisco to book an appointment or if none is available, get on the mailing list. The City is partnering with Kaiser to do the COVID19 vaccine.

F. William Engdahl (2021-02-06). What's Not Being Said About the Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine. "Human Guinea Pigs"? globalresearch.ca The Pharma giant Pfizer use an experimental technology known as gene editing, specifically mRNA gene-editing, something never before used in vaccines. Before we rush to get jabbed in hopes of some immunity, we should know more about the radical experimental technology and its lack of precision.

The Local (2021-02-06). Denmark to Roll Out a 'Digital' Vaccine Passport in 3-4 Months. anti-empire.com The exact practical applications of the digital documentation are still under consideration, but its primary purpose is to facilitate a reopening of society. | "We are taking the first steps so that, before the end of February, you will be able to see your vaccination on (online health services platform) Sundhed.dk," acting finance minister Morten Bà∏dskov said. | "In three to four months, the digital corona passport will be ready for use for things like business trips," Bà∏dskov added. | The government and business representatives will decide on the exact applications of the vaccination 'passport' once…

Robert Hughes (2021-02-06). There Are Still 14 Million Americans on Federal Unemployment, Down Just 2 Million From Shutdown High. anti-empire.com Initial claims for regular state unemployment insurance totaled 847,000 for the week ending January 23, down 67,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised tally of 914,000 (see first chart). Claims have been above 800,000 for three consecutive weeks, in the 700,000 to 1 million range for 22 consecutive weeks, and well above the pre-pandemic level of 212,000 in early 2020 for 45 weeks. | The four-week average rose again, up 16,250 to 868,000. The four-week average has drifted higher since hitting a low of 740,500 for the week of November 28, rising in eight of the last ten weeks. Persistent initial claims at su…

yenisafak (2021-02-06). Iran to begin COVID-19 vaccination rollout this week. yenisafak.com The announcement comes amid fears of a fourth wave of the coronavirus that was first reported in Iran February last year, marking one year of the pandemic.The first shipment of Sputnik V vaccine, the only foreign vaccine to be registered and approved in Iran, arrived by Iran's Mahaan Airlines on Thursday.In the first phase of vaccination, Rouhani said high-risk groups including healthcare workers on the frontline, followed by elderly and those with critical ailments, will be administered the vaccine.He said the vaccination program for the entire population of 80 million will take around eight months, as the secon…

Fight Back (2021-02-06). MN labor movement rallies in support of locked out Marathon refinery workers. fightbacknews.org St. Paul Park, MN – On February 4, with wind chill readings below zero, members of a wide collection of unions gathered for an evening rally at the Marathon Refinery picket line, where Teamsters who work at the refinery have been locked out for two weeks after a 24-hour strike. | Union leaders took to the stage and spoke in solidarity with the locked out workers, including several leaders from Teamsters 120, which represents the refinery workers, along with speakers from the Minnesota Nurses Association, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, Laborers Local 563, The Awood Center, AFSCME Local 3800, UFCW 1189 and others. Memb…

R H Behrens, Vipul Patel (2021-02-06). [Correspondence] Avoiding shoulder injury from intramuscular vaccines. thelancet.com With the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccination programmes to tens of millions of people, some individuals might receive vaccines, which have received rigorous safety checks and approval from regulatory bodies, via intramuscular injection. However, the safety around the technique used and the site of injection, in particular, has received little attention. As recommended by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), adults aged 16 years or older will be the main population receiving the intramuscular vaccine.

Richard Lane (2021-02-06). [Perspectives] Tahmeed Ahmed: new leader of icddr,b. thelancet.com It was back in 1985 when Tahmeed Ahmed joined the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, today known as icddr,b, in Dhaka. On Feb 1, 2021, he became icddr,b's new Executive Director, its first leader from within Bangladesh. Before his new role, he was Director of Nutrition and Clinical Services at icddr,b, where he also led the organisation's response to COVID-19. As a distinguished clinician and research leader, Ahmed's career has been defined by public health developments in his country, notably in the areas of cholera treatment and in confronting malnutrition.

_____ (2021-02-06). Biden Says He's Ending The Yemen War. popularresistance.org The February 4 announcement by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan that President Biden would end U.S. support for "offensive operations" in Yemen was understandably met with celebration by those opposed to the war. Almost six years of the U.S.-Saudi‚ÄëU.A.E. war on Yemen have left the country devastated by humanitarian disaster and famine. Anti-war activists have spent these years‚Äâ—‚Äâfirst during the Obama-Biden administration, then the Trump-Pence administration, and now the Biden-Harris administration‚Äâ—…

The Lancet (2021-02-06). [Editorial] Genomic sequencing in pandemics. thelancet.com Advanced genetic sequencing techniques have undoubtedly provided valuable information on the biology and evolution of SARS-CoV-2. Never have the nearly 30‚Äà000 nucleotides of a virus been so closely considered by scientists, public health experts, and politicians alike. But the use and application of genetic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 has varied, risking an insufficient response to a rapidly changing pandemic.

yenisafak (2021-02-06). '1 dose of vaccine for virus survivors will save jabs for millions more'. yenisafak.com In a new study published on Monday, researchers from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York observed that participants who were previously infected with the coronavirus gave an equal or higher antibody response after they were administered the first dose of the mRNA-based vaccine than those did not catch the virus and received two doses of the same vaccine.The study — yet to be peer-reviewed — also found that people who had previously contracted the virus reported unpleasant side effects such as headache, fever, and muscle or joint pain more frequently than those who never had the virus a…

Mary J Warrell (2021-02-06). [Correspondence] Time to revise the strategy for Gavi funding of rabies vaccine? thelancet.com The Global Burden of Disease cause and risk summary on rabies shows the 13‚Äà700 deaths worldwide in 2019, close to the estimated 12‚Äà700 furious rabies cases in India alone.1 Figure 4 of this summary is misleading, especially the key. As there is no surveillance in many of the poorest countries, the global annual deaths quoted by WHO2 of 59‚Äà000 is derivedfrom extensive extrapolation. Rabies encephalomyelitis is always fatal in Asia and Africa. Although prevention of infection by correct vaccination after dog bites is extremely effective, vaccines are often…

Jacqui Thornton (2021-02-06). [World Report] Hopes for trachoma control in South Sudan. thelancet.com Conflict has hampered trachoma control in South Sudan, but there are new plans to map and treat the disease. Jacqui Thornton reports.

thelancet (2021-02-06). [Department of Error] Department of Error. thelancet.com Tonin V. Young people seeking mental-health care. Lancet 2007; 369: 1239—40—In this Comment, the text has been amended at the author's request. This correction has been made to the online version as of Feb 4, 2021.

Rob Yates (2021-02-06). [Correspondence] Pooled public financing is the route to universal health coverage. thelancet.com The recent report1 by the Global Burden of Disease 2019 Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Collaborators is a very valuable contribution about whether the world is moving towards UHC and how it is getting there. The report's index of effective coverage is an excellent measure of whether people are actually using the health services available to them and whether these services are effective.

Gene Bukhman, Ana Mocumbi (2021-02-06). [Correspondence] Universal health coverage for the poorest billion: justice and equity considerations — Authors' reply. thelancet.com As co-chairs of The Lancet NCDI Poverty Commission,1 we thank Jordan Jarvis and Belinda Townsend, and Michelle Amri for their thoughtful comments. Jarvis and Townsend highlight the role of global power arrangements that perpetuate the existence of extreme poverty. Specifically, they refer to the examples of tax avoidance by multinational corporations that starve the poorest countries of potential revenue, and the influence of billionaires on a global health agenda that has excluded non-communicable disease and injury (NCDI) poverty.

Michelle M Amri (2021-02-06). [Correspondence] Universal health coverage for the poorest billion: justice and equity considerations. thelancet.com Gene Bukhman and colleagues' work in The Lancet NCDI Poverty Commission is certainly important, particularly for the "world's poorest people".1 However, how the non-communicable disease and injury (NCDI) Poverty Network seeks to apply the Commission's work on NCDI poverty2 has room for additional consideration around justice and equity.

Udani Samarasekera (2021-02-06). [World Report] Relocated Rohingya face uncertain health-care provision. thelancet.com Bangladesh is moving refugees to an uninhabited island, but non-governmental organisations warn of the lack of health-care provision and coordination. Udani Samarasekera reports.

Jessica Corbett (2021-02-06). Scientists Warn of 'Ghastly Future' Unless Policymakers Act Now. zcomm.org 17 scientists called for a World War II-type mobilization to prevent a future of mass extinction, declining health, climate-disruption upheavals and resource conflicts…

yenisafak (2021-02-06). New coronavirus variants cause concern in Spain. yenisafak.com While the peak of Spain's third wave appears to have passed, new variants are causing unease as Madrid confirmed Spain's first ever case of the Brazil variant on Friday.Spain has now detected all three of the variants that have alarmed health officials worldwide.The mutant virus was detected in a 44-year-old man who had flown into the Madrid airport from Brazil. He presented a negative PCR test upon arrival on Jan. 29, but officials gave him a rapid test and discovered he was contagious.After sequencing the virus, scientists can now confirm that he was carrying the variant, which some studies suggest increases th…

Richard Gale (2021-02-06). Vaccination's Dilemma: Unsafe at Any Dose. globalresearch.ca This incisive article first published in May 2016 analyses the issue of mandatory vaccination. | The CDC and advocates for mandatory vaccination consistently repeat a dangerous mantra that finds no warranted basis in medical science. This monolithic industry, now a massive …

Richard Gale (2021-02-06). Can We Trust the World Health Organization (WHO)? globalresearch.ca First published on May 6, 2020 | Many more questions are being raised than there are answers being discovered concerning the recent strains of coronavirus. Where and how did it originate? Was it the result of human engineering and manipulation or …

Ralph Nader (2021-02-05). The Struggle Inside Senator Mitch McConnell's Brain. counterpunch.org Since 2015, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell has ruled the Senate with an iron hand, describing himself as "the Guardian of Gridlock." He was Senator "NO," except for confirming over 200 mostly corporatist federal judges. Now comes a new challenge for Mitch McConnell as he leads 49 other Republican Senators, twenty of whom are up

Staff (2021-02-05). "A Moral Catastrophe": Africa CDC Head Says Lack of Vaccines for the Continent Will Imperil World. democracynow.org Countries across the African continent are facing a second COVID-19 outbreak, linked to a variant first found in South Africa that has been detected in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Comoros and Zambia and more than 20 non-African countries so far. There is concern new variants, which scientists believe are more infectious, could spread the virus further before widespread vaccination begins. More than 40 African countries have been hit by this second wave, and just six have received relatively small shipments of vaccines. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says the world…

_____ (2021-02-05). Radiation Illnesses And COVID-19 In The Navajo Nation. popularresistance.org The COVID-19 pandemic is wiping out Indigenous elders and with them the cultural identity of Indigenous communities in the United States. But on lands that sprawl across a vast area of the American West, the Navajo (or Diné) are dealing not just with the pandemic, but also with another, related public health crisis. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says COVID-19 is killing Native Americans at nearly three times the rate of whites, and on the Navajo Nation itself, about 30,000 people have tested positive for the coronavirus and roughly 1,000 have died. But among the Diné, the coronavirus is also s…

Ryan Cristián (2021-02-05). CDC's COVID Death Count Sleight Of Hand & How Microsoft's ID2020 Is Being Fulfilled Because COVID. thelastamericanvagabond.com Welcome to The Daily Wrap Up, a concise show dedicated to bringing you the most relevant independent news, as we see it, from the last 24 hours (2/5/21). As always, take the information discussed in the video below and research it for yourself, and come to your own conclusions. Anyone telling you what the truth

Lynn Stuart Parramore (2021-02-05). Epidemic of Despair Could Haunt America Long After COVID. zcomm.org Researchers worry the pandemic may have severe after-effects, with deaths of despair impacting more distressed and newly-vulnerable populations…

David Rovics (2021-02-05). Remembering Anne Feeney. dissidentvoice.org On February 3rd, 2021, Anne Feeney died in the hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her children at her side. She was 69 years old. She was a cancer survivor in poor physical health when she fell and broke her back a month ago, and in the hospital she contracted Covid-19, then pneumonia.Although Anne died too …

RT (2021-02-05). WHO appeals to Covid-19 vaccine developers to share manufacturing sites for a 'massive scale-up' of jab production. rt.com Drug companies should share their manufacturing sites to boost the global rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday. | "Last week, Sanofi announced it would make its manufacturing infrastructure available to support production of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. We call on other companies to follow this example," the WHO chief told a news briefing. | Ghebreyesus said some 130 countries, comprising 2.5 billion people, have still not started administering Covid-19 vaccines and that the world needs a "massive scale-up in product…

Marc Norton (2021-02-05). Covering up Workplace Covid-19. dissidentvoice.org The San Francisco Chronicle ran an excellent article on Sunday, January 31 about the failure of the California Public Health Department (CDPH) to abide by state law requiring the agency to disclose information about COVID-19 outbreaks in the workplace, and about the failure of county public health departments, including San Francisco, to disclose information about …

WSWS (2021-02-05). Police arrest twelve activists demanding housing for the homeless in Olympia, Washington. wsws.org The housing crisis is more critical than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite their negative impact on public health, evictions across the country continue to add to the growing numbers of homeless people in the population.

imperial.ac.uk (2021-02-05). Exposure to misinformation could make people refuse a COVID-19 vaccine. imperial.ac.uk Exposure to online misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines could reduce vaccine uptake, threatening the goal of herd immunity.

RT (2021-02-05). Will AI save us from Covid-19? New tool can churn out vaccine models in minutes, not months. rt.com Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have unveiled an incredibly powerful, AI-powered method for producing new potential Covid-19 vaccine candidates in a matter of minutes or even seconds. | The new process, developed at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, could mark a major turning point in the information war against the coronavirus and its many, increasingly virulent mutations which are taxing an already challenging worldwide vaccine rollout. | The USC team leveraged artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up vaccine analysis which can be quickly and easily adapted to analyze viral mu…

RT (2021-02-05). UK announces new vaccine plan for mutant Covid strains with a further 50 million doses, as France misses out on 'French' jab. rt.com The UK government has announced a new partnership with German vaccine manufacturer CureVac to "rapidly develop" jabs to protect against new Covid-19 variants, taking the country's total vaccine order to 457 million doses. | In a statement, the government said that the vaccines it is already administering — those developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca/Oxford University — are effective against variants currently dominant in the UK, but the new agreement focuses on responding "rapidly" to inoculate against newer viral strains not yet in circulation. | "The new agreement will utilise UK expertise o…

Beau Peters (2021-02-05). Racism in Food Systems and the Vegan Community. dissidentvoice.org Racism is one of the major social justice issues of the modern era. It can be seen in all corners of the globe, and in virtually every industry, negatively impacting minority communities and overall public health. The global food system is no exception. As a niche dietary movement, veganism is particularly problematic, with various news …

Eve Ottenberg (2021-02-05). About Those Executive Orders… counterpunch.org A strange stasis now characterizes U.S. foreign affairs, while on the domestic front, Biden roars ahead. As of January 29, he had signed 42 executive orders. Not one addresses what the U.S. does abroad. True, Biden made the superb move of resuming negotiations over the START nuclear treaty with Russia, and he rejoined the Paris Accords and the World Health Organization. But otherwise, quiet blankets the foreign policy landscape.

Alex Lawson (2021-02-05). The So-Called Moderna Vaccine Is a Publicly Funded Miracle. zcomm.org We could face another global shutdown from a new vaccine-resistant variant of the virus unless we successfully arrest the pandemic with an effective vaccine today…

Dean Baker (2021-02-05). Should People Who Want to Save the World from the Pandemic Be Demanding We Pay China to Produce Billions of Vaccine Doses? cepr.net I have written repeatedly on how we should have been looking for a collective solution to the pandemic, where countries open-source their research and allow anyone with manufacturing capacity to produce any treatment, test, or vaccine. (We pay upfront, like with Moderna, for those wondering why anyone would do the work.) Anyhow, we obviously did …

Staff (2021-02-05). Headlines for February 5, 2021. democracynow.org President Biden Pledges to End U.S. Support for "Catastrophic" War in Yemen, Johnson & Johnson Asks FDA for Emergency Authorization of Single-Shot COVID-19 Vaccine, Poll Reveals 25% of U.S. Adults Plan to Gather at Super Bowl Watch Parties, VP Harris Casts Tie-Breaking Vote to Move Ahead with Democratic COVID Relief Bill, Democrats Call on Biden to Cancel Student Debt Up to $50,000, House Removes Marjorie Taylor Greene from Committees over Violent, Bigoted Rhetoric, AOC Calls for Expulsion of Rep. Greene from House, Warns Against Dismissing Insurrection Survivors, Smartmatic Sues Fox News, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney P…

Shadi Saleh, Hady Naal, Ali H. Mokdad (2021-02-05). [Commentary] It's all in the details: A call for administering the COVID-19 vaccine in Lebanon through a transparent and un-politicized collaborative approach. thelancet.com Lebanon is a small low-to middle-income country located in the Eastern Mediterranean whose history is rife with conflicts and political corruption that compromised, and are currently threatening, its stability and development [1]. Two recent events significantly exposed decades of inherent corruption and its dysfunctional system: a severe economic crisis that is arguably the worst since the 1930s Great Depression, and the tragic Beirut Port explosion which resulted in hundreds of thousands of damaged homes, thousands of injuries, and hundreds of deaths [2].

news.un (2021-02-05). Dispatch of millions of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa expected to start in February: WHO. news.un.org The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday the joint UN-led COVAX initiative aims to start shipping about 90 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa in February, in what will be the continent's largest ever mass vaccination campaign.

RT (2021-02-05). Vaccine heist? Florida man steals car with $10,000 worth of anti-Covid jabs, triggering nationwide alert. rt.com Police in Florida are on the lookout for a thief who made off with a car filled with dozens of vials of coronavirus vaccine worth some $10,000, posting a nationwide alert in their hunt for the suspect. | A vehicle stolen from the Strawberry Festival Grounds in Plant City, Florida — roughly 25 miles east of Tampa — on Wednesday contained 30 vials of the immunization, a local NBC affiliate The Plant City Police Department issued a statement on the incid…

_____ (2021-02-05). Russian Covid-19 Vaccine Vindicated Despite Western 'Pandemic' of Russophobia. strategic-culture.org Maybe after the novel coronavirus is eradicated, scientists should next work on a serum that immunizes people from irrational Russophobia. | In a stunning success this week, the Russian-made Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine was proven to be highly effective and safe. In a study published by the prestigious Lancet medical journal, the Russian vaccine was found to be effective against 91.6 per cent of symptomatic Covid-19 cases. | Sputnik V was originally given