Daily Archives: January 19, 2021

2021-01-19: News Headlines

Staff (2021-01-19). Michigan Governor Charged With "Willful Neglect of Duty" in Flint Water Scandal. truthout.org Former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and eight other former officials were charged last Thursday in a sweeping criminal investigation into the Flint water crisis. Snyder faces two charges of willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor. In 2014, Flint's unelected emergency manager, appointed by then-Governor Snyder, switched the city's water supply to the Flint River as a cost-saving measure. The move has been linked to at least 12 deaths from an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease and widespread lead…

Staff (2021-01-19). U.S. Rep. Tlaib: "Israel Is a Racist State That Would Deny Palestinians Like My Grandmother a Vaccine" democracynow.org Israel has been hailed as having the world's most vaccinated population, but Palestinians are not included. Human Rights Watch and others have called on Israeli authorities to provide COVID-19 vaccines to the more than 4.5 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. "Israel is a racist state," responds Congressmember Rashida Talib of Michigan, who is Palestinian American and one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress and says her Palestinian grandmother was denied access to a vaccine. "I hope my colleagues, I hope our country, sees what the Palestinians have been trying to tell us for a…

MEE and agencies (2021-01-19). Covid-19: Palestinians to receive first batch of Russian vaccine by weekend. middleeasteye.net Covid-19: Palestinians to receive first batch of Russian vaccine by weekend | The Palestinian health ministry has approved Sputnik V vaccine for domestic use, making it 'the first country in the Middle East' to do so | Tue, 01/19/2021 – 14: 15 | Palestinian health workers collect random swab samples from people to test for the Covid-19 coronavirus in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on 1…

Staff (2021-01-19). Flint Residents Still Sick as Former Michigan Gov. Faces "Willful Neglect" Charges in Water Scandal. democracynow.org Former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and eight other former officials were charged last Thursday in a sweeping criminal investigation into the Flint water crisis. Snyder faces two charges of willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor. In 2014, Flint's unelected emergency manager, appointed by then-Governor Snyder, switched the city's water supply to the Flint River as a cost-saving measure. The move has been linked to at least 12 deaths from an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease and widespread lead poisoning in residents, including children, in the majority-Black city. "It is really important that many of those electe…

Marko Marjanoviƒá (2021-01-19). Mass Call Up of Unarmed Troops Needed to Battle Terrorists During a Plague That Necessitates Everyone Stays at Home. anti-empire.com Oh look, The Powers That Be couldn't get real people to turn out for Biden so they're planting flags so it wouldn't look so. No no, that can't be right. That's way too cynical of me. Surely there are hundreds of thousands of people who would love to attend the inauguration but sadly the establishment must turn them away because there is a deadly invisible virus out there, that nonetheless did not preclude them from calling up 20,000 federalized National Guard soldiers that have nowhere to sleep but on top of each other. But that was necessary because of the grave "domestic terrorist" threat from the unpopular "an…

Peoples Dispatch (2021-01-19). Citing famine, UN urges reversal of terrorist designation for Yemen's Houthis; U.S. refuses. mronline.org Mark Lowcock of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned that recent labeling of Houthis as a terrorist organization by the U.S. would likely trigger a "famine on a scale we have not seen in 40 years.

Editor (2021-01-19). Patching up capitalism during COVID. workers.org On Jan. 21, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the first recognized case of COVID-19 in the U.S. One year later, over 400,000 people in the country are dead from the virus — the equivalent of wiping out the entire population of Cleveland, Ohio, or Tampa, Fla. . . . |

Staff (2021-01-19). Headlines for January 19, 2021. democracynow.org WHO Warns of "Catastrophic Moral Failure" as Wealthy Nations Hoard Vaccines, U.S. COVID-19 Death Toll Passes 400,000, New York Seeks Vaccines Directly from Pfizer After HHS Fails on Promise to Distribute Doses, FBI to Vet 25,000 National Guard Troops Deploying to Washington, D.C., for Inauguration, FBI Arrests More Far-Right Militia Leaders, White Supremacists Over Capitol Attack, New Yorker Footage Shows How Insurrectionists Breached Senate Chamber on Jan. 6, Senate to Begin Confirmation Hearings for Joe Biden Cabinet Nominees, Biden Executive Orders on Day 1 to Reverse Many of Trump's Most Contentious Actions,…

Kathy Kelly (2021-01-19). About Suffering: A Massacre of the Innocents in Yemen. commondreams.org The United Nations estimates the war has already caused 233,000 deaths, including 131,000 deaths from indirect causes such as lack of food, health services and infrastructure. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

Mike Konczal (2021-01-19). When Medicare Helped Kill Jim Crow. thenation.com When Medicare Helped Kill Jim Crow…

Rathi VK. (2021-01-19). Physician Performance in the Medicare Merit-based Incentive Payment System. jamanetwork.com To the Editor In their recent article, Dr Johnston and colleagues reported that health system affiliation was associated with significantly better performance scores and more favorable value-based reimbursement for clinicians participating in the inaugural payment year (2019) of the Medicare Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). Even though this program may accelerate clinician consolidation within health systems, I believe their findings may be overstated for 3 reasons.

Johnston KJ, Hockenberry JM, Joynt Maddox KE. (2021-01-19). Physician Performance in the Medicare Merit-based Incentive Payment System—Reply. jamanetwork.com In Reply We agree with Dr Rathi's main observation about our recent article that the financial incentives were small in the MIPS 2019 performance year, and the performance threshold for avoiding a payment penalty was low. In fact, the performance threshold was so low in 2019 that only clinicians who did not comply with the MIPS (did not report any performance measures to the CMS) received payment penalties.

Ali Khan (2021-01-19). U.S. Needs to Quickly Ramp Up Vaccinations. zcomm.org Please Help ZNet Source: Democracy Now! As the United States breaks all records for coronavirus cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns another 92,000 could die in the next three weeks as complaints grow over the slow distribution of COVID vaccines. Across the country, hospitals are overflowing, and ICU beds are in short

WSWS (2021-01-19). The global COVID vaccination distribution debacle is mirrored in the US. wsws.org The global vaccination distribution has been characterized as a "catastrophic moral failure" by the WHO's director-general. Despite the US predominance in access to these life-saving vaccines, its national vaccine initiative has been a dismal disaster.

news.un (2021-01-19). UN agencies supporting mammoth India COVID-19 vaccine rollout. news.un.org India has begun what is the world's biggest COVID vaccination campaign so far, deploying hundreds of thousands of health workers, with the training and support of the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

Children's Health Defense (2021-01-19). China Health Experts Call for Suspension of COVID Vaccines as Norway Investigates 33 Deaths, Germany Probes 10 Deaths. globalresearch.ca Norway upped the number of deaths under investigation, from 23 last week to 33, while in Germany, health officials said they are investigating 10 deaths that occurred among elderly patients who received the COVID vaccine. | *** | China health experts say …

news.un (2021-01-19). Independent panel finds critical early failings in COVID-19 response. news.un.org The global system for pandemic alert and response is "not fit for purpose", highlighting the need for a new framework in the wake of COVID-19, experts appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) said in an interim report presented on Tuesday.

Jesse Smith (2021-01-19). Dystopia Now! — Surveillance Through Vaccine Certificates, Digital IDs, and Biometric Data. globalresearch.ca With the pandemic, the "digital transformation" that so many analysts have been referring to for years, without being exactly sure what it meant, has found its catalyst. One major effect of confinement will be the expansion and progression of the …

Dr. Richard Schabas (2021-01-19). We're Being Locked-down for an Infection Fatality Rate of Less than 0.2%? Dr. Richard Schabas to Ontario Premier Doug Ford. globalresearch.ca Below is an important letter from former Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Richard Schabas, addressed to Ontario Premier Doug Ford. | "The national lockdown was never part of our planned pandemic response nor is it supported by strong …

Jasmine Norden (2021-01-19). Rich countries hoarding vaccines could increase the global death rate. thecanary.co The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned of " At a WHO board meeting, director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was worried about the ability of the WHO's vaccine initiative to provide the doses it aimed for. | More than 39 million doses of vaccine have now been administered in a…

Kenny Stancil (2021-01-19). WHO Chief Denounces Vaccine-Hoarding by Rich Nations. zcomm.org "The price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world's poorest countries."

Dr. Peter Doshi (2021-01-19). British Medical Journal: Pfizer and Moderna's "95% Effective" Vaccines—Let's be Cautious and First See the Full Data. globalresearch.ca The following are excerpts of an important article published by the British Medical Journal. The author Dr Peter Doshi is associate editor of The BMJ. | In the United States, all eyes are …

Kenny Stancil (2021-01-19). Warning world is on 'brink of a catastrophic moral failure,' WHO chief denounces vaccine-hoarding by rich nations. nationofchange.org "The price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world's poorest countries."

WSWS (2021-01-19). Ukraine begs Europe for coronavirus vaccine. wsws.org While still providing military backing to the Kiev government in its ongoing civil war with Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, US and European imperialism have refused to provide even minimal vaccine assistance to the poorest country in Europe.

Levitt L. (2021-01-19). The Language of Health Care Reform. jamanetwork.com This Viewpoint posits that the US will engage in another debate about health care reform to consider expanding coverage, improving affordability, and containing costs.

Kuehn BM. (2021-01-19). Drop in Vaccination Causes Surge in Global Measles Cases, Deaths. jamanetwork.com Failure to vaccinate children against measles has led to a 556% surge in the number of reported cases and a 50% increase in deaths from the disease since 2016, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Kuehn BM. (2021-01-19). Monthly Malaria Prophylaxis Cuts Child Deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa. jamanetwork.com Treating children in sub-Saharan Africa's malaria-endemic areas with a monthly preventive drug regimen during the rainy season reduced children's deaths from the disease by up to 57%, a study found.

Paul Dobson (2021-01-18). Guaido Accused of Blocking Vaccines as Venezuela Sends Covid-19 Aid to Brazil. venezuelanalysis.com 107 doctors and 14,000 oxygen tanks have been sent on a humanitarian convoy to Manaus, Brazil.

Staff (2021-01-18). Palestine Refugees Are Forced to the Back of the COVID Vaccine Line. truthout.org As the world races to vaccinate against COVID-19, Israel has been touted for having one of the fastest response rates. The country has, as of January 1, 2021, already vaccinated 10 percent of its 9 million citizens and predicts another 2 million will be vaccinated by the end of the month. While these are laudable statistics, Palestinians living in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and in the Gaza Strip have been explicitly excluded, including health care workers on the front lines of the COVID-…

Workers World staff (2021-01-18). COVID-19: How weaponizing disease and vaccine wars are failing us. workers.org Join Popular Resistance and the International Action Center Tuesday, Jan 26, for a webinar featuring authors of the new book: "Capitalism on a Ventilator: The impact of COVID-19 in China & the U.S." COVID-19: How weaponizing disease and vaccine wars are failing us Tuesday, Jan 26 8pm ET/5pm PT To . . . |

Anti-Empire (2021-01-18). The NYT: Vaccine "Risk-Benefit Analysis" for Pregnant Women, Those Unlikely to Become Seriously Ill "Not Clear Cut" anti-empire.com The NYT publishes four articles from doctors under a

RT (2021-01-18). 'Global pandemic alert system not fit for purpose': WHO report critical of China's & its own responses to Covid crisis. rt.com China, other governments and the WHO itself didn't act fast and decisively enough against the novel coronavirus, allowing it to become a pandemic, an interim report by an independent WHO panel on the handling of the crisis states. | "What is clear to the panel is that public health measures could have been applied more forcefully by local and national health authorities in China in January," the panel, led by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, noted. | The first cluster of Covid-19 cases, in Wuhan, was reported to the WHO's China office on Decembe…

Lars Erik Taraldsen (2021-01-18). As People Die After Vaccinations Comorbidities, Age Suddenly Matter Again. anti-empire.com Health authorities in Norway sought to allay safety concerns raised by the death of some elderly patients after they were vaccinated against Covid-19, saying there's no evidence of a direct link. | The

Eds. (2021-01-18). COVID-19: How the world fought in 2020. mronline.org In December 2019, China's Wuhan city witnessed an abnormal rise of what was initially thought to be cases of pneumonia, as identified by the Wuhan Municipality Health Commission. However, upon further investigation by Chinese officials, a novel coronavirus was identified. By then the city's health system was already dealing with dozens of cases of coronavirus.

Human Rights Watch (2021-01-18). Israel must Provide Vaccines to Occupied Palestinians: HRW says Over 4.5 Million in West Bank, Gaza Excluded From Vaccination Push. juancole.com ( Human Rights Watch) — (Jerusalem) — Israeli authorities should provide Covid-19 vaccines to the more than 4.5 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Human Rights Watch said today. While Israel has already vaccinated more than 20 percent of its citizens, including Jewish settlers in the West Bank, it has not …

Rohit Anand (2021-01-18). It's Time to End Abhorrent Medical Debt That Consumes Families. commondreams.org With the current challenges of millions of people losing their jobs, losing their source of income, and becoming ill with COVID-19, medical debt will increase even further from the 56% of adults who struggle with it prior to the pandemic. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

Ryan Cristián (2021-01-18). Top Epidemiologist Speaks Out About COVID Vaccine Side-Effects & Major Study Challenges Lockdowns. 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 (1/18/21). 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

Children's Health Defense (2021-01-18). 'Perfectly Healthy' Florida Doctor Dies Weeks After Getting Pfizer COVID Vaccine. globalresearch.ca Miami medical examiner is investigating the death of 56-year-old Dr. Gregory Michael who reportedly died from a rare autoimmune disease 15 days after being vaccinated. Michael's wife wants her husband's death to serve as a warning to others. | *** | The …

Marco Cáceres (2021-01-18). No Evidence COVID-19 Vaccines Will Block Spread of Coronavirus. globalresearch.ca On Nov. 9, 2020, Pfizer, Inc. announced that the experimental messenger RNA (mRNA) BNT162b2 vaccine for COVID-19 it developed in partnership with Germany's BioNTech SE had an efficacy rate of 90 percent, based on the results of human clinical trials …

teleSUR (2021-01-18). Brazil To Use Sinovac and Astrazeneca COVID-19 Vaccines. telesurenglish.net Brazil's Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA) unanimously approved on Sunday the emergency use of the CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine and the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford vaccine. | RELATED: | The decision will allow the Brazilian government to start its vaccination plan with 6 million doses of the CoronaVac vaccine, which was developed by the Chinese laboratory Sinovac and the Butantan Institute of Sao Paulo. | "The…

Steve Watson (2021-01-18). Microsoft, Big Tech Coalition Developing Rockefeller Funded COVID Vaccine Passports. globalresearch.ca A coalition of big tech companies, including Microsoft is The group is calling …

teleSUR (2021-01-18). Argentina Begins To Distribute the Second Dose of Sputnik V. telesurenglish.net Argentina began on Monday the distribution of 300,000 Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines to complete the vaccination of those who received the first dose on December 29. | RELATED: | As of Friday, this South American nation had applied 200,759 out of 300,000 doses of the Russian vaccine it received last year. | The national vaccination campaign's first stage is focused on citizens between the ages of 18 and 59 who work in hospitals,…

James Corbett (2021-01-18). Video: How Bill Gates Monopolized Global Health. The Vaccine. globalresearch.ca First posted in May 2020, James Corbett documents the devastating impacts of the Covid-19 vaccine | *** | Who is Bill Gates? A software developer? A businessman? A philanthropist? A global health expert? | This question, once merely academic, is becoming a very …

Barbara Loe Fisher (2021-01-18). WHO: No Guarantee COVID Vaccines Will Prevent People from Being Infected. globalresearch.ca At a virtual press conference held by the World Health Organization officials warned there is no clear evidence COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing asymptomatic infection and transmission. | *** | At a

WSWS (2021-01-18). Philippines records first case of new COVID-19 strain. wsws.org The authorities have ruled out introducing more stringent lockdown measures and travel bans, with government officials declaring that they "want to balance health with the economy."

teleSUR (2021-01-18). Venezuela Inaugurates Ozone Science Center. telesurenglish.net Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday inaugurated the National Ozone Science Center (CENAOZ), a modern facility that aims to promote health strategies based on ozone therapy. | RELATED: | "Today we inaugurate the CENAOZ headquarters. The ozone therapy will contribute to the medical protocols that have been established for the cure of COVID-19," Maduro said. | "The ozone therapy will be present in all the count…

Thomas Stephens (2021-01-18). Moving Forward with Accountability and Justice. counterpunch.org The deep and multifaceted social/biological/political crises that characterize the 21st century are primed to intensify in the coming days, weeks, months and years. Deadly social catastrophes and explosions in train of the frankly incompetent public health response to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, and the right wing mob's deadly storming of the US Capitol on

teleSUR (2021-01-18). Mexico to Cut Pfizer Vaccine Imports to Supply Poor Countries. telesurenglish.net Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) Sunday informed his government will reduce the U.S. Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine imports so that poorer countries have greater access to it. | RELATED: | "We agree that Pfizer doses should be reduced so that the United Nations (UN) can distribute them equally to poor countries," AMLO said. | Despite this decision, the government's vaccination plan does not stop. Me…

Adam Dick (2021-01-18). Drawing Lots with Coronavirus Vaccination. globalresearch.ca There were delays and some people were turned away at San Diego's new "Vaccination Super Station" near PetCo Park on Wednesday after, in a short time period, six people had allergic reactions after receiving their experimental coronavirus vaccine shots. | In …

Catherine Austin Fitts (2021-01-18). The Injection Fraud — It's Not a Vaccine. globalresearch.ca Of relevance to the debate on vaccines, this incisive and carefully researched article was first published by Global Research on May 28. 2020 | *** | I am not a scientist. I am not a doctor. I am not a biotech engineer. …