Daily Archives: January 27, 2021

2021-01-27: News Headlines

Online News Editor (2021-01-28). Argentine province's anti-Covid measures at center of HR controversy. laprensalatina.com By Rodrigo Garcia Buenos Aires, Jan 27 (efe-epa).- The health strategy of the Argentine province of Formosa to obligate people showing any symptoms of Covid-19, and even those without symptoms, to enter detainment centers has sparked heated nationwide controversy with citizens' protests, accusations of human rights violations and warnings from Amnesty International. By far, Formosa, …

Online News Editor (2021-01-28). EU: Lack of clarity on AstraZeneca vaccine but constructive talks with firm. laprensalatina.com (Update: changes headline; re-ledes with results of meeting between Kyriakides, AstraZeneca CEO; adds details) Brussels, Jan 27 (efe-epa).- The European Commission on Wednesday lamented the "lack of clarity" from AstraZeneca after "constructive" talks between the company's CEO and the European Union's commissioner for Health and Food Safety on when the EU can expect delivery of …

Staff (2021-01-27). MIA: Where Have All the Vaccines Gone? CDC Says Only Half of Shots Feds Sent to States Were Used. democracynow.org January has become the deadliest month of the pandemic in the United States, with at least 80,000 deaths from COVID-19 so far, and public health experts worry new, more contagious variants of the coronavirus could make things worse. President Joe Biden has announced plans to acquire another 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, aiming to vaccinate most people in the U.S. by summer, but vaccine distribution continues to be a problem. The Daily Beast reports that of the 41 million vaccine doses handed out to states, fewer than 22 million have been administered. Meanwhile, many states report running out of vaccine…

teleSUR (2021-01-27). Ecuador Closes Illegal Clinic Selling Fake COVID-19 Vaccines. telesurenglish.net Ecuador's Police on Tuesday shut down a clandestine clinic that administered nearly 70,000 doses of fake COVID-19 vaccines in Quito. | RELATED: | The clinic, which provided its patients with an unknown substance making them believe it cured the disease, was closed down after complaints from neighbors. | According to the capital's Security Secretary Cesar Diaz, the establishment was formally registered as a spa and slimming massage cen…

RT (2021-01-27). Norway to SHUT BORDERS to all except essential travelers to halt spread of Covid-19 variants, PM says. rt.com All foreign arrivals apart from travelers on essential journeys will be banned from entering Norway as of midnight on Friday, in an effort to contain the spread of Covid-19 variants, Prime Minister Erna Solberg said on Wednesday. | "In practice, the border will be closed to anyone not living in Norway," Solberg told a news conference. She also promised that border controls, virus testing and quarantining would be more strictly enforced. | The few exceptions to the travel shutdown include Swedish and Finnish workers in the Norwegian health service, as well as those in key sectors such as haulage. | However most…

imperial.ac.uk (2021-01-27). Imperial expert addresses COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK. imperial.ac.uk An Imperial expert has addressed public concerns over the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in a wide-ranging interview.

Peoples Dispatch (2021-01-27). Belgian Workers Party slams Pfizer's profit motive in COVID-19 vaccine sale. peoplesdispatch.org Pfizer Inc. is accused of aiming for more profits by not ensuring the delivery of the promised quantity of COVID-19 vaccines after it was found that medics could draw six doses of vaccine per bottle instead of the expected five doses…

Reshma Ramachandran, Zoey Thill (2021-01-27). We Already Paid for These Vaccines Once. thenation.com We Already Paid for These Vaccines Once…

alexander (2021-01-27). Different Models, Single Payer: Health Care for All. dsausa.org We often look to Canada as an example of how Single Payer Medicare for All (SP) could function in the United States. Like Medicare for people over 65 and people with disabilities, Canadian Medicare is federally funded. Unlike U.S. Medicare, each Canadian province or territory manages its own program. | But there is another model we look at less frequently: SP in Taiwan. There, the Ministry of Health and Welfare determines the global budget and negotiates fees for medical services and supplies and keeps administrative costs low for the National Health Insurance (NHI). Stakeholders are involved in the budget pro…

mgrochowski (2021-01-27). DSA Q&A feat. Medicare for All. dsausa.org Interested in DSA but haven't joined yet? Looking to get involved in the fights to stop evictions, win Medicare for All, or defund the police, but unsure how to get started? Frustrated with the limited possibilities of national, top-down politics and looking for an alternative? Join DSA leaders from across the country to talk about…

Mark Gruenberg (2021-01-27). PPE shortages and right wing threats hamper anti-pandemic fight. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON —A continued shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), slow distribution of anti-virus vaccines, and right-wing hate are combining to hamper the national fight to curb the coronavirus pandemic, a group of union nurses says. And while the RNs, members of National Nurses United, brought those problems to the California congressional delegation, they easily apply …

Yanis Iqbal (2021-01-27). Bolivarian Healthcare: An Alternative to Neoliberal Healthcare. zcomm.org Without the end of capitalism, no movement toward a just healthcare system can take place since the profit-maximizing impulse will always impede any such attempt…

John Clamp (2021-01-27). Famine Approaching: Tigray, Ethiopia. counterpunch.org First, the locusts came. It was hard to discern the impact. That's because Donald Trump was doing something stupid at the time, closely watched by the world's media. Then, on November 4, 2020, came the soldiers, the looting, the press gangs, and the rapine. If you don't know where I'm talking about, it's because only

Natalie Shure (2021-01-27). Bernie Sanders Is Right, and Joe Biden Is Wrong. We Still Need Medicare for All. zcomm.org Joe Biden and the Democratic establishment refuse to push Medicare for All even as COVID-19 continues to ravage the country…

RT (2021-01-27). Biden vows to procure vaccines for 300 million Americans by summer, but says masks 'best defense' against Covid-19 for now. rt.com US President Joe Biden said his administration will soon buy another 200 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine, set for delivery this summer, but added that masks, not inoculations, are the "best defense" in the coming months. | The president said on Tuesday that he directed his Covid-19 response coordinator, Jeff Zients, to begin working with Pfizer and Moderna for the purchases, hoping to boost the country's total vaccine supply from 400 million to 600 million shots by summertime. | "We believe we'll soon be able to confirm the purchase of an additional 100 million doses for each of the two FDA authorized…

RT (2021-01-27). Bill Gates shocked by Covid conspiracy theories about him and Fauci, suggests social media firms may help censor such 'evil' talk. rt.com Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is looking to possibly enlist the help of Big Tech to help censor offending online voices after he and US Covid-19 czar Anthony Fauci were victimized by "evil" conspiracy theories. | "Nobody would have predicted that I and Dr. Fauci would be so prominent in really kind of evil theories about — did we create the pandemic, are we trying to profit from it? — and on and on," Gates Gates, whose foundation has committed upward of $1.75 billion to help fight th…

Online News Editor (2021-01-27). Portugal health system struggling as daily Covid deaths hit 293. laprensalatina.com Lisbon, Jan 27 (efe-epa).- Portugal is reaching its maximum hospital capacity as health authorities on Wednesday recorded a new record number of 293 deaths in a single day and dozens had to be transferred from hospitals as oxygen systems failed to match demand. The current wave of Covid-19 in the Atlantic nation, which weathered the …

Online News Editor (2021-01-27). Covid-19 vaccine to be available in Eastern Mediterranean in February. laprensalatina.com Cairo, Jan 27 (efe-epa).- The Eastern Mediterranean region will receive Covid-19 vaccines in February, with plans to reach 25 million doses in March, through the Covax facility, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday. "We know that by February we will start to have some doses and we will reach about 25 million doses in …

Online News Editor (2021-01-27). Mexico's Covid death toll 56 pct. more than reported for Jan.-Aug. 2020. laprensalatina.com Mexico City, Jan 27 (efe-epa).- Mexico suffered 108,658 confirmed Covid-19 deaths in the first eight months of 2020, a figure 55.56 percent greater than the 69,849 deaths reported by health authorities, according to a report released on Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) based on official lists of deaths and death …

The Canary (2021-01-27). UK's handling of pandemic labelled 'system failure' by public health expert. thecanary.co There was a "system failure" in the UK's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a public health expert has said.Professor Linda Bauld said the UK was underprepared for a virus like Covid-19, and Europe failed to learn from how south-east Asian countries responded to the pandemic.She said some of the decisions made in the UK "directly contributed" to the second wave, as she described the failure to ramp up contact tracing in March as a "fundamental mistake".Prof Bauld, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, was speaking after the number of UK coronavirus deaths passed 100,000. | She told BBC Rad…

sputniknews (2021-01-27). Vaccine War! EU Demands AstraZeneca Hand Over 75m UK-Made COVID-19 Jabs. sputniknews.com The UK's coronavirus vaccination programme is five times more advanced than the EU's, with 10 per cent of the British population inoculated versus just two per cent across the 27-member bloc. the European Commission's response has been to restrict exports of jabs to non-EU countries.

Mehr News Agency (2021-01-27). Total lockdown imposed in central Peru as COVID-19 surges. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Jan. 27 (MNA) — Peru introduced strict new measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the wake of the death of a vaccine volunteer who was given a placebo rather than the actual vaccine.

Staff (2021-01-27). Headlines for January 27, 2021. democracynow.org Biden Ramps Up Vaccine Rollout as World Tops 100 Million COVID Cases, U.S. Records Deadliest Month, U.K. Tops 100,000 Deaths as European Nations Move Toward Requiring Medical-Grade Masks, COVID Curfew Riots Rock Dutch Cities; Canadian Mogul Fined for Receiving Vaccine Meant for Indigenous Group, 45 Senate Republicans Back Dismissal of Trump Impeachment Trial, Biden Orders DOJ to End Contracts with Private Prisons, HUD to End Discrimination in Housing, Biden Issuing Orders Promoting Environmental Justice, Combating Climate Crisis, U.S. Judge Blocks Biden Deportation Moratorium While Texas Challenge Is Reviewed, U.

Mehr News Agency (2021-01-27). Iran COVID-19 update: 91 deaths, 6,608 cases in 24 hours. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Jan. 27 (MNA) — The Iranian Health Ministry has confirmed 6,608 COVID-19 infections and 91 deaths due to the disease in the past 24 hours.

yenisafak (2021-01-27). Turkey looks to be developer of next-gen technologies. yenisafak.com Turkey is looking to be the developer of cutting-edge technologies, not just a market, the country's industry and technology minister said on Wednesday."Our target is clear: to be one of the leading countries of the Fourth Industrial Revolution as a developer, not the market, of next-generation technologies," Mustafa Varank told a virtual conference held by the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TUSIAD).Noting that the coronavirus outbreak triggered a digital transformation in various sectors, from industry to health, Varank said: "Throughout the pandemic, we showed an exemplary performance in the digita…

RT (2021-01-27). DOJ & EPA to get 'Climate Justice' offices under Biden's executive orders. rt.com Declaring his commitment to "environmental justice" for "disadvantaged communities," US President Joe Biden has ordered the creation of new enforcement offices in two departments and a regulatory agency. | As part of a sweeping executive order signed on Wednesday, the new or expanded "climate justice" offices will be established at the Department of Justice (DOJ), Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). | "We know the communities who are being hurt, and we know we have to start enforcing the standards today in ensuring that they are part of the solution," Gina McCarthy, B…

Chicago Teachers Union (2021-01-27). CTU rank-and-file votes to save lives, continue to teach safely and remotely. zcomm.org Educators call on Mayor Lightfoot and CPS to adopt CDC health metric, agree to rigorous testing and allow educators to return as they're vaccinated, among other concerns…

Online News Editor (2021-01-27). EU says AstraZeneca has 'moral' obligation to fulfil vaccine order. laprensalatina.com Brussels, Jan 27 (efe-epa).- The European Union on Wednesday said AstraZeneca had a moral obligation to fulfill its vaccine order as a spat over delivery shortages continued amid conflicting reports as to whether a meeting to discuss the shortfall was to go ahead or not. Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for health and food safety, said: …

Online News Editor (2021-01-27). Tracing the origin of the coronavirus: WHO begins field visit in Wuhan. laprensalatina.com By Javier García Wuhan, China, Jan. 27 (efe-epa).- An international team of 13 experts of the World Health Organization is set to begin its ground visit in Wuhan on Thursday to investigate the origins of the new coronavirus, after completing a mandatory 14-day quarantine at a hotel in the city. The complicated mission — marred …

The Canary (2021-01-27). Government sets out plans to halt new badger cull licences after next year. thecanary.co Intensive badger culling to tackle tuberculosis in cattle will no longer get the go-ahead in new areas after 2022, under plans set out by the government. | The controversial badger cull has expanded to cover dozens of areas of England and kill tens of thousands of the protected mammals a year since it began in 2013 to curb bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in livestock. | But last year the government signalled its intention to gradually phase out culling of the wild animals, which can spread the disease to livestock, amid efforts to deploy a bTB vaccine for cattle within five years. | New proposals have now been put out…

Todd Smith (2021-01-27). 2021: Paradigm Shift or Shaft? dissidentvoice.org Can you dig it? — from the theme song to the 1971 feature film Shaft, written and performed by Isaac Hayes We have more than enough of a Police State already… — Krystal Ball from The Hill's Rising show on January 20, 2021 The New Year has arrived, not with bells and whistles but vaccines and new …

yenisafak (2021-01-27). Bangladesh launches mass vaccinations amid challenges. yenisafak.com Bangladesh has launched a mass inoculation campaign against the novel coronavirus Wednesday, despite not having conducted tests on the effectiveness and possible side effects of the recently arrived vaccines.Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the campaign in Dhaka, with some 30 frontline health workers, law enforcement, and journalists taking their first doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.Following the arrival of millions of doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab from the Serum Institute of India (SII) on Tuesday, the South Asian nation has started vaccinating…

sputniknews (2021-01-27). Sweden Suspends Payments to Pfizer Over Vaccine Dosage Uncertainty. sputniknews.com While each vial was to initially contain five doses of the vaccine, the medical giant started to charge its client countries more after the European Medicines Agency announced that a sixth dose can be extracted with the correct type of needle.

NARAL Pro-Choice California (2021-01-27). Tuesday 1/26: Call to Action: Advance Abortion Access, LGBTQ+ Health Care, & Racial Justice w/ NARAL CA. indybay.org Online Event…

Nonviolence, Health, Environment (2021-01-27). Biden, Please Withdraw Vilsack Nomination Because of Animal Cruelty. indybay.org Whether Perdue, Vilsack, or others, the USDA has always been the errand boys and girls of animal agriculture in having destroyed trillions of animals.

Dr. Gary Null (2021-01-27). 5G: "The End of All Things". The Health Impacts of Electromagnetic Radiation. globalresearch.ca First published in March 2017. The 5G Rollout is taking place alongside the corona crisis | We have become thoroughly accustomed and habituated to endless advertising by drug makers to buy into the promises of pharmaceutical drugs or to consent to …

Other Cinema (2021-01-27). Saturday 2/6: Other Cinema: Plague-Time Play-Time Iii Livestream. indybay.org Virtual Screening…

teleSUR (2021-01-26). Brazil's Supreme Court Allows Inquiry Against Health Minister. telesurenglish.net Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (TSF) Tuesday allowed an investigation against Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello over the COVID-19 crisis unleashed in Manaus city, Amazon state, last week. | RELATED: | TSF Judge Ricardo Lewandowski passed the investigation two days after Brazil's Attorney General Augusto Aras requested to inquire into the facts that led to the health system collapse in Manaus. | Pazuello, who was also cr…

Veira O, Sharfstein JM. (2021-01-26). "This Level of Death, It's New"—Health Care Workers in Their Own Words. jamanetwork.com The surge in hospitalizations for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) around the country has led many physicians and other health care workers to speak out. We created this post directly from the recent words of frontline health care workers and medical administrators in 19 states, with the sources linked to the first word or two of each quote. Their words reflect an unprecedented time for the US health care community in the midst of the pandemic.

teleSUR (2021-01-26). Evo Morales Praises Cuba and Venezuela's Fight Against COVID-19. telesurenglish.net On his Twitter account, Morales noted that "the Cuban Revolution will produce 100 (million) doses of its vaccine against COVID-19 and the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela produces Carvativir, which neutralizes the symptoms of the disease." | He added that neither of the revolutions seeks profits but rather to fight for human life against the pandemic. | RELATED: | In his tweet, the former Bolivian president referred to the Cuban Governmen…

Kuehn BM. (2021-01-26). Drug-Resistant Bacteria Outbreak Linked to COVID-19 Patient Surge. jamanetwork.com Breaches in infection control practices during last spring's coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) surge likely contributed to a 34-patient outbreak of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) infections at a New Jersey hospital.

Staff (2021-01-26). Rural US Is Seriously Short on Resources Needed to Distribute Vaccine. truthout.org One afternoon this past December, a package arrived at Mora Valley Community Health Services in northern New Mexico. The rural clinic, which serves a county of 4,521 people, is nestled beside a pasture with a flock of chickens and a few goats. A mile up the road sits the town of Mora — a regional hub just big enough for a trio of restaurants, two gas stations, and a single-building satellite office for a nearby community college. | Shortly after the package arrived, clinic staff received an email ex…

RT (2021-01-26). Fraudsters exploit Covid-19 vaccine rollout confusion with email scam, NHS warns. rt.com The NHS has warned UK residents that scammers are attempting to exploit confusion around the ongoing pandemic to steal bank details and personal information with fraudulent invitations about Covid-19 vaccine appointments. | Images of one such scam email circulating online show that it claims to be a "public health message from NHS" asking recipients to click a link to accept or decline their invitation. Once someone has clicked the link, the fraudulent site asks people for their bank details to supposedly verify their identity before requesting a payment. | Lots of reports overnight from people who have receiv…

Staff (2021-01-26). Inequality Virus: Pandemic Widens Wealth Gap for Women, People of Color as Billionaire Profits Soar. democracynow.org As the wealth of U.S. billionaires soars by over a trillion dollars during the pandemic, Oxfam is warning COVID-19 could lead to the biggest increase in global inequality on record. A new Oxfam report finds it could take more than a decade for poor people to recover from the health and economic crisis, and urges governments to take immediate action. "In every country that we looked at, inequality has gotten worse during the pandemic," says Paul O'Brien, vice president of Oxfam America. "All around the world now, we are seeing folks struggling on the wrong end of inequality, while those who have been the beneficia…

RT (2021-01-26). 'I am deeply sorry': Johnson takes 'full responsibility' as UK Covid deaths pass 100,000 and health chief warns of more to come. rt.com UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has offered his condolences to families bereaved by coronavirus and said he took "full responsibility", after the nation passed the grim milestone of 100,000 Covid-19 deaths. | "It's hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic, the years of life lost, the family gatherings not attended, and, for so many relatives, the missed chance even to say goodbye," the PM said during a coronavirus news briefing on Tuesday. | "I am deeply sorry for every life that has been lost and, of course, as prime minister, I take full responsibility for everything that the government ha…

Elliot Sperber (2021-01-26). Four crises, one crisis (or the health of the people). mronline.org While it is not clear how many people have lost their lives to COVID-19 in the United States (is it under 400,000 still? Over 500,000 yet?), it is clearer than ever that we are experiencing a continent-wide public health catastrophe. Perhaps this is unsurprising.

teleSUR (2021-01-26). Iran Approves Use of Russia's Sputnik V Vaccine. telesurenglish.net Iran's Foreign Affairs Minister Mohamad Javad Zarif announced that his country has registered Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine and expects to start producing it soon on its own territory. | RELATED: | "The Sputnik V vaccine was approved by our health authorities. Soon we hope to be able to purchase it and also start its joint production," Zarif said after meeting with Russia's Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov.

teleSUR (2021-01-26). Colombia: Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Died From COVID-19. telesurenglish.net Colombia's Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Tuesday morning died in Bogota due to health complications related to COVID-19. | RELATED: | Health authorities' last report issued on Monday informed Holmes was progressing favorably. However, he was still receiving ventilatory support and antibiotics. | He was interned at the Bogota's Military Hospital since January 12, when he was diagnosed. He required specialized treatment fr…

Children's Health Defense (2021-01-26). California Man Dies Several Hours After Receiving COVID Vaccine, Cause of Death Unclear. globalresearch.ca Multiple local, state and federal agencies Placer County Sheriff's office said in a

Dean Baker (2021-01-26). The NYT's Has Not Heard of China's Vaccine (Or Russia's or India's). counterpunch.org It is more than a bit bizarre that the New York Times can run a major piece about the lack of access of developing countries to Covid vaccines and never once mention the vaccines developed by China, Russia, or India. The piece is very useful in highlighting the fact that the United States and Europe