(2020-05-26). Towards A New World Order? The Global Debt Crisis and the Privatization of the State. globalresearch.ca This is the true picture of what is happening. Poverty is Worldwide. While famines are erupting in Third World countries, closer to home, in the richest country on earth, "millions of desperate Americans wait in long crowded lines for handouts"
(2020-05-26). Victory: Ohio's plan to deny workers their unemployment insurance is shelved. mronline.org 
In early May, Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine began reopening the state economy. And to support business and slash state expenses, both at worker expense, he had a "COVID-19 Fraud" form put up on the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services website where employers could confidentially report employees "who quit or refuse work when …
(2020-05-26). If a Covid-19 Vaccine is Discovered, It Will be a Boon to Military Recruiters. counterpunch.org There is some good news coming out of the terror of the Covid-19 pandemic. We on the left aren't usually acquainted with anything even remotely approaching good news. How could it be otherwise, always being at the margins of society and at the margins of national consciousness? Bernie touted himself as a liberal with some
(2020-05-26). UK puts Big Pharma profits ahead of coronavirus vaccine at WHO. truepublica.org.uk Global Justice Now today criticised Health Secretary Matt Hancock for failing to join world leaders in declaring a potential coronavirus vaccine to be a 'public good', and instead acting as a cheerleader for the pharmaceutical industry at the World Health Assembly, which concluded end of last week. The campaign group pointed to the government's efforts …
(2020-05-26). Workers Struggles: The Americas. wsws.org Colombian health care workers staged a protest last week in the capital Bogotá to protest lack of adequate provision of personal protective equipment.
(2020-05-26). Face Masks Pose Serious Risks to the Healthy. globalresearch.ca "By wearing a mask, the exhaled viruses will not be able to escape and will concentrate in the nasal passages, enter the olfactory nerves and travel into the brain." — Russell Blaylock, MD | Researchers found that about a third of …
(2020-05-26). California: UFCW Local 770 wants Farmer John Vernon Plant closed now. fightbacknews.org Los Angeles, CA – As more than 130 workers at the Farmer John plant in Vernon have contracted the coronavirus, May 25, the union representing 1300 plant employees is calling for an immediate closure to ensure workers are safe and to keep all workers on the payroll with their full pay and benefits. | Workers at Farmer John, which is owned by Smithfield, have pressed the company for increased safety measures, workplace protections and information about infections at the plant. Information has been incomplete and safety measures insufficient. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) is cu…
(2020-05-26). Strike action looming in South Africa as government downgrades lockdown. peoplesdispatch.org Business associations claim that health and safety protocols will be followed, but unions point to previous violations which resulted in a further spread of the epidemic…
(2020-05-26). UK: Johnson government opposes pay increase for nurses. wsws.org Boris Johnson and other ministers busy hailing nurses and doctors as "heroes" have again made clear they are bitter enemies of all health care workers.
(2020-05-26). The Sure Way to End Concerns About China's "Theft" of a Vaccine: Make it Open. zcomm.org If China can in principle develop a vaccine more quickly if it has access to data from labs in the United States then it must also be the case that researchers in the United States could develop a vaccine more quickly if they had data from labs in China and elsewhere…
(2020-05-26). Executives of vaccine developer Moderna cash in, cut corners. wsws.org In March, while the global economy was facing an implosion, CEO Stéphane Bancel became a billionaire based on the valuation of his nine percent stake in the publicly traded company.
(2020-05-26). The Banality of Evil, COVID-19 Edition. counterpunch.org As the COVID-19 pandemic ran its deadly course in New York, governor Andrew Cuomo affirmed a state policy forbidding nursing homes to reject suffering from the disease. At least partially as a result (Cuomo himself acknowledged early on that the virus spreads through such facilities "like fire through dry grass"), nearly 6,000 long-term care residents
(2020-05-25). A 'wholesale slaughter' and a mass razing of homes in Britain is the final straw. Enough is enough. thecanary.co Correction: This article was updated at 11.30am on 26 May to make clear that Scottish Natural Heritage, not Natural England, reportedly issued the licences relating to beavers. | Here we stand, ravaged by a disease
(2020-05-25). Portland caravan supports essential workers. workers.org 
Large placards covered supporters' cars during the Portland, Ore., caravan for essential workers held May 21. It started at the East Portland Post Office, circled two Fred Meyer grocery stores and ended at Legacy Emmanuel Hospital. The event was hosted by Communities and Postal Workers United and attended by a . . . |
(2020-05-25). Cuba applies very efficient national drugs to save critical and severe COVID-19 patients. mronline.org 
The CIGB-258, a peptide designed to reduce inflammatory processes, and the monoclonal antibody Itolizumab (Anti-CD6) have shown great effectiveness for the survival of critical and severe COVID-19 patients in Cuba, announced Friday Francisco Duran, national director of epidemiology at the ministry of public health.
(2020-05-25). Eosinopenia and elevated C-reactive protein facilitate triage of COVID-19 patients in fever clinic: A retrospective case-control study. thelancet.com The combination of eosinopenia and elevated hs-CRP can effectively triage suspected COVID-19 patients from other patients attending the fever clinic with COVID-19-like initial symptoms. This finding would be particularly useful for designing triage strategies in an epidemic region having a large number of patients with COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases while limited medical resources for nucleic acid tests and radiographic examination.
(2020-05-25). "We won't pay for your crisis" peoplesdispatch.org The German Communist Party (DKP) proclaimed that the German working class would not pay for the crisis inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic. They organized a meeting in Ernst-Wilczok-Platz at Bottrop on May 9 where DKP chairman Patrik Kà∂bele addressed the gathering. | The DKP has questioned, "where so much money suddenly comes from as a rescue umbrella for large industries, while the austerity measures in the healthcare sector push workers to the limits of resilience. With prices constantly rising, it is impossible for low-income earners and poor people to make ends meet, let alone to raise money for the nece…
(2020-05-25). Arms Control & Disarmament: A Failed Marriage. zcomm.org The linkages between contagious disease and climate change is too evident to ignore…
(2020-05-25). Nearly 200 Groups in Canada Vow to Fight for Covid-19 Recovery That Puts Human and Ecological Health First. commondreams.org "The choices we make now about how to recover from this pandemic will shape not only our health and economic future, but also the future of human life on this planet." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
(2020-05-26). Spain Cuts Virus Death Toll by 2,000. anti-empire.com 
Spain's government on Monday revised downward the country's death toll from the coronavirus by nearly 2,000, bringing the total number of deaths recorded to 26,834. | A new system of gathering data had allowed them to identify cases that were counted twice and exclude deaths wrongly attributed to the virus, said Fernando Simon, the health ministry's emergencies coordinator. | "A variation of 1,900, that's a lot," he added. "We are trying to check that it's correct, but these are the figures that we have at the moment." | The
(2020-05-26). An Economy That Cannot Allow Stocks to Decline Is Too Fragile to Survive. anti-empire.com 
Feast your eyes on the chart below of the Nasdaq 100 stock market Index, which is dominated by the six FAAMNG (rhymes with "famine") stocks: Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix and Google which now account for over 20% of the entire U.S. stock market's capitalization. | Notice that despite the global economy sliding into a debt-bust depression, the NDX is within kissing distance of new all-time highs. You're joking, right? Sales and profits won't slide as the depression steps on the neck of hundreds of millions of households? | As you've probably heard by now, sales don't matter, profits don't matter, cos…
(2020-05-26). Pointless Damage: Robert Koch's Own Calculation Shows Germany's Lockdown Was Unnecessary and Ineffective. anti-empire.com 
In an interview with Citing data from Robert Koch Institute (RKI) : | In the interview, the prominent professor, once an adviser to former chancellor Gerhard Schrà∂der, cited a chart from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) that was issued on April 15th: |
(2020-05-26). UK Vaccine Team: Vaccine Is Now in a "Race Against Virus Disappearing" anti-empire.com 
Leading UK scientists racing to develop a Covid-19 vaccine are concerned that as the virus diminishes in Britain their tests may not be effective. | Researchers at the University of Oxford's Jenner Institute and the Oxford Vaccine Group are warning that their initial hope of an 80 per cent success rate for the vaccine has now dropped to 50 per cent. | "It is a race, yes. But it's not a race against the other guys. It's a race against the virus disappearing, and against time," Professor Adrian Hill told the Telegraph newspaper. | "We said earlier this year that there was an 80 per cent chance of developing an effe…
(2020-05-25). CDC Admits They've Been Looking Through Microscope Upside Down This Whole Time. anti-empire.com 
Oops! The CDC has revealed that its chief researchers have been looking through their microscopes upside down this entire pandemic. | "Oh man! I wonder if this will change our projections," said one scientist as a visiting scientist from the private sector showed him the proper way to look through the device. "Hey, you can see the sample a whole lot clearer this way. Neato! Hoo boy, were we way off on everything!" | "No wonder our predictions were completely opposite of what happened! No wonder we keep having to revise our guidelines! Silly us! Oh well
(2020-05-26). Nurses, Covid-19, Healthcare Crisis & Defending Public Health With NNU Pres. Burger. indybay.org Deborah Burger R.N. president of the National Nurses Union NNU-California Nurses Association CNA talks about the crisis in the healthcare system and the fight of the NNU-CNA to defend nurses, healthcare workers and the public.
(2020-05-26). WHO executive warns first wave of coronavirus is not yet over. thecanary.co 
A health expert has warned that the world is still in the midst of the "first wave" of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.World Health Organisation (WHO) executive director Dr Mike Ryan warned that the risks of reigniting coronavirus outbreaks are complicating efforts to fend off further misery for the many millions who have lost their jobs.Dr Ryan said: "Right now, we're not in the second wave. We're right in the middle of the first wave globally.(PA Graphics)"We're still very much in a phase where the disease is actually on the way up."Dr Ryan pointed to South America, South Asia and other areas where the numb…
(2020-05-26). Iran records 1,787 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, May 26 (MNA) — The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has infected 1,787 people and claimed 57 lives in Iran in the past 24 hours, a senior health official said.
(2020-05-26). Iran: Virus deaths cross 7,500, cases near 140,000. yenisafak.com Iran's coronavirus death toll crossed 7,500 on Tuesday, while the number of confirmed cases moved close to 140,000.Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said 57 people died over the past 24 hours, raising the nationwide death toll to 7,508.The country's overall case count reached 139,511 after 1,787 more people tested positive for COVID-19.He said 2,567 patients remain in critical condition across Iran, which is the hardest-hit country in the Middle East.A total of 109,437 people have recovered and been discharged from hospitals since Iran's outbreak began in the city of Qom on Feb. 19, according to the He…
(2020-05-26). Spain declares 10-day official mourning for coronavirus victims. yenisafak.com The Spanish government declared a 10-day official mourning period from Wednesday to honour the nearly 30,000 people who died from the coronavirus pandemic in one of the world's worst-hit countries, government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero said.During the mourning period, flags will fly at half-mast all over the country's public buildings and navy ships, she told a news briefing after a cabinet meeting.The period will end with an official ceremony led by the head of state in remembrance of the 26,834 fatalities recorded in the country. Spain has reported a total of 235,400 confirmed cases of the disease.
(2020-05-26). Greening the Old New Deal. zcomm.org National service and a green new deal, with lessons from the old new deal, could be the first step in "civilianizing" our nation, and beyond recovery, enhancing the world's prospects for health, justice, and sustainability…
(2020-05-25). $3,278 ER Visit for Coughing Fits and Fever Amid Covid-19 Pandemic Highlights Failure of For-Profit System. commondreams.org A $3,278 bill that Timothy Regan received after coughing fits and a low-grade fever sent him to a Denver emergency room in early April—as the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the United States continued to climb—garnered national media attention Monday as an example of how much the nation's for-profit healthcare system is costing Americans, particularly in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
(2020-05-25). 'Here We Go Again': Richest Hospitals Sitting on Billions in Cash Got Golden Bailouts Compared to Those Serving Poorest. commondreams.org "If you ever hear a hospital complaining they don't have enough money, see if they have a venture fund." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
(2020-05-25). Dubious State Testing Numbers May Be Screwing Up National CDC Reports. truthout.org Health officials in Texas, Georgia, Vermont and Virginia acknowledged this week that they have been The difference is a matter of timing. Viral tests — taken by nasal swabs or saliva samp…
(2020-05-24). Alyssa Milano goes on defensive after showing off her KNITTED mask (that does NOTHING to stop Covid-19). rt.com 
Actress and liberal activist Alyssa Milano has pushed back against an avalanche of online mockery, after she shared a photo of herself donning a visibly unreliable knitted mask. | The anti-Trump #Resistance 'heroine' urged her Twitter followers to don masks to stop the spread of Covid-19, and included a pic of her face-covered family. | Show me your masks! Masks keep people safe and healthy. Show me yours! Ready? Go!
(2020-05-24). 5 reasons Costa Rica is winning plaudits for fighting COVID-19: a Resident Coordinator's blog. news.un.org Costa Rica is winning plaudits for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Alice Shackleford, UN Resident Coordinator in Costa Rica, and WHO Representative María Dolores Pérez-Rosales, explain why the small Central American country is managing to keep the number of cases down, and its population healthy.
(2020-05-24). US declares vaccine war on the world. peoplesdispatch.org What prevents any country from making drugs and vaccines, once developed? Is it the threat of the US, or the belief that in the US-China vaccine war, they need to be on the US side?
(2020-05-24). What New York City's Cholera Epidemics Can Teach Us in the Age COVID-19. truthout.org This isn't the first time that New York City became the epicenter of a deadly disease. Consequently, this also isn't the first time a widespread disease has been racialized and linked to the "other." When cholera arrived on the shores of New York City in 1832, the disease had already ravaged parts of Asia and Europe. New York City officials and scientists did not understand the cause of the disease. Some saw cholera as divine retribution, only inflicted on the sinners of the city. In the 1830s, app…
(2020-05-23). COVID-19: Tips for going out again. newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org If coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) stay-at-home restrictions are easing in your community, you might wonder how to visit public places and protect your health. Here's what you need to know. Before you head out Follow guidance where you live. In the U.S., activity restrictions vary among cities and states. Before you head out, check your …
(2020-05-22). Conservatives recruit 'pro-Trump' doctors to deliver only good news about reopening. peoplesworld.org 
WASHINGTON (AP)—Republican political operatives are recruiting "extremely pro-Trump" doctors to go on television to prescribe reviving the U.S. economy as quickly as possible, without waiting to meet safety benchmarks proposed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. The plan was discussed in a May 11 …
(2020-05-19). Time to Consider a New Look at Physician-Owned Hospitals to Increase Competition in Health Care? jamanetwork.com In most sectors of the economy, competition is regarded as the way to improve quality and efficiency, lower costs, and increase innovations. Whether competition effectively achieves these improvements in health care, particularly with respect to hospital services, which remains the largest sector of spending for health care, is open to debate. Also debated, at least among some physicians, is whether functionally banning new physician-owned hospitals by prohibiting their participation in Medicare under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was too blunt an instrument to correct a problem that could have been fixed with a…
(2020-05-19). From Mitigation to Containment of the COVID-19 Pandemic. jamanetwork.com This Viewpoint discusses public health strategies necessary for the US to relax its mitigation strategies—most notably expanded testing, isolation, and contact-tracing in ways that avoid stigmatization of vulnerable populations—and proposes investing returns from a reopened economy to finance testing and public health infrastructure.
(2020-05-19). WHO: Strengthen Nurse Workforce. jamanetwork.com An urgent global effort is needed to bolster the nurse workforce, according to a report from the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Council of Nurses, and Nursing Now, an international campaign to raise nurses' status.
(2020-05-19). Coverage for Biosimilars vs Reference Products Among US Commercial Health Plans. jamanetwork.com This study uses US commercial health plan insurance data to characterize coverage for biosimilar drugs compared with reference products.
(2020-05-19). The Bubonic Plague in San Francisco. jamanetwork.com We have always regarded the plague as something very distant and impossible, and have read of its ravages in India and China with much the same feeling of composure and security that we read about an uprising of the natives in Madagascar. Or perhaps we have considered it as a matter of historic interest on account of the fearful epidemics which in pre-sanitary days used to sweep over Europe, devastating countries and hardly leaving enough people behind to keep up the archives and records of the state. Even now that it is among us, and in America for the first time, there seems to be a tendency to underrate its im…
(2020-05-19). Study Suggests a Second Patient Has Been Cured of HIV. jamanetwork.com For only the second time, a patient with HIV who received an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant from a donor with an HIV resistance gene appears to have been cured of the disease, according to a recent study.
(2020-05-19). Infectious Disease Outbreaks, Pandemics, and Hollywood—Hope and Fear Across a Century of Cinema. jamanetwork.com This Arts and Medicine feature tallies the appearance of infectious disease outbreaks in cinema since 1914, and identifies common themes, such as stigmatization and physician heroism, that characterize the films.
(2020-05-19). A New Treatment for Children With Neurofibromatosis Type 1. jamanetwork.com Selumetinib is the first drug approved for pediatric patients aged 2 years or older with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), a rare disfiguring disease.
(2020-05-19). Generic Albuterol Inhaler Approved. jamanetwork.com The FDA has approved the first generic version of Proventil HFA Metered Dose Inhaler, 90 μg per inhalation, to treat or prevent bronchospasm in patients aged 4 years or older who have reversible obstructive airway disease. The generic albuterol sulfate inhaler also is indicated for exercise-induced bronchospasm prevention in the same age group.