Staff (2022-02-21). Headlines for February 21, 2022. democracynow.org Possible Biden-Putin Summit Announced Amid High Tensions, Unrest in Eastern Ukraine, California to Start Treating COVID-19 as Endemic Disease, Queen Elizabeth Tests Positive for Coronavirus; Canadian Police Clear Ottawa of "Freedom Convoy", 6 African Countries to Receive mRNA Technology as Part of WHO Program to Expand Vaccine Production, Al-Shabab Claims Bomb Blast That Killed at Least 13 in Somalian City of Beledweyne, Clashes on Malian Border Kill Dozens as France Announces Gradual Withdrawal, Iran Nuclear Deal Could Be Revived as Talks Enter Final Stretch, Bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor Is Most De…

Paul Haeder (2022-02-21). There will be blood, and, yes, we do need stinkin' badges. dissidentvoice.org This is a little soft-shoe pissed off blathering from me, so apologies up front. No big news on the Ukraine Invasion front, or the Gates Owning All the Farms front, or the Climate-Wall Street-Chronic Illness front. Nothing related to the MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-MEDIA-Academia-Think-Tank) front. Just plain old burnt toast and spilled milk from a radical who …

sputniknews (2022-02-21). Sputnik Light May Become Universal Booster Shot as China Approves Mix&Match COVID Vaccination. sputniknews.com The mix&match approach to coronavirus vaccination was pioneered by the makers of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine and has proven its effectiveness in creating a stronger and more durable immunity, including against the Omicron variant.

Internationalist 360 ∞ (2022-02-21). Has the Left Abandoned the Working Class? libya360.wordpress.com Nita Palmer As a life-long left wing writer and activist, I have watched the Left's response to the truckers' Freedom Convoy with a mixture of fascination and horror. Truckers in Canada and their supporters have sparked a national and global movement against the government's Covid policies, in particular vaccine mandates. Proof of vaccination is required…

WSWS (2022-02-21). War plotters at Munich Security Conference hear call for surrender to COVID-19. wsws.org Openly embracing the pseudoscientific theory of "herd immunity," the fourth-richest man in the world, a key White House ally, called mass infection with Omicron a "type of vaccine" against COVID-19.

Staff (2022-02-21). A leading scientist says the world went mad over Covid. rt.com Lockdowns did way more harm than good is the key point of a new book by a professor who advised the UK government on Covid | Mark Woolhouse is professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland,

WSWS (2022-02-21). 10,000 New Zealand healthcare workers vote to strike. wsws.org The strike vote by allied health workers across New Zealand is part of the growing militancy of healthcare and other workers internationally, in response to the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

WSWS (2022-02-21). Democratic governors in Oregon, Washington and California set to end statewide mask requirements. wsws.org Politicians and public health officials across the region are claiming that as cases and hospitalizations temporarily recede, masks should come off, even as the United States approaches an official death toll of 1 million.

Labor Video Project (2022-02-21). CA SEIU Tops Pushing Union Busting 2 Tier "Non-Profits" Like HealthRight360 Harming Workers. indybay.org Top SEIU California officials are pushing a statewide privately run "non-profit" health system called HealthRight 360 which is undermining thousands of SEIU public healthcare workers. They are supporting a two tier healthcare system with lower wages and benefits than those in the public sector. They are doing the same work as public worker with lower pay, benefits and rights.

WSWS (2022-02-21). Tyson Foods lifts mask mandate as states abandon COVID health measures. wsws.org Tyson's decision comes after similar announcements by Walmart and Amazon, and as states move to abandon all COVID restrictions.

Leon Kunstenaar (2022-02-21). People's Rally for Healthcare in Oakland at Lake Merritt. indybay.org Oakland Mayor and candidates continue fight for single payer healthcare…

WSWS (2022-02-21). Brazil's return to classrooms fills pediatric ICUs. wsws.org With hospitals already overloaded, the start of classes across the country since February 7 has yet to have its full impact on health care systems.

Internationalist 360 ∞ (2022-02-21). Resistance: Rupture and Rebirth. libya360.wordpress.com Paul Cudenec One of the most sickening aspects of the Covid scam has been the fanatical support for the operation from the entity that calls itself "the left". I have been writing about this since April 2020 and there are various articles on the Winter Oak site seeking to discover exactly why "official" left/anarchist positions align so closely to…

Staff (2022-02-21). Australia reopens to tourists after 2-year ban. rt.com The nation has become "Covid-confident," Canberra said | Australia on Monday allowed foreign tourists into the country for the first time in nearly two years. | All fully vaccinated foreigners can enter without staying at quarantine hotels upon arrival. Travelers who have not received their shots must still apply for exemptions. | People can visit all regions except Western Australia, which will reopen on March 3. | Nearly 60 flights were scheduled to land in the country in the first 24 hours following the reopening of the border, according to 7NEWS. Australian TV has aired clips of emotional reunions between…

Staff (2022-02-21). Scrapping Covid restrictions 'a moment of pride' — Boris Johnson. rt.com The prime minister is expected to announce the end of the requirement to self-isolate | UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has hailed his decision to make sweeping changes to Covid-19 requirements as a proud moment. The PM made the comments in a statement ahead of his announcement expected on Monday afternoon in Parliament, and later to the nation. | "Today will mark a moment of pride after one of the most difficult periods in our country's history as we begin to learn to live with Covid," Johnson said in a Downing Street statement. | The prime minister praised the work of the NHS, which delivered "life-saving" v…

Antonio C.S. Rosa (2022-02-21). COVID World Data -Total: 425M -Dead: 5,9M -Death Rate: 0.01%. transcend.org On 21 Feb 2022 (6am GMT): | Total Cases: 425,071,562 | Deaths: 5,906,496 | Active: 68,405,260 | Recovered: 350,759,806 | Cases Closed: 356,666,302 | Total Vaccinated: 4,898,997,900…

WSWS (2022-02-21). Amazon announces end of mask requirements, while COVID-19 remains widespread in warehouses. wsws.org The ending of mask requirements for vaccinated employees follows state and federal efforts to fraudulently declare an end to the pandemic.

Adriaan Alsema (2022-02-21). ELN announces economic shutdown throughout Colombia. colombiareports.com Guerrilla group ELN announced its first economic shutdown since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The "armed strike" that will begin on Wednesday, the ELN said on a guerrilla website…

Staff (2022-02-20). Russia to prolong military drills near Ukrainian border. rt.com Moscow and Minsk to continue war games as tension increases near Ukraine | Belarus and Russia have decided to extend the length of their joint exercises "due to the increase in military activity" near the two nations' borders, Minsk announced on Sunday. | The joint Russian-Belarusian training exercise, named 'Union Resolve', began on February 10 and was scheduled to end on Sunday. The drills have seen thousands of servicemen from both nations gather in Belarus to practice offensive maneuvers. | However, many Western politicians have suggested that this is simply an excuse to gather troops near the border of Uk…

Global Research News (2022-02-20). Ottawa: The Freedom Convoy. Evidence of Police Violence and Brutality. globalresearch.ca The latest developments suggest that the COVID-19 narrative is crumbling amidst major protests worldwide. | A mass movement against COVID mandates is unfolding coast to coast across Canada in solidarity with the Freedom Convoy movement. | All COVID mandates must be immediately …

_____ (2022-02-20). European Union Prefers Corporate Profits Over Global Health. popularresistance.org As the summit between the African Union and European Union (EU-AU summit) came to a close on February 18, the EU's dedication to ensuring equitable access to Covid-19 products remained murky. While Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, stated that the two unions had a very constructive discussion on the TRIPS waiver, the meeting resulted in little more than a tepid statement and a new deadline for reaching an agreement on intellectual property rights during the pandemic. Von der Leyen also stated, "We share the same goal. We have different ways to reach that goal." | In reality, it would see…

Aditi Ramaswami (2022-02-20). WEEKEND READER: Profit-Driven Health Care Will Not Save Us. dailyposter.com

Allen Forrest (2022-02-20). COVID-inspired Dance Steps. dissidentvoice.org

LJ Dawson (2022-02-20). 3 Incarcerated Women Die of COVID After Requesting Compassionate Release. truthout.org Rory Adams did not know that Christmas in a small rural hospital in West Virginia would be the last time he saw his wife alive. She'd entered prison in early January 2021 to serve a 42-month sentence for failure to collect payroll taxes. She was supposed to return to North Carolina, their two adult children, and their quilting business this summer. | But when he saw her, she was heavily sedated. A ventilator was helping her breathe as she struggled with COVID-19. Rebecca "Maria" Adams, 59, die…

Staff (2022-02-20). UK's Queen Elizabeth has tested positive for Covid-19. rt.com The 95-year-old monarch is experiencing "mild cold-like symptoms," Buckingham Palace has announced | UK's Queen Elizabeth II has contracted Covid, with a recent test yielding a positive result, Buckingham Palace said in a statement released on Sunday. The 95-year-old monarch is said to be experiencing only "mild cold-like symptoms," and is expected to continue performing "light duties" in the coming days. | Last Thursday, the Queen's eldest son, Charles, Prince of Wales, tested positive for Covid, too. According to the BBC, he had met his mother two days prior. However, the Queen reportedly did not show any sy…

_____ (2022-02-19). The Convoy And Canada — A Call To Step Up. popularresistance.org I have spent time listening to leaders and activists from across this country, and I have learned one thing: we as civil society must step up and provide courageous leadership in this time of crisis. Unions, racial and climate justice organizations, faith leaders, students, residents' groups, health care activists — all of us have a role to play to help overcome this polarization, to bridge divides and to focus on crucial issues of social justice. We need to start organizing at the national and local level — bringing together people from all walks of life to determine strategies that will address the…

Abdul Rahman (2022-02-19). European Union prefers corporate profits over the health of people across the world. peoplesdispatch.org By showing reluctance on the patent waiver on COVID-19-related products even after the majority of its population is vaccinated, the EU leadership has once again taken the side of Big Pharma and perpetuated vaccine apartheid…

WSWS (2022-02-19). Deadly BA.2 subvariant of Omicron spreading in more than 74 countries. wsws.org As the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron accounts for a growing proportion of new cases globally, recent evidence points to its increased infectivity, higher virulence and greater immune-evading capacity.

Peoples Health Dispatch (2022-02-19). Health workers in Slovenia go on strike. peoplesdispatch.org Health workers and members of trade unions in the health and care sector in Slovenia, including the Trade Union of Health and Social Security and the Nurses' Trade Union — Florence, organized a one-day strike on February 16. Physiotherapists, nurses, pharmacists, and auxiliary workers in publicly-owned health institutions all over the countries stopped their work as the government has betrayed its 2018 pledge to engage in negotiations for enhancing workers' rights in healthcare. | While several ministers, including those of health and labor, denied the unions' allegations and insisted that the government had…

Allen Forrest (2022-02-19). Ethical Considerations and Experimental Vaccines. dissidentvoice.org

Richard Horton (2022-02-19). [Comment] Offline: A lie at the heart of public health. thelancet.com The John Snow Society describes their illustrious namesake as "the pioneer of epidemiological method". His identification of the source of cholera in Soho, London, and the removal of the handle of a water pump in Broad Street in 1854 is celebrated annually with the Pumphandle Lecture. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine named a lecture theatre after Snow. Indeed, the epidemiology community has deified Snow as a founding father of public health. But, as Jim Downs argues in his searching reappraisal of the origins of epidemiology, Maladies of Empire, western epidemiologists have invented a comforting…

Aarathi Prasad (2022-02-19). [Perspectives] Samuel K Roberts: illuminating history, racial bias, and public health. thelancet.com In 2009, Samuel Kelton Roberts, Jr's first book, Infectious Fear: Politics, Disease, and the Health Effects of Segregation, was published. "The book itself is about how racialism is baked into the kernel of modern public health practice here in the USA. Some of the most foundational moments in public health sit adjacent to or are ones that play a role in our history of race and racialisation. Even the way we collected data in the 19th and early 20th century was not just racially biased, but often racialised in their methods.

_____ (2022-02-19). City Denies Controversial Metal Scrapper Southside Recycling's Permit. popularresistance.org East Side, Chicago — The city's health department Friday rejected the final permit needed for a controversial metal scrapper to open on the Southeast Side, a victory for local activists who spent years organizing to block the industrial facility's move from the North Side. | Southside Recycling, owned by Reserve Management Group, will not be permitted to move troubled scrapper General Iron's assets and employees to 11600 S. Burley Ave. in East Side. | Reserve Management Group spent $80 million in anticipation of a permit for the facility at the Burley Avenue campus, where the Ohio-based firm operates four o…

_____ (2022-02-19). Sanitation Workers Win Raise After Going On Strike. popularresistance.org Chula Vista, Calif. – "Who are we?" Teamsters! "What do we want?" Contract! "When do we want it?" Now! | The sanitation workers of Teamsters Local 542 were still in good voice three weeks into their strike, which began Dec. 17, 2021, even as Republic Services started bringing in nonunion out-of-staters as garbage piled up. Republic had refused the Teamsters' demands for so long that the city of Chula Vista declared a public health emergency because of the amount of uncollected refuse. | Close to 300 workers, many of them Latino or Black, were on strike across three different San Diego County locations. "We want t…

sputniknews (2022-02-19). Biden Extends State of Emergency in US Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic. sputniknews.com MOSCOW (Sputnik) – US President Joe Biden has announced his decision to extend the state of emergency, which was declared in the country almost two years ago, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has been causing significant risk to the public health.

WSWS (2022-02-19). UK teacher Kathleen Munro speaks of "devastating" effects of Long COVID. wsws.org In her testimony to the Global Workers Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic, Kathleen bears witness to the devastating effects of Long COVID on her own health and livelihood, and that of her 13-year-old niece, Ellie, who caught COVID-19 on her first day at school last September.

Lutfi Camli (2022-02-19). Turkish health workers intensify protests amid soaring inflation and poor working conditions. peoplesdispatch.org The Turkish Medical Association (TMA) and other health workers' organizations organized country-wide industrial actions on February 8. This is part of a wave of workers' uprisings against rising living expenses and soaring inflation…

Jessamy Bagenal (2022-02-19). [Perspectives] A public health manifesto. thelancet.com The way that societies divide and manage our resources and treat our planet is not working. This failure is the starting point of a number of books that have been published during the COVID-19 pandemic, including GO BIG: 20 Bold Solutions to Fix Our World by Ed Miliband. This book, partly based on Miliband and Geoff Lloyd's podcast Reasons to Be Cheerful, identifies what is wrong with our political and multilateral systems and sets out solutions to fix our world. "In saying we need to 'go big' I am advocating not just the consideration of ideas that promise significant change but for politics to rediscover its se…

Peoples Health Dispatch (2022-02-19). Twist in TRIPS waiver negotiations raises eyebrows. peoplesdispatch.org Not long before the beginning of the EU-African Union Summit on February 17,

ecns.cn (2022-02-19). More than 3.06b COVID-19 vaccine doses administered on Chinese mainland. ecns.cn The number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered on the Chinese mainland has reached over 3.06 billion on Wednesday, data from the National Health Commission showed Tuesday.

Sharmila Devi (2022-02-19). [World Report] Medical aid returns to Tigray. thelancet.com Shipments of medical supplies have been delivered to Tigray—the first in months—but WHO says it will not be enough to restock the severely depleted health system. Sharmila Devi reports.

Staff (2022-02-19). China highlights metaverse risks. rt.com The virtual space network is the primary target of scammers and fraudsters, regulator warns | The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission warned on Friday about the associated risks the emerging metaverse technology could bring as the virtual space fever sweeps the world. | The watchdog said in a statement published on its website that some companies were engaging in illegal fund-raising, fraud, and virtual real estate speculation. | "Beware of being duped, and if you find clues of suspected illegal crimes, please actively report this to the relevant local departments," it said. | The official warnin…

Jon Rappoport (2022-02-19). Vaccine shedding spreads disaster to unvaccinated pregnant women? globalresearch.ca Since the COVID vaccines were authorized, MANY women have posted reports of disrupted and unusual menstrual cycles, heavy bleeding, and miscarriages. | What's more, some of these women state they haven't received the COVID vaccine, but they've been in close contact …

Labor Video Project (2022-02-19). SF City Workers Fed Up With Low Staffing, Wages, Union Busting Privatization & Corruption. indybay.org Hundreds of San Francisco City workers rally to protest the low staffing, lack of wage increases, two tier union busting and systemic corruption by City officials and retaliation against whistlelblowers. Workers were also protesting the firing of workers for not taking the vaccine…

Dongsheng News (2022-02-19). News on China | No. 87. dissidentvoice.org How a COVID outbreak in Hong Kong is being managed; a shift in Germany's position toward China, as it classifies China as a "systemic rival"; a look at relationships in China; Red Star over China author Edgar Snow passed away 50 years ago.

Daniel Alan Bey (2022-02-19). The Maoist 'Exceptionalism' at the Heart of China's COVID Strategy. mronline.org Arguably the best known contemporary proponent of Chinese exceptionalism in the English-language is Martin Jacques, best known for his 2009 bestseller 'When China Rules the World', a tour-de-force in the repackaging of orientalist tropes for the 21st-century.

WSWS (2022-02-19). COVID-19 disaster intensifies across the Pacific. wsws.org COVID-19 numbers are escalating as Pacific island governments adopt the "living with the virus" policies put forward by capitalist elites globally.

WSWS (2022-02-19). California's "endemic plan" sets the stage for unending COVID-19 infections and deaths. wsws.org The propaganda campaign is driven not by science, but by the demands of the corporations and financial elite. The aim is to fabricate a narrative that COVID-19 is harmless in order to maximize profits under the guise of a "return to normalcy."

sputniknews (2022-02-19). Australia Accuses Chinese Guided-Missile Destroyer of Aiming Laser at Its Surveillance Aircraft. sputniknews.com The incident comes amid strained ties between Australia and China over Prime Minister Scott Morrison demanding an international enquiry into the origins of COVID-19 and an ongoing trade war between the two nations. China, Australia's largest trading partner, is also unhappy about Canberra's membership of US-led alliances such as Quad and AUKUS.

Mickey Z. (2022-02-19). The Truth About Ivermectin. dissidentvoice.org A very recent article on The Defender began: "A peer-reviewed study published last month found the prophylactic use of ivermectin reduced COVID mortality by 90 percent among more than 223,000 study participants in a town in Southern Brazil. The study, published in the Cureus Journal of Medical Science, also found a 44 percent reduction in COVID cases among those …