Higher Education in the Time of COVID-19
Peter Mayo | counterpunch.org | 2020-03-23
Desperate attempts to curtail the spread of the Corona Virus are turning many localities in different parts of the world into phantom cities. Universities and other higher education institutions have not been immune to this process. They are closed institutions, with academics urged, if not compelled, irrespective of their training for this purpose, to place…
counterpunch.org/2020/03/23/higher-education-in-the-time-of-covid-19/
Is Martial Law Coming to the US?
Stephen Lendman | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
Crises are opportunities for ruling authorities to institute policies not easily introduced during normal times. | Post-9/11 and at other extraordinary times, the public is willfully deceived to believe that by sacrificing personal freedoms, greater security is possible
In Times of Crisis, How to Prevent an Economic Meltdown and Avoid Privatizing Profits and Socializing Losses
Prof Rodrigue Tremblay | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
"The test of our [moral] progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." –Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), 32nd American President …
globalresearch.ca/times-crisis-how-prevent-economic-meltdown-avoid-privatizing-profits-socializing-losses/5707136
While Dumping Their Stocks, US Senators Misled the Public on Coronavirus Crisis
Jacob Crosse | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
The actions of prominent US lawmakers, Democrats as well as Republicans, in seeking to secure their personal wealth while concealing from the public the catastrophic implications of the coronavirus pandemic and the measures needed to combat it, sum up the …
globalresearch.ca/dumping-stock-us-senators-misled-public-coronavirus-crisis/5707141
A Fiasco in the Making? As the Coronavirus Pandemic Takes Hold, We Are Making Decisions Without Reliable Data
John P.A. Ioannidis | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
The current coronavirus disease, Covid-19, has been called a once-in-a-century pandemic. But it may also be a once-in-a-century evidence fiasco. | At a time when everyone needs better information, from disease modelers and governments to people quarantined or just …
globalresearch.ca/coronavirus-pandemic-takes-hold-we-are-making-decisions-without-reliable-data/5707168
IMF Rejects Venezuela COVID-19 Emergency Fund Appeal
Ricardo Vaz | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
The International Monetary Fund has rejected a Venezuelan appeal for an emergency US $5 billion loan to face the coronavirus health crisis. | Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza revealed on Tuesday afternoon that President Nicolas Maduro had sent a letter to IMF …
globalresearch.ca/imf-rejects-venezuela-emergency-fund-appeal/5707156
Coronavirus: Israel's Mossad Acquires 100,000 'Unusable' Test Kits
Lubna Masarwa | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
Israel's external intelligence agency, the Mossad, joined the country's battle against the global coronavirus pandemic and has acquired 100,000 test kits for the disease from two countries with which it does not share diplomatic ties, Israeli media reported, adding …
globalresearch.ca/coronavirus-israel-mossad-acquires-100000-unusable-test-kits/5707157
Are 5G / Biometric Systems Being Covertly Installed During the Lockdown, Where You Live?
Take Back Your Power | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
In recent days a couple videos have begun circulating on social media with evidence of apparent installations of 5G and/or biometric systems while children are home due to the COVID-19 lockdown. | We now have the opportunity to confirm (or debunk) …
globalresearch.ca/are-5g-biometric-systems-being-covertly-installed-during-lockdown-where-you-live/5707159
Spotlight: U.S. Politicians' Use of the Term "Chinese Virus" Widely Condemned
Xinhua | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
The recent re-labeling of the novel coronavirus with xenophobic undertones by some U.S. politicians to stigmatize China has drawn widespread criticism. | As the international community works together to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, a few American politicians are shifting blame to …
globalresearch.ca/u-s-politicians-use-chinese-virus-widely-condemned/5707146
Does the Coronavirus Pandemic Serve a Global Agenda?
Senta Depuydt | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
For those who follow the global immunization agenda and its implementation on different continents, the announcement of a new pandemic didn't come as a surprise. "Pandemic preparedness" has been well-funded and a buzz word for a long time before becoming …
globalresearch.ca/does-coronavirus-pandemic-serve-global-agenda/5707133
Coronavirus and The Age of Anxiety Redux
Christopher Black | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
In 1948 the poet, W.H. Auden, published a long poem he titled, The Age of Anxiety, in which four characters express their anxiety about their place in a world that has been destroyed by two world wars and was threatened …
globalresearch.ca/age-anxiety-redux/5707139
Cuba Sends 53 Doctors and Nurses to Fight Covid-19 in Italy
Telesur | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
Cuban health authorities announced on Thursday that the country will send 53 health professionals to Lombardy, Italy, to help contain the new coronavirus pandemic. | The 53 doctors and nurses have experience in caring for these types of diseases. In 2014, …
globalresearch.ca/cuba-sends-53-doctors-nurses-fight-covid-19-italy/5707149
Pompeo and Netanyahu Paved a Path to War with Iran, and They're Pushing Trump Again
Gareth Porter | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
Though it narrowly averted war with Iran this January, the Trump administration is still pushing for all-out military conflict. The architects of the drive to war, Mike Pompeo and Benjamin Netanyahu, have relied on a series of cynical provocations to …
globalresearch.ca/pompeo-netanyahu-war-iran-pushing-trump-again/5707142
COVID-19: Trump Companies Fall, Hundreds Lose Jobs
Telesur | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy already seems to be affecting the companies and businesses of U.S. President Donald Trump and, along with with it, the employment of hundreds of people. | *** | President Trump's company
U.S. and Iraq: The Hidden History
Richard Becker | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
"You have given Iraq the opportunity to stand on its own," President Barack Obama told hundreds of cheering U.S. troops in Baghdad on April 7, 2009, his first visit to the country after being elected. He added that now, "Iraqis …
globalresearch.ca/u-s-iraq-hidden-history/5707126
The Real 'Sports of Kings' … Not for Us Suckers!!
Philip A Farruggio | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
Borrowing from the moniker of horseracing as the 'Sport of Kings' this writer is going further into the sewer of media hype. I love sports and acknowledge that I am a fan of many sports, with even some teams as …
globalresearch.ca/the-real-sports-of-kings-not-for-us-suckers/5707081
Australian teachers and school workers speak out on dangerous working conditions amid pandemic
wsws.org | 2020-03-23
One teacher said: "We should not be expected to work in these unsafe conditions and students should not be expected to go to school either."
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/03/23/inte…
UK: Sheffield health care students demand placements suspended to limit COVID-19 spread
wsws.org | 2020-03-23
The students' petition to university bosses highlights the widespread opposition to the disastrous course of the Johnson government, which has already forced a shift in its reckless policy of allowing the spread of COVID-19.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/03/23/shef…
Creative Empathy in a Pandemic
Robert Koehler | counterpunch.org | 2020-03-23
One thing about a pandemic: It's inclusive. We cannot survive it, move beyond it, by protecting merely some people. We have to protect everyone. Of all the disruption, paradox and chaos that have been unleashed by the coronavirus, this is the most stunning: It has something to teach us that we could never learn on…
counterpunch.org/2020/03/23/creative-empathy-in-a-pandemic/
Darkness, Not Cold, Killed Most Life on Earth 66 Million Years Ago, New Study Claims
sputniknews.com | 2020-03-23
Scientists estimate that 75 percent of animal and plant species on Earth were wiped out during the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event caused by the gigantic Chicxulub asteroid that crashed into our planet. However, researchers have long debated what the processes were that resulted in the death of three quarters of the world's life.
sputniknews.com/science/202003231078680947-darkness-not-cold-killed-most-life-on-earth-66-million-years-ago-new-study-claims/
US Orders to Utilise Country's 16 Supercomputers to Find Cure for Coronavirus
sputniknews.com | 2020-03-23
Similar attempts to find a cure for COVID-19 using computing power have also been made by Folding@home, a global crowdsourcing platform that allows PC users to "donate" extra power from their home computers to research various global diseases.
sputniknews.com/us/202003231078679178-us-orders-to-utilise-countrys-16-supercomputers-to-find-cure-for-coronavirus/
Russian Scientists to Study If Space Suits Can Bring Microbes Into ISS From Exterior
sputniknews.com | 2020-03-23
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russian scientists intend to study whether cosmonauts during a space walk could pick up microorganisms on their space suits and bring them into the International Space Station (ISS), a department head of the Institute for Biological and Medical Issues of the Russian Academy of Sciences said in an interview.
sputniknews.com/science/202003231078680450-russian-scientists-to-study-if-space-suits-can-bring-microbes-into-iss-from-exterior/
Turkish defense firms back domestic medical ventilator
yenisafak.com | 2020-03-23
Turkish defense firms are supporting the domestic production of medical ventilators which are critical in treating COVID-19.With severe shortness of breath a hallmark of the novel coronavirus, the global pandemic has increased the need for medical ventilators, resulting in fresh impetus across the globe to research and manufacture the devices.A Turkish technology venture, BIOSYS, has produced the first indigenous medical ventilator device after a five-year research and development efforts.Selcuk Bayraktar, the chief technology officer of unmanned aerial vehicle producer Baykar, said on Sunday that his company ord…
yenisafak.com/en/news/turkish-defense-firms-back-domestic-medical-ventilator-3514747
Goes to show the level of hubris and profound BS of Western produced statistics
The Iranian | iranian.com | 2020-03-23
iranian.com/2020/03/22/goes-to-show-the-level-of-hubris-and-profound-bs-of-western-produced-statistics/
Coronavirus hits US prisons: "thousands face death sentence"
Anya Parampil | thegrayzone.com | 2020-03-22
Red Lines host Anya Parampil speaks with Dr. Amanda Klonsky, the chief program officer at a prison education organization, about…
thegrayzone.com/2020/03/22/coronavirus-prisons-death-sentence/
Worst Financial Crisis since 1929: The Fed's $1.5 Trillion Stimulus Bill. Long Term Solutions
Ellen Brown | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-22
In what is being called the worst financial crisis since 1929, the US stock market has lost a third of its value in the space of a month, wiping out all of its gains of the last three years. …
globalresearch.ca/socialism-fed-bazooka-fails/5707085
The Lesson of COVID-19. The State has a Monopoly on Coercion and Violence
Kurt Nimmo | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-22
The COVID-19 "pandemic" is primarily designed to empower the ruling elite and further its authoritarian reach. The primary tool is the innate human fear of death and this fear has been greatly magnified by the corporate propaganda media. | For those …
globalresearch.ca/lesson-covid-19/5707061
COVID-19: Welcome to the New Dark Ages
Kurt Nimmo | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-22
The response by the government to COVID-19 will turn America into a third world country in short order. Destroying the economy, throwing millions of people out of work, creating air money and thus inflation, and draconian measures to head off …
globalresearch.ca/covid-19-new-dark-ages/5707083
Video: 'Moderate Rebels' Bite Hand that Feeds Them. 2 Turkish Soldiers Killed in Idlib
South Front | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-22
Syria entered the second half of the week with a new spike of tensions in Greater Idlib. This escalation has been widely expected because militant groups are sabotaging key parts of the Russian-Turkish agreement on de-escalation in the area. | Radicals …
globalresearch.ca/video-moderate-rebels-bite-hand-feeds-them-2-turkish-soldiers-killed-idlib/5707058
Netanyahu's Power Grab
Stephen Lendman | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-22
Netanyahu's main aims are staying in power and out of prison
10 Questions for the U.S.: Where Did the Novel Coronavirus Come From?
Wang Fuhua | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-22
Given that some major U.S. media and politicians made groundless claims that the novel coronavirus originates in China, blamed and slandered China, even asked for an apology from China, I am presenting below 10 questions I have every reason to …
globalresearch.ca/ten-questions-for-the-u-s-where-did-the-novel-coronavirus-come-from/5707035
US Senators Dump Stocks with COVID-19 "Inside Information"
Stephen Lendman | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-22
Following a closed-door briefing on the threat of spreading COVID-19 infections
Moralising Hoarding, Panic Buying and Coronavirus
Dr. Binoy Kampmark | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-22
Hoarding as moral aberration and ethical breach: the term has recently become the subject of scorn in coronavirus chatter. In terms of mental disorders, it is "characterized by persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions", though the Coronavirus Hoarder is …
globalresearch.ca/moralising-hoarding-panic-buying-coronavirus/5707070
The IMF Abandons Venezuelans to the Threat of the COVID-19 Pandemic on a Political Decision
Nino Pagliccia | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-22
No government that had to bow to the power of a financial institution like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) knows the harsh consequences to which it will have to submit. That includes the Venezuelan government. And yet last March 15 …
globalresearch.ca/imf-abandons-venezuelans-threat-covid-19-pandemic-political-decision/5707090
Rethinking "Commander-in-Chief" in American Leadership in Relation to COVID-19
Barbara Nimri Aziz | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-22
Ask Americans who's commander-in-chief, most will respond: our president. Citizens only think about this just before a presidential election every four years when their final, 'supreme criteria' of U.S. leadership is raised: "Does she or he have it:
Climate Science Deniers Are Also Downplaying COVID-19 Risks
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-03-22
On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the outbreak of novel coronavirus 2019, which causes the disease COVID-19, was officially a "public health emergency of int…
truthout.org/articles/climate-science-deniers-are-also-downplaying-covid-19-risks/
Shut schools down to slow COVID-19
pip.hinman | greenleft.org.au | 2020-03-22
Healthcare Mary MerkenichIssue 1258 Australia COVID-19 education workers school shut-downsMarch 22, 2020Debate over whether schoo…
greenleft.org.au/content/shut-schools-down-slow-covid-19
China Approves Human Trials of Covid-19 Vaccine
telesurenglish.net | 2020-03-21
China's Defense Minister announced that Chinese scientists developed a Covid-19 vaccine that has already been tested on a group of infected monkeys, which responded effectively and were immune. | RELATED: | China Ready to Assist the World to Fight COVID-19 | "The quality of the vaccine will be controlled during the production process. We are ready to start formal clinical trials at any time," Chen Wei, a Military Academy of Medical Sciences researcher, who is recognized worldwide for her st…
telesurenglish.net/news/China-Approves-Human-Trials-of-Covid-19-Vaccine-20200321-0002.html
[Comment] Ethical implications of poor comparative effectiveness evidence: obligations in industry-research partnerships
Ilina Singh, Huseyin Naci, Jennifer Miller, Arthur Caplan, Andrea Cipriani | thelancet.com | 2020-03-21
Which treatment is best for me? This question is at the centre of the clinical consultation. And yet, too often, the question is not answerable with available evidence on drugs and devices. The two Lancet Series papers on comparative effectiveness1,2 document the shortcomings of the process for regulatory approval in incentivising the generation of comparative effectiveness evidence that is useful for patients, clinicians, and the health-care system. The paucity of meaningful comparative data on drugs and devices before and after market entry compromises clinical decision making.
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30413-X/fulltext?rss=yes
[Perspectives] Sean Wasserman: rising star in TB-HIV research and medicine
Richard Lane | thelancet.com | 2020-03-21
A year spent working in a township hospital outside Cape Town, South Africa, was a defining career moment for Sean Wasserman, winner of the 2019 Stephen Lawn TB-HIV Research Leadership Prize, which is supported by The Union. "I remember seeing the devastation caused by untreated HIV and common opportunistic infections including TB and meningitis, and was inspired by the high quality of medicine practised by my consultants in this challenging environment. I knew from that point on that I wanted to make a contribution in the emerging field of infectious diseases medicine in South Africa", he says.
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30598-5/fulltext?rss=yes
[Comment] UN General Assembly tuberculosis targets: are we on track?
Suvanand Sahu, Lucica Ditiu, Lovett Lawson, Francine Ntoumi, Denise Arakaki, Alimuddin Zumla | thelancet.com | 2020-03-21
The 2018 UN General Assembly (UNGA) Political Declaration on Tuberculosis was a turning point in global efforts to end the tuberculosis epidemic.1,2 Ambitious targets were set for scale-up and roll-out of diagnostic, treatment, and prevention services, political commitments, principles of equity and human rights, and financing, implementation, and research. Targets included diagnosing and treating an additional 40 million people with tuberculosis by 2022 and generating US$13 billion per year for tuberculosis care and prevention and $2 billion per year for research and development.
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30565-1/fulltext?rss=yes
Fighting COVID-19 in Cuba, China and the United States
W. T. Whitney, Jr. | mronline.org | 2020-03-21
The pandemic has effectively provided a laboratory-like demonstration that people do better when states can plan ahead, apply national resources unequivocally to the public good, put science in the service of the people, and practice international solidarity. These are characteristics of socialist societies. | Source…
mronline.org/2020/03/20/fighting-covid-19-in-cuba-china-and-the-united-states/
FBI arrests Pakistani doctor trying to JOIN ISIS & carry out 'lone wolf' attacks in US
rt.com | 2020-03-20
A Pakistani doctor and former employee at a prestigious US medical research center was arrested on terrorism charges after telling FBI informants he sought to join Islamic State, hoping to launch attacks on their behalf. | The 28-year-old doctor, Muhammad Masood, was apprehended by the FBI at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and charged on one count of providing material support to a terrorist organization. | Masood
Proposals for the 2020 US Elections
Charles Pierce | dissidentvoice.org | 2020-03-19
The broad left has been uniting behind the Democratic Party for the past four decades without having achieved much real progress for its base constituencies. In fact, there has been considerable regress: increased inequality of wealth and income, diminished collective bargaining, increased homeless numbers, rising student debt burdens, reduced abortion access, increasingly unaffordable costs of …
dissidentvoice.org/2020/03/proposals-for-the-2020-us-elections/
[Research Paper] A phase 1b randomized study of the safety and immunological responses to vaccination with H4:IC31, H56:IC31, and BCG revaccination in Mycobacterium tuberculosis-uninfected adolescents in Cape Town, South Africa
Linda-Gail Bekker, One Dintwe, Andrew Fiore-Gartland, Keren Middelkoop, Julia Hutter, Anthony Williams, April K. Randhawa, Morten Ruhwald, Ingrid Kromann, Peter L. Andersen, Carlos A. DiazGranados, Kathryn T. Rutkowski, Dereck Tait, Maurine D. Miner, Erica Andersen-Nissen, Stephen C. De Rosa, Kelly E. Seaton, Georgia D. Tomaras, M. Juliana McElrath, Ann Ginsberg, James G. Kublin, HVTN 602 | thelancet.com | 2020-03-18
BCG revaccination administered as a single dose ID and both H4: IC31 and H56: IC31 administered as 2 doses IM had acceptable safety profiles in healthy, QFT-negative, previously BCG-vaccinated adolescents. Characterization of the assays and the immunogenicity of these vaccines may help to identify valuable markers of protection for upcoming immune correlates analyses of C-040-404 and future TB vaccine efficacy trials.
thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30057-2/fulltext?rss=yes
Facing Mass Layoffs, Restaurant Workers Living "Tip to Mouth" Demand Living Wage & Paid Sick Leave
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-03-18
Mass shutdowns and layoffs due to the spread of COVID-19 are affecting millions of restaurant workers across the U.S., with bars and restaurants closing for the foreseeable future. Servers, bartenders, kitchen staff and more have been left in the lurch, many without paid sick leave, paid time off or benefits. One study estimated 4 million restaurant workers in the U.S. are at risk of losing their jobs in a matter of weeks. For more on the impacts on service workers, we speak with Saru Jayaraman, the co-founder of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, and president of One Fair W…
www.democracynow.org/2020/3/18/restauran…
A Lesson Coronavirus is About to Teach the World
Jonathan Cook | dissidentvoice.org | 2020-03-18
If a disease can teach wisdom beyond our understanding of how precarious and precious life is, the coronavirus has offered two lessons. The first is that in a globalised world our lives are so intertwined that the idea of viewing ourselves as islands
UN agriculture agency staff continue to strive for a better world amid Italy COVID-19 lockdown
news.un.org | 2020-03-18
Italy has been hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak, with nearly 28,000 confirmed cases of the disease and 2,503 deaths, according to latest statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO). While a national quarantine has the country in lockdown, it has not halted the work of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), based in the capital, Rome.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/03/1059642
[Research Paper] Results from the first English stool bank using faecal microbiota transplant as a medicinal product for the treatment of Clostridioides difficile infection
V.L. McCune, M.N. Quraishi, S. Manzoor, C.E. Moran, K. Banavathi, H. Steed, D.C.O Massey, G.R Trafford, T.H. Iqbal, P.M. Hawkey | thelancet.com | 2020-03-16
The methodology developed here enabled successful licencing of FMT by The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency as a medicinal product. This has widened the availability of FMT in the National Health Service via a stool bank and can be applied in other centres across the world to improve access to safe and quality assured treatments.
thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30045-6/fulltext?rss=yes
Trump Calls COVID-19 "Foreign Virus" as Lack of Universal Healthcare Makes the Pandemic Worse
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-03-12
After downplaying the threat of coronavirus for days, President Donald Trump addressed the nation Wednesday from the Oval Office, calling COVID-19 a "foreign virus" and announcing an unprecedented travel ban from most of Europe to the U.S. He also said he will expand sick leave. This comes as Senate Republicans blocked paid sick leave legislation. Robert Pollin, distinguished university professor of economics and co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, says the lack of universal healthcare in the U.S. is exacerbating the coronavirus crisis due to "the ab…
www.democracynow.org/2020/3/12/coronavir…