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

Welcome to Sweatshop Amerika!
Mike Whitney | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
Imagine if the congress approved a measure to form a public-private partnership between the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Can you imagine that? | Now imagine if a panicky and ill-informed Congress gave the Fed a blank check to bail …
globalresearch.ca/welcome-sweatshop-amerika/5707216

Mike Pompeo Admits COVID-19 Is a "Live Exercise," Trump Retorts "I Wish You Would Have Told Us"
Shepard Ambellas | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a slip of the tongue while addressing the American people from the White House when he stated that COVID-19 is a live military exercise. | "This is not about retribution," Pompeo explained. "This …
globalresearch.ca/secretary-state-mike-pompeo-admits-covid-19-live-exercise-president-trump-comments-i-wish-you-would-have-told-us/5707223

Shutting Down an Entire Economy. Weighing up the Threat From the Virus and the Threat From the Reaction
Rob Slane | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
Would you consider the shutting down of an entire national economy for a disease such as the Black Death, which between 1347-1351 killed an estimated 60% of the population in the areas where it spread, to be a proportionate …
globalresearch.ca/analysis-covid-19-response-weighing-threat-virus-threat-reaction/5707225

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

COVID-19: A US Scheme for Greater Consolidation of Wealth and Power?
Stephen Lendman | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
Earlier global crises were manufactured to enhance the power of US ruling authorities, serve corporate favorites, and transfer wealth from ordinary people to privileged ones. | Since the neoliberal 1990s alone, that's what the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, 2000 dot.com bust, …
globalresearch.ca/covid-19-us-scheme-greater-consolidation-wealth-power/5707207

Global Research: Analyzing Global Complexities
The Global Research Team | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
Dear Readers, | As we all do our best to digest the complexities unfolding around us with great speed, we remind you more than ever to double check all information you receive. At Global Research we are doing our best to …
globalresearch.ca/global-research-analyzing-global-complexities/5707257

The Coronavirus Lockdown. "The Whole World Brought to its Knees by Coronavirus"
Pierre LeBlanc | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
Author's Note: Following is a somewhat fictionalized account based on factual circumstances. | I'm feeling numb. My throat is tight. My breath is short. I look outside. The street is empty. I look inside. Can't see my lover; she's on the …
globalresearch.ca/coronavirus-lockdown/5707221

Presenting Trump and Science as Equals Isn't Balanced, It's Dangerous
Neil deMause | fair.org | 2020-03-23
With more than 32,000 COVID-19 infections and 400 deaths in the US to date, and Surgeon General Jerome Adams predicting that "this week, it's going to get bad," as hospitals prepare for the eventuality of rationing treatment for patients least likely…
fair.org/home/presenting-trump-and-science-as-equals-isnt-balanced-its-dangerous/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=presenting-trump-and-science-as-equals-isnt-balanced-its-dangerous

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/

Selected Articles: Repercussions of Coronavirus COVID-19
Global Research News | globalresearch.ca | 2020-03-23
In Times of Crisis, How to Prevent an Economic Meltdown and Avoid Privatizing Profits and Socializing Losses | By Prof Rodrigue Tremblay, March 23, 2020 | The crisis and public measures to fight it (drastic travel restrictions…
globalresearch.ca/selected-articles-repercussions-coronavirus-covid-19/5707200

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/

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

[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

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…

[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…

Year in technology 2019
splcenter.org | 2020-03-11
Even as research documented a link between online speech and offline violence, internet companies struggled in 2019 to prioritize public safety over the freedom of their users to post extremist content.
splcenter.org/news/2020/03/18/year-technology-2019

[Perspectives] COVID-19: the medium is the message
Laurie Garrett | thelancet.com | 2020-03-11
In a world of polarising distrust and trade tensions, the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), both within nations and internationally, is aided and abetted by misinformation that circumnavigates the planet in microseconds. Such misinformation is not all malevolent, although its impact can be devastating. The only bastion of defence against rising public panic, financial market hysteria, and unintended misunderstandings of the science and epidemiology of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is agile, accurate, worldwide-available counter-information that takes the high moral grou…
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30600-0/fulltext?rss=yes

[Research Paper] Association of characteristics of tampon use with menstrual toxic shock syndrome in France
Amaury Billon, Marie-Paule Gustin, Anne Tristan, Thomas Bénet, Julien Berthiller, Claude Alexandre Gustave, Philippe Vanhems, Gerard Lina | thelancet.com | 2020-03-10
Our study suggests that the risk of MTSS was associated with using tampons for more than 6 h, overnight tampon use during sleep, and neither read nor followed tampon insertion instructions in case of reading.
thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30052-3/fulltext?rss=yes

[Comment] Patchy progress on the ICPD: are we asking the right questions?
Dorothy Shaw | thelancet.com | 2020-03-09
The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) agenda, set in 1994 in Cairo and revisited 25 years later in Nairobi in 2019, included goals for equitable education of women, reduction of infant and child mortality, reduction of maternal mortality, and access to reproductive and sexual health services, including family planning, through its well known Programme of Action.1 The ICPD was ground-breaking in recognising the benefits that empowerment of women and girls would have for themselves, their families, and, ultimately, their countries.
thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(20)30080-2/fulltext?rss=yes

TEXAS 2020 DEMOCRATIC PARTY PRIMARY
Theodore de Macedo Soares | tdmsresearch.com | 2020-03-07
Exit Poll Versus Reported Vote Count By Theodore de Macedo Soares The 2020 Texas Democratic Party presidential primary was held on March 3, 2020. Election results from the computerized vote counts differed significantly from the results projected by the exit poll conducted by Edison Research and published by CNN at poll's closing. According to the exit poll Sanders was tied with Biden but lost in the unobservable computer counts by 4.5%. In this election candidate Sanders saw the largest Continue Reading ‚Üí…
tdmsresearch.com/2020/03/07/texas-2020-democratic-party-primary/

[Research Paper] Gender parity at scale: Examining correlations of country-level female participation in education and work with measures of men's and women's survival
Adva Gadoth, Jody Heymann | thelancet.com | 2020-03-05
This study extends past research by examining actionable areas of gender equality and their impact on both male and female survival. While longitudinal research is needed to examine both causality and mechanisms, our findings suggest longevity gains for both women and men, and for all children through reduced maternal mortality, where greater parity in school and work is exhibited.
thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30043-2/fulltext?rss=yes

[Research Paper] Access to women physicians and uptake of reproductive, maternal and child health services in India
Nandita Bhan, Lotus McDougal, Abhishek Singh, Yamini Atmavilas, Anita Raj | thelancet.com | 2020-03-05
Higher district availability of women physicians is associated with higher maternal health care utilization but not child health care utilization. Improving gender parity in the physician workforce and rural women physician access may improve maternal health care use in India.
thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30053-5/fulltext?rss=yes

[Correspondence] Mitigate the effects of home confinement on children during the COVID-19 outbreak
Guanghai Wang, Yunting Zhang, Jin Zhao, Jun Zhang, Fan Jiang | thelancet.com | 2020-03-04
In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, the Chinese Government has ordered a nationwide school closure as an emergency measure to prevent spreading of the infection. Public activities are discouraged. The Ministry of Education estimates that more than 220 million children and adolescents are confined to their homes; this includes 180 million primary and secondary students and 47 million preschool children).1 Thanks to the strong administrative system in China, the emergency home schooling plan has been rigorously implemented.
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30547-X/fulltext?rss=yes