(2020-04-06). Swedish minister's 'Russian trolls' fanning 5G fears turn out to be… anti-radiation activists led by local granny. rt.com Sweden's digitization minister blamed a flurry of anti-5G comments on the usual suspect — "Russian trolls" — but a closer look revealed that a local granny opposed to wireless radiation was behind the campaign. | The controversy dates back to late-December 2019, when Anders Ygeman, the Swedish energy and digital development minister, lamented that he had fallen victim to some "Russian trolls." Who else could flood his Facebook page with hundreds of comments demanding that he backpedal on the introduction of 5G networks in Sweden? | "There is a Russian political interest in disrupting and hindering…
(2020-04-06). US opinion is shifting in favor of the Nordic model — can activists keep up? zcomm.org In recognition of the pandemic crisis, big-city, mainstream newspapers are calling for actual system change. Activists need to be ready to answer the invitation…
(2020-04-06). Was the Fed Just Nationalized? counterpunch.org Mainstream politicians have long insisted that Medicare for All, a universal basic income, student debt relief and a slew of other much-needed public programs are off the table because the federal government cannot afford them. But that was before Wall Street and the stock market were driven onto life-support by a virus. Congress has now
(2020-04-06). Wisconsin's In-Person Voting Threatens Health and Democracy. thenation.com Wisconsin's In-Person Voting Threatens Health and Democracy…
(2020-04-04). Corporate Media Ignore International Cooperation as Shortcut to Coronavirus Vaccine. commondreams.org When Dr. Jonas Salk was asked in a legendary interview about who owned the patent on the effective polio vaccine he and his team had developed, he acknowledged that their achievement belonged to "the people," and likened efforts to profit off their innovation to be as unethical as trying to patent the Sun.
(2020-04-04). 'We Will Not Sit Back and Let Transit Workers Be Treated Like Cannon Fodder'. thenation.com 'We Will Not Sit Back and Let Transit Workers Be Treated Like Cannon Fodder'
(2020-04-04). Western media unlocked: Hypocrisy behind COVID-19 reports. mronline.org Why did apparently stigmatizing names like Chinese virus or Wuhan virus keep making headlines? How have the Western media shaped the narrative of China's response to the novel coronavirus? As the virus continues to wreck havoc, China Daily investigates how the Western version of propaganda plays out in the global battle against coronavirus.
(2020-04-03). Are NYC cops contributing to coronavirus epidemic by sending people to packed jails for violating social distancing? rt.com As Covid-19 lockdowns keep three-quarters of Americans indoors and see crime rates drop, New York police are arresting people for social distancing violations in a move that flies in the face of safety advisory and public policy. | New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has released hundreds of low-level offenders from city jails, including the notoriously overcrowded Rikers Island, citing the risk of uncontrollable coronavirus contagion. New Yorkers are being told — constantly — to stay home and do their part to "flatten the curve." | But police don't seem to have received that message, continuing to arrest…
(2020-04-02). 'People Should Not Be Forced to Put Their Lives on the Line to Vote'. thenation.com 'People Should Not Be Forced to Put Their Lives on the Line to Vote'
(2020-04-01). When the Invisible Hand Gives You the Finger – Corporate media shrug as elite declare loss of profits worse than loss of lives. fair.org Why the market fails to provide life-saving goods is not a question the New York Times ( Since the days of Adam Smith, capitalists have been arguing that unfettered markets are the best way to organize the economy. Smith famously said that the rich are "led by an invisible hand" to, "without knowing it, advance the interest of the society." The rise of the welfare state in the wake of the Great Depression tempered such magical thinking for a few decades, but the ascent of neoliberalism in…
(2020-03-31). Limiting Trump's Screen Time Isn't 'Censorship,' It's Journalism. fair.org Choosing to keep cameras trained on the president necessarily means devoting less time to other stories that might actually inform viewers about the course of the pandemic and how to fight it—whether it's talking to infectious disease experts on what measures are necessary to limit the death toll, or reporting on other nations' successes and failures.
(2020-03-20). [Department of Error] Department of Error. thelancet.com Deodhar A, Helliwell PS, Boehncke W-H, et al. Guselkumab in patients with active psoriatic arthritis who were biologic-naive or had previously received TNFa inhibitor treatment (DISCOVER-1): a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled phase 3 trial. Lancet 2020; published online March 13. doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30265-8&md… this Article in table 2, the p value row for the short form-36 mental component summary is now correctly labelled as "Unadjusted p value". This correction has been made to the online version as of March 20, 2020, and will be made to the printed Article.
(2020-02-28). [Articles] Feasibility of controlling COVID-19 outbreaks by isolation of cases and contacts. thelancet.com In most scenarios, highly effective contact tracing and case isolation is enough to control a new outbreak of COVID-19 within 3 months. The probability of control decreases with long delays from symptom onset to isolation, fewer cases ascertained by contact tracing, and increasing transmission before symptoms. This model can be modified to reflect updated transmission characteristics and more specific definitions of outbreak control to assess the potential success of local response efforts.
(2020-02-21). Paul Paz y Miño, Saqib Bhatti & Beverly Bell on Environmental Justice & Cross-National Solidarity. fair.org There will only be an increasing number of frontline struggles between extractive, climate-disrupting industry and those willing to stand up to it. Corporate media's inadequate attention, and unwillingness to truly call out the moneyed interests causing present and future harms, make them more often part of the problem than the solution.
(2020-02-19). [Correspondence] Asymptomatic cases in a family cluster with SARS-CoV-2 infection. thelancet.com Since December, 2019, an outbreak of pneumonia caused by a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has led to a serious epidemic in China and other countries, resulting in worldwide concern.1 Family clusters of infected individuals have been reported, and this phenomenon could present a serious threat to public health if not strictly controlled. In a previously reported family cluster, most infected individuals had clinical symptoms, decreased lymphocyte counts, and abnormal chest CT images, and were positive for the virus on quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis.
(2020-02-05). [Correspondence] Obstructive sleep apnoea in acute coronary syndrome. thelancet.com Whether patients with coronary artery disease should be screened for obstructive sleep apnoea, and consequently treated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), regardless of excessive daytime sleepiness, is a hot topic. Previous randomised controlled trials on the effect of CPAP on cardiovascular outcomes in patients with sleep apnoea—namely, the RICCADSA1 and SAVE2 trials—reported neutral findings in intention-to-treat analyses. Thus, it is not surprising that current results from the ISAACC trial (examining the effect of obstructive sleep apnoea and CPAP on cardiovascular events in patients…