Daily Archives: April 2, 2020

2020-04-02: News Headlines

Victor Grossman (2020-04-01). What will the coronavirus do to Germany's political future? peoplesworld.org BERLIN — This city, like many of your hometowns, is a ghost city. Except for those offering groceries, medicines or medical care, everything is shut tight. Luckily, no-one here has to stay inside, we can stroll around outside but, aside from families, we may not "assemble" in groups of more than two — the rules …

Ajamu Baraka (2020-04-01). COVID-19: The Capitalist Emperor has no Clothes. dissidentvoice.org As the capitalist emperor strolls down the avenue of U.S. public opinion butt-naked but for the first time since the 1930s, more and more people are starting to realize that they were not crazy. The brutal failures of the capitalist system that they saw were not a figment of their imagination or a diversion from …

Dorothee Benz (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…

John Nichols (2020-03-31). On the Need for Dissent and Debate in These Urgent Times. thenation.com On the Need for Dissent and Debate in These Urgent Times…

Neil deMause (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.

Andrew Green (2020-03-28). [Obituary] Aron Goldhirsch. thelancet.com Medical oncologist specialising in breast cancer. Born on April 25, 1946, in Landsberg am Lech, Germany, he died on Feb 26, 2020, in Lugano, Switzerland, aged 73 years.

Juliet Bedford, Delia Enria, Johan Giesecke, David L Heymann, Chikwe Ihekweazu, Gary Kobinger, H Clifford Lane, Ziad Memish, Myoung-don Oh, Amadou Alpha Sall, Anne Schuchat, Kumnuan Ungchusak, Lothar H Wieler, WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Infectious Hazards (2020-03-17). [Comment] COVID-19: towards controlling of a pandemic. thelancet.com During the past 3 weeks, new major epidemic foci of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), some without traceable origin, have been identified and are rapidly expanding in Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East, with the first confirmed cases being identified in African and Latin American countries. By March 16, 2020, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside China had increased drastically and the number of affected countries, states, or territories reporting infections to WHO was 143.1 On the basis of "alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction", on March 11, 2020, the…

Joel Hellewell, Sam Abbott, Amy Gimma, Nikos I Bosse, Christopher I Jarvis, Timothy W Russell, James D Munday, Adam J Kucharski, W John Edmunds, Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Sebastian Funk, Rosalind M Eggo (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.

CounterSpin (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.

Xingfei Pan, Dexiong Chen, Yong Xia, Xinwei Wu, Tangsheng Li, Xueting Ou, Liyang Zhou, Jing Liu (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.

2020-04-02: Social Media Postees

Please be social by posting these 'POSTEES' on social media!

What will the coronavirus do to Germany's political future?
Victor Grossman | peoplesworld.org | 2020-04-01
BERLIN

COVID-19: The Capitalist Emperor has no Clothes
Ajamu Baraka | dissidentvoice.org | 2020-04-01
As the capitalist emperor strolls down the avenue of U.S. public opinion butt-naked but for the first time since the 1930s, more and more people are starting to realize that they were not crazy. The brutal failures of the capitalist system that they saw were not a figment of their imagination or a diversion from …
dissidentvoice.org/2020/03/covid-19-the-…

Corona and what then?
Victor Grossman | mronline.org | 2020-04-01
Berlin, like many of your hometowns, is a ghost city. Except for those offering groceries, medicines or medical care, everything is shut tight. Luckily, no-one here has to stay inside, we can stroll around outside but, aside from families, we may not "assemble" in groups of more than two (if any cops are around).
mronline.org/2020/04/01/corona-and-what-…

Venezuela Denounces Aggression Against Coast Guard Ship
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-01
Venezuela's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez Tuesday rejected the attack carried out by the Resolute, a Portuguese-flagged passenger ship, against the Venezuelan coast guard ship Naiguata, which was patrolling northeast of Tortuga Island on Monday. | RELATED: | Venezuela Rejects the Trump Administration's Transition Plan | "Our ship ordered the Resolute to go to…
telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuela-Denoun…

When the Invisible Hand Gives You the Finger – Corporate media shrug as elite declare loss of profits worse than loss of lives
Dorothee Benz | fair.org | 2020-04-01
Why the market fails to provide life-saving goods is not a question the New York Times ( 3/26/20) will be asking. | 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…
fair.org/home/when-the-invisible-hand-gi…

HuffPost just sunk to BBC levels in its Tory boot licking
Steve Topple | thecanary.co | 2020-04-01
HuffPost's executive editor's latest article on the government response to coronavirus (Covid-19) was quite something. Because he managed to pump out BBC levels of Tory propaganda. And he also effectively whitewashed the deaths of thousands of chronically ill, disabled, homeless, and sick people over the last decade. | The "Waugh Zone": | Paul Waugh publishes a "daily politics brie…
thecanary.co/opinion/2020/04/01/huffpost-just-sunk-to-bbc-levels-in-its-tory-boot-licking/

Limiting Trump's Screen Time Isn't 'Censorship,' It's Journalism
Neil deMause | fair.org | 2020-03-31
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.
fair.org/home/limiting-trumps-screen-tim…

On the Need for Dissent and Debate in These Urgent Times
John Nichols | thenation.com | 2020-03-31
On the Need for Dissent and Debate in These Urgent Times…
thenation.com/article/politics/dissent-d…

[Obituary] Aron Goldhirsch
Andrew Green | thelancet.com | 2020-03-28
Medical oncologist specialising in breast cancer. Born on April 25, 1946, in Landsberg am Lech, Germany, he died on Feb 26, 2020, in Lugano, Switzerland, aged 73 years.
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PI…(20)30642-5/fulltext?rss=yes

[Comment] COVID-19: towards controlling of a pandemic
Juliet Bedford, Delia Enria, Johan Giesecke, David L Heymann, Chikwe Ihekweazu, Gary Kobinger, H Clifford Lane, Ziad Memish, Myoung-don Oh, Amadou Alpha Sall, Anne Schuchat, Kumnuan Ungchusak, Lothar H Wieler, WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Infectious Hazards | thelancet.com | 2020-03-17
During the past 3 weeks, new major epidemic foci of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), some without traceable origin, have been identified and are rapidly expanding in Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East, with the first confirmed cases being identified in African and Latin American countries. By March 16, 2020, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside China had increased drastically and the number of affected countries, states, or territories reporting infections to WHO was 143.1 On the basis of "alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction", on March 11, 2020, the…
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PI…(20)30673-5/fulltext?rss=yes