Health
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How Austerity and Anti-immigrant Politics Left Italy Exposed
As the viral blitzkrieg rolls across one European border after another, it seems to have a particular enmity for Italy. The country’s death toll has passed China’s, and scenes from its hospitals look like something out of Dante’s imagination. Continue reading
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Covid-19 as symptom: Notes on the production of a virus
Understandably, these days we hear a lot about the symptoms of Covid-19 (dry cough, high fever, etc.). Conversely, there is much less discussion of the virus as a symptom. Let’s say then that to intervene on the symptoms of the virus it is necessary not only to have specific scientific knowledge, but also to put… Continue reading
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Is Capitalism a Disease?
The scientific tradition of the “West,” of Europe and North America, has had its greatest success when it has dealt with what we have come to think of as the central questions of scientific inquiry: “What is this made of?” and “How does this work?” Over the centuries, we have developed more and more sophisticated… Continue reading
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Lockdown!
According to AFP estimates, some 1.7 billion people across the world are now living under some form of lockdown as a result of the coronavirus. That’s almost a quarter of the world population. The world economy has seen nothing like this. Continue reading
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Lancet chief skewers Johnson government for its disastrous Covid-19 failure
An editorial piece in The Lancet – the world’s most prestigious, and best known general medical journal warned two months ago of the oncoming conflict between an ill-prepared, under-funded national health service and an indiscriminate invisible killer in the form of the 2019 coronavirus. More recently The Lancet warned again of the problems that health… Continue reading
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8 Day Journey From Hong Kong To Chile, COVID-19 On My Tail
Imagine that you are in Hong Kong, in a city where “you are actually not supposed to be”, in the first place. You are ready to go home, to South America. But just two days before your departure, via Seoul and Amsterdam, your first Sky Team carrier, Korean Air, unceremoniously decides to cancel all flights… Continue reading
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China Wins Big With Covid-19. What Were We Thinking?
China suffered through the H1N1 coronavirus epidemic in 2008 largely because the CDC took 6 months to identify it and, as a result, 300,000 died prematurely. SARS (774 deaths) was the clincher. They created a hair-trigger alarm system, mandated post-mortem pneumonia DNA testing nationwide, and promoted the CDC head, Dr. George F. Gao[1], to Demigod. Continue reading
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Italy and UK rely on help from Cuba, China, Venezuela to fight coronavirus – as US steps up brutal sanctions
Italy requested doctors from China, Cuba, and Venezuela to contain the coronavirus, while Cuba rescued a ship of British citizens. Meanwhile, US sanctions worsen the toll of the Covid-19 crisis in Iran and Venezuela. Continue reading
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A few ambitious points on fighting the crisis
We are facing two crises at once, health and economic, that are related in very important ways. The covid-19 epidemic has done major damage around the world, but it’s highlighting some serious structural problems with the US social model that better-run countries are not so afflicted by. We are plagued by a deep economic polarization… Continue reading
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Archie and Jughead At Work
1. All of this stuff–this self-isolation, this quarantine, this social distancing, this confinement; all the lock-downs, ups; all the virtual meetings, the telecommuting, the face-timing- all of this eau gazeuse dispensed from the candy-cane headquarters of advanced capitalism with Archie behind the soda fountain and Jughead in the shipping room, are being manipulated as distractions, as… Continue reading
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Covid-19: propaganda and manipulation by Thierry Meyssan
Returning to the Covid-19 epidemic and the way governments are reacting to it, Thierry Meyssan stresses that the authoritarian decisions of Italy and France have no medical justification. They contradict the observations of the best infectiologists and the instructions of the World Health Organization. Continue reading
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The Capitalist Pandemic, Coronavirus and the Economic Crisis
The coronavirus pandemic is a serious public health problem and the human suffering caused by the spread of this virus will be enormous. If it massively affects countries of the Global South with very fragile public health systems that have been undermined by 40 years of neo-liberal policies, the death toll will be very high.… Continue reading
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Anti-Capitalist Politics in the Time of COVID-19
As Marxist geographer David Harvey argues, forty years of neoliberalism has left the public totally exposed and ill prepared to face a public health crisis on the scale of coronavirus. Continue reading
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‘For Unknown Reasons They Waited. And Watched’ – Lancet Editor Exposes Devastating Government Failure On Coronavirus
Over the last 20 years, we have documented some shocking examples of journalistic irresponsibility, but the tweet from ITV’s political editor Robert Peston on March 14 was something special. With China, South Korea, Italy, Spain and other countries in shutdown, lockdown and general medical meltdown, with the UK reeling from rising cases and deaths –… Continue reading
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BioCubaFarma guarantees production of 22 medications for the treatment of Covid-19
Although there is no preventive vaccine or specific treatment, at this time, for the new coronavirus SARS COV-2, which causes COVID-19, the Cuban pharmaceutical industry guarantees the production of proven, high efficacy medications, including recombinant human interferon alpha 2b, in addition to another group of drugs that are included in protocols for treating patients with… Continue reading
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Coronavirus pandemic: China and Cuba send medical teams, equipments and medicine to countries
China and Cuba have stepped in with practical measures at international level amidst the near-collapse health care situation in a number of capitalist countries in the face of coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading
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Coronavirus and capitalism: join our online event
We’ll be trying out a two hour online event discussing some of the pressing global justice issues raised by the coronavirus crisis, and I’m pleased to say that Shalmali Guttal, who had planned to come over for our conference, will join this online discussion live from Thailand. Continue reading
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The Show Must Go On. Event 201: The 2019 Fictional Pandemic Exercise [World Economic Forum, Gates Foundation et al.]
Questioning the ruling class narrative should never be seen, nor framed, as reckless. It should never be subjected to shaming. Rather, it should be a prerequisite and respected as such. The imperative to always question the ruling class narrative is not the responsibility of a small handful of individuals, but the responsibility of a thinking… Continue reading
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A fiasco in the making? As the coronavirus pandemic takes hold, we are making decisions without reliable data
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. Continue reading
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Covid-19 Global Lockdown
Let’s try a little thought experiment. Just for fun. To pass the time while we’re indefinitely locked down inside our homes, compulsively checking the Covid-19 “active cases” and “total death” count, washing our hands every twenty minutes, and attempting not to touch our faces. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 