27 April 20
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PO Box 2043
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27 April 20
RSN: Marc Ash | Behold the Beauty and Savagery of Nature
Marc Ash, Reader Supported News
Ash writes: "Mankind has been rapidly, voraciously consuming and laying waste to Planet Earth for at least 250 years, arguably longer. The result has been a fundamental altering and degradation of the delicate biological balance that makes Earth a unique life-sustaining planet."
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Marc Ash, Reader Supported News
Ash writes: "Mankind has been rapidly, voraciously consuming and laying waste to Planet Earth for at least 250 years, arguably longer. The result has been a fundamental altering and degradation of the delicate biological balance that makes Earth a unique life-sustaining planet."
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Chinese president Xi Jinping. (photo: EFE)
Dilip Hiro | The World Leadership Trophy: The Winner's Prize in the Virus-Killer Race
Dilip Hiro, TomDispatch
Hiro writes: "Historically, in hyper-crises, local and global systems can change fundamentally."
Dilip Hiro, TomDispatch
Hiro writes: "Historically, in hyper-crises, local and global systems can change fundamentally."
EXCERPTS:
On January 16th, scientists at the German Center for Infection Research in Berlin developed a new laboratory test to detect the novel coronavirus. This offered the possibility of diagnosing suspected cases quickly. The WHO publicized it as a guideline for diagnostic detection. The leaders of many countries adopted it, but not President Trump who, in America First-style, demanded a test produced by U.S. scientists. Only on February 29th, however, would the Food and Drug Administration allow laboratories and hospitals to conduct their own Covid-19 tests to speed up the process. That was four weeks after the WHO had started distributing its effective test globally.
On his return to Washington on February 26th, Trump replaced Azar as the head of the coronavirus task force with Vice President Mike Pence, and charged him with disseminating positive messages in order to steady a jittery stock market. The next day, the grievance-laden president complained that the media were doing all they could “to make the Caronavirus [sic] look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible.”
On February 10th, Chinese President Xi visited a hospital in Beijing where he held a video call with health workers in Wuhan. Coverage of it and his temperature being taken by a doctor filled the front page of the official newspaper, the People’s Daily. By then, Communist Party chiefs in Wuhan and Hubei province had been “replaced” because of their poor initial response to the coronavirus.
In Wuhan, an extra 60,000 hospital beds for Covid-19 patients were created within a month by converting 16 exhibition halls and sports venues into field hospitals and constructing two brand new hospitals as well. On February 23rd, Xi teleconferenced with 170,000 local officials, describing the pandemic as the hardest public-health emergency to contain since the founding of the People's Republic. He noted that the situation remained grim and complex, while Hubei Province and significant parts of the rest of the country (as well as the economy) had been shut down.
The highest priority was given to the production of personal protective equipment. According to an official March 6th press briefing, production of protective clothing had jumped from less than 20,000 pieces daily to 500,000 pieces daily. The output of specialist N95 masks shot up eightfold to 1.6 million and ordinary masks totaled 100 million.
On March 13th, President Trump declared a national emergency, pledging to dramatically speed up coronavirus testing (which he disastrously failed to do). By then, he had chalked up a remarkable series of false claims and outright lies about the fast-spreading disease. Typically, on a visit to CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 6th, he had boasted of his “natural ability” to understand the subject of epidemiology.
Asked about the shortage of testing kits and sites, which has left America lagging far behind South Korea and other countries in dealing with the still-spreading virus, Trump couldn’t have been clearer. “I don’t take responsibility at all,” he said. And yet, locked into his “Make America Great Again” bubble, until March 6th he blocked an offer from the Jack Ma Foundation to send 500,000 testing kits and one million masks to the U.S. to be distributed by the CDC.
Passing on the World Leadership Trophy?
The question that many experts on geopolitics are now pondering is this: Have their responses to Covid-19 shifted the balance of power between China and the U.S. in a way that will matter in a post-coronavirus world? Watching the chaos of Trump’s daily press conferences and his administration’s failure to stop the virus effectively proved an alarming reminder that rational people can plan for anything -- except an irrational American president. After all, under his watch 746,459 Americans had contracted Covid-19, and 39,651 had died by mid-April. The comparable figures for China were 82,747 cases and 4,632 deaths.
Nathalie Tocci, an adviser to the European Union’s foreign affairs chief, recently offered a pertinent historical parallel to consider. She cited the 1956 Suez crisis -- Britain’s unsuccessful, if conspiratorial, alliance with France and Israel to militarily topple the nationalist regime of Egypt’s President Gamal Abdul Nasser. It is now considered the sunset moment for Britain’s imperial power. In the present context, she speculated that the Covid-19 pandemic may prove to be a “Suez moment” for the United States.
Ignoring the warnings of scientists and public health experts, President Trump threatens to disastrously extend his coronavirus chronology from hell into an increasingly painful future by “reopening” the country too soon. By so doing, he will only accelerate the day when the World Leadership Trophy, held by America since 1946, is handed to the People’s Republic of China.
Heightened demand due to COVID-19 is forcing Amazon sellers and suppliers into difficult decisions over where to send inventory. (photo: Cindy Ord/Getty Images)
The Amazon Lockdown: How an Algorithm Drives Suppliers to Favor the Giant
Renee Dudley, ProPublica
Excerpt: "At a time when much of the retail sector is collapsing, Amazon is strengthening its competitive position in ways that could outlast the pandemic - and raise antitrust concerns."
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Renee Dudley, ProPublica
Excerpt: "At a time when much of the retail sector is collapsing, Amazon is strengthening its competitive position in ways that could outlast the pandemic - and raise antitrust concerns."
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Pediatrician Greg Gulbransen makes a telemedicine call with a patient at his practice in Oyster Bay, N.Y., this month. Insurers don't always cover such telehealth work. (photo: Lucas Jackson/Reuters)
The Pandemic Could Put Your Doctor Out of Business
Daniel Horn, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "Primary-care practices were barely eking by. If patients stay away too long, they'll crumble."
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Daniel Horn, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "Primary-care practices were barely eking by. If patients stay away too long, they'll crumble."
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Kim Jong Un visits a pursuit assault plane group under the Air and Anti-Aircraft Division in this undated image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on April 12, 2020. (photo: Reuters)
South Korean Officials Caution Against Reports That North Korean Leader Kim Is Ill
Hyonhee Shin and Josh Smith, Reuters
Excerpt: "South Korean officials are emphasizing that they have detected no unusual movements in North Korea and are cautioning against reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be ill or is being isolated because of coronavirus concerns."
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Hyonhee Shin and Josh Smith, Reuters
Excerpt: "South Korean officials are emphasizing that they have detected no unusual movements in North Korea and are cautioning against reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be ill or is being isolated because of coronavirus concerns."
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Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orbán (centre), has attracted criticism by focusing on issues such as the anti-trans legislation instead of coronavirus. (photo: Zoltan Mathe/Reuters)
Hungary Prepares to End Legal Recognition of Trans People
Shaun Walker, Guardian UK
Walker writes: "Trans people and rights activists say the law, which has been introduced into parliament as attention is focused on the coronavirus pandemic, will increase discrimination and intolerance towards trans people."
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Shaun Walker, Guardian UK
Walker writes: "Trans people and rights activists say the law, which has been introduced into parliament as attention is focused on the coronavirus pandemic, will increase discrimination and intolerance towards trans people."
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Urban farmer Eric Tomassini harvests snowball turnips at a backyard urban farm in Los Angeles which sells to customers via CSA. (photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)
Now Is the Time to Sign Up for Community-Supported Agriculture. Here's Why
Adrienne Matei, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "Community-supported agriculture programs benefit at-risk farmers most as the pandemic underlines the value of local food systems."
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Adrienne Matei, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "Community-supported agriculture programs benefit at-risk farmers most as the pandemic underlines the value of local food systems."
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