SURPRISE
Administration officials back away from promise of vaccine by the New Year


Sean D. Naylor National Security Correspondent,Yahoo News•June 16, 2020

Trump declares, ‘Vaccine or no vaccine, we’re back’ at ceremony announcing coronavirus vaccine effort

A month after President Trump announced Operation Warp Speed, administration officials are offering no guarantees that the project will meet its goal of producing 300 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine by January.

“There are no sure things in science,” said a senior Trump administration official, who asked not to be named, in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. “We cannot promise a 100 percent chance of success. What we can tell Americans is that we’ve taken every possible step to maximize the probability of success.”

Under the joint control of the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services, Operation Warp Speed is the administration’s effort to drastically accelerate the development, production and distribution of an effective vaccine for the coronavirus.

President Trump, flanked by Dr. Anthony Fauci, outside the White House on May 15. (Alex Brandon/AP)

Previously, Trump administration officials have sounded sure that they would have 300 million doses ready by January. “I’m confident that we will be able to deliver a vaccine at scale in time,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said May 28.

That claim met with skepticism from medical experts. “A lot of stuff needs to line up in the right way for it to happen,” a source familiar with the Defense Department’s vaccine efforts told Yahoo News at the time.

But the two officials who spoke with reporters Tuesday, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, were slightly more cautious than Esper in their predictions. “Given the vagaries of science … we cannot guarantee with a 100 percent probability that we’ll have a vaccine by the end of the year,” said the first official.

Rather than fixate on the Jan. 1 deadline, the Warp Speed “aspiration” is now that “by the height of flu season next year we have enough vaccines and we have vaccinated those who are vulnerable — and desire a vaccine — to protect as much life as possible,” the first official said. “We’re confident that we will hit that objective.”

The steps that Operation Warp Speed is taking largely involve the outlay of substantial amounts of money in a process that equates to the placing of bets on several horses in the same race. According to a fact sheet released in conjunction with the press call, the U.S. government has already invested a total of more than $2 billion in vaccine candidates being developed by AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna. Those are among 14 of the most promising vaccine efforts chosen from more than 100 in development, the second official said, adding that they will soon narrow that field down to “approximately seven” candidates.

But what makes Operation Warp Speed unique is that rather than pursue the development, manufacture and distribution stages of a vaccine effort sequentially, “these elements are occurring simultaneously,” said the first senior administration official. “That will make the major difference and allow us to deliver safe and effective vaccines to Americans in record time.”

As an example, the first official said, “we expect to be producing large quantities of vaccines while the clinical trials are still underway, so that when safety and efficacy have been demonstrated, there isn’t a day’s delay due to manufacturing ramp-up timelines.” The reason drug companies typically don’t do this is that “it involves significant financial risk,” the official said. Under Operation Warp Speed, the U.S. government is assuming that risk, he added.

“When one looks at the potential health, social and economic benefits of getting a safe and effective vaccine faster, placing big financial bets on checking all these boxes at once is an immensely positive deal,” the official said.

A man receives a shot in the first-stage safety study clinical trial of a potential vaccine for the coronavirus, March 16, at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle. (Ted S. Warren/AP)

Asked how much patients will have to pay to get the vaccine once it becomes available, the officials sought to allay fears that it would be too expensive for some Americans. “For any American who is vulnerable, who cannot afford the vaccine and desires the vaccine, we will provide it for free,” said the first official.

Meanwhile, in discussions with Operation Warp Speed officials, insurers have expressed “an eagerness to cover this vaccine as most if not all of them have covered other COVID-related services — without copay,” he added.

The government will work with the insurers to distribute the vaccine to retail pharmacies and doctors’ offices, while making sure it is also available to those who cannot afford it, as well as essential workers and “those associated with national defense,” the first official said.

The government will use a “tiered approach” to deciding who gets the vaccine first, according to the second official. “The elderly, those with preexisting conditions [and] people performing essential services would be given higher tiers,” he said. However, final decisions on which populations would benefit most from a vaccine will depend on the outcomes of clinical trials and any new information about the virus, he added.

Not everyone will be getting the vaccine, according to the first senior administration official. “For many reasons, we don’t expect to have all Americans vaccinated,” he said.

Those reasons include the fact that because the “safety and efficacy” of a future vaccine is currently unknown, “it may be much more applicable to certain demographic categories than others,” he said.

In addition, he noted that many Americans will already have been exposed to the virus by the time a vaccine is available.

“We fully expect there will be … 20, 30, 40 million Americans that probably have strong antibodies to coronavirus by the end of the year, so they would be a significantly lower priority.”

There is as yet no proof that previous exposure prevents reinfection, however.

Who are the Hindu Goddesses of Contagion?

The goddesses act as “celestial epidemiologists” curing illness.

by Tulasi Srinivas

June 16, 2020 Topic: Religion Region: India Blog Brand: The Reboot Tags: Religion India Coronavirus Hinduism Contagion

Hindus in India have had a helping hand – several in fact – when it comes to fighting deadly contagions like COVID-19: multi-armed goddesses co-opted to help contain and kill pestilence.

Collectively known as “Amman,” or the Divine Mother, the goddesses of contagion – and it always goddesses, not gods – have been called on for their services before. They have been deployed in many of the deadly pandemics India has experienced from ancient times until the the modern age.

In conducting my fieldwork as a cultural anthropologist who studies religion, I have seen small shrines all over India dedicated to these goddesses of contagion, often in rural, forested areas outside village and town limits.

The goddesses act as “celestial epidemiologists” curing illness. But if angered they can also inflict disease such as poxes, plagues, sores, fevers, tuberculosis and malaria. They are both poison and cure.

Blowing hot and cold

One of the first images of a contagion goddess recorded is of the demon-turned-goddess Hariti, carved and worshipped during the deadly Justinian plague of Rome that came to India via trade routes, killing between 25 to 100 million people globally. In the late 19th century, my hometown of Bangalore suffered an epidemic of bubonic plague, which required the services of a contagion goddess. British colonial documents record the repeated waves of illness that stalked the city, and the desperate pleas to a goddess named “Plague Amma.”

In south India, the premier contagion goddess is Mariamman – from the word “Mari” meaning both pox and transformation. In the north of India, she is known as the goddess Sheetala, meaning “the cold one” – a nod to her ability to cool fevers.

The goddesses’ iconography emphasizes their therapeutic healing powers. Sheetala carries a pot of healing water, a broom to sweep away dirt, a branch of the indigenous Neem tree – said to cure skin and breathing disorders – and a jar of ambrosia for eternal life. Mariamman, on the other hand, carries a scimitar with which to smite and decapitate the demons of virulence and illness.

Contagion goddesses are not angelic and gentle, as one might expect caregivers to be. They are hot-tempered, demanding and fiery. They are deemed wilderness goddesses – highly local and traditionally worshiped primarily by lower caste, Dalit, tribal and rural folk. Some are associated with tantric practices and dark magic.

Ritual readiness

Placating the goddesses through blood sacrifice, decorative offerings and self mortification, was – and in some places, still is – a way of preparing for a pandemic in parts of India.

Sometimes, painful piercings, hook swinging and self-flagellation were offered when patients recovered from illnesses, both mental and physical. Or in a sanitized version of blood sacrifice, small silver images of the patient were offered as a prophylactic against illness.

Rituals have often involved variolation. A devotee would be inoculated with infected pus and the goddess invoked through possession to save them. The aim was to trigger a milder form of the illness and gain immunity.

High caste Hindus and those who mirror high-caste practices often ignored and shunned the contagion goddesses, fearful of the blood rites, possession and the tantric rituals, which they associated with low caste worship.

But these local contagion goddesses merged over time with the Divine Mother Shakti, the feminine personification of the energy behind creation. This domesticated the goddesses, making them more acceptable to bourgeois Hindus.

The goddesses’ post-pox lives

With the widespread use of modern antibiotics, retrovirals and vaccines in the mid 20th century, traditional Hindu healing rituals became less relevant. Contagion goddesses were beginning to be forgotten and ignored. But a handful of them developed rich post-pox lives, reinventing themselves for modern afflictions. Some goddesses moved on from focusing on disease alone.

In Bangalore, a city plagued by traffic fatalities, the goddess Mariamman transformed from a cholera goddess into the protector of drivers. Now known as “Traffic Circle Amman,” the goddess’s temple sees cars and trucks line up everyday for blessings, before drivers face the deadly maelstrom of city traffic.

Other goddesses came into being to fight new illnesses. On Dec. 1, 1997, World AIDS day, a new goddess named AIDSAmma was created by a science schoolteacher, H.N. Girish, not to cure AIDS but to teach worshipers the prophylactic measures necessary to prevent the disease.

COVID-19 conscripts

During the COVID-19 crisis all the contagion goddesses have been re-conscripted.

The Indian government’s quick action in instituting a stay-at-home lockdown that lasted two months prevented widespread contagion, but it also meant that people weren’t allowed to go to temples to worship the goddesses and ask for intervention. So priests offered special decorations, including garlands of acidic lemons believed to placate the goddesses.

The goddesses have also been recalled in posters by Indian artists that circulate through Facebook. Artist Sandhya Kumari’s rendering of “Coronavirus Mardini” – a hygienically masked Mother India attacking the coronavirus with a trident – recalled Shakti’s killing of evil, a familiar image to all Hindus.

A nationalistic caption was added during reposting – “Mother India will end the Coronavirus, but it is every Indians duty to stay at home and take care of loved ones. Jai India!”

In Kumari’s rendering, the goddess’s iconography is updated for the pandemic. The goddesses’ many gloved hands grasp sanitizer, masks, vaccination needles and other medical equipment. The coronavirus is held in chains, immovable and shorn of its virulence.

While controversies over temples reopening dominates the news, a new deity, crafted from polystyrene and called “Corona Devi” has been installed in a temple dedicated to the pox goddess. Mr. Anilan, the priest and single devotee, says he will offer worship for “Corona Warriors” – health care workers, firefighters, and other front line personnel. Here science and faith are not seen as inimical to one another, but as working together, hand-in-glove.

COVID-19 has undoubtedly increased the goddesses’ workload. And with no known cure and no viable vaccine, the contagion goddesses may well have their hands full for some time.

Tulasi Srinivas, Professor of Anthropology, Religion and Transnational Studies, Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies, Emerson College

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Image: Reuters

#WW3.0  
India-China clash: 20 Indian troops killed in Ladakh fightingBBC•June 16, 2020

India and China have been locked in a border dispute for decades

At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a clash with Chinese forces in Ladakh in the disputed Kashmir region, Indian officials say.

The incident follows rising tensions, and is the first deadly clash in the border area in at least 45 years.

The Indian army initially said three of its soldiers had been killed, adding that both sides suffered casualties.

But later on Tuesday, officials said a number of critically injured soldiers had died of their wounds.

India's external affairs ministry accused China of breaking an agreement struck the previous week to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley.

BBC diplomatic correspondent James Robbins says violence between two armies high up in the Himalayas is very serious, and pressure will grow on the two nuclear powers not to allow a slide into full-scale conflict.

Soutik Biswas: An 'extraordinary escalation' with rocks and clubs
What have both sides said about the incident?

Early on Tuesday the Indian army said three of its soldiers, including an officer, had died in a clash in the area.

Later in the day, it released a statement saying the two sides had disengaged.

It added that "17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty" and died from their injuries, taking the "total that were killed in action to 20".

China did not confirm any casualties, but accused India in turn of crossing the border onto the Chinese side.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said India had crossed the border twice on Monday, "provoking and attacking Chinese personnel, resulting in serious physical confrontation between border forces on the two sides", AFP news agency reported.

Kashmir map #KASHMIR IS #INDIA'S #GAZA

Both sides insist no bullet has been fired in four decades, and the Indian army said on Tuesday that "no shots were fired" in this latest skirmish.

How a clash that did not involve an exchange of fire could prove so lethal is unclear. There are reports that it was fought with rocks and clubs

Local media outlets reported that the Indian soldiers had been "beaten to death".
How tense is the area?

The LAC is poorly demarcated. The presence of rivers, lakes and snowcaps means the line can shift. The soldiers either side - representing two of the world's largest armies - come face to face at many points.


India-China border row explained in 400 words


Why tensions are rising between the neighbours


How a new map stirred old rivalries

But there have been tense confrontations along the border in recent weeks.

India has accused China of sending thousands of troops into Ladakh's Galwan valley and says China occupies 38,000sq km (14,700sq miles) of its territory. Several rounds of talks in the last three decades have failed to resolve the boundary disputes.

The two countries have fought only one war so far, in 1962, when India suffered a humiliating defeat.

In May, dozens of Indian and Chinese soldiers exchanged physical blows on the border in the north-eastern state of Sikkim. And in 2017, the two countries clashed in the region after China tried to extend a border road through a disputed plateau.

There are several reasons why tensions are rising now - but competing strategic goals lie at the root, and both sides blame each other.

India has built a new road in what experts say is the most remote and vulnerable area along the LAC in Ladakh. And India's decision to ramp up infrastructure seems to have infuriated Beijing.

The road could boost Delhi's capability to move men and materiel rapidly in case of a conflict.

India also disputes part of Kashmir - an ethnically diverse Himalayan region covering about 140,000sq km - with Pakistan.


Kashmir: Why India and Pakistan fight over it

Analysis box by Soutik Biswas, India online correspondent

The two nuclear armed neighbours have a chequered history of face-offs and overlapping territorial claims along the more than 3,440km (2,100 mile), poorly drawn Line of Actual Control separating the two sides.

Border patrols have often bumped into each other, resulting in occasional scuffles. But no bullets have been fired in four decades.

That is why Sunday's night's clash following months of roiling tension has taken many by surprise.

Whatever the result, the latest incident is likely to trigger a fresh wave of anti-China sentiments in India.

It will also present daunting foreign policy and security challenges to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government, which is struggling to contain a surge of Covid-19 infections and revive an economy which looks headed for recession.

India-China clash: An extraordinary escalation 'with rocks and clubs'

Soutik Biswas - India correspondent, BBC•June 16, 2020

The two nuclear armed neighbours have a chequered history of face-offs

"It is looking bad, very bad," says security analyst Vipin Narang, of the deadly clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Ladakh on Monday night.

The most serious face-off on the world's longest unsettled land border in nearly half a century left 20 Indian soldiers dead. India says both sides suffered casualties.

"Once fatalities are sustained, keeping everything quiet becomes hard on both sides. Now public pressure becomes a variable," Dr Narang, a security studies professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told me.

"The scale, scope and swathe of the pressure across the border is seemingly unprecedented."

The two nuclear armed neighbours have a chequered history of face-offs and overlapping territorial claims along the more than 3,440km (2,100 mile), poorly drawn Line of Actual Control (LAC) separating the two sides. Border patrols have often bumped into each other, resulting in occasional scuffles. But no bullets have been fired in four decades.

That is why the latest clash, following months of roiling tension, has taken many by surprise.

"It is an extraordinary escalation," Shashank Joshi, Defence Editor at The Economist magazine, told me. "No shots fired for 45 years, and then at least 20 soldiers dead in one evening in rock-throwing and bludgeoning." The clash comes amid fresh tensions between the two powers, which have brawled along the border in recent weeks but not exchanged any gunfire.

Reports say in early May, Chinese forces put up tents, dug trenches and moved heavy equipment several kilometres inside what had been regarded by India as its territory in Galwan valley in Ladakh. Ajai Shukla, a leading Indian defence analyst, has claimed that China had captured 60 sq km of Indian-patrolled territory in the area in the past one month. India claims China already occupies 38,000sq km (about 14,700sq miles) of its territory.

The move came after India built a road several hundred kilometres long connecting to a high-altitude forward air base which it reactivated in 2008.
'One of the most serious crises in years'

The details of how Monday's skirmish unfolded remain fuzzy.

India and China are accusing each other of violating the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control that separates the both sides in the Galwan Valley.

India says the two sides have been exploring military and diplomatic channels to de-escalate the situation and that senior commanders had a "productive meeting" on 6 June. They agreed "on a process of de-escalation" and subsequently, the ground commanders had a series of meetings to implement the consensus, India's foreign ministry said.

India said both sides suffered casualties after the Chinese "unilaterally tried to change the status quo." And China accuses India troops of "violating" the consensus, crossing the border twice and carrying out provocative attacks on Chinese personnel".

Ankit Panda, a senior editor at The Diplomat magazine, says the ongoing crisis was "already among the most serious between the two countries - certainly since the 2017 Doklam standoff and possibly much longer". Road construction by the Chinese triggered a 73-day standoff in 2017 at a junction of India, China and Bhutan.

An Indian soldier at the border in Ladakh

But Chinese behaviour this time has "been very different from what we have seen in the past," Shivshankar Menon, a China expert and a former national security advisor, says.

"What we have seen is multiple incidents, multiple moves forward and China occupying spaces which it never occupied before along the LAC. This is a worrying sign because it's different from Chinese behaviour in the past," Mr Menon told interviewer Karan Thapar in The Wire, an independent online news portal.

Theories abound on the reasons behind China's actions in the area.

In a tactical sense, Delhi's beefing up of the border infrastructure may have triggered the Chinese army into action in Ladakh. The pandemic may have provided the cover for China to act, particularly as the Indian army had delayed exercises in Ladakh in March. "But I doubt it was the only cause," says Mr Joshi.

"Is it about the road? Is it about Article 370 [India's action of unilaterally changing the status quo of Kashmir in August last year] Is it broader aggressiveness? We don't know," says Dr Narang. "But it is tense and it is not over."

Mr Menon, who served as India's ambassador to China, believes that China is resorting to strident nationalism, due to "domestic and economic stresses" at home. "You can see it in their behaviour in Yellow Sea, towards Taiwan, passing laws without consulting Hong Kong, more assertive on India's border, a tariff war with Australia."

A map showing the disputed area

On Tuesday evening, India said the troops had disengaged from the clash site. Early reports suggest that established military channels were being used and both sides were not escalating. "That's good news for India, which has few credible retaliatory options in the current environment," says Mr Panda.

Mr Joshi believes the most important consequences of Monday's clashes will be the "wider and long-term diplomatic one".

"For 10 years, Sino-Indian rivalry has steadily intensified, but remained largely stable," he said. India and China have also been more engaged. Bilateral trade increased 67 times between 1998 and 2012, and China is India's largest trading partner in goods. Indian students have flocked to Chinese universities. Both sides have held joint military exercises.

"Now we may be entering a new period of heightened mistrust and antagonism washing away much of the bonhomie on display at the Wuhan summit in 2018," says Mr Joshi.

AMERIKA ALL VIOLENCE IS RIGHT WING VIOLENCE
A man charged with killing a federal officer during George Floyd protests is tied to the far-right 'Boogaloo' movement, authorities say

Sonam Sheth

A member of the far-right militia, Boogaloo Bois, walks next to protesters demonstrating outside Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department Metro Division 2 just outside of downtown Charlotte, North Carolina, on May 29, 2020. LOGAN CYRUS/AFP via Getty Images


A man who was charged with killing two officers in recent weeks — including one standing guard during an anti-police brutality protest following George Floyd's death — has ties to the far-right "Boogaloo" movement, authorities said in federal court documents.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Steve Carrillo was charged with killing the first officer, David Patrick Underwood, in a drive-by attack on May 29.

Carrillo was also arrested and charged with killing a second officer in a separate ambush after authorities arrived at his home following Underwood's murder.

When investigators searched Carrillo's car, they discovered a ballistic vest with insignia linked to the "Boogaloo" movement, which prosecutors defined as "a term used by extremists to reference a violent uprising or impending civil war in the United States."

The charges against Carrillo come amid multiple instances of individuals associated with the far-right being accused of stoking violence connected to the protests against police brutality.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have accused the far-left group antifa of organizing the violence, despite a lack of evidence to back up the claim.

A man charged with killing two officers in recent, separate attacks in California has ties to the far-right "Boogaloo" movement, authorities said in a federal indictment.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo was charged Tuesday with killing a federal service officer, 53-year-old David Patrick Underwood at an Oakland courthouse in a drive-by attack on May 29, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

Carrillo also faces state charges in the killing of Santa Cruz County Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller on June 6.

A second man, Robert Justus Jr., was charged with aiding and abetting Carrillo in killing Underwood in the initial attack. Another officer was also critically wounded in the ambush. Both officers were guarding the courthouse while demonstrations against racism took place nearby, and both were part of the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Protective Service.


Law enforcement officials said Carrillo and Justus went to Oakland to kill police officers and believed that nationwide protests against police brutality following the death of 46-year-old George Floyd would facilitate their motives.

Floyd was a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes while Floyd said he couldn't breathe and begged for air.

Authorities went on a manhunt following Underwood's slaying on May 29. Eight days later, they showed up at Carrillo's home after discovering a van belonging to him that contained firebombs, ammunition, and materials used to make bombs, authorities said.

When officials arrived at his home on June 6, Carrillo ambushed them, killing Gutzwiller and injuring another officer, prosecutors said.

When they searched Carrillo's van after the ambush, officials discovered a ballistic vest that had a patch on it with insignia linked to the far-right "Boogaloo" movement, the charging document said.

The "Boogaloo" movement, as defined by prosecutors in Carrillo's indictment, "is a term used by extremists to reference a violent uprising or impending civil war in the United States."

Carrillo allegedly used his own blood to write "various phrases" on the hood of a Toyota Camry that he carjacked as well, prosecutors said. One officer reviewed a photograph and recognized the word and phrases "BOOG," "I became unreasonable," and "stop the duopoly."
There have been multiple recent instances of far-right individuals accused of violence, but the Trump administration has largely blamed antifa for clashes

The charges in Carrillo's and Justus' cases come amid multiple instances of individuals associated with the far-right being accused of trying to stoke violence connected to the demonstrations against police brutality.

Earlier this month, three men who were self-proclaimed members of the "Boogaloo" movement were arrested on domestic terrorism charges and accused of carrying unregistered firearms and trying to spark riots during the demonstrations.

According to the charging document, which was reviewed by Business Insider, the three defendants previously served in the US Navy, US Army, and US Air Force.

Last Monday, CNN reported that a man accused of driving his car through a crowd of protesters in Virginia during the previous weekend was an "admitted leader" of the Ku Klux Klan and a "propagandist for Confederate ideology," according to the county attorney.

The man, Harry Rogers, was charged with attempted malicious wounding, felony vandalism and assault, and battery.

The arrests come as President Donald Trump and his allies urge law enforcement officials to crack down on the protests and accuse "antifa" — a loosely organized far-left group of anti-fascism activists — of sparking violence during the demonstrations.

But a closer examination of court records, media reports, and social media posts shows little evidence of a widespread or organized antifa-led effort to infiltrate the protests.

In early June, The Nation reported that the FBI had "no intelligence indicating Antifa involvement/presence" in violence that took place on May 31 as protests following Floyd's death reached a climax. The report cited an internal situation report from the FBI's Washington, DC, field office.

But the situation report did warn that people associated with a right-wing social media group had "called for far-right provocateurs to attack federal agents" and "use automatic weapons against protesters."


Politico also reported this month that a Department of Homeland Security intelligence note warned law-enforcement officials that a white supremacist channel on the encrypted messaging app Telegram encouraged its followers to incite violence to start a race war during the protests.

Citing the FBI, it said that two days after Floyd's death, the channel "incited followers to engage in violence and start the 'boogaloo.'"

One of the messages in the channel called for potential shooters to "frame the crowd around you" for the violence, the note said, according to Politico.

On May 29, the note said, "suspected anarchist extremists and militia extremists allegedly planned to storm and burn the Minnesota State Capitol."

And NBC News reported this month that Twitter had identified a group posing as an "antifa" organization calling for violence in the protests as actually being linked to the white supremacist group Identity Evropa.

Twitter suspended the account, @ANTIFA_US, after it posted a tweet that incited violence. A company spokesperson also told NBC News that the account violated Twitter's rules against platform manipulation and spam.

RIGHT ON TIME
West Virginia sees coronavirus outbreaks in churches

Less than a month after President Trump urged churches to reopen

THE ANTI-CHRIST SACRIFICES HIS FOLLOWERS TO BRING FORTH ARMAGEDDON/APOCALYPSE/RAPTURE 

Alexander NazaryanNational Correspondent, Yahoo News•June 15, 2020

WASHINGTON — Less than a month after President Trump urged churches to reopen, West Virginia has reported a significant number of coronavirus outbreaks linked to houses of worship. According to the state’s public health office, a total of five churches have seen outbreaks.

Those churches are scattered across the rugged, mountainous state. The affected churches are in Jefferson County on the border with Maryland; Boone County, in the state’s southwestern coalfields, not far from the Kentucky border; Hampshire County, also near the Maryland border; and Marshall County, in a narrow swath of the state squeezed between Ohio and Pennsylvania known as the Northern Panhandle.

The state’s Department of Health and Human Resources announced the five-church outbreak in a Saturday press release about a house of worship in Greenbrier County, where it said “at least 17 cases have been identified.” It did not name the Greenbrier church, or the churches in the other four counties, to “protect the possibility of identifying individuals.”

On Monday, health officials said that there had been eight church-related cases in Hampshire County, seven in Boone County and five each in Jefferson and Marshall counties. Speaking at a press conference on Monday, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice revealed that the outbreak in Greenbrier County was at Graystone Baptist Church in Lewisburg. And he said that the number of cases there had risen to 28.

State health officials told Yahoo News that the infected churchgoers had themselves infected an additional 26 people, so that the total number of people who had contracted the coronavirus either directly or indirectly because of the worship services was now 79. “DHHR is monitoring any increase in COVID-19 cases with coordination from the local health department,” said Allison Adler, director of communications for the Department of Health and Human Resources. She said that the West Virginia National Guard was assisting in the response, including by helping clean the five churches.
Graystone Baptist Church in Lewisburg, W.Va. (via Facebook)

Describing the coronavirus as a “cannonball killer,” Justice suggested that officials at the church did not take sufficient measures to protect parishioners.

“Maybe we didn’t use the level of caution there,” Justice said. “Maybe we didn’t social distance properly, or properly wear masks.” He later clarified that this was only “hearsay.”

Graystone Baptist posted a statement on Facebook on Saturday afternoon, around the same time that state health officials sent out the notice about the outbreaks in the state. “We greatly encouraged anyone who was feeling ill to remain home. Attending church was on a voluntary basis. We exemplified social distancing within the church walls,” the statement said.

“We made aware and made use of hand sanitizing stations and Antibacterial sprays,” the statement continued. “We do not understand the source of the outbreak. To the best of our ability we followed the guidelines that were given to us.”

Trump insisted in late May that churches reopen, threatening governors who continued to impose restrictions on houses of worship. The pronouncement, which appeared to lack legal grounds because such decisions reside with governors, covered synagogues, mosques and other congregations. But some believe the order was meant to specifically address weakening political support for Trump among evangelical Christians, whose votes Trump needs in the November election.

Writing in the Washington Post, two evangelical leaders called the president’s push to reopen churches “irresponsible and potentially destructive.”

In another move that appeared targeted at conservative Christian voters, Trump earlier this month had the U.S. Park Police disperse peaceful protesters gathered in Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House, so that he could walk to St. John’s Episcopal Church and pose holding a Bible there. That highly controversial incident backfired when some religious leaders condemned the use of force for the sake of a photo shoot.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice. (Al Drago/Reuters)

Gov. Justice is a billionaire, the only one in the entire state. He owns the Greenbrier, a historic luxury resort in Greenbrier County that is about 10 miles from Lewisburg. He described Graystone Baptist as “right in my backdoor.” Justice was elected as a Democrat in 2016 but announced that he was becoming a Republican some months later. He and President Trump have been close allies ever since.

“A lot of the attendance at our churches are those that are elderly and at higher risk, so we are cautioning everyone to strictly follow our guidelines,” Justice was quoted as saying in the health department’s press release, which went out on Saturday afternoon. “As I have said many times, we will have stormy seas before we get a vaccine, so it is imperative that we strictly follow the guidelines or the seas will only get rougher.”

Justice advised church attendees to “use every other pew, maintain social distancing, and please wear masks.” State health authorities announced that there would be additional coronavirus testing sites on Sunday and Monday in Lewisburg, the county seat.

The state’s coronavirus czar, Dr. Clay Marsh, said on Monday that “singing is a particular challenge when it comes to the spread” of the coronavirus. Singing is integral to religious gatherings in nearly all cultures and faiths. On March 3 and 10, a coronavirus superspreader infected 52 people at choir practices in Skagit County, Washington state. Two of those people died.Some places of worship in West Virginia chose not to reopen even once they were permitted to do so. Rabbi Joe Blair of Temple Israel in the state capital of Charleston said that while there was a “push” from some of the synagogue’s board members to reopen, he worried about elderly congregants and would resume in-person worship only “when it is safe and prudent to do so.” Blair told Yahoo News that prospects were “extremely low” for Temple Israel to reopen by the time the two holiest Jewish holidays, Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, take place in late September.

Bruce Lane, a pastor at the Chestnut Creek megachurch in Morgantown, where the flagship state university is based, said that his congregation was taking a similar approach. “We’ve decided to be a little cautious right now,” Lane told Yahoo News. He expects in-person church services to resume in early August.

John King, executive pastor of the Bible Center Church in Charleston, told Yahoo News that he had not “seen a rise in COVID cases in our congregation.” King said, “One of our steps has been to delay resuming our in person weekend gatherings until the end of June. We presently do not have groups gathering in our building other than staff.”

The news about church-based outbreaks comes as many Americans continue to gather at large demonstrations to protest police brutality. Speaking to Yahoo News last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leading member of the White House coronavirus task force, said he was “concerned” the protests could lead to a spike in coronavirus cases.

Meanwhile, in many states, restaurants, bars and other establishments have begun to reopen after months of lockdown. Public health officials worry that those activities, like religious services, could contribute to an increase in coronavirus infections.

COVID-19, the lower respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, has infected 2.1 million Americans, killing nearly 116,000. Reports of “quarantine fatigue” have been widespread, and people have sometimes flouted lockdown restrictions in states where such measures remain in place. That worries public health officials, who have pointed to drastic rises in coronavirus infection rates in states like Texas and Florida, which were among the slowest to close and the quickest to reopen.

A reopened beach on Friday in Miami Beach, Fla. (MediaPunch/IPX via AP)
West Virginia has so far been relatively mildly affected by the coronavirus, which has killed 88 people there. It was the last state to record a coronavirus case, though it is unclear whether that was because the pathogen was slow to arrive there or because the state’s public health authorities were slow to have diagnostic testing resources. The state has an older population that could prove particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus.

No other state appears to have reported as many outbreaks related to religious gatherings as West Virginia, though that could be because diagnostic testing and reporting practices vary widely across the nation. Early in the pandemic, coronavirus clusters were reported in communities of religious Jews in and around New York City. And in March, a church in rural Arkansas saw 35 of 92 attendees at a religious service test positive for the coronavirus, making for a troublingly high 38 percent infection rate from a single event.

In his remarks on Monday, Justice said that “all of our churches should take heed.” He added that “losing lives” by neglecting to institute proper precautionary measures was “not worth it.”

San Francisco's District Attorney is suing DoorDash for classifying workers as contractors instead of employees despite AB5 gig-worker law

Katie Canales

A worker with a DoorDash delivery pouch in San Francisco in 2019. Katie Canales/Business Insider

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin is suing food delivery platform DoorDash for misclassifying its workers as contractors instead of employees.

The civil lawsuit is one of the latest examples of how California's AB5 law is upending tech companies' reliance on the gig economy.

The law went into effect in January and requires companies to treat their gig workers as employees, an action that the lawsuit is calling for DoorDash to take.

A DoorDash spokesperson told Business Insider in an email that "today's action seeks to disrupt the essential services Dashers provide."

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin is suing food delivery platform DoorDash for "unlawful and unfair business practices."

According to the complaint, pulled by Mission Local reporter Joe Eskenazi who first reported the news, the company has continued to classify its delivery workers as independent contractors instead of employees in direct defiance of a California law passed to prevent companies from doing just that.

The state's AB5 law went into effect in early January 2020 and strives not only to require companies to classify gig workers as employees but also to pay local, state, and federal taxes in accordance with that classification, as Eater SF notes. Boudin's civil lawsuit is asking for DoorDash to classify its delivery workers, known as "Dashers," as employees.

"Today's action seeks to disrupt the essential services Dashers provide, stripping hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, parents, retirees and other Californians of valuable work opportunities, depriving local restaurants of desperately needed revenue, and making it more difficult for consumers to receive prepared food, groceries, and other essentials safely and reliably," DoorDash Global Head of Public Policy Max Rettig said in an email to Business Insider. "We will fight to continue providing Dashers the flexible earning opportunities they say they want in these challenging times."


San Francisco tech companies — including Uber, Postmates, and Lyft — and their business models rely heavily on gig workers. By doing so they're able to avoid the higher costs that come with doling out wages and benefits typically reserved for full-time employees.

DoorDash — which filed to go public in late February — isn't the only firm that has aggressively pushed back on AB5. The company and others like Lyft, Uber, and Instacart have poured millions into a campaign supporting a California ballot measure designed to reverse the AB5 law.

Ride-hailing giant Uber and food delivery company Postmates had also filed a lawsuit in December 2019 arguing that the law was unconstitutional.

But the gig workers are also going to court.

As Business Insider's Tyler Sonnemaker reported, drivers with Uber and Lyft in California filed claims against the companies in mid-April. The workers claimed they were owed at least $630 million in back wages as their employers continued to classify them as independent contractors, despite the passage of AB5.

SEE ALSO: DoorDash is preparing an IPO.

Feds say company provided subpar steel for US Navy subs

GRIFTER NATION 

MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

GETS SLAP ON THE WRIST
Gene Johnson, The Associated Press,Defense News•June 16, 2020




SEATTLE — For decades, the Navy’s leading supplier of high-strength steel for submarines provided subpar metal because one of the company’s longtime employees falsified lab results — putting sailors at greater risk in the event of collisions or other impacts, federal prosecutors said in court filings Monday.

The supplier, Kansas City-based Bradken Inc., paid $10.9 million as part of a deferred prosecution agreement, the Justice Department said. The company provides steel castings that Navy contractors Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding use to make submarine hulls.

Bradken in 2008 acquired a foundry in Tacoma, Washington, that produced steel castings for the Navy. According to federal prosecutors, Bradken learned in 2017 that the foundry's director of metallurgy had been falsifying the results of strength tests, indicating that the steel was strong enough to meet the Navy's requirements when in fact it was not.

US Navy commissions its last Block III Virginia submarine

Prosecutors say the company initially disclosed its findings to the Navy but then wrongfully suggested that the discrepancies were not the result of fraud. That hindered the Navy's investigation into the scope of the problem as well as its efforts to remediate the risks to its sailors, prosecutors said.

“Bradken placed the Navy’s sailors and its operations at risk,” Seattle U.S. Attorney Brian Moran said in a news release. “Government contractors must not tolerate fraud within their organizations, and they must be fully forthcoming with the government when they discover it.”

There is no allegation in the court documents that any submarine parts failed, but Moran said the Navy had incurred increased costs and maintenance to ensure the subs remain seaworthy. The government did not disclose which subs were affected.

The foundry's director of metallurgy, Elaine Thomas, 66, of Auburn, Washington, was charged criminally with one count of major fraud against the United States. Thomas, who worked in various capacities at the lab for 40 years, was due to make an initial appearance in federal court June 30. Her attorney, John Carpenter, declined to comment.

The criminal complaint said investigators were able to compare internal company records with test results that Thomas certified. The analysis showed that she fabricated the results of 240 productions of steel, representing nearly half of the high-yield steel Bradken produced for Navy submarines — often toughness tests conducted at negative-100 degrees Fahrenheit, the complaint said.

When a special agent with the Department of Defense's Criminal Investigative Service confronted her with falsified results dating back to 1990, she eventually conceded that the results were altered — “Yeah, that looks bad,” the complaint quoted her as saying. She said she may have done it because she believed it was “a stupid requirement” that the test be conducted at such a cold temperature, the complaint said.

Investigators said the fraud came to light when a metallurgist being groomed to replace Thomas upon her planned 2017 retirement noticed some suspicious results. The company said it immediately fired Thomas.

“While the company acknowledges that it failed to discover and disclose the full scope of the issue during the initial stages of the investigation, the government has recognized Bradken’s cooperation over the last eighteen months to be exceptional,” the company said in an emailed statement. “Bradken has a long history of proudly serving its clients, and this incident is not representative of our organization. We deeply regret that a trusted employee engaged in this conduct.”

Bradken agreed to take steps that include increased oversight over the lab, fraud protections and changes to the foundry’s management team. If Bradken complies with the requirements outlined in the deferred prosecution agreement, the government will dismiss the criminal fraud charge against it after three years.

BEING QUEER SHOULD NOT BE A DEATH SENTENCE

LGBTQ activist Sarah Hegazi, exiled in Canada after torture in Egypt, dies at 30

Hegazi struggled with depression, trauma after enduring 3 months of torture by Egyptian authorities

Nick Boisvert · CBC News · Posted: Jun 16, 2020

friend captured a photo of Sarah Hegazi hoisting a rainbow flag at a concert in Cairo in 2017. She was arrested and tortured by the Egyptian authorities not long after. (Amr Magdi/Twitter)

A prominent LGBTQ activist who sought asylum in Canada after being arrested and tortured in her native Egypt has died, leaving behind unfulfilled dreams of liberating other people targeted for their sexual orientation and political beliefs.

Sarah Hegazi, 30, is being remembered as an inspiring symbol of resistance and bravery by mourners around the world.

She was found dead in her Toronto apartment on Saturday, June 13, of an apparent suicide.

Hegazi was imprisoned in the fall of 2017 after waving a rainbow flag at a concert in Cairo by the Lebanese band Mashrou'Leila, whose lead singer Hamed Sinno is openly gay.

The sight of the flag associated with LGBTQ liberation being so prominently displayed at the concert outraged many in the Egyptian establishment. It ignited a three-week anti-gay crackdown by the authorities, in which Hegazi was the only woman arrested.

"It was a shock for the conservative community and it was a shock to the Egyptian government," said her friend Ahmed Alaa, who was also jailed after raising a rainbow flag at the show.

In interviews, she was tortured by the Egyptian government for three months before her release on bail. Fearing her eventual prosecution as an openly gay woman in a country that routinely targets and charges its gay citizens with crimes of debauchery and blasphemy, Hegazi fled to Canada shortly after.

In Syria, he lived in secret. Now he's helping other LGBTQ refugees

Rainbow Railroad station praises expansion of program to help LGBTQ refugees get to Canada

In an interview with CBC News in 2018, Hegazi spoke of the unrelenting trauma caused by her imprisonment, which she said included torture by electric shock.

"I want to get over it and I want to forget," she said at the time. "But no, I'm still stuck in prison."

Hegazi described a life in Canada marked not by relief or a sense of sanctuary, but of nightmares, depression and panic attacks.

She was also debilitated by severe loneliness after being separated from her beloved mother and younger siblings, who remained in Egypt. Hegazi's mother died of cancer a month after she landed in Canada.

"Home is not land and borders. It's about people you love," Hegazi said. "Here in Canada, I haven't people, I haven't family, I haven't friends. So I'm not happy here."


Sarah Hegazi, a prominent Egyptian LGBTQ activist, has died in Toronto after fleeing imprisonment and torture in her homeland. 

While grateful for the protection from prosecution provided in Canada, Hegazi said she dreamed of returning to her homeland to continue her fight against discrimination, Western imperialism and capitalism.

But doing so would require shaking off the trauma of her imprisonment, which she described as a near-insurmountable task.

"If I get the help and I can feel like I'm finally free from it, I'll be able to not only help my brother and sister, but hundreds of people who I know need it," Hegazi said.
A close friend promises to continue her life's work

Hegazi also hoped to draw attention away from her own experience and toward the many other people languishing in prisons at the hands of menacing regimes.

"I don't want to focus only on my case, I want to focus on the hundreds of thousands of people that are in jail because they either have a different political standing or sexual orientation," Hegazi said.

While Alaa said he is still struggling to accept her death, he pledged to remember her as a champion for human rights.

"For everyone who needs help and support, Sarah was the most kind, the most supportive person you might ever see," said Alaa, who also fled Egypt and now lives in Toronto.

Ahmed Alaa joined Hegazi in Canada after being jailed and tortured. 'All she wanted was to go back to Egypt, to live in peace, to love her siblings,' he said. (Grant Linton/CBC)

The two met in Egypt while working with a domestic violence organization. They later bonded over their shared interest in advancing human rights for Egyptians in the LGBTQ community.

"She was fighting a lot, but she just lost her energy," Alaa said, adding that continuing her work is "the only thing we can do."

Lead singer, LGBTQ community honours Hegazi online

News of her death has sparked an outpouring of support on social media, with many people using the hashtag #RaiseTheFlagForSarah in her honour.

But in a Facebook post, Hamed Sinno confronted an altogether different wave of online comments that welcomed news of her death, which was framed as the result of a life lived in contravention of God. 

https://www.facebook.com/1328501785/videos/10223708227916890/

"I don't know what to make of the amount of hate I've seen over the last two days," he wrote. "None of this is God's will. None of this is religion."

Sinno concluded the post by quoting a line of Hegazi's poetry, originally written in Arabic:

"The sky is sweeter than the earth, and I need the sky not the earth."

With files from Joyita Sengupta, Anand Ram, Adrienne Arsenault, Yasmine Hassan and Chris Glover

CANADA

CERB payments to be extended for 2 more months

Beginning July 5, recipients must sign attestation acknowledging government wants them to work

MAKE IT PERMANENT CALL IT
 UNIVERSAL BASIS INCOME UBI

Kathleen Harris · CBC News · Posted: Jun 16, 2020

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a two-month extension to the Canada emergency response benefit today. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

The Canada emergency response benefit (CERB) is being extended by two more months, even as the government encourages people to look for jobs and to go back to work when it's possible to do so.

CERB has provided taxable payments of $2,000 for up to four months to Canadians who lost income because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today that the financial supports will be extended for eight weeks for those who still can't work as provinces and territories gradually reopen their economies.

"The reality is that there are three million people out of work who are looking for work, and even as our economy is reopening, there are many, many more people out of work, willing to work, than there are jobs available," he said.

Governments shouldn't 'scare' Canadians, Liberal MP says as Ottawa threatens penalties for CERB fraud

A draft bill placed conditions on CERB payments requiring recipients to actively look for work and to not turn down reasonable work opportunities. That legislation did not pass, but Trudeau said today the government will find ways to encourage people to work when they are able.


CERB payments being extended 8 weeks: Trudea

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Canada emergency response benefit (CERB) will be extended by two more months for those who still cannot work as provinces and territories gradually reopen their economies. 1:53

Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough said CERB recipients for the new phase will be required to sign an attestation acknowledging the government is encouraging them to look for work and to consult with the government's job bank.

"We know that Canadians are eager and ready to do their part. We expect that workers will be seeking work opportunities or returning to work when their employer reaches out to them, provided they are able and it is reasonable for them to do so," she said.

That attestation will be in place on July 5, according to her office.

Canadians have made 190,000 repayments on CERB claims, says CRA

The government has been encouraging employers to apply for the wage subsidy program, which covers 75 per cent of an employee's pay, up to $847 a week. More than 223,000 employers have applied for the Canada emergency wage subsidy to cover 2.6 million employees across the country, Qualtrough said.

"While the CERB has been helping millions of Canadian workers get through this difficult time, we know that this benefit is not a long-term solution," she said. "We are moving from a phase in the pandemic where we were asking everyone to stay home, to a phase where workers are going back to work when it is safe and possible for them to do so."

The student emergency benefit, which gives eligible students $1,250 a month — or $2,000 if they have a dependent — requires recipients to attest they are "actively looking for a job."

"The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) may ask you to provide information later to verify that you have been looking for work during the eligibility period(s) that you have applied for, so it is important to keep track of your ongoing job search activities," the website reads.
Long-term solutions needed: Singh

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh had called on the government to extend CERB for at least four months

"Millions of Canadians have been worried about how they will pay their bills this summer. The government can't put people in this situation again come August. Over the weeks ahead, we need a long-term plan to repair EI so that it is finally designed to continue to support workers that can't go back to work and still need help," he said in a statement.

"The prime minister says he has heard us and is extending support through CERB through the summer. This is what we were calling for in the short term. We'll keep working to make sure help is there for Canadians who need it in the long term."

Conservative employment critic MP Dan Albas called on the government to make "simple changes" that would help those ineligible for CERB.

He said there should also be built-in incentives for people to work whenever possible.

Federal deficit likely now at $260 billion due to COVID-19, PBO says

"As businesses start having shifts to fill, Canadians should not be penalized for returning to work. But that's exactly how the Liberals' programs are structured. Earning more than $1,000 a month results in a worker losing their entire benefit," he said.

"That is why Conservatives have called on the government to make the CERB more flexible so that no one is worse off going back to work or picking up a shift."

Employees who make more than $1,000 a month are no longer eligible for CERB. The Conservatives have called for a scaled approach that would allow people to collect a percentage of CERB while working more hours.

Watch | Power & Politics: Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough on the CERB extension
Feds extend CERB by eight weeks | Carla Qualtrough12 hours ago News
Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough on the decision to extend the Canada Emergency Response Benefit by two months. 9:58

USA WAGE SLAVERY
Just 3 in 10 people working outside the home get hazard pay, despite ‘pervasive fear’ of bringing coronavirus home

This fear exists ‘especially among vulnerable workers with the least bargaining power, such as Black and Hispanic workers and low- and middle-income workers’

LIKE THE UI $600 BONUS THE REPUBLICANS AND TRUMP WANT ENDED HERE AGAIN LOW PAID WORKERS WHO WOULD BENEFIT MOST, AS WOULD THE LOCAL ECONOMY, GET SCREWED BY CHEAP ASSED EMPLOYERS, TOO CHEAP TO PAY A LIVING WAGE AND HAZARD PAY

June 16, 2020 By Meera Jagannathan

Workers of color are overrepresented in essential jobs that 

require them to commute to work outside the home. GETTY IMAGES

For many people heading in to work during the COVID-19 pandemic, the rewards haven’t kept pace with the perceived risks, a new analysis suggests.

More than half of workers leaving their homes to go to work say they’re concerned about exposing their households to the coronavirus, but just 30% are compensated with hazard pay, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. About 27% of white people, 41% of black people and 34% of Hispanic people working outside the home receive hazard pay.

See also:Cuomo: Federal government should pay frontline workers ‘hazard pay’ for risking their lives during coronavirus pandemic

Black, Hispanic and non-college educated workers leaving home for work are more likely to get hazard pay, the study found, “though not in proportion to the perceived greater risks”: About 71% of black people working outside the home are afraid of bringing the virus into their households, for example, while around 41% get hazard pay.

The study commissioned questions on a recent YouGov poll and also wrapped in survey findings from the National Employment Law Project (NELP), the progressive Roosevelt Institute and other sources. It defined hazard pay as when workers “received extra pay or benefits because of the higher risks you face” as either a one-time bonus or payment, a change in wage rate or another type of financial benefit.

‘Workers are thus being forced to make unacceptable choices between economic sustenance and their health and their family’s health, a squeeze targeted at those with the least power in the labor market.’— report by the Economic Policy Institute

“There is pervasive fear among workers of bringing the coronavirus home from work, especially among vulnerable workers with the least bargaining power, such as Black and Hispanic workers and low- and middle-income workers,” wrote the authors. “These workers are not being protected by OSHA-established standards and they are also not receiving additional compensation in proportion to the risks they face.”

Workers of color are overrepresented in essential jobs that require them to commute to work outside the home, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention note.

One Washington Post-Ipsos survey included in the EPI analysis found that 72% of Hispanic workers and 68% of black workers employed outside of their homes worried about exposure to COVID-19 on the job and subsequent infection of household members, compared to 50% of white workers.

Racial disparities also emerged in responses to a separate NELP survey, which asked, “Have you gone to work outside your home during this pandemic, even though you thought it might be seriously risking your health or a family member’s health?” Some 73% of black respondents and 64% of Hispanic respondents replied “yes” to the question, versus 49% of white respondents.

The HEROES Act passed by the Democrat-controlled House last month would provide up to $10,000 in “pandemic premium pay” for essential workers.
Many employees are “being forced to work in order to sustain their families, and many are being denied unemployment benefits for not being willing to go to jobs they consider unsafe,” the EPI report’s authors wrote.

“Workers are thus being forced to make unacceptable choices between economic sustenance and their health and their family’s health, a squeeze targeted at those with the least power in the labor market,” they said. “Policies to protect workers’ health on the job as well as to provide decent pay and income maintenance are essential.”