REPUBLICAN REVISIONISM

Texas Senate passes bill that removes MLK, suffrage and Native American history from required curriculum

The Texas state senate passed a bill that would no longer require public schools to cover writings on the civil rights movement, women’s suffrage and Native American history in its social studies classes.

National Post Staff 

© Provided by National Post Governor Greg Abbott speaks during a press conference where he signed Senate Bills 2 and 3 at the Capitol on June 8, 2021 in Austin, Texas.

Senate Bill 3 would be appended to a law signed by Governor Greg Abbott in May, which is set to come in effect later this year. Although not stated explicitly in either the bill or the law, Republican lawmakers say both bills would ban the teaching of critical race theory, which asserts that racism is woven into the U.S. legal system and ingrained in its primary institutions.

The proposal diverts from the new law, removing requirements to teach works pertaining to racial relations and white supremacy in U.S. history. It would drop teachings of the life and works of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta and writings by Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr., whose “I Have a Dream” speech and “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” would be abandoned.

It also cuts the requirement to teach “the history of white supremacy, including but not limited to the institution of slavery, the eugenics movement, and the Ku Klux Klan, and the ways in which it is morally wrong.”

Many Americans embrace falsehoods about critical race theory

Additionally, the bill makes it harder on teachers to broach controversial issues or current topics. The bill says instructors must not give “deference to any one perspective.” It also forbids schools from granting course credit for joining organizations that lobby for legislation “at the federal, state or local level.”

Rep. Bryan Hughes, who introduced the bill, defended it by saying the bill doesn’t change what is taught and prohibits teachers from being compelled to talk about current events or controversial issues, among other things, KVUE reported .

“Our classrooms should be places for fostering a diverse and fact-based discussion of various perspectives,” said Hughes on the Senate floor. “They’re not for planting seeds for a divisive political agenda.”

However, critics have said the bill would prevent teachers from accurately representing history. When speaking on the Senate floor ​​Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D) said the legislation equates to “tying the hands of our teachers.”

“How could a teacher possibly discuss slavery, the Holocaust, or the mass shootings at the Walmart in El Paso or at the Sutherland Springs church in my district without giving deference to any one perspective?,” she said.

“The amendments the House added were essential to ensure that we were teaching students all of American history — the good, the bad and the ugly,” the Democratic Rep. James Talarico told Texas Tribune. “They were put in place to ensure that teachers wouldn’t be punished for telling their students the truth. And if we were to strip them, I could see teachers across the state of Texas being silenced.”

“It’s a frightening dystopian future that starts to come into focus,” he added.

The bill passed 18 to 4 but could stall in the House, where quorum has been lost. Early last week, dozens of House Democrats fled to Washington D.C. to block ‘election integrity’ bills from passing during a special session. The bill could die (for now) unless more of the Democrats return by the end of the special session, on Aug. 6.

With a file from Reuters

2008 THE GREAT BANK CRASH
UK
Taxpayer stake in NatWest Group may be slashed to less than 40% as Treasury looks to offload billions in shares over next 12 months

Two £1.1bn share sales were made by the UK Government in March and May

The Treasury sold another two tranches totalling £2.5bn each in 2015 and 2018

Taxpayers are expected to lose £38.8bn from the sale of NatWest Group shares

By HARRY WISE FOR THIS IS MONEY
PUBLISHED: 07:13 EDT, 22 July 2021 

The Treasury is set to sell more of its stake in NatWest Group in a move that could leave the banking giant in majority private ownership for the first time since before the global financial crisis.

UK Government Investments (UKGI), a Treasury-owned body that administers its NatWest stake, said it had directed Morgan Stanley to gradually offload up to 15 per cent of its shares over a year-long period from next month.

It means the taxpayer's ownership stake might reduce from the 54.7 per cent it currently holds to less than 40 per cent, having already fallen by about 7 per cent this year following two sell-downs.

Sell-off: The Government said it had directed Morgan Stanley to gradually offload up to 15 per cent of its shares over a year-long period from next month

In March, the Treasury announced that it had sold £1.1billion worth of shares back to NatWest - previously known as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) until July last year - before selling the same amount two months later.


It sold another two tranches totalling £2.5billion each in 2015 and 2018 that cut its ownership share from 78.3 per cent to 62.4 per cent as part of plans to eventually trade its whole stake in the financial services group by 2023-24.

However, these sell-offs ignited considerable controversy as they were all traded at a significant loss compared to the average 502p-per-share price the Government paid to bail out RBS over a decade ago.

NatWest Group's shares were down 1.1 per cent to 197.4p this morning, though they have risen by 24 per cent since the start of the year.

According to recent estimates from the Office for Budget Responsibility, of the £45.8 billion spent to prop up the bank during the crisis, the taxpayer is expected to make a loss of £38.8billion.

The deadline to sell the entire taxpayer stake in NatWest was also pushed back a year when the coronavirus crisis struck the UK, as a global sell-off saw stock markets around the globe collapse.


Saved: NatWest Group was known as RBS until July last year. The UK Government became the bank's majority owner in 2008 after spending £46.8billion bailing it out

The Treasury additionally missed out on a dividend payment last year when regulators decided to ban payouts by financial institutions during the height of the pandemic in order to buffer capital stocks and incorporate potential loan losses.

Those restrictions were partially relaxed in December, and NatWest subsequently declared a dividend in 2021 of 3p a share, handing £225million to the Government as the biggest shareholder.

It later reported pre-tax operating profits surged by 82 per cent to £946million for the first three months of 2021 thanks to expectations for fewer loans to turn sour due to the pandemic and a jump in mortgage lending and customer deposits.

NatWest came close to going bust in 2008 soon after it bought Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007 - despite investor warnings - as part of a consortium in what was the largest takeover ever in the financial services industry.

Six months afterwards, it launched a record-breaking £12billion rights issue and went on later that year to report a half-year loss of nearly £700mllion, its first loss in four decades, as a result of credit crunch write-downs of £5.9billion.

The UK Government eventually rescued it in October 2008 and took a 43 per cent stake in Lloyds Bank after spending £20.3billion bailing it out. It started selling its shares in Lloyds in 2013 and eventually sold its last stake four years ago.

 

Parsing the Witch Hunt 

Doug Ingold's There Came a Contagion

BY GABRIELLE GOPINA

click to enlarge

• Doug Ingold's There Came a Contagion.

Humboldt author Doug Ingold's new novel There Came a Contagion lays out a dystopic vision of a countryside gripped by drought and famine, where frightened people seek scapegoats. Religious and civic leaders rise to prominence by mastering the articulation and gradual augmenting of that fear, assigning blame to outsiders in ways that dovetail with extant biases. These leaders say "the contagion" has come from outside and that punishing or purging figures at the group's margins will put things back to rights, encouraging townspeople to overcome inhibitions that previously constrained the open expression of hate. Rhetoric functions as an accelerant, fanning long-standing bias and resentment into murderous intent.

A Contagion is a work of historical fiction set among peasants in a 16th century German village and, yes, it's about a witch hunt, but the hunt proper does not commence until the book's second half. The novel's early chapters methodically set the stage for this grotesque event, building a world from the sights, sounds and cognitive horizons of a medieval village, and situating young protagonist Elsebett in a multigenerational narrative therein.

Ingold's medieval tale is propelled in part by a desire to illustrate the range of human response to societal crisis, and no one who's been paying attention to U.S. headlines since the COVID-19 pandemic hit will be surprised by its inglorious nature. Readers who are moved to superimpose the story in mind's eye over the map of recent U.S. history, like a template will likely raise their eyebrows at the passages of overlap and exhale at the parts where the stories diverge.

Present day parallels aside, Ingold's chronicle follows two generations of a German-speaking farming family in a tiny Western European village. Bereaved father Basil Helgen indentures his 7-year-old daughter Elsebett to village midwife/healer Rachel Mueller after the child's mother dies in childbirth. His family's life is difficult, like any pre modern subsistence farmer's: hard outdoor labor, close family and community ties, narrow economic margins, intermittent hunger and vulnerability to external forces like unpredictable weather and extortionate feudal masters. These aspects of community life figure in the book's earlier chapters, told largely from Basil's point of view. By the book's midsection, when Elsebett begins her apprenticeship, the narrative shifts to adopt her perspective with lyrically imagined passages detailing Frau Mueller teaching her to forage for medicinal plants and compound medications, how to assist in childbirth and, controversially, how to read.

The author's previous novel Rosyland plotted points of contact between old San Francisco money, the theater world of Ashland, Oregon, and the cannabis culture of Southern Humboldt. In this plot, place is a constant, while characters' connections unfold in time. Ingold is competent at describing an intensely local existence where, especially for women, opportunities for exposure to the outside world are rare.

Ingold practiced law in Garberville for many years before retiring to write full time, which may have served him well when it comes to writing about rural village life. His plainspoken narrative is attentive to familial triangulations and conflicts across generations. It forays readily into the interior, noting how a dynamic between two people might be experienced as "a private physical sensation," and how a person ensconced in a close-knit family can feel creeping isolation "growing around him like a thick skin."

In the novel's second half, a sense of impending disaster takes hold. Theories blaming drought and famine on a particular marginalized group gain feverish adherents, as initially halting efforts to identify a scapegoat become a juggernaut. Elsebett and her mistress Rachel possess knowledge about the natural world — much less the intimate functions of the supposedly sinful female body — that has not been incorporated within the discipline of medicine. In the eyes of their friends and neighbors, these features become enough to certify the women as a threat.

There Came a Contagion deftly crafts a portrait of a world before science, where calendar time is reckoned in terms of saints' days and the church is sole arbiter of truth. "Contagions want to happen," Frau Mueller says to Elsebett at one point. "What a contagion calls for is a cause, someone or something to blame .... The contagion produces a sleight of hand to draw attention away from itself." Witch hunts, she says, are entertaining by design: They appeal because they are associated with "excitement, drama and suspense." Before they do anything else, it seems, they answer the craving for a cool story.

The book's final third surveys the motives that make it easy for the good folks of the village to accommodate evil. Fear and a sense of grievance motivate some characters' fascination, while for others it's malice mingled with an inchoate desire to stick it to authority.

At one point, Rachel predicts that someday in the future a young nun in a convent, leafing through chronicles, "will find our time noted there, and she will marvel that such madness could have happened." Such a quasi-modern confidence — in the power of the written word and society's trope toward reason — sets Rachel apart from her peers. Today's readers might mull this commentary, which the author has placed in the mouth of a 16th century peasant midwife, and be struck by the audacity of its optimism.

Gabrielle Gopinath (she/her) is an art writer, critic and curator based in Arcata. Follow her on Instagram at  @gabriellegopinath.

1. The Peasant War in Germany by Frederick Engels 1850

   https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1850/peasant-war-germany/...

   1996-01-04 · The Peasant War in Germany was the first history book to assert that the real motivating force behind the Reformation and 16th-century peasant war was socio-economic (class conflict) rather than “merely” religious. Contents. Author’s Preface to the Second Edition (1870) Author’s Addendum to the Preface (1874)

A PANDEMIC OF STUPID

'A Pandemic of the Unvaccinated' 

A variant-fueled surge brings renewed urgency to vaccine push

BY THADEUS GREENSON THAD@NORTHCOASTJOURNAL.COM @THADEUSGREENSON

Dale Stocky celebrates his 75th birthday by getting the COVID-19 vaccination he’d newly become eligible for at a Mad River Community Hospital vaccine clinic Jan. 23 at Pacific Union Elementary School.

Mirroring a statewide trend, Humboldt County's COVID-19 case counts are lurching upward, fueled almost entirely by the new Delta variant's circulation in unvaccinated populations a month after the state lifted almost all of the restrictions aimed at curbing the virus' spread.

Statewide, California recorded a daily average of six new confirmed COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over the seven-day period before the Journal went to press July 20, nearly triple the daily averages from early June. And the percentage of COVID-19 testing samples that came back positive for the virus had similarly jumped to 4.1 percent, the state's highest rate since February.

The numbers in Humboldt County, meanwhile, are even worse, with a daily average of nearly 11 new confirmed COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over the same period and a test-positivity rate of 10.5 percent. As of July 20, the county's test-positivity rate for the month sat at 8.6 percent — the second-highest of any month locally since the pandemic's start, trailing only the post-holiday surge in January, when it topped out at 9.9 percent.

On July 20, Public Health reported that since July 12, it had confirmed 122 new cases of COVID 19, as well as six new hospitalizations — including two of residents in their 40s — and two deaths.

And with various aspects of local life continuing to open up — from indoor concerts to a week of sometimes crowded rodeo festivities in Fortuna — there's little reason to believe infection rates will slow absent new restrictions or a significant uptick in vaccination rates.

In recent weeks, local officials have been warning that residents age 19 and younger are increasingly accounting for case spread locally amid an upwelling in cases of the Delta variant, which was identified in 25 percent of local samples that underwent genomic sequencing last month. (Since the pandemic began, 13 Humboldt County residents age 29 and younger have been hospitalized with the disease, including two under the age of 19.)

Nationally, the Delta variant now accounts for 83 percent of cases that have undergone genomic sequencing, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky, a dramatic increase from the 50 percent it accounted for at the beginning of this month.

Health officials have repeatedly warned the new variant is both more transmissible and more likely to cause critical illness than other mutations of COVID-19.

"We should think about the Delta variant as the 2020 version of COVID-19 on steroids," Andy Slavitt, a former senior advisor to the White House's COVID response team, recently told CNN. "It's twice as infectious. Fortunately, unlike 2020, we actually have a tool that stops the Delta variant in its tracks: It's called vaccine."

And while there is mounting evidence vaccines are less effective against the Delta variant than others — a recent study in Israel found the Pfizer/BionTech vaccine to be 64 percent effective against infection and 93 percent effective in preventing severe disease and hospitalizations — so-called "breakthrough" cases infecting fully vaccinated individuals remain rare.

Walensky said during a July 16 press briefing that more than 97 percent of the nearly 25,000 people hospitalized in the U.S. were unvaccinated, with U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy adding that 99.5 percent of recent COVID-19 deaths were of unvaccinated people.

In Humboldt County, Public Health reported July 20 that two of the county's 222 hospitalizations and none of the county's 53 COVID-related deaths have been fully vaccinated people.

"This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated," Walensky said.

But while the vaccines appear very effective in preventing severe illness and death, questions still remain as to just how effective they are in preventing asymptomatic infections. A recent spate of high-profile infections in fully vaccinated individuals — including a cluster of New York Yankees, some Olympic athletes and political staffers in Washington, D.C. — have raised doubt about vaccines' effectiveness.

Infectious disease experts, meanwhile, have noted that the high profile cases have been found in people who are tested with extreme regularity through their work, indicating that asymptomatic infection of fully vaccinated people may be more common than initially thought. But they are quick to note the vaccines remain extremely effective in preventing severe illness, even amid the surge in Delta variant cases.

But between the high-profile breakthrough cases and a political climate that has seen Republican officials and conservative pundits loudly and repeatedly minimize the effectiveness of the vaccines and the risks of infection, vaccination rates have plateaued nationally, statewide and locally.

According to the county's dashboard, 54.67 percent of the population was at least partially vaccinated as the Journal went to press July 20, an increase of just 0.44 percent over the prior week. Nearly 49 percent of local residents were fully vaccinated.

California's surging numbers have officials once again contemplating imposing restrictions designed to mitigate the virus' spread. Los Angeles County — home to a quarter of the state's population — recently re-imposed a mask order for all indoor public spaces. Seven Bay Area counties quickly issued recommendations that everyone wear masks, regardless of vaccination status, and on July 19, Monterey, Napa, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties followed suit. But there has been widespread pushback to the prospect of requiring vaccinated people to once again mask up, primarily in an effort to protect their unvaccinated neighbors, making health officials reticent to re-impose the mandates.

In a July 19 press conference, Gov. Gavin Newsom sidestepped a question about imposing another statewide mask mandate and instead took the opportunity to push vaccination.

"If we want to end this pandemic once and for all, if we want to turn the page, we can get it done in a matter of weeks, not months," he said. "It's as simple as this: If you're not vaccinated, get vaccinated."

Thadeus Greenson (he/him) is the news editor at the Journal.  or thad@northcoastjournal.com. 

CLIMATE EMERGENCY

China flooding: Tens of thousands evacuated as death toll rises to 33

China is braced for more rainfall as Henan province’s weather bureau has raised an alert in four cities
Akshita Jain

Firefighters rescue people in flooded central China

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated in China as authorities launched a massive rescue operation after heavy rains lashed the central Henan province.

On another day of heavy rainfall, the death toll rose to 33 on Thursday and at least eight people are missing as torrential downpours flooded low places and train stations, leaving passengers stranded.

The province’s local emergency management bureau said a total of 376,000 people had been safely evacuated and the rains have already caused an economic loss of 1.22 billion yuan ($189 million or £137 million) by affecting 215,000 hectares of crop land, according to state-run media reports.

President Xi Jinping said authorities should prioritise people's safety and property.

The fatalities included 12 people who were killed in Zhengzhou city, the capital of Henan province, when a subway tunnel flooded this week. The city saw 617 mm of rain fall over a three-day period, according to Xinhua.

The floods have caused widespread damage and disruptions to transport services. At least 10 trains in the province were halted and parts of highways were closed due to the rain.

Significant rainfall is predicted for parts of Henan on Thursday.

The provincial weather bureau has raised an alarm for four cities — Xinxiang, Anyang, Hebi and Jiaozuo — in the north of Henan, according to Reuters.

Authorities have dispatched over 1,800 firefighters to the flood-hit areas to help with rescue work and repair damaged communication lines.

People in China have turned to social media to coordinate relief efforts and provide support. On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform, users are redirecting posts seeking help to emergency teams and sharing up-to-date lists of emergency numbers, according to the BBC.

Hashtags encouraging those affected to stay strong have also gone viral on Weibo, the report said.

The floods in China, so soon after disastrous floods in Germany last week, have focused further attention on climate change and the need to prepare for such events.

"Governments should first realise that the infrastructure they have built in the past or even recent ones are vulnerable to these extreme weather events," Eduardo Araral, associate professor at Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, told Reuters.

CLIMATE EMERGENCY

Was awaiting death: Survivors share details of being stuck on China subway flood

As many as 12 people were reportedly killed from being trapped on the flooded underground Line 5 of Zhengzhou subway in China after water seeped into the trains and reached above the passengers’ heads.

Henan, which is China's most populous province, has been the worst-hit due to the flood triggered by torrential rains. (Photo via Reuters)

Written by Sharangee Dutta | Edited by Avik Roy, Hindustan Times, New Delhi

PUBLISHED ON JUL 22, 2021 


As many as 33 people reportedly died and several still remain missing as rescue operations continue following the worst flood in China in 1,000 years. Torrential rains triggered the floods, which caused neighbourhoods to get inundated and trapping passengers in subway cars, and even overflowing dams and triggering landslides.


Henan, which is China’s most populous province, has been worst affected. Evacuation process was reportedly underway with several thousand trapped. In Henan’s capital Zhengzhou – home to 12 million people — as many as 12 people were feared killed after they were trapped for hours on a flooded subway line.

In interviews with local media, and on social media, some survivors have now shared how water entered and caused disaster on the underground Line 5 of the Zhengzhou subway, CNN reported. Notably, the incident unfolded during the evening rush hour on Tuesday wherein several passengers were trapped after rising rainwater entered into the tunnel and seeped inside the trains.

Survivors recount horror

In a post on Chinese microblogging site Weibo, a woman said water began to seep into the carriage soon after it stopped between two stations. Subway staff had initially instructed passengers to leave the train and evacuate through the tunnel, but were soon told to head back due to gushing floodwater ahead, the CNN report added.

However, when the commuters reached the subway cars, the water had already reached their waists – and it kept rising as more water entered the tunnel and the carriage through gaps between the subway car doors. “We tried to stand on seats as much as we could, but even then, the water reached our chests in the end,” CNN quoted her as writing on Weibo.

She, however, added that the most “terrifying” thing was not the rising floodwater, but the “diminishing air in the carriage – as many seemed to have trouble breathing.” “I was really scared,” she wrote.

At this time, she heard another woman providing her family with her bank details over the phone, and she wondered if she should follow suit, the CNN report added. She ended up sending a message to her mother, telling her that she “might not make it.” She spent the next two and half hours on the “brink of breakdown” while awaiting rescue.

The woman, however, fainted later due to lack of oxygen and was awakened by a call from her mother, who informed that rescue was on the way. It was then that she heard footsteps atop the train as firefighters smashed open the windows to let fresh air in. Eventually, more rescuers arrived before the passengers were evacuated one after another – those who fainted first, followed by women.

Strangely, the woman’s post on Weibo was later deleted and CNN said that they failed to verify her account as well.

In another such experience recounted by a survivor, a woman told state-run China Youth Daily that she failed to control herself from weeping after noticing flood water seeping inside the train. Some other people around her also cried. Several others attempted to call an emergency number and even asked their family and friends to get help, but to no avail. She said that among the passengers were pregnant women, elderly people, and even children. By 9pm when the water inside the carriage reached their throats, people around her began gasping for air, retching and shaking, the CNN report stated.

“I was really terrified at that time. When I saw the water rising above our heads outside the window, I was preparing myself to accept that I would never be able to get out,” CNN quoted her as saying to China Youth Daily.

Her phone only had 30% battery left, and she closed all other apps and sent messages to her relatives and friends on WeChat. She asked her parents to send help till 9pm, but after that, she was primarily making arrangements for people to take care of things in the event she died.

Floods in central China have made several other cities come to a standstill. Aerial views of the region after the floods hit showed cars piled up one over another in highways. The Chinese military has opened a dam to release the floodwater from Henan, however, they added that the death toll is likely to rise further, the Associated Press reported.

According to CNN, officials said that over 6,000 firefighters and 2,000 military and paramilitary forces had been deployed across regions affected by the disaster.

Ford to launch self-driving vehicles on Lyft network in U.S. this year


Ford called the project "an industry-first collaboration" that will result in at least 1,000 autonomous cars on the Lyft network in multiple U.S. cities over the next five years. Photo courtesy Argo AI/Lyft/Ford

July 21 (UPI) -- Ford and Lyft are partnering to provide self-driving vehicles for riders in the United States, and the first will roll out in South Florida later this year, the companies said Wednesday.

The autonomous fleet is being produced by Ford for Lyft and the vehicles use Argo AI. The companies said the first vehicles will begin carrying passengers in Miami in the coming months.

Ford called the project "an industry-first collaboration" that will result in at least 1,000 autonomous cars on the Lyft network in multiple U.S. cities over the next five years.

Riders will be able to book the self-driving Ford vehicles on the Lyft app and Argo AI will use data collected from Lyft to help develop the technology. The companies said the vehicles will have a safety driver to monitor the ride.

Lyft and Uber have decided against their own in-house systems, looking toward outside companies for self-driving technology instead.

"This collaboration marks the first time all the pieces of the autonomous vehicle puzzle have come together this way," Lyft co-founder and CEO Logan Green said in a statement.

"These three companies share a belief that autonomous vehicles will be a key enabler for a cleaner, safer and more efficient urban mobility landscape," added Scott Griffith, CEO of Ford Autonomous Vehicles & Mobility Businesses.

The companies said the next market to see the self-driving vehicles will be Austin, Texas, in 2022. Ford and Argo AI have already been testing the vehicles across several U.S. markets.

As part of the deal, Lyft will receive 2.5% common equity of Argo AI.

BE A DO BE NOT A DON'T BE
Study: Handwashing, distancing protect staff at colleges in absence of vaccines


Masking, hand-washing and social distancing help limit COVID-19 spread on college campuses, study finds. File photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

July 21 (UPI) -- Frequent handwashing at home and at work, and diligent mask-wearing, helped limit the spread of COVID-19 among essential staff members at a large state university, a study published Wednesday by JAMA Network Open found.

Among 508 personnel at the Colorado State University Health and Medical Center, veterinary clinic, facilities management, housing and dining departments who were required to report to work during the pandemic, no positive tests for the virus occurred over a three-month period last summer, the data showed.

Just under 98% of the essential staff members said they regularly wore face coverings at home and at work, and 95% indicated that they engaged in frequent handwashing throughout the day, according to the researchers.

Ninety-two percent reported practicing social distancing -- or remaining roughly 6 feet from others and limiting non-essential contact with others -- at work and 80% said they did so at home, the data showed.

RELATEDCOVID-19 infections in vaccinated people are milder, study shows

"To decrease virus transmission, adhering to public health guidelines, including mask wearing, regular handwashing and social distancing, is important," study co-author Tracy L. Nelson told UPI in an email.

"[These guidelines] and must be followed both on the campus, as well as off-campus, to be effective," said Nelson, who is director of the Colorado School of Public Health at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

The study was conducted in July, August and September of last year, before students returned to campus and before vaccines against the virus were available, the researchers said.

RELATED As COVID-19 rules ease, common colds rebound across U.S.

It was also before many colleges and universities nationally opened for the school year and then abruptly closed following campus outbreaks.

Like many universities nationally, Colorado State held classes both in-person and online, when possible, during the 2020-21 academic year to limit the student population on campus, according to school officials.

However, even with reduced populations on campus, congregate spaces such as dining halls, locker rooms, lecture halls and laboratories are still considered high-risk areas for COVID-19 transmission and outbreaks, research suggests.

A study published in January suggested that, because of these congregate settings, college campuses could be "super spreaders" of the virus, putting students and staff at risk.

As a result, several colleges and universities across the country have required that students and staff members returning to campus in the fall be fully vaccinated or subject to strict quarantine measures.

For this study, Nelson and her colleagues tested 508 university employees age 18 to 70 for COVID-19 three times between July 13 and Sept. 2 of last year.

All but six tested negative for the virus during the study, with the remainder producing "inconclusive" results.

Only two study participants tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies, or cells produced by the immune system to fight off viruses, indicating a past infection, researchers said.

Study participants also completed questionnaires regarding their adherence with measures designed to limit the spread of COVID-19.

The vast majority of participants indicated that they practiced protective behaviors while at work and outside work, with some differences, according to the researchers.

For example, all of the employees age 65 and older reported high levels of social distancing at work, while 83% of those ages 18 to 25 did so, the data showed.

Among all employees included in the study, 83% said they were more concerned about exposing others to COVID-19 than they were about contracting the virus themselves.

This "prosocial" behavior, helpful and designed to promote social acceptance, was key to the staff limiting the risk for on-campus outbreaks as much as possible, according to Nelson.

"I believe that cultivating a prosocial attitude on campus will be important" as campuses reopen for the 2021-22 academic year, Nelson said.

Colorado State "developed a 'Social Norming' campaign to help promote protective behaviors among students" -- including mask-wearing and social distancing -- during the pandemic, she said.

PEOPLE IN GLASS HOUSES...

China rejects WHO's plan for second COVID-19 origins study



Zeng Yixin, deputy minister of the National Health Commission, told reporters Thursday that China rejects the World Health Organization's proposed plan to conduct a second investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

File Photo by Wu Hong/EPA-EFE

July 22 (UPI) -- A senior official with China's leading health authority on Thursday rejected the World Health Organization's proposed plan to conduct a second investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, stating he was "surprised" that it included probing the theory that COVID-19 escaped from a virology lab.

Zeng Yixin, deputy minister of the National Health Commission, accused the WHO during a press conference Thursday of "arrogance" for considering the lab leak theory.

"This phase 2 study of origin tracing is both disrespectful to common sense and contrary to science in some aspect," he said. "There is no way that we accept such an origin tracing study proposal."

The once-considered conspiracy theory that COVID-19 leaked from a virology lab in the central Chinese city of Wuhan where the virus was first detected in late 2019 has regained attention in recent months, especially following the completion of the WHO's first investigation into the Asian nation's outbreak.

In late March, a joint WHO-China team of experts produced the long-awaited report, stating the virus likely came not from a wet Wuhan market but from wildlife farms in Southeast Asia. The report also dismissed the lab leak theory as "an extremely unlikely pathway."

The report, however, came under swift and widespread criticism from the United States, the European Union and more than a dozen nations calling for a second probe after WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told member states that he doesn't believe that "this assessment was extensive enough" as China did not permit full access to pertinent data.

Scientists have called for an investigation into lab leak theory as there wasn't enough evidence to rule out that the virus didn't escape through a laboratory accident. U.S. President Joe Biden has also directed his intelligence agencies to investigate the origins of the virus and joined the other leaders of the G7 in calling for a new probe

On Friday, Tedros announced that WHO member states had received a proposed plan for a second study designed to prob five areas, including "audits of relevant laboratories and research institutions operating in the area of the initial human cases identified in December 2019."

Tedros had told reporters the day before that the first probe produced progress but the team was not provided access to raw data concerning the start of the pandemic.

"We have designed the second phase of the study and we are asking China to be transparent, open and cooperate on the information raw data that we asked for in the early days of the pandemic," he said.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian dismissed Tedros' claim to reporters, saying China did show data to the scientists while repeating China's call for origin studies to be conducted outside of its borders.

"We need to search for possible early cases globally and further understand the role of cold chains and frozen foods in the transmission of the virus," he said, repeating a claim by China that the virus came to Wuhan through frozen food and that Tedros was politicizing something which should be driven by science.

Zeng on Thursday also called for a global study, saying any further investigations should be based on the foundation of the first probe.

"[We] should promote a global study involving multiple countries and locations involving early case findings, molecular epidemiology and animal intermediate host traceability," he said.

China shifts focus to Fort Detrick in rebuff to WHO proposal


China said Monday it disagrees with a World Health Organization proposal from WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for a new audit of Chinese laboratories. File Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/EPA-EFE

July 19 (UPI) -- China rejected a proposal from the World Health Organization for a new audit of Chinese laboratories previously linked to the earliest outbreaks of the novel coronavirus.

Beijing also claimed the United States poses greater dangers.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Monday at a regular press briefing that WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus' proposal made last week is "different from the position of many countries, including China."

In February, a team of WHO experts visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where a team of Chinese scientists were studying bat coronaviruses. The WHO team said after the trip that the source of the coronavirus "remains unidentified.

Zhao said Monday that any new WHO-led audits of Chinese labs should be decided "by member states."

"The WHO should fully communicate and negotiate with member states, accept their opinions, while at the same time making the process of drafting work plans open and transparent," Zhao said.

The spokesman also claimed that 54 member countries have "opposed the politicization of the COVID-19 origin issue.

Zhao, who promoted an unfounded theory last year that the U.S. military brought COVID-19 to China, tweeted after the briefing Monday that the WHO also should inspect Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md.

Last week, the Chinese spokesman had recommended investigations into the role of cold chains and the global frozen food trade, according to the Global Times.

Chinese state media reported Sunday an online petition is circulating in China, "demanding" an investigation into a lab at Fort Detrick. The petition asking for a probe of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases has collected half a million signatures, the Global Times said

"This [U.S.] lab has a notorious record on lab security. There have been scandals of anthrax bacterium from the lab being stolen, causing poisoning to many and even death," the Chinese petition claimed.

China's first COVID-19 cases were first reported in December 2019.

UK

Nurse strike threat over three per cent NHS pay rise

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says the pay increase has left nurses feeling they were not 'valued for what they do'


Fionnula Hainey    

UK and world news writer
22 JUL 2021

Nurses will be given a three per cent pay rise (Image: PA)

Nurses may consider striking after the government offered a three per cent pay rise for NHS staff in England and Wales, a union leader has said.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) described the decision as a “bitter blow”, saying that the salary increase would in fact be a cut once inflation was taken into account.

Announcing the three per cent uplift, Boris Johnson tweeted: “Our NHS staff have been heroic throughout the pandemic, providing care and saving lives. To recognise the extraordinary contribution they have made they are receiving a 3% pay rise this year."

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The Department of Health and Social Care said the “average nurse” will receive an additional £1,000 a year, while many porters and cleaners will get around £540.

Patricia Marquis, England director of the RCN, said the award has left nurses feeling they were not “valued for what they do”.



She told BBC's Newsnight that the union would consult with its members before considering the next steps.

She added that the union's response "could include consideration of industrial action most certainly".

The government had initially proposed a one per cent pay increase to the NHS Pay Review Body, which proved controversial back in March, before then accepting recommendations to give NHS staff in England a three per cent rise backdated to April.

The RCN had been campaigning for a 12.5 per cent pay increase.

General secretary Pat Cullen said: “When the Treasury expects inflation to be 3.7 per cent, ministers are knowingly cutting pay for an experienced nurse by over £200 in real-terms.

“Nursing staff will remain dignified in responding to what will be a bitter blow to many.

“But the profession will not take this lying down. We will be consulting our members on what action they would like to take next.”

The three per cent increase will be paid to the majority of NHS staff, including nurses, paramedics, consultants, dentists and salaried GPs, but does not cover doctors and dentists in training.

Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng defended the plans today, saying that a three per cent rise was “fair”.

"The independent review has recommended a three per cent increase and the government has decided that we’ll go with the independent review," he told Sky News.

“I think that’s entirely fair. Obviously we’d like it to be more but you’ve got to remember we spent £350 billion to deal with the pandemic.

“I think three per cent, which, after all, was what the independent review came up with, is a fair number.”

The chief executive of NHS Employers said health leaders “have an enormous amount of sympathy for staff, and particularly with regards to how this … process of the pay award has been handled this year by the government”.


Danny Mortimer told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that leaders were “relieved that it’s three per cent, not one per cent” and added: “The key question is is the government going to fund this pay award properly?

“What we can’t have is a situation where the assumption is that the NHS will make efficiencies, will cut the number of staff or reduce the services it provides to pay for this pay award, what we can’t have is a situation where some parts of the NHS, particularly the services that provide specialist public health services, don’t receive the pay award in the same way that my members who run services in hospitals do so. ”


He said “we’re also worried about the longer-term, what does this mean in terms of the attitude of staff and unions in future years around pay awards?”

Dr Tom Dolphin, a spokesman for the British Medical Association (BMA) and a consultant anaesthetist in central London, told Sky News that medics would also consider the option of industrial action.

He said that “over the last 10 years, our pay has fallen in value by about a third”, adding that exhausted doctors were leaving the NHS.

Asked if workers would potentially consider industrial action, he said: “We’re not at that stage yet. What we’re going to be doing is we’re going to be sending out a survey to our members today and over the next week or so, to check and make sure that they are as angry and disappointed about this pay offer as we are at the BMA and if so what they’re prepared to do about it.

“And industrial action will be on that list of things they might want to consider, and we’ll see what people are prepared to do to defend their pay.”