CAIR Report Shows Nearly $106mln Funneled to Islamophobic Groups in US

TEHRAN (FNA)- The US' largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization released a report Tuesday that revealed nearly $106 million that was provided to Islamophobic groups between 2017-2019.

The "Islamophobia in the Mainstream" report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) lists 35 charitable institutions and foundations that funneled $105,865,763 to 26 anti-Muslim groups, Anadolu news agency reported.

Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism Inc., Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Schwab Charitable Fund, Marcus Foundation, the Adelson Family Foundation and the Jewish Communal Fund were among the top six funders of the US Islamophobia network, according to the report.

The Islamophobic groups are accused of spreading false information about Muslim communities in the US and beyond through social media, the press, public hearings and other avenues.

"The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) received a combined total of over $60 million from the Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism Inc between 2017- 2019," the report said.

"The law firm has a history of supporting anti-Muslim policies like the Muslim Ban. In 2017 the ACLJ filed a supporting court brief in defense of the Muslim Ban," said the report.

CAIR’s National Research and Advocacy Coordinator Huzaifa Shahbaz said in a statement that "it is no secret that the Islamophobia Network remains hyper-active and well-funded.

"Despite a slight decline in foundations that funneled money to anti-Muslim groups, millions of dollars still flow to organizations that spread misinformation and perpetuate dangerous stereotypes about Muslims and Islam.”

Shahbaz also called on the philanthropic community to establish clear policies to prevent funds from going to hate groups and implement educational initiatives for staff and board members to help them understand the extent of anti-Muslim bigotry.

 

No Country for Spies - Part Two

TEHRAN, Jan. 12 (MNA) – The US gave the cold shoulder to spies who once worked for it and now experience problems. It exploits these personal difficulties to force them into keeping doing the same job that got them bankrupt in first place: espionage.

It’s typical of the United States to let down those who put their lives in grave danger doing perilous jobs such as spying for it. A case in point is Nizar Zakka, a US permanent resident of Lebanese descent who is running up against legal red tape on his way to naturalization.

Another case is Imaad Zuberi, an American spy who used his business cover to approach world leaders and the international business elite in a bid to spy for the US After more than a decade of spying for US intelligence agencies, Zuberi was sentenced in February last year to 12 years in prison for alleged offenses ranging from tax evasion to foreign-influence peddling and campaign-finance violations.

A key aspect of the Zuberi case, however, has played out in secret court filings and hearings: Zuberi was a longtime US intelligence source for the US government, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Xiyue Wang, a Princeton doctoral student who was convicted of espionage for the US and imprisoned in Iran from 2016 to 2019, is also tasting the taste of US negligence of its past spies.  

He is now consumed by a legal process he initiated against Princeton University which he accused of letting him down while serving time in prison.

In the waning days of last year, Wang announced that he filed a lawsuit against Princeton for not helping him. 

Perhaps, the most prominent case of a spy falling into wretchedness is Nizar Zakka who is now entangled in the never-ending paperwork required by relevant US government agencies for him to get naturalized.  

Zakka has been asking favors from various people inside and outside the Biden administration to help him with getting naturalized ever since US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) rejected his application for naturalization in May 2021, according to insiders in Washington. 

On April 20, 2020, Zakka submitted an application for naturalization with the USCIS. The answer he received from the agency was so disappointing to him that he decided to reach out to some influential people in Washington, including US envoy for Iran Rob Malley, to save what can be saved. As a result, he has been tackling with emotional and psychological distress after discovering the bitterness of being left to his own fate. 

After reviewing the application of Zakk for naturalization, the USCIS turned down his request and denied his naturalization. 

Of note, Zakka obtained permanent resident status in mid-April 2012, and in April 2020 he submitted his application to USCIS, which in turn rejected his application due to Zakka’s long-time absence from the US.

He was arrested in Tehran in 2015 and convicted of spying for the United States. Zakka was released from prison in June 2019. In private meetings, Zakka had repeatedly confessed that he was spying for the US government. He also confessed that he was implicated in espionage schemes targeting Iranian women and girls.   

The USCIS decision led Zakka to seek help from a number of influential people in Washington to help him with naturalization.

Zakka sought help from Malley, the insiders revealed to the Tehran Times, but it is not clear yet if he got any help in this regard.

The case of Zakka, as well as others, is indicative of the fact that the US government's ill-treatment of its spies is not an exception, but a rule. Equally important is the duplicity with which the spies solve their problems in the US.

While they privately admit that they were spying for the US government, they keep denying their involvement in espionage on behalf of Washington publicly, a behavior that is not lost on the public.

First published in Tehran Times

News Code 182816

Brazil's Bolsonaro downplays Omicron


By AFP
Published January 12, 2022

Covid-19 has claimed more than 620,000 lives in Brazil, a toll second only to the United States - Copyright POOL/AFP/File Emil SALMAN

President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday downplayed the Omicron coronavirus variant amid a surge in hard-hit Brazil, ruling out new containment measures as he defended the pursuit of herd immunity through widespread infection.

In the country with the world’s second-highest Covid-19 death toll, Bolsonaro said the arrival of the Omicron variant posed little threat, even as experts warn of growing pressure on hospitals.

“Omicron has not killed anyone,” the coronavirus-skeptic president said after municipal authorities in the state of Goias announced the country’s first death due to the new variant.

“The person who died in Goias already had serious problems, notably with the lungs,” which is what killed them, Bolsonaro told the Gazeta Brazil news outlet.

Experts say the variant is already the most widespread in Brazil.

Bolsonaro cited provisional evidence of Omicron being more contagious but less deadly than some earlier variants.

“Some even say it is a vaccinating virus. Some smart and serious people, not aligned to the pharmaceutical industry, say Omicron is welcome and could herald the end the pandemic,” the far-right president added.

– Herd immunity –

He insisted that the Brazilian economy could not afford another lockdown, and defended the controversial approach of allowing people to get infected for so-called herd immunity against the virus to take root.

“Herd immunity is a reality. A person immunized with the virus has a lot more antibodies than a vaccinated person,” Bolsonaro insisted.

“Me, for example, I am not vaccinated and I am very well.”

Bolsonaro recovered from a coronavirus infection in July 2020, has said he will not get vaccinated, and has opposed health passes given to vaccinated people to access certain places as a breach of freedom.

In October, a Brazilian Senate commission approved a damning report that recommends criminal charges, including for crimes against humanity, be brought against the president for his Covid policies.

He has had social media posts deleted numerous times for spreading misinformation and inciting people to violate social distancing and mask-wearing policies.

Bolsonaro has suggested vaccines could turn people into “crocodiles,” and has endorsed the use of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment, despite scientific studies showing it does not work.

Covid-19 has claimed more than 620,000 lives in Brazil, a toll second only to the United States.

The health ministry said Tuesday the country had registered more than 70,700 new cases in 24 hours — a rate eight times higher than two weeks earlier.

At the deadliest peak of the pandemic last year, hospitals were pushed to the brink of collapse in many areas and the daily death toll at one point exceeded 4,000.

The vast country of 213 million people was slow to start its vaccination campaign under a president who had minimized Covid-19 as a “little flu.”

Omicron a ‘Welcome’ Variant Says Brazil’s Bolsonaro Amid Surge

Daniel Carvalho and Marisa Wanzeller, Bloomberg News

President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro reacts during the exchange of the presidential guard at Planalto Palace on December 16, 2021 in Brasilia, Brazil. , Photographer: Andressa Anholete/Getty Images

(Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said the omicron strain that’s causing a surge in Covid cases at home and abroad could be called a “vaccine virus” and is a “welcome” variant.

“Some studious and serious people -- and not linked to pharmaceutical companies -- say that omicron is welcome and can in fact signal the end of the pandemic,” Bolsonaro said Wednesday in an interview with Gazeta Brasil website.

Bolsonaro has stood out globally for his defiant stance in the face of the pandemic, repeatedly dubbing it “a little flu” despite the more than 600,000 Brazilians who have died from the virus in the past two years. The president, who is up for re-election this year, has been digging in to his position against vaccines. He vowed to not allow his daughter to receive the shot and promised to continue to fight against lockdowns, even as omicron makes landfall in the country, causing cases to surge past 70,000 a day. For most of December, daily infections rarely surpassed the 10,000 mark. 

But while hospitalizations have ticked higher in Brazil in recent weeks, so far there hasn’t been an onslaught of patients seeking intensive care units like in mid-2021, before vaccines were widely available. It’s a similar pattern to that seen in countries from Argentina to South Africa and Denmark, and one that has fueled a change to how some nations approach the pandemic. 

Despite the seemingly more mild effects of the variant, medical experts warn it could still overburden hospitals and health systems because of how quickly it spreads. Omicron has become the dominant variant in many places, including the U.K., U.S., and Brazil. 

Read more: For Some Emerging Economies, New Covid Wave Spawns New Thinking

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

Brazil flying blind in Omicron surge as

 Bolsonaro attacks child vaccinations

Eduardo Parati
20 December 2021

In face of the global spread of the Omicron variant, the government of Brazil’s fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro is fighting any measures that would impinge on corporate profits and openly promoting “herd immunity” through mass infections.

Health agencies worldwide are warning of the real impact of the new variant, with the head of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declaring that “we’re concerned that people are dismissing Omicron as mild.” He explained, “Even if Omicron does cause less severe disease, the sheer number of cases could once again overwhelm unprepared health systems.”

Such warnings are already being confirmed by the record number of cases in the UK, where almost 70 percent of the population is vaccinated with two shots.

After the devastating Gamma variant wave in Brazil between April and July, thousands of lives continued to be lost to the pandemic every week, and the number of deaths per week has never fallen below a thousand.

Bolsonaro and his health minister, Marcelo Queiroga, in May 2021 

(Wikimedia Commons)

Now, facing the threat of deadly surges with the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, with active cases reported throughout Latin America and community transmission confirmed in São Paulo, Bolsonaro’s Health Ministry has only announced meager travel restrictions for international flights, in which airports would require a vaccine certificate, which are being called “vaccine passports,” or a five-day quarantine for those unable to present one.

Such measures are incapable of preventing the entrance of infected individuals, as breakthrough infections with the Delta variant are well documented and a recent South African study found that vaccination with two Pfizer doses offered only 33 percent efficacy against symptomatic infections from Omicron and only 70 percent protection against hospitalization. Furthermore, many individuals only test positive after 14 days of infection, making a five-day quarantine useless. Finally, the quarantines won’t be regulated by any authority but are to be self-imposed, with no way to account for those entering the country who have no economic conditions or refuse to isolate.

But even such inadequate measures were immediately attacked by Bolsonaro, who has responded to Omicron with a renewed offensive against vaccines and any measures to control the pandemic.

In reaction to demands that the government adopt vaccine certificate requirements, Bolsonaro said, “Is there a better vaccine, scientifically proven, than infection? People who were infected are tens of times more immune than those who only took the vaccine.” That is a lie in itself, as vaccines have been proven to be many times more effective than natural immunity, if a person survives the disease without sequelae. On Thursday, Bolsonaro posted a video on Twitter in which a man claims that the vaccines gave no protection, resulting in vaccinated people being the ones who are infected and transmitting the disease while unvaccinated people were being falsely diagnosed.

Using the fact that Omicron infects and transmits more easily, including among vaccinated people, Bolsonaro called for only RT-PCR tests be to implemented at airports, arguing that “It’s more effective than the vaccine, because the vaccine doesn’t stop the virus from infecting and transmitting.” That is another blatant lie, as the meager testing capacity offered by the government allows the free spread of the disease by individuals who only test once, and before positivity, even if they are already infected.

Last week, during an event in the presidential palace, he also attacked the use of masks, telling the audience that “no one is allowed to wear masks here.”

The fascistic president’s objective is to disrupt any measures that would restrict the spread of the virus, and redouble the efforts for an infection-driven “herd immunity,” regardless of the consequences for the millions of victims. His attack on travel restrictions and vaccines are a critical component of his campaign to defend living with the virus in a “post-pandemic period,” as he described the present to an audience of police officers.

Another aspect of Bolsonaro’s campaign is to carry out yet another blackout on COVID-19 data, allowing him to fraudulently downplay the severity of the pandemic.

In August, the Health Ministry had started demanding specific production batch identification be sent to the government’s database for every COVID-19 antigen test, effectively sabotaging the notification of mild cases for months. The government argues in a fraudulent fashion that positive tests are being falsely reported, and more information would be needed. Actually, it has already been exposed by health experts that pharmacy workers, who carry out most antigen tests, end up overloaded with the new requirements and the result is a gross undercount of positive tests.

Health agency Fiocruz infectious disease specialist Júlio Croda had stated that “This sudden change from the Health Ministry requiring batch and producer provoked many health services to stop reporting antigen exams with negative results, but especially positive ones.” He added that the undercounting will make it impossible to predict future surges. “It’s probable that the country will be taken by surprise with a sudden surge in hospitalizations, when it can be too late to propose planning measures such as the opening of hospital beds,” Croda stated.

More recently, on December 10, a day before the introduction of vaccine passports and quarantines, the government’s online COVID-19 platform was hacked, preventing many states from reporting new cases, deaths and vaccinations while also shutting down the vaccine certificate system.

After the attack, several states stopped reporting COVID-19 data, resulting in a drop. The number of cases dropped almost by half, with 24,164 reported throughout last week in comparison to two weeks ago, when 49,932 cases were reported.

According to Metropoles, the 7-day moving average of deaths fell by 34.9 percent in the week since the hacking. Such an artificial decrease, which has continued for eleven days now, would provide a fraudulent basis to claim that the pandemic is under control.

The attack also affected data from other systems, with Fiocruz stating it is unable to access flu cases from previous months and that they are essential to “keep the population informed on the current epidemiological situation.” The global spread of the Omicron variant is coinciding with a seasonal flu epidemic in the country, threatening to quickly overload the healthcare system.

The hackers were identified as a small non-professional group, who were only capable of hacking the government’s website because there were weaknesses in the platform’s security. Only two days before the invasion, the federal administration had opened a public bid to reinforce security on its servers, pointing out they were incapable of monitoring threats in real time.

Whatever the real motives for the hacking, which happened at a convenient moment for Bolsonaro, the resulting distortion and undercounting of cases and deaths are welcomed by all sections of the ruling class.

Since the first Omicron case was recognized in South Africa, the idea of a “mild” Omicron variant has been promoted in the corporate media. As Brazil flies blind during a deadly global surge, this claim is aimed at keeping factories, workplaces and schools open to guarantee profits for big corporations as the virus rips through the population.

Amid the cancellation of New Year’s events throughout the country, it is also aimed at justifying maintaining preparations for next year’s Carnaval festivities and the unchecked spread of the disease through an anticipated mass influx of tourists.

The corporate media’s complacency towards Bolsonaro’s criminal actions has been shown by its focus on the decision by Supreme Court Justice Luís Roberto Barroso making vaccine passports mandatory for those entering the country, as if it had “defeated” Bolsonaro’s policies. It is not even guaranteed that this grossly insufficient requirement will be enforced. Only five days after Barroso’s decision, Justice Nunes Marques, whom Bolsonaro frequently calls “my 10 percent on the Supreme Court,” was able to stop a final decision on the vaccine passports, postponing it until after the recess in February. This will allow Bolsonaro to continue his campaign against the vaccine passports amid the blackout in COVID-19 data and well into the Omicron phase of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, state governors in Brazil, promoting the insufficient “vaccine-only” strategy, made in-person learning mandatory throughout the country in November, provoking the infection of thousands of children and risking new COVID-19 surges.

Many scientists have explained throughout the pandemic that vaccines are a powerful component in the fight against COVID-19, but they can only truly protect the population if implemented together with other critical public health measures, including mass testing and contact tracing, temporary lockdowns, travel restrictions and high quality masks.

Now, as the Omicron variant exposes the idea that vaccines alone are able to control the coronavirus spread, the “vaccine-only” strategy has allowed fascistic figures such as Bolsonaro not only to attack this critical component in the fight against the virus, but all mitigation measures.

Making clear that the government’s response to Omicron will be to allow a full-blown catastrophe, Bolsonaro reacted angrily to the announcement last week that Pfizer vaccines were approved for children 5 to 11 years old and threatened to effectively put a target on technicians from Anvisa, the national agency responsible for the approval.

Appealing to fascistic elements in his social base, Bolsonaro stated that “We want to publish the names of these people... You have the right to know the names of those who approved vaccines for your children of 5 years old or older.” Such declarations occur amid reports of scientists being persecuted for publishing pandemic data and exposing the government’s policy.

On Sunday, the president made public his plan to distribute jabs for children only under the authorization of their parents and with a medical prescription.

As the new variant is already showing its aggressiveness towards children, Bolsonaro’s policy means letting thousands of children get hospitalized, having to deal with the still unknown long term effects of COVID-19, or even die. Currently, only 66 percent of the population is vaccinated with two doses, and children remain unvaccinated.

The demand for specific medical prescriptions for vaccinating children will leave tens of millions vulnerable, as working-class parents barely have access to doctors in the country’s dilapidated healthcare system.

This is exactly what Bolsonaro intends. Throughout the pandemic, Bolsonaro has presented his campaign against measures to rein in the virus as a fight for “freedom.” Now, his new offensive amid the spread of Omicron promotes the same theme, attacking the vaccine passport as a “leash that they want to put on the people,” while his health minister echoed his words that “It’s better to lose your life than your freedom.”

As international workers enter an offensive in defense of their living standards and very lives, Bolsonaro represents a section of the ruling class prepared to suppress opposition by means of violence and dictatorship.

Workers must not allow another catastrophic surge in cases and deaths. The mass infection campaign of Bolsonaro can be defeated only by a mass movement of the working class in Brazil and internationally. Workers must organize rank-and-file committees to implement the strategy of zero COVID in coordination with health specialists and scientists, implementing temporary lockdowns with full income for workers sheltering, while providing the best safety equipment and rigorous protocols to protect essential workers.

'We've never seen this kind of transmission before': Omicron cases dwarf official reports across Canada

Tyler Dawson 
With Omicron cases skyrocketing across Canada, figures from Alberta suggest that the official numbers, rolled out in data sheets and at press conferences, don’t capture the full extent of the fifth wave.

Alberta Health Services staff conduct drive-through COVID-19 tests at the Richmond Road testing site in Calgary on December 30, 2021. Gavin Young/Postmedia

On Monday afternoon, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, said that there are roughly 57,000 active COVID-19 cases in the province.

“We’ve never seen this kind of transmission before,” said Hinshaw, adding that anywhere you go, someone is likely to have COVID-19. “We can’t stop this, but we still can slow the spread.”

The actual figure for active cases in Alberta could be at least 10 times higher, Hinshaw said, shedding light on the extent to which Omicron is spreading, undocumented by the strained testing system.

“It’s very clear with a 40 per cent positivity rate, transmission is higher than it’s ever been before and we should assume that, at minimum, we’re seeing about 10 times or more the number of cases than we’re diagnosing through PCR,” Hinshaw said.

Hinshaw said she was unable to provide an actual figure to go with that ratio, but 10 times Alberta’s active COVID cases would be about 570,000 cases, which eclipses the official active case counts for the entirety of Canada.

The Public Health Agency of Canada says that all of Canada currently has 404,000 active cases.

Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Toronto, said it’s not surprising there’s a gap between the actual number of cases and cases found by testing. He said such a phenomenon likely exists everywhere in the country.

“No matter where you are, there’s always going to be a difference in cases captured by PCR versus the total number of cases; there’s always that delta,” Bogoch said. “I think it would be a fair assessment to say that everywhere in the country, the true number of cases dwarfs the number of cases that are detected by the limited testing capability that we have right now.”

It’s not clear what percentage of cases other provincial governments believe they are catching — and not catching — with their testing.

In recent weeks, a number of provinces across Canada have limited access to polymerase chain reaction testing — the more accurate testing provided by governments — to vulnerable populations, in order to conserve resources. A consequence of this decision is that testing captures a smaller percentage of the total number of positive cases while, by limiting testing to those who are most likely to be ill, amplifying the positivity rate.

British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta and Quebec have all limited testing to people at risk of severe disease or those who work around vulnerable populations, including at long-term care homes.

This comes as testing capacity, given the sheer number of active cases, has been unable to cope with demand. There are staffing shortages in the health-care sector, an issue across the country, because of Omicron, and other sectors of the economy, too.

“There’s a massive burden of community level infection and eventually it runs out of tinder and cases start to drop,” said Bogoch.

Officially, in Ontario there are roughly 140,000 active cases. In Quebec, which has instituted strict lockdown measures, the active case count sits just above 100,000. British Columbia has nearly 38,000 active cases.

“This is the nature of Omicron. It is a hyper-contagious disease that is ripping through the population,” said Raywat Deonandan, a global health epidemiologist at the University of Ottawa.

So far, in Alberta, hospitalization and intensive care numbers have not reached heights seen in the early fall, when the province nearly had to implement a triage protocol determining who would receive hospital care, as capacity limits had been strained to their breaking point.

Yet, said Bogoch, we know that some small percentage of those who catch COVID-19 will end up needing medical attention at a time when the system is dealing with burnout, staff shortages and overall capacity concerns.

“We know a very small percentage of people who get this infection will actually need to use health-care resources. However, a small percentage of a massive number of infected people still ends up being a lot of people requiring health care,” Bogoch said.

• Email: tdawson@postmedia.com | Twitter: tylerrdawson

Omicron 'tidal wave' could infect half of all Europeans within the next 2 months, WHO official says

Natalie Musumeci
Tue., January 11, 2022, 

People waiting in front of a pharmacy to get a COVID-19 test in Paris on January 9.

Francois Mori/AP Photo

Over half of all Europeans could soon contract the Omicron coronavirus variant, a WHO official said.

Omicron "represents a new west-to-east tidal wave sweeping across the region," Dr. Hans Kluge said.

He said IHME forecast Omicron would infect over 50% of the region's population within eight weeks.

More than half of the population in Europe could be infected with the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus variant within the next two months, a World Health Organization official said on Tuesday.

Dr. Hans Kluge, the WHO's regional director for Europe, said during a virtual press conference that the Omicron variant "represents a new west-to-east tidal wave sweeping across the region."

"At this rate, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation forecasts that more than 50% of the population in the region will be infected with Omicron in the next six to eight weeks," Kluge said.

Kluge added that 50 of the 53 countries in Europe and central Asia had reported cases of Omicron, and that the variant was "quickly" becoming the dominant strain in Western Europe as it spread to the Balkans.

The WHO official said, "Currently approved vaccines do continue to provide good protection against severe disease and death, including for Omicron."

But he added, "Because of the unprecedented scale of transmission, we are now seeing rising COVID-19 hospitalizations."

"It is challenging health systems and service delivery in many countries where Omicron has spread at speed, and threatens to overwhelm in many more," Kluge said.

New COVID-19 cases worldwide are shattering records as the Omicron variant spreads.

Reduced hospitalization risk, shorter stays for Omicron patients: US study


Wed, 12 January 2022

"This study controlled for important key parameters such as age, sex, prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, prior vaccination and comorbidities," CDC director Rochelle Walensky told reporters on a briefing call (AFP/Greg Nash)

A preliminary US study of nearly 70,000 Covid positive people showed a substantially reduced risk of hospitalization and death from Omicron even after controlling for growing population immunity levels.

People infected with Omicron were half as likely to be hospitalized, about 75 percent less likely to need intensive care, and around 90 percent less likely to die compared to those infected with the formerly dominant Delta variant, according to the paper.

Of some 50,000 people infected with Omicron, none ended up on a ventilator.

Hospital stays lasted for a median of 1.5 days for Omicron compared to five days for Delta, and 90 percent of Omicron patients were discharged in three or fewer days.

The analysis was conducted on data from the Kaiser Permanente Southern California hospital system, which serves a population of around 4.7 million people, between December 1 2021, and January 2 2022, when both strains were circulating widely.

The findings build on accumulating population-level research from countries including South Africa and Britain, but also on animal and cell-based testing, which have found Omicron replicates better in the upper airways compared to the lungs.

The new paper, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, was carried out by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, Kaiser Permanente and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"This study controlled for important key parameters such as age, sex, prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, prior vaccination and comorbidities," CDC director Rochelle Walensky told reporters on a briefing call Wednesday.

The results thus suggest that Omicron is "intrinsically less severe than Delta," and observed reductions in severe cases aren't only the result of more people being vaccinated and infected over time, the paper said.

In addition, while the study noted reduced vaccine efficacy against infection from Omicron, it also found substantial ongoing protection against severe outcomes.

Walensky warned that the results should not lead to complacency, since Omicron's extreme transmissibility is still stretching the United States' already over-extended health care system and its exhausted health workers.

The country is currently seeing an average of 750,000 cases a day -- though that figure is soon expected to exceed a million -- around 150,000 total Covid hospitalizations, and more than 1,600 daily deaths.

President Joe Biden's chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci predicted Tuesday that "Omicron, with its extraordinary, unprecedented degree of efficiency of transmissibility, will ultimately find just about everybody."

But he added that after the country emerged from its current wave, it would transition towards a future of living with the virus, with Covid vaccines moderating severe disease for the majority and effective treatments available for the most vulnerable.

ia/dw

AFP

COVID: Have we reached the peak of omicron infections?

Omicron may infect 60% of the world's population by mid-March. That may mean global infections of 5 million per day.



Whether we're at peak infection or not, experts say: Wear a mask, get tested, get vaccinated

The new year started with a doubling of COVID infections.

On Tuesday, the European Regional Director for the World Health Organization (WHO), Hans Kluge, said that the 53 countries in the region had seen over 7 million newly reported cases of COVID-19 in the first week of 2022.

Those figures had more than doubled over a two-week period, Kluge said.

As of January 10, 26 countries in Europe had reported that more than 1% of their population was getting infected with COVID-19 each week.

Projections through to March

The situation is "challenging health systems […] in many countries where Omicron has spread at speed and threatens to overwhelm in many more," said Kluge.

But he said that vaccines were providing good protection against severe disease and death, including for omicron. He said that immunization was preventing many people from needing hospitalization.

Citing hospitalization rates in Denmark, Kluge said there were six times as many unvaccinated COVID patients in hospitals over the Christmas week than COVID patients who were fully vaccinated.

The latest forecasts from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) seem to echo Kluge's assessment. The IHME is a population health research organization at the University of Washington School of Medicine, which the WHO references itself.

Its director and lead-modeler, Christopher Murray, says "hospitals need support."

Omicron projections: Should Europeans just accept what seems inevitable?

Daily global cases of coronavirus could reach 5 million, but that could "top out in the month of January," says Murray.

"We expect that by March, omicron will infect 60% of the world's population," Murray says. And "we are seeing a small increase in deaths at the global level because of omicron."

In Europe alone, it is estimated that more than 50% of the region's population could get infected with omicron in the next 6-8 weeks.
Some see cases falling

London's Regional Director for Public Health, Kevin Fenton, told Sky News in the UK that infection rates in the British capital appeared to have reached their peak at around New Year. He cited figures from the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS).

However, while those ONS data from January 7 do show a drop in positive COVID-19 tests (on nose and throat swabs), that was only for the British capital, London.

Elsewhere in England, the ONS data show that infection rates continued to rise. And the same goes for the other three nations in the UK — certainly when it comes to the omicron variant of the coronavirus: Rates for omicron were up in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Delta infections were on a downward trend.

Infection rates remained "very, very high," said Fenton, with one in 10 Londoners infected. "We're not yet out of this critical phase of the pandemic, although we may well be passed the peak."

Fenton went on to say that London was not seeing a "rapid reduction" in infection rates yet, and that there was pressure on hospitals in London — largely coming from unvaccinated patients or those whose vaccinations were "incomplete."
An "ice pick" rather than a wave?

In the United States, health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say they see potential for a speedy drop in omicron infections, but they are saying that with a note of caution.

Speaking at a briefing on January 7, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the omicron trend in South Africa, where the variant was first reported in November 2021, had been described as more of an "ice pick than a wave."

Walensky said we could see more of a "precipitous increase, and then a precipitous decline." But, then, said Walensky, the situation in South Africa was different from that in the United States, and that makes a straight comparison difficult.

"They did have a huge proportion of their population with previous disease. We have a larger proportion of our population that is vaccinated and boosted. So, there are reasons to think that they may act similarly and reasons to think they may act differently," Walensky said. "I do think in places that we are seeing this really steep incline that we may well see a precipitous decline, but we're also a much bigger country than South Africa."

It would appear, then, that when and/or whether a country — or a region — has reached its peak infection for omicron is too hard to say for now.

And overall, infection rates continue to rise.

The IHME estimates global COVID-19 deaths of 6.4 million by May 1, 2022 — even with high rates of vaccination and up to 80% mask use. But bear in mind that this is a global projection and that situations will vary from country to country, region to region, and from community to community.
What do we do now?

Omicron appears in many cases to lead to milder infections than previous variants of the virus. About 90% of infections — as opposed to 40% of previous variants — may be asympotomatic, says the IHME's Christopher Murray.

That means you may never know you were or had been infected.

But if you're unvaccinated or have never had a COVID infection, you are at a higher risk than others to get seriously ill, Murray says.

So, what do we do now, while we wait for this omicron wave or "ice pick" to peak and fall? Murray offers three short answers: Wear masks, get vaccinated, and get tested.


IN PICTURES: INDIA'S FIGHT AGAINST OMICRON VARIANT
Virus thrives in crowds
Densely packed streets like this one in Delhi provide fertile ground for the highly transmissible COVID-19 omicron variant. In just a week, the number of new infections in India has doubled to nearly 120,000 each day. Experts are warning that rising case numbers could soon overwhelm the country's hospitals.
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Edited by: Carla Bleiker

Opinion: Latin America's new generation of dictators

In the past, they wore olive-green uniforms and used military might to gain power. Today, they are "elected," as true democracies helplessly look on, writes Johan Ramirez.

It's easy to win elections if most contenders are in prison

Latin American dictators have learned to adapt. They've realized that they must renew and transform themselves and, above all, do without army revolts if they want to survive in the 21st century. That is why the tyrants who now rule the poorest countries in the region no longer wear military olive garb. They no longer seize power-wielding rifles as they did in decades past.

Since the turn of the millennium, they have resorted to democratic mechanisms to establish their modern totalitarian regimes — and they have done so openly. They have mainly resorted to three methods: elections, international bodies and regulated procedures. By manipulating these mechanisms at their own discretion, they have become strong without facing any significant resistance.

Make-believe democracy

Nicaragua is a good example. On January 9, the newly elected National Assembly began its work; a day later, dictator Daniel Ortega was sworn in for yet another five-year term as president. But unlike the traditional dictatorships that spread terror across Central America in the 1970s and 1980s, Ortega can point at the results of national polls.

Of course, the elections were a sham, but the November poll produced the result the dictator wanted due to his oppressive tactics. In the lead up the controversial elections, Daniel Ortega used state institutions to purge the electoral lists and remove from the race those who would have taken the power from him in a true democracy. He used the judiciary to jail his political opponents, prosecute inconvenient journalists, and ban civil society organizations that denounced his transgressions.

He used the right to vote guaranteed in the constitution to create a parliament that suited him and to get confirmed for another term.

Ortega is living proof that it is possible to become a dictator without a coup d'état.

Support from abroad

It is not enough, however, to manipulate just the domestic system. Present-day autocrats have learned to use international organizations for their own purposes. Venezuela under Hugo Chavez had already proven that, as long as it has the money, it can buy support at summit meetings in order to block international opponents. After all, many small Caribbean islands need someone to help build a road, a hospital or a power plant.

Chavez always presented himself as a humanist who showed solidarity, but in return, he made sure that the respective countries, along with a few allies that share his ideology, stood firmly by his side.

Time and again, they vetoed resolutions that would otherwise have prevented the consolidation of his absolute power and with it the transformation of the former oil power into an empire of misery.

Regulated proceedings

Contemporary dictatorships added a third element, that of regulated procedures, including, for instance, due process in investigations relating to allegations of arbitrary arrests, targeted disappearances, and extrajudicial executions among the security forces.

It is no one's fault that such investigations can take a lifetime — it's just that due process can mean anything under a dictatorship.

The victims continue to be victimized, but the investigations do not yield results. For appearances' sake, such modern dictators establish human rights bodies, appoint ombudspersons, they even cooperate with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, all the while protecting the torturers, mocking the dead, and filling their secret prisons with political prisoners.

Comforting certainty

Genuine democracies show themselves as naïve; they keep giving the despots new opportunities. They organize observation missions and contact groups — as if murderers in any way respected and appreciated sincerity.

The manipulation of democracy has allowed dictators to survive. Fidel Castro died of old age, Hugo Chavez died of cancer, Raul Castro simply retired, and Nicolas Maduro puts on weight as he sits in the Venezuelan presidential palace.

Daniel Ortega has put down roots in Nicaragua, and with no intention of ever relinquishing power. Ortega no longer needs to storm government buildings or bring in tanks. He uses what dictators who once overthrew revolutionaries like him once feared: elections.

The new dictators wear ties and attend international conferences and summits as a matter of course, in the comfortable certainty that (thanks to democracy!) they will get away with it forever.

This article was originally written in German.

Green groups target poisonings from rising pesticides sales

More and more pesticides are being sprayed worldwide with deadly consequences for humans and nature, a report finds.


Pesticides have poisoned millions of farmers across the world

The rising use of pesticides is at the heart of environmental damage across the world, according to a new report from environmental groups in Germany.

"You encounter the issue everywhere when you deal with agriculture, health, species loss and water pollution," said agricultural engineer Susan Haffmans from Pesticide Action Network Germany, who played a leading role in developing the Pesticide Atlas report. "It is a major cross-cutting issue."

Together with the green-affiliated Heinrich Böll Foundation, the German branch of environmental group Friends of the Earth and the international monthly newspaper LE MONDE diplomatique, the report was presented and published Wednesday in Berlin. Its 50 pages outline harmful effects of the billion-dollar pesticide business.

"We encounter pesticides everywhere, even if we don't live on the edge of the field," said Haffmans

.
Farmers are often poisoned

According to a recent study published in the journal Public Health, 385 million people in agriculture fall ill with acute pesticide poisoning every year. After poisoning, farm workers and farmers report symptoms that range from feeling weak and having headaches to vomiting, diarrhea, skin rashes, nervous system disorders and fainting. In severe cases, the heart, lungs or kidneys fail. About 11,000 people in agriculture die from acute poisoning every year, according to the study, which did not count deaths by suicide related to pesticides.

Agricultural workers and small farmers in the Global South are particularly affected by pesticide poisoning. According to the study, there are about 256 million acute pesticide poisonings in Asia, 116 million in Africa and about 12.3 million in Latin America. In Europe, the figure is far smaller at 1.6 million.

"We see that 44% of all workers worldwide suffer at least one poisoning per year," said Haffmans, "and in certain countries it is much more. In Burkina Faso, for example, 83% of farm workers get sick at least once from pesticides."

These are only the acute poisonings, she said, adding that the extent to which they occur is an indication of chronic long-term exposure, which is then in turn associated with completely different chronic diseases.

The Atlas highlights several reasons for the significantly higher number of poisonings in the Global South. First, a lot of dangerous pesticides are sprayed there, including some which are banned in Europe. In addition, many small farmers there do not wear protective clothing and are poorly informed about the dangers.

"In some cases, pesticides are simply filled into small plastic bags or bottles by traders, without labels, without safety instructions on how to use them and without warnings," said Haffmans. "Then there are always unintentional poisonings because the pesticide is used incorrectly or someone picks up the bottle thinking maybe there is a soda in it."

Many farmers lack protective gear to keep them safe from pesticides

According to the Atlas, fewer than 30% of smallholder farmers in Ghana wear gloves, goggles and mouth or nose protection when handling pesticides. In Ethiopia, only 7% of farmers are aware of the warning to wash hands after using pesticides.
Pesticides increase cancer risk

Pesticides can be spread by the wind hundreds of kilometers and are found in rivers and groundwater. They can kill insects, birds and aquatic animals, and their residue is often found in food.

The weed killer glyphosate, which is the most widely used pesticide, is among the most infamous. In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic". A 2019 scientific meta-study by the University of Washington also identified an increased risk of malignant lymph node tumors from glyphosate, known as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Pesticides have also been linked to asthma, allergies, obesity and endocrine gland disorders, as well as miscarriages and deformities in particularly polluted regions.

"Studies also show a connection with Parkinson's disease, Type II diabetes or certain types of cancer," said Haffmans.

Profits more important than health protection

The sale of pesticides is lucrative. The four largest producers — Syngenta, Bayer, BASF and Corteva — generated sales of €31 billion ($35 billion) in 2020, according to the Atlas. In recent years, global pesticide sales have grown by an average of 4% annually.

As a rule, however, the companies do not pay for damage to health and the environment, unless they are taken to court. In the US, 125,000 people who had sprayed the pesticide Roundup with the active ingredient glyphosate and become seriously ill sued Bayer. The company has already paid some of the plaintiffs, and around €10 billion have been set aside in Bayer's balance sheet to compensate for the damages.

Despite these cases, Bayer and other companies continue to sell highly toxic pesticides, including those that are banned in the EU because they are dangerous. Currently, pesticide manufacturers are also seeking a new authorization for glyphosate in the EU, although it is due to be banned in the bloc from 2024.

Movements for agricultural revolution

Environmental groups are pushing for a shift away from chemical pesticides. The 30 authors of the Atlas use articles to highlight policies that could lessen their impact.

"In the last two decades, Sri Lanka has demonstrably saved almost 10,000 lives by banning dangerous pesticides," said Haffmans. In India, "some regions there already farm completely or largely pesticide-free. This, in turn, encourages imitation in other regions."

According to a representative survey conducted in Germany for the Atlas, a majority of 16 to 29-year-olds want an agriculture that protects water, soil and insects, produces fairly without genetic engineering and pesticides, and uses natural pest control. The survey found 63% of respondents wquld like to see all pesticides banned by 2035, and farmers given support in switching to environmentally friendly production. 11% of respondents rejected this demand.

This article was originally in German.


PESTICIDES: FACTS AND TRENDS
Farm workers are poisoned
Around 385 million cases of poisoning by pesticides are reported every year. The numbers are highest in Asia, Africa and Latin America where more really dangerous pesticides are sprayed. Many workers do not wear protective clothing and few are properly informed about the dangers of using pesticides.
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SEE
Kenyan farmers embrace organic farming

Bookchin M. Our Synthetic Environment - Libcom
https://libcom.org/files/Bookchin M. Our Synthetic Environment.pdf · PDF file
Our Synthetic Environment Murray Bookchin 1962 Table of contents Chapter 1: THE PROBLEM Chapter 2: AGRICULTURE AND HEALTH Chapter 3: URBAN LIFE AND HEALTH


Silent Spring - Rachel Carson
rachelcarson.org/SilentSpring.aspx
Serialized in three parts in The New Yorker, where President John F. Kennedy read it in the summer of 1962, Silent Spring was published in August and became an instant best-seller and the most

Senate votes to honor Emmett Till, Mamie Till-Mobley with Congressional Gold Medal

The Senate has agreed to posthumously award Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, the Congressional Gold Medal. File Photo courtesy of Rep. Bobby Rush

Jan. 12 (UPI) -- Senate lawmakers have passed a bill to posthumously award Emmett Till, who was abducted and killed by White supremacists in 1955, and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, the Congressional Gold Medal, the U.S. Congress' highest civilian honor.

The bill -- which was first introduced in September of 2020 by Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.Y., and Richard Burr, R-N.C. -- passed with unanimous consent, and calls for the posthumous presentation of the medals in commemoration of Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley, after which they are to be given to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

"More than six decades after his murder, I am proud to see the Senate pass long-overdue legislation that would award the Congressional Gold Medal to both Emmett and Mamie Till-Mobley in recognition of their profound contributions to our nation," Booker said in a statement Tuesday.

Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Chicago native, was kidnapped, brutally beaten and killed in the summer of 1955 in Money, Miss., where he was visiting his uncle.

Following his death, Mamie Till-Mobley demanded an open casket during his funeral so the more than 50,000 attendees could see the violence her son was subjected to while a graphic photograph of her deceased son in the coffin helped galvanize activists who were working for civil rights, Booker's office said.

Asked why she she wanted an open casket, Mamie Till-Mobley famously responded: "The whole nation had to bear witness to this."

Mamie Till-Mobley then spent the rest of her life seeking justice for her son. She died in 2003.

"The courage and activism demonstrated by Emmett's mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, in displaying to the world the brutality endured by her son helped awaken the nation's conscience, forcing Americans to reckon with its failure to address racism and the glaring injustices that stem from such hatred," Booker said.

The Congressional Gold Medal has been awarded to dozens as a sign of its "highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions," according to the U.S. House of Representatives' website.

Last month, the Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to the 13 U.S. servicemembers who were killed in Afghanistan during August's evacuation of U.S. citizens and Afghan nationals.