Pesticide seed coatings are widespread but underreported

by Pennsylvania State University

Seed-coated pesticides, such as neonicotinoids, are increasingly used in the major field crops, but are underreported, in part, because farmers often do not know what pesticides are on their seeds, according to an international team of researchers. Credit: Alyssa Collins

Pesticide-coated seeds—such as neonicotinoids, many of which are highly toxic to both pest and beneficial insects—are increasingly used in the major field crops, but are underreported, in part, because farmers often do not know what pesticides are on their seeds, according to an international team of researchers. The lack of data may complicate efforts to evaluate the value of different pest management strategies, while also protecting human health and the environment.


"We reviewed existing evidence, as well as proprietary and novel government data, on seed treatment usage and found that many farmers either did not know what pesticides were on their seeds or falsely assumed that seed treatments did not include certain pesticides," said Paul Esker, assistant professor of epidemiology and crop pathology, Penn State. "This lack of knowledge could lead to overuse of pesticides, which could harm the environment and farmers' health."

The team analyzed proprietary data from Kynetec, a third-party global marketing and research firm that maintains one of the most comprehensive datasets on pesticide use in the United States, collected from 2004-2014. They found that the use of seed treatments in the U.S. grew over the past decade, particularly in corn and soybean production. In the 2012 to 2014 period, 90 percent of corn acres and 76 percent of soybean acres were grown with treated seeds. Of the insecticides applied to seeds, neonicotinoids accounted for roughly 80%.

Next, the researchers analyzed farmers' responses to questions about pesticide-coated seeds documented in the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS)—the U.S. Department of Agriculture's primary source of information on the production practices, resource use and economic well-being of America's farms and ranches. Specifically, they examined farmer responses to the ARMS for cotton in 2015, corn in 2016, wheat in 2017 and soybean in 2018.

They found that around 98% of farmers were able to provide the names of the field-applied pesticides used on their cotton, corn, wheat or soybean crops. By contrast, only 84% of cotton growers, 65% of corn growers, 62% of soybean growers, 57% of winter wheat growers and 43% of spring wheat growers could provide the name of the seed-treatment product on their crops. The rest either did not answer the survey question or specified that they did not know.

The researchers also found that, in 2015, cotton growers reported that 13% of total acreage was not treated with an insecticide and 19% was not treated with a fungicide, while simultaneously reporting the use of products containing those types of pesticides on that acreage.


The results appear today (March 17) in the journal BioScience.

"One of the most important findings of this study is that farmers know less about pesticides applied to their seeds than pesticides applied in other ways," said Margaret Douglas, assistant professor of environmental studies, Dickinson College. "This is likely because seed is often sold with a 'default' treatment that contains a mix of different pesticide active ingredients, and the treated seed is exempt from some labeling requirements. Without knowing what is on their seeds, it is nearly impossible for farmers to tailor pesticide use to production and environmental goals."

Seed-coated pesticides, such as neonicotinoids, are increasingly used in the major field crops, but are underreported, in part, because farmers often do not know what pesticides are on their seeds, according to an international team of researchers. Credit: Alyssa Collins

According to the study's lead author Claudia Hitaj, research and technology associate, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, the lack of information on the use of pesticidal seed treatments means that a significant portion of pesticide use, particularly for active ingredients that are applied almost exclusively as seed treatments, is not captured in existing pesticide-use datasets.

"Reliable data on pesticide use is needed by regulators, farmers, and researchers to increase agricultural production and profitability and to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of pesticides," she said.

By comparing the data Kynetec collected during the 2004-2014 window to that collected in 2015, when Kynetec stopped offering information on seed treatments, the team found a significant drop in pesticide use for a number of pesticides known to be used as seed treatments. The researchers used clothianidin as an example of what can happen as a result of poor tracking of pesticide-treated seed use.

"The removal of data on treated seed makes clothianidin use appear to drop from more than 1.5 million kg/year in 2014 to less than a tenth of a million kg/year in 2015," said Aimee Code, pesticide program director, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. "Clothianidin is currently undergoing review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, so the lost data makes it difficult to ensure accurate risk assessment."

The team concluded that farmers, researchers and regulators could benefit from improved labelling of pesticide-treated seeds and posting of information about the active ingredients contained in treated seed products on public websites. In addition, information could be collected through sales data from seed retailers and other companies. And information about the planting location of treated seeds could help in assessing pest resistance and the local effects of pesticides on the environment.

"The lack of knowledge by farmers about the pesticides applied to seed is an example of why it is important to maintain a strong university extension system that can provide up-to-date information about different seed treatments, what these treatments do, and what the empirical data shows," said Esker. "This is also an opportunity for further collaboration among different disciplines, like agronomy, plant pathology, entomology, economics and environmental science, to address farm issues from a whole-system perspective."


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Rapid increase in neonicotinoid insecticides driven by seed treatments
Journal information: BioScience

10 countries are now tracking phone data as the coronavirus pandemic heralds a massive increase in surveillanceIsobel Asher Hamilton

REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton


As coronavirus sweeps across the globe, governments are stepping up surveillance of their citizens.

A new live index from digital rights group Top10VPN is documenting which countries are introducing new measures to track people's phones.

Some countries are collecting anonymized data to study movement of people more generally, while others are providing detailed information about individuals' movements.



Governments across the world are galvanizing every surveillance tool at their disposal to help stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Countries have been quick to use the one tool almost all of us carry with us — our smartphones.

A new live index of ramped up security measures by Top10VPN details the countries which have already brought in measures to track the phones of coronavirus patients, ranging from anonymized aggregated data to monitor the movement of people more generally, to the tracking of individual suspected patients and their contacts, known as "contact tracing."

Other countries are likely to follow suit. The US is reportedly in talks with Facebook and Google to use anonymized location data to track the spread of the disease — although Mark Zuckerberg subsequently denied this. And the UK's top scientist has endorsed the use of contact tracing.

Samuel Woodhams, Top10VPN's Digital Rights Lead who compiled the index, warned that the world could slide into permanently increased surveillance.


"Without adequate tracking, there is a danger that these new, often highly invasive, measures will become the norm around the world," he told Business Insider. "Although some may appear entirely legitimate, many pose a risk to citizens' right to privacy and freedom of expression.

"Given how quickly things are changing, documenting the new measures is the first step to challenging potential overreach, providing scrutiny and holding corporations and governments to account."

While some countries will cap their new emergency measures, otherwise may retain the powers for future use. "There is a risk that many of these new capabilities will continue to be used following the outbreak," said Woodhams. "This is particularly significant as many of the new measures have avoided public and political scrutiny and do not include sunset clauses."
Here's a breakdown of which countries have started tracking phone data, with varying degrees of invasiveness:


South Korea gives out detailed information about patients' whereabouts.

South Korean soldiers in protective gear sanitize a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea, March 4, 2020. Reuters

South Korea has gone a step further than other countries, tracking individuals' phones and creating a publicly available map to allow other citizens to check whether they may have crossed paths with any coronavirus patients.

The tracking data that goes into the map isn't limited to mobile phone data, credit card records and even face-to-face interviews with patients are being used to build a retroactive map of where they've been.

Not only is the map there for citizens to check, but the South Korean government is using it to proactively send regional text messages warning people they may have come into contact with someone carrying the virus.

The location given can be extremely specific, the Washington Post reported a text went out that said an infected person had been at the "Magic Coin Karaoke in Jayang-dong at midnight on Feb. 20."

Some texts give out more personal information however. A text reported by The Guardian read: "A woman in her 60s has just tested positive. Click on the link for the places she visited before she was hospitalised."

The director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Jeong Eun-kyeong, acknowledged that the site infringes on civil liberties, saying: "It is true that public interests tend to be emphasized more than human rights of individuals when dealing with diseases that can infect others."

The map is already interfering with civil liberties, as a South Korean woman told the Washington Post that she had stopped attending a bar popular with lesbians for fear of being outed. "If I unknowingly contract the virus... that record will be released to the whole country," she said.

The system is also throwing up other unexpected challenges. The Guardian reported that one man claiming to be infected threatened various restaurants saying he would visit and hurt their custom unless they gave him money to stay away.


Iran asked citizens to download an invasive app

A man wears a protective face mask as he takes a picture of blossom trees, ahead of the Iranian New Year Nowruz, March 20, at Mellat Park, in Tehran, Iran March 19, 2020. WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Ali Khara via REUTERS

Vice reported that Iran's government endorsed a coronavirus diagnosis app that collected users' real-time location data.

On March 3, a message went out to millions of Iranian citizens telling them to install the app, called AC19, before going to a hospital or health center.

The app claimed to be able to diagnose the user with coronavirus by asking a series of yes or no questions. The app has since been removed from the Google Play store.


Israel passed new laws to spy on its citizens

A man wears a face mask as he walks along a main street in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, March 15, 2020. AP Photo/Oded Balilty

As part of a broad set of new surveillance measures approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on March 17, Israel's Security Agency will no longer have to obtain a court order to track individuals' phones. The new law also stipulates all data collected must be deleted after 30 days.

Netanyahu described the new security measures as "invasive" in an address to the nation.

"We'll deploy measures we've only previously deployed against terrorists. Some of these will be invasive and infringe on the privacy of those affected. We must adopt a new routine," said Netanyahu.

Singapore has an app which can trace people within 2m of infected patients

An old woman wears a surgical mask while buying flowers on the eve of Chinese New Year in Singapore, January 24, 2020. Maverick Asio/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Singapore's Government Technology Agency and the Ministry of Health developed an app for contact tracing called TraceTogether which launched on March 20.

Per the Straits Times, the app is used: "to identify people who have been in close proximity — within 2m for at least 30 minutes — to coronavirus patients using wireless Bluetooth technology."

"No geolocation data or other personal data is collected," TraceTogether said in an explanatory video.

Taiwan can tell when quarantined people have left the house

People pray at the popular Longshan Temple in Taipei, Taiwan, Thursday, March 12, 2020. Chiang Ying-ying/AP Photo

Taiwan has activated what it calls an "electronic fence," which tracks mobile phone data and alerts authorities when someone who is supposed to be quarantined at home is leaving the house.

"The goal is to stop people from running around and spreading the infection," said Jyan Hong-wei, head of Taiwan's Department of Cyber Security. Jyan added that local authorities and police should be able to respond to anyone who triggers an alert within 15 minutes.


Austria is using anonymized data to map people's movements

Police officers speak to a visitor in Stadtpark as they patrol on a sunny spring day during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna, Austria March 20, 2020. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

On March 17 Austria's biggest telecoms network operator Telekom Austria AG announced it was sharing anonymized location data with the government.

The technology being used was developed by a spin-off startup out of the University of Graz, and Telekom Austria said it is usually used to measure footfall in popular tourist sites.

Woodhams told Business Insider that while collecting aggregated data sets is less invasive than other measures, how that data could be used in future should still be cause for concern.

"Much of the data may remain at risk from re-identification, and it still provides governments with the ability to track the movement of large groups of its citizens," said Woodhams.


Belgium is using anonymized data from telcos

A passenger on a metro in Brussels after Belgian government imposed a coronavirus lockdown in an attempt to slow down the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Brussels, Belgium March 19, 2020 REUTERS/Yves Herman

The Belgian government gave the go-ahead on March 11 to start using anonymized data from local telecom companies.


Germany is modeling how people are moving around

An unusually empty scene in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on March 13, 2020. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse

Deutsche Telekom announced on March 18 it would be sharing data with the Robert Koch Institute (Germany's version of the CDC).

"With this we can model how people are moving around nationwide, on a state level, and even on a community level," a spokesperson for Deutsche Telekom told Die Welt.


Italy has created movement maps

A man wearing a face mask walks on a deserted street in Venice, Italy, on March 18, 2020 during the country's lockdown due to the coronavirus crisis. Andrea Pattaro/AFP via Getty Images

Italy, which has been particularly hard-hit by the coronavirus outbreak, has also signed a deal with telecoms operators to collect anonymized location data.

As of March 18 Italy had charged 40,000 of its citizens with violating its lockdown laws, per The Guardian.


The UK isn't tracking yet but is considering it

 A commuter covers her face in London, Monday, March 16, 2020. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) Associated Press

While nothing official has been announced yet, the UK is in talks with major telecoms providers including O2 and EE are in talks to provide large sets of anonymized data.

Like other European democracies, the UK doesn't seem to be exploring the more invasive method of contact tracing. However, it is considering using aggregated data to track the wider pattern of people's movements.

25 organizations call on Trump administration to loosen crippling sanctions regime on Iran

"With hospitals overrun and Iranian doctors struggling to procure necessary equipment, the U.S. must be part of the solution rather than part of the problem."

By Ashley Curtin-March 20, 2020 SOURCE NationofChange


As Iran continues to combat the coronavirus pandemic, 25 organizations urged the Trump administration to ease sanctions against the country and instead, aid the Iranian people’s fight against the virus. According to a press release, NIAC Action—a grassroots, civic action organization committed to advancing peace and championing the priorities of the Iranian-American community—and combined groups representing millions of Americans recommend suspending many of the sanctions imposed by the administration since May 2018 for 120 days.

The open letter reads “COVID-19 is a shared threat, requiring global solutions. Easing sanctions is one simple step that can be taken to serve the interests of the Iranian people and public health across the globe.”

With Iran an “epicenter for the outbreak,” hospitals are overrun and Iranian doctors struggle to procure necessary equipment as more than 20,000 Iranians have become infected. The open letter from the combined groups calls on the U.S. to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

“As COVID-19 rips through country after country, Iran’s experience has been particularly devastating,” Jamal Abdi, executive director of NIAC Action, said. “While advanced medical systems across Western Europe seem to be collapsing under the weight of patients infected with the virus, Iranians have had to contend with both their own government’s negligence and crushing sanctions that slow the response and punish ordinary Iranians.”

The groups advocating for Iranians said easing sanctions will offer significant relief to “secure basic goods and services to weather the crisis” at a critical time.

“Humanitarian assistance shouldn’t come with strings attached, and we are all at risk from the pandemic regardless of nationality,” Abdi said. “We call on the administration to ease its sanctions policy so that all resources are available to fight the pandemic in this dark hour for the Iranian people.”


March 20, 2020

Dear President Trump, Sec. Mnuchin and Sec. Pompeo

Containing the deadly COVID-19 pandemic will require a global effort with nations deploying all available resources at their disposal. Iran has become an epicenter for the outbreak, with 1,433 deaths and nearly 20,000 infected. To help stem the continued spread of the virus inside Iran and beyond, we urge you to issue a time-bound suspension of those U.S. sanctions that make it harder for ordinary Iranians to secure basic goods and services to weather the crisis. Doing so would not just serve U.S. interests in helping contain the further spread of the virus, but would also be a powerful humanitarian gesture to the more than 80 million Iranians suffering under the pandemic.

We appreciate that some limited steps have already been taken, including licensing humanitarian trade with the Central Bank of Iran and encouraging foreign banks and governments to establish humanitarian channels with Iran. Yet, sanctions have harmed the public health sector in Iran by slowing or entirely blocking the sale of medicine, respirators, and hygienic supplies needed to mitigate the epidemic, and broad sectoral sanctions continue to negatively impact ordinary Iranians by shuttering civilian-owned businesses and decimating the value of the rial, making it harder to procure food, medicine, and other basic needs.

As a result, we recommend suspending many of the sanctions imposed by your administration since May 2018 for a period of at least 120 days, including those sanctions affecting Iran’s financial and oil sectors and its civilian industries. Doing so would offer significant relief for the Iranian people at a critical time.

COVID-19 is a shared threat, requiring global solutions. Easing sanctions is one simple step that can be taken to serve the interests of the Iranian people and public health across the globe.

Sincerely,

American Friends Service Committee
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
CODEPINK
Council for a Livable World
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Defending Rights & Dissent
Demand Progress Education Fund
Foreign Policy for America
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Greenpeace USA
Institute for Policy Studies, New Internationalism Project
J Street
Just Foreign Policy
MoveOn
Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)
National Iranian American Council Action (NIAC Action)
Peace Corps Iran Association
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Ploughshares Fund
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Progress America
Project South
Project Blueprint
Truman Center for National Security
Win Without War
Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND)

Trump administration’s attempt to log largest national forest in US denied by federal judge

“This is a huge win for wildlife, climate, and all people’s voices on the most biologically diverse and vulnerable island in the Alaska Tongass National Forest.”


By Amanda Mills -March 19, 2020 SOURCE NationofChange


A federal judge has recently rejected the Trump administration’s plan to open logging in part of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.

If it had been approved it “would have been the largest timber sale on any national forest in 30 years, allowing for 164 miles of new road construction and the logging of enough trees to equal a forest three times the size of Manhattan, or 67 square miles,” says EarthJustice.


This decision only affects a part of the national forest called Prince of Wales Island.


Alaskan Judge Sharon Gleason ruled the project’s approval violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). Both acts look at environmental factors on federal projects.


“By not developing actual site-specific information, the Forest Service limited its ability to make informed decisions regarding impacts to subsistence uses and presented local communities with vague, hypothetical, and over-inclusive representations of the project’s effects over a 15-year period,” wrote Gleason.


According to The Hill, this decision delays U.S. Forest Service plans to open logging in more than 1.8 million acres over the next 15 years, a project that would have also green-lit the construction of 164 miles of road through the forest.


“This is a huge win for wildlife, climate, and all people’s voices on the most biologically diverse and vulnerable island on the Tongass National Forest. This ruling protects ancient forests that are crucial to mitigating climate change impacts in Alaska and across the globe,” says Natalie Dawson, executive director of Audubon Alaska.


Back in October of last year, the Trump administration was working to exempt the Tongass from the 2001 “Roadless Rule” which would prevent logging by banning any road construction and timber harvesting in federal forests. “Alaska’s use of federal grant funds to help lobby on changes to the Roadless Rule is now under investigation by the inspector general at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service,” continues The Hill.

FORGET ELBOW BUMPS LET'S ALL BOW

WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE 2

SOCIAL DISTANCING IN THE EU

Not fit for purpose: Neoliberalism and Covid 19

At this time of crisis, we will still need to raise our voices to call on governments to use their resources to care for ordinary citizens, not cater to the whims of industry and the wealthy.

By Derek Royden-March 20, 2020 SOURCE NationofChange


With news of the arrival early this year of a new strain of coronavirus, which is already responsible for the common cold and other more serious ailments, a growing panic has ensued in the fear that it could be a disaster on the scale of the 1918 flu that killed more people over a much shorter period of time than the First World War. One of the differences between the current crisis and that earlier one is that while that influenza early last century mainly affected the young, this one appears to be a bigger threat to those over 65, many of whom already have compromised immune systems.

The new virus is reportedly a relative of SARS, a viral respiratory disease, “sharing almost 80% of its genetic sequence… another coronavirus that swept through China and other countries in 2002 and 2003, eventually killing more than 800 people around the globe.”

Governments at all levels in the west have been scrambling to respond to what the World Health Organization has declared a pandemic. Despite this, until very recently, the current occupant of the White House seemed more concerned about the health of the stock market than the country’s citizens, at one point taking to Twitter to write, “The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power (it used to be greater!) to inflame the CoronaVirus situation, far beyond what the facts would warrant.”

Although some in the corporate press have begun to praise the current occupant of the White House’s late response, Beth Cameron, who served as senior director of the National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, which would have been at the front line in reacting to the virus but was dissolved in 2018, explained in an editorial in the Washington Post on March 13th, “In a health security crisis, speed is essential. When this new coronavirus emerged, there was no clear White House-led structure to oversee our response, and we lost valuable time.”

As it has spread, the virus, named Covid 19, has shown many of the vulnerabilities in the neoliberal economic system that has ruled most of the world since the late 1970s. From supply chains to the herd mentality of stock markets, the flaws are becoming more glaringly obvious by the day. Worse, after almost a decade and a half of increasing austerity imposed by the 2008 financial crisis throughout most of the world, systems designed to promote social welfare have faced massive cuts, hampering the response in many places.

Showing the danger of a system that promotes the profit motive over everything else, rather than marshaling all of its resources to call for and join an international effort to find a vaccine, the current administration in Washington, D.C. attempted to pay out as much as a billion dollars to a German company, CureVac, that has been working on one, to selfishly make it available only to American citizens on a “for profit” basis.

On the other side of the country’s political divide, the public health emergency led to unusual measures such as holding last Sunday’s Democratic debate between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders without an audience at CNN’s Washington studios.

One of the most irresponsible things we have seen in this contest so far occurred at the event, when the former vice president argued that Italy’s universal healthcare system, which is currently at the center of the pandemic in Europe, has been ineffective at combating the crisis and demonstrates that such systems don’t work.

The lack of beds and equipment in Italy, especially in the hard hit north of the country, is not, as Biden seems to think, the fault of universal coverage but rather of an aging population and even more so an austerity regime, largely imposed from above by the EU. Similar worries about the availability of beds, ventilators, respirators and other equipment have been voiced in many E.U. countries, where similar crises are expected to play out. The argument that the United State’s mostly privatized healthcare system, in which initial tests for the virus could cost as much as $1400 with insurance, is better than a Medicare for All system is not just patently absurd, it’s dangerous. As Senator Sanders has noted many times during the primary campaign, almost 70,000 Americans die every year due to a lack of medical care, including many with private insurance that they avoid using because of the cost. This is many more than have died worldwide during this Covid 19 crisis at present.

If the idea to hold the last Democratic debate behind closed doors was a wise one, yet, inexplicably, despite the risks to both voters and poll workers, three states, Florida, Illinois and Arkansas, held their Democratic primaries as scheduled on Tuesday, March 17th. This directly contradicted the advice of both state authorities and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommended that citizens avoid gatherings of more than 10 people.

In Florida alone, many polls needed to be closed as 800 volunteers backed out or didn’t show up, with just 100 offering to replace them, meaning that voters were forced to travel if they were even able to find a place to vote at all.

Worse, the Democratic National Committee, after Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine defied the courts and made the decision to cancel primary voting in the state, released a memo insisting that the primaries go on as scheduled despite the crisis, telling state parties that unless they have voted by June 9thrd they risk losing half of their delegates and thus much of their voice at the convention scheduled to be held in Milwaukee from July 13-16. While the excuse being given, that the DNC is just following party rules and will need to hold these primaries before that date to ensure the selection of delegates is smooth, it also seems like a cynical act on the part of party insiders to speed up the process and ensure that Joe Biden has a fast track to the party’s nomination.

On the international economic front, it’s become increasingly obvious that besides hurting tourism and business travel, the disruption to global supply chains will be felt for months, if not years, to come. If this were merely a matter of ‘just in time’ automobile parts, it would be bad for some workers but hardly the end of the world.

What’s been exposed, however, is that many countries, including the United States, no longer produce much of what they will need to confront such a crisis on their own, including vital medicines such as penicillin, which hasn’t been mass-produced in the U.S. since 2004, part of the move towards ‘globalization’ that now looks more than ever like a greedy and stupid race to the bottom.


As a result, even in the event that Covid 19 is not as bad as most scientists and medical professionals warn it may be, many people will face difficulty and even the risk of death from a lack of medicine unrelated to the pandemic.

Typical to crises exacerbated by neoliberalism, working people and those with the fewest resources will be hardest hit. Bar and restaurant closures will increase the precariousness of contemporary life, especially for the younger workers who tend to fill these jobs and have little in savings. Those with school and daycare age children will have to figure out what to do in the event that schools close; the old stand by, having older relatives care for them could create new dangers because, as noted above, this is the group most at risk from the virus and many children don’t show symptoms of it.

One of the few silver linings of the crisis has been the decreased amount of CO2 pumped into the atmosphere, especially as air travel has come to a virtual halt in many places. Even the usually fetid canals of Venice have cleared in a short amount of time and some animals have returned (although experts claim that this is mainly due to constant traffic unsettling the sediment below them).

Even in the best case scenario, how we respond to this unprecedented crisis as individuals says a lot about our societies, and selfish runs on items like toilet paper and price gouging for items like hand sanitizer and surgical masks are not showing us at our best. At the same time, many people have shown kindness to others, with citizens in many countries purchasing and delivering needed supplies to elders.

Solidarity is more than a word or part of a slogan for the progressive left, it is the realization of an essential truth: people are at their best (and, we might also argue, at their most natural) when we work together, especially in difficult times. It has required a great deal of effort to kill this basic instinct toward cooperation, to make us, as individuals, retreat into ourselves and define ourselves by what we buy.

WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE 1

America faces two crises: The coronavirus escalation and Trump in charge of the response
Message to Trump: lead, follow, or just get the hell out of the way.

By Michael Payne -March 20, 2020 SOURCE NationofChange


And there are those Americans who would go even further and alter that famous saying in the subtitle in this way: Message to Trump: don’t lead, don’t follow, just get the hell out of the way.

Right off, let’s make one thing clear. This article is about the great threat that the coronavirus poses to this country and its people, the likes of which most of us have never seen or even imagined. It is not about the financial situation in our country today even though there is a direct connection. That issue will be covered in a separate article.

We know that, eventually, everything that needs to be done to bring this situation under control will be done but the problem is that the response from Trump and his administration to this point has been horribly slow and he has put the ability of the government to respond in a deep hole by his quite obvious lack of leadership and necessary action.

How this president is going about leading the efforts to deal with this crisis is absolutely incomprehensible. This is incompetence of the highest degree. It’s clear that he views what is going as two problems; first as an economic crisis and then, secondly, as one that is a health threat to America and its people. This is pure moral corruption.

This is a president who chose to dismantle the National Security Council’s pandemic response team in 2018. Just recently, Trump in a response to a PBS reporter, Yamiche Alcindor’s question, told her he didn’t “know anything about” his former national security adviser’s elimination of that global health security, yet another flagrant LIE.

Thereafter, Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio disputed that, saying in a letter to the White House, “I urge you to act swiftly in reaffirming your commitment to global health security by taking immediate action to designate senior-level NSC personnel to focus on global health security, supporting adequate and appropriate funding for global health security initiatives, and leading the way in preparing for the next pandemic threat.”

I can’t find anything that indicates that Brown ever got an answer to that letter.

This article reports that Trump;’s 2021 budget request proposed cutting Health and Human Services funding by $9.5 billion, including a 15 percent cut of $1.2 billion to the CDC and a $35 million decrease to the Infectious Diseases Rapid Response Reserve Fund’s annual contribution.”

Various members of the Congress, including Republicans, have asked him to remove that budget cut from the 2021 budget but he has refused.

He simply does not have the mental/leadership capability to look at all the many aspects of this coronavirus threat, to call on the various experts in the various fields that are involved, lay down an overall plan, and then direct all efforts. It’s not in him, it’s not who he is.

Just when America needs a strong, fearless, and extremely competent leader to step up, take control, and lead this nation and its people out of this coronavirus crisis, it has no one of the sort, it has Donald J. Trump in charge. If there is anyone in this government or, for that matter, in this country less qualified to provide that kind of leadership, I have no idea who that might be.

After a reporter asked him if he felt a responsibility for the slow response by the government he retorted, “I don’t take responsibility at all,” pointing to an unspecified “set of circumstances” and rules, regulations, and specifications from a different time.” “We are doing a great job,” he insisted, referencing the health officials and business executives gathered behind him.“

The biggest problem and his greatest failure lies with the need to have massive numbers of tests available across America

This is the guy who acted so very slowly when nations were being made aware of this deadly virus in January and he failed to do anything to get ahead of the virus spread. A couple of days ago I saw a listing on some article that showed about 20 nations from South Korea, China, Japan, France, Germany, and others that indicated the number of tests that have been made available in each of them. The top nation was South Korea and #20 at the very bottom was the US. Disgraceful.

I heard an expert analyst on CNN say that the U.S. is 6-8 weeks behind in its build-up of coronavirus tests. That lag in initiating a massive movement to build a huge, essential inventory of these tests is totally inexcusable, it should have happened weeks ago but it didn’t because Trump, when other nations were quickly responding to the threat, was “asleep at the wheel.”

While I have no use whatsoever for G.W. Bush for his terrible, illegal, and immoral war against Iraq, I would say that he, his administration, and those of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, would have reacted in far more professional, effective, ways to try to bring this pandemic under control.

Congress, Democrats, and Republicans have to put aside all their differences, the extreme partisanship and come up with all kinds of ways to give various government agencies and state legislatures the means, monetary or otherwise, to combat this virus. They must work together to develop appropriate legislation in doing this and if this president dares to veto it they should get united and override his veto.

What America needs right now is to have Trump step aside, to get out of the way, and let those in this country, dedicated, competent government officials, governors and legislators, medical experts, and others to continue to take over and do an excellent job of combating this virus threat to our nation.

Michael Payne

Michael Payne is an independent progressive activist. His writings deal with social, economic, political and foreign policy issues; and especially with the great dangers involved with the proliferation of perpetual war, the associated defense industry, and the massive control that Corporate America holds over this government and our election process; all which are leading this nation down the road to eventual financial ruin if the conditions are not reversed. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois and a U.S. Army veteran.

Bernie goes full FDR in national address on the coronavirus pandemic and suddenly, all too briefly, he’s the president we need

Forget free tuition, legal pot and climate change for the moment...

By Dave Lindorff -March 13, 2020 SOURCE This Can’t Be Happening!

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

Bernie Sanders just gave the speech of his life — one that everyone planning to vote in the Democratic primaries ahead should watch before making a decision between Sanders and Joe Biden. In fact, look at the Sanders video, and then read about the press conference Biden held and his anemic proposed response Biden offered to the coronavirus pandemic.

In this video, the man often mocked in the corporate media for his shaggy, unkempt appearance looks like a president, and sounds like FDR addressing the savage Great Depression and explaining what he intended to do about it. He stands in such stark contrast, not just visually, but in his speech and most importantly in what he has to say to the American public, to both Trump and Biden, that it’s hard to imagine anyone watching or even just hearing or reading his words could vote for either of those other two clowns.

He begins by laying out the gravity of the current crisis. As I sit here in Montgomery County, PA, the large suburban and rural country that wraps around most of Philadelphia which Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf just this afternoon ordered to go on total lockdown, ordering the closure of all public schools and universities, gyms and theaters, and requesting the closure of all stores except groceries and pharmacies, and hear Sanders say:

“Let me be absolutely clear: in terms of potential deaths the impact on our economy, the crisis we face from coronavirus is on the scale of a major war, and we must act accordingly.

“Nobody knows how many fatalities we may see, but they could equal or surpass the U.S. casualties we saw in World War II.

“It is an absolute moral imperative that our response — as a government, as a society, as business communities, and as individuals — meets the enormity of this crisis.

“As people work from home and are directed to quarantine, it will be easy to feel like we are in this alone, or that we must only worry about ourselves and let everyone else fend for themselves.

“That is a very dangerous mistake. First and foremost, we must remember that we are in this together.

“Now is the time for solidarity. We must fight with love and compassion for those most vulnerable to the effects of this pandemic.

“If our neighbor or co-worker gets sick, we have the potential to get sick. If our neighbors lose their jobs, then our local economies suffer, and we may lose our jobs. If doctors and nurses do not have the equipment and staffing capacity they need now, people we know and love may die.”

This is the kind of “pull-together, we are one people, one nation” kind of thing we haven’t heard in years, and we need it now.

Having set the stage he goes on to call on the president to declare a national emergency, but then says that if the president is “unable and unwilling to lead selflessly, we must immediately convene an emergency, bipartisan authority of experts to support and direct a response that is comprehensive, compassionate and based first and foremost on science and fact.”

What a brilliant stroke! Just bypass the president and have Congress run this campaign against COVID-19! Sanders then goes on to call for a program that is transparent (Trump has made discussions of the White House coronavirus response classified and closed-door), has called on focussing on the care of the “most vulnerable” in society: “those in nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities, those confined in immigration detention centers, those who are currently incarcerated, and all people regardless of immigration status.”

Then he gets to the nut of the crisis, saying:

“Unfortunately, the United States is at a severe disadvantage because unlike every other major country on earth, we do not guarantee health care as a human right. The result is that millions of people in this country cannot afford to go to a doctor, let alone pay for a coronavirus test. So while we work to pass a Medicare for All single-payer system, the United States government must be clear that in the midst of this emergency, that everyone in our country — regardless of income or where they live — must be able to get all of the health care they need without cost…We cannot live in a nation where if you have the money you get the treatment you need to survive, but if you’re working class or poor you get to the end of the line. That would be morally unacceptable.”

He goes on to call for emergency funding for paid family and medical leave for all workers, including those working in the “gig” economy as independent con tractors, for expanded federal health centers, quick development and production of coronavirus tests, which must be free along with treatment for those who have contracted the virus.

Sanders offers other ideas too. Quickly expanding available hospital beds and ICU rooms, knowing that the virus is infecting new people at a rate that doubles the number each week and will soon surpass national capacity to care for victims, and a program to bring on interns, residents and retired physicians to help provide care.

He has other good ideas for right now also, including expand unemployment insurance coverage, higher weekly benefits for those unemployed by the crisis who are at the low-income endof the scale, and than adds:

“And in this moment, we need to make sure that in the future after this crisis is behind us, we build a health care system that makes sure that every person in this country is guaranteed the health care that they need.”

It’s perfect. Already the media are ignoring his talk just as they used to ignore his campaign until he began topping the polls. CNBC, for example, ran an article on Biden’s lackluster and wholly inadequate proposals for dealing with the coronavirus. Suffice to say Biden called for free testing, but didn’t mention who would pay for treatment for the 87 million Americans with no insurance or with insurance with deductibles so high they would have to pay for care out of pocket themselves.

That being the case, we all need to get this speech out there into the hands of everyone we know — especially those who are still arguing that Biden is the candidate who can “beat Trump.”

Sanders has demonstrated that he’s the president in waiting, and the person needed to take charge of this existential health crisis facing the country and the world. Will Americans realize this in the face of a media blitz trying to give the Democratic nomination to Biden, whose whole campaign comes down to an empty claim that “I can beat Trump”? I’m not sure.

I have a feeling, though, that the people in this locked down county of Pennsylvania are going to be looking favorably at Bernie Sanders when this state votes on April 28. And if enough other states, cities and counties go into lockdown as the numbers of corona victims soars, so will other voters.

This ain’t over yet.





Dave Lindorff
Dave Lindorff is an American investigative reporter, a columnist for CounterPunch, and a contributor to Businessweek, The Nation, Extra! and Salon.com. His work was highlighted by Project Censored 2004, 2011 and 2012. Wikipedia

WAR PROFITEERS CARTOON 4

WAR PROFITEER CARTOONS 3

 MONTREAL, QUEBEC CANADA  ANTI CONSCRIPTION

ANTI WAR PROFITEERING 1917

ANTI WAR PROFITEERING PARIS, 1918

Capitalism is an Incubator for Pandemics. Socialism is the Solution.

by DR. MICHAEL PAPPAS

The spread of the coronavirus is exposing all of the contradictions of capitalism. It shows why socialism is urgent.

It is only going to get worse. The spread of the virus is impossible to stop — and this is due to social reasons more than biological ones. While doctors recommend that people stay home when they are feeling sick in order to reduce the possibility of spreading the virus, working-class people just can’t afford to stay home at the first sight of a cough.

Contrary to Donald Trump’s recent suggestions that many with COVID-19 should “even go to work,” the CDC recommends that those who are infected by the virus should be quarantined. This poses a problem under capitalism for members of the working class who cannot afford to simply take off work unannounced. New York City Mayor, Bill de Blasio recently suggested avoiding crowded subway cars or working from home if possible, but many rely on public transit. Suggestions from government leaders show their disconnect from the working class. 58% Americans have less than $1,000 in their savings and around 40% of Americans could not afford an unexpected bill of $400. So for many, staying home or not using public transit is simply not an option.

Even more people avoid the doctor when we get sick. With or without insurance, a trip to the hospital means racking up massive medical bills. The Guardian reports that 25% of Americans say they or a family member have delayed medical treatment due to the costs of care. In May 2019, The American Cancer Society found that 56% of adults report having at least one medical financial hardship. Medical debt remains the number one cause of bankruptcy in the country. One third of all donations on the fundraising site GoFundMe go to covering healthcare costs. That is the healthcare system of the wealthiest country in the world: GoFundMe.

Clearly, this is a very dangerous scenario. Already, people are being saddled with massive bills if they seek tests for the coronavirus. The Miami Herald wrote a story about Osmel Martinez Azcue who went to the hospital for flu-like symptoms after a work trip to China. While luckily it was found that he had the flu, the hospital visit cost $3,270, according to a notice from his insurance company. Business Insider made a chart of the possible costs associated with going to the hospital for COVID-19:

Of course, these costs will be no problem for some. The three richest Americans own more wealth than the bottom 50% of Americans. The concentration of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer capitalists is part of capitalism’s DNA. But as Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkson highlight extensively in their book The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger, people in more equal societies are healthier. They live longer, have lower infant mortality, and have high self-ratings of health. Inequality leads to poorer overall health.

So how does this relate to COVID-19? The main theory for these outcomes is that inequality of wealth and power in a society leads to a state of chronic stress. This wreaks havoc on bodily systems such as the cardiovascular system and the immune system, leaving individuals more susceptible to health problems. This means as societies become more and more unequal, we will see individuals more and more susceptible to infection. Capitalism’s inequality puts us all at greater risk as COVID-19 spreads.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) In Socialism

COVID-19 highlights the need for socialism to face epidemics like these. And by socialism, we don’t mean Medicare for All or New Deal liberalism. Medicare for All is not enough to face pandemics like the coronavirus. We mean a society in which human needs govern production, not the drive for profit. It’s a society without capitalists, where production and reproduction is democratically planned by the working class and oppressed. In this kind of society, we would be able to respond to the COVID-19 infinitely better than in capitalism.

In a socialist society, both prevention and responses to outbreaks of illness would change drastically. Supplies such as hand soap, hand sanitizer, and surface sanitizing wipes or sprays are in extremely high demand at this time. We are already seeing shortages of key supplies around the world. The need for profit maximization under capitalism has led companies to drastically raise their prices in this time of high demand. For example, the Washington Post has reported drastic increases in prices of products such as Purell Hand Sanitizer. Under capitalism, scarcity leads to greater profit.

Capitalism has led to a globalized system of production containing industries at disparate ends of the globe that truly depend on each other to function. This allows for a capitalist’s exploitation of a worker in a factory in China producing iPhones that goes unnoticed by an Apple customer here in the U.S.. It also allows corporations to drive down costs in one area of the world that may have weaker protections for workers. While this is beneficial for capitalists, outbreaks of illnesses such as COVID-19 highlight clear weaknesses in this system. A large portion of the basic materials used to make new medicines come from China. Since industry is so affected by viral spread, production of supplies has been drastically cut. This delays the ability for a rapid response in other countries such as the U.S..

A central aspect of socialism is a democratically run planned economy: an economy in which all resources are allocated according to need, instead of ability to pay. Need is decided democratically by both producers and consumersWith the means of production under workers’ control, we would be able to quickly increase production of these products in an emergency.

Furthermore, with the elimination of the barriers between intellectual and manual labor, increasing numbers of workers would be familiarized with the entire production process and ready to jump in where needed. In worker cooperatives within capitalism like MadyGraf in Argentina and Mondragon in Spain, workers already learn all aspects of production. This allows workers to shift to areas where extra effort is needed.

Socialism cannot exist in only one country, so a global planned economy would be key in these moments. If one country is experiencing a shortage, others would have to make up for it. This is key for reigning in global epidemics like the coronavirus: it will only be stopped if we stop it everywhere. In a global planned economy, this would be a much easier task.
Staying Home

If one does get sick, making a decision to protect oneself and others by taking time off should never lead them to have to worry about losing their job, paying their rent, putting food on the table, or being able to provide for their children. Under capitalism services such as housing and healthcare are reduced to commodities. This often presents people with the ultimatum: work while sick and potentially expose others, or stay home and risk losing your job.

Under socialism, the increased mechanization of production and the elimination of unnecessary jobs — goodbye advertising industry! goodbye health insurance industry! — would already drastically reduce the number of hours that we would need to work. We would be spending vast hours of the day making art or hanging out with friends and family.

During disease outbreaks, we would be able to stay home at the first sign of a cold, in addition to getting tested right away. In a planned economy, we could allocate resources where they are most needed, and take into account a decrease in the workforce due to illness.

Where Are the Coronavirus Therapies?

Currently, multiple for-profit companies are attempting to test (sometimes new, sometimes previously rejected and now recycled) therapies to see if they can treat or prevent COVID-19. While there are attempts to produce a COVID-19 vaccine, this vaccine would not be ready for testing in human trials for a few months according to Peter Marks, the director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. Yet even last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar refused to guarantee a newly developed coronavirus vaccine would be affordable to all stating, “we can’t control that price because we need the private sector to invest.” The statement is ironic to say the least coming from the former top lobbyist to Eli Lilly who served at a time when the company’s drug prices went up significantly.

Companies such as Gilead Sciences, Moderna Therapeutics, and GlaxoSmithKline all have various therapies in development. Each company’s interest in maximizing profits around their particular COVID-19 therapy has kept them from being able to pool their resources and data to develop therapies in the most expeditious manner possible. The state of COVID-19 research exposes the lies about capitalism “stimulating innovation.”

It is also important to note that much of the drug development deemed “corporate innovation” could not have been possible without taxpayer-funded government research. Bills such as the Bayh-Dole Act allow for corporations to purchase patents on molecules or substances that have been developed at publicly funded institutions such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), then jack up the prices to maximize profits. A study conducted by the Center for Integration of Science and Industry (CISI) analyzed the relationship between government funded research and every new drug approved by the FDA between 2010 and 2016. Researchers found “each of the 210 medicines approved for market came out of research supported by the NIH.”

Expropriation of the capitalists would mean the public would no longer have to subsidize private corporate profits. The nationalization of the pharmaceutical industry would allow for both intellectual and financial resources to be pooled to tackle the globe’s challenges, instead of focussing on blockbuster drugs that benefit only a few. In the case of COVID-19, we would see a mass mobilization and coordination of the world’s greatest minds to pool resources and more quickly develop effective therapies. In fact, there would likely be more doctors and scientists as people who want to study these fields are no longer confronted with insurmountable debt

Health Care in Socialism

Under socialism, the entire healthcare industry would be run democratically by doctors, nurses, employees, and patients. This would be drastically different from the current system in which wealthy capitalists make the major decisions in hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturing firms, and insurance companies (the key players that make up the “medical industrial complex”). In the case of the COVID-19, health care would be a human right, and not a means to make money. This would allow for every individual concerned to obtain testing and treatment without fear of economic ruin. If hospitalization or quarantine was needed, a patient and family would be able to focus on what was best for their health instead of worrying whether a hospital bill would destroy them economically.

The purview of what is considered “health care” would also need to expand. An individual’s overall living situation and social environment would be key to addressing their health. This would mean a health system under socialism would address issues such as pending climate collapse. While a connection between COVID-19 and climate change has yet to be established, rising global temperatures — largely driven by 100 largest corporations and the military-industrial complex — will increase the emergence of new disease agents in the future. Shorter winters, changes in water cycles, and migration of wildlife closer to humans all increase the risk of new disease exposure.

Capitalism created the conditions of the epidemic. Capitalist “solutions” are insufficient and exacerbate the crisis, meaning more sickness and more death. Capitalism has been an incubator for the continual spread of the coronavirus. Health care under this system will always be woefully inadequate in addressing epidemics. The coronavirus highlights the fact that we must move to a more social analysis of health and well-being. We are all connected to each other, to nature, and to the environment around us. Socialism will restructure society based on those relationships.

At the same time, socialism is not a utopia. There will likely be epidemics or pandemics in socialism as well. However, a socialist society — one in which all production is organized in a planned economy under workers’ control — would best be able to allocate resources and put the creative and scientific energy of people to the task.

More articles by:DR. MICHAEL PAPPAS

Michael Pappas is a Michael resident physician at Mount Sinai in New York.