DESMOGBLOG NEWS
As Pandemic Toll Rises, Science Deniers in Louisiana Shun Masks, Comparing Health Measures to Nazi Germany

PHOTO ESSAY PHOTOS ANNOTATED 

By Julie Dermansky • Friday, July 10, 2020 -


Science denial in America didn’t begin with the Trump administration, but under the leadership of President Trump, it has blossomed. From the climate crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic, this rejection of scientific authority has become a hallmark of and cultural signal among many in conservative circles. This phenomenon has been on recent display in Louisiana, where a clear anti-mask sentiment has emerged in the streets and online even as COVID-19 cases rise.

“Are you a masker or a free breather?” Pastor Tony Spell asked the crowd while speaking from the bed of a pickup truck at a July 4 “Save America” rally in Baton Rouge. At the end of March Spell gained international attention for his refusal to stop his church’s services despite Gov. John Bel Edwards’ stay-at-home order, which was issued to slow Louisiana’s rapid rise in COVID-19 cases.

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“It has never been about a virus — it is about destroying America,” Spell claimed, before equating a government whose public health measures restrict church gatherings and require protective face coverings in public to Germany under Hitler. A crowd of less than 200 roared in agreement at the rally that was held across from the governor's mansion.

On July 8, another conservative voice, Louisiana State Representative Danny McCormick, posted a video on Facebook making a similar comparison to Nazi Germany. “This isn't about whether you want to wear a mask or you don't want to wear a mask — this is about your right to wear a mask or not,” McCormick said. “This is about liberty. Your body is your private property … People who don't wear a mask will be soon painted as the enemy — just as they did the Jews in Nazi Germany. Now is the time to push back before it is too late.”

 At a press conference the day after McCormick posted his video, Gov. Edwards announced that the state had lost its previous gains against the coronavirus.

McCormick’s statements come about six months into a public health crisis that has infected 71,884 Louisiana residents and killed 3,247, as of July 9. Despite the pandemic's accelerating and deadly spread, the complaints by McCormick, Pastor Spell, and the others joining them at a handful of protests in Baton Rouge  illustrate a pervasive disdain for science held by many associated with the Republican Party. 


EVEN Q ANON WAS THERE AS USUAL 

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AND SOLD TO WHITE RIGHT WHINGNUTS

A DeSmog investigation found that a number of groups behind protests against pandemic stay-home orders are also part of the climate change countermovement, a term coined by sociologist Robert Brulle. U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has called this network of individuals and organizations disputing climate science the “web of denial.”

April and May rallies in Louisiana pushing to open the state followed larger rallies in Idaho, Michigan, and North Dakota. Helping tie together what Trump has called the “liberate” movement is the State Policy Network (SPN). As DeSmog has reported, SPN is “a network of state-level conservative think tanks advancing pro-corporate agendas, [and] has received money from the likes of the Koch family, the Devos family, the Mercer Family Foundation, and others.” 

At the July 4 rally, many expressed their support for Trump, and saw the upcoming presidential election as the most important in their lifetime. They labeled those who wear protective face coverings “sheep.” Out of the less than 200 rally-goers, I saw only two people with face masks. One was worn by a man that had the words “Dixie Beer” painted on it, which was expressing his disdain over the decision by the owner of the New Orleans beer company to change the beer’s name in response to anti-racism demonstrations. The other mask I noticed at the rally was worn on a woman’s arm

MORE FAKE LIBERTARIANISM AND 
OFF COLOUR ATTACK ON BILL GATES
YES VIRGINIA ANTI-VAXXERS ARE
RIGHT WHINGNUTS

In an April 1 op-ed in Newsweek, Rochester Institute of Technology philosophy professor Lawrence Torcello, and Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael E. Mann wrote: “Unfortunately, President Trump has again emerged as a leading source of disinformation. Having called COVID-19, as he previously did with climate change, a ’hoax,’ he now resorts to calling COVID-19 the ‘Chinese Virus.’ In the case of both COVID-19 and climate change, he has outsourced policy decision-making to science deniers. In both cases he is as wrong as he is xenophobic — and in both cases his predictable disinformation endangers lives.”

In February, before the first COVID-19 cases were identified in Louisiana, Gov. Edwards finally broke away from Trump on espousing climate science denial. 

“Louisiana will not just accept or adapt to climate change impacts,” Edwards stated at a news conference in Baton Rouge. “Louisiana will do its part to address climate change.” In a reversal of his previous statements that questioned humans’ well-established role in driving the climate crisis, he said, “Science tells us that rising sea level will become the biggest challenge we face, threatening to overwhelm our best efforts to protect and restore our coast. Science also tells us that sea level rise is being driven by global greenhouse gas emissions.”

WHITE GRIEVANCE THE BLACK FIST EQUATING CIVIL
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But Sharon Lavigne, founder of RISE St. James, a community group fighting petrochemical industry expansion in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, doubts his sincerity. “If the governor is serious about reducing carbon emissions, he needs to pull the plug on Formosa.” Plastics giant Formosa is poised to start building a petrochemical complex in St. James Parish that has received permits to spew the emissions equivalent of 2.6 million cars. 

Petrochemical companies are one of Louisiana’s top producers of carbon dioxide, one of the globe-warming gases linked to human-caused climate change. However, the governor has not walked back his support of Formosa’s project. 

Edwards was the first governor in the country to point out that African Americans are being disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. But he has yet to address the impact which ongoing pollution from the petrochemical industry plays in the poor health of predominantly Black communities living near existing plants, or future ones, such as Formosa’s in St. James Parish.

AN EXCESS OF FREEDOM OF RELIGION 
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Many U.S. leaders have failed to take to heart scientists’ warnings that half-measures to combat climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic won’t work. Meanwhile, temperatures across America are hitting new record highs, and cases of the coronavirus continue to rise exponentially, leading top U.S. infectious disease official Dr. Anthony Fauci to advise states “having a serious problem” with a surge in coronavirus cases to “seriously look at shutting down.” 

In an April 1 op-ed in Newsweek, Rochester Institute of Technology philosophy professor Lawrence Torcello, and Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael E. Mann wrote: “Unfortunately, President Trump has again emerged as a leading source of disinformation. Having called COVID-19, as he previously did with climate change, a ’hoax,’ he now resorts to calling COVID-19 the ‘Chinese Virus.’ In the case of both COVID-19 and climate change, he has outsourced policy decision-making to science deniers. In both cases he is as wrong as he is xenophobic — and in both cases his predictable disinformation endangers lives.”

In February, before the first COVID-19 cases were identified in Louisiana, Gov. Edwards finally broke away from Trump on espousing climate science denial. 

“Louisiana will not just accept or adapt to climate change impacts,” Edwards stated at a news conference in Baton Rouge. “Louisiana will do its part to address climate change.” In a reversal of his previous statements that questioned humans’ well-established role in driving the climate crisis, he said, “Science tells us that rising sea level will become the biggest challenge we face, threatening to overwhelm our best efforts to protect and restore our coast. Science also tells us that sea level rise is being driven by global greenhouse gas emissions.”

THE ANTI VAXXERS ARE ANTI MASK ANTI LOCK DOWN
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But Sharon Lavigne, founder of RISE St. James, a community group fighting petrochemical industry expansion in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, doubts his sincerity. “If the governor is serious about reducing carbon emissions, he needs to pull the plug on Formosa.” Plastics giant Formosa is poised to start building a petrochemical complex in St. James Parish that has received permits to spew the emissions equivalent of 2.6 million cars. 

Petrochemical companies are one of Louisiana’s top producers of carbon dioxide, one of the globe-warming gases linked to human-caused climate change. However, the governor has not walked back his support of Formosa’s project. 

Edwards was the first governor in the country to point out that African Americans are being disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. But he has yet to address the impact which ongoing pollution from the petrochemical industry plays in the poor health of predominantly Black communities living near existing plants, or future ones, such as Formosa’s in St. James Parish.

Many U.S. leaders have failed to take to heart scientists’ warnings that half-measures to combat climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic won’t work. Meanwhile, temperatures across America are hitting new record highs, and cases of the coronavirus continue to rise exponentially, leading top U.S. infectious disease official Dr. Anthony Fauci to advise states “having a serious problem” with a surge in coronavirus cases to “seriously look at shutting down.” 

READ THE REST HERE 
https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/07/10/covid-louisiana-science-denial-anti-mask-mccormick-spell

CHEEKY BUGGERS

Jimmy Savile mannequin replaces Edward Colston statue torn down by protesters

A bronze statue of Edward Colston was removed from its plinth and thrown in Bristol's harbour last month. A mannequin dressed like notorious paedophile has since been put in its place

By
Emma Grimshaw
Tom Towers Senior News Reporter
22:47, 11 JUL 2020

A mannequin dressed like notorious paedophile Jimmy Savile appeared on the plinth in Bristol today (Image: bristol live)

The statue of a slavetrader that was torn down last month has been replaced with a mannequin of Jimmy Savile.

Black Lives Matter protesters used ropes to pull down a bronze statue of Edward Colton in Bristol and chucked it in the city’s harbour on June 7.

The Tory MP – who died in 1721 – was a member of the Royal African Company – which transported approximately 100,000 people from Africa to The Americas.

More than 20,000 are thought to have died during the crossing.

Today, a mannequin dressed like notorious paedophile Savile appeared on the plinth, Bristol Live reports.

Black Lives Matter protesters used ropes to pull down a bronze statue of Edward Colton (Image: Tom Wren / SWNS)

The Tory MP transported approximately 100,000 people from Africa to The Americas (Image: PA)

The Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It presenter was awarded an OBE and was never held accountable for his crimes.

Less than a year after his death in 2011, an ITV documentary was the first to report his sexual abuse against kids.

Police then launched an investigation identifying 300 victims who were assaulted over six decades.

On July 11, the council lifted Colston’s statue out of the water and is now preparing it to put on display in a museum.

On his death in 1721, Colston left his wealth to a raft of charities based in Bristol.

After the statue was toppled, a protester was pictured with his knee on Colston’s neck – reminiscent of the George Floyd video that sparked the widespread protests.

The unarmed black man died while being restrained by a Minnesota police officer in the US.

Meanwhile, police have arrested one person for criminal damage and are still hunting for other suspects.

A Change.org petition has now been set up to erect a statue of civil rights campaigner Dr Paul Stephenson where Colston once stood, and has attracted nearly 75,000 signatures.

He led the Bristol bus boycott in the 1960s, leading to a ban on ethnic minorities working on city buses being overturned.

1+1=2

Nearly half of US adults projected to be obese by 2030

Adults with obesity more likely to develop H1N1 influenza
by Nardy Baeza Bickel, University of Michigan

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Adults with obesity are more susceptible to influenza A/H1N1pdm—the swine flu virus, according to a new study that did not, however, find a similar association with the seasonal flu.

The results could be relevant in understanding the mechanisms by which infectious diseases such as influenza or the ongoing coronavirus pandemic might affect different segments of the population, the researchers say.

"This research is important because obesity around the whole world is increasing rapidly. It's approximately tripled since the '70s," said first author Hannah Maier, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

"We're having a lot more obesity, right now we're dealing with the pandemic, and it was just announced that there might be another potential swine flu pandemic. If obesity is associated with increased risk and there's a lot more obesity, that could mean a lot more infections."

Maier and colleagues looked at data from more than 1,500 individuals in 330 households enrolled in the Nicaraguan Household Transmission Study, an ongoing community-based study tracking the health of a community in Managua, Nicaragua. Study participants were followed 10 to 15 days and given swab tests and blood tests to confirm infection.

The study found that adults with obesity had twice the odds of symptomatic H1N1 infection compared to those without obesity. The association was not seen with the H3N2 seasonal influenza strain.

While the mechanism linking obesity to increased disease severity is not yet known, chronic inflammation increases with age and is associated with chronic diseases. Separate studies have shown that obesity increases proinflammatory and decreases anti-inflammatory cytokine levels, the researchers say. Obesity can also impair wound healing and lead to mechanical difficulties in breathing and increased oxygen requirements.

In 2009, a strain of flu affecting pigs jumped to humans. This virus, H1N1pdm, infected many people around the world.

Just this week, a new study states that a new strain of H1N1 in swine in China has the potential to become a pandemic, highlighting the importance of continuing this type of research even while facing the coronavirus pandemic, said senior author Aubree Gordon, an epidemiologist at U-M's School of Public Health.

"This underscores that although we are in the middle of a pandemic, we cannot stop being vigilant for the emergence of other viruses, particularly influenza," she said. "In addition, this highlights that the U.S. needs to participate in the World Health Organization. The WHO influenza program provides a critical service to the world monitoring influenza circulation to make vaccine strain recommendations and surveilling for potential emergence of new influenza viruses."


Explore further

New swine flu strain found in China poses threat of pandemic
More information: Hannah E Maier et al. Obesity is associated with increased susceptibility to influenza A (H1N1pdm) but not H3N2 infection, Clinical Infectious Diseases (2020). DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciaa928

Journal information: Clinical Infectious Diseases

Provided by University of Michigan

Nearly half of US adults projected to be obese by 2030
by From Mayo Clinic News Network

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

For decades, obesity rates in the U.S. have been increasing. Now researchers predict that by 2030, nearly half of adults will be obese if the current trend continues.

Dr. Donald Hensrud, director of the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program, says that projection is concerning because obesity is related to a number of health conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease.

"From a health standpoint, it will contribute to decreased health status in the United States. Also, we spend a lot of money because of that, and, so, health care costs are going to continue to rise, and our quality of life and other things are going to continue to deteriorate," says Dr. Hensrud.

To reverse this trend, it's important to understand what has contributed to the obesity epidemic.

"There are many outside factors that influence obesity," explains Dr. Hensrud. "We've engineered physical activity out of our lives. A simple example I use is that we don't have to walk into the gas station to pay for our gas anymore. We just swipe at the pump. If we do things like that hundreds of times during the day and we're less active at work, all of that corresponds with decreased activity and increased weight."

Another factor is what we eat. He says the food supply has changed, and people are eating a lot of processed, higher-calorie foods.

"If we're going to reverse this trend, it's going to require cooperation of many different areas in society," Dr. Hensrud says. "All of us have some responsibility, but it's hard. It's like swimming upstream, but it's not impossible. We can each do some things, take baby steps, do a little bit more activity, change our diet a little bit and do it in a practical and enjoyable manner to make these habits sustainable."

Explore further

Packing on pounds during COVID-19 and how to turn it around

©2020 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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The internet is changing drastically for Hong Kong’s citizens

Category:

Tech policy

PostedJul 08

The big picture: It’s only been one week since China passed a controversial national security law that gives it vast new powers over Hong Kong, but the internet has already changed dramatically for people in the semi-autonomous city.

What sort of powers? The law lets mainland Chinese officials operate in Hong Kong for the first time. It also gives Beijing the power to overrule local laws, and it creates a series of vaguely worded new crimes: for example, making it illegal to incite “hatred” toward the Chinese government. Hong Kong police can censor internet content and track citizens online. They can now conduct searches without a warrant, force web platforms to take down or block posts, seize electronic records, and conduct surveillance of suspects without court oversight. Companies that don’t comply with these orders can be fined up to HK$100,000 ($12,903), and employees can face jail terms of up to six months.

The fallout: Effectively, this brings Hong Kong into China’s Great Firewall, a tightly controlled and censored version of the internet that blocks most foreign internet tools and mobile apps. Foreign companies are permitted to operate only if they comply.

Taking a stand: Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Zoom, and WhatsApp all pledged to refuse to comply with government orders to hand over data in Hong Kong on July 6. Apple has said it is “assessing” the situation. On July 7, TikTok said it will withdraw from the region completely. It’s likely that any tech company that refuses to follow local laws will end up being blocked in Hong Kong.

The wider dilemma: Facebook, Google, and others will now have to operate within rules set by the Communist Party of China if they want to stay in Hong Kong. If they do that, they will likely face a backlash back at home among their employees and US lawmakers. If they don’t, they lose out on getting any foothold at all within the biggest online market in the world. Ultimately, China has plenty of its own homegrown alternatives to the US tech giants—so from its government’s perspective, it has little to lose if they withdraw.

MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW 

Abnormally high blood sugar linked with higher risk of death in COVID-19 patients not previously diagnosed with diabetes

THE MORE WE KNOW THE MORE WE KNOW WE DON'T KNOW ABOUT THIS MUTATING VIRUS 

WHICH IS WHY A VACCINE IS A LONG LONG LONG WAY OFF

by Diabetologia
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

New research from Wuhan, China shows that, in patients with COVID-19 but without a previous diagnosis of diabetes, abnormally high blood sugar is associated with more than double the risk of death and also an increased risk of severe complications. The study is by Dr. Yang Jin, Union Hospital and Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China, and colleagues. The study is published in Diabetologia.


Previous studies have established that hyperglycaemia (abnormally high blood sugar) is associated with an elevated risk of mortality in community-acquired pneumonia, stroke, heart attacks, trauma and surgery, among other conditions. A number of studies have also shown links between diabetes and poor outcomes in COVID-19 patients. However, direct correlation between fasting blood glucose (FBG) level at admission to hospital and clinical outcomes of COVID-19 patients without diagnosed diabetes has not been well established. In this new study the authors examined the association between FBG on admission and the 28-day mortality of COVID-19 patients without previously diagnosed diabetes in two hospitals.

The retrospective study assessed all consecutive COVID-19 patients with a known outcome at 28-days and FBG measurement at admission from 24 January 2020 to 10 February 2020 in two hospitals based in Wuhan, China. Demographic and clinical data, 28-day outcomes, in-hospital complications and CRB-65 scores of COVID-19 patients in the two hospitals were analysed. The CRB-65 score is an effective measure for assessing the severity of pneumonia and is based on four indicators: level of confusion, respiratory rate (over 30 breaths per min), systolic blood pressure (90 mmHg or less) or diastolic blood pressure (60 mmHg or less), and age (65 years or over).

A total of 605 COVID-19 patients were enrolled, including 114 who died in hospital. The median age of participants was 59 years and 322 (53.2%) were men. A total of 208 (34%) had one or more underlying conditions (but not diagnosed diabetes), of which high blood pressure was the most common. Almost one third (29%) of patients fell into the highest category of FBG on admission (7.0 mmol/L) which if found consistently would result in a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. A further 17% were in the range that would be considered pre-diabetic (6.1-6.9 mmol/L), while more than half (54%) were in the 'normal' FBG range of 6.0 mmol/L or below.


The results showed that patients in the highest FBG group were 2.3 times more likely to die than those in the lowest, a statistically significant result. Those in the middle (pre-diabetic) FBG group were 71% more likely to die than those in the lowest group, although this result only had borderline statistical significance. The data also showed that men were 75% more likely to die than women; and that patients with higher CRB65 scores (and thus worse pneumonia) were also at higher risk of death: those with a score of 3-4 were more than 5 times more likely to die than those with a score of 0, while for those with a score of 1-2 there was a 2.7 times increased risk.

When looking at FBG and CRB65 scores together, the patients in the highest FBG group had an increased risk of death compared to the lowest, regardless of whether or not the CRB65 score was zero or higher, further underlining that FBG independently increases the risk of death in COVID-19 patients. However, the increased risk of death for the highest FBG group was lower in patients with CRB65 scores of above zero compared with those with a CRB65 score of zero. The risk of complications was also found to be 4 times higher in the highest FBG group compared to the lowest, and 2.6 times higher in the middle (pre-diabetic) group compared to the lowest.

The authors say: "This study shows, for the first time, that elevated FBG (>7.0 mmol/l) at admission is independently associated with increased 28-day mortality and percentages of in-hospital complications in COVID-19 patients without previous diagnosis of diabetes... we have also shown that FBG of 7.0 mmol/l or higher is associated with increased mortality, regardless of whether the patient has pneumonia that is more or less severe."

They add: "These results indicate that our study included both undiagnosed diabetic patients and non-diabetic patients with hyperglycaemia caused by an acute blood-glucose disorder, since the 29% found in the highest FBG group is much higher than the estimated prevalence of diabetes in the Chinese population at 12%. Similarly to what was found in a previous study, COVID-19 patients might suffer from high blood sugar brought about by other conditions, and critically ill patients may develop acute insulin resistance, manifested by high levels of blood sugar and insulin levels. Patients with conditions not related to diabetes, such as severe sepsis, systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and traumatic brain injury tend to have abnormally high blood sugar."

The authors note several limitations with their study. First, this was a retrospective study. Second, they did not analyse glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), a long-term blood sugar control indicator that helps distinguish patients with poor long-term blood sugar control from those with stress hyperglycaemia. Also, they did not have sufficient data to study the effect of glucose-lowering treatment (e.g. insulin, metformin) on the outcome of the patients in their study. However, they believe that acute hyperglycaemia is more important than long-term glycaemic control in predicting the prognosis of hospitalised COVID-19 patients.

The authors suggest that possible mechanisms for this increased mortality include hyperglycaemia-induced changes in coagulation (clotting), worsening of endothelial function (the function of the walls of blood vessels), and overproduction of inflammatory cytokines produced by the immune system (the so-called cytokine storm).

The authors conclude: "In conclusion, a fasting blood glucose level of 7.0 mmol/l or higher at admission is an independent predictor for 28-day mortality in patients with COVID-19 without previous diagnosis of diabetes. Blood sugar testing and control should be recommended to all COVID-19 patients even if they do not have pre-existing diabetes, as most COVID-19 patients are prone to glucose metabolic disorders. During a pandemic of COVID-19, measuring fasting blood glucose can facilitate the assessment of prognosis and early intervention of hyperglycaemia to help improve the overall outcomes in treatment of COVID-19."

The Tremendous But ‘Secret’ Success Of Socialist Vietnam

in World — by Andre Vltchek — July 10, 2020  COUNTERCURRENTS.ORG

Some twenty years ago, when I moved to Hanoi, the city was bleak, grey, covered by smog. The war had ended, but terrible scars remained.

I brought my 4WD from Chile, and insisted on driving it myself. It was one of the first SUVs in the city. Each time I drove it, it was hit by scooters, which flew like projectiles all over the wide avenues of the capital.

Hanoi was beautiful, melancholic, but clearly marked by war. There were stories, terrible stories of the past. In “my days”, Vietnam was one of the poorest countries in Asia.

Many great heritage sites, including the My Son Sanctuary in Central Vietnam, were basically vast minefields, even many years after the terrible U.S. carpet-bombing. The only way to visit them was by government-owned military vehicles.

The building where I lived literally grew out of the infamous “Hanoi Hilton”, the former French prison where the Vietnamese patriots and revolutionaries used to be tortured, raped and executed, and where some captured U.S. pilots were held during what is called in Vietnam the American War. From my window, I was able to see one of two guillotines in the courtyard of what by then had become a museum of colonialism.

In 2000, Hanoi did not have one single mall, and when we first arrived, the terminal of Noi Bai Airport was just a tiny edifice, the size of a provincial train station.

In those days, for the Vietnamese people, a trip to Bangkok felt like a voyage to a different galaxy. For journalists like myself, those who were based in Hanoi, a regular commute to Bangkok or Singapore was an absolute necessity, as almost no professional equipment or spare parts were available in Vietnam.

*

Two decades later, Vietnam has become one of the most comfortable countries in Asia. A place where millions of Westerners would love to live.

Its quality of life is growing continually. Its socialist model and central planning are clearly successful. Vietnam feels like China, some twenty years ago. There are tremendous promenades in the cities of Hue and Danang, there is the construction of modern public transportation networks, as well as sports facilities. All this is in stark contrast to the extreme capitalist gloom of countries like Indonesia, even Thailand. Vietnamese people count on constantly improving sanitation, medical care, education and cultural life. With a relatively small budget, the country is often on par with much richer nations in Asia and the world.

Its people are among the most optimistic in the world.

In just the three years that I spent living in Vietnam, the country changed dramatically. The tremendous strength and determination of the Vietnamese people helped to bridge the void which was left after the destruction of the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries of Eastern Europe. Just like China, Vietnam opted, successfully, for a mixed economy, under the leadership of the Communist Party.

A massive attempt by the United States and Europe to derail the socialist system, using Western-sponsored NGO’s and individuals inside the country, was identified and decisively defeated. Pro-Communist and pro-Chinese factions inside the government and the Party have overpowered those who were trying to derail Vietnam, pushing it towards the West.

*

What followed was significant success, on many fronts.

According to the Southeast Asian Globe report, published on 1 October 2018:

“Vietnam performed the best of 151 countries in a study that assessed quality of life versus environmental sustainability.”

This is not the first time that Vietnam has performed exceptionally well, when compared to other countries in the region, and in the world.

The article explained further:

“The wide-ranging study, called A Good Life for All Within Planetary Boundaries, published by a group of researchers from the University of Leeds, argues that we need to dramatically rethink the way we view development and its relationship to the environment.

“We were essentially working on several different indicators and relationships between social outcomes and environmental indicators,” Fanning told Southeast Asia Globe. “We came up with the idea of, well, if we’re looking at social indicators, can we define a level that would be equivalent to a good life?”

The survey included 151 countries, and Vietnam showed the best indicators. 

“The researchers settled on 11 social indicators that included life satisfaction, nutrition, education, democratic quality and employment.

“It did surprise us that Vietnam did so well overall,” Fanning said. “You might expect it to be Costa Rica or Cuba, as Vietnam doesn’t typically come up as a sustainability hero.” Fanning was referring to two countries the researchers expected to do well since they generally provide good social support and haven’t seen the same environmental damage many countries have.”

This is not the only report that celebrates the great success of Vietnam’s socialist model.

In the region of Southeast Asia, Vietnam has already gained the reputation of an economic and social superstar. Compared to the fundamentalist pro-market Indonesia or even the Philippines, Vietnam’s elegant socialist cities designed and maintained for the people, as well as the neat increasingly ecological countryside, clearly suggest which of the two systems is superior and fit for Asian people and their culture.

*

In times of grave emergencies; of natural and medical disasters, Vietnam is also well ahead of other Southeast Asian countries. Like Cuba and China, it invests heavily in the prevention of calamities.

According to New Age, socialist states including Vietnam, did a superb job fighting against the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic:

“Developing countries such as Cuba and Vietnam with socialist or communist state structures and philosophy are successfully handling the COVID-19 pandemic. What are the roles that their long term health and economic strategies playing behind this success? MD Talebur Islam Rupom asks this question and stipulates that this is high time that states should invest heavily in the health sectors to ensure health care for all.”

“Countries with centrally subsidized or fully funded health care systems are battling the COVID-19 crisis better than any other countries. There are also several other proactive reasons which makes it possible for them to decrease the fatalities and positive cases.

Cuba and Vietnam are two developing countries that have moved rapidly to deal with the emerging threat. Despite the embargo and restrictions by the United States and limited resources, Cuba’s handling of the pandemic could be a role model for others.

With a smaller economy than Bangladesh, southeast Asia’s Vietnam is also earning its credibility to restart their economy after reportedly eradicating COVID-19 from the country even though it shares its crucial border with China.”

At the end of May 2020, when this essay was being written, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam with 95.5 million inhabitants, has registered only 327 infections and zero deaths, according to data provided by Johns Hopkins University.

Even the mainstream, right-wing British magazine, The Economist, could not overlook the great success in battling against Covid-19 by Communist states, such as the Indian Kerala and Vietnam:

“…With 95m people, Vietnam is a much bigger place. In dealing with covid-19, however, it has followed a strikingly similar script, with an even more striking outcome. Like Kerala it was exposed to the virus early, and saw a surge of infections in March. Active cases also peaked early, however, and have since tumbled to a mere 39. Uniquely among countries of even remotely similar size, and in contrast to such better known Covid success stories as Taiwan and New Zealand, it has not yet suffered a single confirmed fatality. The Philippines, a nearby country of roughly the same population and wealth, has suffered more than 10,000 infections and 650 deaths.

Like Kerala, Vietnam has recently battled deadly epidemics, during the global outbreaks of Sars in 2003 and of swine flu in 2009. Vietnam and Kerala both benefit from a long legacy of investment in public health and particularly in primary care, with strong, centralised management, an institutional reach from city wards to remote villages and an abundance of skilled personnel. Not coincidentally, communism has been a strong influence, as the unchallenged state ideology of Vietnam and as a brand touted by the leftist parties that have dominated Kerala since the 1950s.”

Some analyses, including those based in the West, go as far as to claim that Vietnam has already bypassed many countries in the region, including those which are, at least on the paper, much wealthier.

DW (Deutsche Welle), for instance reported on 22. May, 2020:

“Adam McCarty, the chief economist of research and consultancy firm Mekong Economics, expects that Vietnam will widely benefit from how it has handled COVID-19. “Maybe this is a turning point where Vietnam leaves the group of countries as Cambodia and the Philippines and joins more sophisticated countries as Thailand and South Korea, even though Vietnam doesn’t have a similar GDP yet,” McCarty told DW from Hanoi…

“With the rest of the world still suffering from COVID-19, exports are really going to get hurt,” McCarty said. The economist stressed that things cannot just go back to how they were. And even though domestic consumption is likely to increase in the months to come, a 5% growth figure for 2020 may be too ambitious. “It’s probably more like 3%, but that’s still good in these circumstances. It still means Vietnam is a winner.”

I periodically return to Vietnam, one striking thing I keep noticing is that the country has no slums. Extreme misery is so common in brutal capitalist Indonesia, the Philippines, but also in Cambodia and Thailand. There is no misery in the Vietnamese cities, towns and countryside. That itself is an enormous success.

Communist planning means that most of the natural and medical disasters are well prevented. When I used to live in Hanoi, the vast and densely populated areas between the Red River and the city used to get flooded, annually. But gradually, the neighborhood got relocated, and green areas reintroduced, stopping the water from reaching the city.

Step by logical step, Vietnam has been implementing changes designed to improve the lives of the citizens.

The mass media in the West and in the region writes very little about this ‘Vietnamese miracle’, for obvious reasons.

With tremendous sacrifice, Vietnamese citizens defeated the French colonizers, and then the U.S. occupiers. Millions of people vanished, but a new, confident and powerful nation was born. It literally rose from ashes. It constructed its own, “Vietnamese Model”. Now, it is showing the way to those much weaker and less determined countries of Southeast Asia; those that are still sacrificing their own citizens, by being obedient to the diktat of North America and Europe.

From one of the poorest Asian countries, Vietnam has become one of the strongest, determined and optimistic.

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Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. Six of his latest books are “New Capital of Indonesia”, “China Belt and Road Initiative”, “China and Ecological Civilization” with John B. Cobb, Jr., “Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism”, a revolutionary novel “Aurora” and a bestselling work of political non-fiction: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire”. View his other books here. Watch Rwanda Gambit, his groundbreaking documentary about Rwanda and DRCongo and his film/dialogue with Noam Chomsky “On Western Terrorism”. Vltchek presently resides in East Asia and Latin America, and continues to work around the world. He can be reached through his website, his Twitter and his Patreon.