radiofree.asia

Category: Health/Medical

  • COVID Kindergarten

    Findings In this systematic review of 36 studies from 11 countries, school closures and social lockdown during the first COVID-19 wave were associated with adverse mental health symptoms (such as distress and anxiety) and health behaviors (such as higher screen time and lower physical activity) among children and adolescents.

    — Russell Viner, Simon Russell, Rosella Saulle, et al. “School Closures During Social Lockdown and Mental Health, Health Behaviors, and Well-being Among Children and Adolescents During the First COVID-19 Wave: A Systematic Review, JAMA Pediatr. 2022;176(4):400-409. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.5840, 18 January 2022,

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  • Story Time

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  • No Wonder

    We found all-cause death risks to be even higher for those vaccinated with one and two doses compared to the unvaccinated and that the booster doses were ineffective. We also found a slight but statistically significant loss of life expectancy for those vaccinated with 2 or 3/4 doses.

    — Cited from conclusion in Alessandria, M., Malatesta, G. M., Berrino, F., & Donzelli, A. (2024). A Critical Analysis of All-Cause Deaths during COVID-19 Vaccination in an Italian Province. Microorganisms, 12(7), 1343. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms12071343

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  • Killing Paramedics: Israel’s War on Palestinian Health

    It was a massacre. Fifteen emergency workers, butchered in cold blood by personnel from the Israeli Defense Forces in southern Gaza on March 23. It all came to light from a video that the IDF did not intend anyone to see, filmed by Red Crescent paramedic Rifaat Radwan in the last minutes of his life. Caught red handed, the wires and levers of justification, mendacity and qualification began to move.

    The pattern of institutional response is a well-rehearsed one. First came the official claim that the troops only opened fire because the convoy approached them “suspiciously”, enshrouded in darkness, with no headlights or evidence of flashing lights. The movement of the convoy had not, it was said, been cleared and coordinated with the IDF, which had been alerted by operators of an overhead UAV. Soldiers had previously fired on a car containing, according to the Israeli account, three Hamas members. When that vehicle was approached by the ambulances, IDF personnel assumed they were threatened, despite lacking any evidence that the emergency workers were armed. On exiting the vehicles, gunfire ensues. Radwan’s final words: “The Israelis are coming, the Israeli soldiers are coming.”

    Then comes the qualification, the “hand in the cookie jar” retort. With the video now very public, the IDF was forced to admit that they had been mistaken in the initial assessment that the lights of the ambulance convoy had been switched off, blaming it on the sketchy testimony of soldiers. Also evident are clear markings on the vehicles, with the paramedics wearing hi-vis uniforms.

    After being shot, the bodies of the 15 dead workers were unceremoniously buried in sand (“in a brutal and disregarding manner that violates human dignity,” according to the Red Crescent) – supposedly to protect them from the ravages of wildlife – with the vehicles crushed by an armoured D9 bulldozer to clear the road. Allegations have been made that some of the bodies had their hands tied and were shot at close range, suggesting a willingness on the part of the military to conceal their misdeeds. The IDF has countered by claiming that the UN was informed on the location of the bodies.

    The Palestinian Red Crescent society is adamant: the paramedics were shot with the clear intention of slaying them. “We cannot disclose everything we know,” stated Dr. Younis Al-Khatib, president of the Red Crescent in the West Bank, “but I will say that all the martyrs were shot in the upper part of their bodies, with the intent to kill.”

    The IDF, after a breezy inquiry, claimed that it “revealed that the force opened fire due to a sense of threat following a previous exchange of fire in the area. Also, six Hamas terrorists were identified among those killed in the incident.” This hardly dispels the reality that those shot were unarmed and showed no hostile intent. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Palestinian rescuers have offered a breakdown of those killed: eight staff members from the Red Crescent, six from the Palestinian Civil Defence, and one employee from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA.

    The OCHA insists that the first team comprised rescuers rather than Hamas operatives. On being sought by additional paramedic and emergency personnel, they, too, were attacked by the IDF.

    The findings of the probe into the killings were presented on April 7 to the IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir by the chief of the Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor. On doing so, Zamir then ordered that the General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism be used to “deepen and complete” the effort. That particular fact-finding body is risibly described as independent, despite being an extension of the IDF. Self-investigation remains a standard norm for allegations of impropriety.

    Since October 7, 2023, the death toll of health workers in the Gaza Strip has been impressively grim, reaching 1,060. Health facilities have been destroyed, with hundreds of attacks launched on health services. The World Health Organization update in February found that a mere 50% of hospitals were partially functional. Primary health care facilities were found to be 41% functional. Medical personnel have been harassed, arbitrarily detained and subjected to mistreatment. A report from Healthcare Workers Watch published in February identified 384 cases of unlawful detention since October 7, 2023, with 339 coming from the Gaza Strip and 45 from the West Bank.

    In the opinion of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories since 1967, Francesca Albanese, “This is part of a pattern by Israel to continuously bombard, destroy and fully annihilate the realisation of the right to health in Gaza.”

    The IDF, which claims to be fastidious in observing the canons of international law, continues to dispel such notions in killing civilians and health workers. It also continues to insist that its soldiers could never be guilty of a conscious massacre, culpable for a blatant crime. The bodies of fifteen health workers suggest otherwise.

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  • Amber Alert

    See “B.C. Children’s Ministry overrules parents, orders surgery to treat boy’s rare condition,” Vancouver Sun.

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  • Medicine and Martyrs

    The dead and wounded lay scattered around the street. One man, with a fist-sized black hole in his stomach, lay still in a state of shock. Nearby, a shirtless teenage boy in a pool of blood screamed in pain. Further away another man was unconscious, his right leg seared off just below the knee and placed next to him by a good samaritan. Civilians moved around frantically, shouting in panic and unsure of what to do.

    “This is a video I took yesterday when a bomb exploded in Deir Al-Balah,” nineteen-year-old Mohammed Kassab told me. “All my thoughts and dreams are to be a doctor, so I can treat those injured in the war.”

    “Then instead of filming them,” I said. “why don’t you help them? You know it often takes a long time for paramedics to arrive, and you keep complaining about Israel ruining your chance to go to medical school. You can learn to administer first aid and save people from dying.”

    Mohammed was still young enough to think he needed someone’s permission to take action. He didn’t realize he could take the initiative on his own. He told me everyday about his desire to help his people, so I started giving him advice from my Wilderness First Responder training. It turns out their focus on medical care in remote, low-resource settings fits perfectly in Gaza, where even the hospitals run out of medical.

    “People often bleed out from traumatic injuries. Learn how to tie a rope to use as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding,” I said. “Always carry a piece of rope with you for that purpose. If you don’t have one, a belt will do.”

    “Thank you, my friend, for these tips,” Mohammed replied. “I have never found anyone to advise me like you. Thank you really! ♥♥♥”

    It’s amazing how simple encouragement can make a difference in someone’s life. I had met Mohammed three months before in May 2024. He was desperately trying to raise money for his family. He sent me TikTok videos, Instagram posts and other links to promote his GoFoundMe, but like many refugees he felt embarrassed about seeking charity.

    “Before the war, we did not ask for money like this. We were living a decent life. My father, Khaled, was a policeman for the Palestinian Authority. I was planning to start pre-med. But we are now without homes, without a homeland, without anything.”

    The family had been forced by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) to exchange their home in Khan Younis for a tarp and twine shelter in Al-Mawasi in December 2023. By February they were displaced again. This time to a proper refugee tent in Deir al-Balah where they remained until the January 2025 ceasefire.

    Mohammed is the second oldest of six children. He’s well groomed and neat in appearance like the rest of his family—a remarkable achievement for people living in tents with limited access to running water and electricity. He has one brother and four sisters—all, like their forty-something parents Khaled and Tahrir, struggling to stay alive. The youngest, a baby girl named Massa, has a full head of luxurious reddish-brown hair, honey-brown eyes and a beaming smile. In photos she’s often wearing a stylish magenta headband or posing for the camera. Sisters Mayar, age nine, Mona, age thirteen, and brother Malek, age sixteen, are the next oldest. The most senior is Mohammed’s sister Malak, age twenty-one, who was looking forward to her wedding until the Israeli invasion ruined her plans. She was forced to marry in a tent. Though her wedding dress was buried under the rubble, Malak was still able to find a plain white dress for the photo shoot at her grandfather’s house—one of the few homes that still stands today. The ceremony and reception were muted—they didn’t play music out of respect for the martyrs and the wedding cake was a plate of date-filled Palestinian cookies called Ma’amoul. Only the wedding bands survived the evacuation and eventual destruction of their homes, their neighborhoods, their lives.

    Mohammed informs me when friends and family die.

    “My friend Ramzi was martyred in February 2024. He was trying to find a passageway to get his family to safety, but found himself near a group of young men who the IDF targeted with a bomb. He was burned from head to toe. When I found out, I went to Nasser Hospital, and transported Ramzi’s body to the cemetery where we buried him. It took over two hours to dig his grave with my uncles. I was very sad about what happened.”

    Digging a loved one’s grave must be the most grievous of tasks.

    “My cousin Ali was seriously injured in July 2024 in a bombing in Deir al-Balah. He had a traumatic brain injury. We went to the American Hospital and watched him die. We cried a lot. Then his father Bilal carried him to the cemetery and buried him.”

    Mohammed sent me a video of Ali’s funeral. They had bought a ready-made grave. It was only a few feet deep and lined with concrete blocks. The dead boy’s face had an angelic quality to it, like he was at peace, like he had transcended the horror around him. It reminded me of how my dad looked when he died.

    Death was attributed to inanimate objects as well.

    “Two months ago, we received news that our house had been blown up. My father and I walked to Khan Younis and found our former home completely demolished. We searched for anything valuable, but all we found were some dolls and clothes for my brothers.”

    A couple of weeks after Mohammed showed me the bombing video, I asked him if he had started volunteering at a hospital or medical clinic.

    “The situation here does not allow that,” he told me. “My father wants me to open a stall to sell supplies, so we can earn a living.”

    How does one earn a living in the middle of a genocide?

    “When you are not working at the stall, spend your time helping people whenever you get the chance,” I replied. “Whether it’s repairing a tent or digging for survivors in the rubble, take the opportunity to help. Talk with as many medical professionals as you can. Maybe you could ride with them in an ambulance someday or become an orderly. It’s a long hard struggle, and you might even die performing your duties, but at least you would live knowing you were doing your best.”

    “Yes, I will definitely do that,” he said. “We struggle to survive and also to help each other.”

    “Study battlefield first aid as much as you can,” I continued. “You can find combat trauma training PDFs online to download. There are also YouTube channels which will show you how to deal with burn, blast and firearms injuries”

    “Of course, my friend! ♥ Every day I watch videos of experts in the field of medicine…and follow the advice they give. ♥🙏”

    Whenever I asked Mohammed how he was doing, he often responded with the latest massacre that had occurred.

    “Last night we woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of very violent bombing. 🥺 More than fifteen martyrs were recovered from the bombed areas.”

    There were a lot of forced evacuations that summer. The IDF would declare an area unsafe and drop leaflets giving people a day or two to leave. It was heartbreaking to watch the videos of familes running in terror to get away while carrying all they could on their backs. Even children pulled pieces of luggage behind them. Huge traffic jams were created at odd hours of the night as the sea of humanity struggled to move in the chaos. Those unable to walk died in the subsequent battles if their family could not afford to pay for a taxi or donkey cart to move them. Sometimes the IDF even bombed the refugees as they were fleeing. I told Mohammed that “the people should stop running and die with dignity where they were instead of being herded like animals to the next refugee camp.”

    “Thank you, my dear friend, for your concern and everything you do for the families here. You are truly a wonderful person. I hope everyone is like you.”

    I thought about Ukrainian president Zelensky being accused of lacking gratitude at the White House. I wonder if Donald Trump or JD Vance had ever thanked anyone like Mohammed had thanked me.

    After the ceasefire came into effect on January 19th, 2025, the family moved back to Khan Younis and rented an apartment they couldn’t afford. Mohammed’s father got his policeman’s job back, but he only makes $700 a month. Rent is $300, while groceries are astronomical ever since Israel sealed the border and cut off the electricity in early March.

    On his birthday in February, Mohammed posted a photo of himself in a leather jacket with a faux fur lining on the hood. It was his first Facebook post since October 7th, 2023.

    On March 18th, Israel broke the ceasefire with a wave of bombings that killed over four hundred people, the majority of whom were women and children. One bomb landed next to Mohammed’s apartment. In the bedroom facing the blast, a security window made of metal and glass was blown in, but luckily a bulky desk shielded Mohammed’s mother and her baby daughter from shrapnel. Mohammed posted a video of the aftermath on social media to illustrate the family’s brush with death and praised God for letting them live.

    The next day I read a BBC article about a Palestinian father who lost three sons in the latest air strikes on Gaza. At least one of the boys wanted to be a doctor like Mohammed. The day after that the IDF invaded Gaza. But this time there was no warning, no leaflets, and so still, like Mohammed, after almost eighteen months of war, no one in Gaza has any idea what will become of them or those they love.

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  • Cuba Sends Doctors, the US Sends Sanctions


    On February 25, US secretary of state Marco Rubio announced restrictions on visas for both government officials in Cuba and any others worldwide who are “complicit” with the island nation’s overseas medical-assistance programs. A US State Department statement clarified that the sanction extends to “current and former” officials and the “immediate family of such persons.” This action, the seventh measure targeting Cuba in one month, has international consequences; for decades tens of thousands of Cuban medical professionals have been posted in around sixty countries, far more than the World Health Organization’s (WHO) workforce, mostly working in under- or unserved populations in the Global South. By threatening to withhold visas from foreign officials, the US government means to sabotage these Cuban medical missions overseas. If it works, millions will suffer.

    Rubio built his career around taking a hard line on Cuban socialism, even alleging that his parents fled Fidel Castro’s Cuba until the Washington Post revealed that they migrated to Miami in 1956 during the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship. As Trump’s secretary of state, Rubio is in prime position to ramp up the belligerent US-Cuba policy first laid out in April 1960 by deputy assistant secretary of state Lester Mallory: to use economic warfare against revolutionary Cuba to bring about “hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.”

    Cuba stands accused by the US government of human trafficking, even equating overseas Cuban medical personnel to slaves. Rubio’s tweet parroted this pretext. The real objective is to undermine both Cuba’s international prestige and the revenue it receives from exporting medical services. Since 2004, earnings from Cuban medical and professional services exports have been the island’s greatest source of income. Cuba’s ability to conduct “normal” international trade is currently obstructed by the long US blockade, but the socialist state has succeeded in converting its investments in education and health care into national earnings, while also maintaining free medical assistance to the Global South based on its internationalist principles.

    Cuban medical internationalism: A core feature of Cuban foreign policy

    The four approaches of Cuban medical internationalism were initiated early in the 1960s, all despite the post-1959 departure of half of the physicians in Cuba.

    1. Emergency response medical brigades. In May 1960, Chile was struck by the most powerful earthquake on record, with thousands killed. The new Cuban government sent an emergency medical brigade with six rural field hospitals. This established a modus operandi under which Cuban medics mobilize rapid responses to “disaster and disease” emergencies throughout the Global South — since 2005 these brigades have been organized under the name “Henry Reeve International Contingents.” By 2017, when the WHO praised the Henry Reeve brigades with a public health prize, they had helped 3.5 million people in twenty-one countries. The best-known examples include brigades in West Africa to combat Ebola in 2014 and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Within one year, Henry Reeve brigades treated 1.26 million coronavirus patients in forty countries, including in Western Europe.
    2. Establishment of public health care apparatuses abroad. Starting in 1963, Cuban medics helped establish a public health care system in newly independent Algeria. By the 1970s, they had set up and staffed Comprehensive Health Programs all throughout Africa. By 2014, 76,000 Cuban medical personnel had worked in thirty-nine African countries. In 1998, a Cuban cooperation agreement with Haiti committed to send 300 to 500 Cuban medical professionals there all while training Haitian doctors back in Cuba. By December 2021, more than 6,000 Cubans medical professionals had saved 429,000 lives in the poorest country in the western hemisphere, conducting 36 million consultations. And for two decades now, Cuba has maintained over 20,000 medics in Venezuela, peaking at 29,000. In 2013, the Pan American Health Organization contracted 11,400 Cuban doctors to work in under- and unserved regions of Brazil. By 2015, Cuban Integral Healthcare Programs were operating in forty-three countries.
    3. Treating foreign patients in Cuba. In 1961, children and wounded fighters from Algeria’s war for independence from France went to Cuba for treatment. Thousands followed from around the world. Two programs were developed to treat foreign patients en masse: The first is the “Children of Chernobyl” program which began in 1990 and lasted for twenty-one years, during which 26,000 people affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster received free medical treatment and rehabilitation on the island — nearly 22,000 of them children. The Cubans covered the cost, despite the program coinciding with Cuba’s severe economic crisis, known as the Special Period, following the collapse of the socialist bloc. The second program to treat foreign patients en masse was Operation Miracle, set up in 2004 for Venezuelans with reversible blindness to get free eye operations in Cuba to restore their sight. It subsequently expanded regionally. By 2017, Cuba was running sixty-nine ophthalmology clinics in fifteen countries under Operation Miracle, and by early 2019 over four million people in thirty-four countries had benefited.
    4. Medical training for foreigners, both in Cuba and overseas. It’s important to note that the Cuban state never sought to foster dependence. In the 1960s, it began training foreigners in their own countries when suitable facilities were available, or in Cuba when they were not. By 2016, 73,848 foreign students from eighty-five countries had graduated in Cuba while that nation was running twelve medical schools overseas, mostly in Africa, where over 54,000 students were enrolled. In 1999, the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), the world’s largest medical school, was established in Havana. By 2019, ELAM had graduated 29,000 doctors from 105 countries (including the United States) representing 100 ethnic groups. Half were women, and 75 percent from worker or campesino families.

    The monetary cost of Cuba’s contribution

    Since 1960, some 600,000 Cuban medical professionals have provided free health care in over 180 countries. The government of Cuba has assumed the lion’s share of the cost of its medical internationalism, a huge contribution to the Global South, particularly given the impact of the US blockade and Cuba’s own development challenges. “Some will wonder how it is possible that a small country with few resources can carry out a task of this magnitude in fields as decisive as education and health,” noted Fidel Castro in 2008. He did not, though, provide the answer. Indeed, Cuba has said little about the cost of these programs.

    However, Guatemalan researcher Henry Morales has reformulated Cuba’s international solidarity as “official development assistance” (ODA), using average international market rates and adopting the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) methodology, to calculate the scale of their contribution to global development and facilitate comparison with other donors. According to Morales, the monetary value of medical and technical professional services, Cuba’s ODA, was over $71.5 billion just between 1999 and 2015, equivalent to $4.87 billion annually. This means that Cuba dedicated 6.6 percent of its GDP annually to ODA, the world’s highest ratio. In comparison, the European average was 0.39 percent of GDP, and the United States contributed just 0.17 percent. Since the US blockade cost Cuba between $4 and $5 billion annually in this period, without this burden the island could potentially have doubled its ODA contribution.

    These costs exclude Cuban state investments in education and medical training and infrastructure on the island. There are also considerable losses to Cuba from either charging recipients below international market rates or, in many cases, simply not charging them at all.

    Medical services as exports

    During “the Special Period” in the 1990s, Cuba introduced reciprocal agreements to share the costs with recipient countries that could afford it. Starting in 2004, with the famous “oil-for-doctors” program with Venezuela, the export of medical professionals became Cuba’s main source of revenue. This income is then reinvested into medical provision on the island. However, Cuba continues to provide medical assistance free of charge to countries who need it. Today there are different cooperation contracts, from Cuba covering the full costs (donations and free technical services) to reciprocity agreements (costs shared with the host country) to “triangulated collaboration” (third-party partnerships) and commercial agreements. The new measure announced by Rubio will impact them all.

    In 2017, Cuban medics were operating in sixty-two countries; in twenty-seven of those (44 percent) the host government paid nothing, while the remaining thirty-five paid or shared the costs according to a sliding scale. Where the host government pays all costs, it does so at a lower rate than that charged internationally. Differential payments are used to balance Cuba’s books, so services charged to wealthy oil states (Qatar, for example) help subsidize medical assistance to poorer countries. Payment for medical service exports goes to the Cuban government, which passes a small proportion on to the medics themselves. This is usually in addition to their Cuban salaries.

    In 2018, the first year Cuba’s Office of National Statistics published separate data, “health services exports” earned $6.4 billion. Revenues have since declined, however, as US efforts to sabotage Cuban medical internationalism have succeeded, for example in Brazil, reducing the island’s income by billions.

    US criminalization of Cuban medical internationalism

    Already in 2006, the George W. Bush administration launched its Medical Parole Program to induce Cuban medics to abandon missions in return for US citizenship. Barack Obama maintained the program until his final days in office in January 2017. By 2019, Trump renewed the attack, adding Cuba to its Tier 3 list of countries failing to combat “human trafficking” on the basis of its medical internationalism. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) even launched a project to discredit and sabotage Cuban health care programs. In 2024, the US House Committee on Appropriations bill included exposing the “trafficking of doctors from Cuba,” withdrawing aid from “countries participating in this form of modern slavery,” and prohibiting funds to Cuban laboratories. Meanwhile it allocated $30 million for “democracy programs” for Cuba, a misnomer for the regime change that Mallory strategized in 1960.

    The service contracts that Cuban medics sign before going abroad are, in fact, voluntary; they receive their regular Cuban salary, plus remuneration from the host country. The volunteers are guaranteed holidays and contact with families. Whatever their motivations to participate, Cuba’s medical professionals make huge personal sacrifices to volunteer overseas, leaving behind families and homes, their culture and communities, to work in challenging and often risky conditions for months or even years. Interviewed for our documentary, Cuba & COVID-19: Public Health, Science and Solidarity, Dr Jesús Ruiz Alemán explained how a sense of moral obligation led him to volunteer for the Henry Reeve Contingent. He went on his first mission to Guatemala in 2005, West Africa for Ebola in 2014, and to Italy in 2020 when it was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I have never felt like a slave, never,” he insisted. “The campaign against the brigades seems to be a way to justify the blockade and measures against Cuba, to damage a source of income for Cuba.”

    In the same documentary, Johana Tablada, deputy director for the United States at Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, condemned the “weaponization and criminalization” of Cuban medical internationalism that has “wreaked havoc,” particularly in countries pressured to end their partnerships with Cuba shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic, such as Brazil and Bolivia. “The reason that the US calls it slavery or human trafficking has nothing to do with the international felony of human trafficking.” This is cover, she says, for a policy of sabotage that is “impossible to hold up to public scrutiny.” The United States cannot tell people in developing countries to give up medical services provided by Cuban medical brigades “just because it doesn’t match their policy to have international recognition and admiration [for Cuba].” The US is certainly not offering to replace Cuban doctors with its own.

    The threat of a good example

    The predominant global approach, exemplified by the United States, is to regard health care as an expensive resource or commodity to be rationed through the market mechanism. Medical students “invest” in their education, paying high tuition fees and graduating with huge debts. They then seek well-paid jobs to repay those debts and pursue a privileged standard of living. To ensure medics are well remunerated, demand must be kept above supply. The World Economic Forum projects a shortfall of ten million health care workers worldwide by 2030. But the Cuban investment in medical education raises the supply of professionals globally, thus threatening the status of physicians operating under a market system. Critically, the Cuban approach removes financial, class, race, gender, religious, and any other barriers to joining the medical profession.

    The key features of the Cuban approach are: the commitment to health care as a human right; the decisive role of state planning and investment to provide a universal public health care system with the absence of a parallel private sector; the speed with which health care provision was improved (by the 1980s Cuba had the health profile of a highly developed country); the focus on prevention over cure; and the system of community-based primary care. By these means, socialist Cuba has achieved comparable health outcomes to developed countries but with lower per capita spending — less than one-tenth the per capita spending in the United States and one-quarter in the UK. By 2005, Cuba had achieved the highest ratio of doctors per capita in the world: 1 to 167. By 2018, it had three times the density of doctors in the US and the UK.

    Today Cuba is in the midst of a severe economic crisis, largely resulting from US sanctions. The public health care system is under unprecedented strain, with shortages of resources and of personnel following massive emigration since 2021. Nonetheless, the government continues to dedicate a high proportion of GDP on health care (nearly 14 percent in 2023), maintaining free universal medical provision, and currently has 24,180 medical professionals in fifty-six countries.

    Revolutionary Cuba was never solely concerned with meeting its own needs. According to Morales’s data, between 1999–2015 alone, overseas Cuban medical professionals saved 6 million lives, carried out 1.39 billion medical consultations and 10 million surgical operations, and attended 2.67 million births, while 73,848 foreign students graduated as professionals in Cuba, many of them medics. Add to that the beneficiaries between 1960 and 1998, and those since 2016, and the numbers climb steeply.

    The beneficiary nations have been the poorest and least influential globally; few have governments with any leverage on the world stage. Recipient populations are often the most disadvantaged and marginalized within those countries. If Cuban medics leave, they will have no alternative provision. If Rubio and Trump are successful, it is not just Cubans who will suffer. It will also be the global beneficiaries whose lives are being saved and improved by Cuban medical internationalism right now.

  • First published at Jacobin.
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  • Life-Saving or Life-Taking Vaccines?

    Denis G. Rancourt, PhD, and Joseph Hickey, PhD, “Quantitative evaluation of whether the Nobel-Prize-winning COVID-19 vaccine actually saved millions of lives,” 08 October 2023.

    Fantastic statements that the Nobel-Prize-winning COVID-19 vaccines saved millions (and tens of millions) of lives are based on the theoretical scenarios of Watson et al. (2022), published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Watson et al. (2022) theoretically inferred massive mortality reductions distributed globally, occurring solely during vaccine rollouts. We calculated the quantitative consequences of Watson et al. (2022)’s low-value (14.4 million lives saved) theoretical scenario on all-cause mortality by time (by week or by month, 2020-2022) in 95 countries. Our calculations provide graphical proof that the theoretical proposals of Watson et al. (2022) are untenable, compared to measured all-cause mortality. Therefore, the characteristics of the COVID-19 vaccines (efficacies in preventing infection or serious illness, duration of protection, waning, etc.) and of COVID-19 spread input by Watson et al. (2022) must be invalid.

    Denis G. Rancourt, PhD; Marine Baudin, PhD; Jérémie Mercier, PhD, “Probable causal association between Australia’s new regime of high all-cause mortality and its COVID-19 vaccine rollout,” 20 December 2022.

    Australia experienced a significant and sustained increase in all-cause mortality, starting with its COVID-19 vaccine rollout aimed at high-risk residents in mid-April 2021, whereas it saw no detectable excess all-cause mortality up to that point during 13 months of a pandemic that was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020.

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  • When the Earth Heats Up: Zunaira Baloch and the Human Cost of Climate Change in Balochistan

    They say only bad news from Balochistan makes the headlines–Pakistan’s largest and most impoverished province marred in a decades long insurgency. The local newspapers are flooded with the news of people being killed in bomb blasts, target killings and the loss of lives in incidents of terrorism. However, amid this backdrop of turmoil, a problem that is just as terrible is subtly developing: climate change. Its perennial consequences are changing the lives of women and children, particularly in the remote and underprivileged parts of Balochistan.

    Noora Ali, 14, was oblivious to the temperature shifts because she had grown up in Turbat, a city around 180 kilometres Southwest of Gwadar, the center of CPEC( China-Pakistan Economic Corridor)–a bilateral project to would facilitate trade between China and Pakistan valued at $46 billion. There was frequent flooding during the monsoon season and blazing heatwaves during the summer, with temperatures rising above 51 centigrade. Compared to other cities in Balochistan, Turbat experiences horrible summers and typical winters. As a result, the majority of wealthy families in the city travel to Gwadar, Quetta, or Karachi during the sweltering summers and return to Turbat during the winters. The Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) moved Noora’s father, who works there, to the neighboring Coastal city of Gwadar in 2022.

    In February of 2022, the sea seemed calmed while boats of the fishermen busily dotted the waters of the Padi Zir (Gwadar’s West bay). It was a typical Thursday morning when rain started pouring down. The rain was so intense that the sea became wild. The roads were washed away, bridges collapsed, streets were inundated with flood water, and the port city became completely disconnected from the rest of the country. Back in Turbat, her ancestral hometown was also submerged under flood water.

    Noora had also heard from her schoolmates that Gwadar and Turbat had never experienced such heavy and intense rainfall before. She knew and felt that the temperature of her native city was rising and that Gwadar beneath flood water didn’t seem normal. “This is due to climate change,” her elder brother tells her. At the age of 14, most youth in Pakistan’s Balochistan have no idea what climate change and global warming are, but they are already feeling it impacts.

    Like Noora, thousands of children in South Asia, particularly Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, and Afghanistan are at the risk of climate related disasters, as per the UNICEF 2021 Children’s Climate Risk Index. The report further reiterates that children in these countries have vigorously been exposed to devastating air pollution and aggressive heatwaves, with 6 million children confronting implacable floods that lashed across these countries in the July of 2024.

    On November 11 and 22, 2024, over 20 youths urged the world leaders to come up with plans to mitigate the impacts of climate change on children at the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 29) held in Baku, Azerbaijan. Among those 20 resolute children was 14-years-old Zunaira Qayyum Baloch, representing the 241.5 million children and women of Pakistan.

    Dressed in her traditional Balochi attire, with a radiant smile and resolute in her commitment, Zunaira Qayyum Baloch has startled everyone. Hailing from the far-flung district of Hub in the Southwest of the Pakistan’s Balochistan, Mrs. Baloch went to represent the children of a country whose carbon footprint is next to zero, yet suffering some of the worst climate-related disasters. Her message to world leaders was clear: step up and combat climate-induced inequalities, particularly those affecting women and children.

    She had always remained conscious about the changing climate in her city, observing the floods of 2022 that had wrecked havoc in Hub Chowki, initiating awareness programmes and youth advocacy guide training in her home city to advocate for girls right to education and climate change.

    “After my father passed away, my mother became the sole breadwinner. She helped us get an education and met all our requirements,” Zunaira explains. “During the catastrophic rains of 2022, an incident changed my perspective on climate change. Rain water had accumulated in the roof of our home and streets were flooded with water. The destruction was so overwhelming, and I realised that such events were no longer rare but increasing constantly.”

    Zunaira Baloch basically hails from the Zehri town of the Khuzdar district. With her journey starting from the Zehri town of Balochistan, she became completely determined to make a difference–initiating awareness drives in her community and educating the people particularly children about climate resilience.

    During the COP29, she expressed her concerns with the experts about how Pakistan, particularly Balochistan has been detrimentally affected by climate disasters like frequent floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, and droughts. Lamenting that climate change was a child-rights crisis, she told the world how changes in the climate had jeopardised the lives of millions of women and children throughout the world.

    Asking the world leaders to join determined children like her to combat climate change, she addressed them in the COP29: “Climate change matters to me, and it should matter to you too.”

    Both Noora and Zunaira are children’s of a backward region of the world, grappling with the harrowing reality of climate change. Given that Noora represents those children unaware of the technicalities of climate change, Zunaira is a resolute hope for Balochistan, leading children like Noora to recognize and combat the stark reality of climate crisis.

    Stark Reality of the Past

    Bibi Dureen, 80, is a witness of how climate is continuously transforming. With wrinkles on her face and a pointed nose, she hails from the outskirts of the Kech district in a town called Nasirabad.

    “The seasons are changing,” she says, her voice laced with sorrow. “The heatwaves have become more aggressive and floods are common. It all started in 1998 in Turbat. Then in 2007, a devastating flood destroyed our homes, date palm trees, livestock–and worst of all, it took lives.” She pauses, her wrinkled hands trembling.

    As she talks to me in front of her thatched cottage, through which sunlight streams in, tears well up in her eyes as she recalls a haunting childhood memory. “I was a small child at that time. It was a pitch-black night and the rain was pouring down mercilessly when a man came shouting that the flood water had reached the fields.” She exclaims, “My mother, desperate to save what little we had, sent her only son, Habib, 16–our family’s only breadwinner–to find the only cow we had in the fields. Neither the cow nor Habib came back. Later some men found his dead body in the jungle.”

    In June 2007, when the Cyclone Yemyin hit the coast of Balochistan, it wrought unprecedented damage to the province, particularly Turbat, Pasni and Ormara. It rendered 50,000 homeless within 24 hours, including children. According to reports 800,000 were affected and 24 went missing.

    The 2022 floods had a devastating impact across Pakistan, Balochistan being one of the hardest-hit. The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) reported that 528 children had died nationwide, 336 from Balochistan.

    Tragedy struck again in 2024 when torrential rains engulfed 32 districts of Balochistan, particularly the port city of Gwadar and Kech district. The PDMA put the death toll at 170, 55 of which were children.

    These statistics highlight how urgently appropriate plans and proper strategies for disaster preparedness and loss mitigation in Balochistan must be developed. While extreme weather events such as floods become more common, the need to fight climate change has never been greater.

    The Double Crisis Facing Girls: Heatwaves, period poverty

    Regions in Balochistan have seen severe heatwaves in the past few decades. In May 2017, the mercury rose to a record breaking 53.5 centigrade in Turbat, making the district the second hottest locale in 2017 after Mitribah, Kuwait. During heatwaves, cases of fainting and health-related illness among residents, particularly among children are common. According to a 2023 report by the Pakistan Meteorological Department, Balochistan has seen a 1.8°C rise in average temperature over the past three decades, leading to longer and harsher heatwaves.

    Dr Sammi Parvaz, a gynaecologist at the teaching hospital in Turbat, relates that rising temperatures in the district not only contribute to higher dropout rates among school-age girls, but their menstrual cycle is also affected.

    “According to the recent research of the National Institute of Health (NIH), menstruation … is severely affected in countries which are vulnerable to climate change and Pakistan is one them,” she explains. “The menstruation in girl children living in extreme heat, such as in Turbat and Karachi, becomes very intense, painful and with cramps.”

    Dr Sammi further elaborates that this phenomenon is linked to the increased release of cortisol and estrogen, the hormones which regulate the female reproductive cycle. “Girl children exposed to harsher environments such as severe heat or cold, experience hormonal imbalances leading to irregular periods and severe menstrual cramps. The hospitals in Turbat are frequented by patients suffering from intense cramps or irregular periods.”

    Hygiene becomes another pressing issue during floods, especially for young girls. Research published by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health states that floodwater contains lead, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other chemicals which are cited as causes of irregular periods.

    Overcoming the stigma around periods is a daunting task, particularly in small towns in Balochistan where cultural norms and practices have a strong hold on communities. During floods, thousands of girls struggle with menstruation amid the disasters and lack of menstruation products. For instance, after the 2022 floods, 650,000 pregnant women and girls in Pakistan were without essential maternal care, with a significant proportion from Balochistan.

    Amid all this chaos, climate activists like Zunaira Qayyum Baloch helped raise awareness while women like Maryam Jamali work directly on the ground to ensure that every women has rations in her household and had access to feminine hygiene products during catastrophes.

    Madat Balochistan–a non-profit organisation–has supported 31,000+ people across 34 districts in Sindh and Balochistan. With its major work concentrated in and around Quetta, Dera Bugti, Jaffarabad, Jhal Magsi, Sohbatpur, and Khuzdar, the proudly women-led NGO prioritizes women and girls in its work because even on the frontlines, they are bearing most of the cost of climate change, according to its co-founder, Maryam Jamali.

    “Our conversations on climate change vulnerability often treat everyone as ‘equal’ in terms of impact, when that is far from the truth. Vulnerability is a multi-dimensional concept and in a country like Pakistan where most of the women and girls are pushed to the margins of society in every way possible–we cannot just overlook their struggles,” says Jamali.

    Take the 2022 floods, for example–the most recent catastrophes etched in our memories. Women and girls were responsible for most of the labour when it came to evacuating to safer places. As soon as they did, their needs when it came to menstruation or pregnancy care were completely ignored by aid agencies as they sent out packages or set up medical camps. Most of our work at Madat was compensating for things like this. We worked with midwives to ensure that women who could not stand in lines for ration received it regardless or women who did not want to interact with male doctors didn’t have to. In our housing projects, we prioritize women especially those who don’t have a patriarch in the household because that severely limits their access to resources for rehabilitation.

    Floods, heatwaves, and other natural calamities are gender-neutral. However, girls are more likely to be negatively affected. According to the UN Assistant Secretary-General Asako Okai, when disaster strikes, women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men. In Pakistan, 80% of people displaced by climate disasters are women and children, and the province of Balochistan is a stark reflection of this statistic.

    In patriarchal societies, women and girls are the primary caregivers of the family, and they are the only ones growing crops, doing household chores, and fetching firewood and water. With little or no potable water nearby, girls have to travel far to help their parents, making them vulnerable.

    These household responsibilities create an educational gap, and girls are taken out of schools in Balochistan during floods. With Pakistan’s lowest girl literacy rate at just 27 per cent , the International Rescue Committee (IRC) reported that the province of Sindh and Balochistan have seen greater educational disruptions due to heatwaves and floods, with the 2022 flood causing more educational institutions closure than the combined two year COVID-19 pandemic.

    With 47 percent of it’s child population out of school, extreme heatwaves and recurrent flooding in Balochistan have further compounded this absenteeism. For instance, the 2022 flood damaged or destroyed 7,439 schools in the province, affecting the education of over 386,600 students, 17,660 teachers, and staff members. Reports also mention that most of the government schools were used as flood shelters in the province. In the 2024 floods, 464 schools were again damaged.

    The destruction of educational infrastructure has forced many children out of school, contributing to the province’s high out-of-school rate.

    Monsoon Brides during floods

    Though floodwater is no longer accumulating in the Mulla Band Ward of Gwadar district in Balochistan, the damage it has wrought will stay with the people for a long time for many years. For 16-year-old Gul Naz–a pseudonym–the loss has been devastating.

    She was only 16 years when flood water entered their home in 2022. Her father, being a fisherman, struggled to make ends meet, as the sea was completely closed for fishing, cutting off the family’s only source of income.

    “I was in the Jannat Market and when I returned home, I was told by my mother that my marriage has been fixed to a man twice my age in exchange for money.” She discloses that her parents were given Rs.50,000 ($178.50) which is a whooping sum for a poor family who survive on around one dollar a day.

    “I have two kids now, and I am a child raising a child.”

    The sadness in Gul Naz’s voice is palpable, and she isn’t alone in her predicament. During floods and emergency situations, families in Balochistan resort to desperate means for survival. The first and most obvious way is to give their daughters away in marriage for financial relief–a practice that usually surges during monsoon season, earning the name monsoon brides.

    In Pakistan’s Sindh province this trend is more prevalent, with a spike in the number of monsoon brides during the last flash floods of 2022. In the Khan Mohammad Mallah Village, Dadu district, approximately 45 were married off in that year, according to an NGO Sujag Sansar which works to reduce child marriages in the region.

    Pakistan stands sixth in the world in marriages below age 18. While there has been a reduction in child marriages in Pakistan in recent years, UNICEF warns that extreme weather patterns put the girl children at risk.

    Madat Balochistan has also been in the forefront in reducing child marriages in Balochistan. “It’s not intuitive to think of girls’ education or loan relief or housing provision as measures to build climate change resilience, but in our contexts these are the very things that drive vulnerability to climate change,” says Maryam Jamali. “We have been working on supporting farmers with loan relief so that young girls aren’t married off to compensate for the financial burden of loans after a lost harvest. We are also working on initiatives for sustainable livelihoods for women as well as ensuring that young girls in all the communities we work in have access to education despite geographic or financial limitations.”

    Maryam Jamali thinks that gender inequality is one of the biggest aspects here which makes it absolutely necessary for a region like Balochistan, where physical vulnerability and socio-economic vulnerability is high, to have young girls at the decision-making table.

    “Activists like Zunaira can ensure that when we come up with solutions for climate change, we contextualize them through a gender lens and make sure that this does not become another instance of taking away women’s agency, but becomes an opportunity to involve them in climate change policy decision-making,” Maryam discloses. “ It is rewarding to see the girls we support do great things. One of our girls from Musakhel is studying at Cadet College Quetta, the first in her family to be able to pursue education beyond 8th grade.”

    The Way forward

    “Extreme weather can fuel conflict and be a threat multiplier,” says Advocate Siraj Gul, a lawyer at the Balochistan High Court, Quetta, citing the recent research published in the journal Alternatives: Global, Local, Political.

    Hailing from the Makran division , he stresses that the decades long running insurgency in Balochistan stems from human rights violations, inequality and government negligence. “Climate related catastrophes further destabilise the region’s development. For instance, there was a surge in the number of protests during the 2022 floods in Gwadar, Lasbela and Turbat, reflecting the deep frustration and despair of the people.”

    According to Mr. Gul, if children like Zunaira are given a platform to speak and work for Balochistan, they are not merely advocating for the environment; they are working for a more peaceful and tranquil region.

    In the impoverished regions of the world where climate change fuels droughts, flood and heatwaves, children are the ones to bear. Some are taken out of school, pushed into labor or given away in marriage but if empowered, can become advocates for change like Zunaira Qayyum Baloch. The world needs to provide climate resilient infrastructure and child-oriented disaster relief programs while the global leaders at COP30 had better ensure that climate-torn regions like Balochistan receive the technical and financial support they desperately need.

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  • The Healthcare System in Cuba

    In the heart of the Cuban capital, the Dr. Cosme Ordoñez Carceller Teaching Polyclinic stands as a testament to the nation’s unique approach to healthcare: universal, free of charge, accessible, regionalized, community-centered, and deeply rooted in preventive medicine. Unlike the profit-driven models that dominate much of the world, Cuba’s system prioritizes equitable access, public health education, and early intervention.

    At the core of this approach is a commitment to health promotion through education, disease prevention through habit management, and the integration of medical care and rehabilitation. By emphasizing proactive healthcare rather than reactive treatment, the system ensures that communities receive continuous, comprehensive support to maintain overall well-being.

    During a recent visit to the Dr. Cosme Ordoñez Carceller Teaching Polyclinic in Havana, the staff detailed how the system was developed and how it ensures that no Cuban, regardless of income, is left without medical care.

    The Structure of Cuba’s Healthcare System

    Cuba’s National Health System operates as a hierarchical, state-run model designed to ensure seamless coordination of care. At the top, the National Assembly oversees the Ministry of Public Health, which sets national policies and directs specialized health institutes that tackle broader public health concerns.

    Below the Ministry, provincial governments, answering directly to the Assembly, oversee provincial health departments, which manage larger hospitals and specialized medical facilities. These provincial bodies, in turn, delegate responsibilities to municipal governments, which run the municipal health departments and smaller hospitals that serve local populations. At the community level, municipal health departments manage Cuba’s extensive polyclinic network, the cornerstone of the country’s healthcare system. These polyclinics not only provide specialized care, diagnostics, and emergency services, but they also coordinate closely with family doctor-and-nurse teams, who serve as the first point of contact for Cuban citizens.

    These frontline providers play a crucial role beyond immediate treatment, emphasizing preventive care, home visits, and alternative therapies such as nutrition counseling, acupuncture, and plant-based medicine. Despite supply shortages exacerbated by U.S. sanctions, this integrated, top-down approach ensures that resources are distributed efficiently, maintaining consistent healthcare access nationwide.

    Founded in 1974, the Dr. Ordoñez Carceller, Polyclinic serves approximately 13,000 residents, offering care in medical specialties such as cardiology, orthopedics, fertility consultations, and genetic testing. The clinic is named after Dr. Cosme Ordoñez Carceller (1927–2019), an epidemiologist and pioneer of Community Medicine, who championed the polyclinic model that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. He played a key role in training young physicians in comprehensive general medicine and launched innovative programs like the Grandparents’ Circles, a senior care initiative so effective that it was replicated nationwide.

    Unlike the profit-driven models that dominate much of the world, Cuba’s system prioritizes equitable access, public health education, and early intervention. The country’s healthcare approach is rooted in promoting health through education, preventing disease by managing habits, and ensuring comprehensive medical care and rehabilitation. Unlike the fragmented, for-profit U.S. healthcare model, Cuba’s integrated, community-based approach ensures better health outcomes and higher patient satisfaction. At polyclinics like Ordoñez Carceller, primary care is not just about treating illness but about education, prevention, and holistic well-being. This commitment to accessible, people-centered medicine reflects Cuba’s broader philosophy: that healthcare is not a privilege, but a fundamental human right.

    Cuba’s Healthcare Achievements: A Global Leader in Public Health

    Despite enduring over six decades of economic embargo, Cuba has achieved remarkable public health milestones. The following list highlights key accomplishments of both the Ordoñez Carceller Polyclinic and the Cuban healthcare system as a whole:

    • AIDS: Cuba identified HIV in 1983 and quickly set up a system to track and treat it. By 2014, it eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis, a milestone the U.S. has yet to reach.

    • COVID: Cuba developed two COVID vaccines, kept infections low, and even sent vaccines abroad.

    • Diabetes: The nation has developed an effective medication that treats diabetic ulcers (skin wounds that result from poor blood sugar control)

    • Alzheimer’s Research: Cuba developed a drug that may help reverse Alzheimer’s effects.

    • Maternal-fetal medicine: 99% of Cuban children are vaccinated, and the country has a lower infant mortality rate than the U.S.

    • Nutrition: While obesity is not an issue in Cuba, malnutrition is an increasing concern due to shortages caused by the U.S. embargo

    • Home health Doctors make house calls to care for the elderly and new mothers.

    Profit vs. Public Health: How Medical Education and Healthcare Delivery Differ in Cuba and the U.S.

    The paths to becoming a doctor in Cuba and the United States could not be more different. In the U.S., medical students take on crippling debt, often exceeding $200,000, before ever treating a patient. The pressure to repay loans steers many toward high-paying specialties, leaving primary care and rural communities underserved. The system is structured around financial incentives rather than public need, reinforcing the idea that medicine is a business first, a service second.

    Cuba takes the opposite approach. Medical education is fully state-funded, allowing students to focus on patient care instead of profit. Training begins immediately after secondary school, with students placed in community clinics early in their careers. By the time they specialize, they have already served in primary care settings, ensuring that the system produces physicians committed to public health, not private wealth.

    A Focus on Prevention, Not Just Treatment

    Cuba’s prevention-first model stands in stark contrast to the reactive nature of U.S. healthcare. While American medicine often prioritizes treatment over lifestyle interventions, Cuban doctors routinely incorporate nutrition, exercise, and disease prevention strategies into care plans. The country’s polyclinic system ensures patients receive consistent, community-based healthcare rather than navigating a fragmented, for-profit system that often leaves them behind.

    The U.S. Blockade: An Unjust Barrier to Health

    The U.S. embargo continues to hinder Cuba’s healthcare system by restricting access to essential medicines, medical equipment, and scientific research. Pharmaceutical and shipping companies, fearing U.S. penalties, avoid business with Cuba—leading to severe shortages of everything from aspirin to cancer treatments.

    Even medical journals and online resources are blocked due to U.S. restrictions, forcing Cuban researchers to work under constraints that most Western physicians never encounter.

    Yet, rather than succumbing to these barriers, Cuba has turned to self-sufficiency, investing in biotechnology, vaccine development, and herbal medicine research to compensate for limited imports. If freed from economic sanctions, Cuba’s contributions to global healthcare innovation could expand exponentially.

    For decades, Cuba has exported medical expertise worldwide, sending doctors to disaster-stricken and underserved regions. These global medical brigades have provided care to millions, particularly in Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean. Yet, rather than supporting these humanitarian efforts, Washington has sought to dismantle them. In February 2025, the U.S. expanded sanctions on Cuba’s international medical program, further restricting its ability to send doctors abroad. The move reflects a deeper failure to understand Cuba’s model of solidarity-driven healthcare, a stark contrast to the U.S. system, where medicine is often dictated by profit rather than public service.

    It is within this profit-driven framework that Cuba’s medical missions are misunderstood, labeled as “forced labor” by those who cannot imagine doctors choosing service over salary. The very idea of healthcare as a human right, rather than a commodity, challenges the U.S. worldview, leading to efforts to discredit and sanction those who practice it differently.

    What Could Be if the Embargo Were Lifted

    Cuba’s healthcare system is a model of resilience and innovation, but its full potential remains hindered by decades of U.S. sanctions. If given access to global resources and technology, Cuban researchers could expand medical advancements in infectious diseases, chronic illness treatment, and disaster response. For now, Cuban doctors continue their work—undaunted by external pressures, committed to the principle that healthcare is a right, not a privilege.

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  • The Trump Illness Hypothesis

    The critics are utterly beside themselves in trying to understand the bruising odds and turns of Donald J. Trump, the reality showman and business tycoon who became US president twice. One particular group that have become prominent are the aggrieved and estranged. Former employees who were given their marching orders after brief spells in Trump’s administration have made a career in podcasting and punditry on the man whose bilious orbit they seemingly cannot escape. A common theme to their recent criticism is that of mental health. Trump, we are told, is unhinged, a true nutter.

    The aggrieved, war loving John Bolton, who had spells in the administration of George W. Bush and a brief one as Trump’s national security advisor, has been particularly noisy in pushing the illness hypothesis. When asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins whether Trump’s claim that Russia’s Vladimir Putin was not a dictator could be seen as a negotiating ploy, Bolton would have none of it. “I think it’s an indication his mind is full of mush, and he says whatever comes into it. He believes Vladimir Putin is his friend, and you know, you don’t call your friends [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky] a dictator.”

    Bolton also falls for the old, almost laughable mistake when trying to understand Trump: that facts necessarily matter in that world. When Trump met the current Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lieutenant General Dan Caine, in Iraq during his first term, the president offered a rather different account to that of Bolton’s. The former claimed that Caine had told him that the campaign against the ISIS group could be “finished in one week”, that he sported a Make America Great Again hat, and claimed he would “kill” for the president.

    Bolton, who accompanied Trump on that visit, was adamant: “There was no chance that Trump had a conversation with General Caine that bore any resemblance to what he’s described. I never saw Caine wear a MAGA hat.” (In a tossup between who to trust between these men, Bolton might just prevail.)

    Another former employee who had reiterated similar points of mental decline is Anthony Scaramucci, who spent a mere 11 days in the first Trump administration as communications director before being sacked. After being a firm loyalist, the born again commentator and financier known as the Mooch could confidently claim to Vanity Fair in 2019 that Trump was “crazy, everything about him is terrible”.

    Having failed in spectacular fashion, along with fellow pundits, to read the premonitory signs of a Trump victory over Kamala Harris, he has returned to the theme of the mad man, or at least the ill man. Some of these views were expressed just prior to a visit to the White House by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In the Off Air… with Jane and Fi podcast, Scaramucci took it as given that “Trump’s obviously got something wrong with him. I would say to Keir Starmer the guy is unwell and he’s surrounded by willing sycophants that want to pretend he’s not unwell.” One did not need to be “a rocket scientist to know that something’s wrong”.

    While it did not come from one of the estranged or aggrieved, the most telling remark on Trump’s health was offered by Democratic political consultant and strategist James Carville. In a posted video, Carville felt speculatively adventurous after the turbulent February 28 meeting between the US president and his Ukrainian counterpart, President Zelensky. “I want to seek the possibility that maybe I had a point considerably earlier than this when I pointed out on this very channel that Trump had red splotches on his hand which I was told by a number of medical professionals that when you see that condition the first thing you suspect is syphilis.” There you have it. Analysis can end, there and then.

    Many of these criticisms stem from dross from the first Trump administration, when opinion pieces questioning the man’s faculties and sanity became a feature. Often, they were slipshod and lazy, seduced by the Trump canard. Trump derangement syndrome is, after all, a hard thing to shake. His effect on US politics and its analysis has been so profound as to turn critics and commentators into replicates of his dislike of factual analysis. Just as book reviewers, as Cyril Connolly remarked, are bound to have their critical faculties blunted by the poor quality of books available for review, Trump as both subject and method has cut through the undergrowth of sensible discourse. The illness hypothesis is yet another example of this.

    Embracing such a proposition avoids the more fundamental point about Trump: that he does know more than you think about what he wants and how he wants to achieve it. He is most certainly a disturbed human being, infantilised, insecure, and prone to hazes of narcissism, but he can hardly be dismissed as a person without certain cerebral functions.

    With a vengeful conviction lacking in his first iteration, he is shaping aspects of US government that are both remarkable and disconcerting. On the international stage, he has finally stripped bare the cant pursued by the liberal and neoconservative internationalists who insist on a policing role for Washington in the name of “rules”. For them, the messianic role of the United States will guard the world against such nasties as rule-bending autocrats. The MAGA philosophy has its dangers and problems, but the mental illness of its chief proponent is not one of them.

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  • Animal Flu BS

    [M]ost people do not need to worry about getting the bird flu, and since there’s not yet evidence of human-to-human contact, there’s no immediate danger of a new bird flu pandemic.

    — Katie Kerwin McCrimmon, “From backyard chickens to house cats, the bird flu is spreading. Do you need to worry about another pandemic?” UCHealth, 24 February 2025

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  • Well Being: Measles – Truth Versus Fiction

    Measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000 due to a lack of continuous disease spread for more than 12 months (CDC). This was considered an outstanding achievement, and the CDC credited a highly effective vaccination program, with improved measles control in the Americas region. The truth is that almost as soon as measles was “eliminated” from the USA, once again outbreaks began to occur.

    Measles will most likely never be eradicated or eliminated in the USA or worldwide, even though it fits the criteria for a disease that theoretically could be eliminated. Scientists and public health agencies like to tout that the measles virus is relatively stable, animal reservoirs are not considered to exist (although debatable, as some primates have a significant minority of animals with antibodies against measles), and it is relatively easy to diagnose. Unfortunately, eliminating the measles virus globally is not as simple as it seems.

    Measles is a highly infectious disease. Therefore, in order to achieve herd immunity by dosing with the currently available leaky vaccines, it is estimated that there would need to be 95% vaccine coverage worldwide; currently, low-income countries have about 68% of their population vaccinated.

    The MMR vaccine is officially said to have a failure rate of around 5% among vaccinated individuals. While this may seem like a small percentage, it translates to roughly 3 million children aged 1-17 in the USA who are presumed to be protected but are probably not. Like many diseases, a mild case of measles after vaccination can be asymptomatic, which means individuals can spread the disease without knowing that they are infected (PubMed).

    There is documented evidence that the MMR vaccine has a much higher failure rate than stated above, and that would mean many more children are not protected than previously thought.

    Millions of people travel in and out of the U.S. yearly, so the USA will continue to experience more outbreaks, as the rate of measles infections in low-income countries is much higher. Due to regional variations in vaccine acceptance and the fact that there are concentrated locations where international travelers land, including due to the influx of economic migrants from regions where measles is endemic, these outbreaks will most likely be concentrated in specific areas. The chart below demonstrates that this has happened with the latest outbreak.

    Families are capable of evaluating the risks and benefits of getting vaccinated.

    Every medicine has risk. Beyond whether vaccines cause autism, serious adverse events from vaccination are not unheard of. Although current data are not definitive, largely due to underreporting, it is almost impossible to ascertain how many serious adverse events occur after measles-mumps-rubella vaccination. Parents have every right to be cautious about vaccinating their child, particularly after the jab disaster of the CovidCrisis.

    A personal risk-benefit analysis regarding vaccination, informed by fully transparent access to relevant data, and the freedom to act on that analysis is something that every parent and patient should have the right to undertake.

    This is what informed consent and freedom of choice are all about.

    Secretary Kennedy is not the cause of this current outbreak.

    One narrative currently being promoted in various left-wing legacy (dead) media that Secretary RFK Jr is somehow responsible for the current outbreak of measles is nothing more than political propaganda. There is no merit to this – it is intentional slander with no factual basis. But there are fact-based hypotheses that clarify the real factors that appear to be contributing to what is likely to be a self-limited outbreak based on similar recent measles group infection events.

    One fascinating hypothesis that recently came my way is that herd immunity against measles in the U.S. is decreasing yearly. But not for the reasons mentioned above. Immunity in the USA against measles is declining because older citizens, who have lifelong immunity to measles, are aging out of society (Casaris, 2014). The USA now has a predominantly MMR-vaccinated population, which has less immunity than those who were exposed to the disease, typically in childhood. The implication is that vaccine-resistant cases of measles are and will become more commonplace.

    Secondary vaccine failure occurs when an individual initially develops an adequate immune response to vaccination, but this protection wanes over time, leaving them susceptible to infection. This is referred to as a lack of vaccine “durability”.

    Vaccine-induced immunity from the measles vaccine is less long-lasting than immunity from natural infection. One study found that 20% of measles vaccinated individuals lacked detectable anti-measles IgG compared to only 6% of those with a history of measles infection (Bianchi, 2020).

    However, the continued headline hysterics over a few hundred cases yearly only leads to more fear and confusion.

    The bottom line is that as international travel increases and the vaccine failure rate of the MMR vaccine increases over time, there will be more measles cases and outbreaks in the USA. This problem won’t be solved with more mandates for the vaccination of school-aged children.

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  • “Quantitative Easing with Chinese Characteristics”

    China went from one of the poorest countries in the world to global economic powerhouse in a mere four decades. Currently featured in the news is DeepSeek, the free, open source A.I. built by innovative Chinese entrepreneurs which just pricked the massive U.S. A.I. bubble.

    Even more impressive, however, is the infrastructure China has built, including 26,000 miles of high speed rail, the world’s largest hydroelectric power station, the longest sea-crossing bridge in the world, 100,000 miles of expressway, the world’s first commercial magnetic levitation train, the world’s largest urban metro network, seven of the world’s 10 busiest ports, and solar and wind power generation accounting for over 35% of global renewable energy capacity. Topping the list is the Belt and Road Initiative, an infrastructure development program involving 140 countries, through which China has invested in ports, railways, highways and energy projects worldwide.

    All that takes money. Where did it come from? Numerous funding sources are named in mainstream references, but the one explored here is a rarely mentioned form of quantitative easing — the central bank just “prints the money.” (That’s the term often used, though printing presses aren’t necessarily involved.)

    From 1996 to 2024, the Chinese national money supply increased by a factor of more than 53 or 5300% — from 5.84 billion to 314 billion Chinese yuan (CNY) [see charts below]. How did that happen? Exporters brought the foreign currencies (largely U.S. dollars) they received for their goods to their local banks and traded them for the CNY needed to pay their workers and suppliers. The central bank —the Public Bank of China or PBOC — printed CNY and traded them for the foreign currencies, then kept the foreign currencies as reserves, effectively doubling the national export revenue.

    Investopedia confirms that policy, stating:

    One major task of the Chinese central bank, the PBOC, is to absorb the large inflows of foreign capital from China’s trade surplus. The PBOC purchases foreign currency from exporters and issues that currency in local yuan. The PBOC is free to publish any amount of local currency and have it exchanged for forex. … The PBOC can print yuan as needed …. [Emphasis added.]

    Interestingly, that huge 5300% explosion in local CNY did not trigger runaway inflation. In fact China’s consumer inflation rate, which was as high as 24% in 1994, leveled out after that and averaged 2.5% per year from 1996 to 2023.


    https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/CHN/china/inflation-rate-cpi?form=MG0AV3

    How was that achieved? As in the U.S., the central bank engages in “open market operations” (selling federal securities into the open market, withdrawing excess cash). It also imposes price controls on certain essential commodities. According to a report by Nasdaq, China has implemented price controls on iron ore, copper, corn, grain, meat, eggs and vegetables as part of its 14th five-year plan (2021-2025), to ensure food security for the population. Particularly important in maintaining price stability, however, is that the money has gone into manufacturing, production and infrastructure. GDP (supply) has gone up with demand (money), keeping prices stable. [See charts below.]


    https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/money-supply-m2Gross Domestic Product for China (MKTGDPCNA646NWDB) | FRED | St. Louis Fed


    Gross Domestic Product for China (MKTGDPCNA646NWDB) | FRED | St. Louis Fed

    The U.S., too, has serious funding problems today, and we have engaged in quantitative easing (QE) before. Could our central bank also issue the dollars we need without triggering the dreaded scourge of hyperinflation? This article will argue that we can. But first some Chinese economic history.

    From Rags to Riches in Four Decades

    China’s rise from poverty began in 1978, when Deng Xiaoping introduced market-oriented reforms. Farmers were allowed to sell their surplus produce in the market, doors were opened to foreign investors and private businesses and foreign companies were encouraged to grow. By the 1990s, China had become a major exporter of low-cost manufactured goods. Key factors included cheap labor, infrastructure development and World Trade Organization membership in 2001.

    Chinese labor is cheaper than in the U.S. largely because the government funds or subsidizes social needs, reducing the operational costs of Chinese companies and improving workforce productivity. The government invests heavily in public transportation infrastructure, including metros, buses and high-speed rail, making them affordable for workers and reducing the costs of getting manufacturers’ products to market.

    The government funds education and vocational training programs, ensuring a steady supply of skilled workers, with government-funded technical schools and universities producing millions of graduates annually. Affordable housing programs are provided for workers, particularly in urban areas.

    China’s public health care system, while not free, is heavily subsidized by the government. And a public pension system reduces the need for companies to offer private retirement plans. The Chinese government also provides direct subsidies and incentives to key industries, such as technology, renewable energy and manufacturing.

    After it joined the WTO, China’s exports grew rapidly, generating large trade surpluses and an influx of foreign currency, allowing the country to accumulate massive foreign exchange reserves. In 2010, China surpassed the U.S. as the world’s largest exporter. In the following decade, it shifted its focus to high-tech industries, and in 2013 the Belt and Road Initiative was launched. The government directed funds through state-owned banks and enterprises, with an emphasis on infrastructure and industrial development.

    Funding Exponential Growth

    In the early stages of reform, foreign investment was a key source of capital. Export earnings then generated significant foreign exchange reserves. China’s high savings rate provided a pool of liquidity for investment, and domestic consumption grew. Decentralizing the banking system was also key. According to a lecture by U.K. Prof. Richard Werner:

    Deng Xiaoping started with one mono bank. He realized quickly, scrap that; we’re going to have a lot of banks. He created small banks, community banks, savings banks, credit unions, regional banks, provincial banks. Now China has 4,500 banks. That’s the secret to success. That’s what we have to aim for. Then we can have prosperity for the whole world. Developing countries don’t need foreign money. They just need community banks supporting [local business] to have the money to get the latest technology.

    China managed to avoid the worst impacts of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. It did not devalue its currency; it maintained strict control over capital flows and the PBOC acted as a lender of last resort, providing liquidity to state-controlled banks when needed.

    In the 1990s, however, its four major state banks did suffer massive losses, with non-performing loans totaling more than 20% of their assets. Technically, the banks were bankrupt, but the government did not let them go bust. The non-performing loans were moved on to the balance sheets of four major asset management companies (“bad banks”), and the PBOC injected new capital into the “good banks.”

    In a January 2024 article titled “The Chinese Economy Is Due a Round of Quantitative Easing,” Prof. Li Wei, Director of the China Economy and Sustainable Development Center, wrote of this policy, “The central bank directly intervened in the economy by creating money. Seen this way, unconventional financing is nothing less than Chinese-style quantitative easing.”

    In an August 2024 article titled “China’s 100-billion-yuan Question: Does Rare Government Bond Purchase Alter Policy Course?,” Sylvia Ma wrote of China’s forays into QE:

    Purchasing government bonds in the secondary market is allowed under Chinese law, but the central bank is forbidden to subscribe to bonds directly issued by the finance ministry. [Note that this is also true of the U.S. Fed.] Such purchases from traders were tried on a small scale 20 years ago.

    However, the monetary authority resorted more to printing money equivalent to soaring foreign exchange reserves from 2001, as the country saw a robust increase in trade surplus following its accession to the World Trade Organization. [Emphasis added.]

    This is the covert policy of printing CNY and trading this national currency for the foreign currencies (mostly U.S. dollars) received from exporters.

    What does the PBOC do with the dollars? It holds a significant portion as foreign exchange reserves, to stabilize the CNY and manage currency fluctuations; it invests in U.S. Treasury bonds and other dollar-denominated assets to earn a return; and it uses U.S. dollars to facilitate international trade deals, many of which are conducted in dollars.

    The PBOC also periodically injects capital into the three “policy banks” through which the federal government implements its five-year plans. These are China Development Bank, the Export-Import Bank of China, and the Agricultural Development Bank of China, which provide loans and financing for domestic infrastructure and services as well as for the Belt and Road Initiative. A January 2024 Bloomberg article titled “China Injects $50 Billion Into Policy Banks in Financing Push” notes that the policy banks “are driven by government priorities more than profits,” and that some economists have called the PBOC funding injections “helicopter money” or “Chinese-style quantitative easing.”

    Prof. Li argues that with the current insolvency of major real estate developers and the rise in local government debt, China should engage in this overt form of QE today. Other commentators agree, and the government appears to be moving in that direction. Prof. Li writes:

    As long as it does not trigger inflation, quantitative easing can quickly and without limit generate sufficient liquidity to resolve debt issues and pump confidence into the market.…

    Quantitative easing should be the core of China’s macroeconomic policy, with more than 80% of funds coming from QE…

    As the central bank is the only institution in China with the power to create money, it has the ability to create a stable environment for economic growth. [Emphasis added.]

    Eighty-percent funding just from money-printing sounds pretty radical, but China’s macroeconomic policy is determined by five-year plans designed to serve the public and the economy, and the policy banks funding the plans are publicly-owned. That means profits are returned to the public purse, avoiding the sort of private financialization and speculative exploitation resulting when the U.S. Fed engaged in QE to bail out the banks after the 2007-08 banking crisis.

    The U.S. Too Could Use Another Round of QE — and Some Public Policy Banks

    There is no law against governments or their central banks just printing the national currency without borrowing it first. The U.S. Federal Reserve has done it, Abraham Lincoln’s Treasury did it, and it is probably the only way out of our current federal debt crisis. As Prof. Li observes, we can do it “without limit” so long as it does not trigger inflation.

    Financial commentator Alex Krainer observes that the total U.S. debt, public and private, comes to more than $101 trillion (citing the St. Louis Fed’s graph titled “All Sectors; Debt Securities and Loans”). But the monetary base — the reserves available to pay that debt — is only $5.6 trillion. That means the debt is 18 times the monetary base. The U.S. economy holds far fewer dollars than we need for economic stability.

    The dollar shortfall can be filled debt- and interest-free by the U.S. Treasury, just by printing dollars as Lincoln’s Treasury did (or by issuing them digitally). It can also be done by the Fed, which “monetizes” federal securities by buying them with reserves it issues on its books, then returns the interest to the Treasury and after deducting its costs. If the newly-issued dollars are used for productive purposes, supply will go up with demand, and prices should remain stable.

    Note that even social services, which don’t directly produce revenue, can be considered “productive” in that they support the “human capital” necessary for production. Workers need to be healthy and well educated in order to build competitively and well, and the government needs to supplement the social costs borne by companies if they are to compete with China’s subsidized businesses.

    Parameters would obviously need to be imposed to circumscribe Congress’s ability to spend “without limit,” backed by a compliant Treasury or Fed. An immediate need is for full transparency in budgeted expenditures. The Pentagon, for example, spends nearly $1 trillion of our taxpayer money annually and has never passed a clean audit, as required by law.

    We Sorely Need an Infrastructure Bank

    The U.S. is one of the few developed countries without an infrastructure bank. Ironically, it was Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Treasury secretary, who developed the model. Winning freedom from Great Britain left the young country with what appeared to be an unpayable debt. Hamilton traded the debt and a percentage of gold for non-voting shares in the First U.S. Bank, paying a 6% dividend. This capital was then leveraged many times over into credit to be used specifically for infrastructure and development. Based on the same model, the Second U.S. Bank funded the vibrant economic activity of the first decades of the United States.

    In the 1930s, Roosevelt’s government pulled the country out of the Great Depression by repurposing a federal agency called the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) into a lending machine for development on the Hamiltonian model. Formed under the Hoover administration, the RFC was not actually an infrastructure bank but it acted like one. Like China Development Bank, it obtained its liquidity by issuing bonds.

    The primary purchaser of RFC bonds was the federal government, driving up the federal debt; but the debt to GDP ratio evened out over the next four decades, due to the dramatic increase in productivity generated by the RFC’s funding of the New Deal and World War II. That was also true of the federal debt after the American Revolution and the Civil War.


    One chart that tells the story of US debt from 1790 to 2011

    A pending bill for an infrastructure bank on the Hamiltonian model is HR 4052, The National Infrastructure Bank Act of 2023, which ended 2024 with 48 sponsors and was endorsed by dozens of legislatures, local councils, and organizations. Like the First and Second U.S. Banks, it is intended to be a depository bank capitalized with existing federal securities held by the private sector, for which the bank will pay an additional 2% over the interest paid by the government. The bank will then leverage this capital into roughly 10 times its value in loans, as all depository banks are entitled to do. The bill proposes to fund $5 trillion in infrastructure capitalized over a 10-year period with $500 billion in federal securities exchanged for preferred (non-voting) stock in the bank. Like the RFC, the bank will be a source of off-budget financing, adding no new costs to the federal budget. (For more information, see https://www.nibcoalition.com/.)

    Growing Our Way Out of Debt

    Rather than trying to kneecap our competitors with sanctions and tariffs, we can grow our way to prosperity by turning on the engines of production. Far more can be achieved through cooperation than through economic warfare. DeepSeek set the tone with its free, open source model. Rather than a heavily guarded secret, its source code is freely available to be shared and built upon by entrepreneurs around the world.

    We can pull off our own economic miracle, funded with newly issued dollars backed by the full faith and credit of the government and the people. Contrary to popular belief, “full faith and credit” is valuable collateral, something even Bitcoin and gold do not have. It means the currency will be accepted everywhere – not just at the bank or the coin dealer’s but at the grocer’s and the gas station. If the government directs newly created dollars into new goods and services, supply will grow along with demand and the currency should retain its value. The government can print, pay for workers and materials, and produce its way into an economic renaissance.

    The post “Quantitative Easing with Chinese Characteristics” first appeared on Dissident Voice.

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  • Suffering an Epidemic of Prostate Cancer

    After decades of a prostate cancer epidemic and a refusal to screen Black men, who suffer a 60% higher incidence than White men, the highest in the industrialized world, physicians are now advocating refusal to screen ALL men.

    The American Cancer Society writes, “Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the US. It’s also the second leading cause of cancer death.  About 1 in 8 men will get prostate cancer in their lifetime.”  Knowing these facts about the cancer epidemic, The American Family Physician (AFP) has just published an editorial that calls on physicians to STOP screening men for prostate cancer. “Rather than treating the PSA (prostate specific antigen) as an elective test…primary care physicians should go back to discouraging its use.”

    The 2018 US Preventative Services Task Force stated, “Screening offers a small potential benefit of reducing the chance of death from prostate cancer in some men.”

    “More aggressive screening strategies particularly those that use a lower PSA threshold …., provide the greatest potential reduction in death from prostate cancer.”

    A report in the respected New England Journal of Medicine in 2020 reported that the benefit of PSA screening …“is qualitatively similar to recommendations supporting breast cancer screening.”

    While acknowledging that PSA screening saves lives the USPSTF does NOT call for universal screening for prostate cancer. The National Cancer Institute, 4/10/19, The American Cancer Society 3/11/16, and the American College of Physicians, 4/9/13, none of these organizations call for universal prostate cancer screening.

    Now the AFP opines that not ALL men should be screened. In face of a cancer epidemic screening tests should be improved not discouraged, and denied.

    Why is this happening?

    Men do NOT get universal prostate screening because of priorities and money.

    The PSA test is “a hugely expensive public health disaster”. “As Congress searches for ways to cut costs in our health care system, a significant savings could come from changing the way the antigen is used to screen for prostate cancer.”  “Americans waste an enormous amount of money on an inaccurate test for prostate cancer.

    The political priorities are obvious: Trillions of dollars in tax cuts for corporations and the rich, and trillions in dollars for the military–war machine.

    Should we accept the decision to place more value on profits and war than on the people’s health and welfare?

    The post Suffering an Epidemic of Prostate Cancer first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Livin’ La Vida Loca

    Waking up, day after day, and seeing continuous disasters visited upon the Palestinian people forecasts a day of facing the light at an increasingly dark level. It is impossible to be unaware of the genocide; yet an entire nation reinforces it. The American people are disposed to the sufferings its government inflicts upon others.

    Election of an authoritarian to the highest office, who appoints cabinet positions with qualifications that require little experience in government affairs and extensive experience in extramarital affairs, completes the mystification. Elise Stefanik, selected as America’s representative to the United Nations, agrees to the proposition that “Israel has a biblical right to the West Bank.” Shuddering! Doesn’t qualification for a cabinet position require knowledge that the bible does not determine right and that the Earth is round and not flat? Hopefully, UN security guards will bar entry of her and other vocal terrorists into the UN building.

    Maintaining the Declaration of Independence and Constitution will be a battle. Refusing to have the Old Testament on a night table and the Ten Commandments on the living room wall will be challenging . Knowing that America is in a dystopia, “livin’ a vida loca,” will be difficult to absorb. These are not the principal problems that prevent America from being great again. The principal problem in the United States is a government that has been unable to resolve its problems. For decades, a multitude of problems have surfaced, talked about, and been ignored. Suggestions for solutions are cast aside as empty words ─ U.S. governments are only interested in donor offerings and contributing lobbyists; attention to the people’s problems is time consuming and not remunerative.

    Look at the extensive record of problems, which has been growing for decades and have some obvious solutions. After these crisp answers, I might elaborate on them in forthcoming articles.

    (1) Social Security
    The ready to collapse Social Security system has present earners paying for retired workers and closely resembles a national pension plan. Instead of having workers and corporations pay FICA taxes, why not collect revenue from income and corporation taxes and finance a real national pension plan?

    (2) Gun Violence
    Decades of gun violence and shootings in schools have been succeeded by decades of gun violence and shootings in schools. An idea ─ get rid of the guns; nobody will miss them.

    (3) Climate Change
    In the 1964 presidential contest between Senator Goldwater and President Johnson, Goldwater posed as the “war hawk,” ready to pounce on the North Vietnamese. Johnson’s famous phrase was, “I’ll not have American boys do what Vietnamese boys should do.” After Johnson won the presidency and had “American boys do what Vietnamese boys should do,” Goldwater voters reminded everyone, “They told me if I voted for Goldwater our military intervention in Vietnam would greatly increase. I voted for Goldwater and they were correct.”

    In all elections, voters are reminded that voting Republican enhances global warming. In all elections that the Democrats won, those who voted Republican noted that global warming continued to increase.

    (4) Government debt
    Mention government debt and blood boils ─ another of those internalized issues, courtesy of the mind manipulators. Government debt is the result of problems and not the problem. The problems are (1) Income taxes are too low to finance meaningful government projects; (2) The military spending is too high and; (3) The economy runs on debt and government debt rescues a faltering economy. Give attention to the real problems and government debt will be greatly reduced.

    (5) War
    Since its official inception in 1789, the United States has attached itself to war in almost every day of its existence. Not widely mentioned and not widely apparent, U.S. forces are still shooting it up in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and parts of Africa. U.S. arms explode throughout the world. U.S. involvement in the genocide of the Palestinian people is inescapable. Americans do not know they prosper on the degradation of others and they survive well because others do not survive at all. While intending to end all wars, President Trump may learn that the U.S. cannot progress without war; war is a preventive for economic and social collapse in all 50 states.

    (6) Immigration
    Immigration to the United States has become a political football. Political correctness, catering to voters, and ultra-Right nationalism vs. ultra-Left internationalism have strangled an intelligent and objective analysis of a major issue, which is not immigration. The major issue is that the U.S. has supported oligarchies in Latin American nations. These oligarchies have created significant social and economic problems, which the disenfranchised relieve by fleeing to America’s shores. Uncontrolled emigration to the United States skews nations from their natural growth and conveniently deters them from seeking approaches to resolve their problems. The U.S. contributes to the emigration problem and should resolve the problem and not perpetuate it. Wouldn’t it be beneficial for all countries, including the United States, if the Latinos did not have the urge to emigrate?

    (7) International terrorism
    The September 11, 2001 attack – the first aerial bombings on American soil – compelled the United States government to wage a War on Terrorism. After more than twenty years of this battle, the U.S. has neither won the war nor totally contained terrorism; just the opposite ─ terrorism has grown in size, geographical extent, and power. Observe Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, and all of North Africa. One reason for this contradiction is obvious; the initial source of international terrorism is Israel’s terrorism in the West Bank and Gaza. The U.S. blends its battle against terrorism with preservation of American global interests. Each blended component contradicts the other and creates confusing missions in the U.S. War on Terrorism.

    (8) Economy
    A roller coaster American economy of accelerated growth and gasping recessions flattened itself with slow but steady growth in the Democratic administrations that succeeded the George W. Bush recession. Now we have Donald J. Trump, who claims he had the greatest economy ever, when all presidents had, in their times, the greatest economy ever, and previous administrations had more rapid growth and captured much more of world production. By proposing lower taxes, lower interest rates, and blistering tariffs, Trump is heading the U.S. into massive speculation, heightened debt, increased inflation, a falling dollar, and a return to a 19th century economy of robber barons, boom-and-bust, financial bankruptcies, and a drastic “beggar thy neighbor” policy. His sink China policy will sink the United States. America will no longer have friendly neighbors and might become the beggar.

    (9) Racism
    The United States consists of a mixture of several cultures and has no unique culture. People feel comfortable in their own culture and attach themselves to others and to institutions that reflect that culture. In a competitive society, this extends to gaining economic advantage and security by dominating other cultures. Social, political, and economic agendas use racism to promote this strategy and maintain domination.

    Competition between cultures, manifested as racism, is built into the American socio-economic system. Political, legal, and educational methods have ameliorated racism and have not abolished its corrosive effects. Slow progress to an integrated and unified culture, decades away, might finally resolve the problem of racism.

    (10) Health Care
    Health care is posed as a financial problem, insufficient funds to treat all equally. Health care is a socio-economic problem, where statistics show that nations having the most unequal distribution of income have the most maladjusted health care. More equal distribution of income is a key to adequate health care for all.

    (11) Political Divide
    Connie Morella, previous representative from Maryland’s 8th congressional district, enjoyed saying, “I sit and serve in the people’s house,” a phrase echoed by many congressionals. No people or sitters exist in the “people’s house.” Representatives stand for the special interest groups, Lobbies, and Political Action Committees (PAC) that donate to their campaigns and assure their return to office. The two political Parties stand united against the wants of the other and the political divide leads to political stagnation. Whatever Gilda wants, Gilda does not get. America coasts on a frictionless surface of contracting previous legislation and inaction, which is its preferred method of government.

    (12) Foreign Policy
    All administrations, the present included, have had foreign policies driven by two words, “empire expansion.” Until now, the U.S. has sought markets and resources and financed the expansion from its own banks. Donald trump seeks expansion by real estate maneuvers and seeks to have foreign sources finance the expansion. This emperor has no clothes and will bankrupt the U.S. in the same manner as he bankrupted his real estate enterprises.

    (13) Drug Addiction
    The epidemic drug addiction problem summarizes the attention given to most other national problems — despite a century of organized efforts to subdue the problem, “New numbers show drug abuse is getting worse across the country and in every community. Overdose deaths have never been higher and opioids and synthetic drugs are major contributors to the rising numbers.” President Nixon popularized the term “war on drugs,” but his administration’s Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 had an antecedent in the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914.

    Blaming China for supplying fentanyl ingredients to Mexican manufacturers, only one part of the total drug economy, does not change the source of the drug addiction and provides no resolution to the problem. Looking elsewhere, at nations where drug addiction is minor or has been alleviated is a start. Japan has a “strong social stigma against drug use, and some of the strictest drug laws globally; Iceland responded to high rates of teen substance abuse with “a comprehensive program that included increased funding for organized sports, music, and art programs, as well as a strictly enforced curfew for teens;” Singapore’s “notoriously strict drug laws have resulted in some of the lowest addiction rates in the world, including a zero-tolerance approach to drug use and trafficking, with mandatory death penalties for certain drug offenses;” Sweden “combines strict laws with a comprehensive rehabilitation approach in a ‘caring society’ model that emphasizes treatment and social support over punishment. Time Magazine recommends another approach.

    …history exposes the truth: the drug war isn’t winnable, as the Global Commission on Drug Policy stated in 2011. And simply legalizing marijuana is not enough. Instead only a wholesale rethinking of drug policy—one that abandons criminalization and focuses on true harm reduction, not coercive rehabilitation—can begin to undo the damage of decades of a misguided “war.”

    Skewing the GDP
    Replacing a building destroyed in a catastrophe augments the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in four ways — housing and helping those affected by the catastrophe, responding to mitigating the catastrophe, tearing down the destroyed home, and building a new home. The GDP benefits from the continual and unresolved problems.

    • Opioid cases generated a cost estimated at $1.5 trillion in the United States for the year 2010.
    • Gun violence generates over $1 billion in direct health care costs for victims and their families each year.
    • Climate change during 2011-2020 decade cost $1.5T in losses (Ed: might be debatable).
    • Health care costs are almost 20 percent of GDP.
    • The Defense budget for 2025 is $850 billion.

    In the disturbing world that is characterizing the United States, a combination of political stagnation, misdirection action, and low level of intellect and knowledge prevents solutions to recurring problems. American nationalists boast about having the highest GDP, not realizing that the boast uses tragedy to disguise more significant tragedies — moral, political, and economic decay of the once mighty USA.

    Upside, inside, out
    She’s livin’ la vida loca

    She’ll push and pull you down
    Livin’ la vida loca

    Her lips are devil red
    And her skin’s the color of mocha
    She will wear you out
    Livin’ la vida loca

    Livin’ la vida loca
    She’s livin’ la vida loca.

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  • United Health

    The post United Health first appeared on Dissident Voice.

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  • Cavity and Periodontal Disease Prevention

    Our teeth are our only permanent body part, so it makes sense that they must be cared for if you are going to live a long, healthy life. Unlike the rest of our body, once formed, they are not continually rebuilt through routine metabolism. Teeth are, under healthy conditions, essentially indestructible, as demonstrated by fossil records and forensic medicine. Yet, as we go about our daily lives, microorganisms constantly assault our teeth. This battle results in dental infections, a universal affliction of humankind — the discomfort caused by these infections and their enormous cost. Dental infections rank third in medical expenses in the United States, right behind heart disease and cancer. Furthermore, dental disease is closely linked to the development of a variety of heart diseases.

    Beginning in the 1940s, a consensus emerged (particularly in the United States) that the risks and consequences of dental disease could be prevented mainly by ensuring that children consume adequate levels of a chemical called “fluoride” in their diet so that it would then be incorporated into their developing teeth. Based on this belief, most US municipal water systems began injecting fluoride into drinking water. In 2014, three-quarters of the US population on the public water supply received fluoridated water, representing two-thirds of the total US population. Despite this intervention, dental disease remains near the top of US health cost drivers. It is time to revisit the mid-20th century consensus on fluoride supplementation. The metadata indicates that the mandated intervention is not curing the problem.

    Recent scientific study data, including a comprehensive evaluation by the US HHS National Toxicology Program, indicate that “higher levels of fluoride exposure, such as drinking water containing more than 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter, are associated with lower IQ in children.” This finding underscores a couple of central principles of pharmacology and toxicology – first, all substances (including generally beneficial supplements) are toxic at some dose. Secondly, there is no substitute for long-term studies in the species of interest (humans) because cumulative effects may not be revealed in short-term analyses. Sound familiar? Basic principles.

    The key is to understand and dose according to the “therapeutic window,” and to control exposure so that toxic levels are avoided while maintaining therapeutic levels. The issue with injecting fluoride into municipal water supplies are twofold. First, there no practical informed consent option has been available for what is essentially a medical treatment. We are just told to “trust the experts.” Second, the overall dosing of fluoride is uncontrolled- the mineral is present in various ingested materials (including toothpaste!), and people (including children) consume variable amounts of water. These new findings demonstrate that the therapeutic window for fluoride dosing is much narrower than previously believed. In sum, recent US HHS analyses demonstrate that fluoride is toxic at levels consistent with currently supplemented municipal water supplies.

    If you actually “follow the science,“ it is time to rethink the consensus public health policy position on municipal water fluoridation. We have discovered another example of “Groupthink” among public health policy “experts.” Have we (and our children) once again become unwitting “victims” of this phenomenon?

    Outside North America, water fluoridation was adopted in some European countries, but in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Denmark and Sweden banned fluoridation when government panels found insufficient evidence of safety, and the Netherlands banned water fluoridation when “a group of medical practitioners presented evidence” that it caused negative effects in a percentage of the population.

    The American Dental Association (ADA) does not mention the dangers of fluoride in its fluoride promotion literature. Likewise, the American Association of Family Practitioners (AAFP) – does not disclose the neurodevelopment issues with fluoride. Both of these organizations are primarily acting to reinforce outdated public health “consensus” rather than keeping practitioners and the public fully informed of recent findings in a balanced and transparent fashion.

    Informed by these recent findings, HHS Secretary nominee Robert F Kennedy Jr. has stated that “the Trump White House will advise all U.S​. water systems to remove fluoride from public water” on Inauguration Day has prompted widespread attacks from mainstream media and public health officials who appear to be unaware of the changes in understanding the toxicology of fluoride. Once again, widely quoted “experts in public health” are being revealed as reflexively strident defenders of outdated groupthink consensus and are gaslighting, demeaning, and attempting to delegitimize others who are more up-to-date with recent findings. Sound familiar?

    Cavities have caused tooth pain and systemic human disease for millions of years. Fossils from the Australopithecus species reveal some of the earliest dental caries from 1.1 million to 4.4 million years ago. Mesolithic skulls (8,000 years BC) also show signs of cavities. Two leading factors contributing to increases in dental caries appear to be the consumption of plant-based foods containing carbohydrates and rice cultivation between 7,000 BC and 5,500 BC. This led to the development of the first cavity treatments in Pakistan in around the same era. In the 11th century, the appearance of sugar cane led to an increase in reported cavities.

    Humans existed for millennia without supplemental fluoride. Are there better, more effective options other than functionally mandating uncontrolled treatment of children with fluoride and consequently risking cognitive damage? The short answer is surprisingly simple and hauntingly familiar to those who have “followed the science” of COVID early treatment protocols: reduce exposure to refined sugar and simple carbohydrate-rich diets and ensure adequate Vitamin D levels.

    Caries (tooth decay) and periodontal disease are the two most prevalent oral health conditions, affecting millions worldwide. The impact of these diseases extends beyond oral health; they have profound implications for overall well-being, quality of life, and healthy functioning of many other parts of the body, including the heart. The mouth, particularly the junction between tooth and gum, is a common portal of entry for a range of pathogens, mainly bacteria and fungi. Our mouths are typically colonized by 200 to 300 bacterial species, but only a limited number of these species participate in dental decay (caries) or periodontal disease.

    The main bad actors are the bacteria Streptococcus mutans, and the fungus Candida albicans. These two species cooperate with each other to form biofilms, which create a protected microenvironment that covers teeth and gums. You can think of this as like an umbrella that protects these two from assault by your oral immune system. The biofilms then enable the two species (and other camp followers) to manipulate that protected space to support their own metabolic needs – at the expense of underlying teeth and gums. All of this is greatly facilitated by dietary simple sugars and carbohydrates, which Streptococcus and Candida consume as food. But what is the biofilm “umbrella” protecting these opportunists from? Our oral (mucosal) immune system.

    The oral immune system is a complex network of defense mechanisms that work together to protect the oral cavity from pathogens and maintain oral health. A key component of mucosal immunity, the oral immune system plays a vital component of the body’s defense against pathogens and other foreign substances. It plays a crucial role in protecting the oral cavity, including the teeth, gums, tongue, and lips, from infection and inflammation. The oral immune system has four major components. Innate immunity: The oral epithelium and resident immune cells (e.g., macrophages, dendritic cells) recognize and respond to pathogens through pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and Toll-like receptors (TLRs). Adaptive immunity: T-cells and B-cells recognize and respond to specific oral antigens, leading to the production of cytokines and antibodies. Cytokine networks: The oral immune system relies on complex cytokine networks, including IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, and IFN-γ, to coordinate the immune response. Saliva: Saliva contains antimicrobial factors, such as lysozyme, lactoferrin, and histatin, which help to neutralize pathogens and maintain oral health.

    We have briefly summarized the emerging consensus on the narrowing therapeutic window for fluoride, as well as the role of sugar, simple carbohydrates, biofilms, bacteria and yeast in promoting tooth decay. But what about vitamin D?

    The following is an AI-generated summary of the current state of vitamin D deficiency in American children and adults:

    “A more comprehensive analysis using NHANES data from 2001 to 2018 found that 2.6% of Americans have severe vitamin D deficiency (<25 nmol/L) and 22.0% have moderate deficiency (25-50 nmol/L. Some studies report higher rates, with one estimating that 41.6% of US adults are vitamin D deficient.”

    “9% of the pediatric population, representing 7.6 million US children and adolescents, were vitamin D deficient (defined as 25(OH)D levels <15 ng/mL). 12.1% of children in a sample of healthy infants and toddlers were vitamin D deficient (defined as ≤20 ng/mL). Approximately 15% of children ages 1 through 11 and 14% of children and teens ages 12 through 19 are estimated to be vitamin D deficient.”

    Adequate vitamin D levels are essential for immunologic function and health. The oral immune system plays a crucial role in protecting oral health and resisting the development of dental caries and periodontal disease. So, it is reasonable to ask whether vitamin D has any role in protecting against dental disease.

    The short answer is absolutely yes! The emerging data suggest that adequate levels of Vitamin D3 provide huge benefits in preventing dental disease in both adults and children.

    References on Vitamin D3, dental caries in adults and children, and periodontal disease.

    1. Al-Jubori, S. H., M. A. Al-Murad, and F. A. Al-Mashhadane. “Effect of Oral Vitamin D3 on Dental Caries: An in-Vivo and in-Vitro Study.” Cureus 14, no. 5 (May 2022): e25360. https://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.25360.

    Aim: Vitamin D3 plays an important role in affecting the overall remineralization process of the dentition. The use of supplements help to keep the levels at optimum and thus reduce the chances of treating very early lesion of caries. Hence the aim was to investigate the indirect effects of oral vitamin D3 on microhardness and elemental weight percentage of Calcium (Ca) and Phosphorous (P) in enamel surface with an artificially initiated carious lesion.

    Results: For all specimens, there was a significant decrease in both (Ca and P weight %) after demineralization and then they significantly increased after receiving vitamin D3. The microhardness and elemental analysis provide confirmed results that were represented as a statistically significant difference at (P≤ 0.05) between groups that received vitamin D3 and those without vitamin D3 dosage.

    Conclusions: Oral vitamin D3 has a significant potential in motivating remineralization of early lesions on the enamel surfaces representing improved surface microhardness and minerals content (Ca and P weight %) of demineralized tooth surfaces.

    References on Vitamin D3, dental caries in adults and children, and periodontal disease.

    • Behm, C., A. Blufstein, J. Gahn, A. Moritz, X. Rausch-Fan, and O. Andrukhov. “25-Hydroxyvitamin D(3) Generates Immunomodulatory Plasticity in Human Periodontal Ligament-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells That Is Inflammatory Context-Dependent.” Front Immunol 14 (2023): 1100041. https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1100041.

    Conclusion: These data indicate that 25(OH)D3 influences the immunomodulatory activities of hPDL-MSCs. This modulatory potential seems to have high plasticity depending on the local cytokine conditions and may be involved in regulating periodontal tissue inflammatory processes.

    1. Blufstein, A., C. Behm, B. Kubin, J. Gahn, X. Rausch-Fan, A. Moritz, and O. Andrukhov. “Effect of Vitamin D(3) on the Osteogenic Differentiation of Human Periodontal Ligament Stromal Cells under Inflammatory Conditions.” J Periodontal Res 56, no. 3 (Jun 2021): 579-88. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jre.12858.

    Objectives: Vitamin D3 is known to activate osteogenic differentiation of human periodontal ligament stromal cells (hPDLSCs). Recently, inflammatory stimuli were shown to inhibit the transcriptional activity of hPDLSCs, but their effect on vitamin D3-induced osteogenic differentiation is not known. The present study aimed to investigate whether the effects of 1,25-dihydroxvitamin D3 (1,25(OH)2D3) and 25-hydroxvitamin D3 (25(OH)D3) on the osteogenic differentiation of hPDLSCs are also altered under inflammatory conditions. Furthermore, the expression of osteogenesis-related factors by hPDLSCs under osteogenic conditions was assessed in the presence of inflammatory stimuli.

    Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that inflammatory stimuli also diminish the 1,25(OH)2D3-induced expression of osteogenesis-related factors in hPDLSCs under osteogenic conditions, while having no effect on the osteogenic differentiation.

    1. Buzatu, R., M. M. Luca, and B. A. Bumbu. “A Systematic Review of the Relationship between Serum Vitamin D Levels and Caries in the Permanent Teeth of Children and Adolescents.” Dent J (Basel) 12, no. 4 (Apr 22 2024). https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/dj12040117.

    Abstract: This systematic review critically evaluates the association between serum Vitamin D levels and dental caries incidence in the permanent teeth of children and adolescents. The search strategy comprised three databases (PubMed, Scopus, Embase), up to November 2023, targeting studies on the correlation between Vitamin D and dental caries in permanent dentition. The eligibility criteria focused on observational studies involving children and adolescents aged 12 to 19 years with permanent dentition. The screening process, guided by the PRISMA guidelines and the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale for quality assessment, resulted in the inclusion of eight studies conducted across various global regions from 2013 to 2023. The analysis revealed that Vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency were prevalent among the study populations, ranging from 17.3% to 69.4%. Specifically, children and adolescents with Vitamin D insufficiency (<50 nmol/L) were found to have significantly higher odds of developing caries, with odds ratios (ORs) ranging from 1.13 to 2.57. Conversely, two studies indicated a protective effect of higher Vitamin D levels, with an OR of 0.80 and 0.59, respectively, for caries among children and adolescents with serum levels ≥ 50 nmol/L, suggesting an inverse relationship between Vitamin D status and caries risk. The results indicate both the protective role of adequate serum levels of Vitamin D above 20 ng/mL and the increased risk associated with insufficient levels below this threshold. However, the variations in study quality, methodologies and geographic settings underscore the challenges in drawing universal conclusions. Despite these limitations, our review suggests that improving Vitamin D status could be a beneficial component of preventive strategies against dental caries in children and adolescents, warranting further research to clarify the clinical significance of our findings.

    1. Dietrich, T., K. J. Joshipura, B. Dawson-Hughes, and H. A. Bischoff-Ferrari. “Association between Serum Concentrations of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 and Periodontal Disease in the Us Population.” Am J Clin Nutr 80, no. 1 (Jul 2004): 108-13. https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/80.1.108.

    Background: Periodontal disease (PD) is a common chronic inflammatory disease and an important risk factor for tooth loss. Vitamin D might affect periodontal disease risk via an effect on bone mineral density (BMD) or via immunomodulatory effects.

    Objective: The objective was to evaluate whether serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 [25(OH)D3] concentrations are associated with PD in the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

    Design: We analyzed data on periodontal attachment loss (AL) and serum 25(OH)D3 concentrations from 11 202 subjects aged ≥20 y. Mean AL was modeled in a multiple linear regression with quintile of serum 25(OH)D3 concentration as an independent variable. The model was stratified by age and sex and was adjusted for age within age groups, race or ethnicity, smoking, diabetes, poverty income ratio, body mass index, estrogen use, and gingival bleeding.

    Results: 25(OH)D3 concentrations were significantly and inversely associated with AL in men and women aged ≥50 y. Compared with men in the highest 25(OH)D3 quintile, those in the lowest quintile had a mean AL that was 0.39 mm (95% CI: 0.17, 0.60 mm) higher; in women, the difference in AL between the lowest and highest quintiles was 0.26 mm (0.09, 0.43 mm). In men and women younger than 50 y, there was no significant association between 25(OH)D3 and AL. The BMD of the total femoral region was not associated with AL and did not mediate the association between 25(OH)D3 and AL.

    Conclusions: Low serum 25(OH)D3 concentrations may be associated with PD independently of BMD. Given the high prevalence of PD and vitamin D deficiency, these findings may have important public health implications.

    1. Dura-Trave, T., and F. Gallinas-Victoriano. “Dental Caries in Children and Vitamin D Deficiency: A Narrative Review.” Eur J Pediatr 183, no. 2 (Feb 2024): 523-28. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00431-023-05331-3.

    Dental caries represents one of the most prevalent health problems in childhood. Numerous studies have assessed that vitamin D deficiency is highly related to dental caries in primary and permanent teeth in children. The aim of this study is to elaborate a narrative review about proposed mechanisms by which vitamin D deficiency interacts with dental caries process in children. Vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy may cause intrauterine enamel defects, and through childhood is accompanied by insufficient activity of antibacterial peptides, decreased saliva secretion, and a low level of calcium in saliva.

    Conclusion: In conclusion, vitamin D deficiency would increase the risk of caries in the primary and/or permanent dentition. Relationship between vitamin D deficiency and dental caries is evident enough for vitamin D deficiency to be considered as a risk factor for dental caries in children. Optimal levels of vitamin D throughout pregnancy and childhood may be considered an additional preventive measure for dental caries in the primary and permanent dentition.

    1. Govindharajulu, R., N. K. Syed, B. Sukumaran, P. R. Seshadri, S. Mathivanan, and N. Ramkumar. “Assessment of the Antibacterial Effect of Vitamin D3 against Red Complex Periodontal Pathogens: A Microbiological Assay.” J Contemp Dent Pract 25, no. 2 (Feb 1 2024): 114-17. https://dx.doi.org/10.5005/jp-journals-10024-3642.
    2. Kalra, G., Y. Kumar, C. Langpoklakpam, T. Chawla, T. Thangaraju, and R. Singhania. “Relationship between Maternal Prenatal Vitamin D Status and Early Childhood Caries in Their Children: A Cross-Sectional Survey.” Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 17, no. 8 (Aug 2024): 860-63. https://dx.doi.org/10.5005/jp-journals-10005-2836.
    3. Li, Z., X. Wei, Z. Shao, H. Liu, and S. Bai. “Correlation between Vitamin D Levels in Serum and the Risk of Dental Caries in Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” BMC Oral Health 23, no. 1 (Oct 19 2023): 768. https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12903-023-03422-z.
    4. Liu, K., H. Meng, R. Lu, L. Xu, L. Zhang, Z. Chen, D. Shi, X. Feng, and X. Tang. “Initial Periodontal Therapy Reduced Systemic and Local 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D(3) and Interleukin-1beta in Patients with Aggressive Periodontitis.” J Periodontol 81, no. 2 (Feb 2010): 260-6. https://dx.doi.org/10.1902/jop.2009.090355.
    5. Patil, V. S., R. S. Mali, and A. S. Moghe. “Evaluation and Comparison of Vitamin D Receptors in Periodontal Ligament Tissue of Vitamin D-Deficient Chronic Periodontitis Patients before and after Supplementation of Vitamin D3.” J Indian Soc Periodontol 23, no. 2 (Mar-Apr 2019): 100-05. https://dx.doi.org/10.4103/jisp.jisp_173_18.
    6. Pu, R., M. Fu, N. Li, and Z. Jiang. “A Certain Protective Effect of Vitamin D against Dental Caries in Us Children and Youth: A Cross-Sectional Study.” J Public Health Dent 83, no. 3 (Jul 2023): 231-38. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jphd.12571.
    7. Sahin, M., and I. R. Toptanci. “Evaluation of Serum Levels in Children with Delayed Eruption.” BMC Oral Health 24, no. 1 (Nov 21 2024): 1418. https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12903-024-05210-9.
    8. Tapalaga, G., B. A. Bumbu, S. R. Reddy, S. D. Vutukuru, A. Nalla, F. Bratosin, R. M. Fericean, C. Dumitru, D. C. Crisan, N. Nicolae, and M. M. Luca. “The Impact of Prenatal Vitamin D on Enamel Defects and Tooth Erosion: A Systematic Review.” Nutrients 15, no. 18 (Sep 5 2023). https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu15183863.
    9. Wang, Q., X. Zhou, P. Zhang, P. Zhao, L. Nie, N. Ji, Y. Ding, and Q. Wang. “25-Hydroxyvitamin D(3) Positively Regulates Periodontal Inflammaging Via Socs3/Stat Signaling in Diabetic Mice.” Steroids 156 (Apr 2020): 108570. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.steroids.2019.108570.
    10. Wojcik, D., A. Krzewska, L. Szalewski, E. Pietryka-Michalowska, M. Szalewska, S. Krzewski, E. Pels, and I. Ben-Skowronek. “Dental Caries and Vitamin D3 in Children with Growth Hormone Deficiency: A Strobe Compliant Study.” Medicine (Baltimore) 97, no. 8 (Feb 2018): e9811. https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000009811.
    11. Wojcik, D., L. Szalewski, E. Pietryka-Michalowska, J. Borowicz, E. Pels, and I. Ben-Skowronek. “Vitamin D(3) and Dental Caries in Children with Growth Hormone Deficiency.” Int J Endocrinol 2019 (2019): 2172137. https://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/2172137.
    12. Zameer, M., S. Wali Peeran, S. Nahid Basheer, S. Ali Peeran, G. Anwar Naviwala, and S. Badiujjama Birajdar. “Molar Incisor Hypomineralization: Prevalence, Severity and Associated Aetiological Factors in Children Seeking Dental Care at Armed Forces Hospital Jazan, Saudi Arabia.” Saudi Dent J 36, no. 8 (Aug 2024): 1111-16. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sdentj.2024.06.003.
    13. Zhang, C., K. Liu, and J. Hou. “Extending the Vitamin D Pathway to Vitamin D(3) and Cyp27a1 in Periodontal Ligament Cells.” J Periodontol 92, no. 7 (Jul 2021): 44-53. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/JPER.20-0225.
    14. Zhang, P., W. Zhang, D. Zhang, M. Wang, R. Aprecio, N. Ji, O. Mohamed, Y. Li, Y. Ding, and Q. Wang. “25-Hydroxyvitamin D(3) -Enhanced Ptpn2 Positively Regulates Periodontal Inflammation through the Jak/Stat Pathway in Human Oral Keratinocytes and a Mouse Model of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.” J Periodontal Res 53, no. 3 (Jun 2018): 467-77. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jre.12535.
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  • No Screening for Black Men’s Prostate Cancer Epidemic 

    Would the below statements from the American Family Physician (11/2024) be true if, after 40 years of a prostate cancer epidemic, it was White men, not Black men who have been suffering and dying?

    “Black men: Compared with White men, Black men have a more than 60% higher incidence of prostate cancer, an earlier age at diagnosis, a higher rate of metastatic cancer at the time of diagnosis, and a two to three-fold higher rate of prostate cancer mortality.  Unfortunately, none of the large prostate cancer screening trials included adequate numbers of Black men to determine any specific recommendations for screening.”1

    Black men in the U.S. have the highest rate of prostate cancer in the industrialized world. It is a leading cause of death for all men and Black men die from this cancer at over twice the rate of White men. The cancer in Blacks often spreads more quickly if not aggressively treated.

    Over the last forty years, at least 30,000 Black men have died yearly from prostate cancer. Screening with the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test can find this cancer early.

    The 2018 US Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) report stated: “Screening offers a small potential benefit of reducing the chance of death from prostate cancer in some men.” “More aggressive screening strategies particularly those that use a lower PSA threshold …., provide the greatest potential reduction in death from prostate cancer.”

    While acknowledging that PSA screening saves lives the USPSTF does NOT call for universal screening of Black men for prostate cancer. The National Cancer Institute, 4/10/19, The American Cancer Society 3/11/16, and the American College of Physicians, 4/9/13, none of these organizations call for universal prostate cancer screening for Black men.

    Why?

    Black men do NOT get universal prostate screening because of priorities and money.

     The PSA test is “a hugely expensive public health disaster”. “As Congress searches for ways to cut costs in our health care system, a significant savings could come from changing the way the antigen is used to screen for prostate cancer.”2

    Americans waste an enormous amount of money on an inaccurate test for prostate cancer.

    Even a blind man can see that Black men are not a priority.

    The political priorities are obvious: Trillions of dollars in tax cuts for corporations and the rich, and trillions in dollars for the military–war machine.

    Are all lives equally worthy?

    ENDNOTES:

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  • Disappeared Doctors

    We are in some of the darkest days of this genocide. The Israeli military is currently carrying out a systemic extermination campaign in north Gaza, committing massacre after massacre while completely cutting off humanitarian aid and banning UNRWA.

    On October 29, 2024, an Israeli airstrike killed 93 Palestinians in Beit Lahia, north Gaza. Those injured in the massacre have no access to medical care, because on October 26, 2024, Israeli forces attacked Kamal Adwan Hospital and abducted 44 of its 70 staff. Our latest visual highlights the continuous targeting of Palestinian healthcare workers and facilities by Israeli forces in Gaza, focusing on the enforced disappearance, torture, and murder of Dr. Iyad Rantisi, the director of the maternity department at Kamal Adwan Hospital.

    Dr. Rantisi is one of at least three Palestinian doctors murdered in Israeli custody since October 2023. Israeli attacks on hospitals and health workers, which initially shocked and outraged the world in 2023, have now become a constant, routine feature of this genocide. By devastating the health system in Gaza, Israeli forces are “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” as described by the genocide convention. In these conditions, those who are not immediately killed by direct violence are more likely to die slowly due to lack of access to medical services, denial of humanitarian aid, mass starvation, untreated traumatic injuries, and disease.

    This is the third visual in a series raising awareness about Israel’s practices of mass incommunicado detention and torture of Palestinians. Our first visual illustrates the testimony of Fadi Bakr, a law student from Gaza City, who was captured by Israeli soldiers in early January and spent more than 30 days in Sde Teiman, part of a network of Israeli torture camps. The second visual captures the testimony of Palestinian women from Gaza who were arbitrarily detained and held incommunicado by Israel.

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  • He-Man: I Have the Powerrrrrrr … to Apologize

    To all the five-year-old children from 1983-1987: I apologize. You thought I was a futuristic barbarian from the Eternian Tribe and that together we were fighting for justice and adventure? I was a marketing ploy for C-Suite brand managers.

    Sure, Mattel already had Barbie, but after the colossal success of the Star Wars action figure lines, they demanded to reverse engineer a boy’s toy. As the Masters of the Focus Group, my catchphrase was meticulously crafted. The most commonly argued-over word of little boys? Power. “No, I have the power!” “No, it’s my power.” My cartoon show He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was created solely to sell the toys. And by Grayskull, I did it—becoming one of the highest-grossing pieces of articulated plastic of my decade, at a record peak of $400 million dollars in 1986.

    If I had known 30 years later that millions of men would suffer muscle dysmorphia and eating disorders, I would have at least offered to chip in for insurance coverage. Look, it was the steroidal boom of the 1980s, and shrink-wrapped male torsos were selling all kinds of products like vacuum cleaners and Diet Coke. How was I to know that consuming thousands of images of dehydrated muscles would influence impressionable five-year-olds? To all you men who are cutting carbs to maintain your six-pack, then binging on Funfetti Oreo’s, I owe you an apology.

    I promised you transformation—from a whiny privileged punk into a proud humble warrior. Except I didn’t really transform. As Prince Adam I clearly had bulging muscles underneath my skin-hugging shirt. So why did I act so cowardly? Even my voice and haircut stayed the same. The only thing that happened when I raised the glowing Sword of Eternia? Some lightning bolts popped my shirt off. That was it. Everything else was the same. You know what I really should have done with the Power Sword? Cut those bangs.

    To those little striplings who now do angry, heavy skull-crushers at the YMCA at 9 p.m. on a Friday night thinking they are sculpting their triceps, bettering themselves, transforming themselves—yeah, that was my bad. I created a generation of ruthless shirt poppers that now includes presidential candidates. You were all chasing my Coridite Crystal curated body—but you know that study that if Barbie were a real human, she’d collapse after six steps due to a waist that couldn’t support a liver or bones? Well, if my ultra-muscularity and near zero bodyfat were also real, you’d be constantly cold, tired, hungry, sick, unmotivated, asexual, depressed, and far too weak to go fifteen rounds with Skeletor (because the kind of low lipids [under 5%] associated with peak bodybuilding shape, if prolonged, results in brittle bones and muscle breakdown). Then again, don’t listen to me. Without a normal range of bodyfat (at least 6-11% for elite athletes, or 15-20% for average healthy males), I’m in a perpetual brain fog. Why am I suddenly scaling Snake Mountain right now?

    And yes, even Cringer, my fearful feline was forced into my machishmo scam-a-cadabra, becoming Battle-Cat in a fit of ripped mas-cat-linity. So I guess I should apologize to your pets. I assume they too run on a treadmill at the highest incline to work off the two dozen Auntie Anne’s pretzels they binged all night?

    For my crimes against traditional masculinity, I offer to throw myself into the Sea of Eternia. Or at least put a shirt on and eat some bread.

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  • Do Not Go Gently into that Good Supermarket

    How to rage against the snack aisle.

    Don’t panic. The supermarket doors had just locked while I was standing in the checkout line. “Everyone stay exactly where you are. We have an amber alert for a lost child.”

    Head down, act natural, Justin.

    Looking down, there was nothing natural about my shopping basket, packed with the most ultra-processed food on the planet. As an American, you can proudly call me the number one consumer of snack foods worldwide (Japan is number two, Canada number six). They say only two-thirds of daily calories for American children and teens come from ultra-processed food. I say we can do 100%! And so what if the latest and largest study of over 10 million people showed that consuming ultra-processed food was associated with 32 health problems, especially heart disease-related deaths, Type 2 diabetes, and common mental health issues like anxiety and depression?

    Standing in the checkout line that evening while they searched for a lost kid, I didn’t register any anxiety. Like my childhood hero, He-Man, I had the powerrrrrr . . . to disassociate. Besides, I looked completely trustworthy. I just came from the gym, wearing my hoodie—hood up—and baggy workout pants. At 25 years old, I stood 6’3”, scraggly scruff, vacant furtive eyes, plus my aura of anger.

    Pay no attention to my shopping basket loaded with kid-friendly junk food. Because when you’re as numb as I am, one little box of animal crackers won’t soothe the raging belly beast. I had the frilly stuff, like Rice Krispie treats, party-size bags of gummi bears, and Funfetti Oreos. Which by the way, why are there so many flavors of Oreos today? Growing up we had two. I remember the first time I ate double-stuff Oreos. They’re like MDMA crème sandwiches—Oreos make me want to hug you and do more.

    I basically had enough sugared treats to dose a small child into a cotton-candy coma and everyone saw it. Even the store manager was coming at me. I dropped my basket to the floor and prepared to scream: “Wait! It’s not me! I’ve been doing paleo and skipping carbs!”

    And then the doors unlocked. They found the kid wandering the produce section.

    After my exit, I should have been thinking: maybe I have a problem. That night of the amber alert, my food compulsions almost got me on a registry because some kid didn’t know their way around lettuce. Where was my red dye 40 alert? Something to let me know about the link between ultra-processed food and obsessive overeating; or that processed food hooks us through an endless combination of addictive chemical seasonings.

    Instead, I threw myself back into the Food Lion’s den to take on their “patisserie” aisle. By the way, South Burlington isn’t Paris, just call it a bakery. You’re a grubby fluorescent chain store peddling chemically-injected corn and soy widgets. Over seventy percent of packaged food options are ultra-processed, containing excessive levels of salt, sugar and fat. Still, I couldn’t resist their latest concoction. Chunky chocolate-chip cookies with rainbow sprinkles, straddling a thick layer of stable cream puff, and each one the size of my sasquatch fist. I must have them all.

    A nice, older woman with graying, curled hair delicately packed four in a fancy box. As if two minutes from now I wasn’t going to shred the box, shove that crimped gold ribbon under my car seat, and pop those sprinkled sugar bombs whole like a sad circus pelican. “Oh, your little boys are going to love them,” she winked at me, handing me the box. I must have looked puzzled because she repeated it. “You must have little boys at home waiting for these.”

    What the hell was she talking about? No, I didn’t have any children at home. I was just a grown-ass single man who hadn’t done any therapy.

    And so I became a Funfetti guerrilla, vanilla frosting smeared under the eyes, deploying Seal Team Six cover strategies.

    I was an OB—Original Binger. Before self-checkout kiosks existed, I tried to “Bury the Order,” e.g., buy enough regular but non-perishable groceries like boxes of pasta, dish soap, canned beans, and then strategically mix in all of the real items I required: potato chips, chocolate doughnuts, Pop-Tarts, Cool Ranch Dorito’s, etc.

    And yes, I more than once invoked the nuclear cover option. After watching The Big Lebowski, I donned a bathrobe and slippers. Then I shuffled through the sliding doors very un-Dude like. No sunglasses or confident chit-chat. I was a Keebler chameleon. A conveyor belt full of my favorite junk foods and nothing else. Not a single can of concealer beans. My slacked jaw and empty gaze to nowhere, the long trench-coat style fleece bathrobe . . . even the fuzzy slippers. No one looked at me. I felt invisible at last, like I could rob a bank. I mean, in a bathrobe and slippers, so the getaway might be tricky.

    Eventually, I survived my processed food addiction through the William Blake method: “You never know what is enough, unless you know what is more than enough.”

    If you see me grocery shopping in a tattered bathrobe—it’s okay. I heard Oreo’s is coming out with a new salted caramel ecstasy flavor. After all, progress not perfection.

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  • When You Suffer for Your Sanity and Struggle to Get Free


    Vincent van Gogh (Netherlands), The Starry Night, 1889.

    In 1930, Clément Fraisse (1901–1980), a shepherd from France’s Lozère region, was confined in a nearby psychiatric hospital after he tried to burn down his parents’ farmhouse. For two years, he was held in a dark, narrow cell. Using a spoon, and later the handle of his chamber pot, Fraisse carved symmetrical images into the rough, wooden walls that surrounded him. Despite the inhumane conditions in these psychiatric hospitals, Fraisse made beautiful art in the darkness of his cell. Not far from Lozère is the monastery of Saint Paul de Mausole in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, where Vincent van Gogh had been confined four decades earlier (1889–1890) and where he completed around 150 paintings, including several important works (among them The Starry Night, 1889).

    Ex OPG, Naples (Italy), 2024.

    I was thinking about both Fraisse and Van Gogh when I visited the old Ospedale Psichiatrico Giudiziario (OPG) in Naples (Italy) in September for a festival that took place in this former criminal asylum, which once held those who had committed serious offences and were deemed to be insane. The vast building, which sits in the heart of Naples on the Monte di Sant’Eframo, was first a monastery (1573–1859), then a military barrack for the Savoy regime during Italy’s unification in 1861, and then a prison set up by the fascist regime in the 1920s. The prison was closed in 2008, and then, in 2015, occupied by a group of people who would later form the political organisation Potere al Popolo! (Power to the People!). They renamed the building Ex OPG – Je so’ pazzo, ‘ex’ meaning that the building is no longer an asylum, and Je so’ pazzo referring to the favourite song of the beloved local singer Pino Daniele (1955–2015), who died around the time the building was occupied:

    I’m crazy. I’m crazy.
    The people are waiting for me.
    ….
    I want to live at least one day as a lion.
    Je so’pazzo, je so’ pazzo.
    C’ho il popolo che mi aspetta.
    ….
    Nella vita voglio vivere almeno un giorno da leone.

    Today, the Ex OPG is home to legal and medical clinics, a gym, a theatre, and a bar. It is a place of reflection, a people’s centre that is designed to build community and confront the loneliness and precarity of capitalism. It is a rare kind of institution in our world, one in which an exhausted society is increasingly isolated and individuals, encaged in a prison house of frustrated aspirations, nonetheless hope to use their meagre tools (a spoon, the handle of a chamber pot) to carve out their dreams and to reach for the starry sky.


    Anita Rée (Germany), Self-Portrait, 1930.
    Rée (1885–1933) killed herself after the Nazis declared her work to be ‘degenerate’.

    Even the World Health Organisation (WHO) does not have sufficient data on mental health, largely because the poorer nations are unable to maintain an accurate account of their populations’ immense psychological struggles. As a result, the focus is often limited to the more affluent countries, where such data is collected by governments and where there is greater access to psychiatric care and medications. A recent survey of thirty-one countries (mostly in Europe and North America, but also including some poorer nations such as Brazil, India, and South Africa) shows a shifting attitude and increased concern about mental health. The survey found that 45% of those polled selected mental health as ‘the biggest health problems facing people in [their] country today’, a significant increase from the previous poll, conducted in 2018, in which the figure was 27%. Third in the list of health challenges is stress, with 31% selecting it as the leading cause of concern. There is a significant gender gap in attitudes towards mental health amongst young people, with 55% of young women selecting it as one of their primary health concerns, compared to 37% of young men (reflecting the fact that women are disproportionately impacted by mental health issues).

    While it is true that the COVID-19 pandemic heightened mental health problems across the world, this crisis predated the coronavirus. Information from the Global Health Data Exchange shows that in 2019 – before the pandemic – one in eight, or 970 million, people from around the world had a mental disorder, with 301 million struggling with anxiety and 280 million with depression. These numbers should be seen as an estimate, a minimum picture of the severe crisis of unhappiness and maladjustment to the current social order.

    There are range of ailments that go under the name of ‘mental disorder’, from schizophrenia to forms of depression that can result in suicidal ideation. According to the WHO’s 2022 report, one in 200 adults struggle with schizophrenia, which on average results in a ten- to twenty-year reduction in life expectancy. Meanwhile, suicide, the leading cause of death amongst young people globally, is responsible for one in every 100 deaths (bear in mind that only one in every twenty attempts results in a death). We can make new tables, revise our calculations, and write longer reports, but none of this can assuage the profound social neglect that pervades our world.


    Adolf Wölfli (Switzerland), General View of the Island Neveranger, 1911.
    Wölfli (1864–1930) was abused as a child, sold as an indentured labourer, and then interned in the Waldau Clinic in Bern, where he painted for the rest of his life.

    Neglect is not even the correct word. The prevailing attitude to mental disorders is to treat them as biological problems that merely require individualised pharmaceutical care. Even if we were to accept this limited conceptual framework, it still requires governments to support the training of psychiatrists, make medications affordable and accessible for the population, and incorporate mental health treatment into the wider health care system. However, in 2022, the WHO found that, on average, countries spend only 2% of their health care budgets on mental health. The organisation also found that half of the world’s population – mostly in the poorer nations – lives in circumstances where there is one psychiatrist to serve 200,000 or more people. This is the state of affairs as we witness a general decline of health care budgets and of public education about the need for a generous attitude toward mental health problems. The most recent WHO data (December 2023), which covers the spike in pandemic-related health spending, shows that, in 2021, health care spending in most countries was less than 5% of Gross Domestic Product. Meanwhile, in its 2024 report A World of Debt, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) shows that almost a hundred countries spent more to service their debts than on healthcare. Though these are foreboding statistics, they do not get at the heart of the problem.

    Over the course of the past century, the response to mental health disorders has been overwhelmingly individualised, with treatments ranging from various forms of therapy to the prescription of different medications. Part of the failure to deal with the range of mental health crises – from depression to schizophrenia – has been the refusal to accept that these problems are not only influenced by biological factors but can be – and often are – created and exacerbated by social structures. Dr. Joanna Moncrieff, one of the founders of the Critical Psychiatry Network, writes that ‘none of the situations we call mental disorders have been convincingly shown to arise from a biological disease’, or more precisely, ‘from a specific dysfunction of physiological or biochemical processes’. This is not to say that biology does not play a role, but simply that it is not the only factor that should shape our understanding of such disorders.

    In his widely read classic The Sane Society (1955), Erich Fromm (1900–1980) built on the insights of Karl Marx to develop a precise reading of the psychological landscape in a capitalist system. His insights are worth re-considering (forgive Fromm’s use of the masculine use of the word ‘man’ and of the pronoun ‘his’ to refer to all of humanity):

    Whether or not the individual is healthy is primarily not an individual matter, but depends on the structure of his society. A healthy society furthers man’s capacity to love his fellow men, to work creatively, to develop his reason and objectivity, to have a sense of self which is based on the experience of his own productive powers. An unhealthy society is one which creates mutual hostility, distrust, which transforms man into an instrument of use and exploitation for others, which deprives him of a sense of self, except inasmuch as he submits to others or becomes an automaton. Society can have both functions; it can further man’s healthy development, and it can hinder it; in fact, most societies do both, and the question is only to what degree and in what directions their positive and negative influence is exercised.


    Kawanabe Kyōsai (Japan), Famous Mirrors: The Spirit of Japan, 1874.
    Kyōsai (1831–1889) was shocked, at the age of nine, when he picked up a corpse and its head fell off. This marked his consciousness and his later break with ukiyo-e traditional painting to inaugurate what is now known as manga.

    The antidote to many of our mental health crises must come from re-building society and forming a culture of community rather than a culture of antagonism and toxicity. Imagine if we built cities with more community centres, more places such as Ex OPG – Je so’ pazzo in Naples, more places for young people to gather and build social connections and their personalities and confidence. Imagine if we spent more of our resources to teach people to play music and to organise sports games, to read and write poetry, and to organise socially productive activities in our neighbourhoods. These community centres could house medical clinics, youth programmes, social workers, and therapists. Imagine the festivals that such centres could produce, the music and joy, the dynamism of events such Red Books Day. Imagine the activities – the painting of murals, neighbourhood clean-ups, and planting of gardens – that could emerge as these centres incubate conversations about what kind of world people want to build. In fact, we do not need to imagine any of this: it is already with us in small gestures, whether in Naples or in Delhi, in Johannesburg or in Santiago.

    ‘Depression is boring, I think’, wrote the poet Anne Sexton (1928–1974). ‘I would do better to make some soup and light up the cave’. So let’s make soup in a community centre, pick up guitars and drumsticks, and dance and dance and dance till that great feeling comes upon everyone to join in healing our broken humanity.

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  • Don’t Trust the Government. Not with Your Freedoms

    In questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.

    —Thomas Jefferson

    Public trust in the government to “do what is right” understandably remains at an all-time low.

    After all, how do you trust a government that continuously sidesteps the Constitution and undermines our rights? You can’t.

    When you consider all the ways “we the people” are being bullied, beaten, bamboozled, targeted, tracked, repressed, robbed, impoverished, imprisoned and killed by the government, one can only conclude that you shouldn’t trust the government with your privacy, your property, your life, or your freedoms.

    Consider for yourself.

    Don’t trust the government with your privacy, digital or otherwise. In the more than two decades since 9/11, the military-security industrial complex has operated under a permanent state of emergency that, in turn, has given rise to a digital prison that grows more confining and inescapable by the day. Wall-to wall surveillance, monitored by AI software and fed to a growing network of fusion centers, render the twin concepts of privacy and anonymity almost void. By conspiring with corporations, the Department of Homeland Security “fueled a massive influx of money into surveillance and policing in our cities, under a banner of emergency response and counterterrorism.”

    Don’t trust the government with your property. If government agents can invade your home, break down your doors, kill your dog, damage your furnishings and terrorize your family, your property is no longer private and secure—it belongs to the government. Hard-working Americans are having their bank accounts, homes, cars electronics and cash seized by police under the assumption that they have allegedly been associated with some criminal scheme.

     Don’t trust the government with your finances. The U.S. government—and that includes the current administration—is spending money it doesn’t have on programs it can’t afford, and “we the taxpayers” are being forced to foot the bill for the government’s fiscal insanity. The national debt is $35 trillion and growing, yet there seems to be no end in sight when it comes to the government’s fiscal insanity. According to Forbes, Congress has raised, extended or revised the definition of the debt limit 78 times since 1960 in order to allow the government to essentially fund its existence with a credit card.

    Don’t trust the government with your health. For all intents and purposes, “we the people” have become lab rats in the government’s secret experiments, which include MKULTRA and the U.S. military’s secret race-based testing of mustard gas on more than 60,000 enlisted men. Indeed, you don’t have to dig very deep or go very back in the nation’s history to uncover numerous cases in which the government deliberately conducted secret experiments on an unsuspecting populace—citizens and noncitizens alike—making healthy people sick by spraying them with chemicals, injecting them with infectious diseases and exposing them to airborne toxins. Unfortunately, the public has become so easily distracted by the political spectacle out of Washington, DC, that they are altogether oblivious to the grisly experiments, barbaric behavior and inhumane conditions that have become synonymous with the U.S. government, which has meted out untold horrors against humans and animals alike.

    Don’t trust the government with your life: At a time when growing numbers of unarmed people have been shot and killed for just standing a certain way, or moving a certain way, or holding something—anything—that police could misinterpret to be a gun, or igniting some trigger-centric fear in a police officer’s mind that has nothing to do with an actual threat to their safety, even the most benign encounters with police can have fatal consequences. The number of Americans killed by police continues to grow, with the majority of those killed as a result of police encounters having been suspected of a non-violent offense or no crime at all, or during a traffic violation. According a report by Mapping Police Violence, police killed more people in 2022 than any other year within the past decade. In 98% of those killings, police were not charged with a crime.

    Don’t trust the government with your freedoms. For years now, the government has been playing a cat-and-mouse game with the American people, letting us enjoy just enough freedom to think we are free but not enough to actually allow us to live as a free people. Freedom no longer means what it once did. This holds true whether you’re talking about the right to criticize the government in word or deed, the right to be free from government surveillance, the right to not have your person or your property subjected to warrantless searches by government agents, the right to due process, the right to be safe from militarized police invading your home, the right to be innocent until proven guilty and every other right that once reinforced the founders’ belief that this would be “a government of the people, by the people and for the people.” On paper, we may be technically free, but in reality, we are only as free as a government official may allow.

    Whatever else it may be—a danger, a menace, a threat—the U.S. government is certainly not looking out for our best interests, nor is it in any way a friend to freedom.

    Remember the purpose of a good government is to protect the lives and liberties of its people.

    Unfortunately, what we have been saddled with is, in almost every regard, the exact opposite of an institution dedicated to protecting the lives and liberties of its people.

    “We the people” should have learned early on that a government that repeatedly lies, cheats, steals, spies, kills, maims, enslaves, breaks the laws, overreaches its authority, and abuses its power at almost every turn can’t be trusted.

    So what’s the answer?

    For starters, get back to basics. Get to know your neighbors, your community, and your local officials. This is the first line of defense when it comes to securing your base: fortifying your immediate lines.

    Second, understand your rights. Know how your local government is structured. Who serves on your city council and school boards? Who runs your local jail: has it been coopted by private contractors? What recourse does the community have to voice concerns about local problems or disagree with decisions by government officials?

    Third, know the people you’re entrusting with your local government. Are your police chiefs being promoted from within your community? Are your locally elected officials accessible and, equally important, are they open to what you have to say? Who runs your local media? Does your newspaper report on local events? Who are your judges? Are their judgments fair and impartial? How are prisoners being treated in your local jails?

    Finally, don’t get so trusting and comfortable that you stop doing the hard work of holding your government accountable. We’ve drifted a long way from the local government structures that provided the basis for freedom described by Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America, but we are not so far gone that we can’t reclaim some of its vital components.

    As an article in The Federalist points out:

    Local government is fundamental not so much because it’s a “laboratory” of democracy but because it’s a school of democracy. Through such accountable and democratic government, Americans learn to be democratic citizens. They learn to be involved in the common good. They learn to take charge of their own affairs, as a community. Tocqueville writes that it’s because of local democracy that Americans can make state and Federal democracy work—by learning, in their bones, to expect and demand accountability from public officials and to be involved in public issues.

    To put it another way, think nationally but act locally.

    As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, there is still a lot Americans can do to topple the police state tyrants, but any revolution that has any hope of succeeding needs to be prepared to reform the system from the bottom up. And that will mean re-learning step by painful step what it actually means to be a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

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  • Choice

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  • Dissident Voice 2024-09-07 14:59:47

    “PCR is separate from that. It’s just a process that’s used to make a whole lotta somethin’ outta somethin. That’s what it is.”

    — Kary Mullis, inventor of PCR test

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  • Eradication of Diseases

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  • Gaza’s Last Fairytale

    Alaa Jamal’s pain and suffering is wound so tightly around her heart that it shields it from all the horrors she’s lived through. So even though she’s in the crosshairs of Netanyahu’s hatred’s sights, her heart beats unceasingly, in defiance of what the Occupation has done to her. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to keep the remnants of her family alive: a one year old son named Eid and a three year old daughter named Sanaa. Alaa calls her daughter Princess, an apt nickname for Alaa’s life has always been a fairytale, just one punctuated by war every two to four years. Birth, war. School, war. Adolescence, war. Friendship, war. Family, war. University, war.

    Then, when she was eighteen, Mohammed came, and Alaa forgot about the wars. Instead, she says, “A great love story arose.” Handsome, smart, and strong, Alaa knew they were meant for each other. He was a civil engineer, and she, a future architect. He proposed on Eid-al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice. Alaa’s parents agreed, and the lovebirds married. In photographs they’re the quintessential couple. He’s sharp in casual clothes, she’s dazzling demure in repose.

    “I was so happy dressed in white,” she says, reminiscing about her wedding.

    And for a moment, I could see Alaa, smiling with the groom in the midst of her fairytale. Two children later, it would end. Now, the only white garments worn in Gaza are shrouds for the dead.

    When the war began, Alaa was at the hospital with her infant son. Eid had been born with an enlarged heart and needed close supervision whenever he was ill. Now, Alaa found herself trapped with him, as fighting raged on all around her. Israeli soldiers raided the hospital and dragged people out of their beds to kidnap or kill. Terrified, Alaa grabbed her son, ripped out the IV in his arm and ran out the back of the hospital, covered in his blood.

    Alaa ran all the way home, but when she arrived, things got worse. The neighborhood children were playing in the street in front of her house. A missile landed on the next block, and a large piece of shrapnel was sent reeling from the resulting explosion towards the children, decapitating Mohammed’s 12-year-old cousin Badr as Alaa watched. Mohammed’s father was next.

    Alaa was still in shock when the Israelis dropped leaflets ordering them to go south. She left first, taking the children. Mohammed was supposed to follow a few days later. In the meantime, their neighborhood was destroyed one block at a time. Dozens of Alaa’s friends and relatives were martyred—wedded to the land they loved in the ultimate sacrifice. Day-by-day, hour-by-hour, with each new message, Alaa learned of their deaths. And it was there, among the hordes of refugees walking south along the sea of Gaza, that Alaa’s fairytale life finally came to an end:

    “My brother Bahaa was volunteering to drive refugees trapped in the fighting to safety. Mohammed was with him, when the Occupation shot up the car they were in. My brother was wounded, and Mohammed tried to drag him to safety. That’s when they shot my husband in the face. Somebody called an ambulance, but the Israeli soldiers wouldn’t let the paramedics through. They bled out for charity.”

    Alaa began to weep.

    “The Occupiers refused to let anyone collect the bodies for burial. My beloved husband and brother became food for stray dogs and crows.”

    Alaa didn’t have time to properly mourn. Even after reuniting with her remaining relatives, things continued to get worse. As the days and weeks rolled by, they faced a lack of clean water, food and medical care. Winter came, and they had nothing to keep them warm. Everyone was malnourished and sick.

    Eid and Sanaa went to the hospital to get treated for starvation with a nutrient IV drip. The elderly had no such luck. Three different times Alaa woke up on a cold morning to find one of her aunts dead. Their bodies simply couldn’t produce enough heat with so little food to eat. I wondered about her own health.

    “How much weight have you lost since October 7th?” I asked.

    “Thirty pounds,” she said.

    I wanted to know more, but Alaa steered the conversation back to her children.

    “My daughter Sanaa lost her ability to speak after her father died. She was in shock, depressed, and fell seriously ill. I tried to comfort her. Then one day she began to sing: ‘When I die, I will go to Heaven to be with my father.’”

    Sanaa’s understanding of the afterlife allowed her to be a child again.

    By April, when I met Alaa, the food situation had improved. But in May, Sanaa contracted hepatitis C and wouldn’t eat. The hospital fed her through another IV. In June, Eid got a bacterial skin infection on his face. Day-by-day I watched it spread in photographs Alaa sent me. The hospital in Deir al-Balah wanted one hundred dollars for the medication. One hundred more than what was reasonable. I used my connections in Gaza to get a charity to pay for it. But Alaa wouldn’t leave her children alone to retrieve the medicine. She was afraid she’d come back to find them dead. Her father went instead. Just in time too, because the skin on Eid’s face began to rot as it decayed. With all his other health issues, it could have been the end of him.

    Eventually, Alaa realized that she needed to make a future for her children. She began to study online to finish her degree. She’s already started on her senior project: designing a rehabilitative mental health center for healing from PTSD. She wants to build it as soon as the war stops. It’s part of her overall plan: “I want to make Gaza beautiful again.”

    In the meantime, she’s desperately trying to raise money to buy a tent. It’s crowded and unstable the way she lives, always shuffling around between her remaining relatives. Whenever I try to get a charity to help her, she asks if she can work for them. How can she simultaneously work, mourn, study, raise children and survive? Her life is one of incomprehensible contradictions.

    “I hope God will compensate Alaa for her loss,” one of her relatives told me.

    I concur, if things go well. If they don’t, Alaa tells me what will happen next: “I am an ambitious person, and I love life very much. But I know that one day my blood, and the blood of my children, will water this land.”

    May God be pleased with her.

    Alaa Jamal, Sanna, Eid with Mohammed

    Alaa and her children

    • You can learn more about Alaa Jamal here

    • You can find more stories about Gaza at https://erossalvatore.com/

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  • Monkeying Around

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  • The Latest Corporate Globalist Scheme

    WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has determined that the upsurge of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and a growing number of countries in Africa constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) under the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR).

    — “WHO Director-General declares mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern,” WHO, 14 August 2024

    On July 23, 2022, the WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus went against the majority vote of the WHO expert committee (9 against 6 in favor): The committee was AGAINST the calling of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PEIC).

    — Michel Chossudovsky, “Towards A Worldwide Monkeypox Pandemic? Big Money behind ‘Fake Science,’” Global Research, 17 August 2024.

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