In a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), federal researchers acknowledge in detail that police-perpetrated killings are a major cause of violent death in the United States, and Black and Indigenous men are disproportionally killed by police compared to all other groups tracked in the data. Experts say the analysis is a step forward for the CDC, but crucial data on…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Before Missouri resident Amanda K. Finley had heard of COVID-19 or long COVID, she worked as an archeologist. Although her work schedule was erratic, she was frequently hired by engineering firms to make sure that the development sites they intended to build on conserved the cultural integrity of the land. She did this for 14 years. Then, in March 2020, 10 months before the COVID vaccine became…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist
Tokelau’s largest atoll, Nukunonu, is now out of lockdown after experiencing its first community cases of covid-19.
In a statement, the government said Fakaofo Atoll has had two cases at the border and Nukunonu now has six positive community cases — all within the same household.
This includes the two new community cases who are children from the same family who have been isolating together.
The two kids were confirmed as covid-19 positive on Friday, May 26.
Tokelau confirmed its first community case on May 21, becoming one of the last places in the world to record community transmission.
Government spokesperson Aukusitino Vitale said they were all in good health and were being taken care of.
Hospital staff continued to manage their situation daily.
Meanwhile, the Council for the Ongoing Government, chaired by the Ulu o Tokelau (head of government), is set to meet on Friday to discuss the next official covid-19 update.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
Between 2000 and 2020, an estimated 482,000 primates were imported into the U.S. to be experimented on in testing laboratories. All the while, pharmaceutical drug development has been mired in serious challenges, particularly during the animal-heavy research stages known as preclinical phases. Now, a series of supply chain disruptions have created a shortage of primates for laboratory testing use.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved over-the-counter sales of the opioid overdose reversal medication Narcan, a move that advocates say will reduce stigma around a lifesaving medication and increase access for people in need — if they can afford to pay for it. Narcan is a popular nasal spray version of the drug naloxone, the antidote administered to quickly block the effects of…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
A ruling handed down by a U.S. district judge on Thursday will threaten a range of lifesaving preventative healthcare services for more than 150 million people, legal experts and advocates said, as the decision challenged the legality of a federal task force that enforces coverage for the services.
Judge Reed O’Connor, a Bush appointee who sits on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, ruled that insurance companies do not have to comply with preventative care recommendations made by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which was established by a key provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare.
O’Connor ruled that the appointments of members of the task force violate the Appointments Clause in the U.S. Constitution and said that violation “invalidates its power to enforce anything against anyone nationwide,” according to Slate journalist Mark Joseph Stern.
The USPSTF has issued recommendations for a wide range of preventative care services, including screenings for breast cancer, colorectal cancer, cervical cancer, and diabetes; interventions and tests for pregnant patients; anxiety screenings for children and adolescents; and pediatric vision tests.
Under the ACA, insurance companies are required to cover those services, but following O’Connor’s ruling coverage will no longer be mandated.
The decision is “nothing short of catastrophic to the U.S. healthcare system,” said Stern.
\u201cI anticipated this decision in September when O’Connor first telegraphed it. It is nothing short of catastrophic to the U.S. health care system. Millions of Americans, including many pregnant women, will have to forgo basic care if it is upheld.\nhttps://t.co/eVpemaBN5c\u201d— Mark Joseph Stern (@Mark Joseph Stern) 1680184452
The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed in 2020 by Christian employers who objected to paying for services such as contraceptives and preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP), to prevent HIV transmission.
In September, O’Connor ruled that coverage for PrEP violated the companies’ religious freedom in a decision that one doctor who specializes in HIV treatment condemned as “disgusting and inhumane” and likely “driven solely by homophobia and transphobia.”
\u201cA Bush-appointed judge blocks the ACA’s coverage of preventative care, including cancer screenings and the HIV-prevention drug PrEP, as the Stephen Miller-backed plaintiffs claim it “encourage[s] homosexual behavior, prostitution [and] sexual promiscuity.”https://t.co/IVTbOmOzCg\u201d— Emma Vigeland (@Emma Vigeland) 1680191769
The companies are being represented by Texas attorney Jonathan Mitchell, who helped develop the state’s abortion ban that allows private citizens to sue anyone who “aids or abets” a person who obtains abortion care.
More than 150 million Americans who have private health insurance have coverage for preventative care under the ACA, as well as approximately 20 million Medicaid and 61 million Medicare recipients.
Last July, as O’Connor was considering the case, titled Braidwood Management Inc., vs. Xavier Becerra, national health organizations including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists warned that a ruling in the plaintiffs’ favor would “reverse important progress and make it harder for physicians to diagnose and treat diseases and medical conditions that, if caught early, are significantly more manageable.”
“With an adverse ruling, patients would lose access to vital preventive healthcare services, such as screening for breast cancer, colorectal cancer, cervical cancer, heart disease, diabetes, preeclampsia, and hearing, as well as access to immunizations critical to maintaining a healthy population,” the organizations wrote. “Our patients cannot afford to lose this critical access to preventive healthcare services.”
The Biden administration is expected to appeal O’Connor’s ruling, and since insurance coverage contracts typically run through the end of the year, coverage will likely not change for many before 2024.
If upheld, the ruling will deal “a devastating blow to American public health,” said University of California law professor Jennifer Oliva.
\u201cA federal judge deals a devastating blow to American public health by enjoining the ACA preventative mandate nationally. Included among plaintiffs\u2019 claims was that it was against their religion for insurance plans to cover counseling for substance use disorder.\u201d— Jennifer Oliva (@Jennifer Oliva) 1680188419
Last year, a Morning Consult poll found that at least 2 in 5 Americans were not willing to pay out-of-pocket for preventative services currently covered by the ACA.
O’Connor previously ruled in 2018 that the ACA should be struck down in its entirety, but that ruling was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The judge’s latest ruling offers “another reason why we need Medicare for All,” said the Debt Collective. “The milquetoast ACA is being dismantled before our eyes. There is no reason not to fight for real solutions when the non-solutions stand no better chance.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
As many as 15 children under the age of five in Central Papua have reportedly died of measles.
Parish Priest of Christ the Redeemer Church in Timeepa, Yeskiel Belau, told Jubi News he estimated the number to be higher because there were areas that had not been checked.
The data obtained by the church stated as many as 83 children in his ministry area alone had had measles, he said.
“In the parish centre, there are five kombas (base communities). The 15 children who died were only from the five commanders. Excluding the Toubai, Degadai, Megai Dua, Abaugi, and Dioudimi Stations.
“If the number is added, it will surely explode,” he said.
Timeepa Health Center head Yoki Butu said his party was conducting post-handover services for the measles and rubella (MR) vaccine by the Acting Dogiyai Regent, Petrus Agapa, to prevent measles in Dogiyai District.
His party immediately administered drugs to the targeted babies, he said.
“Our immunisation coverage has been carried out, in my service area there are only four villages and we have done that,” Yoki said.
Regarding the death of the 15 toddlers, Jubi News reported Yoki said the measles case was not only in the Dogiyai area but was currently the concern of all parties because it had become an “extraordinary event” in Central Papua Province.
“So let’s join hands to break the chain of transmission,” he said.
Measles is a serious viral infection, which can spread to others via coughing and sneezing.
Samoan baby admitted to hospital
In Samoa, an 11-month-old baby has been admitted to hospital suspected of measles.
Director-General of Health Aiono Dr Alec Ekeroma told TV1 Samoa the infant was showing symptoms of measles and had been isolated to await results of blood samples sent to New Zealand.
He confirmed two other patients were tested recently and returned negative results.
The Ministry of Health were continuing the mumps measles and rubella (MMR) vaccination push around the country, according to Aiono.
“We’ve approved the payment of staff overtime to allow for them to work Saturday,” he said.
It had been three weeks since the MMR immunisation campaign started and they had reached 85 percent of babies with the first dosage, Aiono said.
The second dosage was only at 45 percent coverage, and Aiono urged parents to push for their children to be fully vaccinated with both doses.
“We hope to reach 80 percent coverage with the second dose by June,” he said.
Meanwhile, the latest test results are expected next week.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
As of Monday, more than 500 physicians and other medical professionals had signed on to a letter urging federal regulators to prevent the expansion of a fracked gas pipeline in the Pacific Northwest.
The sign-on campaign comes as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is expected to weigh in on TC Energy’s Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) Xpress project as soon as this month.
The Canadian company’s proposed expansion would boost the capacity of a pipeline that runs through British Columbia, Canada and the U.S. states of Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California.
“FERC should deny the permit for this pipeline expansion proposal, which is both unnecessary to meet our energy needs and harmful to people in our communities.”
“We are in a climate crisis, where we are already experiencing the devastating effects of rising temperatures, the direct result of burning fossil fuels, including so-called ‘natural gas,’ i.e., methane,” the health professionals wrote, noting that methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over its first 20 years.
Dr. Ann Turner of Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) said that “as medical practitioners, we see the impact the climate crisis has on people each and every day. And we have a responsibility to sound the alarm. We urge FERC to prioritize the health of our most vulnerable communities over profit.”
As the letter explains:
TC Energy proposes to increase the amount of gas in its existing pipelines by expanding compressor stations which provide the force which propels gas through pipelines. These compressor stations emit significant amounts of air pollution, both from the operation of the engine which powers the pump as well as from venting. Compressor stations and meter stations vent methane, volatile organic compounds like formaldehyde, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide. All of these air pollutants have serious health impacts, including increased risks of stroke, cancer, asthma and low birth weight, and premature babies. Compressor stations also produce significant noise pollution. The air and noise pollution from these compressor stations disproportionately harms the rural, low-income, and minority communities that already experience significant health disparities, especially those that are living in proximity to the pipeline expansion project.
“In addition to the health consequences from the pipeline expansion project itself, gas in the GTN pipeline is extracted by fracking in Canada,” the letter highlights. “Fracking degrades the environment including contamination of soil, water, and air by toxic chemicals. Communities exposed to these toxins experience elevated rates of birth defects, cancer, and asthma.”
“The negative health impacts of methane gas, and its contribution to warming the climate and polluting the air, are unacceptable impacts that disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous, and people of color and low-income communities,” the letter adds, arguing that the project is inconsistent with both global and regional goals to reduce planet-heating emissions.
Organizations supporting the letter include Wild Idaho Rising Tide as well as the San Francisco, Oregon, and Washington arms of PSR—which have previously joined other local groups in speaking out against the project alongside regional political figures including U.S. Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, both of Oregon.
\u201cTAKE ACTION: Sign on to the letter urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to deny the bid to expand shipments of fracked gas through WA.\nhttps://t.co/A86LLz8lRY\u201d— Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility (@Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility) 1678146398
“Idahoans dread FERC approval of the GTN Xpress expansion project, which would force greater fracked gas volumes and hazardous emissions through the aging GTN pipeline,” according to Helen Yost of Wild Idaho Rising Tide.
“This expansion project would further threaten and harm the health and safety of rural communities, environments, and recreation economies for decades,” she warned. “This proposed expansion does not support the best interests of concerned Northwesterners living and working near compressor stations and the pipeline route.”
Dr. Mark Vossler, a board member at Washington PSR, pointed out that “states in the Northwest have made great strides in reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and creating healthier communities.”
“I urge FERC to consider the human health impact of the proposed pipeline expansion and respect the leadership of local, state, and tribal governments in addressing the climate crisis,” he said. “FERC should deny the permit for this pipeline expansion proposal, which is both unnecessary to meet our energy needs and harmful to people in our communities.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
Philipsburg, Montana — On a recent day in this 19th-century mining town turned tourist hot spot, students made their way into the Granite High School lobby and past a new filtered water bottle fill station. Water samples taken from the drinking fountain the station replaced had a lead concentration of 10 parts per billion — twice Montana’s legal limit for schools of 5 parts per billion for the…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
One month after a fiery train crash in East Palestine, Ohio sparked an ongoing environmental and public health crisis, an anti-plastic coalition on Friday highlighted how the petrochemical industry poisons communities across the United States and called for “systemic change.”
The Norfolk Southern-owned train that derailed and ignited near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border on February 3 was overloaded with hazardous materials, many of them derived from fossil fuels. To avert a catastrophic explosion, authorities released and burned vinyl chloride—a carcinogenic petrochemical used to make plastic—from five tanker cars, provoking residents’ fears about the long-term health impacts of toxic air pollution and groundwater contamination.
“This is a plastics and petrochemical disaster,” the global Break Free From Plastic (BFFP) coalition said Friday in a statement.
According to the coalition:
A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that the train derailment was caused by a hot axle that heated one of the train cars carrying polypropylene plastic pellets, according to NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy. These plastic pellets serve as the pre-production materials that corporations manufacture into shampoo bottles, plastic cups, and other single-use items. The highly combustible, fossil fuel-derived pellets ignited the initial fire aboard the Norfolk Southern train, which led to its derailment.
In addition to the pellets, yet another plastic building block is at the heart of this disaster: vinyl chloride. Vinyl chloride is a known human carcinogen used almost exclusively to produce polyvinyl chloride, also known as PVC plastic, which is often turned into pipes, flooring, shower curtains, and even plastic food wrap. Not only is vinyl chloride toxic and harmful itself, Norfolk Southern’s burning of the chemical likely resulted in dioxins, one of the most persistent and toxic chemicals, even at low levels of exposure.
In response to public pressure, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday ordered Norfolk Southern to test for dioxins, a class of highly toxic industrial byproducts that the agency had previously opted to ignore in the East Palestine disaster zone.
“While we’re glad to see this announcement, we wish it had come sooner,” said Graham Hamilton, U.S. policy officer at BFFP. “Justice delayed is justice denied, and we expect more from an administration that claims to prioritize environmental justice.”
Mike Schade, director of Toxic-Free Future’s Mind the Store campaign, said that “the EPA must not only test for dioxins in soil, but also in indoor dust, sediments, fish, and on farms impacted by the massive plume.”
“Importantly, the EPA should be conducting the testing itself and/or hiring independent scientists to test for dioxins, rather than requiring the community of East Palestine to rely on Norfolk Southern for that accountability,” said Schade.
“This disaster is yet another painful reminder of the dangers of making, transporting, using, and disposing of chemicals in plastics, especially polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic,” Schade added. “Governments, retailers, and brands must redouble their efforts to phase out PVC plastic and other highly hazardous plastics and chemicals and move towards safer solutions.”
The U.S. is home to more than 1,000 train derailments per year, and according to one estimate, the country is averaging one chemical disaster every two days.
Low-income communities in the Ohio River Valley and along the Gulf Coast are disproportionately harmed by the petrochemical industry.
“These communities subsidize the cost of cheap disposable plastic at the fenceline of oil rigs, petrochemical plants, incinerators, and the trains and trucks used for transporting the toxic and deadly chemicals,” said Yvette Arellano, the founder and director of Fenceline Watch, a Texas-based advocacy group and BFFP member.
“The price we pay is with our lives, from shortened lifespans [to] reproductive harm [and] developmental issues; these toxics trespass our bodies and harm our communities for generations,” added Arellano, whose organization helped pressure the EPA to halt the 1,300-mile shipment of contaminated wastewater from East Palestine to the Houston area, where it had been slated to be injected underground.
“The petrochemical industry is inherently unsafe. Even standard operations pollute and damage communities, and regulators continue to fail to do the bare minimum to hold polluters accountable.”
As BFFP pointed out, the ongoing East Palestine disaster “is not the only petrochemical crisis” hurting residents of the Ohio River Valley.
“Less than 15 miles from the derailment site,” a new Shell facility in Beaver County, Pennsylvania “has received numerous violations and exceeded its annual emissions limits since coming online in November of 2022,” the coalition pointed out.
As Andie from the Eyes on Shell watchdog group observed: “With the community already on edge, just one week following the release and burn in East Palestine, Shell activated an enormous emergency flare which, without warning, continued flaring for hours. The derailment and emergency flare are terrifying reminders of the risks the petrochemical industry poses to our community every single day.”
Earthworks campaigner Anaïs Peterson stressed that “the petrochemical industry is inherently unsafe.”
“Even standard operations pollute and damage communities,” said Peterson, “and regulators continue to fail to do the bare minimum to hold polluters accountable.”
Amanda Kiger of River Valley Organizing (RVO)—a Columbiana County-based group that has been working to support East Palestine residents since the derailment—said that “nobody should have their entire lives upended because Norfolk Southern and makers of these hazardous chemicals put their profits ahead of the safety of our communities and our country.”
“With people developing rashes and breathing problems, it’s clear people are still being exposed to dangerous chemicals,” said Kiger. “Norfolk Southern should give residents the resources to relocate and should pay for independent testing of the soil, water, and air, as well as medical exams and follow-up for years to come.”
Ultimately, BFFP argued, “we need systemic reforms to stop the petrochemical industry from having carte blanche to profit off of poisoning people and the planet.”
Despite BFFP’s demands for a robust, legally binding global plastics treaty that prohibits corporations from manufacturing an endless stream of toxic single-use items, Inside Climate News reported this week that the initial proposal from the Biden administration’s delegation to the United Nations was described as “low ambition” and “underwhelming” because it “sidesteps calls for cuts in production, praises the benefits of plastics, and focuses on national priorities versus global mandates.”
The Environmental Protection Agency recently gave a Chevron refinery the green light to create fuel from discarded plastics as part of a “climate-friendly” initiative to boost alternatives to petroleum. But, according to agency records obtained by ProPublica and The Guardian, the production of one of the fuels could emit air pollution that is so toxic, 1 out of 4 people exposed to it over a…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Labeling a newspaper column an “opinion” doesn’t create a license to play fast and loose with facts.
All of my op-eds for the New York Times have gone through rigorous fact-checking with a conscientious Times editor. Apparently, columnist Bret Stephens is exempt from any such requirement. The Times should alert its readers to his special status so they can protect themselves.
For years, the science of masking to minimize the spread of airborne viruses, including COVID, has been settled. But Stephens’ February 21 column mischaracterized a recent review of other researchers’ studies to push his anti-masking views. In the process, he made the Times a megaphone for broadcasting incomplete, misleading, and dangerous assertions as if they were facts.
Stephens began his column by describing the Cochrane Library’s January 30, 2023 review as the “most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of scientific studies on the efficacy of masks for reducing the spread of respiratory illnesses — including Covid-19.” Then he wrote that one of the study’s 11 authors, Tom Jefferson, said its conclusions “were unambiguous.”
We’ll return to that one.
Quoting Jefferson, Stephens continued, “‘There’s just no evidence that they’ – masks – ‘make any difference.’”
How about high-quality N-95 masks?
Again, quoting Jefferson, Stephens wrote, “‘Makes no difference – none of it.’”
Stephens then quoted Jefferson on the futility of using masks in conjunction with many other accepted medical precautions – hand hygiene, physical distancing, or air filtration: “‘There’s no evidence that many of these things make any difference.’”
Stunning statements – and flat-out wrong. Even Cochrane’s review undermined Jefferson’s draconian certainty. The “plain language summary” accompanying the published review began with this “Key message” about its findings: “We are uncertain whether wearing masks or N95/P2 respirators helps to slow the spread of respiratory viruses based on the studies we assessed.”
“Uncertain” is a far cry from “unambiguous.”
Then again, Jefferson has been wrong before. In March 2020, he said of COVID, “[T]here does not seem to be anything special about this particular epidemic of influenza-like illness.” In July 2020, he asserted that COVID may have been lying dormant around the world, rather than originating in China. And for years, he has been hostile toward masking.
Stephens used Jefferson’s comments to introduce his larger argument: “Mask mandates were a bust.” As he attacked the CDC’s “mindless adherence to its masking guidance,” Stephens failed to mention the growing body of medical and scientific literature lambasting those misusing Cochrane’s review to undermine masking generally.
First, Cochrane’s was not a new scientific study. It retrieved and combined data from separate trials that varied greatly in “quality, design, populations, and outcomes” in what scientists call a “meta-analysis.” But combining such apples, oranges, grapes, peaches, and pears can create problems.
That’s why the 11 Cochrane authors themselves warned: “The variable quality of the studies hampers drawing any firm conclusions.”
Second, most of the actual trials in Cochrane’s review tested only mask effectiveness at preventing infection in the wearer. They ignored the potential benefits of face masks in preventing the spread of infection to others. In fact, buried in Stephens’ op-ed is his telling admission:
“[T]he analysis does not prove that proper masks, properly worn, had no benefit on an individual level.”
Third, Cochrane’s authors acknowledged that in their assessment of community-wide masking effectiveness, “Relatively low numbers of people followed the guidance about wearing masks or about hand hygiene, which may have affected the results of the studies.”
How can anyone conclude from clinical trials that masks don’t work when most people in the trials didn’t wear them, much less wear them correctly?
Likewise, some of the studies in Cochrane’s review relied on participants to self-report their mask usage. That’s a big problem. In a study of masking in Kenya, 76% of participants self-reported masking in public, but the actual observed masking rate was only 5%.
As a group, Cochrane’s authors themselves listed the many limitations of their review that accounted for “the observed lack of effect of mask-wearing”: poor study design, lower adherence to mask-wearing (especially among children), the quality of the masks used, and more.
Commenting on Cochrane’s review, one medical fact-checker observed, “Each of these factors increases the risk of bias, reducing the reliability of [Cochrane’s] conclusions. In addition, while some studies confirmed the type of [COVID] infection by a laboratory test, many others relied on self-reporting to assess both mask-wearing and infection, further increasing the risk of bias.”
All of which explains why Cochrane’s authors collectively expressly discounted their own conclusions about the effectiveness of population-level masking: “The high risk of bias in the trials, variation in outcome measurement, and relatively low adherence with the interventions during the studies hampers drawing firm conclusions.”
Again, the authors’ “plain language summary” accompanying the review noted: “Our confidence in these results is generally low to moderate for the subjective outcomes related to respiratory illness….”
In less technical terms: “garbage in, garbage out.”
The New York Times’ failure to fact-check Stephens on this critical public health issue has real-world consequences. It prolongs needless controversy over whether wearing masks protects individuals from COVID when the proven fact is that they do. As a result of Stephens’ rant, some people will decide not to wear a mask, even in high-risk settings. Some people will become ill. Some people will be hospitalized. Some people will die.
For me and the millions of immunocompromised households in America, this is especially personal. To a great degree, our health depends upon others wearing masks to protect us, as well as them, in high-risk settings. We’re on the front lines of a war that Americans can win. But Bret Stephens and the New York Times have erected another misinformation obstacle to victory over the pandemic.
Maybe someday Stephens will change his mind, as he did with climate change. For more than a decade, he was a leading climate-change denier. While still at the Wall Street Journal, he wrote in 2008 that global warming was “a mass hysteria phenomenon.” A year later, he said that the intellectual methods of “global warming true believers” were “instructively similar” to Stalin’s.
But in August 2022, Stephens’ trip to Greenland’s melting glaciers resulted in “fresh thinking” that produced a lengthy op-ed for the Times. He opened his eyes and changed his mind:
“I always said to myself, that I should never be afraid to change my mind in public, even on subjects where I’ve taken, you know, I’ve really put a stake in the ground. So that was, that was how that long 6,000-word giant piece came to life….”
Using the thin reed of the latest Cochrane Library review, Stephens has put another bad stake in the ground. Someday he might change his mind. But the country can’t afford to wait the years that it took for his epiphany on global warming.
Visiting COVID patients in an ICU might accelerate his awakening. Perhaps Stephens could bring along another New York Times columnist without public health qualifications who has downplayed COVID repeatedly – David Leonhardt.
If they believe what Stephens led his readers to conclude on February 21, they won’t wear masks. And they’ll encourage the doctors and nurses in attendance to remove theirs.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
Three weeks after the lives of East Palestine, Ohio residents were upended by a fiery wreck involving a Norfolk Southern-owned train overloaded with hazardous materials, rail union leaders on Friday implored federal regulators and lawmakers to “focus on the primary reasons for the derailment and take immediate action to prevent future disasters.”
In a statement, Railroad Workers United (RWU) pointed to the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) newly published preliminary report on the February 3 crash and subsequent burnoff of vinyl chloride and other carcinogenic chemicals, which suggests that an overheated wheel bearing likely caused the train to derail. The inter-union alliance of rail workers also cited NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy, who said Thursday at a press conference: “This was 100% preventable. We call things accidents—there is no accident. Every single event that we investigate is preventable.”
RWU, which has previously highlighted how industry-led deregulation and Wall Street-backed policies such as “precision-scheduled railroading” have made the U.S. rail system more dangerous, said Friday that “Class 1 freight rail carriers, including Norfolk Southern, have prioritized profits over safety, cutting maintenance, equipment inspections, and personnel in all crafts while increasing the average train size to three miles or more.”
In the words of RWU co-chair Gabe Christenson: “Railroad workers experience firsthand every day the dangers inherent in this style of railroading. It has impacted their safety and health, state of mind, and lives on and off the job.”
“Limits on train lengths and weights are necessary to prevent catastrophic derailments.”
Jason Doering, general secretary of RWU, echoed Christenson’s message, saying: “Every day we go to work, we have serious concerns about preventing accidents like the one that occurred in Ohio. As locomotive engineers, conductors, signal maintainers, car inspectors, track workers, dispatchers, machinists, and electricians, we experience the reality that our jobs are becoming increasingly dangerous due to insufficient staffing, inadequate maintenance, and a lack of oversight and inspection.”
“We recognize,” Doering added, “that limits on train lengths and weights are necessary to prevent catastrophic derailments.”
One week ago, RWU made the case for nationalization, arguing that the U.S. “can no longer afford private ownership of the railroads; the general welfare demands that they be brought under public ownership.”
In the absence of such sweeping transformation, which remains far-off given the current state of the beleaguered U.S. labor movement, the alliance on Friday demanded that federal agencies and Congress move quickly to “rein in” Norfolk Southern and other profit-maximizing rail corporations that have fought regulations, laid off workers, and purchased billions of dollars in stock rather than investing in employees and safety upgrades.
Specifically, RWU called on regulators and lawmakers to:
Of these measures, only a proposed rule to require two-person crews—described by RWU as loophole-ridden—was included in the blueprint the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) unveiled Tuesday to hold rail companies accountable and protect the well-being of workers and fenceline communities.
The DOT also encouraged rail carriers to voluntarily provide sick leave. Norfolk Southern—facing intense scrutiny and backlash amid the ongoing East Palestine disaster—agreed Wednesday to provide up to a week of paid sick leave per year to roughly 3,000 track maintenance workers.
But because the Biden administration and Congress recently imposed a contract without paid sick leave on rail workers who were threatening to strike, the vast majority still lack this basic lifesaving benefit, as do millions of private sector workers in other industries who are also awaiting legislation to address the issue.
Characterizing the DOT’s plan as inadequate, RWU said Tuesday that “rank-and-file railroad workers can diagnose and fix the problems” and urged U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to enact “some of our solutions.”
RWU treasurer Hugh Sawyer reiterated that call on Friday.
“We demand that the railroad be run safely, efficiently, and professionally, and not as some ‘cash cow’ for Wall Street investors and billionaires,” said Sawyer. “Much of what is wrong with the rail industry today can be fixed easily and quickly by acting on what is outlined above. We demand action NOW.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
An investigation published Monday revealed that just weeks before a Norfolk Southern-owned train overloaded with hazardous materials derailed and caused a toxic chemical fire in East Palestine, Ohio, the rail giant donated $10,000—the maximum amount allowed—to help fund the inauguration of the state’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.
According to WSYX, the Columbus-based news outlet that conducted the investigation, “This contribution, which is part of $29,000 the Virginia-based corporation has contributed to DeWine’s political funds since he first ran for governor in 2018, is merely one piece of an extensive, ongoing effort to influence statewide officials and Ohio lawmakers.”
“In all, the railway company has contributed about $98,000 during the past six years to Ohio statewide and legislative candidates, according to data from the secretary of state,” WSYX reported. “Virtually all went to Republicans, although Norfolk Southern hedged its support for DeWine in 2018 with a $3,000 check to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray.”
In addition to shelling out loads of campaign cash, Norfolk Southern has also extensively lobbied DeWine, statewide officials, and Ohio lawmakers.
Quarterly reports disclosing the company’s lobbying activities show that DeWine and other statewide officials were targeted 39 times over the past six years, while Ohio lawmakers were targeted 167 times during the same time period.
“Most of the disclosed attempts to influence Ohio leaders came on generic rail or transportation issues,” WSYX reported. “Some efforts, however, were devoted to defeating legislation that would have established tougher safety standards for rail yards and train operations.”
River Valley Organizing, a local progressive group, declared on social media that “this is what we’re up against.”
\u201cThis is what we\u2019re up against. \n\nIf they can pay for lobbyists and politicians, they can pay to clean up the mess they made in our community. https://t.co/yPQX3EE8sA\u201d— River Valley Organizing (@River Valley Organizing) 1676907934
Norfolk Southern’s successful bid to thwart at least one Ohio bill aimed at improving railroad safety—explained in depth by the local news outlet—mirrors the company’s triumphant campaign to weaken federal regulations.
Before dozens of its train cars careened off the tracks and burst into flames in East Palestine on February 3—leading to the discharge of vinyl chloride and other carcinogenic chemicals—Norfolk Southern “helped kill a federal safety rule aimed at upgrading the rail industry’s Civil War-era braking systems,” The Lever reported earlier this month.
\u201cNorfolk Southern happily put profits over people – and now the folks of the East Palestine community are paying the price. \n\nIt’s time to make Norfolk Southern pay. https://t.co/1By480jRuU\u201d— River Valley Organizing (@River Valley Organizing) 1676906104
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has been criticized by progressive advocacy groups and lawmakers for his lackluster response to the crisis in East Palestine, sent a letter to Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw on Sunday stating that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the cause of the derailment and that the Federal Railroad Administration is examining whether safety violations occurred and intends to hold Norfolk Southern accountable if they did.
Buttigieg insisted that the company “demonstrate unequivocal support” for the poor rural town’s roughly 4,700 residents as well as the populations of surrounding areas potentially affected by air and groundwater contamination.
“Norfolk Southern must live up to its commitment to make residents whole—and must also live up to its obligation to do whatever it takes to stop putting communities such as East Palestine at risk,” the transportation secretary wrote. “This is the right time for Norfolk Southern to take a leadership position within the rail industry, shifting to a posture that focuses on supporting, not thwarting, efforts to raise the standard of U.S. rail safety regulation.”
As The Associated Press reported Monday:
Buttigieg also said that Norfolk Southern and other rail companies “spent millions of dollars in the courts and lobbying members of Congress to oppose commonsense safety regulations, stopping some entirely and reducing the scope of others.” He said the effort undermined rules on brake requirements and delayed the phase-in for more durable rail cars to transport hazardous material to 2029, instead of the “originally envisioned date of 2025.”
The transportation secretary said the results of the investigation are not yet known, but “we do know that these steps that Norfolk Southern and its peers lobbied against were intended to improve rail safety and to help keep Americans safe.”
Nevertheless, as The Lever reported earlier this month, Buttigieg is actively considering an industry-backed proposal to further erode federal oversight of train braking systems.
The outlet has published an open letter urging Buttigieg “to rectify the multiple regulatory failures that preceded this horrific situation,” including by exercising his authority to reinstate the rail safety rules rescinded by the Trump administration at the behest of industry lobbyists.
The full environmental and public health consequences of the ongoing East Palestine disaster are still coming into view, as residents question the validity of initial water testing paid for by Norfolk Southern.
Despite state officials’ claims that air and water in the area remain safe, thousands of fish have died in polluted local waterways and people in the vicinity of the derailment have reported headaches, eye irritation, and other symptoms.
Just days after his company skipped a town hall meeting, Shaw visited East Palestine on Saturday and said that “we are here and will stay here for as long as it takes to ensure your safety.”
“Something’s wrong with corporate America and something’s wrong with Congress and administrations listening too much to corporate lobbyists.”
Norfolk Southern, which reported record-breaking operating revenues of $12.7 billion in 2022, originally offered to donate just $25,000 to help affected residents—an amount equivalent to about $5 per person—but recently announced the creation of a $1 million charitable fund instead.
Lawmakers in Ohio “are now scrambling to make sure the railroad is held accountable,” WSYX reported. “The House Homeland Security Committee is scheduled to hear ‘informal testimony’ Wednesday from Karen Huey, assistant director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety, and John Esterly, chairman of the Ohio State Legislative Board with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.”
In Washington, U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) on Friday requested information regarding the handling of hazardous materials from the CEOs of several large rail corporations, including Norfolk Southern.
“Over the past five years, the Class I railroads have cut their workforce by nearly one-third, shuttered railyards where railcars are traditionally inspected, and are running longer and heavier trains,” Cantwell wrote. “Thousands of trains carrying hazardous materials, like the one that derailed in Ohio, travel through communities throughout the nation each day.”
Notably, Norfolk Southern announced a $10 billion stock buyback program last March. The company has routinely raised its dividend, rewarding shareholders while refusing to invest in safety upgrades or basic benefits such as paid sick leave.
\u201cThere’s no secret conspiracy behind the Norfolk Southern derailments.\n\nThe company cut over 9,600 jobs since 2002, and in that same period they’ve given shareholders 4,500% more money to line their pockets.\n\nThe story here is deadly corporate greed.\nhttps://t.co/EyLXqKqvXR\u201d— More Perfect Union (@More Perfect Union) 1676647771
Just days after he sent co-authored letters raising safety and health concerns to the NTSB and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said during a Sunday appearance on CNN‘s “State of the Union” that Norfolk Southern is responsible for the East Palestine disaster, which he characterized as another chapter in “the same old story.”
“Corporations do stock buybacks, they do big dividend checks, they lay off workers,” said Brown. “Thousands of workers have been laid off from Norfolk Southern. Then they don’t invest in safety rules and safety regulation, and this kind of thing happens. That’s why people in East Palestine are so upset.”
“They know that corporate lobbyists have had far too much influence in our government and they see this as the result,” Brown continued. “These things are happening because these railroads are simply not investing the way they should in car safety and in the rail lines themselves.”
“Something’s wrong with corporate America and something’s wrong with Congress and administrations listening too much to corporate lobbyists,” he added. “And that’s got to change.”
Another Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials crashed last week near Detroit, Michigan. Like Brown, union leaders and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have attributed the recent derailments to Wall Street-backed policies that prioritize profits over safety.
As David Sirota, Rebecca Burns, Julia Rock, and Matthew Cunningham-Cook of The Lever pointed out in a recent New York Times opinion piece, the U.S. is home to more than 1,000 train derailments per year and has seen a 36% increase in hazardous materials violations committed by rail carriers in the past five years.
The rail industry “tolerates too many preventable derailments and fights too many safety regulations,” the journalists wrote. “The federal government must move quickly to improve rail safety overall.”
An inter-union alliance of U.S. rail workers, meanwhile, has called on organized labor to back the nationalization of the country’s railroad system, arguing that “our nation can no longer afford private ownership of the railroads; the general welfare demands that they be brought under public ownership.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
Thousands of people in East Palestine, Ohio have been assured by the state Environmental Protection Agency and Republican Gov. Mike DeWine that the town’s municipal water has not been contaminated by the train derailment that took place in the town earlier this month, but the only publicly available data comes from testing that was funded by the company behind the crash.
As HuffPost reported late Friday, the Dallas-based consulting firm AECOM contracted with Norfolk Southern, which operated the 150-car train that was carrying the toxic chemical vinyl chloride, to sample water from five wells and from treated municipal water.
DeWine announced on Wednesday that those tests “showed no evidence of contamination,” but as one aquatic ecologist told HuffPost, the lab report indicates several testing errors that violated federal standards and should have disqualified the results.
“Their results that claim there were no contaminants is not a reliable finding,” Sam Bickley of the advocacy coalition Virginia Scientist-Community Interface, told the outlet. “I find this extremely concerning because these results would NOT be used in most scientific applications because the samples were not preserved properly, and this is the same data they are now relying on to say that the drinking water is not contaminated.”
The testing was done on February 10, seven days after the train derailed and authorities began a controlled release of the vinyl chloride, a carcinogen, to avoid an explosion. The burning of vinyl chloride can send hydrogen chloride and phosgene into the environment. The former chemical has been known to cause throat, eye, and skin irritation and the latter can cause vomiting and difficulty breathing.
An environmental testing lab analyzed the samples on February 13 and 15, according to HuffPost, and scientists who examined that analysis found it to be flawed. As the outlet reported:
Five of the six collected samples had pH, or acidity, levels that exceeded the 2 pH limit allowed under the EPA method listed in the analysis for detecting volatile organic compounds, rendering them improperly preserved. One sample also “contained a large air bubble in its vial, while the EPA method requires that sample bottles should not have any trapped air bubbles when sealed,” the report states. David Erickson, a hydrogeologist and the founder of Water & Environmental Technologies, an environmental consulting firm in Montana, called the sampling “sloppy” and “amateur.”
The Biden administration said in a press call Friday that Norfolk Southern has not been solely behind the testing that’s been conducted so far, with a spokesperson telling reporters, “It’s been with the Columbiana County Health Department, collecting samples along with Norfolk Southern and sending those as split samples to two different labs for verification.”
The state EPA, however, did not receive the health department’s results until after DeWine declared the water safe based on AECOM’s flawed testing.
The lab report shows low levels of the chemical dibutyl phthalate, which is not linked to cancer in humans but can cause headaches, nausea, dizziness, irritation of the eyes and throat, and seizures.
Some of the residents who were told days after the derailment that they could safely return to East Palestine have reported symptoms including headaches, nausea, dizziness, and shortness of breath.
Reuters reported Friday that many East Palestine do not trust state and local authorities, and have been purchasing large quantities of bottled water as they determine whether it’s safe to stay in the town.
\u201c’The people in town are afraid’: Deb Blair, a cashier in East Palestine, Ohio, says bottled water has been flying off the shelves after a train derailed and spilled toxic chemicals, causing concern about water safety https://t.co/bvTi7f2mG3\u201d— Reuters (@Reuters) 1676700600
“We’re not getting any truth,” said Ted Murphy, who is now planning to leave the town out of safety concerns just seven months after moving to his current home. “They’re not going to own up to what’s going [into the water] until they are forced to.”
The U.S. EPA has not conducted any sampling of the municipal water. On Thursday, Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro ordered independent testing of water in local communities. East Palestine is just over the Ohio-Pennsylvania border.
The state EPA told HuffPost that water testing is ongoing.
On Friday, U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) announced the panel would launch an investigation into the handling of hazardous materials. Railroad workers have been raising alarm in recent years about their employers’ loosening of safety standards in the interest of maximizing profits, and say the reduced safety measures were to blame for the crash.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
Norfolk Southern—the railroad giant whose train derailed and caused a toxic chemical fire in a small Ohio town earlier this month—has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out a 2017 lawsuit filed by a cancer-afflicted former rail worker, and the Biden administration is siding with the corporation, fresh reporting from The Lever revealed Thursday.
If the high court, dominated by six right-wing justices, rules in favor of Norfolk Southern, it could be easier for the profitable rail carrier to block pending and future lawsuits, including from victims of the ongoing disaster in East Palestine. Moreover, it “could create a national precedent limiting where workers and consumers can bring cases against corporations,” wrote two of the investigative outlet’s reporters, Rebecca Burns and Julia Rock.
Former Norfolk Southern worker Robert Mallory was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2016. The following year, he filed a lawsuit alleging that his illness stemmed from workplace exposure to asbestos and other hazardous materials and that the rail carrier failed to provide safety equipment and other resources to ensure he was adequately protected on the job.
Although he had never worked in Pennsylvania, Mallory filed his lawsuit in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas because his attorneys were from the state and “he thought he would get the fairest access to justice there,” Ashley Keller, the lawyer representing him before the Supreme Court, told The Lever.
As Burns and Rock explained:
Pennsylvania has what’s known as a “consent-by-registration” statute—something states have had on the books since the early 19th century—which stipulates that when corporations register to do business in the state, they are also consenting to be governed by that state’s courts. Norfolk Southern asserts that being forced to defend the case in Pennsylvania would pose an undue burden, thereby violating its constitutional right to due process.
Even though Norfolk Southern owns thousands of miles of track in the Keystone State, the Philadelphia county court sided with the railroad and dismissed the case. Mallory appealed, and the case wound its way through state and federal courts before landing at the U.S. Supreme Court last year.
The rail carrier is asking the high court “to uphold the lower court ruling, overturn Pennsylvania’s law, and restrict where corporations can be sued, upending centuries of precedent,” the journalists noted. “If the court rules in favor of Norfolk Southern, it could overturn plaintiff-friendly laws on the books in states including Pennsylvania, New York, and Georgia that give workers and consumers more leeway to choose where they take corporations to court—an advantage national corporations already enjoy, as they often require customers and employees to agree to file litigation in specific locales whose laws make it harder to hold companies accountable.”
Unsurprisingly, the American Association of Railroads (AAR) and other powerful corporate lobbying groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the American Trucking Association want to undercut the ability of workers and consumers to file lawsuits in the venue of their choosing. AAR, the rail industry’s biggest lobby, filed a brief last September on behalf of Norfolk Southern.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) also filed a brief siding with the railroad giant. The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision in the coming months.
“This is totally insane,” The Lever‘s editor, David Sirota, wrote on social media.
“Wow. Just wow,” Pennsylvania Sen. Katie Muth (D-44) tweeted in response to the report. “Sadly, this isn’t that surprising, but WTAF.”
\u201cWow. Just wow.\ud83d\ude31 Sadly, this isn\u2019t that surprising, but WTAF. But hey, keep exempting these trains carrying toxic substances from being classified as hazardous.\u26a0\ufe0f\u2623\ufe0f\u2622\ufe0fAnd allowing workers to be exposed to these harmful carcinogens &chemicals is gross negligence. #TrainDerailments\u201d— Senator Katie Muth (@Senator Katie Muth) 1676587587
“Should Norfolk Southern prevail, the company could use the ruling to challenge other lawsuits on the grounds that they’re filed in the wrong venue,” The Lever reported, citing Scott Nelson, an attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation Group, which filed a brief backing Mallory. “Such a decision could affect lawsuits filed by residents exposed to hazardous chemicals as the result of accidents in other states,” including victims of air or water pollution caused by the recent derailment in East Palestine, five miles west of the Pennsylvania state border.
“[Norfolk Southern] might say, ‘You can only sue us in Ohio or Virginia [where Norfolk Southern is headquartered],’ even if you were injured at your home in Pennsylvania from an accident that took place five miles away in Ohio,” Nelson told the outlet.
In its brief, AAR argued that if the high court rules in favor of Mallory, he and other plaintiffs suing railroads under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA)—a law protecting rail workers injured on the job—”could have a wide range of jurisdictions to choose from.”
However, Burns and Rock reported, “groups weighing in on Mallory’s side pointed out that ‘forum shopping’ is the norm for corporations,” including when companies with no physical presence in Delaware register in that state to dodge taxes or when firms file bankruptcy cases in states more likely to hand down favorable opinions.
Notably, “Norfolk Southern freely utilizes the Pennsylvania courts to enforce its rights,” the Academy of Rail Labor Attorneys, a group of lawyers who represent rail workers, pointed out in a brief. “The railroad certainly is not prejudiced in any way by defending lawsuits in the state. For purposes of jurisdiction, there is no valid reason that a corporation such as Norfolk Southern should be treated differently than an individual within the state.”
During oral arguments in the case last fall, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, a liberal appointed by former President Barack Obama, asked Deputy Solicitor General Curtis Gannon why the Biden administration decided to involve itself in this case.
In response, Gannon said, “We pointed out not just that… the excessive availability of general jurisdiction could cause international concerns for trade with the United States and our commercial interests, but also the petitioner had called into question the constitutionality of a federal statute, and so we thought that it was important to make sure that the court’s decision here wouldn’t implicate the constitutionality of federal statutes.”
The Biden administration’s contention that Pennsylvania’s law amounts to an overreach of state authority and calls into question the constitutionality of a federal statute is nonsensical, Keller, the plaintiff’s lawyer, told The Lever.
“The United States relies on consent-by-registration statutes [like the Pennsylvania law] to obtain personal jurisdiction over various foreign entities,” said Keller. “If it’s unconstitutionally coercive when Pennsylvania does it, why isn’t it unconstitutionally coercive when the United States does it?”
Burns and Rock warned that the high court’s decision could have implications for future lawsuits as well as pending ones.
At least five class-action negligence lawsuits have been filed in Ohio against Norfolk Southern since the company’s February 3 freight train crash in East Palestine.
While progressive advocacy groups and lawmakers have demanded that U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg move immediately to improve rail safety rules in response to that unfolding environmental and public health catastrophe, The Lever reported last week that Buttigieg is actively considering an industry-backed proposal to further weaken the regulation of train braking systems.
Another Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials careened off the tracks on Thursday near Detroit, Michigan. Union leaders and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have described the recent derailments as the predictable result of Wall Street-backed policies that prioritize profits over safety.
As Sirota, Burns, Rock, and Matthew Cunningham-Cook of The Lever pointed out in a Friday op-ed in The New York Times, the U.S. is home to more than 1,000 train derailments per year and has seen a 36% increase in hazardous materials violations committed by rail carriers in the past five years.
The rail industry “tolerates too many preventable derailments and fights too many safety regulations,” the journalists wrote. “The federal government must move quickly to improve rail safety overall.”
“It shouldn’t take a chemical cloud over a community in the American heartland to compel the government to protect its people,” they added. “If we want to get train derailments much closer to zero, the rail industry must evolve.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
Residents of East Palestine, Ohio are voicing alarm and mistrust of officials after a 150-car train carrying hazardous materials — including vinyl chloride — crashed in their small town, prompting emergency evacuations and a “controlled release” of chemicals into the air to prevent a catastrophic explosion. Norfolk Southern, the company that owns the derailed train, has insisted that public health…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
As a deadly strain of avian influenza continues to decimate bird populations around the world and spread among other animals, some scientists are warning that mammal-to-mammal transmission has emerged as a real possibility with potentially catastrophic consequences for humans.
Over the past year, officials in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada have detected cases of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu in a variety of species, including bears, foxes, otters, raccoons, and skunks. Last month, a cat suffered serious neurological symptoms from a late 2022 infection, according to French officials who said that the virus showed genetic characteristics consistent with adaptation to mammals.
Most of these infections are likely the result of mammals eating infected birds, according to Jürgen Richt, director of the Center on Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at Kansas State University.
More alarming, multiple researchers argue, was the large outbreak of H5N1 on a Spanish mink farm last October, which could mark the first known instance of mammal-to-mammal transmission.
“Farmworkers began noticing a spike in deaths among the animals, with sick minks experiencing an array of dire symptoms like loss of appetite, excessive saliva, bloody snouts, tremors, and a lack of muscle control,” CBC News reported Thursday. “Eventually, the entire population of minks was either killed or culled—more than 50,000 animals in total.”
“A virus which has evolved on a mink farm and subsequently infects farmworkers exposed to infected animals is a highly plausible route for the emergence of a virus capable of human-to-human transmission to emerge.”
A study published two weeks ago in Eurosurveillance, a peer-reviewed journal of epidemiological research, described the outbreak and its public health implications. Notably, the authors wrote that their findings “indicate that an onward transmission of the virus to other minks may have taken place in the affected farm.”
As CBC News noted, “That’s a major shift, after only sporadic cases among humans and other mammals over the last decade.”
Michelle Wille, a University of Sydney researcher who focuses on the dynamics of wild bird viruses, told the Canadian outlet that “this outbreak signals the very real potential for the emergence of mammal-to-mammal transmission.”
It’s just one farm and none of the workers—all of whom wore personal protective equipment—were infected. However, Dr. Isaac Bogoch, a Toronto-based infectious disease specialist, warned Thursday that if the virus mutates in a way that enables it to become increasingly transmissible between mammals, including humans, “it could have deadly consequences.”
“This is an infection that has epidemic and pandemic potential,” Bogoch told CBC News. “I don’t know if people recognize how big a deal this is.”
A “mass mortality event” involving roughly 2,500 endangered seals found off the coast of Russia’s Caspian Sea last month has also raised alarm.
According to Phys.org:
A researcher at Russia’s Dagestan State University, Alimurad Gadzhiyev, said last week that early samples from the seals “tested positive for bird flu,” adding that they were still studying whether the virus caused the die-off.
Peacock warned there have been mixed reports from Russia about the seals, which could have contracted the virus by eating infected seabirds.
But if the seals did give bird flu to each other it “would be yet another very concerning development,” he added.
“The mink outbreaks, the increased number of infections of scavenger mammals, and the potential seal outbreak would all point to this virus having the potential to cause a pandemic” in humans, he said.
Among birds, the mortality rate of H5N1 can approach 100%, ravaging wild bird populations and poultry farms alike. The World Organization for Animal Health told BBC News on Thursday that it has recorded almost 42 million cases of H5N1 in wild and domestic birds since the current outbreak started in October 2021. Another 193 million domestic birds have been culled in an attempt to curb transmission.
The highly pathogenic strain of avian flu also frequently causes death in other mammals, including humans. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 870 cases of H5N1 were reported in humans from 2003 to 2022 and they resulted in at least 457 deaths—a fatality rate that exceeds 50%.
The virus has “not acquired the ability for sustained transmission among humans,” the WHO stated last month. “Thus the likelihood of human-to-human spread is low.”
However, a December report from the U.K. Health Security Agency warned that the “rapid and consistent acquisition of the mutation in mammals may imply this virus has a propensity to cause zoonotic infections,” meaning that it could jump to humans.
Dr. Wenqing Zhang, head of the WHO’s global influenza program, told BBC News on Thursday that the threat posed by the virus spilling over “is very concerning and the risk has been increasing over the years as reflected in the number of outbreaks in animals as well as a number of infections in humans.”
“We’re closely related to minks and ferrets, in terms of influenza risks… If it’s propagating to minks, and killing minks, it’s worrisome to us.”
As CBC News reported this week: “Most human infections also appeared to involve people having direct contact with infected birds. Real-world mink-to-mink transmission now firmly suggests H5N1 is now ‘poised to emerge in mammals,’ Wille said—and while the outbreak in Spain may be the first reported instance of mammalian spread, it may not be the last.”
Wille warned that “a virus which has evolved on a mink farm and subsequently infects farmworkers exposed to infected animals is a highly plausible route for the emergence of a virus capable of human-to-human transmission to emerge.”
Louise Moncla, an assistant professor of pathobiology at the University of Pennsylvania, told the outlet that viruses often adapt to new host species through an “intermediary host.”
“And so what’s concerning about this is that this is exactly the kind of scenario you would expect to see that could lead to this type of adaptation, that could allow these viruses to replicate better in other mammals—like us,” Moncla explained.
The alarm bells sounded this week echo long-standing warnings about the growing prospects of a devastating bird flu pandemic.
In his 2005 book, The Monster at Our Door, the late historian Mike Davis wrote that “the essence of the avian flu threat… is that a mutant influenza of nightmarish virulence—evolved and now entrenched in ecological niches recently created by global agro-capitalism—is searching for the new gene or two that will enable it to travel at pandemic velocity through a densely urbanized and mostly poor humanity.”
Alluding to the “constantly evolving nature of influenza viruses,” the WHO recently stressed “the importance of global surveillance to detect and monitor virological, epidemiological, and clinical changes associated with emerging or circulating influenza viruses that may affect human (or animal) health, and timely virus-sharing for risk assessment.”
To avert a cataclysmic bird flu pandemic, scientists have also emphasized the need to ramp up H5N1 vaccine production, with Wille pointing out that “a very aggressive and successful poultry vaccination campaign ultimately stopped all human cases” of the H7N9 strain of the virus in the early 2010s.
Others have also criticized the global fur farming industry, citing the spread of bird flu as well the coronavirus among cruelly confined minks.
“We’re closely related to minks and ferrets, in terms of influenza risks,” Dr. Jan Hajek, an infectious diseases physician at Vancouver General Hospital, told CBC News. “If it’s propagating to minks, and killing minks, it’s worrisome to us.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
Declaring the fight against HIV and AIDS infections in children “winnable,” public health officials from across Africa on Wednesday convened in Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania to discuss the steps needed from policymakers and the healthcare sector to eradicate pediatric cases by 2030.
Representatives from 12 countries including Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Cote D’Ivoire, and Cameroon were joined by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), UNICEF, and other global organizations at the first ministerial meeting of the Global Alliance to End AIDS in Children.
The alliance was formed last summer, as the United Nations noted that just 52% of children living with AIDS are on lifesaving treatment and warned progress for preventing pediatric cases is stalling. Among adults patients, 76% are receiving antiretroviral treatments.
The delegates unanimously agreed on Wednesday to the Dar es Salaam Declaration for Action. The declaration’s commitments include:
“We have the tools, the guidance, the policies, and the knowledge we need. Now we must make good on this commitment and move to action,” reads the declaration. “Together we will not fail.”
“Closing the gap for children will require laser focus and a steadfast commitment to hold ourselves, governments, and all partners accountable for results.”
The global alliance has stressed since its formation last year that ending pediatric AIDS and HIV infections is an achievable goal, noting the progress that has been made in several African countries with high HIV burdens.
“By the end of 2021, 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa reached the target of 95% ART [antiretroviral therapy] coverage in pregnant women and Botswana was the first high prevalence African country to be validated as being on the path to eliminating vertical transmission of HIV,” reads a document released when the initiative was launched.
Sixteen countries worldwide have also been “certified for validation of eliminating vertical transmission of HIV,” according to UNAIDS.
\u201cI believe this is a winnable fight\u2014one we can win for all children in Africa. We can win it for their mothers; we can win it for their families; we can win it for our countries. Honourable Ministers make it your priority and you will see results during your tenure!\n#ForEveryChild\u201d— Winnie Byanyima (@Winnie Byanyima) 1675241033
But still, 160,000 children acquired HIV in 2021 and children accounted for 15% of all AIDS-related deaths that year, despite the fact that they only make up 4% of the total number of people living with HIV. Across the globe, a child dies of AIDS-related causes every five minutes.
“Year on year, the same poor progress has been reported towards global and national targets for children and adolescents,” said the alliance last year. “Despite available, affordable, and highly effective tools and programming strategies to diagnose and treat HIV among children, adolescents, and pregnant and breastfeeding women, large service gaps for these populations remain.”
By meeting the commitments laid out in the Dar es Salaam Declaration, officials said, they will promote active participation of national programs and affected communities, boost existing programs to end AIDS in children, and mobilize resources through “donor coordination and innovative financing.”
“Closing the gap for children will require laser focus and a steadfast commitment to hold ourselves, governments, and all partners accountable for results,” said John Nkengasong, the U.S. global AIDS coordinator and leader of PEPFAR. “In partnership with the global alliance, PEPFAR commits to elevate the HIV/AIDS children’s agenda to the highest political level within and across countries to mobilize the necessary support needed to address rights, gender equality, and the social and structural barriers that hinder access to prevention and treatment services for children and their families.”
Philip Mpango, vice president of the United Republic of Tanzania, said the host country “has showed its political engagement” regarding the issue.
“Now we need to commit moving forward as a collective whole,” said Mpango. “All of us in our capacities must have a role to play to end AIDS in children. The global alliance is the right direction, and we must not remain complacent. 2030 is at our doorstep.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s newly released plan for regulating wastewater pollution, including discharges of toxic “forever chemicals,” is far too muted and sluggish, a progressive advocacy group warned Friday.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) detailed how the EPA’s long-awaited Effluent Guidelines Program Plan 15 postpones sorely needed action to rein in widespread contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). PFAS are a class of hazardous synthetic compounds widely called forever chemicals because they persist in people’s bodies and the environment for years on end.
“We are deeply concerned that the EPA is punting on restrictions for PFAS polluting industries like electronics manufacturers, leather tanners, paint formulators, and plastics molders,” said Melanie Benesh, EWG’s vice president of government affairs. “We are also alarmed that the EPA’s proposed restrictions on some of the most serious PFAS polluters—chemical manufacturers and metal finishers—are also getting delayed, with no timeline for when those limits will be final, if ever.”
According to EWG, the EPA’s new plan “falls short” of its pledge, made in the agency’s 2021 PFAS Strategic Roadmap, to “get upstream” of the forever chemicals problem.
As the watchdog summarized:
The EPA confirmed that by spring 2024—nine months later than previously scheduled—it will release a draft regulation for manufacturers of PFAS or those that create mixtures of PFAS. The agency will do the same for metal finishers and electroplaters by the end of 2024, a delay of six months. The EPA did not announce when final rules will be available for these industries.
The agency will also begin regulating PFAS releases from landfills but did not provide a timeline for a final rule.
For all other industrial categories the EPA considered for PFAS wastewater limitation guidelines, the new plan includes more studies and monitoring, likely delaying restrictions on these sources indefinitely.
“Polluters have gotten a free pass for far too long to contaminate thousands of communities. Now they need aggressive action from the EPA to stop PFAS at the source,” Benesh said. “But the EPA’s plan lacks the urgency those communities rightfully expect.”
“Although it’s a good thing the EPA is committing to address PFAS discharges from landfills—a source of pollution that disproportionately affects vulnerable communities—it’s also frustratingly unclear from EPA’s plan when, if ever, those limits will materialize,” said Benesh.
“Given the glacial pace of change in the EPA’s plan,” she added, “states should not wait for the EPA to act on PFAS.”
“Polluters have gotten a free pass for far too long to contaminate thousands of communities. Now they need aggressive action from the EPA to stop PFAS at the source.”
Scientists have linked long-term PFAS exposure to numerous adverse health outcomes, including cancer, reproductive and developmental harms, immune system damage, and other negative effects.
A peer-reviewed 2020 study estimated that more than 200 million people in the U.S. could have unsafe levels of PFAS in their drinking water. The deadly substances—used in dozens of everyday household products, including ostensibly “green” and “nontoxic” children’s items, as well as firefighting foam—have been detected in the blood of 97% of Americans and in 100% of breast milk samples. Such findings stem from independent analyses because the EPA relies on inadequate testing methods.
Researchers have identified more than 57,000 sites across the U.S. contaminated by PFAS. Solid waste landfills, wastewater treatment plants, electroplaters and metal finishers, petroleum refiners, current or former military facilities, and airports are the most common sources of forever chemical pollution. Industrial discharges of PFAS are a key reason why 83% of U.S. waterways contain forever chemicals, tainting fish nationwide.
Some congressional Democrats are “trying to force the EPA to address PFAS more quickly,” EWG noted.
The Clean Water Standards for PFAS Act, introduced in 2022 by Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), would require the EPA to establish PFAS wastewater limitation guidelines and water standards for PFAS in nine distinct industry categories by the end of 2026.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
Local residents and environmentalists warn that the rush to export fracked gas to energy-strapped allies in Europe and the rest of the world threatens to create an “industrial wasteland” in southern Louisiana. At least two export terminals near the Gulf Coast are already releasing toxic air pollution as massive ships are loaded with liquified natural gas, or LNG. The climate crisis demands a steep…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Before heading to El Paso, Texas, on January 8 for his first presidential visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, President Joe Biden announced a trifecta of hideous immigration policies, along with a familiar “crackdown” on “illegal” border crossings. The new initiatives include expanding the controversial Trump-era Title 42 to migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti as well as refusing…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Since the early days of Tibetans seeking refuge from the brutalities of China’s invasion and occupation of Tibet, various health agencies, some affiliated to the United Nations, operating inside India ran a series of vaccination programs which sought to immunize thousands of Tibetans from various diseases. This was done with the approval and cooperation; of what was known then as the Tibetan Government in Exile, no doubt encouraged and persuaded by the Indian authorities. That has extended into the present period of Covid.
Photo: archivenet
Given the refugee circumstances applying to Tibetans and being a culture which had developed over many centuries its own traditional medicine and treatment the notion of injections, super-drugs applied by white-coated clinicians, was entirely alien.
But their exiled Government, and more importantly His Holiness the Dalai Lama, had been convinced of the wonders of western science; and with the genuine welfare of their fellow Tibetans in mind immunization projects were welcomed and approved.
Photo: archivenet
We wonder how many Tibetan children were incorporated into a polio program when Bill Gates took control of India’s National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) which mandated up to 50 doses of polio vaccines through overlapping immunization programs to infants under the age of five. “Indian doctors blame the Gates campaign for a devastating non-polio acute flaccid paralysis (NPAFP) epidemic that paralyzed 490,000 children beyond expected rates between 2000 and 2017. In 2017, the Indian government dialed back Gates’ vaccine regimen and asked Gates and his vaccine policies to leave India. NPAFP rates dropped precipitously.”. Source: https://greatgameindia.com/bill-gates-agenda-in-india-exposed-by-robert-kennedy-jr/
However, unlike enshrined medical rights enjoyed by western citizens, such as informed consent, Tibetans were generally vaccinated and medicated without explanation, other than a compliance requested from a local Tibetan representative. On this basis Tibetan refugee schools and settlements were regularly singled out for vaccination programs. Whatever voices of dissent or concern were isolated, conformity and trust runs deep in Tibetan culture and if these projects had the endorsement of the exiled Tibetan authorities then that was sufficient to produce mass conformity.
Photo: Tibetan Health
On occasions this matter has entered discussion there have been questions, and rightly so. Were Tibetans, already in a vulnerable and disadvantaged condition as refugees, cynically exploited by western health agencies and their drug-manufacturing partners? Used as a testing population? What monitoring was conducted for health injury, if any? Why was no reporting procedure implemented or explained, that would allow Tibetans to log any health-harming ‘side-effects’?
It was though, some would argue a long time ago, such measures and protections only operated in the West, and certainly not in refugee settlements in India. Of course the health agencies involved had a duty-of-care and ethical obligations, did they apply them? A chapter of Tibetan exile history yes, but sadly one that’s being repeated. This time with an unlicensed, experimental, gene-modified drug; which since its implementation across the world, has already produced disturbing indications of serious risk-to-health.
Photo: archivenet
There is growing medical evidence of the harm resulting from Covid injections and the concerns are mounting, especially as rates of cardiac related illness and deaths are rising considerably. Serious, medically examined and academically supported information on this, and other damage-to- health, associated with this novel gene-therapy, is available online. Tibetan communities, be they in India Switzerland , the USA or elsewhere did not escape the draconian and dystopian response to this flu-variant virus. They were subjected to similar campaigns of fear-mongering, psychological grooming and social restrictions.
Photo: Tibet TV
Like other administrations, the exiled Tibetan authorities issued the same narrative of mask-wearing, isolation measures and with the partnership of India, launched a ‘vaccination’ program. On March 7, 2021 the Dalai Lama, it was reported, enrolled himself to be ‘vaccinated’ and the Oxford Astra-Zeneca drug was administered. From the moment images of that event appeared across broadcast, online and print-media any possible hesitancy felt by a n exiled Tibetan would dissolve away.
There could be no question, after all their spiritual and cultural leader approved; “This is very, very helpful, very good” Source: BBC News March 7 2021
Yet similar questions ,which retrospectively haunt the mass vaccination of Tibetan refugees in the 1960s and 70s, apply in the present situation. Even more so given the entirely experimental nature of these genetically modified drugs, and mindful that not insignificant numbers of people have suffered health injury associated with these ‘vaccines’.
Were Tibetans fully informed of the experimental nature of these vaccines, prior to agreeing receiving them? Was it explained to them that they can pose a number of not inconsiderable health risks? Was a procedure of reporting health-injury following vaccination explained and put-in-place for Tibetans in cases needed? Was it made entirely clear that before agreeing to receiving a vaccination the risks to health required to be explained? Lastly what health-monitoring has either the exiled Tibetan Administration, or Indian authorities implemented to assess, record and respond to health-damage post vaccinations?
Photo: Screen Grab/Israel National News
It is likely the answer to those key concerns, will; as applying to citizens in the USA, Europe and elsewhere, be no!
That being the case, it may well be that, as in all populations who have taken these ‘vaccines’, there will be a proportion of Tibetans who have suffered serious illness as a consequence. Given the nature of exiled Tibetan society and aspects of its culture such events are possibly not being submitted, equally there could be no reporting option in place. Then there could simply be an ignorance at work, no knowledge of the damage these drugs can inflict.
Whatever the facts it is essential, at the very least, that any Tibetan whose health has been reduced and harmed following ‘vaccination’ should be offered immediate medical support. Meanwhile, having advocated and promoted across Tibetan communities, that these ‘vaccines’ should be taken, the exiled Tibetan Administration has a responsibility to examine and determine the extent and nature of such injury.
Without such investigation, simply relying upon the assurances of the Indian medical authorities, or claims of vaccine manufacturers will leave Tibetans exposed to a dangerous harm that cannot be reversed.
This post was originally published on TIBET, ACTIVISM AND INFORMATION.
While welcoming efforts to update U.S. air quality standards for soot, environmental and public health advocates on Friday warned that the Biden administration’s new proposal falls woefully short of what’s needed to protect vulnerable communities from deadly pollution.
Because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declined to make any changes during the industry-friendly Trump administration, the United States currently relies on 2012 standards for soot, or fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from sources such as construction sites, fires, power plants, and vehicles.
“EPA is not living up to the ambitions of this administration to follow the science, protect public health, and advance environmental justice.”
The EPA is now proposing to strengthen the primary annual PM2.5 standard—which is about public health—from 12 micrograms per cubic meter to 9-10 micrograms per cubic meter, but over a two-month period the agency will take public comment on a range of 8-11 micrograms per cubic meter.
The rule would not alter the secondary annual PM2.5 standard, which is meant to protect public welfare, including animals, crops, and nature. It also would retain existing primary and secondary standards for both PM2.5 over a 24-hour period and larger inhalable particles known as PM10.
The agency estimates the new standard would prevent up to 4,200 premature deaths and 270,000 lost workdays each year while resulting in as much as $43 billion in net health benefits in 2032. EPA Administrator Michael Regan claimed that “our work to deliver clean, breathable air for everyone is a top priority” and framed the proposal as “grounded in the best available science.”
However, campaigners and representatives from overburdened communities argued Friday that the EPA should listen to pleas for cleaner air from people at risk—rather than business groups fearmongering about potential economic impacts—and impose even stricter standards, which could reduce health issues like asthma and heart attacks and save thousands more lives annually.
“This delayed proposed rule on soot is a disappointment and missed opportunity overall. Though aspects of EPA’s proposal would somewhat strengthen important public health protections, EPA is not living up to the ambitions of this administration to follow the science, protect public health, and advance environmental justice,” said Earthjustice attorney Seth Johnson.
\u201cBad air quality is the world\u2019s leading environmental killer. In the United States, air pollution is associated with 100,000 to 200,000 deaths each year. We can make big improvements on this problem with tighter government standards, but today, @EPA failed to meet the mark.\u201d— Earthjustice (@Earthjustice) 1673030073
Sierra Club senior director of energy campaigns Holly Bender agreed that the rule “does not fully reflect the serious danger of this pollutant, the scientific record, or the positive impact stronger standards would have on communities across the country.”
“The health burdens of air pollution are disproportionately borne by communities of color near heavily polluting facilities and infrastructure, like power plants, factories, and roads, and this standard is a long-overdue step toward correcting enduring environmental and health injustices faced by fenceline communities,” she stressed. “Anything short of the most protective standards gives a pass to the biggest polluters.”
Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition executive director Yvonka Hall also lamented that “with the new soot rule proposal, the EPA and the Biden administration have missed a vital opportunity to enact transformational change, to advance environmental justice, and to protect the most vulnerable Americans.”
“Thanks to redlining, Black people are more likely to live, work, play, and pray in communities that are toxic,” Hall pointed out. “With this proposal, we have missed the chance to right some of those historical wrongs.”
Noting that “Black children go to the emergency room for asthma 10 times more often than their white counterparts in the city of St. Louis” and “it’s eight times more often for Black adults,” Jenn DeRose, a Missouri-based Sierra Club campaigner, emphasized that “we need strong reductions in particulate matter pollution in my city and across the country to address problems created by generations of environmental racism targeted at Black communities.”
Latinos are also “far more likely to live and work in areas where air quality is the poorest, and regularly breathe soot and smog, which can cause and exacerbate respiratory illness,” said Laura Esquivel, the Hispanic Federation’s vice president of federal policy and advocacy. “This rule falls short of taking steps to mitigate the decades of neglect and harm done to the health of our communities and to the health of Latino children in particular.”
\u201c”In #Appalachia, our people are breathing fugitive mine dust and toxic emissions from numerous industries. Time and again, state regulatory practices have fallen short in curbing the impacts of these industries.”\u201d— Appalachian Voices (@Appalachian Voices) 1673029176
Echoing the campaigners, Anita Desikan, a senior analyst for the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union on Concerned Scientists, said that “the science is clear—PM pollution causes serious health problems, and the biggest impacts are hitting Black, Latinx, and low-income people, many of whom are already overburdened with exposure to multiple pollutants.”
“Over the past decade, study after study has shown how breathing PM pollution causes real, meaningful damage,” Desikan continued. “Today’s proposal gets us closer to where we need to be—but the problem is urgent and the solution is long overdue. EPA needs to act quickly, follow the science, and finalize the strongest possible rule.”
While Dr. Doris Browne, former president of the National Medical Association, the largest U.S. organization representing Black physicians, expressed gratitude for the Biden administration’s efforts in the official EPA statement announcing the proposal, other public health leaders were far more critical.
American Lung Association president and CEO Harold Wimmer said that the proposed rule “misses the mark and is inadequate to protect public health from this deadly pollutant,” citing scientific research to advocate for an annual standard of 8 micrograms per cubic meter and a 24-hour standard of 25 micrograms per cubic meter.
Declaring that “health organizations and experts are united in their ask of EPA to finalize the national standards for particle pollution” at those levels, Wimmer pledged that his group “will file detailed technical comments and provide testimony at the public hearing to urge EPA to strengthen the final standards,” and encouraged the public to do the same.
Air Alliance Houston executive director Jennifer Hadayia highlighted that “during the recent cold snap, we were exposed to 24-hour industrial flares that spewed particulate matter across the region. And, our state regulatory agency—the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality—does nothing to stop it.”
“We applaud the EPA for stepping in where our state will not, but we wish they had gone further,” said Hadayia. “A stronger 24-hour standard would protect more Houstonians from the recent flares.”
\u201cToday’s proposed EPA soot rule is both late and disappointing. Why?\n\n1) It’s too high and will lead to 20,000 more people dying annually.\n2) It only proposes to strengthen the annual, not the daily or 24 hour standard.\n\nWe need the Biden EPA to do BETTER.\nhttps://t.co/woZhKfq306\u201d— Dr. Leah Stokes (@Dr. Leah Stokes) 1673024008
Critics of the proposal also want the EPA to reconsider not just the primary, or health-based, standards, but also the secondary, or welfare-based, ones.
“Because countless people and organizations like the National Parks Conservation Association spoke out and demanded the Biden administration take action, they’ve taken this modest step toward cleaner air, but it doesn’t go far enough,” said Ulla Reeves, campaigns director for the organization’s Clean Air Program.
“Beyond the harm it causes people, soot wreaks havoc on our national parks’ plants, wildlife, waters, and our views,” Reeves said. “People deserve to visit national parks and not only breathe clean air but also experience the natural world free from this haze and soot pollution.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
Four months after U.S. President Joe Biden said in a television interview that “the pandemic is over,” global immunization experts are warning that “pandemic fatigue” may be contributing to declining demand for Covid-19 vaccines in developing countries, even as vaccination rates in the Global South are far below the World Health Organization’s target.
As The Washington Post reported Wednesday, Covax, the WHO-backed vaccine sharing initiative launched in 2020, expects to deliver about 400 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines in 2023, compared to roughly one billion doses that were distributed in lower-income countries in 2021 and 2022.
“As long as Africa lags far behind the rest of the world in reaching widespread protection, there is a dangerous gap which the virus can exploit to come roaring back.”
Millions of doses sent to South Africa were thrown away in the second half of 2022, according to the Post, though only a third of the nation’s population is fully vaccinated. WHO has called on countries to ensure 70% or more of each country’s population is vaccinated against the coronavirus, but just 20% of people in low-income countries were immunized as of December.
The Post‘s report comes as some public health experts in the U.S. have criticized the Biden administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for moving on from pandemic mitigation measure such as pushing for mask-wearing during Covid-19 surges, using metrics such as overwhelmed hospitals—rather than transmission numbers—to determine whether communities are considered to be at high risk for outbreaks, and shortening the recommended isolation period for people who have been infected.
As Science News reported last month, when Biden declared the pandemic over in September, 10,000 deaths from Covid-19 were still being recorded each week—”10,000 too many, when most of these deaths could be prevented,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the time.
Ayoade Alakija, co-chair of the African Union’s African Vaccine Delivery Alliance, told the Post Wednesday that “wealthy nations were sending the wrong message to other countries that were not as highly vaccinated.”
“You’re telling us the pandemic is over?” Alakija said. “It’s disingenuous.”
Pandemic fatigue has also become evident in vaccination rates in the U.S., with only half of the country’s vaccinated population having received booster shots, according to the CDC.
The larger vaccination gaps in the lower-income countries could raise the chance that new variants emerge and spread across the globe, public health experts have long warned.
“As long as Africa lags far behind the rest of the world in reaching widespread protection,” Matshidiso Moeti, Africa director for WHO, said in October, “there is a dangerous gap which the virus can exploit to come roaring back.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
I wasn’t surprised when the test results from my rheumatologist showed no COVID-19 antibodies, even though I had received all five doses of the vaccine that have been FDA-approved for immune-compromised folks like me. I knew the heavy dose of immune suppressants I take for my connective tissue disease made it likely that I would be in the estimated 3 percent of “moderately to severely”…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Travellers from China to Australia will be required to have a negative pre-departure covid-19 test from January 5 — and New Zealand says it is now assessing the health risks.
China has seen skyrocketing covid case numbers, and a range of other countries including the United Kingdom, the United States and France have also imposed testing requirements.
NZ government duty minister Stuart Nash said tonight that New Zealand was currently assessing the situation.
“I’ve been informed today that Australia has announced pre-departure testing for travellers arriving from China. This measure is being taken in response to the rapidly unfolding situation in China,” he said.
“New Zealand has a public health risk assessment under way which will be completed in the next 24 hours.
“Our response will remain proportionate to the potential risks posed by travellers and in the context of the international situation.”
New Zealand, to date, had said it has no plans to introduce testing for Chinese visitors, the Ministry of Health said last week.
An ‘abundance of caution’
Australia’s Health Minister Mark Butler said this decision was taken out of an “abundance of caution” and a temporary measure due to the lack of detailed information about the epidemiological situation in China.
“That lack of comprehensive information has led a number of countries in recent days to put in place various measures — not to restrict travel from China, it’s important to say — but to gather better information about what is happening epidemiologically in that country,” he said.
Butler said the government warmly welcomed visitors from China, and Australia was “well positioned right now in the fight against covid”.
“The resumption of travel between China and Australia poses no immediate public health threat to Australians,” he said.
Butler said universities and the tourism industry would also welcome the resumption of travel from China, as would people who had long been separated from their family and friends.
“We know there are many many hundreds of thousands of Chinese Australians who have been unable to see family and friends for months — and, in some cases, years — and their ability to do that over the coming period will be a matter of considerable joy for them, particularly as we head into the Lunar New Year period,” he said.
Butler said that, although the subvariant that appeared to be driving the wave in China was already present in Australia, the situation was “developing very quickly”.
Concerns over new variant
“There are concerns, in an environment of cases spreading so quickly, about the possibility of the emergence of a new variant,” he said.
“Now there’s no evidence of that right now.
“This is a measure taken out of an abundance of caution to provide Australians and the Australian government with the best possible information about a fast-evolving situation.”
Butler said the Chinese government was informed about the measures this morning.
“It won’t come as any surprise to the Chinese government that Australia is putting this arrangement in place, I don’t think, given the broad range of countries that have taken similar steps over the last 48 to 72 hours,” he said.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist, and Jan Kohout, RNZ journalist
Twenty four Pacific peoples have been recognised in the 2023 New Year’s honours.
A former Premier of Niue, Young Vivian, leads the list of distinguished Pacific peoples in the list.
Vivian has been made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to Niue.
Fiji-born Dr Api Talemaitoga, a familiar face to Pacific communities during the height of covid-19 in Aotearoa, has been acknowledged for his decades of service in the medical sector.
The first Pacific priest ordained in Rome in 1990, Father Paulo Filoialii of Samoa, has been recognised for services to the Pacific community.
Also on the honours list is Lisa Taouma, the producer and director of Coconet TV, the largest pool of Pacific content on screen in New Zealand.
And the lead singer of the popular band Ardijah, Betty-Anne Monga, has been recognised for services to music.
‘Better things will come’: Niue’s Young Vivian
Young Vivian started his career as a teacher in New Zealand.
He went to a British school based on an English system. He failed English and was told to leave because enrolments were backed up.
He said he “begged the education officer” to stay so he was sent to Northland College and was “very happy” there.
Community members say he has been instrumental in fostering a love for Vagahau Niue, or Niue language, as a respected elder.
Speaking to RNZ Pacific reporter Lydia Lewis in 2022, at the launch of the Niue language app in Auckland, Vivian said:
“A language is a key to your culture and your tradition. It gives you that spiritual strength of who you are and you are able to face the world,” he said.
“That’s very, very important to a small nation like Niue who has a population of only 2500 people, but here in Australia and New Zealand it’s 80,000.”
When he went home to Niue, he was “dissatisfied”.
“I want to be fully independent, but I could see signs that people were not acceptable to that so I gave up, only then we can be real Niueans,” Vivian said.
His message to Pacific leaders is to believe in themselves.
“They must depend on themselves and God, they have everything in their homes, they need guts, stickability and determination, small as they are, they can stand up to it.”
He encourages the next generation to go back to basics.
“You have to depend on literally what you’ve got,” he said.
‘Profound privilege’: Dr Api
Dr Api Talemaitoga has been acknowledged for his decades-long work in the medical sector.
“I see it as a profound privilege, I have this knowledge about health and I find it a real pleasure to do it.”
More than three decades in the job after graduating in 1986, he has a deep sense of pride for the next generation.
“I was really fortunate to be given the opportunity to give the graduation address at the University of Otago for medical students,” he said.
“To see the highest number of Pasifika medical students walk across the stage was really emotional.
“I can happily retire now that I see this new generation of young people, enthusiastic, bright, diverse and they are the ones that will carry on the load in the future.”
Dr Talemaitoga always has a smile on his face and an infectious laugh, he is incredibly hard to get hold of because he is always helping his patients.
When asked how he keeps his charisma day in day out, he said:
“I am not superhuman, some days are just dreadful and you come home feeling really disillusioned and what’s the point of all of this when you see three or four people in a row heading for dialysis,” he said.
“Then you have days where you make a difference to one person out of the 25 or 30 you see that day.
“They feel really encouraged that you’ve been able for the first time to explain their condition to them … you can’t put it in words, it’s such an amazing feeling.”
‘This is for you, not me’: Father Paulo
The first Pacific Priest ordained in Rome in 1990 – Father Paulo Sagato Filoialii is dedicating his medal to the community he has served for decades, that has in turn backed him.
“I want to offer this medal for the Pacific Island people, this is for you, not for me. This medal I will receive is for all of you and I thank you all for your prayers, for your love and your support, God bless you all,” he said.
Father Paulo has contributed his time to the Catholic community in Christchurch and Ashburton.
Upon Father Filoialii being ordained, the Samoan Mass was performed for the first time in the Vatican, resulting in Pope John Paul II decreeing that the Samoan Mass can now be performed anywhere in the world.
‘Proud’: The Coconet TV’s Lisa Taouma
Pioneering Pasifika producer and director Lisa Taouma paved the way for Pacific peoples in media.
She created the ground-breaking site The Coconet TV which is the largest pool of Pacific content on screen in Aotearoa.
On top of that she made the Polyfest series, the long-standing Pacific youth series Fresh, five award-winning documentaries, the feature film Teine Sa and two short films.
Taouma believes you are only as good as the people you bring through.
“I’m proud of having brought Pacific stories to the fore around the world, I am proud of having brought Pacific people with me into that space, that is what I am most proud of,” She said.
Taouma said it was awesome that more indigenous people were being recognised globally.
While she is humbled to receive the honour, she admits not accepting it crossed her mind.
“I felt quite conflicted at the start, you know there are problems with the idea of empire and how Pacific people have been treated under the history of the British Empire,” she said.
“At the same time, it is really important to stand in this space as a Pacific woman and to have more Pacific people recognised by the Crown if you like.
“This is a system that is hopefully more reflective of Aotearoa and where we stand now.”
‘I never looked back’: Sully Paea
Niuean youth-worker Sully Paea has dedicated his life to working with youth, founding the East Tamaki Youth and Resource Centre between the late 1970s and 1986.
Paea said he was lost. He battled alcoholism and pushed through a diagnosis of depression. He had a violent criminal career until he met his wife which changed him completely.
He has dedicated his life to working with youth, founding the East Tamaki Youth and Resource Centre between the late 1970s and 1986.
After 40 years serving the community, he has never looked back
‘We’re getting there as people’: Tafilau Nina Kirifi-Alai
Tafilau Nina Kirifi-Alai has been honoured for her great services to Pacific Development.
Kirifi-Alai has been the Pacific manager of Otago University for more than 20 years.
She has assisted scholarships of Pacific students and has led developments for the University of Otago to support Pacific tertiary institutions in the region.
“Seeing Pasifika communities graduating from university has been rewarding,” she said.
“To see all those colours in the garments and all those families and all that, was like oh yeah we are getting there, we’re getting there as a people. This is why we left our homes to seek greater opportunities, education wise and work wise, and I actually believe that education is the key.”
‘Knowing your culture, knowing your roots’: Rosanna Raymond
Activism is what paved the road for multidisciplinary artist and curator Rosanna Raymond.
Her work has taken her to China, Australia and Britain, where she has built an awareness of Pacific art and fashion.
She draws on her strong cultural bond to artefacts that were taken from their original land and are now displayed in museums throughout the world.
She made a huge written contribution by co-publishing Pasifika Styles: Artists inside the Museum in 2008 and was Honorary Research Associate at the Department of Anthropology and Institute of Archaeology at University College, London.
She said moving forward whilst staying true to several of her roots was what led her to where she was today.
The full list of Pasifika in the New Year’s Honours list are:
To be Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
The honourable Mititaiagimene Young Vivian, former Premier of Niue – For services to Niue.
To be Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
Nathan Edward Fa’avae – For services to adventure racing, outdoor education and the Pacific community
David Rodney Fane – For services to the performing arts
Dr Apisalome Sikaidoka Talemaitoga – For services to health and the Pacific community
Lisa-Jane Taouma – For services to Pacific arts and the screen industry
To be Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
Father Paulo Sagato Filoialii – For services to the Pacific community
Sefita ‘Alofi Hao’uli – For services to Tongan and Pacific communities
Lakiloko Tepae Keakea – For services to Tuvaluan art
Marilyn Rhonda Kohlhase – For services to Pacific arts and education
Felorini Ruta McKenzie – For services to Pacific education
Betty-Anne Maryrose Monga – For services to music
Sullivan Luao Paea – For services to youth
Rosanna Marie Raymond – For services to Pacific art
The Queen’s Service Medal:
Kinaua Bauriri Ewels – For services to the Kiribati community
Galumalemana Fetaiaimauso Marion Galumalemana – For services to the Pacific community
Hana Melania Halalele – For services to Pacific health
Teurukura Tia Kekena – For services to the Cook Islands and Pacific communities
Nanai Pati Muaau – For services to Pacific health
Lomia Kaipati Semaia Naniseni – For services to the Tokelau community
Ma’a Brian Sagala – For services to Pacific communities
Mamaitaloa Sagapolutele – For services to education and the Pacific community
Honorary:
Tofilau Nina Kirifi-Alai – For services to education and the Pacific community
Tuifa’asisina Kasileta Maria Lafaele – For services to Pacific health
Nemai Divuluki Vucago – For services to Fijian and Pacific communities
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
By Conan Young , Local Democracy Reporting editor
This year was another huge one for Local Democracy Reporting, with our reporters at the forefront of uncovering some of the biggest stories in their regions.
Felix Desmarais in Rotorua exposed hitherto secret plans by the council to revoke the reserve status of seven council reserves, paving the way for new housing to be built on them, including social housing.
It became a major election issue with residents using the ballot to choose candidates opposed to the plan, which was subsequently canned by the new council.
Steve Forbes covered the chaos created by understaffed and overstretched Emergency Departments, with a deep dive in to the death of a patient who visited Middlemore Hospital.
He was first with a damning independent report that found the ED was “an unsafe environment for both patients and staff”.
It was a year of climate change-induced severe weather, and LDR reporters produced numerous stories on how councils were coping, or not, when it came to putting back together what Mother Nature had torn apart.
Flooding this year continued to represent an existential threat to Westport after the devastating inundation seen last year as well. Brendon McMahon’s stories have reflected the reality on the ground, such as the predicament faced by residents on Snodgrass Road who had been left out of a proposed flood protection scheme.
Nelson clean-up
Nelson reporter Max Frethey has kept readers up to date as that city deals with its own clean-up after devastating downpours in August, which left the city with a repair bill of between $40 million and $60 million, the biggest in its 160-year history.
The weather kept Marlborough’s Maia Hart busy this year as well in a region with communities still cut off or with limited access due to damage caused a year ago.
But it was her story on the resilience of elderly Lochmara Bay resident Monyeen Wedge that really captured readers’ attention. Living alone, she went three days without power and was forced to live off canned food.
The pandemic and the response of health authorities and councils continued to be an area of inquiry for LDR in 2022, and none more so than Moana Ellis in Whanganui.
While high vaccination rates amongst pākehā protected thousands from the worst affects of the Omicron wave, it was a battle for DHBs to reach many Māori, who already had a distrust of health authorities. Moana’s reporting ensured these communities were not forgotten.
In one of LDR’s most read stories of 2022, Alisha Evans uncovered the extent of bureaucratic overreach in Tauranga when through traffic was discouraged on Links Ave with the help of a fine. A glitch led to infringements being issued to drivers living as far away as the South Island who had never even visited the city.
Reporters have documented the good and the bad of people’s interactions with vulnerable ecosystems. North Canterbury’s David Hill shone a light on the wonton destruction of endangered nesting birds in the region’s braided river beds by 4WD enthusiasts.
Community efforts
While Mother Nature was the winner following a series of stories from Taranaki’s Craig Ashworth on community efforts to protect dwindling stocks of kaimoana, which finally resulted in a two-year long rāhui.
The national roll out of flexible median barriers, aka “cheesecutters”, caused consternation in Whakatāne where Diane McCarthy talked to police who said they would struggle to pass drivers on their way to emergencies and farmers driving slow-moving tractors worried about extra levels of road rage from slowed-up motorists.
The dire state of the country’s water infrastructure is magnified in places like Wairarapa, with its small ratepayer base and decades old pipes and sewage treatment. There was no better illustration of this than Emily Ireland’s reporting on Masterton’s use of its Better Off funding where it was pointed out a mum was using a council provided portaloo to potty train her toddler because sewage was backing up in the town system whenever there was heavy rain.
The human impact of decisions around water infrastructure was also brought in to sharp relief in Ashburton reporter Jonathan Leask’s excellent reporting. He took up the cause of a couple and their three children who were shut out of moving in to their dream home due to high nitrate levels limiting the building of any more septic tanks.
One of the biggest changes around council tables this year was the election of Māori ward candidates, with half of all councils now having these. Northland’s Susan Botting has been first out of the blocks reporting on the new dynamics at play, starting with Kaipara mayor Craig Jepson’s ban on karakia to open meetings. The ban was hastily reversed, but led to the largest hikoi in Dargaville for some time.
As with all of LDR’s reporters, choosing just one stand out story from the many fine pieces published throughout the year is almost impossible. None more so than Tairāwhiti reporter Matthew Rosenberg.
But no wrap of 2022 would be complete without mention of his story on bulldozer driver Hamish Pryde. The 65-year-old helped save Wairoa from a dangerously high river by negotiating already badly flooded paddocks and opening up a sand bar so the river could drain out to sea.
As Matthew says, “not all heroes wear capes, some drive bulldozers”.
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air. Asia Pacific Report is a partner in the project.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
“The cells don’t have any heat. So, they’re sleeping with their clothes on,” a woman named Regina told Truthout of her son’s experience in Hill Correctional Center in Illinois in early December. “They’re not heating the tiers. There’s no heat in the day room. There’s no heat outside the showers.… The water is cold. You can let it run for a little while and you may get a little warm. But it’s not…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.