UK COVID-19 vaccination programme will not halt pandemic deaths due to end of lockdown

Robert Stevens

The first people in the world were given the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in the UK yesterday. The first person to be inoculated was a 90-year-old grandmother, Margaret Keenan, at her local National Health Service hospital in Coventry.

Pfizer/BioNTechs is not the first vaccine in operation globally, with almost a million people in China already given a vaccine that is still in its testing phase. At least three vaccines in China have been approved for emergency use outside clinical trials. More than 100,000 people have been given the Sputnik V vaccine in Russia.

Boris Johnson’s government has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech drug, with the first 800,000 doses arriving last week from Belgium. The government is to roll out the largest vaccination programme in UK history in two phases, with 50 hospitals initially selected. From December 14, it will be also be administered in 1,000 GP-led centres.

The first 10 million doses will be used mainly among older adults in a care home and by care home workers (1,098,000 people). Those aged 80 and over already attending hospital as an outpatient or who are being discharged home after a hospital stay will receive it. Health and social care workers will be also be among the over 5 million people in this second group.

Margaret Keenan receives the vaccine (credit: NHS England and NHS Improvement-Twitter)

To be immunised each person must receive two doses, three weeks apart. Another week must pass before they are immune, meaning the whole process takes about one month.

Vaccinating the whole of the UK’s 66 million population will take months and well into next year. Britain’s Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told Sky News Tuesday, “It's going to take quite a long time to make sure everybody in the at-risk groups and all of the groups that are difficult to reach get vaccinated as appropriate... It may be that next winter even with vaccination we need measures like masks in place--we don't know yet how good all the vaccines are going to be at preventing the transmission of the virus.”

The first 800,000 doses only cover 400,000 people. Even if the next several million ordered doses arrive this month, as ordered, from manufacturers who are already reporting delays and problems, this only covers a fraction of the population. The next three bands in line to receive the vaccine are all those 75 years of age and over, 70 and over, and 65 and over. Only then are all 2.2 million individuals aged 16-64 with underlying health conditions set to receive the vaccine. They will be followed by all those aged 60 and over.

By that stage all the first 40 million doses ordered by the UK will be used up. This excludes the age bracket 55-60s (4.4 million people) 50-55 (4.6 million) and the rest of the population (41.5 million).

There are also major logistical problems involved in delivery, particularly to remote rural areas, especially as the vaccine must be stored at 94 degrees Fahrenheit (-70 degrees Celsius). It can only be used within 6 hours of dilution before being discarded.

Despite the immense significance for mankind of the availability of the drug--and promising developments with other vaccines coming on stream--its ability to save lives given its 90 to 95 percent effectivity rate against COVID-19, is being undermined by Britain’s ruling elite in their drive to keep the economy open and make profits.

The government ended its own limited four-week national lockdown in the UK on December 2—replacing it with another ineffectual “Tier system” allowing tens of millions of people to travel, shop and use pubs, bars and restaurants. This will lead to a massive loss of lives, even as COVID-19 continues to kill hundreds every day.

There is no significant pattern of decline, whether in cases, hospitalisations or deaths, to justify ending the lockdown. Yesterday another 616 died of COVID-19, up 13 on the same day the previous week and a substantial increase on the previous day’s 172 fatalities. 12,282 new cases were also recorded.

The national lockdown was ended citing a small decline in cases and deaths due to the very policy being abandoned. The R (Reproduction) rate of the virus fell below 1, but cases and deaths remained high.

Last Thursday, the day the lockdown ended, deaths of people who perished within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test—the government’s official measure—passed 60,000. The true figure is edging towards 80,000, with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) putting the figure at 76,000 deaths where COVID is mentioned on the death certificate and including deaths in recent days.

The government’s murderous decision to abandon any even limitedly effective restrictions for the next months, as well as continuing to keep open workplaces, schools, colleges, and universities, will see this number soar. Given the actions of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government, which endorsed a herd immunity policy as the virus began to spread uncontrollably in the spring, tens of thousands more people will be dead in Britain before the vaccine is available to the wider population.

Ending the national lockdown was accompanied by an announcement that all shops are allowed to open for 24 hours a day in December and January to ensure a bumper Christmas and New Year of profits. Travel restrictions will be eased nationally during a five-day Christmas period of December 23—27 and up to three households will be able to meet up.

Johnson could not contain himself in Parliament when the Conservative government was backed by Labour MPs in voting December 1 to end the lockdown, declaring that “everyone in England, including those in tier 3, will be free to leave their homes for any reason. When they do, they will find the shops open for Christmas, the hairdressers open, the nail bars open, and gyms, leisure centres and swimming pools open.”

No guidance has been issued on how to deal with the impact of the virus over the New Year, traditionally a time when masses of people gather together in city centres and in households.

Prominent scientists have warned of what is to come. Professor Gabriel Scally, a public health expert from Bristol University and member of the Independent SAGE group that has criticised aspects of the government’s COVID-19 policy, said bluntly, "It's no use having a good Christmas if you're burying friends and relations in the new year."

Katherine Henderson, president of Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said, “If Covid cases become hospital cases and then sadly go on to become deaths, we will regret a Christmas season that gave granny Covid for Christmas.”

Professor Andrew Hayward, a member of the official Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) told BBC Radio 4, “My personal view is we’re putting far too much emphasis on having a near-normal Christmas… We know respiratory infections peak in January, so throwing fuel on the fire over Christmas can only contribute to this.”

Dr Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said that every region in the UK should be placed in Tier Three if COVID-19 hospital admissions had any chance of being kept down.

This scientific advice is being ignored. New figures this week showed that London, which was placed in the less restrictive Tier 2 to placate City financiers and big business, had an infection rate of 169.2 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 people during the week ending December 2. Analysis by the Daily Mail yesterday reveals that London, with a population of nearly 9 million, “is now recording more cases per day, for its size, than 27 of 61 authorities currently living under Tier Three curbs, including Nottingham, Leeds, Leicestershire, Bristol, Newcastle and Derby.”

The ruling class cannot be allowed to remain in control and carry out its irrational and barbaric decisions. The working class must intervene independently to ensure that lives are saved in a struggle against capitalism and for socialism.

Optare UK bus manufacturing workers strike for pay increase

Barry Mason

Workers at the Optare bus manufacturing plant in Sherburn-in-Elmet, North Yorkshire, England are continuing their strike in pursuit of a pay increase. The workers have not had a pay rise for the last two years.

The 100 Unite union members at the plant voted by a 73 percent majority for action. The ballot took place following months of fruitless negotiations. From October 15, the workers began a continuous overtime ban and a series of 48-hour discontinuous stoppages. From November 17, they escalated action by holding four-day strikes which are continuing. Around 500 workers are employed at the site.

Optare is a subsidiary of the Indian vehicle manufacturer Ashok Leyland, run by the Hinduja group.

The Hinduja group is controlled by four brothers, all multi-billionaires. Last year, Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja saw their fortune increase by £1.3 billion to £22 billion, as they topped the Sunday Times Rich List of the 1,000 richest people in the UK for the third time.

The Optare plant in Sherburn-in-Elmet (credit: Google Maps)

In August 2019, Optare agreed to implement a pay rise from November that year. The company reneged on its promise. Unite had been in negotiations with the company for the previous 18 months and on several occasions agreed to defer pushing the issue.

Speaking on the picket line at the start of industrial action on October 15, Unite union regional officer Richard Bedford said, “We’ve been in negotiations for 18 months now. Our members are wanting an RPI (Retail Price Index) increase plus one percent which is still not forthcoming.”

Exposing Unite’s role in suppressing the fight to win a pay rise, he continued, “We have agreed to defer negotiations on three occasions already throughout these negotiations…”

Unite was still hoping “to get the company back around the table to start talking about an increase,” even after the company announced prior to the stoppage that “it has put in place contingency plans to maintain production and to deliver orders during the industrial action”.

Every statement by the union since has been centred on begging the company to negotiate with their trusted partners. The North East, Yorkshire and Humber Unite twitter feed on November 16 stated, “Our members at Optare near Leeds have escalated their strike action to four days a week from today. Our message is clear, the company needs to stop making false promises and get round the table with a serious offer that reflects our members’ hard work.”

Richard Burgon, a local Labour MP and chairman of the Socialist Campaign Group, visited the picket line last month. While praising the “brave strike action following broken pay rise promises made by a company owned by billionaires,” Burgon speaks for a right-wing party which was bankrolled for years by the Hinduja brothers, when led by Tony Blair, and which still represents the billionaires and not the workers.

On November 6, North Yorkshire police visited the police line and ordered the workers to disperse citing COVID-19 legislation. They warned pickets that if they were to return, they would be issued with penalty notices for contravening lockdown rules. This was one day after national restrictions were reintroduced in England. The police attempted to break up the picket line despite workers being legally on strike, maintaining social distancing, and using hand sanitiser and PPE.

Unite sought a judicial review against the North Yorkshire police chief constable, and the secretary of state for health and social care, Matt Hancock, which was due to be heard November 13. The hearing did not go ahead as the government conceded the workers had the right to picket during the pandemic.

While the strike was allowed to continue, the incident reveals that the draconian powers the government has, under the Coronavirus Act legislation, is to be used against the working class.

The origins of Optare began in 1984 when Leyland closed its Charles H Roe vehicle bodywork plant in Leeds. This was during the second term of Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government, as privatization and deregulation laid waste to manufacturing industry. Russell Richardson, a director at Roe, set up Optare along with some former employees. It was able to win orders for its buses from the public transport bodies the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (WYPTE) and its South Yorkshire equivalent. It also took orders from the WYPTE’s successor arms-length company, Yorkshire Rider. Developing innovative designs, the company was able to expand its sales and even break into the export market, with sales to Sri Lanka.

In 1990, Optare joined the United Bus group which included the Dutch bus manufacturer DAF. After United Bus’s collapse in 1993 Optare reverted to an independent existence following a second management buyout. It continued developing innovative designs such as low-floor buses.

Optare was acquired by the Hungarian-owned North American Bus Industries (NABI) in 2000. This enabled Optare to export its buses into North American markets. However, in 2005 with NABI experiencing financial problems, another management buyout took place returning Optare to is independent status.

In 2008, as part of a complex takeover process, Optare joined forces with the Darwen Group, the successor organisation of the East Lancashire Coachbuilders company. The company formally known as Optare plc was floated on the stock exchange. A rationalisation process saw the newly created Optare plc close its Rotherham site.

In 2010, Optare began its present incarnation when the Hinduja brothers’ Ashok Leyland group acquired a 26 percent share, increasing it to 75 percent in 2011. Ashok Leyland now has a 99 percent share and total control. Under Ashok Leyland, Optare closed its East Lancashire site in 2012 after moving further out from its east Leeds site to a newly built facility in Sherburn-in-Elmet in 2011.

Ashok Leyland, the one-time subsidiary of British Leyland, is headquartered in Chennai in India. The second largest producer of commercial vehicles in India, it is the world’s third largest bus manufacturer and its 10th largest truck producer.

In its 2019 annual report and accounts Optare reported around £49 million revenues, almost doubling the previous year’s, but showed a near £9 million loss after tax.

In May, Optare, along with the UK other major bus manufacturers, Wrightbus, and Alexander Dennis, issued a begging letter to the government asking for state funding. It warned, “The COVID-19 crisis represents an immediate threat to the future of the UK bus manufacturing industry and its extensive supply chain. Forward orders have already been drastically reduced with many operators deferring or indeed cancelling their orders for new buses and coaches…

“Without immediate support, future orders will not be forthcoming, putting over 10,000 jobs and apprenticeship opportunities at risk. It is vital that Government funding is used immediately to enable bus operators to invest in their fleets, and the UK’s manufacturing base, with confidence.”

Optare workers face a global conglomerate intent to increasing profitability at the expense of its workforce. Workers must organise themselves in a rank and file committee, independently of Unite. The struggle for better wages and to defend jobs can only be successful based on the adoption of a socialist internationalist perspective, which is anathema to the pro-capitalist unions.

Airline unions try to impose wage freeze deal with Virgin Australia

Terry Cook

Within weeks of corporate raider Bain Capital fully taking over Virgin Australia, the country’s second largest carrier, the airline unions have signed off on “in-principle” work agreements that would inflict an 18-month to two-year pay freeze on the company’s remaining 6,000 workers.

This is on top of the unions opposing any unified struggle against the destruction of thousands of jobs at both Virgin and Qantas, the former publicly-owned airline, and the similar suppression of airline workers’ struggles internationally against massive job and pay cuts.

Virgin collapsed and went into administration in March, owing banks and other creditors more than $6.8 billion. It was eventually sold to Bain, a private equity firm selected by the administrators from a gaggle of corporate hyenas circling the failed airline looking for lucrative pickings.

Virgin Australia Airbus A320 at Christmas Island International Airport [Source: Wikimedia Commons]

The pay freeze deal, hatched during closed-door negotiations, was brokered by the Transport Workers Union (TWU), Flight Attendants Association of Australia (FAAA), Australian Services Union (ASU) and Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA).

Anxious to prove their worth to Bain as reliable industrial police forces for further cost-cutting measures, the unions are trying to ram through the deal via online ballots, while providing their members with scant and misleading outlines of their agreements.

The unions even claim that the deal is an “achievement,” because it supposedly provides the surviving workers with “job security.” In reality, they are holding the threat of further job losses over their members’ heads to intimidate any opposition.

TWU national secretary Michael Kaine told media that the agreements ensure “Virgin workers will carry out the airline’s work as opposed to being outsourced.” ASU assistant national secretary Emeline Gaske said it was “pleasing the airline would keep roles in-house instead of contracting work to outside agencies.”

Summing up the unions’ pro-corporate role, ALAEA federal secretary Steve Purvinas said the pay freeze would help place “Virgin on the footing it needs to be a strong, competitive airline.” He called on the Liberal-National Coalition government to provide the company with millions of dollars more in more taxpayer-funded assistance “to ensure the airline’s future survival.”

The unions’ thinly-veiled threats that Virgin workers would face deeper job cuts unless they accept the wage freeze follows confirmation by Qantas last week that it will outsource over 2,000 positions, including baggage handlers, ramp workers and cabin cleaners.

To block any fight by workers against the Qantas outsourcing, the unions are now placing it in the hands of the Federal Court. That was after the TWU failed to convince Qantas to employ the union itself as the cheap labour contractor for the outsourcing operation.

The unions’ claim that by accepting cuts to working conditions and wages workers will protect their jobs is a fraud. Like every airline owner around the world, Bain is utilising the COVID-19 pandemic to restructure and slash costs at the expense of the workforce.

Immediately on acquiring Virgin, without any resistance by the unions, Bain slashed 3,000 jobs and ditched the carrier’s low-cost airline TigerAir at the cost of hundreds of jobs, including cabin crew and ground staff. All the 220 pilot positions at TigerAir were shed before the Bain takeover to make Virgin more attractive to investors.

Responding to the 3,000 job cull, the TWU’s Kaine telegraphed the unions’ willingness to police further cost-cutting. He welcomed Bain’s plan “to restart Virgin Australia” as a “leaner” operation, claiming it offered a “glimmer of hope” for the future.

As they have done for decades, the unions will harness airline workers behind the drive to make their employers “competitive” in the ruthless war for market share. This means that workers will be played off against each other in a continuous driving down of working conditions throughout the global industry.

Virgin’s new CEO Jayne Hrdlicka praised the unions for negotiating the pay freeze. “We’ve asked a lot of them as a result of the operating environment we find ourselves in, and we are grateful for their understanding and support throughout.”

Hrdlicka has a record. She left Bain to become head of strategy at Qantas in 2010, mentored by the airline’s CEO Allan Joyce. She was directly involved in Qantas’s assault on workers’ conditions after Joyce grounded its entire fleet and locked out its workforce during a work contract dispute. This paved the way for destruction of 5,000 full-time jobs, the imposition of an 18-month wage freeze and the slashing of working conditions.

After being appointed CEO of Qantas’s budget airline Jetstar, a position she held until 2016, Hrdlicka drove through cost-cutting programs, including pay freezes, by promising future bonuses that never materialised. During this process, Hrdlicka clearly learnt that the unions’ ritual chest-thumping was empty bluster designed to pull the wool over workers’ eyes.

In October the unions initially railed against Hrdlicka’s appointment as Virgin CEO, fearing she might try to sideline them. Clearly, she and Bain have decided to retain their services as pro-business industrial enforcers for now.

Typically, the unions have given their members only highly selective and deceptive information about the deals they have reached with Virgin. According to the scant details posted on the ASU web site on December 3, the agreements lock workers into low pay and poor conditions.

Under the ASU proposal, the highest pay rate for the most experienced and most qualified guest services workers will remain at the base rate of just $27.27 an hour, while “trainees” will be stuck at $22.22 and new recruits will be unable to rise above $24.64. Only 18 percent of the workforce must be full-time, leaving the vast majority on part-time work, and only guaranteed a minimum of 20 hours a week.

The response of the unions at Virgin takes to new level their record of collaboration with the employers since the 1980s. They have worked with Labor and Coalition governments alike to enforce the destruction of thousands of jobs, the imposition of ever-more onerous workloads and the decimation of previous hard-won conditions.

Virgin workers should reject the pay freeze deals as a first step in breaking out of this union straitjacket. They have to take matters into their own hands and build new organisations of struggle, such as rank-and-file committees, completely independent of the unions. These committees would be tasked with turning out to airline workers globally for a unified struggle against the ruling class offensive.

To succeed, this struggle needs to be based on a socialist perspective. That means the fight for workers’ governments that would place the airlines and all essential industries, along with the major banks and corporations, under public ownership and democratic workers’ control.

US autoworkers speak in support of strikes in South Korea and India

Shannon Jones

US autoworkers are speaking out in support of their brothers and sisters in South Korea and India, who are engaged in struggles against transnational car companies General Motors, Toyota and Kia.

Earlier this month, General Motors workers in South Korea voted down a sellout deal brokered by their union, the Korean Metal Workers Union (KMWU), which was aimed at shutting down a powerful walkout by thousands of autoworkers. The KMWU proposal would have substituted bonuses for annual wage increases. The workers are seeking to win a substantial raise after wages were frozen in 2018 following economic blackmail by management, which threatened to close down operations and seek cheaper labor elsewhere, possibly in China.

Meanwhile, South Korean Kia workers have engaged in partial strikes aimed at securing a wage increase to augment their inadequate salaries. Like GM workers, Kia has retaliated by threatening workers with job losses. Auto management as well as the government are insisting that workers increase productivity to offset financial losses due to the pandemic.

2 GM workers in South Korea, 2019 (Credit: AP photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A member of the Faurecia Gladstone Rank-and-File Safety Committee in Columbus, Indiana, spoke to the World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter in support of the South Korean autoworkers. The Faurecia Gladstone plant produces catalytic converters and complex exhaust systems for all the major car companies as well as for heavy truck manufacturers and farm equipment makers like Cummins and John Deere.

“General Motors is banking on the workers being intimidated by the threat of closing that plant in South Korea, but that will not be so easy. Really, the working class has them by the shorthairs because the corporation needs that production.

“I was thinking about this in relation to the situation at our plant. I think they’re planning something like a move or a shutdown. I have never seen so many parts stacked up inside the factory and out. They treat you so badly, they can’t even find enough people to come in and work.

“General Motors is doing the same thing to them that Trump is doing to us. But we have the power to shut them down. We need to put our foot down and tell these companies that we are not going to be the victims. They have already demonstrated that they cannot run these businesses without putting their employees in jeopardy.

“Trump advocates a law that says that a company cannot be sued by their employees if they cause them to be infected with COVID-19, and Democrats and Republicans are likely to agree to it.

“All the working class needs to take the Korean autoworkers as an example because these companies are not going to do anything for us. We have to do it ourselves.”

A worker at General Motors’ plant in Fairfax, Missouri, also spoke in support of the striking South Korean workers, drawing a parallel with the experiences of the UAW sellout of the 2019 strike by GM workers in the US.

“It’s just another gross display of the union willing to sell out its members and benefit General Motors. By offering bonuses it saves the company from increased pensions, since hourly wages increase pensions and bonuses don’t.

“It’s tiresome that General Motors threatens its employees and doesn’t abide by a legally binding contract and gets away with it.”

A month-long strike by 3,000 Toyota workers at two plants in the southern state of Karnataka is in imminent danger. Workers are defying a government order to end the strike and accept management’s demands for increased production targets. Now the Karnataka government is threatening to prosecute strikers if they do not knuckle under.

On November 25, tens of millions of workers in India joined a one-day general strike to oppose the right-wing, Hindu-chauvinist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s pro-investor “labor reforms,” including fire-at-will contracts and the elimination of health and safety regulations.

The Faurecia Gladstone worker commented, “If we all combine together, even 30 percent of the working class, they won’t be able to push us around like that. The unions put it in the contract that the company has the right to fire you if you refuse to work. The unions are getting rid of strikes. They want to get somebody in there that is more compliant.”

Workers at Fiat Chrysler Sterling Height Assembly (SHAP) north of Detroit also spoke in support of autoworkers In South Korea and India. Workers at SHAP defied threats by the United Auto Workers and management to conduct a wildcat job action over the spread of COVID-19 in the plant last March, helping to force a temporary shutdown of North American Auto production.

A member of the Sterling Heights Rank-and-File Safety Committee said, “It is important that they understand they are not alone in this. It is what we are going through in the US. I thought we were alone in this, but we are not, it’s going on around the world.”

Another SHAP worker spoke about the attempts to repress strikes in India and South Korea, saying, “I am definitely opposed to that. Something like that can easily trickle down to the US. I don’t want anyone to force me to work, like I am in prison or on probation.”

The sentiments expressed by US autoworkers in solidarity with their working class brothers and sisters overseas stands in sharp contrast to the nonstop nationalist poison promoted by the UAW, which spreads the lie that American workers share common interests with the auto company billionaire stockholders and corporate owners.

Workers are objectively united in a globally interconnected network of production, with every vehicle the result of the labor of countless workers internationally. The attempt by employers to increase the exploitation of workers in any area of the world has a detrimental impact on all. Only by overcoming national and ethnic divisions promoted by the unions and uniting as a common force against the transnational conglomerates can autoworkers and all workers secure the defense of jobs, wages and decent and safe working conditions.

New study finds young adults vulnerable to developing debilitating long-term complications from COVID-19

Dominic Gustavo

A new study conducted by the University of Dayton in Ohio has concluded that adolescents and young adults who fall ill with COVID-19 have a high chance of being afflicted with persistent and potentially devastating long-term complications. The results expose the pseudoscientific claims, promoted by the bourgeois press, that young people are exempt from the most serious effects of COVID-19. The promotion of this lie has been used to justify the homicidal back-to-school drive despite record cases, hospitalizations and deaths from the virus.

The preliminary study surveyed 43 students who had either tested positive or been clinically diagnosed with COVID-19. Only students who had been sickened with a mild or moderate (non-hospitalized) case of COVID-19 were surveyed. Over 50 percent of these students reported symptoms more than 28 days later, and 30 percent were still experiencing symptoms more than 50 days later. The study also surveyed 58 students who had not contracted COVID-19 as a control group, to make sure that the symptoms were not the result of general stressors or other health issues that typically affect college students.

The symptoms reported most frequently by what they called the “post-COVID syndrome” group were impaired concentration, headaches, rhinitis, exercise intolerance, dyspnea, sleep impairment, brain fog, appetite loss, fatigue, and chest pain. It is notable that all but one of the post-COVID-19 syndrome group were women. According to the study, although men are more likely to die from COVID-19 (accounting for 70 percent of COVID-19 deaths), women are more likely to experience prolonged complications.

Young people wearing masks (pikist.com)

The study explains: “It is plausible that the more active female immune system may be an advantage in clearing the virus, but this could be a double-edged sword if the female immune activation produces a lingering syndrome. This sexually dimorphic immune response is further supported by a recent study which found that 12.5 percent of males but only 2.6 percent of females with severe COVID-19 had neutralizing immunoglobulin G (IgG) autoantibodies against interferons which could explain some of the increased male mortality.”

Overall, these findings sharply contradict the claim that long-term complications from COVID-19 only affect middle-aged or elderly people. Dr. Julie Walsh-Messinger, one of the organizers of the study, said in a statement on the university website:

The common belief in the U.S. is that COVID-19 is benign or short-lived in young adults. … Our study, which we believe is the first to report on post-COVID syndrome in college students, almost exclusively between 18 and 21 years of age, suggests otherwise. More research needs to be done to confirm these findings, but until then, we urge the medical and scientific community to consider young adults vulnerable to post-COVID syndrome and to closely monitor those who contracted the disease for lingering viral effects.

The study goes on to cite a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report, which found that one in five adults between the ages of 18 and 34 reported that they were still experiencing symptoms three weeks after testing positive for the virus. A July report by the CDC found that fully 35 percent of people with mild cases of COVID-19 had not fully recovered two-three weeks later.

It is notable that the study took place at the University of Dayton, where an  18-year-old freshman died of COVID-19 in October, a deadly consequence of the pseudoscientific notion that young adults and adolescents have nothing to fear from the novel coronavirus. Since reopening, the University of Dayton has recorded at least 1,532 cases of COVID-19 on campus.

The as yet unnamed “post-COVID syndrome” presents itself in a wide range of symptoms from mild to debilitating and potentially life-threatening. Common symptoms include chronic fatigue, shortness of breath, headaches, heart palpitations, aching of the joints, chest pain, loss of taste or smell, and gastrointestinal issues. More serious complications include damage to the heart, lungs and kidneys, among many others.

The syndrome can also manifest in a number of neurological disorders ranging from insomnia to cognitive impairment—which some survivors have likened to dementia—marked by “brain fog,” memory loss and general confusion. Psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety have also been commonly reported.

One case that has received widespread attention is that of Arizona resident Riley Behrens. Behrens, a 23-year-old Harvard student and rugby athlete, suffered a Transient Ischemic Attack, a form of mild stroke, after contracting COVID-19. Though mostly recovered since then, he continues to experience dizziness and fatigue, with even mundane activities proving a challenge. According to USAToday: “I’m not walking my dog on long walks. I’m not over-exerting myself cleaning my house. I’m not allowed to drive until I’m cleared by a neurologist. I can’t play sports because the risk of another head injury increases the risk of a stroke.”

Dr. Luay Shayya, associated with Neurology Consultants of Arizona, told USAToday that the case of Behrens is more common than one might imagine: “There have been multiple case reports published ... about patients who are young having large strokes due to COVID. … It’s very unusual for young people to have strokes to begin with.”

It is also known that young children and teens are susceptible to developing post-COVID syndrome. One anguished parent told the WSWS: “My daughter has lost 30 pounds, she has heart problems, she has joint swelling and pain, she spends four hours a week at therapy, she has weird infections, she fights fatigue daily, she has brain fog. I just found out yesterday that she has a weak heart with a constant rapid heart rate. She just hasn’t been the same.”

Those who suffer from post-COVID syndrome, known as “long-haulers,” are breaking their silence and speaking out about their struggles. Many have had their experiences dismissed by doctors as being the result of PTSD or depression resulting from their COVID-19 illness. However, as the population stricken with the syndrome grows, their pain has become undeniable. Online support groups such as Body Politic and Survivor Corps have appeared, giving a voice to those who had been suffering in silence.

A recent New York Times article published the accounts of COVID-19 survivors and their health care providers as they struggle to understand and treat the debilitating syndrome. Dr. Ann Parker, who works at a post-COVID clinic at Johns Hopkins, reported: “Approximately three months after their acute illness, more than half of our patients have at least a mild cognitive impairment. … We’re also seeing substantial mental health impairments.”

Hannah Davis, a 32-year-old Brooklyn artist and researcher, told the Times: “I forgot my partner’s name. … I would regularly pick up a hot pan, burn myself, put it down and literally do it again. I forgot how to shower. I forgot how to dress myself.” Davis, who is involved with Body Politic, went on to cite a survey conducted by the group of 3,800 of its members in 56 countries. According to the Times, the survey found that 85 percent reported cognitive dysfunction, 75 percent were having difficulties functioning at work, and almost half had difficulties with speech and language.

Several physicians, among them Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Health, have speculated that many of those suffering from COVID-19 complications are on track to develop a condition resembling Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). ME/CFS, is described by the Institute of Medicine as “a serious, chronic, complex systemic disease that often can profoundly affect the lives of patients.” This is a mysterious affliction that has no known cure and can cripple its sufferers for months, and sometimes years.

While the exact mechanism whereby COVID-19 causes these long-term effects remains murky, what is undeniable are the devastating implications of hundreds of thousands, and possibly millions of Americans being stricken with debilitating chronic health issues. In light of the growing mountain of evidence showing that young adults and adolescents are vulnerable to the ravages of COVID-19, the policy of reopening the schools and universities assumes a criminal character.

The catastrophic policies of the ruling class—represented by both Democrats and Republicans—which have allowed the uncontrolled spread of the coronavirus, will not only result in hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths, but will also cause untold suffering and misery for the millions who survive. This constitutes nothing less than a crime against all of humanity, and only the intervention of the international working class on the basis of a revolutionary socialist program—with the explicit aim of overthrowing capitalism—can halt this orgy of agony and death.

Lufthansa increases job cuts to almost 50,000

Ulrich Rippert

Resting on the close collaboration of Verdi and the other airline unions, the Lufthansa Executive Board is stepping up its cost-cutting measures. The already announced reduction of 30,000 jobs is being accelerated and increased to almost 50,000.

In the spring, the German government provided the company with a rescue package worth €9 billion. This money will now be used to organise an unprecedented retrenchment, destroying the livelihoods of tens of thousands of workers and their families in what is a jobs massacre at state expense with the support of the trade unions.

On Monday, Focus-Online magazine published a report on the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on Lufthansa. It states that the already announced and commenced reduction of 29,000 jobs will not be stretched out to the end of next year but will be completed in the next three weeks, by the end of the year, meaning compulsory redundancies are unavoidable.

Lufthansa aircraft at Frankfurt Airport (Photo: Kevin Hackert / CC BY-NC 2.0)

“But that is by far not all,” the article states. The airline had also sold off its catering subsidiary LSG’s European business, with 7,500 employees, and next year, another 10,000 jobs are to be slashed in Germany. “Those who stay at Lufthansa should forgo their salary—others will be laid off,” Focus-Online writes. A company spokeswoman confirmed a corresponding report in Bild am Sonntag over the weekend.

This massive attack on the jobs and incomes of employees is not the inevitable result of the flight cancellations and falling passenger numbers due to the coronavirus crisis, as the company management and union officials claim in identical statements. If this were the case, employees—who are, in any case, largely being financed by the state via short-time work compensation—could receive interim payments from the rescue fund until after the crisis.

The coronavirus is not the cause but serves as a pretext for enforcing long-planned and long-prepared restructuring measures, combined with job and wage cuts and worse working conditions. The goal is to build up Lufthansa as a leading European airline and make it highly profitable for investors—i.e., to trim it for profit and position it successfully for international competition.

The pandemic is being used to accelerate the industrial policy goals of the grand coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, which Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) presented at the beginning of last year as the “National Industrial Strategy 2030.”

The German government is working closely with major shareholder Heinz Hermann Thiele, who increased his shareholding in Lufthansa to 15 percent in March. Last month, he had called for a “viable restructuring programme worthy of the name.” According to Thiele, the most important thing is that costs be reduced immediately and sustained through “comprehensive job cuts.”

Thiele is known for his ruthless capitalist methods. The 79-year-old multibillionaire has assets of €13 billion and is one of the 10 richest people in Germany. He built his company Knorr-Bremse into the world market leader in brakes for trains and commercial vehicles by radically intensifying the levels of exploitation. He makes employees work 42 hours a week, seven hours longer than in metalworking companies covered by collective agreements.

The unions also support the federal government’s “National Industrial Strategy.” Although they still call themselves “employee representatives,” they collaborate closely with the government and management and play a key role in pushing through dismissals, wage reductions and social cuts.

To combat this social devastation and defend jobs and wages, it is necessary to understand the function and role of the trade unions and their works council representatives. Their top officials sit on company supervisory boards, advise management on all personnel matters, and draw up the strategic plans to implement the cuts—i.e., the social attacks. For this, they are rewarded with princely earnings, in addition to being bribed with high emoluments. In total, the 10 so-called employee representatives on the Lufthansa Supervisory Board have received €1,070,000 for their close cooperation in the elaboration of savings measures and redundancies.

The works council and union representatives implement the cuts programmes, compile the list of layoffs, persuade employees to sign termination agreements in one-on-one talks, exerting blatant pressure and threatening anyone who resists with being placed on the layoff list. At the same time, they organise the occasional noisy protest to blow off steam while doing everything to suppress any serious struggle to defend jobs.

At Lufthansa, the role of the unions takes drastic forms. In recent months, all three aviation unions have signed downgrading agreements that dwarf all the concessions and give-backs made by the unions.

The pilots’ union Cockpit (VC), the Independent Flight Attendants Organisation (UFO) and service union Verdi, which represents the approximately 35,000 ground workers and acts as Lufthansa’s de facto in-house union, are seeking to outbid each other in terms of the social cuts. According to their own statements, they have offered the Lufthansa board of directors a €1.2 billion cut in employee incomes.

Cockpit already agreed in the spring to reduce pilot salaries by up to 50 percent by the end of the year. On Wednesday, the union announced that this salary cut would be extended until the end of June 2022. In addition to short-time work, the package provides for concessions in salaries and pensions, VC said. “The concessions agreed this spring, and those now additionally offered, amount to a total of over €600 million. This corresponds to salary reductions of up to 50 percent compared to the pre-crisis period,” VC President Markus Wahl said.

UFO signed an agreement with Lufthansa in the summer, which will save the company half-a-billion euros by the end of 2023. For the 22,000 cabin crew of the parent company to which the agreement applies, this means an average loss of income of €23,000 over three-and-a-half years.

The savings will be realised by suspending wage increases, shortening working hours with a corresponding reduction in wages, reducing contributions to the company pension scheme and cutting jobs. In addition, there will be “voluntary” measures, such as using unpaid leave, further reductions in working hours and early retirement. Those affected will thus lose not only a large part of their current income but also their future pension provisions.

At the beginning of November, Verdi also agreed to a downgrading agreement for the ground staff. By immediately waiving vacation and Christmas bonuses as well as a wage freeze and waiving allowances until the end of 2021, “the ground staff are making a savings contribution of more than €200 million to help overcome the crisis,” explained Verdi Vice-chair Christine Behle, who is also deputy chairwoman of the Lufthansa Supervisory Board. By reaching an agreement covering ground staff, up to 50 percent of the personnel costs of this group of employees could be saved next year, rejoiced Michael Niggemann, head of Human Resources.

It is a first for the trade unions in Germany to agree on such a wages give-back totalling €1.2 billion. This takes on a new dimension of union sell-outs and is encouraging management to take even tougher action and drastically accelerate job cuts.

In the summer, WSWS published the article “Lufthansa and the bankruptcy of the unions,” in which we stated: “The events at Lufthansa clearly show the bankruptcy of the trade unions and their perspective. For decades, they have subordinated the interests of the workers to the profit interests of the corporations, within the framework of ‘social partnership.’ There are no mass dismissals and plant closures in Germany that do not bear the signature of the trade unions and their works council representatives. At Lufthansa, the unions are now going so far as to organise rallies for a ‘rescue package’ that includes the destruction of tens of thousands of jobs and massive wage and social cuts!”

The events at Lufthansa expose the transformation of the unions into management consultants defending the interests of the corporations and the government. Faced with the deepest global crisis of capitalism in 75 years, they are determined to decimate workers’ living standards to defend the profits of “their” national corporations in the international trade war—not only at Lufthansa but also in auto, engineering, steel, chemical and all other industries.

It is time to break with these corrupt organisations. Jobs, wages and social gains can only be defended in a rebellion against the unions. The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) calls for the establishment of independent rank-and-file committees that network internationally and across corporations and organise the struggle to defend jobs and wages.

This requires a socialist perspective centred on the interests of working people, not company profits and the enrichment of shareholders. The crisis in the airline industry cannot be solved on a capitalist basis and within a national framework. It requires the expropriation of the corporations and their transformation into democratically controlled public institutions that serve the needs of society rather than the drive to increase profits.

US secretary of state hypocritically sanctions Chinese officials over Hong Kong human rights

Peter Symonds

On Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seized on the disqualification last month of four opposition members of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council to sanction 14 members of the standing committee of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC). The standing committee had authorized the Hong Kong administration to disqualify legislators who promoted Hong Kong independence, refused to recognise Chinese sovereignty or called for foreign intervention. Opposition members of the Legislative Council resigned en masse in protest.

In his statement, Pompeo, who is notorious for his anti-China diatribes, again lashed out at “Beijing’s unrelenting assault against Hong Kong’s democratic processes [that] has gutted its Legislative Council, rendering the body a rubber stamp devoid of meaningful opposition.” He attacked the actions of the NPC standing committee as having “effectively neutered the ability of the people of Hong Kong to choose their elected representatives.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and President Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing in March, 2020. (Image Credit: AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Pompeo also condemned the NPC standing committee for passing a sweeping anti-democratic National Security Law in June that has been used to crack down on anti-Beijing protests that erupted last year over the attempts by the Hong Kong administration to enact a new extradition treaty. Last week, the Hong Kong courts sentenced three prominent protest leaders—Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, Ivan Lam—to jail terms for their part in an unauthorized assembly last year.

Under the sanctions, the 14 members of the NPC standing committee and their immediate family members will be barred from entering the United States, their assets in the US will be blocked and American citizens will be barred from any dealing with them. On the pretext of defending democracy in Hong Kong, the US State Department has already imposed similar sanctions on a number of individuals including its chief executive Carrie Lam, who holds the territory’s top post.

Fearing that the protests in Hong Kong could encourage unrest on the Chinese mainland, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime has since resorted to increasingly anti-democratic methods to suppress opposition. However, for the Trump administration to portray itself as the defender of democratic rights in Hong Kong, or anywhere else for that matter, is the height of hypocrisy. Trump had no compunction about mobilizing federal paramilitary forces to brutally crack down on widespread protests in the US against police violence, and moreover has conspired to subvert the victory of Joe Biden in the presidential election last month.

Washington has a long record of selectively exploiting human rights issues to further its economic and strategic interests, while turning a blind eye to flagrant abuses of democratic rights by its allies and strategic partners. Pompeo’s denunciations of China over a growing range of issues—from human rights in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, to Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea and blaming Beijing for the coronavirus—are part of the escalating US-led economic and strategic confrontation with China over the past decade.

In a comment entitled “China Is National Security Threat No. 1” published in the Wall Street Journal last week, the US Director of National Intelligence

After declaring that “the People’s Republic of China poses the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom world-wide since World War II,” Ratcliffe accused China, on the basis of unsubstantiated assertions, of robbing US companies of intellectual property, stealing sensitive defence technology and developing its own “world-class capabilities in emerging technologies.”

In other words, the US fears that China will overtake it economically and technologically, including in the arena of military power. Declaring that China posed a “once-in-a-generation challenge,” Ratcliffe declared: “This generation will be judged by its response to China’s effort to reshape the world in its own image and replace America as the dominant superpower.” And he urged a warlike response, on a par with the US entry into World War II to defeat “the scourge of fascism” and Cold War measures aimed at “bringing down the Iron Curtain.”

Should Joe Biden assume the presidency next January, his administration will only escalate the US war drive against China. As the vice-president in the Obama administration, Biden was closely involved in its aggressive “pivot to Asia” that involved an across-the-board diplomatic, economic and strategic offensive aimed at undermining China. Its military “rebalance” has ensured that 60 percent of American naval and air assets were stationed in the Indo-Pacific region by 2020 and has strengthened US alliances, basing agreements and strategic alliances throughout the region.

During his election campaign, Biden sought to outflank Trump as a more aggressive and hardline defender of the interests of US imperialism. He branded Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “thug” and, in one of his election ads, declaring that “Trump rolled over for the Chinese—he took their word for it” over COVID-19. While Biden’s tactical approach to China may be different, he is just as determined to prevent it from challenging US global hegemony.

“Human rights” is the increasingly tawdry banner under which the US is prosecuting its aggressive confrontation with China. Last month, the Five Eyes top-level intelligence-sharing group—comprising the US, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand—took the unusual step of weighing in alongside Washington in condemning the disqualification of Hong Kong legislators and posturing as defenders of democratic rights.

Hong Kong, which was a British colony up until its hand-over to China in 1997, has never been ruled democratically. Beijing simply took over the anti-democratic structures through which London administered its colony—the all-powerful British colonial governor was renamed as the chief executive and selected by a committee of Beijing appointees. The Legislative Council, with its limited powers, remained largely as it was—only partially chosen by direct elections. The US of course never cavilled against Britain for its undemocratic, colonial rule.

The political weakness of the protest movement that erupted last year is that it was dominated by organisations and parties that promoted the false hope that the US and Britain would defend democratic rights in Hong Kong. For Washington, the rights of people in Hong Kong, or for that matter throughout China, are simply a convenient pretext for its war drive. The real allies of working people in Hong Kong are workers in China and internationally, not US and British imperialism, which will quickly abandon their “democratic” bluster if it suits their interests.

Moreover, the orientation towards Washington and London plays directly into the hands of Beijing, which exploits claims of “foreign interference” to justify its anti-democratic methods. On Tuesday, China denounced the US sanctions on NPC standing committee members. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying condemned “the American side’s rude and unreasonable, crazy and vile behaviour.” On the same day, the Hong Kong police arrested at least eight opposition leaders in a new sweep under the draconian National Security Law.

European Central Bank set to provide further market boost

Nick Beams

The European Central Bank is expected to announce a further boost for financial markets by adding an additional €500 billion to the €1.35 trillion financial asset purchasing program it initiated in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, when its governing council meets on Thursday.

On the same day, European leaders will start a series of virtual meetings to try to gain agreement on a €750 billion European Union fund aimed at providing assistance to governments that have been hardest hit by the pandemic.

Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank (Image credit: Bernd Hartung / European Central Bank)

The fund was approved in principle earlier this year, but its operation has been held up because of disputes with the increasingly authoritarian governments of Poland and Hungary over its disbursement. The EU majority has said the provision of funds must be tied to respect for the rule of law.

One of the aims of the increased ECB financial asset purchases is to raise the price of government bonds, thereby lowering the interest rates that governments have to pay to finance their borrowing programs, as well as providing a further boost to financial and equity markets.

The crucial importance of the ECB program was highlighted back in March when it was developing its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Incoming ECB president Christine Lagarde remarked at a press conference that it was not the job of the central bank to close the gap between the yield on the bonds of the stronger and weaker members of the eurozone.

Her remarks prompted a major sell-off of Italian government bonds and a 17 percent fall in the country’s stock market. Lagarde gave a television interview in which she pulled back from her previous remarks.

At the same time, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month, the ECB’s chief economist Philip Lane “made dozens of private calls to banks and private investors,” to provide reassurances that the ECB was ready to buy Italian bonds if necessary.

The calls, which involved major hedge funds and banks, such as BlackRock, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, were a significant departure from what is considered the normal practice of only delivering information to market participants at the same time.

Whatever the content of the discussions, they were followed by a major initiative six days later when the ECB unveiled a €750 billion asset purchasing program which it upscaled to €1.35 trillion in June.

Bond prices rose, leading to a fall in yields (the two have an inverse relationship), with the result that yields on Italian and Spanish government bonds have fallen to record lows. As the WSJ noted, “this has meant that owning European government bonds has been profitable for investors this year” because the value of their holdings has risen.

As Sandra Holdsworth of Aegon Asset Management told the Financial Times: “The commitment to keeping spreads low has impressed markets this year. Why wouldn’t you buy Portuguese or Italian bonds if you know they have the support of the central bank?”

Since the upscaling of the asset purchasing program in June, the ECB has indicated it intends to provide still further stimulus.

Its actions form a vital component of the trillions of dollars poured into financial markets by the world’s central banks, which have seen stock prices soar to record highs amid the carnage inflicted on the lives of workers the world over.

According to the Financial Times, the MSCI All-Country World share index rose by 12.2 percent in November in its best month on record to reach an all-time high. Since the lows reached in March, market capitalisation has increased by $30 trillion.

Wall Street, as a result of the Federal Reserve’s stimulus measures, is leading the way. After rebounding from the lows in March, when a financial freeze led to a massive Fed intervention, it has reached all-time highs with the Dow passing what President Trump called the “sacred” number of 30,000. This has taken place amid a dramatic acceleration in the infection rates for COVID-19.

The markets have been boosted by the prospect of a rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. But the main factor in the Wall Street surge has been the stimulus provided by the Fed along with the more than $3 trillion funnelled to corporations through the CARES Act.

Wall Street is looking to further measures from an incoming Biden administration following the announcement that former Fed chair Janet Yellen will be appointed Treasury Secretary. Yellen was a firm proponent of the quantitative easing policies, initiated by her predecessor Ben Bernanke under the Obama administration.

In a comment to the Financial Times, long-time market analyst Ed Yardeni described Yellen as the “Fairy Godmother of the Bull Market” and said that as Biden’s Treasury Secretary “she will continue to wave her magic wand.”

In terms of their relationship to underlying value, stock prices have reached record highs, especially in the high-tech area which has risen 36 percent this year while the broader market has gained 14 percent.

The cyclically adjusted price to earnings ratio of the S&P 500 index developed by economist Robert Shiller reached 33.4 at the start of this month, putting it above the level it reached in 1929 before the crash that ushered in the Great Depression and nearly double its historic average of 17. The only time that current levels have been exceeded is December 1999 on the eve of the collapse of the tech bubble.

The rise and rise of global markets has far-reaching implications. In the first place it makes clear why governments refuse to take meaningful measures to deal with the pandemic—including the shutdown of non-essential services with payment to workers affected. Such measures, which would necessitate significant inroads into corporate wealth, would precipitate a stock market meltdown.

Secondly, the rise and rise of the markets, amid the most significant economic contraction since the 1930s, is not an indication of health but rather of financial parasitism. Stocks as well as bonds, both corporate and government, are not value in and of themselves. In the final analysis they are fictitious capital—claims on the surplus value extracted from the working class elsewhere in the economy.

This is why, in every country, class relations are being restructured to worsen working conditions, lower real pay and step up exploitation in order to feed this ever-growing cancer.