As Delta variant spreads in German schools, government intensifies herd immunity policy

Tamino Dreisam & Florian Hasek

The government’s “profits before lives” policy has already led to rising infection figures again in recent weeks. Now, the federal and state governments are putting the lives and health of tens of thousands more people at risk by continuing unsafe face-to-face teaching at the end of the summer holidays.

Against the backdrop of an explosive spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus throughout Europe, Federal Education Minister Anja Karliczek (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) on Wednesday that “outbreaks at schools must be expected.”

In primary schools, the minister said, there was “naturally the danger that school attendance... spreads coronavirus again more strongly in families and society and can then also affect those who cannot be vaccinated, for example, because of cancer.” To “maintain regular classes” under these conditions, a “step-by-step plan” was necessary, “which determines how to react if the infection situation worsens.”

Classroom in Dortmund, August 2020 (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

This is unmistakable: Instead of comprehensively securing schools and day care centres against the highly contagious delta variant, children and youth, as well as their families, are to be infected according to a “step-by-step plan” in the interest of big business.

As virologist Melanie Brinkmann of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research warned RND at the beginning of the month, “the Delta variant will rush through schools very quickly after the summer holidays” if no “additional measures” are taken. Education Minister Karliczek, however, did not hold out the prospect of any precautions apart from tests and a limited obligation to wear masks and referred to the “responsibility of the Länder (federal states)” for the installation of air filtration systems.

The policy of profit maximisation and deliberate infection is being implemented by all the establishment parties, which are thus realising the programme of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and increasingly adopting its slogans.

For example, at the beginning of the month, CDU candidate for chancellor in the September federal election, Armin Laschet, had already demanded that the population “live with the virus.” In an interview with broadcaster ARD, he added that compulsory testing and wearing masks in schools could be lifted “if the incidence figures remain stable.”

Social Democratic Party (SPD) chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz recently spoke of the need for a “normal school day” and called for “clear and courageous reopening steps.” SPD politician Karl Lauterbach told broadcaster n-tv that in future there would be “no more lockdowns.”

The nominally “left-wing” opposition parties are also putting the herd immunity policy into practice. The Greens sit in a total of 11 state governments where they are pushing the brutal reopening of the economy.

In Thuringia, Bodo Ramelow (Left Party) leads a Left Party-SPD-Green coalition. The state has almost always recorded the highest infection figures during the pandemic and ranks second—after Saxony, where the Greens are also in government—among the federal states with the most infections in relation to the number of inhabitants. Ramelow himself has repeatedly praised the Swedish government’s policy of herd immunity.

The unsafe opening of schools has already contributed to a renewed catastrophe in other countries. In the UK, where the Delta variant has spread furiously through schools, it already accounts for well over 90 percent of new infections. Although more than half the population is fully vaccinated, the country is heading for new highs with more than 50,000 new daily infections at last count.

Figures from Public Health England (PHE) show that in the working-class city of Liverpool, the incidence of coronavirus among 10- to 14-year-olds increased tenfold in the second half of June. In the week ending June 20, more than 16,000 schoolchildren fell ill in the UK—yet pupils are no longer to be quarantined if there is a suspected case of coronavirus in their class. Social distancing and mask-wearing requirements are to be removed at the start of the new school year in September.

The Netherlands is currently experiencing the steepest increase in new infections since the beginning of the pandemic. Within 14 days, the infection rate has increased tenfold and was recently back above 10,000 new infections in a single day. At the end of June, the right-wing government of Mark Rutte had, among other things, eliminated compulsory mask-wearing at primary schools.

In Israel, which started vaccinations early compared to European countries, the Delta variant has also become the dominant strain. Israel’s Ministry of Health had already admitted at the end of June that “about half” of those newly infected were schoolchildren and reported new outbreaks in “close to 30 schools” in the country. Although the summer holidays began in Israel on June 19, many pupils are still being sent to schools so their parents can work.

The Delta variant has also long been prevalent in Germany. The R (reproduction) value is above 1 for the first time in months and the rate of new infections is rising steeply. Schoolchildren are currently at twice the risk of infection as the average population. According to the figures of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the incidence rate of 15-19 year-olds is over 14 and that of 20-24 year-olds even over 18. Among 10-14-year-olds, the 7-day incidence rate reached a relative peak of 12 a fortnight ago.

Despite this ominous development, all federal states are maintaining regular classes and eliminating even the most basic protective measures. The compulsory use of masks in classrooms hardly exists in any of the federal states. According to official figures, more than 60,000 pupils have been infected with the virus so far, of whom more than 500 had to be hospitalised and two have died. If infections spread further in schools, tens of thousands of students would have to be hospitalised.

More than 16 months since the start of the pandemic, a growing number of studies highlight the prevalence of prolonged disorders following COVID-19 infection and the dangerous consequences it can have.

A study published on July 5 this year by scientists at the University of Heidelberg found that 12 months after a COVID-19 infection, only 22.9 percent of patients at the university hospital were completely free of symptoms. According to the study, the most common symptoms were “reduced physical performance (56.3 percent), fatigue (53.1), dyspnoea (37.5), concentration problems (39.6), word-finding problems (32.3) and sleep problems (26.0).”

The researchers concluded that “neurocognitive Long COVID symptoms persist for at least one year after the onset of COVID-19 symptoms and can significantly reduce quality of life.”

Another study by the University of Mainz, in which more than 10,000 people participated, concluded that more than 42 percent of those infected with COVID-19 are unaware that they carry the virus and can pass it on unknowingly.

Despite the study only examining those between 25 and 88 years of age, it was immediately misused by politicians and the media to drum up support for unprotected in-person classes. Although the study found that children are not particularly strong drivers of infection, the risk of infection increases sharply with the number of people in a household.

The class nature of the pandemic is also clearly demonstrated once again by the study. “People with a higher social status are more likely to know about their infection,” study leader Philipp Wild told news programme Tagesschau. “People with a low socio-economic status,” on the other hand, are “particularly affected” by COVID-19, although these layers consistently adhere to hygiene rules. “The socially worse off also bear the brunt of the crisis financially,” the researcher said.

Opposition to Olympics escalates as Japan declares its fourth state of emergency

Emily Ochiai

With the Olympics, the Japanese government declared a fourth state of emergency in Tokyo on July 12, just a few weeks after the third state of emergency was lifted on June 20. Tokyo, one of the world’s most densely populated cities, saw a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases immediately after the end of the previous restrictions.

Cases are continuing to increase, with schools among the sites where infections have been detected. The highly infectious Delta variant has been reported at a middle school and a preschool. Tokyo saw 1,149 new cases with a daily positivity rate of 14.2 percent on the July 14 and 1,308 new cases on July 15. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government estimates that daily infection numbers will reach 2,406 by August 11. The state of emergency will remain in force until August 22.

Despite the very real danger of the spread of infections, the Japanese government, the Tokyo Olympics Committee, and the International Olympics Committee (IOC) have refused to cancel or postpone the Games. The venues in Tokyo, Hokkaido, and Fukushima will host events without spectators while venues in Miyagi, Shizuoka, and Ibaraki are planning to operate at up to 50 percent capacity.

People walk by posters to promote the Olympic Games planned to start in the summer of 2021, in Tokyo, Wednesday, June 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Opposition to the Olympics is very widespread. An online poll revealed over 90 percent of respondents were opposed to having any spectators at the Games. More than 8,000 phone calls and emails to the Miyagi prefecture criticized the decision to have spectators at the Games. Over 100 phone calls were made to Ibaraki prefecture opposing its plan to have elementary and middle school students as spectators at the stadium. A comment stated, “The reason for hosting the Games without spectators is because of the high risk of COVID-19 transmission. What is the point of having children attend the Games under such circumstances?”

An international online poll of 28 countries, including USA and France, conducted by market research company Ipsos Group S.A. showed that 56 percent of respondents were opposed to proceeding with the Games. The Olympics are due to open on July 23 and run to August 8.

Over 4,189 people have signed a petition to cancel the planned visit of IOC President Thomas Bach to Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park. On July 3, the Hiroshima-based group—Organization to Stop the Tokyo Olympics—held a public rally, stating “Thomas Bach and others, who are neglecting human lives, have no qualification to talk about peace.” The organizers warned, “If Thomas Bach visits Hiroshima, we will organize a protest on the same day.”

On July 12, a number of doctors voiced their opposition to the Olympics. Dr Aoki stated, “What is urgently needed is to end the pandemic as soon as possible, practising necessary safety measures.” He said that to proceed with the Olympics amidst a catastrophic pandemic should be taboo.

Dr Kako Maeda stressed the impact of the pandemic on the casualized workforce which is referred to in Japan as “non-regular” and is mainly female. Maeda told the media, “What remains for women living in this country after the Olympics is a long-lasting pandemic … Many women are at the frontline of the pandemic and are affected by it. This is a disaster caused by the government whose sole interest has been going forward with hosting the Olympics.”

An online rally conducted by organizers of FLOWER DEMO on July 13 stated, “The Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics are about to be enforced. Under the state of emergency, many citizens suffered difficulties, live with the fear of a health care crisis. While more than 10,000 people have been killed by the virus, tens of thousands of athletes, officials and reporters from overseas will be coming to Tokyo for the Games. What justifies forcing [the holding of] an international event that invites such a large number of people?”

A petition calling for the cancellation of the Olympics on Change.org, started by Kenji Utsunomiya on May 5, now has over 450,000 signatures. Utsunomiya re-submitted the petition to the Japanese government and the Tokyo Olympics Committee after it was revealed that the Tokyo governor ignored the petition the first time it was submitted.

Despite the surging COVID-19 cases and the widespread opposition, IOC President Bach asked Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to allow spectators at the Games if the COVID-19 situation improves. In response, Suga said, “If there is a big change in the situation, we will hold a consultation again and consider how to deal with it.’

Condemnations flooded social media. One user stated, “It’s obviously impossible considering the current situation, but the IOC probably wants to make as much profit as possible. They don't care how much infection would spread in Japan after the Games.”

Another comment stated, “Thomas Bach is like Hitler. He doesn’t care about the dangers facing people in Japan. He is a person who adheres only to commercial profit interests. The infection in Tokyo is spreading beyond expectations. The Olympics should be stopped immediately.”

When Bach appeared on live TV with Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike on July 15, a man shouted “President Bach, you are a liar! The airport is dangerous! The Bubble is broken!” He was dragged out of the venue by Tokyo Metropolitan staff members.

The Olympic Committee’s COVID-19 preventative measure known as the “Bubble Method” is meant to isolate athletes and staff from contact with the general public. It was revealed on July 14 that one of the athletes who entered Japan has tested positive for the virus but the Olympics committees have refused to provide any details of the case. So far there have been four cases of COVID-19 infection among athletes and 22 cases among Olympic staff members.

Despite the emergence of the Delta variant which is surging worldwide, the ruling classes in every part of the world are pushing to remove all safety measures in order to pursue profits. The lives of thousands of people will be at risk as a result of Japanese government’s refusal to cancel or postpone the Olympics and its decades-long defunding of the healthcare system.

COVID-19 cases across the US have more than doubled in the last two weeks

Benjamin Mateus

In her typically hypocritical and insensitive manner, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, after admitting that “we are going to continue to see preventable cases, hospitalization and, sadly, deaths among the unvaccinated,” sought to blame this on the poor choices of those have not yet been vaccinated.

We’re having “a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” she said, as though there was no connection between the evident failure of the Biden administration’s vaccination campaign and its broader effort to push workers back to their jobs and students back to school, regardless of the mounting danger of infection from the highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus.

The unvaccinated, on whom she blames the pandemic, also includes 40 million school children for whom there is no vaccine as yet, but who will be fully exposed to the risks of coronavirus when public schools reopen, either now, during the summer months, or in August and September, when the regular school sessions begin.

Dr. Joseph Varon, right, leads a team as they try to save the life of a patient unsuccessfully inside the Coronavirus Unit at United Memorial Medical Center earlier this month. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Instead, Walensky reiterated the demand that schools be fully reopened for the fall and the advice that fully vaccinated individuals need not wear masks, while claiming, “things can still get worse, which is why we’re doing everything we can now to make sure that that doesn’t happen,” a patent falsehood.

As a teacher on the Facebook group Teachers Against Dying appropriately noted, “[That] Walensky is shifting the blame is epic! The unvaccinated did not cause, nor are they perpetuating, the pandemic. The CDC is wildly culpable for massive death and illness and continues with their ‘shitty’ and baseless advice.”

Teachers and parents should note that the CDC has confirmed the role children play as vectors of transmission. In yet-to-be- published data from June 10, 2021, during a presentation on the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in children and adolescents, Dr. Hannah Kirking warned that “kids transmit as efficiently as adults and are infected at rates similar to adults.” This information has continued to be suppressed by the CDC and the media, which continue to endorse school reopenings.

Speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday, former head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Scott Gottlieb offered a more compelling and starker reminder that the pandemic is far from being over even for those fully vaccinated. He said, “If you’re in a location where there is dense spread, and there are parts of the country where it’s very dense right now, I think people need to start taking precautions, including people who are fully vaccinated if you’re a vulnerable individual.”

Figure 1 Estimated seroprevalence from US multi-state assessment for SARS-CoV-2 survey in commercial laboratories

He added, “The Delta variant is going to move its way through the country over the course of August and September, maybe into October. That’s what the modeling shows, that’s what we expected, that the peak of this epidemic would really be sometime around the end of September, back-to-school season…It’s going to get worse before it gets better in terms of the spread of these infections right now.”

Despite the CDC’s insistence that face coverings are not required for vaccinated individuals, Los Angeles County, where about 52 percent of the residents are fully vaccinated, has reinstated the indoor mask mandate in the face of rising infections.

On Saturday, 1,800 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the county. Barbara Ferrer, the local public health director, said in a statement, “Given the increased intermingling among unmasked people where vaccination status is unknown, the millions of people still unvaccinated, and the increased circulation of the highly transmissible Delta variant, we are seeing a rapid increase in COVID-19 infections.”

The number of new COVID-19 cases across the United States has been accelerating since reaching its low point near the end of June. The seven-day moving average has climbed to more than 31,000 new infections per day, a 135 percent rise compared to 14 days ago.

All states across the country, even those with high vaccination rates, are seeing a rise in infections. Twenty-eight states had cases climb more than 100 percent in a two-week period. In conjunction with these new surges, hospitalizations for the treatment of severe COVID-19 infections have also risen to a seven-day moving average of over 21,400, a 33 percent increase from the lows in June. Twenty-five percent of those hospitalizations are in intensive care units.

The US will reach the milestone of 35 million cumulative COVID-19 cases early this week, with 625,000 reported deaths attributed to complications with the infections since the pandemic. These figures remain the highest in any country across the globe.

Attesting to the benefits offered by vaccinations, the rise in hospitalizations and fatalities associated with COVID-19 complications is essentially occurring among unvaccinated patients, hence predominately among younger people. However, their youth does not provide a guarantee against the danger of more severe and even life-threatening consequences. Health officials are growing concerned that younger unvaccinated people are accessing healthcare with severe COVID-19 symptoms, necessitating admission into hospitals for treatment more frequently than in the earlier period of the pandemic.

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Kansas Health System, remarked, “We are seeing patients in their 20s and 30s who are otherwise healthy who are coming because of worsening symptoms … today, in the hospital, in the ICU, who are needing to have ventilator and high oxygen support.”

Dr. Faisal Khan, director of St. Louis County’s public health department, said on MSNBC, “Two weeks ago there were 89 patients admitted to ICU beds for COVID-related conditions across the St. Louis metro area. Each of these individuals was unvaccinated, and they were from the relatively younger age group between 18 to 50.”

At Miami’s Baptist Hospital, COVID-19 patient numbers are growing exponentially, with now more than 70 people being treated for their infections. Dr. Sergio Segarra, the chief medical officer, speaking with CNN, reminisced, “I remember seeing articles in the news about hospitals in California with empty COVID units, and I longed for that experience. It’s an experience we were working our way towards that, unfortunately, has taken a rather sad turn.” He explained that many are very young, in their 20s and 30s, who are critically ill and dying.

What makes the situation particularly dire is that the US vaccination campaign has slowed dramatically, with only 48.5 percent of its people fully vaccinated. The seven-day average of inoculations has remained barely over 500,000 per day for more than a week. Biden’s goal of 70 percent of adults receiving at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines by July 4, a meaningless target given that a single dose offers minimal protection against the present strain, has been pushed back to mid-August.

Breaking this down by age groups, about 84 percent of adults 65 and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines. Almost 72 percent have been fully vaccinated, accounting for the most significant proportion by age group. COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted the elderly. Though they account for 16 percent of the population, they make up 80 percent of all those that have died from COVID-19 during the pandemic so far.

Approximately 66 percent of those between the ages of 50 and 64 have been fully vaccinated, while for those aged 40 to 49, 56.4 percent have been fully vaccinated. Less than half of adults between 25 to 39 have been fully inoculated. That drops to 42 percent for 18 to 24. Only 10 percent of people 12-17 have been fully vaccinated, and no vaccines are available yet for children under 12.

There are enormous geographic variations: states in the Southeast and parts of the Midwest and Rocky Mountain areas that won’t see the “70 percent of adults fully vaccinated” well into winter or next year. States like Wyoming, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Alaska, Ohio, Indiana, and Louisiana, which are below the national averages, are also seeing the pace of vaccination declining from the previous week.

According to Kaiser Family Foundation, regions that rank high on the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), along with higher poverty levels, also have lower vaccination rates. In areas where the share of people 65 and older living in poverty is greater than 11 percent, only 58.8 percent are vaccinated compared to 69 percent vaccinated where fewer than seven percent of the elderly are in poverty.

The Axios website, in a survey of adults on their vaccination status, conducted June 9-21, found that those earning less than $50,000 by household income accounted for 52.7 percent of all unvaccinated Americans. Though political affiliations, media misinformation, and religious backwardness all play a role, the socioeconomic factors appear decisive.

Julia Raifman, a health policy professor at Boston University, told Axios, “A lot of low-income workers are working hard to provide food and housing. That may mean it’s hard for them to find a time to get vaccinated.” The issue of unpaid time off is a concern, given vaccine side effects. Companies are not always making it easy for workers to get these life-saving treatments despite many low-income workers still wanting to get vaccinated.

Even the CDC noted that although vaccine eligibility has expanded, “vaccination coverage among adults was lower among those living in counties with lower socioeconomic status and with a higher percentage of households with children, single parents, and persons with disabilities.”

It should be noted that since Joe Biden took his oath of office in January, close to 200,000 people have died from COVID-19. His administration, the CDC, and both Democratic and Republican state governments have been working furiously to dismantle the safeguards of public health measures that have saved lives, in order to push workers back to their jobs. Vaccines have been used to declare the pandemic over and demand a return to capitalist exploitation as usual.

The floods in Europe and the bankruptcy of capitalism

Johannes Stern

Measured by the number of fatalities, the current floods in Germany constitute the worst flooding catastrophe since the storm flood along the North Sea coast in 1962. Officially, more than 180 people have died so far, with at least 156 in Germany and 31 in Belgium. Thousands of people remain unaccounted for.

People around the world are horrified by the devastation wrought by the floods. Drone video and before-and-after pictures reveal the extent of the destruction. The high waters had an especially horrific impact in the Eifel region. Villages along normally small rivers like the Ahr, Erft and Ruhr, as well as their tributaries, were largely destroyed.

Entire roads were consumed by the water and partially washed away. Paths, sections of railways and bridges were rendered impassible, and some were destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of people temporarily lost power after several distribution plants were flooded. In some regions, the mobile phone networks and drinking water were interrupted for a time.

A bridge over the Ahr river is damaged in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany, Saturday, July 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

The most dramatic consequence of the floods, however, is the number of deaths, which continues to grow.

In the district of Ahrweiler alone, there have been 110 deaths, including at least 28 in the community of Schuld (660 residents) and the small city of Sinzig (17,642 residents). It is difficult to find words to describe the fates of the individuals. People lost their parents, brothers, sisters and children. Among the deaths in Sinzig were 12 residents of a home for disabled people, which was not evacuated in time.

Similarly dramatic scenes are now threatening to be repeated in parts of Bavaria, Saxony and Austria. Since Saturday night, the heavy rain has shifted to the southeast, pushing up water levels on the Danube, Isar, Inn and tributaries of the Elbe. In Bavaria, the inner cities of Passau and Beerchtesgaden were flooded, and in Saxony, villages including Bad Schandau and Krippen.

The flood disaster exposes in numerous ways the bankruptcy of capitalism and its political representatives.

First, it is the direct product of the climate crisis produced by the capitalist profit system, which is leading to ever more extreme weather events. “Already over thirty years ago, climate models predicted that extreme precipitation would occur more often, while days with light rain would be less frequent,” commented Stefan Rahnstorf, professor at the Potsdam Institute for Research into the Consequences of Climate Change. For every degree of warming, “the air [can] absorb 7 percent more water vapour and then rain it down.”

The consequences of climate change fuel events like the current flood disaster and ultimately threaten the very survival of the planet and all of humanity. These consequences have been understood for a long time. However, the ruling class is incapable of and unwilling to adopt serious climate protection measures, because this would undermine its economic and geostrategic interests. The regular agreements and treaties on climate change are not worth the paper they are written on.

Second, the deadly effects of climate change are the product of decades of underfunding and cuts to infrastructure, including flood barriers, a working early warning system and a disaster prevention system. International experts have pointed out that the high death toll is directly bound up with inadequacies in these areas.

“In 2021, we should not experience this number of fatalities from floods. This is just unacceptable,” stated Hannah Cloke, professor of hydrology at the University of Reading in the UK.

The professor told the ZDF television channel about problems with early warning systems. “Already, several days in advance, it was possible to see what was coming,” she said. All the necessary warnings were issued by the weather services,” commented Cloke, who was involved in the construction of the European flood alert system EFAS. “But this chain of warnings broke down somewhere so that they never reached the people.”

This account is confirmed by reports from flood victims given to the WSWS. A resident in Ahrweiler explained that he and his family were only warned about flooding in the local area two hours ahead of time. The sandbags they then received were not filled. Due to the approaching mass of water, the family no longer had any time to locate sand. Within a short period of time, the cellar and lower parts of the house were totally flooded.

It is “incredibly frustrating,” continued Cloke. In Germany, there were failures at every level, she said. First, there is “no unified nationwide approach to flood risks,” even though “different flood plans for various scenarios” are needed. Second, “local authorities often don’t have the resources necessary to prepare appropriately.”

In fact, numerous municipalities are bankrupt due to the debt brake in Germany’s Basic Law. Deep cuts were made to budgets for disaster protection over recent years. This applies to the building of emergency hospitals, the training and provision of equipment for tens of thousands of volunteer civil protection forces, and the maintenance of national stores of equipment and medical supplies. The network of warning sirens was also largely dismantled.

The Federal Office for Population Protection and Disaster Assistance, which is part of the Federal Interior Ministry, has only 344 employees and a pathetic annual budget of less than €250 million.

Necessary spending for flood protection was not undertaken. “The implementation of flood-related measures” was “restricted due to a lack of allocated financial resources,” notes a report from the European Accounting Agency from 2018 on the implementation of the European Flood Guidelines. Member states are often “not in a position” to “calculate the impact of climate change on the extent, frequency, and location of the appearance of floods.”

The same politicians who now shed crocodile tears in the disaster zones and incessantly pledge “rapid and unbureaucratic emergency help” are responsible for this situation. Over recent years, they have provided the banks and corporations with hundreds of billions of euros with no strings attached and repeatedly increased military spending. At the same time, they have carried out spending cuts that have plunged millions of workers and their families into poverty.

The ruling class exploited the pandemic to intensify its policy of redistribution from the bottom to the top. Within the framework of the so-called coronavirus emergency bailout, all parties in the German federal parliament supported the pumping of billions of euros into the major corporations and banks. All parties in government are allowing the virus to spread so as to guarantee the profits of the financial oligarchy, while rejecting all scientific measures to protect the population. The result is over 4 million dead around the world, including more than 1 million in Europe and over 91,000 in Germany.

The same indifference to human life and the wellbeing of the population is being repeated in the current flood disaster. The joking and laughter captured on video in one of the disaster zones by North-Rhine Westphalia’s Minister President and Christian Democratic candidate for Chancellor, Armin Laschet, are merely the most disgusting examples of this.

After the initial shock, workers and young people will begin to draw far-reaching lessons from these experiences.

Data breach reveals extensive government spying on journalists and political activists

Alex Findijs

A data breach of the Israeli spy company NSO Group has revealed that the company’s Pegasus software is being used by governments around the world to spy on political dissidents and journalists. The breach, obtained by French media non-profit Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, included a list of 50,000 phone numbers targeted for infection with the Pegasus spyware.

Many identified targets of NSO’s software are prominent individuals, including hundreds of business executives, religious leaders, academics, union and government officials—including several yet to be named cabinet ministers, presidents and prime ministers—as well as employees of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).

The list consists of at least 180 targeted journalists, with reporters, executives, and editors from the Financial Times, CNN, the New York Times, France 24, the Economist, Associated Press and Reuters, all identified by the Pegasus project. The Guardian, which has produced a series reporting on the leak titled “The Pegasus project” in coordinating with 16 other news outlets, has stated that it will release further information about the targeted individuals in the coming days as part of its reporting on the issue.

This file photo shows the logo of the Israeli NSO Group company on a building where they had offices in Herzliya, Israel. (AP Photo/Daniella Cheslow, File)

Without forensic analysis of each phone number listed, it is impossible to determine how many phones were actually infected. However, an analysis of a sample of the listed phones by the Pegasus project determined that half, 37 of 67, were infected, indicating potentially tens of thousands of infections.

Regardless of how many phones were actually infected, the determination by government agencies that it was necessary to spy on tens of thousands of people, and hundreds of journalists and activists, is a warning of the lengths that capitalist governments will go to suppress any and all opposition to their rule and trample on democratic rights.

The revelations of the scale and extent of NSO’s spying operations are an astonishing exposure of the ability of governments and intelligence agencies around the world to spy on their populations. An extensive investigation by over a dozen news outlets has discovered disturbing details about the capabilities of the Pegasus spyware.

According to the Guardian, Pegasus software is capable of monitoring all information stored on a smartphone, including texts, emails, and images, as well as encrypted data and contacts lists. It is even capable of accessing the victim’s GPS, as well as activating a cell phone microphone or camera to record the target’s conversations.

Such capabilities suggest that it may have been the GPS tracking features of Pegasus that facilitated the assassination of Mexican journalist Cecilio Pineda Birto in 2017. Pineda was gunned down by four men at a car wash in Altamirano, Mexico just weeks after his addition to the list by one of NSO’s Mexican clients.

Even more concerning is the ability of Pegasus to infect a target’s phone with ease. Earlier infection models relied on texting or emailing a link through which the virus would enter the target’s device. This method was often unreliable, with some known targets sent links that failed to complete the infection. However, recent advancements in NSO’s spyware have allowed it to infect phones through what are called “zero-click” attacks that significantly reduce the risk of failure.

Such attacks enable NSO to infect target devices without any interaction on the part of the victim. These methods exploit “zero-day” vulnerabilities such as bugs in the operating system of a phone that the developer may not even know exist. In 2019, for example, WhatsApp revealed that NSO had been able to send malware to 1,400 devices by exploiting a zero-day vulnerability that allowed Pegasus to infect the device through a phone call, regardless of whether the target answered the call or not.

NSO has also been working to exploit weaknesses in Apple’s iMessage app. Claudio Guarnieri, director of Amnesty International's Security Lab, has been able to identify Pegasus infections of Apple devices as recently as this month, even penetrating Apple’s most recent security updates.

The target may also have their phone targeted remotely through an agent operating a wireless transceiver, and, according to NSO itself, a phone can be infected manually if an agent is able to steal the phone and download the spyware directly.

Using these techniques, Pegasus is virtually impossible to stop. The software is effectively undetectable, living in the temporary memory of a device and leaving no trace once the device is shut down. Furthermore, once infected, the spyware is capable of activating administrative privileges for itself. “Pegasus can do more than what the owner of the device can do,” Guarnieri explained to the Guardian .

Guarnieri continued, “This is a question that gets asked to me pretty much every time we do forensics with somebody: ‘What can I do to stop this happening again?’ The real honest answer is nothing.”

The consequences of the widespread deployment of this software are apparent: NSO is facilitating the extensive spying on journalists and political dissidents by governments with impunity.

According to NSO, it provides its services only to verified military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies in 40 unnamed countries and conducts extensive vetting of clients’ human rights records. Ostensibly, the software is only used to target high profile criminals and terrorists.

However, based on information about NSO’s clients obtained by the Pegasus project, this appears to be patently false. Not only have journalists, political activists and even high-ranking politicians been targets, but the ten countries so far identified by the Pegasus project as clients of NSO are Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, India and the United Arab Emirates.

Among this list are governments notorious for violating the human rights of journalists and citizens. Notably, Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman was found to have ordered the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Several members of Khashoggi’s family, as well as close associates and Turkish officials investigating the murder, were targets for NSO’s spyware.

Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, was allegedly hacked with Pegasus spyware just four days after his murder.

Mexico, with multiple agencies purchasing Pegasus and a suspected 15,000 targets, is the most dangerous country for journalists in the world outside of active war zones. Since 2010, 86 journalists have been killed, including two just last month. Those who investigate the connections and corruption between organized crime, the government and the security forces are often targeted for intimidation and threats of violence.

NSO and its government clients, the list of which will undoubtedly grow with time, is enabling the covert surveillance of any person deemed a threat by the capitalist governments and their intelligence agencies.

Such software will undoubtedly be used to record every move of independent, left wing and socialist journalists and political activists across the globe. This spying will be used to intimidate and threaten them, using the potential of violence as a bludgeon against critical journalism and political dissent. It will also be only a matter of time before such technology is used by companies to spy on their employees and crack down on the efforts of workers to organize against their bosses.

The attempts of governments to use spyware against journalists and their people must be opposed. But the defense of democratic rights cannot be entrusted to the capitalist parties that have assaulted democratic rights for decades and carried out mass surveillance of all electronic communications, as was exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013.

In the United States, the Republican Party passed the anti-democratic Patriot Act and the Democratic Party voted to extend it in 2019. In Germany, the grand coalition of the conservative Christian Democrats and liberal Social Democrats voted this June to further expand the surveillance powers of the state.

In every country, it is imperative for the working class to break with these parties, which embrace the assault on democratic rights, and build an independent socialist movement for the defense of democratic rights and freedom of the press.

Many health workers across Australia remain unvaccinated as coronavirus outbreak spirals out of control

Clare Bruderlin

As the number of coronavirus cases in New South Wales (NSW) surges to 1,340, reports are revealing that large numbers of health workers, including nurses and aged care workers, are yet to receive even the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. This is the case in NSW and nationally, including in Victoria, where there have been 81 infections in recent days.

Some three and a half months after the designated target date of March 31 for full vaccination of all health care workers and with only 12 percent of the adult population immunised, health staff face the growing COVID-19 crisis largely unprotected and entirely vulnerable.

On July 12, Aged Care Minister Greg Hunt admitted that more than half of the aged care workforce in Australia was unvaccinated against the coronavirus. Only approximately 107,000 aged care workers, or around 40 percent have received at least one dose.

Technicians prepare Pfizer vaccines at the newly opened COVID-19 Vaccination Centre in Sydney, Australia. (James Gourley/Pool Photo via AP, File)

While the NSW government has refused to reveal the total number of health workers who have been vaccinated, some individual hospitals have released their own statistics, with as many as one-third of staff in one hospital emergency department yet to receive full vaccination.

On July 10, the Daily Telegraph reported the details of an internal memo which was circulated at one south-western Sydney hospital. It stated that the number of “unjabbed” frontline staff, including staff, student nurses and nurses in emergency wards, was at “35 percent.”

The memo called for unprotected workers to be kept away from “hot” and “red” zones in the hospital, where COVID patients were present. Effectively acknowledging that this is unviable, given that more than a third of staff are unvaccinated, the document called for such segregation to be put in place “where possible.”

The report comes after more than 600 staff at the Royal North Shore Hospital on Sydney’s lower north shore and at Fairfield Hospital in the city’s south-west were forced into isolation, when an unvaccinated student nurse tested positive for coronavirus and had worked at the hospitals for five days while potentially infectious.

Despite this, according to the memo student nurses were still being sent to hospitals unvaccinated.

At the Summit Care aged facility in the north-west Sydney suburb of Baulkham Hill, where there have been at least ten coronavirus cases among residents and staff, it was revealed that only one-third of the facility’s workers had received the coronavirus vaccine. The outbreak began when an unvaccinated worker at the facility tested positive. At least 70–75 percent of staff, including contracted cleaners, were identified as close contacts and forced into isolation.

Following that, RSL LifeCare, one of Australia’s largest aged care providers, which operates 28 homes across NSW and the Australian Capital Territory, revealed that just 27 percent of its staff have received a first dose and only 15 percent are fully vaccinated.

These figures are an indictment of governments—state and federal, Labor and Liberal—who have sought to keep “the economy open” to maximise corporate profits, against the advice of epidemiologists who have repeatedly warned of the danger of mass outbreaks.

In order to try and cover over the festering political scandal, the bipartisan national cabinet determined on June 28 that first dose of COVID vaccinations will be mandatory for aged care workers by September 17, a decision that scapegoats the workers for the failure of the rollout and in the interim leaves them unprotected and highly vulnerable to the increasingly infectious and dangerous variants of the virus. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a minuscule $11 million fund to be paid through the providers to enable workers to take time off work, if necessary, to obtain a vaccination.

This measure was to placate the competing aged care providers that were disputing which facility would be liable for the cost of administering the injection and any time off needed by staff working across multiple facilities if adverse reactions were experienced.

The government and the media have repeatedly blamed the workers for the perilously low rate of vaccinations. with Morrison stating: “This has been a difficult cohort, a difficult group to get vaccinated, and this is why I have been fairly constant and determined to ensure we got to where we are tonight.”

In reality, the reason aged care workers, nurses, paramedics and other essential workers are not yet vaccinated is because the government has failed to ensure there are supplies.

The Morrison government had originally announced a priority target of vaccinating all residential aged care staff, part of the initial 1a phase, by early April. In that month, with almost 3.5 million of the targeted 4 million still unvaccinated, the next 1b phase of the rollout commenced, exacerbating the problem of dwindling vaccine supplies. Reports emerged of aged care workers being told to get vaccinated in their own time or being given “leftover” doses on site after residents had received their jabs.

Initially aged care staff were told they would be vaccinated in their workplaces by the four private companies fielding teams sent to the residential facilities for the residents, but this did not happen. The government promised to set up 13 pop-up vaccination hubs for aged care staff “during May.” So far, only three of these are operating, all in western Sydney.

One aged care nurse from Victoria, who had contracted COVID-19 at her workplace during 2020, told the WSWS about her difficulties in obtaining a vaccination, either at work or in a hub:

“I don’t know why I didn’t get the vaccination at work because they said it was only for the residents, and then if there was vaccine left over, they would give it to the staff. But at that time, I didn’t get it because I wasn’t working during the day. If you go outside to have the book-in vaccination, the queue is so long. Maybe you have to stay there for hours to get inside. I tried to go there on the weekend, but the queue was just so long, I didn’t stay.”

With rising case numbers and growing hospitalisations, Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid last week warned that NSW’s hospital system could destabilise if it became overloaded with COVID-19 patients, stating, “We’ve seen 10 percent of cases already in hospital—just multiply that to thousands and thousands of cases… Imagine what you might experience if you need to go to hospital for urgent care, such as with a heart attack or cancer.”

After decades of funding cuts, public hospitals in Sydney and nationally have been pushed to breaking point. Even prior to a major outbreak of coronavirus, they have been operating close to capacity. In recent months, hospitals in every state and territory have reported overflowing emergency departments, increased ambulance ramping and lengthy wait times as a result of understaffing and bed shortages.

Throughout June, widespread industrial and strike action was taken by health workers across NSW, including paramedics, patient transport officers, nurses and midwives in at least 24 different hospitals, in opposition to unsafe staffing levels and wage cuts.

These actions were all limited and broken up by the unions to different workplaces and different days. Paramedics covered by the Health Services Union (HSU) were expected to take different action to their colleagues, in some cases in the same ambulance, who were members of the Australian Paramedics Association (APA). Some nurses in different hospitals were not aware of the actions taken by their counterparts in hospitals in the same city or town.

The trade unions were fully aware of the danger of a coronavirus outbreak but refused to mobilise health workers in a broader struggle. The chronic staff shortages, increased workloads and dangerous working conditions have been implemented with the direct complicity of all the health unions. NSWNMA general secretary Brett Holmes told a rally of nurses and midwives in Newcastle last April about severe staff shortages including 10–15 shortages on shift at Westmead Hospital, the major public hospital in western Sydney and the first to establish a COVID-19 ward.

As with all the health unions he proposed no action of health workers to address this dangerous situation. With the spread of the Delta variant among health workers, the unions are seeking to suppress any opposition from workers.

The lack of preparation of the health system in every state over the past 18 months is a criminal expression of the priorities of all governments—profits and budgets over the lives of health workers and their patients. It highlights the urgent necessity for workers not to place their health and safety in the hands of the unions who act as the policemen of the capitalist class. Matters must be taken into the hands of health workers in collaboration with their counterparts internationally who have suffered the same conditions in country after country over the past 12 months.

Australian ruling elite demands an end to all lockdowns as COVID crisis escalates

Oscar Grenfell

There are feverish calls from prominent representatives of the Australian corporate and financial elite for an end to all lockdown measures, a “return to normal” and for the population to be forced to “learn to live with the virus.” The homicidal thrust of the demands which centre on placing big business profit above everything else, including the lives of working people, is all the more stark given the escalating coronavirus crisis in Australia’s two most populous states.

Sydney, the capital of New South Wales (NSW), is in the grip of its worst outbreak to date. More than three weeks after extremely limited lockdown measures were first instated, the country’s largest city is consistently recording around one hundred cases of the highly-infectious Delta variant each day. There are over 400 exposure sites across Sydney, as well as in some regional NSW centres.

On Friday, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that 170 of all infections, which then stood at little over a thousand, were “mystery cases,” meaning the authorities had no idea of how the virus was contracted. The same day it was revealed that the NSW Liberal-National Coalition government had pleaded for other state administrations to bolster its contact tracing efforts, which it previously claimed were the “gold standard.”

Pedestrians walk away from the central business district in Melbourne, Australia, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

On Saturday, the government imposed harsh measures on three working-class areas in southwest Sydney that have been epicentres of the virus, prohibiting all but essential workers from leaving the suburb. Such localised measures have been tried and have failed in previous outbreaks. A day later, moreover, after meetings with business chiefs and lobbying from the corporatised trade unions, the government granted a host of exemptions, including for 19 different areas of retail. The new list is so expansive that it renders the claims of a hard lockdown fraudulent.

Victoria has extended a five-day lockdown that was declared on Thursday night after Delta infections spilled over from NSW. The state has already recorded 81 infections, its list of exposure sites is approaching 200, including football games attended by tens of thousands of people, and the spread has extended from Melbourne to regional centres such as Mildura.

Under these conditions, and with a rapidly rising rate of hospitalisation in Sydney that has already claimed four lives, everything must be done to contain the virus. That is the standpoint of a host of epidemiologists who have demanded more stringent restrictions to curb the outbreak, and of hundreds of thousands of working people who have angrily condemned the existing measures as inadequate and profit-driven.

The attitude of the corporate elite is very different. For them, the problem to be overcome is not the deadly virus and its spread, but the insistence of broad sections of the population that policies be based on public health and science. Giving ever-more naked expression to the ruthless logic of the capitalist market, leading financial commentators are demanding that these progressive sentiments be confronted and overcome, and that workers’ be told they have no choice but to face the risk of infection or death.

Perhaps most striking was a column on Saturday in the Australian, Rupert Murdoch’s flagship publication. Its author, Chris Kenny, declared his hope that the virus would continue to spread in Sydney. “Maybe the only way to convince our over-zealous politicians that they must learn to live with Covid-19 is for them to confront a situation where they cannot eliminate it, no matter what pain they impose on their communities,” he wrote.

Kenny’s article, and others like it, have been framed as an attack on “overzealous” and “power-hungry” state premiers, who have inflicted “pain” on the “economy.” In truth, all the state governments have resisted lockdowns and other public health measures in line with their defence of profit interests. When they have instituted such measures it has been a result of fears over a possible collapse of the healthcare system, and above all, that mass anger and opposition from the working class will erupt. It is this that Kenny and his colleagues are demanding be taken on and defeated.

Kenny tacitly acknowledged this by noting that the state and territory leaders, most of them from Labor, had agreed in June, along with the federal Coalition government, that lockdowns would be a policy of “last resort.” The issue, he claimed, was that in practice this was not being carried out.

Making plain what he was advocating, Kenny denounced Berejiklian for having “locked Greater Sydney down, even though it faced a situation a long way short of the ‘last resort,’” even though epidemiologists have stated that without the current, limited restrictions, the situation in the city could come to resemble the catastrophes in India and Indonesia.

A similar line was taken in a feature article by the Australian’s editor-at-large Paul Kelly, but he was more explicit about the source of the problem. Kelly warned that “resentment of Berejiklian’s status as the ‘gold standard’ reluctant to lock down has been unleashed.” and that her “authority” as a champion against lockdowns, along with that of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, was “under pressure.”

This was part of a broader problem, with the “Australian mindset” seeming “addicted to lockdowns.” As a consequence, “The message that Australia ‘must learn to live with the virus’ is a cliche making little progress in real life. Australia has developed its own political culture about the virus—heavily risk-averse, instinctively inclined to lockdowns, and demanding the federal government stump up the money to sustain individuals and businesses as long as they are affected.”

This was not a “tenable mindset for recovery and opening up the economy.” It threatened Gross Domestic Product, i.e., business profits. Morrison’s “political future” depended on him making good repeated assurances that there was a “‘path out’ of the pandemic.”

The discussion unfolding in Australian ruling circles is part of a global push to declare the pandemic over, even as it resurges around the world. The demands for an end to “Australia’s lockdown culture” are coupled with warnings that the country’s corporate sector will be disadvantaged, as other nations press ahead with their homicidal policies.

The models are Britain and the US. In the former, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is lifting all restrictions today, including mask mandates, even as his government admits that this will result in 100,000 or more daily infections and an increase in deaths. US President Joe Biden has all but described the pandemic as a thing of the past, despite rising US cases and hospitalisations.

Again in the Australian, Nick Cater wrote an article headlined “Boris Johnson leads the way on Covid rules—are we game to follow?” He cited warnings from a hundred British epidemiologists that the lifting of restrictions would result in a medical catastrophe, but only to hail “Johnson’s courage in defying the experts” as “a virtue that should be emulated by political leaders closer to home.”

Cater invoked war, declaring that, “In Britain, Johnson revives the Dunkirk spirit, fighting Covid-19 on the beaches, landing grounds, fields and in the streets. In Australia, premiers call on their subjugated citizens to fight the virus from their couches.” Johnson is not fighting COVID-19, he is allowing it to spread in line with the homicidal program of “herd immunity.” This is a war, not against the virus, but against the working class.

The comments referenced above do not just reflect the positions of individuals, but of powerful sections of the corporate elite. The political establishment, while fearful of provoking mass popular opposition, has demonstrated time and again its commitment to a profit-dominated response.

In June, the state and territory leaders and the federal government agreed to a four-phase “roadmap” for ending restrictions. According to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, under phase two of the plan: “Lockdowns would only occur in extreme circumstances to prevent escalating hospitalisation and fatality.” Phase three would see the virus treated like the flu, and phase four a “return to normal.”

The transition from one phase to the next would be based on vaccination rates, yet to be determined. With Australia’s vaccination level the lowest of an advanced capitalist country as a result of a shambolic federal rollout based on minimising government spending and maximising profit opportunities, financial commentators and politicians are calling for the reopening to be pinned to a rate that would guarantee catastrophe.

Kenny stated that Australia was “either painfully close to” beginning the phased “reopening” or “already in a position to start” even though little over ten percent of the adult population is fully-vaccinated, and even many frontline workers in health and aged care are still not inoculated. Other commentators have put the figure at 50 percent with all adults supposedly having been given the “opportunity” of vaccination. This is the line of former deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth, who has close ties to the Morrison government.

The protracted delay in implementing restrictions in Sydney, and the manifestly inadequate character of those eventually instituted, was a partial implementation of this agenda. But the financial elite wants more: for death to be normalised on a mass scale, for the virus to become endemic and for millions to be endangered with infection, all in the interests of profit.

The current COVID-19 crisis, and the discussion within ruling circles, are a warning to the working class. The concept, peddled by official politicians and the media that Australia was exempt from the global pandemic crisis, has been exposed as a fraud. All of the major parties, including Labor, and the unions, are committed to an agenda that jeopardises the safety and the very lives of working people.