Canada heads toward deadly winter surge of COVID-19

Dylan Lubao

Canada is entering the second winter of the COVID-19 pandemic with all signs pointing to an impending surge of mass illness and death. With the blessing of the Trudeau Liberal government, provincial and territorial governments across the country have dismantled almost all public health measures designed to prevent viral transmission, while spreading the lie that the worst of the pandemic is over and insisting the population has to learn to “live with the virus.”

Street scene from Vancouver, British Columbia (Wikimedia Commons)

Infections are rising in the majority of provinces and territories as the country heads into the winter months when inclement weather forces people to congregate indoors, and viruses consequently spread much more rapidly.

Alarming COVID-19 flashpoints are emerging in the prairie provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the northwestern Yukon Territory, and the Atlantic province of New Brunswick.

Infections have also begun to spike again in Ontario and Quebec, Canada’s two most populous provinces. The two westernmost provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, which bore the worst of the early fall surge, are still recording elevated death rates.

Data produced by biostatistician and educator Ryan Imgrund shows that with the exception of Saskatchewan, every province has a reproductive value, or Rt, greater than 1.0, which indicates an exponential growth of the pandemic. Among cities with the most explosive spread is Winnipeg, Manitoba, where infections are spiraling out of control with an Rt of 1.28. This figure means that 100 infected individuals will go on to infect 128 more.

Even though Saskatchewan’s reproductive rate is below 1, its health care system is buckling under the weight of COVID-19 hospitalizations, which are the direct product of right-wing Premier Scott Moe’s decision to lift all public health restrictions last July. This led to a massive spike in new infections and hospitalizations in September and October. High numbers of hospitalizations have continued into November.

Saskatchewan reported its worst month of the pandemic in October, when it recorded 156 deaths. This is more than in January of this year, before the widespread availability of vaccines. According to Dr. Dennis Kendel, a former physician and health policy consultant, the death toll would have been far higher if COVID-19 patients in Saskatchewan’s overflowing ICUs had not been transported to hospitals in Ontario.

Manitoba, where the Progressive Conservative provincial government boasted of its relatively low infection rates over the summer, is experiencing a spike in cases. From a seven-day average of 86 cases per day one month ago, the province now reports an average of 166 cases per day and rising.

The province’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Brent Roussin, was forced to admit that with its current trajectory, the province could soon be overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. In response to the runaway spread of the virus, Roussin recommended the reinstatement of indoor gathering capacity limits on November 12.

The Liberal government in the sparsely populated Yukon Territory was forced to declare a state of emergency last week as an outbreak rapidly spread in the capital of Whitehorse. Citing “widespread and untraceable” community transmission, on the order of 80 cases over three days, Premier Sandy Silver announced the roll-out of a vaccine passport program for non-essential services like restaurants, bars, and gyms.

A major contributing factor to the surge in cases in the Yukon and other parts of the far north, is the waning effectiveness of vaccines after six months, even for those fully inoculated. Because of the vulnerability of the largely indigenous population, the far north was given priority in the rollout of vaccines. A surge in infections recently led the North West Territories to accelerate the distribution of vaccine booster shots, but in most of the country the availability of booster shots is very limited.

In New Brunswick, the Progressive Conservative government of Premier Blaine Higgs has called for “circuit breaker” measures to try and slow the spread of the virus.

After experiencing a very brief drop in daily cases from a peak of 115 per day in mid-October, cases are again rapidly rising in New Brunswick, sitting at 57 per day with an upward trajectory. The so-called circuit breaker only limits social gatherings between households, while leaving schools, businesses, and non-essential services virtually unaffected.

Both Ontario and Quebec, whose hard-right governments recently rejected vaccine mandates for health care workers, are seeing an upsurge in new cases. As of November 14, the seven-day rolling average of new cases in Ontario and Quebec was 563 and 639, respectively. At the low point of transmission last month, daily infections in Ontario dropped below 300.

Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government, led by erstwhile Trump enthusiast Doug Ford, recently laid out a road map to completely dismantle all public health measures by March 2022, including mask mandates. As a result of rising cases, which members of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table warned would lead to a doubling of cases within 15 days, Ford was forced to temporarily delay the next round of relaxations, pausing the lifting of capacity limits in gyms, strip clubs, and dance venues. The reopening plan as a whole, however, remains in place.

In British Columbia and Alberta, the seven-day average of daily deaths stand at 8 and 4 respectively. Both provinces’ pandemic reporting systems have come under fire for alleged government tampering. Data compiled by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation appears to corroborate claims that COVID-19 deaths are underreported in these two provinces by at least a factor of two.

The discovery that the AY.25.1 subtype of the Delta variant has become the predominant strain of the virus in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and likely British Columbia, stands as an indictment of the reopening policies of the three provinces’ governments, who early in the summer dropped virtually all COVID-19 public health measures and let the virus rip through the population.

Although researchers currently believe that AY.25.1 is no more transmissible nor lethal than its parent strain, the unchecked spread of viral mutations of the SARS-COV-2 virus (AY.25.1 is thought to have originated in the US state of Idaho) always poses the risk of the arrival of a “super” strain that can circumvent vaccine immunity and cause greater harm.

The reckless reopening of schools for the fall term in September has played a major role in the resurgence of cases, as it did during the second wave a year ago. The age group with the highest infection rate in Canada is currently the under 11s, which reflects the fact that they can’t get vaccinated and are crammed into overcrowded school buildings with virtually no protections.

A worrying report in the Montreal daily La Presse notes that three hundred Quebec youth have been inflicted with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children or Kawasaki disease since the start of the pandemic. Of these, at least 60 required intensive care.

The report exposes as lies the constant refrain by capitalist governments that children don’t get seriously ill from COVID-19. The true number of young victims of government reopening policies across the country, suffering from MIS-C, Long COVID, or other debilitating aftereffects of COVID-19 infection, is doubtless in the thousands.

The picture that emerges from the current stage of the pandemic in Canada is one in which every province and territory is either in the midst of a deadly upsurge or teetering precariously on the brink of one.

This is not primarily due to the tenaciousness of the virus itself, but of the homicidal policies pursued by both the federal and provincial governments. Their mantra of learning to “live with the virus” is designed to remove all obstacles to the operation of the capitalist economy and the accumulation of billions in profits by the corporations.

These policies have needlessly killed over 29,000 Canadians, by and large workers packed into unsafe workplaces and hospitals, and the elderly and vulnerable who were callously left to die in ramshackle long-term care homes. At the same time, the corporations and super-rich were and continue to be showered with hundreds of billions in subsidies, leading to record corporate profits and wealth gains for the financial elite since 2020.

Despite the widespread desire among workers across the country to fight back against these pro-corporate reopening policies, from wildcat strikes among autoworkers at the start of the pandemic to teachers fighting for safer classrooms and personal protective equipment, their militancy has run headlong into the opposition of the corporatist trade unions, who openly support the drive to “live with the virus.”

Sri Lankan finance minister’s budget proposals deepen social attacks

Saman Gunadasa

On Friday, Finance Minister Basil Rajapakse, the brother of Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse, presented his austerity budget to parliament.

“This is history’s most challenging period,” he demagogically declared, while claiming, “We are equipped with all the necessary strengths to manage the economy and overcome such challenges.”

Nurses and other health workers protest at Kandy hospital (WSWS Media)

Translated into plain language, “manage the economy’” and “overcome” the challenges, means the ruthless imposition of the economic crisis, which has been exacerbated by COVID-19, onto the backs of the people.

Rajapakse also revealed the total indifference of the ruling elite to the thousands of people infected or killed by the virus, falsely proclaiming that Sri Lanka has been “able to gain a distinct advantage by the early control of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The government’s response had revitalised “the lives of our people” and “revived critical sectors of the economy,” he continued. “Mobility has returned. Income generating activities have recommenced. Normalcy has returned to the lives of our people.” We have seen “the entire country turn itself into a busy workplace.”

Contrary to Rajapakse’s claims, there is no control of the pandemic in Sri Lanka. The grossly inadequate government response has led to over 552,000 infections and the death of more than 14,000 people, according to the official figures. Medical experts, moreover, have repeatedly warned that a new surge of the deadly disease is imminent.

In line with its global counterparts, the Rajapakse regime reopened the economy placing the profits of international investors and big above human life. Finance Minister Rajapakse did not utter a word about the social catastrophe that voiced any sympathy or regret over the lost lives.

On November 1, Rajapakse bluntly told the media that his budget would not give anything to the people but take from them. Last Friday in parliament he cynically claimed that the budget had been carefully prepared “not to burden the people.”

As expected, the budget proposals are a major assault on workers and the poor, with wages frozen amid rising inflation and shortages of essentials. In the run up to the budget, Colombo withdrew all price controls on essential goods, giving big businesses the freedom to dictate high market prices.

Overall budget expenditure for next year will be increased to 3.9 trillion rupees ($US19.2 billion) with revenue estimated to be 2.2 trillion rupees. The deficit will be financed through domestic and foreign borrowings and increased taxes on working people.

At the same time, the government wants to slash the budget deficit from 14.7 percent of GDP last year, to 8.8 percent next year, estimating that subsequent reductions would balance the budget by 2028. This will not only mean further increases in the price of essentials and sharp reductions in the living conditions of the masses but efforts to dismantle the entire public sector.

Rajapakse’s budget includes increased taxes on imports and goods and services taxes (GST) to secure a predicted 1,491 billion rupees next year, up from this year’s 1,030 billion rupees. The full list of items and GST rates has not been announced but increased higher excise taxes were announced on liquor and cigarettes on the day of the budget presentation.

Sharp cuts will be applied through the “commercialisation” of around 300 state-owned enterprises (SOEs). “Most of these institutions,” Rajapakse declared, “do not provide returns on the investments made by the government” and were “a drain on the national economy.”

The SOEs, he said, would be subjected to a “multi-disciplinary consultative committee” which will formulate “a strategic way forward.” He also proposed curtailing any new building in the public sector and to cut telephone and electricity costs in the sector by 25 and 10 percent respectively.

At a press conference after his budget presentation, Rajapakse said that the whole of public sector has been an “unbearable burden.” He said there was “absolutely no way we can spend public money on government sector employees.” Rajapakse’s budget also proposes the public sector retirement age be increased from 60 to 65 years with a block on all new recruitment.

This assault on the country’s 1.4 million public sector workers is in line with previous International Monetary Fund’s “structural reform” demands and involves the elimination of the remaining hard-won rights by these workers.

Finance Minister Rajapakse wants expenditure authorisations for government institutions to be on a quarterly basis, instead of annually, to force SOE managements to immediately implement the drastic expenditure cuts. Public service efficiency and productivity would also be “enhanced” through an appraisal system “based on the satisfaction of clients and Key Performing Indicators.”

There will also be 173-billion-rupee total cut in health, samurdhi (meagre welfare allowances for the poor), water supply, women and child development and rural housing allocations.

Petroleum Corporation workers demonstrating in Kolonnawa (Photo: WSWS Media)

Some trade unions appealed to the government to grant a 10,000-rupee salary increase to state sector employees in the budget and called on the finance minister to ask private sector employers to give a similar pay increase. These pathetic requests were a desperate attempt to dissipate rising working-class unrest and prevent a direct political struggle against the government and employers.

Finance Minister Rajapakse announced a budget allocation for a meagre wage increase for 250,000 teachers and principals. The teachers unions had negotiated a rotten deal with the government for a third of the original claim and then shutdown a long-running national teachers strike.

Rajapakse proposed a onetime 25 percent income tax on 62 big businesses and individuals with 2 billion rupees annual income, as well as a 2.5 percent social security levy on companies with over 120 million annual turn-over. While these taxes could increase government revenue by 200 billion rupees it is a gentle slap on the wrist for the top profit earners.

The corporate media made much of the slight tax increases on big business in order to deflect attention from the government’s devastating attack on the working people. Colombo, however, has not touched the existing corporate tax regime, which at 14 to 24 percent, is the lowest rate in South Asia.

The government’s generous tax holidays for big investors also remain intact. Port City, a Chinese land reclamation in Colombo, for example, has been declared an international financial hub and is exempted from Sri Lanka’s tax and labour laws.

Notwithstanding Rajapakse’s “recovery” rhetoric, the country’s economic crisis and foreign debt problems will worsen as the pandemic continues, exports fall and the global disruption of trade remains. Foreign debt repayments, the finance minister admitted, is the government’s largest budget expenditure with $US4.3 billion due for next year and higher amounts in the following years.

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, a big business lobby group, welcomed the maintenance of “mainstream corporate tax rates and investment incentives” and hailed the SOE reforms but voiced its displeasure about the one-time tax on big investors.

Opposition parties, such as Samagi Jana Balavegaya, the United National Party and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, timidly criticised the government, claiming the crisis was caused by “corruption” and “mishandling” of the economy. These organisations all defend the capitalist profit system, have only tactical differences with Rajapakse regime, and, when in power, have ruthlessly imposed austerity measures against workers and the poor.

The past ten months has seen broad layers of the working class and the rural poor resist the government attacks on living and social conditions with demonstrations, protests and strikes through. These struggles have involved health, education, railway and state administration sector employers and plantation workers.

The government’s commercialisation and privatisation agenda is also being resisted by electricity, petroleum and port sector workers with nationwide protests early this month. Angry farmers have continuously protested against the lack of fertiliser and other basic inputs needed for cultivation.

It is no accident, that Finance Minister Rajapakse wants to allocate of 373 billion rupees, an 18-billion-rupee increase, for defence spending, second only to the amount for foreign debt repayments. Spending on the police, will also increase, up 10 billion rupees to 95 billion rupees this year. This bolstering of the state apparatus is in preparation for direct conflict with the working class.

Stipendium Hungaricum (Government of Hungary) Scholarships 2022/2023

Application Deadline: 15th January 2022

Eligible Countries: International. See list of countries below

To be taken at (country): Hungary

Field of Study: Applicants are encouraged to apply for study fields that are in the educational cooperation programmes between Hungary and the specific Sending Partner.

About the Stipendium Hungaricum Award: Thousands of students from all around the world apply for higher educational studies in Hungary each year. The number of Stipendium Hungaricum applicants is continuously increasing as well as the number of available scholarship places.

The programme is based on bilateral educational cooperation agreements signed between the Ministries responsible for education in the sending countries/territories and Hungary or between institutions. Currently more than 50 Sending Partners are engaged in the programme throughout 4 different continents.

Offered Since: 2013

Type: Stipendium Hungaricum scholarships are available for bachelor, master, one-tier master, doctoral and non-degree programmes (preparatory and specialisation courses).

In the Hungarian education system, one-tier master programmes cover both the bachelor and the master level of studies; therefore it is an undivided master programme that results in a master degree. These one-tier programmes are offered in specific study fields such as general medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, architecture, law, veterinary surgery, forestry engineering, etc.

Eligibility: See full eligibility of all study types in Scholarship Webpage (Link below).

Applications will not be considered in the following cases:

• Hungarian citizens (including those with dual citizenships)
• former Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarship Holders, who are re-applying for studies in the same cycle of education (non-degree studies, bachelor, master, doctoral level) including both full time and partial study programmes

Number of Awardees: Numerous

Value of Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarship: 

• Tuition-free education
  • exemption from the payment of tuition fee
• Monthly stipend
  • non-degree, bachelor, master and one-tier master level: monthly amount of HUF 40 460 (cca EUR 130) contribution to the living expenses in Hungary, for 12 months a year, until the completion of studies
  • doctoral level: according to the current Hungarian legislation, the monthly amount of scholarship is HUF 140 000 (cca EUR 450) for the first phase of education (4 semesters) and HUF 180 000 (cca EUR 580) for the second phase (4 semesters) – for 12 months a year, until completion of studies.
• Accommodation
  • dormitory place or a contribution of HUF 40 000 to accommodation costs for the whole duration of the scholarship period
• Medical insurance
  • health care services according to the relevant Hungarian legislation (Act No. 80 of 1997, national health insurance card) and supplementary medical insurance for up to HUF 65 000 (cca EUR 205) a year/person

Duration of Scholarship: Duration of candidate’s chosen program:

• Bachelor programmes: Fulltime: 2-4 years. Partial: 1 or 2 semesters
• Master programmes:  Fulltime: 1.5-2 years. Partial: 1 or 2 semesters
• One-tier master programmes: Fulltime: 5-6 years Partial: 1 or 2 semesters
• Doctoral programmes:  Fulltime: 2+2 years Partial: 1 or 2 semesters
• Non-degree programmes:
  • Preparatory course in Hungarian language: 1 year
  • Other preparatory and specialisation courses: up to 1 year

List of Eligible Countries: For full time programmes, students can apply from the following Sending Partners: Arab Republic of Egypt, Argentine Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Georgia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Japan, Kingdom of Cambodia, Kingdom of Morocco, Kurdistan Regional Government/Iraq, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lebanese Republic, Mongolia, Oriental Republic of Uruguay, Palestine, People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, People’s Republic of China (including the Hudec scholarships), Republic of Albania, Republic of Angola, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Colombia, Republic of Ecuador, Republic of Ghana, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iraq, Republic of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Korea, Republic of Kosovo, Republic of Macedonia (FYROM is used at OSCE, UN, CoE, EU and NATO fora), Republic of Moldova, Republic of Namibia, Republic of Paraguay, Republic of Serbia, Republic of South Africa, Republic of the Philippines, Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Yemen, Russian Federation, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, State of Israel, Syrian Arab Republic, The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Tunisian Republic, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Mexican States.

For partial study programmes, students can apply from the following Sending Partners: Georgia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, Kingdom of Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lebanese Republic, Mongolia, People’s Republic of China (only Hudec applicants), Republic of Albania, Republic of Belarus, Republic of India, Republic of Korea, Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Republic of Turkey, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Russian Federation, Syrian Arab Republic, United Mexican States.

How to Apply: Apply for a Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarship Here

Separate: Call for Applications for doctoral programmes 2022/2023

• Applications shall be submitted to the responsible authority of the Sending Partner
• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Covid-19 deaths and illness of UK children justified in the interests of big business

Julie Hyland

At the weekend Bracknell Forest Council posted a message and photograph of 12-year-old Ciara, shared with permission from her parents.

Screenshot of a tweet released by Bracknell Forest Council showing 12 year old Ciara in hospital

Ciara is critically ill with Covid and Strep pneumonia, and was intubated and sedated at the John Radcliff Hospital Oxford (JR). She was initially treated at the Royal Berkshire Hospital (RBH) but her condition worsened, requiring Ciara to be transferred to the John Radcliff Hospital Oxford. The message from the council read, “This picture was at RBH before being blue lighted to Oxford JR. The JR pictures of Ciara are too distressing to post.”

Only last month, 15-year-old Jorja Halliday, from Portsmouth died from Covid. Bravely, her mother shared news of her daughter’s death to warn of the danger.

Jorja’s death, and that of 110 other child victims of the pandemic in the UK, received barely any coverage. Seven children lost their lives due to Covid-19 in the last week recorded by the Office for National Statistics. Covid-19 has been responsible for one in 28 deaths of children and young people (5-19) this year.

Most of those who have died, and those made critically ill, remain nameless, their plight and the suffering of their families and loved ones expunged from any mention in the media, or by the government and the Labour Party, because it would puncture the lying narrative that children are unaffected by Covid-19.

Ciara’s plight was shared to warn people of the need to “wear masks and sanitise”. But mask wearing, as with other mitigations, was ended as a legal requirement in England on July 19 (August 7 in Wales, August 9 in Scotland). Nature magazine wrote that, as “one of the first countries to trust high vaccine coverage and public responsibility alone to control the spread of SARS CoV-2, the United Kingdom has become a control experiment that scientists across the world are studying.”

The “control experiment” saw three million infections between July and October this year. This criminal policy of herd immunity, which is leading daily to upwards of 35,000 infections and 150-plus deaths, requires the normalisation of death.

In 2020, elderly deaths were justified on the grounds that nature was taking its course. Now those of children and young people are usually met with silence. When they do get a mention, it is to minimise and rationalise deaths.

This was summed up by the Telegraph last week, in an editorial “Young people paid too high a price for lockdown”.

Railing against the “raw deal” inflicted on children and young people by previous social distancing measures, it asserted that Covid “posed very little risk to their health” and claimed young people’s “life chances” were being “permanently destroyed” by measures to contain the pandemic.

Of the lives permanently destroyed by death and illness—Long Covid is known to impact on one in every seven children infected—the Telegraph was indifferent. “Just six children under the age of 18 with no underlying medical conditions died after contracting Covid-19”, it wrote.

The distinction between the deaths of children with “underlying medical conditions”, a broad and undefined terminology, and the “healthy” is eugenics in the raw.

The Telegraph article was heavily promoted by UsforThem and other “parent groups” connected with the Great Barrington Declaration, the manifesto promoted last year by the free market American Institute for Economic Research, representing demands by big business to abandon public health measures to contain the pandemic .

Despite the adoption of its demands by the ruling elite, the forces associated with the declaration are extremely active, concentrating on promoting anti-vaccination propaganda and opposing the reintroduction of any social distancing measures in schools. An estimated 80 percent of schools in England have been targeted by anti-vaxxers and those threatening legal action against the reintroduction of mitigation policies in education. Maintaining the lie that children are largely unaffected by Covid is essential for big business to keep parents at work.

The study on which the Telegraph based its fascistic proclamation involved professionals from NHS England, Public Health England and several universities and hospitals, who analysed mortality figures between March 2020 and February 2021. Those involved acknowledge that the sample data, which is confidential, was provided before the advent of the Delta variant and that their results are “60% lower than the figures derived from positive tests, thereby markedly reducing the estimated number of CYP [Children and Young People] who are potentially at risk of death during this pandemic.”

To arrive at the figure of “six healthy children”, the study differentiated the 61 CYP who had died with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test between those who succumbed “as a result” of Covid and “those who died of another cause but were coincidentally infected with the virus.”

Of the 25 it concluded died as a result of the virus, 19 suffered from a chronic health condition, most of which were “life-limiting”. This was according to the “chronic disease coding list”, which identifies “neurological conditions” including “mental-health-related and learning-disability-related codes”.

Dr Camilla Kingdon, President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, who has consistently campaigned against mitigations in schools, said the study showed “very, very tiny numbers” of children dying from Covid and that lockdowns and social distancing caused far greater consequences “through lost education, mental health, and other collateral damage.”

Professor Russell Viner, an author of the paper, described the actions taken in lockdown to “wrapping our children in cotton wool”, saying “the indirect effects of the pandemic on children are likely to be significantly greater than the direct effects.”

Similar reasoning appears to have guided the actions of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which took the surprise step in September not to support universal vaccination for 12- to 15-year-olds. This was despite the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency already concluding in June that the vaccine was safe and effective in this age group. It was only when the UK’s chief medical officers advised that this age group should receive one dose, out of the two-dose vaccination, that a rollout was agreed.

This has been subject to significant delays, not least because the reasoning of the JCVI has been used to bolster the adherents of herd immunity.

Minutes of the JCVI meeting show that the body was presented with modelling indicating that vaccination of 12-17 years olds showed “substantial reduction in hospitalisations.” The body also acknowledged that the risk of post vaccine myocarditis was much milder than most cases of myocarditis before the pandemic, and that many CYP and their parents supported vaccination.

Nonetheless, the JCVI insisted that children were at very low risk. One minute notes, “Immunisation from natural infection was likely to give broader protection than vaccination.

“Members considered that in the absence of vaccination, future generations would be exposed to COVID-19 in childhood, with a relatively mild disease. This early infection would then provide protection against severe disease throughout life. Circulation of COVID-19 in childhood could therefore periodically boost immunity in adults through exposure. As some people would not be exposed in childhood, through chance, a school leave dose of COVID-19 vaccine could be appropriate.”

Another, from May 27, recorded, “It was suggested that the impact of SRS-CoV-2 on children was similar to other respiratory viral infections which circulate each year and it had never historically been suggested that children considered vulnerable to respiratory infection should avoid school or shield to prevent them becoming infected.”

The same meeting heard, “In terms of cost-effectiveness the vaccine had already been paid for but there were delivery costs and opportunity costs regarding impact on influenza and other vaccinations. It was anticipated that opportunity costs would be substantial.”

That meeting suggested that “ethical issues” surrounding the vaccination of CYP should be “reviewed separately” and that “Professor Robert Dingwall agreed to put together a paper describing his thoughts on ethical issues for a future meeting.”

Dingwall, advisor to England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty’s Moral and Ethical Advisory Group, is connected with the GBD supporting Health Advisory and Recovery Group (HART). In June, Dingwall was one of 22 signatories to an open letter published in the right-wing SundayExpress under headline, “End face masks and social distancing on June 21,” arguing that the “theoretical risk” of vaccine-immune strains or a new COVID-19 surge should not outweigh the “damage” caused by another lockdown.

On June 10, the discussion on “Covid in Children” noted that “Numbers of deaths… were low, equating to approximately two deaths per million across the population”. At the start of the pandemic the “risk to children” was not known, and therefore they were subject to the same criteria as adults, so that 93,000 children under the age of 18 were placed on shielded patient list. “Having updated guidance from Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (PCPCH) in June 2020,” the majority of CYP were removed from shielding.

This is despite a high proportion of those admitted to Paediatric Intensive Care Units (PICU) having “life limiting or chronic conditions” and the “highest risk of mortality.”

In children with Covid-19 admitted to hospital with no comorbidities, the risk of being admitted to PICU was “less than 20 percent” and the risk of death “less than 1.69 percent.”

Minutes record, “On the whole children who died had serious underlying condition such that they have succumbed to other winter respiratory viruses.”

On June 15, the Department of Education, which was pressing for an end to all mitigations made a presentation to the JCVI setting out its priority as maintaining “face to face education.” The minute records, “Some of NPI [non-pharmaceutical interventions] measures in place restricted normal operations of education, presented logistical challenges and could be disruptive. DfE were keen to reduce the number of restrictions in place for the next academic year…”

The committee noted that the educational impact of the pandemic was outside its remit. But it still “discussed whether NPIS were causing more disruption in schools than the infection. It was also noted that the perception of risk within schools may be higher than the actual risk… now that vaccination was protecting individuals, the reduction of infection as an endgame was questioned.”

The committee “agreed that given data currently available, the benefits of vaccinating 12-15-year olds for the purpose of indirect protection for adults were not large enough to justify a programme”. It again “commented that there may be long-term benefits from natural infection in childhood.”

With COVID-19 out of control, German infectious disease agency expects ICUs to be overwhelmed

Tamino Dreisam

Germany’s COVID-19 infection rate has hit a new record every day for the past week, with the seven-day incidence Sunday reaching 289 infections per 100,000 inhabitants. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany’s federal infectious disease agency, reported Friday 48,600 new infections and 191 deaths for the previous 24 hours.

Incidence rates as of Friday are particularly high in the states of Saxony (569 infections per 100,000 residents over the past seven days), Thuringia (491) and Bavaria (455). Schleswig-Holstein (94) is the only state with a seven-day incidence below the 100 mark. Four counties already have an incidence of over 1,000, which means one in every 100 residents got infected within the past week.

A nose swab is taken from a man for a SARS CoV-2 rapid test at the Corona Antigen Rapid test center at the 'KitKat-Club' in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020. (Photo/Markus Schreiber)

As the number of infections surge, so do the hospitalizations and deaths. The hospitalization incidence rate for COVID-19 is now 4.7 hospitalizations per 100,000 people, and 26 hospitalized cases per 100,000 inhabitants for those over 80 years of age. On Sunday, the number of COVID-19 patients being treated in intensive care rose above 3,000.

The situation is becoming increasingly disastrous. The latest weekly RKI report expects “there will be a further increase in serious illnesses and deaths and that the available intensive care treatment capacities will be exceeded.”

RKI head Lothar Wieler warned at a press conference on Friday of the dangerous effects of the current wave of the pandemic. Of 50,000 newly infected people every day, around 3,000 will end up in hospital, 350 will require intensive care and 200 will die, he calculated. It’s “five past twelve on the clock,” he added.

As with the previous pandemic waves, outbreaks are increasing in elderly care and nursing homes, as well as in hospitals. Last week there were 119 new outbreaks in medical treatment facilities and 161 in elderly care and nursing homes. It is not uncommon for these outbreaks to be fatal. Last week, four residents died in a nursing home in Überlingen (Baden-Württemberg) and 16 in a retirement home in Brandenburg.

The number of cases and outbreaks is also increasing among children and adolescents. The age group of 5 to 14 year olds is still the age group with the highest incidence rate, with 545 infections per 100,000 people, followed by 15 to 34 year olds with an incidence of 302. There are an average of 70 outbreaks recorded per week at day care centers. There were 693 outbreaks in schools in the last four weeks, although the last two weeks have not yet been fully accounted for due to reporting delays.

Despite the ongoing catastrophe, the ruling class is doing nothing to prevent the virus from spreading. On the contrary, the Social Democrats, Greens, and Free Democrats, the “traffic light” coalition that is set to comprise the next federal government, continues to insist that the “epidemic situation of national scope” will be allowed to expire on 25 November.This decision will remove the legal basis for urgently necessary protective measures—above all the closure of schools and non-essential businesses.

On Thursday, Germany’s federal parliament debated a joint draft law by the SPD, FDP and Greens to replace the previous pandemic provisions. The measures described in it—such as social distancing rules, mask requirements and restricting access to public life for unvaccinated individuals—do not even come close to what is necessary to curb the virus, which is spreading completely out of control. The “traffic light” coalitionists are aware of this.

With a cynical undertone, the designated Federal Chancellor and incumbent Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) declared in his speech to parliament, “We know what the consequence will be: Very, very many of those who are not vaccinated will become infected, and many of those who will become infected will get sick, and of those who get sick, some will struggle for their lives in the intensive care units of our hospitals.”

In fact, hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake. The chief virologist of Berlin’s Charité hospital, Christian Drosten, recently described 100,000 more COVID-19 deaths in Germany alone as a “conservative estimate.” The Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) for Europe, Hans Kluge, warned that 500,000 people in Europe could die from COVID-19 in the next three months.

The “traffic light” coalition is pursuing such a right-wing course that even conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politicians like CDU parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus criticize their pandemic policy as inadequate and demand a continuation of the “epidemic situation.”

This “criticism” is dishonest in several respects. First, the plan to end the “epidemic situation” was developed by the health minister of the grand coalition, Jens Spahn (CDU). Second, the CDU-led grand coalition has been just as aggressive and responsible for almost 100,000 COVID-19 deaths in Germany alone. And thirdly, the nationwide restriction of access to restaurants, bars, and public events to people who are fully vaccinated or recovered from an infection (the 2G rule) called for by representatives of the CDU and Left Party is completely inadequate.

The “profit before life” policy of all bourgeois parties is meeting with increasing opposition from the population. The SPD, Greens, and FDP in particular have been discredited and are hated even before they form a new federal government. According to a survey by the opinion research institute Kantar for FOCUS, 59 percent of Germans are dissatisfied with Scholz’s role in fighting the pandemic.

The ZDF “Politbarometer” showed in a survey published on Friday that only 13 percent consider the SPD competent in the field of pandemic policy. The Greens and FDP do even worse with values of 6 percent and 5 percent respectively. Nearly half of all respondents support stricter protective measures, while 32 percent describe the existing measures as “just right” and only 16 percent find them “exaggerated.” Two-thirds of those surveyed support a nationwide 2G rule and 71 percent support a vaccine mandate in the health care system.

The crucial task is to provide the growing opposition with a clear perspective and strategy. Only an independent movement of the international working class can and will implement the scientifically necessary measures to eliminate COVID-19. This includes the comprehensive shutdown of schools, universities and non-essential businesses with full compensation for those affected in connection with an aggressive vaccination campaign, mass tests, and the isolation of all infected people and contacts.

Stellantis announces mass layoffs at Belvidere Assembly plant

Frank Anderson & James Martin

Stellantis announced last week it would lay off over 400 workers at its Belvidere Assembly Plant starting in January 2022 due to the microchip shortage. So far, United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 1268 at the Belvidere plant has not published any statement on its website or its social media accounts about the layoff.

The company announcement stated, “As we continue to balance global sales with the production of the Jeep Cherokee produced at the Belvidere (III.) Assembly Plant, which has been further exacerbated by the unprecedented global microchip shortage, Stellantis has determined that additional staffing actions are needed as a result of changes in the plant’s operations.

Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois

“The company sent WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) notices today to affected hourly employees, the state of Illinois, the city of Belvidere and the UAW informing them of a workforce reduction that will take effect as early as Jan. 14, 2022. The Company will make every effort to place laid off hourly employees in open full-time positions as they become available based on seniority.”

In the spring of this year, the UAW signed off on previous rounds of layoffs at Belvidere Assembly, effectively bringing the plant down to a single shift of just over 1,600 workers. The plant went through a series of shutdowns and temporary layoffs that severely impacted workers, who struggled to pay for basic necessities such as food and housing, while a number of workers reported that they did not get unemployment benefits.

The widespread supply chain disruptions, including the semiconductor chip shortage in Taiwan and other countries, began during the COVID-19 pandemic and have worsened as leaders around the world have rejected any form of systematic scientific policy of eliminating the virus globally—largely in order to keep the profits of the global multinational corporations soaring. This despite an official toll of over 5 million deaths and up to 15 million dead counting excess deaths, according to the Economist.

Auto companies like Stellantis have kept workers laboring in dangerous sweatshop conditions while the company and the union are concealing the spread of the deadly virus in the plants. Stellantis also refuses to pay workers who need to quarantine when they report symptoms.

Ray (whose name has been changed to protect his identity) is a Stellantis worker at a parts depot in Naperville, Illinois who spoke about the layoffs of his coworkers at Belvidere. He denounced the company and the union, telling the WSWS, “It’s not good. I thought they shipped a lot of people off to different plants, like Ohio and Detroit.

“I’m a two-tier worker. I started in 2015, but it’s like they’re pushing all the first-tier workers out of there. Or basically like cutting back on a lot of stuff.”

Ray also spoke out about the rotten role of the UAW in the contract negotiations for the Big Three auto companies even as the UAW tried to ram through company-backed contracts at Volvo, Dana and now John Deere. “It’s terrible. It’s like [the UAW] are just trying to fatten their pockets even more with the previous contract. They threw money in front of people to get people to sign the contract. In the long run, because you have more two-tier workers than traditional workers, eventually it’s going to backfire.”

The widely hated tier system has manufactured divisions among workers, Ray added. “They want you to speed up older workers. Like, man, speed up? Younger workers are saying, man, these older workers are not doing nothing? I don’t like it. It’s divisive, and like I try to tell people, if the bigger heads that sold the union workers out, how do you keep on going off the same contract? You can’t trust none of it. I don’t understand it. You got McDonald’s workers making $15, $16 an hour, but they expect you to buy a car that’s forty, fifty thousand dollars. You can’t afford it. I know at the parts depot you have to wait eight years to max out at $25 an hour.”

The pandemic and the policies of governments and corporations like Stellantis have inflicted losses on thousands of workers like Ray. “There’s no more essential pay. Personally, I had COVID, and my mom passed from it. I got the vaccine.”

“But the government has done something [terrible],” Ray noted, laying the blame at their feet, “and I’m just trying to stay out of the way of the mess. It’s terrible.”

While the management with the collusion of the UAW has forced workers into unsafe factories, the UAW’s ongoing corruption scandal has laid bare rampant criminality. In the latest indictment, a UAW local official was accused of stealing $2 million in member dues money, again highlighting the fact that the corruption is not a matter of “a few bad apples” but pervades the union at all levels.

Ray Curry, the current president of the UAW, was recently investigated by federal agents for improperly accepting over $2,000 for a college football playoff championship event from a vendor. Two previous presidents of the UAW, Dennis Williams and Gary Jones, are also serving jail time for corruption and embezzlement of union funds.

The corrupt corporatist UAW cannot be reformed. There is widespread anger brewing. The UAW has overseen four decades of concession contracts that have allowed the destruction of hundreds of thousands of jobs and eviscerated wages, benefits and working conditions.

France deploys large security force ahead of New Caledonian independence referendum

John Braddock

The government of French President Emmanuel Macron has launched an unprecedented security operation for New Caledonia’s third and final independence referendum on December 12.

The first 250 police reinforcements arrived in the Pacific territory last month. France’s overseas minister Sebastien Lecornu said a total of 2,000 security personnel will be sent, doubling that used during previous referendums in 2018 and 2020. Lecornu declared: “In a great democracy there can be no feeling of insecurity.”

A person picks up cards of "Yes" and "No" before casting one of them at a referendum in Noumea, New Caledonia, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020, whether voters choose independence from France. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel)

Police and armed forces will be joined by a special police tactical response unit supported by 160 vehicles, 30 armoured personnel carriers, two helicopters and a transport aircraft. A group of 60 “investigators” is being flown in for “as long as needed.” A special cyber unit will supposedly respond to “hate speech” on social media. General Christophe Marietti, who is overseeing the operation, said the deployment will be “reassuring, dissuasive and reactive.”

France’s forces are being sent into a highly charged political situation to suppress simmering popular unrest. After the 2018 plebiscite, in which a majority voted against independence, protests outside the capital, Noumea, closed the main road for two days. Last November, widespread riots erupted over the sale of the Brazilian-owned Goro Nickel plant, which threatened the jobs of 3,000 workers. Riot squads were deployed and people injured in clashes with police.

After Paris refused to delay the referendum until next year, the pro-independence Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste, FLNKS) called for a boycott because of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 10,000 people have caught COVID-19 since the start of the latest outbreak in early September and more than 270 people, mainly indigenous Kanaks have died.

The FLNKS complained that its campaign is hampered because COVID-19 measures restrict meetings. It also argues that the Kanak people are in mourning. The postponement call is supported by the Melanesian Spearhead Group, which includes the states of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

According to the 1998 Noumea Accord, the final plebiscite must be held within two years of the previous vote. The anti-independence parties have consistently opposed a deferment, saying New Caledonia needs “clarity.” Lecornu bluntly asserted that “in democracies” votes are held on time and only an out-of-control pandemic could make a date change possible.

Under the Matignon Accord (1988) and Noumea Accord, three referenda on independence were provided for. In 2020, just over 53 percent voted to remain as part of France, down from 56 percent in the first referendum, indicating growing support for independence. The turnout was 85 percent of the 180,000 enrolled, exceeding the 81 percent return in 2018.

Full independence has always been strenuously resisted by the French ruling elite. New Caledonia has been on the United Nations’ so-called “decolonisation” list since 1986, when a near civil war saw French elite troops used to put down a Kanak insurrection.

Miners, processing workers, truck drivers, airport workers and others have engaged over recent years in militant struggles to defend jobs and conditions. This is bringing them into conflict with the entire ruling elite, including a relatively privileged layer of Kanaks, represented by the FLNKS, seeking a larger slice of the economic pie and a greater political say.

The workers’ struggles have been sold out by the trade unions. Noumea remains a polarised capital, where many low-paid workers live in slum conditions. Kanaks, who make up 44 percent of the territory’s 270,000 population, are socially disenfranchised, with many still living in primitive, subsistence circumstances in rural villages.

Under conditions of intensifying social and class conflicts, both pro-and anti-independence factions of the ruling elite are seeking to exploit the referendum to channel class anger into different forms of nationalism.

Political tensions have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The legislative Congress is composed of 26 pro-independence members, 25 anti-independents and three from the Pacific Awakening Party, representing settlers of Wallisian and Futunian descent. The fragile multi-party government faces an unprecedented budget crunch due to the impact of border closures on tourism.

As elsewhere internationally, COVID restrictions are being eased to boost the economy. Strict lockdowns have been retained only for weekends as the pandemic has eased slightly. There are 20 COVID-19 patients still in intensive care but much of public life has been reopened, and school children returned to class. Just 70 percent of those over the age of 12 have been vaccinated.

In February the previous coalition government, which included the FLNKS, collapsed amid deepening economic problems and social unrest over the sale of the nickel assets. For months there was no properly constituted government because none of the presidential candidates could secure a majority of votes among the 11-member cabinet.

The first pro-independence Kanak president, Louis Mapou was installed in July. This was promoted as boosting independence aspirations following the re-election of the pro-independence Roch Wamytan as president, or speaker, of Congress. However, the Kanak people are in a minority after generations of colonial settlement and migration.

Just over 180,000 people are eligible to vote, leaving tens of thousands of residents off the roll, a subject of prolonged controversy. The restricted electoral roll for the referenda is made up of Kanaks and non-Kanaks who have lived in New Caledonia continuously since 1994. Even taking this into consideration, a “yes” vote requires at least some from the settler and migrant communities to support independence.

Paris is formally “neutral,” but in reality opposes any move which diminishes its geo-strategic position as a Pacific power. New Caledonia is home to a major French military base and holds nearly a quarter of the world’s reserves of nickel, a strategic mineral.

A vote in favour of independence would initiate a transition period to transfer the remaining sovereign powers, relating to justice, defence, policing, monetary policy and foreign affairs. France would cease to be financially responsible for key state functions. The financial sums involved are in the range of $US2 billion a year. Automatic French and EU citizenship would end while mass emigration and capital flight are distinct possibilities.

A French government document outlining what the referendum result will mean vaguely promises that another “No” vote will not entrench the status quo but “usher in a new chapter in French/New Caledonian relations.” While the UN resolution on decolonisation is not affected, any future moves towards independence are effectively nullified. A “unilateral” declaration of independence would not be recognised.

In a visit to the region in 2018, Macron called for a new Indo-Pacific “axis” against China, signaling moves alongside other European imperialist powers to assert their interests under conditions of rising Chinese influence and Washington’s aggressive moves against China. France also views China as a competitor in its former colonies in Africa, where it maintains a political and military presence.

Pressures in the Pacific arena have sharply escalated following the signing in September of the AUKUS pact by the US, UK and Australia. AUKUS includes the repudiation of a €56 billion French submarine contract in favour of an agreement to equip Australia with US nuclear-powered submarines.

Declared without prior discussion with the NATO states, the far-reaching strategic realignment is explicitly directed against China. AUKUS has sidelined the European powers and will vastly increase US, UK and Australian military cooperation as they expand their build-up throughout the region, threatening to do so at France’s expense.