New Zealand PM declares “We won’t stop Omicron”

Tom Peters

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed yesterday that her Labour Party-led government will allow the Omicron variant to circulate once it enters the community, setting the stage for a calamity in New Zealand similar to those unfolding throughout the US, Europe and Australia.

A COVID-19 vaccination centre in Hamilton. (Source: Waikato District Health Board Facebook page, September 29, 2021)

New Zealand has so far recorded 52 deaths from COVID-19, one of the lowest tolls in the world. However, since Ardern announced last October that the government would abandon its strategy to eliminate the deadly virus, it has lifted all lockdowns and allowed the Delta variant to spread.

There are more than 500 known infections in the community. Just over 300 are in Auckland, with the rest scattered across the North Island, plus six cases in Christchurch. Currently 21 COVID-19 patients are in hospital, one in intensive care.

Ardern said the relatively low numbers, compared with other countries, were due to high levels of vaccination and various masking and physical distancing requirements. In fact, while vaccination is crucial, it is not enough to prevent a large number of infections and deaths.

Overall, 76 percent of New Zealand’s population have received at least two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, leaving nearly a million people unvaccinated. Despite Ardern claiming that New Zealand is “in one of the best positions in the world to fight Omicron,” only 17 percent of people have received a third shot, which is essential to provide any protection against Omicron.

The recent decline in daily cases coincides with the summer holidays. The government intends to reopen schools for in-person classes in just over a week, which will inevitably lead to a surge in cases. Vaccines for children aged 5 to 11 only became available on January 17, meaning that large numbers will be attending school unvaccinated.

In the US, UK, France and Greece, teachers, parents and students have held strikes and walkouts in opposition to the reopening of schools while the pandemic is out of control. These actions are increasingly in defiance of the trade unions, which support the criminal reopening policies.

Omicron could leak into New Zealand at any time. Yesterday, there were 525 cases of COVID-19 in the country’s managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) hotels, where people entering the country must stay for 10 days.

Experts have expressed alarm and called on the government to reduce the number of international arrivals and strengthen protections to avoid an outbreak.

Ardern, however, declared that “we won’t stop Omicron.” She said the government would aim to “keep cases as low as possible, so our health system can manage,” but added: “We will have higher case numbers than we’re used to seeing or have experienced before.”

When an Omicron outbreak is detected, New Zealand will move from “orange” to “red” in its so-called “COVID-19 protection framework.” Vaccine certificates will be required in more places, and limits imposed on indoor gatherings, but schools and businesses will remain open. Ardern stressed that “red does not mean lockdowns or regional boundaries.”

Right-wing columnist Matthew Hooton wrote in today’s Herald that Ardern “made the right call.” He said the decision “to move to something like ‘let it rip’ or at least ‘live with it’ will probably cost the lives of a few hundred unvaccinated New Zealanders, plus a handful of others,” but people had to “take responsibility” for themselves and their families.

Like other world leaders, Ardern sought to justify this approach, which puts the interests of big business ahead of workers’ lives, by stating that Omicron is “for most people, a mild to moderate illness.”

Omicron is not mild. Any putative reduction in severity is more than compensated for by the variant’s hugely increased transmissibility.

The death toll and the collapse of health systems in the US, Europe and elsewhere speaks for itself.

In Australia, Omicron killed 376 people in the last 7 days alone, and the numbers are rising rapidly. Hooton pointed out that “in South Australia, the Australian state with rules most similar to ours, 23 people were in ICU yesterday from its population of 1.8 million. Our equivalent would be 65. If the New South Wales experience plays out here, our ICU system will certainly be overwhelmed.”

A secret report from the government’s COVID-19 advisers, leaked to Māori Television this week, shows that hospitals have just 108 intensive care beds currently available and “no ICU capacity” in the West Coast and Hawke’s Bay regions. The report also noted that many widely-used masks are “not sufficient in preventing or reducing infection of Omicron.”

University of Otago epidemiologists have written today that modelling suggests “for an outbreak of the Omicron variant in NZ, taking off in January, the number of cases in hospital might peak at 2,790 in early March 2022.” There could be 400 cumulative deaths by May 1.

Ardern falsely told reporters that “Omicron makes a strategy of elimination nigh-on-impossible.” In fact, China, with 1.4 billion people, is still successfully pursuing a zero COVID policy. The experience of Western Australia also proves that Omicron and Delta can be kept out of the community.

The Labour government, supported by the media and trade unions, insists that there is no alternative to letting Omicron spread. But there is significant unease and opposition to this agenda among working people, including teachers and parents.

A mother of three school age children told the WSWS: “I am deeply concerned about the effects that Omicron will have on educational settings. Teachers will be sitting ducks once the virus hits.”

Another parent, in Auckland, said: “Reopening schools will be very, very risky. Any outbreak will be like wildfire, which will result in very serious consequences beyond the New Zealand health system’s capacity. Society will collapse when a large percentage of people become unwell.”

In the Teachers Advocacy Group (TAG) on Facebook, a WSWS article highlighting outbreaks in Australian childcare centres got dozens of shares and concerned comments. One said it was “just a matter of time” before New Zealand experienced a similar crisis. Another added: “We are playing Omicron Roulette now.”

One teacher commented that five of her family members overseas had caught COVID-19, and “the sheer number of people sick [is] causing huge issues.” She said New Zealand had not yet experienced such a situation and “I don’t know how they think schools and daycares are going to function when large numbers of staff are either sick or awaiting tests all at the same time.”

Susan Bates, a teacher and founder of TAG, told the WSWS “children are super-spreaders” and the pandemic will accelerate once schools restart. She said the government only wanted schools and preschools open “to get parents back at work and the economy rolling,” and if people’s safety was not prioritized, “then we’re just economic pawns, and I for one did not sign up for that.”

Hospitals across the US overflowing with COVID-19 patients

Norisa Diaz

COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States have reached an all-time high with nearly 159,000 Americans currently hospitalized with COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Across the country 21,000 people are being admitted to hospitals each day. Currently more than 26,000 patients are in intensive care units (ICUs) nationwide.

Members of the Maine National Guard are briefed outside Central Maine Medical Center, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022, in Lewiston, Maine. Gov. Janet Mills has deployed additional National Guard to several Maine hospital to assist with care of COVID patients.(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

The number of hospitalizations is expected to remain high for weeks to come as they lag behind infections. Currently an average of 760,000 people are being infected with the highly contagious Omicron variant every day.

Hospitals across the US are buckling under the crush of admissions, sending out pleas for help, and in some cases shuttering doors to incoming patients as health systems reach the point of collapse. In addition to record-breaking COVID-19 admissions, systems are further strained with large portions of the health care workforce ill and on leave due to COVID-19 infections among themselves and family members.

California

In Southern California, Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center and Scripps Mercy Hospital, two hospitals near the US-Mexico border, were so overwhelmed this week that they refused to accept any more patients and declared internal disaster status.

Scripps Mercy Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ghazala Sharieff told NBC 7 that the hospital was so crowded, patients were overflowing into hallways and surgery recovery rooms. The Sharp health system noted that more than 1,000 health workers were out due to coronavirus-related reasons.

Nurse Sandra Beltran told the Los Angeles Times Thursday that at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in the Sylmar neighborhood of Los Angeles, patients were at times waiting 20 to 30 hours for a bed after arriving in the emergency room, creating a long domino effect as the systems become compounded with skyrocketing numbers of patients needing care. She also noted that “People are being seen in the hallway… It’s tiring. You’re literally, for 12 hours, going from room to room.”

Demand for emergency care has reached new heights not seen even in last winter’s devastating surge. Last week California was averaging nearly 47,000 visits a day in its emergency rooms while a year ago the figure was 32,000.

Orange County public health officials report that at least 15 child patients are battling COVID-19 at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, the “highest number ever.” Dr. Clayton Chau, director of the Orange County Health Care Agency, told a press conference this week that 14 of the 15 children hospitalized are in the intensive care unit. A third child under five died in December from COVID-19 complications.

Georgia

At Georgia’s largest hospital, workers describe a nightmare of “wall-to-wall stretchers” in the emergency room. Dr. Robert Jansen, chief medical officer at Grady Health System, where capacity is at 110 percent, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “We have no capacity left in the hospital.” The Grady Hospital has been forced to divert ambulances to other hospitals. “That has a huge impact on the rest of the city,” Jansen noted, because “Grady is the trauma center for Atlanta.”

“One of the myths we keep hearing is that it isn’t that serious,” Jansen said. “Perhaps it isn’t for some folks who are lucky. But COVID-19 is having a tremendous impact on underlying disease. For those patients who have other diseases such as heart failure, diabetes, sickle cell anemia or are immunocompromised, if they get infected, they get incredibly sick.”

A handful of top doctors in Atlanta made extraordinary pleas on Thursday to the public, stressing the need for vaccination, boosters and measures to reduce coronavirus infections. Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta physician Dr. Andrea Shane informed the public about the terrible rise in pediatric hospitalizations. “In the past three, four weeks, we’ve seen more than a hundred children with post-COVID complications,” Shane told WSB-TV, stressing, “The way to prevent MIS-C is to prevent COVID-19.”

New England

The situation has become so dire at health systems across the country that in numerous states the National Guard has been called in while states make calls for volunteers to come into hospitals.

Yesterday the Delaware Healthcare Association (DHA) issued a statewide call for volunteer signups to assist in the state’s hospitals. “In times of crisis, Americans have always come forward and pitched in,” Wayne Smith, DHA president & CEO, wrote in a statement. “The hour of need is upon us. Delaware hospitals need your help to meet the great challenge that visits us and must be met. The COVID-19 crisis strains hospital staff and resources. WE NEED YOUR HELP!”

In Maine, 169 Army National Guard members began arriving at hospitals Thursday to assist with non-clinical roles such as patient transport and cleaning.

The short staffing pertains not just to nurses who are in short supply, but entire hospital systems are breaking down as lab workers, janitorial staff and cafeteria staff go out sick. The procurement of lab results or clean linens are difficult and further delay care as patients begin to fill hallways. Patients are sometimes waiting days to be admitted and get a bed.

The situation at health systems has reached such a breaking point that numerous hospitals are making plans to convert pediatric ICUs at children’s hospitals into adult ICUs within the coming months. Tufts Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts announced yesterday that it will close down its children’s services and convert 41 pediatric beds to adult medical/surgical and ICU beds in response to “changing patient needs.”

Texas

Meanwhile, smaller cities and rural areas are crying for help as their hospitals cannot provide higher-level care which is needed for severe COVID-19 infections. In Laredo, Texas, the city’s health authority, Dr. Victor Trevino, said that his biggest concern was how the Omicron variant infects greater numbers of children under 18 and that the city still lacks a pediatric ICU. Trevino noted that a six-week-old baby tested positive for a COVID-19 infection and was being treated at an emergency room.

“We will not be able to handle another week of this without additional staff,” he told the Laredo Morning Times.

As hospitals are strained, patients in need of critical care are having to wait for long hours and even days for critical care.

Tony Tsantinis, 68, died at Harrington Hospital in Southbridge, Massachusetts, last month from COVID-19 after his kidneys started to fail and the hospital was unable to provide dialysis. What was needed was a bed that could provide a higher level of care. Seventeen other hospitals were called to see if they could treat Tsantinis, but they were all full and he could not obtain access to a bed and soon died.

His daughter Rona Tsantinis-Roy told NPR that when a doctor delivered the tragic news that her father was dead, he “literally looked me in the eyes and said this didn’t have to happen.” Her father may very well have survived if he had been able to be transferred to another hospital.

Two years after the initial discovery of COVID-19 and a year after the distribution of vaccines began, hospitals are in the worst condition they have seen. In addition to short staffing due to illness, many nurses and health care workers have resigned after years of suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The Biden administration has not made any great effort to stop the spread of COVID-19, instead adopting the “herd immunity” policies pursued by the Trump administration. Instead of raising the alarm as the globe learned about the new Omicron variant, the ruling class insisted on the “mild” character of the variant, and have doubled down on keeping schools and workplaces open as the virus spreads like wildfire through the population. The mass illness and 2,000 lives lost each day to COVID-19 must be seen as a social crime carried out against the working class.

Reports show worsening conditions for Australian youth

Eric Ludlow

Studies have revealed that a growing number of young people in Australia are experiencing worsening living conditions—a trend underway before the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has been exacerbated by the crisis.

Hundreds of international students lining up to collect food vouchers in Melbourne, June 1, 2020 [Credit: @BeauNewham, Twitter]

Produced by the Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research at the University of Melbourne every year since 2001, the 2021 edition of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey was published in December last year with analyses information from 2019. Gathering data on households, relationships, income, employment, health and education, HILDA is funded by the Australian Department of Social Services.

The authors note in introducing the 170-page document detailing their results: “While this year’s report includes data from the most recent wave of the HILDA Survey currently available, all of the data nonetheless pre-date the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wave 19, the most recent wave, was collected between 30 July 2019 and 9 February 2020. Many of the findings from the HILDA Project presented in this report therefore relate to very different circumstances to those in which we now find ourselves. However, it is wrong to think they are not relevant today.”

One of the lead authors of the report, Professor Roger Wilkins, told the Sydney Morning Herald, “On a range of metrics, it does look like things have worsened for young people and then on top of that, we see this growth in psychological distress in the community which is very much concentrated among younger people, particularly young women aged under 25.”

Increased casualisation of the workforce between 2001 and 2019 was only found among those aged between 15 and 34. HILDA reported an increase of casualisation from 50.6 percent to 55.7 percent among 15–24-year-olds, and a slight rise from 18.4 percent to 18.6 among those aged 25 to 34.

The report also stated that the mean age of new entrants into the workforce rose from 19.4 to 20.3-years-old over the same period, with young people increasingly struggling to find employment. Those with university degrees have seen their median hourly wages fall compared to the overall median wage since 2001.

Psychological distress was also analysed in the survey, which found that mental illness had increased in every section of the population, but was sharpest among those aged 15 to 24. The HILDA authors write: “Those in the 15 to 24 age group consistently had the highest proportion in distress coupled with a rising trend in prevalence, with 21.2% in distress in 2007 compared to 30% in 2019; an increase of almost 9 percentage points, or 41.6%.”

Figure 1: Graph showing the proportion of people in psychological distress, by age group [Source: HILDA report, 2021]

The report also details the prevalence of psychological distress in 2019 according to risk categories labelled low, moderate, high, and very high for different age groups. The survey found younger age groups reported higher levels of psychological distress. For instance, females aged 15 to 24 reported a mean “distress score” of 20.3 compared to a score of 16.4 among females aged 55 to 64. Similarly, 15–24-year-old males scored 17.6 in distress compared with 15.9 for 55–64-year-old males.

Figure 2: The proportion of people in psychological distress risk categories, by age group [Source: HILDA report, 2021]

The report also notes a greater level of distress among the most oppressed and vulnerable sections of the working class. Unsurprisingly, the survey found that higher levels of psychological distress were found among the unemployed, and those with lower income and education qualifications. Heightened levels of psychological distress were identified among indigenous Australians and migrants from non-English speaking countries.

Another study, Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY), published in August 2021, used statistics from up to 2020 to analyse the effect that the initial stages of the pandemic had on those aged 20.

The LSAY reported that 19 percent of 20-year-olds were working full time in 2020, compared to 43 percent working part time. Nine percent of 20-year-olds were employed but working zero hours. These young people predominantly work in industries—hospitality, retail, sports and recreation—severely affected by the limited, but necessary public health measures to prevent the spread of Sars-Cov-2 that have since been dumped by the state and federal governments Labor and Liberal alike.

Compared to 2014, 20-year-olds in permanent employment dropped from 43 percent to 39 percent, while there was a rise from 18 percent to 22 percent forced to work more than one job to pay for the rising cost of living. There was a large jump from 2014 to 2020 of 20-year-olds who would prefer to work more hours, up from 32 percent to 42 percent.

The survey also found that, compared to working hours before COVID, 31 percent of Australian youth were working fewer hours than usual.

Also highlighted in the report was a shocking rise in serious mental health problems among young people, up from 7 percent of 20-year-olds in 2014 to 23 percent in 2020.

Included in the LSAY results are quotes from participants about their future goals and prospects. One interviewee wrote: “I hope to make the biggest change in my mental health. I have always struggled with it, but particularly through COVID-19 it has declined considerably and I have given up or stopped most of my hobbies.”

Another said: “I hope to be financially independent again… this is after having to use almost all of my savings and borrowing money from family, in order to survive after being stood down in March [2020] due to COVID-19.”

These are common sentiments and experiences among many youth in Australia and internationally. Falling or stagnating wages, diminishing job prospects, rising living and education costs, and increased psychological strain are having a profound impact on young people.

Interviewed by the Age in an October, 2021 article titled “Generation COVID-19: Are the kids going to be all right?” Darcy Williams, a 20-year-old sports science student said “Unless you want to work at a fast-food chain or a supermarket, no one’s [been] working.”

Grattan Institute director Danielle Wood told the Age: “Whenever there’s an economic downturn, employers will often try and manage by cutting the staff that were last [hired] or not hiring, [or] not taking on new staff, which are more likely to be young people, so we know there’s always the widening of the gap in unemployment between young people and between older workers during downturns.”

“During COVID, that really supercharged because of the nature of the downturn. Because it has really hit employment in people-facing sectors like hospitality, like the arts and recreation and retail… this has been a recession that’s really bitten for the young,” she added.

Julia Coscolluela, a 21-year-old youth worker from Melbourne’s western suburbs, highlighted that the pandemic has exacerbated the concerns and problems confronting youth in her interview with the Age. “It hasn’t changed the fact that global warming is still happening… and our futures are still really insecure,” she said. “On top of having to navigate living in a pandemic and post-pandemic, we’ve also got all those other worries.”

“Honestly, I’ve resorted to not planning too far ahead. I haven’t even really thought about 2022, if I’m being honest,” Julia added.

Amid record COVID-19 case numbers and deaths in Australia, spurred on by the Omicron variant and the conscious, murderous policies of governments and big business to “let it rip,” the situation confronting youth continues to worsen.

Turkish doctors strike as government policies spread Omicron variant

Ulaş Ateşçi

Turkey’s Physicians and Other Healthcare Professionals, Public Health and Social Services Union (Hekimsen) is holding a one-day strike today, as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government—following its American and European allies—abandons even the pretense that it is trying to contain the pandemic.

Striking Turkish health care workers, December 16, 2021 (Twitter/@CICOMOCANCA)

As teachers and students in the US, Canada, France, Italy, Greece and Austria have begun to take action against the unsafe reopening of schools, strikes and social opposition to deadly pandemic policies are mounting in Turkey too. This strike follows a broader work stoppage of health care workers in mid-December. It takes place as Çimsataş metal workers, Divriği iron mine workers and most recently Farplas automotive part workers in Gebze went on wildcat strikes over wage disputes.

Doctors and other health workers at the forefront of the fight against the COVID-19 have been hit hard by the government’s “herd immunity” policy, while also suffering a collapse in living standards during the pandemic.

According to a Hekimsen statement, total salary including benefits for most dentists is only 6,500 Turkish lira ($485), general practitioners 7,000 TL, and specialist physicians 9,500 TL. Doctors are demanding a decent salary and benefits as the poverty line surpassed 13,000 TL ($970) in December 2021. Their other demands include abolishing 36-hour nonstop watches, time off after watches, and taking measures against violence in health facilities.

Doctors who are members of Hekimsen are striking in “all health institutions except Emergency Service and Polyclinics; Covid, Delivery Room, Oncology, Hematology Polyclinics; and all inpatient services.” Hekimsen warned that if their demands are not met, they might stop working again in February.

The Turkish Medical Association (TTB), the main physicians’ organization not participating in today’s work stoppage, together with various health care workers’ organizations, issued an action program yesterday as none of its demands of the 16 December strike were met. They will go on one-day national strike on February 8 with demands similar to those of Hekimsen. In following weeks, they will organize “Great Health Rallies” in Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir and Diyarbakir.

Opposition and determination to struggle among health care workers and other sections of the working class is growing as the pandemic explodes due to the uncontrolled spread of the Omicron variant in Turkey and internationally.

The number of daily cases is over 70,000 in Turkey, where only around 400,000 COVID-19 tests are performed, which is not enough to find all the cases. According to the latest official incidence data for January 1-7, the number of cases per 100,000 people in Istanbul increased from 663.69 to 1222.37 in a week.

After January 12, which broke a daily record with 77,000 cases, the Health Ministry largely ended PCR testing for unvaccinated people. Rapid antigen screening tests are not used in Turkey. According to new regulations, PCR testing will still be carried out only for “employees of rest homes, nursing homes, and prisons and detention houses as well as detainees and convicts in prisons who are unvaccinated or have not had the disease in the last 180 days, and people who will travel abroad.”

Moreover, PCR testing will reportedly continue for “unvaccinated people who will travel intercity by plane or who have not completed the vaccination process and have not had the disease in the last 180 days.” TTB denounced these decisions, stating, “The SARS-CoV-2 virus does not have the feature of being transmitted on planes but not on trains or buses. We once again call on those who condemn the society to disease to resign.”

At the same time, the quarantine obligations were removed for people who have taken the booster doses or who have had COVID-19 in the last three months. At the beginning of January, the Erdoğan government had reduced the isolation period of infected people to 7 days, following its US and European allies. Those who test negative on the fifth day can end the isolation.

Professor Dr. Mehmet Ceyhan from Hacettepe University in Ankara summarized the capitalist impulse behind these criminal decisions as follows: “The reason for reducing the isolation period to 7 days is not that the risk of contamination disappears at the end of this period, but to take the risk of contamination and make things work.”

Ceyhan added, “While the number of Omicron cases is increasing rapidly in all countries, it is 60,000-70,000 per day in Turkey... This [not testing] is not a decision that should be discussed scientifically. This literally means ‘Let Omicron spread, so many people die every day’... If we perform [widespread] tests, the [daily case] number will definitely rise to over 200,000.”

Speaking after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday evening, President Erdoğan emphasized that they will continue their policy of completely eliminating measures against the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. He said, “The spread of the pandemic has not caused a significant problem, interruption on the employment and production side so far,” adding, “We have not and will not allow any disruptions or unnecessary restrictions that will cause our people to suffer in any field, especially in education.”

Public health restrictions that Erdoğan calls “unnecessary” have saved millions of lives since the pandemic began. In China with a population of 1.4 billion, which is still implementing a scientific Zero COVID policy, total deaths have been kept below 5,000 and the total number of cases so far has reached only 105,000 despite widespread screenings involving millions of people.

Erdoğan also repeated the false, baseless claim of the international ruling elite and the media that the Omicron variant will end the pandemic, declaring, “We hope this latest wave will remove the coronavirus from being a threat and reduce it to the level of routine epidemics.”

On January 15, the TTB openly stated that “the government has not cared about public health during the entire pandemic, does not act in accordance with scientific data, and a herd immunity policy has been adopted with the latest decisions.” It also warned: “There will be more serious disruptions in health care services in the coming weeks, and the Omicron variant will be more severe. It is necessary to remove from society the misconception that it is mild.”

Speaking to the daily Sözcü on Monday, Istanbul Medical Chamber Chair Pınar Saip warned, “There is no longer a policy to deal with the pandemic in Turkey. Unfortunately, cases are increasing. This increase is reflected in both hospitals and intensive care units. Intensive care units reached an 80 percent occupancy rate.”

Saip added, “New intensive care beds are constantly being opened, but there is no point in opening an intensive care bed if there is no nurse or no doctor to work there. Now, intensive care units are operated with general practitioners, not with specialists,” due to staff shortages.

In the interests of the ruling class, the Turkish government is determined to return workers to work whatever the consequences, to ensure that production and supply chains are not disrupted and to boost private profits and stock values. This criminal policy has officially led to 85,000 deaths and more than 10 million infections in Turkey. According to calculations by Güçlü Yaman of the TTB Pandemic Working Group, however, excess deaths during the pandemic reached 242,000 as of January 11.

As the first term in schools ends this week, the government is demanding to reopen unsafe schools to in-person education in February. Yesterday, Education Minister Mahmut Özer said, “We will continue with in-person education in the second term, as in the first term, with determination.”

This policy of mass infection and death is implemented with support from all the establishment parties and unions. The masses of workers and youth need to mobilize and join the emerging international movement, demanding that the necessary public health measures be taken to end the pandemic and save lives, based on a scientific Zero COVID strategy.

West Bengal adopts mass infection policy amid India’s COVID-19 surge

Akash Dev

The social disaster unleashed on India by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reckless policies amid the latest surge of the COVID-19 pandemic implicates the entire political establishment. The opposition Congress, until recently the Indian bourgeoisie’s preferred party of rule, the two Stalinist parliamentary parties—the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM and Communist Party of India (CPI)—and various regionalist parties are no alternative to Modi. They all implement the same policies as Modi’s central government in the states where they are in power.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (Photo | PTI)

In the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is carrying out “herd immunity” policies on the pandemic, just like Modi’s Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP). As a result, COVID-19 is surging across West Bengal. On January 9, it reported 24,287 new cases, the highest since the pandemic began. During the devastating second wave last year, the highest number of cases officially recorded was 20,846 on May 14.

Active cases in the state now number over 158,000. The state capital, Kolkata, has over 30,000 active cases, breaking the previous record. The total number of confirmed deaths in the state has exceeded 20,000 now with over 1.9 million total cases. On January 19, the state recorded 11,447 new cases, over 1,000 more than the previous day, reporting a seven-day average of 15,911.

All these numbers are official figures. It is known that both central and state governments deliberately and massively undercount the real number of deaths so they can keep arguing to keep all businesses and industries to continue to function and make profits despite the pandemic.

Health care workers, who have been forced to work without adequate protection from the virus, are among the most vulnerable sections of society. According to the West Bengal health officials, more than 1,000 health care workers, including doctors and nurses, were tested positive in Kolkata city alone.

On January 8, a doctor was found infected while on duty in the emergency department of Bishwanathpur hospital in Deganga, North 24 Pargana district. When confronted by an angry patient and his relative, he revealed to their shock and surprise that most doctors in the hospital were infected with COVID-19.

On January 8, Ekalabya Chakraborty, a public relations official for the India railways, told the media that in the Howrah, Sealdha, Asansol, and Malda divisions of West Bengal, more than 1,000 workers were found to be COVID-positive, including local and express train drivers, ticket collectors, guards and higher officials.

On vaccinations against coronavirus, West Bengal still lags far behind. Little more than 80 percent of the people have had their first jab, and just over 60 percent received two. This means about 40 percent of the state’s population is totally unprotected. Moreover, against the more contagious and vaccine-resistant Omicron variant, even two doses are inadequate.

The increasingly dangerous pandemic situation in this state is replicated by the very rapid surge unfolding across India as a whole. Medical experts are warning that a third wave in the country is expected to arrive at the end of this month with 400,000 to 800,000 infections each day.

On January 3, after the Christmas and New Year festivals, the TMC government announced a partial lockdown and night curfew. Schools and colleges were closed for a fortnight, the last local train departure was announced for 7:00 p.m., later revised to 10:00 p.m. There were certain restrictions on domestic flights from Delhi and Mumbai for two days per week, the latter was revised to three days. These very limited actions will not control COVID-19, particularly the Omicron variant.

Amid the COVID-19 surge in West Bengal and throughout India, the TMC government authorized the Gangasagar Mela (a Hindu religious festival) on January 14 and the International Kolkata Book Fair on January 31, which has now been postponed to February 28. These events would bring hundreds of thousands people together to be exposed to the deadly virus, leading to further surge of the virus. An estimated 2.4 million people will participate in these events.

Another event that would bring together millions of people is the polls announced for 111 civic bodies in two phases, on February 12 and February 27.

Dr. Hiralal Konar, one of the convenors of the Joint Platform of the Doctors in West Bengal, told the media: “We appeal to the government to stop the Gangasagar Mela and Municipality vote as they are superspreader events.”

Regarding Gangasagar Mela, the Kolkata high court initially raised concerns about permitting the fair amid a rapid spread of COVID-19 cases. But the court changed its position in a January 7 ruling. It finally gave a green light to the religious festival with some conditions, chiefly to set up a three-member committee to monitor the situation. However, this committee does not include a single member of the health department.

The judiciary’s ruling is in fact in line with the entire Indian ruling elite’s handling pf the COVID-19 crisis. All are in favor of allowing and implementing the criminal and disastrous “herd immunity” policy of allowing the virus to spread, prioritizing profit over human lives.

In a revelation of backwardness and idiocy, the West Bengal advocate general told the Kolkata high court that coronavirus does not spread in salty water. Ridiculing this stupid assertion, Koushik Chaki, the founder of the West Bengal doctor forum, said: “If so, then all should be taken to sit in Digha, Mondarmani (seashore area). France is situated beside the sea; why then is COVID spreading there?”

The opposition parties in West Bengal have criticized the ruling TMC’s decision to allow the festivals and polls to go ahead only for opportunist political gains. They were holding mass election rallies in five poll-bound states, including the most populous Uttar Pradesh until the Election Commission banned them from the beginning of the year.

Last year in the north Indian state of Uttarkhand, the biggest Hindu religious festival, Haridwar Kumbh Mela, was held in April, with the participation of 12 million people from across the country. This turned out to be the main superspreader for India’s disastrous second wave. The festival was allowed to proceed partly as part of BJP’s Hindu communal politics and chiefly to pursue a “herd immunity” policy that cost millions of lives.

Similarly, the TMC government’s granting of permission for Gangasagar Mela also aims to appeal to Hindu sentiment and pursue a “herd immunity” policy.

Dr. Kunal Sarkar, a renowned heart specialist in Kolkata, criticized the TMC government’s handling of the pandemic, telling the Bengali daily Anandbazar Patrika: “We are looking for the vote bank, not the life bank, looking for votes, not for voters. Now lives have become percentages, we are treated as if we don’t have value.” He continued, “We will suffer if the government is not sensitive, the wave would come. … [t]here is the possibility of one hundred thousand infections becoming a million.”

As Omicron rages through US workplaces, 8.8 million workers were off sick in early January

Shannon Jones

According to US Census Bureau data, 8.8 million American workers were off work, sick or taking care of ill family members in early January, the highest number since the start of the pandemic. The rise in sickness takes place under conditions in which infection and death are surging due to the highly contagious Omicron variant and virtually all mitigation measures, besides vaccination, have been removed.

A healthcare worker waves his hand as he calls up the next person in line at a COVID-19 testing site operated by CORE in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The almost 9 million workers off sick amount to 6 percent of the US workforce. Another 3.2 million workers reported they were not working due to fear of contracting or spreading COVID-19, an increase of 25 percent from early December. The numbers represent a threefold increase since the arrival of Omicron.

The brutal decision by the US government and governments in Western Europe and internationally to allow the virus to spread, while abandoning most efforts to contain the disease, is having a devastating impact on broad masses of people, far beyond the daily toll of deaths and hospitalization. In the United States, which has a far more primitive level of social benefits than most European nations, the impact has been particularly dire.

COVID deaths across the US continue to rise. A researcher at Pennsylvania State University, who co-leads a team that looks at pandemic models, predicts 1.5 million Americans will be hospitalized and between 191,000 and 305,000 will die in the period between mid-December and mid-March.

The policy of allowing the virus to spread unchecked through workplaces, schools and communities is not only spreading death, but producing an economic catastrophe for millions of working-class families, who in many cases do not have paid sick days or access to health insurance coverage. Those not reporting to work due to sickness only represent a portion of those infected, as the lack of sick pay and highly restrictive sick leave policies are forcing unknown millions of infected workers to stay on the job. The mass sickness has left many businesses short-staffed, forcing those remaining to work ever longer hours, like the 12-hour days that are routine in the auto factories and oil refineries, in the midst of a deadly pandemic.

A recent decision by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reduced the mandatory quarantine time for exposed or infected individuals from 10 to five days. After the CDC decision several large employers, including Walmart and Amazon, reduced the number of guaranteed paid sick days available to their employees.

Congress mandated expanded sick leave at the start of the pandemic, but that expired December 31, 2020. The paid family and medical leave requirement in the Biden administration’s Build Back Better social spending bill appears dead in the water.

A survey conducted by Harvard University’s Shift Project last fall found that 65 percent of respondents reported they went to work despite being sick. That is a smaller figure than the 85 percent who said they went to work sick prior to the pandemic.

According to the US Census Bureau, 85 percent of civilian workers had at least one paid sick day available in March 2021. However, the availability of sick pay varies widely, with the lowest-paid workers having the least access. Among the bottom 10 percent of wage earners, only 47 percent get paid sick time. Further, many companies require workers to use paid leave days to cover time off for sickness, reducing the total vacation time they have available.

Low-paid workers are often in those occupations involving direct contact with the public, such as hotel and restaurant workers, increasing their danger of exposure and transmitting the disease.

Even if workers have paid sick time, they often face a Byzantine nightmare trying to collect. The Detroit automakers will only pay workers who quarantine after exhibiting symptoms or being exposed to an employee with COVID-19 unless they test positive for the disease. Even then it may take weeks to get paid. This further encourages workers to ignore symptoms and report to the jobs sick, leading to more infections, hospitalizations and death.

A Ford autoworker from Ohio said if a worker has symptoms or is exposed, “You go get a COVID test; you only get paid if it turns out to be positive. Pay has been received within a couple weeks. The problem is, say I have COVID, Ford hasn’t been doing a good job contact tracing. They used to do a comprehensive job, but not anymore.”

A US Postal Service worker in St. Paul, Minnesota, told the World Socialist Web Site that more than 100 out of 500 workers at his facility are currently out sick or self-isolating due to COVID-19.

“The COVID paid leave policy ended around September 2021, anyone who tests positive has to use their own annual/sick leave or leave without pay. They say they are doing contact tracing but I find that hard to believe.

“It’s only compounding an already dangerous situation; some people are choosing to come to work despite being sick because they have no annual/sick leave. Then add the fact that management isn’t enforcing the mask policy. It’s no surprise so many people are out at our facility. The union office is conveniently located inside our facility. These union stewards are fully aware of the situation unfolding. Yet all I’m hearing are crickets from that office, their indifference towards what’s happening is on full display.”

A college instructor from Pennsylvania remarked, “With COVID, even though I could teach on Zoom from home, I’m being forced to use up all my sick time and cancel classes, thus denying students the education they paid for, and using up a sick day. They’re draining your sick days, which is a reduction in their liabilities.

“They’re screwing those who don’t have any sick days and turning upside down and emptying the pockets of those who do.”

The increase in sickness has led to a rising number of new unemployment claims, which rose to 286,000 last week, up 55,000 from the week prior. That was the highest weekly number of new claims since October. The sharp rise is despite the Biden administration’s efforts to force workers back to work by allowing virtually all pandemic-related financial support, including expanded unemployment benefits, eviction bans and the child tax credit, to expire. Asked if there would be any further relief for workers impacted by COVID-19, an unnamed senior Biden administration official earlier this month told CNN, “[W]e are not going to write checks to incentivize people to sit at home…”

Economists expressed concern that the spread of sickness was deepening the labor shortage, that is, further shrinking the number of workers able and willing to risk their health during a pandemic for poverty level wages. A record 4.5 million workers quit their jobs in November. Diane Swonk, economist at accounting firm Grant Thornton, cited by the Washington Post, said, “Unfortunately, the biggest issue about Omicron is it’s no longer just fear of contagion and aversion to in-person activity, but it’s actually causing acute labor shortages from the sheer number of people who are out sick.”

Delta Airlines reported that 8,000 employees had contracted COVID-19 over the last four weeks, 10 percent of its workforce. Cases are surging in auto plants, although the true number of infections is not known since the auto companies with the support of the United Auto Workers cover up infections and deaths. Hundreds are out sick at Warren Truck and Sterling Heights Assembly, major Detroit area Stellantis plants.

Faced with a severe shortage of staff, health care providers are resorting to desperate measures that will only ensure the more rapid spread of the disease The state of California is requiring health care workers who test positive for COVID, but are asymptomatic, to report to work without any quarantine or repeat COVID-19 testing. At MultiCare Health Systems in Washington state, a hospital clinic and urgent care network, COVID-infected health care workers have been told to resume work even if they are symptomatic.

The brutal prioritization of profits over lives by the Biden administration, backed by the entire political establishment, is an indictment of the capitalist system. Their “herd immunity” policy is dictated, not by medical science and epidemiology, but the needs of Wall Street.

Johnson ends mask-wearing in UK schools

Margot Miller

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced in Parliament Monday that the wearing of masks in secondary schools would be ended with immediate effect from today.

He did so to cheers from Conservative MPs, as he announced that all remaining mitigations against COVID under the current Plan B are to be terminated on January 26.

Johnson declared, “From tomorrow, we will no longer require face masks in classrooms and the Department for Education will shortly remove national guidance on their use in communal areas.”

The removal of the sole remaining mitigation measure in schools guarantees the further spread of COVID among pupils, educators and the wider community. It is proof positive that the Conservative government is pursuing a herd immunity programme.

A socially distanced assembly, with schoolchildren wearing masks, takes place at a school in Manchester, England, Monday March 8, 2021. (Jon Super/PA via AP)

With the massive spread of Omicron, when schools returned in January the government was forced to advise that masks be worn in classrooms and teaching spaces for pupils and students in Year 7 (aged 11 or above). While limited, this did hinder the spread of COVID in secondary schools. One only has to compare the terrible spread of COVID, illness and hospitalisations among primary school children, who were not mandated to wear masks, during the same period.

The announcement came the day after Britain recorded 438 COVID deaths, the highest since February. Tragically, another boy was announced dead from COVID on January 14, taking to 135 the total number of children who have died from COVID in Britain since the beginning of the pandemic.

The return to school from January 4 has produced an avalanche of infections among educators and children alike. A poll by Teacher Tapp for the Sutton Trust charity, reported by Schools Week, found that in the week to January 14 one in five state schools had COVID related absences in staff of 10 percent. Three in 10 of the most deprived schools reported the same. Private schools with smaller class sizes had one in eight.

Department for Education (DfE) data showed staff absences rose to 60,000, most having tested positive. High absenteeism was compounded by delays in delivering testing kit to schools. A Teacher Tapp survey found that only a third of schools received tests on time, and 17 percent still had not received any by January 14. Government guidance advises twice weekly testing at home, or daily for seven days if living with someone who is positive in order to attend school.

DfE figures show that pupil absences had already reached an estimated 315,000 or 3.9 percent on January 6.

Rising hospitalisations and deaths grew fastest among the 0-9 age group. COVID cases in England for January 18 in the 0-4 age group rose from the previous day to a total 306,476, and there was a rise to 771,367 total cases among the 5-9s. On the same day, cases among children aged 0-19 rose to 34,439 (40.5 percent of the 84,987 total new cases in England).

For the same day, as 118 children were admitted overnight, total child COVID hospitalisations rose to 15,805.

Figures released by Long Covid Kids revealed a total 1,574 child hospital admissions just in the period January 1-13. With over 3 million children infected with COVID, the incidence of Long COVID among them is staggering. One in 380 of all UK children have been symptomatic for a year, 20,000 in total, while one in 470 in the 2-11 age range have symptoms for three months.

This horrific picture of death, disease and misery begs the question: how are the ruling elite getting away with it? The government is despised and wracked by crisis. But what are the trade unions doing?

The National Education Union (NEU) has 460,000 members, the NASUWT has 313,000. Together with the National Association of Headteachers, the ASCL, GMB and Unison, these organisations have a million and a half members. Around 80 percent of UK education workers are unionised. Teachers are 97 percent unionised, with education the highest unionised sector in the UK and the European continent, if not the world!

The unions have prevented the mobilisation of this potential army of opposition. Alongside parents, educators could have enforced the necessary well-resourced remote learning, helping to halt the spread of the virus and prevent the collapse of the National Health Service. But the unions have instead insisted that “schools are the safest place for children to be” and that “schools must stay open” no matter the consequences.

In June 2020, when the government first tried to reopen schools as part of ending the UK’s first lockdown, the unions merely called for a two-week delay. By the start of the new term in September, the NEU had ditched its own five criteria for the safe reopening of schools—the R rate being below 1, test, track and trace being in operation, social distancing in place and the protection of vulnerable staff, allowing schools to reopen.

On January 3, 2021, a record 400,000 NEU members attended an online Zoom meeting demanding the closure of schools as the pandemic was out of control. The NEU and other unions lent support to individual members who boycotted schools under Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, but this was only to cover their refusal to organise the walkouts teachers were calling for. When the government tried to reopen primary schools on January 4, teachers stayed away in their thousands. Faced with a movement that would galvanise wider opposition in the working class, the government introduced what Johnson said would be the last lockdown.

On January 28, 2021, the NEU launched its Education Recovery Plan, predicated on the notion that schools could open safely before the virus was suppressed with a few mitigation measures like CO2 monitors and HEPA filters. By March, the union was instructing its members to desist from using Section 44 without its permission, when rank and file members were demanding a strike ballot.

Last November, after the NEU had collaborated with the government to ensure schools were back open for the autumn term, the union’s joint general secretary Kevin Courtney was actively crusading against “education disruption” and for keeping schools open.

As the spring term began in 2022, the education unions issued a joint statement endorsing the reopening of schools, despite Omicron running rife. The NEU marked the first anniversary of the January 3 mass meeting with a union reps only meeting and a statement that did not even mention child hospitalisations or deaths.

The complicity of the unions was applauded by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn responded to an NEU post on social media with the statement, “I fully support the NEU union call for urgent action to reduce Covid disruption, including through funding for improving ventilation.”

Nothing that the cabal of murderers in Downing Street do will elicit any fight from the union bureaucracy. In response to Johnson’s announcement on masks, the NEU only complained that this could result in further “education disruption”. Mary Bousted, NEU joint general secretary, said meekly, 'Schools and colleges are still feeling the impact of Covid-19”, before advising, “The danger is we lift restrictions too quickly before the effects of returning to school are clear. This will result in more education disruption which is extremely worrying…”

There was no call to close schools. Instead, there was an appeal that the “Government should be exercising a duty of care to the nation’s pupils and the staff who educate them.” All that was required was that the Tories get the necessary “ventilation and filtration solutions in place… now to ensure interruption of education remains at the minimum.”

The Labour Party is once again fully behind the government. Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced in last week’s Mail on Sunday, “For the sake of our children we can never shut our country again… Learning to live well with Covid will prepare us to get through the next wave of infections without more restrictions on our lives, livelihoods and liberties.”