Survey of epidemiologists exposes lies that children do not spread COVID-19

Evan Blake

In an article published Saturday by the New York Times, a survey of 723 epidemiologists made clear the central role that children play in spreading COVID-19. The findings contradict claims made throughout the pandemic by the entire political establishment of supposedly minimal dangers posed to children and society as a whole by the policy of reopening schools.

The report also exposes the reckless and anti-scientific decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), under the direction of the Biden administration, to end guidelines that call for all individuals to wear masks indoors and socially distance. A central aim of this change is to facilitate the reopening of schools for in-person learning before it is safe.

The Times article, titled “723 Epidemiologists on When and How the U.S. Can Fully Return to Normal,” begins, “Covid-19 cases are decreasing in the United States, and masks are no longer required everywhere, but the pandemic is not over—and won’t be until younger children can also be vaccinated.”

In this Dec. 7, 2020, file photo, students enter P.S. 134 Henrietta Szold Elementary School in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

The Times writes, “Half of respondents said at least 80 percent of Americans, including children, would need to be vaccinated before it would be safe to do most activities without precautions. Though children are less likely than adults to develop severe cases of Covid-19, the scientists said their immunity was important because they could be hosts for the virus and a way for it to continue to circulate or develop new variants.”

Corinne McDaniels-Davidson, the director of the San Diego State University Institute for Public Health, told the Times, “Children cannot be left out of the equation as we reopen.” She added, “The ideas that they cannot transmit Covid or are immune from disease are pervasive among the lay public. We need education here.”

The lie that children do not readily transmit the coronavirus—disproved by multiple studies at the very beginning of the pandemic—was promoted by the Trump administration and continued under Biden. Upon his election, Biden pledged to resume in-person learning at all schools where children were still learning safely from home, with his top economic advisor Brian Deese bluntly stating that this was “so that parents … can get back to work.”

In February, Biden lied directly to a second-grade student at a CNN town hall event, stating, “Kids don’t get … COVID very often. It’s unusual for that to happen.” On April 30, he reiterated this lie in an NBC News interview, saying, “There’s not overwhelming evidence that there’s much of a transmission among these people, young people,” concluding that schools “should probably all be open.”

The Times’ survey demonstrates that the single most destructive decision that could be made in February and March was to open the schools and allow the virus to spread, which is exactly what was done. This has been a major reason that daily new cases and deaths have declined so slowly in the US. Over 30,000 people continue to become infected each day despite the fact that nearly 37 percent of the population is now fully vaccinated. Roughly 1.5 million people have been infected and 20,853 have died from COVID-19 in the past month alone. Since Biden’s inauguration, more than 175,000 people have succumbed to the virus, with the seven-day average now standing at 613 deaths each day.

The drive to reopen schools has never been based on science, but rather aimed at compelling parents to return to work in order to expand corporate profits and the stock market, which has risen astronomically during the pandemic.

A critical aspect of the Times survey of epidemiologists is their consensus on the scientific need to maintain mask-wearing and other measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The article notes, “In particular, they say that masks are a norm that should continue, even if that view puts them at odds with the new CDC guidance. More than 80 percent of them say people should continue to wear masks when indoors with strangers for at least another year, and outdoors in crowds.”

In direct opposition to these experts, last Thursday the CDC encouraged vaccinated people to stop wearing masks indoors, absurdly using the “honor system” under conditions where millions of Americans deny that the virus is even real. Numerous major retailers and large businesses—including Walmart, Costco, Publix, Trader Joe’s and Starbucks—have immediately dropped their mask mandates.

On Sunday, CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta said the CDC “made a critical error here in surprising basically everyone with a very significant change.” Gupta told CNN that when he spoke to leading CDC officials earlier last week, they had told him that indoor masking would likely be one of the last mitigation measures lifted, because “it is so effective and it’s not that hard to do in most situations—just to put a mask on.”

While the CDC claim that their decision is based on “science,” one of the studies they cite from Israel found that 14 percent of individuals who were fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine had asymptomatic infections. Following the new guidelines, millions of vaccinated people could continue to unknowingly spread COVID-19.

The unexpected shift in CDC guidelines was driven by political calculations and profit interests. Underscoring the calculated character of the decision is the fact that it was announced hours after American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten gave a speech in which she declared, “There is no doubt: Schools must be open. In person. Five days a week.”

Over the past year, Weingarten and the AFT, as well as the National Education Association (NEA) and their state and local affiliates, have been the linchpin of the school reopening campaign. In February, Weingarten told the Times that she spends upwards of 15 hours each day on the phone with the White House, the CDC and local union officials, orchestrating the reopening of every major Democrat-led school district that had remained closed under Trump.

As a member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Weingarten is a political operative who personifies the corporatist character of all the trade unions, which over the past 40 years have been integrated with the state and serve the interests of the capitalist class. Weingarten has a base salary of roughly $500,000, which places her in the top one percent of income earners in the US.

Weingarten and the unions’ hostility to rank-and-file educators, whom they have allowed to become infected en masse over the past year, has been extended to tens of millions of children increasingly herded back into unsafe classrooms. The CDC itself has estimated that nearly 26.7 million children under 18 have been infected with COVID-19. A recent study found that roughly 10–15 percent of all infected children develop “long COVID,” meaning that up to 4 million children may already be suffering from long-term complications, the majority undoubtedly infected in reopened schools.

The pandemic is a global medical and social crisis, in which developments in any country affect all other countries. New infections are now at their high point globally, fueled by more infectious and lethal variants that can become resistant to existing vaccines. In Brazil, where the P.1 variant has decimated the country and surrounding region, one study estimates that more than 2,200 children under five have died from COVID-19.

The premature reopening of all schools and nonessential workplaces under these conditions, which can only lead to a major surge of new infections and deaths, is a monumental social crime that must be prevented. Alarm bells must be raised in every school, workplace and neighborhood, with every effort made to scientifically educate workers in order to counter the bourgeois propaganda that saturates all aspects of society.

UK: Calls for “gendered perspective” on COVID-19 conceal class issues

Julie Hyland

“While more men have died from the [COVID-19] virus, women have suffered more due to the impact of policies introduced to prevent disease transmission.” (emphasis added).

It is difficult to conceive of a more inane, contemptible statement, which would draw a storm of protest were the outcomes reversed. But such is the conclusion of a study by researchers from the London School of Economics (LSE), promoted by the Guardian newspaper.

Officially, nearly 3.4 million people have died from COVID internationally. This is a vast underestimation due to under-reporting. The Economist magazine estimates this is at best less than half the total, and at worst one-quarter. Using the total of excess deaths globally, it puts the probable real figure at 10.2 million.

This is unprecedented outside of war, and most of these deaths are the result of willful government inaction.

The Conservative government in Britain, like its counterparts the world over, has pursued a policy of herd immunity encapsulated in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s insistence, last October, “No more f***ing lockdowns, let the bodies pile high in their thousands”. As a result, the UK has among the highest death rate from COVID-19 in Europe.

The suffering of those who have perished, and those they left behind, is immense. According to clinicians cited by Nature on “how does coronavirus kill?”, for those most severely impacted, the virus goes on a “ferocious rampage through the body, from brain to toes.”

“[The disease] can attack almost anything in the body with devastating consequences,” cardiologist Harlan Krumholz of Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital told the magazine. “Its ferocity is breath-taking and humbling.” Not only are the lungs likely to become overwhelmed, so that patients are unable to breathe, but, “Blood vessels leak, blood pressure drops, clots form, and catastrophic organ failure can ensue.”

The scale of deaths is not referenced in the LSE study, produced by Dr Clare Wenham (Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy) and PhD candidate Asha Herten-Crabb, nor in the Guardian's accompanying article.

This is not accidental. From Europe to Asia and the Americas, working people have made the experience that it is their class position—determined by their relationship to ownership and control of the means of production—that is the common feature of the homicidal indifference to their fate taken by the powers-that-be. Nothing antagonises the upper middle-class purveyors of identity politics more than this fundamental truth—hence the efforts by sections of academia and the “liberal” establishment to insist on a racial and/or “gendered perspective” on the pandemic.

According to the Office of National Statistics, in England and Wales there has been an almost 18 percent difference in the total number of coronavirus-related deaths for men. But the LSE study and the Guardian are indifferent to such figures. What they want to focus on is the government’s failure “to consider gender” in its response to the pandemic.

To this end, the LSE researchers combed through minutes and background documents from 73 meetings of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), “to understand whether the gendered implications of [pandemic] policy were considered.”

It found that of the total “only 13 made explicit reference to gender terminology with further analysis showing these mentions all related to biological sex—for example that more men were dying and the risks posed by COVID-19 to pregnant women.”

Having dismissed such risks a priori, the research presents what it claims are the distinct ways in which women have been more affected—through job losses, furlough and/or increased childcare responsibilities.

Worldwide more than 100 million people suffer extreme impoverishment due to the pandemic, and millions more are on the edge. In Britain, more than four million are still furloughed, while applications for Universal Credit (jobless) benefit have risen by 113.2 percent since March 2020. Thousands more are ineligible for any assistance.

Here also, workers are suffering as a class. The figures available show that female redundancies in the UK hit 178,000 between September and November 2020, and 217,000 men over the same period. Between March 2020 and the end of February 2021, 2,337,900 women were furloughed compared with 2,144,700 men.

At any rate, the campaign for a “gendered perspective” on the pandemic is not really concerned with the plight of working class women. Its objective is baldly stated in the LSE study title, “Why we Need a Gender Advisor on SAGE”.

“We find that the acknowledgement of the gendered dynamics of particular issues, such as school closures and feminised (or masculinised) employment sectors, were largely absent in SAGE meeting minutes and that explicit references to women were largely of a biological (sex) nature, rather than social (gender),” they write.

The presence of women in SAGE (approximately 44 percent) “did not lead to greater awareness of gender issues”, they write. “Thus, whilst increasing the participation of women is important for the normative goal of gender parity in public life and leadership, this should not be seen as a synonym for gender advice. Being a woman doesn’t make you an expert in gender, no more than being French would make you an expert in French politics.”

No doubt, a position as gender advisor on SAGE would be a significant career advance for the successful applicant. It would change nothing for working class women—let alone the working class as a whole—who are now being forced into unsafe workplaces and education facilities, while facing cuts in jobs, pay and unsafe conditions.

This is underscored by the study's attack on the government's “narrow epidemiological approach” towards the pandemic, which excluded “broader social considerations, including gender, from SAGE’s ambit.”

Government policy was not driven by “epidemiology” but the profit interests of the financial oligarchy. The study makes just one reference to the policy of “herd immunity”, and not critically. Its main complaint is the “impact of policies introduced to prevent disease transmission” by the government, foremost of which was limiting school places.

It complains, “Most detail of school closures within SAGE minutes focuses narrowly on its epidemiological aspect and the impact this would have on reducing NHS [National Health Service] capacity, or on analysing the risks of severe coronavirus infection amongst children.” No consideration was given to the “effects of school closures on women generally,” who had to pick up much of the resulting childcare responsibilities, it says.

The study, however, gives no consideration to the impact on the health of children, teachers (most of whom are women) and the wider community from keeping schools open. Indeed, in April 2020, just after the government was forced into announcing the first lockdown, Wenham presented a written submission together with Professor Sophie Harman, Queen Mary University of London, to the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee. Arguing that “Gender analysis must be factored into any future decision on extended school closures and openings,” the paper called to “Ensure one of the first industries to re-open as part of the exit strategy is childcare providers to facilitate women being able to return to work…”

This was at the time a major offensive began to insist on the full re-opening of schools as essential to driving parents back into unsafe workplaces. Against opposition from educators and many parents, it was forced through due to the role of the Labour Party and the trade unions, with the likes of the Guardian supplying justification from a “gendered perspective.”

This “perspective” is little more than a feminist twist on the “cure must not be worse than the disease” mantra of the ruling elite. Which is why it has been embraced by the government. The Women and Equalities Committee investigation into “gendered economic inequalities” during the pandemic has been endorsed by the Johnson government, which portrays its efforts to keep schools open as motivated by protecting women's rights.

Sri Lankan government opposes national lockdown despite surging COVID-19 infections

Pani Wijesiriwardena

Coronavirus infections are surging to catastrophic levels in Sri Lanka with the total number of cases now more than 142,000—one third of these reported between May 2 and May 15—and over 962 deaths. Medical experts have noted, however, that the official figures are unreliable because of under counting.

Early this month, the Washington University-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) reported on the horrific global pandemic situation and noted the escalating COVID-19 case numbers in Sri Lanka.

The study predicted that the number of daily infections on the island would climb to 50,495 by June, the daily number of fatalities would be 224 by the end of that month, and the total number of deaths 20,876 by September 1. Its worst-case scenario forecast 30,132 deaths in September.

People queue up to give their swab samples to get tested for COVID-19 in a residential neighborhood in Colombo, Sri Lanka. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

The study warned that Sri Lanka will need 17,045 more beds and called for the state health sector to increase its intensive care unit (ICU) capacity to 3,450.

Successive Sri Lankan governments have refused to properly fund the country’s rundown state-sector health service. Currently there are only 147 ICU beds in hospitals and recently established intermediate facilities. State Minister for Health Sudarshini Fernandopulle told the media last week that “asymptomatic patients” will be “monitored” from home, starting today.

Hospitals are overcrowded and some of those with COVID-19 are dying at home without treatment. Medical authorities have also reported that six deadly variants of the virus have been now been discovered in Sri Lanka.

Despite this worsening situation, President Gotabhaya Rajapakse’s government arrogantly refuses to initiate a national lockdown.

In April, Rajapakse declared that lockdowns were “not suitable” for developing countries and obstructed “economic activities.” The ruling elites everywhere, whether in developed or so-called developing countries, pursue the same policy—profits must take precedence over human lives.

Rajapakse’s National Operation Center for Prevention of COVID-19 (NOPCPC), which is headed by the Army Commander Shavendra Silva, has announced “small areas” will be isolated in order to avoid a national lockdown.

Coronavirus patient sleeping in corridor at Colombo North Hospital (Source: Facebook)

On May 10, Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) officials met with Rajapakse, calling on him to take urgent measures. An SLMA press release said that “locking down smaller areas” was “unlikely to be effective in controlling the spread of infection.” It warned that “COVID deaths may reach unprecedented levels” and the country face a “grave national catastrophe” if no effective action was taken.

The statement declared that “evidence from many countries shows that strict and immediate measures to restrict movement of people is the only measure that quickly and drastically reduces the numbers of cases.” Medical experts have also warned that Sri Lanka’s limited health services and trained medical workers were at “breaking point.”

NOPCPC chief Silva declared that there would only be “travel restrictions.” These were imposed last Thursday night and continued until Monday morning. Starting today, however, these restrictions are only at night and up until May 31, and do not apply to employees, who continue working.

Silva told the apparel industry that it should continue operating while “adhering to strict COVID prevention guidelines.” Silva’s reference to strict guidelines is farcical. Workers are compelled to travel on crowded buses and labour in facilities without any social distancing.

Board of Investment (BOI) Chairman Sanjaya Mohottala said on Friday that company exports would “continue unabated amid the travel restrictions.” He boasted that Sri Lankan exports crossed the $US1 billion mark in March, for the first time since September 2020. He jubilantly predicted that the government would reach its target of $12 billion in export earnings this year.

The cash-strapped Sri Lankan government, which is teetering on the brink of foreign debt default, is determined to prevent any interruption in the operations and profits of the country’s export industries.

Next Garment workers demanding their bonus last December

The human cost of forcing employees to remain at work is indicated in the rapid increase in infections, particularly in garment factories. One recent report revealed that 217 workers out of 1,500 given PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests at five garment factories in the Koggala Free Trade Zone were infected. The infected workers were directed to “quarantine” in their residences because health treatment centres in the area were too congested.

On May 11, 45 workers from Jolanka Manufacturing in southern Baddegama tested positive. The Norwood Fashion Wear and Kotmale VTM factories in the central hills district were also closed down after workers were discovered with the virus.

Anger erupted among Next Manufacturing’s 2,000-strong workforce in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone after management refused to shut the factory when dozens of workers were found to be infected.

Company officials reacted to workers’ concerns by declaring that the factory should not be closed when other companies were still operating. On May 10, management reluctantly shut the plant, but only after 100 workers had contracted the virus.

The Slimline Garment factory in Pannala was closed on April 28 following protests by the 5,000-strong workforce after hundreds were infected and one employee died at a quarantine centre. The plant is owned by MAS, a giant multinational that employs about 50,000 workers at different facilities across the island.

The trade unions have responded to the escalating crisis by doing their utmost to ensure uninterrupted production. Last year the unions fully supported the reopening of the economy and participated in “tripartite task force” negotiations with employers and the labour minister to discuss wage and job cuts at companies impacted by the pandemic.

In his May Day message, Free Trade Zone and General Workers Union Secretary Antony Marcus said he was disappointed President Rajapakse had ignored his letter appealing for vaccination priority to Sri Lankan workers. He also complained that companies and state officials had failed to heed the union’s call for health action committees involving workers and management.

Marcus’s appeals are aimed at dissipating the anger of workers, while the union deepens its collaboration with management to maintain production.

Sri Lanka’s opposition parties, which are equally committed to defending big business profits, are backing the government while offering empty criticism about its “lapses” and mismanagement. They fear the new surge in COVID-19 infections would provoke more anger in the working class.

On May 3, Sajith Premadasa, leader of Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB), the main parliamentary opposition party, declared: “We don’t wish to make political gains from the pandemic or use COVID-19 as a political weapon. This is not the time for power struggles.” Later, a senior SJB leader Kabir Hashim called for an “all-party conference to manage effectively the COVID-19 crisis.”

Tamil National Alliance MP, M. A. Sumanthiran, told parliament that harsh new laws should be introduced to restrict the movement of the people and called for the further involvement of private hospitals in the treatment of COVID-19 victims. While the government has already begun involving private hospitals, ordinary workers and the poor cannot afford the cost of treatment in these facilities.

Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that the problem with controlling the pandemic was because it was being “operated under a single political power.” He demanded the response “be brought under a collective political force.” The JVP is calculating that this mechanism will allow them to more directly collaborate with the regime.

Not a single party has demanded the mobilisation of the resources required to rapidly improve the health services or close down non-essential services because such steps would affect big business profits.

In March and April last year these parties attended all-party conferences called by the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and pledged their political support. When Rajapakse “reopened the economy” they fully backed this dangerous move. Like the Rajapakse regime, these organisations are terrified by the inevitable eruption of working class and consequent political crisis.

Israel wages war on Gaza and its own cities

Jean Shaoul

Israel escalated its assault on Gaza Friday morning, deploying 160 warplanes as well as tanks and artillery massed on the border and firing about 450 missiles and shells. This massive firepower forced residents in northern Gaza to flee their homes and take shelter in Gaza city.

Smoke rises following Israeli airstrikes on a building in Gaza City, Friday, May 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

According to Israel Defense Forces (IDF), this was aimed at more than 150 underground targets, including a tunnel network, in northern Gaza. It follows air strikes on Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other targets across the Gaza Strip—at least 800 in the last five days—that have demolished five tower blocks housing Hamas headquarters, regional commands and senior commanders. The IDF claims it has largely wiped-out Hamas and Islamic Jihad sites producing weapons.

Israel’s massive assault against an essentially defenceless people has brought the death toll to 122, including 27 children, and the number of people injured to 830, according to Gaza’s health ministry. On Thursday alone, 49 Palestinians were killed.

Nine people have been killed in Israel, including a child and a soldier, exposing the enormous disparity in firepower between the Palestinians and Israel’s high-tech weaponry. Of the 1,700 primitive missiles launched from Gaza, most either fall inside Gaza or are intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome all-weather air defense system.

According to the United Nations, air strikes have destroyed or severely damaged more than 200 homes and 24 schools in the past five days, while damage to pipe networks and power cuts threaten the already limited access to fresh water and electricity.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted, “The last word was not said, and this operation will continue as long as necessary.” The IDF has drawn up plans for a ground invasion of Gaza, telling its forces to “prepare for battle” and called up 16,000 reservists while cancelling leave for all combat units.

Israel has witnessed unprecedented levels of communal violence at home. Netanyahu’s far-right, extremist allies—including Lehava, racist football hooligans known as La Familia, Jewish Power and far right settler groups—have rampaged through Palestinian neighbourhoods, provoking violent confrontations that risk turning into a civil war.

TV footage and video clips on social media have captured terrifying scenes of Jewish lynch mobs vandalizing and burning shops and cars, intimidating and beating up Palestinians, as well as stabbings, attacks on homes, shootings and riots. Police allowed these nationalist thugs to run amok in Jerusalem, Lod, Ramle, Nasariya, Tiberias, Beersheba, Haifa and other towns and villages.

Some of the worst violence took place in Lod, a mixed population town of 80,000 people, where a Palestinian was fatally shot Monday. The release of three men suspected of carrying out the killing further enraged the Palestinians, leading to riots and angry clashes. On Wednesday night, the authorities declared a state of emergency in the town, imposed a night curfew and brought in armed border police officers from the occupied West Bank. This did nothing to curb the violence and led to the stabbing of a Jewish man Thursday morning.

Speaking late on Thursday night in Lod, Netanyahu said, “We are dealing with a campaign on two fronts—in Gaza [and] in Israel’s cities.”

He pledged that the security services would be given a free hand to use force to put down domestic riots and told them not to worry about “commissions of inquiry, investigations and checks… In putting down rioters one needs to use force, a lot of force.”

Netanyahu has launched the opening salvo in a renewed ethnic cleansing operation like that of 1947 to 1949. He said he was considering the use of administrative detention—commonly used in the occupied West Bank to detain Palestinians for long periods without charge or access to lawyers—and deploying the army to maintain order. He added, “The intelligence that we have says that it could very well be that we will have an upsurge of violence here in the coming days.”

Israeli police have arrested Kamal al-Khatib, vice president of the Islamic Movement in Israel, after storming his house in Galilee following a crackdown on protesters in northern Israel. Al-Khatib’s arrest came after Palestinian warnings that prominent activists had received threatening messages from Israeli intelligence officers. Al-Khatib was one of them. His son said, “Many people got a text message, including influential protesters, saying that they were recorded as being present at al-Aqsa and they would be held accountable.” It seems likely the security services were using a GPS system, developed as a track and trace system to control the pandemic, to track and intimidate those who were at the compound.

This comes amid concerns by rights groups and activists that the social media platforms Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are silencing Palestinian voices, after several posts about increased tensions in Sheikh Jarrah were taken down and accounts suspended. While Instagram claimed there had been a widespread technical issue, Mona Shtaya, an advocacy manager for 7amleh, an organization that focuses on Palestinians’ digital rights, told Middle East Eye that there was a systematic effort to remove Palestinian content on social media. She said the number of requests from the Israeli cyber unit to social media companies to silence Palestinians had increased annually, adding, “In 2019 Israel made 19,606 requests from the cyber unit to social media companies regarding content takedowns.”

The escalating war on Gaza has triggered angry protests in the West Bank where IDF soldiers have killed at least 10 Palestinians, some during violent clashes with security forces, while others were shot on suspicion of “terrorism,” since Monday. On Thursday, IDF soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians and injured 150 more as confrontations with security forces erupted in towns and cities across the West Bank, according to the Ministry of Health in Ramallah.

There have also been incidents on both the Jordanian and Lebanese borders. Israel claimed its tanks fired warning shots toward rioters, some waving Hezbollah flags, who crossed into Israel. Lebanon confirmed that the IDF had killed one of the protesters who was holding a Palestinian flag and wounded another. It follows the firing of three Grad rockets from Lebanon that fell into the sea without hitting anything, underlining the risk of another front opening.

Thousands of Jordanians travelled by car and bus to Jordan’s border with Israel in a show of solidarity with the Palestinians far greater than that seen during Israel’s three wars on Gaza. They called on the Jordanian government to open the border, which has seen increased security since the attacks on worshippers in the al-Aqsa mosque compound during Ramadan. Riot police blocked their path before they could reach the border. Jordanians have also been protesting near the Israeli Embassy in Amman for several days in some of the largest demonstrations in the region, calling on the government to scrap the peace treaty with Israel, close the Israeli embassy and end the gas deal with Israel.

Israel’s actions have provoked opposition among Jewish Israelis. Hundreds of Jews have joined the Palestinians in protests in Jerusalem and neighbouring towns against the threatened evictions in Sheikh Jarrah, Israeli violence and the continued occupation of the Palestinian territories, calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Protests against Israel’s war on Gaza have been held across the world with an international day of protest in support of the Palestinians planned for today, Saturday. This has evidently made some countries nervous, with Gerald Darmanin, France’s interior minister instructing police to ban the protest in Paris and German police trying to brand the protest as anti-Semitic. In Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, police fired tear gas to disperse a demonstration expressing solidarity with the Palestinians and made arrests.

Macron government shifts further right after far-right generals’ coup threats

Will Morrow

Amid a series of far-right threats from active-duty and retired military officers in France, the Macron government has adopted a policy of silence and conciliation toward the far-right coup plotters.

The two letters were published on April 21 and May 9. The first was originally signed by 23 retired generals, over 200 former military officers and 1,500 ex-military personnel of lower rank. At least 18 active-duty military personnel have since been confirmed to have signed the letter. Directed to the Macron government, it consisted of fascistic denunciations of the danger of “Islamism” in France and the “hordes of the banlieues” (working-class suburbs).

It threatened that unless the government took action, there would be an “explosion and the intervention of our active-duty comrades in a perilous mission to protect our civilization’s values and safeguard our compatriots on the national territory.” In such a “civil war, the deaths, for which you will be responsible, will number in the thousands.”

The May 9 letter, also published by the neo-fascist magazine Valeurs actuelles, was allegedly signed by up to 2,000 active-duty military personnel, according to Valeurs actuelles, which has kept the signatories anonymous. The website has since claimed that more than 100,000 people have signed the “petition.” It endorses all the generals’ earlier threats, pledging to fight a “civil war” it blames on “growing communalism in public areas” and “hatred of France and its history becoming the norm.”

President Emmanuel Macron has responded to threats of a military coup by far-right networks in the military with silence. He has not even publicly acknowledged their existence, more than three weeks after the initial publication. Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin have made only brief statements in response to the latest letter.

The government has made clear that there will be no legal repercussions for an open threat of a military coup. After Jean-Luc Mélenchon filed a motion for charges to be brought against the signatories, the Paris prosecutor, Rémy Heitz, announced that there would be no charges brought, as “no criminal infraction” had been committed.

Despite Macron’s silence, the issue is followed extremely closely in the Elysée presidential palace. The Parisien on May 7 published a report with anonymous statements from government advisors about the government’s awareness and preparations for the upcoming release of the second letter by Valeurs Actuelles: “It’s a less trashy tribune than the previous one, but it’s a pain in the ass.” The Parisien notes that “the subject is taken very seriously. It has gone as far as the Élysée and the minister of the army.”

A “member of the president’s inner circle” states: “Security is a theme that is rising very strongly in public opinion. We have lived for a year under alarm. Many tensions have built up.” Another presidential advisor states: “we are going to get a beating [in the 2022 presidential elections] if we give a centimeter of space to the opposition,” adding, “we could begin by making trips into the [immigration] detention centers, to make known our policy in returning people at the border.”

In other words, the government’s response to the threat of fascist violence from within the military is to strengthen its anti-immigrant and police-state policies, while protecting the far-right network. This is cynically presented as a response to the demands of “public opinion.”

Accordingly, on April 25, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, known to be a former supporter of the far-right Action française, announced that the government would present a new “Interior security and anti-terrorism” law.

The new law includes far-reaching attacks on the democratic rights of the population through an expansion of state surveillance of the Internet. It extends laws currently permitting the intelligence services to monitor the phone traffic of the population to their internet usage. As Darmanin told the Journal de Dimanche on Sunday, it permits “the use of algorithms, that is to say, the automatic treatment of internet data.”

Asked if this threatened the rights of the population, he replied: “Let’s stop with the naiveté. All the big companies use algorithms. And would the state be the only one not able to use them?”

This underscores an essential political reality of Macron’s response to the coup threats. The government is politically dependent upon the strengthening of the police apparatus against growing opposition in the working class, under conditions of rising social inequality and mass anger over the government’s criminal and disastrous handling of the pandemic, which has led to over 100,000 deaths in France. The government is far more fearful of a movement in the working class than of far-right officers, even those openly threatening a coup.

This is the context in which the statements of General Charles Lecointre, the chief of the armed forces, must be understood. After the publication of the second letter, Lecointre wrote a conciliatory public letter to the anonymous signatories. While making clear that there was no investigation or legal measures planned against them, he appealed to their “good sense” to resign from the army and defend their political views publicly.

“The most reasonable thing to do is certainly to quit the military to be able to make public, in complete liberty, one’s ideas and convictions,” he said.

There is no reason to believe that the far-right networks in the army have any intention of resigning, but Lecointre’s appeal itself has a reactionary and anti-democratic character. Were the coup plotters to take his advice, they would be effectively constituting a public, far-right tendency made up of former officers with close ties to the French general staff.

Moreover, the letters largely base themselves on the political campaign the Macron government has been waging for the past five years, especially its “anti-separatism” law targeting Muslims.

Macron has already set the line for his campaign in the 2022 presidential elections by seeking to position himself to the right of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally. In February, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin held a televised debate with Le Pen, in which he accused her of being “soft” on Islam. “You are acting with softness, Mrs. Le Pen. You have gone so far that you say that Islam is not a problem,” he said. “You should take vitamins. I find that you are not tough enough!”

The entire official framework of the election campaign continues to shift ever further to the right. This week, Michel Barnier, a prospective candidate for the Republicans party, stated that France should place a three- to five-year moratorium on all migration from outside the European Union.

German state governments reopen as COVID-19 infections remain high

Marianne Arens

On Monday, the coronavirus cabinet, led by German Health Minister Jens Spahn, rolled back restrictions on those who have been vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19. With this reckless action, the German ruling class has flung the door wide open, endangering countless thousands of lives.

Intensive care bed

Since the action on Monday, Germany’s 16 state governments have been racing to see who can dismantle all the remaining public health measures first. The tourism, restaurant and retail sectors are opening once again, as well as all schools and childcare facilities. “Everything is going in the right direction,” enthused Spahn at his weekly press conference on Wednesday.

These policies have absolutely nothing to do with a scientific approach to the pandemic. They are instead dictated by the needs of the profit system. Moreover, they are extremely risky. Even though the incidence rate has been declining in Germany for some time, the coronavirus pandemic is a long way from being under control.

Thus far, just under 10 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated. Almost five months after the beginning of the inoculation campaign, only one third of the population has received a single dose. No vaccine has been approved in Europe for children aged 15 and under. Ten million people considered high risk or prioritised due to their profession have yet to even receive a vaccine appointment, as the head of the Permanent Vaccine Commission (StIKo) noted with concern.

This was why the virologist Melanie Brinkmann (Technical University Braunschweig) warned, “We’re dancing on the rim of a volcano.” For months, she has been urging the government to accelerate the pace of vaccinations. She sees the reopening policy as carrying “a big risk.”

Her colleague, Michael Meyer-Hermann (Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research) said it was “cynical” how the politicians are selling the stabilisation of the pandemic at a high rate of infection as a success. “It’s a major failure,” remarked the immunologist.

Hundreds of coronavirus patients continue to die every day. On Wednesday, the toll was 283, about the number of people who might die in a commercial plane crash. Younger people are increasingly falling victim to the virus. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has recorded 19 deaths of people aged under 20, 12 of whom were children under the age of 10. When unreported cases are included, the true figure is probably much higher.

According to a new and alarming study by a Washington State-based institute, the number of global coronavirus deaths is much higher than previously reported. The study estimates the number of worldwide COVID-19 deaths at 6.93 million, more than twice the officially reported figure. The Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation came to this conclusion on the basis of an analysis of excess mortality figures.

According to this study, more than 120,000 people have already died from COVID-19 in Germany, close to 50 percent more than the official death toll. This would be the equivalent of eliminating, in the space of 14 months, a mid-sized city such as Wolfsburg or Heilbronn.

The Federal Statistics Agency in Wiesbaden did not respond to a request from this author for comment on the death toll. The RKI had registered 85,481 deaths by the end of Wednesday. There are currently 251,400 active coronavirus patients in Germany, of whom 4,461 are in critical condition in intensive care.

The number of young people in this latter category is increasing. “The patients get younger and younger, have to stay in hospital longer, and spend more time in intensive care,” Dr. Med. Heike Schlegel-Höfner, head of hospitals in Ilm district in the state of Thuringia, told Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR). In the report “Conditions in the ICUs,” she refers to more serious illnesses and elevated death rates.

The dominant variant in Germany, B.1.1.7, is highly aggressive, and almost every ICU patient requires a ventilator. “The mutations are leading to worse illnesses,” Heike Schlegel-Höfner said. “The lung damage suffered by patients continues to get worse. Almost every patient in intensive care requires a ventilator, and for a longer period of time.”

In the Ruhr region, the Recklinghäuser Zeitung reported on the youngest COVID-19 patient in intensive care at the Prosper Hospital: a 23-year-old who required oxygen until recently. The newspaper cited the head doctor as saying, “As a young person, one is not free from the risk of serious illness due to COVID-19.”

Speaking of the most recent reopening policies, he added that there would be no swift return to normalcy because “a pandemic can only be combatted globally.” He added, “As long as people in Africa or Asia are not vaccinated and hundreds of thousands continue getting infected, there will continue to be mutations. And at some point, another catastrophe will find its way to Europe.”

This is precisely the danger bound up with the latest round of reopenings.

Politicians justify the reopening measures by claiming that the incidence rate is declining. The average seven-day incidence rate is about 100 infections per 100,000 inhabitants. On Wednesday, the nationwide incidence in Germany was 107.8.

But this provides no grounds for comfort. If one examines the data more closely, which the media refuse to do, a clear difference in incidence rates according to age group becomes apparent. The incidence rate among people aged 60 to 79 is 67 per 100,000 inhabitants, and 47 for those over 80. This shows that the prioritisation of the elderly for vaccinations is having a positive impact.

By contrast, the incidence rates for children and young people, together with their parents, are worryingly high. According to RKI figures from 11 May, the incidence rate among children aged 5 to 9 is 148 per 100,000 inhabitants, 167 for those aged 10 to 14, and 178 for those aged 15 to 19. For the age groups including people aged 20 to 45, the incidence rates range from 147 to 157, i.e., more than three times higher than the infection rate among people aged 80 and over.

“The incidence rate among all the age groups for children and young people is higher than it was during the second wave,” states the RKI’s study on childcare facilities. And if one examines the study’s Excel spreadsheet, one makes the shocking discovery that thousands and thousands of children have been infected by COVID-19 since the beginning of the year, with virtually no comment from the media.

Many districts and cities continue to have very high incidence rates. On 12 May, more than half of Germany’s 412 districts (239) had an incidence of more than 100 infections per 100,000 inhabitants. Eight districts had incidences above 250. Only 21 had an incidence rate below 50.

Even an incidence rate of 50 provides no security, as serious scientists like Brinkmann and Meyer-Hermann have been stressing for months. Only when the seven-day incidence falls substantially below 35 will local health agencies be able to contact trace every infection to prevent new outbreaks.

What would happen if B.1.617, the so-called Indian variant, spread throughout Europe? On May 10, the World Health Organisation declared it to be a global variant of concern (VOC). It is raging out of control in India, infecting several hundred thousand people every day.

The Guardian noted on 12 May that the Indian variant is spreading rapidly in Britain. In just two weeks, it has increased its share of COVID-19 infections from 1 percent to 11 percent, with particularly sharp increases in London and northwest England. Only a few isolated cases, such as in Cologne, have been identified thus far in Germany. However, the British variant, B.1.1.7, rapidly established itself as the dominant strain in Germany.

New outbreaks confirm these warnings, but they are systematically ignored. Repeated outbreaks have been recorded at schools and childcare facilities since the Easter holidays. Another outbreak was reported at a refugee accommodation centre in Mainz, where at least 12 out of the 63 residents have been sickened by the virus.

One in three college students is food insecure in the United States

Isaac White

Since the onset of the pandemic, food insecurity has skyrocketed throughout the United States. One of the hardest hit segments of the population has been students in higher education. Food insecurity now affects one-in-three college students.

According to a survey conducted during the fall 2020 semester from Chegg.org, the research and advocacy arm of the course materials and services company Chegg, nearly one third (29 percent) of students have missed a meal at least once a week since the beginning of the pandemic. In addition, more than half of all students (52 percent) sometimes use off-campus food banks, and 30 percent use them once a month or more.

Food bank (Credit: U.S.Air Force)

According to the survey, nearly one third of students reported they had been laid off due to the pandemic, and 40 percent of those who skipped meals said they did so to pay for debt or study materials.

For working class youth, making the decision to go to college means sacrificing basic necessities such as health care, adequate housing, and food security. Under the dire conditions created by the ruling class response to the pandemic, seeking higher education comes at a staggering price for a whole generation of youth.

The cost of college alone is enough to keep working class youth chained to the banks well into old age. The average public university student now borrows $30,030 to attain a bachelor’s degree. The total student debt outstanding in the Federal Loan Portfolio is over $1.56 trillion.

Many working class youth qualify for food assistance programs throughout their tenure at K-12 schools. The USDA National School Lunch Program provides low-cost or free meals to 29.4 million K-12 students of low-income families. The fact that so many children rely on these programs in order to eat each day is a staggering indictment of the difficult conditions facing working class families in the most “advanced” capitalist country in the world.

When these students graduate high school, this meager safety net is no longer available. College students face strict eligibility requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

In a report from the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness (NSCAHH) from 2016, 46 percent of US college students reported experiencing food insecurity in the past 30 days, yet only 18 percent of college students qualified for SNAP and just 3 percent received benefits. While there is limited data out on the situation over the last year, one can assume these figures are now much starker than in 2016.

In December 2019, rule changes to the SNAP program specifically targeted “able-bodied adults without dependents.” These changes made it even more challenging for states to waive requirements that someone work at least 20 hours per week, excluding otherwise eligible students from the program.

What this means in practical terms is that many college age students are forced to work 20 hours a week on top of a full class load just to be able to afford food.

Sal, a community college student from Silicon Valley, California, spoke with the WSWS about how food insecurity has affected him.

As a full-time college student, it’s not realistic for me to work a full-time job, meaning that I have limited income. Because of this I rely on CalFresh (food stamps) benefits, which offer just over $200 a month, in order to help with grocery expenses. However, this usually does not suffice. During most months, my benefits are exhausted by around the 3rd week, forcing me to dip into my checking account in order to buy food.

This puts additional strain on my already-shoestring budget and causes needless stress over whether I’ll be able to pay important bills including those for rent and car insurance. While I’m still able to do well in my classes, this stress does have a noticeable effect on my ability to focus on my studies and is particularly bothersome during exams, writeups, and other high-pressure assignments.

Social support systems such as SNAP have been under assault for decades, by Democrats and Republicans alike. Many students are forced to rely on school food pantries to make it through the month.

Arik, a student at South Florida University told the WSWS that being food insecure has affected his academics: “Most of the time it made it harder for me to study. I’d be stressed out and focused more on how I’ll satisfy my hunger rather than passing my classes.”

Arik continued, “It’s made me less energized and lethargic. I feel really weak throughout the day at some time.”

This epidemic of food insecurity affects students from all across the country. A 2019 study published in the journal Advances in Nutrition reviewed 51 studies on food insecurity on college campuses. The review, titled Food Insecurity among College Students in the United States: A Scoping Review, estimated that food insecurity prevalence at universities was as high as 47 percent on community college campuses and 37 percent at 4-year degree universities.

The studies ranged from a low of 14 percent (University of Alabama) to a high of 75 percent (University of California - Davis), and included rural schools such as Appalachian State University (46 percent) and large urban universities like Kent State (37 percent).

The Healthy CUNY 2018 survey found that 15 percent of students at the City University of New York reported they were often or sometimes hungry in the last year—affecting about 34,000 students. Forty-eight percent reported being hungry in the last 30 days.

The rest of New York state is facing similar issues. The State University of New York (SUNY) is offering $1,000 grants for the purchase of refrigerators for on-campus food pantries.

The Hope Center for College, Community and Justice conducted a study of Denver College students in Colorado and found that 40 percent of the roughly 65,000 college students in the city suffer from food insecurity.

At the University of Colorado Denver, the university has created a food bank program for students. All students at UC Denver are provided with 10 points each week to choose non-perishable and personal hygiene items at the food pantry.

Food pantry systems are in dire need of additional funding, but in December 2020 the University of Colorado system provided just an additional $50,000 towards student hunger in Denver, just a few dollars per food insecure student.

Such conditions are a glowing indictment of the crisis facing students across the country. Research by Feeding America has found that upwards of three-quarters of university students are financially independent. That is, they do not have family members to support them financially through their education and must provide almost entirely for themselves.

Students are finding themselves in an increasingly precarious situation as wages continue to stagnate, and as the cost of living and tuition skyrocket. From 1987 to 2017, the cost of tuition at public four-year institutions rose 213 percent (seven percent per year), more than three times the average annual rate of inflation and nominal wage growth since 2007.

The pandemic has greatly exacerbated this crisis. Workers aged 18-24 were the most likely to be unemployed during the pandemic, and disruptions to campus services reduced student access to food pantries and nutritional food. The true impact of the pandemic on student hunger is still to be determined.

Students all over the country are drawing far reaching conclusions from the conditions they face.

Sal explained what he thinks student hunger says about the state of society:

It highlights the stark inequality and unfairness of the status quo. .. expressed by the aphorism ‘the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.’ Basically, our society deems it acceptable that certain people born to unfortunate circumstances must struggle throughout their entire youth just to acquire a reasonable chance at economic security, whereas those raised by more well-to-do parents and who’ve enjoyed a relatively painless life exert much less effort not only to secure basic economic needs, but also to excel and pursue their dreams. Society turns a blind eye and has a dismissive, cavalier, almost nihilistic attitude to what, upon a close and objective assessment, is evidently a harsh injustice.

When Arik was asked what he thought the conditions facing students showed about society he replied that it means “we live in a failed state.”