America’s “Culture of Death”: COVID-19, Gun Insanity, White Supremacy, Ecological Destruction, and Public Indifference

David Masciotra

The late Pope John Paul II wrote an encyclical in 1996 condemning Western societies for creating and maintaining a “culture of death.” Referring specifically to abortion and euthanasia, the Roman Pontiff wrote, “Choices once unanimously considered criminal and rejected by the common moral sense are gradually becoming socially acceptable.”

When I was studying political science at the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois, during the early 2000s, the Pope’s full-throated excoriation of the West was a routine matter of discussion in theology, philosophy, and political science courses. As a pro-choice leftist, I always took critical aim at the Catholic Church’s position against women’s medical freedom and bodily autonomy, as well as its refusal to support the terminally ill’s right to die with dignity. Despite my disagreements with its application, the simple and brutal phrase, “culture of death,” has never left my memory.

It is now as clear and ominous as a cancer diagnosis that the United States has descended into a “culture of death.” The value of human life has become fodder for partisan debate, and mass fatalities, whether the result of gunfire or widespread infection from a deadly disease, receive blasé shrugs of indifference from the general public. As the American death toll from Covid-19 climbed into the hundreds of thousands (it currently stands at over 800,000), the Republican Party obstructed minimal efforts to reduce loss of life, touting a childlike notion of “freedom” over the safety of human beings. Teachers, workers, the elderly and disabled, and even children were worthy of sacrifice, according to elected officials like Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, for the health of the stock market, or the preservation of something called, “the American way of life.” 800,000 Americans cannot enjoy any way of life, nor can they applaud the profit maximization of the rich, because they are dead.

The man most responsible for their deaths – Donald Trump – is currently defeating Joe Biden in head-to-head polls for a 2024 rematch.

The National Center for Disease Preparedness at Columbia University estimated in October of 2020 that between 130,000 and 210,000 Covid-19 deaths were preventable, placing the blame squarely on the negligent and sociopathic anti-testing, anti-mask, anti-mitigation, and misinformation policies of the Trump administration. More recently, Dr. Deborah Birx, who served as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator under Trump, joined the Columbia team of researchers by arguing that Trump was responsible for, at least, 130,000 deaths. Citing her own experience at the highest level of the Trump administration, she told the US House select subcommittee on Covid-19 that the former president was more concerned with his reelection than public health; routinely dismissive, if not outright hostile, to the advice that she and other experts dispensed to prevent loss of life.

In a sane society, Birx’s testimony would bring the country to a grinding halt. At a minimum, the political and career prospects of Trump, and his enablers, would undergo absolute demolition. America’s leading institutions would banish Trump, his cabinet members, and adult children far into shame and exile, leaving them afraid to enter public circles. True justice would go further – bringing on legal investigations, as is possible in Brazil, where President Jair Bolsarno might face criminal charges for his Trump-like sabotage of his country’s pandemic response. Americans do not live in a sane society. We reside in a “culture of death.” Signs of it are everywhere, rendering Covid-19 itself, ironically, a symptom of a much larger disease.

Kyle Rittenhouse, vigilante Trump-worshiper, whose mother chauffeured him 20 miles from Antioch, Illinois to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to guard a used car lot with a high powered assault rifle, was acquitted for shooting three Black Lives Matter protestors, killing two of them. The defense’s entire case succeeded on if their insistence that the baby Brownshirt was “acting in self-defense.” Rarely do any commentators outside the courtroom take a moment to ask the obvious: What kind of civilization accepts as normal a teenager having access to a military-style firearm? Even though it is illegal for anyone under 18 to possess such a weapon, Rittenhouse’s lethal capacity is not shocking to anyone. His armed status is so pedestrian that the presiding judge of the case, whose phone blasts the Donald Trump campaign theme song, “God Bless the USA,” dismissed the weapons charge against him. Rittenhouse is not only a free man, while thousands of poor people of color rot in cells for minor crimes, but a right wing celebrity – making the talk show rounds with Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk, and scheduled to speak at the comically named, “America Fest 2021,” the annual convention for Turning Point USA, an organization committed to right wing student advocacy with a long track record of racism, extremism, and Islamophobia.

On November 30, 2021, Ethan Crumbley shot 11 of his classmates at Oxford High School in Oxford Township, Michigan, killing four of them. His parents are unlikely to fare as well as Rittenhouse. They are facing charges of involuntary manslaughter for providing Crumbley easy access to a firearm, even after receiving warnings that he was plotting a massacre. The rare turn of justice in the “culture of death” is laudable, but the public and media reaction to school shootings signifies a society with a deep disorder. When the Columbine shooting happened in 1999, the entire country stopped to have debates – some intelligent, some inane – about how such an atrocity could occur, and how to prevent similar mass casualty events from happing again. 22 years later, mass shootings often fail to even make front page news. Meanwhile, millions of Americans, including duly elected members of Congress, treat guns with sick reverence, even posing with them in family Christmas photos.

The glorification of violence is treated as a banality in exact accordance with Pope John Paul’s admonishment that “choices once rejected by common moral sense are gradually becoming socially acceptable.” 72 million Americans report owning a gun, but because it is illegal for law enforcement to keep a firearm ownership registry, the actual number is likely much higher. Although the US accounts for only 4 percent of the global population, its people own 40 percent of the world’s guns. Even Rittenhouse’s surviving victim was armed at the crime scene, testifying that grabbing his gun is like picking up his wallet and phone every morning before he leaves the house. According to the Mass Shooter Tracker Project, 470 mass shootings have occurred in 2021, leaving 482 dead, and 1, 927 injured. No matter how nightmarish a massacre, the American political system will not allow for the passage of more rigid and restrictive regulations on the purchasing and carrying of firearms. Whether it is a sniper shooting down concertgoers from his hotel window in Las Vegas, or a maniac executing schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut, Americans react by buying more guns, and stockpiling more ammunition. In the words of a recent Guardian headline, “US gun sales spiked during pandemic and continue to rise.” An instrument of death does not cause alarm in a culture of death

Acts of violence as mechanisms of a white supremacist and fascist ideology are hardly novel in the United States. It is possible to track the entire history of the country with statistics and stories of state sponsored, well-organized, and lone wolf acts of racial terrorism. Currently, the armed madhouse that has become the US is experiencing an explosion of hate crimes. On the rise since 2009, the Anti-Defamation League reports that hate crimes are becoming increasingly frequent and severe against Jewish, Black, Asian, Latino, gay, and trans Americans. The organization, which compiles one of the most sophisticated hate crime databases in the world, also criticizes law enforcement and political institutions for inadequate reporting, investigating, and punishment of said crimes. Using the ADL database, three academics concluded that counties hosting Trump rallies in 2016 experienced a 226 percent increase in hate crimes, most of them targeting – perhaps, by some magical coincidence – the same targets of Trump’s vicious ire: Blacks, Latinos, and trans people. Although the mainstream media regularly reports on hate crime statistics and incidents, the reaction of the electorate, and the Democratic Party that purports to represent the voters who are victims of fascist attacks, is tepid at best. Rather than treating politically targeted violence, and the Republican party that encourages it, as a national crisis, the mainline press prioritizes stories of Britney Spears’ conservatorship, Kayne West and Kim Kardashian’s divorce, and slight jumps in the prices of Christmas presents. Just as a pandemic and mass shootings fail to provoke shock and outrage in a “culture of death,” hate crimes produce a collective yawn – if not fatigue, then outright celebration. Republican Congressman Paul Gosar from Arizona tweeted a cartoon video of him murdering fellow member of Congress, progressive Latina Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, only to have almost his entire party defend him against House censure. Depicting the assassination of political opponents now has the sanction of one of America’s two major political parties.

The likelihood of political assassination and terrorism has increased with many sources confirming that school board officials and county election supervisors are under an avalanche of death threats from right wing lunatics who leave screaming voicemails with messages like, “I pray to God, your children die in your face.” Far from a few isolated misfits, leading specialist on terrorism and political violence, Robert Pape, reveals that 21 million Trump supporters claim they are willing to participate in violence to achieve their ideological ends. As Christian Picciolini, former neo-Nazi and current anti-racist leader, has warned in reference to the legitimation of violence and the rising fascist threat against multiracial democracy, “Everything happening right now is the skinhead’s dream of the 1990s coming true.”

Meanwhile, the political system, like Satan in Dante’s Inferno, is shrouded in an icy circle of hell, unable to escape the cold capitalistic and militaristic “culture of death.” The masochistic Democrats struggle, and will likely fail, to pass the “Build Back Better” agenda of subsidized childcare, paid family leave, and universal pre-kindergarten, while slimy rats like Joe Manchin cite concerns over “inflation” and “deficit spending.” No such concerns apply to the bipartisan Pentagon budget – a $768 billion monstrosity that dwarfs Biden’s moderate social welfare plans. As historians often explain, Republican Presidents, such as Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon, signed budgets with comparatively robust infrastructural and social spending. The “culture of death” has grown so large and dominant that treasure wasted on bombs, fighter jets, and munitions doesn’t elicit a single protest, but mere discussion of allocating resources toward programs and agencies that might improve people’s lives causes panic.

Indifference to the pandemic, insane gun culture, dramatic rise in hate crimes, surge of fascism against America’s already weak democracy, and prioritization of war over everything else are all set against the largest and most significant manifestation of the “culture of death”: ecological destruction and the civilizational threat of a rapidly heating and severely polluted planet.

Proving that the “culture of death” spits its venom throughout the world, many countries have failed to react with necessary urgency and aggression to the escalating crises of climate change, species endangerment, and biodiversity destruction. The United States is the world’s foremost offender, home to many of the worst companies of the fossil fuel industry and a sprawl-automobile society, emitting greenhouse gases at murderous rates. Speaking of murder, the United States military consumes more hydrocarbons than most countries. Other rich and developed nations, such as China, Australia, and the United Kingdom, refuse to significantly alter their commercial activity, even if the entire world hangs in the balance. Humanity has eliminated 60 percent of animal populations since 1970, and Botanic Gardens Conservation International concludes that up to half of the world’s wild tree species are currently at risk of extinction. Doing their best to inculcate the values of a “culture of death,” political leaders at COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, neglected to even discuss some of the world’s most environmentally devastating practices, such as the carbon footprint of the US military, or the deforestation and habitat destruction of big agriculture. The “culture of death” is nothing if not clever. Scientists at the Center for Biological Diversity, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, warn that “wildlife exploitation and habitat loss fuel pandemic risk.” The Center also explains that the US plays a “major role” in the global threat of habitat destruction.

Similar to the collapsing Roman Empire, the US has its own bread and circuses. At the Astroworld Music Festival that took place in Houston, Texas in November, ten concertgoers died due to stampede and riot-like crowd behavior that rapper, Travis Scott, encouraged while performing on stage. Scott, whose resume includes misogyny, homophobia, and celebrations of greed, is notorious for telling his audience to “rage,” “get wild,” and even assault each other. At the November Astroworld festival, even after several attendees sustained serious injuries from crowd crush, other Scott fans danced and blocked ambulances from reaching victims. Even a clever novelist would fail to find a better metaphor for what has become of the United States.

In his 1996 encyclical, Pope John Paul II wrote, “Moral uncertainty can in some way be explained by the gravity of today’s social problems, sometimes mitigating the responsibility of individuals, but it is no less true that we are confronted by a true structure of sin, which takes the form of a ‘culture of death.’ This culture denies solidarity and is fostered by currents that encourage a society that is excessively concerned with efficiency.” He went on to explain that all societies must radically restructure themselves to “promote the respect for life.”

I am not Catholic, and it has been a long time since I sat in Sunday school, but I still remember how to say, “Amen.”

UK announces 88,000 COVID cases in 24 hours as daily record broken twice

Robert Stevens

The Omicron variant of COVID is ripping through Britain’s population with extraordinary rapidity. In the last 48 hours the record number of daily COVID cases has been smashed twice.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson (right) holds a Covid-19 press conference alongside Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer in the Downing Street media briefing room. 15/12/2021. Picture by Simon Dawson /No 10 Downing Street/FlickR)

On Thursday, a new record was established as infections shot up by almost another 10,000 to 88,376, a 31.4 percent rise on the week. Wednesday’s 78,610 cases were already more than 10,000 up on the previous record high (68,192) set on January 8 at the pandemic reached a peak last winter.

Wednesday also saw the UK pass 11 million cases of COVID—only the fourth to country in the world to reach the tally. Omicron was detected in the UK on November 27. Two days earlier Britain recorded its 10 millionth COVID infection. It has taken just three weeks for another million people to be infected.

Health Minister Sajid Javid revealed Monday that modelers estimate the real number of Omicron infections were as high as 200,000 that day. Other predictions forecast that the UK could soon see up to 1 million infections daily. The surge this week points to such horrific scenarios being a reality within days.

More than 16 percent of Britain’s population have been infected with COVID, with only three other countries having more cases—the US, India and Brazil. The UK has a significantly smaller population, just 68.4 million. Its 160,959 cases per million of population is a higher rate than those three and the 18 other countries who have recorded the most cases around the globe.

Omicron achieved dominance over Delta to become the most dominant strain of COVID in London, with a population of around 10 million, earlier this week. On Wednesday, it became dominant in Manchester, at the centre of a conurbation of 3 million people.

The rapid spread of Omicron exceeds by far every other strain. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has confirmed 11,708 cases of the mutation so far, up 1,691 on Wednesday and from just 437 cases a week ago. Asked on Thursday by MPs what the R (reproduction) rate of Omicron was for Britain, Dr, Susan Hopkins, UKHSA chief medical adviser replied, “very broad brush estimates of between 3 and 5 at the moment”, meaning every person infected is passing it on to between three and five others.

The UK is still reporting well over a 100 COVID deaths daily. According to the Office for National Statistics, 172,695 have died where the disease is mentioned on a death certificate. This is significantly higher than the government’s tally of 146,937, which only includes deaths occurring 28 days after a positive test. Among the deaths have been those of 17 pregnant women, a 50 percent increase in maternal mortality. On Thursday, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation announced that pregnant women would be moved into a priority group to receive a vaccination.

This week the first confirmed death in the world due to Omicron was reported in Britain. While the severity of Omicron in terms of fatalities is yet to be fully determined, the science is clear that Omicron’s transmissibility means the sheer number of hospitalisations must inevitably translate into an increase in COVID deaths.

Reuters reported Thursday that according to research by scientists in Hong Kong, “Compared to the earlier Delta variant, Omicron multiplies itself 70 times more quickly in tissues that line airway passages, which may facilitate person-to-person spread…”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is doing essentially nothing to combat Omicron in continuance of its herd immunity agenda. The sole aim of the government is to protect the profits of big business. Proposing only to “slow down Omicron’s spread” and “reduce the harm Omicron can do to us”, Johnson called on Wednesday for “building up our vaccine defences” telling everyone to “get boosted now.” A few ineffective “Plan B” measures were introduced this week, including guidance to work from home from Monday, with masks mandatory for all indoor venues except pubs and restaurants. Like these measures, the booster campaign, under conditions in which Omicron is proven to have resistance to vaccines, will do little or nothing to stop the spread of the virus, as the economy remains fully open, along with public transport networks, and schools where not a single mitigation is in place.

On Thursday, speaking at a vaccine centre in Kent, Johnson declared that a lockdown—the only measure that can stop the spread of the virus along with other required mitigation measures and a functioning track, trace and test system, which the UK doesn’t have—was not on the table. “If you want to go to an event or a party, then the sensible thing to do, if that’s a priority... is to get a test and to make sure that you’re being cautious. But we’re not saying that we want to cancel stuff, we’re not locking stuff down, and the fastest route back to normality is to get boosted.”

Despite the government doing everything to ensure mass spectator events continue, the mounting number of infections of players and staff have already forced the cancellation of 50 percent of games in soccer’s Premier League this weekend.

At the Wednesday press conference, Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said of Omicron, “This is a really serious threat at the moment. How big a threat—there are several things we don't know, but all the things that we do know, are bad.”

No statement better sums up the government’s criminality. Only last week Whitty told everyone that the first “reality” with Omicron is “a good one”—as it was infecting the young more than anyone else!

How chilling that statement was is confirmed by Whitty’s remarks to a parliamentary committee Thursday, “I'm afraid we have to be realistic that records will be broken a lot over the next few weeks as the rates continue to go up.”

Whitty says this fully aware that 5 percent of children infected with the Omicron variant have been hospitalised in South Africa. In recent days, the results of Johnson’s sadistic policy of keeping schools open has become clear, as absences due to COVID and hospitalisations among schoolchildren surge.

COVID has killed 119 children in Britain. According to official figures published Tuesday, 65 children were hospitalised due to COVID in England in the previous 24 hours—the worst tally since the beginning of the pandemic.

Figures collated and circulated on Twitter by Safe Ed for All (Safe Education for All) campaign group member, @TigressEllie, indicate the terrible situation in schools. On Wednesday, Tigress tweeted, “There have now been 100,068 cases since September the 1st [when the new term began in England] in Children. More than 2/3rds of Total child cases have occurred this term. Schools are not safe.” The same day she posted figures regarding school attendance on December 14: 12,000 teachers were “absent due to Covid; 10,500 other ed[ucation] staff absent due to Covid; 236,000 pupils absent due to Covid.”

None of the crimes being carried out by the Tories would have been possible without the political life-support of “constructive opposition” provided by the Labour Party and the trade unions, who have suppressed all opposition to Johnson from the working class. This week, Labour backed Johnson’s pathetic COVID measures with party leader Sir Keir Starmer declaring he did so in the “national interest”. Labour was a “patriotic party and it is our patriotic duty to vote for these measures to ensure that they go through. In doing so, we are supporting the NHS [National Health Service] and supporting our country,” i.e., the interests of the capitalist state, major corporations and the super-rich.

Volkswagen to cut around 900 temporary jobs in Germany

Dietmar Gaisenkersting

Volkswagen is cutting the positions of around 900 temporary workers in Germany in the midst of the current coronavirus wave. VW General Works Council Chairwoman Daniela Cavallo and VW brand board member Ralf Brandstätter announced the cuts just four weeks before Christmas in an online workforce meeting. Just over a week ago, around 150 temporary workers protested the move outside the main plant in Wolfsburg, Germany.

Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg, Germany (Vanellus-Foto / CC BY-SA 3.0)

According to information from those close to the works council, around 500 workers are to lose their jobs in Wolfsburg, 395 in Braunschweig and 29 in Salzgitter. Contracts expiring at the end of the year will not be extended.

Works council head Cavallo and brand boss Brandstätter blame the global semiconductor shortage. Brandstätter said, “Semiconductor shortages mean we can’t produce in high volumes, and the outlook also remains volatile.” He added that this means expiring temporary contracts cannot be renewed. The man making millions asked those “colleagues affected to understand that the current situation does not permit any other decision.”

Cavallo seconded, “We find this very regrettable, and we would like there to be a better perspective for temporary workers.” To her “great regret,” the current semiconductor crisis and low production figures did not permit for the temporary workers to be taken on full time, “so we have to accept the decision.”

Cavallo could spare us her hypocrisy. It is not the chip shortage that is “to blame” for the job cuts. The blame lies with a works council, union and management that subordinate the jobs, health and lives of employees to profit. This has been clear since the emergence of the coronavirus. Health and safety concerns have never stopped production with the IG Metall union and the works council campaigning vehemently to keep it going.

Profits being the measure of all things, everything is subordinate to them. On the one hand, VW and other car companies have countered the shortage of electronic chips by favouring the production of premium models because these generates greater returns. On the other hand, VW received billions in government subsidies for reductions in workers’ hours.

Thus, the VW group was able to generate around €10 billion in earnings before interest and taxes in 2020 despite reduced production. In October 2021, VW reported, “Operating profit before special items through September remains solid at 14.2 billion euro due to a strong first half with a return of 7.6 percent.”

Despite this, Volkswagen has threatened to withhold reduced hours compensation for employees producing the more economic Golf model for three months starting January 1, 2022. The company is said to have threatened to do the same to employees in Tiguan production. The new government coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Liberals (FDP) subsequently announced that it would extend the maximum period for which government-subsidized reduced hours compensation could be paid.

So, when VW and the works council claim that the layoff of temporary workers is unavoidable, it is not because of the semiconductor shortage and reduced hours work compensation. The company is using the coronavirus crisis to push through long planned attacks against workers.

VW Group CEO Herbert Diess demanded a year ago that the upcoming showcase electric car should be produced within 10 hours, instead of 15 to 20 hours, as is usual in the industry. This means a brutal increase in work speed and the elimination of tens of thousands of jobs. Diess himself has quoted the figure of 30,000 job cuts. The temporary workers are just the first to fall victim to these attacks.

Cavallo and the entire works council support this. They already agreed to 30,000 job cuts in the “Pact for the Future” that they negotiated with the Board of Management in 2016. To date this pact has not been fully implemented but now further attacks are being added. This is why the reduction of temporary jobs suits the works council—technically, these are not layoffs that require its approval.

Cavallo was so brazen as to use this argument in the November workforce meeting. She said that sloughing off temporary workers did not require approval from the works council. “We always fight for each and every employee and were able to help take on many employees in the past.” That would not be possible this time, she said.

The truth is that it would indeed be possible if the workers organised independently of the union and works council. To prevent that from happening, VW workers are being played off against each other. This has been part of the standard repertoire of IG Metall and its works council for many a year.

At VW, there are now four classes of workers. Workers in company pay scale 1 have a 30-hour week, in company pay scale 2 a 35-hour week with the same pay. This is the so-called core workforce.

Volkswagen Group Services GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of the VW Group, employs about 9,000 people at VW plants on its own pay scale, which is lower than the two in-house pay scales. They work in a wide range of areas, from engineering services to manufacturing and logistics, to sales, catering, health and commercial services.

At the bottom of the pay scale are the temporary workers of AutoVision GmbH, a joint company of the VW Group and the city of Wolfsburg. For about 20 years, VW has used temporary workers to drive down labour costs. Temporary workers usually receive two-year contracts for their assignment in VW plants.

During these two years, they give their all in the hope to be taken on by VW afterwards. Comments in the Wolfsburger Nachrichten reflect their disappointment.

A VW temporary worker writes that it is sad “that a company that makes billions in profits during the pandemic does not extend people’s contracts.” Temps had “worked their asses off for more than two years.” If they were informed on a Friday that they were needed at the VW plant in Zwickau on Monday, they were prepared make the drive to the plant, over 300 kilometres away. “Taking on the people from Wolfsburg, who have been there since October 2019, wouldn’t have broken a bone in anyone’s body. But that’s the way it is.”

The works councils themselves sabotage solidarity among the temporary workers. They refuse to even answer inquiries and demands from workers and their shop stewards. They spread rumours about the number that can expect to be kept on, but do not name any concrete facts, because supposedly nothing yet has been determined “in black and white.”

In Wolfsburg, for example, 150 temporary employment contracts are supposedly to be extended, and in Braunschweig 65 out of 460. All temporary workers have so-called appraisal interviews with the foremen, in which they are given a grade from 1 (very good) to 5 (poor). Anyone can imagine that this makes for the worst possible working atmosphere when only one in 10 colleagues is taken on in a department or line. Who will it be? Do I still have a chance? What do I have to do for it? These incentives for bashing and back-stabbing serve solely to prevent common resistance.

Meanwhile, the works councils remain silent and wait it out. The chairman of Autovision’s works council for the plants in Braunschweig and Salzgitter, Dirk Oppermann, has gone off for vacation. In his view, next month is a fait accompli: the AutoVision colleagues are goners.

The division of workers by country, plant and employee grouping can only be overcome if the interests of the employees are placed above those of the shareholders. The shareholders assert their interests with the help of the unions and their works councils. Their leaders are paid handsomely for this, not infrequently with managerial posts worth millions, like Cavallo’s predecessor Bernd Osterloh.

COVID-19 infections in France explode to over 60,000 per day

Anthony Torres

As the vaccine-resistant Omicron variant spreads across Europe, daily new cases in France are exploding, rising from 5,940 cases to over 60,000 in just one month. The incidence rate in France is now over 500 cases per 100,000. December 15 saw 65,713 confirmed new cases and 882,949 active cases of COVID-19 in France, more than ever before in the pandemic.

A school in Strasbourg, eastern France, on September 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Jean-François Badias)

The explosion of COVID-19 cases, helped by the onset of winter, highlights the failure of the Macron government’s mitigation strategy. It relies solely on a vaccination policy while imposing the maintenance of non-essential production and in-person learning, facilitating a massive spread of the virus. This encourages mutations and the emergence of new variants, by allowing the circulation of huge quantities of the virus subject to the evolutionary pressures imposed by vaccination.

Even though the Omicron variant is only beginning to surge in France, incidence rates are already skyrocketing. Among the regions with the highest incidence rates are Drôme (978.6 per 100,000), Ardèche (923.6), Alpes de Hautes Provence (823.3) and Bouches du Rhône (752.7). In France, the Omicron variant represented zero percent of the sequencing from 15 to 29 November. Over the next two weeks, from 29 November to 13 December, the share of Omicron cases rose to 5 per cent.

Six metropolitan regions of France have reactivated the “white plan,” which allows hospitals to postpone other medical operations to focus on treating COVID-19 patients. These are Corsica, the Riviera, the Paris area, the Occitania region around Toulouse, the Loire Valley, and Burgundy.

Health Minister Olivier Véran has indicated that the white plan “will probably be national in scope within a few days.” He added that there was “one admission to intensive care every 6 minutes, compared to every 10 minutes last week.” The rate of occupation of intensive care beds by patients with COVID-19 is 46.5 per cent, “mostly non-vaccinated [or] immunocompromised” vaccinated patients, according to Véran.

Children are among the main victims of the politically-criminal policies of the capitalist state. According to data from Friday 10 December 2021 (and going back to 6 December), 10,438 positive cases were counted per day in children under 10. The seven-day incidence rate for COVID-19 in children aged 6 to 10 years old has risen above 1,000 cases per 100,000 children. This is an increase from the previous week (+1755 cases). Among 10-19 year olds, the figure was 11,349 new cases, again according to the same data (+3083 cases).

Even before the spread of the Omicron variant, which is far more harmful to children, many children are hospitalised for COVID-19 in France. 101 children aged 0-9 years were hospitalised on 9 December 2021, 17 more than the previous week. The number of children and adolescents in intensive care for COVID-19 was 14 children aged 0-9 years on these wards on 9 December 2021, 4 more than the previous week. Three patients aged 10-19 years were in intensive care, 1 more than 7 days previously.

The vaccination of 5-11 year olds is currently under discussion within the state machine. The French National Authority for Health (HAS) has already given the green light to vaccinate children at risk of developing severe forms of the disease, for example those suffering from chronic liver disease, chronic heart and respiratory disease or obesity. It has not yet decided on the others.

The alarming figures on the circulation of the Delta variant will be compounded by the spread of the Omicron variant, which is spreading more rapidly, putting workers and youth at risk of death.

As Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned in a televised address on Sunday 12 December that a “tidal wave of Omicron is coming,” the Health Safety Agency is predicting that more than one million daily cases by the end of December in the UK due to the infectiousness of Omicron.

The Omicron variant will be dominant in Europe within weeks. British health authorities fear that up to 75,000 more people will die in the UK by April if nothing is done to counter the variant. Denmark has 195 cases identified as of 9 December, Norway 109 and the Netherlands 62; at least according to official statistics, these are among the most affected countries in Europe.

The rise in Omicron-related cases in France underlines once again that, without a mobilisation of workers to impose a collective and international use of social resources to eliminate the virus, the spread of the variants will not spare any country.

The Macron government has already indicated that it will not take any serious measures to stop the epidemic. On Thursday 9 December, during his press conference about France’s presidency of the European Council, President Emmanuel Macron said he did not know whether the new health measures announced by Prime Minister Jean Castex would be enough to counter the COVID-19 epidemic. Macron said that he and his government will evaluate “the evolution of the epidemic early next week.”

Macron’s government, however, has already demonstrated its murderous indifference to human life in the service of the political and economic interests of the financial elite. The pandemic has claimed 1.5 million lives in Europe. But meanwhile, by keeping workers on the job all the time despite the pandemic in order to provide a return on capital, European billionaires have increased their wealth by more than $1 trillion.

The pandemic has graphically exposed the class character of the capitalist state. The ruling circles see the death of the elderly, with the resulting reduction in life expectancy and welfare costs, as a positive or at least an acceptable result of their health policy.

In reality, it is possible to stop the pandemic and eliminate the virus. The measures needed to eliminate COVID-19 include temporary closure of schools and non-essential workplaces with welfare for all affected workers; mass testing; contact tracing; isolation of infected patients; provision of high-quality masks; and rapid vaccination of the world’s population. But the past two years have already demonstrated the government’s radical hostility to such a scientific policy.

Imposing health policies that can stop the pandemic and the development of new variants, and thus save millions of lives, requires the building of an international socialist movement in the working class, allied with scientists, aimed at a fundamental and revolutionary transformation of the economic structure of society.

Omicron case identified in New Zealand

Tom Peters

On Thursday, the New Zealand government confirmed that a case of the extremely infectious Omicron variant of COVID-19 has been identified in a traveler staying at a managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) hotel in Christchurch. The traveler arrived from Germany, via Dubai, on December 10.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield speaks to reporters about the Omicron case discovered in New Zealand on December 16. (Source: Ministry of Health YouTube)

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield told the media yesterday that New Zealand was “very well-prepared” and “we have every intention of keeping Omicron out of the country for as long as possible.”

In fact, the Labour Party-led government has been dismantling New Zealand’s public health defences in recent months, ignoring scientists’ advice and bowing to the demands of big business for an end to all impediments on profit-making.

In October, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that the government would abandon its previous elimination policy, which had limited COVID-19 deaths to 26 until August this year. Since then, another 22 people have died.

On December 3, the government ended what remained of the lockdown in Auckland, the country’s largest city and centre of the outbreak. This week, the boundary around the city was lifted, allowing Aucklanders to travel around the country over the holiday period. Government ministers have admitted that this means Delta will spread everywhere.

According to the Ministry of Health, as of yesterday there had been 2,194 people infected in the last 21 days in the community, and 24 cases among overseas arrivals in MIQ. There are roughly 100 cases being recorded each day. Only symptomatic people are encouraged to get a test, meaning the real numbers are likely much higher.

Restrictions at the border have been significantly eased. In mid-November, the mandatory period that returnees must stay in MIQ was halved from 14 to 7 days. Bloomfield said the person with Omicron and others who travelled on the same flight would have their MIQ period extended to 10 days.

The current plan is that from January 17, double-vaccinated New Zealanders entering the country will be allowed to skip MIQ and “self-isolate” at home. On Monday, Ardern said this plan would be reviewed in January in light of the Omicron variant, which is spreading at a much faster pace than Delta internationally and is likely to become the dominant variant.

Ardern emphasised, however: “We haven’t changed our plans. We haven’t changed the timelines we’ve set out.”

In neighbouring Australia, where state and federal governments have removed most public health restrictions, Omicron is contributing to a surge in cases and severe illnesses.

Asked if he would recommend that the government impose lockdowns if Omicron is detected outside of MIQ, Bloomfield said yesterday: “We’d just have to see what the situation was.” He declared that New Zealand’s vaccination rate was much higher compared with August, when the Delta outbreak began.

Such reassurances are entirely misleading. Data from South Africa has found that two shots of the Pfizer vaccine—which the New Zealand government refers to as “fully vaccinated”—provided only 33 percent efficacy against symptomatic infections and only 70 percent protection against hospitalization, substantial drops from all previous variants.

So far, about 90 percent of eligible New Zealanders have received two vaccine doses, which is 75 percent of the whole population. As of yesterday, 184,377 people had received a third “booster” shot, less than 4 percent of the population.

Children under 12 are still ineligible for the vaccine, and schools and early childhood centres are a major source of transmission. The Ministry of Education falsely claims that children are at low risk from Delta. The situation in South Africa indicates that children are more likely to need hospitalisation if they contract Omicron.

Experts, including vaccinologist Dr Helen Petousis-Harris and epidemiologist Michael Baker, have called on the government to shorten the period of time people need to wait between the second and third doses, which is currently set at 6 months.

Speaking to Radio NZ, Professor Baker also warned that under the current plan to lift MIQ requirements in mid-January, “Omicron would get in very, very rapidly.” He said the government should “use all the tools available to decrease the risk or minimise the risk of this variant getting loose in New Zealand.”

As in other countries, the government, media and business representatives have encouraged complacency about both Delta and Omicron. The lifting of the Auckland boundary was greeted with celebratory headlines like “Travelers rejoice as they resume work, reunite with family” and “Freedom! Thousands fleeing Auckland as border lifts.”

A New Zealand Herald editorial said Auckland had “shown its resilience and residents collectively rolled up their sleeves and got on with protecting themselves and the community.” It brushed aside concerns about the new variant, saying “it’s already known that booster shots [which hardly anyone has received] are effective against Omicron infections.”

In fact, Dr Fran Priddy, executive director of Vaccine Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand, told the Science Media Centre (SMC) yesterday that a third Pfizer dose could improve vaccine effectiveness to about 75 percent against Omicron, according to early data from the UK. Some experts believe an Omicron-specific vaccine may be needed to prevent widespread infection, hospitalisation and deaths.

The World Health Organization and experts internationally have criticised the attempts to claim, without any evidence, that Omicron may be “milder.” Professor Mike Bunce from the NZ Institute of Environmental Science and Research told the SMC: “Even if Omicron (or another variant) results in half the hospitalisation rate, twice as many infections will place the same net demand on the hospital system.”

COVID-19 modeler Professor Michael Plank has estimated that if Omicron enters the community, assuming minimal public health measures such as masking, and 93 percent of over-12s vaccinated with just two doses, New Zealand could see a peak of about 50,000 cases per day. This would drop to 30,000 if everyone aged over 45 received a third dose. Plank told Stuff this was an “optimistic” scenario; if the variant turned out to be even more resistant to vaccines, the daily cases could reach 80,000.

Meanwhile, business organisations, such as Hospitality New Zealand and the Auckland Business Chamber, as well as the opposition National and ACT Parties, have called for the government to move faster to lift the minimal restrictions that remain. Recently-installed National Party leader Chris Luxon is also demanding the immediate removal of MIQ requirements for double-vaccinated New Zealanders returning from so-called low-risk countries.

Protests against all restrictions and vaccine mandates are also continuing, with 2,000 people rallying outside parliament yesterday, led by the far-right Destiny Church.

The Labour government is moving to appease these forces. Under the “traffic light” framework that has replaced lockdowns, Auckland is currently in “red,” which limits indoor gatherings to 100 people. Ardern says the city will move to “orange” on December 31, meaning this limit will then be scrapped on New Year’s eve.

Scientists warn of looming catastrophe as Omicron spreads globally

Evan Blake

The immense global threat of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 is becoming clearer each day, as cases and hospitalizations surge internationally. Worldwide, average official daily new cases now stand at 620,106, a more than 50 percent increase in just the past month. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates that in reality, nearly 3.3 million people are likely infected each day, with most not detected due to inadequate testing globally. The vast majority of these cases are from the Delta variant, but Omicron is threatening to become dominant globally or surge in tandem in the coming weeks.

Dr. Rafik Abdou and respiratory therapist Babu Paramban check on a COVID-19 patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, LA, Nov. 19, 2020 [Credit: AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File]

Across Europe, which has been the global epicenter of the pandemic since October, there were a combined 430,968 official new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday. The United Kingdom (a record 78,339 new cases), France (65,713), Germany (55,650), Russia (28,363), Spain (27,140) and Italy (23,190) accounted for a combined roughly 250,000 new cases. Hospitals across Europe, and indeed globally, are strained to the breaking point after nearly two years of continuous mass infections and deaths.

The direst situation is now in the UK, where Omicron cases are doubling every two days and forecasts predict that potentially one million people could become infected each day by Christmas. The fall semester has decimated schools throughout the country, as the total absence of mitigation measures has allowed COVID-19 to run rampant and infect masses of students and educators. In response, the Johnson administration is actively recruiting elderly, retired educators as substitutes in under-staffed schools, setting the stage for a spike in breakthrough infections and deaths in this section of retirees.

In Denmark, which has one of the strongest variant surveillance programs, Omicron has caused a major spike in reinfections among previously infected individuals. Overall, the number of reinfections has increased more than ten-fold in just the past month. In neighboring Norway, forecasts project that more than 100,000 people will be infected with Omicron each day within weeks if there are no changes in behavior.

In the United States, the surge of the Delta variant is deepening throughout much of the country, with the Northeast and Midwest regions hit particularly hard. An average of 121,585 people are officially infected each day, and an average of 1,170 people are dying daily across the country.

In New York and New Jersey, the Omicron variant now accounts for at least 13 percent of all new COVID-19 cases, which are surging dramatically overall. The state of New York reported 18,276 official new cases on Wednesday, a more than 40 percent increase in one day and the highest daily total since January 14. In New York City, the test positivity rate doubled in just three days recently, rising from 3.9 percent to 7.8 percent between December 9-12.

Florida, among the hardest hit states in the US which has undergone three major surges since the start of the pandemic, is beginning its fourth surge amid the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. A study on wastewater in Orange County, Florida, home to Walt Disney World, found that Omicron accounts for nearly 100 percent of all COVID-19 strains found in the samples.

The most serious and principled scientists are issuing increasingly stark warnings of the looming tidal wave of infections, hospitalizations and deaths as winter approaches in the Northern Hemisphere.

In his weekly podcast update on the pandemic, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota Dr. Michael Osterholm warned, “I think we are going to see a viral blizzard literally descend upon the world with Omicron.” He noted that Omicron threatens to combine with the ongoing surge of the Delta variant to wreak havoc, particularly among the unvaccinated.

On Thursday, T-cell immunologist Dr. Anthony Leonardi tweeted about the potential long-term damage that the Omicron surge could cause, writing, “This coming wave with Omicron will probably infect at least half the world’s population. If 10 percent get Long Covid, we are looking at a #MassDisablingEvent.” Dr. Leonardi had repeatedly sounded the alarm about the impact of Long COVID, which can result in neurodegeneration, autoimmune disorders and damage to other organ systems.

In a recent interview with the World Socialist Web Site, Dr. Leonardi stressed the immense dangers of the Omicron variant, particularly to unvaccinated children under five years old who have experienced among the highest rates of hospitalization of any age group with Omicron. He also warned that the extraordinary transmissibility of Omicron creates the conditions whereby a new and potentially more dangerous variant could evolve more rapidly than previous variants.

On Wednesday, physician Denise Dewald, who has been an outspoken critic of the pandemic policies implemented by the Trump and Biden administrations, tweeted, “I expect our hospitals will look like Wuhan 2020 in 1-3 weeks,” adding, “But our healthcare workers won’t be wearing good PPE.”

Dr. Malgorzata Gasperowicz, who has continuously advocated for the elimination of SARS-CoV-2 since the start of the pandemic, retweeted a post noting that South Korea has ended its policy of “living with COVID-19.” She added the sharp comment that they did so “[B]ecause ‘living with COVID-19’ doesn’t work. The only policy that worked and keeps working is elimination strategy. High time that every region on the planet starts aiming to stop the spread. #EndThePandemic.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) echoed these warnings. In an interview with Sky News, Special Envoy on COVID-19 for the WHO Dr. David Nabarro declared, “I’ve been watching and working on this pandemic since January 2020, and I’ve never been more concerned than I am tonight, not just about the UK but about the world.”

When asked whether social gatherings should be limited, he replied bluntly, “It’s doubling every two days. Do you know what that means? It means it will be eight times more serious in one week, 40 times more serious in two weeks, 300-400 times in three weeks. Over 1,000 times more serious in four weeks.”

In response to this impending catastrophe, capitalist governments throughout the world adamantly refuse to implement the necessary public health measures to stop the spread of COVID-19. Above all, they reject the use of emergency lockdowns involving the switch to remote learning at all schools and the closure of nonessential workplaces with income protection for affected workers and small business people.

At a press briefing Wednesday, a reporter asked Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky and White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeffrey Zients, “Do you think, overall, that we need to be, in essence, locking down a little bit again? Should employers, should schools be taking the precautions that we’re seeing, or are they overreacting?”

Dr. Walensky sidestepped the question by promoting vaccines and limited mitigation measures while not commenting on lockdowns. Zients, a multi-millionaire with no experience in public health, emphatically opposed lockdowns and advanced the vaccine-only approach, saying, “We’re in a very different and stronger place than we were a year ago. And there’s no need to lock down.” He added, “We know how to keep our kids in school and our businesses open, and we’re not going to shut down our economy in any way. We’re going to keep our schools and our businesses open. Next question.”

Similarly, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Dr. Anthony Fauci acknowledged Thursday that Omicron will likely be dominant in “a few weeks” and that it would soon overwhelm hospitals. Like Walensky, he advanced the vaccine-only approach and paid lip service to mitigation measures, saying, “If we do that, I don't believe we'll have to be doing any kind of shutdown with regard to businesses in your community.” Dr. Fauci also endorsed family gatherings over the holidays as long as people are vaccinated, despite the immense dangers of air travel and the well-known risks of breakthrough infections that can lead to Long COVID, hospitalization and even death.

The corporate media has dutifully played its part in chloroforming the public and stunting awareness of the dangers confronting society. On ABC News Thursday night, following a segment which detailed the rapid spread of Omicron and the increasingly dire conditions in hospitals, Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, gave his stamp of approval to holiday travel plans.

Jha stated, “I think Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, it’s possible to gather with family safely. The key in my mind is making sure everybody who can be vaccinated is vaccinated, people are boosted. And if they’re high-risk people, elderly, others, getting everybody a rapid test can make it that much safer.”

Jha is a close associate of Brown University economist Emily Oster, who has been one of the foremost advocates of unsafe school reopenings since fall 2020, before the vaccines were even approved. On Thursday, Oster tweeted cynically, “Most people are going to get Omicron regardless of vax status. Contagion is just that high.”

The stark contrast between the warnings of principled scientists like Drs. Leonardi, Dewald, Gasperowicz and others, and the pronouncements of scientists and public health officials connected to the Biden administration and the corporate media, is sharpening each day.

The principles of science and public health are incompatible with the interests of the financial oligarchy, which refuses to implement the basic measures necessary to eliminate COVID-19 and stop the needless infections, suffering and deaths of millions worldwide.

Jailing Former Immigration Ministers: Denmark’s Inger Støjberg

Binoy Kampmark

It’s not the sort of thing you encounter regularly.  A member of a government cabinet, responsible for arguably one of the country’s most important portfolios, found both wanting and culpable for their actions after leaving their post.  But this is what former Danish immigration minister Inger Støjberg found when she was convicted for illegally separating asylum seeking couples arriving in the country.

A Danish court of impeachment, in finding the former minister guilty for intentionally neglecting her duties under the Ministerial Responsibility Act, sentenced her to 60 days in prison.  Of the 26 members of the court, only one found for the ex-minister.

It was only the third time since 1910 that a politician has been referred to the impeachment court. The last was in 1993, when former Conservative justice minister Erik Ninn-Hansen faced proceedings for illegally halting the family reunification of Tamil refugees in 1987 and 1988.

Interest in the proceedings centred on an order the ex-minister issued in 2016, which directed that if a member of a married couple were underage, they should be separated and housed in separate centres.  This was irrespective of whether they had children.  At the time, Støjberg argued that the measure was necessary to protect “child brides”.  “They have to be separated,” the then minister told the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, “because I will not accept that in my system there could be examples of coercion.”

Some 23 couples were mandatorily separated by the Danish Immigration Service without an individual examination of their circumstances.  One couple, a 17-year-old pregnant woman and her 26-year-old husband, filed a complaint with the Danish Parliament’s ombudsman, who found the separation to be illegal.

The impeachment court also found the policy to be unlawful and a breach of European human rights law as the arrangement did not include exceptions and individual assessments by the immigration service.

Ministers tend to find such intrusions of the law into their discretion disconcerting.  Were executive power to be curtailed by such legal actions, firm, tearless decisions would be hard to make.  When the trial commenced, Støjberg was confident that the Court members would see good sense.  “I know exactly what I said and did.  That is why we are seeking an acquittal.”  So confident was she of the outcome that the conviction came as something of a shock.  “It’s the only scenario I had not prepared for because I thought it was completely unrealistic.”

Støjberg was quick on the draw regarding the principles which she followed in making her decision.  “I think it wasn’t just me that lost today, it was Danish values that lost today.”  (Every political figure found fouling the law is bound to hide behind a set of values.)  If, she said, she “had had to live with the fact that I had not protected these girls – that would actually have been worse than this.”

The values game is always precarious and immigration ministers claiming to protect the vulnerable are rarely trustworthy sorts.  Scratch the surface, and you are bound to find a sadistic reactionary.  For Støjberg, it meant adopting a line against the swarthy hordes seeking sanctuary in Europa’s bosom populist, anti-immigration figures found attractive.  Between 2015 and 2019, she served in a centre-right government bolstered by the support of the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party and presided over 110 amendments restricting the rights of foreigners.  Memorably crass, she celebrated the passage of the fiftieth restriction on immigration with a cake.

Amongst those measures was the “Jewellery law”, a stipulation that asylum seekers surrender their jewellery and cash above 10,000 kroner to help fund their stay in Denmark.  The Ministry of Immigration guidelines made modest concessions: wedding rings or engagement rings were to be left untouched, though individual officers could determine what sentimental value was attached to others.

Like her counterparts in other countries, Støjberg sought to place unwanted and undesirable arrivals on a remote island – Lindholm – a plan that raised eyebrows in the United Nations.  While the facility was intended to detain foreign nationals convicted of crimes and set for deportation, UN Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet warned about “the negative impact of such policies in isolation, and (they) should not replicate these policies.  Because depriving them of their liberty, isolating them, and stigmatising them will only increase their vulnerability.”

Støjberg, self-proclaimed protector of child brides, was merely contemptuous of such concerns.  “I’m quite impressed that you can sit in New York and comment on a deportation centre when not a single shovel has yet touched the ground, and when we have clearly said that we will stay within the conventions we are signed up to.”

The modern immigration minister has become a plain clothes member of the country’s police force.  Suspicion is preferable over charity.  Judgment comes before understanding.  Separating families, tormenting parents and children, are not infrequent things.  But in all fairness to Støjberg, her measures did not lack parliamentary approval and degrees of public support.  Not only was she encouraging cruelty, she also being encouraged to be cruel.

Indeed, Denmark’s harsh refugee policy is being further developed under the guidance of the centre-left Social Democrats, who have adopted some of the world’s harshest refugee policies.  Recently, an agreement barring foreigners with suspended sentences from ever becoming Danish citizens was struck by the government with right-wing parties.

In June, Parliament gave the government a mandate to establish an internment camp system outside European borders to process asylum-seeker claims.  “If you apply for asylum in Denmark, you know that you will be sent back to a country outside Europe, and therefore we hope that people stop seeking asylum in Denmark,” warned government spokesman Rasmus Stoklund.

The smug view expressed by such papers as Politiken, that no minister is above the law, ignores the point that Støjberg became a post girl for reaction, a model emulated rather than dismissed.  Had she tinkered more with her “child brides” order, conditioning it with less severity, she may never have faced the impeachment court.

Immigration ministers in other countries should take note but the lessons of this case are unlikely to be learned in Australia.  Down under, immigration officials act with brutal impunity confident that their callous decisions are unlikely to ever face stern judicial eyes.  No Australian immigration minister has faced proceedings for culpability in returning people to lands they have fled, only to endure torture, persecution and disappearance.  Or for ruining the mental health of asylum seekers locked in indefinite captivity in a subsided Pacific concentration camp system.  They have set the standard, and countries like Denmark have been inspired.  Støjberg might well count herself unlucky.