Omicron variant drives COVID surge to record levels in the Philippines

John Malvar

The Philippines is in the grip of a record-setting spread of COVID-19, driven by the Omicron variant. The administration of President Rodrigo Duterte has responded with half-measures and threats of repression. In total, 52,293 people have died of COVID in the Philippines since the beginning of the pandemic.

A police officer warns passengers to maintain physical distancing inside a bus at a checkpoint as the government enforced another round of strict health restrictions to control the rise of COVID-19 cases at the outskirts of Quezon City in Manila, Philippines on Monday, Jan. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Basilio Sepe)

The country had 33,169 new confirmed cases on January 10, setting a record tally for the third straight day, with a startling 46 percent positivity rate. The National Capital Region (NCR) had a positivity rate of 52 percent. The World Health Organization (WHO) threshold for the controlled transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is 5 percent positivity. The Philippines was below this figure in December.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque stated at a press briefing Monday night that the country was at a “critical risk” of COVID-19 transmission, reporting a 690 percent increase in the seven-day average of daily cases.

Duque declared that Omicron had become the dominant variant in the Philippines. As of January 3, 60 percent of all sequenced samples of COVID-19 were of the Omicron variant.

The Omicron fueled surge began less than two weeks ago. Hospitals are already inadequately staffed, a combination of an influx of cases and the large number of infected and quarantined medical personnel. The Philippine General Hospital, the largest state-run medical facility, is nearly at full capacity.

A number of major nationwide banks have announced that they are shortening their business hours, ostensibly to curb the spread of the pandemic but almost certainly as a result of understaffing. CNN suspended broadcast on Monday as it was no longer able to staff its broadcast center.

Presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles announced that the NCR would remain at Alert Level 3 and would not advance to Level 4. Alert Level 3 allows for continued outdoor dining at 50 percent capacity and indoor dining at 30 percent provided the patrons are fully vaccinated. Alert Level 4 would shut down malls and other non-essential indoor centers and restrict those under the age of 18 and over 65 to their homes.

Dr. Rontgene Solante, a leading infectious disease expert in the Philippines based at San Lazaro Hospital, called on the government to impose Alert Level 4 restrictions on the NCR.

Nograles, however, announced that while all other pre-established testing metrics called for an increased Alert Level, the total hospital bed utilization did not yet require a shift to Level 4. Bed utilization, however, is a lagging indicator. By the time that this metric is met, the crisis will have advanced to a catastrophe.

Increased demand has already brought the healthcare infrastructure of Metro Manila to the verge of collapse. The Department of Health authorized hospitals to shorten the quarantine protocols for fully vaccinated healthcare workers who contracted or were exposed to COVID-19. Hospitals “in extreme circumstances of manpower shortage” were authorized to reduce healthcare workers’ isolation period to five days. It is highly likely that any healthcare worker forced back to work at the end of five days will still be infectious and will possibly still be suffering from symptoms.

The paramount concern of the Duterte administration, like capitalist governments around the globe, is not public health but keeping the economy open. Raising the Alert Level from 2 to 3 already imposes a significant cut to business income. The Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) estimated that P3 billion ($US58 million) per week were lost due to the increased restrictions.

Shifting to Alert Level 4 would see far more serious cuts to profit. Rather than return to stricter protocols, shutting down unnecessary business activity, the Duterte administration is creating the conditions for mass death.

The crisis conditions of the pandemic are compounded in the southern regions of the Visayas and Mindanao by the extensive damage wreaked by Typhoon Rai, known locally as Odette, in December. Large regions, impacting hundreds of thousands of people, remain without power or running water. Thousands are suffering from malnutrition and diarrhea, and dozens have died of dehydration. The refugee centers, inadequately prepared, have become superspreader locations for the pandemic.

The Duterte administration has carried out a number of half-measures against the spread of the pandemic. Nearly all schools remain closed to face-to-face instruction. The government has attempted to set up a vaccine mandate, requiring proof of vaccination be displayed before entering business establishments or public buildings.

The vaccine mandate, however, is hobbled by the fact that vaccines have not been available for the majority of the population until very recently, largely a result of the international inequality of vaccine access for countries of belated capitalist development such as the Philippines. Only 52.4 million Filipinos are now vaccinated, or 68 percent of the target population. Over 80 percent have now received their first shot. Only 3 million have received a booster shot.

Duterte’s stock solution to any social problem is repression. The unvaccinated were to remain at home, he declared, except for “essential purposes.” He added that he was authorizing local officials to arrest any unvaccinated person found out of their home. However, on his list of “essential purposes” was reporting to work. His authorization of the arrest of the unvaccinated is a green-light for arbitrary detention.

Duterte’s hold on political power is now short lived. He has lost a majority of elite support for the upcoming election, which is scheduled for May. There is widespread speculation that he is contemplating using executive powers in response to COVID to delay the election and remain in office. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana issued an ominous statement that at present “there is no compelling reason to declare martial law,” as if floating the idea for future use.

China implements stringent measures to suppress Omicron outbreak in Tianjin

Peter Symonds

A new outbreak of COVID-19 in the Chinese port city of Tianjin has included at least two cases of the highly infectious Omicron strain. Authorities have responded by rapidly rolling out mass testing and contact tracing of the city’s population of 14 million and imposing restrictions on movement both within Tianjin and in neighbouring areas including Beijing.

ianjin, a major Chinese city near Beijing has placed its 14 million residents on partial lockdown after a number of children and adults tested positive for COVID-19, including at least two with the omicron variant. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

According to the Xinhua news agency, 20 Covid infections were reported on Friday evening and Saturday in the city’s Jinnan district. The first two cases—a staff member at a day-care centre and a 10-year-old student at a primary school—were found to be infected with the Omicron strain. The 18 others, identified through contact tracing, were mainly students and their family members from the same places.

In the past month, imported cases of Omicron have been found in five cities—Tianjin, Guangzhou, Changsha, Shenzhen, and Zhejiang—but with the exception of a few confirmed cases in Guangzhou there has been no identified community transmission.

The current outbreak in Tianjin is particularly concerning as a genetic analysis revealed that the Omicron variant may have been spreading for some time. City health official Zhang Ying said that particular virus had spread for at least three generations—that is, at least two rounds of person-to-person infection—and warned that more cases might emerge. The source of the outbreak has not been confirmed.

While it has not been established that all cases involve the Omicron variant, three quarters of the 20 cases were children aged between eight and 13, according to the Global Times. Young people are known to be more vulnerable to the Omicron strain.

As reported on Monday, two Omicron cases have also been identified in Anyang city in Henan province, more than 300 miles from Tianjin. The cases have been traced to a potential source—a university student who returned to Anyang from Tianjin on December 28, raising the possibility that Omicron has been circulating in Tianjin for nearly two weeks.

If the virus has been in Tianjin for that time, it raises concerns that it might have spread to Beijing which is about 120 kilometres away. Beijing is due to host the Winter Olympics starting in early February.

As of Saturday night, Tianjin had quarantined more than 75,000 people, subway lines had been partially closed and many flights cancelled. Residents were encouraged not to travel to other areas of the country except where absolutely necessary.

The response of Chinese authorities to the Omicron cases based on their “zero Covid” strategy is in stark contrast to that of governments around the world, which have allowed and even encouraged Omicron to spread on the unverified and unscientific basis that it is a milder covid strain.

On Sunday, city authorities began testing the entire city with the process due to be completed within 24 hours in four districts by Monday morning and in another 12 districts by Tuesday morning. So far, swabs have been taken from more than 9.6 million people, and testing has been completed for over 3.4 million people.

To date, there have been a total of 31 local confirmed cases and 10 asymptomatic infections all of whom have been isolated and treated in specially designated hospitals.

On Sunday evening, Tianjin authorities issued a notice encouraging all residents to isolate themselves at home. At the same time, the Tianjin Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters has completely closed more than 20 of the most severely affected residential communities. Following widespread complaints during the lockdown in the city of Xi’an, those forced to isolate at home in Tianjin have been assured that they will receive necessary supplies.

All tutoring centres, daycare centres and vocational training centres have been closed down while universities and colleges have sealed off their campuses.

Tianjin is regarded as one of China’s top cities. It is one of only four provincial-level municipalities—together with Beijing itself, Shanghai and Chongqing—directly administered by the central government. It is the major port for northern China, including Beijing in particular, and ranks as one of the largest ports in the world measured by throughput.

Tianjin authorities have not yet imposed a city-wide lockdown like that implemented in Xi’an over recent weeks. The lockdown of that city since December 23 has largely suppressed the outbreak with just 15 new symptomatic cases reported yesterday down from 30 on Sunday, and well below the daily highs of between 150 and 200 cases. The total number of infections in the Xi’an outbreak is now over 2,000.

The COVID outbreaks in Tianjin and Xi’an are miniscule compared to the daily infections taking place around the world, particularly in Europe and the United States. The total number of infections in China for the pandemic is just over 100,000 in a country of 1.4 billion people. By comparison, the number of infections daily in Australia, with a population of just 25 million, has climbed rapidly in the last month to more than 100,000.

Since China successfully suppressed the initial COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, the outbreaks have all been traced to infections brought in from outside the country. While the outbreaks have been contained, their continuation underscores the fact that the elimination of COVID-19 requires a globally-planned, scientifically-based strategy.

Far from encouraging other governments to follow China’s example, the US and international media treats China as an aberration, paints its public health measures in the blackest light, and regards the criminal “herd immunity” policy elsewhere as “normal.” Yet even then, article after article is compelled to acknowledge that the Chinese government’s policy has broad popular support.

A study by Chinese mathematicians released in November conservatively estimated that if China had adopted the COVID-19 policies pursued in the United States it would be experiencing daily case numbers of well over 600,000 which would result in large numbers of hospitalisations and deaths. As it is, China has registered less than 5,000 Covid deaths—all but two of which occurred in the first months of 2020 during the initial Wuhan outbreak.

With world’s highest COVID-19 death rate, Peru confronts third wave of pandemic

Cesar Uco & Bill Van Auken

With the spread of the Omicron variant out of control, the continuation of the pro-big business policies of his predecessors by President Pedro Castillo has left Peru open to a devastating third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Line for vaccinations and tests at army barracks in Lima (Credit: ANDINA/ Vidal Tarqui)

Peru has now recorded more than 70,000 new cases in a single week, surpassing the peaks set in the deadly first and second waves of the pandemic, which claimed over 200,000 lives, inflicting the highest death rate of any country in the world.

With a population of 33.6 million people, Peru has recorded 2,358,685 cases and 203,019 deaths. This represents 6,030 deaths per million inhabitants, as compared to 2,575 per million in the United States, which has the largest number of deaths in absolute terms.

The tragic death toll has also resulted in Peru being the country with the largest number of children orphaned by the pandemic, nearly 100,000.

Peru’s Deputy Health Minister Augusto Tarazona told RPP News that with the current uncontrolled spread of the virus, within three weeks the country will face some 150,000 new cases per week which “will put us in a very difficult situation.” Stating the obvious, he added, “Having in a few days hundreds of thousands of cases will definitely negatively affect the health services.”

During the first half of December, the country was recording just 12,000 new cases a week. “It isn’t a curve, it’s a straight vertical line heading up,” the Peruvian health official warned.

The Peruvian Health Ministry announced on December 19 that it had detected four cases of Omicron in the country. Now the variant accounts for 82 percent of the new infections in Lima.

While the first cases were detected in upper class and upper middle class districts such as Miraflores, San Isidro and La Molina, indicating their likely origin among Peruvians traveling abroad, the variant quickly spread to the impoverished and working class districts, including those populated with migrants from the interior of the country, such as San Martin de Porres and San Juan de Lurigancho, and onward into the country’s provinces.

The government of President Castillo has pursued a vaccination-only strategy, failing to implement any contact tracing program.

Peru has one of the highest vaccination rates in Latin America—87 percent for those over 69, and 80 percent for the adult population as a whole with two doses. This is due in part to government mandates of vaccinations for entering workplaces or public enclosed spaces but even more so to the demand for vaccines from a population that went through the horrific toll of death and disease during the first waves of the pandemic.

Castillo, whose accession to the presidency last July was hailed by the pseudo-left as a victory for the Peruvian working class and a revival of the Latin American “Pink Tide,” has categorically rejected any serious lockdowns or any other measures that would impinge on the profits of the transnational mining companies and other capitalist interests, both foreign and domestic.

Restrictions that have been put in place will do little to nothing to blunt the rise in infections. A night-time curfew has been extended in Lima, Callao and 23 provinces that have been declared on a state of “high alert” to 11:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m., while in the rest of the country it is in effect from 2:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. It has also limited occupancy of commercial spaces to 40 percent in those areas deemed under a state of high alert.

In essence, Peru is following the lead of the United States and other major capitalist countries in promoting the policy of “learning to live with COVID,” i.e., an acceptance of unending mass death and sickness.

The spread of Omicron, however, threatens Peru’s precarious health care system with imminent collapse. In Lima, the occupation rate for intensive care unit beds had risen to 75 percent as of January 5. In the north of the country, in regions like Piura and La Libertad, the rate is rising above 80 and 90 percent.

Carlos Lescano, president the Peruvian Society of Intensive Medicine (Sopemi), told El Comercio that the country needs at least 3,500 intensive care beds to confront the coming wave of serious cases. This is more than double what is now available. He warned that, as in the first and second waves, patients would die for lack of treatment.

Even with more beds, he added, there is a serious lack of trained medical personnel. According to WHO standards, Peru should have between 2,500 and 3,200 intensive care specialists. Today there are only 750 in the country.

Dr. Edén Galán-Rodas, ex-secretary of the Medical College of Peru (CMP), told El Comercio that Peru needs a total of at least 15,000 more doctors to adequately care for its population. He noted that the Health Ministry under the Castillo administration had recently renewed contracts for 10,000 doctors that had expired on December 31 only until April. “The same errors are being made as in the first and second waves,” he said.

The Castillo government, the doctor said, has failed to provide medical personnel with adequate personal protective equipment, much less confront the deep underlying crisis of Peru’s health care system.

The Castillo administration has embraced the consensus position of all the bourgeois parties and the media that no economic activity will be interrupted to stem the spread of COVID-19 and that schools will be reopened in March, regardless of the state of the pandemic.

The renewed COVID-19 crisis has once again brought into stark relief the contradiction between Castillo’s populist promises to rule in the interests of Peru’s impoverished masses and his declarations of allegiance to the profit interests of foreign and domestic capital. In all of his government’s policy decisions relating to the pandemic, the latter has prevailed.

US and Russia meet for negotiations in Geneva

Peter Schwarz

The dialog on “strategic stability” agreed to in talks between US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last summer began in Geneva, Switzerland on Sunday evening. The heads of the two high-level delegations, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and the Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, met for an initial working dinner. The actual negotiations then started on Monday.

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov, right, and his delegation arrive for security talks with US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman at the United States Mission in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, Jan. 10, 2022. (Denis Balibouse/Pool via AP)

In the runup to the bilateral talks, it was already clear that they were not a round of détente but would initiate a further stage in the war preparations of the United States and its European allies against Russia.

For weeks the NATO states have accused Russia of planning a military attack on Ukraine and threatened massive countermeasures, ranging from the refusal to allow the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to come online, to Russia’s exclusion from the global financial transaction system SWIFT. The plan is not for gradual escalation but for immediate retaliation, explained the US State Department.

Russia, for its part, demanded security guarantees. In mid-December, Moscow submitted two draft treaties which called on the US to reject any further expansion of NATO and to give up military activity in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Washington immediately made it clear that it would never sign onto such concessions and would not accept any “red lines.” It merely declared its readiness to discuss arms controls, a reciprocal limit on the stationing of missiles and mutual restrictions of military exercises. The INF treaty, which was agreed to between the US and the Soviet Union in 1987 and restricted the use of some short- and mid-range missiles, was unilaterally abrogated by former President Donald Trump in 2019.

Despite the opposition from the US to an agreement, the European Union was alarmed that Washington and Moscow could reach a deal that excludes the EU.

EU foreign policy spokesman Josep Borrell said during a visit to Ukraine, “We are no longer in the Yalta times,” where the great powers divided up Europe in 1945. Ukraine is part of Europe, and the EU cannot be a spectator when the United States and Russia discuss Europe’s security, he stated.

The French security expert François Heisbourg complained, “It’s our security, but we’re not there.” The Europeans are concerned whether President Biden is still consistent following the US failure in Afghanistan and its strategic focus on China. They also fear that Biden could be significantly weakened by the midterm elections in November and that Trump will return to the White House in 2024.

Similar points were also made by German officials. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock of the Green Party warned during her inaugural visit to Washington that there could be no decision about security in Europe without Europe.

As soon as the plan for the dialog in Geneva was announced, long-term head of the foreign affairs desk at the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Stefan Kornelius, wrote, “Should this plan be implemented, the European Union has to prepare for a major humiliation: a conference on the security of the states of Europe—without Europe’s community of states.”

Europe, Ukraine and the Belarusian opposition are “clearly further along in their self-understanding of security and order than to allow two gentlemen in Moscow and Washington to force them into an old corset,” stressed Kornelius.

The escalating conflict between NATO and Russia, which is threatening to plunge Europe into a disastrous war three-quarters of a century after the end of the Second World War, is a devastating indictment of the consequences of capitalist restoration in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

Since the last Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev embraced the imperialist powers and dissolved the Soviet Union 30 years ago, NATO has militarily encircled Russia ever more closely. Despite solemn promises not to militarize Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics, many former members of the Warsaw Pact and the former Baltic Soviet republics are now members of NATO. NATO regularly conducts military maneuvers on the Russian border and has set up a rapid reaction force that can attack Russia within a few days.

The military encirclement of Russia reached a new stage in 2014, when the US, Germany and other European powers organized a coup in Ukraine that brought a pro-Western regime to power with the help of fascist militias. Since then, the country, which has a 2,300 km-long border with Russia, has received military aid totaling more than $2.5 billion from the United States. Numerous European powers have also provided the country with weapons, including the Czech Republic, Poland, France, Britain and in particular Turkey.

In Germany, current Minister of Economic Affairs and co-leader of the Greens, Robert Habeck, called a year ago for arms deliveries to the Ukrainian military. Wolfgang Ischinger, an influential figure in German foreign policy, declared in a guest post at the end of last year in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, “An ‘augmentation’ of Ukraine’s defence capabilities should not be a taboo for Berlin. Berlin shouldn’t be on the sidelines.”

The regime in Kiev, which is headed by rival oligarch cliques and is responsible for widespread social misery, is chronically unstable and therefore extremely dangerous. It repeatedly resorts to nationalist provocations in order to hold onto power, which adds to the danger of war.

It is significant that former President Petro Poroshenko, who came to power in the 2014 coup, is being targeted by his successor Volodymyr Zelensky on charges of high treason. He is accused of having enriched himself through prohibited coal deliveries from eastern Ukraine, which is controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

The Russian regime of President Putin, which also represents the interests of the oligarchs, has nothing to offer to counter the threat of war. It swings between military threats and diplomatic maneuvers, while being totally incapable of appealing to the international working class, the only social force capable of stopping the threat of war.

In addition to the bilateral talks, more meetings are planned in Geneva this week. The NATO-Russia Council will meet again on Wednesday for the first time in two years, followed Thursday by the permanent council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the only format in which Ukraine itself is represented. But none of these meetings will lessen the danger of war. This ultimately results from the irresolvable contradictions of world capitalism—the incompatibility of the world economy with the nation state and the social character of production with capitalist private property.

Australia records eighth-highest weekly COVID-19 infection total globally

Martin Scott

Yesterday, the total number of COVID-19 infections officially reported in Australia since the beginning of the pandemic surged past the one million mark. More than half were recorded in the preceding week. In other words, more infections were recorded in the last seven days than in the 707 days since the country’s first case.

While the emergence of the highly transmissible Omicron variant has accelerated infection numbers around the world, the shift has been most pronounced in Australia.

Previously heralded as a relative COVID-19 “success story,” Australia has in the past week recorded more infections than all but seven countries worldwide. The numbers everywhere are a significant underestimation of the real spread of infection, but the comparison does provide an indication of the massive surge in Australia.

In per capita terms, the only countries with more than one million inhabitants and a higher reported infection rate than Australia are Ireland, France, Cyprus, Greece, Denmark and Portugal. Of these, only Ireland and Cyprus have a more rapidly increasing rate of COVID-19 deaths.

This transformation is the direct result of the open adoption by the Australian ruling class of the murderous program of “herd immunity.” While the profit-driven transition, led by the Labor-dominated “National Cabinet,” to “living with the virus” began during last year’s Delta wave, the arrival of Omicron in late November was the key turning point.

Across Australia, more than 90,000 infections were reported today, a vast underestimation of the real total, as both polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and rapid antigen tests (RATs) remain difficult to access, and not all states and territories include RAT results in official figures.

More than 3,800 Australians are currently hospitalised for COVID-19, with 341 in intensive care and 92 on ventilators. New South Wales (NSW) remains the worst-affected, with 2,186 people hospitalised.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews reported this morning that at least 4,500 health care workers in the state are infected with COVID-19 or in isolation.

Twenty-seven deaths were reported in Australia today, 13 in Victoria, 11 in NSW and 1 each in Queensland, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. Nine of those who died in NSW had received at least two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

The surge of infections is throwing virtually every industry into chaos. Goldman Sachs estimated yesterday that between 24 and 76 million work hours will be lost this month to COVID-19 illness and isolation.

Virgin Australia announced yesterday that it had been forced to cancel 25 percent of scheduled flights in January and February due to staff shortages caused by COVID-19 infection and exposure, as well as booking cancellations by would-be passengers concerned over the rapidly spreading virus.

Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci warned yesterday that customers could expect to see bare supermarket shelves for at least another two weeks.

He told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC’s) Radio National “Breakfast” program, “between 20 and in some cases 40 percent” of the company’s distribution centre workers were infected with COVID-19 or in isolation.

Australia’s other major supermarket chain, Coles, faces a similar situation, with 30–35 percent of warehouse workers and 10 percent of retail workers off due to the virus.

The crisis is affecting the whole supply chain, with trucking companies reporting up to 50 percent of drivers unable to work. According to the Australian Dairy Products Federation, up to 40 percent of dairy workers are sick or in isolation.

Rather than any move to stem the spread of COVID-19 through the country’s supply chain, state and federal governments have responded by slashing isolation rules for workers in food production and distribution. While NSW was the first to order workers exposed to the virus back on the job, the Labor-led states of Queensland and Victoria immediately followed.

Making clear that the federal government would not shift from its position that public health must be subordinated to the profit demands of big business, Morrison declared: “You can push through, or you can get locked down. We’re for pushing through.”

In relation to the changes to isolation rules, Morrison claimed, “anyone who is symptomatic or has COVID, they are not going in to work,” in fact this dangerous practice is already being carried out.

Workers at the Teys Australia abattoir in Naracoorte, South Australia (SA), were told in an email Sunday to “present to work tomorrow as normal unless you are feeling unwell,” even if they had tested positive for COVID-19.

The state health authority confirmed this, telling the ABC: “To ensure food security, SA Health has allowed a small group of critical staff who have tested positive and are asymptomatic, to continue to work in an isolated area away from others.”

These workers have been herded back into the factory to ensure the continued profits of the company despite the clear and acknowledged risk that they will infect their co-workers.

The SA Health spokesperson continued: “These workers must remain at home and isolate when they are not at work until they are cleared from COVID.”

This is a stark example of the class character of the pandemic response. Rampant infection and illness in the workplace is not only tolerated, but actively fueled by the actions of the state, while the workers themselves are excluded from participating in any aspect of society that does not produce a profit for their employer.

The experience at this South Australian meatworks provides a clear indication of what is being prepared for the entire working class.

The catastrophic state of Australia’s supply chains and health system, rapidly spreading to virtually every other industry, is the direct product of the murderous “let it rip” policies adopted by the entire political establishment.

The unions have offered up only mealy-mouthed criticism of this reckless policy. Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) secretary Sally McManus yesterday wrote to Morrison requesting a meeting to “discuss the support needed for working people who are now on the front line of the Omicron crisis.”

McManus harkened back to the close collaboration between the unions and the federal government in 2020, when mass sackings saw hundreds of thousands suddenly unemployed Australians queuing outside welfare offices. Australia’s unions stepped in to offer their services to the government as a force to keep the lid on popular opposition amid the explosive social crisis.

The ACTU and the government changed the awards covering millions of workers, allowing for unpaid overtime and other attacks on conditions. Together, they crafted the JobKeeper wage subsidy, a government handout to the largest corporations valued at hundreds of billions of dollars. Throughout the pandemic, the unions have forced workers into unsafe workplaces and have done everything they can to suppress opposition.

The four measures called for by McManus yesterday: free rapid antigen tests, paid pandemic leave for close contacts, N95 masks for workers and COVID-19 support payments for business, have little to do with keeping workers safe, and are in fact aimed at ensuring business can continue to operate with minimal disruption.

The intervention of the ACTU is a commitment to suppress mounting hostility among the working class to the rapidly escalating COVID-19 crisis.

Workers in health, transport, warehousing, food manufacture, and throughout the working class must reject the lies that Omicron is “mild,” and the efforts by Labor and Liberal-National governments, with the backing of the unions, and in line with the demands of business, to herd them back to work to infect their colleagues.

More than half a million children infected with COVID-19 in the US last week, shattering previous records

Emma Arceneaux

Monday’s report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for the week ending January 6 recorded a staggering 580,247 pediatric COVID-19 cases, up 74 percent from the previous week’s record 325,000 cases. There were also a record 1,636 pediatric hospitalizations and 14 additional deaths.

Graph showing weekly COVID-19 infections among US children (Credit: AAP)

Each region of the country has skyrocketing child cases that have blown past previous records. The Northeast, with 155,000 cases last week, has nearly overtaken the South for the region with the highest number of weekly child infections. The Midwest and West Coast are not far behind.

Across the US, pediatric hospitals are rapidly filling, even before the full effects of Omicron’s spread are felt. Dr. Danielle Zerr, pediatric infectious diseases expert at Seattle Children’s Hospital, told the New York Times that child hospitalizations are “blowing away our previous Delta wave at the end of the summer, early fall, which had been our highest prior to that.”

In Louisiana, Dr. Catherine O’Neal of Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, observed to WWNO that “we’re already seeing our max number of kids who have ever been admitted to the children’s hospital during one surge, and we’re not done with this surge yet. Cases continue to mount. We could have our sickest pediatric population of the pandemic so far, and that is not mild.”

The 14 deaths were spread across each region of the country. The corporate media continues its virtual cover-up of these children’s deaths, with only one California child’s death being reported by local or national news in recent weeks. As of January 10, the CDC has documented 1,084 pediatric deaths, with a staggering 44 deaths recorded by their tally in just the past 10 days.

Graph showing weekly child COVID-19 infections by region (Credit: AAP)

Educators continue to needlessly die from the virus as well. An unofficial tracker on Twitter has documented at least 11 educators’ deaths in the first 10 days of 2022.

These include high school drama teacher Jeannie (“J”) Hutter of Independence, Missouri, who, despite being triple vaccinated, died on January 5 at the age of 57. Her sister and co-teacher Tommie told local news that J had a rare autoimmune disorder that causes inflammation of the blood vessels. Notably, because J had an underlying health condition, her death would be deemed “encouraging news” according to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.

Since the start of the semester, there have been thousands of school closures due to the widespread infection of staff and students. Burbio, which tracks K-12 closures, recorded 5,409 school disruptions the week of January 2 and 1,338 active closures on January 10. These have occurred across the country, from Oregon to Arkansas, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and New Hampshire.

Jefferson County Public Schools in Kentucky, the largest school district in the state with more than 100,000 students, canceled school Monday and announced that the district would switch to remote learning Tuesday through Friday following 1,660 infections last week, the highest number to date. The Covington Independent School District in Northern Kentucky is also returning to remote learning for its 3,800 students.

Rochelle, a teacher from a district north of Detroit, where there were 918 school cases last week, told the WSWS: “A lot of the information is being brushed under the rug. They want to tell us that Omicron has milder symptoms, though they don’t have all the information yet. At the same time they hide what they do know. The actual recorded hospitalization in South Africa of young kids under the age of five is very high.

“Recently I saw a chart about the [Michigan] Thumb area. We are experiencing a 33 percent test positivity rate. Because of the rising numbers, mask mandates have been reestablished in our schools. Our county health director eliminated her quarantine mandate early in the school year after legislation from Lansing threatened to cut funding where there were quarantine orders or mask mandates.

“While you can blame the Republicans and Trump for what they did, it is actually worse now. When Biden got elected, instead of a change, the same policy of normalizing death has continued.”

Students, some wearing protective masks, arrive for the first day of school at Sessums Elementary School in Riverview, Florida, August 10, 2021 (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)

The unprecedented spread of the disease has triggered widespread opposition among educators, parents and students to the reopening of schools in-person.

At the forefront of the opposition are the 20,000 Chicago public school teachers who voted last week not to return to in-person classes due to the pandemic. Late Monday night, the Chicago Teachers Union announced an agreement with the Democratic Party administration of Lori Lightfoot to force teachers back to work. Teachers will be voting on the agreement today, and there is enormous opposition on social media.

WBEZ reported Monday that CTU President Jesse Sharkey admitted that “the union has compromised on some of the biggest issues, including widespread testing and on remote learning.”

Student-organized protests and walkouts are also increasing, reflecting the growing impact that the pandemic and the murderous policies of the federal and local governments are having on the consciousness of young people.

In New York City, where hospitalizations have tripled since Christmas, students at several high schools are planning to walk out on Tuesday.

An educator in Brooklyn told the WSWS that students are given very little information when their classmates test positive. She saw her students carrying take-home rapid tests and asked them if they understood what the boxes were for. “They just shrugged,” she said. “I told them this means you have been exposed to COVID and they have to test negative before they can return to school. I explained to them that they should give the boxes to their parents and tell them you have been exposed. They said ‘Really? Someone in our class had COVID?’ They had no idea.”

Blowing apart the cynical lies of the Democrats, Republicans, unions and the media that schools must remain open in-person for the mental health of students and to minimize learning loss are the actual reports from teachers and students on what in-person “learning” currently looks like.

A New York City high school student recently posted on Reddit a description of the chaotic conditions in schools, with record numbers of teachers, staff and students out sick. Due to the absences, entire classes are herded into an auditorium for study hall: “We literally learn nothing. I spent about 3 hours sitting around today doing nothing.” The classes that actually take place are “quiet and empty. Students are staying home because of risk of COVID.”

The post has received over a thousand comments, with students and teachers from across the country sharing similar stories.

Referencing a recent bill signed into law by Democratic Governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer, one teacher responded, “What’s happening here is similar to what’s happening in another place where they are ‘deputizing’ bus drivers and janitors to ‘teach’ students. This is just showing that the people in charge are not actually interested in actually educating the children, but only interested in checking boxes, warehousing, and going through the motions purely for appearances.”

A teacher in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas reported to the WSWS that he has had multiple classes since the start of the semester in which “I didn’t have a single student present. The district is scrambling for substitutes too. Parents are substituting for AP classes, computer science and high-level classes, which they know nothing about. Last year I would have had a virtual curriculum prepared, but this year we weren’t allowed to work on a virtual curriculum over the summer, so that there would be no fall-back to virtual.”

Citing the dangerous spread of COVID in schools, students in Massachusetts have also circulated a petition, which has over 4,500 signatures, to demand a remote learning option.

In Oakland, California, following a wildcat sickout by teachers on Friday against dangerous conditions, over 600 students have signed a petition demanding the district switch to remote learning until schools are safe. The students threaten to strike beginning on the 18th if their demands for increased protections are not met.

At Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri, over 120 students staged a walkout Monday to protest the district dropping its mask mandate. Their petition to the school board to reconsider the decision received over 2,500 signatures.

Students at Langara College in British Columbia, Canada, have also circulated a petition demanding remote instruction, noting that, “As a group, we unequivocally agree that our mental and physical health would suffer more in-person with the risks of COVID-19 compared to learning at home, virtually.”

The immediate closure of all in-person schooling is a life-or-death question for the working class and youth in the US and internationally. Every effort must be made to support and expand the emerging initiative of educators and students to demand remote instruction until the pandemic is brought under control.

Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa: Post-Doctoral Writing Fellowship 2022

Application Deadline:

1st February 2022

Tell Me About Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa: Post-Doctoral Writing Fellowship:

The Social Science Research Council offers fellowships to support the completion of doctoral degrees and to promote next generation social science research in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. The fellowships support dissertation research on peace, security, and development topics.

The post-doctoral writing fellowship supports up to six months of completing an article or book manuscript  through a stipend of up to US$3,000. It will enable the recipient to buy time off from teaching and administrative duties to focus exclusively on finalizing an article for a peer-reviewed journal or completing a book manuscript based on a Next Gen-supported doctoral dissertation that advances research on peace, security, and development. This fellowship is exclusively available for Next Gen alumni.

Which Fields are Eligible?

The program features a thematic focus on peace, security, and development in order to renew basic research agendas and strengthen interdisciplinary social science research capacity addressing these issues.

The program encourages innovative research on peace, security, and development topics, moving the boundaries of scholarship and research by exploring concrete linkages between these themes. We envision supporting a diverse set of projects that shed light on a range of economic, political, social, conflict and peacebuilding processes using evidence-based research.

Some projects, we hope, will examine large-scale phenomena and others small-scale social processes. The strongest projects typically will explore connections across these scales. Some research projects will rigorously explore elements of governance, civil society, human rights, peacebuilding mechanisms/institutions and processes, and rule of law. Others will explore root causes of conflict, human insecurity, emerging trajectories and forms of conflict, insecurities, and human mobilities. Above all projects should advance important fields of study and social science knowledge.

Please see the following list of prospective issues that are considered relevant to Next Gen fellowships:  

• Causes and driver of conflict
• Institutional and local approaches to conflict prevention, management and resolution
• Elections, transitions and development
• National and regional approaches to peace, security and development
• Identity and conflict
• Gender, youth, conflict, peace and security
• Conflict, peace and human mobilities
• Cultural issues in security and development
• State-society relations
• Digitality
• Economic and humanitarian perspectives to conflict and peace
• Democracy, human rights and development
• Post-conflict development, reconstruction and reconciliation
• Law, peace agreements and transitional justice
• International justice, genocide and war crimes
• Cities, migration and mobility
• Law and constitutionalism
• Health, food security and development
• Natural resource governance and development
• Climate change, conflict, peace and security
• Globalization and emerging insecurities
• Media, conflict, peace and security
• Data, privacy and security

What Type of Scholarship is this?

Fellowship

Who can apply for Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa: Post-Doctoral Writing Fellowship?

All applicants must:

• be citizens of any sub-Saharan African country
• hold a doctorate degree from an accredited university in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda
• be a past recipient of at least one Next Generation Social Sciences Doctoral Dissertation fellowship
• be prepared to take no less than three-month leave away from routine teaching and administrative duties in current role
• affiliated to an academic department in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda at the of award

As of May 2015, the program prioritizes applicants holding a faculty position or demonstrating a durable commitment to higher education in Africa, but does not restrict eligibility to such individuals.

The program seeks to promote diversity and encourages women to apply.

Which Countries are Eligible?

sub-Saharan African countries

How Many Scholarships will be Given?

Not specified

What is the Benefit of Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa: Post-Doctoral Writing Fellowship?

• The Social Science Research Council (SSRC), as a part of its Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa, supports up to six months of completing an article or book manuscript through a stipend of up to US$3,000.
• It will enable the recipient to buy time off from teaching and administrative duties to focus exclusively on finalizing an article for a peer-reviewed journal or completing a book manuscript based on a Next Gen-supported doctoral dissertation that advances research on peace, security, and development.

How to Apply for Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa: Post-Doctoral Writing Fellowship:

All applications must be submitted using the online application portal.

Strong proposals will offer clear and concise descriptions of the writing project and its significance. Proposals should display thorough knowledge of the relevant social science literature that activities that applicants will undertake    during the project. In addition, applicants must demonstrate that all proposed activities are feasible and can be completed in a timely manner. All proposals will be evaluated for these criteria by an independent, international committee of leading scholars from a range of social science and related disciplines.

Fellows must be willing to attend one workshop sponsored by the SSRC each year that is intended to help early-career faculty engage in scholarly reflections, research and writing. We anticipate awarding up to 43 fellowships in total across all categories each year.

Additional information on eligibility, the application process, and award details can be found in our Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

For inquiries or technical questions pertaining to the online application portal, please contact SSRC staff from the Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Program: nextgenafrica@ssrc.org. 

All materials must be submitted no later than 11:59 pm (EST) on February 1, 2022.

The program is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Visit Award Webpage for Details