More than 120,000 COVID cases in New Zealand

Tom Peters

The number of active COVID-19 cases in New Zealand has passed 120,000. The size of the Omicron variant outbreak has expanded more than a hundredfold in the past month.

There were 22,152 new infections reported today, following 19,566 yesterday. There are 405 people in hospital. The death toll rose to 61 last Friday, with five deaths recorded in a single day, the largest daily number in New Zealand during the pandemic. This is only the beginning.

COVID-19 Minister Chris Hipkins said today that the number of people in hospital with the virus could reach 1,000 or 1,500. This would be “challenging” for health workers, he stated.

The positivity rate is very high, with about one in five people in Wellington, the capital city, testing positive, indicating there are many undetected cases. Less than 60 percent of people over 12 have received a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and just over half of those aged 5 to 11 have received a single dose, leaving many without significant protection against Omicron.

The explosion of cases was not inevitable. It is the outcome of the Labour Party-led government’s decision in October last year to abandon its previous elimination policy. Since then, public health restrictions have been progressively lifted and the government has declared there will be no return to lockdowns.

The government talks about Omicron washing over New Zealand in a wave, which will supposedly peak and then subside, causing minimal harm. In fact, as the entire pandemic has shown, allowing the virus to spread means there will be continuous waves. The virus can infect people multiple times, and mutate into new variants, continuing to cause large numbers of deaths, severe illness and disability. The only way to protect lives and people’s health is through a properly funded elimination strategy.

Laboratories processing COVID tests have been overwhelmed with demand. Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield yesterday apologised for a delay in processing a backlog of 32,000 tests. Some people are waiting longer than five days for a result. In response to the crisis, the government sent over 9,000 tests to Queensland, Australia for processing over the weekend.

Elspeth Frascatore, an emergency doctor in Auckland, wrote on the Spinoff website that healthcare workers feel “overwhelmed” and “unseen” as politicians agitate for the removal of all public health restrictions. “COVID is not finished with us. It’s just getting started,” she warned.

As hospitalisations soar, Radio NZ reported yesterday that about 880 workers at the Counties Manukau District Health Board in working class South Auckland, 13.5 percent of all hospital staff, are off sick or isolating because a member of their household has the virus. Across Auckland, hospitals have drastically cut back on services and non-urgent procedures are being postponed.

Thousands of workers herded into unsafe workplaces are being exposed to the virus, which is disrupting supply chains. The Countdown supermarket chain reports that nearly 1,000 workers around the country are infected, including 45 percent of staff at two Auckland distribution centres.

New Zealand Couriers, a major delivery company, told the media today that half of its workforce in Auckland is not able to work, and the company has been forced to cut back to delivering only medical supplies and other essentials.

COVID continues to spread like wildfire among younger people due to the criminal resumption of in-person learning. Minister Hipkins declared last Friday that one in five schools had cases and the government expects “just about every school, every early childhood service” will come into contact with the virus in a matter of weeks.

The Ministry announced last week that schools no longer had to contact trace or inform parents that their child may be a close contact. The government is relying on the teacher unions, which support keeping schools open, regardless of how many people get sick, so that parents can remain on the job, making profits for big business.

Some schools, however, are taking their own action. Last week, Henderson Intermediate closed for two weeks after having COVID cases in almost every class. Its principal Wendy Esera said to the New Zealand Herald: “We’re hearing all the time that everybody’s going to get it ... well actually our attitude at our school is no, we’re not. We are going to do everything we can to keep our staff and our students and their families safe.”

Universities are being swamped with cases. Dr Bloomfield described the start of the university year as “a nationwide super-spreader event.” Some universities have moved to online learning.

At Victoria University of Wellington (VUW), where in-person learning began this week, 850 students in halls of residence—about 30 percent—have tested positive for COVID. The Tertiary Education Union’s branch secretary Dougal McNeil, a member of the pseudo-left International Socialist Organisation, yesterday criticised VUW for not properly informing staff about the COVID situation, so that they could make individual decisions about whether to shift to online learning. The TEU, however, supported the government’s wholesale reopening of education institutions.

University of Wellington

The ongoing anti-vaccination encampment outside parliament in Wellington is another super-spreader. As of Monday, 17 COVID cases were linked to the protest, including 3 that had to be hospitalised. The right-wing, religious and anti-science groups leading the protest have denounced vaccine mandates and other public health measures as “tyranny,” and demanded that the population “live with” the virus.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern denounced the three-week occupation as a “COVID camp” and urged people to stay away for health reasons. Her government, however, backed by the pro-capitalist unions, has acceded to demands from the opposition parties and business interests for restrictions to be lifted more rapidly.

Last Friday the government moved to “phase three” of its Omicron response plan. This means a shift to greater “personal responsibility” and looser restrictions. Only COVID cases and household contacts are required to isolate; other contacts of positive cases, such as work colleagues, do not need to. People can increasingly test themselves using rapid antigen tests (RATs) and are asked to log their positive results online, and to “self-notify their contacts.”

In addition, Ardern announced that, from Friday this week, vaccinated New Zealanders entering the country from any part of the world will no longer be required to self-isolate for any period, provided they test negative for COVID.

All these changes will further accelerate the spread of the virus.

While the unions have suppressed opposition to the “let it rip” agenda, the crisis is pushing workers to fight back against unsafe conditions and low wages. Ten thousand healthcare workers, including laboratory workers processing COVID tests, voted to strike for 24 hours this Friday, and again on March 18.

Yesterday, the country’s District Health Boards asked the Employment Court to impose an injunction to stop Friday’s strike, ahead of negotiations with the Public Service Association scheduled to take place next week, facilitated by the Employment Relations Authority. The court has not yet made its decision.

Sanctions produce chaos in Russian financial system

Nick Beams

Russia’s financial system has been thrown into turmoil following the imposition of sweeping sanctions by the US and the European Union with the explicit aim of trying to crash its economy despite warnings the effects could spread.

Seven major banks have now been excluded from the Swift international financial messaging system. In addition, the Russian central bank has been blocked from international operations to prevent it using the country’s $630 billion of foreign exchange reserves to support the currency.

The rouble has fallen by around 20 percent from its already low levels and is now worth about one US cent in international markets. The Russian central bank earlier this week doubled its base interest rate to 20 percent to try and stabilize the currency.

People look at a screen displaying exchange rate at a currency exchange office in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

Following the announcement of sanctions, the stock market closed. There was no trading in rouble-denominated bonds and the cost of derivatives to insure against a Russian default surged to 37 percent of the bond’s face value.

In a statement earlier this week, Russian central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina said: “The conditions for the Russian economy have altered dramatically. The banking sector is now experiencing a structural liquidity deficit.” In other words, there is a major problem in obtaining the money necessary to keep it functioning.

The major imperialist powers have made no secret of their aims. They are determined to smash the measures put in place by the government and financial authorities to try to insulate the Russian financial system following the imposition of sanctions in 2014 in response to the incorporation of Crimea back into Russia.

“Fortress Russia will be exposed as a myth,” a senior Biden official said on Monday.

Yesterday, the French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire was even more explicit. He said the West was using sanctions to wage “total economic and financial war against Russia, Putin and his government. We will provoke the collapse of the Russian economy.”

This brought a sharp response from former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy head of Russia’ security council, highlighting the enormous dangers in the present situation.

“Today, some French minister has said that they declared an economic war on Russia,” he tweeted. “Watch your tongue, gentlemen! And don’t forget that in human history, economic wars quite often turned into real ones.”

Le Maire said in response he should not have used the word “war.” However, he did not pull back from the assertion that the aim of the sanctions was to bring about a collapse of the Russian economy.

The measures imposed so far may be escalated in the coming days and weeks. There has been considerable commentary in the financial press that they are insufficient because of the decision not to include a ban on the sales of Russian oil and gas on international markets.

An article in the Wall Street Journal said it was “hard to see a complete collapse of Russia’s economy as long as it can keep selling its oil at almost $100 a barrel.”

An editorial comment in the Financial Times described the exclusion of oil and gas payments from the sanctions as “regrettable” but said that, as long as Europe remained dependent on Russian energy supplies, sanctions on payments would be “pointless.”

Even without the exclusion of Russian energy from the global market, the effect of the present measures is adding to the inflationary surge in the world economy. The price of crude rose to more than $100 a barrel—the highest level in eight years. In addition to oil, prices of wheat and other grains, together with key industrial metals, are also rising. The wheat price is now at its highest level since 2008.

Price hikes are heightening the problems for the US Fed and other central banks. They have been moving to increase interest rates in response to the rise in inflation over the past year to try and combat the push for higher wages by workers who have seen their living standards cut.

The conundrum for the Fed, which meets later this month to determine its monetary policy, is that increases in rates may be conducted in a stagflationary environment. Prices are rising, but growth is falling because of the supply shock which continues to be delivered by the ongoing pandemic and now the rise in oil prices.

There are also fears of major spillover effects from the sanctions on Russia on the international financial system as investors in the Russian market, which has been attractive because of the higher yields obtainable there, are hit.

“It’s just so messy,” one trader at a US brokerage firm told the FT. “If you trade something you can’t settle it, you’re left with the exposure.” Global investors are reported to have at least $150 billion in Russian securities on their books.

There is also the prospect of a default by Russia on sovereign debt. According to Rick Rieder, chief investment officer for global fixed income at Blackrock, one of the biggest holders of Russian government debt: “There’s not a lot of actual trading going on. Nobody wants to be on the other side.”

Rieder said there was a possibility Russia could default on its bonds because of an inability to make payments to investors’ accounts. “It’s the difference between the ability to pay and desire to pay,” he told the FT.

An editorial in the newspaper entitled “The shock and awe of sanctions on Russia”—a reference to the massive US military onslaught against Iraq in 2003—warned that urgent planning was needed to counter possible impact on the Western financial system.

“The negative consequences could be unpredictable, with some investors forced to sell their most liquid, safe assets—such as US Treasuries to compensate for Russian-linked assets being frozen,” it said, adding that the effect could “ripple through supply chains in unforeseen ways.”

The FT’s Lex column warned that the world financial system was fragile, the pandemic is not over, governments are laden with debt and there was the scope for the Russian financial crisis to amplify other shocks.

“The subtlest of threats is of dislocations we cannot foresee: Lehman moments when panic spreads and markets seize up. Small or middling setbacks for businesses then become existential threats. The war means this threat is greater now than it has been since the early days of the pandemic.”

On that occasion, in March 2020, Wall Street plunged, and the $22 trillion US Treasury market froze with a total collapse only prevented by a multi-trillion-dollar intervention by the Fed.

So far, American financial officials say, US markets are operating normally. But major swings on Wall Street are indications of nervousness in highly uncertain conditions.

Yesterday the S&P 500 fell 1.6 percent, the Dow lost 1.8 percent and the tech-heavy NASAQ dropped 1.6 percent. The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ have both recorded their worst two months to start the year since 2020.

Biden dispatches military-national security delegation to Taiwan

Peter Symonds

Even as the US conflict with Russia over the Ukraine intensifies, the Biden administration has deliberately stoked tensions with China by sending a delegation of former top-level US military and national security officials to Taiwan.

The timing of the trip underscores its provocative character. It coincides with the passage of 50 years since former President Richard Nixon travelled to China and met with Chinese leader Mao Zedong in 1972, laying the basis for the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Half a century on, the US is engaged in a dangerous confrontation with China.

When Washington subsequently established formal diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1978, it cut diplomatic relations with Taipei, removed all military forces from the island and downgraded contact with Taiwanese officials. De facto, the US recognised the “One China” policy that Beijing is the legitimate government of all China, including Taiwan.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, center, walks to her inauguration ceremony in Taipei, Taiwan, Wednesday, May 20, 2020 (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)

Biden, following on from Trump, has systematically undermined these longstanding diplomatic protocols and strengthened relations with Taipei. In the final days of the Trump administration, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ended all restrictions on official contact between Washington and Taipei—an abrupt diplomatic shift that Biden has upheld with minor changes.

Last year, a leak to the media revealed for the first time that the US military had Special Forces trainers on Taiwan—a fact that was confirmed by Taiwanese officials.

While the current delegation stopped short of including serving US generals and officials, its make-up is an open declaration that the US will bolster its military ties with Taiwan—an island that it acknowledges is part of China. Last year, Biden dispatched a US delegation to Taiwan led by former Senator Chris Dodd, but it included former State Department officials, not retired military and national security personnel.

Included in the delegation that landed in Taipei yesterday is the former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Michael Mullen, who served between 2007 and 2011 under presidents Bush and Obama.

Others are Meghan O’Sullivan, deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan under Bush; Michèle Flournoy, undersecretary of defence under Obama; and Mike Green and Evan Medeiros, who were both senior directors for Asia on the US National Security Council.

While the delegation is described as “unofficial,” the Biden administration authorised and organised the trip, which will undoubtedly involve discussions not just of a general character but more specific military arrangements.

As the ex-Pentagon chief, Mullen remains highly connected to the entire US military and national security apparatus, as are all the members of the delegation. Talks have been scheduled with top-level Taiwanese officials, including President Tsai Ing-wen and Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng.

Speaking at an online forum on Monday, White House Indo-Pacific policy coordinator Kurt Campbell declared that the trip would underscore US support for “peace and stability” in the region. In fact, by undermining the basis for its diplomatic relations with China, which hinged on the “One China” policy, the US is doing precisely the opposite.

For the past decade, the US has ramped up its confrontation with China, not just over Taiwan, but on every front. Biden and Campbell were part of the Obama administration that launched the “pivot to Asia,” involving a military build-up and strengthening of alliances throughout the Indo-Pacific and efforts to undermine China economically and diplomatically. The anti-China offensive has accelerated under Trump and Biden.

In his comments on Monday, Campbell issued a thinly-veiled threat that the US was prepared for war against both Russia and China. After noting that the US had historically had to sustain wars on two fronts, he declared: “I believe that we’re entering a period where that is what will be demanded of the United States and this generation of Americans.”

The delegation’s visit to Taiwan coincided with a US military show of force. On Saturday, the guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson passed through the narrow strait between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. A Chinese military spokesperson branded this as “a provocative act.” The Biden administration has stepped up the frequency of US warships transiting the Taiwan Strait to roughly monthly.

Washington hypocritically accuses Beijing of “expansionism” and planning to forcibly reunify Taiwan with the mainland. The US points in particular to the flights of Chinese military aircraft through Taiwan’s extensive Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ). Yet the US asserts the “right” to routinely sail its warships and fly its warplanes close to the Chinese mainland, thousands of kilometres from the nearest American territory.

Speaking on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin condemned the presence of the US delegation on Taiwan. “The will of the Chinese people to defend our country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is immovable. Whoever United States sends to show support for Taiwan is bound to fail,” he said.

As the US delegation leaves today, former US Secretary of State Pompeo is due to arrive for a separate four-day visit, nominally as a private citizen. He is accompanied by Miles Yu, who acted as the main China policy planner and strategist for the Trump administration. Yu and Pompeo were instrumental in engineering Trump’s strident anti-China strategy, which combined economic warfare with the inflaming of tensions over Taiwan and other regional flashpoints.

Biden, who has declared that his administration’s support for Taiwan is “rock solid,” has taken over where Trump left off, greatly heightening the danger that the conflict between NATO and Russia over the Ukraine will spread to the Indo-Pacific.

US presses India to back war drive against Russia

Deepal Jayasekera

Washington is intensifying pressure on India to line up with the US-NATO war drive against Moscow over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, undermining India’s precarious balancing act between its strategic partnership with the United States and its longstanding defence ties with Russia.

India has long maintained close ties with Moscow as well as Washington, claiming it was thus preserving “strategic autonomy” while allying with Washington against China. Despite having secured high-tech US military equipment after being designated a “major defence partner” by Washington, India still substantially depends on Russian military supplies. According to a study by the Stimson Center, 86 percent of Indian military equipment is of Russian origin. Russian technology and material are also crucial for India’s civil nuclear program.

And so US State Department spokesman Ned Price addressed India after it abstained in the voting at an emergency session of United National Security Council (UNSC) condemning Russian invasion in Ukraine, during a daily press briefing on Friday. He began, “We share important interests with India. We share important values with India. And we know India has a relationship with Russia that is distinct from the relationship that we have with Russia. Of course, that is okay.”

T. S. Tirumurti, permanent representative of India to the United Nations, speaks during a meeting of the Security Council, Monday, February 28, 2022, at United Nations Headquarters. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

However, Price made clear Washington expects India to toe the US line against Russia: “And again, we have asked every country that has a relationship, and certainly those countries that have leverage, to use that leverage in a constructive way.”

The next day, Republican Senator John Cornyn more explicitly expressed “disappointment” over India’s abstention in the UNSC vote against Russia. Cornyn is the co-chair of the Senate India Caucus—the US Senate’s only country-specific caucus, founded by Cornyn and then-Senator Hillary Clinton during the Bush administration, pointing to the significance Washington places on its military-strategic partnership with India.

Cornyn said, “Disappointing: India has avoided publicly denouncing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, as New Delhi tries to balance a strategic relationship with Moscow and its role in an emerging coalition of democracies.”

Cornyn advocates close US relations with India. He has campaigned to intensify US military relations with India and to waive sanctions on India over its purchase of Russian S-400 air defence missile system. His comments on the Russian-Ukraine war indicate, however, that Washington could use sanctions to try to force India to support its war drive against Russia.

Writing on February 24 in the US magazine Foreign Policy, Michael Kugelman, who directs work on South Asia at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington, said: “India’s public statements on the current crisis [Russian-Ukraine war] have so far pleased Russian officials … But Russian aggression in Ukraine poses major threats to Indian interests, from driving Moscow into Beijing’s arms to distracting Washington from countering Chinese power in the Asia-Pacific.”

On Sunday, India abstained from a procedural vote at the UNSC to call for a rare special emergency session of the UN General Assembly to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine. India joined China and the UAE in abstaining while Russia voted against. As such procedural votes are exempted from the UNSC veto, however, the special session of the UN General Assembly convened accordingly on Monday; a nonbinding resolution denouncing Russian aggression is set be voted on Wednesday. This is to be grist for the mill of NATO war propaganda against Russia.

After Sunday’s UNSC vote, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN T. S. Tirmurti appealed for dialogue and de-escalation to avoid all-out conflict. “It is regrettable that the situation in Ukraine has worsened further since the Council last convened on this matter,” Tirmurti said, adding: “There is no other choice but to return to the path of diplomacy and dialogue. … Dialogue is the only answer to settling differences and disputes, however daunting that may appear at this moment. It is a matter of regret that the path of diplomacy was given up. We must return to it.”

However, sections of the Indian ruling elite are beginning to demand that India line up with Washington against Russia. Sashi Tharoor, a senior leader of the opposition Congress party, criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-supremacist government for not denouncing Russia. On Thursday, he tweeted: “So Russia is conducting a ‘regime change’ operation [in Ukraine]. How long can India, which had consistently opposed such interventions, stay silent?”

In The Wire, Susil Aaron criticized India’s abstention in the UNSC vote against Russia in an article titled “India’s Abstention on Russia's Ukraine Invasion Will Shift Perceptions in Washington.” Complaining that “the Modi government underestimates how large Russia looms in the American political imagination,” he lamented, “New Delhi has alienated US, Europe and other allies at one go with this vote.”

While Modi calls for “dialogue” and tries to balance between Washington and Moscow, the NATO powers are rapidly moving towards war with Russia, using Ukraine as a pretext. In this context, they will not be satisfied with anything less than India’s total submission to their anti-Russian campaign.

Over the 30 years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union by the Moscow Stalinist bureaucracy, Washington has systematically worked to establish its domination over all of Eurasia. NATO expansion into Eastern Europe to surround Russia was key to this agenda. Above all, it entailed decades of endless neo-colonial wars, from Iraq and Afghanistan to Libya and Syria, that cost millions of lives.

The development of US-India strategic partnership for nearly two decades under successive Indian governments, both of Modi’s Hindu-supremacist Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP) and the Congress, India has become a front-line state for US war preparations against China. Now, moreover, Washington is demanding India line up with it not only against China, but also against Russia.

This exposes the political bankruptcy not only of the BJP and the Congress, but of the Congress party’s Stalinist allies. India’s principal Stalinist parliamentary party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM, reacted to the war in Ukraine in a brief Polit Bureau statement, expressing “grave concerns at the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.”

Lamenting that “it is unfortunate that Russia took military action against Ukraine,” the CPM pleaded for “an immediate cessation of armed hostilities and the establishment of peace.” While criticizing NATO moves for “steadily expanding eastward, contrary to the assurance given to Russia,” including moving to integrate Ukraine into NATO, it wrote: “The process of negotiations should be restarted and the earlier agreements reached by both the parties should be adhered to.”

What the Stalinists leave out is the growing preparations of the NATO powers for war, driven above all by Washington. This means covering up the danger that the provocations of Washington and its NATO allies could trigger a nuclear Third World War, with deadly consequences for billions worldwide. They aim not to mobilize the international working class but to lull it to sleep, hoping the Russian and Ukrainian capitalist governments will somehow resolve a dispute driven by Washington’s targeting of Russia and China.

New CDC guidelines and lifting of mask mandates further endanger the lives of Americans

Benjamin Mateus

There is one glaringly apparent contradiction to the new US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines that weigh hospitalizations and bed occupancy more heavily than infections that no one in the mainstream media or political establishment bothers to raise. How can these new directives that lift measures to prevent infection during a pandemic that continues to rage and new COVID-19 variants on the horizon protect health systems?

The guidelines are not a masking policy; instead, they are a fabricated risk-reduction adjustment based not on scientific merit but on political expediency that justifies the elimination of any remaining mitigation measures. Overnight, most of the country has become a low- to moderate-risk zone with recommendations that facemasks, which also function as a reminder of the ongoing health crisis and danger that the virus poses, were no longer required.

Following the priorities of the Biden White House, the CDC wants to ensure all attention on infection statistics is wholly disregarded. With the pandemic once and for all forgotten, money-making can be continued without any impediments.

Patrons stand in line to order at Philippe the Original restaurant in Los Angeles, on February 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

In rapid succession, state after state is repealing indoor mask policies. The three Democratic Party-dominated states on the West Coast—California, Oregon, and Washington—have joined forces and lifted obligatory mask requirements in schools affecting 7.5 million school-age children and their teachers and parents. New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, and North Carolina are also among the latest in a series of states that are quickly exiting COVID-19 restrictions.

Not one of these governors has referenced the critical fact that in February 212 children died from COVID, representing 15 percent of all pediatric COVID deaths throughout the pandemic. In the last week of February, in five days, 84 more deaths were added to the statistics, underscoring the danger posed by the infection even for the youngest.

Democratic Governor Kate Brown of Oregon, in a far too glib statement about the lifting of the mandate, said, “Two years ago today, we identified Oregon’s first case of COVID-19. On the West Coast, our communities and economies are linked. Together, as we continue to recover from the Omicron surge, we will build resiliency and prepare for the next variant and the next pandemic.”

Next variant and next pandemic? The hypocrisy is intolerable.

Endlessly, the press and their pundits have continued to flagrantly abuse the terms “personal freedoms” and assert meaningless declarations like “to ensure our nation’s hospitals and health care systems” can treat everyone.

Even CDC Director Rochelle Walensky offered the following bald-faced lie when the guidelines were published: “This updated approach focuses on directing our prevention efforts towards protecting people at high risk of severe illness and preventing hospitals and healthcare systems from being overwhelmed.”

She also lamented earlier, “None of us know what the future may hold for us and this virus. We need to be prepared and ready for whatever comes next. We want to give people a break from things like mask-wearing when levels are low, and then have the ability to reach for them again, should things get worse in the future.”

When the Omicron surge washed over the country like a tsunami wave, the CDC director and Biden administration barely lifted a finger to save health care systems from a deluge of patients. On January 20, 2022, there were nearly 160,000 people admitted to hospitals, with almost 26,500 in ICUs. No objective measure was enacted to stem the tide of infections and spare hospitals. By comparison, on the worst day of last winter’s peak, January 14, 2021, there were 137,000 patients admitted, and just over 29,000 were in the ICUs.

The reported COVID-19 death toll due to the Omicron wave has reached 165,000. Between January 12, 2022, and February 20, 2022, the seven-day average for COVID deaths remained more than 2,000 fatalities every day. At the time, high-level discussions were not on the necessity of shutting down the country and giving nurses and doctors much-needed respite from the onslaught. Instead, they were focused on ending real-time requirements of reporting in-hospital COVID deaths and metrics to the Health and Human Services Department (HHS). The daily death tolls are a constant reminder of the government’s abject failure and must be pushed to the back pages.

Repeatedly, it has been stated by epidemiologists that hospitalizations are a lagging indicator of infections—meaning that by the time the health systems become overwhelmed, community transmission is already very high and out of control.

Implementing public health measures that place weight on the status of health care systems would be short of catastrophic if another wave of infections with a new variant of COVID-19 were to assail the country. What is the purpose of even calling the nation’s public health agency the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when its guidelines obfuscate its stated doctrine and principles to control and prevent disease?

The most obvious and only possible response is that the CDC is not concerned with the health and well-being of the population. It is functioning as a political entity within the state to enact and concretize the oft-stated policy of “living with the virus,” to protect a financial system that relies on the working class to produce the surplus-value.

What has been the cost of disregarding all scientific measures to eliminate the virus so far?

By all reliable trackers, reported COVID deaths in the US have surpassed 950,000. More than 80 million people have reportedly been infected. The CDC estimates that unconfirmed cases are twice as high, meaning that most likely two-thirds of the country’s population have been infected at some point. What is not clear is how many of these infections were breakthrough or repeat infections. Again, the CDC has failed to track or provide the data on these critical figures.

The seven-day average of infections has declined to 60,000 new cases each day but is beginning to plateau again. The average death toll remains high at above 1,800 per day. Meanwhile, the BA.2 subvariant continues to grow in the US exponentially, and it now represents 8.3 percent of all cases. Yet only 65 percent of the population remain fully vaccinated with two doses, and less than 29 percent have been boosted. The seven-day vaccination average has declined to 350,000 per day, meaning the vaccination campaign has stalled. This has significant implications given the latest immune-evading variants.

A report published in JAMA in January found that those who were 50 years of age and boosted had reduced their risk of death nearly 20-fold compared to those only being fully vaccinated but not boosted, based on data from Israel. In Peru, where the country’s population-based health metrics are tied to the person’s national registration number, the risk reduction was 10-fold.

But these were based on recent booster doses. It remains unknown whether additional jabs are required and at what intervals. Limited data did not show much benefit for second boosters unless the individual had significant co-morbidities or was immunocompromised. Additionally, Omicron-specific vaccines did not appear to work better against BA.1 or BA.1 subvariants than the current vaccines.

Despite the criminal neglect demonstrated by the ruling elites in their response to the pandemic for the last two years, the understanding of the science behind the pandemic has risen exponentially.

It is even more critical now to push for elimination. Professor Yaneer Bar-Yam, president of the New England Complex Systems Institute, recently stated that not only is elimination still viable, but it is also “easier to do now.”

Instead, the ruling elites and their media mouthpieces are pushing the false notion that the virus is endemic and therefore no longer a subject of concern and best be forgotten regardless of the continued dangers it poses.

US and NATO intensify “economic warfare” measures against Russia, weapons transfers to Ukraine

Andre Damon

The United States and its NATO allies intensified their economic warfare against Russia through sanctions and restrictions Monday, accompanied by an increased inflow of anti-tank and anti-aircraft arms into Ukraine.

The measures come as Russian forces continue to approach the Ukrainian capital of Kiev and amid widespread reports in the US and European press of intensified shelling of urban areas.

French economic minister Bruno Le Maire declared, “We’re waging an all-out economic and financial war on Russia,” pledging, “We will cause the collapse of the Russian economy.”

“The economic and financial balance of power is totally in favor of the European Union, which is in the process of discovering its economic power,” he added.

Members of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces, volunteer military units of the Armed Forces, train in a city park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Jan. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)

Le Maire later told French news agency AFP he had misspoken, claiming it was inappropriate to use the term “war” to describe NATO’s actions.

Meanwhile, in a speech before the National Assembly, French Prime Minister Jean Castex declared his country would “take the lead of a multinational battalion which will be deployed this week in Romania.”

Ahead of Biden’s first State of the Union address Tuesday night, the United States announced that Russian aircraft would be banned from overflying the United States.

Earlier on Tuesday, Maersk, MSC, and CMA CGM, the three largest global container shipping companies, announced that they are suspending deliveries to Russia, with the exception of humanitarian supplies.

Britain and Canada also announced that that they are closing their ports to Russian ships. The UK added that the ban applies to any ship with Russian connections, while Canada said its action included fishing vessels operating in its territorial waters.

“We’ve just become the first nation to pass a law involving a total ban of all ships with any Russian connection whatsoever from entering British ports,” British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Twitter.

Also Tuesday, Ford and ExxonMobil announced they would be ending business activities in Russia, while Apple announced that it would shut down all operations in the country, including the end of Apple Pay and suspending all sales of its electronics.

These actions were accompanied by the expansion of weapons shipments to Ukraine. On Monday, Finland announced it would send 2,500 assault rifles and ammunition to Ukraine, along with 1,500 anti-tank weapons. Sweden also announced the imminent arrival of 5,000 anti-tank-weapons.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is heading to Poland today, according to Politico, “to coordinate the shipment of 100 Carl Gustaf anti-armor rocket launchers, along with 2,000 munitions and other aid.”

On Monday, “the European Union’s high representative, Josep Borrell, said numerous countries were prepared to provide Ukraine with fighter jets. And Ukraine’s parliament said Monday that Poland was among the countries ready to provide Soviet-era MiG-29 fighters,” Stars and Stripes reported.

Polish President Andrzej Duda claimed the aircraft would not arrive by air, saying, “We are not going to send any jets into Ukrainian airspace,” meaning the aircraft would be delivered by land.

On Friday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced the deployment, for the first time, of the alliance’s 40,000-troop–strong rapid response force, created in 2003.

“Yesterday, NATO Allies activated our defense plans,” Stoltenberg said, adding that the alliance’s forces would be positioned “on land, at sea, and in the air.”

“The United States, Canada and European Allies have deployed thousands more troops to the eastern part of the Alliance,” Stoltenberg continued. “We have over 100 jets at high alert operating in over 30 different locations. And over 120 ships from the High North to the Mediterranean. Including three strike carrier groups.”

On Tuesday, Finland’s parliament launched a debate about whether the country should officially join NATO.

As part of the effort to flood Ukraine with weapons, the Biden administration has approved the immediate transfer of $350 million of weapons to Ukraine, including anti-tank weapons and anti-aircraft systems.

“We believe it is getting into the right hands, that they are actively using these systems,” a senior defense official said Tuesday.

Among the 5,500 US troops that have been sent to Poland, a significant number are deployed at the Polish–Ukrainian border, working to funnel arms into Ukraine.

The Wall Street Journal reported that “In Poland, for days, convoys of military transport trucks, escorted by police vehicles, have been headed over land to the Polish border with Ukraine, passing young Ukrainian men hitchhiking to join the fight. These shipments haven’t been hidden; rather, the Polish government has openly boasted of sending lethal aid to Ukraine.”

The Journal continued, “More arms and ammunition are expected to flow through Poland’s overland routes, or those of neighboring countries, as Western governments shell out hundreds of millions of dollars to send Ukraine’s army fresh equipment.”

The Journal noted that “The U.S. government authorized the export to Ukraine of $287 million in defense articles from 2015 through 2019…including $129 million in ammunition and ordnance, $56 million in fire control, laser, imaging, and guidance equipment, and $54 million in firearms and related articles.”

Thousands die in Spain as PSOE-Podemos declares pandemic measures over

Alice Summers

Spain has recorded almost 12,000 deaths during the “sixth wave” of the coronavirus pandemic, since mid-October 2021. More than a sixth of these fatalities occurred just in the week beginning February 14, when 2,003 people lost their lives.

On Wednesday, February 16, Spain recorded a huge 444 deaths in a single day, the highest toll in almost a year. An average of nearly 300 people died across the country every day last week, as around 34,000 daily infections were recorded. Spain has suffered over 122,000 excess deaths since the pandemic began.

Almost 11 million people have been infected with the coronavirus in total—nearly a quarter of Spain’s population. Over 1 million are currently estimated to be suffering with long COVID in Spain, including symptoms such as fatigue, breathlessness and cognitive dysfunction.

People wearing face masks queue for a COVID-19 test at La Paz hospital in Madrid, Spain, Dec. 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)

The 14-day incidence rate across the country still remains exceptionally high, at 613 per 100,000 people, well above the 500 per 100,000 bar that the Spanish government considers to be an indicator of a situation of “very high” risk. This in itself is a significant downplaying of the dangers posed by the virus: in mid-November, the PSOE-Podemos coalition doubled this threshold from 250 to 500 per 100,000, supposedly in response to the decreased risks posed by COVID-19 now that a large proportion of the Spanish population is vaccinated. In some regions, the incidence rate is between 800 and 1,000.

Despite mass vaccination, the pandemic still claims thousands of lives a week and infects tens of thousands, giving the lie to the claim that widespread inoculation and the prevalence of the supposedly “milder” Omicron variant have made the virus harmless. Vaccination is a powerful tool in the fight against COVID-19, but it does not on its own suffice to prevent death and disease.

The enormous death toll and the incalculable impact on the lives and health of Spain’s population are a direct result of the criminal policy of “herd immunity” pursued by the Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos government. It has refused to follow a scientifically guided policy to defeat the pandemic in Spain, and is now proceeding to eliminate even the most basic mitigation measures that are still in place.

Following the example of European countries such as Norway, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, which have recently lifted all or almost all of their pandemic-related health restrictions, PSOE Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced last week that even the requirement to wear masks in indoor spaces would soon be waived.

In a press conference last Monday with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Sánchez said Spain would soon be in the same epidemiological situation as Denmark, which ditched all of its pandemic measures at the start of February—the first European country to do so. Referring to ending the use of masks indoors, Sánchez stated, “It would be a good measure that Spanish society will appreciate. We hope that it can be done sooner rather than later.”

Meanwhile, the regional government of Catalonia announced that quarantines in schools would be ended after a positive coronavirus case as of Wednesday last week. It was also reported that schools would no longer have to record COVID-19 cases that had broken out on their premises, and parents would no longer have to tell school officials if their child’s absence was due to the virus. Teachers will also no longer receive testing kits to ensure they are not infected with the disease.

The PSOE-Podemos government has for months been waging a concerted propaganda campaign to depict the coronavirus as “endemic” and for it to be treated like seasonal influenza. The term “endemic” implies a predictable and controllable level of disease in a given geographic region.

This definition has nothing in common with the current trajectory of the pandemic. The virus is far from under control, as a result of the refusal of the ruling class in Spain and internationally to implement the necessary measures to eliminate and ultimately eradicate the virus. Instead, a policy of “letting it rip” has been pursued in virtually every country bar China, leading to continued waves of entirely preventable death and disease.

As a demonstration of the continuing severe and widespread impact of the pandemic, in mid-February it was reported that around 2.4 million people have had to take time off work during the sixth wave as a result of infection with or exposure to COVID-19. This is around 56 percent of total workplace absences since March 2020, when the pandemic first hit Spain in force.

A record 678,000 absences were reported in December 2021. This all-time high was rapidly exceeded in January this year, when a staggering 1.7 million people were off sick. This represents roughly 12 percent of the Spanish workforce.

Despite the appalling toll the pandemic has had on lives and health, 2021 was a bonanza year for the banks and big businesses in Spain. Last year, Spain’s largest companies reported record profits of over €53 billion, even as tens of thousands lost their lives, millions were infected and hundreds of thousands struggled to make ends meet after losing jobs or seeing their hours cut.

Telephone operating companies made some of the biggest profits in 2021, at €8.137 billion—a 414 percent increase on 2020. Banking companies in Spain’s Ibex 35 stock market index reported a collective profit of nearly €20 billion, compared to losses of around €5 billion the previous year.

The energy sector was the other great beneficiary of the last year of the pandemic. Energy and petrochemical company Repsol recorded profits of around €2.5 billion, while gas supplier Naturgy made gains of €1.24 billion. At the same time, consumer utility prices reached record highs in December 2021, with electricity costing €360,02 per megawatt hour, forcing many workers to choose between heating their homes and putting food on the table over the winter.

The record sums going into the coffers of Spain’s banks and businesses are a stark demonstration of the profits before lives strategy pursued by the PSOE-Podemos government. This anti-scientific and criminal policy has support across the entire political establishment, from the fascistic Vox party to the PSOE, Podemos and the various middle class groups which orbit them.

Macron intensifies mass infection policy ahead of French presidential elections

Samuel Tissot

Amidst relentless pro-war propaganda in the press, the COVID-19 pandemic is still raging in France a little over a month away from the 2022 presidential elections.

The total death toll is approaching 140,000. In the last seven days 1,427 people died from the virus. Over 2,500 remain on ventilators in French hospitals. Even though cases have continued to fall in France since the peak of over half a million cases on January 25 they remain high, the seven-day average is still above 54,000. This is equivalent to the peak of the devastating second wave in the winter of 2020 to 2021.

Nonetheless, the Macron government is removing all but the most limited health restrictions. On February 28, the requirement to wear masks in indoor venues requiring the vaccination pass was removed. This primarily applies to theatres, cinemas, and museums. Public transport and indoor shops are the only places where masks remain mandatory.

Emmanuel Macron [Sebastien Nogier, Pool via AP]

There was also a further reduction in mandatory isolation for contact cases. Now only one negative antigen test after two days of isolation is sufficient for release. It is still the case that vaccinated individuals who test positive can be released after only five days of isolation and a negative antigen test.

Antigen tests are unreliable and are only effective when patients are at their most symptomatic. As has been well known since the beginning of the pandemic, and has been shown in studies of the Omicron variant, individuals are infectious both pre- and post-symptomatically. The new policy therefore will mean the even earlier release of infectious individuals back to workplaces, schools, and throughout society.

The latest rollback follows weeks cutting down what remained of health measures to combat COVID-19. On 16 February, nightclubs and concert venues reopened without capacity restrictions. On 2 February, the requirement to encourage remote work was also cancelled. Mandatory masks in French high schools have also been progressively dropped in the past three weeks.

According to the National Institute for Demographic Studies, over 20,000 people have died from the Omicron-driven fifth wave of the virus in France. Fifty-five percent of victims had received at least two doses of the vaccine, bursting through the notion that a vaccine-only strategy is sufficient to protect human life.

However, the same figures also show the necessity of combining mass vaccination with social distancing measures. In January 2022, the unvaccinated French population had 142 deaths per 100,000 compared to 10 deaths per 100,000 for those who had received a booster. This makes clear that the effectiveness of vaccines is indisputable. However, had a scientific zero-COVID policy been implemented then none of these deaths, including the 120,000 before the fifth wave, would have taken place.

Children have experienced skyrocketing levels of infection during the Omicron wave. As a result of the conscious mass infection policy pursued in schools, 16 children aged between 0 and 9 years-old died from COVID-19 just in January and February 2022. Since the beginning of the pandemic, millions of unvaccinated children have been infected, 10 to 15 percent of whom will be victims of Long COVID.

Even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, France’s presidential candidates were muted on the pandemic, or where it was discussed, this was only to criticize the remaining health restrictions.

Neither Macron, Blanquer, nor Véran, have made a statement on COVID-19 since a January 20 press conference. In early January, Macron sought to shift blame for the consequences of his own deadly pandemic policy onto the France’s small unvaccinated population, declaring, “the unvaccinated, I really want to cover them in sh*t.” Since then, Macron’s government has pursued a rapid rollback of the limited health restrictions that were in place.

In early January, right-wing Les Républicains candidate Valerie Pécresse stated that if she were president her only additional measure would be a lockdown of the unvaccinated. Pseudo-left La France Insoumise candidate Jean Luc Mélénchon has scarcely mentioned the pandemic, except to attack Macron’s limited measures from the right, notably by continuing his party’s support for far-right anti-vaccine protesters.

The far-right candidates have attacked what limited measures were in line with anti-vaccination activists and eugenicists. On January 19, Le Pen stated that vaccination of children is “a form of abuse.' Fascistic candidate Eric Zemmour has also denounced this measure, also insisting that COVID-19 must be lived with “as we have done for centuries with other respiratory diseases like influenza.”

Contrary to the anti-scientific claims coming from every section of the French ruling elite, it is not the case that society must “learn to live with the virus.” COVID-19 is not equivalent to influenza. It continues to have much higher mortality rate than the flu despite much more widespread vaccination coverage. It not only attacks the lungs, but also leads to inflammation of the heart, brain, and other vital organs.

Amongst its known long-term effects are diabetes, cognitive decline, and a dramatically increased mortality rate from twenty diseases, including heart failure, at least one year after infection. The effects of wave after wave of mass COVID-19 infection on France’s 300,000 immuno-suppressed individuals will be catastrophic.

With tens of thousands of daily infections in France and hundreds of thousands throughout Europe, the evolution of a dangerous new variant is only a matter of time. Vaccine effectiveness against infection and severe disease also declines over time. In these conditions, the roll back of the most basic measures to combat the virus, masking and proper isolation of infected cases leaves the population in France and internationally as sitting ducks for the next major variant.

Nonetheless, the French ruling class is united in its aim to continue its mass infection policy, regardless of the cost in lives. Thus, in the third year of the pandemic and at nearly 140,000 deaths France faces a remarkable situation where, except for Zemmour’s openly fascistic program, no leading presidential candidate has any detailed outline of their pandemic policy for a presidential election little over a month away. This mix of silence and far-right agitation on the pandemic reflects the capitalist class’ intention to continue to rule with a policy of mass infection.

The working class must also be aware that the current NATO-led war drive following the Russian invasion of Ukraine will be utilized by capitalist governments across the continent to divert attention away from pandemic and its impact on the population.

Class tensions in France and across Europe have been massively accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Much like its allies in Europe and across the Atlantic, large sections of the French ruling class sees an external war as a crucial tactic to suppress internal divisions.

AMIDEAST Fulbright Foreign Student Program 2023/2024

Application Deadline: Deadlines vary per country.

Eligible Countries: Algeria (Apply for Fulbright visiting scholar), Egypt, Libya, Morocco (Apply for Fulbright Study Grant), Tunisia.

To be taken at (country): USA

About the AMIDEAST Fulbright: The Fulbright Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, is the flagship international educational exchange program designed to foster mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchange.

The Fulbright Foreign Student Program is administered by binational Fulbright Commissions and U.S. Embassies. All Foreign Student Program applications are processed by these offices. AMIDEAST is one of the cooperating agencies contracted by the U.S. Department of state to administer the Fulbright program. AMIDEAST administers the Fulbright Foreign Student Program for the Middle East and North Africa on behalf of ECA.

The scholarship is a merit-based grant that provides up to two-years of funding for graduate-level study at a U.S. university.  For over four decades AMIDEAST has been placing students from across the MENA region into universities throughout the United States. It has been integral to the success of the Fulbright Program, serving as a convener of academic and cultural exchange and dialogue. AMIDEAST continues today to support countless Fulbrighters to experience the opportunity of exchange and successfully complete their grants in the United States.

Type: Applications in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are highly encouraged.

Eligibility: 

• This is not a program exclusive for students. This program is for students who are about to graduate, recent graduates and professionals from diverse social, economic, academic and professional backgrounds.
• A competitive applicant should have an excellent academic record, strong English language skills, and the commitment to return to their home country for at least two years upon completion or termination of the scholarship upon completion of the program. They will be ineligible for an U.S.-immigrant visa until the two-year home residency requirement has been fulfilled.
• Preference will be given to applicants who have not previously studied in the United States.
• Applications in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are highly encouraged.

Number of Awardees: Limited.

Value of AMIDEAST Fulbright Scholarship: The scholarships cover expenses incurred for travel to and from the United States, tuition, books, health insurance, and room and board. Funding is NOT available to meet expenses related to Fulbright grantees dependents (husbands, wives, children, parents, etc).

Duration of Scholarship: 2 years

How to Apply for AMIDEAST Fulbright: Applicants can select their country of origin and apply online.

• It is important to go through the Application requirements of your country before applying.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details