Rise of congenital syphilis in the US the result of a decades-long deterioration in public health

Jesus Ugarte & Benjamin Mateus

There has been a disturbing trend in the rise of congenital syphilis (CS)—the transmission of the bacteria that causes the disease from mother to fetus—over the last decade. A disease that was on its way to eradication is once again reemerging along with other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), affecting the most vulnerable members of society.

An infant receives a routine vaccination in Fayetteville, Georgia, Tuesday, August 17, 2021. [AP Photo/Angie Wang]

The number of babies being treated for CS has jumped by more than 900 percent over five years in Mississippi, home to the nation’s worst infant mortality rate. In 2021, 102 newborns in the US state were treated for CS, up from 10 in 2016, according to an analysis of hospital billing data shared by Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the medical director for the Mississippi State Department of Health’s Crossroads Clinic in Jackson, which focuses on sexually transmitted infections. 

Dobbs, the state’s former health officer, told NBC News that he has spoken with health care providers who “are absolutely horrified” that babies are being born with the disease and in rare instances dying from it. That such diseases are readily treatable, easily identifiable and therefore completely preventable, that CS is once more taking hold, particularly among the poorest and most marginalized, fundamentally underscores the all too evident fact that public health in the US is being abandoned.

The resurgence of such diseases is also a symptom of the abandonment of the social contract between government and elected officials and their constituents at the behest of the financial handlers who deem any spending on meaningful programs that make life better for the working class wasteful and unprofitable. The lack of investment in public health, particularly in impoverished areas, has contributed to the growing spread of CS.

Syphilis is a chronic infection caused by Treponema pallidum (T. pallidum), which belongs to the family of spiral-shaped bacteria, the Spirochaetaceae, commonly referred to as spirochetes. Fritz Schaudinn and Erich Hoffman identified T. pallidum as the cause of syphilis in 1905. Humans are the only host for the bacteria. Although it has been present in human society for thousands of years, the first well-documented outbreak of syphilis occurred in Italy in 1494. Since then, syphilis has been a socially stigmatized disease. Initially called “the French disease” by the Neapolitans, it was variously referred to by other xenophobic names, such as “the Polish disease,” “the German disease” or “the Christian disease” during the nascent development of capitalism and nation-state systems, which would quickly lay blame on their neighbors when such epidemics took hold.

In 1943, 15 years after the introduction of penicillin in 1928, clinical trials demonstrated the antibiotic to be highly effective against the spirochete. This is also the case with CS, which occurs when T. pallidum is transmitted from an infected mother to her baby. Timely treatment of the expecting mother with penicillin exhibits a 98 percent efficacy against CS. But this requires that pregnant women have access to necessary obstetric care, which should begin with valuable education before conception. Such care should include prenatal vitamins, testing for STIs, and thorough evaluation to ensure the mother’s health and that of her unborn child remain optimal throughout the pregnancy.

An important distinction between adult syphilis and the congenital variation is in the way T. pallidum enters the body. In the former, the bacterium enters through the skin, causing a local infection. But in CS, the bacterium is released directly into the bloodstream of the fetus. This leads to a systemic infection affecting many organs and resulting in widespread inflammation, tissue destruction, and other harmful, likely permanent effects throughout the child’s body. The bones, kidneys, spleen, liver and heart can be affected, hence the importance of early diagnosis and treatment.

CS is estimated to affect about 1 million pregnancies annually worldwide. It is one of the major contributors of infant mortality, responsible for 305,000 perinatal deaths globally each year. In the US, CS reached its highest point in 1991, with 100 cases per 100,000 live births. It then declined rapidly as efforts to treat the disease were taken up in earnest, reaching its lowest level by 2012 when case rates dropped to 8.4 cases per 100,000 live births. By 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a global campaign to eliminate CS, with the goal of keeping cases below 50 per 100,000 live births.

Since then, however, CS has been on the rise in the US, with preliminary 2021 data indicating a rate of 74.1 cases per 100,000 live births, triple the rate seen in 2017 and eight times the rate in 2012. Indeed, the US stands alone among developed countries with a rate above the WHO threshold.

The rise in CS in the US closely tracks the rise in adult syphilis, which has seen a meteoric rise in the last decade. Preliminary 2021 figures indicate a rate of 51.5 cases per 100,000 adults. In fact, the US has the highest rates among industrialized nations not only of syphilis, but of all sexually transmitted diseases. Still, despite the available data and clinical knowledge, the US does not have a national program to mandate screening all pregnant women for CS. In fact, there are still six states where there is no screening requirement and only a third of states require a third trimester screening.

The rise in syphilis and congenital syphilis is an expression of the growing social antagonism between the ruling elite and the working class, an essential characteristic of capitalism. The monomaniacal pursuit of profit, the quintessential class interest of the ruling class, is fundamentally at odds with the provision of health care to the working class. The financial oligarchs are opposed to any investment, including the sorely needed funding of public health institutions, not returning an immediate profit.

Unsurprisingly, the most affected are the poorer sections of the population. Decades of erosion of public spending have left in place a decrepit public health system. The predictable capitalist response of solving the problem through private enterprise has created an increasingly inaccessible health care system, available only to the wealthier sections of the population.

The importance of public health cannot be understated. It is the essential infrastructure that provides an enduring value throughout a person’s life—the recognition that one’s health and welfare are protected and that, when afflicted, measures are in place to return them to health, while protecting the community from a similar calamity. Prevention of disease is the primary principle of such a contract.

Indeed, the study of public health in the early decades of the Soviet Union after the Russian Revolution saw life expectancy climb, seeing it rapidly catch up with the USSR’s European and US counterparts despite lacking similar resources and material goods. These advances were brought about by investing in training physicians, nurses and researchers to study critical medical questions. Hospitals, clinics and sanitariums came into existence to tend to health concerns at no cost to the population.

Combating the surge in CS diagnoses is of the utmost political urgency. Even though the mechanisms to eradicate this curable disease are relatively straightforward, they are nonetheless being abandoned by the ruling class. This brings to the foreground the inextricable link between access to health care and the class struggle.

Death toll tops 45,000 in Turkish-Syrian earthquake

Ulaş Ateşçi

Twelve days after two massive earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş struck southern Turkey and northern Syria, the death toll continues to rise. The quakes, measuring 7.7 and 7.6 magnitudes, devastated ten provinces in Turkey, bringing the death toll in the country to 39,672 as of yesterday, according to official figures.

Dogan Keles cries over the coffin of his son Hazar Keles, 21, before they bury him at Sehir cemetery in Malatya, Turkey, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023. [AP Photo/Francisco Seco]

Syria, already devastated by the war for regime change waged since 2011 by the NATO powers, including Turkey, and the crippling sanctions imposed by the imperialist powers, was also severely hit by the quakes. Nearly 6,000 people lost their lives in the country, where the UN estimates that over 5 million people have been left homeless.

Moreover, over 1 million Syrians who fled the war and sought refuge in Turkey were living in the border provinces where the earthquake struck. While no official announcement has been made on the number of Syrian refugees who lost their lives in the earthquake, Taha El Gazi, spokesperson for the Asylum Seekers Rights Platform, claimed that the number was over 6,000.

According to the latest statement by Murat Kurum, Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change in Turkey, 684,000 buildings in the earthquake zone were inspected and over 84,000 buildings were identified as “collapsed, to be demolished immediately or heavily damaged.” This means that 12 percent of these buildings have collapsed or been heavily damaged, a proportion that rises much higher in some places.

Vice President Fuat Oktay said yesterday that the number of sites with continuing search-and-rescue operations is below 200. The state started search-and-rescue operations in the affected area days after the earthquakes, leading to the deaths of many injured people waiting to be rescued under the rubble. Soon after the official response began, and with many people still under the rubble, debris removal operations were launched in many cities.

While no official announcement has been made as to how many people might still be under the rubble, alive or dead, it is widely feared that many people may die during debris removal work carried out with heavy construction equipment.

The rescue of Neslihan Kılıç from under the rubble in Maraş on Thursday after a construction equipment operator noticed her during the debris removal work underscored this danger. This premature debris removal work is, in fact, a continuation of the bankrupt, politically criminal policy of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government—both in failing to prepare for the quakes and failing to intervene afterwards to save lives.

The government, which only started to intervene in the affected region on the third day of the earthquake, focused more on covering up its obvious responsibility for the disaster than on search-and-rescue and relief efforts. While no official has resigned, 83 people, mostly contractors, have so far been arrested as scapegoats.

Erdoğan, whose government made no preparations for an earthquake that scientists and state-affiliated institutions had been warning about for years, blamed the resulting social disaster on “fate,” arguing that it is impossible to prepare for massive earthquakes.

However, among many other reports, the “Kahramanmaraş Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Plan” published in 2020 by the Governorship of Kahramanmaraş and the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) under the Interior Ministry has revealed that the earthquake and destruction that occurred in February 6, 2023 were largely predicted.

“In the event of a major earthquake, it is foreseen that a large part of the city would be affected,” the report said in the scenario of a 7.5 magnitude earthquake in Kahramanmaraş. It listed the following possible causes of destruction: “The region is close to an active fault zone; the building stock is poor; soil conditions are suitable for liquefaction; and the ground water level is very high.”

It warned: “Kahramanmaraş region and its surroundings are located in the first degree earthquake zone with high seismic activity in terms of its tectonic structure. The region is under the influence of the East Anatolian Fault and the Dead Sea Fault, which are still active. It is understood that there is an energy accumulation of 200 years on these faults and there is a seismically high potential hazard. At the same time, the fact that the segments of the faults that have not yet been dislocated are located near Kahramanmaraş increases the degree of risk in this section.”

The report continued:

The fact that the Eastern Anatolian Fault and the Dead Sea Fault meet just south of Kahramanmaraş and twist into branches may constitute the epicenter area of possible large magnitude earthquakes. This raises concerns that it will increase the risk and the degree of damage. In addition, the fact that most of the settlements are located on very weak soils further strengthens this concern.

Emphasizing that the public was unaware of the danger of a possible earthquake and that this further increased the extent of the danger, the report outlined the measures the government should take:

For this reason, in order to minimize the loss of life and property in a possible earthquake, it is essential to carry out detailed ground surveys in residential areas and evacuate buildings in hazardous zones. In addition, earthquake activity and earthquake risk must be taken into consideration in the selection of the establishment and development locations of new villages, towns and cities. Earthquake-resistant buildings with correct reinforced concrete and static calculations should be constructed on solid ground away from active faults.

However, those living in hazardous zones were not evacuated, nor was public safety ensured by constructing earthquake-resistant buildings on solid ground. Tens of thousands of people lost their lives as a result, under conditions where the public was largely unaware of the danger. In Turkey, where the state-sponsored private construction industry prided itself on huge investments and reaped huge profits, such a long-term investment, requiring extensive state support, was not seen as profitable.

As millions in the earthquake area were unable to meet their basic needs and thousands were still under the rubble, the Erdoğan government focused on emphasizing “national unity and solidarity” to hide the capitalist profit interests and irresponsible policies behind the disaster.

Initially, while the state and the billionaires stood by and watched the disaster unfold, miners, construction workers, firefighters, health workers, and other layers of workers and youth flocked to the region to join in search-and-rescue and relief efforts. This effort saved many lives and provided for the basic needs of thousands of people. However, the ruling class saw the focus on this effort as unacceptable, as it exposed the state’s undeniable responsibility for the disaster and its criminal incapacity.

On Wednesday, the government issued a live-stream “Turkey in Full Unity” event to collect donations for earthquake victims. The program was hosted by celebrities and broadcast live on many TV channels. It essentially turned into a promotion of the financial oligarchy that owes its fortunes to the exploitation and impoverishment of the working class.

In reality, 85 billion of the 115 billion Turkish liras (US$6.1 billion) said to have been collected for the AFAD state disaster agency in the “Turkey in Full Unity” event came from public banks, not from private sources.

The main official and private institutions of Turkish capitalism, which puts private profit and the accumulation of wealth ahead of human life, tried to whitewash this corrupt social system by throwing millions of dollars around. Some of them were the construction giants wringing their hands to get tenders for the new building projects that the government announced would be completed within a year in the area that turned into mass graves.

What Friedrich Engels wrote in 1845 in The Condition of the Working Class in England about the disgusting hypocrisy of the English bourgeoisie of the time is as if written for today’s Turkish ruling elite’s response to this preventable social catastrophe:

As though you rendered the proletarians a service in first sucking out their very life-blood and then practising your self-complacent, Pharisaic philanthropy upon them, placing yourselves before the world as mighty benefactors of humanity when you give back to the plundered victims the hundredth part of what belongs to them!

US-backed Boluarte regime continues repression as protests spread across north of Peru

Andrea Lobo

For the 10th consecutive week, the wave of mass demonstrations and roadblocks across Peru has continued defying the brutal repression by the US-backed coup regime headed by Dina Boluarte.

Protest in Lima, banner reads "Stop the Massacre! Dina Murderer Resign" [Photo by Candy Sotomayor / CC BY-SA 4.0]

The “paros,” or “strikes,” consisting of roadblocks on key highways, sporadic marches in town centers and partial stoppages by small business owners, service and agricultural workers, remain concentrated in the impoverished and predominantly indigenous southern departments of Cuzco and Puno. There have also been smaller, daily demonstrations in the capital Lima and other cities.

Outside of frequent roadblocks in La Libertad, the north of the country had remained largely absent from the protests until this week. On Monday, peasant rondas (autonomous peasant patrols) set up major roadblocks across the northern department of Piura, which is country’s main oil producer and has many important mines.

This was followed by the launching on Friday of four days of paros demanding Boluarte’s resignation, which was announced by leaders of rondas and local “defense committees” from across the coastal, Andean and Amazonia “macro northern region,” including in Piura, La Libertad, Tumbes, Lambayeque, Áncash, Cajamarca, San Martín and Amazonas.

The highways connecting the capital Lima with northern Peru as well as those connecting the ports with the mining and agricultural regions in the north witnessed numerous roadblocks on Friday, which are already being attacked by the police and military.

Even before these latest developments, the Financial Times stressed last Sunday that a third of Peru’s copper output, 11 percent of the world’s total, is at risk, which could become “another driver of higher copper prices as China reopens its economy.” Credit ratings and growth forecasts have also been impacted.

On Tuesday, acting on behalf of the mining corporations and the Peruvian oligarchy, the Boluarte regime renewed for another month the national state of emergency, which has provided the framework to massacre nearly 60 demonstrators, terrorize the population, suspend democratic rights and deploy the military.

The regime has justified the repression with the claim that the demonstrations are being organized and financed by criminal groups and “terrorists.” General José Zavala, the head of the police anti-terrorism unit DIRCOTE, has become the face of this propaganda. Seeking to portray all opposition to social inequality as the work of “terrorists,” he stated in a recent interview: “Exactly in those places that work as hotbeds, they come and begin pointing to social differences and giving their message of hate, where they work on people’s minds.”

The renewed onslaught follows the visit by Boluarte’s Foreign Minister, Ana Cecilia Gervasi, to Washington, where the Biden administration explicitly reaffirmed support for the regime’s efforts to restore “stability.”

Having received a blank check from US imperialism, Gervasi felt emboldened enough to tell The New York Times in an interview published February 2 that “we don’t have any evidence” that the protests are backed by criminal groups. “I am sure that we will have that evidence very soon,” she added.

The regime’s widespread violations of democratic and human rights are sanctioned and aided by both US and European imperialism. Boluarte herself was installed in a parliamentary coup on December 7 involving the impeachment and arrest of President Pedro Castillo that was backed by Washington and the European Union.

The United States has continued providing security aid—about $40 million yearly, according to the Washington Office on Latin America— and Amnesty International documented this week that Spanish anti-riot gear exported with the approval of the PSOE-Podemos government is being employed in the repression.

Moreover, official documents of the Peruvian Police were leaked showing that Brazil’s Workers Party government of President Lula da Silva, who quickly endorsed the coup last year, authorized the sale of 28,960 tear gas canisters by the Brazilian company Condor to the Boluarte regime and the arrival on January 14 of a Peruvian Air Force plane to pick up the munitions.

The support to Boluarte from US and European imperialism, as well as the Brazilian government, explodes their claims of defending democratic and human rights.

Congress and the Boluarte regime are defended as the legitimate institutions in Peru. But about three-fourths of the population want the resignation of both Congress and Boluarte and the holding of new elections, according to several polls. In response, Boluarte has refused to resign, which would legally compel the congressional president to call elections, and Congress has repeatedly voted against new elections.

After a visit to Peru, the Argentine Mission for International Solidarity and Human Rights concluded that the “systematic and widespread” character of the extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, sexual abuse, torture, judicial harassment, and threats by the regime fall within the definition of “crimes against humanity” according to international law.

In a press conference, Marianela Navarro of the mission described her visit to Juliaca, where the security forces killed 19 demonstrators and left at least 60 more injured from live rounds on January 9. “We can indicate that there was an existing plan and intention to kill,” she said. “Many victims had gunshot wounds in the back. The state has massacred impoverished peoples. Indigenous women and peasants cried as they told us: ‘500 years of discrimination and oppression and they butcher us like animals.’”

The mission also visited Ayacucho, where the military marched in formation and employed their rifles to mow down protesters on December 15. While officials claim that the massacre was meant merely to drive protesters out of the local airport, investigative journalists of IDL-Reporteros and prosecutors found that demonstrators were followed after leaving the airport and killed in a systematic manner. They confirmed that nine out of the ten demonstrators killed had been shot with munitions from rifles used by the military.

The repression has been so brutal that the Prosecutor’s Office felt compelled to approve an investigation against Boluarte and her prime minister Alberto Otárola over “genocide.” In response, Otárola absurdly claimed on Friday that “the one politically responsible for the uprising and deaths” was ex-president Castillo. Similarly, Congress voted to recommend the prosecution of Castillo for disturbing “public tranquility” and leading a criminal organization, while the Avanza País party of congressional president José Williams asked Boluarte to approve an amnesty for the police and military.

Malaysian workers face intensifying economic and social crisis

Kurt Brown

Like the rest of the world, Malaysia’s workers and poor are confronting record levels of inflation. In the political establishment and media, concerns are being raised about the “B40”—the bottom 40 percent of households in terms of income—and the potential for social unrest.

For working people, inflation, food inflation in particular, has compounded longstanding social problems such as poor wages and unaffordable housing.

Demonstrators in Kuala Lumpur demand Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin resign, July 31, 2021. [AP Photo/FL Wong]

In its January 19 policy statement, Malaysia’s central bank, Bank Negara, noted that inflation for the period January to November 2022 has hit 3.4 percent and would continue at approximately 3.0 percent throughout 2023. This is substantially higher than the annual pre-pandemic inflation rate of about 1.5 percent.

The poorest sections of the population have been hard hit by food inflation. At the beginning of 2022, food inflation in Malaysia was under 4 percent but rose sharply over the year to reach 7 percent in November. Some food items increased as much as 40 percent.

The largest contributor to food inflation has been the US/NATO war in Ukraine against Russia. Food inflation spiked with the commencement of the war due to huge increases in the prices of fertiliser, grain and other foods sourced from Ukraine and Russia.

A Malaysian sub-reddit entitled “Serious inflation is happening” has numerous recent comments on the matter of inflation and especially food prices.

The comments reflect a growing desperation. “If I earn RM2,200 per month [$US510] and spend a total of RM800 in rent and utilities, I am left with RM1400, divide that by 30 and I can only spend a maximum of ~RM46 per day if I want to survive. I can still save, but if an emergency happens or if I get sick then I’m done for.…”

In May 2022, the monthly minimum wage was raised from RM1,200 to RM1,500. This is still very far removed from the living wage of RM2,600 recommended by Bank Negara in 2018, before prices soared.

Another reddit comment declared: “Cutting down things that are not a necessity might be a way to go but not a long term solution. Sooner or later we will arrive at a point where nothing can be cut down anymore but the wages is not enough to sustain a basic lifestyle and that’s gonna be a big trouble.”

Soaring food prices have already hit school canteens nationally. In early January, a substantial number of school canteen operators, who sell school lunches at a fixed rate as specified in their contract, are shutting their operations due to the high cost of raw ingredients.

Siti Normah Mohd Desa of the Malaysian School Canteen Operators Association noted that more than 40 percent of the association’s 10,200 nationwide operators had been forced to close. Siti Normah noted that “a kilo of chicken was RM8.50 last week, and now it has increased by another RM2.80 to RM11.30,” an increase of 33 percent. The price hike is substantially due to the increased cost of chicken feed.

Siti Normah stated: “We are serving schoolchildren who mostly can’t afford expensive meals,” adding that “pocket money of RM4 is [only] enough for fried rice with a fried egg and a glass of water.”

Academy of Sciences Malaysia fellow Dr Madeline Berma pointed out that low income B40 families spend more than 40 percent of their income on food. By contrast, households in the top 20 percent spend only about 15 percent on food.

In mid-2022, Forbes noted that Malaysia’s wealthiest 50 people suffered a 10 percent decline in their assets. But this wealth, derived from the exploitation of Malaysian workers and the environment in areas such as petroleum, palm oil, manufacturing, property, banking and minerals, still stood at more than $US80.5 billion.

Households in the B40 category earn less than approximately RM4,800 ($US 1,100) per month and, aside from food, spend a large part of their income on rent, utilities, transport, child care and schooling. Most families in this group, along with large numbers of the middle class, face hardship in various forms.

A 28-year-old street food vendor identified as Marlia said she is helping her husband, a truck driver, pay off money he borrowed from a loan shark in 2020. “I don’t blame my husband for taking out a loan to cover our five months’ unpaid rent after he was laid off because if he hadn’t done so, we would have been homeless,” said the mother of two.

A private sector employee, Afiq, remarked “if the government can provide special childcare centres and pre-schools for the low- and middle-income groups, it will really help reduce their financial burden.”

There are only a limited number of subsidised and government run childcare centres that are more affordable when compared with private centres. With three children, Muhammad noted that more than RM1,000 per month per child was required for kindergarten fees, nanny wages and school supplies.

The workers and the poor are also being hit by the rapid increase in Bank Negara’s official cash rate between May and November 2022. The cash rate increased from a record low of 1.75 percent to 2.75 percent over this period, prompting increases in bank lending rates.

The bank, however, is under pressure to increase interest rates even further in step with US Federal Reserve rates, in order to attract investment, minimise capital outflows and prevent a fall in Malaysia’s currency, the ringgit.

Despite Bank Negara’s actions, the ringgit fell by 5 percent in 2022 and is expected to fall by a further 4 percent at the start of 2023. These falls further fuel inflation by raising the price of imported goods.

The newly installed government of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has maintained some price subsidies. Food, fuel, electricity and other subsidies totaled RM77.7 billion in 2022 or about 27 percent of projected federal government revenue.

However, there is significant nervousness within ruling circles about the sustainability of these subsidies, not least by Anwar himself who is also finance minister. On January 17, Anwar warned that government debt and liabilities had reached RM1.5 trillion ($US346 billion) and repeated his call for these to be reduced.

Malaysia’s former second finance minister, Johari Ghani, referenced the high level of government debt and warned about the parallels with Sri Lanka. In 2022 the Sri Lankan government defaulted on its debt obligations, with workers and the poor now suffering crushing austerity demanded by international finance capital.

In December 2022, shortly after becoming prime minister, Anwar indicated that electricity price subsidies would continue. Pointedly, however, Anwar noted that this would “impact the country’s finances by some RM30 billion,” suggesting that at some future point the subsidies will be unaffordable and have to abolished.

Those in the poorest 40 percent of society are being squeezed economically on all sides—a situation that will fuel social unrest in Malaysia, as it is doing internationally.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs forms far-right “stormtrooper” brigades

Jason Melanovski

The Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs has announced plans to form “offensive guard” assault brigades, or what it is calling “stormtroopers,” that will be tasked with the “liberation of Luhansk, Donetsk and Crimea” in a planned offensive this coming spring.

The brigades, which were initiated by the former Minister of Internal Affairs Denys Monastyrskyi prior to his death in a helicopter crash in January, will be organized on an “ideological” basis, according to an adviser within the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rostyslav Smirnov. The infamous neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, which has undergone several reorganizations within the Ukrainian military already, will be among the brigade’s volunteers who can be chosen from. 

According to Smirnov, the brigades will be organized as follows:

• “Steel Border” (brigade of the State Border Service of Ukraine);
• “Kara-Dag” (“punishment for Crimea” is meant to play a central role in an offensive aimed at “retaking” Crimea);
• “Red viburnum” (the brigade includes fighters who already participated in the battles in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, and the defense of Kiev);
• “Liut” (a brigade of the National Police of Ukraine);
• “Rubizh” (frontier will consist of soldiers who defended the Hostomel airport near Kiev at the beginning of the war);
• “Spartan” (an assault brigade which was involved in the defense of Kharkiv);
• “Bureviy” (described as a “disposal brigade of the Russian military” by Smirnov);
• “Azov” (the notorious neo-fascist battalion, which is described on the webpage of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry as a “legendary unit” that “heroically” defended Azovstal’ in Mariupol )

In addition to incorporating the remnants of Azov, an openly neo-Nazi paramilitary organization, into the newly created brigades, the right-wing Ukrainian government has designated the newly created brigades as “stormtroopers” or “storm brigades,” terms that were first used by the German army in World War I. Later, the term was associated with the Nazi Party’s own paramilitary formation, the Sturmabteilung (storm detachment), or SA.

The webpage of the “stormtroopers,” where people can click on the separate brigades and submit forms to volunteer. (Screenshot) [Photo: WSWS]

The use of the term “stormtrooper” is by no means accidental, as both the Azov Regiment and the Ukrainian military leadership have made no secret about their fascination with Nazi Germany and their Ukrainian collaborators in the Holocaust. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, is regularly photographed with OUN memorabilia and portraits of the Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera. Andriy Biletsky, the founder and former head of Azov, stated in 2010 that he believed the “national purpose” was to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans].”

Azov Battalion soldiers with Nazi flag. [Photo by Heltsumani / CC BY-SA 4.0]

As Smirnov’s post makes clear, the Ukrainian government is in dire need of such “ideological” volunteers, who are prepared to die in the NATO-backed effort by Ukraine to retake Russian-held territories. In exchange, these “volunteers,” the majority of whom will inevitably be drawn from far-right and lumpen elements, will be given significant social privileges and the opportunity to serve in a “unit that corresponds to your values and ideology” rather than the regular army.

This past Saturday, the National Guard of Ukraine announced it has received more than 20,000 applications by people who want to become part of the assault brigades.

Earlier in February, the Ukrainian press had reported that Azov, which as a paramilitary had always fallen under the jurisdiction of Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, was moving to become a formal part of the Army under the Defense Ministry. This was later corrected with Azov itself declaring that the organization remains part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and becomes part of the new “storm brigades.”

It is unclear exactly why the Ukrainian media reported that Azov was moving to the Defense Ministry. However, the announcement of the formation of these new “stormtroopers” under the Ministry of Internal Affairs is clearly bound up with the war’s escalation by NATO which has been accompanied by corruption scandals and a political crisis of the Ukrainian government.

In January, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov was implicated in a procurement scandal, after reports emerged that the Defense Ministry signed a contract to purchase food for the military at inflated prices two to three times higher than store prices.

Reznikov attributed those prices to a “technical mistake” and remained in his position. His deputy, Viacheslav Shapovalov, however, did not escape the scandal and supposedly tendered his resignation. Later in early February it was widely reported that Reznikov would finally be replaced with Kyrylo Budanov, who was named Ukraine’s Head of Defense Intelligence by President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2020.

However, last week, France24 reported that Reznikov would remain in his position as there was not enough support within Zelensky’s Servant of the People political party to replace him. Reznikov’s close ties with Western governments undoubtedly played a role in him holding onto his position as Ukraine prepares its spring offensive with newly acquired missiles and tanks sent from the United States and NATO.

By forming its own “stormtroopers,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs is positioning itself to influence the war’s conduct separate from the sometimes rival Defense Ministry, as well as to get its hands on billions of military aid from NATO.

So far, it appears that the new “stormtroopers” will consist of inexperienced new recruits who will have to be trained quickly. That such recruits and adherents of fascist ideology rather than regularly trained army soldiers will be tasked with playing a central role in the planned counter-offensive this spring is a tacit admission by Kiev that the war is not going as well as it is portrayed in the war propaganda on the pages of the Western press.

With over 100,000 military casualties reported for both Russia and Ukraine back in November and evermore drastic measures by the government to crack down on “deserters,” it is obvious that much is being hidden from the public both in Ukraine and around the world regarding the real state of the war. As reporter Seymour Hersh recently stated in an interview following his exposure of the United States’ destruction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, “The war I know about is not the war you’re reading about.”

Moderna’s $130 Vaccine and the Path to Cheap Drugs

Dean Baker

Photo by Ian Hutchinson

According to news reports, Moderna is considering a price in the range of $110 to $130 for shots of its Covid booster. People may recall that we paid Moderna close to $450 million to develop its Covid vaccine. We then paid another $450 million for the clinical trials that were needed to determine its effectiveness.

Moderna has already made a good return on our tax dollars, selling the initial set of shots at around $20 a piece. According to Forbes, the company’s soaring stock price had already produced five billionaires by the summer of 2021.

Who knows how many Moderna billionaires we will have if the company gets away with charging $110-$130 for its new booster. Of course, this money will come out of the pockets of the rest of us, or at least those of us who are not prevented from getting boosters by these high prices.

Fortunately, there is an alternative if the Biden administration is prepared to challenge Moderna and drug companies more generally on their monopoly pricing.  Peter Hotez and Elena Bottazzi, two highly respected researchers at Baylor University and Texas Children’s Hospital, developed a simple to produce, 100 percent open-source Covid vaccine. It uses well-established technologies that are not complicated (unlike mRNA). Their vaccine has been widely used in India and Indonesia, with over 100 million people getting the vaccine to date.

If we want to see the vaccine used here it would need to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In principle, the FDA could rely on the clinical trials used to gain approval in India, but it indicated that they want U.S. trials. (In fairness, India’s trials are probably lower quality.)

However, the government could fund a trial of Hotez-Bottazzi vaccine (Corbevax) with pots of money left over from Operation Warp Speed, or alternatively from the budgets of National Institutes of Health or other agencies like Biomedical ​Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). With tens of billions of dollars of government money going to support biomedical research each year, the ten million or so needed for a clinical trial of Corbevax would be a drop in the bucket.

The arithmetic on this is incredible. Shots of Corbevax cost less than $2 a piece in India. If it costs two and a half times as much in the U.S., that still puts it a $5 a shot. That implies savings of more than $100 a shot. That means that if we get 100,000 people to take the Corbevax booster, rather than the Modern-Pfizer ones (Pfizer is planning to also charge over $100 for its booster), we’ve covered the cost of the trials. If we get 1 million to take Corbevax, we’ve covered the cost ten times over, and if 10 million people get the Corbevax booster, we will have saved one hundred times the cost of the clinical trial.

There is also the advantage that, since at least some of the reason for vacine hesitancy is fears of mRNA vaccines. We may get some vaccine hesitant people to take Corbevax, who wouldn’t take the mRNA vaccines.

It is understandable that the pharmaceutical industry would be very unhappy if the Biden administration were to put up the money for a clinical trial of Corbevax. Not only would FDA approval seriously cut into the gold mine they were anticipating from selling boosters at more than $100 a shot, it would also be a dangerous example for the industry.

It would show that it is possible to develop effective vaccines without relying on government-granted patent monopolies. (Hotez and Bottazzi supported their research on small grants from the government and private foundations.) And, it would be a great reminder that vaccines (and drugs) are cheap. It is rare that it is actually expensive to manufacture and distribute a drug or vaccine. Drugs are expensive because we give companies patent monopolies, or other forms of protection.

If we pay for the research up front, we don’t have to gouge patients to recover development costs. And, we don’t give drug companies an enormous incentive to lie, cheat, and steal to maximize the value of their patent monopolies.

The Biden administration has a great opportunity to hugely advance public health, and set an incredibly important example, by putting up the money for a clinical trial of Corbevax. Bernie Sanders, as chair of the Senate Health Committee, can also get on the case. He has been critical of Moderna for charging outrageous prices for a vaccine developed with taxpayer money.

Sanders’ anger is quite justified. But rather than just haranguing the company into lowering its price, we can take away its ability to get away with charging $130 a shot by giving them some competition. Competition is great for capitalism, even if it may not be good for individual capitalists.

A preventable disaster: Antioch, Turkey once again razed by earthquake

Hakan Özal

Hatay’s Antakya district, which includes the historic city of Antioch, was among the worst hit last week by the two earthquakes of magnitude 7.7 and 7.6, which affected 10 provinces in Turkey and demolished northern Syria.

Life came to a standstill after the earthquake. Electricity, natural gas and water were cut off, while almost all buildings collapsed or were damaged. Telephone networks went offline. The city was cut off from the world. Tens of thousands were trapped under the rubble. Those who managed to leave the buildings got out of bed at dawn and spent dozens of hours outside in cold weather with their children, elderly and sick relatives, desperately waiting for help to arrive. According to official reports, over 7,000 people lost their lives in Hatay.

A badly damaged building in Antioch surrounded by rubble after the Turkish-Syrian earthquake. [Photo: WSWS]

A major earthquake was not unexpected. Scientists have long warned of the danger to the city, which has repeatedly suffered great destruction in history. Indeed, Antakya is located on three fault lines: these are the Dead Sea Transform fault extending from the Red Sea to the Amik basin; the East Anatolian Fault; and the Cyprus fault.

Some of the earthquakes with the highest loss of life in history have occurred in Antakya. In February 2021, the 9.Köy news website pointed to the history of documented earthquake disasters in the region, which stretches back to the Roman empire: An estimated 260,000 people lost their lives in a 7.5 magnitude earthquake in December 115; On May 29, 526, a magnitude 7 earthquake killed around 250,000 people in the city; 80,000 people died in the earthquake in September 458; 60,000 on October 31, 588; 20,000 in 847; 80,000 on June 30, 1170; and 20,000 on December 7, 1759.

In the August 13, 1822 Aleppo Earthquake, Gaziantep, Antakya and İslahiye, as well as Latakia and Aleppo, which are today in Syria, were destroyed and tens of thousands of people lost their lives. On April 3, 1872, the whole of Antakya and Samandağ were destroyed in the earthquake. On April 8, 1951, 13 buildings collapsed in İskenderun and 6 people died.

Though it was well-known that Antakya is an earthquake zone, and experts have warned of a major earthquake for years, this has been ignored by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been in power for 20 years, and by local authorities.

Unlike in Roman or medieval times, science and technology today allow humanity to construct buildings that withstand even massive earthquakes without any loss of life. However, life-saving measures were not taken before or after the earthquake. Despite the enormous scientific advances made over the span of millenia, tens of thousands died preventable deaths.

On December 18, 2022, after an earthquake hit Antakya with no loss of life, Rasim Can, Hatay Provincial Representative of the Chamber of Geological Engineers, said: “Earthquakes are not a natural disaster, they are a fact of nature, and we are the ones who turn them into a disaster. As long as we live in this geography, we need to accept the reality of earthquakes and take strict precautions.” He listed the measures as follows:

1) A fault law must be enacted urgently [in the parliament].

2) Gathering places should be created.

3) Buildings built on weak soils and unsafe buildings built with sea sand should be demolished and earthquake-resistant buildings should be built instead.

4) The buildings to be constructed should be in accordance with the Earthquake Code, under strict supervision.

5) Urban transformation should be done regionally, not on a building-by-building basis.

6) Educate the public about earthquakes.

In February 2021, Can told 9.Köythat many buildings in Hatay are built on problematic ground, saying:“High-rise buildings were built on unstable ground. Moreover, sea sand was used. The high-rise buildings in Hatay, especially the old ones, were built by transporting sea sand from Samandağ.”

He added: “The sea sand has rotted the iron in the buildings and the old buildings have no strength left. High-rise buildings built with sea sand need to be reviewed.”

Buildings shattered by the earthquake in Antioch. [Photo: WSWS]

In the same interview, Hatay Chamber of Architects Branch Chair Mustafa Özçelik stated that in light of the Earthquake Code issued after the 1999 Marmara earthquake that killed over 17,000 people, “Buildings before 2000 are considered unsafe. There are too many old and unsafe buildings in Antakya and İskenderun. These buildings should be identified quickly and urban transformation should be done not as buildings but as neighborhoods. These buildings are too unsafe for an earthquake zone. This problem can be solved with mobilization.”

However, some buildings built after 2000 were also destroyed in the February 6 earthquake. Indeed, in some cases the Earthquake Code was not implemented by the authorities. Construction amnesties enacted by the parliament granted legal status to buildings that do not comply with safety regulations. Moreover, there was almost no open area left for people to gather after a major earthquake hit the city.

The World Socialist Web Site spoke to earthquake victims in Antakya. Volkan, who works as a music teacher, said that their building did not collapse during the earthquake, and that he went outside with his wife and children aged 5 and 7 immediately. However, they could not find a safe, open area: “It was like doomsday outside. There was no open area where we could take shelter. It was cold and raining heavily. Hundreds of people were pushing each other, looking for a place to escape from the buildings that kept shaking with aftershocks.”

Volkan continued: “Although it was very risky, I had no choice but to take my car out of the garage on the lower floor of the building where we live. The only way out of the area was by car. Meanwhile, the screams of people trapped under the rubble were mingling with the shouts of people fleeing around the buildings. We took our neighbors who didn't have cars in my small car. There were 8 of us in total.”

In apocalyptic conditions, he said, people tried to save their families as buildings collapsed: “We tried to drive through the street where buildings continued to collapse due to aftershocks. But traffic was blocked. Some people had heart attacks in front of our eyes. No one could help anyone. We finally reached the garden of the school where I worked, which was also very crowded. There were no toilets. Cars were running because it was cold, so it was very difficult to breathe. But it was the only place nearby where there was no risk of buildings collapsing on us.'

Volkan said that people who were rescued from their homes or from the rubble did not have basic necessities such as water, food, and clothing: “One day later, our car’s battery died. Many cars had no fuel. We were waiting for help from the first moments of the earthquake. Forty-eight hours passed, but no help came from anywhere. We were afraid that our children would freeze. On the morning of the third day of the earthquake, we survived because people from other cities voluntarily came to help us.”

Antioch, Turkey [Photo: WSWS]

The WSWS also spoke to Burcu, who ran a flower shop and lived on the third floor of an apartment building in Antakya before the earthquake.

She said: “As soon as the earthquake hit, my husband and I went to the room of our children, aged 8 and 5, and embraced them. It was like we were in an elevator. We were going down [with the building]. We bent down to the ground. There was a one-meter gap between the ceiling and the ground. The wind was blowing from an exploded wall. We crawled towards it and suddenly we found ourselves outside.”

She continued: “We ran barefoot in the rainy and cold weather to our car on the side of the street. But our car was buried under the cave-in. Then we followed people moving in a certain direction. We gathered in a school yard with people from the neighborhood. Our children were shivering from cold and fear. A family took our children in their car. My husband and I waited outside in the rain, barefoot, for help to arrive.'

Burcu, her family and others in the schoolyard also survived with the help of volunteers after a long wait: “After 60 hours, a volunteer from another city gave us blankets, water and biscuits. We saw the first state officials only three days after the earthquake. We lost our workplace, our home and our city, and we were the only family to survive in our building. Our only consolation is that our children are alive.”

Earthquake victims in Antakya, like many other people in the affected region, say that the state came to help too late. The fact that volunteers started search-and-rescue operations and delivered vital necessities like blankets, water and food to earthquake victims before state officials did, exposes the government’s horrific lack of preparedness for the earthquake.

This indifference of the government, and the ruling class as a whole, to the safety of the people led to the collapse of tens of thousands of buildings and the deaths of thousands of people who could have been pulled out alive from under the rubble.