Mass COVID-19 infections of children follow Macron’s reopening of French schools

Will Morrow

As in the United States and across Europe, the Macron government’s policy of keeping schools open throughout the coronavirus pandemic is continuing to produce the mass infection of children.

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

The government announced last Friday that 2,366 classrooms had been closed over the previous week, down from 3,299 the week earlier. A classroom is closed only in primary school upon the detection of a single case. In total 6,383 students tested positive for the virus, down from 9,748 the week earlier.

The total number of daily cases for all age groups remains at over 5,700. This is down from approximately 20,000 daily cases one month ago on August 23. However, while the warmer weather combined with the impact of vaccinations have temporarily reduced case numbers, scientists are continuing to warn that the ending of social distancing measures is preparing a new wave as autumn begins, that could well be as deadly as last year.

The reopening of schools has already led to a significant surge of the virus among children. In its latest national bulletin published on September 23, Public Health France reported that the incidence rate among those aged 0-9 was 94 per 100,000 people this week, compared to 73 for the general population. Last week was the first time in the previous 10 weeks that the incidence rate for this age group was higher than the population at large. The incidence is highest among children aged 6-10.

The government is in fact responding to the spread of the virus in schools by loosening social distancing protocols. On Wednesday, September 22, government spokesman Gabriel Attal announced that masks will no longer be compulsory in primary schools as of October 4, in departments where the incidence rate is below 50 per 100,000 people. There are currently 40 departments where this would apply.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that the Macron government would be “experimenting” with a new health protocol in a number of school districts. Under the new policy, a case detected in primary school will also not close the class, but only result in the testing of all students in the classroom and the sending home of positive students. It will result in additional delays that will allow even more time for the virus to spread among students.

These events make clear the importance of the October 1 school strike call made by UK parent Lisa Diaz, a member of the SafeEd4All group who works with the UK Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee. “We need collective action, and we need to keep raising awareness,” Lisa told the WSWS. “Because the politicians have failed us. The unions are failing children. The claim that children are not so affected by this is a lie.”

In France, the Macron government’s own scientific advisory council is predicting a new wave of the pandemic, particularly among school-aged children. On September 13, the Scientific Council provided the government with an update, noting the “the absence of vaccination protection among children less than 12 years old and the still weak vaccination rate of those from 12-17 (67.1 percent with a single dose and 53.6 percent with total vaccination).” The report was only made public last week.

It called attention to “a significant viral circulation in the general population … with incidence rates among the 0-9 and 10-19 age groups elevated in certain regions (such as in Provence-Alpes Côte d’Azur, with 300 cases per 100,000 people, and 428 in the Bouches-du-Rhône.)”

In the last week of August, more than 10,000 cases were reported among those aged 0-9, and more than 20,000 among those aged 10-19, compared to 300 and 3,100, respectively, for the same age groups at the same time last year.

The report refers to the development in the United States of “a sharp rise in paediatric hospitalisations tied to the Delta variant (5 times in June and August), particularly among the 0-4 ages (10 times over the same period)” which “could be tied to the rise in incidence in this population but also to the increased paediatric severity [of the variant.] Also, an increased viral circulation among minors could lead to a major growth in long Covid among children …”

The document warns that contaminated children could make up 35 percent of cases and 5 percent of hospitalisations in the course of the coming weeks. At even current hospitalisation rates, this would mean the hospitalisation of many hundreds of children.

But other scientific modelling predicts a course of development that is even more grave. On September 6, the Pasteur Institute published modelling projections of the development of the spread of the Delta variant, under varying assumptions of immunity rates within the population. It found that even with a total vaccination rate of 70 percent for 12-17 year olds, 80 percent for 18-59 year olds and 90 percent for those over 60, daily hospitalisations would exceed 5,200 people in a new wave within the coming months, higher than during the first and second waves of the virus.

Simon Cauchemez, the Pasteur researcher and a member of the Scientific Council, noted that these results “can be surprising” given current vaccination rates, “but during the first wave, we estimate that five percent of the French population were infected—no doubt less among the most fragile, who had fewer contacts—and this was sufficient to overwhelm the health system. Even with a coverage of 90 percent among the oldest people, which means there would be 10 percent of vulnerable people, meaning three times as much as the infected population during the first wave.”

The Pasteur Institute modelling, moreover, is based on an R value of 5 for the Delta variant, which they note is on the lower end of current estimates.

Under these conditions, Macron is proceeding with the ending of social distancing measures. Last week, the government also indicated it would consider ending the “health pass,” which effectively mandates vaccination for travel to public places on a region-by-region basis.

Macron’s policy is dictated by the interests of the corporate and financial elite. Social distancing measures are being ended using the justification of partial and insufficient vaccination because this is required to ensure that corporate operations can continue. Children are being kept in overcrowded classrooms so that their parents can continue to work. This not only ensures that many tens of thousands of people will die unnecessarily but increases the danger of the development of new variants.

Macron has relied on the support of the political establishment, including the nominal opposition of the Socialist Party and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Unsubmissive France, as well as the nominal right Republicans and Le Pen’s National Rally, to implement this policy of mass death. It has also depended upon the support of the trade unions, which have enforced the reopening of schools in unsafe conditions.

UK government crisis deepens as lorry driver shortage leaves fuel stations empty

Robert Stevens

A fuel shortage has left drivers queuing for miles at garages nationwide in Britain, amid warnings of a devastating impact on industry and the already overwhelmed National Health Service (NHS).

Such scenes epitomise the post-Brexit crisis wracking the Britain’s Conservative government. They come after weeks in which the public have been hit with shortages of basic items in supermarkets, with UK supply chains hit due to Brexit, the coronavirus pandemic, and an unprecedented shortage of long-haul lorry drivers.

The latest crisis was sparked by an announcement last week by BP, which operates 1,200 BP branded petrol stations nationwide, that it would be necessary to temporarily close a small number due to a lack of lorry drivers to supply them.

Cars queuing up a petrol station in Bournemouth, England, on the first day of the fuel shortage crisis. September 24, 2021 (WSWS Media)

Long queues started to build up outside fuel stations, fearing that supplies would soon run out. On Friday forecourt petrol sales were already up 180 percent and by Sunday the Petrol Retailers Association said that between 50 and 85 percent of all independent service stations nationwide were empty. On Monday, most of the UK 8,000 petrol stations had been drained of fuel.

By Tuesday, Royal College of Nursing England director Patricia Marquis warned that some nursing staff had told management they would be unable to get to work this week because of queues for petrol and empty stations. The BBC reported that one junior doctor in London, “went to 17 petrol stations after work on Monday in search of fuel—but wasn't able to get any”.

The Guardian reported Tuesday that it had “learned that several cancer patients due to attend appointments this week at University College hospital (UCLH), one of London’s largest hospitals, have been told they will have to be rescheduled.” A spokesperson for the hospital said it was necessary due to complications with its non-emergency patient transport provision due to “the national fuel supply”.

Despite reassurance by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government and after carrying out out 18 measures to get the crisis under control, including placing military drivers on standby, drivers were still queuing for fuel.

Sealed off petrol pumps with a sign reading "No Petrol" at a garage in Bournemouth on September 28, 2021 (WSWS Media)

On Sunday evening, as the crisis worsened, the government was forced to exempt the entire energy industry from the 1998 Competition Act in order that companies could legally share basic data and prioritise deliveries to areas where fuel was needed most.

This occurred as it was revealed that one of the UK’s six oil refineries, which collectively supply about 85 percent of UK fuel demand, is threatened with imminent bankruptcy due to an unpaid tax bill. The Stanlow refinery in Ellesmere Port supplies about a sixth of Britain’s road fuel. Run by two billionaire brothers, Ruia and Ravi Shashi, through their company Essar Oil UK, it is pleading poverty after taking advantage of one of the Johnson governments big business pandemic bailout measures. Under the Value Added Tax deferral scheme they were able to benefit to the tune of £356 million.

In an emergency meeting with Cabinet ministers and senior government officials Monday, Johnson requested the army be put on standby to fill fuel stations under a contingency plans known as Operation Escalin. It is unclear that this would do much to stem the crisis, given that the Ministry of Defence could only supply around 150 qualified army tanker drivers on short notice to deliver fuel (75 now and another 75 if needed), with another 150 military personnel on hand in a support role. Additional military forces, if they are available, require specialised training.

The Tory government, delirious on visions of a “Global Britain” bestriding the world and boasting that a substantial portion of its armed forces would be away from May for six months on its provocative mission to the South China Sea, has ignored for months the implications of the staggering shortage of HGV drivers in Britain. The UK is estimated to be short of more than 100,000 lorry drivers, meaning that much of basic industry and a supply network, much of it integrated into complex just in time production operations, has seized up.

The shortage has been exacerbated by Brexit, with an estimated 25,000 drivers returning to Europe since 2016. The pandemic has also intensified the crisis, with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) cancelling 30,000 HGV license tests last year.

The government is now offering “temporary” visas to 5,000 foreign fuel tanker and food lorry drivers, and with the profitable Christmas period of trading threatened with being massively disrupted, to 5,500 foreign-based poultry workers. It is also attempting to bring back around a million existing HGV drivers into the industry, under conditions in which many have left due to the intolerable working conditions and low pay for what is a highly skilled job. Plans were also announced to train 4,000 new HGV drivers under conditions in which there is now a backlog of 50,000 lorry drivers waiting to take their tests.

The government is not simply planning to enlist army personnel as truck drivers, but also to break a potential strike of DVSA test examiners who voted for industrial action last Friday in protest at DVSA plans to increase the number of tests from 2,000 a day pre-COVID to 4,000.

The pro-government Daily Telegraph cited a “road haulage industry insider” who said, “There has been talk of bringing in the Army to drive fuel tankers, but the simplest solution would be to deploy the Army to the DVLA to sort out the applications.”

The crisis of rule in a country which becomes more dysfunctional by the day is epitomised by the ever more frequent calls being made for the army, down to just 82,000 full-time personnel, to take over everything from building temporary field hospitals at the height of the pandemic last year, to currently helping run chronically under pressure ambulance services in Wales and Scotland. This was lampooned by the Times in a cartoon Tuesday under the caption reading “Panic Governing” with Johnson at his desk, having no other solution, screaming out, “Bring In The Army!”

Social tensions are at breaking point and this can only be intensified with around a million workers being forced off the government-backed furlough scheme in a matter of days and going back into the labour market—threatening unpresented social dislocation. This is at the same time as the £20 weekly uplift given during the pandemic to millions of Universal Credit welfare recipients, including many of the lowest paid workers, will also end.

The institutions of the capitalist class and media are not mincing their words as to the implications of the threatened catastrophe. Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey, in a speech to the Society of Professional Economists, made an analogy to the Biblical plague, asking, “When are the locusts due to arrive?'

Daily Mail City Editor Alex Brummer commented Tuesday, “We live in perilous times and Bailey, who is not heard that often, is sounding the alarm.”

The Financial Times was scathing of Johnson, using his own franglais insult directed against President Macron for complaining about the AUKUS military pact. Its editorial was headlined, “Memo to Boris Johnson: prenez un grip”. It noted, “First came gaps on supermarket shelves, then soaring energy bills. Now petrol stations are running out of fuel; the army is on standby to help out. Less than two weeks ago, Boris Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle was intended to be a relaunch for the post-Covid era. Instead, his team seems increasingly to be buffeted by events but not in control.”

COVID-19 outbreaks and staff resignations deepen crisis in Southwest US schools

D. Lencho

With the reopening of schools across the United States, there has been an explosion of outbreaks of COVID-19, and the Southwest is no exception. Rather than implement shutdowns and remote learning, school districts are plowing ahead with either homicidal “herd immunity” policies or so-called mitigation measures. Meanwhile, teachers and staff have quit in droves amid a disturbing trend of concealing needed information on COVID-19 from the public.

Elementary school students on the first day of classes in Richardson, Texas, August 17, 2021. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

In Arizona, only 30 percent of the state’s 215 school districts provide COVID-19 dashboards, and just one county health department out of 15 in the state, Pima County, publicly monitors active COVID-19 cases by district. There is no comprehensive and transparent picture of where the virus is being contracted.

A ban on mask mandates inserted into the Arizona state budget by the Republican-majority state legislature with the approval of the state’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, has been challenged in court. A recent poll shows 57 percent opposition to it among Arizona residents. Ducey has said that there is no need to revisit the issue and it is scheduled to take effect September 29.

Ducey plans to bribe schools to obey the ban by granting them funding that will be denied to school districts that do not comply. Tucson Unified School District, which has a mask mandate and whose infection rate has been about half of that of another non-mandated district in Pima County, plans to defy the ban, though most other districts are likely to cave.

As in the rest of the US, Arizona has lost teachers and staff to infections, deaths and resignations, causing a scramble to fill vacancies. The Cartwright District in Phoenix raised the daily pay rate for subs to $200, almost twice the statewide average, and another district now offers a $3,100 bonus for those who work a certain number of hours. No experience or education outside of a high school diploma is required. Districts are having to revise or cancel bus routes due to the shortage of drivers.

Nevada, with a Democratic governor and legislature, is pursuing a mitigation approach which is entirely unable to prevent infections. Following the early August reopening of schools, some were forced to resume distance learning due to COVID-19 outbreaks, only to resume in-person instruction by the end of the month. Predictably, cases grew, and on September 21, state agency Nevada Health Response issued a statement calling for mask mandates in all counties from September 24-30. This will do little to stop or slow the spread of infections.

Meanwhile, bus service has been spotty or nonexistent for various districts. Clark County School District, which covers Las Vegas, is short about 240 drivers, and sometimes students must wait hours for their bus. Top pay is $19.98 an hour and drivers work split shifts, sometimes as few as 30 hours a week. With the district facing a shortage of staff and teachers, substitute teachers are offered a $1,000 stipend for working 15 days per quarter. Washoe County, which includes Reno, offers a $10 a day bonus for subs teaching in the midst of the pandemic.

Utah instituted a law for the 2021-22 school year forbidding schools from changing to virtual learning in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak without the approval of Governor Spencer Cox, the President of the State Senate, the State Speaker of the House, all Republicans, as well as the State Superintendent of Education. The legislature also banned schools from imposing mask mandates, with the governor claiming, “masks are not as effective as most of the pro-mask crowd are arguing.”

Yet another law, called “Test to Stay,” requires schools with 1,500 students or more to test all students for COVID-19 only when two percent of the student body tests positive for COVID-19 within the last 14 days. For those with fewer than 1,500 students, 30 students must test positive for COVID-19 within the last 14 days to trigger the testing of the entire student body. By September 17, over 650 students had tested positive, nearly half of whom were between five and 10 years of age. After one month of school, the number of COVID-19-positive students, teachers and others at schools was 6,200.

New Mexico has more than 1,000 openings for public school teachers for 2021-22. School districts are trying to lure teachers, substitutes, educational assistants, bus drivers and other staff with various incentives. Santa Fe Public Schools has held two job fairs recently, and New Mexico school districts are using federal pandemic dollars to attract teaching assistants, who currently earn around $25,000 a year, into teaching.

On September 15, Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham again extended, this time until October 15, the indoor mask mandate that her office had put into effect August 20 after 109 schools in the state reported COVID-19 cases following the statewide reopenings. The order also requires all school workers in public, private or charter schools who are not fully vaccinated or who are unwilling to provide proof of vaccination to their respective supervisors or provide proof of a COVID-19 test on a weekly basis.

Across Texas, school districts have experienced shortages of teachers as the danger of COVID-19 in the schools receives a minimal response due to the “herd immunity” policies of the state’s governor and legislature. Houston Independent School District, the largest in the state, reported 700 unfilled teacher slots at the start of the year, more than seven times higher than its average of less than 100 vacancies in previous years.

As the number of COVID-19 cases at Texas schools continues to grow—52,000 among students and over 13,000 among staff since the school year began—teachers have experienced burnout, stress, overwork and fear from the reckless policy of keeping schools operating at all costs. And, as in other states, accurate and up-to-date information is getting harder to find.

These concerns are shown on Facebook and other social media platforms.

A Fort Worth teacher recently complained, “There are kids missing in my class every day. I don’t know if they’re quarantining or if they’re sick. I could have kids that are supposed to be in quarantine but aren’t. I have no idea. There is no testing, no reporting, no transparency, no support. I’m retiring after this year. I’ve made sacrifices for the last eighteen months and I’m done. [This] shit is taking years off my life. There’s been nothing normal about any of this.”

Another teacher from Irving Independent School District posted, “I did not think things could be worse than last year. But they [the administration] are clearly covering up how bad things are. They aren’t going to get better. We’re just expected to take it. I don’t know how much longer I can do this.”

Others have resigned, unwilling to endure the thankless grind, with one posting, “I resigned today and cited COVID and my anxiety about that as well as wanting to home school my son. I’m not sure if SBEC [State Board for Educator Certification] will suspend my certification, but it would be nice to find a remote position. I used to love my job so much and still love teaching. I’m sad, but everything is too overwhelming now. Life is too short to be unhappy and consumed by stress.”

Another responded, “Resigned at the end of the summer to take care of my mother. Educators do so much, and beyond, that we put ourselves last. This past year taught me that the State & the district could care less. We need to put ourselves and our families first. You're doing the right thing.”

One teacher expressed her anger and frustration with the harassment and pressure she faces at her school, saying, “So, someone who has decades in education, my 5th year as SPED [special education], COVID shutting down schools, wreaking havoc… why am I getting such horrible (and numerous) evaluations? I'm not teacher of the year… but I know I don’t deserve what I’m getting. I’ve been so happy… til now. There's a freakin’ shortage of teachers, they want to drive away the ones who are risking their lives, putting up with the reading academy BS, etc.?”

The teacher asked, “Kick me while I'm down, won’t ya? Why do they keep making this so hard? I honestly don't have a clue how to handle how I feel.”

The stonewalling and lack of transparency of districts regarding student cases prompted another teacher to ask, “What are some of the protocols your districts have in place? No testing, no masks, no communication with teachers or students about possible exposure or even if a child has tested positive in your room. Had eight out, now only have two out positive. Only found out because I asked the nurse.”

A colleague replied, “Yes, I was disgusted when I got a call from my niece’s school asking why she wasn’t in school. I told them that in the last few days 5 of the family members had tested positive… I was told she needed to be in school. I repeated it all again assuming she hadn’t heard me and [went] on to say she can’t taste so she likely has it. She told me again bring her to school or she’s truant. She’s 6, she can’t be vaccinated and hearing that woman tell me to take her in left me disgusted. I didn’t take her in. She came back positive later that day.”

More than 200,000 children have been infected with COVID-19 in the US for five consecutive weeks

Benjamin Mateus

Hundreds of thousands of children are being infected with COVID-19 every week in the United States, driven by the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant and the reopening of schools to in-person learning throughout the country.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), as of the week ending September 23, 2021, over 5.7 million children in the United States have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic. The number of pediatric cases exceeded 200,000 for the fifth consecutive week.

Kindergarten students at the Milton Elementary School in Rye, New York on May 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Over the past week, the number of infections, according to official figures, was 206,864, bringing the total over the last five weeks to 1,131,958. In other words, nearly 20 percent of all childhood COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic have occurred in just the last five weeks. And though pediatric cases account for 16 percent of all infections in the US since the pandemic began, they accounted for 26.7 percent of all cases this week.

The AAP reports that 19 children died of COVID-19 over the past week, bringing the total death toll among children to 498. Nearly 20 percent of all child deaths, or 96 children, have occurred in the past five weeks.

Overall, the number of pediatric cases and hospitalizations appears to be slowly declining. In the South, the recent epicenter of the pandemic, schools have been opened for at least two months, and the reported incidence of COVID-19 among children has declined slightly.

However, the apparent decline is likely a consequence of how states are calculating pediatric cases in an effort to cover up the full extent of the pandemic among children to keep schools open.

Texas has provided an age distribution for only three percent of confirmed cases, and this only through August 26. The state of New York does not give an age distribution. Alabama, Rhode Island, Missouri, West Virginia, and Hawaii have revised the definition of child cases, reducing the age cutoff. Massachusetts has also changed its definition of probable child cases, leading to a reduction in total case counts. Florida has stopped reporting child hospitalizations, and Nebraska no longer has a COVID-19 dashboard.

The fact that the AAP is the only source of data on child infections is the product of a deliberate effort on the part of federal, state and local governments to cover up the true magnitude of the devastation caused by the pandemic, especially among children.

While the official figures of child cases are declining slightly, the number of hospital admissions is continuing to trend upwards or has stabilized at a very high rate, which provides a more accurate measure of infections.

Even though children make up a minority of those that die from COVID-19, the case fatality rate among those 16 years and younger has seen the highest jump during the Delta phase of the pandemic. As Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, epidemiologist and advocate for bringing cases of COVID-19 down to zero, said, “When you compare it [case fatality rates among children in Florida] to the entire pandemic period, it is six to eight-fold higher in terms of actual deaths.”

Almost 20 children have died each week for the last five weeks. This would mean that, at the present trajectory, nearly 1,000 children will die over the course of one year. Though vaccinations are being touted as vital to opening society, most children are unvaccinated, as the vaccine has yet to be approved for those under the age of 12.

As Feigl-Ding observed, exposing children to COVID-19 is “dangerous and morally reprehensible” under the present circumstances. In 2019, almost 3,400 children were killed with guns. A little more than half that number, or 1,780, died from cancer. The rate of COVID-19 deaths is comparable to these tragic figures.

The massive spread of the virus among children is being downplayed to ensure that schools remain open so that parents can continue to work and pump out profits for the ruling class. This policy is supported by the entire political establishment, along with the corporate media.

The Democrats under Biden are now spearheading the reopening of schools throughout the country, with the assistance of the trade unions. In particular, the teachers unions have campaigned aggressively for the full reopening of schools to in-person learning, endangering the health and lives of educators as well as students.

In the eight months of the Biden presidency, more than 280,000 people have died from COVID-19. As of July 2021, when Biden declared “independence” from the virus, 114,000 children in the US have been orphaned due to a caregiver’s death from COVID-19. What makes pediatric infections so concerning is that most of them are asymptomatic carriers and can readily transmit the disease to their families.

In addition to the immediate impact on the health of children, the long-term consequences of infection can be severe. In a recent study out of England, researchers found that one in seven children who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 continued to have symptoms for 15 weeks after their diagnosis. These symptoms include headaches and unusual tiredness.

There is growing opposition in the US and internationally to the homicidal policy of school reopenings. Last week, British parent Lisa Diaz issued a video statement via Twitter calling for a nationwide school strike in the UK on October 1. Nearly 60,000 British children have been infected with COVID-19 in just the first two weeks of school reopenings.

The call by Diaz has been supported by parents and educators in the UK, the US and internationally.

COVID-19 cases surge at US colleges and universities, administrations seek to hide the disaster

Dominic Gustavo

Two months into the reopening of US colleges and universities for in-person learning, a disaster of mass infections is unfolding. US educational institutions have been transformed into incubators for the further spread of the coronavirus.

Outbreaks of COVID-19 have occurred on virtually every major college or university campus in the US. The universities are doing everything in their power to skew the data and obscure the severity of the campus outbreaks. The following is a small sampling of this criminal debacle.

Students wear masks on campus at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C., Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

The University of Texas San Antonio, which had 31,698 students enrolled in the spring semester, has only performed 2,210 tests on students, and a mere 35 on staff. The test positivity rate was recorded as 4.66 percent. Given these figures, the 123 officially reported COVID-19 cases since the start of classes on August 23 almost certainly represents a significant undercount of the actual number of cases.

The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), which had almost 29,000 students enrolled in fall 2020, has seen more than 293 recorded cases. Suspiciously, information on test data such as positivity, number of tests, and other data is absent despite UTD having completed mandatory testing of all students as of September 10.

The University of Texas at Austin has recorded 341 cases since the start of classes on August 25, with a 3.17 percent positivity rate.

At Texas A&M University, which has almost 67,000 students, 2,970 cases have been reported since August 30 and a 7 percent positivity rate. One student has died, 20-year-old Kirstyn Katherine Ahuero. The callousness of the university administration—which continued in-person learning and did not bother to institute even token safety measures such as masking—led to protests by students who chanted, “Not another Aggie!” and “Mask mandates are a must, and A&M is unjust!”

Faculty have also denounced the administration, with physics professor Peter McIntyre stating last week at a virtual faculty senate meeting, “How many Aggies must die before Texas A&M University mandates vaccinations and masks for its students and faculty?”

When Duke University opened for the fall semester, the administration boasted the highest vaccination rate among major North Carolina universities. Within the first two weeks of opening, 349 students and 15 employees tested positive for the virus. All but eight were fully vaccinated.

Harvard Business School has been forced to move all first-year and some second-year MBA students to remote learning this week amid a “steady rise” in breakthrough COVID-19 infections. Harvard University said on its website that 95 percent of students and 96 percent of employees are vaccinated.

The University of South Florida has recorded at least 2,070 cases since August 24. The university is deliberately failing to report positivity rates, the number of tests, and the numbers of students in quarantine or isolation. The university claims that it is providing “updates to the community” regarding new cases, but students have not reported seeing any such updates. The university administration is thereby working to conceal community spread in a state in which there are no masking or vaccine requirements.

The University of Colorado Boulder—which has 95 percent of its 35,897 students vaccinated in keeping with the University of Colorado System’s vaccine requirement—has carried out a mere 2,846 PCR tests since August 9. The school is reporting a positivity rate of around 2.3 percent. This translates to approximately 826 cases among students and 235 among staff and faculty, much higher than the official 66 officially reported cases.

Despite the growing number of cases, countless colleges have taken down their COVID-trackers and even implemented new policies that prevent faculty from informing students of outbreaks. Faculty at the University of Delaware, for example, are prohibited from telling their students when a classmate has tested positive for COVID-19.

The COVID cover-up extends to every facet of school and work life. The latest data from the American Academy of Pediatrics shows that multiple states have quietly changed their parameters for tracking child infections, hospitalizations and deaths in order to obscure the data.

Florida has stopped reporting child hospitalizations altogether. Arkansas has stopped reporting child deaths and hospitalizations. Nebraska has completely removed their COVID-19 dashboard from public view—that is, the state is no longer reporting child cases, hospitalizations, or deaths. Despite their efforts, official data shows that child deaths continue to rise each week.

The widespread nature of the COVID-19 outbreaks at schools and its cover up, is an indictment of the entire American ruling class, Democrat and Republican alike. As for the ever-compliant bourgeois press, they have dutifully fulfilled their role in this sordid venture by maintaining a virtual news blackout on the extent of the outbreaks among students.

From the standpoint of the ruling class, there is nothing to report. The omnipresent danger of infection, sickness and death by a deadly contagion has been decreed to be the new normal in American society. The philosophy is that “the cure can’t be worse than the disease,” and therefore workers and their children must learn to live with COVID-19 for the sake of the stock market.

The fact of the matter is that this disaster was the entirely predictable and logical outcome of crowding students and educators into classrooms under conditions in which the United States is again the epicenter of the pandemic, averaging more than 121,000 new cases per day, and more than 2,000 daily deaths. In this context, the US ruling class and its appendages bear criminal responsibility for the untold suffering wrought by their reopening policy.

The students and educators sent back into classrooms under these conditions are the victims of a barbaric experiment in “herd immunity.” The university administrations, driven by ruthless economic interests, are determined to obtain tuition funds from in-person learning, regardless of the cost to the lives and health of their students, faculty, and the wider population. This is a part of the wider policy of the entire American ruling establishment, which has determined to reopen the economy regardless of the cost in human life and suffering.

The legitimacy of the strategy of ‘mitigation’ or “learning to live with the virus”—which has been used by the ruling class and its media mouthpieces to justify the reopening of schools and colleges—was based on two lies: firstly, that vaccines would serve as a sort of silver bullet that would end the need for any other containment measures, and secondly that young people, even when infected, are not at any significant risk from COVID-19.

The reality is that while the vaccine is safe and effective at preventing severe illness, it is not a miracle cure. Experts have stressed that vaccines are most effective at preventing community spread only when combined with other containment measures such as lockdowns, masking and social distancing. The spread of the vaccine-resistant Delta variant dispels the myth, fueled by the fevered hopes of the bourgeois establishment, that the vaccine would bring an immediate end to the pandemic and allow a return to “normalcy.”

The claim that youths have nothing to fear from COVID-19 will go down in history as an infamous lie. It is now well known that young people are vulnerable to “long COVID,” the still poorly understood syndrome which afflicts as many as 30.3% of those who have suffered COVID-19 infection, according to a June study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Symptoms can last for many months following recovery, and the longer term health implications are as yet unknown. The health consequences, which include chronic pain and fatigue, and severe cognitive impairment, are debilitating. An entire generation of youths is thus having its long-term health sacrificed for the sake of private profit.

Students and workers must take up the demand for the eradication of COVID-19—necessitating the shutting down of non-essential production, the closure of schools, and the deployment of billions of dollars for social programs—as an expression of their vital interests, in this case their most basic social needs: the right to be able to live, work and study without endangering their lives and health as a result of exposure to an entirely preventable disease.

The taking up of this demand would bring students and workers into immediate conflict with the capitalist system, which has subordinated all of society to the profit motive and is incapable of implementing a rational response to the pandemic that prioritizes human life over private profit. A socialist response is required to bring an end to the pandemic.

Samoa’s Supreme Court ends bitter parliamentary standoff

John Braddock

Samoa’s Supreme Court on September 16 ruled in favour of an appeal by the opposition Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) and ordered the Speaker of the House to swear in the party’s members.

The ruling was an attempt to resolve a prolonged political and constitutional crisis in the tiny Pacific island state that followed the April 9 election. The HRPP had been defeated by the newly formed Faatuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi—Faith in the One True God Party (FAST) but had refused to accept the result.

FAST Party leader Fiame Naomi Mataafa (Source: FAST Party Facebook)

A protracted series of court cases eventually resulted in FAST’s Fiame Naomi Mata’afa being installed as prime minister. However, when the parliament first met on September 14, the Speaker refused to allow the HRPP members to be sworn in, claiming the party still refused to accept the election result.

Outside, members-elect of the HRPP, as well as party supporters, staged a march near parliament. Police had erected a barricade to prevent people from approaching the building and were under orders to remove protesters by force if necessary. Former prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi called the ban a “sad day for Samoa” and accused FAST of dictatorial behaviour.

The courts were also closed on police advice, due to threats made on social media. The courts had suspended operations in July following HRPP protests and its criticism of court decisions validating the FAST government. Tuilaepa is still facing contempt charges after initially refusing to quit office and claiming that the actions of the judiciary had shattered the constitution and imposed the “law of the jungle.”

Two days later, in the September 16 ruling, Chief Justice Satiu Simativa Perese declared that the Speaker had to administer the oath of allegiance to the HRPP’s 18 parliamentarians in order to fulfil the requirements of Article 61 of the Constitution.

The following day as the HRPP members were sworn in, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa and her predecessor, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, embraced to cheers in parliament. Radio NZ reported that there was considerable relief inside the chamber “to see the leaders of the country finally meeting halfway, smiling and hugging.”

With the opposition taking a “reconciliatory” stance, the parliament last Thursday passed a budget totalling 983 million tālā ($US381.4 million), including a deficit of $US41 million.

April’s election was a historic defeat for the ruling HRPP. Despite having only been formed in June last year, and running 50 candidates against HRPP’s 100, FAST held the HRPP to a dead heat in the poll. Each party won 25 seats in the 51-seat parliament, with one seat going to the sole independent Tuala Iosefo Ponifasio, who subsequently declared his support for FAST.

Tuilaepa, who held office unchallenged for 23 years, flatly refused to stand aside. He told the Samoa Observer on May 12 he was “appointed by God” and the judiciary had no authority over him. FAST held a ceremony on May 23 to swear in its own members, with Mata’afa as prime minister. Tuilaepa denounced the swearing in as “treason and the highest form of illegal conduct.”

The courts finally confirmed the FAST party’s victory and a number of HRPP politicians were found guilty of bribery and cheating. Tuileapa only formally conceded after the remaining election petitions were decided in favour of FAST, confirming it had won 26 seats with the HRPP reduced to 18 seats. Seven by-elections are now required.

FAST’s victory was a major shift in Samoan politics which was ruled as a virtual one-party state since formal independence in 1962. The result reflects growing political instability and social crises across the Pacific under the combined impact of the coronavirus pandemic, popular opposition and the rising geo-political tensions.

FAST was established last year as a breakaway from the HRPP, led by Mata’afa, who was then the deputy prime minister. It undoubtedly benefited from opposition to growing inequality, poverty and the government’s authoritarian measures. The HRPP was deeply unpopular over its disastrous handling of the 2019 measles epidemic when 83 people, mainly children, died. The government suffered further controversy over legislation changing the way land disputes are resolved. Moreover, while border closures have kept COVID-19 cases low, the tourism industry collapsed.

The subsequent crisis, however, involved a dispute between two competing factions of the ruling elite. The vast majority of the 250,000 population has no say in the undemocratic political structure. Matais, the country’s clan chiefs who wield immense power over family welfare, land, property, religion and politics, are the only people allowed to occupy seats in the Legislative Assembly.

Neither party contested the election with a program to address the deepening social, economic and health emergency. FAST’s manifesto contained vague references to “equitable development” and “a sustainable economy to benefit all people,” while promising more support for businesses. FAST declared its aim was to “ensure our people live in social harmony,” through the promotion of “culture and Christian practices.”

The “relief” expressed in parliament as the FAST and HRPP leaders embraced reflected fears in the ruling elite that the protracted political crisis could open the door for the eruption of popular opposition by working people.

The intense geo-political rivalry in the region as the US ramps up its confrontation and war preparations against China was a central factor in the election outcome. Tuilaepa was regarded as a long-time ally of Beijing. Mata’afa’s first act in office was to abandon a Chinese-backed port development, signalling a realignment towards Washington. She said the $US100 million project would have significantly added to the country’s exposure to China, which accounts for 40 percent of external debt.

The regional imperialist powers, Australia and New Zealand, promptly recognised the new government. In August NZ Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said recognition of Samoa’s new government was “swift and unequivocal,” and that New Zealand had faith in the country’s judicial and law enforcement systems.

Tuila’epa hit back, attacking Mahuta and NZ’s Labour government for interfering in Samoa’s political affairs. He accused Prime Minister Ardern of being “blinded by an obsession to ensure a female prime minister” to lead the Pacific nation. He further claimed there had been an “unprecedented and immediate grant of aid funding” of $NZ14 million from Wellington, as soon as the courts had confirmed the appointment of the FAST government.

Whatever the truth in these accusations, Australia and New Zealand doubtless had an agenda to establish a government in Samoa more in line with their interests and those of Washington. Underscoring the considerable influence wielded by New Zealand, the Samoan Judicial Commission last month appointed five NZ High Court judges to provide “external oversight” for upcoming contempt cases, including the one against Tuila’epa.

Mata’afa is regarded as a “safe” pair of hands. She is a member of the Samoan elite, a matai and the daughter of Mataʻafa Faumuina Mulinuʻu II, the country’s first prime minister at independence. Elected to the Assembly as a member of the HRPP in 1985, Mata’afa was the first woman to hold the offices of cabinet minister and deputy prime minister. Educated in New Zealand, she has extensive international contacts.

Canberra and Wellington have no concern for the formalities of democracy in the impoverished former colonies of the southwest Pacific, which they regard as their own “backyard.” Their overriding calculations are to protect their own geo-political interests amid the rapidly sharpening tensions across the region and the rapid build up to a US-led war with China.

COVID surge in Singapore despite 80 percent vaccination

Peter Symonds

Singapore, which has been regarded as a model in combatting COVID-19, has been compelled to tighten public health restrictions amid a surge of cases and deaths related to the highly infectious Delta variant of the virus.

The government had begun lifting restrictions, having adopted a “living with COVID” policy based on the fact that more than 80 percent of the city’s population is fully vaccinated. As new cases rapidly multiplied, however, health authorities have been forced to reverse course.

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong greeted by ASEAN Secretary General Lim Jock Hoi in April 2021 (Photo: Wikimedia commons)

Yesterday, the number of cases set a new daily record of 2,236 by noon, with five more deaths. Of those, 2,226 were local cases, comprising 1,711 in the community and 515 among migrant workers living in dormitories. Since the pandemic began, Singapore has had 91,775 cases overall and a death toll of 85.

The latest surge has taken place over the past month, from just 32 cases on August 20 to a daily figure of more than 1,000 by September 19. The daily case numbers have more than doubled over the past 10 days and are predicted to rise to more than 6,000. As of yesterday, the death toll for September was 30—a record monthly figure and over a third of all COVID deaths.

Health authorities were at pains to play down the significance of the latest outbreak, pointing out that the majority of cases were asymptomatic and mild. The five people who died were elderly and had underlying conditions, but no details were provided.

Nevertheless, 1,325 COVID-19 patients were in hospital. While most were described as being well, 209 required oxygen supplementation and 30 were in critical condition in an intensive care unit (ICU).

The new restrictions came into force on Monday and are due to remain in place until October 4. Working from home is now required for those who can do so. Previously, the restrictions had been loosened to allow businesses to return up to half of their employees to workplaces.

Gatherings in restaurants or other social settings have been reduced from a maximum of five to two people for those who are vaccinated, and limited to one a day. Primary school and special education students will continue to learn from home until at least October 7.

The health ministry is also widening the availability of rapid antigen testing and access to vaccine booster shots. The vaccines most widely used in Singapore have been Pfizer or Moderna, whose efficacy is known to wane significantly over time. From October 4, people aged 50 to 59 will be able to get a vaccine booster, currently only available for those over 60.

Speaking of the new restrictions, Trade Minister Gan Kim Yong, one of the co-chairs of a virus taskforce, told the media: “While doing so may not reduce the number of daily new infections immediately, it will allow us to slow down the speed of increase and avoid overtaxing our healthcare workers.”

The government was clearly responding to growing public concern about the pandemic. According to a Bloomberg article, the surge in cases “has begun to stir anxiety in Singapore. Residents are airing grievances over not being able to reach the health ministry quickly to discuss their concerns and fretted over the long lag between testing positive for COVID-19 and getting sent to a recovery facility.”

The trade minister indicated that the government is under pressure from businesses to open up, saying: “This was a very difficult decision for us as we know that this would affect many businesses and people.”

The government has promised handouts to business worth $S650 million ($US478 million) for various sectors hit by the pandemic restrictions, including restaurants and food stalls, retail and cinemas. Taxi and private hire car drivers will receive financial assistance. Tenants of state-owned commercial properties will have a two-week rental waiver, with an equivalent cash payout to private tenants.

Among those hardest hit, however, are hundreds of thousands of foreign workers who live in crowded purpose-built dormitories. Last year, these dormitories experienced some of the worst outbreaks. Foreign workers received little or no assistance. A quarter of the new cases yesterday were in dormitories, even though workers living there make up only about 5 percent of the city’s population.

Proponents of the criminal policy of herd immunity have seized on Singapore as an example to push for “opening up” and “living with Covid” once high vaccination rates have been achieved.

In late June, Anthony Bergin, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, argued that Singapore, with its high vaccination rates, low case numbers and easing of restrictions, offered a model for Australian governments to end lockdowns—a policy stridently demanded by big business.

“The Singapore approach is appropriate, strong and versatile,” Bergin declared. “The goal should be to ensure everyone is fully vaccinated, with boosters as required, with a vaccine variant that works against whatever virus variant is ‘cock of the walk’ at the time. This is the familiar ground we see with seasonal variation in the flu vaccine. Then carry on as normal.”

The US-based business-oriented website CNBC cited proponents of “herd immunity” in Singapore who argued that the current COVID surge might even be beneficial as most cases were mild. “For these people, infection will not have any short-term or long-term consequence to their health, but may additionally trigger a natural immune response which reduces the chance of subsequent infection,” Teo Yik-Ying of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health said.

In reality, the surge in Singapore is further evidence that only a strategy of eradication, which requires not only vaccination but stringent public health restrictions, can prevent the spread of the coronavirus. COVID-19 is not like the flu and is continuing to evolve into potentially more deadly and transmissible variants, which may or may not respond to vaccines.

The advocates of “opening up” simply dismiss the tragic consequences of their policy. In Singapore, while the numbers of daily cases and deaths remain low compared to the United States, Europe, Brazil or India, they have been rising rapidly over the past month, with no indication of being brought under control in the near future.