UK COVID cases pass 10 million: Health Secretary Javid warns of Omicron variant impact while rejecting containment measures

Chris Marsden

The number of COVID-19 cases in the UK has passed 10 million since the start of the pandemic. Yesterday Health Secretary Sajid Javid guaranteed that millions more cases will be recorded in the next months.

Javid addressed parliament to warn that the recently identified B.1.1.529 variant, now named Omicron by the World Health Organization (WHO), is of “huge international concern”, is likely more transmissible than Delta, “may pose substantial risk to public health”, and that vaccines “may be less effective against it”.

It was, he added, highly likely to have spread further than Botswana, where it was first discovered, and South Africa—two of six countries along with Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Namibia where flights to the UK have once again belatedly been banned as of midday yesterday.

In this Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021 file photo, Critical Care staff prone a COVID-19 patient on the Christine Brown ward at King's College Hospital in London. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)

Javid said there were no known cases yet in the UK, but precautions were being taken because current vaccines may be less effective, and because it may be more transmissible than other variants.

In fact, data from South Africa shows the mutation appears to be significantly more infectious than Delta. Javid is employing soporific phrases and proposing only the most minimal measures to justify the Johnson government’s policy of letting the virus rip through the population.

“One of the lessons of this pandemic has been that we must move quickly, and at the earliest possible moment,” he said. “We’re heading into winter and our booster programme is still ongoing, so we must act with caution.”

But when asked whether minimal public health measures such as mandatory masking in public places and a return to social distancing would be reimposed, he made clear the government’s position. “The plan A, the policies that we put in place, they remain the policies that I think we need at this time.” The government’s entire pandemic response is based solely on vaccination, even though there is a massive question mark over the effectiveness of vaccines against the Omicron variant.

It is highly likely the variant is already in the UK. As of yesterday morning, there were only 100 cases of the variant confirmed in South Africa, and numerous others in Botswana. But South African healthcare professionals say it has likely spread throughout the country, is now the dominant strain and has spread more widely on the continent. Cases have already begun to spread globally, including two in Hong Kong, after a traveler returned from South Africa, one in Israel, of a traveler recently returned from Malawi, and two more suspected cases in Israel.

After Javid’s appearance in the House of Commons, it was confirmed the variant has hit Europe, with Belgian officials saying they had detected a case in an unvaccinated woman who had returned from Egypt on November 11. She first experienced symptoms on Monday November 22, according to reports.

Up until yesterday afternoon, between 500 and 700 people were flying into the UK from South Africa every day, walking through customs and getting into taxis, buses and trains, meaning thousands of potential infections. Thanks to the Tories’ ending of all measures of containment, anyone unknowingly infected with the new variant may already have come into contact with hundreds of other people. Anyone who has arrived in the UK from South Africa in the past 10 days is only being required to take a PCR test on day two and day eight, and to isolate at home along with the rest of the household. Flights from the six countries resume on Sunday, with the caveat that arrivals must enter hotel quarantine.

Information available to date about the new variant is chilling. South Africa’s surge has seen cases double in just two weeks, with fears the new variant accounts for most of them.

The variant has multiple mutations that might help it evade the body’s immune response, thwart vaccines and make it more transmissible. Along with 45 amino acid changes there are over 30 changes in the spike protein of the virus. A senior scientist said, “One of our major worries is this virus spike protein is so dramatically different to the virus spike that was in the original Wuhan strain, and therefore in our vaccines…”

The spike protein is targeted by most vaccines because it is the mechanism through which the virus gains access to the body’s cells.

Professor Christina Pagel from University College London said, “We don’t have definitive evidence on transmission advantage or immune escape, but we have plenty of cause to suspect both.”

Dr Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, said the variant could be “of real concern” because of its “horrific spike profile”.

Contrary to government and media lies, the UK is already heading towards a massive escalation of the pandemic and is not “bucking the European trend” at all.

Today the UK reported 50,091 cases and 160 deaths, compared to 47,240 infections and 147 fatalities reported Thursday.

Daily cases have been above 25,000 since Johnson’s Freedom Day on July 19, when almost all mitigation measures were dropped in workplaces, public transport and social settings, after which children were sent back to school in September. Cases reached a high of 51,484 October 20, before falling back to 29,843 on November 6. They have since begun to climb inexorably and are now just below their previous post-Freedom Day peak.

Prior to yesterday’s dramatic rise, COVID cases had jumped by 74 percent in a week.

One reason for the increase was the spread of the AY.4.2 variant of Delta, accounting for 15 percent of UK cases. It was only designated a “variant under investigation” on October 20 and is thought to be up to 10 percent more infectious than the original Delta variant first detected in India in late 2020. Delta was around 60 percent more transmissible than Alpha. It is one of nine known versions of Delta present in the UK.

The higher infectivity of the Omicron variant is not yet known conclusively, but initial estimates are that it is six times more transmissible than the original Alpha variant and twice as transmissible as the Delta variant.

In the face of this threat, not only the Johnson government but the Labour opposition and the trade unions are guilty of premeditated mass murder for their shared insistence that vaccination alone or a few paltry additional measures is enough to curb the pandemic. They intend to build on the mountain of 167,000 corpses left by the pandemic and the tens of thousands left incapacitated by Long COVID.

UK midwives hold vigils protesting acute staff shortages

Sascha Woodson

Midwives along with students of midwifery and support staff up and down the country held protest vigils on November 21, drawing attention to the dire conditions and staff shortages affecting maternity services across the UK.

Protests were held in 50 different towns and cities, with maternity workers marching through Sheffield, Bristol, Manchester, Peterborough and elsewhere. They chanted “More midwives now”, holding placards proclaiming, “Save the midwife”, “Midwives are an endangered species!” and “Safe staffing saves lives”.

Midwives protest in Manchester, UK on November 21

In Manchester, some 600 midwives, student midwives and other maternity workers and supporters marched outside the Town Hall. Some of the mainly handwritten banners read, “Pushed to the limit”, “We need a break. Literally,” and “Stop calling us ‘heroes’ Start treating us like humans.”

Marchers chanted, “What do we want? Happy women,” and “More midwives”.

Student midwives speaking to WSWS reporters in Manchester told of the “difficult and dangerous conditions” under which they are working and training. Tragic incidents included students needing to look after dead babies, “This is traumatic, but you do not have any time to deal with how you feel.”

Midwives stage protest outside Leeds Town Hall (Credit: WSWS Media)

In Sheffield, a midwife told The Star that after working for ten years, the pressure was greater than she had ever experienced.

“We are seeing droves of midwives leaving the profession because of the strain. They were already under strain pre-Covid, but since Covid it has become completely unsustainable. For every 30 midwives that go into the service, 29 leave.”

In Nottingham, a community midwife of 25 years told the BBC, this was the “first time I have felt I need to act.” They were “expected to look after three to four labouring women at one time. How can you give them your undivided attention?”

In Leeds, an ante-natal educator said midwives were “burnt out, they're ready to leave and It’s about the safety of the birthing women, the parents and the midwives as well.”

A petition on change.org demanding more government funding for maternity services “to solve the staffing crisis” has received almost 115,000 signatures.

Many of the signatories left messages of support, including mothers who expressed their gratitude for the help they had received during and after childbirth. Lynn wrote, “I was lucky to have the help of several wonderful midwives when my boys were born. They were not rushed off their feet, it gave them time to relate to me and my family. It meant a lot.”

Paula wrote, “I'm signing this petition as a mother. The service Midwife’s provide is a vital one. Remember Children are the future!”

Another signatory explained, “I’m signing this petition as a midwife who has had enough. Burnout comes as part of the job description, anti-anxiety meds are prescribed as soon as you have your degree in your hand and some form of alcohol is the normal end of work routine. This is not okay.”

Research conducted by Oxford Academic into occupational medicine and substance abuse among maternity staff found that substance abuse by midwives regularly goes under reported as the consequences are sackings rather than support. Their report found that 37 percent of respondents had indicated concerns about a colleague’s substance use, noting that “stigmatizing attitudes and punitive actions can dissuade help-seeking.”

Placards from the Manchester protest of UK midwives (Credit: WSWS Media)

Staffing numbers in maternity units have been in decline for years. In 2010, Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron promised to boost numbers by 3,000. More than a decade on, this figure is still not within the reach of Boris Johnson’s Tory government.

Skeleton staffing levels have already had serious consequences for pregnant and labouring women. To cite one example, a woman was forced to give birth at home assisted only by her husband as there was a shortage of midwives, and their local maternity delivery suite in Peterborough had to be closed.

The harsh reality facing midwives is a familiar one to anyone working within the National Health Service. Years of austerity and budget cuts have pushed staffing to critical levels. During the pandemic, maternity staff have been one of many departments redeployed to help with the surge of patients needing care in hospitals. This has led to crippling staff burnout and many reluctantly walking off the job in order to save their sanity.

The government has declared they are looking to recruit a further 1,200 midwives. New data released from the Nursing and Midwifery Council shows where these numbers are coming from. Rather than improving pay and conditions in the UK, thereby retaining those who study midwifery, recruits are being sought from poorer countries to the detriment of maternity services for their own populations.

The latest figures for March-September 2021 show 1,334 nurses joined the UK nursing and midwifery register from Nigeria--a country on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Red recruitment list. This means that active recruitment should not be taking place in these countries as they are required domestically once trained.

Contrary to the claims of Health Secretary Sajid Javid, NHS workers are confronted with unsustainable conditions and poor pay. Moreover, the service is being subject to “stealth” privatisation, being sold off piece meal, in order to enrich the profit-hungry private health care companies.

Significantly, the March with Midwives protests and petition were organised by rank-and-file health workers. The Royal College of Midwives, which is affiliated to the Trades Union Congress, played no part in organising or promoting the protests. Union banners were noticeably absent on most of the protest vigils.

This speaks to the role of the trade unions as the junior partners of the employers. In the NHS, despite massive votes against the government’s paltry three percent pay increase—a real terms cut given inflation is already above four percent—all the trade unions are delaying calling any form of strike action until 2022.

51 workers die in Siberian mine disaster

Clara Weiss

Kemerovo Governor Sergei Tsivilyov, center, speaks to the media in the Listvyazhnaya mine building, near Belovo, in the Kemerovo region of southwestern Siberia, Russia, Friday, Nov. 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Sergei Gavrilenko)

A suspected methane gas explosion killed 51 people on Thursday in Belovo, a mining town in the Kemerovo region (also known as Kuzbass) in Siberia. Many of them were in their 20s and 30s, with the youngest just 23 years old.

Almost 50 miners are still being treated in a hospital. Several of them are in serious condition. It is the worst mine disaster in Russia since the 2010 Raspadskaya mine explosion, which left 91 people dead, and one of the worst in the three decades since the Stalinist dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

At around 8:20 a.m. local time, 283 miners were in the Listvyazhnaya mine when a methane gas explosion occurred. Those who died are believed to have suffocated. The high level of the deadly gas in the mine made the rescue operation, which lasted over a day, extremely difficult. It is also assumed to be the reason for the death of five rescuers. One rescuer, who had been believed dead, was found alive on Friday. Many bodies still have to be recovered.

A miner who survived the disaster in the conveyer building provided a harrowing account to a local radio station: “You know, I was saved from death by a few minutes. I was just looking at Tik-Tok. Then the explosion occurred, the methane exploded. The whole conveyor line stopped, I could hear it. It was the one that carries the coal.”

He described how his colleagues, upon hearing the explosion, immediately grabbed respirators and went down into the mine to save their colleagues. “They were very brave, you know, really. It makes me want to cry. These people should be given a medal. My brothers, comrades, they just ran there.” They were able to bring 10 miners up alive, and two others who had already died.

“You cannot imagine what was going on there. … They were all terrified, very sick. They were black and wheezing, they could hardly breathe, but they were breathing.” He added that his colleagues could not go further down to save more of their brothers because their respirators were not working properly.

The miner stressed that the disaster was both predictable and preventable.

“They (the mine management) don’t do anything about the rules of industrial safety. We need to make public what is happening in the mine.

“I have read that the mine was in a state of emergency [because of the violation of safety regulations], but that’s ridiculous. It’s been in this kind of state for a month, even more. You know, this all happened because there is no ventilation in the mine. Imagine, every time you’re going into the mine, you have to think about what might happen if you run out of oxygen.” He added that he had worked as a miner all his life but never under such horrendous conditions. The only reason he had stayed on the job was because he received 50,000 rubles a month for it, roughly $660, two or three times more than other jobs in the town.

The head of the mine, his first deputy and chief of the section of the Listvyazhnaya mine were arrested on Thursday.

What occurred on Thursday was an act of social murder. Responsibility lies not just with the mine management but the government and the entire Russian ruling class.

There is no question that the mine should have stopped operations long ago.

According to Russian media reports, just this year 914 safety violations were registered in 127 safety checks. Operations had to be stopped nine times because of these violations. The mine had neither proper ventilation nor a working fire alarm system. The methane and air control systems were also known to be defective.

Yet the mine management was let off the hook with a ridiculously small fine of 2.8 million rubles (about $37,000), little more than a slap on the wrist. The mine employs almost 1,700 people and produced 4.7 million tons in 2020, resulting in a net profit for its owners of 836.7 million rubles (about $11.06 million) and revenues of over 9.4 billion rubles (over $120 million).

The Listvyazhnaya mine belongs to the SDS-Ugol (Coal) company, which is owned by Vladimir Gridin and Mikhail Fedyaev, both of whom were counted by Forbes among Russia’s 200 richest individuals. They are part of a section of the oligarchy that has made its fortunes through the hyper-exploitation of the working class in Russia’s coal sector, which is one of the largest in the world.

The same dynamic that underlay the disaster at the Listvyazhnaya mine—the conscious violation of even the most basic safety standards for the sake of profit and de facto cooperation between the state and the oligarchy—has led to countless similar disasters in Russia’s mining sector since the restoration of capitalism. Many of these have occurred in the Kuzbass region, the center of Russia’s coal production.

Between 2003 and 2010 alone, over 270 workers died in the five biggest mine disasters in the Kuzbass. At the Listvyazhnaya mine itself, there have been several fatal incidents in the past two decades, with the last occurring in 2017. In March 2018, a horrific fire at the shopping mall “Winter Cherry” in Kemerovo, the regional capital, killed 64 people, among them 41 children, who were trapped in the burning building. Yet again, the cause was the violation of safety standards by management, with the full knowledge of the authorities.

While particularly stark in the heavily working-class region of Kemerovo, these conditions are not unique to the Kuzbass. Hardly a week goes by without reports in the Russian press about factory fires or explosions.

These conditions are a direct result of the restoration of capitalism by the Stalinist bureaucracy three decades ago. The Stalinist bureaucrats-turned-oligarchs systematically dismantled the social and industrial infrastructure that had arisen as a result of the 1917 October Revolution. The level of safety standards is no higher than it was in mid-19th century England, as all the conquests of the workers’ movement in this regard were rolled back.

The same criminal indifference to the lives of workers and the subordination of every aspect of social life to the private profit interests of the oligarchy has guided the response of Russia’s ruling class to the COVID-19 pandemic, just as it has in Europe and the US. With the pandemic completely out of control in Europe, it still claims over 1,200 lives every day in Russia, more than during any previous wave. The Kremlin rejects any public health measures that could curtail, let alone stop, the spread of the virus.

Nursing staff in Germany on strike during contract negotiations for public sector workers

Marianne Arens

Nurses, educators and other public employees are currently protesting and striking for better wages and working conditions throughout Germany.

Nursing staff at Germany’s university hospitals, which are directly subordinate to the country’s state governments, took strike action on Tuesday and Wednesday last week. The strike took place during negotiations for a new contract for public services workers. Nursing staff are among those who have made the biggest sacrifices during the twenty months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, the university hospitals of Aachen, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Essen, Cologne and Münster were hit by the strikes, and in Bavaria, clinics in Munich, Augsburg, Erlangen, Regensburg and Würzburg. In Berlin, mainly nursery school teachers and district council workers were on strike. Workers in all spheres of state-run enterprises, including hospitals, nursing homes, day-care centres, schools, universities and social welfare centres, are affected by the contract dispute.

“Halloween is over—here the HORROR continues,” strikers at Bonn University Hospital sarcastically painted on their banner. The pandemic in particular has intensified this horror in the last two years. According to WHO estimates, up to 180,000 nurses worldwide have died from COVID-19. The number who have died in Germany is difficult to determine, with the figures kept carefully hidden from the public.

“When the Corona pandemic started, I thought: this is the big bang now we all need to finally ensure we are heard,” nurse Lisa Schlagheck, 29, declared in a WDR media interview. “But at the end of the day, nothing has changed. Many of my colleagues are quitting one after the other because they simply can’t go on anymore.”

There is now a shortage of at least 100,000 nurses in German hospitals, and more and more nurses are suffering burn-out—under conditions where infection rates are exploding. Last week alone, five out of 100,000 of the population were hospitalised with COVID-19. More than 3,000 coronavirus patients are currently in intensive care units.

At the same time, state leaders and their finance ministers are determined to step up pressure on nursing staff. Highly indebted state coffers are to be relieved at the expense of workforces. Following a second round of negotiations on 1 and 2 November, the organisation of state employers (Tarifgemeinschaft der Länder, TdL) has still not presented an offer.

Leading the negotiations are Reinhold Hilbers (Christian Democratic Union, CDU), Finance Minister of Lower Saxony, and Andreas Dressel (Social Democratic Party, SPD), Finance Senator of Hamburg. Hilbers told the business daily Handelsblatt that the states want to “quickly return to balanced budgets without debt” and that this will only succeed “with structural savings.”

“Personnel costs, which account for 40 to 50 percent of our total costs, must take a share of the burden,” Hilbers declared.

State governments also know that the incoming new federal government is intent on intensifying the policies of the outgoing grand coalition (CDU/CSU plus SPD). In the midst of the country’s devastating fourth COVID-19 wave, the “traffic light” coalition of SPD, Free Democratic Party and Greens ended the “epidemic emergency of national scope” on November 25. The coalition has also spoken out against relaxing the existing “debt brake” and against higher taxes for the rich. In addition, the new government wants to provide more money for the German army, even exceeding NATO’s demand of two percent of GDP.

Meanwhile, for public service staff—whether they are regarded as “essential” or not—nothing is left. Workers in hospitals and intensive care units, retirement and nursing homes, day-care centres, schools, psychiatric wards and other institutions are expected to continue to slave away until the point of exhaustion. They confront further staff cuts and a massive reduction in real wages with inflation already at 5 percent and rising.

Workers therefore have every right to take up the fight against these inhumane policies. A great deal depends on the current wage struggle. Nationwide, 1.1 million state employees, including 850,000 full-time posts, are affected. In addition, there are 1.4 million civil servants and one million pensioners whose salaries and pensions are based on the TdL. The TdL also sets the parameter for the TVöD (Public service workers contract), which regulates wages and conditions in federal and municipal public services and is renegotiated one year after the TdL.

The contract struggle is doomed to failure, however, if it is left in the hands of Verdi, the main public service union, and the other unions involved. All of the unions support the government’s profits-before-lives politics, and they all conduct contract bargaining as a well-rehearsed ritual aimed above all at preventing any real struggle by the working class.

Neither Verdi and the German Civil Servants Federation (dbb), who are leading the negotiations in Potsdam, nor the GEW (teachers union), IG BAU (building workers) or the GdP (police union), which are all involved in the negotiations, question the government’s austerity policies. On the contrary, they are implementing them every day in practice in workplaces. Only two months ago, Verdi called off month-long strikes at the Berlin state hospitals Charité and Vivantes.

The Verdi national executive is closely linked via SPD and Green politicians to German business circles and the incoming “traffic light” government. Frank Werneke (SPD), the head of Verdi, was proposed a few days ago for the supervisory board of Deutsche Bank, as successor to Frank Bsirske, the former head of Verdi. The latter is leaving Deutsche Bank to take up a mandate for the Greens in the German parliament.

In an interview with Deutschlandfunk, Werneke described the federal government’s pandemic handouts to banks and corporations as “important and necessary.” In the same interview, he made it clear that the wage demands made by the union had no real content. Verdi had set them as a “signal,” Werneke said: “Let’s see if the employers then cross this bridge.”

GEW chair Maike Finnern has been pleading for months for schools to be kept open, no matter how high infection rates rise. Leading politicians at the forefront of the campaign for opening up schools are prominent Verdi members. They include Sandra Scheeres (SPD), education senator in Berlin, and Britta Ernst, education minister in Brandenburg, wife of the designated chancellor Olaf Scholz and president of the Conference of Education Ministers. Neither politician has been challenged by the Verdi national executive for their policies, let alone expelled from the union.

The decision made 16 years ago to divide public sector workers into different bargaining rounds with a host of different contracts has only served to divide the working class. Each sector is conducting its own contract bargaining round for its own contract agreement with its own isolated and demoralising “warning strikes,” armed with whistles provided free of charge by the union. Hospital staff are fighting separately from home care workers, airport workers separately from bus and tram drivers, and separately from postal delivery workers, train drivers or refuse collection workers. Yet they are all organised in Verdi—an ingenious system of divide and rule!

This alone shows that the unions are leading workers around by the nose. Officially, the unions are demanding a 5 percent wage increase for 12 months, or at least an extra 150 euros a month—in the health sector at least an extra 300 euros. In addition, the union is requesting a miserly increase of 100 euros per month for apprentices, while student assistants are to receive their own contract.

Three years ago, when their demands were somewhat higher at 6 percent, the same union officials ended up agreeing to a contract with a duration of 33 months. Salary increases then averaged less than 3 percent per year and working conditions during the pandemic have deteriorated massively since then.

The fact is that Verdi, GEW, IG Bau and dbb have so far ensured that public workers bear the consequences of the murderous contagion policy, both on the job, through increased workloads and wage dumping, and personally, through infection, illness and death. If these highly paid bureaucrats are allowed to continue, they will now saddle workers with the costs arising from the official COVID-19 policy.

Omicron variant threatens to unleash new global surge of COVID-19 pandemic

Benjamin Mateus

Scientists have detected a new variant of COVID-19, the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant, which the World Health Organization (WHO) stated on Friday was officially recognized as “variant of concern” (VOC). The variant appears to have originated in southern Africa but has already been detected in several other countries. Initial indications are that an unusual constellation of mutations make the variant far more infectious than the Delta variant and potentially vaccine-resistant.

In its statement Friday, the WHO said that “preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant, as compared to other VOCs,” including the Delta variant. “The number of cases of this variant appears to be increasing in almost all provinces in South Africa.”

The WHO said that the first known confirmed case of infection from the Omicron variant came from a specimen collected on November 9. In just over two weeks, however, it has quickly become the dominant strain in South Africa.

The seven-day moving average of new cases in South Africa has risen fourfold from 265 to over 1,043 new COVID-19 cases per day in two weeks. Yesterday, the country reported 2,465 new infections. Seventy-five percent of all currently sequenced coronavirus cases are attributed to the latest variant, soon expected to reach 100 percent. New infections are exploding in highly urbanized Gauteng, a small northeastern province in South Africa, accounting for less than 2 percent of the country’s land area but home to a quarter of its population.

Dr. Tulio de Oliveira, a bioinformatician at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine and director of the Centre for Epidemic Response & Innovation, explained that the variant is “really worrisome at the mutational level.” The new variant possesses over 50 mutations, with 32 on the virus’ spike protein, which it uses to bind to human respiratory cells.

Dr. de Oliveira explained that many of these mutations are linked to increasing antibody resistance, which raises concerns that vaccines and therapeutics will be less effective in combating the new variant.

Expressing the gravity of the threat to the entire world population, the European Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a statement, warning, “given its immune escape potential and potentially increased transmissibility advantage compared to Delta, we assess the probability of further introduction and community spread in [Europe] as HIGH.” It added, “In a situation where the Delta variant is resurgent in [Europe], the impact of the introduction and possible further spread of Omicron could be VERY HIGH.”

According to Dr. Yaneer Bar-Yam, a complex system physicist who has been studying pandemics for nearly two decades, current rough estimates indicate that the Omicron variant is six times more transmissible than the original variant and twice as transmissible as the Delta variant. Bar-Yam also estimates that the mortality rate for Omicron is eight times higher than the original variant.

Dr. Anthony Leonardi, a T-cell immunologist, told the World Socialist Web Site, “The [Omicron variant] is probably everywhere, and it now has a huge capability to mutate. As it outpaces Delta, it's going to create even more infections. It will therefore evolve even faster than Delta.”

Genomic sequences in South Africa (B.1.1.529(Omicron) in Blue). Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding Twitter feed.

Hong Kong, Israel, and Belgium have already identified infected patients with the new variant, which means that the current iteration of the virus has spread globally. In Israel, one of the infected individuals, who had returned from Malawi, was previously fully vaccinated and had received their booster shot two months ago. Two others are also in quarantine, awaiting further testing.

The young unvaccinated woman identified in Belgium was traveling to Egypt via Turkey and had no links to South Africa.

European governments and the US scrambled to announce travel restrictions from countries in southern Africa. Early on Friday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted, “The EU commission will propose, in close coordination with member states, to activate the emergency brake to stop air travel from the Southern African region due to the variant of concern, B.1.1529.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief pandemic adviser, attempted to assure the US public that there was “no indication” the Omicron variant had reached the US. This is an attempt to deflect public alarm and anger while the Biden administration works out its response.

In line with the EU, the Biden administration imposed air travel restrictions from southern African countries Friday afternoon. “As a precautionary measure, until we have more information,” Biden said in a statement, “I’m ordering additional air travel restrictions from South Africa and seven other countries. These new restrictions will take effect on Monday.”

The travel restrictions have the character of stop-gap measures, which will come too late to stop the spread of the variant globally. The removal of all restrictions on the virus in the US and the major European countries (including the reopening of schools and workplaces) guarantees that if the variant has been introduced, it is already rapidly spreading.

Even prior to the announcement of the discovery of the new strain, COVID-19 cases have surged globally, particularly in Europe and the United States, which are entering the winter months when infection rates usually spike.

Biden encouraged Americans to get vaccinated or to get their booster shot. “If you have not gotten vaccinated, or have not taken your children to get vaccinated,” Biden said, “now is the time.”

While vaccines are a critical tool in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists warned that vaccination is not a “magic bullet” that will end the pandemic. Lockdowns, in coordination with a robust testing, contact tracing and quarantine program, are essential to controlling the spread of the disease. Allowing the virus to continue to propagate internationally, scientists have repeatedly warned, will lead to new and more infectious variants, such as Omicron, that could evade the immunity that the vaccines provide.

Biden has made the full reopening of schools and businesses—before the virus has been brought under control and while millions of children remain unvaccinated—a pillar of his administration. Under Biden’s watch, state governors have abandoned almost all mitigation measures, such as state-wide mask mandates, even as close to 100,000 people fall ill and more than 1,000 die every day from COVID-19 in the United States.

COVID-19 cases surge to record highs in South Korea

Ben McGrath

Last Tuesday, South Korea recorded 4,116 new COVID-19 cases, the greatest number for a 24-hour period since the pandemic began almost two years ago. The new high surpassed the previous record set the previous Thursday of 3,292. Another 3,937 new cases were registered on November 25. The explosion in infections is the direct result of the Moon Jae-in administration’s abandonment of any attempt to prevent the spread of the virus.

A medical worker in a booth takes a nasal sample from a man at a makeshift testing site in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2021 [Credit: AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon]

Seoul initiated its so-called “with COVID” era on November 1, in which the population would supposedly “live with the virus” while health officials only treated the most severe cases. Most social distancing restrictions have been lifted throughout the country under the rationale that nearly 80 percent of the population has been vaccinated and that masks are still required in public.

The new infections demonstrate the fact—already made clear around the world—that there is no living with COVID-19. Daily deaths have been climbing steadily since September with 38 people losing their lives on Thursday, the most since January.

At the same time, the number of patients in a critical condition also reached an all-time high of 617 yesterday, up five from the previous day, putting a strain on the country’s intensive care unit (ICU) wards, particularly in the Seoul metropolitan area. As of Tuesday, 83.7 percent of ICU beds in the capital city, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province were occupied. Nearly three quarters of ICU beds have been filled nationwide. As of Wednesday, 778 people have also been left on a waiting list for a hospital bed, unable to access care.

Despite the surge and the danger to the population, the government is doing all it can to avoid even moderate social distancing measures that would negatively impact big business. Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency Commissioner Jeong Eun-gyeong stated November 22 that no new measures to stop the spread of the virus were being considered, despite evaluating the situation as “very dangerous,” and noting the growing pressure on the health care system.

Prime Minister Kim Bu-gyeom backed this position on Wednesday, stating, “Our gradual return to normal life has faced its first hurdle. We are at a point to review whether we should move to the next phase or not, but the situation is more serious than we expected.” In other words, while the country faces record highs in infections and the danger of an even wider spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus, the government is content to do nothing besides “review” the situation.

The lifting of restrictions comes with the full reopening of schools on November 22, resulting in a surge of new cases among children. In an interview that day with Arirang News, Dr. Alice Tan of MizMedi Women’s Hospital in Seoul said that children between the ages of 0 and 19 were “one of the fastest growing demographics in terms of new cases with COVID. I think school administrators, superintendents need to keep that in mind, that there are just that many more children with COVID in the community right now.”

Mass infection and death are the realities of the so-called “return to normal,” being ushered in by the Moon administration, which has lifted social distancing measures at the demand of big business. For the wealthy in South Korea, the pandemic has already been an enormous boon and inequality has risen sharply.

Large companies have used the pandemic as a pretext to slash thousands of jobs. A survey of 313 companies by market researcher Leaders Index found that these companies had cut approximately 18,200 regular jobs while adding 5,400 irregular positions. Irregular workers earn significantly less pay than their regular counterparts despite doing the same jobs. They also receive fewer benefits and risk being fired at any moment without recourse. The number of irregular workers has surged this year to 8.07 million people, an increase of 640,000 from 2020. This officially represents 38.4 percent of the total workforce.

Workers who have been fired or furloughed also face enormous difficulties. Over the past year, there has been a 75 percent surge of new cases from workers seeking workers’ compensation as a result of mental illness. Indicative of the pressures that workers face is the suicide of a flight attendant last fall after she had been furloughed by Korean Air. Following a review on September 30, the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Eligibility Review Commission ruled the case a work-related accident.

Internet-based companies, such as food delivery apps, have taken advantage of the situation and seen their sales surge through the exploitation of low-paid workers in South Korea’s gig economy. The leading food delivery app in South Korea, Baedal Minjok, has had sales increase by 94.4 percent over last year, bringing in 1.09 trillion won ($US917 million).

Inequality is also being driven by a sharp rise in real estate and stock prices. The price of an average apartment in Seoul has doubled over the past four years, from 607 million won ($US510,689) to 1.21 billion won ($US1 million). This includes an 11.98 percent jump between January and September this year, the biggest increase in 15 years.

“The value of all assets has escalated to an all-time high, ranging from stocks, real estate, and virtual assets, which is pretty unprecedented,” Cho Young-hyun, from the Korea Insurance Research Institute, told the Korea Times in October.

“Rising household debt is also worrisome, not only from the perspective of its size, but also from the speed of the debt increase rate, which is one of the fastest among OECD countries. As it could later impact mid- to long-term financial stability, it is necessary to alleviate such an imbalance,” Cho said.

As a result, the wealth gap has sharply increased. The bottom 20 percent of income earners hold, on average, 24.7 million won ($US20,779) in assets. By contrast, the top 20 percent hold 35.2 times more for an average of 870 million won ($US731,940). This is an increase of two percent from last year.

The current policy of the government to live “with COVID” is designed to continue and normalize these conditions to allow big business to deepen its attacks on working and living standards.

Totalitarian Cyber-Creep: Mark Zuckerberg in the Metaverse

Binoy Kampmark

Never leave matters of maturity to the Peter Panners of Silicon Valley.  At their most benign, they are easily dismissed as potty and keyboard mad.  At their worst, their fantasies assume the noxious, demonic forms that reduce all users of their technology to units of information and flashes of data.  Such boys (they are mostly boys), felt somehow left out by the currents of reality, their own world excruciatingly boring and filled with pangs of childhood disturbance and regret.  So they sought vengeance upon us all: imposing a global regime of fairly useless cyber architecture that saps intelligence in the name of experience, destroys imagination even as it celebrates it, and luxuriates in a lowly prurience.

Facebook, in particular, has been trying to push such a model using a tactic all companies in distress have sought to adopt: rebranding.  Be it the scandals disclosed by the Facebook papers, the scrutiny over the use of algorithms by the company, the inability to combat galloping misinformation on its platforms, or the stark amorality of the company’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, the chance to seek the metaverse has presented itself.

Enter, then, the world of Meta Platforms, aided by the virtual reality headset company Oculus, which was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $2 billion.  Astute watchers then would have been the strategy afoot at the time; most, however, thought the decision misguided and destined to flop.

The metaverse has become a goal for not just Facebook, but the likes of Unity Technologies and Epic Games, though Facebook is distinctly not interested in gaming.  It can be seen to be a sort of Internet 2.0, envisaged as shared 3D spaces streaked by virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR respectively).  You can access that reality via a pair of glasses or some virtual reality set and get transported to a virtual space populated by avatars.  “The essence of virtual and augmented reality is that you need to have a technology that delivers this feeling of presence,” Zuckerberg mentions in an interview this year.  “The sense that you are actually there with another person and all the different sensations that come with it.”

According to Facebook, the metaverse will feature a totalising system of various functions and services designed to be “the successor to the mobile internet”.  There will be Horizon Home for social interactions, “the first thing you see when you put on your Quest headset.”  Video conferencing and phone conversations will be replaced by Quest for Business.

For all the company’s egregious sins, this new technology will be pursued, says Andrew Bosworth, Vice President of Facebook Reality Labs and Nick Clegg, Vice President of the company’s global affairs, “responsibly”.  In September, $50 million in research development was promised to ensure that such products met that mark, an amount somewhat piddly when compared to other areas of research the company lavishes money upon.

On November 15, there were further announcements that the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital would “focus on improving our understanding of how we can foster young people’s digital literacy and embed wellness into emerging metaverse technologies.”  The children, it seems, will not be spared.

All this tells us that Facebook is moving towards its next stage of surveillance capitalism, a relentless drive towards extracting and squeezing every bit of nutriment of being that is human behaviour.  The privacy of users, already tattered and battered by the predations of Facebook data privateers, can be further diminished, even as it is supposedly protected. “Metaverse technologies like VR and AR are perhaps the most data-extractive digital sensors we’re likely to invite into our homes in the next decade,” reasons Marcus Carter of the University of Sydney’s Socio-Tech Futures Lab.

Zuckerberg has spent some time contemplating the road of enthronement in the VR/AR market.  The amount of money Facebook has heaped upon its VR and AR research and development division is eye watering.  One estimate places it at $10 billion.  Critics can at least take comfort in the fact that most of the company’s social VR/AR products to date have tended to splutter into well-deserved oblivion or flounder in “invite-only beta phases”.  Then there is the issue of the headsets themselves, cumbersome bits of hardware saddled across the user’s face like a harness.

None of that gets away from the sinister premise in this new company strategy.  Zuckerberg and his minions seek to corporately control the metaverse, using VR and AR to identify behavioural biometrics unique to each user.  Everything from body gyration to eye movement becomes fair game.  “We should all be concerned about how Facebook could and will use the data collected within the metaverse,” writes virtual reality enthusiast Bree McEwan.

In truth, we should be more than concerned.  Facebook’s strength of influence has been its embrace of the innocuous even as it gears up for inflicting the next societal harm.  But its increasingly centralising tendencies – making the user generate a marketable portrait of usage and behaviour – will be given a further kick along with the metaverse.

With Oculus and the Facebook account linked, one headset, and one user, ever greater pools of marketized data will be generated.  Work, fitness, entertainment, social choices will all become a deeper quarry to be mined and monetised by salivating wonks in a corporate enterprise.  This is totalitarian cyber-creepism run mad.  And Zuckerberg just might get away with it.

Ethiopia Conflict by US Design

Graham Peebles

Supported by America and other foreign forces, including elements within United Nations (UN) agencies, The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) are attempting to overthrow the democratically elected Government of Ethiopia and regain power. This would be disastrous for the country and the region.

The impact of the year-long conflict is devastating. Perhaps as many as three million people are internally displaced, tens of thousands have been killed; women and girls raped, property trashed, land destroyed, livestock slaughtered by TPLF fighters. At this stage it is difficult to see how a peaceful resolution can be reached; the government has said it will not enter into negotiations until the TPLF withdraws to Tigray, and the TPLF, in no position to set any conditions, are demanding Prime-Minister Abiy Ahmed steps down.

The conflict was initiated when the TPLF attacked the Ethiopian State on 4 November 2020 (perhaps with US approval): despite this, the US and her puppets (UK, EU etc) have, to the incredulity of many, stood behind the terrorists and not the government of Ethiopia, or the Ethiopian people. It is widely acknowledged that the Biden Administration is behind the movement to replace the Abiy government, and install the TPLF – a less independent (the US doesn’t tolerate independent governments), more malleable group that, in exchange for the freedom to do as they like, will once again provide the US with a foothold in the Horn of Africa.

Unsurprisingly, Jeffrey Feltman – US Horn of Africa special envoy, denies all this, saying, “we have consistently condemned the TPLF’s expansion of the war outside Tigray, and we continue to call on the TPLF to withdraw from Afar and Amhara.”

True, however it’s actions not words that count (particularly politicians words), and in light of the US response since the start of the conflict, and the State Department’s behind-the-scenes shenanigans, his repudiation appears duplicitous at best, and is ignored by furious Ethiopians, many of whom attended protests recently. Huge crowds gathered under #NoMore in Addis Ababa, Washington, San Francisco, London, Pretoria and elsewhere, demanding an end to American interference in Ethiopia’s affairs. There is growing anger among groups in other African nations, who see American meddling in Ethiopia as an attack on Africa itself, a colonial assault.

US backing

American administrations, have consistently backed the TPLF, who established close connections with the US government during their 27 years in power (1991-2018), contacts that they are making full use of now.

It was only when, in 2018 after they were forced out of office by years of demonstrations, that the US withdrew backing and celebrated the new government led by Abiy Ahmed. But, consistent with their Support for Dictators the world over, until then and throughout the TPLF’s reign the US (plus UK and, less so, the EU) turned a blind eye, a deaf ear to the regime’s brutality, human rights violations and the anguished cries of the people.

And when the TPLF attacked the Northern Command Headquarters last November, and bases in Adigrat, Agula, Dansha and Sero, killing security personnel and stealing weapons, Washington, London and Brussels said and did nothing. This initial betrayal set the tone of the West’s orchestrated and shameful response. The US is leading the efforts of destruction and ‘transition’ – as TPLF officials and terrorist sympathisers call the move to overthrow the Government – giving the TPLF a range of practical and political support: They are believed to be sharing intelligence information about federal troop movements, providing food, water, and arms.

They consistently feed western media false or misleading information, and have repeatedly called for negotiations and a ceasefire: while this sounds reasonable and at some point a political settlement may be possible, such demands elevate the terrorist TPLF to a legitimate political group and disregard Ethiopian public opinion. The US also ignores the government-declared ceasefire in June/July, which the TPLF not only refused to respect, but, after federal forces withdrew, TPLF fighters marched into Afar and Amhara and committed a series of appalling atrocities.

At the same time as facilitating TPLF aggression, spreading their propaganda and criticizing PM Abiy’s government, the Biden Administration has imposed a series of sanctions on Ethiopia: In May visa restrictions were introduced against anyone deemed “responsible for, or complicit in, undermining resolution of the crisis in Tigray,” together with “wide-ranging restrictions on economic and security assistance”. This affects US financial support, and is potentially extremely damaging. At the same time, a request was made for the World Bank and IMF to also withhold funding. Four months later, on 17 September, President Biden signed an Executive Order, “Imposing Sanctions on Certain Persons With Respect to the Humanitarian and Human Rights Crisis in Ethiopia.” The rather vague dictate includes the Government of Eritrea as well as any “military or security force that operates or has operated in Ethiopia on or after November 1, 2020.”

From 1 January 2022 (unless there is significant change on the ground) Ethiopia’s Special Trade Status, which enables Ethiopian goods to be sold into the US free of import duty, will be removed. This is potentially the most damaging measure and threatens to cause wide-scale job losses among the poorest workers. According to Ethiopia’s Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration, it will “reverse significant economic gains in our country….We urge the United States to support our ongoing efforts to restore peace and the rule of law — not punish our people for confronting an insurgent force that is attempting to bring down our democratically elected government.”

The US is also targeting tourism in Ethiopia (in 2018 the sector grew by 48% and contributed $7.4 billion to the economy); urging its citizens to leave the country and deterring anyone from travelling there. Those who do have been warned there is a high chance they will be killed, and urged to make a will before travelling. This is blatant fear mongering. It is a coordinated effort (UK, France, Turkey, Germany and others have issued similar guidelines) to present Ethiopia as broken and dangerous and to isolate the country, and as US citizens who made the trip recently discovered, is completely false. These measures could cost the country $billions.

And in June, around the time the Ethiopian government initiated a ceasefire in Tigray, the US State Department announced “a review for a genocide determination” – by the government of Ethiopia against Tigrayans. This is utter nonsense, but represents another triumph for the TPLF and indicates the level of influence they have in Washington. The Ethiopian government is fighting the TPLF, not the people of Tigray, however, the impact on civilians in Tigray, as well as Afar and Amhara, has been devastating (largely resulting from TPLF violence) and there are some reports of Tigrayans being unduly targeted following the imposition of a State of Emergency (SoE) on 2 November.

Whilst it is important that security forces have the freedom to identify anybody working with the TPLF and to reduce the risk of random terror attack, actions such as indiscriminate arrests, risk fueling anger against ethnic groups, particularly Tigrayans (many of whom are not involved with the TPLF), and should wherever possible be avoided.

Within the chaos of conflict a powerful sense of national unity has emerged; the people have a common enemy – the TPLF, as well as the US, and western media, which has lost all credibility among Ethiopians. It is essential that this sense of togetherness is maintained and that fragmentation along ethnic/tribal lines, which the TPLF agitated when in power, is minimised. Introduced as a way to divide and rule, the TPLF’s policy of Ethnic (or tribal) Federalism split communities, enflamed resentments and fostered the creation of ethnocentric political groups, some of which, the Oromo Liberation Front e.g., now working with the TPLF in an unholy alliance, have morphed into armed insurgencies.

Stay Away USA

US administrations, self-righteous and arrogant, appear never to learn from their invasive mistakes, or recognize the degree to which they are despised in certain parts of the world. It is not a sense of global responsibility and altruistic kindness that impels the US (and other former predatory powers) to interfere in a nation’s affairs, it is self-interest, corporate gain, fear and arrogance, and is seen as such by people throughout the world; just ask the abandoned, violated people of Afghanistan, the abused Palestinians forced to live under occupation in their own land, or the millions in Iraqis whose lives have never recovered from the 2003 invasion.

Ethiopia, much to the fury of America, is now looking elsewhere for allies; China, which has a strong relationship with the country resulting from the Belt and Road Initiative, Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – reported to be supplying arms – Russia and other African neighbors. The message to the US from Ethiopians and people standing in solidarity with Ethiopia is clear, ‘Stop Interfering’, ‘Mind your Own Business’, ‘We see you’. If you cannot be a friend to Ethiopia, a supporter of democracy and a Force for Good in the country, then Stay Away. Ethiopia is an ancient nation with a rich diverse culture, it has never been colonized: this fact is a source of great pride to Ethiopians, who are a deeply proud people, they will “never bow down” as one protestor put it, not to terrorists or modern-day colonialists, not now, not ever.