Articles by Mark Taylor

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Documentaries, History They Don't Want You To Know, Progressive History May 28, 2020

History They Don’t Want You To Know: What We Can Learn From FDR’s ‘New Deal’ During An Earlier Period Of National Collapse

By Adam Waller & Meghna Chakrabarti On Point / WBUR (5/27/20) Lessons from the New Deal. It wasn’t one big package wrapped in political consensus. We look at the real, messy process that pulled the U.S. out of the Great Depression. Lizabeth Cohen, professor of American Studies at Harvard University. Author of “Saving America’s Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age.” (@Harvard) Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst. (@JackBeattyNPR) From The Reading List: The Atlantic: “The Lessons of the Great Depression” — “Americans are out of work. More than 20 million lost their…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Mike McCabe for Gov, Resist! May 28, 2020

Mike McCabe: Another Sign Politics Have Failed Us All

Something’s got to give. By Mike MCabe Janesville Gazette (5/23/20) Even a simple act like wearing a face mask while out in public during a pandemic is fast being weaponized politically. Polling shows a significant and growing gap in mask usage among Republicans and Democrats as masks have begun to be seen on the right as a symbol of passively submitting to government authority, while on the left they are seen as a sign of compassion or consideration of others. Heaven help us. When the decision whether or not to take a widely recommended precaution during a public health emergency…

ALL ARTICLES May 28, 2020

Code Blue America: Trump Putting Everyone On The Line

“Covid doesn’t care about your politics, your rights, or your beliefs. If it can get into your body and start replicating it will. If the particles you exhale can infect someone else, it will. As we begin to open businesses, please be safe.” — Dr. David Chakoian ***** “I would do everything I can to avoid becoming infected as you don’t know individual outcomes.” — Dr. Peter Piot, Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; battled Ebola and AIDS, COVID-19 survivor By Dan Peak Commoner Call (5/28/20) Dear Fellow Readers, Are we really experiencing a pandemic? Are we…

ALL ARTICLES May 28, 2020

Stay Home, Stay Safe, Be Kind: What New Zealand Can Teach The World About Eliminating COVID-19

What a real leader looks like. Democracy Now! (5/26/20) New Zealand implemented one of the earliest lockdowns and has largely succeeded in eliminating the coronavirus under the leadership of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Some of the country’s success has been attributed to her leadership, trust in science, and clear communication during the crisis. We get an update from Michael Baker, professor of public health at the University of Otago in Wellington, New Zealand. He is an epidemiologist and a member of the New Zealand Ministry of Health’s Technical Advisory Group. Baker has been advising the government on its response to…

ALL ARTICLES, Health Care May 28, 2020

How Will COVID-19 Change The World? Medical Historian Frank Snowden On Epidemics From The Black Death To Now

Democracy Now! (5/18/20) Pandemics, like revolution, war and economic crises, are key determinants of historic change. We look at the history of epidemics, from Black Death to smallpox to COVID-19, and discuss how the coronavirus will reshape the world with leading medical historian Frank Snowden, author of “Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present.” He is a professor emeritus at Yale University who has been in Italy since the pandemic began, and himself survived a COVID-19 infection. Link To Story, Transcript And 38-Minute Video  

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ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, History They Don't Want You To Know, Police State America, Resist! May 28, 2020

Four Dead In Ohio: What The Kent State Massacre Meant For The Left

Remembrance is one thing, truth another. [Editor’s Note: A treacherous case of state murder, plain and simple. The intentional division and stirring of hate and racism by the Nixon administration is now SOP — Standard Operating Procedure — by the government. Note, one of the lessons of Kent State is to document any protest — now with cell phone video. — Mark L. Taylor] By Michael Goldfarb 1A / NPR (5/21/20) May 4th 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the Kent State massacre in Ohio. On the day the shootings occurred, Michael Goldfarb was in his second year at another university…

ALL ARTICLES, Health Care May 28, 2020

“Criminal” — Bipartisan Failure Leads To Relaxing Of Federal Guidelines Leading To Rising Number Of Infected & Dead Health Care Workers

“…the biggest safety and health failure that has ever occurred in this country. The toll on working people is already enormous.” By  Jennifer Gollan & Elizabeth Shogren Reveal / Center For Investigative Reporting (5/11/20) ick Lucas’ cellphone chimed, alerting him to an emergency in the acute care unit. He wondered whether it would be another case of COVID-19. He pulled on his thin surgical mask and dashed into a room where a patient was fighting to breathe. Lucas, a critical care nurse, and his team at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus worked quickly, finding a vein for an IV…

ALL ARTICLES, Health Care May 28, 2020

See The Chilling Virus Warnings Trump Ignored – Before Pandemic Outbreak | The Beat With Ari Melber

The Beat / MSNBC (5/27/20) The coronavirus has upended most of the world, but there were key warnings about pandemics in general, and the virus specifically, that were often ignored, downplayed or even punished. MSNBC’s Ari Melber documents this crucial history – and what can be learned from it now – in this exhaustive special report spanning years of expert research, warnings and even the fateful final months as the virus approached the U.S. early 2020. Melber also discusses a “Cassandra effect,” where some experts who got it right were sidelined and faced alleged retaliation by the Trump Administration. Link…

ALL ARTICLES, Quotes May 28, 2020

Notably Quotable: “Donald Trump doesn’t merely want to criticize his opponents; he takes a depraved delight in…”

  “Donald Trump doesn’t merely want to criticize his opponents; he takes a depraved delight in inflicting pain on others, even if there’s collateral damage in the process, as is the case with the Klausutis family. There’s something quite sick about it all.” — Peter Wehner, a conservative Christian who is a former senior adviser to George W. Bush, ‘There is a wickedness in our president’: Conservative Christian decries ‘cruelty’ of Trump’s latest smear campaign ***** “Punching down — even at the dead — isn’t the mark of a strong, secure, courageous man. It’s the mark of a small, weak, insecure coward…

ALL ARTICLES, Health Care, Right Wing Religion May 25, 2020

Onward Christian Liars: ‘Jane Roe’s’ Deathbed Confession Exposes The Corrupt Big Money Immorality Of The Christian Right

Sadly, it seems as though many anti-choice extremists don’t have much of a soul to lose in the first place. By Arwa Mahdawi The Guardian (5/21/20) What would you do for almost half a million dollars? Would you very publicly denounce your past life and pretend to be an anti-abortion, born-again, ex-gay Christian? Thanks to her newly public deathbed confession, we now know that’s what Norma McCorvey, best known for being the plaintiff known as Jane Roe in the 1973 landmark supreme court case abortion rights case Roe v Wade, did. In 1969, a 22-year-old McCorvey was pregnant and scared. She’d had…

ALL ARTICLES, History They Don't Want You To Know, War State America May 25, 2020

A Veteran’s Memorial Day Reflection: We Have Done Far Too Much Killing

Try Peace now before it’s too late! By Buzz Davis Veterans For Peace We approach Memorial Day honoring the ultimate sacrifices made by 1.4 million American military men and women who died in America’s wars since 1775. We must discuss the horrific impact of war on surviving soldiers and civilians. For only they can teach us working for peace is a better option than fighting wars. Each death in war brings everlasting tragedy to a family. Each death damages the hope of loved ones. Humans are brutal. We have many wonderful traits. But we must admit to a brutal streak. And we must hope that…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, History They Don't Want You To Know May 25, 2020

Black Americans Are Caught In An Abusive Relationship With The Democratic Party

Biden’s friendship with one black person does not mean that he’s a friend to black people. By Derecka Purnell The Guardian (5/21/20) I am very tired of Joe Biden. My vote for him was already hanging by a thread before his disastrous interview with Charlamagne tha God on Friday. Interrupting the Breakfast Club host’s explanation that black people needed assurances that our communities will benefit from his presidency, Biden asserted: “If you’ve got a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or for Trump, then you ain’t black.” Again, I am very tired of Joe Biden. Not because I am a purist, or have inflexible…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats May 25, 2020

Eyes Wide Open: If You Support Democrats, Okay, But Understand Why (As Biden Promises Wall Street) Nothing Would Fundamentally Change Should He Win

  By Jeremy Scahill Intercepted (12/5/19) The journalist Chris Hedges has spent the last decade and a half trying to ring the alarm about the dangers of the U.S. political system and he writes about a corporate and financial coup d’etat that happened long ago in this country. Now before Hedges embarked on this mission, he was a longtime war correspondent for The New York Times. In fact, he was part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team that covered the 9/11 attacks and the aftermath. Hedges’ book “War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” remains a classic work for studying…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Police State America May 25, 2020

America Under Donald Trump: A Failed State In Slow Motion Heading Into Chaotic, Rapid Free-Fall

“With heavily armed men in full combat gear occupying the visitors galleries in the Michigan state capitol, we are one trigger-pull away from what happens every day in places like Kabul and Mogadishu and Tripoli. With tens of millions of people out of work, they’re talking about cutting food stamps and canceling the unemployment bonus they just passed. Every day, there is more evidence that nothing is working the way it should in a country gripped by the biggest crisis it has faced in decades.” By Lucian K. Truscott IV Salon (5/23/20) What is a failed state? It’s a country that…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, FEATURE, Rethuglicans, Your Brain On Politics May 25, 2020

Who’s The Bigger American Idiot? The Dunce Or The Fool?

“What everyone from around the world who’s not American that I talk to really means is this. There are two kinds of American Idiot. The dunce, and the fool. The willful one, and the negligent one. There’s the Trumpist — who doesn’t know any better, who’s only known hate, ignorance, fear, and rage: the dunce. But there’s also the fool. The Democrat who votes against healthcare, retirement, education — and should know better. The sophisticated elite — who doesn’t see that America’s an imploding society in every possible way right about now. The New York Times columnist, the CNN anchor, none of…

ALL ARTICLES May 25, 2020

Code Blue America: With 100,000 (And Counting) Of Our Fellow Citizens Dead From Pandemic, Trump Tees Off

100,000 deaths, 40,000,000 unemployed and Trump plays golf! WHAT A PUTTS! — Daily News front page (5/24/20) ***** “When coronavirus came, Trump froze like a deer in the headlights”… Trump was “paralyzed” by his fear of dooming the stock market and killing his trade deal with China. “So he failed to act, and the virus got out of control, and shut down the nation, and crushed the economy,” the ad continues, citing the nearly 100,000 American deaths and 38 million unemployment claims. “Too scared to act, too panicked to tell the truth, too weak to lead,” the ad concludes.   “A…

ALL ARTICLES, Health Care May 25, 2020

Hong Kong Research Shows Wearing A Face Mask Can Reduce Coronavirus Transmission Up To 75%

  Fox News 6 Now (5/20/20) HONG KONG– Researchers have found that wearing surgical masks can significantly reduce the rate of airborne COVID-19 transmission, according to a study released on Sunday. The study, conducted by a team of scientists in Hong Kong, found the rate of non-contact transmission through respiratory droplets or airborne particles dropped by as much as 75 percent when masks were used. “The findings implied to the world and the public is that the effectiveness of mask-wearing against the coronavirus pandemic is huge,” said Dr. Yuen Kwok-yung, a leading microbiologist from Hong Kong University who helped discover…

ALL ARTICLES, Rethuglicans, Your Brain On Politics May 25, 2020

Arizona GOP Chair Dr. Kelli Ward Calls For Anti-Stay-At-Home Protesters To Fraudulently Dress Like Health Care Workers

  [Editor’s Note: Someone in Arizona should file a complaint against this cynical fraud of a physician with the Arizona state medical licensing board. Check out the second story to learn of a true healer who was lost to the emotional toll the pandemic is taking on health care professionals. — Mark L. Taylor] By Veronica Stracqualursi CNN (4/29/20) Washington (CNN)The chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party is encouraging people planning to protest stay-at-home orders imposed amid the coronavirus pandemic to dress like health care workers. Recently, several health care workers around the country have worn their scrubs and medical gear to counterprotest against people…

'Just-Us' System, ALL ARTICLES May 25, 2020

Is Bill Barr The Single Most Dangerous Member Of The Trump Administration?

  “He’s definitely going to go down in modern American history as perhaps the most compromised, policitized, partisan, illiberal attorney general of all. But let’s be clear: that’s precisely why Barr is the attorney general of Donald Trump’s dreams.” By Mehdi Hasan Deconstructed (5/21/20) ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM BARR has emerged as the shrewdest and most effective member of the Trump administration, weaponizing the Department of Justice to protect the president and his allies while threatening his enemies with legal retribution. He has made it clear that in sharp contrast to the traditionally independent role of the AG, he is willing to…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats May 25, 2020

RUMBLE: You’ll Never Work In This Town Again! Briahna Joy Gray, Former Natl. Press Secretary For Sanders Campaign

  By Michael Moore Rumble (5/21/20) Briahna Joy Gray was the National Press Secretary for the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign and is one of the most thoughtful communicators in politics. She joined Michael to discuss her experience on the campaign, how the pandemic will effect the election, intra-left policy disagreements, being attacked endlessly on Twitter and what Joe Biden’s campaign must do to win over skeptical voters (and non-voters). Link To 1-Hour, 18-Minute Audio  

ALL ARTICLES May 25, 2020

Three Commoners Write: On Racism, Meat Eating & The Political Duopoly

Expect Trump To Ramp Up On Racist Attacks You need to address pandemic racism.  It’s going to ramp up as we approach election.  Trump and his goons are going to fuel this hysteria just like they did with Mexican immigrants, drug dealers wall shit in 2016.  All anti-Biden ads are about China.  This racism is disgusting but Trump knows, like any other polished demagogue, that demonizing has great political currency.  Again he’ll try to divide and conquer. He has to go!!! Check out this article from USA TODAY: ‘We just want to be safe’: Hate crimes, harassment of Asian Americans…

ALL ARTICLES, FEATURE May 21, 2020

Thanks To Gerrymander-Coddled Republicans, Wisconsin Now Resembles A Failed State

By Nathan Robinson The Guardian (5/19/20) A failed state is one that can no longer claim legitimacy or perform a government’s core function of protecting the people’s basic security. Lately, the Wisconsin supreme court seems to be doing its level best to make its state qualify for “failed” status. Multiple decisions have both undermined the government’s legitimacy and endangered the people. First, there was the primary. Because voting in person is clearly risky during a pandemic, several states delayed their primaries to make sure everyone was able to mail in a ballot instead of having to go to a polling place. Not…

ALL ARTICLES, Health Care, History They Don't Want You To Know May 21, 2020

Time To Indict & Punish The Perpetrators Of Systemic Racial Covid Mass Death

  By Glen Ford Black Agenda Report (5/21/20) Not just Trump, but the whole US ruling class must pay for the mass Covid death toll among Blacks, because only the ruling class has the power to systematically allocate life-death chances for whole populations over generations. “To limit the indictment to Donald Trump and his administration would be an insult to today’s dead and dying.” The United States finds myriad ways of killing Black people – of negating the term “Black lives matter.” The novel, or new, coronavirus is ending the lives of African Americans at a nationwide rate that is 2.6 times…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Rethuglicans May 21, 2020

Lockdown Protesters May Have Infected Your Family With Coronavirus

US lockdown protests may have spread virus widely, cellphone data suggests. By Jason Wilson The Guardian (5/18/20) Cellphone location data suggests that demonstrators at anti-lockdown protests – some of which have been connected with Covid-19 cases – are often traveling hundreds of miles to events, returning to all parts of their states, and even crossing into neighboring ones. The data, provided to the Guardian by the progressive campaign group the Committee to Protect Medicare, raises the prospect that the protests will play a role in spreading the coronavirus epidemic to areas which have, so far, experienced relatively few infections. The anonymized location…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Health Care, History They Don't Want You To Know, Right Wing Religion May 21, 2020

Why Don’t Americans Trust Experts Anymore?

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ― Issac Asimov Amanpour & Company (5/15/20) A tussle between science and politics is defining the pandemic response of the Trump administration. How did this increasing rejection of expertise get started? Professor Tom Nichols wrote a prescient book on the subject in 2017, and joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss. Link…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Rethuglicans, Screwing With Your Vote May 21, 2020

Think Trump & Republicans Wouldn’t Cancel An Election? Look At What Georgia’s GOP Just Pulled Off

By Julia Conley Common Dreams (5/19/0) Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will be permitted to hand-pick the state’s next Supreme Court Justice after that same high court ruled last week that a special election set for Tuesday could be canceled. Kemp and his Secretary of State, Brad Raffensberger, moved to cancel voting in the state earlier this year after state Supreme Court Justice Keith Blackwell announced he would step down after his six-year term expires at the end of 2020. Taking the matter of who should succeed Blackwell into his own hands will allow Kemp, a Republican, to appoint another right-wing judge to serve…

ALL ARTICLES, Health Care May 21, 2020

Can You Stay Safe With States Reopening? An Expert Explains How To Assess Risk When Reconnecting With Friends & Family

Michigan’s outbreak looks different from Iowa’s, which looks different from Colorado’s. Even within states, outbreaks are very distinct.  By Ryan Malosh The Conversation (5/18/20) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has finally released new guidelines for businesses, bars and schools that are considering reopening. Although following these guidelines should help, it’s frustrating there hasn’t been more clear, concise communication about the risk of infection. And without strict guidelines, it will be up to us to minimize our own risk and the risk of everyone around us. In large part, this is because there is still so much we scientists and physicians don’t know about…

ALL ARTICLES May 21, 2020

Code Blue America: Hydroxychloroquine Isn’t The Only Snake Oil Trump & His Republicans Are Peddling

  By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (5/21/20) Dear Fellow Readers, Amy Goodman with Democracy Now! on May 19 hit all the high points: hydroxychloroquine, reopening, lack of testing to support reopening, criticism of the Centers for Disease Control, specific problems with antibody testing which are critical to understanding exposure to date, immunity and an outlook for a vaccine, a possible Moderna vaccine, global cooperation, and finally an outlook on immunity. As States Rush to Reopen, Lack of COVID-19 Testing Is “Achilles Heel” for U.S. Goodman opens with a short Trump segment, “I happen to be taking it”, ‘it’ being hydroxychloroquine….

ALL ARTICLES, Rethuglicans, Trumpenstan May 21, 2020

The Real Reason Trump Wants To Put Your Life On The Line For Reopening The Economy

By Robert Reich RobertReich. com (5/13/20) Donald Trump is getting nervous. Internal polls show him losing in November unless the economy comes roaring back. So what is Trump’s reelection strategy? Ignore the warnings of public health experts and reopen the economy at all costs. Here’s his lethal 4-part plan: Step 1: Remove income support, so people have no choice but to return to work.     Trump’s Labor Department has decided that furloughed employees “must accept” an employer’s offer to return to work and therefore forfeit unemployment benefits, regardless of the risk of returning to work before it’s safe. Forcing…

ALL ARTICLES, Health Care May 21, 2020

Some Hopeful News Regarding Covid-19: Reinfection May Not Happen

“Brilliant news. … Remarkably good news.” Dr. John Campbell has a very informative, straight forward daily podcast review and update of the developing science on Covid-19. In this episode he reviews research coming out of South Korea indicating people cannot be reinfected with Covid-19, which is positive news regarding efficacy of possible vaccination and eventual herd immunity. Link To 23+-Minute Video You Can Access Dr. John Campbell’s Science-Based Library Of Podcasts On A Variety Of  Covid-19 Related Topics Here.  

ALL ARTICLES, Health Care, History They Don't Want You To Know May 21, 2020

What The 1918 Flu Pandemic Can Teach Us About The Coronavirus Outbreak — If Only We Are Willing To Learn

  By Wes Martin & Meghna Chakrabarti On Point / WBUR (5/15/20) It’s been more than 100 years since all of humanity has had to respond to a global pandemic on the scale of coronavirus. We’ll take a deep look at the origins, responses and lessons of the flu pandemic of 1918. Guests: John Barry, professor at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Author of “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History.” (@johnmbarry) Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst. (@JackBeattyNPR) Link To Story, Transcript And 57-Minute Audio (Commoner Call photo by Mark L. Taylor,…

ALL ARTICLES May 21, 2020

Notably Quotable: “The oddity in all of this is the people Trump despises most, love him the most. The people who are voting for Trump…”

  “The oddity in all of this is the people Trump despises most, love him the most. The people who are voting for Trump for the most part… he wouldn’t even let them in a f*cking hotel. He’d be disgusted by them.” — Howard Stern ***** “To be fair, Trump has been very clear in press briefings that he’s “not a doctor … [just] a person that has a good you-know-what”. And you know what? If he wants to turn himself into a human guinea pig, I fully support it” — Arwa Mahdawi, Has Trump been trying out his own dodgy medical advice?…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, History They Don't Want You To Know, Progressive History May 18, 2020

The Democratic Party Cannot Defeat Trump By Returning To Past Failures

We don’t have to choose between the failed paths of the past. By Winnie Wong Morning Consult (5/12/20) The Democratic Party needs to make a decision about how to confront the most corrupt and dangerous president in modern U.S. history. President Donald Trump poses an existential threat to the health and welfare of the people of this country, as his grossly negligent conduct during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has vividly illustrated. During his tenure in the White House, Trump has repeatedly demonstrated his contempt for the working people of this country, while giving succor to the most hateful and bigoted elements of society. Trump has repeatedly…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Progressive History May 18, 2020

Time For Progressives To Seize The Means Of Production Of House Relief Bills

Asking for only half as many fire trucks as necessary to rush to the scene of a fire does not make you a wise leader. By Hamilton Nolan In These Times (5/13/20) There is no upside to moderation in the face of a disaster. Asking for only half as many fire trucks as necessary to rush to the scene of a fire does not make you a wise leader; it makes you someone who let the house burn down. No matter how many times we are forced to learn this the hard way, the lesson has not sunk in for…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Progressive History, Resist! May 18, 2020

Chris Hedges On Biden vs. Trump, Bernie Sanders, Corporate Media, Assange & The Empty Shell Of The American Left

  “What is the response? It is to recover a new militancy where we recognize that our planet will not be saved and our democracy will not be restored through existing political systems.” acTVism Munich (5/5/20) In this interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author Chris Hedges, we discuss his past work as a foreign correspondent with the New York Times and why he chose to quit. In addition, we compare Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the context of domestic and foreign policy with a focus on Europe. Lastly we explore the importance of economic…

ALL ARTICLES, Economic Injustice, FEATURE, One Percenters May 18, 2020

Is Elon Musk(rat) Really A Genius? Um, No, He’s Just Another Whiny, Self-Important, Hypocritical, Freeloading, Grifting Little Billionaire

Just another freeloading beneficary of taxpayer support, exploitation of workers and big talking record of lying. “F*ck, Elon Musk.” By Mehdi Hasan Deconstructed (5/14/20) OVER THE WEEKEND, Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to voice his frustrations about the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown in Alameda County, California. The billionaire entrepreneur threatened that he would take his auto factory to another state if it was not allowed to reopen immediately. On Monday, he announced that he would be resuming production at the facility in contravention of the lockdown. By Wednesday morning, the county had caved to Musk, announcing that his factory would…

ALL ARTICLES, Health Care May 18, 2020

The Covid-19 Patients Who Have Symptoms For Months: ‘Weird as hell’

“I’ve studied 100 diseases. Covid is the strangest one I have seen in my medical career.” By Luke Harding The Guardian (5/15/20) In mid-March Paul Garner developed what he thought was a “bit of a cough”. A professor of infectious diseases, Garner was discussing the new coronavirus with David Nabarro, the UK’s special envoy on the pandemic. At the end of the Zoom call, Nabarro advised Garner to go home immediately and to self-isolate. Garner did. He felt no more than a “little bit off”. Days later, he found himself fighting a raging infection. It’s one he likens to being…

ALL ARTICLES May 18, 2020

Code Blue America: Intentionally Putting Your Family On The Line Of Incompetence

“The number of slaughterhouse workers who have already died this year is on par with the number of U.S. servicemembers who have died annually fighting in Afghanistan over the last five years. Military personnel risking their lives to fight terrorism is one thing. How did the president arrive at the absurdity of requiring civilians to risk their lives for the sake of a particular food?” — Jonathan Safran Foer  ***** “I never had a right to do something that could injure the health of my neighbors.” — Wendy E. Parmet, director of the Center for Health Policy and Law at Northeastern University ***** Modern…

ALL ARTICLES, FEATURE, Health Care May 18, 2020

Dying To Head To The Bar With Your Buddies For A Beer? Here’s How Rapidly Covid-19 Can Spread To Everyone (Including You) In A Restaurant

  “What the video demonstrated, is that it will spread to surfaces and to people very efficiently.” [Editor’s Note: Remember, whatever you pick up at a bar or restaurant you carry home to your family and friends. — Mark L. Taylor] By Luke O’Neil The Guardian (5/15/20) Even as Covid 19 deaths in the US continue to grow, now surpassing 85,000, many states have begun loosening lockdown restrictions. Regardless of the wisdom of such moves, it’s clear that there’s a desire to return to something resembling normalcy across the country, as in Wisconsin, where locals returned to packed bars this week. How…