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Before the Coronavirus hit the US, 15 of the 18 largest pharmaceutical companies had stopped doing research into vaccines because it wasn’t profitable. Furthermore the vaccines that are now being produced are not the result of research coming from big pharma. According to Michael Roberts the vaccines are coming out of Universities and government institutes like the National Institutes of Health. Also, the Chinese have been supplying the necessary DNA sequences to analyzed the virus.

By Michael Roberts

COVID vaccines: calling the shots
The Michael Roberts Blog
(Blogging from a Marxist economist)

Before the COVID-19 pandemic engulfed the world, the big pharmaceutical companies did little investment in vaccines for global diseases and viruses. It was just not profitable. Of the 18 largest US pharmaceutical companies, 15 had totally abandoned the field. Heart medicines, addictive tranquilizers and treatments for male impotence were profit leaders, not defences against hospital infections, emergent diseases and traditional tropical killers. A universal vaccine for influenza—that is to say, a vaccine that targets the immutable parts of the virus’s surface proteins—has been a possibility for decades, but never deemed profitable enough to be a priority. So, every year, we get vaccines that are only 50% efficient.

But the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the attitude of big pharma. Now there are billions to be made in selling effective vaccines to governments and health systems. And in double-quick time, a batch of apparently effective vaccines has emerged with every prospect of them being available for people within the next three to six months – a record result.

There should be authorisation of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines by year-end in the EU and the UK, with the deployment of an initial 10-20 million doses each (5-10 million treatments) underway through the turn of the year. Widespread vaccination from COVID-19 beyond high-risk groups is likely to be underway across Europe by the spring, with a sufficiently large share of European populations vaccinated by the end of the summer.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 was reported to have over 90% efficacy. Moderna reported that its vaccine reduced the risk of COVID-19 infection by 94.5%. Among other leading vaccine developers, AstraZeneca is expected to release Phase III trial results by Christmas, with a number of others currently also conducting late-stage trials. By year-end, the EU and the UK should have enough doses to treat around 5 million people each (with a single treatment involving two doses). And there are others: Gamaleya, Novavax, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi-GSK; as well as the Sputnik vaccine from Russia and China’s own.

How was this possible so quickly? Well, it was not due to big pharma coming up with the scientific research solutions. It was down to some dedicated scientists working in universities and government institutes to come up with the vaccine formulas. And that was made possible because the Chinese government quickly provided the necessary DNA sequences to analyse the virus. In sum, it was government money and public funds that delivered the medical solution.

Basic research for US vaccines is done by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Defense Department and federally funded academic laboratories. The vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna rely heavily on two fundamental discoveries that emerged from What better lesson can we learn from the COVID vaccine experience than that the multi-national pharma companies should be publicly owned so that research and development can be directed to meet the health and medical needs of people not the profits of these companies.

So Moderna’s vaccine has not come out of nowhere. Moderna had been working on mRNA vaccines for years with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a part of the NIH. The agreement consisted of some level of funding from Moderna to the NIH, along with a roadmap for NIAID and Moderna investigators to collaborate on basic research into mRNA vaccines and eventually development of such a vaccine.

The US government has poured an additional $10.5 billion into various vaccine companies since the pandemic began to accelerate the delivery of their products. The Moderna vaccine emerged directly out of a partnership between Moderna and the NIH laboratory.

The US government—and two agencies in particular, the NIH andBiomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA)—has invested, heavily, in the vaccine’s development. BARDA is an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services formed in 2006 inresponse to—wait for it—SARS-CoV-1 (and other health threats). It providesdirect investment in technologies to firms, but also engages in public-private partnerships (PPPs) and coordinates between agencies. A specific part of BARDA’s mission is taking technologies through the “valley of death” between creation and commercialization.

The German government ploughed funds into BioNTech to the tune of €375 million, while another €252 million has been made to support development by CureVac. Germany also raised its contribution to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) by €140 million and plans to provide an additional €90 million next year. CEPI was launched in Davos, Switzerland, in 2017 as an innovative global partnership between public, private, philanthropic and civil society organisations to develop vaccines to counter epidemics, and Germany pledged an annual €10 million over a four-year period to support the initiative. CureVac is one of nine institutes and companies commissioned by CEPI to conduct research into a COVID-19 vaccine. One of its shareholders is the government-owned Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) bank.

But it is big pharma that develops the vaccine from the scientific work of public institutes. They call the shots. The drugs companies do the global clinical trials, then produce and market the result. Then they sell the vaccines to governments at huge profits. This is the way things were done before the pandemic – and now. In the US, in the 10-year period between 1988 and 1997, public-sector expenditures for vaccine purchases doubled from $100 to $200 per child through age 6. The cumulative public-sector cost doubled again in less than 5 years between 1997 and 2001, from $200 to almost $400 per child.

Very little is still known about the terms of the COVID vaccine contracts that EU governments have signed with pharma groups including AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Sanofi-GlaxoSmithKline and CureVac. But once the secrecy is peeled away, US biotech Moderna is going to charge $37 a dose, or $50 to $60 for the two-shot course.

Coronavirus vaccines are likely to be worth billions to the drug industry if they prove safe and effective. As many as 14 billion vaccines would be required to immunize everyone in the world against COVID-19. If, as many scientists anticipate, vaccine-produced immunity wanes, billions more doses could be sold as booster shots in years to come. And the technology and production laboratories seeded with the help of all this government largesse could give rise to other profitable vaccines and drugs.

So while much of the pioneering work on mRNA vaccines was done with government money, the privately owned drugmakers will walk away with big profits, while governments pay for vaccines they helped to fund the development of in the first place!

The lesson of the coronavirus vaccine response is that a few billion dollars a year spent on additional basic research could prevent a thousand times as much loss in death, illness and economic destruction. At a news conference US health adviser, Anthony Fauci, highlighted the spike protein work. “We shouldn’t underestimate the value of basic biology research,” Fauci said. Exactly. But as many authors, such as Mariana Mazzacutohave shown,state funding and researchhas been vital to development of such products.

What better lesson can we learn from the COVID vaccine experience than that the multi-national pharma companies should be publicly owned so that research and development can be directed to meet the health and medical needs of people not the profits of these companies. And moreover, then the necessary vaccines can get to the billions in the poorest countries and circumstances rather than to just those countries and people who can afford to pay the prices set by these companies.

“This is the people’s vaccine,” said corporate critic Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program. “Federal scientists helped invent it and taxpayers are funding its development. … It should belong to humanity.”

Michael Roberts worked in the City of London as an economist for over 40 years. He has closely observed the machinations of the global capitalism from within the dragon’s den. Since retiring, he has written several books. The Great Recession – a Marxist view (2009); The Long Depression (2016); Marx 200: a review of Marx’s economics (2018): and jointly with Guglielmo Carchedi as editors of World in Crisis (2018). He has published numerous papers in various academic economic journals and articles in leftist publications.

Addendum

By Michael Roberts
MICHAEL ROBERTS BLOG
Covid 2021: more calamity ahead?

The news that a COVID-19 vaccine could well be available by the start of 2021 sent the stock markets of the world shooting up to new record levels. However, the rally was quickly tempered by the rocketing rise in COVID-19 infections as the northern hemisphere enters its winter. The rise is most heavily exhibited in the US and most parts of Europe. The death rate from these new infections may be lower than in the first wave last March-April, but hospitalisations are reaching new peaks in the US and parts of Europe.

This is serious for health outcomes because hospital capacity was already low in many countries, after privatisations, public sector spending cuts and outsourcing of health services conducted by most advanced capitalist governments over the last 30 years before the pandemic. India is at the bottom of the pile for hospital beds per 1000 inhabitants, not surprisingly, but note that, among ‘developed economies’, Sweden, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Denmark are also near the bottom, with the US not much better.

That explains why these countries had to resort to lengthy and severe ‘lockdowns’ in the first wave to cope. New Zealand and Denmark did so with relative success, but the US, the UK and Sweden did not in the first wave, with a relative failure in keeping deaths down. The countries with relatively low death rates from the first COVID wave were also ones with plenty of hospital bed capacity – Japan, Korea and Germany.

In this new ‘winter wave’, health systems are better prepared and resourced but even so, patient numbers are rising fast. And now many hospital staff have been infected and forced to self-isolate, reducing the ability of health systems to cope with the winter wave of COVID-19. This is forcing many governments in Europe and states in the US to resume new lockdowns of varying severity. At the same time, people are voting with their feet and millions are staying at home, not travelling, or shopping and working on-line, and not going to cafes, restaurants, etc. This combination of lockdowns and self-isolation has stopped the nascent recovery in economic activity that began in the summer. Economic activity, as measured by mobility and spending trends, is dropping back in the major economies of the northern hemisphere.

Covid is likely to get worse before it gets better. Daily infection rates, hospitalisation and positive testing all point in this direction. The R0 (infection) rate remains well above 1.5 globally and closer to 2.0 in the US and Europe. The vaccination story provides no palliative for this in the next six months.

The hopes of further economic recovery in the last quarter of this year and next are being dashed. The European Commission has lowered its Eurozone 2021 GDP forecast to +4.2% from +6.1%. The Commission cut the GDP forecast because of the new wave in COVID-19 and the return of lockdowns. “Going forward, remaining idle capacity in capital-intensive sectors, lower profitability and elevated uncertainty are expected to weigh on investment intentions.” The Commission goes on: “The low growth momentum expected implies an annual output level in 2022 that is slightly below that of 2019 for both the euro area and the EU and thus well below the pre-pandemic growth trend, such as the one derived from the autumn 2019 forecast.” So no V-shaped recovery for Europe as the pandemic wave rises.

It’s a similar message for the US. Oxford Economics reckons that the ‘recovery’ is plateauing and even with a vaccine, there is no prospect of the US economy returning to its pre-virus GDP path (weak as that was) for the foreseeable future!

And that is even taking into account any future policy measures by the new Biden administration to ‘stimulate’ the economy through more government spending. As it is, even the palliative emergency spending package being disputed between the Republican Senate and Democratic House seems locked into paralysis going into 2021.

The stalled ‘recovery’, such as it was, is going to leave permanent scars on the ‘labour market’ (ie people’s livelihoods). The latest US jobs figures for October suggest that the return to work for millions has begun to fade. By last April, 22m Americans had lost their jobs or been laid off. So far, less than half of them have returned to those jobs.

The rest remain on unemployment benefit and/or emergency assistance.

The number of unemployed actually understates the problem as millions of individuals have left the labour force. Many rejoined over the summer, but the total potential labour force is still more than four million workers smaller than it was prior to the crisis, and it contracted in September, a disturbing stall in momentum.

The number of individuals who say they are on permanent layoff has also grown considerably, from 1.5 million in March to 3.8 million in September. This rise in permanent layoffs is unusually swift. In the first six months of the Great Recession, the number of permanent layoffs grew just half a million. Furthermore, research suggests people overestimate the likelihood of re-employment and each month they are out of work reduces the chances their layoff is in fact ‘temporary’. As time passes, improvements in the labour market will become harder.

One factor that has kept some afloat while being laid off has been the relative rise in real household incomes in the couple of years before the pandemic hit in 2020. According to the US Census Bureau, US median household real incomes rose 6.8% between 2018 and 2019. This rise can be disputed as it is based on inadequate surveys. Also, the rise only meant that households had clawed back their living standards after deep losses following the Great Recession ten years ago. In 2019 the unemployment rate was at a record low, while inflation had also fallen to near historic lows. As a result, households had two or even three earners, maybe at low wage rates, but combined, that improved the household income levels.

There was also a rise in wage levels from the lows post-Great Recession, and in the two years before the 2020 pandemic, that benefited the lowest paid quartile most – although with wage rises still way below the period before the Great Recession.

But the pandemic has brought that relative recovery in real incomes to an end, especially for the lowest paid. It’s low wage employment in key services and industries that is taking the biggest hit, as better paid technical and professional workers can stay at home and work and have suffered fewer job losses.

With the supply side of economies falling back as we go into the winter and 2021; demand for basic essentials still strong; and some ‘effective demand’ still there as some people run down savings and others continue to work through, there is also every prospect that the very low inflation levels of 2020 will turn up in 2021. For example, Oxford Economics forecasts a spike in US annual inflation to 3% as food and commodity prices rise because supply will lag demand and international trade growth will be weak. Even ‘core inflation’ (excluding food and energy) could jump to 2% in 2021. This matches a recent tentative forecast made on this blog using a Marxist model of inflation.

So in 2021, wage growth will slow, high unemployment will remain and inflation will pick up. It’s three-way hit to living standards for the average American family and that story applies to Europe as well.

But what about the billions who live in the so-called ‘developing economies’ of the so-called Global South? Many of these countries have been even more badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries in Latin America lead in COVID death rates (Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico), because their mainly privatised health systems cannot cope and because millions there on casual labour have been forced to go to work, if they can, to survive. Only a relatively younger population and more dispersal geographically (as in India, South Africa etc) has kept mortality rates down.

But there has been no escape economically. The economies of the global south have been trounced by the COVID pandemic as international trade closed down (-10%) and domestic economic activity collapsed. For the first time in records, the so-called emerging economies combined will suffer a contraction in real GDP, and that average includes giant China where success in dealing with COVID has meant that China is one of the few countries that will grow in 2020 (if only by about 1.5%). Among the worst hit are supposedly dynamic emerging capitalist economies like India (-10%), Brazil (-6%), Mexico (-9%), South Africa (-9%).

Inevitably this is leading to defaults by various national governments on the debts owed to private sector creditors (banks, hedge funds etc). And this is despite the claims of the IMF and World Bank that it will save such countries from the burden of servicing their debt in the pandemic. Only this week, Zambia is expected to default on its payments, thus joining a long list of past defaulters in ‘emerging economies’. As I have explained before, it’s a debt disaster, no longer waiting to happen, but already here.

Private sector bond holders are demanding their payments and there is little help from the international agencies. New World Bank chief economist Carmen Reinhart has warned that the global south faces “an unprecedented wave of debt crises and restructurings”. Reinhart said: “in terms of the coverage, of which countries will be engulfed, we are at levels not seen even in the 1930s.” “It is unthinkable that in a global pandemic, the world’s poorest countries are having to choose between making debt service payments and keeping their economies afloat,” said Gayle Smith, president of the One Campaign against poverty. It’s unthinkable, but it is happening.

As I explained in a previous post, this disaster will reverse what little progress has been made in reducing world poverty, where near 4bn people live on less than $5 a day (a more realistic threshold for poverty than that of the World Bank).

And now we have the shocking report just issued by UNICEF. UNICEF reckons that approximately 150 million additional children are living in multidimensional poverty – without access to these essential services – due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Around 45 per cent of children were severely deprived of at least one of these critical needs before the coronavirus pandemic even hit. UNICEF: “the situation for children living in multidimensional poverty is likely to worsen unless national governments and the international community step up to soften the blow.” 188 countries have imposed countrywide school closures during the pandemic, affecting more than 1.6 billion children and youth.

At least a third of the world’s schoolchildren – 463 million children globally – were unable to access remote learning when COVID-19 shuttered their schools. Schoolchildren in the poorest countries have already lost nearly four months of schooling since the start of the pandemic, compared to six weeks in high-income countries. “Even short disruptions in children’s schooling can have long-lasting negative impacts due to factors including the lack of structured programmes for catching up. In the past, school closures have led to an increase in child marriage and child labour which often prevent children from continuing their education.”

According to a study covering 118 low- and middle-income countries by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, an additional 1.2 million under-five deaths could occur in just six months due to reductions in routine health service coverage levels and an increase in child wasting. As many as 132 million people may go hungry in 2020, of that 36 million are children. And 370 million children may miss out on nutritious school meals. The nightmare of global capitalism that billions in the ‘developing countries’ already suffer is going to be intensified for years ahead.

But wait, what about the vaccine – is it not arriving as a white knight to save the world, or like a silver bullet to kill the disease of the ‘vampire’ bats? History is littered with vaccines that once introduced had to be withdrawn because they failed — and, more often than not, did harm. Vaccines are more likely to fail if they are developed under great pressure from government and the populace with trials and approvals being expedited in the name of expediency. In the development of Covid-19 vaccines it is noteworthy that so much of the testing is being done in poor countries where ‘life is cheap’. Moreover, much of the original science was done by publicly-funded institutes, but it is governments that will pay millions in exorbitant prices being charged by big pharma for the vaccines.

The intention of any vaccination is to achieve ‘herd immunity’. This calls for the R0 infection rate to fall below 1.0 and the pandemic to fade away. At a guess, herd immunity might be achieved at 50% of the population (though some say 70%). To achieve herd immunity for the one billion or so people in rich countries would therefore take 1.2 billion inoculations if two doses per person are needed, or 600 million doses if only one is required. This assumes an 80-90% efficacy rate for the vaccine. An efficiency rate closer to 50% would need double the amount of people to be inoculated and a lot more vaccines.

Extending coverage to middle-income and poor countries would multiply the required doses to between three to six billion. Theoretically, based on five to six successful vaccines being developed by mid-2021, herd immunity in rich and most middle-income countries could be achieved by production of one billion doses of each vaccine per year. This might be possible within 12-18 months according to statements of the drug companies involved. All the ‘front runner’ vaccines will be unveiled or disproven by June 2021. If successful, ramping up production to say one billion units per vaccine could take another 6-12 months.

One significant challenge in switching from laboratory to mass production scale is preserving the purity and efficacy of the product. Distribution is also a big issue. Some of these vaccines need deep-freeze, long-range distribution and transport. The Pfizer-BioNtech product — for example, needs to be kept at very low temperatures before use (as low as minus 70C).

Then there is the willingness of individuals to take vaccines. Apparently 30-50% of people in the US and Europe say they won’t take it. Up to 30% of US nurses have indicated they would not take a vaccine! There is also the issue of each vaccine’s effectiveness. It is easier to achieve herd immunity with an 80%-90% effectiveness ratio than it is with 50%. And of course, there is also the question of how long it is effective for. Current indications for most of the front-runner vaccines under development is for them to last for one to two years.

And here is the big problem. COVID-19 emerged, like other new pathogens for which human beings had no immunity from their transfer from wild animals in remote parts of the world through to animals being ‘industrially farmed’ and food markets into humans. There are many other pathogens out there still, with nothing being done to stop the transfer mechanism because nothing is being to done to curb or stop fossil fuel explorations, logging, deforestation for plantations and livestock, all in the drive for more profit for agro and energy industries.

Moreover, just as worrying is that it seems these viruses can mutate as humans infect animals in a vicious cycle, leading to further infections in humans that the current vaccines cannot be effective against. The shocking example of the Danish mink industry confirms this serious risk. It seems that caged minks (kept in tiny cages to be killed for the international fur trade) caught COVID-19 which then mutated into a variant of the virus, infecting fur farm workers. The government has been forced, in the teeth of opposition by fur farmers, to cull more than 15 million of the animals, due to fears that a Covid-19 mutation moving from minks to humans could jeopardise future vaccines.

So, as we head towards 2021, the pandemic infection rate shows no sign of stopping or even slowing. Hospitals in the northern hemisphere are under pressure and economic activity is dropping back. Employment levels are still down and real incomes are set to fall, especially for the lower paid as jobs disappear and inflation rises. For the billions in the ‘global south’ the spectre of poverty, illness and exploitation will be realised. The scarring is long term.

What can be done? Some have called for a ‘war economy’ where the state replaces the capitalist sector and directs and controls national and global resources towards people not profit. I prefer the term ‘social economy’.

This would mean: 1) emergency action to provide funds for millions north and south who have lost their livelihoods; and immediate cancellation of the debts ‘owed’ by governments of the poor south; 2) national and international plans through state projects to employ people, restore proper health and education systems free at the point of use and invest in industry, particularly ‘green’ industry; 3) take the major financial institutions into public ownership and control, along with big pharma and other strategic companies in energy, food, manufacturing and communications and 4) longer term, initiate state-led plans internationally coordinated to deliver social needs and environmentally harmonious results (ie stop deforestation and fossil fuel exploration etc) rather than expansion for private profit that will deliver yet more disasters.

Of course, nothing like this is set to happen in the near future, let alone 2021, and so we all roll on to more calamity.

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It’s never that simple, is it? Willful Blindness, Hypocrisy & Planetary Repercussions

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Cory Morningstar

Mandatory Masks in the Age of Climate Emergency & Planetary Biodiversity Crisis

“It is of utmost importance to recognise that Human Health is connected and dependent on the health of our environment and ecosystems, and if humanity does not respect such connection…

there will not exist a future.”

— August 17, 2020, Increased plastic pollution due to COVID-19 pandemic: Challenges and recommendations

“Victim” of plastic pollution, shot in Eleuthera, Bahamas – Shane Gross

On December 5, 2017, the United Nations announced that ocean plastic had come to constitute a planetary crisis: “Global Director for Ocean United Nation Environment and Sweden’s Ambassador for Oceans, Seas and Fresh Water, Dr Lisa Svensson said governments, firms and individual people must act far more quickly to halt plastic pollution: ‘This is a planetary crisis,’ she said. “In a few short decades since we discovered the convenience of plastics, we are ruining the ecosystem of the ocean. ‘The scale of the challenge is absolutely enormous.'”

On September 20, 2019, the Daily Mail ran a story on the global climate strikes. The article “Millions of people including hundreds of thousands of children take to the streets in 150 countries as the largest climate protest in history gets underway” garnered a whopping 64,000 shares.

On August 29, 2020, the Daily Mail would run another story, this one on a new genre of industrial pollution:”Billions of face masks could end up in landfill if people don’t stop using single-use coverings, experts have warned. Scientists estimate that more than 124,000 tons of unrecyclable masks – the equivalent weight of *10,000 London buses – could be dumped each year…There have already been reports of sea birds becoming tangled in the elastic cords that wrap around the ears. The single-use masks are also washing up on beaches or being dumped in the streets after becoming mandatory in certain enclosed spaces.” As of October 18, 2020, this article had received a mere 261 shares. [*Equivalent to every person in the UK using one disposable surgical mask each day for one year. In addition to this catastrophe, is 57,000 tons of plastic packaging that cannot be reused or recycled.][Source]

“‘I went to my local supermarket this week and saw discarded face masks everywhere. In ten minutes, I had picked up 12. This has every opportunity to flow into water courses, into the rivers and oceans.” [Source]

“For a month now, we’re starting – since it’s just the beginning – to see these masks. It’s a new type of pollution… [Source] ‘Soon there may be more masks than jellyfish’ in the Mediterranean sea.” [Source]

The paper COVID-19 Pandemic Repercussions on the Use and Management of Plastics published June 20, 2020 warns that a “monthly estimated use of 129 billion face masks and 65 billion gloves globally, is resulting in widespread environmental contamination.” [Prata, Joana & Patricio Silva, A.L. & Walker, Tony & Duarte, Armando & Santos, Teresa. (2020). COVID-19 Pandemic Repercussions on the Use and Management of Plastics. Environmental Science & Technology.]

It seems like only yesterday that a massive campaign against single-use plastic straws was trending. The much forgotten anti-straw trend was based on astronomical numbers; a suggested 500 million straws used each day in the US alone, with more than half a billion plastic straws being consumed and discarded, every day around the entire globe. [Source] An estimated 8.3 billion plastic straws had come to pollute the planet’s beautiful beaches. The backlash against the straws appeared to be drive by the horrific impacts on the marine environment in particular.

194 billion face masks and gloves equates to well over 6 billion face masks being consumed and discarded each and every day.

Based on the aforementioned paper, six months of face masks alone – equates to seven hundred seventy-four billion while 12 months of consumption, equates to a stunning one trillion five hundred forty-eight billion face masks.

What happened to all those who cared about our environmental crises? That of climate change, biodiversity and ocean pollution?

+++

Another layer of the mask pollution, making their way into our waterways and oceans is observed by many including Martin Dorey, founder of the 2 Minute Beach Clean project in England: ” People are also less likely to pick them up because of the perceived risk, so it’s getting left. This stuff is toxic – it will kill ocean life and end up in the food chain.” [Source]

We are told that the purpose of wearing a face mask is to prevent people who may be infected with COVID-19, but may be asymptomatic, from transmitting the virus to others. Yet, with billions of dollars being doled out by governments to municipalities and institutions, to assist in dealing with the said COVID-19 crisis, one may wonder why there are no bio-hazard bins for the disposing of used masks, which, under strict handling procedures would be carefully collected and properly disposed of (if there even is a way to “properly” dispose of plastic). The laissez faire (non)dealing with used masks, is very much at odds with the fear of transmission from what we are told is a highly contagious virus (hammered into the collective psyche).

How is it that we believe our Western governments, in servitude to a corporatocracy, suddenly care about our health? The very governments that have no qualms whatsoever in killing millions of men, women and children, across the globe in their pursuits to control resource-rich countries, or those of geopolitical importance in regard to foreign policy.

The same governments that claim to care about our health, are rolling out 5G as quickly as possible despite an urgent appeal signed by 253 EMF scientists from 44 nations. The correspondence is addressed to names that most will recognize: Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations; Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization; and Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UNEP Environment Programme;U.N. Member Nations. The scientists warn: “5G will substantially increase exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields RF-EMF, that has been proven to be harmful for humans and the environment… By not taking action, the WHO is failing to fulfill its role as the preeminent international public health agency.” [1] In a separate appeal to the EU, over 406 scientists and doctors call for a moratorium on the roll-out of 5G. “Listen to the Science – all while any science that does not further capital or further the desires of our corporate overlords is ignored and buried. After all, the 5G networks underpin all fourth industrial revolution technologies going forward under the guise of “The Great Reset”. Those that control the 5G networks will control all the fourth industrial revolution infrastructure upon which 5G technology is based (and absolutely dependent upon). The 5G-Infrastructure-PPP (5G PPP) is a 1.4 billion Euro joint initiative between the European ICT industry and the European Commission, now in its third phase. This is the largest 5G research program in the world.

“And our Digital Strategy, embedded within the wider Industrial Strategy, sets out the 7 pillars on which we can build our success. And inside that fits our 5G strategy, like a set of Russian Dolls.”

– Matt Hancock, UK Parliament, Fourth Industrial Revolution Autumn Reception, 2017 [Source]

They say “march” – the people march. They say “applause” – the people applaud. They say “look” – the people look. They say “look away” – the people look away. After decades as subjects of social engineering, behavioural change economics, indoctrination, and intense pacification, have we lost the capacity to think for ourselves? Have we become completely domesticated subjects belonging to the ruling class.

Shaming

“Under a capitalist framework, social institutions can be manipulated to doctor “facts” in serving the ruling class. An erroneous fact can unite the ruling class, while it can put people against each other, being divided, exploited and subjugates. Capitalist hierarchy curates a theater of crises in restructuring the capitalist hierarchy and its trajectory of exploitation and subjugation to overcome its inherent problem of cyclical economic downturns. In the process, capitalism continue to colonize humanity and nature.”

— Hiroyuki Hamada

Those who will not comply with wearing a mask are shamed. Yet, where is our shame in producing this amount of waste that will further harm the natural world that we allege we wish to defend?

The political correctness, the virtue signalling, in regard to wearing a mask, has successfully pitted person against person, group against group, while the criminals who have orchestrated yet another trillion dollar bail out, in addition to destroying our biosphere and ecosystems, are left unscathed. Their profits (from the theft of labour and the natural world) continue to soar in record numbers. As ruling class global power consolidates, we are subjected to dangerous discourse. A class war is averted, as factions grow between we the citizenry, who must unite against the ruling class. A ruling class hell-bent on destroying what traces of our humanity remain. Hell-bent on the capturing of, and the continued plunder of, an already devastated planet, that graciously sustains all life.

Some people and populations are genuinely anxious in response to those that do not wear a mask. This fear has been manufactured primarily by media. The media could flood us with global recovery rates – which are well over 99 per cent, instead, we are flooded minute by minute with deaths from/with COVID-19. When there are no deaths, we are flooded with “an increase in positive cases”, a term which is meaningless due to unreliable tests.

Those that identify as left, attempt to frame all of those who do not wear a mask as far right. Others identifying as left, consider those who do not wear masks posturing as radical or “woke”. Neither of the aforementioned are reasons to not wear a mask. The reason for not wearing one should be based not on political leanings, nor on fear, but a calm rationale.

Microplastics

“The use of PPE, especially of face masks, has been incentivised in some highly impacted areas (regions/municipalities), but quickly spread to the worldwide population driven by anxiety and the perceived feeling of safety.”

— August 17, 2020, Increased plastic pollution due to COVID-19 pandemic: Challenges and recommendations

Personal protective equipment (PPE) in 2020, in particular face masks, have become a new genre of pollution. The majority of face masks being purchase and disposed of are single-use surgical masks made of melt-blown fabric manufactured from polypropylene, a type of thermoplastic. [2] The vast majority of all disposable face masks being consumed have two outer layers with a filter between them (polypropylene), made from nonwoven plastic fibres.

Microplastics are tiny plastic fragments less than 5 millimeters in diameter, or about 0.2 inches. They are barely visible to the human eye. [Source]

A 2019 study showed that human microplastic consumption ranges from 39,000 to 52,000 particles per day. These estimates increase to 74,000 and 121,000 when inhalation is considered. This amounts to humans ingesting approx. 5 grams of plastic each and every week, 5 grams being the equivalent of a credit card or a US nickel. Earlier in 2019, the European commission’s chief scientific advisers stated: “The evidence [on both environmental and health risks due to microplastics] provides grounds for genuine concern and for precaution to be exercised.” [Source] More recently, on August 17, 2020, researchers analyzed 47 human tissue samples. Traces of microplastics were found in all 47 samples. [Source]

“We have detected these chemicals of plastics in every single organ that we have investigated.”

— senior researcher Rolf Halden, director of the Arizona State University (ASU) Biodesign Center for Environmental Health Engineering

This begs the question, what will be the result from applying microplastic materials, that is face masks, directly and securely over our air passages?

“Flock” is defined as inhaled microfibers of the plastic. Flock worker’s lung is an occupational lung disease caused by exposure to flock in manufacturing processes. People who work in flocking manufacturing processes inhale small pieces of the flock fibers, placing them at risk of interstitial lung disease. Workers exposed to polypropylene flocking particles have developed flock worker’s lung. [Source] The presence of microplastics in human lung tissue was outlined by in a 1998 science paper, following the research of lung tissue belonging to cancer patients who had prolonged exposure to plastic fibers.

In addition to particle pollution causing damage to lung tissue and reducing lung capacity, it worsens other respiratory health issues such as asthma. In 2013, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an instittuition belonging to the World Health Organization, concluded that particle pollution causes lung cancer.[Source]

“An informal survey of a small group of health care workers by myself found that about 50% of workers noted that their masks began to fray at the end of their shift, noting fibers that itched their face and nose.” — [Source]

In occupational flock, “the cutting process results in formation of airborne particles or fibers in the respirable range.” [Source] As facemasks undergo a continuous friction with breathing, talking, and facial movements, it seems likely, if not probable, that microscopic polypropylene microfibers, in some amount, are effectively being ingested into both the body and lungs. It is safe to assume that those wearing masks, for long periods of time, are most at risk. The vast majority of this group would be minimum wage workers, who have no choice but to comply, people of colour, who are told they are more susceptible to the virus than white populations, and children in schools, where masks have been made mandatory.

Particles that are not inhaled into the lungs (the vast majority) make their way into our waterways. To be more succinct, every single particle produced, that does not make its way into our bodies, will instead go in to our waterways. The particles are then ingested into the body by humans and non-human life (marine animals and fish), some of which is too, ingested by humans. Of course, in addition, we drink the water, as does non-human life, Is this how we protect biodiversity? Is this what we mean by protecting health?

Microfibers and Lungs

Prior to COVID-19, in 2019, at the Plastic Health Summit, Fransien van Dijk, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Groningen; Molecular Pharmacology Department, shared the initial results of her research on how exposure to plastic microfibers (from clothing) affects lung development. Here we can listen carefully to her findings, in the context of masks:

[Video running time: 11m:00s]

The risk of microfibers on lungs should be of paramount concern in relation to children, whose lungs take a long time to fully develop and mature. On June, 2020, the Children’s Sick Kids Hospital, perhaps the most prestigious hospital in Canada, advised that children, by and large almost completely unaffected by the virus, should not wear masks and added that physical interaction and play was essential for their well-being. Despite these recommendations (largely ignored by media), the government and school boards made masks and social distancing mandatory for children. The hospital further reported that 1500 asymptomatic children were tested, none tested positive. [Twitter thread] Meanwhile, “Canada alone has ordered more than 153 million N95 respirators, almost 400 million surgical masks and 18 million non-medical face masks. That doesn’t include demand from the private sector.” As a new emerging market, trees (biological communities invisible to the humancentric eye) cannot only be sacrificed on the altar of “green energy”, we can also pulverize them into face “ecofriendly” masks. [Source]

“We have suggested that masks not be required when children return to school.”

— Michelle Science MD, MSc, FRCPC, Division of Infectious Diseases, The Hospital for Sick Children, Assistant Professor, Department of Paediatrics, University of Toronto

“Close interaction such as playing and socializing is really central to child development and should not be discouraged…Overall we think it’s not realistic or in children’s best interests to completely avoid all close interaction and play.”

– Dr Daphne Korczak , Pediatrics, Psychiatry

“For children and adolescents, masks are an absolute no-no. Children and adolescents have an extremely active and adaptive immune system and they need a constant interaction with the microbiome of the Earth. Their brain is also incredibly active, as it is has so much to learn. The child’s brain, or the youth’s brain, is thirsting for oxygen. The more metabolically active the organ is, the more oxygen it requires. In children and adolescents every organ is metabolically active.”

— Dr. Margarite Griesz-Brisson MD, PhD , Consultant Neurologist and Neurophysiologist [Full transcript]

Cloth Masks

To mitigate against this latest environmental and health nightmare, people have been encouraged to wear reusable fabric face coverings comprised of three layers of fabric.

On September 25, 2020, a University of California – Davis study found that the fabric of home-made cloth face coverings release a large amount of fibers into the air. The study underscored the importance of washing them. What is not discussed are the same fibres being inhaled and ingested.

Those in the West, and those who own or have access to a clothes dryer, will know what dryer lint is. Friction causes the fabric fibres to become loose and dislodge during the washing and drying process – resulting in sometimes little, and more often lots – of lint that must be removed after each cycle.

Consider this excerpt from the article, How damaging is breathing in microplastics?:

“Microplastics washed off from synthetic clothes contribute up to 35% of the plastic particles polluting our oceans. Every time we do our laundry, an average of 9 million microfibers end up in the wastewater treatment plants that cannot filter them, and because of that, these fibers end up in the ocean. Also, just by wearing synthetic clothes, plastic fibers are constantly being released in the air.”

Up until now, all research was focused on microfiber pollution through laundry washing. However, a recent study shows how wearing polyester clothes pollutes the environment to a similar extent—wearing polyester clothes releases as many microplastic fibers in the air as through washing. [Emphasis added] [Source]

If microfibers are shedding off clothing, they are shedding off masks. Even cotton ones. In fact, cotton textiles (clothing, towels, etc.) often produce far more lint than other fabrics. Add to this, the inhalation of chemical laundry detergent and chemical fabric “softener” (liquid and sheet form) that many people continue to use in the process of washing and drying the masks.

“Cloth masks appear to do little to slow viral transmission of viruses allowing 97% viral penetration and may increase transmission according to a study by MacIntyre et al (2015) in the health care setting. [3] This finding may or may not extrapolate to the community setting, but this author could find no prospective study that showed efficacy.” [Source]

More Chemicals

In addition to yet another environmental crisis unleashed by masks, 99 per cent of alcohol gels/sanitizers contain microplastics (polymers, nanosilver/nanoparticles which are in effect pesticides), or similar chemicals. The moment they leave the bottle they end up in our environment; our waterways, seas and oceans – and our bodies. May 19, 2020:

“The London Health Sciences Centre was forced to pull its latest batch of hand sanitizer after the manufacturer moved to a type that uses technical-grade ethanol which, while approved by Health Canada, can cause cancer and be harmful to children and pregnant or lactating women.”

Rather than providing children with real nutrition, such as bushels of fresh apples (from struggling farmers), complemented with vitamin C, governments and school boards continue to award corporations millions of dollars to keep these chemicals flowing. [“P&G to produce 45,000 litres of hand sanitizer weekly”, March 23, 2020, World Economic Forum website]

Here, the real question must be asked: have we become certifiably, collectively insane?

Grandstanding – The phase out of single-use plastics

This brings us to government promises to reduce single-use plastic. Needless to say, with bricks & mortar restaurants being forced to close their doors, mandatory plexi-glass installations, the uptake in take-out food and drive-thrus (disposable packaging), etc. – in addition to mandatory mask legislations sweeping across whole countries, a plastics industry renaissance is fully underway. [Thread] While Governments provide false assurances, celebrating bans on single-use plastics, the single-use so-called “biodegradable” packaging industry accelerates.

As the Global South faces starvation, the Global North will grind the trees not used for biofuel, facemasks and toilet paper, into single use packaging for take-out food. Single-use disposable products – under the guise of green will no doubt launch yet another billion dollar certification industry to accompany it. All while trees are our best defense against climate change. All eyes on the *Trillion Tree Campaign launched by **Salesforce and World Economic Forum – while the planet’s existing trees continue to be cut down at lightning speed for corporate profits. This is storytelling that serves to insulate and expand the capitalist economic system destroying the natural world. [*Directed by Nicole Schwab, daughter of World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab][**Founded by Marc Benioff, member of the World Economic Forum Board of Trustees, inaugural Chair of World Economic Forum’s Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the United States.]

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTD) has projected that annual mask sales will increase 200 fold to $166 billion in 2020, while demand for Global PET (polyethylene terephthalate) packaging is expected to reach $44.1 billion in 2020. [Source]

“Scientists calculated that 275 million tonnes of plastic waste were produced by 192 countries during 2010, that’s the same as 250,000 Eiffel towers. Shockingly, 4.8 to 12.7 million tonnes of that is thought to have ended up in the ocean.” [Source]

“A new analysis finds that without immediate and sustained action, the annual flow of plastic into the ocean could nearly triple by 2040.” Undoubtedly true, This analysis (July 23, 2020, was prepared by the Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ. The stated expertise of of SYSTEMIQ is to unleash “viable growth” and “transform markets”. It plays a leading role in “Harnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution for the Circular Economy”. The New Plastics Economy initiative unveiled in January 2019 at Davos. The Coca-Cola Company, Danone, MARS, Novamont, L’Oréal, PepsiCo, Unilever, Amcor, and Veolia are the initiative’s Core Partners. Other partners include Evian, Google, H&M, Intesa Sanpaolo, and Nike. Plastics Economy “Knowledge Partners” include Arup, IDEO, McKinsey, and SYSTEMIQ. “Thought Partners” include Pew Charitable Trusts. [Further reading]

Recycling superfluous plastics that harms all life is not the answer. The answer is to stop producing it.

“The reason this discussion is happening is not because of the numbers of people who are dying – but because who is dying. Because it is something that can also possibly affect white people…”

— Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party USA and the African Socialist International

Video Player

The 180-degree Turn on Mandatory Mask Requirements

Near the beginning of the pandemic hysteria, on March 1, 2020 the U.S. surgeon general chastised citizens for buying face masks, stating they were not effective. [Source] Similar positions were widely shared across the global board. [“The evidence for wearing masks is ‘not very strong in either direction'” — England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer]

CDC Website, US, modified April 4, 2020 (This video adapted by TGP since original share code is not provided).

On March 2, 2020, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assured the public that healthy people should not wear masks. [Source] CDC Director, Robert Redfield, was quoted as saying: “And it really does displease me, to find people going out, there is no role for these masks in the community.” US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams warned that “face masks might actually increase your risk of infection if not worn properly”, while Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, described the hysteria as a psychological contagion “The coronavirus is coming, and we feel rather helpless. By getting masks and wearing them, we move the locus of control somewhat to ourselves.”

This changed on April 4, 2020 under the pretense that those showing no symptoms could unintentionally spread the virus to others. CDC would change its website: “Cover your mouth and nose with a cloth face cover when around others… Do NOT use a facemask meant for a healthcare worker”. Stipulations that remains on the website today. [Source]

While in mainstream media, face masks are made fashionable and politically correct, censored from mainstream media, across the world, there are thousands of nurses and doctors with absolutely contrary views on the wearing of masks, the science itself, and the level of risk that the virus presents to society. Indeed, it is difficult to contest that the “cure” is far worse than the disease. Ignored (“look away”) are all other deaths related to limited or suspended healthcare services/treatments/diagnoses, suicides, suspended addiction services propelling an opioid epidemic, resulting in climbing overdoses; the collateral damage. The list is as long as it is tragic, all resulting from the singular focus on one virus. (But they care about your health.)

Here we can add that the very premise of the mandatory legislations, that people who may be infected with COVID-19, but may be asymptomatic, thereby can transmit the virus to others, – is also highly contested not just by
scores of scientists and doctors, but by the WHO itself. On June 8, 2020, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, stated in a press conference “From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual. It’s very rare… much of that is not published in the literature…” Following backlash Van Kerkhove faced pressure and attempted to distance herself from her carefully articulated statements.

On June 11,2020, the article was amended with a correction: “This article was updated to include a more complete explanation of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission as well as to change the headline. An earlier version of the headline should have said most asymptomatic coronavirus patients aren’t spreading new infections. The word “most” was inadvertently omitted.”

From the paper “Advice on the use of masks in the context of COVID19, Interim guidance”, June 5, 2020, World Health Organization [Source]

[Further reading: “A study on infectivity of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 carriers”, May 13, 2020. “Conclusion: In summary, all the 455 contacts were excluded from SARS-CoV-2 infection and we conclude that the infectivity of some asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 carriers might be weak.” https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P]

[Further reading: Architects for Social Housing, Asymptomatic Transmission of Coronavirus, June 11, 2020]

Those Made Invisible: Our Elderly

Those who do not wish to wear a mask, are depicted as parading a selfish disregard for our elderly; those, with underlying co-morbidities, most susceptible to dying with/from COVID-19. Most of our parents/grandparents would not be in these facilities if it were not for our societies nurturing an apathetic attitude toward our elderly; like the masks themselves, they too are disposable. Once worn and used, to be put away, out of sight, out of mind. Yet, this shaming bears no weight. With the vast majority of COVID-19 deaths occurring in these facilities, there is little interest amongst the public while media ensures the light is shone elsewhere. In Canada, these deaths represent more than 80 per cent of all deaths from/with COVID-19. This genocide of the elderly is consistent with some of the hardest hit countries in the Global North. Also ignored is the fact that many elderly, what little independence they had completely stripped away, are now largely confined to these facilities, deeply suffering in complete isolation from loneliness; the lack of touch, the lack of love. We should be protecting the elderly and most vulnerable first and foremost. Instead we are killing them. The irony here is that some of these people will include those that believe they once fought for their freedoms. By now, we should all know better.

Every death even the cruelest death drowns in the total indifference of Nature —

Peter Weiss in Marat/Sade.

“Except that for death in the time of Covid, indifference is manifested by a system-wide hysteria about the danger to everyone but the elderly in senior care facilities.” — Patrick Corbett

The elderly are not the only invisibles. They join the billions of invisible in the Global South, and those we are blinded to at home: the homeless and Indigenous First Nations. They are not dying from COVID-19, but they are dying from lack of simple provisions such as shelter, clean water, coupled with discrimination, impoverishment, racism and isolation. We can add to the list of invisibles, those imprisoned within the walls of the prison industrial complex.

“A report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows that 1 in 4 people in the 18-24 age bracket have seriously considered committing suicide at some point during the month of June 2020.” [Source]

+++

Through the Looking Glass – Questioning Ruling Class Narratives

“The longer we delve into fears, the more I see fears as responses to uncertainty… If there is a crack in human psychology into which demagogues wriggle, it is by offering psychological relief for the anxiety created by uncertainty. Because when people are unsure – or made to feel unsure – and not in control of the safety of their finances, families, possessions, community or future, their natural inclination is to grasp for certainty.”

— Why We’re Living in the Age of Fear

Have we forgotten the initial reason cited for the lockdowns? Said to be based on the wildly inaccurate Imperial College paper, temporary lockdowns were to slow down the virus, as to not overwhelm the hospitals, slowly creating herd immunity as it moved through the populace. Never was it believed the virus could be stopped. It is known and undisputed that the longer the lockdowns go on, the longer it will take for the virus to move through the population before it will desist. Instead with many governments keeping the lockdowns intact (despite record low deaths and empty hospitals), we now enter flu season. In Canada, the 2020-202 1influenza flu season began on August 23^rd. The Public Health Agency of Canada says reported “exceptionally low level of influenza activity.” How low? Flu cases for 2019-2020 are reported as 42,541 while cases for 2020-2021, as of September 19, 2020, are reported as 6. Surely, it’s a miracle. With the war on terror having vanished, replaced by the war on virus, media reports new “COVID-19 positive” cases non-stop. Being tested as positive means little, as they are completely unreliable. The relentless reporting of such maintains a desired level of fear required for the new normal. Here we must recall that Imperial College is a World Economic Forum partner, tasked with creating a “vaccine revolution“. Imperial also plays a key role in the fourth industrial revolution architecture as sought by the World Economic Forum in service to the world’s most powerful corporations insulated by the ruling class itself.

Imperial College session at World Economic Forum, 2019

Questioning ruling class narratives should never be seen, nor framed, as reckless. It should never be subjected to shaming. Rather, it should be a prerequisite and respected as such.

While bricks and mortar small business were, and continue to be crushed, while those in the informal sectors that comprise the Global South and South Asia starve, the world’s wealthiest (made so by the exploitation and theft of labour, coupled with the rapacious plunder of the planet) became richer than they could have ever possibly imagined. In Canada, the 20 richest people watched their fortunes grow by $37 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic. This broke the record set in 2019. In the US, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos saw his net worth grow by $13 billion – the largest intraday jump in net worth in history while Elon Musk’s net worth increased threefold to 75 billion. They are not alone. Thus far, the world’s richest people increased their wealth by a staggering USD 813 billion during the pandemic. [Source] Juxtapose this with the one billion people who go to bed hungry every night while two billion suffer from micronutrient deficiency. Furthering this injustice, as a direct result of the COVID-19 lockdowns, and the obliterating of informal economies, an additional 265 million people will be acutely malnourished by the end of 2020. [Source][Source] Never was there a better example of the illusory “stakeholder capitalism” that World Economic Forum et al. peddle to the citizenry in their efforts to maintain the capitalist system itself, and the social license required to have it continue.

Klaus Schwab: Seizing the moment “to ensure that stakeholder capitalism remains the new dominant model”

Reboot. Rebrand. Reset.

And while the citizenry fear each other (apparently not enough to shun Costco, Wal-Mart and other corporate entities), the founder of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, is calm in his assessment of the virus:

“[COVID-19 is] one of the least deadly pandemics the world has experienced over the last 2000 years. The consequences of COVID-19 in terms of health and mortality will be mild compared to previous pandemics.”

— COVID-19: The Great Reset, Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret, July 2020

Today, the said goal of wearing face coverings is to prevent people who are infected with COVID-19 but asymptomatic from transmitting the virus to others.

I would submit an altogether different reason for the pressure to maintain mandatory mask wearing. It is very simple. It furthers the ideologies and digital/technological framework woven within the fourth industrial revolution architecture.

Although the virus itself “does not constitute an existential threat, or a shock that will leave its imprint on the world’s population for decades” (COVID-19: The Great Reset), the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset”, that is, the fourth industrial revolution architecture overseen by a new “global governance” (Schwab) will change the future as we know it. Schwab: “The scale and breadth of the unfolding technological revolution will usher in economic, social and cultural changes of such phenomenal proportions that they are almost impossible to envisage.” [Source]

“The very idea of humans being some sort of natural concept is really going to change. Our bodies will be so high-tech, we won’t be able to really distinguish between what is natural and what is artificial”

— The Fourth Industrial Revolution promotional video, World Economic Forum, April 13, 2016

“[T]he world lacks a consistent, positive and common narrative that outlines the opportunities and challenges of the fourth industrial revolution, a narrative that is essential if we are to empower a diverse set of individuals and communities and avoid a popular backlash against the fundamental changes under way. ”

– Klaus Schwab, The Fourth Industrial Revolution

“With some 2.6 billion people around the world in some kind of lockdown, we are conducting arguably the largest psychological experiment ever.”

— World Economic Forum, April 9, 2020

“Who will thrive, who will perish?”

— Digital Transformation: Future Scenarios 2030, Deloitte, January 17, 2018

Masks play an important role in “The Great Reset”. They dehumanize.

In the following presentation, Professor Franz Ruppert explains the impact of the pandemic from a psychological point of view. Ruppert explains how and why people currently suffer when their essential needs are taken; why children in particular are extremely affected; how current “protective” measures achieve this effect; and whether these measures are justified. In relation to how masks affect children, and toddlers in particular, Rupert draws out attention to the “still face experiment” (21m:46s in). [Dr Franz Ruppert is professor of psychology at Munich University of Applied Sciences, a post he has held since 1992. He teaches trauma theory at the University of Applied Sciences and teaches the theory and the method at his own institute in Munich.] [4]

[Professor Franz Ruppert presentation, running time: 40m:37s]

Masks and social distancing condition us for the physical separation and isolation that the fourth industrial revolution requires. Physical is dangerous, digital is safe.

“In one form or another, social- and physical-distancing measures are likely to persist after the pandemic itself subsides, justifying the decision in many companies from different industries to accelerate automation. After a while, the enduring concerns about technological unemployment will recede as societies emphasize the need to restructure the workplace in a way that minimizes close human contact. Indeed, automation technologies are particularly well suited to a world in which human beings can’t get too close to each other or are willing to reduce their interactions. Our lingering and possibly lasting fear of being infected with a virus (COVID-19 or another) will thus speed the relentless march of automation, particularly in the fields most susceptible to automation.” — COVID-19: The Great Reset, Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret, July 2020

“The societal upheaval unleashed by COVID-19 will last for years, and possibly generations.”

“Many of us are pondering when things will return to normal. The short response is: never.”

Indeed, Schwab refers to the COVID-19 crisis as a watershed moment for fourth industrial revolution technologies. And while people are distracted with masks and COVID-positive cases reported incessantly in order to sow anxiety and compliance, the global consolidation of power is happening in real time. In servitude to the power elite, World Economic Forum founder and CEO Klaus Schwab is advancing “a new global architecture”, upheld by a new “global governance”. May 18, 2018: the World Bank partners with the United Nations. June 13, 2019: the World Economic Forum partners with the United Nations. Oct 18, 2019: a high stimulation exercise, modeling a fictional coronavirus pandemic, was held by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, [5] in partnership with the in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Approximately five months later, on March 11, 2020: the World Economic Forum partners with the World Health Organization (a UN body) launching the COVID Action Platform, a coalition of 200+ of the world’s most powerful corporations. (By May 6, 2020 this number had swelled to over 1,106.) On this same day, March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization classified COVID-19 as a pandemic.

On March 26, 2020, with 87% of the world’s student population affected by COVID-19 school closures, the Global Education Coalition was announced as a means to accelerate the transition to a global forth industrial revolution digitalized education fueled by emerging markets (Sustainable Development Goals – SDGs). [6] Founding partners include Microsoft, Google, and Facebook. Other partners include BBC, McKinsey, IBM, the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, and the Global Business Coalition for Education. [Global Business Coalition for Education Advisory Board Members and Founding Members] This is the global commodification of children, as data commodities, a new class asset. An emerging market, under the guise of SDGs (presided over by the World Economic Forum), built on child data surveillance and human capital assets. [April 15, 2019: From Billions to Trillions: Investing in the Next Generation]

“[D]ehumanization involves denying a person “identity”—a perception of the person “as an individual, independent and distinguishable from others, capable of making choices”—and “community”—a perception of the other as “part of an interconnected network of individuals who care for each other”. When people are divested of these agentic and communal aspects of humanness they are deindividuated, lose the capacity to evoke compassion and moral emotions and may be treated as means toward vicious ends”

— Dehumanization: An Integrative Review, February 2006 [Source]

Put your mask away. Come back to the light. We need you.

Lancet study finds U.S. has, by far, the world’s most-overpriced medical care.

1955719557

Another important dispatch from The Greanville Post. Be sure to share it widely.

This article is part of an ongoing series of dispatches by historian Eric Zuesse

On September 1st, Gallup headlined “50% in U.S. Fear Bankruptcy Due to Major Health Event” and reported that last year only 45% did. Both percentages are the world’s highest. One of the the world’s leading medical journals had just published a study which explains why it’s the case.

The medical journal, The Lancet, is one of the world’s Big Three scientific journals of medicine; that’s the triumvirate of authorities for physicians worldwide, and the other two are the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the New England Journal of Medicine. On August 27th The Lancet published “Measuring universal health coverage based on an index of effective coverage of health services in 204 countries and territories”. Here is the visual that’s in it, which shows the United States as having, by far, the world’s costliest medical care, at around $9,000 per person per year, and yet as having lower quality of health care than virtually all other industrialized nations do:

Here is another such study, showing the same thing, and calculating it more simply:

What explains this?

Quite simply, the United States is the world’s most corrupt nation, and medical care is such an extreme necessity when a citizen needs it, so that they’ll pay whatever the system charges them for it — and investing in healthcare products and services is therefore enormously profitable in the United States. Actually, the only other market-sector that competes with it for providing simultaneously high returns and low risk (the combination that offers the best of both worlds to investors) is consumer staples, such as foods, which likewise are necessities of life. When people are desperate, they’ll pay, whatever the cost, because these are things they don’t just want — they need. Here, from Maksim Papenkov’s award-winning 6 February 2020 paper, “An Empirical Asset Pricing Model Accommodating the Sector-Heterogeneity of Risk”, is his sector-specific calculation of stock-market profitability during 2000-2018, showing that “HC” Health Care, and “CS” Consumer Staples, were the best at combining low risk with high returns, during that 19-year period:

(“CD” there is Consumer Discretionary and includes Automobiles and Hotels. It’s the only sector that has higher returns than Health Care, but those returns are twice as risky. The S&P500 have lower returns than Health Care and slightly higher riskiness. At the opposite end, “IT” Information Technology is both the riskiest and the least profitable; and “F” Financials are the second-worst sector for investors. The most-profitable sectors are the necessities, the sectors that take the most from the most-desperate.)

In May 2017, Axene Health Partners published their actuary, Chris Slaybaugh’s, study, “International Healthcare Systems: The US Versus the World”, which stated:

The United States is the only industrialized country in the world that does not have Universal Health Coverage for all citizens. … Rather than one system, United States citizens and residents are insured under a variety of sometimes overlapping systems. The United States is also the only developed country where a significant number of citizens are permitted to be uninsured and where a person’s employment can determine whether they have insurance and what insurance they have. … The extent to which medical bills contribute to bankruptcy is hard to tease out from other factors, but even those who are skeptical of the claim that medical costs cause the majority of bankruptcies concede that they are a significant contributor.13

In the rest of the developed world, by contrast, medical costs are rarely or never cited as a driver behind personal bankruptcy.

In fact, CNBC headlined on 11 February 2019, “This is the real reason most Americans file for bankruptcy” and reported that,

Two-thirds of people who file for bankruptcy cite medical issues as a key contributor to their financial downfall.

While the high cost of health care has historically been a trigger for bankruptcy filings, the research shows that the implementation of the Affordable Care Act [“Obamacare”] has not improved things.

What most people do not realize, according to one researcher, is that their health insurance may not be enough to protect them.

While Barack Obama was running for President in 2008, he was promising to provide Americans with a “public option” in order to reduce profits for health insurance companies and thus lower costs, but he dropped that proposal immediately when he won the 2008 election, and he never pushed for it (not even to use as a bargaining chip with the Republicans in shaping his Obamacare). (In fact, Obama chose the conservative head of the Senate Finance Committee, Democratic Senator Max Baucus, to draft his Obamacare, because Baucus was against there being a public option, and because the progressive Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy’s Health, Education & Labor Committee had just drafted an Obamacare with a public option — Obama refused to have Kennedy draft his healthcare legislation. Obama was actually against there being a public option; only his public rhetoric was for it. Joe Biden is apparently now following the same tactic, of lying promises to the public, and true promises to his billionaire backers, to win the White House.) Obama promised the public “universal coverage”, which means 100% of the population covered, like in all other advanced economies, and his Obamacare increased the percentage insured from 84.5% when he came into office in 2009, to 87.7% two years after Obamacare started in 2013 — around 3%, by 2015 (which was after two years). That was still far short of the promised 100%. He was lying through his teeth in order to win election, and the ‘news’-media still hide (instead of expose) the fact that he did, and that he was actually an agent of the billionaires. He’s now the big hero among Democrats, because maybe Trump is even worse. Trump is up-front about his fascism. And Trump’s opponent now is another hypocrite (after Obama), Obama’s V.P., Joe Biden, who was the U.S. Senate’s leading Democratic Party segregationist and won his nomination by claiming to have been instead a civil-rights champion. Everything in U.S. politics is bait-and-switch. That’s the reality in America’s ‘democracy’: a bait-and-switch ‘democracy’, which serves actually only the wealthiest few. The politicians who are elected serve only the wealthy and well-connected.

America is the most libertarian, or “neo-liberal,” of the advanced industrial nations, and this is why it has the world’s most overpriced medical care. It provides the most liberty for the billionaires.

One of the few extremely bold Americans who rose high in the U.S. healthcare system and tried to tell the public how intensely corrupt it is, has been Marcia Angell, M.D, who held numerous prestigious posts in the U.S. medical system, and she was for a while the Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine. On 15 January 2009, Dr. Angell headlined “Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption”, and wrote:

Conflicts of interest pervade medicine. … It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine. … So many reforms would be necessary to restore integrity to clinical research and medical practice that they cannot be summarized briefly. Many would involve congressional legislation and changes in the FDA, including its drug approval process. But there is clearly also a need for the medical profession to wean itself from industry money almost entirely. … Breaking the dependence of the medical profession on the pharmaceutical industry will take more than appointing committees and other gestures. It will take a sharp break from an extremely lucrative pattern of behavior. But if the medical profession does not put an end to this corruption voluntarily, it will lose the confidence of the public. …

She had said, nine years earlier:

If we had set out to design the worst system that we could imagine, we couldn't have imagined one as bad as we have. … Our health care system is based on the premise that health care is a commodity like VCRs or computers and that it should be distributed according to the ability to pay. … That market ideology is what has made the health care system so dreadful, so bad at what it does. … That is a fundamental mistake in the way this country, and only this country, looks at health care. … The only way to both reduce cost and increase access and quality is to change the system, to scrap it and start over. … I would pay for health care in a single payer system, and what goes into that pot can vary. In Germany, employers have to contribute to that pot. I don't think that's a good idea. I would rather see it come straight out of tax revenues.

Experts who are that public-spirited and knowledgeable about the system should be appointed by U.S. Presidents to lead the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services, but the billionaires prevent that (of course).

On June 27th, NPR headlined “After Pushing Lies, Former Cigna Executive Praises Canada's Health Care System”, and interviewed a retired PR executive for America’s health insurance companies, who said that maybe the work that he had done smearing Canada’s socialized health insurance — “to spread misinformation about Canada or use cherry-picked data and anecdotes” so as to deceive Americans to accept America’s existing medical system — was partly to blame for America’s having performed significantly worse than Canada had done on the coronavirus crisis. (As of 29 August 2020, Canada had 3,378 cases per million and was the 76th worst out of 215 countries, whereas U.S. had 18,522 cases per million and was the 9th-worst. On deaths, Canada was the 27th-worst at 241, whereas U.S. was the 11th-worst at 564.)

“He that pays the piper calls the tune.” It’s top-down (aristocracy), and it only pretends to be bottom-up (democracy). And, so, the corruption continues, and Americans die younger, and poorer, because of this aristocratically controlled system. It’s the American way. It’s the American system. Of corruption. Americans call it “capitalism.”

Of course, another area in which the U.S. Government is extraordinarily corrupt is its Military-Industrial Complex; and, on August 28th, a former top official of the NSA, Bill Binney, provided, online, an in-depth description of what he personally knows about that. His personal knowledge is enormous concerning within the Government itself, but not outside it — i.e., not regarding the corporations and billionaires who control the economic rewards system that the top public officials, who typically are agents of the “Deep State” (the billionaires), are serving. However, what he says there is informative and highly reliable regarding the way that the Government’s bureaucracy itself functions, and he is extraordinarily honest about the intense corruption within the official Government. He makes clear that the U.S. Constitution is being systematically and routinely violated by top U.S. officials; so, the U.S. Government routinely violates the U.S. Constitution, in this ‘democracy’, where the system functions like clockwork, for the billionaires.

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

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MADRID – ONE OF THE REAL BUT ‘POLEMIC’ WAYS TO DEFEAT THE COVID-19

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Life, Madrid style.

Madrid's Royal Botanic Garden

Apart from my work in several parts of the United States after the murder of George Floyd, and then in Aruba, from where NATO is threatening Venezuela, I spent almost five months in a brutal lockdown in Chile. Truly brutal, because I arrived there after covering several conflict zones in Asia, with the COVID-19 at my heels. One airport after another was closing behind me, after my departure. A journey took eight days: Hong Kong to Bangkok, then Seoul, Amsterdam, Suriname, Brazilian Belem, Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, Lima, and finally, Santiago.

At the conflict zones, including when I was filming in devastated Borneo, my guts and eyes got attacked by some vicious parasites (or was it COVID-19, after all?), and something happened to my feet; I could hardly walk. Well, once in a while, I have this tendency to run myself to the ground, after the excessive doses of Afghanistan, Syria, Indonesia, Iraq, DR Congo, Kashmir, Gaza… I never stop until it is too late, or more precisely, until I fall on my face.

But then, after I do, after I find myself flattened on the ground, I know precisely what to do. Which is: a few months of rest, rigorous exercises, foot massages, sea, diet, sun. Until I can move again, and return to performing duties I have towards humanity.

But this time it was different. With a single digit of popularity, the Chilean Pinochet-style regime utilized COVID-19 in order to stay in power, to crack on the opposition and to rob indigenous people of that little they still had left. Result: bizarre, total lockdowns with tanks on the streets, with the meaningless curfews, with even a small park at the back of my building out of reach to the tenants.

Prado reopened.

My only ‘walks’ were inside the apartment. I needed to get to my place in Bangkok; small, but with a gym and pool and with a garden. But Thailand’s rulers made sure to keep the foreigners out, too. Clearly, for political reasons.

And so, I was forced to spend the longest time in my life in one place. The longest since I was 15 years old if I remember correctly.

And instead of improving, my health deteriorated in that monstrous lockdown, where I was facing bare, depressing winter Andes, and the 160-average pollution levels (US AQI). When I was finally departing, I could hardly walk and had to use a cane.

I ran away on one of the first re-introduced non-stop Iberia flights to Madrid. I was lucky that I could, as one of my passports was that of the EU.

It had to be Madrid or Italy. I would also happily run to Russia, but in August, it was still closed.

When I was very young, I used to escape to Madrid, in order to be as far away as possible from New York. I despised my life in the United States. I couldn’t write there. In Italy and Madrid, I could, easily. For months I would be saving, and then disappear from the United States, for 5-6 weeks. My plan was to travel all over Spain, but Madrid was so absorbing, so fascinating that in the end, I lost all my desire to leave it. Cafes on Plaza de Olavide were where I used to write my fiction.

And now, beaten, hardly able to move, I returned. Before my interviews in Turkey and Serbia, and before at least some parts of Asia would be re-opening, Madrid became my logical destination.

I anticipated what would be waiting for me here. And all of my expectations came through.

In Madrid, life didn’t stop. It slowed down, to some extent, yes. Some visible and invisible barriers were erected. Many precautions have been taken. But there was no ‘full stop.’ Unlike in New York and Santiago, colors were everywhere, and so was beauty, elegance, and harsh Castilian sense of humor.

Triumph of Death

First of all, Madrid was clearly demonstrating that life is much stronger than death, but only if life is pitched against death, and lived with unwavering strength and passion.

In Prado Museum, I rediscovered one of the greatest and most frightening artworks of all times: Pieter Bruegel’s the Elder: “The Triumph of Death.” I searched for it, and I found it in one of the main halls.

Here, in this surreal, powerful, and highly perverse artwork, it was depicted all. Yes, Death is frightening. Yes, it has tremendous strength, and it has its own ‘army of skeletons.’ And yes, in the end, it always wins.

But you look out, through the windows of Prado, and you see the ancient, green, and beautiful trees, you see the splendid architecture, and lovers holding hands. Death may have the last word for all human beings, but life goes on, too. It never gets defeated, and it never surrenders. There is time to live and time to die.

Bruegel, who painted his macabre masterpiece c. 1562, wanted us to live in constant fear of death.

Today’s Madrid, with its passion, wants us to forget about death, at least for that short but brilliant moment, which is called life.

This new and hopefully short-lived era of COVID-19 terror is throwing us, human beings, back to the middle ages, where continuous anxieties and images of horrors were masterfully manufactured, even mass-produced, in order to poison our existence and strip us of dreams, of power, and joy.

Throughout the middle ages, at least in Europe, suffering and fear were habitually glorified. Joy and desires were suppressed, often chastised.

In the middle ages, Christianity reached perfection in scaring humans to death, in stripping life of almost all delights, and in administering brutal, grotesque punishments. And this is when the Muslim armies arrived, liberating a large part of Spain from the religious fundamentalism. Glorious Caliphate of Cordoba was erected, synonymous with the Golden Age of Islam; Caliphate admired for knowledge, poetry, playfulness, eroticism, the quest for freedom and beauty.

There, Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived together; they freely mingled together, building one mighty, tolerant, and creative society. It was a society without fear, society full of hope.

Caliphate of Cordoba also defeated Death, at least from one’s birth till demise. Great Pakistani thinker, Tariq Ali, wrote beautifully about that era, many years before COVID-19 appeared on the horizon.

I took Talgo, highspeed train, to Cordoba. I had to revisit the old mosque, where the fight for tolerance began. All this was now relevant. It was not just the medicine, not just the science, which had to be mobilized.

The battle against COVID-19 has to be also fought by thinkers, by artists, by all those who can make life meaningful, or at least bearable.

Spain and its capital Madrid can easily ‘go either way.’ The city can be oppressive and harsh when it goes through the ‘bad wave.’ It can ruin millions of lives, as it did when it embarked on the horrid colonialist expeditions, religious fundamentalism, or fascist dictatorship.

But Madrid can also be highly enlightened, creative, and forward-looking. It can be light and reasonable, embracing life.

In the age of COVID-19, Madrid decisively refused to lock up millions of people in the proverbial cages. Few weeks of confusion and enough! The government tried, half-heartedly, but failed to impose full oppressive order.

By the middle of August 2020, the number of Covid-19 cases was higher in Spain, then in many other EU countries. Madrid made it to the ‘red list’ in such countries as Germany and the U.K.

But walk through the streets of the city, sit in its cafes, look at children playing in the elegant parks, and then compare all this with terrible stress in those societies full of rules and regulations, such as Germany or Macron’s France.

Brueghel’s skeletons are clearly depicting destruction and death. Scenes are full of nihilism. They fit perfectly well into the devastated landscapes of the excessively locked down, terrified cities.

Some cities with a relatively small number of infections, like Bangkok, already died. How come? They lost, they handed victory to Death. They threw up their hands without the battle. They surrendered, offering to Death precisely what she has been demanding: Voluntarily, they stopped living.

In the United States or such places like Southeast Asia, Facebook, Amazon, Apple have been making fortunes. Bookstores, museums, theatres all surrendered; they closed down.

Madrid introduced social distancing, imposed masks regulations, a limited number of visitors, but rapidly reopened cinemas, gardens, galleries. Cafes are functioning, too, and so are the restaurants. Soon, after the summer holidays end, the city’s theatres and concert halls will reopen.

It is not because the city is reckless. Not at all. Disinfectants are everywhere, and when walking or in public places, people are wearing masks. The streets of Madrid are meticulously clean. Various safety regulations are imposed. But life goes on. Airplanes are taking off towards many parts of the world. Madrid is an open city. Not yet to all, but at least to many.

And as a reward, there are smiles. There are politeness and kindness. People do not look suicidal. They do not explode at the slightest conflict. No honking, no shouting. No animalistic, all-consuming fear.

Madrid understands that there is a certain degree of danger. But it deals with this state of siege with admirable dignity and courage.

After the panic and ugly behavioral patterns that I observed in the United States and Chile, Madrid impressed me enormously. COVID pandemic brought economic and social hardship to some, but there was no national agony so clearly noticeable in New York, Washington D.C., or Santiago.

Even if they struggled, people made sure to put on their best, to behave with dignity, and confront danger with both strength and heart.

When my still weak feet let go on the third day, when I stumbled and fell on an ancient sidewalk, several people immediately ran to my rescue. They fought for me. In my own way, I came here in order to fight for them, too.

Madrid is not a perfect city. Actually, I keep repeating it again and again: there are no ‘perfect cities’ in this world.

And Madrid’s way is not the only example of how to fight and defeat the latest deadly pandemic.

But perhaps it is the most agreeable one: full of smiles, support from friends and families, with the exposure to the sun, to excellent food, nature, culture, and arts.

It is the Latin spirit, joie de vivre, which is put to work here, in order to overpower Brueghel and his army of skeletons, together with the excessive religious asceticism of El Greco.

We still don’t know how to defeat COVID-19, scientifically, but in such places as Madrid, we are learning how to prevent it from defeating us.

Nine days in Madrid did not fully ‘cure me,’ but it gave back the optimism to my scarred soul. It gave me the strength to fight again. As well as the desire to walk forward!

[First published by NEO - New Eastern Outlook – a journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences]

About the author(s)

China Belt and Road Initiative: Connecting Countries, Saving Millions of Lives”, “China and Ecological Cavillation” with John B. Cobb, Jr., Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism, a revolutionary novel “Aurora” and a bestselling work of political non-fiction: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire”. View his other books here. Watch Rwanda Gambit, his groundbreaking documentary about Rwanda and DRCongo and his film/dialogue with Noam Chomsky “On Western Terrorism”. Vltchek presently resides in East Asia and the Middle East, and continues to work around the world. He can be reached through his website and his Twitter. His Patreon page is here.

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