2022-02-26: News Headlines

WSWS (2022-02-26). German workers speak out on war in Ukraine: "The only war we need is the war against the Coronavirus!" wsws.org "Russians and Ukrainians have a common history. The vast majority of people certainly do not want a war, which at most will benefit the gas and oil magnates in West and East, the billionaires, arms dealers and oligarchs."

Steve Penner (2022-02-26). Protest Canadian rulers' Emergencies Act attack on workers' protests, rights! themilitant.com MONTREAL — "The sweeping police operation carried out under the anti-working-class Emergencies Act against the three-week protest in Ottawa, Canada's capital, by truckers and others opposed to vaccine mandates is an assault on the political rights of all working people," said Philippe Tessier, Communist League candidate in a Quebec provincial by-election in the riding of Marie-Victorin. "It is one of the largest acts of police repression in modern Canadian history and should be opposed by all unions and supporters of democratic rights. | "As of today — Feb. 22 — even though the cops have shut do…

Hiam Chemaitelly, Laith J Abu-Raddad (2022-02-26). [Comment] Waning effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. thelancet.com In The Lancet, Peter Nordstrà∂m and colleagues1 report the effectiveness of several COVID-19 vaccines and different vaccine schedules against any documented SARS-CoV-2 infection and against severe COVID-19, for up to 9 months of follow-up. Data for 842‚Äà974 matched pairs of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals in this retrospective cohort study were retrieved from the Swedish national registers. These registers track health outcomes for all registered individuals nationwide. Both cohorts had a median age of 52 ∑7 years (IQR 37 ∑0—67 ∑5) and included mostly women (500&s…

Richard Horton (2022-02-26). [Comment] Offline: There is no right to lie. thelancet.com Perhaps the most curious aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the flourishing of anti-science movements, despite the demonstrable triumphs of science in producing life-saving antivirals and vaccines. Mistrust of science is spreading well beyond COVID-19. Political challenges to climate action, notably the goal of net zero emissions, are growing, especially as economic stress impoverishes millions. 5G remains a target for many science sceptics. And libertarian politicians condemn scientists as unelected threats to democratic freedoms.

WSWS (2022-02-26). Chinese translation of "2022: Year Three of the pandemic and the emerging global class struggle" wsws.org The perspective outlines a socialist and internationalist perspective for the global working class and is of immense relevance to workers and young people in China, as well as the millions around the world who also read Mandarin.

Ann Danaiya Usher (2022-02-26). [World Report] The global COVID-19 treatment divide. thelancet.com Experts warn of huge global inequities in access to new treatments for COVID-19. Ann Danaiya Usher reports.

WSWS (2022-02-26). Omicron surge in Indonesia tops record for daily cases. wsws.org The death toll is climbing fast, increasing to 257 COVID fatalities on Tuesday from single figures three weeks ago. Over 100 people died every day for the past two weeks, mostly in the capital.

WSWS (2022-02-26). San Mateo County Community College District students and faculty speak out against unsafe return to campus. wsws.org A student asked, "How are we meant to put our focus on education if we are fearful and stressed out about contracting this potentially deadly virus? How are teachers meant to teach us to the best of their abilities if they are constantly put at risk?"

The Lancet (2022-02-26). [Editorial] Our commitment to help accelerate progress against cancer. thelancet.com Cancer affects everyone, regardless of age, gender, or social status, and represents a tremendous burden for patients, families, and societies. In 2020, one in six deaths were caused by cancer, accounting for 10 million premature deaths worldwide. Cancer has been a leading cause of mortality since the 1970s, but only in 2016 did it become part of the UN global agenda, as part of Sustainable Development Goal target 3.4, aiming to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable diseases. This step has helped raise the profile of cancer worldwide and led to an increased political commitment to accelerate cancer res…

Giovanni Ostuzzi, Corrado Barbui (2022-02-26). [Comment] Preventing relapse in schizophrenia needs better evidence. thelancet.com Given the considerable contribution of schizophrenia spectrum disorders to the global burden of disease, implementing evidence-based treatments is a global health priority.1,2 Building on a previous network meta-analysis of randomised trials of antipsychotics for acute symptoms of schizophrenia,3 Johannes Schneider-Thoma and colleagues4 assessed 32 oral and long-acting injectable antipsychotics for 14 different efficacy and tolerability outcomes in a systematic review and network meta-analysis published in The Lancet.

WSWS (2022-02-26). The campaign against Russian conductor Valery Gergiev: Middle-class hysteria in the service of war. wsws.org The announcement by New York City's Carnegie Hall that Gergiev would no longer be conducting the Vienna Philharmonic on Friday is the product of war fever whipped up by the US government with the help of the pliant capitalist press.

Nicholas J White, Nicholas P J Day, Elizabeth A Ashley, Frank M Smithuis, Francois H Nosten (2022-02-26). [Correspondence] Have we really failed to roll back malaria? thelancet.com The World Malaria Report (WMR) 2021 estimates that there were 241 million (95% CI 218—269) malaria cases in the world in 2020, which is the same number as in 2000 (241 [226—260] million).1 Has the global burden of malaria really not changed over 20 years, after spending more than US$30 billion on malaria control activities, and after distributing more than 2 ∑5 billion insecticide-treated bednets, 3 billion rapid diagnostic tests, and 3 ∑5 billion artemisinin combination treatments?

sputniknews (2022-02-26). Merging Waltz: Caltech Finds Two Supermassive Black Holes Set to Collide, Warping Space & Time. sputniknews.com The object in space that showed evidence of the future collision is called a quasar. Quasars are galaxies' active cores, where a supermassive black hole sucks material from a disk that surrounds it. The supermassive black hole in some quasars produces a jet that travels at almost the speed of light.

WSWS (2022-02-25). "We can't let nuclear war break out": US workers respond to conflict in Ukraine. wsws.org Workers across the United States are responding with anxiety and apprehension to the outbreak of war in Ukraine, while voicing skepticism about the hysterical war propaganda being stoked by the Biden administration and the corporate media.

WSWS (2022-02-25). Hundreds reported dead in first day of Russia-Ukraine war. wsws.org Ukraine is in the grips of a full-scale war after Russia launched large-scale bombing raids early Thursday morning local time, in the biggest military operation by Russia since the Afghanistan war.

imperial.ac.uk (2022-02-25). At least 5 million children have lost a caregiver from COVID-19, study suggests. imperial.ac.uk At least 5 million children have experienced the death of a parent or caregiver due to COVID-19 since March 2020, new figures suggest.

Staff (2022-02-25). Ukrainian Peace Activist: My Country Has Become a Battlefield for Major Powers. End the War Now. democracynow.org As officials in Moscow threaten to replace the democratically elected Ukrainian government and Russian forces appear set to overpower Ukrainian defenses, is this the end of an independent Ukraine? We speak with Ukrainian peace activist Nina Potarska, who fled the country after Russian troops entered Ukraine on Thursday, even as her 11-year-old daughter with COVID-19 had to stay behind. She is participating in CodePink's international emergency online rally on Saturday to advocate against war and against NATO membership for Ukraine. "I feel that my country now is like a battlefield for all other countr…

WSWS (2022-02-25). Germany: What next in the fight against the herd immunity policy? wsws.org While students, parents and teachers are protesting in their tens of thousands against unsafe learning conditions, the federal and state governments have decided to lift the last safety measures and give the deadly coronavirus free rein in schools.

ecns.cn (2022-02-25). Beijing Winter Olympics a great success: president of MNOC. ecns.cn The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics have been a "great success" amid the difficult time of the coronavirus pandemic, said Choijgavaa Naranbaatar, president of the Mongolian National Olympic Committee (MNOC).

Graham Peebles (2022-02-25). The Keep Africa Poor and Dependent Project. dissidentvoice.org Exploited and abused for generations by white colonial powers and manipulative economic structures, there is a growing feeling of solidarity within parts of the African continent, as exemplified by the #NoMore movement. Covid vaccine inequality and environmental injustice, together with recent events in Ethiopia, have galvanized people. Ideas of African unity and rage against former …

WSWS (2022-02-25). COVID pandemic continues mass killing, notably focused on US and Russia. wsws.org As world war threatens in Europe, the global pandemic continues to take a huge daily toll.

Jim Spellman (2022-02-25). Biden's COVID-19 response so far. america.cgtn.com President Biden promised to competently address the COVID pandemic after the chaotic Trump era, see how Americans assess his response to the crisis.

WSWS (2022-02-25). North Carolina prison inmates initiate hunger strike against inhumane treatment and grossly inadequate pandemic response. wsws.org The strike came to light nearly two weeks ago after family members of one of the inmates contacted the non-profit law firm, North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services.

_____ (2022-02-25). Britain Forgets Its Recent History Of Unleashing War In Europe. popularresistance.org In the early hours of Thursday morning, in what will perhaps finally result in the COVID-19 mainstream media narrative being permanently banished from the headlines, almost nine years of Western provocations via its Eastern European proxy state Ukraine would culminate in Russia launching a military intervention into its Western neighbour — with attempts to resolve the situation peacefully by Moscow over the past several months ultimately proving fruitless due to Kiev failing to implement its side of the Minsk Agreements, which would see a federalisation solution in which the breakaway pro-Russian Republics…

_____ (2022-02-25). The American Political Process Is Disconnected From Economic Reality. popularresistance.org The growing disconnect between the capitalist system and the economic realities plaguing the United States is now nearing completion. On the ground, the accumulated problems of U.S. capitalism undermine its empire and challenge its very future. Meanwhile, the ever-deepening inequalities of wealth and income conjure up images of ancient Egypt's pharaohs. Three economic crashes opening the new century (2000, 2008, and 2020) have shaken the system; so have the two wars America lost against very poor countries in the Middle East: Afghanistan and Iraq. The worst public health crisis in a century during the COVID-19 pa…

Ann Brown (2022-02-25). Video: Amazon Calls The Police On Union Organizers In New York, Union Workers Handcuffed. moguldom.com Officers from the New York City Police Department arrested two Amazon warehouse workers along with Christian Smalls, a former Amazon assistant manager who was fired after fighting for unionization in 2020 over unsafe working conditions during the covid-19 outbreak. The arrests took place outside Amazon's largest New York City warehouse on Feb. 23. Video footage obtained by Motherboard shows the …

Matt Sedlar (2022-02-25). Congressional Hearing Highlights Need for IMF Policy Change to Support an Equitable Global Recovery. cepr.net On February 17, 2022, the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) Subcommittee on National Security, International Development and Monetary Policy held a virtual hearing titled "The Role of the International Monetary Fund in a Changing Global Landscape." The hearing addressed critical issues facing developing countries in their efforts to recover from the fallout of the COVID-19 …

WSWS (2022-02-25). Quebec government scraps remaining COVID-19 mitigation measures. wsws.org Health authorities have pointed to their estimate that 3 million Quebecers have been infected with COVID-19 since last December as a welcome development, callously ignoring the almost 2,500 additional deaths and Long COVID's debilitating impact on many of the infected.

Global Research News (2022-02-25). Selected Articles: What's Behind the New AIDS Scare? globalresearch.ca By While Prince Harry's fame is milked for all its worth to get people to start thinking about getting HIV-tested, the discovery of a new HIV variant …

WSWS (2022-02-25). Singer-songwriter Mark Lanegan dies at 57. wsws.org The singer, who gained fame as a member of the Screaming Trees in the 1990s, had recently endured a long and harrowing battle with COVID-19.

WSWS (2022-02-25). Australian Education Union promotes misinformation over Victorian teachers' agreement. wsws.org The union is concerned not only to prevent an informed examination of its sell-out agreement but also to block a discussion in which educators connect the question of their working conditions with the ongoing COVID crisis, against the AEU's insistence that these are entirely separate issues.

Staff (2022-02-25). Cuba confirma 626 nuevos casos de COVID-19 y 646 altas médicas. cubadebate.cu Al cierre de este jueves 24 de febrero, Cuba reportó 626 nuevos casos de COVID-19 y ningún fallecido. En el día se registraron 646 altas y hay actualmente 2 586 casos activos. En terapia intensiva son atendidos 32 pacientes, siete de ellos críticos, y 25 graves, informó el Minsap.

teleSUR, mcs, JDO (2022-02-25). Argentina registra 79% de población vacunada contra la Covid-19. telesurtv.net La nación suramericana sobrepasa la media tanto a nivel regional como internacional.

sputniknews (2022-02-25). Doctors on Alert After 12 Cases of Rare Paralytic Disease 'Guillain-Barre Syndrome' Emerge in India. sputniknews.com Experts say that Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) is a rare disease that weakens one's immune system and attacks the nervous system which eventually leads to paralysis.

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