Tuesday, May 14

Tag: covid-19

A Critical Look At US Funds For Risky Science Abroad
10Apr By Patti MohrNo Comments
Foreign Aid, International Development, Globalization, Global Disintegration, Types of News: Analysis

A Critical Look At US Funds For Risky Science Abroad

Former CDC Director Calls for Reinstatement Of Obama-Era Ban On Gain-Of-Function Experiments April 10, 2023—As a House Oversight Subcommittee investigates the origins of the deadly COVID-19 virus that killed millions of people around the world, new details about the role of global collaboration in science come to light. Today, the Washington Post published a groundbreaking and extensive report on how U.S. government agencies fund high-stakes research on unknown pathogens around the world. Specifically, since 2012, U.S. agencies spent billions of dollars on research of pathogens in at least 78 countries. And though the research includes dangerous virus hunting, safety standards and regulations have not kept pace with the experiments. Furthermore, according to the Post report by David...
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Facing A Surge In COVID-19, China’s Epidemic Control Is Put To The Test
16Jan By Patti MohrNo Comments
Organizations, IMF, WTO, G7, Types of News: Brief

Facing A Surge In COVID-19, China’s Epidemic Control Is Put To The Test

WHO Asks China To Cooperate On Understanding COVID-19 Origins January 16, 2023—After a three-year span of its zero-COVID policy ended last month, China's health system is once again being put to the test. On Saturday health officials held a press conference releasing information and putting a positive spin on China's management of the virus. But the World Health Organization is asking health officials in China for more detailed data. Furthermore, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wants China to coordinate more to help the agency understand the origins of the virus. China's Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council held a press conference on COVID-19 on Saturday, January 14, 2023. WHO Seeks Information, Transparency Since ending its strict ze...
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Status of the World’s Vaccination Levels
15Jan By Patti MohrNo Comments
Global Economics, Organizations, IMF, WTO, G7, Types of News: Brief, Types of News: Infographic

Status of the World’s Vaccination Levels

Vaccination Status Varies Widely By Country January 15, 2022--With the recent toss up over tennis great Novak Djokovic's vaccination status in the land down under, it is worth looking at the wider story of the vaccine distributions around the world. In terms of global health and economic recovery from the 2020-2022 pandemic, there is no issue more relevant than vaccine distribution. Even though the current makeup of vaccines are not strong enough to prevent infection with the Omicron variant, as the World Health Organization acknowledged this week, anecdotal evidence suggests they still prevent worst-case scenarios for the people who catch it. The maps below show which countries are on track for achieving mass vaccination and which are not. In the first picture, the depiction sho...
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U.S. Raises ‘Deep Concerns’ About Conclusions of WHO Investigation
16Feb By Patti MohrNo Comments
Communism, Dictatorship, Diplomacy, Organizations, IMF, WTO, G7, Types of News: Brief

U.S. Raises ‘Deep Concerns’ About Conclusions of WHO Investigation

Feb. 16, 2021-As the United States reengages with the World Health Organization under the new administration, its top national security officers are raising "deep concerns" about the credibility of the organization. The criticism comes as the WHO completed a controversial mission to Wuhan, China to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 virus. The WHO team, which included 17 participants representing China, ignored key information that scientists from the lab in Wuhan collected bats and virus samples from caves in China and brought them back to the lab. In the end, the WHO ceded the mission of scientific discovery to that of collaborating with China. U.S. Membership On his first day of office January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden informed UN Secretary General António Guterre...
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WHO Mission Gives China Political Win, Overlooks Evidence About Bats in Wuhan Lab
15Feb By Patti MohrNo Comments
Communism, Dictatorship, Globalization, Global Disintegration, Organizations, IMF, WTO, G7, Types of News: Analysis

WHO Mission Gives China Political Win, Overlooks Evidence About Bats in Wuhan Lab

February 15, 2021--Over a year after the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization concluded a four-week investigatory mission in Wuhan, China, making comments favoring the Chinese government's narrative. It was a political win for China and a significant loss for science. In almost a surreal and surprising outcome, the mission team downplayed the possibility the virus started in a Wuhan lab and pointed to other theories popular in China. "All the work that has been done on the virus and trying to identify its origin continue to point to a natural reservoir of this virus and similar virus in bat population," said Peter Ben Embarek, the head of the WHO Mission in Wuhan. "But since Wuhan is not a city or environment close to this bat environment, a direct...
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U.S. Ramps Up Case Against China on Virus Outbreak, Cover-Up
7May By Patti MohrNo Comments
Globalization, Global Disintegration, Organizations, IMF, WTO, G7, Types of News: Bit

U.S. Ramps Up Case Against China on Virus Outbreak, Cover-Up

May 7, 2020—With the key question unresolved about how the COVID-19 virus emerged in Wuhan, China, diplomatic relations between China and the United States as well as other Western governments have ruptured, perhaps permanently. Funding Pulled The U.S. government stopped funding a line of research funding that fostered collaboration between U.S. scientists and those in Wuhan, China. The National Institutes of Health research project received $3.38 million over six years. It was a small part of its overall budget. (For perspective, in 2019, total NIH awards/grants were $28 billion.) But it was still a lot in terms of funding. The project proposed to understand the risk of bat coronavirus that poses "a significant threat to global health and food security." It came in the wake ...
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Amazon.com Executive Quits In Protest of Worker Firings
4May By Patti MohrNo Comments
Global Economics, Types of News: Brief

Amazon.com Executive Quits In Protest of Worker Firings

May 4, 2020-Despite surging sales, Amazon.com faces a critical time as its workers around the world raise safety concerns and as one of its top executives resigns due to "toxicity running through the company culture." Tim Bray left his position as a vice-president at Amazon Web Services May 1 in protest over the company's treatment of workers who complained about unsafe warehouse conditions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Bray said that although the decision to leave would cost him over a million dollars "not to mention the best job" he's ever had, he could no longer support power imbalances between workers and executives. In a blog post, Bray said Amazon.com executives fired two high-profile activists who had promoted a petition and organized a video call on behalf of warehouse wor...
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GUEST POST: The Shattering of Global Oil
28Apr By Guest WriterNo Comments
Energy Policy, Oil & Gas, Type of News: Guest Post, Types of News: Analysis

GUEST POST: The Shattering of Global Oil

By Peter Zeihan Oil demand is relatively inelastic. That’s a fancy-schmancy economic term that means people and firms’ energy demand doesn’t vary very much from day-to-day or even year-to-year. Driving to work is perhaps the most accessible example. You do it every workday. If you don’t, you don’t work. And so you drive. Your gasoline demand is stable. Inelastic. Doesn’t matter much if gasoline sells for $1 or $4. On the price side, this means the “normal” rules of supply and demand barely apply. Even minor shifts in supply or demand have wildly outsized impacts on price. We’re used to seeing this as a shortage. China booms and oil prices go up. Iran and Iraq go to war and prices go up. Derivatives trading enters the world of oil and prices go up. Geopolitical Shocks to Oil ...
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COVID-19, From Bats to Humans: Examining the Wuhan Connection
17Apr By Patti MohrNo Comments
Communism, Dictatorship, Globalization, Global Disintegration, Organizations, IMF, WTO, G7, Types of News: Analysis

COVID-19, From Bats to Humans: Examining the Wuhan Connection

April 17, 2020--A great and tragic mystery of 2020 is the origin of the COVID-19 virus that is sweeping the world with sickness and death. Some researchers point to a seafood market in Wuhan. Others say it could have started in a Chinese lab in Wuhan. Most certainly, it came from bats. But how did it jump to humans? From Wuhan to the World To date, the COVID-19 virus that has infected over 2 million people worldwide and killed 149,000 people. Of the first 309 confirmed cases in China, 270 cases were confirmed in Wuhan. Of the first 41 patients hospitalized in Wuhan with the virus, 27 of them, 66 percent, had a connection to a food and wild animal market. Wholesale Food Market As early as December 2019, reports from China pointed to the connection to the Huanan Seafood Whole...
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Eurozone Ministers Agree to €500bn Rescue Package
10Apr By Patti MohrNo Comments
Europe, EU, Eurozone, Global Economics

Eurozone Ministers Agree to €500bn Rescue Package

April 10, 2020--Under increasing strain to hold their political and economic union together, Eurozone finance ministers agreed to a €500 billion economic rescue package for workers, businesses and governments. Eurogroup President Mário Centeno said the plan is meant to ensure Europe grows "together and not apart once the virus is behind us." The latest rescue package to deal with the economic fallout from the COVID-19 crisis comes on top of monetary and fiscal stimulus measures worth trillions of Euros. Previous measures amount to 3 percent of GDP in fiscal measures and 16 percent of GDP in new monetary policies, according to the Eurogroup. Finance ministers from the 19 Eurozone countries agreed to the latest measure after a marathon 14-hour session. "Now we are building Europ...
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