Monthly Archives: May 2020

China is seemingly at war with us even if it is a quiet war. The conflict stems in part from the Chinese government reportedly hoarding or restricting exports of ventilator parts and personal protective equipment to the U.S. and other countries as the pandemic spread across the globe. That is especially troublesome since, at the time, the U.S. and many nations were faced with medical shortages, health care workers were in danger, and COVID-19 patients were gasping for air. We managed to win that battle and produced our own ventilators and masks, but only after too many lives were lost.

The National Institute of Health's Dr. Anthony FauciAnthony FauciTrump confronted with grim COVID-19 milestone Overnight Health Care: Health officials eye emerging hotspots | CDC cautions against relying on antibody tests for back to work decisions | Fauci says no evidence for hydroxychloroquine The Hill's Campaign Report: Trump ramps up attacks against Twitter MORE and Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have both told me they have great relationships with Chinese scientists and received valuable information about COVID-19, but what is far more important is the critical information that was withheld from us the ease of spread, the multi-system organ failure and blood clots recorded among patients. Instead of informing us directly or via its tool, the World Health Organization, the Chinese government was busy locking down Wuhan while allowing international flights which spread the virus.

To win this war, we must first recognize it, as we did with the Soviet Union after World War II. Our next great battle is to reposition our supply chain and not respond to threats, even amid a pandemic.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, 13.4 percent of our drug and biologic imports are from China, along with 39.3 percent of our medical devices. The vast majority of our antibiotics, over-the-counter pain killers and generic drugs to treat HIV, diabetes Alzheimers disease and seizures, all originate in China.

We must win this battle of the quiet war to cut this health care supply line and bring drug and medical device production back home. Generic production in India, a trusted ally (and a natural bulwark against China), which already supplies more than a third of our over-the-counter and generic prescription drugs, should be expanded as a backup plan. We must not allow China to further exploit our health care supply vulnerability, especially at a time when we are reeling from the economic devastations of the pandemic, which it brought us.

2019 was a great year for us before the virus hit. American companies, including Apple, were making plans to move production back to the U.S. The car industry announced more than $30 billion in U.S.-based investment. Imports of manufactured goods from Asia were falling, and China felt threatened. We must continue on this road if we are to save our great society. We must rebuild our drug production. Americans will feel more confident knowing a medicine was made here (or even in India) rather than in unreliable China.

We must also win the battle of the vaccine. Not just because China's vaccine industry is infamous for producing defective vaccines, but so that they don't hold us, hostage, to it if they beat us to the punch.

So far, so good on that front: Promising vaccines from Moderna, Oxford University (backed by Astra Zeneca) and BioNTech (a German company backed by Pfizer) are proceeding rapidly through clinical trials.

President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump marks 'very sad milestone' of 100K coronavirus deaths DOJ: George Floyd death investigation a 'top priority' Lifting our voices and votes MORE's "Operation Warp Speed" is a bold attempt to win the race to the vaccine against China, much as the Manhattan Project beat Germany to the atomic bomb during World War II. This is a much quieter war, but we must win it, too, in order to protect our health care system and save the world once again this time from a lethal virus and the country that wants to use it to exploit us further to win the quiet war.

Marc Siegel, M.D., is a professor of medicine and medical director of Doctor Radio at NYU Langone Health. He is a Fox News medical correspondent. Follow him on Twitter:@drmarcsiegel.

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The battle of COVID in the 'quiet war' on China | TheHill - The Hill

Donald Trump launched a new vaccine war this month, but not against the virus. It was against the world.

TheUnited States and the UKwere the onlytwo holdoutsin the World Health Assembly from the declaration that vaccines and medicines forCovid-19 should be available as public goods, and not under exclusive patent rights. TheUnited States explicitly dissociated itself from the call for a patent pool, talking instead of the critical role that intellectual property plays in other words, patents for vaccines and medicines.

Having badly botched his Covid-19 response, President Trump is trying to redeem his fortunes for the November elections by promising an early vaccine. The 2020 version of Trumps Make America Great Again slogan is shaping up to be, in essence, vaccinesfor us but the rest of the world will have to queue up and pay what Big Pharma asks, as it will hold the patents.

In contrast, all other countries agreed with theCosta Rican proposal in the World Health Assemblythat there should be a patent pool for all Covid-19 vaccines and medicines. President Xi Jinping saidChinese vaccines would be available as a public good, a view shared by European Union leaders. Among the10 candidate vaccines in Phase 1 and 2of clinical trials, the Chinese have five, the United States has three, and the UK and Germany have one each.

Trump has given anultimatum to the World Health Organization (WHO)with a permanent withdrawal of funds if it does not mend its ways in 30 days. In sharp contrast, in the World Health Assembly (the highest decision-making body of the WHO), almost all countries, including close allies of the United States, rallied behind the WHO.

Thefailure of the US Centers for Disease Control and Preventionagainst Covid-19, with nearly four times the annual budget of the WHO, is visible to the world. The CDC failed toprovide a successful testfor SARS-CoV-2 in thecritical months of February and March, while ignoring the WHOssuccessful test kitsthat were distributed to 120 countries.

Trump has yet to hold his administration and the CDC responsible for this criminal bungling. This,more than any other failure, is the reason that Covid-19 infections in the US now number more than 1.5 million, about a third of the global total. Contrast this with China, the first to face an unknown epidemic, stopping it at 82,000 infections, and the amazing results that countriessuch as VietnamandSouth Koreahave produced.

One issue is now looming large over the Covid-19 pandemic. If we do not address the issue of intellectual-property rights, we are likely to see arepeat of the AIDS tragedy.

People died for 10 years (1994-2004)as patented AIDS medicine was priced at US$10,000 to $15,000 for a years supply, far beyond their reach. Finally,patent laws in India allowed people to get AIDS medicineat less than a dollar a day, or $350 for a years supply. Today, 80% of the worlds AIDS medicinecomes from India.

For Big Pharma, profits trumped lives, and they will continue to do so, Covid or no Covid, unless we change the world.

Most countries have compulsory licensing provisions that allow them to break patents in case of epidemics or health emergencies. Even the World Trade Organization (WTO), after a bitter fight, accepted in its Doha Declaration (2001) that in a health emergency, countries have the right to allow any company to manufacture a patented drug without the patent holders permission, and even import it from other countries.

Why is it, then, that countries are unable to break patents, even if there are provisions in their laws and in the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement? The answer is their fear of US sanctions against them.

Every year, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) issues a Special 301 Report that it has used to threaten trade sanctions against any country that tries to compulsorily license any patented product.

India figures prominentlyin this report year after year, for daring toissue a compulsory licensein 2012 to Natco, an Indian pharmaceutical company, for nexavar, a cancer drug Bayer was selling formore than $65,000 for a year of treatment. Marijn Dekkers, the chief executive of Bayer, was quoted widely that this wastheft, and We did not develop this medicine for Indians. We developed it for Western patients who can afford it.

This leaves unanswered how many people even in the affluent West can afford a $65,000 bill for an illness. But there is no question that a bill of this magnitude is a death sentence for anybody but the super-rich in countries like India. Though a number of other drugs were also under consideration for compulsory licensing at that time, India has not exercised this provision again after receiving US threats.

It is the fear that countries can break patents using their compulsory-licensing powers that led to proposals for patent pooling. The argument was that since many of these diseases do not affect rich countries, Big Pharma should either let go of their patents to such pools, or philanthropic capital should fund the development of new drugs for this pool.

Facing the Covid-19 pandemic, it is this idea of patent pooling that emerged in the recentWorld Health Assembly, WHA-73. All countries supported this proposal, barring theUnited States and its loyal camp follower, the UK.

TheUnited States also entered its disagreementon the final WHA resolution, being thelone objectorto patent pooling of Covid-19 medicines and vaccines, noting the critical role that intellectual property plays in incentivizing the development of new and improved health products.

While patent pooling is welcome if no other measure is available, it also makes it appear as if countries have no other recourse apart from the charity of big capital. What this hides, as charity always does, is that people and countries have legitimate rights even under TRIPS to break patents under conditions of an epidemic or other health emergency.

The United States, which screams murder if a compulsory license is issued by any country, has no such compunction when its own interests are threatened. During the anthrax scare in 2001, the US secretary of healthissued a threat to Bayerunder eminent domain for patents for licensing the anthrax-treatment drug ciprofloxacin to other manufacturers.

Bayer folded, and agreed to supply the quantity needed at a price that the US government had set. And without a whimper. Yes, this was the same Bayer that considers India a thief for issuing a compulsory license.

The vaccination for Covid-19 might need to be repeated each year, as we still do not know the duration of its protection. It is unlikely that a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 willprovide a lifetime immunitylike the smallpox vaccine.

Unlike AIDS, where the patient numbers were smaller and were stigmatized in different ways, Covid-19 is a visible threat for everyone. Any attempt to hold people and governments to ransom on Covid-19 vaccines or medicines could see the collapse of the entire patent edifice of TRIPS that Big Pharma, backed by the United States and major EU countries, have built.

That is why the more clever in the capitalist world have moved toward a voluntary patent pool for potential Covid-19medicines and vaccines. This means that companies or institutions holding patents on medicines, such as remdesivir, or vaccines would voluntarily hand them over to such a pool.

The terms and conditions of such a handover, meaning at concessional rates, or for only for certain regions, are still not clear, leading to criticism that a voluntary patent pool is not a substitute for declaring that all such medicines and vaccines should be designated as global public goods during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Unlike clever capital, Trumps response to the Covid-19 vaccine is to bully his way through. He believes that with the unlimited money that the United States is now willing to put into the vaccine efforts, it will either beat everybody else to the winning post, orbuy the companythat issuccessful. If this strategy succeeds, he can then use his Covid-19 vaccine as a new instrument of global power. It is the United States that will then decide which countries get the vaccine (and for how much), and which ones dont.

Trump does not believe in arule-based global order, even if the rules arebiased in favorof the rich. He is walking out of variousarms-control agreementsand hascrippled the WTO. He believes that the United States, as the biggest economy and themost powerful military power, should have the untrammeled right to dictate to all countries. Threats ofbombing and invasionscan be combined withillegal unilateral sanctions and the latest weapon in his imaginary arsenal is withholding vaccines.

Trumps little problem is that the days of the United States being a sole global hegemon passed decades ago. The United States has shown itself to be afumbling giantand its epidemicresponse shambolic. It has been unable to provide virus tests to its people in time, and failed to stop the epidemic through containment/mitigation measures, which a number of other countries have done.

Chinaand theEUhave already agreed that any vaccine developed by them will be regarded as a public good. Even without that, once a medicine or a vaccine is known to be successful, any country with a reasonable scientific infrastructure can replicate the medicine or the vaccine, and manufacture it locally.

India in particular has one of thelargest generic drug and vaccinemanufacturing capacities in the world. What prevents India, or any country for that matter, from manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines or drugs once they are developed only the empty threat of a failed hegemon on breaking patents?

This article was produced in partnership byNewsclickandGlobetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute, which provided it to Asia Times.

Prabir Purkayasthais the founding editor ofNewsclick.in, a digital media platform. He is an activist for science and the Free Software movement.

Asia Times Financialis now live. Linking accurate news, insightful analysis and local knowledge with the ATF China Bond 50 Index, the world'sfirst benchmark cross sector Chinese Bond Indices.Read ATFnow.

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US declares a vaccine war on the world - Asia Times

In June, you can see new movies from Spike Lee and Will Ferrell, say goodbye to the Full House gang and sign up for a hot new streaming service, as if you didnt have enough content to consume.

You can escape into these worlds and more by streaming new programming in June on Netflix, Hulu and HBO Max, the newest streamer that started this week with all that HBO offers and more.

The following are June highlights among movies and series you can find on those streaming services, which are still attracting more viewers than ever despite more entertainment options opening up.

NETFLIX

Da 5 Bloods: In this new film from Oscar winner Spike Lee, four black veterans from the Vietnam War return to the country in search of the remains of their squad leader (Chadwick Boseman) and possible buried treasure. (June 12)

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga: Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams star in this movie full of music and comedy with this synopsis: When aspiring musicians Lars and Sigrit are given the opportunity of a lifetime to represent their country at the worlds biggest song competition, they finally have a chance to prove that any dream worth having is a dream worth fighting for. (June 26)

The Last Days of American Crime: A team of crooks plot a final big-score heist before government officials switch on a devices mind-altering signal that promises to stop people from committing crimes. (June 5)

Athlete A: This documentary follows the journalists who broke the story of abuse surrounding USA Gymnastics and convicted doctor Larry Nassar. (June 24)

Spelling the Dream: A documentary on the 12-year streak for Indian-American students winning the national spelling bee, which also follows four such students as they prepare for the event. (June 3)

Fuller House: The Farewell Season: This time its really the end for this crew that started years ago as a network sitcom ... unless someone decides Fullest House is something people need in their lives. (June 2)

13 Reasons Why season 4: Secrets and difficult choices will define the senior year for the graduating class of Liberty High School. (June 5)

Queer Eye season 5: The group leaves its home base of New York for the Atlanta area for this fifth season. (June 5)

F is for Family season 4: This raunchy animated comedy returns from the mind of comedian Bill Burr, who along with Laura Dern, Sam Rockwell and more provide voices. (June 12)

The Order season 2: Good and evil, werewolves and dark ants, magicians and demons ... its all part of the secret society at Belgrave University in its second season. (June 18)

The Politician season 2: High school was one thing, but now, Ben Platts character is shooting for state senate, as Judith Light, Bette Midler and more join the second season of Ryan Murphys satire. (June 19)

Home Game: This docu-series of eight episodes explores odd and exciting sports from around the globe, like voodoo wrestling in the Congo or roller derby in Texas. (June 26)

Lenox Hill: This docu-series gives an intimate look at the lives of four doctors, as well as their patients, at the New York hospital. (June 10)

Jo Koy: In His Elements: Filipino comedian Jo Koy takes Netflix to the Phillipines for his latest comedy special, celebrating the people and culture of Manila. (June 12)

Eric Andre: Legalize Everything: In his first comedy special for the streaming service, Andre takes on the war on drugs, on sex and on, you know, everything. (June 23)

George Lopez: Well Do It for Half: The comedy favorite makes his Netflix debut with this special filmed in San Francisco. (June 30)

Movie favorites arriving on Netflix in June: Cape Fear; Clueless; E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial; Inside Man; The Silence of the Lambs; Starship Troopers; The Lake House; The Help; The Queen; Twister; V for Vendetta; West Side Story; Zodiac; Lady Bird; Baby Mama.

Other series with past seasons debuting: Garth Brooks: The Road Im On season 1; Hannibal seasons 1-3; DCs Legends of Tomorrow season 5; Pose season 2; How To Get Away With Murder season 6.

HBO MAXHBO Max kicked off this week, and it is the most expensive of the streaming services, but thats because it offers everything you get on HBO, from Game of Thrones and Watchmen to movies and more to go along with legacy programming like all of Friends and The Big Bang Theory, as well as new shows.

New shows debuting on HBO Max

Love Life: Anna Kendrick is the star of this romantic comedy anthology that follows an individual from first love to lasting love.

Legendary: From the underground ballroom community comes this voguing competition full of wild fashions and celebrity judges. From the Queer Eye creative team.

On the Record: This candid documentary features music executive Drew Dixon, one of the first women to accuse Russell Simmons of sexual assault.

Craftopia: An epic kids crafting competition, with YouTube influencer LaurDIY hosting as kids ages 9 to 15 show off their creativity.

Looney Tunes: A new series of comedy shorts from Warner Bros. Animation featuring the classic Looney Tunes characters.

The Not Too Late Show with Elmo: Think of the classic late-night talk show format but with Sesame Streets Elmo as your host, and its not too late.

AMAZON PRIME VIDEOOriginal film: 7500, an action-thriller starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a pilot who is injured by terrorists invading the cockpit and who must figure out how best to keep people safe, stall the terrorists and land safely. (June 19)

Original series: Regular Heroes, a weekly docu-series showcasing the efforts of essential workers across the country, with stories told by guests including Alicia Keys, Kevin Hart, Nick Jonas and more. (May 29)

Recent movies: The acclaimed mystery Knives Out premieres on the service June 12, as does the 2019 reboot of horror series Childs Play on that same date.

State ties: Friday, May 29, is the debut date for Primes original movie The Vast of Night, from first-time feature filmmaker Andrew Patterson of Oklahoma City, about a 1950s radio DJ and a switchboard operator in New Mexico who discover a strange audio frequency in this sci-fi mystery.

HULU

We Are Freestyle Love Supreme: This documentary shows Lin-Manuel Mirandas early days performing with improvisational hip-hop group Freestyle Love Supreme, along with the groups reunion 14 years later that led to a run on Broadway. (June 5)

Love, Victor: If you remember the world of the 2018 teen comedy-drama Love, Simon, you have a sense of what to expect from this series (from the same writers) about another high school student navigating his journey of self-discovery, challenges at home, adjusting to a new city and school, and struggling with his sexual orientation. (June 19)

Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi: The Top Chef host takes her audience on a journey across the country to discover the diverse food culture of immigrant people and learn how their dishes have influenced the food that Americans eat today. (June 19)

Other series past seasons debuting: Brockmire, Childrens Hospital complete series, Mike Tyson Mysteries.

Recent theatrical premieres: Tom Hanks as Mister Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (June 2); the underrated surviving-alligators-during-a-hurricane thriller Crawl (June 18); Alfre Woodard as a prison warden in Clemency (June 22); Kristen Stewart in Charlies Angels (June 25).

Movie favorites arriving on Hulu in June: The American President; Cliffhanger; Dave; Dirty Dancing; Grown Ups; I Still Know What You Did Last Summer; Meet the Parents and Fockers; My Girl; True Romance; Awakenings; Out of Sight; Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol.

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Here's new movies and shows to stream in June on Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu and Prime Video - Tulsa World

Love can fizzle over time. Its something the Georgia duo Kalen & Aslyn know well and candidly dissect on their debut Back of Our Minds. For a decade, their love was rooted in their musical careers that was predominantly being pulled in different directions. Kalen, longtime vocalist for the band Ponderosa, was always on the road or working on a solo project, while Aslyn was played in Keshas band and releasing her own music (debut, Lemon Love). At one point, Kalen & Aslyn concocted a way to spend more time together in their busy schedulesand tour togetherby dreaming up a synth-pop projectDega in 2018 an releasing a self-titled debut.

Back of Our Minds documents the ebb and flow of their union,offering a glimpse into their relationship woes and the frustration of that fizzle on Girlfriend.

Girlfriend was written about a year and a half after we got married, Aslyn tells American Songwriter.I remember wishing things still felt the way they did when we were dating.Its like at some point we got comfortable and stopped paying attention, but when you love someone and you know they love you too, its easy to take that for granted and reach a point where youre just going through the motions. Before you know it, you feel more like roommates than partners or lovers.

Working with engineerJon Ashley (The War On Drugs), the duo set up shop in their converted studio outsideAthens, GA and molded Girlfriend into the perfect model, a slow churning sultry song aching for the early days of love. Girlfriend speaks to the different roles women are expected to play in relationships and how this can shift over time.

For the most part, the 11-track Back of Our Minds has been on the back of Kalen & Aslyns minds for a decade. These are songs that ended up on the backburner over the years, saysKalen. They never really had a home with any of our other projects, but we both felt connected to them so strongly that we couldnt seem to let them go. In the end, we decided to start a whole new project just so we could finally record them.

Beginning to end, the album tells the love story, and evolution, of Kalen & Aslyn, unraveled in layers of country twang, soulful pop and a consoling California Dreamin sensibility oozing from each track.

It wasnt something we consciously set out to do, but we ended up recording an album that spans our entire journey togetherfalling in love, breaking up, getting married, leaving home, coming back, says Aslyn. Our whole story is in these songs.

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Kalen & Aslyn Narrate and Rekindle Their Love on Girlfriend - American Songwriter

Sixty years ago this past February, a U.S. Navy plane on a routine flight out of Saigon slammed into a low mountain as it neared Hue, killing all three men aboard, including co-pilot Lt. Cmdr. George Wood Alexander, a career Navy man from Glendale. They were among five U.S. military deaths in 1960 tied to the U.S. presence in Vietnam, then numbering 900 troops as growing tensions soon led to open war and mass American deployments. The other two deaths came from an accident and an illness, so none of the five died in combat, yet they still perished as a direct result of their military service. Such is the nature of war the risks soldiers face arent limited to the battlefield.

The practice of formally recognizing those killed in war arose in scattered places around the South at the end of the Civil War, with several of the earliest organized by former slaves and black freedmen recognizing the sacrifice of Union soldiers in ending slavery. In 1868, the grassroots events jelled into Decoration Day, which during World War I expanded from remembering the dead of one war to remembering the dead of all wars (though Congress didnt recognize Memorial Day as a federal holiday until 1938).

About 9 million soldiers died in World War I, nearly 117,000 of them Americans, whose arrival in 1918 tipped the balance and led to the defeat of Germany and its allies. Half of the American deaths werent from bullets or bombs or fire but from illness. That was a much lower total than during the Civil War, when two-thirds of soldier deaths were a result of illness. In fact, World War II was the first war in which more U.S. troops died in battle than from disease and other causes, a testimony to advances in medical treatment.

And here in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, service members continue to be at risk, particularly those living on Navy ships and other assignments that bring soldiers together in close quarters, including the crew of the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, whose captain was relieved of his command after he put the health of the men and women under him ahead of Pentagon protocol. So even in relative peacetime, the non-combat threats remain.

When it comes to war, we have been lucky as a nation. For the most part during our history, we fought them elsewhere. We mounted a War of Independence around 1776, fought the British again in the War of 1812 (which led to the torching of the White House), fomented countless battles with North Americas native nations in our quest for more territory, wrested 525,000 square miles from Mexico, and survived the fratricide of the Civil War, a hellacious endeavor that involved 3.2 million soldiers on both sides (at least 620,000 died) in a nation that then only numbered 22 million people. Yet during the 20th century, perhaps the most violent century in human existence, the U.S. faced no serious threat of invasion.

So the pain of those wars fell on people in the countries where they took place and on the Americans who fought them, and on their families. We observe Veterans Day in November to honor all those who served, preserving Memorial Day to remember those who died. Having two national holidays devoted to those who fought reflects how much war has come to dominate our culture (we have no national holiday celebrating peace). Over the past few weeks, military jets have done fly-bys in different spots around the nation, including here in Southern California, to recognize front-line professionals working to stifle the pandemic.

Its an odd linkage, a display of military might to honor civilian health and emergency workers. But maybe such homages are a logical extension for a society that describes a medical campaign against disease as a war much as we have declared wars on drugs and poverty. Everything is a war these days, it seems. The war on immigrants. The war on womens reproductive rights. The war on Christmas. The war on science.

Those political metaphors arent wars, of course. Wars are the bloody next step after failed diplomacy, the final resort in imposing the will of one government on another or, conversely, of overthrowing oppression and birthing a nation. Sometimes they are necessary, sometimes they are the result of blundering national leaders, sometimes they are pure folly, But in all, soldiers do what is asked of them, and our cemeteries are filled with the human cost. Today we again recognize that collective debt.

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Editorial: On Memorial Day, we recognize our collective debt - Los Angeles Times

The men head toward the big white van almost as soon as it rolls to a stop in front of Russell Park.

It's just after 3 p.m. on a Tuesday. The park, which stands at the corner of Cabanne Avenue and Goodfellow Boulevard in the West End neighborhood of north St. Louis, consists of a small patch of grass surrounding a large playground in a neighborhood marked by vacant buildings.

Some of the men move with the stiff-legged gait of those who spend their nights sleeping rough, stretched out on concrete or grass.

A tall man nicknamed "Swoop," his hair held together in a series of cascading braids, approaches the van tentatively, his movements halting and cautious as the latest hit of heroin crawls through his veins.

Swoop, 43, says he's been homeless for about nineteen months, and that he uses heroin to self-medicate for chronic depression.

"The depression makes you want to get high," he says. "You have no job. Nobody wants to give you a job because of your appearance and what you're doing."

Occasionally, Swoop earns money from odd jobs in the neighborhood. But when he gets home, it's still the same story, he says.

"We still sitting around," he says. "We get to come back to an abandoned building. We look around, and it's depressing as soon as you walk in the door. So the first thing we do, we got money in our pockets, we get high."

As far as COVID-19, Swoop says he's not worried.

"I'm not really around that many people," he says. "I think God is good. I don't know. I'm just not that concerned about it."

Swoop grabs a brown paper bag from a cardboard box piled high with lunches, then a bottled water from one of the cases left on the sidewalk. He joins the line of other men inching forward to the van.

Standing at the front of the line are Miles Hoffman and Jen Nagel, staff members of the Missouri Network for Opiate Reform and Recovery, or MoNetwork, located at 4022 South Broadway in south St. Louis. MoNetwork owns and operates the van and collects the items it hands out.

Hoffman and Nagel eagerly engage with the men, smoothly reaching for simple black backpacks, known as Harm Reduction Kits, which they fill with a long list of items calculated to keep their customers alive for another week. Alcohol-soaked swabs. Hypodermic needle disposal kits. Small plastic tubes of Naloxone, also known as Narcan, which can be squirted up the nose to reverse a drug overdose.

In recent months, because of the threat posed by COVID-19, other essentials have been added to the bags: hand sanitizer, disposable gloves, face masks.

Hoffman, himself a recovering opiate user, says he wants to bring more resources to north St. Louis residents struggling with drug dependance and homelessness. Which is why he takes the MoNetwork van to the spots around St. Louis where he knows they're likely to find unhoused people.

About the time he went into recovery a couple years ago, Hoffman says, the market for illegal opiates went from prescription painkillers to much more powerful opiates, such as heroin and fentanyl.

"Things have kind of changed ... the supply had changed, and the drugs had changed, but the people hadn't," Hoffman says. "And being able to give people the supplies they need, like Naloxone, to reverse overdoses for their friends and loved ones, to keep people safe and to keep people out of hospitals and to keep people informed, is something I'm really passionate about."

It's impossible to understand homelessness and drug use in isolation from other big-picture issues, such as access to health care and how people interact with police, Hoffman notes.

"And COVID has made that much clearer," he says. "Now we're seeing these issues are being amplified. So people are saying we need to change things and work within the system."

To Nagel, who is also in recovery, the pandemic's impact on drug abuse is a brutal stew that mixes the results of the United States' war on drugs, the lack of resources for treatment and society's efforts to penalize and moralize away addiction.

"And then you get a worldwide epidemic that's showing glaringly, obviously, that our social structure, our social services, our health services, housing, health care it's glaringly obvious how disproportionate it is, and how it is not a good system," she says.

The thing of it is, Hoffman says, the system is doing what it's designed to do.

"Which is to keep people in their place," he explains. "And for right now, what we're doing is just trying to directly help people who are most impacted by this."

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Fighting Addiction and a Pandemic to Keep St. Louis' Unhoused Alive - Riverfront Times

The Nairobi Metropolitan Services has, through the Public Service Commission, recruited 225 health workers.

This follows President Uhuru Kenyatta's May 21 announcement that the national government will hire an additional 5,000 health workers in the intensified war on Covid-19.

NMS Health Services director Josephine Kibaru Mbae told the Star on Thursday that the recruitment will go a long way in addressing the shortage of health workers in Nairobi.

The new workers comprise doctors, nurses and clinical officers. They will serve on three-year contracts.

When we took over from City Hall we noted that indeed there is a shortage of health workers and many hospitals relied on locum. We had to recruit more. NMS has embarked on their distribution so that once they get the letters, they know where they will be reporting to, Mbae explained.

City Hall had on paper 3,300 health workers inclusive of cleaners and drivers at the time health services were handed over to NMS. But the actual number was 2,750.

Health workers had threatened to go on strike citing unaddressed issues of promotion and redesignation by the County Public Service Board.

Mbae said NMS's human resource department is looking into the issues for implementation in the financial year 2020-21.

She said the NMS has distributed personal protective equipment (PPE) worth Sh120 million to health workers.

At 745 Covid-19 positive cases as of Thursday, Nairobi leads other counties in the number of those with the disease.

The distribution (of PPEs) was done based on the needs of the health workers presented and where they are stationed. All workers can access at least two three-ply masks every day, depending on where they are stationed, Mbae explained.

Away from the pandemic, NMS has also managed to keep health facilities open to city residents.

The health facilities are up and running and have drugs worth Sh173.48 million as of March.

The facilities have adequate drugs and we are in the process of doing another distribution between now and June 30th to ensure that before the closure of the financial year our health facilities have adequate drugs, Mbae said.

When NMS took over the health function from City Hall, Director-General Mohammed Badi was handed over documents pertaining the projects' status.

However, under health, the only completed projected was the new 66-bed maternity wing at Mama Lucy Hospital.

Mbae said more than Sh145 million will be needed to fully equip the new wing before it is opened.

The new wing at Mama Lucy is ready for equipping and we have discussed with the Ministry of Health equipping it before the end of June.

The construction of the H-shaped wing started in 2013 but stalled in 2016 due to under-funding.

However, Governor Mike Sonkos administration last year released Sh69 million for its completion.

The six-floor wing also has an ICU, a High Dependency Unit and general wards.

The incomplete projects under the health sector have been rolled over to the next financial year.

NMS has held meetings with staff in the county health facilities and it has been agreed that the projects be carried over to the next financial year starting July. We have budgeted for most of the projects, Mbae said.

While the focus is now on the Covid-19 pandemic, the NMS has assured the public that all health facilities are open for all services.

Mbae stated that outpatient services like immunisation, pre- and post-natal care and comprehensive healthcare services are functioning.

The facilities are operational. The number of patients may have reduced (due to curfew and stay home restrictions) but no one is being sent away, she emphasised.

The NMS has urged the public to show up in large numbers for free Covid-19 mass testing.

The exercise, which commenced last week on Thursday, is a collaboration of the NMS and the Ministry of Health.

- mwaniki fm

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