Pandemic – what pandemic?

More on covid pandemic 2020-2?

View of the world

Ukraine – what you’re not told

Pandemic – what pandemic?

Surely pandemics of the past were nothing like the one the world is living through now. In previous pandemics news about what was happening on the other side of the world either just didn’t exist or would take some time to filter down to the vast majority of the population. With modern technology what happens in Australia and New Zealand, for example, can be known about almost instantly. However, the speed of communication is nothing if people don’t know how (or don’t want) to use that rapid sharing of knowledge to the advantage of all.

That means each country is following its own road with no concern for the long term, worldwide domination of the virus. The consensus now seems to be accepting that covid will be with us forever and that attempts to achieve and maintain a zero level of infection is unlikely – although China and New Zealand still seem to be sticking with their original ‘strategy’. If different countries are shooting into different goal mouths then it doesn’t bode too well for the future.

When it comes to vaccines the selfish, ‘western’, capitalist world continues to grab as much as possible for it’s own privileged populations – the UK just in the last day or so announcing that they had ordered (and paid for) 100 million doses of the very expensive and difficult to transport Pfizer vaccine. The fine statements made at the G7 meeting in June about sharing the available vaccines with the poorer nations on the planet are conveniently forgotten. In England children are being brought into the programme and third doses are being proposed for an, as yet, indeterminate section of the population.

So the chaotic situation that has dominated the last 18 months or so has morphed into surrealism. Life ‘goes on as normal’, people go on holiday, mass sporting events go ahead and it’s difficult to remember that the virus is still with us and we still lack a real strategy to deal with it.

As has been the case for a while now there’s a great dependence being placed upon chance, that the virus will not be as virulent if it returns in a major way in the autumn. But if things do turn bad later in the year there’s no strategy to deal with another major outbreak – so, basically, nothing’s been learnt since the beginning of 2020.

Many of the world’s ‘leaders’ (and probably a sizeable proportion of the populations in the richer countries) are like ostriches with their heads buried deep in the sand. Pandemic, what pandemic?

Vaccination programme in Britain …..

UK doctors alarmed at ‘shambolic’ roll-out of covid jabs for children.

Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) ‘largely opposed’ to Covid vaccination for children under 16.

Vaccinating teenagers is beneficial, even if their vulnerability to covid-19 is low – if you ignore the moral argument about what is happening (or not) in the rest of the world.

Oxford-jab chief criticises UK’s covid booster plan.

How will covid vaccines work on compromised immune systems?

Teenage jab roll out moving cautiously.

Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine: rare blood clot syndrome has high mortality rate.

Should we tell stories of vaccine sceptics who have died of covid?

Is catching covid now better than more vaccine?

….. and the rest of the world

World Health Organisation (WHO) calls for moratorium on booster shots – is it justifiable?

How effective are covid-19 vaccines? Here’s what the stats mean … and what they don’t.

India is preparing for another covid surge but low vaccine coverage leaves it vulnerable

G7 nations will have stockpiled a billion spare covid vaccine doses by end of 2021.

India approves world’s first DNA covid vaccine.

After India’s brutal coronavirus wave, two-thirds of population has been exposed to SARS-CoV2.

Immunocompromised people make up nearly half of covid-19 breakthrough hospitalizations – an extra vaccine dose may help.

Anti-body testing

Antibody tests offered to public for first time. Is there a reason this wasn’t started a long time ago? The more information the better to deal with the pandemic, no?

The ever mutating virus

What happens if a far more lethal coronavirus emerges in pets?

SARS-CoV-2 mutations: why the virus might still have some tricks to pull.

New covid variants ‘would set us back a year’, experts warn UK government.

New wave of covid infections possible when schools and office workers return.

UK covid cases have fallen dramatically – but another wave is likely.

Jabbed adults infected with Delta ‘can match virus levels of unvaccinated’.

Self-isolation

Thousands isolated unnecessarily because of NHS covid app error.

Why are things so different in Africa?

The impact of covid-19 has been lower in Africa. Why?

What does China have to teach us?

From ground zero to zero tolerance – how China learnt from its covid response to quickly stamp out its latest outbreak.

China hits zero covid cases with a month of draconian curbs.

Hundreds quarantined in Shanghai as China nears 2 billion covid-19 vaccine doses.

British Trade Unions get to grips with the pandemic

Urgent call for covid-safe ventilation in schools.

‘Herd immunity’ – or not

Delta variant renders herd immunity from covid ‘mythical’.

Travelling in a time of covid

Ministers accused of destroying trust in England’s covid travel rules.

‘Collateral damage’

Private schools poised to widen lead over state pupils at A-level.

Covid is making a summer break something only the rich can afford.

Could NHS waiting lists really reach 13 million?

England’s pandemic crisis of child abuse, neglect and poverty.

Almost 1.2 million people waiting at least six months for vital NHS services in England.

Working from home has created an ‘overtime epidemic’.

A million jobs in peril as one in 16 UK firms say they are at risk of closure.

How the pandemic exposed the crisis in children’s social care. (Links to a podcast.)

Record number of young people wait for eating disorder treatment in England.

The pandemic transformed how social work was delivered – and these changes could be here to stay.

How decades of Neoliberalism left the NHS on the brink.

Poverty in Britain

The National Housing Federation released a report in July 2021 about the experiences of social housing tenants in claiming Universal Credit during the present covid pandemic entitled ‘Universal Credit: claiming during the coronavirus pandemic – A survey of housing association tenants claiming Universal Credit in 2020/21. In comes in two versions, the Executive Report and the Technical (full) Report.

Cuts to Universal Credit will leave children hungry.

Who’s making it big in Pandemic Britain?

Covid contracts: inquiry to look into use of WhatsApp, says Information Commissioners Office – they knew they were doing something illicit hence trying to do business through less traceable forms of communication.

‘Lost samples and late results’: the Tory donor, his son and their travel-test firms.

Church leader who sold £91 bogus covid remedy appears in court. This was first highlighted here about a year ago – so things aren’t moving particularly fast.

Mask wearing – after the pandemic?

Will mask wearing still be common in Britain after the pandemic is over?

Impossible to get the testing right – or how to make easy money

Anger at overflowing covid test drop boxes.

PCR tests for travel: Competition watchdog to investigate if excessive profits are being made.

Ministers face calls to intervene in ‘scam’ covid travel test system.

UK watchdog (Competition and Markets Authority – CMA) vows to help fight rip-off covid test firms.

Government warns covid test firms over misleading prices.

How are the ‘strategies’ working in other countries?

Has the Delta variant derailed Australia’s zero-covid strategy? (Podcast.)

New Zealand borders to remain closed for rest of the year.

Why I no longer think we can eliminate covid – public health expert.

New Zealand pandemic strategy in doubt amid Delta spread.

What will happen when it’s all over?

Plagues and classical history – what the humanities will tell us about covid in years to come.

More on covid pandemic 2020-2?

View of the world

Ukraine – what you’re not told

Nationalities and Minorities

Potala Palace, Lhasa

Potala Palace, Lhasa

More on China …..

View of the world

Ukraine – what you’re not told

Nationalities and Minorities

Photographic record of the visits of the Dalai and Panchen Lamas of Tibet to the Chinese Capital in 1954-1955, with the first part about their stay in Beijing as members of the Chinese National People’s Congress [parliament], and the second part being mainly ‘the Dalai Lama looking at things.’ [In Chinese and Tibetan] (1956), 162 pages.

Der Weg nach Lhasa – Bilder aus Tibet, by Vladimir Sis and Josef Vanis, Prague, 1956, 224 pages, In German. This pictorial volume accompanied a film shot by a Czechoslovakian team in 1953 shortly after the first road to Lhasa had been opened.

Minority Women of China, in Chinese but the pamphlet mostly consists of colour paintings of minority women of different regions of China in their traditional dress. FLP, Peking, 1958, 34 pages.

When Serfs Stood Up In Tibet, by Anna Louise Strong, Red Sun Publishers, San Francisco ,1976, 370 pages. [Originally published by New World Press, Peking, in 1959.]

Concerning the question of Tibet, FLP, Peking, 1959, 298 pages.

Inside Story of Tibet, by Ratne Deshapriya Senanayake, Afro-Asian Writers’ Bureau, Peking, 1967, 178 pages.

English title not available: A Pictorial Volume with captions in Tibetan and Chinese, Lhasa, 1975, 247 pages.

Great Changes in Tibet, a collection of articles with 12 pages of photos, FLP, Peking, 1972, 78 pages.

United and Equal – The Progress of China’s Minority Nationalities, by Yin Ming, well illustrated, FLP, Peking, 1977, 168 pages.

More on China …..

View of the world

Ukraine – what you’re not told

Foreign Commentaries on China

Celebrating the Constitution of the People's Republic of China

Celebrating the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China

More on China …..

View of the world

Ukraine – what you’re not told

Foreign Commentaries on China

Various commentaries from outside the country by people who have lived in China or studied Chinese society, stretching across different topics and historical periods – some are more friendly to the revolutionary cause than others.

The Battle For Asia, Edgar Snow, Random House, New York, 1941, 431 pages.

The Birth of New China, a sketch of one hundred years 1842-1942, Arthur Clegg, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1943, 144 pages.

What we saw in China, by 15 Americans, who participated in the Peace Conference of the Asian and Pacific Regions in October 1952, Weekly Guardian Associates, NY, 1952, 68 pages.

Through People’s China in a Friendship Train, by Fernand Leriche, World Federation of Trade Unions, England, 1953, 68 pages. Report of a WFTU delegation from 21 countries visiting China by train.

The People have Strength, Rewi Alley, Peking, 1954, 281 pages. Sequel to ‘Yo Banfa’.

The Great Road – the Life and Times of Chu Teh, Agnes Smedley, Monthly review Press, New York, 1956, 461 pages.

The Atlantic, a Special Issue on Red China – The first ten years, December 1959, 192 pages.

What’s really happening in China?, by Felix Greene, City Lights Books, San Francisco, 1959, 68 pages.

The world belongs to all, by Liao Hung-ying and Derek Bryan, privately printed, n.d. (but from 1959 or shortly after), 32 pages. The impressions of a husband and wife who re-visited China in 1959.

Mao and the Chinese Revolution, Jerome Ch’en, Oxford University Press, London, 1965, 419 pages. With 37 poems by Mao Tse-tung.

Mao Tse-tung in opposition 1927-1935, John E Rue, Published for the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University Press, California, 1966, 387 pages.

The Taiping Rebellion, history and documents, Volume 1: History, Franz H Michael, University of Washington Press, 1966, 244 pages.

Window on Shanghai, Letters from China, Sophia Knight, Andre Deutsch, London, 1967, 256 pages.

This is Communist China, by the staff of Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo, edited by Robert Trumbull, Van Rees Press, New York, 1968, 274 pages.

A curtain of ignorance, Felix Greene, Jonathan Cape, London, 1968, 340 pages.

The Great Power Struggle in China, Asia Research Centre, Hong Kong, 1969, 503 pages.

China and Ourselves – Explorations and revisions by a new generation, edited by Bruce Douglass and Ross Terrill, Beacon Press, Boston, 1969, 249 pages.

Modern Drama from Communist China, edited by Walter and Meserve, New York University Press, New York, 1970, 368 pages.

The Chinese Cultural Revolution and Foreign Policy, Daniel Tretiak, ASG Monograph No. 2, Westinghouse Electric Corporation Advanced Studies Group, Waltham, Massachusetts, 1970, 36 pages.

The Organization and Support of Scientific Research and Development in Mainland China, Yuan-li Wu and Robert B Sheeks, Praeger, New York, 1970, 592 pages.

A divorce trial in China, by Felix Greene, New England Free Press, 1970, 16 pages. Originally published as a chapter in Greene’s book Awakened China: The country Americans don’t know (1961)

The Miracles of Chairman Mao – A compendium of devotional literature 1966-1970, edited by George Urban, Tom Stacey, London, 1971, 182 pages. (Introduction missing.)

The Morning Deluge – Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Revolution 1983-1954, Han Suyin, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1972, 571 pages.

Mao Tse-tung’s Cultural Revolution, Tai Sung An, Pegasus, 1972, 211 pages.

Experiment without precedent: some Quaker observations on China today, report of an American Friends Service Committee Delegation’s visit to China, May 1972, 64 pages.

China: revolution and health, by Mark Selden, Health/PAC Bulletin, No. 47, December 1972, published by the Health Policy Advisory Center, New York, 20 pages.

People’s China in 1973: A Group Report, by Scott Nearing, Helen K. Nearing, Dr. Jerome Davis, Howard Frazier, Hugh B. Hester and Bess Horowitz, Promoting Enduring Peace, Inc., Woodmont, Conn.,1973, 28 pages.

The Chinese Economy, by Jan Deleyne, (1973, orig. French version 1971), 216 pages. Talks about the Chinese economy before, during, and after the initial phase (late 1960s) of the Cultural Revolution.

Chiang Ch’ing – The emergence of a revolutionary political leader, Dwan L Tai, Exposition Press, New York, 1974, 222 pages.

Unite the many, defeat the few: China’s revolutionary line in foreign affairs, by Jack A. Smith, Guardian newspaper (U.S.) pamphlet, 1974, 40 pages. Originally a series of articles in the Guardian in late 1972 and early 1973.

Education in the People’s Republic of China, by Fred L. Pincus, Research Group One Report No. 20, July 1974, 32 pages.

Party, Army and Masses in China, A Marxist interpretation of the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath, Livio Maitan, NLB, London, 1976, 373 pages.

Wind in the tower, Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Revolution – 1949-1965, Han Suyin, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1976, 404 pages.

The People of Taihang – An Anthology of Family Histories, edited by Sidney Greenblatt, International Arts and Science Press, White Plains, New York, 1976, 305 pages.

Economic planning in China, by Geoff Mason, New Zealand-China Society, 1976, 60 pages.

China and the Nuclear Question, by Joan Donley, New Zealand-China Society, 2nd revised ed. 1976, 20 pages.

Why is China not at the Olympiques? [sic] / Pourquoi la Chine n’est pas aux Olympiques?, by the Canada-China Society and the Amitiés Québec-Chine, 1976, 16 pages. In both English and French.

China’s Foreign Policy – an outline, compiled by Clark Kissinger, August 1976, 60 pages.

Women’s Liberation in China, Claudie Broyelle, Humanities Press, New Jersey, 1977, 174 pages.

Workers and Workplaces in Revolutionary China, the China book project, edited by Stephen Andors, ME Sharpe, White Plains, New York, 1977, 403 pages.

Comrade Chiang Ch’ing, Roxanne Witke, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1977, 549 pages.

Revolutionary Diplomacy, Chinese Foreign Policy and the United Front Doctrine, JD Armstrong, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1977, 251 pages.

The Politics of Revolutionary China, British and Irish Communist Organisation, Belfast, 1977?, 44 pages.

China since Mao, Neil J Burton and Charles Bettleheim, Monthly review Press, New York, 1978, 130 pages.

Mao Tsetung’s immortal contributions, Bob Avakian, RCP Publications, Chicago, 1979, 342 pages.

Chairman Mao – Education of the Proletariat, Don Chean Chu, Philosophical Library, New York, 1980, 478 pages.

Edgar Snow’s China, a personal account of the Chinese Revolution compiled from the writings of Edgar Snow, Lois Wheeler Snow, Random House, New York, 1981, 284 pages.

Science in Contemporary China, edited by Leo A Orleans, Stanford University Press, California, 1980, 599 pages.

Science and Socialist Construction in China, Xu Liangying and Fan Dainian, The China book project, ME Sharpe, New York, 1982, 225 pages.

Marxism, Maoism, and Utopianism, Eight Essays, Maurice Meisner, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1982, 255 pages.

Shenfan, the continuing revolution in a Chinese village, William Hinton, Random House, New York, 1983, 785 pages.

Red and Expert – A case study of Chinese science in the Cultural revolution, David Wade Chambers, Deakin University Press, Victoria, Australia, 1984, 153 pages.

Ninth Heaven to Ninth Hell – The History of a Noble Chinese Experiment, Qin Huailu, Barricade Books, New York, 1995, 665 pages.

Documents on the Rape of Nanking, edited by Timothy Brook, Ann Arbor Paperbacks, 1999, 301 pages.

Mao – a Life, Phillip Short, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1999, 782 pages.

The Nanjing Massacre, a Japanese Journalist Confronts Japan’s National Shame, Honda Katsuichi, ME Sharpe, New York, 1999, 367 pages.

The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography, edited by Joshua A Fogel, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2000, 248 pages.

Nanking 1937 – Memory and Healing, edited by Fei Fei Li, Robert Sabella and David Liu, ME Sharpe, New York, 2002, 278 pages.

Marxist Philosophy in China – From Qu Qiubai to Mao Zedong, 1923–1945, Nick Knight, Springer, The Netherlands, 2005, 245 pages.

Revolution in the Highlands – China’s Jinggangshan Base Area, Stephen C Averill, Rowman and Littlefield, New York, 2006, 451 pages.

Corruption and Realism in Late Socialist China – The Return of the Political Novel, Jeffrey Kinkley, Stanford University Press, 2007, 305 pages.

Mao Zedong, a political and intellectual portrait, Maurice Meisner, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2007, 222 pages.

Rise of the Red Engineers – The Cultural Revolution and the Origins of China’s New Class, Joel Andreas, Stanford University Press, California, 2009, 344 pages.

Was Mao really a monster? The academic response to Chang and Halliday’s ‘Mao – the unknown story’, edited by Gregor Benton and Lin Chun, Routledge, Abingdon, 2010, 199 pages.

The Wounds, Norman Bethune, speeches given in Canada in the 1930s, Anvil press, Ontario, ND, 35 pages.

More on China …..

View of the world

Ukraine – what you’re not told