Not exactly Thermopylae. Not even close. The hundred thousand who have now been taken by COVID-19 in Britain were not determined warriors holding up the forces of a mighty empire to save their land. They were the innocent victims of infection, mismanagement and miscalculation. Central to the policy which led […]
Tag: Coronavirus
Not Knowing What You Stand For: Deborah Birx And Public Health
Pity the public health official tasked with convincing those beyond convincing that a pandemic crisis is worthy of serious consideration. This is further complicated in instances where such officials feel the need to play court jester, appeaser or silent sufferer. When she was made coordinator of the White House coronavirus […]
Masking Up Under Biden: The Perils Of Tribalism, Bureaucracy And Lawsuits
One crackling theme streaking through the US elections of 2020 was the issue of mask wearing. Critics initially felt that facemasks were of the too important category in combating the novel coronavirus: purchasing and using them was tantamount to prizing valuable protective equipment from doctors and frontline workers. But COVID-19 […]
The Gold Comes Off: A COVID-19 Outbreak In Sydney
Australia has various advantages as an island continent. It is monumental and only accessible in the most impractical ways. It is discouragingly far and almost impossible to invade without a huge investment of personnel and material. The decision to place convicts on the island by the British was audaciously cruel […]
Yuletide Lockdowns And Cancelling Christmas
The mind changer in Downing Street has struck again. With UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the helm, changes of direction are compulsive, natural and sudden. The U-Turn has become the prosaic expectation. “Too often it looks like this government licks its finger and sticks it in the air to […]
Hoarding The Jabs: The Inequalities Of Vaccine Distribution
Public health is no excuse to keep business and patriotism at bay. Not a very humanitarian sentiment, but then again, healing the sick and preserving the healthy can become parochial, nationalist objectives. The least convincing language of the pandemic has been this baffling and trite notion that “we” and “all […]
Julian Assange: Covid Risks and Campaigns for Pardon
Before the January 4 ruling of District Judge Vanessa Baraitser in the extradition case of Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks publisher will continue to endure the ordeal of cold prison facilities while being menaced by a COVID-19 outbreak. From November 18, Assange, along with inmates in House Block 1 at Belmarsh […]
Jab Me If You Can: How Political Endorsements Defeat Vaccinations
Will they ever learn? When former US Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton announced that they would publicly take a vaccine against COVID-19, National Public Radio seemed impressed. “Who better to promote a product than a former president? How about three?” On SiriusXM’s The Joe Madison Show, […]
Deglobalisation
The virtual G20 summit highlighted the death of globalisation, despite all the conscientious efforts of those involved, and it highlighted that deglobalisation in the post-COVID world has already taken place. This isn’t about some conspiracy against the conventional “American unipolar world” (in the form of a Pax Americana) or an […]
Russia’s ‘Vaccine Diplomacy’ Is The Basis Of Its New Global Outreach Campaign
Russia is arguably beating the US, the Gates Foundation, and every other competitor by far in in the so-called “vaccine race”, especially as regards the growing number of partnerships that it’s clinched across the world to produce and distribute the Sputnik V vaccine, which is entirely due to it prioritizing […]
Covid Offices And The Religion Of Remote Work
Masks can prove liberating. The hidden face affords security. Obnoxious authority breathes better, hiding in comfort. Behind the material, confidence finds a home. While tens of millions of jobs have been lost to the novel coronavirus globally, security services, surveillance officers and pen pushers are thriving, policing admissions to facilities, […]
A Dedicated Obsession: Washington’s Continuing Iran Sanctions Regime
One dogma that is likely to persist in US foreign policy during a Biden presidency will be the sanctions regime adopted towards Iran. Every messianic state craves clearly scripted enemies, and the demonology about the Islamic Republic is not going to go begging. Elliot Abrahams, the current US special representative […]
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