Tuesday, August 4, 2020
COVID-19 “state of disaster” imposed across Australian state of Victoria
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/03/disa-a03.html
By Patrick O’Connor
3 August 2020
The state Labor Party government in Victoria announced yesterday that in response to spiralling coronavirus infections, it was imposing a “state of disaster” for at least six weeks across the state, including a curfew between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. for Melbourne, Victoria’s capital.
Sweeping “Stage 4” measures in Melbourne include a five-kilometre limit on people’s movements, additional restrictions on leaving one’s residence, a shift to online learning for school students, restrictions on access to kindergartens and child care centres, a ban on weddings and maximum participation of five people in religious services, and a ban on all sporting and recreational activities. Restaurants and pubs are takeaway only, and some other services have been restricted, with food courts, beauty salons, and saunas among the venues closed.
Further restrictions were due to be announced today, including the possible closure of some workplaces and new restrictions on selected industries.
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton characterised the measures as “shock and awe.”
Regional Victoria has been placed under the somewhat less restrictive “Stage 3,” which does not involve a curfew or travel limits, but restricts the permissible reasons for leaving residences. Throughout the state, wearing masks or face coverings in public is mandatory.
The unprecedented measures imposed represent an indictment of the federal Liberal-National government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the Victorian Labor government of Premier Daniel Andrews.
The Australian ruling class failed to take the necessary preventive measures from the beginning of the pandemic, did not invest the public health resources required for mass testing and contact tracing, and throughout the emergency prioritised the demands of business over the safety of the population.
In April, Morrison and every state premier, Labor and Liberal, rejected epidemiological advice on how coronavirus infections could be eliminated. They instead insisted that a safe level of infection could be managed, and in May began to lift the limited restrictions that had been put in place.
The outcome has been a public health disaster. Yesterday Andrews effectively acknowledged that authorities had lost control over coronavirus community transmission.
On Sunday, the state recorded its second-highest daily total of 671 new cases, together with seven deaths, taking Victoria’s COVID-19 death toll to 153. Today another 429 cases were reported. In neighbouring New South Wales, infections are much lower but appear to trending upward. Today 13 new infections were reported, and Premier Gladys Berejiklian called for residents to be on “extra high alert.”
There are 760 active COVID-19 cases in Victoria that Andrews described as “mystery” infections—health authorities are investigating the cases but still have no idea where and how people caught the virus. An unknown number of other cases remain undetected.
Only around 20,000 to 35,000 daily tests have been done in Victoria over the past two months, though the state has a population of 6.4 million. At no point in the pandemic have preparations been made to test every resident of Melbourne, as has been done in other cities internationally, for example in Wuhan, China and Danang, Vietnam.
Medical scientists have demanded greater transparency with testing and infection data in Victoria. University of Melbourne epidemiologist John Mathews told the Age: “The first question is what data do the government actually have? Because they haven’t really told us.” Many tests are being sent interstate due to inadequate infrastructure in Victoria. Mathews added that he believed delays in processing tests are a significant factor in the coronavirus spread.
Mary-Louise McLaws, professor of epidemiology at the University of New South Wales and adviser to the World Health Organisation, called for public investment in screening clinics and laboratories, including hiring more trained staff, so that people with COVID-19 symptoms did not have to wait days for test results.
A “state of disaster” has been declared only once before, at the beginning of this year during the bushfire crisis. That only applied, however, for several days, and to affected parts of regional Victoria.
The latest declaration gives the government and the police powers far beyond those of the existing “state of emergency,” though that remains in place. Under the Emergency Management Act, in a “state of disaster” the government can suspend any act of parliament or regulation deemed to “inhibit response to or recovery from the disaster” and issue directions that prevail over any legislation or law. All government agencies are subject to directives from the emergency services minister. Police and emergency services personnel have the authority to order evacuations and seize property.
No explanation was provided for the need for the virtually unlimited powers handed to the police and other authorised officers. Police Minister Lisa Neville yesterday declared that police would prohibit all protests.
The state Labor government, like its counterparts throughout Australia, has sought to avoid placing any restrictions on the activities of corporations amid the pandemic. This is despite the fact that 80 percent of all coronavirus infections in Melbourne have occurred within workplaces.
Low-wage and highly-casualised industries are among the worst affected. This includes the aged care sector, the meatworks industry and warehouses, where workers have been kept on the job by governments with the assistance of the trade unions.
The working class is beginning to take action in response. Around 45 meat workers at the JBS abattoir in Brooklyn, a western suburb of Melbourne, organised a stopwork meeting last Tuesday to discuss safety provisions in the plant. The following day, 35 workers at the Spotless commercial laundry in South Dandenong, another suburb, refused to turn up for their shifts, following an outbreak of COVID-19 at the facility.
Earlier today, about 240 warehouse workers at the Woolworths Liquor Distribution Centre in Laverton, western Melbourne, took strike action. A worker tested positive on Friday, but the grocery corporate giant refused to close the warehouse and instead attempted to maintain normal operations.
Such initiatives need to be taken forward by other sections of workers, with the organisation of rank-and-file action and safety committees, completely independent of the pro-corporate unions, now a life and death question. These committees, democratically controlled by workers themselves should formulate, oversee and enforce safety and workplace standards. Where conditions are violated, there must be a stoppage of work.
Major League Baseball season on brink of collapse as COVID-19 continues to spread
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/03/mlb-a03.html
By Alan Gilman
3 August 2020
Major League Baseball’s (MLB) season began on July 23 and has already been forced to postpone 17 games due to COVID-19 outbreaks. As many as 21 members of the Miami Marlins, including 18 players (or 60 percent of its game day roster), tested positive for the coronavirus last week. Over the weekend, multiple St. Louis Cardinals players and staffers tested positive as well, along with at least two staffers on the Philadelphia Phillies.
These teams cannot play until their remaining players test negative for at least three to four days. Although MLB tests all of its players and staff every two days, because of delays in testing results a positive case can go up to four days before being diagnosed.
The infected teams, their recent opponents and their upcoming opponents all have to postpone their games. Fully 20 percent of MLB’s weekend games, which typically receive the highest viewerships, have had to be postponed.
MLB’s plan has been to play a shortened season, originally consisting of 60 games played over 66 days. To make up for these postponed games MLB intends to schedule multiple double headers with the standard nine inning games being reduced to seven. Playing so many games in such a short period significantly increases the risk of injuries to players, particularly pitchers.
On Friday Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred told MLB Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark that if the sport does not do a better job of managing the coronavirus, it could shut down for the season. According to official guidelines, Manfred has the sole discretion to suspend the season.
The almost immediate collapse of MLB’s return to play exposes the absurdity of attempting to play professional sports in the midst of the most serious public health crisis in modern history.
The multibillions of dollars that are at stake have certainly played an important role in MLB’s reckless decisions. But more is at stake than the revenue streams for team owners.
The reopening of sports leagues is part of the broader return-to-work drive by the entire ruling class and is an attempt to “normalize” the pandemic, even as over 1,000 Americans continue to die each day.
But if MLB, in spite of billions in resources, is unable even to protect the health of a relatively small number of mostly young adults in peak physical condition, this campaign will receive a serious blow. There can be no doubt that MLB is under intense political pressure behind the scenes to not abandon the season.
By Saturday Manfred was shifting the blame to the players. “The players need to be better, but I am not a quitter in general, and there is no reason to quit now. We have had to be fluid, but it is manageable.”
In reality, MLB's “safety protocols” were always grossly inadequate and doomed to failure, and public health experts have stated so. Although these protocols require daily temperature checks, regular testing, and sanitization of club houses, MLB declined to set up a quarantine “bubble” similar to other US sports leagues. Instead, games are being played without audiences in teams’ normal venues, leaving players and staff at high risk of contracting the virus as they travel.
The fact that a central element of the “protocols” is the near-doubling of roster sizes and the establishment of “taxi squads” of replacements for road trips demonstrates that league’s primary concern was not preventing outbreaks, but that suitable replacements could be found to play games in spite of outbreaks.
The fact that the Miami Marlins elected to play their scheduled game against the Philadelphia Phillies last Sunday, in spite of having four confirmed cases already on their roster, testifies to the lack of any independent decision-making process led by medical experts.
Moreover MLB has no qualms about the risk that players are compelled to assume as they travel to and from Miami, Houston, and Los Angeles, three Major League cities that currently have among the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world.
Before the season began, 18 players opted out of playing the season out of concern for their own health and those of their families. This weekend they were joined by three others, Isan Diaz of the Miami Marlins, Lorenzo Cain of the Milwaukee Brewers, and Yoenis Cespedes of the New York Mets. Also on Sunday, Cincinnati Reds All-Star first baseman Joey Votto was placed on the injury list after reporting COVID-19 symptoms.
Eduardo Rodriguez, a 27-year-old pitcher of the Boston Red Sox, has developed lingering complications from the coronavirus and will sit out the season. Even though he had tested positive on July 7 and recovered in time to join the team for spring training, a routine physical revealed he had developed myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart. Recent studies have shown that a large percentage of recovered COVID-19 patients have suffered from heart inflammation, including myocarditis.
Rodriguez told the press last month that he felt about “100 years old” with the virus. “I’ve never been that sick in my life,” he added, “and I don’t want to get that sick again.” The fact that a pro athlete in peak physical condition could develop such severe symptoms exposes claims that only the elderly and infirm are at risk.
The problems plaguing baseball are also appearing in football as the National Football League (NFL) and college football open training camps.
The NFL and the NFL Players Association agreed to a plan that allows players to opt out of the upcoming season if they are uncomfortable with the COVID-19 health protocols put in place. High-risk individuals could opt out and receive a $350,000 stipend, less than the minimum salary for rookies, whereas those less at risk would receive a $150,000 stipend. Players have the ability to opt out later in the season, as well, in the event that a family member becomes sick.
So far 39 players have opted out, including eight from the New England Patriots. Many opted out last week after witnessing the debacle in MLB. Instead of attempting to address the justified fears of its players, the NFL is attempting to stop the flow of players opting out by imposing a Wednesday deadline, by when they can exercise this option.
There are also over 60 NFL players on what the league describes as Reserve/COVID-19 list. This category includes players who have tested positive or have been in close contact with someone who has. This present list includes two starting quarterbacks, Mathew Strafford of the Detroit Lions and Gardner Minshew of the Jacksonville Jaguars. According to the NFL, these players have to remain apart from the team until they are “healthy.”
Far more dangerous is the situation facing college football players. Most small college programs will not be playing, but the multibillion-dollar business of major college football is scheduled to start later this month.
As college training camps open, many teams have reported significant numbers of players testing positive. Moreover, these amateur “student-athletes” are being brought back to campuses where in most cases the student body will remain at home for some or all of the semester. Many players and their parents have complained about the hypocrisy of having them continue to play and travel while it is deemed too unsafe for other students to be on campus.
Among college players there is growing opposition to these plans. A group of football players from the PAC-12, the West Coast Conference containing major programs such as UCLA, Berkeley, Stanford, and Oregon, wrote a letter to the conference declaring that they would opt out of fall camp and games unless the league meets several demands.
These include allowing players the option to opt out without losing athletics eligibility or a spot on their team’s roster, prohibiting or voiding all agreements that waive liability for the conference and its schools and player-approved health and safety standards enforced by a third parties.
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