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Thursday, June 3, 2021
Krystal Ball on the REAL Reason She Left The Hill's Rising–Premiering NOW
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Scientists take a stand against “Wuhan lab” witch-hunt
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/06/03/wuha-j03.html
Andre Damon
10 hours ago
The open embrace by the US media of the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was released from the Wuhan Institute of Virology has incited a right-wing campaign against scientists researching the origin of the pandemic.
Scientists who have for years warned about the dangers posed by infectious diseases and have sought to defend society from a raging pandemic are being scapegoated in a vicious witch-hunt.
But leading scientists, under relentless and slanderous attack not only by the far-right gutter press but by the “mainstream” media, have taken a courageous and principled stand, defending science, international collaboration, and the fight to save lives in the ongoing pandemic.
Since the publication by the Wall Street Journal claiming to present new evidence for the Wuhan lab conspiracy theory, the Washington Post has declared the theory “credible,” while the print and broadcast media have joined in the right-wing chorus condemning scientists for having rejected the false theory.
Since the start of the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has been publicly associated with a scientific approach to COVID-19. Despite making accommodations to Trump’s criminal “herd immunity” policies, and the abandonment of public health measures under Biden, Fauci has argued against conspiracy theories and other forms of right-wing hysteria.
For this, he has been the main target of vilification and violent threats by the right-wing mob, best summed up by the demand by Trump’s former campaign CEO Stephen K. Bannon for Fauci’s head to be put on a pike outside the White House.
But this campaign went into overdrive on Tuesday with the publication by the Washington Post of hundreds of emails by Fauci from March 2020.
The emails show that Fauci and his colleagues, including Kristian G. Andersen, director of Infectious Disease Genomics at Scripps Research Translational Institute and Peter Daszak, president of the Ecohealth Alliance, discussed and investigated the lab-leak theory before categorically rejecting it on the basis of a thorough scientific investigation.
But right-wing pundits and politicians have seized upon the emails as evidence of a “smoking gun,” claiming that the scientists’ good-faith investigation of all possible theories, and the rejection of the “Wuhan lab” theory, constitutes evidence of a conspiracy to suppress the allegedly genetically-engineered origins of the pandemic.
Leading the charge was Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, an advocate of the QAnon and Pizzagate conspiracy theories who claimed that Jewish bankers are responsible for wildfires in California. ‘He needs to be FIRED!’ Green demanded.
“Anthony Fauci should be in prison,” wrote Charlie Kirk, the head of the right-wing Turning Points campus organization. “#FIREFAUCI” tweeted Rand Paul, the far-right anti-vaccination Republican senator.
The front page of the right-wing UK Daily Mail blared, “Fauci’s smoking gun emails.” The fascist Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson declared that Fauci should be under “criminal investigation.”
The front page of the Daily Mail’s online edition Wednesday
“Corrupt Media Ignore Smoking Gun Emails In Order To Protect Fauci,” writes the Federalist, which advocated early in the pandemic that infected people engage in “chicken pox parties” to infect others.
The mainstream press joined in, with NBC News demanding that Fauci explain his discussions Chinese health officials, and pressing him on whether the government did “enough to investigate the origins of the virus.”
On Sunday, Peter Daszak, co-leader of the subgroup on Animal and Environment for the World Health Organization’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19, was denounced in a hit piece in the British Daily Telegraph as having “sympathized with the Chinese government.”
Replying to this right-wing campaign, Kristian G. Andersen, who discussed the origins of the disease with Fauci in March, reiterated on Twitter his opposition to the “Wuhan lab” conspiracy theory, explaining the fact that the consideration—and possible rejection—of theories is critical to how science works:
As I have said many times, we seriously considered a lab leak a possibility. However, significant new data, extensive analyses, and many discussions led to the conclusions in our paper. What the email shows, is a clear example of the scientific process.
Andersen cited his March 17, 2020, peer-reviewed paper in the Nature science journal where he and his colleagues wrote:
The genetic data irrefutably show that SARS-CoV-2 is not derived from any previously used virus backbone… Instead, we propose two scenarios that can plausibly explain the origin of SARS-CoV-2: (i) natural selection in an animal host before zoonotic transfer; and (ii) natural selection in humans following zoonotic transfer.
Peter Daszak added on Twitter:
This is called science, folks. You look at the evidence, generate hypotheses, discuss with others, dig deeper, refute some hypotheses, find evidence to support others, then you come to a conclusion & make that public. The peer-review is critical, & was done over & over again.
Daszak retweeted a recent editorial in Nature calling on scientists to “protect precious scientific collaboration from geopolitics,” declaring, “Researchers, institutions & governments must all play their part to guard against a chill in scientific collaboration.”
Peter Daszak (Credit: Ecohealth Alliance)
Leading scientists have prominently shared and discussed a recent article by Dan Samorodnitsky, a biochemist and senior editor at Massive Science, who presented a devastating critique of the “Wuhan Lab” theory in layman’s terms:
One hypothesis requires a colossal cover-up and the silent, unswerving, leak-proof compliance of a vast network of scientists, civilians, and government officials for over a year. The other requires only for biology to behave as it always has, for a family of viruses that have done this before to do it again. The zoonotic spillover hypothesis is simple and explains everything. It’s scientific malpractice to pretend that one idea is equally as meritorious as the other. The lab-leak hypothesis is a scientific deus ex machina, a narrative shortcut that points a finger at a specific set of bad actors.
In recent days, the World Socialist Web Site has published a series of widely read and discussed articles debunking the Wuhan laboratory lie. On Tuesday, we published an article pointing out that Michael Gordon, the lead author of the Wall Street Journal article that led the US media to declare the story “credible,” had co-authored the debunked “aluminum tubes” report, together with Judith Miller, that spearheaded the US propaganda campaign before the 2003 military onslaught against Iraq.
On Sunday, we published an article entitled, “How the US media declared the ‘Wuhan lab’ lie ‘credible,’” explaining the central role of former Trump campaign CEO Bannon in promoting the conspiracy theory.
Peter Daszak thanked the World Socialist Web Site for its coverage, writing, “Thanks for resurfacing this!” When he came under right-wing attack for this statement, Daszak defended the World Socialist Web Site, writing:
I thanked them for resurfacing evidence of link between nefarious characters like Miles Guo, Lude & political activists on the right. Factually laid out in that article, on CNN & NYT which they cite. Last time I checked we’d moved beyond McCarthy in the US!
In the coming days, the World Socialist Web Site will do everything in its power to warn working people all over the world about the right-wing witch-hunt against the world’s leading experts on infectious diseases. We stand ready to work with scientists in defending a scientific approach to the pandemic, which is critical to saving lives. Working people, who are the target of the ruling class’s herd immunity policies, must come to the defense of scientists who have sought to arm society with the knowledge necessary to stop the pandemic!
UAW-backed contract includes new attacks on Volvo Truck retirees
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/06/03/veba-j03.html
Jerry White
10 hours ago
Volvo workers: Contact the Volvo Workers Rank-and-File Committee by email at volvowrfc@gmail.com or by text at (540) 307-0509.
Nearly 3,000 workers at Volvo Truck’s New River Valley plant in Dublin, Virginia will be voting this Sunday on a six-year labor agreement backed by the United Auto Workers union. Rank-and-file workers are actively opposing the deal, which is only a slightly modified version of a previous UAW-backed deal workers decisively rejected last month.
There are many elements of the proposed agreement that have enraged workers. Over the last three contracts, the Swedish multinational and the UAW have pointed to supposed economic difficulties to justify demands for concessions, including the introduction of a multitier wage and benefit system that condemns young workers to inferior pay and denies them fully paid pension benefits.
Striking Volvo workers (Source: UAW L. 2069 Facebook page)
With the company enjoying years of rising profits and market share, workers are determined to recoup their losses and win substantial improvements for current and retired workers.
In a statement calling for a “no” vote on Sunday, the recently formed Volvo Workers Rank-and-File Committee informs UAW President Rory Gamble, Secretary Treasurer Ray Curry and UAW Local 2069 President Matt Blondino what the minimal basis would be for an agreement that workers will accept.
This includes:
A 25 percent across-the-board wage increase to restore income lost over the last three contracts
Maintain current health insurance rates and coverage
Fully paid health care benefits for retirees, with no copays or premiums
End the multitier wage system and transfer all workers to top-tier pay and benefits
Eliminate the Alternative Work Schedule and keep current overtime rules
Implement a COLA clause to meet the soaring prices of consumer goods
Five personal days for all workers, not just salaried workers, and no cuts to vacation days
A $4,000 contract ratification bonus
The defense of the livelihoods and health of the thousands of retirees and surviving spouses is a principled issue for the VWRFC. The committee has fought for the unity of all workers, young and old, “Core Group” and “Competitive Workers,” active and retired, and fought against all efforts by the company and the UAW to divide and weaken workers.
Among the retirees are the original workers at the New River Valley plant, which was built in 1979 and was originally owned by White Motor Corp. of Cleveland. Volvo bought the plant and other assets as part of its takeover of near-bankrupt White Motor in 1981 and further entry into the North American truck market, which included a controlling interest in the General Motors Truck and Bus Group of Pontiac, Michigan.
Beginning in the 1980s, the UAW handed over one concession after another to the auto and truck manufacturing corporations as part of its corporatist program of labor-management collaboration and enticing the global corporations to invest in the US by ending strikes and systematically lowering labor costs. This included abandoning millions of retirees who had spent their working lives producing corporate profits.
This took a qualitative turn in mid-2005 when the UAW agreed to grant historic concessions to GM, including the company’s demand to cut billions of dollars’ worth of health care benefits to its 500,000 retirees and their dependents. In 2007, the UAW abandoned the principle of fully paid retiree health benefits, won by autoworkers in 1964 after nearly two decades of bitter struggles, and allowed the Detroit automakers to dump their obligations.
This took the form of the establishment of a so-called Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association, or VEBA, which was initially funded (in fact drastically underfunded) by the corporations. The UAW, which was handed billions in dollars of corporate shares, was thus put in charge of rationing medical benefits to retirees and their survivors.
To push the VEBA through, the UAW went so far as joining General Motors in a legal action against retirees who had filed a class action suit to stop the first-ever reductions in health care benefits. The Detroit Free Press noted at the time that legal experts said the UAW took such “an unusual step to keep disgruntled retirees from challenging the union’s right to negotiate such concessions and tying the deal up in years of litigation.”
Between 1984 and 2005, the collective bargaining agreements between the UAW and Volvo provided that health benefits for pension-eligible employees “will be continued into retirement with [Volvo] making the full contribution.” In 2005, however, the UAW agreed to the setup of a VEBA with Volvo, along with a mechanism to shift higher costs onto retirees if there was not enough money in the VEBA trust.
According to court documents from the 2011 case Quesenberry v. Volvo Trucks Retiree Healthcare argued before the US District Court, Fourth Circuit, the 2005 agreement also outlined the limits of Volvo’s financial obligations, “Volvo’s liability for retiree health insurance expenses was limited to an average cost of $13,606 per year for each non-Medicare-eligible retiree and $3,292 for each Medicare-eligible retiree. To resolve problems posted by potential costs in excess of those caps, Volvo agreed to create a Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association (VEBA) trust, to which it was required to contribute a total of $3.943 million, including $1.585 million on the last day of the 2005 CBA’s term in 2008. Of that amount, Volvo in 2005 projected that only $400,000 would be necessary for cumulative above-cap costs until the agreement’s expiration on January 31, 2008. The VEBA assets were to be held ‘for the exclusive purpose of paying all costs incurred by Retiree Participants under the Volvo Plan that exceed the limits set forth above.’”
The documents further state: “In the event that the VEBA trust was projected to be exhausted within a calendar year, Volvo and the UAW were required to meet to discuss how to reduce health care costs. If those negotiations proved unsuccessful, Volvo could charge each retiree for any costs over the caps according to a formula set forth in the Cost paragraph.”
In a 2011 decision that is strikingly similar to the one the courts reached in the phony case the UAW brought against GM in 2005, the US District Court ruled that Volvo could not unilaterally cut retiree benefits unless “the VEBA is projected to be exhausted within one year and Volvo and the Union are unable to agree on benefits reductions to reduce the premium costs which Volvo pays for the employees.”
It is likely that the UAW and Volvo have deliberately underfunded the VEBA over the last several contracts, putting into motion a series of new cuts. In an ominous threat to retiree benefits, the tentative agreement the UAW is now pushing states that “the Company and the Union agree to continue meeting to discuss potential prospective changes to the Volvo Plan as it applies to each group.” This includes Volvo’s hiring of a third-party contractor to assist with analysis of potential cost-cutting changes.
In a letter to the Volvo Workers Rank-and-File Committee, a worker who retired after 31 years has written, “I am so proud of all of you that are standing up for the retirees. We have been getting the shaft for several years and if you let this new contract be approved without a Veba trust fund, then both the retirees and the current employees are screwed.
“After the 2016 contract was approved, I sat in a retiree meeting and heard our local president say that they had overlooked the Veba trust fund but don’t worry because he would take care of us in 2021. I had cold chills run down my back because I knew if they did not look out for us in 2016, they sure as hell would not look out for us in 2021.
“The only thing the company wants for us is to die and to get rid of their liability!!! Our retirement income benefit has dwindled away and the future does not look bright for us having any income or insurance. I feel sure that the company told Anthem to put co-pays and out of pockets on our latest insurance card because they intend to shove those down our throat as well. I would love to vote on this contract!!”
The letter concludes by thanking the committee “for what you are attempting to do for us and all current employees.”
Volvo workers: Contact the Volvo Workers Rank-and-File Committee by email at volvowrfc@gmail.com or by text at (540) 307-0509.
Florida data scientist Rebekah Jones granted whistleblower status
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/06/03/flor-j01.html
Trévon Austin
10 hours ago
Rebekah Jones, a former Florida Department of Health employee, has been granted whistleblower status a year after being fired for speaking out against the state government’s campaign to reopen schools and workplaces amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Inspector General Michael J. Bennett informed Jones’ attorneys May 28 that she met the criteria set down in state law for whistleblower status, which begins a process of investigation to determine whether her complaints are justified by the evidence.
The Miami Herald reported Bennett said Jones’ complaints demonstrate “reasonable cause to suspect that an employee or agent of an agency or independent contractor has violated any federal, state or local law, rule or regulation.” Under the state’s whistleblower rules, Jones could be reinstated to her previous job or be eligible for compensation if an investigation finds her firing was in retaliation for the concerns she raised.
In the complaint, filed July 17, 2020, Jones alleged she was fired for “opposition and resistance to instructions to falsify data in a government website.” She described being asked to bend data analysis to fit predetermined policy and delete data from public view after questions from the press—actions she claimed “represent an immediate injury to the public health, safety, and welfare, including the possibility of death to members of the public.”
Jones, a geographer specializing in Geographic Information System (GIS) data science, who helped build Florida’s online presentation of its COVID-19 data, garnered national attention for refusing to strategically manipulate the information to minimize the severity of the pandemic. At the time, Florida was an epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.
Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who had been pushing to reopen the state for commerce, bitterly denounced Jones and claimed she displayed “insubordination” and “blatant disrespect” for her colleagues. DeSantis said he felt “that it was best to terminate her employment.”
Within a few weeks of being fired, Jones launched her own website to keep track of Florida’s COVID-19 information. Her website, COVID Monitor, uses the same data science software and data extraction techniques Jones had used to build the Florida Department of Health dashboard. Jones’ new website included an enhanced metric with hospital bed availability by facility, something that was not being publicly reported.
Jones also continued to raise doubts about the official figures reported by the Health Department and challenge the drive to reopen schools and workplaces. The Florida Department of Health filed a complaint against Jones on November 10 alleging she gained unauthorized access to a department messaging system. The message urged health officials to “speak up before another 17,000 people are dead. You know this is wrong. You don’t have to be a part of this. Be a hero. Speak out before it’s too late.”
Jones denied the hacking allegations, which were quickly proven to be false. Still, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced they had issued a search warrant “after suspecting Jones of being responsible for a computer hack into the health department website.” Police also claimed she downloaded unauthorized health department state data.
On December 2, Jones and two colleagues published an article in US News & World Report critical of the reopening of schools across the country. The article noted that more than 1 million children had been infected with COVID-19 by that time.
“Our data demonstrates that schools are not the safe havens or silos some believed they would be, and that they in fact contribute to the spread of COVID-19 in a number of ways,” they wrote. “In our opinion, the data suggests schools are NOT safe and DO contribute to the spread of the virus—both within schools and within their surrounding communities,” the article concluded.
Jones’ exposure of the disastrous “herd immunity” policy made her a target and officers raided her home on December 7, pointing their guns at Jones’ husband and children. During the raid, police seized Jones’ phone, all her computers, and other equipment she used to keep Florida COVID Action up-to-date. She also said flash drives seized by the police contained proof that state officials “were lying in January about things like internal reports and notices from the CDC,” in addition to “evidence of illegal activities by the state.”
She compared the scene to a Nazi raid, saying police intended to terrorize her and use her as an example. “This was DeSantis. He sent the gestapo,” she tweeted shortly after the raid. “This is what happens to scientists who do their job honestly. This is what happens to people who speak truth to power.” Jones later turned herself in to police after they issued a warrant for her arrest in January.
The COVID Monitor documented that at least 491,403 students and 206,894 educators have been infected in K-12 schools across the US. An additional 74,944 cases linked to schools have not been specified.
The Florida state government and the ultra-right have stepped up their campaign against Jones in recent months. DeSantis recently hired as his press secretary Christine Pushaw, the author of a vicious smear attack on Jones in the right-wing magazine Human Events .
Rebekah Jones was silenced because of her efforts to tell the truth about the pandemic, which threatened the ruling class’s drive to end health and safety restrictions. Just as with whistleblowers Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, Jones is being persecuted for the crime of telling the working class the truth: in this case, about the pandemic and the criminal response of the state and federal governments.
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