Josh Katz and Margot Sanger-Katz, - The New York Times
Stephan: While everyone has been focused on Covid, the opioid pandemic has drifted into obscurity. But it has not gone away; quite the opposite. This death crisis is the result, in my opinion, of the inferiority of the illness profit system. Other countries do not have death rates like this. And why does it happen?
You're broke, you lost your job, you've got two kids, You're down to electricity or food. You have no health insurance. Opiates give relief, you retreat into them because you feel powerless and see no options. This is a failure of America's social structure which makes profit the only priority. The healthcare bill Biden is trying to get passed will help, and I think opioid deaths will go down.
As Covid raged, so did the country’s other epidemic. Drug overdose deaths rose nearly 30 percent in 2020 to a record 93,000, according to preliminary statistics released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s the largest single-year increase recorded.
The deaths rose in every state but two, South Dakota and New Hampshire, with pronounced increases in the South and West.
Several grim records were set: the most drug overdose deaths in a year; the most deaths from opioid overdoses; the most overdose deaths from stimulants like methamphetamine; the most deaths from the deadly class of synthetic opioids known as fentanyls.
“It’s huge, it’s historic, it’s unheard of, unprecedented, and a real shame,” said Daniel Ciccarone, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies heroin markets. “It’s a complete shame.”
In recent years, annual drug overdose deaths had already eclipsed the peak yearly deaths from car crashes, gun violence or the AIDS epidemic.
The death toll from Covid-19 surpassed 375,000 last year, the largest American mortality event in a century, but drug deaths were experienced disproportionately […]
Stephan: Tonight I went to my island's school board meeting because it turns out we have a small but active White supremacy christofascist community, and they are doing the kind of things described in this article. It is, of course straight out of the Fascist playbook. We are in dangerous circumstances, and it is going to take massive pushback from people who support a society based on fostering wellbeing. Are you going to be part of it?
When Joe Makula decided to run for the board of the Niles-Maine Public Library in Niles, Illinois, this spring, a community member asked him how he thought the library could better serve the area’s increasingly diverse community.
Many were stunned by his response: “Instead of stocking up on books in seven different languages,” he said. “If we got people to assimilate and learn English, that would do more good.”
At the time of his candidacy, Makula was a known person in Niles, having previously led efforts to impose term limits on elected officials and stop the town mayor from filling vacant trustee positions, but his interest in the library was new. Elizabeth Lynch, a member of #SaveNilesLibrary, says that she does not know what provoked Makula’s involvement, but it quickly became apparent that his goal was “to object to the library being a community center.” He also opposed spending to repair the building’s aging roof and upgrade the facility to better bridge the digital divide separating low-income residents from their more affluent neighbors.
Stephan: Tennessee, about as poorly governed as any state in the union, run almost entirely by Republicans, has just done something so stupid I find it breathtaking. And it is very karmic. As a result of Tennessee Republican officials acting as they have, as described in this article, their policies are going to result in the death of some untold number of Tennessee youth. Good luck Tennessee voters, you got what you voted for.
Luke Allan, 13, closes his eyes as he gets a Covid-19 vaccination. The campaign to immunize America’s 17 million adolescents aged 12-to-15 kicked off in full force on May 13, a key part of President Joe Biden’s strategy to push the country close to herd immunity. Credit: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty
The Tennessee Department of Health is set to discontinue its outreach programs for vaccinations amongst adolescents, marking a decisive win for state Republicans who have repeatedly sowed vaccine hesitancy amongst residents of the state.
According to an internal report and leaked agency email obtained by the Tennessean, the department will halt all vaccine-related events at schools, which were previously used as coronavirus vaccine drives.
In a number of rural towns throughout the state, school gymnasiums are one of the few sites able to host indoor vaccine drives because they are air-conditioned and provide ample space for social distancing.
Additionally, the Tennessee Department of Health is now prohibited from sending teenagers postcards that remind them to receive their second dose. Instead, vaccine-related mail will be sent to their parents over fears that doing otherwise […]
Stephan: A few days ago I presented a piece on how the environment is altering radically as climate change gains momentum. Now, this. Nature is changing, the ecosystem of earth is undergoing a transformation. Each year from now on all of this is going to get worse. That is happening, even as Republican climate deniers in Congress and state legislatures blather on claiming humans have nothing to do with climate change, or this alteration in the earth's ecosystem. If it wasn't so tragic it would be satire.
Marine biologist Christopher Harley from the University of British Columbia says he has found hundreds of thousands of dead mussels on one beach alone. Credit: Christopher Harley/University of British Columbia
With the Pacific region hitting record-setting temperatures in the last few weeks, a new study from Canada shows the heat waves’ enormous impact on marine life:An estimated1 billion sea creatures on the coast of Vancouverhave died as a result of the heat, a researchersaid.
But that number is likely to be much higher, said professor Christopher Harley from the University of British Columbia.
“I’ve been working in the Pacific Northwest for most of the past 25 years, and I have not seen anything like this here,” he said. “This is far more extensive than anything I’ve ever seen.”
Harley reaches his estimates by counting the number of sea creatures, mostly mussels, in a section that he said is representative of an entire beach. He varies measuring some beaches that are rocky and some that are not to get a full estimate for the entire ecosystem.
Stephan: Climate change is radically changing the environment, and it is having a major impact on the fields where your food is grown. As a result expect to see a significant increase in food prices, as whole formerly fecund and productive areas are rendered unproductive.
Farmworkers stack boxes of melons on a mobile platform in Firebaugh, California, where temperatures are expected to surpass 110F. Credit: Terry Chea/AP
FRESNO, CALIFORNIA – Soaring temperatures are a way of life in the Central Valley, but racial disparities mean many have no access to relief.
n Cantua, a small town deep within California’s farming heartland, the heat had always been a part of life. “We can do nothing against it,” said Julia Mendoza, who’s lived in this town for 27 years. But lately, she says, the searing temperatures are almost unlivable.
By midday on Thursday, the first day of a protracted, extreme heatwave in California’s Central Valley, the country roads were sizzling with heat. A young volunteer with a local environmental justice non-profit who had come to check in on the neighborhood collapsed on the sidewalk, her face bright red and damp. Construction crews working nearby quickly swept her into an air-conditioned car and handed her a cold bottle of water.
“¡Mira, el calor!” gasped Mendoza as she rushed over from her front porch. Arcelia Luna, her friend and neighbor shook her […]
