My wife and I wear masks whenever we are in a public space, and I recommend you do the same. Covid may no longer be a pandemic but it is still killing thousands of people. And get used to this. There are going to be other pandemics as viruses and bacteria mutate to accommodate for the climate change we are not addressing properly.
Let’s not confuse the terms “pandemic” and “emergency.” As Abraar Karan, an infectious disease physician and researcher at Stanford University, said, “The pandemic is over until you are scrunched in bed, feeling terrible.”
Pandemics are defined by neither time nor severity, but rather by large numbers of ongoing infections worldwide. Emergencies are acute and declared to trigger an urgent response. Ending the official emergency shifted the responsibility for curbing covid from leaders to the public. In the United States, it meant, for example, that the government largely stopped covering the cost of covid tests and vaccines.
But the virus is still infecting people; indeed, it is surging right now.
With changes in the nature of the pandemic and the response, KFF Health News spoke with doctors and researchers about how to best handle covid, influenza, and other respiratory ailments spreading this season.
A holiday wave of sickness has ensued as expected. Covid infections have escalated nationwide in the past few weeks, with analyses of virus traces in wastewater suggesting infection rates as high as last year. More […]
Something very nasty and evil is taking place in Gaza but getting very little coverage or commentary because the Trump chaos is almost the only thing being covered by most of media. I see this differently, more inline with this article, but with the addition of historical context. The Jews were persecuted for centuries, exactly as the Gazans are now being persecuted. You would think the Israelis would recognize this, but Israel is now led by a fascist, Benjamin Netanyahu. He is having his military behave exactly as the Christians behaved against the Jews, they are perpetuating genocide. Although it is not getting a lot of media attention, I think Biden is making a major political error. This genocide is being carried out using weapons the U.S. is providing. Why Biden is doin this I do not know, but he should stop.
The Israeli military used hundreds of mines to blow up Israa University in Gaza on January 17, 2024. Credit: Screengrab
The Israel Defense Forces’ detonation of more than 300 mines planted at Israa University in Gaza on Wednesday provided the latest evidence that Israel’s objective in its bombardment of the enclave is not self-defense, rights advocates said.
“This is not self-defense,” said Chris Hazzard, an Irish member of the United Kingdom’s Parliament. “This is not counter-insurgency. This is ethnic-cleansing.”
The International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) called the destruction of Israa University Israel’s latest attempt to carry out a “cultural genocide” along with the slaughter of at least 24,620 people in just over three months—people who Israeli officials have claimed are legitimate military targets despite the fact that roughly half of those killed have been children.
The wiping out of cultural landmarks was included in South Africa’s International Court of Justice case accusing Israel of genocidal acts in Gaza last week, with the complaint noting that “Israel has damaged and destroyed numerous centers […]
Yet another story about how agriculture is changing to accommodate climate change. The entire structure of the farming tthat produces our food is undergoing radical change, not only how the food is grown but also the economics. We are going to see radical change and it is going to change our lives.
An example of saltwater intrusion on the Delmarva peninsula. Credit: Edwin Remsberg
John Zander’s family has owned a stretch of land along New Jersey’s southern coast for 30 years, but he only recently dubbed the farm “Cohansey Meadows.” Cohansey for the river that runs through it. Meadows for the term that residents of the region use to refer to the vast marshes that create a fluid transition between solid ground and the water of the Delaware Bay.
“This portion is a field, this portion is woods, this is marsh—it’s kind of all intertwined,” he explained while walking a road that August rains had turned to mud. In a nearby wooded area, insects hummed. In an open space where grasses stretched to the shoreline, ospreys flew overhead, dangling fish in their talons.
For decades, his family used the marshes for muskrat trapping and duck hunting and leased the drier land to farmers who grew corn and soybeans. But as salty water from the bay began to encroach, he realized they’d have to reimagine what the land could provide.
In the midst of the hacking attack on my personal computer, and the fact that I have to go in for surgery on Friday, as well as all the evil and madness I see every day as I do research for the daily SR and the weekly SR podcast, which leaves me very pessimistic about the future of the United States, yesterday I got an unexpected announcement that made me feel that even in Europe my work was having an effect to foster wellbeing. It was much appreciated and lightened my heart. My wife thought I should share it with you.
Double Eagle Energy Oil Rig, Wednesday, July 29, 2020, in Midland, Texas.Credit: Tony Gutierrez / AP
TheAmerican Oil Lobby launched an eight-figure media campaign this week promoting the idea that fossil fuels are “vital” to global energy security, alarming climate experts.
“US natural gas and oil play a key role in supplying the world with cleaner, more reliable energy,” the new initiative’s website says. The campaign comes amid record fossil fuel extraction in the US, and as the industry is attempting to capitalize on […]
