The US war on peace: Frann Michel hosts this episode which features these segments:
Mask Up: Palestinian Solidarity and Covid-19
Mask Up! We Need You: Palestinian Solidarity, Covid-19, and the Struggle for Liberation by Rimona Eskayo and Sheyam Ghieth is "a primer for those who consider themselves co-strugglers for Palestinian liberation, yet may not understand the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic as both a genocide in itself and a tool of genocide that perpetuates all others." Frann Michel talks with the creators of the zine about the cumulative dangers and disparate impacts of the continuing pandemic, the interconnections of capitalism and disease, and their work to share information and resources.
Decades ago, the Wars on Drugs and Terror broke down the walls separating law enforcement from military operations. In A World of Enemies: America’s Wars at Home and Abroad from Kennedy to Biden, Osamah Khalil tells the story of how an America plagued by fears of waning power and influence embraced foreign and domestic forever wars. Khalil, Professor of History at Syracuse University, argues that the militarization of US domestic and foreign affairs was the product of America’s failure in Vietnam. Unsettled by their inability to prevail in Southeast Asia, US leaders increasingly came to see a host of problems as immune to political solutions. Rather, crime, drugs, and terrorism were enemies spawned in “badlands”—whether the Middle East or stateside inner cities. Laurie Mercier talks with Khalil about his new book.
Announcement note: the Veterans for Peace Convention will be held online Friday through Sunday, August 16 to 18. Register here.
Additional notes from the host:
Covid Update: the Covid-19 pandemic, caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, continues.
Although data is becoming increasingly inaccessible, the most recent estimates for early August in the USA show levels of SARS-Cov-2 in wastewater are "high" or "very high" in 44 states, including Oregon; higher than it has ever been at this time of year, and continuing to rise in many regions. Rates of emergency department visits, hospitalization, and test positivity are increasing.
In the USA currently, about a million people contract Covid every day; and between 1 in 37 and one in 57 people is probably infectious--possibly as many as 1 in 23 here in the west.
In the USA currently, someone dies of Covid about every fifteen minutes, not counting the deaths from other ailments or dangers resulting from covid.
As epidemiologist Michael Oleson points out, "Most of the population thinks of COVID as a respiratory disease, when in fact it is a vascular disease with an acute respiratory phase, but that has chronic sequelae in almost every organ system, and repeat infections significantly increase the risk of chronic disease. It is driving increases in infectious disease due to immune system dysregulation." It is also causing increases in cancer, stroke, diabetes, brain damage, depression, motor vehicle accidents, and long-term disability as well as other causes of increased death rates.
Covid is airborne: it is in the exhaled breath of infected people. It moves like smoke. More than half of the spread comes from people who have no symptoms. Rapid tests usually do not catch asymptomatic cases. About a third of cases show no symptoms but can still cause damage and disability.
Vaccines help, although the virus evolves rapidly and immunity wanes quickly.
Universal masking policies and improved ventilation also help a lot.
Wearing a tightly-fitted high-filtration mask, if you can do so, shows that you care about protecting yourself, your loved ones, and your community.
Respirator masks help protect against infection and they also help protect against wildfire smoke. The fine particulate matter released in wildfire smoke, as well as from other sources, can enter the bloodstream and cause cardiovascular and pulmonary disease, among other problems, and as with covid, the dangers are cumulative. Air pollution causes more than 8 million deaths globally each year. And the presence of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) also increases the likelihood of covid transmission.
The damage is greater among those more frequently exposed and those already suffering other stresses--including poor people, people of color, queer people, and those who are houseless or incarcerated--or living under military attack.
Mask Bloc PDX (https://linktr.ee/maskblocpdx) has information and respirator masks. They aim for 48hr response time to email (no DMs please) and delivery within 7 days.
- KBOO