Jazz Is Freedom The Baffler
Grief, a (grand)mother tongue Scalawag
Climate
Oregon Follows California, Bans Combustion New Car Sales By 2035 Motor1
#COVID19
The bivalent vaccine booster outperforms Eric Topol, Ground Truths. “The Bottom Line: ‘Bivalent boosters work well to prevent severe Covid, as manifest by reduction of hospitalizations and deaths. They are not a panacea, by any means—their efficacy against infections is limited and of short duration, which has been the case for shots since the Omicron variant came along in late 2021.”
Immunogenicity of BA.5 Bivalent mRNA Vaccine Boosters (correspondence) NEJM. Small n. “These data are consistent with the modest benefits observed with a BA.1-containing bivalent mRNA booster. Our findings suggest that immune imprinting by previous antigenic exposure5 may pose a greater challenge than is currently appreciated for inducing robust immunity against SARS-CoV-2 variants.”
Bivalent Covid-19 Vaccines — A Cautionary Tale (“Perspective”) NEJM. “I believe we should stop trying to prevent all symptomatic infections in healthy, young people by boosting them with vaccines containing mRNA from strains that might disappear a few months later.” Consistent with what KLG wrote at NC here.
How antivaxxers laid the groundwork to blame COVID-19 vaccines for Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest Science-Based Medicine. Watch out for the anecdotes! Do note — hear me out, binary thinking tribalists — that these three things could be true at the same time: (1) Most anti-vaxxers are bad faith operators who make sh*t up, especially online; (2) mRNA’s little spike factories have bad health effects (especially vascular); and (3) Covid’s own little spikes have bad health effects (endothelial, including vascular, neurological, and organ damage generally). If (2) proves out, that would have various socio-political effects, including the complete discrediting of the PMC who imposed vaccine mandates. It must therefore be blocked from the discourse, which the PMC also control, and I’m a little concerned that acceptance of (3) — I’m seeing more and more studies supporting it — will be used to drown out (2) (“I’m no anti-vaxxer,” “How do you know it’s not Covid?”). Too schematic? Too bleak?
The quiet cost of covid: A million people missing work each month WaPo
The Silenced Employee The Unconscious Manager
Blinken says U.S. applauds Japan’s decision to double defense spending Reuters
China?
Satellite images capture crowding at China’s crematoriums and funeral homes as Covid surge continues CNN
China eases curbs on property developers to counter downturn FT
Painful as it is, China must rid its economy of an ever-rising property market Michael Pettis, South China Morning Post
Congrats, You’re a Member of Congress. Now Listen Up. Stephen Walt, Foreign Policy. Extracting the key point from all the verbiage: “The United States is now trying to inflict decisive defeats on two major powers simultaneously. We are trying to help Ukraine inflict a military defeat on Russia…. At the same time, we are trying to inflict an economic and technological defeat on China that will slow its rise and preserve U.S. dominance for decades to come.” Perspective:
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukraine war: Sergei Surovikin removed as commander of Ukraine invasion force BBC. I am inclined to think this shuffle is simpler than it’s being made to seem. Surovikin is commander of Russia’s aerospace forces. Surovikin destroyed Ukraine’s grid from the air. His work is done. Gerasimov, his replacement, is a tank and infantry guy. Let the ground war begin?
Russia Is Afraid of Western Psychic Attacks Foreign Policy (LN).
Russia-Ukraine war: How the US paved the way to Moscow’s invasion Jonathan Cook, Middle East Eye
Doctoral dissertations and lifelong intellectual prejudices Gilbert Doctorow
How Wars End: An Analysis of Some Current Hypotheses Berenice A. Carroll, Journal of Peace Research. From this thread:
Carroll identifies four ways that wars can end:
– Mutual Exhaustion: the fighting simply stops.
– Conquest: one side vanquishes the other.
– Unilateral stoppage: one side gives up.
– Negotiated settlement: the two sides reach a deal that ends the fighting.
— Paul Poast (@ProfPaulPoast) January 7, 2023
Dear Old Blighty
Why Britain’s (Severely) Underestimating British Collapse Umar Haque, Eudaimonia (RK). Today’s must-read.
Are Britain’s striking public sector workers underpaid? FT
Ministers have created a conspiracy of silence, matched by a veil of ignorance and a deep denial of the truth when talking about public sector pay deals Tax Research UK
Finally, some sense on the NHS: Wes Streeting recognises more money is not the only answer Guardian. Of course not. The answer is privatization! By Rule #1.
That NHS England patient data platform procurement, FDP, is live. And worth up to £480m The Register
Brazil ‘mega-protest’ fizzles amid authorities’ concern AP
Peru anti-government protests spread, with clashes in Cusco AP. “Government” is question-begging; “regime” would be more appropriate. Peru general strike:
Peru general strike: Indigenous andean communities are moving giant rocks to place at the barricades, without machinery. Inca style coordinated team work. pic.twitter.com/vBgqGEgtAF
— Ollie Vargas (@OllieVargas79) January 8, 2023
Teamwork makes the dream work….
Guaidó Is Gone, but Media Dishonesty Is Here to Stay FAIR
Biden Administration
Republicans and Democrats, Unite Against Big Tech Abuses Joe Biden, Wall Street Journal. How about we start with not letting the organs of state security manage content moderation on the platforms?
Wall Street’s top cop trains his sights on crypto FT
Biden’s New Immigration Policy Criticized As Trump-Era Tactic Teen Vogue
Our Famously Free Press
New Yorker Takes Aim at People Who Still Think Covid Is a Problem FAIR. Once more on Emma Green’s shockingly bad-faith New Yorker article.
Western Journalists Are Cowardly, Approval-Seeking Losers Caitlin Johnstone
Transportation
FAA outage traced to “damaged database file” Axios. The wretched reporting on this story doesn’t question how the files, plural — apparently a backup failed as well — came to be damaged.
Canada says it has repaired its own air traffic system issues Seeking Alpha
‘Train Ride From Hell’: 17-Hour Amtrak Trip Becomes 37-Hour Ordeal NYT
Extreme Acceleration Is the New Traffic Safety Frontier Bloomberg
Supply Chain
‘Surge finally over,’ US imports back near pre-pandemic levels Hellenic Shipping News
Healthcare
‘EXCLUSIVE: Key study into anti-stroke drug taken by millions found to be ‘unreliable’ and potentially fatal side effects were ignored, documents reveal Daily Mail
Man Worried Antidepressants Will Leave Trace Of Original Personality The Onion. From 2014, still germane.
Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. hospitalized patients experience harmful events, study finds NBC. Let’s focus on the real issue. Are the hospitals profitable?
When you’ve got your health:
2/ In younger people without complex, underlying, interlocking illness, health feels robust, something they can depend on, not easily shaken.
— Dr David Berger, aBsuRdiSTe cROnickLeR (@YouAreLobbyLud) January 11, 2023
And then you’re, say, Queen Elizabeth after she got Covid:
11/ It represents the demise of public health as we have known it for 150 years and the casual acquiescence of the medical profession will shame it for generations to come.
— Dr David Berger, aBsuRdiSTe cROnickLeR (@YouAreLobbyLud) January 11, 2023
The whole thread is worth reading. I’m sure IM Doc would approve of it.
Gunz
Illinois becomes latest US state to ban assault weapons ABC
Class Warfare
Who knew?
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Amazon workers’ union victory upheld by U.S. labor board director Reuters
Three weeks in US unions, December 18th, 2022 – January 8th, 2023 Who Gets the Bird
Strikes Are Stronger Than Laws In These Tmes
Why the U.S. Nursing Shortage Keeps Getting Worse Time
Rents Are Still Higher Than Before The Pandemic — And Assistance Programs Are Drying Up FiveThirtyEight
Effects Of The 2021 Expanded Child Tax Credit On Adults’ Mental Health: A Quasi-Experimental Study Health Affairs. Full article, not just an abstract.
The Medieval Problem of the Productivity of Art Philosophies
Behold the Denny’s Tower Brutal South
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
