April 2 COVID News

The following COVID-19 resources may be useful to many of you; if you know of similar resources not on this list, send me an email and let me know.

i will be sending out regular newsletters updating this list and containing links to new information and perspectives that i find useful. When and if things calm down and i return to my activities as humble bookseller, this list will go back to being about that. Don’t hold your breath. To subscribe:

(Select “Kersplebedeb Newsletter” for news of interest to everyone everywhere, and “Montreal List”, “Halifax” or “Ottawa” if you want to also receive news about events happening in those cities.)

 

Struggle and Fightback

• A Call to Action: Towards a General Strike to End the COVID-19 Crisis and Create a New World, Cooperation Jackson, April 01, https://cooperationjackson.org/announcementsblog/towardsageneralstrike
• Migrants detained in the CBSA’s Laval Immigration Holding Centre suspended their hunger strike yesterday as two more of the hunger strikers, including their spokesperson Abdoul, were released yesterday, and another today. Around 20 detainees remain in the main part of the centre, along with more held in the Rivière-des-Prairies jail in Montreal. For more information about how to continue to pressure the government for the immediate release of all detainees: https://www.solidarityacrossborders.org/en/release-remaining-detainees; to listen to an interview with Abdoul: https://soundcloud.com/safa-utopia/fin-de-greve-de-liberation-la-lutte-continue

 

Care

• DIY Face Mask – 8 Steps in Making Protective Gear, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY-29VBkGmw&feature=youtu.be
• Postal workers union asking Canadians to clean mailboxes, railings and doorknobs daily, Durham Radio News March 31, https://www.durhamradionews.com/archives/125638

 

Analysis & Commentary

• Why coronavirus could spark a capitalist supernova: There is no magic money tree – the ‘rescue packages’ aim to rescue a rotten system, and won’t work, by John Smith, Open Democracy 31 March, https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/why-coronavirus-could-spark-capitalist-supernova
• Chomsky: Ventilator Shortage Exposes the Cruelty of Neoliberal Capitalism, by C.J. Polychroniou, Truthout April 1, https://truthout.org/articles/chomsky-ventilator-shortage-exposes-the-cruelty-of-neoliberal-capitalism/
• UN warns that COVID-19 pandemic could trigger global food shortage, by Jean Shaoul, WSWS 30 March, https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/03/30/unit-m30.html
• https://apnews.com/03d48eb93fa6cb66262de6f7d57f27df
• Mass testing, empty ICUs: Germany scores early against virus, by Frank Jordans, AP News April 1, https://apnews.com/03d48eb93fa6cb66262de6f7d57f27df
• The horror films got it wrong. This virus has turned us into caring neighbours, by George Monbiot, The Guardian 31 March, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/31/virus-neighbours-covid-19
• Why a one-size-fits-all approach to COVID-19 could have lethal consequences, The Conversation March 23, https://theconversation.com/why-a-one-size-fits-all-approach-to-covid-19-could-have-lethal-consequences-134252
• Social Distancing Is a Privilege: For a daily laborer in Mumbai, staying home means “my children and my wife will die,” by Rana Ayyub, Foreign Policy March 28, https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/28/social-distancing-is-a-privilege/

 

Gender

• CALL TO ACTION: Nova Scotia Suspends Home Births During COVID-19, The Obstetric Justice Project March 31, https://obstetricjustice.org/community-stories/2020/3/31/nova-scotia-homebirth-ban
• Hungary seeks to end legal recognition of trans people amid Covid-19 crisis: Draft bill comes as people are distracted by Viktor Orbán’s new powers to rule by decree, by Shaun Walker, The Guardian 2 April, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/02/hungary-to-end-legal-recognition-of-trans-people-amid-covid-19-crisis
• You Can’t Go Home Again, by Alex N. Press, Jacobin March, https://jacobinmag.com/2020/3/new-york-city-stay-home-quarantine-social-distancing

 

Racism

• Judy Chu Says Attacks on Asian Americans at About 100 per Day Due to Coronavirus Fear, by Akemi Tamanaha, AsAm News April 1, https://asamnews.com/2020/04/01/california-representative-judy-chu-says-attacks-on-asian-americans-are-at-100-per-day-due-to-racism-surrounding-coronavirus-fears
• Asian Americans report rise in racist attacks amid pandemic, PBS Newshour April 1, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-anti-asian-attacks-say-about-american-culture-during-crisis
• Health issues for Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans may cause coronavirus to ravage communities, by Deborah Barfield Berry, USA Today March 1, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/30/coronavirus-cases-could-soar-blacks-latinos-and-native-americans/2917493001/
• Calgary police charge man over threat to spread COVID-19 to Indigenous people: Police also investigating threat made against Chinese restaurant in the city, by Robson Fletcher, CBC News April 01, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-police-covid-19-threats-charge-investigation-1.5517980
• Canada shocked by double murder of Indigenous hunters: Two Métis men were found shot dead in rural Alberta after what police believe was an ambush, by Leyland Cecco, The Guardian 1 April, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/01/canada-double-murder-indigenous-metis-hunters
• Hospitals Have Left Many COVID-19 Patients Who Don’t Speak English Alone, Confused and Without Proper Care, by Joshua Kaplan, Propublica March 31, https://www.propublica.org/article/hospitals-have-left-many-covid19-patients-who-dont-speak-english-alone-confused-and-without-proper-care
• Coronavirus: Racism and the long-term impacts of emergency measures in Canada, The Conversation March 22, https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-racism-and-the-long-term-impacts-of-emergency-measures-in-canada-134110
• Indigenous communities and COVID-19: The virus may not discriminate, but responses to it do, by Gina Starblanket and Dallas Hunt, Globe And Mail March 27, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-indigenous-communities-and-covid-19-the-virus-may-not-discriminate/

 

Far Right

• ‘Soros Bio-weapon’: How Far Right anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories Are Infecting Mainstream Politics: As the coronavirus crisis spreads, white supremacists and far-right ‘influencers’ are repackaging old anti-Semitic tropes linking Jews to disease, profiteering and globalist plots – and mainstream politicians amplify them, by Cécile Guerin, Haaretz April 01, https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-soros-bio-weapon-anti-semitic-far-right-coronavirus-theories-go-mainstream-1.8732195/.premium-soros-bio-weapon-anti-semitic-far-right-coronavirus-theories-go-mainstream-1.8732195
• Prosecutors: Engineer deliberately ran train off tracks in attempt to smash the USNS Mercy, by ABC7.com staff April 2, https://abc7.com/officials-engineer-tried-to-smash-train-into-usns-mercy/6069395/
• Hungary seeks to end legal recognition of trans people amid Covid-19 crisis: Draft bill comes as people are distracted by Viktor Orbán’s new powers to rule by decree, by Shaun Walker, The Guardian 2 April, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/02/hungary-to-end-legal-recognition-of-trans-people-amid-covid-19-crisis
• Calgary police charge man over threat to spread COVID-19 to Indigenous people: Police also investigating threat made against Chinese restaurant in the city, by Robson Fletcher, CBC News April 01, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-police-covid-19-threats-charge-investigation-1.5517980

 

Work News (see also COVID-19: News from the world’s trade unions, LabourStart, https://www.labourstart.org/covid-19.php)

• Mohammed Barry on #LavalHungerStrike during COIVD-19 and immigrant warehouse worker conditions, Free City Radio March 31, https://freecityradio.org/post/614149302725541888/mohammed-barry-on-lavalhungerstrike-during
• Migrant agricultural workers allowed in to Canada: averted crisis shows bosses exploitation of “temporary” foreign labour, by Billy Fergus, Rise/La Levée April 1, https://www.rise-levee.news/home/migrant-agricultural-workers-allowed-in-to-canada-averted-crisis-shows-bosses-exploitation-of-temporary-foreign-labour
• As spring planting approaches, Quebec farmers face steep costs, long delays in getting foreign workers, by Julia Page, CBC News April 02, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/spring-quebec-farmers-1.5517614
• Canada’s food supply at risk as pandemic tightens borders to farm workers, by Tavia Grant, Globe and Mail April 1, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-canadas-food-supply-at-risk-as-pandemic-tightens-borders-to-farm
• COVID-19: Kelowna nursery outbreak likely won’t be last for migrant workers, advocates warn, by Nick Eagland, The Province News April 1, https://theprovince.com/news/local-news/covid-19-kelowna-nursery-outbreak-likely-wont-be-last-for-migrant-workers-advocates-warn/wcm/e681d450-98d2-491d-9fc8-13fbc9aef801
• After 10 Workers Get COVID-19, 1,000 Meatpackers Walk Off the Job in Colorado, by Mike Elk April 1, https://paydayreport.com/1000-immigrant-meatpackers-walk-off-the-job-in-colorado
• 10 Million Americans Lost Their Jobs In Two Weeks Because of Coronavirus, by Greg Walters, Vice April 2, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/g5xeb7/10-million-americans-lost-their-jobs-in-two-weeks-because-of-coronavirus
• Postal Workers and COVID-19: A Dispatch from the Front Lines, by Melissa Rakestraw, Rampant: Revolutionary Politics Chicago-Style April 1, https://rampantmag.com/2020/04/01/postal-workers-and-covid-19/
• McDonald’s workers in St. Louis go on strike over unsafe conditions, lost hours, pay cuts, St. Louis Business Journal April 1, https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local/business-journal/mcdonalds-workers-st-louis-strike-unsafe-conditions-lost-hours-pay-cuts/63-223e041f-9843-435e-85ea-5de27cf04b1b
• Oregon Grocery Workers Demand Safer Working Conditions During COVID-19 Pandemic, by Blair Stenvick, Portland Mercury March 31, https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2020/03/31/28225204/oregon-grocery-workers-demand-safer-working-conditions-during-covid-19-pandemic
• Development industry’s coronavirus safety plans still under construction: Workers formally have the right to refuse unsafe work in Ontario but on condo sites downtown construction continues, often with questionable sanitation and no rules to monitor those coming and going, By Megan Kinch, NOW March 27, https://nowtoronto.com/news/doug-ford-coronavirus-condo-industry/
• Alberta Government Makes Moves To Lay Off More Public Employees — This Time Provincial Public Service Members, By David Climenhaga, Alberta Politics March 30, https://albertapolitics.ca/2020/03/alberta-government-makes-moves-to-lay-off-more-public-employees-this-time-provincial-public-service-members
• Amazon Employee Says He Was Fired for Staging Walkout to Protest Unsafe Conditions, by Zack Linly, March 31 The Root, https://www.theroot.com/amazon-employee-says-he-was-fired-for-staging-walkout-t-1842584349
• Trader Joe’s Workers Are Terrified Not Enough Is Being Done To Keep Them And Customers Safe,, by Julia Reinstein, March 31 BuzzFeed News, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/juliareinstein/coronavirus-trader-joes
• Nurses protest coronavirus mask and glove shortage in the Bronx, by Dana Kennedy and Khristina Narizhnaya, NY Post March 28, https://nypost.com/2020/03/28/nurses-protest-coronavirus-mask-and-glove-shortage-in-the-bronx/
• “They’re Counting on Our Desperation” An Instacart worker on why she’s striking for coronavirus protections.
• by Aaron Mak, March 30, https://slate.com/technology/2020/03/an-instacart-worker-on-why-shes-striking.html
• Every Food and Delivery Strike Happening Now, The Cut April 2, by Bridget Read, https://www.thecut.com/2020/04/whole-foods-amazon-mcdonalds-among-coronavirus-strikes.html
• Postal workers union asking Canadians to clean mailboxes, railings and doorknobs daily, Durham Radio News March 31, https://www.durhamradionews.com/archives/125638
• BC Boosts Pay for Long-Term Care Workers amidst COVID-19: Union says reforms should continue after crisis to improve care, by Moira Wyton, The Tyee April 1, https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/04/01/Long-Term-Care-Worker-Pay-Boosted/

 

Work In-Depth

• NDLON Responds to House Passage of Senate Coronavirus Stimulus Legislation, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, March 27, https://ndlon.org/ndlon-responds-to-house-passage-of-senate-coronavirus-stimulus-legislation/
• ‘We Have Always Been Disposable’: the Structural Violence of Neoliberal Healthcare, by Megan Linton, Canadian Dimension March 31, https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/we-have-always-been-disposable-the-structural-violence-of-neoliberal-healthcare
• ‘Essential’ Farm Workers Are Putting Food on Your Table With No Insurance, No Sick Pay, and Few Safety Regulations, by Josh Marcus, Vice March 30, https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/akw9j5/essential-farm-workers-are-putting-food-on-your-table-with-no-insurance-no-sick-pay-and-few-safety-regulations

 

Scrambling for Supplies

• Des masques pour le Québec détournés : Fabriqués en Chine, ils ont été expédiés en Ohio après être arrivés sur la Rive-Sud de Montréal, by Jean-François Cloutier, 2 avril, https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2020/04/03/des-masques-pour-le-quebec-detournes
• Quatre millions de masques destinés à l’Espagne et l’Italie réquisitionnés à Lyon, Lyonmag April 1, https://www.lyonmag.com/article/106690/quatre-millions-de-masques-destines-a-l-espagne-et-l-italie-requisitionnes-a-lyon
• Coronavirus: bataille pour des masques chinois entre la France et les États-Unis, Le Soleil April 1, https://www.lesoleil.com/actualite/covid-19/coronavirus-bataille-pour-des-masques-chinois-entre-la-france-et-les-etats-unis-cdabe5447476e50c252c339458c57d98
• US Blockade Prevents Medical Supplies From Reaching Cuba, Telesurtv 1 April, https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/cuba–new-us-interference-during-special-situation-by-covid19-20200401-0002.html
• Mossad officer describes covert global battle to obtain ventilators at all costs: In TV exposé, senior member of spy agency says Israel — and other countries — has been laying hands on machines ordered by others, in ‘most complex operation’ he’s overseen, by Michael Bachner, Times of Israel 1 April, https://www.timesofisrael.com/mossad-officer-describes-covert-global-battle-to-obtain-ventilators-at-all-costs

 

Housing

• Rent Strike 2020: https://www.rentstrike2020.org/
• Grève des loyers (Quebec): http://grevedesloyers.info/
• Lettre aux dirigeants de la ville de Montréal pour ouvrir les hôtels aux personnes de la rue durant COVID19 – Letter to Montreal Officials to Open Hotel Rooms for People Living on the Streets during COVID19, https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdT30Q5dN2Nu3ZhmPUwnIWbS-k1FAK0eiHxs1ob7O6YUQvTxA/viewform
• Owing what you don’t have: Rent strikes in Canada, and what we can do together, by Declan Narrows, Rise/La Levée April 1, https://www.rise-levee.news/home/owing-what-you-dont-have-rent-strikes-in-canada-and-what-we-can-do-together
• Coronavirus: des logements de type Airbnb mis en location à long terme, Metro April 2, https://journalmetro.com/actualites/montreal/2434539/coronavirus-des-logements-de-type-airbnb-mis-en-location-a-long-terme
• Airbnb asks government to bail out hosts in Canada, Thinkpol April 1, https://thinkpol.ca/2020/04/01/airbnb-asks-government-bail-hosts-canada

 

The Clampdown

• Virus power-grab? Trump admin seeks ‘sweeping’ powers to detain without trial during pandemic, MSNBC March 30, https://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari/watch/virus-power-grab-trump-admin-seeks-sweeping-powers-to-detain-without-trial-during-pandemic-81397317929
• Teargas, beatings and bleach: the most extreme Covid-19 lockdown controls around the world, by Rebecca Ratcliffe, The Guardian April 1, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/apr/01/extreme-coronavirus-lockdown-controls-raise-fears-for-worlds-poorest
• ‘Coronavirus coup’? As outbreak grows, authoritarians around the world seize the moment, by Laura Kingstaff Writer, La Times March 31, https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-31/as-coronavirus-tide-rises-authoritarians-around-the-world-seize-the-moment
• Duterte tells police, military to shoot unruly quarantine violators, by Xave Gregorio, CNN Philippines April 1, https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/4/1/Rodrigo-Duterte-police-military-shoot-unruly-quarantine-violators.html
• Turkmenistan Has Banned Use Of The Word ‘Coronavirus’, by Joanna Kakissis, NPR March 31, https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/31/824611607/turkmenistan-has-banned-use-of-the-word-coronavirus
• Coronavirus: Racism and the long-term impacts of emergency measures in Canada, The Conversation March 22, https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-racism-and-the-long-term-impacts-of-emergency-measures-in-canada-134110

 

Confined in the Age of COVID-19

• Voices from inside: COVID-19 in Canada’s prisons, April 2 CBC News, https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/voices-from-inside-covid-19-in-canada-s-prisons-1.5518520
• Inmate says CSC not doing enough to battle COVID-19 spread, by Ian MacAlpine, Whig Standard April 1, https://www.thewhig.com/news/local-news/inmate-says-csc-not-doing-enough-to-battle-covid-19-spread
• Inmate COVID-19 testing in federal correctional institutions, April 1, 2020, Correctional Services Canada, https://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/001/006/001006-1014-en.shtml
• Migrants detained in the CBSA’s Laval Immigration Holding Centre suspended their hunger strike yesterday as two more of the hunger strikers, including their spokesperson Abdoul, were released yesterday, and another today. Around 20 detainees remain in the main part of the centre, along with more held in the Rivière-des-Prairies jail in Montreal. For more information about how to continue to pressure the government for the immediate release of all detainees: https://www.solidarityacrossborders.org/en/release-remaining-detainees; to listen to an interview with Abdoul: https://soundcloud.com/safa-utopia/fin-de-greve-de-liberation-la-lutte-continue
• Coronavirus spread at Rikers is a ‘public health disaster’, says jail’s top doctor, by Miranda Bryant, The Guardian 1 April, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/01/rikers-island-jail-coronavirus-public-health-disaster
• Canada’s Prisons Are a Coronavirus Time Bomb, Say Guards and Inmates: Justin Trudeau has brushed aside calls to release some non-violent offenders in order to protect their health, by Justin Ling, Vice March 27, https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/jge4yy/canadas-prisons-are-a-coronavirus-time-bomb-say-guards-and-inmates
• OPEN LETTER: UBCIC demands immediate release of all non-violent offenders as part of COVID-19 pandemic response and emergency state of Indigenous incarceration, https://www.ubcic.bc.ca/open_letter_ubcic_demands_immediate_release_of_all_non_violent_offenders_as_part_of_covid_19
• Outrage over denial of amnesty for Turkish political prisoners: Government’s critics not among 90,000 inmates eligible for early release due to coronavirus, by Bethan McKernan and Beril Eski, The Guardian 31 March, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/31/outrage-over-denial-of-amnesty-for-turkish-political-prisoners
• COVID 19: 5 Demands for Federal Prisons, https://kersplebedeb.com/posts/covid-19-5-demands-for-federal-prisons/
• COVID-19 5 Demandes pour les prisons fédérales, https://kersplebedeb.com/posts/covid-19-5-demandes-pour-les-prisons-federales/

 

Quebec

• MTL COVID-19 Mutual Aid Resource List // Mobilisation d’entraide liste des ressources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PgbUR1gT1PKIDPJFuWXhqieFLY7TAxxl4r_9dsaB05w/editand link to add info: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-XBgn1HXA-lPPtCPFQSUqr_H1tViUkHk8KpkCbV-MJ4h4RQ/viewform
• Lettre aux dirigeants de la ville de Montréal pour ouvrir les hôtels aux personnes de la rue durant COVID19 – Letter to Montreal Officials to Open Hotel Rooms for People Living on the Streets during COVID19, https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdT30Q5dN2Nu3ZhmPUwnIWbS-k1FAK0eiHxs1ob7O6YUQvTxA/viewform

 

Canada

• Which Unemployed Canadians Will Get Support?, by David Macdonald, April 2, http://behindthenumbers.ca/2020/04/02/which-unemployed-canadians-will-get-support/
• ‘It is a very dire situation’: At least 600 nursing, retirement homes in Canada have coronavirus cases, by Kelly Granthealth, Les Perreaux, Jill Mahoney, Globe and Mail April 1, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-it-is-a-very-dire-situation-at-least-600-nursing-retirement-homes
• Alberta Government Makes Moves To Lay Off More Public Employees — This Time Provincial Public Service Members, By David Climenhaga, Alberta Politics March 30, https://albertapolitics.ca/2020/03/alberta-government-makes-moves-to-lay-off-more-public-employees-this-time-provincial-public-service-members
• Coronavirus: Racism and the long-term impacts of emergency measures in Canada, The Conversation March 22, https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-racism-and-the-long-term-impacts-of-emergency-measures-in-canada-134110

 

Indigenous North America

• Indigenous communities and COVID-19: The virus may not discriminate, but responses to it do, by Gina Starblanket and Dallas Hunt, Globe And Mail March 27, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-indigenous-communities-and-covid-19-the-virus-may-not-discriminate/
• First Nations Know Pandemics. This Time, They Say, Will Be Different, by John Price, The Tyee April 1, https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2020/04/01/First-Nations-Know-Pandemics/
• Scenarios for Indigenous COVID-19 Response include calling in the army: Miller, Turtle Island News April 1, https://theturtleislandnews.com/index.php/2020/04/01/scenarios-for-indigenous-covid-19-response-include-calling-in-the-army-miller
• Thunder Bay won’t host evacuees from northern communities this year, CBC News, April 01, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/thunder-bay-evacuees-1.5517911
• Closing Thunder Bay to First Nation Evacuees “Unthinkable”, Letter to the Editor, Netnewsledger April 2, http://www.netnewsledger.com/2020/04/02/closing-thunder-bay-to-first-nation-evacuees-unthinkable

 

International

• “Before Corona, I will die of hunger”: The socio-economic impact of Covid-19 on the Syrian population and new challenges for the regime, by Joseph Daher, Mid-East Directions April 2, http://middleeastdirections.eu/new-blog-before-corona-i-will-die-of-hunger-the-socio-economic-impact-of-covid-19-on-the-syrian-population-and-new-challenges-for-the-regime-joseph-daher
• Hungary seeks to end legal recognition of trans people amid Covid-19 crisis: Draft bill comes as people are distracted by Viktor Orbán’s new powers to rule by decree, by Shaun Walker, The Guardian 2 April, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/02/hungary-to-end-legal-recognition-of-trans-people-amid-covid-19-crisis
• Israeli Forces Demolish Emergency Coronavirus Clinic for Palestinians, Palestine Chronicle March 28, https://www.palestinechronicle.com/israeli-forcesdemolish-emergency-coronavirus-clinic-for-palestinians
• Teargas, beatings and bleach: the most extreme Covid-19 lockdown controls around the world, by Rebecca Ratcliffe, The Guardian April 1, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/apr/01/extreme-coronavirus-lockdown-controls-raise-fears-for-worlds-poorest
• ‘Coronavirus coup’? As outbreak grows, authoritarians around the world seize the moment, by Laura Kingstaff Writer, La Times March 31, https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-31/as-coronavirus-tide-rises-authoritarians-around-the-world-seize-the-moment
• The threat of coronavirus in Africa flags a deeper crisis of global solidarity, by Eddie Ndopu, United Nations Secretary-General’s Advocate for the Sustainable Development Goals, World Economic Forum April 1, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/covid-19-south-africa-developing-countries/
• US Blockade Prevents Medical Supplies From Reaching Cuba, Telesurtv 1 April, https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/cuba–new-us-interference-during-special-situation-by-covid19-20200401-0002.html
• Duterte tells police, military to shoot unruly quarantine violators, by Xave Gregorio, CNN Philippines April 1, https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/4/1/Rodrigo-Duterte-police-military-shoot-unruly-quarantine-violators.html
• Turkmenistan Has Banned Use Of The Word ‘Coronavirus’, by Joanna Kakissis, NPR March 31, https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/31/824611607/turkmenistan-has-banned-use-of-the-word-coronavirus
• Out of Control: Crisis, Covid-19 and Capitalism in Africa, Review of African Political Economy blog March 26, https://roape.net/2020/03/26/out-of-control-crisis-covid-19-and-capitalism-in-africa
• Meet the Trans Woman Behind Taiwan’s Successful Grassroots Coronavirus Initiatives, by Antonia Timmerman, 30 March, https://www.vice.com/en_asia/article/jge9jx/taiwan-trans-woman-minister-audrey-tang-coronavirus-tech
• One working tap for 2,000 households as virus lockdown looms, by Nomazima Nkosi, Herald Live 26 March, https://www.heraldlive.co.za/news/2020-03-26-one-working-tap-for-2000-households-as-virus-lockdown-looms/
• Singing stops in Italy as fear and social unrest mount: Three weeks on from start of lockdown, Italians are seeing that everything is not all right, by Angela Giuffrida and Lorenzo Tondo, The Guardian 1 April, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/01/singing-stops-italy-fear-social-unrest-mount-coronavirus-lockdown
• Outrage over denial of amnesty for Turkish political prisoners: Government’s critics not among 90,000 inmates eligible for early release due to coronavirus, by Bethan McKernan and Beril Eski, The Guardian 31 March, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/31/outrage-over-denial-of-amnesty-for-turkish-political-prisoners
• Social Distancing Is a Privilege: For a daily laborer in Mumbai, staying home means “my children and my wife will die,” by Rana Ayyub, Foreign Policy March 28, https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/28/social-distancing-is-a-privilege/

 

U.S.

• The Coronavirus’s Unique Threat to the South: More young people in the South seem to be dying from COVID-19. Why? by Vann R. Newkirk II, The Atlantic April 2, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/04/coronavirus-unique-threat-south-young-people/609241/
• Wednesday coronavirus update: African Americans make up 46% of positive cases in the city, more jail inmates test positive, by John N. Mitchell, Philadelphia Tribune, April 1, https://www.phillytrib.com/news/health/coronavirus/wednesday-coronavirus-update-african-americans-make-up-46-of-positive-cases-in-the-city-more/article_0d454c6a-7157-5405-919e-a76bbbff24ae.html
• Texas pastors demand a “religious liberty” exemption to coronavirus stay-at-home orders, by Ian Millhiser, Vox April 1, https://www.vox.com/2020/4/1/21201104/texas-pastors-religious-liberty-coronavirus-stay-at-home-hotze
• Trump Is Finally Concerned About COVID-19 But He Already Has Blood on His Hands, by William Rivers Pitt, Truthout April 1, https://truthout.org/articles/covids-cruelest-month-has-begun-and-trump-is-finally-concerned/
• Pentagon says it still hasn’t sent ventilators because it hasn’t been told where to send them, by Barbara Starr and Zachary Cohen, CNN March 31, https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/31/politics/pentagon-ventilators/index.html
• NDLON Responds to House Passage of Senate Coronavirus Stimulus Legislation, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, March 27, https://ndlon.org/ndlon-responds-to-house-passage-of-senate-coronavirus-stimulus-legislation/

 

Health & Science

• How Does the Coronavirus Behave Inside a Patient? We’ve counted the viral spread across peoples; now we need to count it within people, by Siddhartha Mukherjee, The New Yorker March 26, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/06/how-does-the-coronavirus-behave-inside-a-patient
• Health issues for Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans may cause coronavirus to ravage communities, by Deborah Barfield Berry, USA Today March 1, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/30/coronavirus-cases-could-soar-blacks-latinos-and-native-americans/2917493001/
• Mass testing, empty ICUs: Germany scores early against virus, by Frank Jordans, AP News April 1, https://apnews.com/03d48eb93fa6cb66262de6f7d57f27df
• New China Data Undercuts Reassurances by Our Health Officials, by Crawford Kilian, Tyee 31 March, https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2020/03/31/Is-Canada-Doing-Enough/