Covid-19

As the Tory government flounders on Omicron, Keir Starmer could tell us on 13 December only that out of “patriotism” he would back its Plan B measures against the let-the-virus-rip Tory right, the people who call themselves “libertarians” though they back the Police Bill, the Borders Bill, anti-union laws, and voter ID. Labour left MP Richard Burgon has rightly pushed the need also for full sick or isolation pay for all, and reinstatement of furlough pay. Emergency measures are needed to boost the NHS and social care, which were already overstretched before Omicron and before winter proper set...

One epidemic after another, at increasing frequency, is not a purely "natural" phenomenon. Our age of pandemics is driven by widespread environmental destruction, big agriculture, and insatiable pursuit of profit. Our monthly socialist environmental reading group will be looking at the origins and driving forces behind pandemics. This page lists various readings, and will be updated as more are added. More info about the reading group session here . The main reading is Big Farms Make Big Flu: Dispatches on Influenza, Agribusiness, and the Nature of Science by Rob Wallace, an evolutionary...

We know less about the future of the Omicron variant of the virus behind Covid than do the scientists who insist that it will be weeks before a clear picture. But from what the scientists are reasonably sure of, already some political conclusions follow. The months for which governments have stalled demands to requisition Big Pharma assets — at least the patents and the technical know-how which would allow ultra-fast worldwide expansion of vaccine production and distribution — will now take a toll in Africa. The world jab rate has been more or less static, around 0.4 doses per 100 people per...

On 23 November South African medical authorities identified the Omicron variant of the virus behind Covid. It had probably been circulating for a while before that, and has already spread to many countries. This sharpens the urgency of requisitioning the patents and other assets of Big Pharma. It focuses three facts: 1. Covid can’t be abolished by a lockdown or even a vaccination drive. Governments which say they will “send coronavirus packing” are blustering. 2. Curbs like mask mandates, work-from-home rules, vax-or-test rules for entering higher-risk spaces, and even full lockdowns, only...

Crowds of several hundred torched cars, set off fireworks, and threw rocks during protests against Covid curbs on 19 November in Rotterdam . Police opened live fire, injuring three. The Netherlands, with a running Covid case count which has multiplied by 11 since early October, and death count multiplied by seven, has closed shops and cafés after 8pm. In Austria, thousands marched on 20 November against the government’s plan to make vaccines compulsory for all from February. Austria has a new lockdown (shops closed, etc.) from 23 Nov. There have been similar protests in countries with milder...

Thanks to over a decade of budget squeezes, the NHS is already stretched beyond capacity. And it’s not yet winter. A backlog of ailments from nearly two years of intermittent lockdowns, and lack of care home space for patients who could be moved there, has already flooded hospitals. In 2020 the government paid for private hospital capacity to help the NHS with Covid. So, now? Immediately requisition all private-hospital capacity and staff, and integrate them with the NHS. The labour movement should also demand that the government boost NHS and care staff levels by immediately meeting NHS...

The NHS is already packed to capacity. The Tories' stonewall on NHS pay (3% offer, when inflation is nearing 5%), and accumulated stress, keep the NHS staff shortage acute. Flu rates are still low, but then flu usually takes off only from December. A flu spike, on top of the Covid stress and the backlog from lockdowns, could overflow NHS capacity. Since 21 October, soon after some five weeks of rising counts pushed NHS bosses and scientists to call for restoration of mild Covid restrictions, Covid case counts have been falling in Britain. Elsewhere in western Europe they have been rising...

When the G20 met in Rome on 30-31 October, World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus got a slot to speak. “Low-income countries, most of them in Africa, have received just 0.4% of [Covid] vaccines; more than 80% have gone to G20 countries. “We understand and support every government’s responsibility to protect its own people. But vaccine equity is not charity; it’s in every country’s best interests. “82 countries are at risk of missing the target [of 40% vax by end-2021]. For most, the barrier is not absorptive capacity, it’s insufficient supply... “We ask you to...

The daily count of new Covid cases is averaging around 40,000. It has been above 25,000 since mid-July. Thanks to vaccinations, the death count is about one-tenth of the early-2021 peak, and the hospital-admission count about a quarter, but both are edging up even before winter sets in. Years of budget-paring have set hospitals to operate with no leeway even in ordinary winters. The NHS has to deal with a big backlog. Flu rates are for now unusually low , and rates for the other common virus RSV modest, but they could well surge. We need increased funding, including to increase NHS workers’...

Here are the main items that Solidarity has campaigned for during the Covid emergency: • Full isolation pay for all. • Requisition Big Pharma for ultra-fast production and distribution of jabs worldwide. • Boost hospitals and social care under comprehensive public ownership and democratic control. • Grant NHS workers their 15% pay rise demand, fix the NHS staff shortage, and extend NHS-level pay and conditions to social care staff. • Expand council house-building, and requisition the empty houses of the rich: end overcrowding. • Workers’ control of workplace safety, notably ventilation. None...