By Luke Savage
Read the full article from Jacobin here.
“More than any Marxist text ever could, the COVID-19 emergency cash relief programs — and the furious reaction to them from employers — lay bare the raw truth about capitalism: bosses’ profits depend directly on workers’ remaining terrified of destitution.”
Listen to the full story from Democracy Now! here.
“Dozens of countries from the Global South, led by India and South Africa, are demanding a temporary waiver on vaccine patents, but rich countries, including the U.S. under both the Trump and Biden administrations, have opposed the move. Lee Fang, investigative journalist at The Intercept, says there is a “glut” of vaccines going to wealthy countries while much of the rest of the world is left waiting.”
By Jon Queally
Read the full article from Salon here.
“Bill Gates, one of the world’s richest men and most powerful philanthropists, was the target of criticism from social justice campaigners on Sunday after arguing that lifting patent protections on COVID-19 vaccine technology and sharing recipes with the world to foster a massive ramp up in manufacturing and distribution — despite a growing international call to do exactly that — is a bad idea. Directly asked during an interview with Sky News if he thought it “would be helpful” to have vaccine recipes be shared, Gates quickly answered: ‘No.'”
By Caitlin Dewey
Read the full article from The Buffalo News here.
“In New York, white residents have received a disproportionate share of vaccines in each of the state’s 10 regions and in all five counties of Western New York. That disparity is especially dramatic in Erie County: While white residents make up just over 81% of the population, they account for almost 91% of the newly vaccinated. Black residents, on the other hand, represent 5.7% of all vaccinated people (compared to 13.1% of the population), while Asian residents make up 2.5% of those vaccinated (3.6% of the population) and Hispanic residents make up 2.2% (4.5% of the population).”
By Jessica H. Beard, Sara F. Jacoby, Zoë Maher; et al
Read the full article from The Journal of the American Medical Association here.
“Firearm violence occurred more frequently in US cities in 2020 compared with previous years. Two major events of 2020 may explain this increase: enactment of containment policies to reduce the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and a national reckoning with systemic racism, including widespread protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd. This study evaluated independent associations between COVID-19 containment policies and the killing of George Floyd on firearm violence in one US city, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.”
By Larry Hamilton
Read the full article from The DC Post here.
“Researchers behind the study noted the percentage increased to 35 among the surveyed Black adults, as this group said they ‘definitely or probably would not get vaccinated,’ even though they are affected disproportionately by the pandemic and dying at almost three times the rate of white Americans.”
By Tom Peterson
Read the full article from Stakeholder Health here.
“The data that informed their work was that, in the five or six ZIP codes where about 80% or 90% of African Americans live in Erie County (where Buffalo is), African Americans were off the charts in terms of the health disparity around every chronic disease: diabetes, heart disease, cancers, asthma. They were 300% more likely to have a chronic disease if they lived in those communities versus a white person who didn’t, and that translated into shorter lifespans, roughly 10 to 12 lost years of life and a lower quality of life for many.”
By Steven Brown
Read the full article from Urban Institute, here.
“The COVID-19 pandemic and related shutdowns have led to the highest unemployment rate nationwide since the Great Depression, nearly a century ago. But the unemployment rate alone does not fully cover how people have been affected. Many are struggling to pay rents or mortgages, are having trouble affording food for themselves and their families, and have lost employer-sponsored health insurance during a still-growing public health crisis. These effects are not shouldered equally; evidence shows the pandemic has more severely affected people of color because of structural racism’s persistent influence.”
From the WBEN Newsroom
Read the full article here.
“Politicians and police have been raising the spectre of “outside agitators” since the day protests began in Buffalo. For the most part, local media has amplified the message: Outsiders are slipping into town to incite violence and destruction. But arrest records suggest that narrative is not true.”
By Paul Lane
Read the full article from Buffalo Business First, here.
“‘Over the last decade, we have replaced conversations around race with conversations around inclusion and diversity, which shifts the conversation and issue away so that we don’t have to deal with all of those complex issues that are related to grappling and dealing with race. Inclusion and diversity, in my view, has been nothing more than a smokescreen to marginalize the discussions of race and, in particular, the issues facing African Americans,’ said Henry Louis Taylor Jr., professor of urban and regional planning at UB’s School of Architecture and Planning.”