(2020-06-13). [Editorial] Medicine and medical science: Black lives must matter more. thelancet.com Emblematic of the profound sense of outrage at the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black men and women at the hands of law enforcement, hundreds of thousands of protestors took to the streets in the USA and across the globe. They set aside the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2, judging that what they were marching for was more immediately urgent. Marches have been held to draw attention to the continued murder by police of Black people and to the persistent, pervasive racism that exists across societies.
(2020-06-13). [Perspectives] Accountability for medical participation in torture. thelancet.com After revelations of the participation of US health professionals in torture of detainees in military or CIA custody in the wake of 9/11, citizens filed complaints to disciplinary and licensing boards in seven states against psychologists who had been publicly identified as having been part of the torture apparatus. All of the complaints were eventually dismissed, only one with an explanation. In light of the disciplinary bodies' resistance to investigate participation in torture, much less impose sanctions, colleagues and I, then representing Physicians for Human Rights, helped a New York legislator, Richard Got…
(2020-06-13). [Comment] Offline: COVID-19—what we can expect to come. thelancet.com The verdicts are now coming in. In Mark Honigsbaum's updated edition of The Pandemic Century, he has included a new chapter on COVID-19. As a historian of epidemics, he offers his judgments about how countries have responded to what he calls "China's Chernobyl moment". His critique is sharp. For decades, we have known that the world is intrinsically and increasingly vulnerable to pandemics—and yet, "we failed to heed the warnings about Covid-19 and act when our actions could have prevented the outbreak from spinning out of control".
(2020-06-13). [World Report] COVID-19 vaccines for all? thelancet.com If an effective COVID-19 vaccine is developed, how will it get to everyone in need? Ann Danaiya Usher reports on the initiatives being planned to ensure equitable access, and their shortcomings.
(2020-06-13). [Obituary] Jacob Plange-Rhule. thelancet.com Physician, academic, and researcher who served as the Rector of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons. Born on July 27, 1957, in Winneba, Ghana, he died from complications of COVID-19 in Accra, Ghana, on April 10, 2020, aged 62 years.
(2020-06-13). [Correspondence] Acute liver failure — Authors' reply. thelancet.com We appreciate the additional insights provided by Sandro Vento and Francesca Cainelli regarding the incidence and diagnosis of acute liver failure in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Beyond the differences in known causal factors (viruses, drugs) between high-income countries and LMICs, the predominance of the indeterminate group in these regions is of concern to all. In our study,1 only 5% of patients remained indeterminate after thorough serological testing and review of history and available liver histology.
(2020-06-13). [Correspondence] Acute liver failure. thelancet.com In their Seminar, R Todd Stravitz and William Lee1 state that estimates of the incidence of acute liver failure range from one case per million people per year to about 2000—3000 cases per year in the USA; that viral hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis E are the main causes of acute liver failure in "developing countries"; and that only about 5% of all diagnoses have indeterminate causes.
(2020-06-13). [Viewpoint] Clinical endpoint adjudication. thelancet.com In pivotal clinical effectiveness trials, the primary endpoint needs to be precisely defined and quantified because any misclassification could introduce noise and possible bias, potentially leading to incorrect trial conclusions. This misclassification is commonly addressed by having an independent clinical endpoint adjudication committee where all relevant clinical information is provided and a panel of clinical experts categorises the primary endpoint, blind to treatment allocation. This strategy has been established as a basic cornerstone of modern robust trial methodology.
(2020-06-13). [Comment] Aspirin for Lynch syndrome: a legacy of prevention. thelancet.com Lynch syndrome—caused by pathogenic germline MLH1, MSH2, MSH2, PMS2, or EPCAM variants—is among the most common forms of inherited cancer susceptibility and predisposes to high risks of colorectal cancer, endometrial cancer, and other malignancies. Frequent colonoscopies confer a substantial mortality benefit in Lynch syndrome carriers but have inherent limitations.1 Some Lynch syndrome-associated colorectal cancers bypass a precursor adenoma phase, thereby making such tumours impossible to prevent via colonoscopic polypectomy.
(2020-06-13). [Correspondence] Increasing tobacco sales under the anti-smoking policy in China. thelancet.com China joined the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2005, but tobacco control in China is still worrying.1 In the past decade, the Chinese Government has strengthened the publicity of anti-smoking campains in the media and increased the management of anti-smoking through policies. Nevertheless, paradoxically, tobacco sales have been rising.
(2020-06-13). [Correspondence] Questioning statin therapy for older patients — Authors' reply. thelancet.com We were correct in stating that, among patients with established cardiovascular disease, the rates of use of statin therapy have been shown to decline among people older than 75 years.1 Not only do the Dutch data2 that we cited demonstrate this trend, but so do the US data reported by Salami and colleagues.3 Supplementary table 5a in the latter paper3 indicates that, after adjusting for other factors, the odds of statin use among patients with cardiovascular disease are about one-fifth lower among patients aged 75 or older than among patients aged 65—74 years.
(2020-06-13). [Correspondence] Questioning statin therapy for older patients. thelancet.com Single clinical trials have not yet determined whether statin therapy provides more benefit than harm to people older than 75 years with or without a history of vascular disease. The Cholesterol Treatment Trialists' Collaboration, which alone has access to patient-level data from most trials, is best able to answer these questions. However, we have several concerns about the Article by the Collaboration1 and the presentation of its results to the media.
(2020-06-13). [Correspondence] NICE guideline for rectal cancer: already out of date. thelancet.com As members of a colorectal multidisciplinary team, some of whom have contributed to previous National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance1 and European Society of Medical Oncology guidelines in rectal cancer,2 we disagree with the current recommendations in the update to NICE guidance that was published in 2020: "offer preoperative radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy to people with rectal cancer that is cT1-T2, cN1-N2, M0, or cT3-T4, any cN, M0."3…
(2020-06-13). [Review] Meningococcal disease and sexual transmission: urogenital and anorectal infections and invasive disease due to Neisseria meningitidis. thelancet.com Neisseria meningitidis is an obligate human commensal bacterium that frequently colonises the upper respiratory tract. Person-to-person transmission occurs via direct contact or through dispersion of respiratory droplets from a carrier of the bacteria, and can lead to invasive meningococcal disease. Rare sporadic cases of meningococcal urogenital and anorectal infections, including urethritis, proctitis, and cervicitis, have been reported, typically following orogenital contact with an oropharyngeal meningococcal carrier.
(2020-06-13). [Articles] Cancer prevention with aspirin in hereditary colorectal cancer (Lynch syndrome), 10-year follow-up and registry-based 20-year data in the CAPP2 study: a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial. thelancet.com The case for prevention of colorectal cancer with aspirin in Lynch syndrome is supported by our results.
(2020-06-13). [Clinical Picture] Atrial septal defect and haemodynamic consequences of continuous positive airway pressure treatment. thelancet.com A 51-year-old man was referred to our department because of reduced exercise tolerance and breathlessness on exertion. He had a medical history of obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS), which was being treated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). He had complained of snoring and a loss of concentration when he was first diagnosed with OSAS, in 2012.
(2020-06-12). Russians "Stirring Up Trouble": An Obama Retread Sees Moscow's Hand in US Protests. globalresearch.ca If one ventures into the vast wasteland of American television it is possible to miss the truly ridiculous content that is promoted as news by the major networks. One particular feature of media-speak in the United States is the tendency …
(2020-06-12). Police are the Enemy Within. counterpunch.org 
In 2017, Daniel Fetonte was elected to the National Political Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a rapidly growing left-wing organization in the United States. Fetonte was co-chair of the Austin, Texas, branch of the DSA and had been involved in labor union organizing for many years. However, he had also been employed by the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, the largest police union in the state, with a membership of 21,000 police officers.
(2020-06-12). The time is now to join a revolutionary organization: Join Freedom Road Socialist Organization. fightbacknews.org If you have been out in the streets this past few weeks, the odds are good that you've been thinking about the difference between the kind of change this system has to offer, and the kind of change this country needs. Capitalism is failed system that thrives on exploitation, inequality and oppression. The reactionary and racist Trump administration has made the pandemic worse. The unfolding economic crisis we are experiencing is the worst since the 1930s. Monopoly capitalism is a dying system and we need to help finish it off. And that is exactly what Freedom Road Socialist Organization is working for. | Freedom…
(2020-06-12). Wikipedia Formally Censors The Grayzone as Regime-change Advocates Monopolize Editing. globalresearch.ca On Wikipedia, a small group of regime-change advocates and right-wing Venezuelan opposition supporters have blacklisted independent media outlets like The Grayzone on explicitly political grounds, violating the encyclopedia's guidelines. | This is part 1 in a series of investigative reports on …
(2020-06-12). Palestine Bleeds: Execution of Autistic Man is Not an Exception but the Norm. counterpunch.org A 32-year-old man with the mental age of an 8-year-old child was executed by Israeli soldiers on May 30, while crouching behind his teacher near his special needs school in the Old City of Jerusalem. The cold-blooded murder of Iyad al-Hallaq might not have received much attention if it were not for the fact that
(2020-06-12). Coronavirus spread in Colombia triggers orange alert in Bogota, curfew in Barranquilla. colombiareports.com 
Colombia's capital Bogota declared an orange alert and port city Barranquilla decreed a curfew on Thursday as the coronavirus threatens to collapse the cities' healthcare systems. Bogota mayor Claudia Lopez…
(2020-06-12). The Implications of Social Hierarchy and Questioning the Right to Rule. dissidentvoice.org 
Society must return to truth or cease to exist. — Pyotr Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread, 1892 In these times the establishment continues to bellow out hippie like rhetoric that we're all in this together, that we must find unity and peace, put down our differences, sing kum ba yah, and hug this shit out. …
(2020-06-12). Buffalo Cops—And All the Other Cops. counterpunch.org 
All we know is that a line of cops, for no apparent reason, charged a group of apparently peaceful demonstrators and began beating them, after which shots were fired, a car injured three police officers, one seriously, a woman was shot, and three people were arrested. Someone gave the order to attack, and they did.
(2020-06-12). Police target journalists. workers.org 
At 5 a.m. in Minneapolis on May 29, Omar Jimenez, a Black CNN reporter wearing press credentials and reporting live on camera on the rebellion against the police murder of George Floyd, was arrested along with the news crew. About a block away, a second CNN crew of white journalists . . . |
(2020-06-12). New Haven is Minneapolis: Racist police terror is alive and well in Connecticut. liberationnews.org 
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker is among the many political officials across Connecticut who are trying to distance themselves from the state's long history and ever present epidemic of racist police terror. On May 29, in his first statement on the wave of protests that have spread across the country following the murder of George …
(2020-06-12). Unmasking Racial Terror and Seeing Whiteness. counterpunch.org 
Tuesday was the funeral for George Floyd, killed by Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) officer Derek Chauvin on Memorial Day, as the U.S. COVID death toll approached 100,000. Floyd's murder was caught on tape: for eight minutes and 46 seconds, Chauvin held his knee on Floyd's neck. Floyd's words, "I can't breathe!" echoing Eric Garner's, killed
(2020-06-12). Roaming Charges: The Ring of the Truncheon Thing. counterpunch.org 
"If you insist on having statues of people who fought the U.S. military, how about Ho Chi Minh? For one thing, he actually won…" — Paulo L dos Santos + The Democrats are absolutely desperate to smother the Defund the Police movement (not just the slogan, but the abolitionist ideology driving it) before it totally
(2020-06-13). [Correspondence] Major burns: debt recovery or ethics? thelancet.com As one of the UK's largest tertiary burns centres, St Andrew's Burns Service has an ethical obligation to raise awareness about issues that compromise the care of patients. In 2017, new regulations placed a legal requirement on Health Authorities to establish patients' eligibility for free National Health Service treatment.1 An increasing number of patients ineligible for free care have been admitted to the St Andrew's Burns Service and subsequently presented with large invoices as soon as they recover.
(2020-06-12). Court of Human Rights Deals Major Blow To Israel's War On Palestine Solidarity. popularresistance.org The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled unanimously that the French highest court's 2015 criminal conviction of activists with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement advocating nonviolent boycotts of Israeli goods violated article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights. | Reacting to the breaking news, Rita Ahmad from the Palestinian-led BDS movement said: | This momentous court ruling is a decisive victory for freedom of expression, for human rights defenders, and for the BDS movement for Palestinian freedom, justice and equality. It confirms a 2016 European U…
(2020-06-12). Two Pandemics: COVID-19 and the 1918 Influenza. counterpunch.org 
The current Covid-19 epidemic has drawn comparisons to the 1918 influenza epidemic, often referred to as the Spanish flu or H1N1 virus. The influenza flu was devastating with an estimated 500 million people — one-third of the world's population — infected and 50 million died; in the U.S., about 675,000 deaths occurred and in New
(2020-06-12). What Do All Working People Have in Common? counterpunch.org 
What do all working people have in common, regardless of so-called race or skin tone? A precarious existence under the domination of a political and economic system that has concentrated power into the hands of a tiny minority of the nation's (and world's) people — the big bankers and corporate owning class. This is the
(2020-06-12). Charley Crockett — "Welcome To Hard Times" counterpunch.org 
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(2020-06-12). A Mon Valley Memoir: Lessons From The Last Stand Of Steelworkers in Homestead. counterpunch.org 
Many younger radicals today are trying to figure out how to relate, personally and collectively, to the labor movement. Should they seek union staff jobs and become agents of workplace change that way? Or should they organize "on the shop-floor" itself— as a teacher, nurse, or UPS driver—and then seek elected, rather than appointed, union
(2020-06-12). Where the Fault Line Lies. counterpunch.org 
With Inauguration Day 2021 now "only" seven months away, it is becoming more likely than not that the world "as we know it" (more or less), will survive the Trump presidency. Trump becomes increasingly unhinged with each passing day but, with his allotted time in office running down, the prospects for resuming something like the
(2020-06-12). The Corporate Origins of the Anti-Science "Reopen" Demonstrations. counterpunch.org 
Many of the same extreme right operatives who created the "Tea Party" are behind the anti-science and anti-intellectual spectacles opposing measures designed to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. And with much the same agenda. By now, that is not much of a secret, but it is nonetheless necessary to expose these roots, and to debunk the
(2020-06-12). Fighting For Our Future, Fighting Back Against Austerity. counterpunch.org 
Like many other cities across the US both big and small, Burlington, Vermont's economy has been hit hard by the fallout from the coronavirus epidemic. Because much of its economy depends on restaurants, bars, pubs and entertainment, the unemployment is higher than it has been in decades. As a result, tax revenues are down and
(2020-06-12). Livable Ecology, Not Police. counterpunch.org 
I have never heard it louder than I did this morning. The Interstate highway, I-80, that is, two miles or so north of my abode in Iowa City. It's a highway to Hell in the heartland of the deranged Superpower that leads the world in per-capita Greenhouse Gassing. All those carbon-spewing, planet-cooking semi-trailers, cars, vans,
(2020-06-12). The Fed Just Pulled Off Another Backdoor Bailout of Wall Street. counterpunch.org 
The Federal Reserve has authorized 11 financial bailout programs thus far. Despite Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's reassurances at his press conferences that these programs are to help American families, a full 10 of these programs are actually bailouts of Wall Street banks or their trading units. The latest Wall Street bank bailout to come out
(2020-06-12). Covid-19 Hits the French Health System. counterpunch.org 
On 28 February the WHO issued a report on China's efforts to control the Coronavirus outbreak, highlighting the necessity for a comprehensive government-led response to the threat. On 29 February, the French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe chose to divert priorities from a Ministerial Council dedicated to Covid-19 by utilising article 49-3 of the Constitution to
(2020-06-12). Infiltrating Antifa: the Feds and Their Long History of Subversion. counterpunch.org 
On May 31st, President Trump (or his people) tweeted: "The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization." Attorney General, William Barr, said: "The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly." Trump and Barr
(2020-06-12). Distortions and Attempts to Undermine the Cuban Medical Brigades Will Not Succeed. dissidentvoice.org 
Cuban medical brigade returning from Italy (Photo: Ismael Fransisco Gonzalez) Every evening for the past two and a half months the people of Cuba have come out on their streets and porches to applaud and cheer for the 3,000 members of the Henry Reeve medical brigades who are fighting the Covid-19 pandemic on the front …
(2020-06-12). Young Communists hit the streets in New York with Black Lives Matter. peoplesworld.org 
NEW YORK—"How do you spell racist? NYPD!" the crowd chanted as it proceeded up Fifth Avenue towards Central Park from Washington Square Park in Manhattan. The Young Communist League Organizing Committee of New York wasted no time mobilizing its members to participate in and even lead the dozens of protests which have taken the streets …
(2020-06-12). Project Venezuela: Right-Wing Activists Push Wikipedia to Blacklist MintPress, other Alternative Media. mintpressnews.com 
Still unable to convince a sufficient number of their countryfolk to support them, the Venezuelan opposition has turned their efforts towards convincing an international audience — primarily Americans — to support their cause. Part of that is spending inordinate amounts of time online, arguing in English on social media, creating Now, a…
(2020-06-12). Don't Dismiss the Importance of Toppling a Statue. dissidentvoice.org 
I did not expect to be returning to this issue so soon but I was surprised, to put it mildly, to discover that my last post on anti-racists toppling a statue of the notorious slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol proved to be the most polarising article I have ever written. Given the many controversial …
(2020-06-12). Georgia's Elections Were A Voter Suppression Horror Show. therealnews.com 
Georgia's primary election could be a warning for what's to come when Americans head to the polls in November.
(2020-06-12). The anti-police uprising and the emergence of a vital force in the class struggle: youth. workers.org 
Larry Holmes gave this speech, which has been slightly edited, on a Workers World Party webinar June 4 on "No to Martial Law! Defend the Uprising!" What we've seen over the last week is the largest national uprising against the police and systemic police racism in U.S. history. That's all . . . |
(2020-06-12). The questions facing a revolutionary uprising. workers.org 
When the Third Precinct burned, the world trembled. The sacking of the Minneapolis police station by unarmed demonstrators last week was an unprecedented act of resistance. Never in living memory have the masses of oppressed people in the U.S. struck such a devastating blow against the ruling class and their . . . |
(2020-06-12). Organizing for revolutionary power. workers.org When the Third Precinct burned, the world trembled. The sacking of the Minneapolis police station by unarmed demonstrators last week was an unprecedented act of resistance. Never in living memory have the masses of oppressed people in the U.S. struck such a devastating blow against the ruling class and their . . . |
(2020-06-12). Media are slowly starting to be serious about police violence. mronline.org 
As the George Floyd protests against police violence erupted around the nation, a massive amount of evidence of police brutality was widely captured through social media. Unfortunately, very little of it made it to mainstream outlets until much later.