“COVID parties” spread the virus on purpose. That’s “Russian roulette”, doctors warn

Nurse Marie-Laure Satta wipes her face during a pause in her New Year’s Eve shift in the COVID-19 intensive care unit at La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, 31 December 2021. Photo: Daniel Cole / AP Photo

January 29, 2022

“COVID parties” spread the virus on purpose. That’s “Russian roulette”, doctors warn

By Lisa Gutierrez 21 January 2022 (Kansas City Star) – Thinking about intentionally exposing yourself to the coronavirus? Thinking that you’ll probably get away with a mild case and become immune to COVID-19? You need to think again. Even if you’re fully vaccinated. If you get COVID on purpose, there’s no guarantee you’ll only get […]

COVID-19 daily cases per 100,000 people in Tennessee, 26 January 2022. Graphic: Covid Act Now

January 28, 2022

The rise of anti-vaccination social movements in a COVID-19 Infodemic era – “This pandemic has driven the largest-ever human behavior change at scale”

By Hazel Wallace 22 January 2022 (LinkedIn) – According to the World Health Organization (WHO), immunisation is a global health success story. Thanks to vaccines that help prevent over 20 infectious diseases, 2-3 million lives are saved every year. These vaccinations are one of the greatest investments for primary healthcare to underpin global health security […]

German language posts (top) and French language posts (bottom) containing antisemitic content, 1 January 2020 - 8 March 2021. German language posts are shown only for Telegram, because the numbers of antisemitic posts on Facebook and Twitter and were low and constant. In France, the huge increase in antisemitic posts during the pandemic occurred almost entirely on Twitter. Graphic: EU

January 27, 2022

World remembers Holocaust as antisemitism rises in pandemic – “The pandemic has acted like an accelerant”

By Vanessa Gera and Samuel Petrequin 27 January 2022 WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Survivors recalled their agony to a world they fear is forgetting, Israel’s parliamentary speaker wept in the German parliament and politicians warned of a resurgence of antisemitism on Thursday’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The day falls on the anniversary of the liberation […]

Cumulative global insured losses by peril in 2021. Aggregated costs for insurers have been largely dominated by the Tropical Cyclone and Severe Weather perils this century. The two perils combined for more than $1 trillion, or 60 percent of the total cumulative industry losses, of which roughly 74 percent was incurred in the United States. The Severe Convective Storm peril has also increasingly separated itself as accounting for the highest number of billion-dollar events. Graphic: Aon

January 27, 2022

Aon: 2021 was third costliest year on record for weather and climate-related events – Germany, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg, and China recorded the costliest insurance industry events on record

CHICAGO, 25 January 2022 (Aon) – Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm, today published its 2021 Weather, Climate and Catastrophe Insight, which evaluates the increasing frequency and severity of disruptive natural disasters and how their resulting economic losses are protected globally. This data serves as the foundation for insights that can help […]

Police use water cannons against anti-vaccination protesters during a demonstration against COVID-19 measures in Brussels, Belgium, 23 January 2022. Photo: AP Photo

January 26, 2022

“I’ll Kill You!”: Anti-vaxxer attacks doctor in Bulgaria – Brussels police clash with anti-vaccination protesters – Rioters attack Guadeloupe hospital staff – Cornwall judge jails anti-vaxxer who called in bomb threats to school and vaccine health centers

23 January 2022 (VOA News) – Police in Brussels fired water cannon and clouds of tear gas at 50,000 protesters demonstrating Sunday against COVID-19 vaccinations and restrictions European authorities are imposing to try to contain the fast-spreading omicron variant of the coronavirus. Some of the protesters came from France, Germany, and other countries, shouting “Liberty!” […]

Annual synthetic opioid mortality in the United States, 2000-2020. Data: CDC. Graphic: Families Against Fentanyl

January 23, 2022

“The deadliest drug we’ve ever known”: author Sam Quinones on how fentanyl and meth saturated the U.S.

By Erin McCormick 23 January 2022 (The Guardian) – For the last nine years, Sam Quinones has been studying the changing face of drug use, sales, and addiction in the United States. In his new book, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, he tracks […]

Coronavirus in the U.S., January 2020-January 2022, showing case rates, hospitalizations, and mortality. Data: Johns Hopkins University / Department of Health and Human Services. Graphic: CNBC

January 21, 2022

Two years since Covid was first confirmed in U.S., the pandemic is worse than anyone imagined – “Everybody wants to get to this thing called endemic. I still don’t know what the hell that means.”

By Spencer Kimball and Nate Rattner 21 January 2022 (CNBC) – A 35-year-old man returned to the U.S. from Wuhan, China on Jan. 15, 2020 and fell ill with a cough and fever. He had read an alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about an outbreak of a novel coronavirus in Wuhan […]

Florida Department of Health in Orange County director Dr. Raul Pino speaks during the press conference that Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings help on 13 April 2020 to discuss COVID-19 and County updates. On 19 January 2022, the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis put Dr. Pino on leave and threatened criminal prosecution for encouraging his staff to get vaccinated. Photo: Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda / Orlando Sentinel

January 19, 2022

DeSantis administration puts Florida health director on leave for encouraging vaccinations for his staff – “I have a hard time understanding how we can be in public health and not practice it”

By Frank Gluck 19 January 2022 (Fort Myers News-Press) – Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration, already facing criticism for downplaying the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccinations, has put on leave Orange County Health Director Dr. Raul Pino for encouraging his staff to get vaccinated. Pino had written in a 4 January 2022 email to his staff: “I […]

Infographic showing statistics from Oxfam’s annual inequality report, “Inequality Kills”, which in 2021 found that inequality is contributing to the death of at least 21,000 people each day, or one person every four seconds. Meanwhile, a new billionaire is created every 26 hours. Graphic: Oxfam

January 19, 2022

Oxfam report: Inequality Kills – Inequality contributes to the death of at least one person every four seconds, while a new billionaire is created every 26 hours

By Elizabeth Endara 17 January 2022 (Oxfam) – Ahead of the Davos Agenda—the World Economic Forum’s virtual State of the World sessions—Oxfam released our annual inequality report, Inequality Kills, which found that inequality is contributing to the death of at least 21,000 people each day, or one person every four seconds. Meanwhile, a new billionaire is […]

Leonard Rieser, chairman of the board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, moves the hand of the Doomsday Clock back to 17 minutes before midnight at offices near the University of Chicago on 26 November 1991. Photo: Carl Wagner / Chicago Tribune

January 19, 2022

The story of how the Doomsday Clock began ticking 75 years ago, the brainchild of a Chicago artist

By Ron Grossman 13 January 2022 (Chicago Tribune) – Martyl Langsdorf designed just one magazine cover, but it has had considerable staying power. A prolific painter of abstract and figurative canvases, she was commissioned 75 years ago by the scientists who built the atomic bomb that ended World War II. By 1947 the Cold War […]

Desdemona Despair

Desdemona Despair