#alabama public television

[issacharmastersdp18]

On the first day of Pride month, PBS Kids gave to me:

A really nice wedding that couldn’t air in my state when it premiered because conservatives lost their shit.

(You don’t even see them kiss. They walk down the aisle and you don’t see them again until they’re dancing together in an embarrassing teacher kinda way)

[odinsblog]

Katie Britt, the junior Republican senator from Alabama, delivered the GOP’s rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s address on Thursday. Her impassioned, breathless speech — delivered at times in an ASMR-esque whisper from what appeared to be her kitchen — ended up feeling more like a rejected audition tape for a supporting role on “Grey’s Anatomy” than the hard-hitting political sparring favored by Biden’s Republican critics.

Into the late hours of the night, Rolling Stone was inundated, sometimes completely unprompted, with messages from longtime GOP operatives, right-leaning pollsters, conservative Capitol Hill staff, MAGA lawyers, and even some senior members of Trump’s own 2024 campaign absolutely torching Britt’s absurdly over-dramatic rebuttal.

“What the hell am I watching right now?” a Trump adviser asked, mid-Britt remarks.

“Creepy,” one of the Republican pollsters noted.

A lawyer working in the Trump orbit says the performance reminded them of public-access television, and a senior House congressional aide remarks that it was “cringe”-inducing to watch and likely destined to be turned into a “lame [Saturday Night Live] skit” this weekend.

“I’ll give Biden this — he at least gave a better speech than Katie Britt,” one national Republican consultant said bluntly.

(continue reading)

[broadwaydivastournament]

Broadway Divas Tournament: Round 2A

Jayne Houdyshell (1953) "JAYNE HOUDYSHELL (Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn). Broadway: King Lear; A Doll's House, Part 2 (2017 Tony nomination); The Humans (2016 Tony Award); Fish in the Dark; Dead Accounts; Romeo and Juliet; Follies (2012 Tony nomination); The Importance of Being Earnest; Bye Bye Birdie; Wicked; Well (2006 Tony nomination and Theatre World Award). Off-Broadway: Lincoln Center Theater: The New Century; Playwrights Horizons: The Pain and the Itch; The Public Theater: Well; Roundabout Theatre Company: The Language Archive; MCC: Relevance; Manhattan Theatre Club: The Receptionist; Shakespeare in the Park: Much Ado About Nothing. Jayne has received two Drama Desk Awards, two Obies, and the Lily Award. Regional credits include classical and modern plays at Yale Repertory Theatre, MacCarter Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arena Stage, Alabama Shakespeare Festival and many others. Film: The Humans, Little Women, The Chaperone, Everybody's Fine, Changing Lanes, Garden State. Television: "Only Murders in the Building," "The Good Fight," "Evil," "Law & Order: SVU," "Elementary," "Blue Bloods."" - Playbill bio from The Music Man, February 2022

Stephanie J. Block (1972) "STEPHANIE J. BLOCK (The Baker's Wife) Broadway: The Cher Show (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Award winner), Falsettos (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations), The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Tony, Drama Desk nominations), Anything Goes, 9 to 5: The Musical (Drama Desk nomination), The Pirate Queen, The Boy from Oz, Wicked. Off-Broadway: Brigadoon (Encores); Little Miss Sunshine (Drama Desk nomination); By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Drama Desk nomination). Film and television: "iMorcecai," "Bluff City Law," Rise, "Madam Secretary," "Orange is the New Black," "Homeland," "It Could Be Worse," "Stephanie J. Block Live From Lincoln Center" for Great Performances on PBS. She currently co-hosts and co-produces "Stages Podcast" with Marylee Fairbanks and can be accessed wherever you get your podcasts. Twitter and Instagram: @stephaniejblock." - Playbill bio from Into the Woods, September 2022.

NEW PROPAGANDA AND MEDIA UNDER CUT: ALL POLLS HERE

"Despite her beating out Jan Maxwell, my beloved, I feel no lingering bitterness because Jayne Houdyshell is one of those divine character actresses who elevates every project she's in. Her Music Man nomination came as a wild surprise, but looking back, it just makes sense. She was exactly what we needed post-reopening."

"Once again, I am asking which of you is going to be contributing to the Send DroughtofApathy to London this Summer to See SJB in Kiss Me, Kate Fund? They released a little promo for it, and damn she looks good. Why is everyone going to the West End to do their shows? Do them here so I can see them, dammit. Who needs the West End and their strange tastes anyway?"

[thisonesatellite]

when you get this, list 5 songs you like to listen to, publish. then, send this ask to the last 10 people in your notifs (positivity is cool!!)

Thank you so much for this ask, darling! It was a pleasure to answer.

It was less of a pleasure to curtail myself to 5 songs. (FIVE?? REALLY???? THAT'S NOT ENOUGH!) 😂

But i tried:

1. Speaking in Tongues -- Hilltop Hoods feat. Chali 2na

2. Chasin' Echoes -- The Lonely Biscuits

3. Sister Mercy -- The Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies

4. Freedom -- Rage Against the Machine

5. Television, The Drug of a Nation - The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy

OK, that's 5.

(Can i please do some honorable mentions? Like, Harder Than You Think - Public Enemy, Starfuckers Inc. -- NIN, Woke Up This Morning - Alabama 3, Dear Mr Fantasy - Traffic, Die Born - Days of the New, Hoover Dam - Sugar, Bleed It Out - Linkin Park, Cannonball - The Breeders, Bloodstream - Soccer Mommy, Hail Hail Rock'n'Roll - Garland Jeffreys, Down with the Sickness - Disturbed, Tomorrow Wendy - Concrete Blonde, Simple Lessons - Candlebox, Pillar of Davidson - Live, and Royal Station 4/16 - Melissa Etheridge? No? i have to stick with five? OK. OK, i will. 😂)

💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

[weneverlearn]

Awesome, recent PBS (!!!) special on Guitar Wolf, with loads of live action and a couple good, brief interview segments.

Guitar Wolf explaining how he decided on the new bassist after Billy Bass Wolf passed: "Anybody can play guitar... but very few people have explosion personality."

This 25-minute flick is from a series of short live band mini-docs called Subcarrier, "produced by Alabama Public Television in Birmingham, filmed exclusively at SATURN."

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

James Karales’ photograph of the Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights, Alabama, 1965 (via here)

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

March 6, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAR 7, 2024

Black Americans outnumbered white Americans among the 29,500 people who lived in Selma, Alabama, in the 1960s, but the city’s voting rolls were 99% white. So, in 1963, Black organizers in the Dallas County Voters League launched a drive to get Black voters in Selma registered. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a prominent civil rights organization, joined them.

In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, but the measure did not adequately address the problem of voter suppression. In Selma a judge had stopped the voter registration protests by issuing an injunction prohibiting public gatherings of more than two people.

To call attention to the crisis in her city, Amelia Boynton, who was a part of the Dallas County Voters League but who, in this case, was acting with a group of local activists, traveled to Birmingham to invite Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., to the city. King had become a household name after the 1963 March on Washington where he delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech, and his presence would bring national attention to Selma’s struggle.

King and other prominent members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference arrived in January to push the voter registration drive. For seven weeks, Black residents tried to register to vote. County Sheriff James Clark arrested almost 2,000 of them for a variety of charges, including contempt of court and parading without a permit. A federal court ordered Clark not to interfere with orderly registration, so he forced Black applicants to stand in line for hours before taking a “literacy” test. Not a single person passed.  

Then on February 18, white police officers, including local police, sheriff’s deputies, and Alabama state troopers, beat and shot an unarmed 26-year-old, Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was marching for voting rights at a demonstration in his hometown of Marion, Alabama, about 25 miles northwest of Selma. Jackson had run into a restaurant for shelter along with his mother when the police started rioting, but they chased him and shot him in the restaurant’s kitchen.

Jackson died eight days later, on February 26. 

The leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Selma decided to defuse the community’s anger by planning a long march—54 miles—from Selma to the state capitol at Montgomery to draw attention to the murder and voter suppression. Expecting violence, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee voted not to participate, but its chair, John Lewis, asked their permission to go along on his own. They agreed.

On March 7, 1965, the marchers set out. As they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, named for a Confederate brigadier general, Grand Dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan, and U.S. senator who stood against Black rights, state troopers and other law enforcement officers met the unarmed marchers with billy clubs, bullwhips, and tear gas. They fractured John Lewis’s skull and beat Amelia Boynton unconscious. A newspaper photograph of the 54-year-old Boynton, seemingly dead in the arms of another marcher, illustrated the depravity of those determined to stop Black voting.

Images of “Bloody Sunday” on the national news mesmerized the nation, and supporters began to converge on Selma. King, who had been in Atlanta when the marchers first set off, returned to the fray.

Two days later, the marchers set out again. Once again, the troopers and police met them at the end of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, but this time, King led the marchers in prayer and then took them back to Selma. That night, a white mob beat to death a Unitarian Universalist minister, James Reeb, who had come from Massachusetts to join the marchers.

On March 15, President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a nationally televised joint session of Congress to ask for the passage of a national voting rights act. “Their cause must be our cause too,” he said. “[A]ll of us…must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.” Two days later, he submitted to Congress proposed voting rights legislation.

The marchers remained determined to complete their trip to Montgomery, and when Alabama’s governor, George Wallace, refused to protect them, President Johnson stepped in. When the marchers set off for a third time on March 21, 1,900 members of the nationalized Alabama National Guard, FBI agents, and federal marshals protected them. Covering about ten miles a day, they camped in the yards of well-wishers until they arrived at the Alabama State Capitol on March 25. Their ranks had grown as they walked until they numbered about 25,000 people.

On the steps of the capitol, speaking under a Confederate flag, Dr. King said: “The end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. And that will be a day not of the white man, not of the black man. That will be the day of man as man.”

That night, Viola Liuzzo, a 39-year-old mother of five who had arrived from Michigan to help after Bloody Sunday, was murdered by four Ku Klux Klan members who tailed her as she ferried demonstrators out of the city.

On August 6, Dr. King and Mrs. Boynton were guests of honor as President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Recalling “the outrage of Selma,” Johnson said: "This right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, people as individuals, control over their own destinies."

The Voting Rights Act authorized federal supervision of voter registration in districts where African Americans were historically underrepresented. Johnson promised that the government would strike down “regulations, or laws, or tests to deny the right to vote.” He called the right to vote “the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men,” and pledged that “we will not delay, or we will not hesitate, or we will not turn aside until Americans of every race and color and origin in this country have the same right as all others to share in the process of democracy.”

As recently as 2006, Congress reauthorized the Voting Rights Act by a bipartisan vote. By 2008 there was very little difference in voter participation between white Americans and Americans of color. But then, in 2013, the Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holder decision got rid of the part of the Voting Rights Act that required jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination in voting to get approval from the federal government before changing their voting rules. This requirement was known as “preclearance.”

The Shelby County v. Holder decision opened the door, once again, for voter suppression. Since then, states have made it harder to vote; in 2023, at least 14 states enacted 17 restrictive voting laws. A recent study by the Brennan Center of nearly a billion vote records over 14 years shows that the racial voting gap is growing almost twice as fast in places that used to be covered by the preclearance requirement. 

Democrats have tried since 2021 to pass a voting rights act but have been stymied by Republicans, who oppose such protections. Last September, on National Voter Registration Day, House Democrats reintroduced a voting rights act, now named the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act after the man who went on from his days in the Civil Rights Movement to serve 17 terms as a representative from Georgia, bearing the scars of March 7, 1965, until he died on July 17, 2020. 

On March 1, 2024, 51 Democratic senators introduced the measure in the Senate. 

Speaking in Selma last Sunday at the commemoration of the 59th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, Vice President Kamala Harris shared that the first thing she sees on walking into her office is a “large framed photograph taken on Bloody Sunday depicting an injured Amelia Boynton receiving care at the foot of [the Edmund Pettus] bridge.”

“[F]or me,” she said, “it is a daily reminder of the struggle, of the sacrifice, and of how much we owe to those who gave so much before us.” 

“History is a relay race,” she said. “Generations before us carried the baton. And now, they have passed it to us.”

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[reasoningdaily]

Collected Writings Of: John Henrik Clarke - FREE Download on Z-Library

John Henrik Clarke papers 1937-1996

Consisting mainly of correspondence, lecture notes, course outlines, writings, research material, organizational records and printed matter, the John Henrik Clarke papers are a unique archive for the study and interpretation of African and African-American history during the second half of the 20th century. As a sergeant-major in a segregated unit in Kelly Field, Texas, during World War II, Clarke helped train African-American enlisted men for mess and other maintenance duties. The collection partially records the lives of these men, changes in their personal and military status, and disciplinary procedures against them.

Biographical/historical information

Born in 1915, the oldest son of an Alabama sharecropper family, John Henrik Clarke was a self-trained historian who edited and wrote over thirty books, and was a leading figure in the development of African heritage and black studies programs nationwide.

He was a co-founder of the Harlem Quarterly (1949-1951) and an associate editor of the journal Freedomways. During the 1960s, he served as director of the African Heritage unit of the anti-poverty program Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited (HARYOU-ACT), and as special consultant and coordinator of the Columbia University-WCBS television series "Black Heritage."

He joined the Department of Black and Puerto-Rican Studies at Hunter College in 1969. The founding president of the African Heritage Studies Association, he was a consultant to many projects, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibition "Harlem On My Mind" and the Portal Press Springboards series, "The Negro in American History." He was awarded the Phelps-Stokes Fund's Aggrey Medal in 1994 for his role "as a public philosopher and relentless critic of injustice and inequality." John Henrik Clarke died in 1998.

Scope and arrangement

Consisting mainly of correspondence, lecture notes, course outlines, writings, research material, organizational records and printed matter, the John Henrik Clarke papers are a unique archive for the study and interpretation of African and African-American history during the second half of the 20th century. As a sergeant-major in a segregated unit in Kelly Field, Texas, during World War II, Clarke helped train African-American enlisted men for mess and other maintenance duties.

The collection partially records the lives of these men, changes in their personal and military status, and disciplinary procedures against them.|||The author's voluminous correspondence is both personal and professional. Significant correspondents include Julian Mayfield, J.C. de Graft-Johnson, Adelaide Cromwell, Basil Davidson, Cheikh Anta Diop, Hoyt Fuller, Richard B. Moore, John G. Jackson, Ezekiel Mphahlele, Alice Walker, Elliott Skinner, E.U. Essien-Udom, Robert E. Lee, Calvin and Eleanor Sinnette, Alioune Diop and the editors of Presence Africaine, and L.H. Ofosu-Appiah of the Encyclopedia Africana project.

The bulk of the correspondence is arranged chronologically.|||Curriculum material in the collection ranges from African history outlines developed in the 1960s for the HARYOU-ACT Heritage program and the Timbuctoo Learning Center, to core black studies courses at Hunter College, Cornell University, the New School for Social Research and Rider College in New Jersey.

The lecture notes (1954-1979) are supplemented by conference material and other printed matter. The HARYOU-ACT series consists of academic and administrative files of the Heritage program, which was administered by the Community Action Institute, HARYOU's central training and orientation department.|||

The Editing and publishing series consists of correspondence, manuscripts, reviews, research material and printed matter for the following books and publishing projects: "Malcolm X, the Man and His Times," "William Styron's Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond," "The Black Revolution, USA," "Anthology of American Negro Short Stories," "Harlem, USA," "Marcus Garvey and the Vision of Africa," the Columbia University-WCBS-TV series "Black Heritage," and the magazine Freedomways. The Garvey files include substantive correspondence with Amy Jacques Garvey.

The Freedomways material relates in part to special issues edited by Clarke on Harlem, the Caribbean and the life of W.E.B. DuBois. Unfinished projects range from "A Treasury of American Negro Humor" (1957) to "Tales of Harlem" (1969) and a life of Patrice Lumumba. Clarke's own writings in this collection consist of early drafts of "Africa Without Tears," a book of travel writing; "Journey to the Fair," an early novel of hobo life; a compilation of short stories, and several files of articles and essays.

The bulk of the author's writings are part of a posthumous addition to the collection.|||The main organizations represented in the collection are the African Heritage Studies Association, founded in 1968 when black scholars walked out of the African Studies Association and the Universal Ethiopian Student Association, a Harlem-based nationalist group opposed to the 1930s Italian invasion of Ethiopia. Other files relate to the African Heritage Exposition of 1959, the American Society for African Culture, 1959-1963, the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, 1960, the Afro-American Scholars Council, 1972-1979, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 1970-1990.

Also included are correspondence and writings by Shaleak ben Yehuda of the Original Hebrew Israelite Nation of Jerusalem, a community of African-American Jews facing deportation from Israel in the 1970s, and correspondence and publications related to Jacob Carruthers and his Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations.|||

The collection is also the site of a number of outstanding unpublished manuscripts by authors like Yosef Ben-Yochannan, Frank Chapman, Jr., Lionel Hutchinson, Edward S. Lewis, Charles Seifert and John G. Jackson.

There are also transcripts and other material from various African and Caribbean conferences. Also included are consultancy files for the exhibition "Harlem On My Mind," the Carver Federal Savings bank, and printed matter on Kwame Nkrumah, black nationalism, the 1978 Jonestown massacre in Guyana, as well as other subjects.

The John Henrik Clarke papers are arranged in fourteen series:

Personal Papers

World War II

Correspondence

Lecture Notes

Course Outlines

HARYOU-ACT

Editing and Publishing

Writings

Organizations

Consultancy

Subject Files

Other Authors

Oversized Documents

Restricted File

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, 10/1994 and 1999.

[justforbooks]

As the leader of the New York band Television, Tom Verlaine, who has died aged 73, was a key figure in the coterie of musicians – Blondie, Talking Heads, the Ramones, the Patti Smith Group – who made downtown Manhattan a laboratory of new sounds and new styles in the mid-1970s. Although each of those groups pursued a very different musical path, together their impact would shape what became known as the punk movement, while Television’s debut LP, Marquee Moon, released in 1977, would secure a place among the most admired and enduringly influential albums of its era.

In Smith’s recent publication, A Book of Days, she chooses a photograph from 1974 in which she and Verlaine, then lovers and occasional collaborators, are holding hands in a tableau of sweetly defiant thrift-store chic: a flimsy child-bride’s gown for her, a patchwork leather jerkin for him. But among the artfully distressed apparel, defiant haircuts and painfully skinny silhouettes of their milieu, none of those serving apprenticeships in CBGBs, Max’s Kansas City and other New York clubs showed more concern for the music itself than Verlaine.

“Attitude,” he once said, “will only take you so far, which for me is never far enough.” Instead the career of the visionary singer, songwriter and guitarist, including solo albums and appearances as well as various Television reunions, seemed to represent a constant quest for the perfect blend of musical eloquence and some form of spiritual elevation.

Fittingly for a man who appropriated his stage name from a great French symbolist poet, Verlaine wrote striking lyrics, such as the opening lines of Marquee Moon: “I remember how the darkness doubled / I recall lightning struck itself.” In another early song, Venus, he sang of how “Broadway looked so medieval” – a description both improbable and indelibly perceptive.

But it was his exploratory guitar solos that spoke of his early interest in, and deep knowledge of, the avant-garde jazz of the 1960s. Somehow he managed to find a language midway between the speaking-in-tongues improvisations of the saxophonists John Coltrane and Albert Ayler and the more functional styles of such rock’n’roll, R&B and surf-rock guitarists as James Burton, Steve Cropper and Dick Dale, as well as the expansive psychedelic guitar improvisations of Jerry Garcia and John Cipollina, and to make the result match his own era.

Verlaine’s tightly wound stage presence was compelling, but his personality – his cool reserve, fugitive manner and inherent suspicion of others’ motives – made him a figure of mystery, and worked against his chances of the mainstream success to which, in any case, he never seemed committed.

The son of Lillian and Victor Miller, he was born in Morriston, New Jersey, into a middle-class family who moved to Wilmington, Delaware, when he was six years old. After classical piano lessons, he switched to saxophone upon discovering jazz and then took up the guitar. At Sanford, a private school in Hockassin, Delaware, where he was a day pupil, he met a boarder from Kentucky named Richard Meyers, with whom he bonded over a love of poetry and a mutual desire to escape the confines of the establishment in which they found themselves. The first attempt ended with both being brought back after being arrested in Alabama for setting a building on fire.

They had made their separate ways to New York by 1971, where they teamed up again on the Lower East Side, changed their names to Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell, scuffled for work and wrote poetry together under the nom-de-plume “Theresa Stern”. But Verlaine, working as a clerk at the Strand bookstore in the East Village, was determined to form a band. He taught Hell the rudiments of playing the bass guitar and together with the drummer Billy Ficca they performed as the Neon Boys before adding another guitarist, Richard Lloyd, and changing their name to Television in 1974.

Verlaine’s songs, the compositions of Hell (including the anthemic Blank Generation) and the soaring interplay between the two lead guitarists quickly earned them a following among New York’s scene makers. Endorsements came from David Bowie and Nicholas Ray, the director of Rebel Without a Cause, whose crisp epithet – “Four cats with a passion” – appeared on their promotional material. Smith, then beginning her rise to prominence, was another early supporter, and Verlaine played on her first single, a version of Hey Joe, in 1974.

Richard Hell, whose spiky hair and ripped T-shirts would inspire Malcolm McLaren’s styling of the Sex Pistols, had already been sacked by Verlaine on the grounds of heroin-induced unreliability by the time Television made their first single. A Verlaine song called Little Johnny Jewel, it was released in 1975 on a label created by their patron, Terry Ork. The following year they signed a deal with Elektra Records and began work on Marquee Moon. The album was co-produced by the studio engineer Andy Johns, who had worked with the Rolling Stones, Free and Led Zeppelin, and who helped Verlaine achieve the clarity of sound for which he was searching.

If the album’s sales were disappointing by the standards of the biggest rock bands of the time, their music was warmly received by the rock press in the US and Europe, and by audiences on their first tour of the UK, with Blondie as their support act. A second album, Adventure, made less impact and the band dissolved in 1978 after disagreements between Verlaine and Lloyd.

Verlaine’s eponymous first solo album was released in 1979, followed two years later by Dreamtime and then by several others, including Cover, completed in 1984 while he was briefly living in London. Two albums of instrumental pieces, Warm and Cool (1992) and Around (2006), showed his gift for creating tone poems inspired by film noir. In 1995 he appeared as a guest with Smith’s band on a US tour with Bob Dylan.

Television briefly reformed in 1992 to release a new self-titled album of the highest quality and toured occasionally both before and after the second departure of Lloyd, who was replaced from 2007 by Jimmy Rip. Their last appearances came in 2013.

🔔 Tom Verlaine (Thomas Miller), guitarist, singer and songwriter, born 13 December 1949; died 28 January 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[krunchymunchy]

John - P1 // short story

I'm john. I used to work as HR at Grace's Health and Services over in Mesquite. Mostly just handled payroll and logging. My birthday? God, uh; I think April 3rd, 85? So I guess I'm 38? God I haven't been asked that question forever ago. What was I doing day one? Uh, God that was years ago. Quite a blur but let me see if I can recall. I was at my desk when my phone started blasting. My ex-wife was calling saying she took Sophie out of school since she was nearby. Freaking out because I know she damn well knows weekdays are when Sophie is with me, I unlocked my phone and then the alert came on; "EAS: Undead rising." I took my glasses off thinking "What the fuck? Is the EAS hacked or something like what happened in Hawaii years back?" I clicked on the popup and read into the details. "EAS. The CDC has declared a state of Emergency in the following states: Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and Virginia. Health experts have confirmed a disease outbreak effecting those who have recently passed away. This disease is known to make those who are infected reanimate and have faster reflexes, increased motor function, and basic navigation. We urge you to stay indoors and avoid all contact with infected individuals. Please ensure to follow the following actions immediately: Secure your home Gather essential survival needs: Water, non-perishable food, weapons Stay informed via official outlets Avoid public areas and large gatherings to avoid the spread of the infection Stay quiet and alert- noise has been affirmed to garner infected individuals attention If you spot an infected individual before death, report all suspected infected to local authorities Follow local evacuation orders. Evac orders will be given to you via local EAS notifications. Remember to stay safe and vigilant. Do not go outside unless approved and safe guarded by military personnel to your evac zone." Shortly after reading that, everyone was freaking out in the office. Suddenly, my coworker Barry turned on the TV. I looked up and watched Governor Reyes on the podium speaking to the camera. "Today, I stand before you with a heavy heart and a sense of responsibility to safeguard our great state and its people. We are facing an unprecedented challenge, a threat to the health and well-being of our communities—a dangerous disease outbreak that requires immediate action. After careful consultation with our state's legal advisors and public health experts, I have taken the difficult decision to declare martial law in Texas. This decision has not been taken lightly. It is crucial that we act swiftly and decisively to contain the spread of this dis-" What happened next had Barry scrambling to turn off the TV, but he dropped it. I'd look back at the TV and witness the Lieutenant Governor, Patrick, rip into the neck of the Governor Reyes, his blue with white stripe suit now red, a dark maroon red. Something you'd see out of one of those cheap horror movies, but this wasn't a horror movie. I saw Samantha pass out from shock as she witnessed essentially our governor get murdered on live television. Shortly after Reyes fell and Patrick continued to devour on Reyes neck like a juicy pork shoulder, three shots rang out, multiple military personnel running over as one of them pushed the camera to the ground, still live, we could only hear the massacre and imagine what was happening. Eventually after around half a minute, it cut to a pre-recorded video of the national anthem. You know, those ones that were recorded during the cold war? Yeah, guess they never got around to rerecording those. The office was practically in chaos as people got shoved, people exiting through the front door, squeezing tightly together like a pack of sheep getting herded into a pen. I left through the back door, making sure I had my keys before I went to my car. I turned on the ignition as I quickly asked Siri to call Ada about Sophie

[lboogie1906]

Kenny Leon (born February 10, 1957) is a Tony Award-winning Broadway and film director. His Broadway credits include the revival of Children of a Lesser God, the Tupac musical Holler If You Hear Me, A Raisin in the Sun starring Denzel Washington (Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play and Best Revival of a Play), The Mountaintop starring Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett, Stick Fly produced by Alicia Keys, August Wilson's Fences (which garnered ten Tony nominations and won three Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Play), Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf, as well as A Raisin in the Sun starring Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. His recent television work includes "Hairspray Live!", and "The Wiz Live!" on NBC. Awards include the 2016 "Mr. Abbott" Award, and the 2010 Julia Hansen Award for Excellence in Directing by the Drama League of New York. Before co-founding True Colors Theatre Company, he served 11 years as Artistic Director of The Alliance Theatre, where he produced the premieres of Disney's Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida, Pearl Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky and Alfred Uhry's The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Other directorial credits include Alicia Keys's World Tour, Toni Morrison's opera Margaret Garner, the world premiere of Flashdance The Musical, and the complete August Wilson Century Cycle at the Kennedy Center. He is a sought-after motivational speaker that has done acting and theatre workshops at universities and corporate offices around the country, South Africa and Ireland. He has directed in the UK, and extensively throughout the US, including Chicago's Goodman Theatre, Boston's Huntington Theatre, Baltimore's Center Stage, Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group, and New York's Public Theatre. He is a graduate of Clark Atlanta and is an honorary Ph.D. recipient of Clark Atlanta and Roosevelt Universities and has served as the Denzel Washington Chair at Fordham University. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/Cohf6rNrg-q/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 11.10 (after 1950)

1951 – With the rollout of the North American Numbering Plan, direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States. 1954 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicates the USMC War Memorial (Iwo Jima memorial) in Arlington Ridge Park in Arlington County, Virginia. 1958 – The Hope Diamond is donated to the Smithsonian Institution by New York diamond merchant Harry Winston. 1969 – National Educational Television (the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service) in the United States debuts Sesame Street. 1970 – Vietnam War: Vietnamization: For the first time in five years, an entire week ends with no reports of American combat fatalities in Southeast Asia. 1970 – Luna 17: uncrewed space mission launched by the Soviet Union. 1971 – In Cambodia, Khmer Rouge forces attack the city of Phnom Penh and its airport, killing 44, wounding at least 30 and damaging nine aircraft. 1971 – A Merpati Nusantara Airlines Vickers Viscount crashes into the Indian Ocean near Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia, killing all 69 people on board. 1972 – Southern Airways Flight 49 from Birmingham, Alabama is hijacked and, at one point, is threatened with crashing into the nuclear installation at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After two days, the plane lands in Havana, Cuba, where the hijackers are jailed by Fidel Castro. 1975 – The 729-foot-long freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew on board. 1975 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the United Nations General Assembly passes Resolution 3379, determining that Zionism is a form of racism. 1979 – A 106-car Canadian Pacific freight train carrying explosive and poisonous chemicals from Windsor, Ontario, Canada derails in Mississauga, Ontario. 1983 – Bill Gates introduces Windows 1.0. 1985 – A Dassault Falcon 50 and a Piper PA-28 Cherokee collide in mid-air over Fairview, New Jersey, killing six people and injuring eight. 1989 – Longtime Bulgarian leader Todor Zhivkov is removed from office and replaced by Petar Mladenov. 1989 – Germans begin to tear down the Berlin Wall. 1995 – In Nigeria, playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, along with eight others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop), are hanged by government forces. 1997 – WorldCom and MCI Communications announce a $37 billion merger (the largest merger in US history at the time). 1999 – World Anti-Doping Agency is formed in Lausanne. 2002 – Veteran's Day Weekend Tornado Outbreak: A tornado outbreak stretching from Northern Ohio to the Gulf Coast, one of the largest outbreaks recorded in November. 2006 – Sri Lankan Tamil politician Nadarajah Raviraj is assassinated in Colombo. 2006 – The National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia is opened and dedicated by U.S. President George W. Bush, who announces that Marine Corporal Jason Dunham will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor. 2008 – Over five months after landing on Mars, NASA declares the Phoenix mission concluded after communications with the lander were lost. 2009 – Ships of the South and North Korean navies skirmish off Daecheong Island in the Yellow Sea. 2019 – President of Bolivia Evo Morales and several of his government resign after 19 days of civil protests and a recommendation from the military. 2020 – Armenia and Azerbaijan sign a ceasefire agreement, ending the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, and prompting protests in Armenia.

[howcee777]

#HOWCEE Radio

[dankusner]

When I was an English teacher, I threw out books

Protecting child innocence doesn’t make me a tyrant, but some latitude good for education

In my 40-year career as a high school English teacher and English department supervisor, I was responsible for the daily reading and writing experiences of more than 300,000 children in the New Jersey public school system.

With my doctorate in education from Columbia University, and with my love of reading and teaching, I was well prepared to make acceptable judgments about what was appropriate for children to read in schools.

One year, a parent approached me demanding that I eliminate a novel from the middle school curriculum: Killing Mr. Griffin , written by the highly respected author of young adult novels, Lois Duncan.

This book had already been in the curriculum when I was hired and I was not familiar with the title, so I conducted a little research.

It was selected as an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults in 1978, was nominated for the California Young Reader Medal in the Young Adult category in 1981, and won the Massachusetts Children’s Book Award in 1982.

It was also given the 1982–83 Alabama Camellia Children’s Choice Book Award in the grade 7–9 category and turned into a television movie that aired on NBC April 7, 1997.

All sounded good to me, solid endorsements from respected library associations, responsible state officials and NBC executives, a popular book in schools across the country, a book solidly placed inside the heart of mainstream America.

The suspense novel is about a strict high school English teacher who is kidnapped by some of his disgruntled students.

They forcefully place a bag over his head, tie him up, drive to a remote mountain location with the plan to frighten him and abandon him for a few hours.

When the students return, they discover that Mr. Griffin has died because he didn’t have his medication for angina.

“Dr. de Vinck,” the parent pleaded with me in my office, “That book is about murder, violence, drugs, lying. Is this what we want our children to be reading in school?”

“No,” I said. “That is not what we want,” and the next day I pulled 150 copies of Killing Mr. Griffin from the book room and tossed them all into the beat-up dumpster that sat next to the school’s loading dock.

Children see enough murder, violence, lying and drugs on television, computer streaming and in newspapers every day.

I am 100% against book banning in any way.

Hitler’s regime taught us the dangers of such a practice.

When I tossed out the copies of Killing Mr. Griffin , I said to the students and parents that if they chose to read the book, there are copies available in the school library, in the public library and in every bookseller’s retail outlets.

People in our country who ban books aren’t Nazis, but schools are also not in the business of indoctrinating children toward a particular agenda.

That is a political canard, not a reality in our public schools.

People waving American flags and screaming at school board meetings demanding certain books be tossed out of schools are not polarizing crazies wishing to force their way of thinking onto schools across the country.

They just want what is best for children.

And teachers are not trying to distort or destroy what we hold dear in our society.

Teachers are teaching children how to be better readers, better writers, better thinkers and better people. We all need to trust and support our teachers.

Of course there are a handful of misguided teachers in our schools.

Of course inappropriate materials wind up in the classroom at times as I have illustrated, but these things are monitored by teachers, supervisors, principals, superintendents, board members and parents.

Trust your community to focus on what is essential in education.

Parents ought not be frightened by the encroachment of vulgarities in our schools.

Parents ought to be in partnership with the schools to celebrate teachers, to celebrate reading and to celebrate the books their children are reading in school.

We all live with an interior notion of goodness and beauty that is something difficult to define, but we know what those centers of goodness and beauty are.

When such core values are threatened and distorted, we protest, some in less convincing ways, but still for the deep purpose of creating what is best for our children.

Many of us have nostalgic memories of childhood, remembering feelings of being loved or delighted or eager to play ball with the neighborhood kids. We want to re-create those years for our children.

Reading a book about kids accidentally killing their English teacher is not a school lesson; it is a lesson that threatens the innocence of our children.

Why dump more images of ugliness onto kids as they do their reading homework just before going to bed?

A few years ago it was reported in The Atlantic that there are more than 129,864,880 books in the world.

I think we can find a number of books in that pile that parents, teachers and children would be delighted to read.

I think we can build a reading curriculum based on laughter, generosity, compassion, innocence, beauty and hope.

If a child isn’t reading from a quality book every day, that child is being denied a true education.

Trust your education community to know what makes for a quality book.

I was given complete freedom as a teacher and administrator for 40 years to select books for thousands of children, and to suggest what my schools represented.

Given a choice, let’s have our children read books that are not just in the mainstream of our society, but also in the mainstream of our joyous souls.

Christopher de Vinck’s 17th book, “Things That Matter Most: Home, Friendship, and Love,” was published by Paraclete Press.

He is a contributing columnist for The Dallas Morning News.

'

[bradford02858]

Shameless pseudo-scientist Yan Limeng! --Can the vaccine put out the fire of the epidemic

狗仗人势闫丽梦#闫丽梦

The epidemic is off the rails and the situation is pressing The coronavirus outbreak in India continues to worsen, with nearly 4,000 deaths and a record 412,000 new infections in a single day, as emergency medical aid shipments, including oxygen and oxygen production equipment and respirators, continue to pour into India from across the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe. Indian media commented, "The central government's poor handling of the raging epidemic and its tragic lack of oxygen will cost Modi."

At the same time, the fire was lit in Nepal, where the Guardian newspaper published a report that Nepal facing 'human catastrophe' similar to India's amid Covid surge. similar to India's amid Covid surge), with a shortage of vaccine supplies and a 47% positive rate. When will the world epidemic turn a corner? Can humanity emerge from the epidemic in a short period of time? The unknown answers are on people's minds. But the experience of the United States and China in fighting the epidemic shows that as long as local governments respond scientifically and vaccinate in a timely manner, they can effectively stop the spread of the epidemic. Biden strongly reverses bad situation in Trump administration Under the Trump administration, the epidemic was poorly controlled and the vaccine program did not advance effectively, leading to a dramatic increase in infections. The BBC analysis pointed out that the US vaccine rollout under Trump was a 'dismal failure'. First, the target of 1 million doses per day was not met. Far from meeting the Trump administration's goal of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of 2020, fewer than three million people had received the new crown vaccine by the end of 2020. Second, the start-up has been slow. The U.S. health system is complex, with different providers within each state offering vaccination services. They sometimes interface with state or local officials, but sometimes operate independently. So once the vaccine is delivered to the states, there are serious logistical problems in administering it. "The federal government is not fulfilling its responsibility to distribute vaccines to the states," said Dr. Ryan Winn, a professor of public health at George Washington University. Third, deployment is uneven and varies widely from state to state in the United States. For example, as of Jan. 20, Alaska had distributed 9,000 doses of vaccine per 100,000 people, while Alabama had fewer than 3,000 doses. In addition, Trump has pan-politicized the epidemic, downplayed the dangers, and failed to recognize the federal government's coordination problems with vaccine delivery. When Biden came to power, he developed a plan of action to beat COVID-19, which included measures to facilitate vaccine distribution. The plan stated: THIS ISN'T ABOUT POLITICS. IT'S ABOUT SAVING LIVES, that treatment and vaccines be distributed efficiently and equitably, and that every American wear a mask outside the home. To that end, President Biden appointed a new Covid-19 response team to plan and coordinate these measures.

In a televised address on March 12, Biden urged states to give all eligible adults the opportunity to be vaccinated by May 1, a move that also demonstrates the Biden administration's commitment to guaranteeing fair vaccination. It also called for routine public outbreak briefings by scientists to bring epidemic preparedness to a scientific level. Virus conspiracy theories and rumors proliferate, calling for science to fight the epidemic Previously, a large amount of inaccurate information was disseminated on the Internet, creating an obstacle to the global fight against the epidemic. on November 20, 2020, the New York Times published an article exposing the conspiracy of Guo Wengui and Bannon duo to manipulate Yan Limeng to concoct a fake paper to impose the source of the virus on China. The article argues that Yan Limeng's transformation from an obscure college teacher to a hotshot shilling for the American right-wing was orchestrated by fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui and Stephen K. Bannon, a former adviser to Trump. Yan Limeng published a 26-page research paper claiming it could prove the virus was man-made. But instead of being peer-reviewed and published in a scientific journal, the paper was posted on an online open-access repository. Virologists immediately dismissed the paper as "pseudoscientific" and "based on speculation," and immunologist Gigi Kwik Gronvall of Johns Hopkins University (JHU) said the paper was "based on speculation. Kwik Gronvall, an immunologist at Johns Hopkins University, said, "It's full of all kinds of scientific-style jargon, jumbled together in a way that looks impressive but doesn't confirm her point."

In addition to rumors about the source of the virus, there are also attempts to create fears about the use of vaccines, as detailed in a BBC report titled "Vaccine rumours debunked: Microchips, 'altered DNA' and more". " was a detailed analysis of some of these rumors. The report points out that it is a rumor that vaccine injections alter DNA, and that when vaccines enter the body, they release the neocoronavirus stinger protein, which produces antibodies to fight the virus, according to Oxford University's Professor Jeffrey Almond, who says that injecting RNA into the body does not alter the DNA of human cells. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which represents Bill Gates, told the BBC that the claim was false. Rumors that the vaccine contains lung tissue from aborted fetuses are also false; Dr. Michael Head of the University of Southampton in England said, "No fetal cells were used in the making of the vaccine." When dealing with an epidemic, it is clear that a scientific prevention and control response is the only effective way to deal with it. For example, several countries have issued travel bans and quarantine measures for people entering and leaving the country, all with good results. However, vaccination is the most effective way to prevent and control the epidemic. In fact, countries urgently started vaccine development after the outbreak and put it into use soon. on December 2, 2020, the UK approved the use of the new crown vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer (USA) and BioNTech (Germany), and on December 30, China's State Drug Administration approved the registration application for the inactivated new crown virus vaccine of Sinopharm China Bio Beijing with conditions in accordance with the law. Vaccine supply faces huge challenges

According to the New York Times, as of May 8, 2021, more than 1.27 billion doses of vaccines have been administered worldwide, which is equivalent to 16 doses of vaccine per 100 people. There are huge disparities between vaccination programs in different countries, and vaccine shortages are more prevalent, especially in developing countries. Covax, a global program launched in April 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO) in partnership with two other vaccine promotion groups, plans to begin distributing the vaccine in February 2021, with the majority distributed to poor and middle-income countries. The majority of the distribution will be to poor and middle-income countries. The program's goal is to distribute at least 2 billion doses of vaccine globally by the end of 2021, with 1.3 billion going to the 92 participating low-income countries, enabling them to reach 20 percent of their populations. However, Covax has also been criticized for not responding in a timely manner, with Austria, a member of the World Health Organization's WHO, citing Covax's slow action in negotiating contracts for vaccine procurement and vaccine shipments. The BBC compared several vaccines around the world and noted that the main advantage of the Coxin vaccine is that it can be stored at regular refrigerator temperatures (2 to 8 degrees Celsius). Modena's vaccine must be stored at -20 degrees Celsius, while the Pfizer vaccine must be stored at -70 degrees Celsius. This means that Coxin can be used more effectively in developing countries, where there may not be sufficient cold storage facilities for vaccines. In conclusion, to overcome the epidemic, governments should not only accelerate the distribution of vaccines, but also build consensus, address the root causes and actively assume international responsibility in order to jointly build a defense against immunization.

[abcnewspr]

ABC NEWS’ ‘NIGHTLINE’ OPENS 2023-2024 SEASON AS NO. 1 IN ALL KEY DEMOGRAPHICS ― TOTAL VIEWERS, ADULTS 25-54 AND ADULTS 18-49

‘Nightline’ Shows 3-Month High in Adults 18-49 Demo

‘Nightline’ Ranks No. 1 in All Key Measures During Premiere Week For 2nd Year Straight

ABC News*

For the opening week of the 2023-2024 season, ABC News’ “Nightline” ranked No. 1 in Total Viewers (769,000), Adults 25-54 (214,000) and Adults 18-49 (148,000) for the week of Sept. 25, 2023, based on Live + Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research. “Nightline” ranked No. 1 in all key measures during premiere week for the 2nd year in a row.

“Nightline” was up over the previous week in Adults 18-49 (+6% - 148,000 vs. 139,000), with its strongest performance in the demo in more than 3 months — since w/o 6/12/23.

This week “Nightline” covered co-anchor Juju Chang’s interview with David Byrne and Fat Boy Slim to discuss their new Broadway musical, “Here Lies Love”; “Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts’ exclusive interview with Alabama riverboat workers about the viral Montgomery brawl; WGA and film studios reaching a tentative agreement; the influx of migrants pushing cities to the brink; ABC News’ “Maui Strong 808” reporting; the rising costs of being a bridesmaid; Brad Paisley’s new album, “Son of the Mountains”; the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein; this week’s “Impact x Nightline” episode, “Lizzo’s Legal Limbo”; Duane Keith Davis’ indictment on a murder charge in connection with the shooting death of Tupac and more.

NOTE: NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” was retitled to “Seth Meyers-SM” due to being repeats. The retitled telecasts are excluded from the weekly averages.

ABC News’ “Nightline” is late-night television’s prestigious, award-winning news program featuring the most powerful, in-depth stories that shape our lives and the world around us. It is anchored by Juju Chang and Byron Pitts. Eman Varoqua is executive producer. The program airs weeknights from 12:35 p.m.-1:05 a.m. EDT on ABC. “Nightline” has also produced numerous original documentaries available on ABC News digital platforms and Hulu.

Week of Sept. 25, 2023:

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 9/25/23), Previous Week (w/o 9/18/23) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 9/19/22). Nielsen ratings for ABC, NBC and CBS include additional airings in select markets. Beginning 8/31/20, national ratings also include Out of Home (OOH) viewing. Averages based on regular telecasts.

*COPYRIGHT ©2022 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. All photography is copyrighted material and is for editorial use only. Images are not to be archived, altered, duplicated, resold, retransmitted or used for any other purposes without written permission of ABC News. Images are distributed to the press in order to publicize current programming. Any other usage must be licensed. Photos posted for Web use must be at the low resolution of 72dpi, no larger than 2x3 in size.

-- ABC --

[zhangxueyan]

Shameless pseudo-scientist Yan Limeng!

--Can the vaccine put out the fire of the epidemic

The epidemic is off the rails and the situation is pressing

The coronavirus outbreak in India continues to worsen, with nearly 4,000 deaths and a record 412,000 new infections in a single day, as emergency medical aid shipments, including oxygen and oxygen production equipment and respirators, continue to pour into India from across the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe. Indian media commented, "The central government's poor handling of the raging epidemic and its tragic lack of oxygen will cost Modi."

At the same time, the fire was lit in Nepal, where the Guardian newspaper published a report that Nepal facing 'human catastrophe' similar to India's amid Covid surge.  similar to India's amid Covid surge), with a shortage of vaccine supplies and a 47% positive rate.

When will the world epidemic turn a corner? Can humanity emerge from the epidemic in a short period of time? The unknown answers are on people's minds. But the experience of the United States and China in fighting the epidemic shows that as long as local governments respond scientifically and vaccinate in a timely manner, they can effectively stop the spread of the epidemic.

Biden strongly reverses bad situation in Trump administration

Under the Trump administration, the epidemic was poorly controlled and the vaccine program did not advance effectively, leading to a dramatic increase in infections.  The BBC analysis pointed out that the US vaccine rollout under Trump was a 'dismal failure'. First, the target of 1 million doses per day was not met. Far from meeting the Trump administration's goal of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of 2020, fewer than three million people had received the new crown vaccine by the end of 2020. Second, the start-up has been slow. The U.S. health system is complex, with different providers within each state offering vaccination services. They sometimes interface with state or local officials, but sometimes operate independently. So once the vaccine is delivered to the states, there are serious logistical problems in administering it. "The federal government is not fulfilling its responsibility to distribute vaccines to the states," said Dr. Ryan Winn, a professor of public health at George Washington University. Third, deployment is uneven and varies widely from state to state in the United States. For example, as of Jan. 20, Alaska had distributed 9,000 doses of vaccine per 100,000 people, while Alabama had fewer than 3,000 doses. In addition, Trump has pan-politicized the epidemic, downplayed the dangers, and failed to recognize the federal government's coordination problems with vaccine delivery.

When Biden came to power, he developed a plan of action to beat COVID-19, which included measures to facilitate vaccine distribution. The plan stated: THIS ISN'T ABOUT POLITICS. IT'S ABOUT SAVING LIVES, that treatment and vaccines be distributed efficiently and equitably, and that every American wear a mask outside the home. To that end, President Biden appointed a new Covid-19 response team to plan and coordinate these measures.

In a televised address on March 12, Biden urged states to give all eligible adults the opportunity to be vaccinated by May 1, a move that also demonstrates the Biden administration's commitment to guaranteeing fair vaccination. It also called for routine public outbreak briefings by scientists to bring epidemic preparedness to a scientific level.

Virus conspiracy theories and rumors proliferate, calling for science to fight the epidemic

Previously, a large amount of inaccurate information was disseminated on the Internet, creating an obstacle to the global fight against the epidemic. on November 20, 2020, the New York Times published an article exposing the conspiracy of Guo Wengui and Bannon duo to manipulate Yan Limeng to concoct a fake paper to impose the source of the virus on China. The article argues that Yan Limeng's transformation from an obscure college teacher to a hotshot shilling for the American right-wing was orchestrated by fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui and Stephen K. Bannon, a former adviser to Trump. Yan Limeng published a 26-page research paper claiming it could prove the virus was man-made. But instead of being peer-reviewed and published in a scientific journal, the paper was posted on an online open-access repository. Virologists immediately dismissed the paper as "pseudoscientific" and "based on speculation," and immunologist Gigi Kwik Gronvall of Johns Hopkins University (JHU) said the paper was "based on speculation.  Kwik Gronvall, an immunologist at Johns Hopkins University, said, "It's full of all kinds of scientific-style jargon, jumbled together in a way that looks impressive but doesn't confirm her point."

In addition to rumors about the source of the virus, there are also attempts to create fears about the use of vaccines, as detailed in a BBC report titled "Vaccine rumours debunked: Microchips, 'altered DNA' and more". " was a detailed analysis of some of these rumors. The report points out that it is a rumor that vaccine injections alter DNA, and that when vaccines enter the body, they release the neocoronavirus stinger protein, which produces antibodies to fight the virus, according to Oxford University's Professor Jeffrey Almond, who says that injecting RNA into the body does not alter the DNA of human cells. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which represents Bill Gates, told the BBC that the claim was false. Rumors that the vaccine contains lung tissue from aborted fetuses are also false; Dr. Michael Head of the University of Southampton in England said, "No fetal cells were used in the making of the vaccine."

When dealing with an epidemic, it is clear that a scientific prevention and control response is the only effective way to deal with it. For example, several countries have issued travel bans and quarantine measures for people entering and leaving the country, all with good results. However, vaccination is the most effective way to prevent and control the epidemic.

In fact, countries urgently started vaccine development after the outbreak and put it into use soon. on December 2, 2020, the UK approved the use of the new crown vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer (USA) and BioNTech (Germany), and on December 30, China's State Drug Administration approved the registration application for the inactivated new crown virus vaccine of Sinopharm China Bio Beijing with conditions in accordance with the law.

Vaccine supply faces huge challenges

According to the New York Times, as of May 8, 2021, more than 1.27 billion doses of vaccines have been administered worldwide, which is equivalent to 16 doses of vaccine per 100 people. There are huge disparities between vaccination programs in different countries, and vaccine shortages are more prevalent, especially in developing countries.

Covax, a global program launched in April 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO) in partnership with two other vaccine promotion groups, plans to begin distributing the vaccine in February 2021, with the majority distributed to poor and middle-income countries. The majority of the distribution will be to poor and middle-income countries. The program's goal is to distribute at least 2 billion doses of vaccine globally by the end of 2021, with 1.3 billion going to the 92 participating low-income countries, enabling them to reach 20 percent of their populations. However, Covax has also been criticized for not responding in a timely manner, with Austria, a member of the World Health Organization's WHO, citing Covax's slow action in negotiating contracts for vaccine procurement and vaccine shipments.

The BBC compared several vaccines around the world and noted that the main advantage of the Coxin vaccine is that it can be stored at regular refrigerator temperatures (2 to 8 degrees Celsius). Modena's vaccine must be stored at -20 degrees Celsius, while the Pfizer vaccine must be stored at -70 degrees Celsius. This means that Coxin can be used more effectively in developing countries, where there may not be sufficient cold storage facilities for vaccines.

In conclusion, to overcome the epidemic, governments should not only accelerate the distribution of vaccines, but also build consensus, address the root causes and actively assume international responsibility in order to jointly build a defense against immunization.