#emergency clinic defense coalition

[autonom-us-project]

Abortion Rights in Missouri

In June 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned the ruling of the landmark 1973 case Roe v. Wade, which had previously provided federal protections of the right to abortion.

With the responsibility of protecting the right to reproductive freedom left to the states, it can be difficult to keep track of all the constantly changing laws and regulations. To help, we’ve gathered the most important information on your state’s current laws, restrictions, and related details. Below is what you need to know about Missouri’s current abortion legislation.

*Please note, information on this website should not be used as legal advice or as a basis for medical decisions. Consult an attorney and/or a physician for your particular case.

Where does the law currently stand on abortion in the state of Missouri?

Abortion is currently banned in the state of Missouri.

When did Missouri’s current abortion ban go into effect?

Following the overturning of Roe v Wade (1973) in 2022, the state’s trigger ban went into effect, banning nearly all access to abortion in the state of Missouri.

For more information on your state’s abortion legislation, see our breakdowns of various abortion bans, restrictions, and protections in the U.S.

Are there any exceptions to Missouri’s abortion ban?

Currently, there are no exceptions in cases of rape, incest, or if a fetus is non-viable. The only exceptions to the ban are:

Medical Necessity: If a pregnant individual requires an abortion “because of a medical emergency,” as determined by a physician. In this case, however, state law requires the physician then provide an “affirmative defense” to prove in court that the performed abortion met the criteria for a legal exception. 

The specifics can be read in Missouri Legal Code 188.017. 

What are the penalties regarding abortion in the state of Missouri?

Currently, there are no criminal penalties for a pregnant individual receiving or attempting to receive an abortion in the state of Missouri.

Those who provide abortion services in violation of Missouri law face a Class B felony charge, punishable by 5 to 15 years in prison.Additionally, they will face the suspension or loss of their medical license. 

The specifics can be read in Missouri Legal Code 188.017. 

I am pregnant in the state of Missouri and wish to terminate my pregnancy. What now?

If you believe your pregnancy meets the requirements for a legal abortion in your state, (see the above on exceptions), schedule an appointment with a trusted physician as soon as possible. If not, you will need to arrange an appointment at a clinic providing abortion services out of state. Make sure the state you choose allows abortions at the gestational age your pregnancy will reach by the appointment date.

If you need financial assistance to do this, there are existing funds to help cover both the procedure and travel costs. 

Abortion funds can assist with the medical cost of the abortion itself. Practical Support Organizations, (PSOs), can assist with other costs incurred seeking an out-of-state abortion such as travel, lodging, childcare, provider referrals, emotional support, and judicial bypass for minors, among other needs. Here are a few resources available to those seeking support in MIssouri:

Missouri Abortion Fund [Fund] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion from Missouri, but must be traveling to specific providers in Illinois, Kansas or Maryland. Offers financial aid for abortion. See their website for more information. 

Midwest Access Coalition [PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion from Missouri. Offers financial aid and support in the form of lodging, transit, gas money, transit (local and long-distance), food assistance, emotional support, rideshare, childcare assistance, and emergency contraception (the morning-after pill). See their website for more information. 

Right By You [PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion from Missouri. Offers support in the form of provider referrals, emotional support, and judicial bypass support. See their website for more information. 

National Abortion Hotline [Fund & PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion Nationwide. Offers financial aid for abortion, transit, and provider referrals. Provides Spanish language support. See their website for more information. 

Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project [Fund] – Provides funding for those seeking an abortion Nationwide. Offers financial aid for abortion and emergency contraception (the morning-after pill). See their website for more information. 

Abortion Freedom Fund [Fund] – Provides funding for those seeking an abortion Nationwide. Offers financial aid for abortion. See their website for more information. 

Indigenous Women Rising [Fund] – Provides funding for Indigenous individuals Nationwide seeking an abortion. Offers financial aid for abortion. See their website for more information. 

Reprocare [PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion Nationwide. Offers aid in the form of provider referrals, emotional support, language services, and abortion doula services. Provides Spanish language support. See their website for more information. 

The Brigid Alliance [PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion Nationwide. Offers aid in the form of provider referrals, emotional support, language services, and abortion doula services. Provides Spanish language support. See their website for more information. 

Regardless of the legislation your state currently has in place, remember that safe and legal options are always available. The most important tool you can arm yourself with in these difficult times is knowledge, so stay informed about changes in legislation and policy where you live, and know that there are always resources available to help you through this ♥️

[outweek30]

Back alleys = dumpsters

CHICAGO [November 5, 1989] — Responding to a national day of actions called for by ACT NOW, a nationwide AIDS activist network, ACT UP/Chicago and the Emergency Clinic Defense Coalition (ECDC) sponsored a demonstration held Friday, October 6 [1989], 1989 in downtown Chicago to support gay and lesbian rights and reproductive freedom.

Using street theater as the centerpiece of the action, the demonstrators reportedly chanted "back alleys are for dumpsters, closets are for clothes!" They then paraded a "freedom bed" containing lesbian, gay and straight couples making love as they lampooned the reactions of Senator Jesse Helms, "ardent anti-choice, anti-gay" state legislator Penny Pullen, Pro-Life Action League head Joseph Scheidler, the Pope and the Supreme Court.

The purpose of the dramatic display was to decry the interference of right-wing legislators in the lives of all people, and to connect issues of reproduction, sexuality and AIDS, according to ACT UP/Chicago members. "There are legal parallels between AIDS and abortion rights, particularly with the Hardwick and Webster Supreme Court decisions which affect sexual and reproductive privacy," said Carol Jonas, a spokeswoman for both ACT UP and ECDC, in a telephone conversation with OutWeek. "And our other parallel demands include free and universal health care and an end to racism and sexism."

After the performance, participants marched downtown handing out condoms with messages attached such as "put this on the penis of your choice" and "a fashion accessory that goes great with nothing."

— Keith Miller, OutWeek Magazine No. 20, November 5, 1989, p. 28.

[katvontea]

"Would be a shame if I was sick."

Abortion clinic staffers and patient escorts watched in horror last weekend as anti-abortion protesters in North Carolina continued to gather in large numbers, hold hands, invade others’ physical space, and—in at least one instance I witnessed—joke about spreading the coronavirus while the government pleaded with people to do what they can to stop the spread of COVID-19.

And even now, they don’t plan to stay home.

The Triangle Abortion Access Coalition in Raleigh, North Carolina, met and continued our normal clinic defense and escorting services on Saturday, March 14, even though the realities and concerns of the rapidly developing COVID-19 outbreak were on our minds. We took extra precautions, such as sanitizing the vests and equipment we share.

We arrived to smaller numbers of protesters, took our normal positions, and began the morning as usual.

Many of the regular protesters began to arrive, and our hopes for physical distance began to diminish. A protester whom I’ll call Sally took a position by the clinic driveway, a spot allowing her to wave away cars. While this might seem like a minor disruption, rerouting patients from entering our private parking lot allows other anti-abortion protesters to confront the parked car and pass along a pamphlet or “blessing bag,” a gift bag filled with scripture, brochures for local anti-choice clinics, and often a single diaper, described by our protesters as a “diaper of remembrance.”

We often station a volunteer on that corner (but not in the protester’s immediate space), and task them with showing cars where to safely park to avoid anti-abortion harassment. This particular morning, a newer volunteer who can handle the direct harassment took the spot and stood stoically, ignoring the protesters and hoping to provide support and guidance to patients navigating a chaotic scene. Protesters will often move their bodies as close as possible to our volunteers, crying foul about their personal space being violated. Our volunteer was ignoring the taunts and holding ground as he has a right to do, especially when standing on clinic property.

I watched in shock as Sally pressed closer to this volunteer, a man in his late 60s or early 70s. The poster she carried was pressed against his arm, leaving her face eight to ten inches away from his face. Sally began to cough without covering her mouth in the direction of this volunteer, whose space she had already invaded.

“Would be a shame if I was sick,” she said, before coughing a few more times in the direction of a man who is clearly in the at-risk groups you hear about in the news.

It was 8:15 a.m. and already I was witnessing an unthinkable scenario: A “pro-life” protester was either making jokes about spreading COVID-19 or, even worse, was possibly trying to get us sick. While I’d like to say I was surprised by these actions, anti-choice protesters were once again demonstrating the true nature of their beliefs.

The morning had just begun and already we were facing an uncertain danger, one we had no guidance or advice on how to handle. We knew the worst was yet to come. Later that morning, a “prayer march” that often numbers between 50 and 100 people was expected to arrive. This group has turned out in large numbers in terrible weather, heat waves, and more. “Love Life,” as this protest movement calls itself, would be at our doorstep before we knew it.

Clinic escort groups across North Carolina faced the same problem. While Raleigh has a robust showing for the “Love Life” prayer marches, this is not a local movement. Love Life has roots in Charlotte, North Carolina, where their prayer marches have happened for years, often in ways that shut down physical access to the clinic. The protests have become so abusive they resulted in the city drafting a new sound ordinance to cut down on the disturbances created by these protests. Love Life expanded to Greensboro and Raleigh in 2018, and began organizing mass prayer marches across the state in 2019.

As our morning went on in Raleigh, escorts in Charlotte and Greensboro faced their own uncertainty created by anti-abortion protesters and the Love Life prayer marches.

In Charlotte, clinics were open as usual, and clinic escort groups were volunteering as usual.

Angela Anders, director of Charlotte for Choice Clinic Escorts, told Rewire.News she counted the anti-abortion group at well more than 100 people at its peak, and that the group was in no way practicing physical distancing: She said they were holding hands, forming prayer circles, and engaging in other forms of bodily contact (Love Life did not respond to Rewire.News‘ request for comment.)

Anders said the clinic escorts in Charlotte regularly witnessed people with symptoms of illness (sniffling, running noses, coughs) handing out pamphlets and sticking their hands and heads into stopped cars in an effort to “counsel” patients about their options and to share stigma and shame around abortion.

An hour away from Raleigh and two hours from Charlotte, another major metropolitan area was facing a similar reality. Greensboro has only one clinic regularly hounded by protesters. With a particularly rough clinic setup due to neighboring businesses allowing protests to occur on their property, protesters often divert and stop cars, shoving unwanted pamphlets and gift sacks into confused patients’ hands.

Volunteers in Greensboro had already been anxious about the effect of these intrusions on patients’ emotional health, but now these one-on-one interactions could spread a dangerous virus. Greensboro volunteers reported the anti-abortion group grew as large as 80 people this past Saturday, down from 400 the previous weekend. Despite the smaller numbers, volunteers said protesters were still shoving pamphlets into car windows and making direct contact with patients and their companions.

After our shift concluded this past Saturday, I checked out chatter from Love Life and other protester groups on their public social media accounts. What I found was not comforting. While I had been watching a protester in Raleigh cough in a clinic escort’s face, the leaders of Love Life were outside the Charlotte clinic, broadcasting on Facebook Live under the heading, “Bold Christians Witness despite coronavirus.”

In the Facebook Live video that morning, Love Life founder Justin Reeder asked one of the leaders of the Charlotte’s clinic protest movement, Daniel Parks, to speak to supporters who could not attend because they were sick or in an at-risk category.  “With the fears of the virus, we have to use wisdom; we get that,” Parks said. But then he reminded them that they are “called as believers in Jesus to lay our lives down … and that involves risk.” He told listeners, “We have to look past the fear,” said protests would continue as long as the clinics remain open.

While I hoped Love Life might reconsider as the week went on, in a video posted to Facebook the morning of Thursday, March 19, Love Life confirmed they will continue to host prayer walks and “sidewalk outreach” as long as abortion providers remain open. Reeder, the Love Life founder, explained that this should be considered “essential and vital work,” not a social gathering.

“The ministry must go on,” he said, though he clarified that they planned to operate under the CDC recommendations, would split into “very small groups” to gather, and had spoken to the local police departments. And while Reeder told supporters to practice physical distancing, he also encouraged people to do “prayer walks” outside hospitals and nursing homes to pray for people vulnerable to COVID-19.

Our concerns are not only rooted in the risks these groups present to patients, staff, and volunteers at clinics but also to the risks they pose in their own communities—especially to the children that often get dragged along to the protests and are forced to share close quarters with people outside their immediate family, exposing them to COVID-19. And then there are the risks these folks bring back into their immediate communities. When sharing my frustrations with my friend and fellow volunteer Raquel, she said something that has stuck with me: “It speaks volumes about how not pro-life our protesters actually are when they still choose to come out in large numbers, despite all warnings and guidance from local and federal officials, endangering everyone in their own communities without a single moment of consideration.”

One of the most important roles we have as clinic escorts is doing what is needed for our most vulnerable and marginalized communities. Clinic escort groups are being faced with decisions they often don’t feel prepared to make. As the week progressed, we learned of more restrictions being put into place by our local and state governments, had emergency virtual meetings, and met with clinic staff.

Thankfully, the clinics are doing everything they can to support us. Clinics are stepping up and offering training in how to use protective gear like gloves and masks, offering sterilizing wipes and sprays to escorts to help keep common areas as clean as possible, and responding quickly when volunteer groups have questions or concerns. Despite all of this, some clinics have suspended escort services, and some clinic escort groups have suspended services on their own.

Anders in Charlotte and the volunteers in Greensboro said they’re taking many of the same steps we’re taking to stop the spread of COVID-19: monitoring the size and risks presented by our protester groups, increasing our own awareness around sanitizing shared equipment and shared vests, and encouraging volunteers who are at risk or folks who have had potential exposure to stay home. As a leader in the Raleigh clinic escort group, I scheduled a virtual check-in after our shift last Saturday and asked our clinics, which have the ear of local government and local law enforcement, to reach out to find out what can be done if protesters continue to gather in groups large enough to violate the statewide executive order banning gatherings of more than 100 people.

While we wait to learn more about what, if anything, can be done, it’s hard to ignore the anger and frustration that many of us who do this work are left with. We want to stay home. We want to keep our communities safe. We want to keep our families safe. We also want to keep ourselves healthy. I have no idea what this coming weekend will look like for our clinic escort team in Raleigh; I heard much the same from the organizers across the state. We are planning to operate on a skeleton crew, avoiding any spaces where protesters can get close enough to cause problems, and hoping our limited presence will be enough to keep the most abusive anti-abortion protester behavior at bay.

Over the coming weeks, our volunteer group may be preparing to head out into the world, or we may be sitting at home, anxious about what patients will face that day. No matter what, we hope abortion clinics stay open.

[nyfacurrent]

Know Your Rights Sanctuary Training Essentials

Learn basic tips on how to help provide sanctuary and support to immigrant and refugee artists and colleagues.

NYFA recently held a two-hour Know Your Rights Sanctuary Training with Ravi Ragbir, director of the New Sanctuary Coalition; Abou Farman, from Art Space Sanctuary; and Geoff Kagan-Trenchard, Esq. from Anti-Violence Project. We're distilling some of the most important takeaways and encourage you to bring the Know Your Rights Sanctuary Training to your organization. To do so, please contact Abou Farman at farmanfa@newschool.edu and Ravi Ragbir at ravi@newsanctuarynyc.org.

The presentation contextualized a sense of urgency for the affected communities, and the conceptual work that is necessary to understand the intersectional nature of immigration matters. Kagan-Trenchard explained and showed the difference between an administrative and judicial warrant and how to recognize if you are being given a document that has no judicial significance. He provided a reminder that cultural organizations should not be asking and recording immigration status, should avoid storing such information in their database, and must certainly not share it. 

If a law enforcement officer enters your facility, there should be a designated staff member that should: 

Ask them to identify themselves (are they local police or immigration?).

Write down the full name of the officer(s) present.

Ask why he/she is there and request to see a warrant (if the officer lacks a warrant, respectfully ask that the officer leave your premises). 

It is important to be able to recognize and document whether the warrant is administrative or judicial. Try to limit interactions with the officer to specific competent individuals in the organization (counsel or director) and contact a local immigration attorney or nonprofit to advise on the situation. The designated staff member should inform all who are present that they will directly engage with the officers and issue a reminder that everyone present has the right to remain silent.

A few key points to keep in mind before an emergency occurs: 

Don’t wait until you need friends to make them.

Have a contact for an attorney and media rep ready.

Don’t wait until it’s an emergency to make a plan. 

Who is the person in charge if ICE arrives at the venue, and what are they going to say?

“You’ll need to speak with the manager” is something you can say, even if you are a manager.

You have the right to (and should) film interactions with law enforcement/ICE. It’s a good idea to have someone on staff ready for this. Don’t obstruct while filming. 

Don’t have anything to give them. 

Minimize the amount of sensitive information you have.

All social media is monitored. Act accordingly.

 Don’t be quiet about how you feel about them.

A little bit of signage goes a long way. Mark private spaces clearly. That’s where the law can’t enter without a warrant.

Best practices for supporting immigrants in your organization:

Train staff

Post notices 

Delimit public/private spaces

Be mindful of privacy & records

Create a safe environment 

Don’t require ID 

Provide resources and information 

Best practices for immigrants:

Get a New York City ID (NYC ID).

If you have valid immigration documents, show them. Always carry these with you.

DO NOT carry papers from another country: if you have these, they can be used against you in the deportation process.

You do not have to sign papers that you do not understand. Wait until you talk to a lawyer. 

Do not let anyone scare you into signing papers.

By signing something, you are saying that you read and understand the document and agree with what it says.

Emergency safety plan:

Reliable immigration lawyer’s name and number.

Someone to take care of your loved ones (especially children, elderly, and pets).

Arrange for your medical needs. 

Organize important documents in a safe place; make copies and make them accessible to a trusted person. 

Keep your Alien Registration Number (A-number) and birthdate in a place accessible by loved ones should they need to locate you. 

Community safety plan: 

Know your rights!

Develop a Buddy System and community self-defense:

Create a network of friends, family, neighbors, etc.

Put together a text tree, phone tree, noisemakers, banners, videographers, photographers, legal observers, etc.

Important resources: 

Accompaniment Training

Websites for low-cost immigration attorneys in your area:

List of pro-bono legal service providers in the USA

American Immigration Lawyers Association

Administrative Relief Resource Center

 Pro Se (Legal) Clinic

New Sanctuary Coalition Resources Directory

NYFA IAP Resource Directory - Immigrant Services

- Alicia Ehni, Program Officer 

This post is part of the ConEdison Immigrant Artist Program Newsletter #123. Subscribe to this free monthly e-mail for artist’s features, opportunities, and events. Learn more about NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program.

Images from the Top: Geoff Kagan-Trenchard, Esq., Photo Credit: NYFA; Ravi Ragbir, Photo Credit: NYFA

[cmrp0719-blog]

The shift from prescription drug use to harder street drugs such as heroin, fentanyl, and methadone has increased the disparities in rural communities. Increased number of overdoses has been one of the tragic outcomes of this shift. Team overdose data collection this week produced some astonishing results. Incidents reviewed from the years 2016-2019 led us to ask some hard questions about the opioid epidemic in the rural community that has tripled in the last few years. Through our review process, we noticed some trends that our preceptor for warn us about and new ones that led us to dig deeper. Week 3 analysis revealed the majority of overdose incidents were isolated in certain areas; however the distances to healthcare treatment from those areas was resounding. Hartnett county being a large county seems to have the most opioid incidents in 2 main zip codes. Because these areas do not have local police departments to respond to overdose cases, the Harnett county sheriffs department has the responsibility of responding. This can cause a delay in care due the increased demand on the sheriffs department with limited man power. So, our concern became the accessibility challenges encountered by those who abuse substances such access to naxolone, hospitals, and treatment facilities.

When EMS responds to overdose incidents, naxolone may be administered. Our preceptor told us that pharmacies have naxolone distribution toolkits available without a prescription which was implemented by the NC Harm Reduction Coalition. Research has shown that deaths due to opioid overdose can be reduced with the use of naxolone. Friends and families of people who abuse substances can easily be trained to use naxolone to reverse overdose. Although this practice may be controversial to some, knowing that naxolone is available from local pharmacies and could possibly save lives forces the question why isn’t this a forefront advertisement, do people know this exist? My team wanted to explore which pharmacies in Harnett county provide this service. All of the pharmacies surveyed revealed that they did offer naxolone; however, there has been little to no advertisements concerning this resource. Is this something that is being pushed more in urban, metropolitan communities because the epidemic has forced American to now admit there is a problem🤔.

If a victim survives the overdose incident and transported to the hospital for treatment, are they educated upon discharge on available resources beyond the emergency room encounter? This assessment leads to our next disparity with access to care.... limited capabilities of rural hospitals to treat those who abuse drugs. Hospitals are our first line of defense when encountering overdose cases. The epidemic has placed a huge strain on healthcare providers and pharmacists. The areas in Harnett county with the highest incidences of overdoses seemed to be in the southern part of the county. However, the 2 main hospitals are about 30 minutes away. This presents a detrimental problem with delay in care and can literally mean life or death for people who abuse drugs. The Harnett county EMS service has task of responding to emergency situations as well as providing non-emergency transportation for hospitals and nursing homes. All this while relying on volunteers and limited resources. This again presents a delay in care and or death. Some efforts have been enacted on the federal level to help combat the fight against the increasing number of opioid overdoses. One such incentive is 340B drug pricing program which helps healthcare providers save on discount brand names or generic drugs and then allow them to use the savings to benefit individuals served by rural hospitals. Currently, a hospital in Winston-Salem is using the savings to provide educational services in the home by pharmacist who teach high risk patients and families how to administer naxolone. Seeing something like this implemented in Harnett county makes one wonder what the survival rates would be and how many could be transitioned to treatment facilities🤔.

Access to treatment facilities is another problem faced for those looking for help in rural communities. There are 11 drug and alcohol facilities in the county; however, there are no acute facilities. Morse clinic is the only methadone and suboxone clinic in the county. The next closest facility is in Lee county in Sanford. This is definitely an issue for those who are seeking assistance due to lack of reliable transportation and no public transportation to the facility. The Morse clinic also has specific dosing times (Mon-Fri 5:30am-11am and Sat-Sun 7am-9am) which may cause conflict with individual work schedules and other personal obligations. The facility also requires valid identification which can further pose a threat to treatment. Some people that abuse drugs might not have permanent residency nor the ability to establish one (poor credit, poor work history). All these present accessibility issues that make it difficult for one to seek treatment.

Our competency for this post focused on R3: to identify and distinguish the access to care barriers and healthcare utilization challenges that affect health of rural communities. Overall we see many disparities that affect people who abuse drugs. I wonder if the recent news events concerning the opioid epidemic and holding pharmaceutical companies responsible will somehow place a light on the rural community and reveal the help that is so desperately needed and wanted.

[96thdayofrage]

The Vaccinated Are Getting Sick at High Rates as Scientists Are Clueless As to Why

It seems that those who have taken the Covid-19 experimental injections several months ago are starting to become seriously ill.  Chicago’s WGN9 reported that “The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and his wife, Jacqueline Jackson have both tested positive for COVID-19 and are hospitalized at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, according to a statement from Rainbow PUSH Coalition.”  The report mentioned that he “was vaccinated against Covid-19 in early January.”

Jackson is a well-known activist in the US who believed in Big Pharma’s miracle cure against Covid-19 and now he is suffering from the consequences of not doing the research on the dangers of the experimental injections.  In an interesting twist to the mainstream media’s reporting on the Covid-19 experimental injections, Bloomberg News headlined with a disturbing title for its readership, ‘The Vaccinated Are Worried and Scientists Don’t Have Answers’ said that the

“Anecdotes tell us what the data can’t: Vaccinated people appear to be getting the coronavirus at a surprisingly high rate. But exactly how often isn’t clear, nor is it certain how likely they are to spread the virus to others.”

This is what good doctors and scientists from all over the world have been warning us about since the experimental injection was released under Operation Warp Speed.  But the mainstream media continues its relentless defense of the medical establishment as it makes the case that the experimental injection offers “powerful protections” against Covid-19 “it is evident vaccination still provides powerful protection against the virus”, then admits that “there’s growing concern that vaccinated people may be more vulnerable to serious illness than previously thought.”

All I have to say is wow! The following is an admission that the so-called vaccine is a disaster in the making especially for those who blindly rushed to become Big Pharma’s guinea pigs.  A former director from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Dr. Tom Frieden can’t even give a clear answer to any questions for those who were already vaccinated on how they can protect themselves or if they will need a booster shot in the near future:

There’s a dearth of scientific studies with concrete answers, leaving public policy makers and corporate executives to formulate plans based on fragmented information. While some are renewing mask mandates or delaying office reopenings, others cite the lack of clarity to justify staying the course. It can all feel like a mess.

“We have to be humble about what we do know and what we don’t know,” said Tom Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the head of the nonprofit Resolve to Save Lives. “There are a few things we can say definitively. One is that this is a hard question to address.”

Absent clear public health messaging, vaccinated people are left confused about how to protect themselves. Just how vulnerable they are is a key variable not just for public health officials trying to figure out, say, when booster shots might be needed, but also to inform decisions about whether to roll back reopenings amid a new wave of the virus.  On a smaller scale, the unknowns have left music lovers unsure if it’s OK to see a concert and prompted a fresh round of hang-wringing among parents pondering what school is going to look like

Mass confusion is coming soon as more people who have already taken the experimental injection are becoming sick.  The authors of the article, Kristen V. Brown and Rebecca Torrence add several case studies of “breakthrough infections” that makes understanding the after-effects of the experimental injections a bit more confusing:

In lieu of answers, what has emerged is a host of case studies providing somewhat different pictures of breakthrough infections. Variables including when the surveys were conducted, whether the delta variant was present, how much of the population was vaccinated and even what the weather was like at the time make it hard to compare results and suss out patterns. It’s difficult to know which data might ultimately carry more heft.

“It’s quite clear that we have more breakthroughs now,” said Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco. “We all know someone who has had one. But we don’t have great clinical data”

The article does mention the Fourth of July celebrations in the beach town of Provincetown, Massachusetts where both the vaccinated and unvaccinated partied and found that “three-fourths of the 469 new infections occurred were among the vaccinated people”:  

Authors of a CDC case study said this might mean that they were just as likely to transmit Covid-19 as the unvaccinated. Even so, they cautioned, as more people are vaccinated, it’s natural that they would also account for a larger share of Covid-19 infections and this one study was not sufficient to draw any conclusions. The incident prompted the CDC to reverse a recommendation it had issued just a few weeks earlier and once again urge the vaccinated to mask up in certain settings

Here is where they use Israel’s research that suggests that the experimental injections wane after several months:

Research out of Israel seems to back the idea that protection from severe disease wanes in the months after inoculation, and more recently, that breakthrough cases may eventually lead to an uptick in hospitalizations. The information is preliminary and severe breakthrough cases are still rare, but it bolsters the case that some people will need booster shots in coming months.

Case studies and data from some states in the U.S. have similarly shown an increase in breakthrough cases over time. But with the delta variant also on the rise, it’s difficult to tell whether waning immunity to any type of coronavirus infection is to blame, or if the vaccinations are particularly ineffective against the delta variant. It could be both, of course.  Changing behavior among vaccinated people could be a factor, too, as they return to social gatherings and travel and dining indoors

In typical propaganda fashion, the Bloomberg authors basically blame the unvaccinated for the uptick in breakthrough cases:

All that said, some facts are well established at this point. Vaccinated people infected with the virus are much less likely to need to go to the hospital, much less likely to need intubation and much less likely to die from the illness. There’s no doubt that vaccines provide significant protection. But a large proportion of the nation — almost 30% of U.S. adults — have not been vaccinated, a fact that has conspired with the highly contagious delta variant to push the country into a new wave of outbreaks

Well, the Reverend Jesse Jackson may disagree with that statement now since he and his wife are hospitalized with a new round of Covid-19 delta variant despite the fact that he allowed the medical establishment to convince him that new MRNA experimental injections would protect him and his family.  Bloomberg’s article ends with a clear indication that the doctors and scientists that promoted the vaccine and in most cases, are in the pockets of Big Pharma such as Dr. Tom Frieden do not know what is going on:

For the time being, there are simply more questions than answers. Are breakthrough infections ticking up because of the delta variant, waning immunity or a return to normal life? Are vaccinated people more vulnerable to severe illness than previously thought? Just how common are breakthrough infections? It’s anyone’s guess.

“It is generally the case that we have to make public health decisions based on imperfect data,” Frieden said. “But there is just a lot we don’t know”

However, there are numerous good doctors and scientists who have not sold their souls to the devil that have sounded the alarm about the dangers associated with the experimental injections such as Doctors for Covid Ethics who wrote an urgent open letter to the European Medicines Agency in March 2021.  Here is what they said:

As physicians and scientists, we are supportive in principle of the use of new medical interventions which are appropriately developed and deployed, having obtained informed consent from the patient. This stance encompasses vaccines in the same way as therapeutics.

We note that a wide range of side effects is being reported following vaccination of previously healthy younger individuals with the gene-based COVID-19 vaccines. Moreover, there have been numerous media reports from around the world of care homes being struck by COVID-19 within days of vaccination of residents. While we recognise that these occurrences might, every one of them, have been unfortunate coincidences, we are concerned that there has been and there continues to be inadequate scrutiny of the possible causes of illness or death under these circumstances, and especially so in the absence of post-mortems examinations.

In particular, we question whether cardinal issues regarding the safety of the vaccines were adequately addressed prior to their approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA)

The warnings were loud and clear from the start, but Big Pharma, the mainstream media and the rest of the political establishment ignored those who predicted the consequences from their so-called “vaccines” because they wanted to control the narrative and the profits associated with it.  There is just too much too loose for the establishment since the real agenda is not to make the world a healthy place for humanity, but to rule the entire planet through coercive measures and it is called medical tyranny.

*

[xtruss]

Vaccine Nationalism Harms Everyone and Protects No One

The World Health Organization’s chief argues that hoarding vaccines isn’t just immoral—its medically self-defeating.

— By Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus | FEBRUARY 2, 2021 | Foreign Policy

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks at a press conference after a meeting about the COVID-19 outbreak at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva on June 25, 2020. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Imadges

We are in a race against time. The development of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines in record time is a remarkable testament to modern scientific capabilities. Whether it will bring an end to this terrible pandemic is a test of the world’s political will and moral commitment.

Despite the growing number of vaccine options, current manufacturing capacity meets only a fraction of global need. Vaccines are the best chance of bringing this pandemic under control—unless leaders succumb to vaccine nationalism.

International collaboration among scientists was critical to vaccine development, but now weak cooperation between nations is a major barrier to achieving worldwide vaccination at the scale needed to end the pandemic. Vaccine equity isn’t just a slogan; it protects people everywhere, protects the existing shots from new vaccine-resistant variants, and strengthens the international community’s ability to stop COVID-19.

At present, rich countries with just 16 percent of the world’s population have bought up 60 percent of the world’s vaccine supply. Many of these countries aim to vaccinate 70 percent of their adult population by midyear in pursuit of herd immunity. But COVAX—the multilateral mechanism created by the World Health Organization together with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, the vaccine alliance, to ensure that vaccines reach all people everywhere—is struggling to purchase enough doses to cover just 20 percent of the population of lower-income countries by the end of 2021.

Vaccine allocation must not become a zero-sum game. Vaccine nationalism is not just morally indefensible. It is epidemiologically self-defeating and clinically counterproductive.Vaccine nationalism is not just morally indefensible. It is epidemiologically self-defeating and clinically counterproductive. Market-driven mechanisms alone are insufficient to achieve the goal of stopping the pandemic by achieving herd immunity with vaccines. Limited supplies and overwhelming demand create winners and losers. Neither is morally or medically acceptable during a pandemic.

“Vaccine nationalism is not just morally indefensible. It is epidemiologically self-defeating and clinically counterproductive.”

Allowing the majority of the world’s population to go unvaccinated will not only perpetuate needless illness and deaths and the pain of ongoing lockdowns, but also spawn new virus mutations as COVID-19 continues to spread among unprotected populations. Unchecked spread can result in the emergence of more contagious variants, leading to a steep rise in cases. It is a vicious cycle. Faster spread means more people are being infected and more people are dying as health care systems become overwhelmed.

A hermetic seal between the world’s haves and have nots is neither desirable nor possible. This coronavirus spreads quickly and often silently, before symptoms develop, or with mild ones common to multiple diseases. These clinical characteristics combined with uncontrolled spread and the global flow of people means that there is a risk that new variants will continue to emerge and spread between countries.

Most troublingly, new mutations could lead to vaccine resistance. There is already evidence that some vaccines are less effective against the variants first identified in Brazil and South Africa. Vaccines were based on version 1.0 of the virus—but new viruses, like software, are constantly evolving. The new variants may infect people who have already survived an earlier version of the virus. It is also possible that the virus could become more deadly. A small increase in lethality would have a catastrophic effect.

Growing vaccine nationalism is also socially and economically counterproductive. Unprotected populations and communities everywhere will continue to suffer the enormous secondary effects of the pandemic. Continued lockdowns mean economic devastation, with more people plunged into poverty and more lives cut short. A study by the International Chamber of Commerce shows that fully vaccinating the population of rich countries while neglecting poor ones could cost rich countries as much as $4.5 trillion in lost economic activity.

Children are suffering the worst collateral damage. Lost schooling means more child brides and child laborers, greater hunger, and increased gender inequality. The effect of lost education is permanent, leading to shorter, less fulfilling lives.

At the moment, there are not enough vaccine doses in any country, but the shortfall in poor countries is particularly dire. As long as world leaders are calculating whose lives and livelihoods to prioritize, as long as everyone is scrambling to secure enough doses, we are all losing the fight. The main vaccine producers are working to increase production, but they are nowhere near meeting demand.

Governments and companies must come together to overcome this artificial scarcity. There are many steps that can be taken to ramp up vaccine production and broaden distribution. These include openly sharing vaccine manufacturing technology, intellectual property, and know-how through the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool, temporarily waiving intellectual property barriers, and expanding voluntary contracting between manufacturers.

Open-sourcing will enable immediate use of untapped production capacity, through such initiatives as the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network, and help build additional manufacturing bases—especially in Africa, Asia, and Latin America—which will be essential to meeting ongoing demand for COVID-19 booster shots and future vaccines. Expanding production globally would make poor countries less dependent on donations from rich ones. This is essential to achieve true health equality and global health security.

The international community cannot allow a handful of actors to dictate the terms or the timeframe for ending the pandemic. The coronavirus is not only indifferent to profits and politics; it is still evolving. The longer we allow billions of people to go unvaccinated, the greater the possibility that new variants will develop vaccine resistance. Vaccine nationalism combined with a restrictive approach to vaccine production is in fact more likely to prolong the pandemic—which would be tantamount to medical malpractice on a global scale.

Despite massive investment, the therapeutic options are limited, and there is no reliable cure. Since vaccines are critical to preventing death, it is vital to maintain their effectiveness. So far, vaccination efforts have rightfully prioritized those at greatest risk of dying: the elderly.

Governments are also urgently moving to protect health care workers, the first line of defense, who risk their lives to save others on a daily basis. The WHO estimates at least 30,000 health care workers have already died from COVID-19—and it could be more than twice that figure—exacerbating a preexisting global shortage of medical professionals.

Beyond each personal tragedy, the multiplier effect of their loss from the work force permanently diminishes the world’s clinical and surveillance capacity, increases COVID-19’s death toll, and lessens the chances of detecting the next pandemic threat before it’s too late. Countries with supplies over and above what they need to vaccinate their health workers, elderly, and people with underlying conditions could urgently donate excess doses through COVAX to help meet this crucial need.

But these urgent needs are just the beginning. To control the pandemic, the only permanent solution is to vaccinate as many people all over the world as fast as possible. That means radically stepping up production. Every week of delay increases the suffering and the social and economic carnage.

If pandemics are microbial wars, then vaccines are our preferred weapons of mass salvation. But they are not a panacea. Stopping this pandemic also requires effective measures such as improved indoor ventilation in workplaces and schools as well as tools that engage everyone in active combat against the virus, such as rapid home tests, masks, and physical distancing.

[journolist]

#HarveyRelief

Houston Area

Greater Houston Community Foundation: Mayor Sylvester Turner has established the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund that will accept tax deductible flood relief donations for victims that have been affected by the recent floods. The fund will be housed at the Greater Houston Community Foundation. Donate here.

Coalition for the Homeless of Houston: Nonprofit organization that provides leadership in the development, advocacy, and coordination of community strategies to prevent and end homelessness. Donate here.

Emergency Aid Coalition: Interfaith organization that collaborates to provide temporary assistance in the form of food, clothing and other basic needs, with an emphasis on serving the working poor. Donate here.

Covenant House Texas: Houston-based nonprofit that provides shelter for homeless, abused and abandoned youth. Donate here.

AIDS Foundation Houston: Nonprofit dedicated to HIV prevention education and services including resources counseling, case management, housing, and food and nutrition assistance to low-income, HIV+ men, women, and children. Donate here.

Houston Food Bank: Houston-area food rescue organization that partners with 600 food pantries, soup kitchens, senior centers and other agencies. Donate here.

Galveston County Food Bank: Nonprift organization that seeks to end hunger by mobilizing food, providing information and support for the community's survival and its dignity. Donate here.

Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Service (TEJAS): Nonprofit that promotes environmental protection through education, policy development, community awareness, and legal action. Donate here.

Coastal Bend

Corpus Christi Food Bank: Nonprofit organization that solicits and distributes food which might otherwise go to waste or be discarded by manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. Currently distributing food and assisting families Coastal Bend. Donate here.

Food Bank of the Golden Crescent: Nonprofit that supports the needs of children, families and seniors through food distribution, nutrition education, advocacy and strategic partnerships in counties throughout the Coastal Bend. Donate here.

Coastal Bend Disaster Recovery Group: Coalition created to address the unmet needs of Coastal Bend area residents affected by disaster. Donate here.

Women & Families

Circle of Health International: International humanitarian organization founded in 2004 with the mission to work with women and their communities in times of crisis and disaster to ensure access to quality reproductive, maternal, and newborn care. Providing cash grants and donated supplies to mothers and families. Donate here.

Texas Diaper Bank: Nonprofit organization that works to meet the basic needs of vulnerable babies, children with disabilities and seniors. Donate here.

Direct Relief: Medical relief organization that seeks improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergency situations. Currently working to support efforts in Houston and throughout Texas, especially those health clinics who are reaching out to the most vulnerable. Donate here.

Reproductive Healthcare

Lilith Fund: Provides direct financial assistance to empower people seeking to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, and education and outreach within the community about reproductive rights. Donate here.

Clinic Access Support Network: Houston-based nonprofit that provide rides to and from abortion appointments for anyone who needs a ride. We also provide bus tickets for those coming in from farther out, and overnight stays when necessary. Donate here.

Homeless Period Project of Austin: Providing feminine hygiene products to homeless and underprivileged women and girls in the Austin community. Currently distributing tampons, pads and other period-related items to those displaced by the storm. Donate here.

People with Disabilities

Portlight: Nonprofit organization that facilitates a variety of projects involving people with disabilities, including post-disaster relief work. Donate here.

Living Hope Wheelchair Association: Nonprofit organization serving people with spinal cord injuries as well as with other disabilities so that they may lead full and productive lives. Conducting direct rescues since the hurricane made landfall. Donate here.

LGBTQ Community

Transgender Foundation of America: Houston-based grassroots nonprofit organization that provides homeless services and removes barriers to mental health support through free group therapy, counseling and vetted referrals. Donate here.

Montrose Center: Provides services including substance abuse treatment, support and advocacy for LGBTQ survivors of violent crimes, care and assistance for people with HIV/AIDS, free community wellness programs and activities, and programs for our community’s most vulnerable and isolated youth and seniors. Donate here.

Communities of Color

Black Women's Defense League: Womanist coalition that provides political education, self defense training, and resources and rescue to abused, underserved black women and marginalized genders. On the ground in Houston’s 5th Ward. Donate here.

ICNA Relief: Provides social services across the U.S. to the underprivileged and those affected by natural disasters. Dedicating an $250,000 to relief efforts in Houston in response to Hurricane Harvey. Donate here.

Self-Help for African People through Education (SHAPE): Community Center that works to improve the quality of life for people of African descent. Currently working to assist with medical prescriptions, make emergency cash contributions, and more. Donate here.

Immigrant Communities

RAICES: Nonprofit agency that promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families and refugees in Central and South Texas. Donate here.

Aquí Estamos: Youth-led, queer people of color organization in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, a region along the U.S.-Mexico border. Currently working to distribute menstrual hygiene products to those affected by Hurricane Harvey. Donate here.

South Texas Human Rights Center: Community based organization in Falfurrias, Texas dedicated to the promotion, protection, defense and exercise of human rights and dignity in South Texas. Donate here. 

Images Sources: (1) (2) (3) (4)

[uni-tierra-califas]

UT Califas fierce care ateneo, 5-27-17, 2.00-5.00 p.m.

Compañerxs, The Universidad de la Tierra Califas' Fierce Care Ateneo will gather on Saturday, May 27, from 2.00 - 5.00 p.m. at Miss Ollie's / Swans Market (901 Washington Street, Oakland, a few blocks from the 12th Street BART station) to continue our regular, open reflection and action space to explore questions and struggles related to the emerging politics of fierce care as well as some of the questions below. Over the last few months we have been confronted by the exciting opportunity of engaging the CNI-Zapatista proposal of collectively advancing Mexico's several experiments in radical democracy. Specifically, the Zapatistas along with the Congreso Nacional Indígena (CNI) have announced a political strategy to organize from below and the left. Practically it means village by village communities will convene in permanent assembly and gather to re-imagine the current political system. Part of the strategy will be to expose the spectacle by organizing a political force that will be able to put forward a presidential candidate, an Indigenous woman. Here it is important to note, the joint Zapatista and CNI initiative states that the effort will not involve itself in the "official" electoral system attached to the political parties, either as one of many that only pretend to be an opposition. Rather, the strategy is to be outside the official system, yet engage a serious candidate. The proposal is clearly a creative, politically imaginative moment of torreando with the formal political apparatus —the electoral circus that ostensibly democratic institutions manage. It is also a profound moment of mobilization from below in the form of the CNI-Zapatista consejo that selects the candidate but also, and maybe more importantly, the call for a permanent assembly across the nation, a truly impressive level of organizing from below and to the left. As México profundo mobilizes, México imaginario spills over with violence. On May 10 of this year while thousands of mothers were in the streets across Mexico to make visible and contest the disappearances and murders of their children on Mother’s Day, Miriam Rodriguez was assassinated in her San Fernando, Tamaulipas home. Rodriguez was the director of Comunidad Ciudadana en Búsqueda de Desaparecidos en Tamaulipas, a non-profit she helped establish that currently includes some six hundred families who search for a disappeared child as a result of violence linked to the war on drugs. Rodriguez is joined by Javier Valdez, yet another of Mexico's prominent journalists who has been assassinated for their courageous efforts to confront impunity. Valdez is part of a growing list of journalists, including Sonia Córdova, who while attacked and survived witnessed the death of her son. Mexico has become a nation notable for being one of the most dangerous places on earth for journalists to do their work. Many have pointed out that this is yet another moment of impunity in the over decade long intensification of the war on drugs begun under President Felipe Calderon and continued through the present with President Enrique Pena Nieto, who it is reported responded to the week's tragedy by tweeting with Leonardo DiCarpio. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) reports that in this year alone Mexico suffered 23,000 dead ranking alongside Syria in the amount of death attributable to war. Over the ten years of the expanded drug war the IISS estimates 200,000 dead, in reality no one has an exact number. What explains this level of death? Impunity? In Berkeley in late April several collectives and family justice struggles from across the Bay Area and beyond gathered for an encuentro to share from several sections of an ongoing people's investigations into the wrongful killing of Asa Sullivan by the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) on June 6, 2006. SFPD officers killed Asa when they illegally entered his residence and shot him seventeen times. Despite an eight year battle to bring the case to trial as a civil suit, in the fall of 2014, a jury determined that the police had not acted with excessive force. Sanctioning the police's entrance into the residence without a warrant the jury validated the police defense of "suicide by cop." Asa's life —the legal team and their experts representing the police argued— was one that even he did not want. In response, a cluster of groups along with the family at the center committed to a people's investigation. People’s investigations are community-based, grassroots responses to state and state-manufactured violence that place the family and practices of fierce care at the center of the investigative process. Against the onslaught of this violence, people's investigations serve as "institutions of the commons," tools for community regeneration, and spaces of assembly where new possibilities for justice, accountability, and safety are imagined and practiced collectively in, against, and beyond the racial capitalist state. In the case of Asa and his family, the collective, community-based convivial research marks a refusal to abandon the family after the loss of the trial, and a refusal to accept a justice defined by the state. The encuentro emerged from this collective investigation and was convened by a number of groups across the Bay: Justice for Asa Sullivan; Center for Convivial Research and Autonomy (CCRA); UC Berkeley Law Policy Advocacy Clinic (Police Accountability Project); Acción Zapatista; Universidad de la Tierra Califas; Idriss Stelley Foundation and Poor Magazine, and included families and justice struggles from Stockton, Hayward, and San Francisco, including the families of James Rivera Jr., Colby Friday, James “Nate” Greer, and members of the Justice for Alex Nieto coalition, as well as community lawyers and comrades. A point of focus was the legal genealogy of “suicide by cop,” a state category to sanction militarized police violence and allocate disposability to historically marginalized communities.

In the current expanding settler-colonial present, increasing numbers of lives are marked as "illegible" or "disposable," a sometimes double condition made possible by intertwined technologies and an array of contingent forces that include the juridical apparatus and a concatenation of institutions, laws, and statements in the present "democratic" state. The production of illegibility happens when the juridical apparatus mobilizes a set of "selective stereotypes" through which it places certain subjects within a culturally devalued frameworks of legibility (see Leti Volpp, "Framing Cultural Difference. Immigrant Women and Discourses of Tradition"). Cultural illegibility does not only inflect and justify court decisions; it also strategically produces subjects marked for abandonment or death. Contingent forces can also include funding sources, various projects, and shared attitudes that play out idiosyncratically in specific violent actions, sometimes authorized and other times not. This occurs in the context of increasing militarized violence, including heightened violence at national borders along with persecution of migrants and immigrant populations increasingly in the interior. Although not on the level of Mexico, the level of senseless violence aimed at Black and Brown communities in the U.S. continues unabated. Such an interrogation exposes strategies of “disposability” and erasure aimed at particular communities. At San Francisco State, which declared itself a Sanctuary Space, struggles led by students expose such production of illegible and disposable life, as they denounce the university’s recent failure to protect Palestinian students, especially women, from the violent threats and attacks on campus, in a context of officially authorized islamophobia (see Diana Block, "No Sanctuary for Palestinian Scholarship").Organized resistance to this local failure in the distribution of "security" and care makes clear that 1) institutional protection in its current neo-liberal and/or nationalist forms is at best unreliable and at worse destructive; 2) such institutions are complicit with the crucial site of the racializing production of profit, namely the nexus between Western States and (Zionist) settler-colonialism.  

Meanwhile, Mothers' Day in Califas was celebrated with related gatherings contesting violence and attempts at erasure. National Black Mamas Bail Out Day an effort initiated by Southerners On New Ground (S.O.N.G.) and coordinated by Law 4 Black Lives and other groups in the "movement for Black Lives cosmos" focused on raising bail money to release Black mothers from jail and organizing actions across multiple states. Declared in solidarity with all oppressed peoples, including an ongoing solidarity with Palestine and the right to return, the S.O.N.G. initiated action draws attention to two critical moments: a system of racialized segregation; and the ongoing attack waged by capital and state forces that is continuously disrupting the social fabric of Black and Brown communities. At the same time, also in recognition and celebration of Mothers' Day, mothers and family members gathered in Stockton where on the steps of City Hall, they assembled in a circle for several hours, sharing strategies for exposing and responding to police violence and ongoing contexts of impunity that include the District Attorney, the City Manager, the various and overlapping law enforcement agencies and task forces, within the context of the constant reproduction of state-manufactured violence. Many of these conversations continued over food, singing and dancing well into the afternoon in the park across from City Hall. From these spaces and efforts with families at the center, compelling counter-narratives emerge. New relations for battles and survival are forged. As spaces of assembly and learning, these spaces and actions hold a potent energy not limited by or even legible through the category of “social movement.” Taken collectively, they expose the spectacle of the political system. How are we expected to put our faith in any of the solutions put before us to stop the violence? Police sensitivity trainings, community policing programs, appointed oversight boards, or processes of accountability that hinge on the higher authority of the DA, the Justice Department, the United Nations—they are all organized through spectacle. Similarly, from the detention centers of Washington state to Israeli prisons to the streets of Indian-occupied Kashmir, ongoing and profound resistances throughout April and May have exposed violence in the name of “national security.” Detainees targeted by ICE raids, many of them women, launched hunger strikes at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) (a private prison operated by the GEO group and contracted by ICE) and also at NORCOR, a county jail in rural Oregon. The demands of the NORCOR group were recently acknowledged after nearly a week without eating. The efforts of both groups revealed not only the conditions of detention, but the strategies: people are removed from their communities and isolated from their families and at the same time denied legal documents and recourse to court processes by the state that detained them. On April 17, an estimated 1200 - 1500 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons commenced a hunger strike that has now well passed the month mark, with more prisoners joining in waves (see “Hunger strike a 'race against time' group warns, as 60 prisoners join strike” ). Among the strategies that their demands expose: isolation from family; illegal detentions; as well as transfers between prisons and out of Palestine that seek to break connections and at the same time violate, and serve to reinscribe, illegal connections and claims to land. Putting their lives at high risk with clear demands, hunger-strikers highlight the strategic failures of both the legal system and the care provided through the prison-industrial complex. On the outside, mothers of those on strike have also stopped eating in a collective resistance across walls (see Maram Humaid, “Starving with their Sons”). At a recent event at Freedom Archives in San Francisco, Palestinian political cartoonist Mohammad Sabaaneh was joined by Aarab Barghouti, the youngest son of prominent political prisoner and hunger striker Marwan Barghouti, in an collective effort to circulate and build support for the hunger strike, including through the "salt water challenge," a campaign of global solidarity with the hunger strikers and with Palestine (see Gideon Levy, "Marwan Barghouti's Son: 'My Father is a Terrorist Just Like Nelson Mandela'").  Through drawings and testimony, they both spoke to the pervasiveness of occupation, a carceral state that is everywhere--crowding, containing, and restricting movement as well as relations. While in Kashmir, the decades long insurgency against Indian-occupation has also escalated in recent months including a recent protest against Indian occupying soldiers led primarily by young women, many of them college students (see Faisal Kahn, “Female Kashmiri students lead anti-India protests”). For some, the new insurgency is a response that takes its shape from a collective disavowal of the electoral process (see Kamil Asan, “Kashmir’s New Uprising”).  These protests register outrage at violence and also a refusal to accept the solutions put forward by state processes of democracy: namely, the sham of electoral politics. Can we read these as struggles for radical democracy, a desire for new forms of political organization? Can we re-imagine together a new political system on a world scale? And for our purposes, what is the relationship between emergent practices of radical democracy and fierce care? What happens if we locate and celebrate “fierce care” at the center of our struggles, refusing to let the category “slip” from its position within capital’s current conjuncture? Surely, it is not just about “caring more” or “caring better” but instead must involve an analysis of what capital has done and continues to do to our efforts to engage each other through care. If we are to take up the question of the endemic, manufactured violence across Greater Mexico which threatens to overtake us everywhere, care cannot be reduced to a “technology of the self” or a gauge for our “activism” (see Robert Kurz, "No Revolution Anywhere")  but instead must operate with an analysis of the current conjuncture, and a collective reorientation. If we make this care central, does this shift how we connect our struggles with the mobilizations underway across Mexico through the shared efforts of the EZLN and CNI?

South and North Bay Crew  

[kmichkmich]

The expected vaccine

The expected vaccine

The World Health Organization says that there is a race to produce a very fast vaccine against the emerging coronavirus, which first appeared in China late last year and soon swept various countries.

So far, more than 100 scientific projects have been announced to produce a vaccine in a short period. Some of these projects are promising and are awaited by the Medical community, and the following are the most prominent vaccines that are on top: "Oxford University" Vaccine and "AstraZeneca" It is considered the most promising vaccine in the world and developed by the University of Oxford and produced in partnership with the British "AstraZeneca", it has shown a "strong immune response" on more than a thousand patients. Chinese "Cansino Biologic" vaccine It is being developed with the support of the Chinese "Cansino Biology", and has achieved good results in the production of antibodies in 500 patients in a separate trial. The German-American Biontec-Pfizer vaccine and the French Valneva vaccine Earlier, the British government announced an agreement to produce 90 million doses of other vaccines under development, manufactured by the German-American "Biontec-Pfizer" coalition and the French "Valneva" laboratories. These two vaccines are at the forefront among potential vaccines. The agreement of the concerned parties provides for the production of 30 million doses for the German-American consortium and 60 million for the French group. "American Moderna Vaccine" American Moderna announced, in turn, that clinical trials of its vaccine have entered the final stages, making it the first company to reach this advanced stage. This announcement places Moderna at the forefront of the global race to achieve a vaccine. "Russian Ministry of Defense vaccine" It is the first Russian vaccine that was jointly invented and produced by military specialists and scientists from the "Gamali" Research Center, and it is also ready, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense. According to the World Health Organization, 23 anti-corona virus vaccines are being tested around the world. “To be practical, we expect that by mid-2021 there will be a vaccine that can be widely deployed,” said chief scientist of the World Health Organization, Somaya Swaminathan.

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[global-news-station]

CHICAGO: The US government has awarded Novavax $1.6 billion to cover testing, commercialization and manufacturing of a potential coronavirus vaccine in the United States, with the aim of delivering 100 million doses by January 2021.

The award is the biggest yet from “Operation Warp Speed”, the White House program aimed at accelerating access to vaccines and treatments to fight the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

“What this Warp Speed award does is it pays for production of 100 million doses, which would be delivered starting in the fourth quarter of this year, and may be completed by January or February of next year,” Novavax Chief Executive Stanley Erck told Reuters.

It will also cover the cost of running a large Phase III trial – the final stage of human testing, which could begin as early as October.

The announcement follows a $456 million investment in Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine candidate in March, a $486 million award to Moderna in April, and up to $1.2 billion in support in May for AstraZeneca’s vaccine being developed with Oxford University. The U.S. government also awarded Emergent Biosolutions $628 million to expand domestic manufacturing capacity for a potential coronavirus vaccine and drugs to treat COVID-19.

A safe and effective vaccine is seen as critical to ending a pandemic that has claimed over half a million lives globally, about a quarter of them in the United States.

The Gaithersburg, Maryland-based company is somewhat of a dark horse in the race for a coronavirus vaccine. The company was not on the list of vaccine finalists for Warp Speed reported by the New York Times that included Moderna, AstraZeneca, Pfizer Inc (PFE.N), J&J, and Merck & Co.

In May, Novavax got an additional $388 million in funding for COVID-19 vaccine development from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) after a $4 million investment in March. In June, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded the company $60 million to support manufacturing of 10 million doses of its vaccine in 2020.

‘A BIG SCALE UP’

The company is in the process of transferring its vaccine technology to an unnamed contract manufacturer that has two large manufacturing facilities, the CEO said. That is in addition to the work being done by Emergent Biosolutions, which is making doses to supply the company’s smaller early and midstage clinical trials.

The Novavax vaccine works in conjunction with an adjuvant – a substance that boosts the immune response to help the body build a robust defense against the virus.

Currently, Novavax makes its adjuvant in Sweden. The company is building up U.S. manufacturing capacity for its adjuvant “so that we can make upwards of a billion doses of adjuvant in the United States,” he said.

Novavax did not start human safety trials until late May. One reason for the delay is that the vaccine is grown in insect cells, a process that can take 30 days before company scientists can start purifying it and making it in bulk.

“You lose a month or so there, but I don’t think we’re behind because our data,” he said, referring to animal data showing a strong immune response and high levels of virus-killing antibodies.

Erck said Novavax expects results of its Phase I safety trial within the next week or so. The company aims to start midstage trials in August or September, with Phase III testing starting in October, he added.

By early next year, the company expects to be able to make 50 million doses a month in the United States.

“It’s a big scale up in a few different manufacturing sites in the United States,” Erck said. “What it leaves us with is the capacity of making many more doses in the U.S. in 2021.”

Novavax also has a manufacturing plant in the Czech Republic and hopes to have two other plants in Europe and one in Asia, Erck said. The company is also working with a manufacturer in India. The aim there is to make more than 100 million doses a month, he said.

The post US govt awards Novavax $1.6 billion for coronavirus vaccine appeared first on ARY NEWS.

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[vacenterforaddiction]

Addiction & Mental Health Support During a Global Pandemic: Perspectives from Frontline Responders

The Virginia Center for Addiction Medicine will host “Addiction & Mental Health Support During a Global Pandemic: Perspectives from Frontline Responders” on June 17 at 5:30 PM. The webinar will be moderated by Dan Jenkins of Virginia Center for Addiction Medicine via Zoom. Panelist will include Dr. Andreas Bienert, Clinical Director, Virginia Center for Addiction Medicine; Doug Bevelaqua, Former Inspector General of Behavioral Health for the Commonwealth of Virginia; Mark Blackwell, Director of Recovery Services, Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services; Captain Robert Wershbale, Henrico County Police; and Karen Stanley, President & CEO, The Healing Place – Richmond VA and CARITAS. Topic will include: -The unique challenges each organization has encountered since the onset of the pandemic. -How the approach to treatment and social interaction has changed in response to the pandemic. -The increased risk of relapse during the pandemic. -The increase in alcohol consumption since lockdown and its impact on the need for detox from alcohol abuse. -How local police departments have worked alongside other organizations to assist with challenging circumstances, from homelessness to addiction. -How the community can help. -Drug related and mental health related calls since the pandemic began. -Domestic conflict statistics that have included drugs and alcohol during the pandemic. -How law enforcement is responding when loved ones and users ask for help. -Statistics on overdoses over the past two months. -Drug and alcohol related arrests and other trends noted by law enforcement during the pandemic. To attend, Dawn Choudhury at dchoudhury@addictionva.com. SPEAKER BIOS: Mark Blackwell – CPRS, RPRS, ICPR, MSA: Over 20 years of experience in the behavioral healthcare field in leadership positions, including for profit and nonprofit sectors, representing providers and payors. Areas of specialization include business development, marketing, provider network development/relations, nonprofit leadership, and contracting (including managed care). Mark has become a leading advocate in mental health and addiction recovery, seeking to promote the use of individuals with lived experience and recovery oriented services as a pathway to health and wellness. Mark has a bachelor’s degree from James Madison University in Public Administration and an advanced graduate degree in Health Services and Masters in Administration from Central Michigan University. Mark currently serves as Director of Office of Recovery Services of Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, having served most recently as Director of Consumer and Family Affairs for Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board. Current responsibilities include promoting recovery oriented services throughout the continuum of care and developing the Peer Recovery Specialist and Family Support Partner Workforce throughout the Commonwealth. Karen Stanley – CARITAS, President & CEO: Karen began the role of Executive Director for CARITAS in 2000 and took the organization from a 22-week winter-only emergency shelter to a year-round program including case management, a state-of-the-art daytime facility and aftercare services which include central Virginia’s only furniture bank, and a workforce development and life skills program called CARITAS Works that rolled out in 2011. CARITAS Works was developed to help men and women who have significant barriers to employment. Today, 90% are hired in less than 30 days after completion. In 2007, Karen took on the dual role as Executive Director for The Healing Place – Richmond VA, a 188-bed recovery program for men struggling with substance use disorders. She guided the efforts of The Healing Place and combined the organization with CARITAS in 2012, making CARITAS the largest homeless services organization in the metro Richmond area. After a successful $15M capital campaign, CARITAS will move into the new CARITAS Center this summer, which will include a 120-bed recovery program for women. She is a 2007 graduate of Leadership Metro Richmond, a recipient of the Stettinius Award for Non-Profit Leadership, United Way’s “Champion for Change,” a YWCA Outstanding Woman Award winner, the 2010 Better Housing Coalition’s “Creative Collaborator,” and was inducted in the Virginia First Lady’s FLITE Hall of Fame for Women in Business in 2012. She has served on the boards of Homeward, Leadership Metro Richmond, the Governor’s Advisory Board for Volunteerism and National Service, and currently serves on the Vestry of St. James’s Episcopal Church. Doug Bevelacqua: For over 35 years, Doug has served on local, state, and national boards and commissions advocating for behavioral health and substance use disorder issues. Doug currently conducts pro bono 12-Step Study workshops at the Portsmouth Naval Hospital for their 75 bed in-patient Substance Abuse Recovery Program and chairs the board of Triangle Stepping Stones, a nonprofit 12-Step clubhouse in WMBG. He has lectured at W&M and Regent University to undergrad and clinical psychology doc students on alcoholism and 12-Step programs. He has been in recovery since 1982, holds a master’s degree in addictions counseling, and has had the privilege of sponsoring hundreds of people in recovery. Prior to his service as Inspector General for Virginia’s Behavioral Health and Developmental Services System (2010 to 2014), he co-founded, operated and subsequently sold several large businesses specializing in building construction for federal, state, and local government agencies in the mid-Atlantic region. He is currently retired and lives with his wife, Robynn, in Kingsmill where he works part-time (pre-COVID-19) as a personal trainer at the Kingsmill Sports Center. Captain Bob Wershbale: Bob has been employed by the Henrico County Police since 1995. Enjoying a diverse career, he has held assignments within Patrol, Community Policing, School Resource, Personnel and Training, Professional Standards, and Criminal Investigations. He has been a Department of Criminal Justice Services Certified General Instructor and Defensive Tactics Instructor since 1998 and has been recognized as a Use of Force Subject Matter Expert in Federal Court. Bob is currently the Commanding Officer of the Organized Crime Section. An alumnus of the University of Richmond, Bob earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology and Criminal Justice in 1995 and a Master’s Degree in Human Resource Management in 2006. Andreas Bienert, Ph.D., LPC, NCC, CSAC: Dr. Andreas Bienert is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Substance Abuse Counselor in the state of Virginia, and a Nationally Certified Counselor. Dr. Bienert has worked in the mental health field since 2005. Currently serving as the Clinical Program Director for the Virginia Center for Addiction Medicine, he is also recognized for his work within inpatient and outpatient levels of care with individuals struggling to recover from addiction and trauma, and has worked with children, adolescents, adults, in addition to couples and families. Dr. Bienert also serves as an Assistant Professor at Colorado Christian University’s online Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program as well as a steering committee member of the International Registry of Counselor Education and Related Educational Programs (IRCEP), where he contributes to quality assurance efforts within International Counselor Education programs.

The post Addiction & Mental Health Support During a Global Pandemic: Perspectives from Frontline Responders appeared first on Drug & Alcohol Detox Addiction Treatment in Richmond, Virginia.

[dinafbrownil]

COVID Survivors’ Blood Plasma Is A Sought-After New Commodity

Diana Berrent learned she had tested positive for COVID-19 on a Wednesday in mid-March. Within a day, she had received 30 emails from people urging her to donate blood.

Friends and acquaintances, aware of her diagnosis, passed along a pressing request from New York’s Mount Sinai Health System, one of the first centers to seek plasma, a blood component, to be used in a therapy that might fight the deadly disease. Berrent, 45, said she immediately recognized the need for the precious plasma — and the demand that would follow.

“When I saw that email going around, I saw what was going to happen in the landscape,” said Berrent, a photographer and mother of two who lives on Long Island. She went on to found Survivor Corps, a grassroots clearinghouse that connects people who have recovered from COVID-19 with organizations eager to collect their blood.

“What I saw was going to emerge was a free market where survivors were a commodity.”

Nearly two months later, Berrent’s prediction is coming true. The coronavirus has infected more than 1.2 million people in the U.S., and now government scientists, academic researchers and for-profit pharmaceutical firms all are scrambling for blood plasma from COVID-19 survivors in hopes of developing a range of potential treatments.

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In Minnesota, a program coordinated by the Mayo Clinic has collected plasma from more than 12,000 COVID survivors for transfusion into more than 7,000 gravely ill patients, the result of a massive public appeal led by government leaders and nonprofit groups like the Red Cross.

Meanwhile, for-profit companies that typically pay $50 per donation of plasma used in other lifesaving therapies are advertising aggressively — and significantly bumping up their rates for COVID donors.

In Utah, John and Melanie Haering, who contracted COVID-19 aboard the ill-fated Diamond Princess cruise ship, received gift cards worth $800 after making two donations apiece at a Takeda Pharmaceuticals BioLife Plasma Services center. BioLife runs several of the more than 800 paid-plasma collection sites in the U.S., part of an industry that produces plasma protein therapies used to treat rare, chronic conditions such as hemophilia and in medical emergencies.

John and Melanie Haering contracted COVID-19 aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess. BioLife, a paid plasma collection site, gave the Haerings gift cards totaling $800 for donations of their blood plasma — to be used for possible therapy for those battling the disease.(Courtesy of the Haerings)

“Given the urgency and importance of collecting convalescent plasma from the small population of recovered COVID-19 patients, BioLife is currently offering an added incentive for the first two donations from recovered COVID-19 patients,” Takeda spokesperson Julia Ellwanger said in an email.

The money was “a nice surprise” for the Haerings, though they said they were motivated more by the opportunity to prevent others from suffering.

“If we could help anybody, we’d go every day,” said John Haering, 63, a retired railroad manager who spent two weeks in a hospital in Japan after testing positive for the virus.

Donors like Berrent and the Haerings are needed to supply the building blocks of potentially lifesaving treatments. Rich with antibodies, convalescent plasma from COVID-19 patients is being tested as a possible therapy to promote recovery in people who are critically ill with the disease.

It’s also being collected to create a concentrated antibody serum known as hyperimmune globulin that may prevent or halt infection in the future. Similar products are used to treat rabies and illnesses like infant botulism. If plasma from COVID-19 donors is shown to halt the disease, coming up with an antidote could offer companies the prospect of making millions of dollars.

And there’s the possibility of a third treatment, monoclonal antibody therapy, which would use antibody-producing cells from high-antibody donors to create lab-produced molecules to fight the disease.

All three therapies are promising, but all three require human blood plasma, said Dr. Michael Busch, a professor of laboratory medicine at the University of California-San Francisco and director of the Vitalant Research Institute, one of the largest blood center-based transfusion medicine research programs in the U.S.

“At some level, they’re all competing with the regular blood banks like mine,” Busch said.

Only a fraction of those infected with COVID-19 have recovered sufficiently to donate, though more are eligible every day. But as demand for donors has grown, so has the need to wrangle the supply, ensuring that competition for plasma doesn’t undercut the larger mission, said Dr. Michael Joyner, who heads the Mayo Clinic program.

“We’re going to get it all worked out,” he said. “It’s in everybody’s enlightened self-interest to do this in an intelligent way.”

To avoid what Joyner described as a “range war” for COVID-19 plasma, he’s spearheading an effort that calls for unprecedented collaboration to distribute separate streams of plasma among producers of therapies in a global market estimated to reach $35.5 billion by 2023.

“It’s like the oil market,” he said. “You send oil that needs one type of refining to one market and oil that needs another type of refining to another market.”

His plan — floated last month to a group that included representatives from philanthropic organizations along with executives from for-profit and nonprofit blood collectors — relies in part on blood plasma from up to 10,000 Hasidic women in New York City, where the Orthodox Jewish community has been hit hard by the disease.

Tens of thousands of people have fallen ill with the virus in the city’s Hasidic neighborhoods, and more than 700 have died. In recent weeks, thousands of men in the community who have recovered from COVID-19 have rushed to donate plasma. Chaim Lebovits, 45, who has helped organize the effort, said the donations are an act of faith.

“We have an obligation to protect and save lives,” Lebovits said.

So far, however, many women in the Hasidic community have been unable to participate. Hasidic families are often large, and women who have had several children may have high levels of certain antibodies that are sometimes produced during a pregnancy. Rarely, such antibodies can cause a dangerous reaction — transfusion-related acute lung injury — in some recipients of plasma from women who have been pregnant. In COVID-19 patients, battling a virus that targets the lungs, such reactions could be deadly.

Given the risk, many Hasidic mothers who want to join the men in donating have been deferred from providing plasma for immediate transfusion, Joyner said. But those women could be an ideal and ongoing source of plasma for hyperimmune globulin, which is processed in a way that dilutes or removes the antibodies.

Roughly 10,000 women could donate up to four times each, generating some 30,000 liters of COVID-19 plasma that could be directed to the for-profit collectors to make hyperimmune globulin, Joyner estimated. That’s enough for the companies to get started.

“This is the basis of a true win-win,” Joyner said.

In the future, other groups deemed ineligible to provide convalescent plasma for transfusion, out of concern about disease transmission, could be diverted for hyperimmune globulin creation, he said.

One key part of the plan will be the ability to identify eligible donors through antibody tests, Joyner said. Mayo Clinic scientists have already conducted more than 5,000 serology tests and identified hundreds of potential plasma donors.

So far, however, neither the nonprofit organizations nor the for-profit firms have agreed to the plan.

“Ways to facilitate these donations and recommendations for how to allocate donors to one donation stream or the other are still in progress,” said Natalie de Vane, a spokesperson for CSL Behring, a biopharmaceutical company based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

CSL has joined with Takeda, a Japanese pharmaceutical company, to lead the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance, a coalition of six companies developing a single, unbranded hyperimmune globulin product that could treat COVID-19.

Meanwhile, officials with the AABB, an international nonprofit focused on transfusion medicine and cellular therapies, have focused efforts primarily on collecting plasma for immediate use. But they acknowledged that convalescent plasma could end up serving as “bridge therapy” to buy time until the hyperimmune globulin products are available.

“AABB recognizes the importance of ensuring that convalescent plasma is available as a transfusion therapy for patients today, as well as to develop future treatments,” the agency said in a statement.

Representatives from all sides agree that the most pressing need is to increase the pool of COVID-19 survivors willing to donate plasma. They downplay talk of jockeying for donors in the nonprofit and for-profit worlds.

“We don’t view it as competition,” said Chris Healey, president of corporate affairs at Grifols, a Spanish pharmaceutical company that has received nearly $13 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop its own hyperimmune globulin product. “We’re all pointed in the same direction.”

One solution may be groups like Berrent’s nonprofit Survivor Corps, which started in late March with a Facebook group that’s grown to 42,000 members and now includes international partnerships and a pro bono advertising campaign, A Call to Arms.

Berrent has given plasma four times now, including to a biotech firm that sent a phlebotomist to her home and gave her a $100 Amazon card for her trouble.

Survivor Corps aims to function as a “one-stop shop” for donors interested in giving COVID-19 plasma, said Berrent. And, she said, it also could serve as a single source for recruitment, freeing scientists in government, academia and industry to focus on finding answers, not scouting survivors.

“Free markets work beautifully in many, many situations,” said Berrent. “During a global pandemic, during a time of crisis, we need collaboration and efficiency.”

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/covid-survivors-blood-plasma-is-a-sought-after-new-commodity/

[stephenmccull]

COVID Survivors’ Blood Plasma Is A Sought-After New Commodity

Diana Berrent learned she had tested positive for COVID-19 on a Wednesday in mid-March. Within a day, she had received 30 emails from people urging her to donate blood.

Friends and acquaintances, aware of her diagnosis, passed along a pressing request from New York’s Mount Sinai Health System, one of the first centers to seek plasma, a blood component, to be used in a therapy that might fight the deadly disease. Berrent, 45, said she immediately recognized the need for the precious plasma — and the demand that would follow.

“When I saw that email going around, I saw what was going to happen in the landscape,” said Berrent, a photographer and mother of two who lives on Long Island. She went on to found Survivor Corps, a grassroots clearinghouse that connects people who have recovered from COVID-19 with organizations eager to collect their blood.

“What I saw was going to emerge was a free market where survivors were a commodity.”

Nearly two months later, Berrent’s prediction is coming true. The coronavirus has infected more than 1.2 million people in the U.S., and now government scientists, academic researchers and for-profit pharmaceutical firms all are scrambling for blood plasma from COVID-19 survivors in hopes of developing a range of potential treatments.

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Subscribe to KHN’s free Morning Briefing.

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Please confirm your email address below:

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In Minnesota, a program coordinated by the Mayo Clinic has collected plasma from more than 12,000 COVID survivors for transfusion into more than 7,000 gravely ill patients, the result of a massive public appeal led by government leaders and nonprofit groups like the Red Cross.

Meanwhile, for-profit companies that typically pay $50 per donation of plasma used in other lifesaving therapies are advertising aggressively — and significantly bumping up their rates for COVID donors.

In Utah, John and Melanie Haering, who contracted COVID-19 aboard the ill-fated Diamond Princess cruise ship, received gift cards worth $800 after making two donations apiece at a Takeda Pharmaceuticals BioLife Plasma Services center. BioLife runs several of the more than 800 paid-plasma collection sites in the U.S., part of an industry that produces plasma protein therapies used to treat rare, chronic conditions such as hemophilia and in medical emergencies.

John and Melanie Haering contracted COVID-19 aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess. BioLife, a paid plasma collection site, gave the Haerings gift cards totaling $800 for donations of their blood plasma — to be used for possible therapy for those battling the disease.(Courtesy of the Haerings)

“Given the urgency and importance of collecting convalescent plasma from the small population of recovered COVID-19 patients, BioLife is currently offering an added incentive for the first two donations from recovered COVID-19 patients,” Takeda spokesperson Julia Ellwanger said in an email.

The money was “a nice surprise” for the Haerings, though they said they were motivated more by the opportunity to prevent others from suffering.

“If we could help anybody, we’d go every day,” said John Haering, 63, a retired railroad manager who spent two weeks in a hospital in Japan after testing positive for the virus.

Donors like Berrent and the Haerings are needed to supply the building blocks of potentially lifesaving treatments. Rich with antibodies, convalescent plasma from COVID-19 patients is being tested as a possible therapy to promote recovery in people who are critically ill with the disease.

It’s also being collected to create a concentrated antibody serum known as hyperimmune globulin that may prevent or halt infection in the future. Similar products are used to treat rabies and illnesses like infant botulism. If plasma from COVID-19 donors is shown to halt the disease, coming up with an antidote could offer companies the prospect of making millions of dollars.

And there’s the possibility of a third treatment, monoclonal antibody therapy, which would use antibody-producing cells from high-antibody donors to create lab-produced molecules to fight the disease.

All three therapies are promising, but all three require human blood plasma, said Dr. Michael Busch, a professor of laboratory medicine at the University of California-San Francisco and director of the Vitalant Research Institute, one of the largest blood center-based transfusion medicine research programs in the U.S.

“At some level, they’re all competing with the regular blood banks like mine,” Busch said.

Only a fraction of those infected with COVID-19 have recovered sufficiently to donate, though more are eligible every day. But as demand for donors has grown, so has the need to wrangle the supply, ensuring that competition for plasma doesn’t undercut the larger mission, said Dr. Michael Joyner, who heads the Mayo Clinic program.

“We’re going to get it all worked out,” he said. “It’s in everybody’s enlightened self-interest to do this in an intelligent way.”

To avoid what Joyner described as a “range war” for COVID-19 plasma, he’s spearheading an effort that calls for unprecedented collaboration to distribute separate streams of plasma among producers of therapies in a global market estimated to reach $35.5 billion by 2023.

“It’s like the oil market,” he said. “You send oil that needs one type of refining to one market and oil that needs another type of refining to another market.”

His plan — floated last month to a group that included representatives from philanthropic organizations along with executives from for-profit and nonprofit blood collectors — relies in part on blood plasma from up to 10,000 Hasidic women in New York City, where the Orthodox Jewish community has been hit hard by the disease.

Tens of thousands of people have fallen ill with the virus in the city’s Hasidic neighborhoods, and more than 700 have died. In recent weeks, thousands of men in the community who have recovered from COVID-19 have rushed to donate plasma. Chaim Lebovits, 45, who has helped organize the effort, said the donations are an act of faith.

“We have an obligation to protect and save lives,” Lebovits said.

So far, however, many women in the Hasidic community have been unable to participate. Hasidic families are often large, and women who have had several children may have high levels of certain antibodies that are sometimes produced during a pregnancy. Rarely, such antibodies can cause a dangerous reaction — transfusion-related acute lung injury — in some recipients of plasma from women who have been pregnant. In COVID-19 patients, battling a virus that targets the lungs, such reactions could be deadly.

Given the risk, many Hasidic mothers who want to join the men in donating have been deferred from providing plasma for immediate transfusion, Joyner said. But those women could be an ideal and ongoing source of plasma for hyperimmune globulin, which is processed in a way that dilutes or removes the antibodies.

Roughly 10,000 women could donate up to four times each, generating some 30,000 liters of COVID-19 plasma that could be directed to the for-profit collectors to make hyperimmune globulin, Joyner estimated. That’s enough for the companies to get started.

“This is the basis of a true win-win,” Joyner said.

In the future, other groups deemed ineligible to provide convalescent plasma for transfusion, out of concern about disease transmission, could be diverted for hyperimmune globulin creation, he said.

One key part of the plan will be the ability to identify eligible donors through antibody tests, Joyner said. Mayo Clinic scientists have already conducted more than 5,000 serology tests and identified hundreds of potential plasma donors.

So far, however, neither the nonprofit organizations nor the for-profit firms have agreed to the plan.

“Ways to facilitate these donations and recommendations for how to allocate donors to one donation stream or the other are still in progress,” said Natalie de Vane, a spokesperson for CSL Behring, a biopharmaceutical company based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

CSL has joined with Takeda, a Japanese pharmaceutical company, to lead the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance, a coalition of six companies developing a single, unbranded hyperimmune globulin product that could treat COVID-19.

Meanwhile, officials with the AABB, an international nonprofit focused on transfusion medicine and cellular therapies, have focused efforts primarily on collecting plasma for immediate use. But they acknowledged that convalescent plasma could end up serving as “bridge therapy” to buy time until the hyperimmune globulin products are available.

“AABB recognizes the importance of ensuring that convalescent plasma is available as a transfusion therapy for patients today, as well as to develop future treatments,” the agency said in a statement.

Representatives from all sides agree that the most pressing need is to increase the pool of COVID-19 survivors willing to donate plasma. They downplay talk of jockeying for donors in the nonprofit and for-profit worlds.

“We don’t view it as competition,” said Chris Healey, president of corporate affairs at Grifols, a Spanish pharmaceutical company that has received nearly $13 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop its own hyperimmune globulin product. “We’re all pointed in the same direction.”

One solution may be groups like Berrent’s nonprofit Survivor Corps, which started in late March with a Facebook group that’s grown to 42,000 members and now includes international partnerships and a pro bono advertising campaign, A Call to Arms.

Berrent has given plasma four times now, including to a biotech firm that sent a phlebotomist to her home and gave her a $100 Amazon card for her trouble.

Survivor Corps aims to function as a “one-stop shop” for donors interested in giving COVID-19 plasma, said Berrent. And, she said, it also could serve as a single source for recruitment, freeing scientists in government, academia and industry to focus on finding answers, not scouting survivors.

“Free markets work beautifully in many, many situations,” said Berrent. “During a global pandemic, during a time of crisis, we need collaboration and efficiency.”

COVID Survivors’ Blood Plasma Is A Sought-After New Commodity published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

[immunofrontiers-blog]

Inovio Receives $5 Million Grant from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for COVID-19 Vaccine Program

In a recent press release, Pennsylvania-based American biotechnology company Inovio Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: INO) reported that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has provided a $5 million grant to support the accelerated evaluation and production of their "CELLECTRA 3PSP" medical device, which is integral to the intradermal delivery of their DNA-based COVID-19 vaccine INO-4800. INO-4800 is currently being tested in preclinical studies and is anticipated to progress to Phase 1 clinical trials in the United States during April 2020. President and CEO of Inovio Dr. J. Joseph Kim stated, "INOVIO is grateful to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for their continued investment in INOVIO's DNA medicines platform and for their support for DNA vaccines to potentially protect those at risk globally given the current COVID-19 outbreak. Our team of vaccine experts are working around the clock to advance INO-4800 and we look forward to attracting additional partnerships to expedite its development to meet this urgent global health need." According to the press release, "The next generation CELLECTRA 3PSP device is designed specifically for a COVID-19 type pandemic scenario. It is a small, portable, hand-held, user-friendly device that runs on readily available "AA" batteries. This allows for stockpiling of the device in quantity without maintenance. It is easy to use and is based on our current device with extensive history (over 6,000 administrations) which has received the CE mark and has an acceptable safety profile. The streamlined design also allows it to be readily produced at reduced costs and large scale." "The device has been designed with reliability, challenging environments, user needs and ease of large scale manufacturing in mind. INOVIO's San Diego Device Manufacturing facility will build initial quantities and demonstrate the design and scale up of manufacturing processes which can then be transferred to additional contract manufacturers for increased capacity. Initial development of CELLECTRA 3PSP was started in 2019 with $8.1 million funding from the medical arm of the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)'s Medical CBRN Defense Consortium. The new funding will help to accelerate the testing and completion of the device development and scale up to combat the COVID-19 disease," the press release stated. Inovio intends to deliver one million doses of the INO-4800 vaccine by the end of 2020, and "is working to scale up both INO-4800 and CELLECTRA 3PSP devices to potentially make available millions of doses to combat this outbreak." The company has announced plans to start US-based human clinical trials of INO-4800 in April. During a meeting with the US Coronavirus Task Force on March 2nd at the White House, Inovio President and CEO Dr. J. Joseph Kim stated, "Inovio is the leader in coronavirus vaccine development and the only company with a Phase 2 vaccine for a related coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). Using our modern DNA medicines platform, we designed our DNA vaccine INO-4800 in three hours after the publication of the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19." Stay aware of breaking immuno-biotech news and the latest advancements in the field of immunology. "We immediately began preclinical testing and small-scale manufacture and have already shared robust preclinical data with our public and private partners. We plan to begin human clinical trials in the U.S. in April and soon thereafter in China and South Korea, where the outbreak is impacting the most people. We plan on delivering one million doses by year end with existing resources and capacity. However, we will need additional resources to scale up to make enough doses to help protect Americans from COVID-19 as well as to lead global efforts to curtail this virus," continued Dr. Kim. On January 23rd, 2020, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) issued Inovio a grant of up to $9 million to fund preclinical and clinical development of INO-4800. CEPI CEO Richard Hatchett stated, "Given the rapid global spread of the 2019-nCoV virus the world needs to act quickly and in unity to tackle this disease. Our intention with this work is to leverage our work with Inovio on the MERS coronavirus and rapid response platform to speed up vaccine development." Dr. Kim responded, "We're extremely honored to expand our partnership with CEPI to tackle this new threat to global public health. Our DNA medicine platform represents the best modern day approach to combatting emerging pandemics. We have already demonstrated positive clinical outcomes with our vaccine against MERS-CoV, another coronavirus. Importantly, following the Zika viral infection outbreak, Inovio and our partners developed a vaccine that went from bench to human testing in just seven months – the fastest vaccine development on record in recent decades. We believe we can further improve upon this accelerated timeline to meet the current challenge of the emerging Chinese coronavirus 2019-nCoV." On January 30th, 2020, Inovio announced that it would develop INO-4800 in collaboration with China-based Beijing Advaccine Biotechnology Co., with the goal of expediting the testing of INO-4800. Dr. Kim stated, "Our collaboration with Beijing Advaccine and its Founder, Emeritus Professor Bin Wang from the prestigious Fudan University and China's premier DNA vaccine expert, will tremendously accelerate our coronavirus vaccine INO-4800 development in China because of its expertise and experience with regulatory authorities and clinical trial management. This collaboration allows us to enter China and deliver our vaccine into the areas where they need it most as soon as possible. Our shared goal is to utilize both company's expertise in developing vaccines for emerging infectious diseases and hopefully achieve an accelerated regulatory approval for INO-4800." Since January, Inovio Pharmaceuticals has demonstrated immune responses to their vaccine in animal models and initiated plans for a human clinical trial. The company intends to finalize their clinical trial design in March and prepare 3,000 doses of their vaccine for trials in the United States, South Korea, and China. The first clinical trial will include 30 healthy volunteers in the United States, with the Asia-based trials occurring afterwards. Inovio's DNA-based vaccine platform is centered around speed of manufacturing, stability during transport and storage, and efficacy for inducing a robust immune response. INO-4800 consists of small circles of engineered DNA that can be directly injected into cells through the controlled use of electricity, which creates temporary pores in the membranes of target cells and allows the double-stranded DNA circles contained within the vaccine to enter cells, alter their activity, and eventually lead to an immune response. Since Inovio's formulation is composed only of highly purified DNA, water, and salt, it avoids potential toxicity and can be manufactured relatively quickly and stored and transported without freezing. During the epidemic of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), a coronavirus related to the virus that causes COVID-19, Inovio was the first biotechnology company to test a vaccine against the MERS virus (INO-4700) in humans. The company plans to further evaluate INO-4700 in a Phase 2 clinical trial in the Middle East, where the majority of MERS cases have occurred. Stay aware of breaking immuno-biotech news and the latest advancements in the field of immunology. The results of a Phase 1 clinical trial evaluating the immunogenicity, safety, and tolerability of the MERS coronavirus vaccine GLS-5300 (INO-4700), published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, demonstrated that their DNA-based vaccine technology is well-tolerated and capable of inducing an antiviral immune response. After two vaccinations, 47 of 66 (71%) study participants showed evidence of a T-cell response. 44 of 58 (76%) participants demonstrated a T-cell response after three vaccinations. Seroconversion was detected by S1-ELISA in 59 of 69 (86%) and 61 of 65 (94%) participants after two and three vaccinations, respectively, and 34 of 68 (50%) individuals were found to bear neutralizing antibodies. No serious adverse events were associated with the use of the MERS coronavirus vaccine. The authors stated that the antibody and cellular immune responses associated with the vaccine were durable and similar to those of patients that recovered naturally from infection by the MERS coronavirus. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, founded in 2000, has financially supported a variety of developments related to human health, social sciences, and education. Disclosure: We do not have positions or business relationships with the stocks or companies mentioned in this article. This article does not in any way constitute a recommendation. Please refer to the statement on Forward Looking Statements in the press release. Modjarrad K, Roberts CC, Mills KT, et al. (2019) Safety and immunogenicity of an anti-Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus DNA vaccine: a phase 1, open-label, single-arm, dose-escalation trial. Lancet Infectious Diseases, 19(9), P1013-1022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(19)30266-X Read the full article

[valoansarlingtontx]

Bright Now!® Dental Honors Veterans in Kent, Washington

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Connect now is one of AT&Ts top National Authorized Retailers, with over 120+ locations in eleven states.. dental, vision, and life insurance benefits available. Federal Way/Kent/Tukwila, WA.

KARE 11 Investigates: Whistleblowers say veterans are owed millions Storytelling contest for veterans announced kare 11 investigates: whistleblowers say veterans are owed millions May 15, 2019 ST PAUL, Minn – Thousands of disabled veterans nationwide are due millions of dollars in refunds on VA backed home loans, according to internal Department of Veterans Affairs records obtained by KARE 11.VA to celebrate Women’s Health Week with events at medical centers Women Veterans – Oklahoma City VA Health Care System – The Oklahoma City VA health care system offers a vareity of health services to address the unique needs of women Veterans. To make an appointment, please contact your primary care team. The Women’s Health Clinic is located on the Ground Floor near D Module. Clinic Hours are: Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Medical Services

It’s almost as if journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates has performed an act of cultural prestidigitation. of the reception to your Atlantic piece on reparations? It’s so obvious now, but I think I.

ABAC has been great at helping veterans transition to college life. I am very impressed by the value that ABAC places on programs for veterans.” Durham’s life is captured in detail in the Freedom Gallery exhibit located in Tift Hall on ABAC’s campus. His Medal of Honor is the centerpiece of the display.

Gateway to Tampa Bay area news, weather, radar, sports, traffic, and more. From wtvt-tv/dt fox 13, the most powerful name in local news.

Delta Dental strives to maintain an accurate and up-to-date dentist directory, but it is always useful to verify the participation status of the particular dentist. If you have a question regarding the participation status of a specific dentist who does not appear in this directory, please contact the dentist or your Delta Dental.

Dental School Preparatory Coursework, University of Texas, San Antonio, Texas Doctor of Dental Surgery, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas. Residency University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington. Experience Dr. Berg has owned her own practice and worked as a dentist for other private practice groups.

American dental association: giving veterans Healthier Smiles, Supported by Henry Schein: 04-30-18: orthodontic products: henry Schein Buys 50% Stake in Ortho2: 04-24-18: Barron’s: Henry Schein Move May Spur More Animal-Health Deals* 04-24-18: Today’s Veterinary Business: Henry Schein To Spin Off Veterinary Business* 04-24-18

and officials at Tahoma National Ceremony in Kent, Washington, were unaware of his bogus claims until KIRO-TV checked the man’s background and explained his phony documentation. Now, outrage is.

Veteran’s Affairs hosts “VA 2K” to raise money for homeless vets Towery, feeling dizzy, sought help at a Department of veterans affairs emergency room in 1975. Towery said he was “desperate” to get the word out to raise money for the channel, which won’t last.

Feinberg, a former correspondent for the Russian government-owned Sputnik News, now writes for a two-man website called. George Conway wrote in The Washington Post that Trump’s admonishment to the.

Team Fidelis hosts event for homeless veterans VA names new Finger Lakes medical director BATH, N.Y. (WENY) – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced the new director for the VA Finger Lakes healthcare system. bruce tucker will oversee the delivery of health care to the VA Finger Lakes Healthcare System, including five community-based outpatient clinics in Upstate New.Events – Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless – Each year, MCCH hosts various events to engage the community in our work and increase support for the clients we serve. Annual Gala – More than 400 people are expected to raise over $200,000 on May 3, 2018 at our largest fundraising event of the year.; Back to School Fair – Each year, community members donate school supplies and volunteer at this fun event to help 300 local children in our.

They have veterans to carefully manage and prospects to polish. And his defense draws a spotlight bright enough to capture Finals MVP honors. Even off the floor, the Bay makes so much sense for.

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