Tag: China

US, China absent from international vaccine effort

The competition to acquire precious quantities of a new vaccine for COVID-19 will be fierce, experts say

In laboratories around the world, hundreds of scientists are racing to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus and end the pandemic that has brought global commerce, travel and much of everyday life to a screeching halt.

But while the eyes of private business, civil society and the news media are fixated on which vaccine candidates look the most promising and how soon a cure could be available for widespread use, comparatively less attention is being paid to the toxic chain of events that could unfold internationally once a vaccine is ready and national governments compete over access to it.

If the global race over the past few weeks and months to procure coronavirus-related medical equipment is anything to go by — the one that has seen national, state and local governments, the private sector and multilateral institutions compete with one another to outbid, scoop up and hoard scant quantities of diagnostic tests, personal protective equipment and ventilators — then the competition to acquire precious quantities of a new vaccine will be something the likes of which the world has never seen. Continue reading.

Trump’s tragic clowning — and his global surrender to China and Russia — have exposed America as a declining empire

AlterNet logoMany Americans who were children sometime between the 1950s and the 1980s no doubt remember Game of the States. It was (and evidently still is) a simpleminded catch-and-carry board game through which multiple generations learned vague, generic facts about the 50 states. That game is probably the reason I know all 50 state capitals to this day. Massachusetts and Georgia are tough because the answers are too obvious; South Carolina and West Virginia are tough because the answers seem almost intentionally confusing.

But the most important teaching tool in Game of the States was its playing surface, which depicted the United States floating in a sea of blue, an innocent island of Idaho potatoes, Missouri hams and Pennsylvania steel. If as economic history the game was completely devoid of context or dynamics, as geography it was even worse. Canada? Mexico? What and where are they, exactly? Both our neighboring nations appear to have vaporized. If any trade exists with them or anyplace else in the outside world, it’s entirely invisible.

Far too much about America is explained by Game of the States. We have an ingrained national tendency to behave as if the rest of the world simply doesn’t exist — or, on a slightly more sophisticated level, as if it were just a colorful backdrop for our vastly more important national dramas. The only time “foreign policy” plays a significant role in American politics — for liberals or conservatives or really anyone — is when a major overseas war becomes an unavoidable and damaging issue, as with Vietnam in 1968 and 1972, and Iraq in 2008. Continue reading.

U.S. sent millions of face masks to China early this year, ignoring pandemic warning signs

Washington Post logoU.S. manufacturers shipped millions of dollars’ worth of face masks and other protective medical equipment to China in January and February with encouragement from the federal government, a Washington Post review of economic data and internal government documents has found. The move underscores the Trump administration’s failure to recognize and prepare for the growing pandemic threat.

In those two months, the value of protective masks and related items exported from the United States to China grew more than 1,000 percent compared with the same time last year — from $1.4 million to about $17.6 million, according to a Post analysis of customs categories which, according to research by Public Citizen, contain key personal protective equipment (PPE). Similarly, shipments of ventilators and protective garments jumped by triple digits.

“Instead of taking steps to prepare, they ignored the advice of one expert after another,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.). “People right now, as we speak, are dying because there have been inadequate supplies of PPE.” Continue reading.

‘Pure baloney’: Zoologist debunks Trump’s COVID-19 origin theory — explains how animal-human transmission works

AlterNet logoWith the largest one-day death toll in the U.S. yet — 2,400 in just 24 hours — President Trump is trying to deflect attention from his handling of the pandemic by waging a war on public health experts and science, threatening to cut World Health Organization funding and fueling a theory that the coronavirus came from a lab in Wuhan, China. We speak to a zoologist who has been sounding the alarm about a coming pandemic for years. “The idea that this virus escaped from a lab is just pure baloney,” says Peter Daszak, disease ecologist and the president of EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit that works globally to identify and study our vulnerabilities to emerging infectious disease. “These pandemic viruses that emerge originate in wildlife.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman, here in New York, the epicenter of the pandemic, with my co-host Nermeen Shaikh, usually sitting right here at my side but joining us from her home to keep us all safe and stop community spread. Hi, Nermeen.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Hi, Amy. And welcome to our listeners and viewers around the country and around the world. Continue reading.

Top Pentagon official throws cold water on right wingers’ ‘Wuhan lab’ bioweapon conspiracy theory

AlterNet logoSome conspiracy theorists on the far right have been claiming that COVID-19 originated in a laboratory in Mainland China and that it was unleashed as a form of biological warfare. And others have claimed that COVID-19 originated in a Chinese lab and escaped because of carelessness — not as some type of bio attack. But according to Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, the “weight of evidence” indicates that the deadly coronavirus has “natural” origins.

On April 14, Milley told reporters at the Pentagon, “There’s a lot of rumor and speculation in a wide variety of media, blog sites, etc. It should be no surprise to you that we’ve taken a keen interest in that, and we’ve had a lot of intelligence look at that. And I would just say at this point, it’s inconclusive — although the weight of evidence seems to indicate natural. But we don’t know for certain.”

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a far-right Republican and strident supporter of President Donald Trump, has, at times, floated the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was unleashed as a bioweapon by the government in Mainland China. But The Guardian’s Julian Borger has noted that Cotton has also “argued (that) natural transmission from animals to humans — or a lab accident — were more likely scenarios.” Continue reading.

China hawks flex muscle amid coronavirus fallout

The Hill logoThe fallout from the coronavirus is shaking up the U.S.-China relationship on Capitol Hill, as a group of hawkish lawmakers fiercely criticize Beijing’s response to the disease.

Republicans are pushing for their colleagues and the Trump administration to take a more aggressive stance toward Beijing, which they say downplayed the virus’s danger.

China’s government has become a target for criticism for Republicans, along with the World Health Organization (WHO). President Trump on Tuesday said he would halt funding to that organization. Continue reading.

Momentum grows to change medical supply chain from China

The Hill logoCalls are growing for the U.S. to reduce its dependence on China for key medicines and supplies as Americans face widespread shortages in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

While the U.S. supply chain’s heavy reliance on Beijing for medical manufacturing has been glaringly apparent for roughly two decades, both lawmakers and administration officials say the virus has exposed just how vulnerable the country is as it leans on China and other nations to help provide the tools necessary to combat the pathogen.

Peter Navarro, President Trump’s economic adviser, pledged this week that the United States would move away from its reliance on other nations and toward building up its own capabilities to produce drugs and medical supplies. Continue reading.

Trump Effort to Keep U.S. Tech Out of China Alarms American Firms

New York Times logoThe administration wants to protect national security by restricting the flow of technology to China. But technology companies worry it could undermine them instead.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s push to prevent China from dominating the market for advanced technologies has put it on a collision course with the same American companies it wants to protect.

Firms that specialize in microchips, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and other industries have grown increasingly alarmed by the administration’s efforts to restrict the flow of technology to China, saying it could siphon expertise, research and revenue away from the United States, ultimately eroding America’s advantage.

The concerns, which have been simmering for months, have taken on new urgency as the Commerce Department considers adopting a sweeping proposal that would allow the United States to block transactions between American firms and Chinese counterparts. Those rules, on top of new restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States and proposed measures that would prevent American companies from exporting certain products and sharing technology with foreign nationals, have the tech industry scrambling to respond. Continue reading.

More than 11,800 people in China have been diagnosed with coronavirus, the country’s health experts confirm; U.S. to deny entry to foreign nationals who recently visited China and quarantine returning Americans

Washington Post logoThe United States announced Friday it would be taking new measures to combat a coronavirus outbreak, including denying entry to foreign nationals who had recently visited China and imposing 14-day quarantines on American citizens returning from mainland China.

More than 11,800 people have been diagnosed with the rapidly spreading virus. More than 250 have died, all of them in China. The State Department told Americans not to travel there and advised those who are already there to consider leaving.

Following a quarantine order issued Friday, which government officials said was last used in the 1960s, evacuees held at a base in California will have their movements tightly controlled for 14 days after they left China because health experts are still uncertain about how readily the virus spreads. Continue  reading.

Trump’s China deal was pitched as boon for working class, but he celebrated with Wall Street titans

Washington Post logoStanding against a backdrop of Chinese and American flags, President Trump welcomed by name a roster of corporate executives and Wall Street bankers to the signing of his landmark trade deal with Beijing.

Looking out over the friendly East Room crowd, the president spied a woman in a red power suit.

“Mary Erdoes, JPMorgan Chase,” Trump said. “They just announced earnings, and they were incredible. …Will you say ‘thank you Mr. President’ at least? Huh? I made a lot of bankers look very good.” Continue reading.