Conscious Eating and Transparency – 3/18/20 (Zoom Meeting)

The Edible Schoolyard Project

Mar 19, 2020

Coronavirus ‘Will Blow Right Past’ Trump’s July And August Claims | The Last Word | MSNBC

MSNBC

Mar 16, 2020

Dr. Michael Osterholm tells Lawrence O’Donnell that he believes the president’s new timeline for the worst of the coronavirus is not long enough. Dr. Jonathan Quick tells Lawrence that a strong federal response is needed, instead of piecemeal state responses. Aired on 03/16/2020.

Joseph Stiglitz: Trump’s “Trickle-Down” Economic Plans Are Not Enough to Meet Coronavirus Challenge

Democracy Now!

Mar 19, 2020

The coronavirus relief package signed by President Trump Wednesday provides unemployment benefits and free coronavirus testing to millions of Americans suddenly out of a job, but guarantees paid sick leave to less than 20% of American workers. Earlier this month, Trump signed into law an $8 billion coronavirus response package and has laid out the first details of a third, $1 trillion economic package and invoked the Korean War-era Defense Production Act to allow the government to direct industrial production. For more on those bailouts and who benefits, we speak with Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning economist, Columbia University professor and chief economist for the Roosevelt Institute. He served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton and as chief economist of the World Bank. His latest book is “People, Power and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent.”

‘Premeditated murder’ to increase US sanctions during pandemic – Galloway

RT America

Mar 19, 2020

An eighth of the world’s countries are under US sanctions. How does this complicate Washington’s cooperation with these countries in battling the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic? Former UK MP George Galloway joins Rick Sanchez to weigh in. He calls it “sadistic” for the US State Dept.to increase sanctions on Iran as the latter struggles against the deadly pandemic.

US re-sanctions Iran despite country’s desperation

RT America

Mar 19, 2020

The US State Dept has stepped up sanctions against Iran, depriving the country of vital medical supplies as it fights the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Some researchers believe that Iran will lose 3.5 million people to the pandemic. US sanctions also persist on Cuba, Russia, Venezuela and elsewhere. RT America’s Alex Mihailovich reports for the News with Rick Sanchez.

Hundreds of billions of locusts are swarming in East Africa, ME and Asia

RT America

Mar 19, 2020

By June, there could be trillions.

Defense Sec. Mark Esper on mobilizing the U.S. military to fight COVID-19

PBS NewsHour
Mar 19, 2020

The U.S. military is gearing up to fight the novel coronavirus, which is spreading rapidly across the U.S. Plans include deployment of hospital ships as overflow for hospitals, allocation of critical medical supplies and research in military labs on development of treatment and a vaccine. Judy Woodruff speaks with Defense Secretary Mark Esper about these efforts and keeping service members safe.

“We are in an unprecedented situation & normal rules no longer apply”

United Nations

Mar 19, 2020

Facing a global health crisis “unlike any in the 75-year history of the United Nations,” Secretary-General António Guterres today (19 Mar) called for a “coordinated, decisive, and innovative policy action from the world’s leading economies.”

Guterres, speaking to reporters remotely from UN Headquarters, said, “a global recession – perhaps of record dimensions – is a near certainty,” and stressed that “current responses at the country level will not address the global scale and complexity of the crisis.”

He welcomed the decision by G20 leaders to convene an emergency summit next week “to respond to the epic challenges” posed by the pandemic.

The Secretary-General said, “we are in an unprecedented situation and the normal rules no longer apply. We cannot resort to the usual tools in such unusual times. The creativity of the response must match the unique nature of the crisis – and the magnitude of the response must match its scale.

He highlighted three critical areas for action; tackling the health emergency, focusing on the social impact and the economic response and recovery, and thirdly, a responsibility to “recover better.”

Guterres said, “if we let the virus spread like wildfire – especially in the most vulnerable regions of the world — it would kill millions of people” and urged nations to “immediately move away from a situation where each country is undertaking its own health strategies to one that ensures, in full transparency, a coordinated global response.”

These strategies, he said, include “wage support, insurance, social protection, preventing bankruptcies and job loss” as well as “designing fiscal and monetary responses to ensure that the burden does not fall on those who can least afford it.”

Noting that “more than 800 million children are out of school right now,” Guterres said “we must ensure that all children have access to food and equal access to learning – bridging the digital divide and reducing the costs of connectivity.”

The Secretary-General concluded by saying “we have a responsibility to ‘recover better’” and to “ensure that lessons are learned and that this crisis provides a watershed moment for health emergency preparedness and for investment in critical 21st century public services and the effective delivery of global public goods.”

Asked about how these initiatives would be funded, Guterres said, “wee see that whenever there is a problem in banking system, trillions appear to solve the problems of the banks. And these trillions must appear now. The governments and central banks must work to guarantee that there is liquidity in the economy, but also that funds are mobilized to those who are most in need. And those who are most in need are people, on one hand, and the poorest countries on the the other. “

He said, “it is absolutely essential to show solidarity in the way we respond to the crisis.”

Why another flu pandemic is likely just a matter of when

PBS NewsHour
Jun 19, 2019

Despite the availability of vaccines, the flu still kills tens of thousands of people in the U.S. each year, and hundreds of thousands more worldwide. But public health officials fear that an even graver threat lies ahead: the emergence of a new, much more deadly flu virus. As William Brangham reports, the scenario has occurred before.

WHO tells African states to “prepare for the worst”

FRANCE 24 English

Mar 18, 2020

Africa has been one of the least-affected continents by Covid19. But, as the number of cases creep up, governments across the continent are ramping up prevention measures. Closing borders, imposing curfews, banning cruise ships .. just some of the examples across the continent. The number of cases in South Africa nearly doubled and Burkina Faso recorded the first Sub-Saharan fatality due to the coronavirus. So what are the symptoms and what can you do to protect yourself ? We’ve prepared a short reminder on what Covid 19 is…