The Health 202: Whether to waive coronavirus vaccine patents will be front and center this week Alexandra Ellerbeck
with Paige Winfield Cunningham The United States is under heavy pressure to help suspend intellectual property rights for coronavirus vaccines.
It ll be a hot topic as the World Trade Organization holds its general meeting this Wednesday. A temporary patent waiver on the vaccines would let more companies produce them. The U.S. has joined several other wealthy countries in blocking a proposal spearheaded by South Africa and India for a temporary patent waiver on the vaccines. The waiver would allow companies around the world to produce generic versions of coronavirus vaccines and therapeutics for a temporary time without having to worry about being sued for intellectual property violations.
By Democrats’ Standards, Their School Closures Are Systemic Racism
May 3, 2021
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris called it “systemic racism“ when a white cop knelt on a black man for almost 10 minutes. But teachers unions largely led by white people have knelt on the futures of black American kids for 13 months, and Democrats are taking millions to look away.
While the Biden administration still refuses to say whether schools should be fully open this fall despite rolling lockdowns already damaging two school years, new data shows systemic racial disparities in the availability of in-person education.
“Eighty percent of public schools were open for at least some in-person learning by the end of February, according to a government survey, but an estimated 78 percent of Asian eighth-graders were learning in a fully remote environment,” Politico reported last week. “Nearly 60 percent of Black and Hispanic eighth-graders also learned at home full time.”
The largest teacher’s union in the country, the American Federation of Teachers, heavily lobbied the Centers for Disease Control with guidelines on school reopenings. This will be a surprise to no one ever.
The proof is in emails obtained by the New York Post via FOIA. There was extensive communication between the two until school reopening guidelines were published in February.
Americans for Public Trust obtained the documents via a Freedom of Information Act request. They then gave them to the NY Post.
The documents show extensive activity between CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, her top advisors, and union officials. Biden brass were looped in at the White House. This all took place in the days before the highly anticipated Feb. 12 announcement on school-reopening guidelines.
Powerful teachers union influenced CDC on school reopenings (NY Post)
âThe American Federation of Teachers lobbied the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on, and even suggested language for, the federal agency s school-reopening guidance released in February. The powerful teachers unionâs full-court press preceded the federal agency putting the brakes on a full re-opening of in-person classrooms, emails between top CDC, AFT and White House officials show. ⦠The close communication between the union and the feds came despite repeated assurances from CDC and Biden officials that the medical guidelines would âfollow the scienceâ and be free of political interference. ⦠The AFT and its affiliates have long been one of the most reliable and deep pocketed donor constituencies of the Democratic party, dropping almost $20 million to elect party members during the 2020 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.â
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
A leftover from the weekend via the New York Post. There’s nothing unusual about special interests lobbying the federal government to try to influence policy, of course. But there’s cause for squeamishness when (a) it’s the “scientific” branch of the government responsible for pandemic guidance that’s being pressured and (b) the special interest in question happens to be a hugely generous benefactor of the party in power.
The Post has documented two changes to CDC guidance that were made at the behest of the American Federation of Teachers, but that’s only because there are actual documents emails to substantiate those. There were also phone calls between the AFT and CDC apparatchiks, including Rochelle Walensky. Who knows what sort of rules were sought by the AFT in conversation that didn’t make it into discoverable written communications.