USA Today (August 20)
“From the earliest days of the pandemic, public health officials told Americans that vaccination was the way back to normal life, but the path forward has become less clear. While COVID-19 vaccines were delivered in record time, the promise of vaccine salvation was upended by entrenched hesitancy, waning immunity and a wildly contagious mutation of the enigmatic virus that causes the disease.”
Tags: COVID-19, Hesitancy, Immunity, Normal, Officials, Pandemic, Promise, Public health, U.S., Upended, Vaccination, Vaccine salvation
Chicago Tribune (March 6)
“We walk the Earth’s crust, we erect vast cities, we boast of our achievements. We see ourselves as the mistresses and masters of our fate.” With the coronavirus, however, “nature once again reminds us who’s boss.” The “little living form that now roils humanity is a virus” and it does not discriminate “in selecting its victims; great wealth has its privileges, but immunity from epidemics isn’t one of them.”
Tags: Achievements, Boss, Cities, Coronavirus, Earth, Fate, Humanity, Immunity, Nature, Victims, Wealth
Chicago Tribune (October 9)
While “most of the world has remained silent,” Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has engaged in sweeping genocide. “Nearly 3,000 people have already been gunned down, either by police or vigilante death squads, encouraged by Duterte, who has promised immunity.” Another 600,000 are “now caged in hideously crowded prisons that already look like concentration camps.” This may be “the logical conclusion of the brutal rhetoric of the drug war,” but “history shows that such dehumanization doesn’t stop crime or drug use — it simply enables it.”
Tags: Concentration camps, Crime, Dehumanization, Drug war, Drugs, Duterte, Genocide, Immunity, Philippines, Prison, Silent, Vigilante death squads
New York Times (August 18)
“Brazil is in tatters. The economy is in a deepening recession.” On top of that Petrobras is facing a “massive corruption scandal” and the country’s credit rating was just downgraded by Moody’s. “In all this turbulence, it is easy to miss the good news: the fortitude of Brazil’s democratic institutions.” Specifically, “in pursuing bribery at Petrobras, federal prosecutors…have not been deterred by rank or power, dealing a blow to the entrenched culture of immunity among government and business elites.”
Tags: Brazil, Bribery, Business, Corruption, Credit rating, Democratic institutions, Downgraded, Economy, Elites, Government, Immunity, Moody's, Petrobras, Power, Prosecutors, Rank, Recession, Scandal
