How a hyperactive cell in the brain might trigger Alzheimer's disease

Microglia, specialized cells like the one seen in the center of this image, can restrain the accumulation of beta-amyloid protein (plaques in orange) that are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. But the cells sometimes contribute to the progression of the illness, researchers say. Juan Gaertner/Science Source

BRET STETKA-January 30, 2022

It all started with genetic data.

A gene here, a gene there.

Eventually the story became clearer: If scientists are to one day find a cure for Alzheimer's disease, they should look to the immune system.

Over the past couple decades, researchers have identified numerous genes involved in various immune system functions that may also contribute to Alzheimer's.

Some of the prime suspects are genes that control humble little immune cells called microglia, now the focus of intense research in developing new Alzheimer's drugs.

Microglia are amoeba-like cells that scour the brain for injuries and invaders. They help clear dead or impaired brain cells and literally gobble up invading microbes. Without them, we'd be in trouble.

In a normal brain, a protein called beta-amyloid is cleared away through our lymphatic system by microglia as molecular junk.

But sometimes it builds up. Certain gene mutations are one culprit in this toxic accumulation. Traumatic brain injury is another, and, perhaps, impaired microglial function.

One thing everyone agrees on is that in people with Alzheimer's, too much amyloid accumulates between their brain cells and in the vessels that supply the brain with blood.

Once amyloid begins to clog networks of neurons, it triggers the accumulation of another protein, called tau, inside of these brain cells. The presence of tau sends microglia and other immune mechanisms into overdrive, resulting in the inflammatory immune response that many experts believe ultimately saps brain vitality in Alzheimer's.

The gene scene

To date, nearly a dozen genes involved in immune and microglial function have been tied to Alzheimer's.

The first was CD33, identified in 2008.

"When we got the results I literally ran to my colleague's office next door and said you gotta see this!" says Harvard neuroscientist Rudolph Tanzi.

Tanzi, who goes by Rudy, led the CD33 research. The discovery was quickly named a top medical breakthrough of 2008 by Time magazine.

"We were laughing because what they didn't know is we had no idea what this gene did," he jokes.

But over time, research by Tanzi and his group revealed that CD33 is a kind of microglial on-off switch, activating the cells as part of an inflammatory pathway.

"We kind of got it all going when it came to the genetics," he says.

Microglia normally recognize molecular patterns associated with microbes and cellular damage as unwanted. This is how they know to take action – to devour unfamiliar pathogens and dead tissue. Tanzi believes microglia sense any sign of brain damage as an infection, which causes them to become hyperactive.

Much of our modern human immune system, he explains, evolved many hundreds of thousands of years ago. Our lifespans at the time were far shorter than they are today, and the majority of people didn't live long enough to develop dementia or the withered brain cells that comes with it. So our immune system, he says, assumes any faulty brain tissue is due to a microbe, not dementia. Microglia react aggressively, clearing the area to prevent the spread of infection.

"They say, 'We better wipe out this part of the brain that's infected, even if it's not. They don't know," quips Tanzi. "That's what causes neuroinflammation. And CD33 turns this response on. The microglia become killers, not just janitors."

A brake on overactive microglia

If CD33 is the yin, a gene called TREM2 is the yang.

Discovered a few years after CD33, TREM2 reins in microglial activation, returning them to their role as cellular housekeepers.

Neurologist David Holtzman of Washington University in St. Louis, who studies TREM2, agrees that where you find amyloid, tau or dead brain cells, there are microglia, raring to go and ready to scavenge.

"I think at first a lot of people thought these cells were reacting to Alzheimer's pathology, and not necessarily a cause of the disease," he says.

It was the discovery of TREM2 on the heels of CD33 that really shifted the thinking, in part because it produces a protein that in the brain is only found in microglia. Genes are stretches of DNA that encode for the proteins that literally run our bodies and brains.

"Many of us [in the field] immediately said 'Look, there's now a risk factor that is only expressed in microglia. So it must be that innate immune cells are important in some way in the pathogenesis of the disease," he adds.

Holtzman sees microglial activation in impending dementia as a double-edged sword. In the beginning, microglia clear unwanted amyloid to maintain brain health. But once accumulated amyloid and tau have done enough damage, the neuroinflammation that comes with microglial activation does more harm than good. Neurons die en masse and dementia sets in.

Not all researchers are convinced.

Serge Revist is a professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at the Laval University Medical School in Quebec. Based on his lab's research, he believes that while impaired immune activity is involved in Alzheimer's, it's not the root cause. "I don't think it's the immune cells that do the damage, I still think it's the beta-amyloid itself," he says, "In my lab, in mouse studies, we've never found that immune cells were directly responsible for killing neurons."

He does believe that in some Alzheimer's patients microglia may not be able to handle the excess amyloid that accumulates in the disease, and that developing treatments that improve the ability of microglia and the immune system to clear the protein could be effective.

Microglial medicines

The biological cascade leading to Alzheimer's is a tangled one.

Gene variants influencing the accumulation and clearance of amyloid are likely a major contributor. But immune activity caused by early life infection might also be involved, at least in some cases. This infectious theory of Alzheimer's was first proposed by Tanzi's now-deceased colleague Robert Moir. Tanzi's group even has evidence that amyloid itself is antimicrobial, and evolved to protect us from pathogens, only to become a problem when overactive and aggregated.

And the same goes for microglia, cells whose over-ambition might cause much of the brain degeneration seen in Alzheimer's.

In theory, if a treatment could, say, decrease CD33 activity, or increase that of TREM2, doctors might one day be able to slow or even stop the progression of dementia. Instead of going after amyloid itself – the mechanism behind so many failed investigational Alzheimer's drugs – a therapy that quells the immune response to amyloid might be the answer in treating dementia.

"There are number of scientists and companies trying to figure out how to influence genes like TREM2 and CD33, and to both decrease amyloid and act on the downstream consequences of the protein," says Holtzman. "All of this is to say that somewhere in the biology that causes Alzheimer's the immune system is involved."

It seems that in many cases the most common form of a dementia might be due to a well-intentioned immune cell going rogue.

"I think you'd hear this from basically any researcher worth their salt," says Tanzi. "I feel strongly that without microglial activation, you will not get Alzheimer's disease."

  Canada rally against vaccine mandates blocks Ottawa as Trump praises protest

Protestors stand on a trailer carrying logs as truckers and supporters take part in a convoy to protest coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine mandates for cross-border truck drivers in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, January 29, 2022. REUTERS/Patrick Doyle

By Steve Scherer-January 30, 2022

OTTAWA, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Dozens of trucks and other vehicles blocked the downtown area of Ottawa for a second day after thousands descended on Canada's capital city on Saturday to protest against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Trucks remained parked on the streets near parliament on Sunday, a day before lawmakers are due to resume work after the holiday break. Hundreds of protesters were out on Sunday, too. Some truckers said they will not leave until the mandate is overturned.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking at a rally in Texas on Saturday, praised the Canadian protesters for "resisting bravely these lawless mandates", in a sign the politicization of the pandemic seen mostly south of the border has spread north.

In solidarity with the Ottawa rally, truckers and protesters have blocked a Canada-U.S. border crossing in southern Alberta, police said on Twitter.

In Ottawa, thousands gathered peacefully on Saturday and there were no arrests, though several incidents are now being investigated by police.

"Several criminal investigations are underway," Ottawa police said on Twitter, including for the "desecration of the National War Memorial" and "threatening/illegal/intimidating behaviour to police/city workers and other individuals".

One protester was filmed dancing on the war memorial - the tomb of the unknown soldier - and flags bearing swastikas were seen in the crowd. A downtown mall shut down because protesters refused to wear masks.

Michael Cooper, a Conservative lawmaker who handed out coffee at the protest, was pictured standing near a Canadian flag bearing a Swastika during a TV interview. He later released a statement condemning the "reprehensible" protester on Twitter.

Canada's top soldier, Chief of the Defence Staff General Wayne Eyre, denounced a woman filmed dancing on the tomb of the unknown soldier, saying he was "sickened".

"We do not condone any disrespectful behavior," the official Facebook page for the rally said on Saturday.

The demonstration started out as a protest against a vaccine requirement for cross-border drivers, but turned into a demonstration against the Trudeau government with a strong anti-vaccination streak.

Due to security concerns, Trudeau and his family left their downtown Ottawa home on Saturday. Earlier this week Trudeau said the convoy represented a "small fringe minority" who do not represent the views of Canadians.

About 90% of Canada's cross-border truckers and almost 79% of the population has had two COVID-19 vaccine shots. Canada is now in the middle of a spike in Omicron variant cases that is straining hospitals.

Transport Minister Omar Alghabra ruled out reversing any of the mandates on Sunday.

"Vaccines are our best way to protect ourselves and our economy from COVID-19," Alghabra said in an interview with the CanaBC. "It is unacceptable to see the swastika being flown anywhere," he added.

Canada's Conservative Party supported the protest, which aimed a lot of its anger - in signs and chants - directly at Trudeau. The right-wing People's Party of Canada, which holds no seats in parliament, turned out at the rally.

"We are super-spreaders of freedom," People's Party leader Maxime Bernier said in a speech on Saturday.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said some protesters had harassed a soup kitchen, demanding free meals because their refusal to wear masks meant they were not to order in restaurants, according to an interview with the CBC.

"You have the right to protest, you've had your protest, please move on," Watson said.

  Long Covid study spots hidden lung damage

By Jane Deith-29 Jan 2022

Researchers who’ve studied breathing problems in people with Long Covid say the virus may have caused microscopic damage to their lungs.

It could explain why people are still experiencing breathlessness after contracting the disease, despite not needing hospital treatment, and other tests, including CT scans, coming back normal.

The team, from Oxford, Sheffield, Cardiff and Manchester say it’s the first evidence of an impact on underlying lung health – as Jane Deith reports.

 

Boris faces calls to 'end the circus' on Partygate with Sue Gray's 'watered down' report due as early as TOMORROW... while Liz Truss insists he WILL lead the Tories into the next election and allies claim he has steadied the ship

• Boris Johnson has been facing risk of Tory revolt after Partygate fuelled unrest
• Opinium poll the latest to suggest Conservative support might be stabilising
• The PM still has to weather Sue Gray's Partygate report and probe by the police
• The senior civil servant's conclusions could be released as early as tomorrow 

By JAMES TAPSFIELD, POLITICAL EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE-30 January 2022  

Boris Johnson is facing demands to 'end the circus' on Partygate today as he braces for Sue Gray's report - with allies hoping he has steadied the ship.

The PM is gearing up for another brutal week with the senior civil servant expected to deliver her findings on lockdown breaches in Downing Street as early as tomorrow.

Although Ms Gray is believed to be watering down her report at the request of Scotland Yard, any criticism could reignite the simmering revolt in the Tory ranks.

The allegations before the inquiry include that Carrie Johnson's friends held an Abba 'victory party' in the No11 flat after Dominic Cummings quit.    

In interviews this morning, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss insisted Mr Johnson will lead the party into the next election. Asked if she was tempted to challenge for the top job, Ms Truss said: 'There is no contest. There is no discussion.'  

The mood among MPs has cooled significantly over the past week, after the extraordinary 'Pork Pie plot' fizzled out.  

In another boost for the premier, there were more fledgling signs of a Tory poll recovery. 

The ongoing rows have taken a huge toll on the Conservatives' popularity and that of Mr Johnson personally. But research for Opinium is the latest to suggest the party might be clawing back some ground.

Labour's 10-point lead from a fortnight ago has been trimmed back to five points, with the PM's ratings coming off rock bottom.

Mr Johnson is also believed to be planning a major clearout of No10 staff as part of 'Operation Save Big Dog' after the Gray report surfaces.

However, he has risked a Tory backlash on another front today by vowing that the £12billion national insurance hike will go ahead in April.  

Boris Johnson (pictured arriving back in Downing Street today) is gearing up for another brutal week in the Partygate saga

Lisa Nandy slams PM for not 'coming clean' over party claims

 Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (left) insisted Mr Johnson will lead the party into the next election. Sue Gray (right) could deliver her Partygate report as early as tomorrow

Research for Opinium is the latest to suggest the Tories might be clawing back some ground

Liz Truss insists she will not be running for Prime Minister

Boris defies Tories over national insurance hike despite threats of Partygate mutiny 

Boris Johnson today risked fuelling the Tory mutiny over Partygate and heaped cost-of-living pain on millions of Britons by vowing the £12billion national insurance hike will go ahead.

In a pointed show of unity after weeks of behind-the-scenes wrangling, the PM and Rishi Sunak killed off hopes that the eye-watering increase would be delayed or axed altogether.

They insisted in a joint article that the 1.25 percentage point bump to fund the NHS and social care reforms is the 'right plan' and it will go ahead in April.

But in a nod to the scale of anger among Conservative MPs, Mr Johnson and the Chancellor felt the need to stress they are 'tax-cutting Thatcherites' by instinct.

The decision to rule out a U-turn suggests that Mr Johnson is feeling more confident in his position as polls show glimmers of a Tory recovery. 

There had been claims he was 'wobbling' and a rethink could form part of so-called 'Operation Save Big Dog' - the desperate effort to prevent a coup bid by MPs over Downing Street lockdown breaches and other rows. 

Lisa Nandy has called on the Prime Minister to 'come clean' over claims of lockdown-busting parties held in Downing Street.

She told the BBC's Sunday Morning show: 'The reason that we've got to have the Sue Gray report is because the Prime Minister won't come clean on what has been going on in Downing Street and his involvement in it.

'We could sort all of this out without him having to hide behind a civil servant or the Met Police, he could just come clean, but since he won't come clean we believe that the most important thing is to get that report out in full.

'There are a lot of bereaved families, there are a lot people who made huge sacrifices who deserve to hear the truth from the Prime Minister and if he won't put an end to this circus and this stasis in Government, when people are dealing with huge issues around the country, cost-of-living crisis, levelling-up plans stalled, if he won't do it, then that report has to come out in full, so that people can judge for themselves.'

Among the latest damaging revelations, it has been alleged that a tipsy Downing Street staffer boasted about breaching lockdown to police guarding No10.

The aide allegedly told guards 'we're the only ones allowed to party' as a group left the street in the early hours of the morning, according to The Sun. 

The Opinium poll put Labour on 39 per cent support - down two on a fortnight ago - while the Conservatives were up three on 34 per cent. 

The Liberal Democrats were unchanged on 9 per cent.

Mr Johnson's approval rating crept up from a net minus 42 two weeks ago to a still-dire minus 37.

In contrast Keir Starmer's rating was zero overall, having deteriorated four points.

Adam Drummond of Opinium said the findings feel like a 'let-down for Labour' despite their advantage.

'Boris Johnson's approval rating is still dire and, interestingly, Labour now lead on most issues including traditionally strong Tory areas such as crime and immigration. The Conservatives are also only barely ahead on 'the economy',' he said.

'But many of these shifts in issues are as much down to people moving from 'Conservative' to 'neither' as they are people moving to Labour and that, alongside the change in vote shares, shows just how volatile things are at the moment.'

Rumours are swirling that Mr Johnson will dramatically overhaul his Downing Street machine in response to anger among Tory MPs.  

There is speculation chief of staff Dan Rosenfield, often criticised by backbenchers, could be moved to a civil service role. 

Persistent whispers are circulating that David Canzini, a close ally of election guru Sir Lynton Crosby, could be brought in to beef up the No10 operation. 

And highly-rated mandarin Antonia Romeo has been tipped for a promotion if Cabinet Secretary Simon Case is forced to move on.

Meanwhile, the Mail on Sunday has learned that as part of her inquiry into socialising in Mr Johnson's No 10 flat, Ms Gray has been told about a 'victory party' held by friends of Carrie.

The bash allegedly happened on the night of November 13, 2020, after Dominic Cummings had left with his belongings in a box.

He had allegedly lost a power struggle with the then Ms Symonds and other advisers.

'There was the sound of lots of banging and dancing and drinking, and a number of Abba tracks – including a triumphalist Winner Takes It All,' a source said.

 A spokesman for Mrs Johnson said: 'It is totally untrue to suggest Mrs Johnson held a party in the Downing Street flat on November 13, 2020.'

The Metropolitan Police could now investigate the party as part of its probe, and call on Mrs Johnson to provide written evidence. 

Last week the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick announced officers have launched a criminal inquiry after assessing a dossier of evidence compiled by Ms Gray. 

The police inquiry will reportedly focus on eight out of 17 parties looked at by Ms Gray.

The force then clarified it was looking at potential Covid breaches that are dealt with by fixed-term penalty notices.

It is understood that the Prime Minister's wife has not been interviewed by Ms Gray's inquiry or approached by the police.

Mr Cummings resigned as Mr Johnson's de facto chief of staff after losing the alleged power struggle with Mrs Johnson. 

He has previously claimed there was a 'party' in the Downing Street flat on the night of his departure.

Civil servants in the building at the time were advised by officials to go to the Downing Street flat to apologise for not sufficiently supporting the Prime Minister's then-fiancée. 

'They were ordered to go up and kiss the ring,' one said.

It comes as a former senior policeman suggested Downing Street staff who have been interviewed by Ms Gray could retract their testimony.  

Former chief superintendent Dai Davies, who was in charge of Royal Protection, told the Daily Mail: 'Now it's a legal quagmire. 

'Anyone who has spoken to her inquiry could retract their evidence, arguing they did not know it could be used against them in a criminal inquiry.' 

Sources said this was possible but any change of evidence would likely be sent directly to the police, rather than Ms Gray amending her report. 

A source close to Ms Gray's inquiry said the evidence she presented to police should be seen as a 'starting point'.

The Met Police said suspects will be asked to give written evidence as part of its inquiry, which appeared to undermine reports the Prime Minister could be interviewed under caution.

Ms Gray's long-awaited report is expected to be submitted to the Prime Minister within days.

 

Sue Gray is said to have been given evidence about a party held by Carrie's (pictured right) friends in the No11 flat after Dominic Cummings (left) quit

The Met is under fire for its 'farcical' handling of Partygate. After first refusing to investigate, last week it announced a criminal inquiry days before the Sue Gray report was due to be published – and asking her to make 'minimal references' to parties at the centre of the row.

Former Supreme Court justice Lord Sumption said the police had 'no legal right to demand that Sue Gray delay publication of her report and it is constitutionally undesirable that they have done so'.

Meanwhile, speculation mounted over an expected leadership contest to replace Mr Johnson, should he be deposed.

Yesterday Tom Tugendhat became the first Conservative MP to declare his intention to run in a leadership contest.

Asked in a Times Radio interview which will air today whether he would like to be Prime Minister, the Tonbridge & Malling MP said: 'It would be a huge privilege.'

He added: 'It's up to all of us to put ourselves forward. And it's up to the electorate, in the first case parliamentary colleagues, and in the second case the party, to choose.'

The former soldier added: 'There isn't a vacancy at the moment', and insisted he had not been canvassing support.

Jeremy Hunt, the former Foreign Secretary who came second to Mr Johnson in the 2019 leadership contest, recently said his ambition to be leader had not 'completely vanished'.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss are expected to be the frontrunners in a contest, with other potential contenders including Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, Home Secretary Priti Patel, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi and former Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt.

A No 10 spokeswoman said last night she could not comment on the Gray inquiry.

 With 900,000 dead from COVID-19, US capitalism doubles down on mass infection

On Thursday, the United States passed the grim milestone of 900,000 deaths from COVID-19 according to the Worldometer tracker. All other major trackers will pass this horrendous figure within one week.

Registered nurse Bryan Hofilena attaches a “COVID Patient” sticker on a body bag of a patient who died of coronavirus at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Andre Damon@Andre__Damon-29 January 2022

With the Omicron variant pushing COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations to record levels, 53,000 Americans have lost their lives so far this month. One American has died every 45 seconds. The seven-day average of deaths now stands at 2,514, higher than the peak of any previous surge except last winter.

In the year 2020, 351,754 Americans lost their lives to COVID-19. In the year 2021, 475,680 succumbed to the virus. If January’s death rate continues throughout 2022, 636,000 more Americans will be dead in the third year of the pandemic.

The massive death toll is now simply ignored in the print and broadcast media. On Friday, a day that BNO newsroom reported that 3,826 people died from COVID-19, NBC Nightly News did not even mention the pandemic in the first half of its broadcast, focusing instead on the weather and the New York City police.

Far from doing anything to stop the ongoing wave of mass death, every institution in American society, from the Biden administration to state and local governments and major corporations, are flooring the accelerator on mass infection.

The tone has been set by the Biden White House. Having forced the reopening of all schools and businesses and the end of social distancing measures, the Biden administration has set its sights on the only two remaining measures to stop the spread of COVID-19: masking by the general public and the isolation of those who are actively infected with COVID-19.

In an interview with Politico this week, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky advocated ending masking and isolation. She stated, “If cases are high, severity will be such that we’re in an OK spot in our hospitals… our masks might be more likely to come off. And then if you get a case of a runny nose, you might say, ‘Okay, well, I'm going to stay home, because that’s what I do when I have a runny nose.’ But you don’t necessarily have to isolate.”

All serious public health experts and epidemiologists advocate masking and isolation under conditions where a disease that kills and maims at the rate of COVID-19 is spreading throughout society. Doing otherwise is a recipe for the continual infection and reinfection of the entire population, which is now the deliberate policy of the US government.

The Omicron variant will “find just about everybody,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said earlier this month. “Most people are going to get COVID,” said Janet Woodcock, the director of the Food and Drug administration.

Walensky’s calls for ending masking and isolation were taken up this week by a group of academic proponents of mass infection, calling themselves “Urgency of Normal.” The group is led by Monica Gandhi, a school reopening advocate who has ties to the White House and has continuously downplayed the pandemic and the dangers facing society.

In a statement, the group writes, “Masks should become optional in US schools (we suggest, by February 15), and we can also return to pre-pandemic norms for quarantines: if you are sick, stay home.”

The comments by Walensky and the statement by Gandhi, et al. have been accompanied by a massive anti-masking propaganda barrage in the US media, including media outlets aligned with the Democratic party. Recent headlines include, “The case against masks in schools” in the Atlantic; “New questions about whether kids should wear masks” by NPR; “Should kids wear masks in schools? Maybe not” in the San Francisco Chronicle; and “Let Kids Take Their Masks Off After the Omicron Surge” in the New York Times.

The importance of wearing masks, and especially high-quality masks, in reducing the spread of COVID-19 is not, and never has been, in dispute. But from the standpoint of the ruling class, masking is a constant reminder that the pandemic is not over and that the population should take measures to protect itself. For the sake of herding workers back on the job, masking must go.

These demands are already being implemented around the world. On Tuesday, the city of San Francisco will end its indoor masking requirements for offices and gyms, setting the stage for other cities to follow suit.

In Denmark, where COVID-19 cases are surging due to the new, more infectious subvariant of Omicron called BA.2, the government is ending its mask mandate on February 1. Starting Thursday, face coverings will no longer be required anywhere in the UK.

In practice, even the totally inadequate five-day guidance on isolation from the CDC is a dead letter. A survey by Harvard University’s Kennedy School noted that “nearly two-thirds of workers who reported being sick in the last month during the survey period said they worked through the illness,” according to the Wall Street Journal, with many citing “financial reasons” and “fear of reprisals.”

In May 2021, Walensky, acting under the direction of Biden and White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients, called on vaccinated people to stop all social distancing and masking, saying, “Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing.” This prompted nearly every state to end mask mandates in the ensuing weeks, setting the stage for the catastrophic surge of the Delta variant that killed over 175,000 Americans.

According to the New York Times, “Mr. Biden, Mr. Zients and others in the White House were ecstatic” at Walensky’s announcement last May. “Take your mask off. You’ve earned the right,” Biden told the public that month.

After the end of these restrictions led to a surge in cases last summer, Walensky and Biden were forced to backtrack and once again urge the population to mask. But amid record case rates, with 3,000 people now dying every day and hospitals fuller than at any other time during the pandemic, the Biden administration is renewing its push against all public health measures.

In May 2021, the dropping of masking recommendations was justified with the false claim that vaccinated people do not transmit COVID-19. Today it is accompanied by the open promotion of mass infection through an embrace of the “herd immunity” strategy first implemented by the Trump administration.

At this month’s World Economic Forum, the annual conclave of oligarchs, Dr. Anthony Fauci was asked, “Is 2022 actually the year that we go from pandemic to endemic and on the current speed up (sic) the process given its ability to spread and offer immunity through infection?”

In other words, is mass infection with COVID-19 the appropriate response to the pandemic?

To this, Fauci replied, “I would hope that that’s the case,” adding, “it is an open question as to whether or not Omicron is going to be the live virus vaccination that everyone is hoping for.”

In 2020, Fauci and White House Coronavirus Coordinator Deborah Birx warned that those who promoted the benefits of mass infection—led by Trump adviser Scott Atlas—were “dangerous.” Birx wrote in an email that Atlas’s views were “a true threat to a comprehensive and critical response to this pandemic,” calling the proponents of his views “a fringe group without grounding in epidemics, public health or on the ground common sense experience.”

Birx warned that following a “herd immunity” approach would lead to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths and have immense public health ramifications, stating, “We all know the long-term consequences of simple viral infections—we have seen the pericarditis, myocarditis, even cardiomyopathy, vasculitis, and the long continued open question of the relationship to autoimmunity.”

In the year and a half since Fauci and Birx made these secret warnings, the entire political establishment has embraced the murderous policies promoted by Atlas and Trump.

COVID-19 is to become the “new normal,” in the words of the eugenics advocate Ezekiel Emanuel. The public must embrace the benefits of “natural immunity,” as a Wall Street Journal op-ed recently declared.

Most troubling of all, the daily reporting of COVID-19 cases and deaths is under attack. On February 2, the US Department of Health and Human Services will end its requirement for hospitals to report COVID-19 deaths every day.

The only remaining source of death reporting will be the CDC, which receives its reports from state health departments. Most states, however, do not report daily, and a growing number are moving toward once-a-week reporting in the near future.

The modus operandi of the ruling class and its media apologists is clear: The COVID-19 pandemic is to continue in perpetuity. Hundreds of thousands of people—predominantly the sick and elderly—will die, and the health of millions more will be compromised each year. Deaths and cases will be reported less and less each day, and the media will, day by day, stop reporting on it.

But the ruling class’s strategy for a perpetual pandemic is coming into headlong collision with a growing movement of the working class and young people determined to resist mass infection, taking the form of a wave of strikes and struggles to demand protections from the pandemic.

This growing movement of the working class must embrace a Zero COVID strategy, based on ending transmission of COVID-19 through contact tracing, isolation, quarantine and the temporary closure of all schools and nonessential businesses with full compensation for all affected workers and small business people.

The struggle against mass infection is a political struggle against the financial oligarchy and the entire capitalist system. The most critical task is to build a revolutionary socialist leadership in the working class, fighting for a unified global strategy to stop the pandemic and save lives.

 

Is American democracy on the brink of collapse?

Political violence, surging ethnonationalism, economic stagnation: the US today resembles the Soviet Union just before it fell

Trump supporters breach the US Capitol in Washington DC, 6 January 2021| Michael Nigro/Sipa USA/PA Images

 

Chrissy Stroop-28 January 2022

As an American born into a conservative Christian family, I grew up surrounded by chauvinist messaging that I was living in “the greatest country in the world”. This message was reinforced in the popular media I was allowed to consume, and also at home, at church and in my Christian school, where pupils’ inculcation in Christian nationalism extended to the recitation of not just one, but three pledges every morning: to the American flag, the Christian flag and the Bible.

These were the waning years of the Cold War. Ronald Reagan, president of the United States at the time, made a regular show of putting pressure on the Soviet premier, Mikhail Gorbachev, as part of his performative patriotism – and we evangelicals loved it.

Of course, Soviet citizens were also frequently told – just like us Americans – that they lived in “the greatest country in the world”.

I’m a Russia expert who spent several years living in post-Soviet Russia. I’ve talked to people who were young adults during the détente period of the Cold War (c. 1969 through the 1970s), when Leonid Brezhnev was in charge of the USSR. They remember those times with nostalgia and a certain wistfulness for the loss of their country’s status as a ‘great power’ – something the current Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has sought to restore through revanchism and Russia’s own version of a Christian imperial ideology.

The early 1990s was a period of major trauma for the country. The USSR ceased to exist amid economic privation, rising ethnonationalism and social discontent fuelled in part by the Gorbachev regime’s unprecedented openness about past Soviet atrocities (which was in itself, of course, a good thing).

Could the same thing happen to the United States? The question may strike some as alarmist or even absurd, but there are parallels between the experience of the dying days of the Soviet Union and today’s US.

More political violence imminent

For one, the US is an intensely divided country that’s nearly boiling over with grievances and recriminations. And just as the USSR failed to make much needed upgrades to infrastructure built largely in the 1930s, the hamstrung US Congress is unable to pass even a basic bill to update its country’s infrastructure, which dates mainly from the 1950s and ’60s.

Meanwhile, most Americans are struggling economically despite high (but wildly inequitably distributed) GDP. White nationalism is surging. And among right-wing Americans, especially white evangelical Protestants and Trump supporters, almost 20% believe “that true American patriots might have to resort to violence in order to save our country,” according to the Public Religion Research Institute.

On the anniversary of the 6 January insurrection on Capitol Hill, prominent experts and commentators predicted that more political violence is likely in the immediate future. Leading Canadian political scientist and academic Thomas Homer-Dixon went even further, warning that “American democracy could collapse” as soon as 2025, and advocating that the Canadian government take measures to prepare for this contingency.

A near-fascist personality cult that’s a perfect instrument for wrecking democracy

Professor Thomas Homer-Dixon

Professor Homer-Dixon quickly dispenses with the notion that Democrats and Republicans are equally responsible for today’s polarisation. He doesn’t mince his words in describing how “Mr. Trump and a host of acolytes and wannabes such as Fox’s Tucker Carlson and Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene have captured the storied GOP and transformed it into a near-fascist personality cult that’s a perfect instrument for wrecking democracy” by exploiting the fear and anger of white Christian conservatives.

Homer-Dixon concludes that, while it is impossible to predict the precise post-democracy form the US might take or whether civil war might break out, certain things are clear. Should Trump return to power in the 2024 presidential election, “liberalism will be marginalized and right-wing Christian groups super-empowered, while violence by vigilante, paramilitary groups will rise sharply.”

Democracy on life support

Homer-Dixon’s sobering commentary is long and detailed, and I find some parts of his argument more convincing than others. I can hardly do justice to it here, so I would strongly encourage readers to examine it for themselves. But I do have a few thoughts of my own to share.

First, a quibble. While we are accustomed to referring to the United States as a democracy and even (incorrectly, in my view) holding it up as a paragon to be emulated, my country has never come close to fully embodying democratic ideals. It has certainly never deserved to be called “the greatest country in the world”.

The founding fathers left us with a slaveholder constitution that grants disproportionate power to wealthy white men. While remarkable enough for its time, the constitution really needs a few new amendments, not least the elimination of the electoral college, through which states, rather than individual citizens, vote for the president. The result of this profoundly undemocratic system is that recent Republican candidates, including Trump, have won the presidency while losing the popular vote.

American democracy has always been aspirational, at best, but even that aspirational, partially realised democracy is currently on life support.

In that regard, I want to express my gratitude to Professor Homer-Dixon for publicly raising the possibility that the current US system will fail. It is, of course, rather disconcerting, as an American, to read foreign experts’ analysis of the probable collapse of my country.

By the same token, however, it is immensely important that this contingency be discussed – as loudly as possible and by as many parties as possible. The US is in a dire political situation, and most of us aren’t taking the failures of our politics nearly as seriously as we should.

The more we address the real issues, the more likely it is we will find a way to avoid the worst possible outcome. That, at least, is the shred of hope I’m currently trying to hold on to.