All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Inoreader – ‘No way food safety not compromised’: US regulation rollbacks during Covid-19 criticised

The US government is accelerating controversial regulatory rollbacks to speed up production at meat plants, as companies express growing alarm at the impact of Covid-19 on their operations. Last week Smithfield shut down one of the largest pork plants in the country after hundreds of employees contracted the coronavirus. The plant in South Dakota – whose output represents 4–5% of US pork production – is reported to be the largest single-source coronavirus hotspot in the US, with more than 600 cases. In response, the company said it was “critical” for the meat industry to “continue to operate unabated”.

Source: Inoreader – ‘No way food safety not compromised’: US regulation rollbacks during Covid-19 criticised

Minimum-Wage Workers Are Dying to Keep Everyone Else Alive. They Deserve More.

Rcooley123's Blog

Outstanding essay by William Rivers Pitt. This definitely cannot be over-emphasized. Millions of people often taken for granted by our society while performing jobs that keep us going for little pay and often even less recognition for the risks they take on a daily basis. They definitely deserve better treatment from all of us – including better pay, better working conditions and recognition of their value as human beings and people working to improve the lives of us all while supporting their own loved ones. -rjc

Low-wage workers are standing between our society and calamity. They deserve health care and a living wage now.

Source: Minimum-Wage Workers Are Dying to Keep Everyone Else Alive. They Deserve More.

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‘Delusional,’ ‘Absolutely false’: Governors cry foul on Trump testing claims

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said he “could probably double, maybe even triple testing in Ohio virtually overnight if the FDA would prioritize companies that are putting a slightly different formula together for the extraction reagent kit. ‘If anyone at the FDA is watching, this would really take our capacity up literally overnight, and that’s what we need to get moving in Ohio,” he added.

Source: ‘Delusional,’ ‘Absolutely false’: Governors cry foul on Trump testing claims

Impossible for UK to meet Covid-19 testing targets, scientists say | Politics | The Guardian

The World Health Organization has repeatedly urged governments to pursue testing and tracing, and some countries, including Singapore and South Korea, have successfully used this approach to contain their outbreaks, while Germany has also continued to carry out contact tracing. The UK abandoned population testing and contact tracing in early March, when case numbers began to rise steeply, but the health secretary, Matt Hancock, said on Friday that contact tracing would be reintroduced, including through a proposed NHS smartphone app. Experts say the ability to rely on this approach to safely exit the lockdown will depend critically on widespread population testing beyond the level needed for diagnosing patients in hospital.

Source: Impossible for UK to meet Covid-19 testing targets, scientists say | Politics | The Guardian

Health Officials Recommended Canceling Events with 10-50… — ProPublica

As COVID-19 fears grew, public officials and sports execs contemplated health risks — and debated a PR message — but let 33,000 fans into a Seattle…

Source: Health Officials Recommended Canceling Events with 10-50… — ProPublica

Despite concerns about the new coronavirus, more than 33,000 fans attended the Seattle Sounders soccer match on March 7, 2020, at CenturyLink Field. (Lindsey Wasson/Sounders FC Communications)

In Italy, a Feb. 19 soccer match, later dubbed “Game Zero” and described by a respiratory specialist as a “biological bomb,” has been cited as a possible reason that one province became an epicenter of the pandemic.

But that match was played before the country’s first confirmed case of locally transmitted COVID-19. In Washington, community spread had been recognized at least a week before the Sounders match. The governor declared a state of emergency on Feb. 29, the King County executive on March 1.

On the evening of March 7, a Saturday, hundreds gathered in Occidental Park for their traditional March to the Match. They stood shoulder to shoulder and marched three blocks down Occidental Avenue to CenturyLink Field.