By Thomas Lifson

The battle against a viral epidemic has been handicapped by another epidemic: the spread of “social justice” as an overweening concern of academia, including medical education. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, a former associate dean of curriculum at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine lets us now that medical school needs an “overhaul.”

…many doctors haven’t been adequately trained in medical school to deal with a situation like this. 

Most medical schools don’t require students to do coursework on pandemic response or practical preparation for a widespread and sustained emergency. American medical training as a whole doesn’t include a strong grounding in public-health issues or disaster preparedness. Instead, two of the nine specific curricular requirements decreed by the body that accredits medical schools are focused on social issues in medicine, including “the diagnosis of common societal problems and the impacts of disparities in health care on medically underserved populations,” particularly “in a multidimensional and diverse society.” None mention public health or epidemics. (snip)

…the medical profession should abandon the fantasy that physicians can be trained to solve the problems of poverty, food insecurity and racism. They have no clinical tools with which to address these issues. The public may not realize that well-funded organizations like the Beyond Flexner Alliance advocate for devoting a substantial part of medical-school teaching to social and organizational topics.

Political correctness, with its obsession on victimology, is a plague, although few realize that the biggest victims of the plague are the ostensible beneficiaries of its targeting. The current focus on the high rates of Coronavirus infection and morbidity among African Americans treats any mention of behavioral remedies as anathema, discouraging the immediate and practical measures that could reduce this awful toll in favor of anger at abstractions such as differential access to health care. That is a problem for longer term remedy.

Pandemics are a corollary of globalism. Medical education should prepare physicians for this “new normal.”

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/04/coronavirus_pandemic_has_exposed_flaws_in_medical_education.html

Italian authorities decided to transfer migrants from the crowded rescue ship “Alan Kurdi” to another vessel where they would be kept in quarantine over coronavirus concerns.

The decision concerns about 150 migrants rescued about a week ago by the German NGO Sea-Eye off the Libyan coast.

At that time, Italy refused to let the migrants from the Alan Kurdi ship, which belongs to Sea-Eye, to enter Italy’s ports due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sicilian Prime Minister Nello Musumeci then suggested that placing migrants into quarantine before redistributing them into European countries should become a new standard.

The Sea-Eye spokesman Gorden Isler also welcomed the decision to move the Alan Kurdi migrants to a larger ship, where they would be placed in quarantine.

“If the Italian coastguard took the rescued people from Alan Kurdi, this stalemate would finally end,” he said.

However, it is not yet clear what will happen with the migrants next. According to the Italian authorities, Germany is responsible for them as the Alan Kurdi ship sails under its flag. On Friday, the German government called on the European Commission to coordinate the redistribution of migrants.

According to the DPA news agency, the German government also holds talks about this issue with some European countries, but it is not known with which ones.

Furthermore, Malta also stated last week that NGO ships will not be allowed to enter ports due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The APA news agency reported that another vessel with hundreds of migrants arrived in the Sicilian port of Pozzallo last Sunday. According to Pozzallo’s Mayor, Robert Ammatuna, migrants cannot be placed in the Emergency Center in Pozzallo, which accommodates 50 migrants, which already has a 15-year-old Egyptian who has been infected with the coronavirus.

Ammatuna also said that people smugglers have a “new strategy”. They transport migrants to European shores on a larger vessel and then leave them in small boats a few nautical miles off the European coast.

rmx.news/article/article/italy-to-transfer-150-migrants-aboard-german-ngo-ship-to-quarantine-on-another-vessel

by Giulio Meotti

After a month of lockdown in Italy we have reached the threshold of 20,000 dead. We are swept away by a wave and no one can predict how long it will last.

But we already know something, or at least we should know it. 

The Western world believed in globalization, free trade and cultural uniformity. It now wakes up with a virus that challenges all these beliefs, the ones that have governed us for almost a century. The pandemic does not question only the Western health systems, but its cultural offers as well.

The bell has tolled for a certain globalization without depth, without substance, without reality and without truth, and with it the dominant progressive ideology, the idea that one could ignore what was happening in China, for example, in exchange for its cheap goods.

It is a fatal mistake that we will not be able to afford again. Virus and totalitarianism go together in China. 

We were about to turn the globe into a shopping centre and game park, and that too is dead and buried. Every identity had to be liquidated then, and now we rediscover them in the moment of division (what do we Italians have in common with the Latvians anyway?). 

We realized that the Western middle class was bloodless and increasingly poorer and increasingly obsolete.

We realized how easy it was to get rid of the “old and sick” without too much scandal and when we do the real count of the victims we will see that they will be twice as many as they are today. 

Public services, devastated even by those who had made them into useless political dogma, have been sacrificed on the altar of the “budget.” The priests of public opinion have failed, moving from the ideology of  “without borders” to that of “stay at home.” because the pandemic is revealed as a panacea for every form of socialism. 

We pretended not to know that China had become the factory of the world, producing everything we stopped producing because we had to take consumer drugs, TV and services.

This pandemic is also an anthropological shock. It is a paradox that religious leaders had more to say about the virus than the scientists who were deeply confused about the epidemic. 

The mainstream conception of man now was that of a mellifluous, superfluous and redundant individual, cut off from his fellows, owner of himself, even of his own death. Now this unprecedented crisis leads us to rethink every relationship with time and space, with the beginning and the end. The images of this pandemic which will last forever are the bodies transferred by the army – in Italy, the Palace of Ice in Madrid used to host all the victims, and a mass grave dug in New York. 

We rediscover the importance of community solidarity, of the tragic, of the historical unexpected, of life and death, in short, of everything we wanted to forget. 

The virus was a great return to reality. We thought we had to and could destroy religion, family, community, all the great Western anthropological truths that have resurfaced in this tragedy and to which many have clung. 

If we do not become aware of it, if we do not hang on to it, our civilization will run a mortal risk. 

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/25537

Mortality could be as high as two thirds among patients with Covid-19 who require ventilation, new data from the United Kingdom’s Intensive Care National Audit and Research Center (ICNARC) show.

A UK report put the figure at 66 percent while a small study in Wuhan reported that 86 percent had died.

In the past 48 hours or so there has been an important revelation: Covid-19 causes prolonged and progressive hypoxia (starving the body of oxygen) by binding to the heme groups in hemoglobin in ones red blood cells.

The Associated Press reported that ventilators to treat Coronavirus patients may not be the answer to the pandemic as unusually high death rates have been witnessed in patients on ventilators.

While around half of all patients with severe respiratory distress die while being on ventilators, some 80 percent or more of Coronavirus patients in New York City have died on ventilators, according to state and city officials.

These higher-than-normal death rates also have been reported elsewhere in the US, according to Dr. Albert Rizzo, the American Lung Association’s chief medical officer.

Emergency care doctor from New York City, Dr Cameron Kyle-Sidell, believes that ventilators are doing more harm and suggested oxygen as a superior treatment. He said the patients symptoms resemble High Altitude Sickness and not Pneumonia.

Kyle-Sidell works at New York City’s Maimonides Medical Center. “I am a physician who has been working at the bedside of Covid+ patients in NYC. I believe we are treating the wrong disease and that we must change what we are doing if we want to save as many lives as possible.

“In February, South Korean physicians reported that critical Covid-19 patients responded well to oxygen therapy without a ventilator. Patients are getting multiple organ damage from hypoxia. It’s not the pneumonia that’s the killer, it’s the cellular oxygen deprivation. And we are hurting these patients with ventilators,” the specialist said.

Patients are losing oxygen in their blood and that is what eventually leads to deadly organ failures, not any form of ARDS or pneumonia. “All the damage to the lungs you see in CT scans are from the release of oxidative iron from the hemes, this overwhelms the natural defenses against pulmonary oxidative stress and causes that nice, always-bilateral ground glass opacity in the lungs.”

“Patients returning for re-hospitalization days or weeks after recovery suffering from apparent delayed post-hypoxic leukoencephalopathy strengthen the notion Covid-19 patients are suffering from hypoxia despite no signs of respiratory ‘tire out’ or fatigue.”

Thus UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was never put on a ventilator but actually received “standard oxygen treatment” according to The New York Times. Johnson was taken out of intensive care on Thursday last week. His condition is reportedly improving.

The media for weeks has also been attacking President Trump for touting “unproven,” potentially “deadly” hydroxychloroquine as a treatment while hyping ventilators without ever questioning their effectiveness.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo even played up the city’s alleged need for 30 000 ventilators despite evidence that the overuse of ventilators could be one of the biggest mistakes of the Coronavirus crisis.

Coronavirus patients who have been on a ventilator for “seven days, 10 days, 15 days, and they’re passing away,” Cuomo admitted, when asked about ventilator death rates during a news briefing on Wednesday.

freewestmedia.com/2020/04/14/covid-19-patients-need-oxygen-not-ventilators-studies-show/

Frankfurt police were forced to shoot a knife-wielding Moroccan migrant after they were dispatched to the city’s railway station district on Saturday evening.

While trying to identify two men at the railway station, another man armed with two knives attempted to sneak up behind the police officers, German news outlet N-TV reports.

Luckily, one of the police officers pulled his colleague away before the crazed, knife-wielding lunatic before had a chance to stab him.

After the Moroccan national failed to comply with orders to lay down the knives and continued to approach the officers, police were forced to shoot him in the upper thigh in order to immobilize him.

Police officers then disarmed the 26-year-old Moroccan and an ambulance transported him to the nearest hospital.

The motives of the attacker remain unclear and the investigation continues.

Despite the lockdown measures that have been put into place by European governments to stem the spread of the Chinese COVID-19 virus, migrant attacks on police officers have continued, and seem to be becoming even more common than they were before the virus. 

Over the weekend,  migrant ‘youths’ in Brussels, Belgium rioted and pelted police with stones and heavy objects. According to eyewitnesses, the rioters even stole a gun from a destroyed police vehicle, as Voice of Europe reported.

voiceofeurope.com/2020/04/germany-police-officer-saves-colleague-from-knife-wielding-moroccan/

Despite recent events, the United States is still largely dependent on the People’s Republic of China for coronavirus supplies. Some short term production has been ramped up, whether at GM, Tesla, or assorted garment industry manufacturers, but while we’ve been throwing trillions around, little has been done to build sustainable long term domestic production of basic things like masks.

Instead we’ve made it even easier to import Chinese masks to America.

We might want to learn a lesson about buying Chinese coronavirus supplies from Europe.

A growing list of foreign complaints about faulty medical gear and testing kits imported from China has upset Beijing’s designs. Within the last few weeks, scientists and health authorities in Spain, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey and Britain have complained of faulty antigen or antibody coronavirus tests purchased from Chinese companies – in some cases, costing these governments millions of dollars.

Georgia has canceled a contract with the Chinese company that sent flawed test kits to Spain, and Malaysia has opted to buy testing kits from South Korea instead of China because of the Chinese tests’ reported low accuracy rate.

Last week, the Netherlands asked to return 600,000 face masks purchased from China that had inadequate filters and fit incorrectly. On Tuesday, Finland tested a shipment of personal protective equipment, or PPE, from China and found the items unsuitable for hospital use.

Australian border officials have also reportedly seized 800,000 faulty or counterfeit masks from China.

I’ve seen a sudden upsurge in Chinese N95 mask spam.

The Wuhan Virus was made in China. And now the PRC is cashing in on the people and countries it’s killing.

Made in China is treason to America.

frontpagemag.com/point/2020/04/made-china-european-countries-buying-chinese-daniel-greenfield/

European countries are prematurely releasing thousands of prisoners and detained migrants following a recommendation from the commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe, Dunja Mijatović.

The Council of Europe, which has 47 European country member states, told countries in an official statement to take this step to fight the coronavirus outbreak. According to Mijatović, all available alternatives to prison sentences should be used to slow the spread of the virus.

“I strongly urge all member states to make use of all available alternatives to detention whenever possible and without discrimination,” said Council of Europe representative Dunja Mijatović.

On March 26, Mijatovic demanded that all detained migrants should be freed across Europe, writing that these facilities “provide poor opportunities for social distancing and other measures to protect against COVID-19 infection”.

“I call on all Council of Europe member states to review the situation of rejected asylum seekers and irregular migrants in immigration detention, and to release them to the maximum extent possible,” the commissioner wrote.

France and Germany release thousands of prisoners

So far, France and Germany have released thousands of prisoners nearing the end of their prison time and those suffering health issues. However, the Council of Europe, an institution that operates separately from the European Union, urged European countries to do even more, as it considers prisons to be hubs for coronavirus.

“I strongly urge all member states to make use of all available alternatives to detention whenever possible and without discrimination,” said Mijatović.

Last month, France announced that it would release about 5,000 prisoners. French Justice Ministry then announced that on April 1, France’s prison population shrank nine percent, from 72,575 to 66,309 in just two weeks.

Meanwhile, the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia, which is Germany’s most populated state, released about 1,000 inmates.

Many prison facilities had to deal with protests of inmates fearing the unbridled spread of the virus.

Last Friday, for example, about 40 inmates in Switzerland’s Champs-Dollon prison refused to return to their cells and demanded an immediate release from the prison due to the risk of the coronavirus infection.

Migrant detention center have also seen violence over the coronavirus. In Germany, after one migrant tested positive for coronavirus in Suhl asylum center, it led to mass riots after migrants attempted to break out from an imposed quarantine. When police intervened, migrants threatened to burn down the asylum center, used a child as a human shield, and threw objects at officers.

The United Kingdom has expressed concern that some early-release prisoners could travel to the country. Although the country has withdrawn from the EU, it still currently follows the EU’s Withdrawal Agreement, which allows EU citizens to travel to the UK and work there freely until the end of 2020.

“Individuals can be refused entry to the UK if they pose a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat. This includes EEA (European Economic Area) nationals who have been granted early prison release in an EU member state. Applicants to the EUSS (EU Settlement Scheme) can also be refused for serious or persistent criminality before the end of the transition period,” commented the British Home Office spokesman on the matter.

However, prison releases are a topic in the UK as well, with the country releasing about 4,000 low-risk prisoners will be released as a precaution. Inmates, who have less than two months of their sentence left, will be released with the Ministry of Justice monitoring them with an electronic tag.

“This is an unprecedented situation because if coronavirus takes hold in our prisons, the NHS could be overwhelmed and more lives put at risk,” explained Justice Minister Robert Buckland.

However, those convicted of violent or sexual offenses will not be considered for an early release.

Detained migrants are also being released in Europe

A number of countries have released detained migrants during the coronavirus crisis, including those set for deportation.

A previous report from Remix News showed how the Council of Europe has also promoted the mass release of migrants despite countries having no real solution for where to transfer them and little means for tracking released migrants who have no documentation.

In Belgium, 300 illegal migrants with no documentation were released after concerns in migrant detention centers that social distancing guidelines could not be followed due to overcrowding. The Brussels Times writes about the dilemma facing authorities who choose such measures:

In such cases, the sans-papiers, as they are known, are not forcibly placed on a flight to their homeland, but simply allowed to go out of the front door of the detention centre.

It is to be expected that many will disappear into clandestinely. Since they are without papers, tracing them from now on will be difficult if not impossible.

It is unclear if these migrants are being tested first for coronavirus before their release.

The UK released 350 migrants last month due to coronavirus concerns. The action appears to have emboldened politicians to demand the release 730 more migrants detained for immigration reasons, with 30 British MPs calling for their release.

Spain has also released “unreturnable migrant detainees” during the coronavirus crisis, including a detainee from Colombia, according to the European Council for Refugees and Exiles.

rmx.news/article/article/thousands-of-prisoners-and-detained-migrants-released-early-across-europe-due-to-coronavirus