July 21, 2021

Unesco strips Liverpool of its world heritage status

UN body says years of development have caused ‘irreversible loss’ to historic value of Victorian docks

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jul/21/unesco-strips-liverpool-waterfront-world-heritage-status



Liverpool has been stripped of its coveted world heritage status after Unesco blamed years of development for an “irreversible loss” to the historic value of its Victorian docks.

The UN’s heritage body concluded at a meeting in China on Wednesday that the “outstanding universal value” of Liverpool’s waterfront had been destroyed by new buildings, including Everton football club’s new £500m stadium.

The decision is a humiliating blow for the city and gives Liverpool the ignominious distinction of being only the third place to lose the status in nearly 50 years. The other delisted sites were Oman’s Arabian Oryx Sanctuary in 2007 and the Dresden Elbe valley in Germany in 2009.

Liverpool has enjoyed world heritage status since 2004 – placing it alongside the Taj Mahal and Great Wall of China – as recognition for its role as a major trading power during the British empire and the architectural beauty of its waterfront.

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July 21, 2021

Isaac Hayes - The Look Of Love [The Reflex Revision]

July 21, 2021

Vaccination in America Might Have Only One Tragic Path Forward

COVID-19 vaccination rates have fallen off a cliff. Will it take a deadly summer surge to change things?

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/07/america-covid-19-vaccine-decline/619474/



America’s vaccination rates have fallen off a cliff, and nothing seems to help. On June 2, President Joe Biden announced a frantic plan to reverse what already seemed to be an awful, exponential slide: At the peak of the country’s vaccine rollout, in mid-April, almost 3.5 million doses were being put into arms every single day, but that number had quickly dropped by half, and then by half again. Biden’s “month of action” came and went, and nothing really changed; or rather, the situation kept on changing for the worse. Demand for vaccinations shrank in July, as it had in May and June. Even state-wide vaccination lotteries, described here and elsewhere as a great idea, turned out to be a flop.

Read: America is now in the hands of the vaccine-hesitant

With every passing day, the pace of vaccinations only seems to drag a little closer to the gutter. As of July 12, it had fallen off by half again. The Great Vaccine Decline now appears to be an ugly force of nature. If it continues, further horrors are all but guaranteed to follow. Sadly, those horrors may be the only thing that stops it. The problem, it’s been said, is that we live in two Americas, riven by both ideology and immunology: In blue America, vaccination rates are standing up just fine; in red America, they’re slouchy and exposed. Indeed, the latest vaccine numbers show that 17 states have now provided at least one dose to more than 60 percent of their population—and every single one of them voted for Biden in the last election. Another 16 states are struggling to reach a rate of 50 percent; all but one of those went for Donald Trump. But there’s another, better way to think about what’s happening here: If the distribution of vaccines keeps slowing down, it’s not because America is divided but because we’re running out of people who think vaccines will save their lives.

Read: America’s vaccine future is fragmenting

It certainly hasn’t helped the vaccination drive that Fox News and other right-wing outlets are sowing fear about the safety of the COVID-19 shots, and about the efforts to distribute them. Still, the recent wave of right-wing propaganda hasn’t clearly made the problem worse. Going by the numbers that we have so far, Tucker Carlson’s summer monologues aren’t really changing many minds. In fact, enthusiasm for the vaccine has been growing, overall, in both Americas alike. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, which has been carefully following vaccine attitudes and behaviours since December, almost half of Democrats were saying that they planned to get immunized as soon as possible (if they hadn’t done so already) at the end of 2020; by June, that rate had nearly doubled, to 88 percent. Republicans started from a lower baseline, but they’ve also gotten more accepting: Just like the Democrats, the proportion saying that they wanted the vaccine almost doubled over time, from 28 percent to 54 percent. Party rhetoric notwithstanding, the overall partisan gap in vaccine enthusiasm has been holding steady, at a little more than 30 points, through all of 2021.

Rather than diverging politics, people’s willingness to get vaccinated might best be understood as a function of how they perceive risk. Although there are more noble reasons to be immunized than self-protection, surveys show that they’re not the ones most often cited. Kaiser finds that among those who have gone in for their shots, more than half say the “main reason” was to reduce their personal risk of illness. Meanwhile, among the unvaccinated, one-half assert that COVID-19 case rates are now so low that further vaccinations are unnecessary. Risk perception is just one of many factors that determine vaccine uptake. You could be terrified of getting COVID-19, for example, and desperate to be immunized, but still find yourself unable to reach a distribution site. A person’s sense of danger could also modulate these other factors, at least for some people: The time and effort that it takes to get vaccinated may matter less to those who worry more.

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July 19, 2021

Gylfi Sigurdsson arrested on suspicion of child sex offences, with Everton suspending him

https://www.evertonfc.com/news/2193203/club-statement

Everton can confirm it has suspended a First-Team player pending a police investigation. The Club will continue to support the authorities with their inquiries and will not be making any further statement at this time.




Premier League footballer arrested on suspicion of child sex offences

The footballer, a senior international, was arrested by police last week and has been suspended by his club as police continue their investigations.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/breaking-premier-league-footballer-arrested-24571071

July 19, 2021

The Isolation Pit Of Shame

July 19, 2021

London mayhem as anti-lockdown protestors throw bottles at police on Freedom Day

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1464568/london-news-freedom-day-anti-lockdown-protestors-westminster



Today marks the day where all COVID-19 restrictions across England have ended, despite the rising number of new coronavirus cases. Now, footage shared on social media shows hundreds of people outside Westminster protesting on Freedom Day. The footage sees large groups of unmasked people outside Westminster, with many holding banners reading: "Liberty!"



One person shared a video of a violent clash between police and protestors. They tweeted: "Kicking off - bottles being throw at the police anti lockdown protesters and police fighting back with some punches at parliament square, a good 2000 protesters here and a heavy police presence... "In this heat it’s going to be a long day of clashes."

https://twitter.com/MetPoliceEvents/status/1417081445986799617
The Met Police confirmed the protestors have "blocked the road" in Parliament Square. They tweeted: "We are responding to a demonstration in Parliament Square this afternoon. "A group have blocked the road which is causing traffic disruption. "Officers are on scene, speaking with those taking part in the protest and looking to ease congestion as soon as possible."

https://twitter.com/PaulBrown_UK/status/1417077491081023501

July 19, 2021

'It's chilling what is happening': a rightwing backlash to Biden takes root in Republican states

Biden may be president but Republican-controlled states are busy introducing reams of legislation that is anything but progressive

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/19/joe-biden-republicans-polarization-us-politics-texas



In his inaugural address in January, Joe Biden promised to use his presidency to “restore the soul of America”. He would unite the nation, defuse “anger, resentment and hatred”, and lead Americans back to a world where they treated “each other with dignity and respect”. Six months later, Biden is still preaching the unity gospel, and regularly assures his fellow Americans that “there’s not a single thing we aren’t able to do when we do it together”. Drive 1,400 miles west from the White House, to Dallas in Texas where Brianna Brown lives, and there’s little evidence of politicians working together that she can see. As an African American fourth-generation Texan, Brown has been assailed since Biden came into office by a whirlwind of regressive laws emanating from the Republican-controlled state legislature.

The explosion of extreme right-wing legislation rammed through by Texas Republicans this session – culminating on Monday with the dramatic flight of Democratic lawmakers from the state in an attempt to prevent the passage of the latest voter suppression law – has left Brown feeling apprehensive and insecure. She thinks about her own family’s long struggle for voting rights now threatened once again, is fearful about being accosted in the street by armed men legally bearing arms without a permit, bothered about what might happen to her when she next joins a peaceful protest, and worried about the fallout of a renewed push to build a wall along the Mexican border.

Top of her list of concerns is the Republican bill to make it even more difficult to vote – in a state that already makes it harder to vote than any other in the nation. Brown recalls how she once heard her grandmother having to remind herself that her vote was no longer conditional on the poll tax – a ruse once commonly used in the south to disenfranchise Black people. “That was my grandmother!” Brown said. “To say that people fought and died for our right to vote – that’s personal for me.” Brown is spooked about another new law set to come into effect in September that effectively tries to turn ordinary citizens into anti-abortion bounty hunters. It offers a $10,000 reward to anyone who successfully sues a fellow Texan for helping a woman seek an abortion beyond six weeks of pregnancy. “It is chilling that this is happening,” she said.

As co-executive director of the Texas Organizing Project that seeks to empower Black and Latino neighbourhoods, she is concerned too for the transgender men, women and children who are bearing the brunt of Republican intolerance in a state in which more anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been promoted by Republicans this session than in any other. “This is an assault on people who are on the margins,” she said. And there’s more. Much more. There’s the order by the Republican governor, Greg Abbott, to all state agencies to block Biden’s efforts to combat climate change; the new law that punishes any Texas city that has the audacity to cut police budgets; the $1,000 fines that will be imposed on anyone requiring Covid masks to be worn in public schools; the gun law that allows Texans to carry handguns with no training and without a permit.

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July 19, 2021

US: Daily COVID-19 vaccine doses administered

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/us-daily-covid-vaccine-doses-administered?country=~USA

July 19, 2021

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Anti-Vaccine Film Targeted To Black Americans Spreads False Information

‘The New Apartheid’? Conspiracist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr’s latest anti-vaccine film spins real history of medical racism to scare Black Americans into rejecting COVID shots

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/06/08/1004214189/anti-vaccine-film-targeted-to-black-americans-spreads-false-information



When a filmmaker asked medical historian Naomi Rogers to appear in a new documentary, the Yale professor didn't blink. She had done these "talking head" interviews many times before. She assumed her comments would end up in a straightforward documentary that addressed some of the most pressing concerns of the pandemic, such as the legacy of racism in medicine and how that plays into current mistrust in some communities of color. The subject of vaccines was also mentioned, but the focus wasn't clear to Rogers. The director wanted something more polished than a Zoom call, so a well-outfitted camera crew arrived at Rogers' home in Connecticut in the fall. They showed up wearing masks and gloves. Before the interview, crew members cleaned the room thoroughly. Then they spent about an hour interviewing Rogers. She discussed her research and in particular controversial figures such as Dr. James Marion Sims, who was influential in the field of gynaecology but who performed experimental surgery on enslaved Black women during the 1800s without anaesthesia.

"We were talking about issues of racism and experimentation, and they seemed to be handled appropriately," Rogers recalls. At the time, there were few indications that anything was out of the ordinary — except one. During a short break, she asked who else was being interviewed for the film. The producer's response struck Rogers as curiously vague. "They said, 'Well, there's 'a guy' in New York, and we talked to 'somebody in New Jersey, and California,' " Rogers told NPR. "I thought it's so odd that they wouldn't tell me who these people were." It wasn't until this March that Rogers would stumble upon the answer. She received an email from a group called Children's Health Defense — prominent in the anti-vaccine movement — promoting its new film, Medical Racism: The New Apartheid. When she clicked on the link and began watching the 57-minute film, she was shocked to discover this was the movie she had sat down for back in October. "I was naïve, certainly, in assuming that this was actually a documentary, which I would say it is not. I think that it is an advocacy piece for anti-vaxxers," Rogers says. "I'm still very angry. I feel that I was used."

The free, online film is the latest effort by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the founder of Children's Health Defense. (He's the son of the former U.S. Attorney General Robert "Bobby" Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy.) With this film, Kennedy and his allies in the anti-vaccine movement resurface and promote disproven claims about the dangers of vaccines, but it's aimed squarely at a specific demographic: Black Americans. The film draws a line from the real and disturbing history of racism and atrocities in the medical field — such as the Tuskegee syphilis study — to interviews with anti-vaccine activists who warn communities of color to be suspicious of modern-day vaccines. At one point in Medical Racism, viewers are warned that "in black communities something is very sinister" and "the same thing that happened in the 1930s during the eugenics movement" is happening again. There is lengthy discussion of the thoroughly disproven link between autism and vaccines. For example, the film references a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism rates as evidence that African American children are being particularly harmed, but in reality the study did not conclude that African Americans are at increased risk of autism because of vaccination.

The movie then displays a chart claiming to use that same CDC data — obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request — to make a connection between vaccinating Black children and autism risk. The findings in the chart closely resemble another study sometimes mentioned by anti-vaccine activists, but the medical journal later retracted the study, because of "undeclared competing interests on the part of the author" and "concerns about the validity of the methods and statistical analysis." (That study's author was also a paid independent contractor for Kennedy's group as of 2020 and sits on its board of directors.) The film also brings up a 2014 study from the Mayo Clinic that showed Somali Americans and African Americans have a more robust immune response to the rubella vaccine than Caucasians and Hispanic Americans. One of those interviewed in Kennedy's film then asks, "So if you have that process that could be caused by vaccines, why wouldn't there be a link between vaccines and developmental delays?" But the study's own author and leading vaccine researcher, Dr. Gregory Poland, says this conjecture is not accurate. According to a statement provided to NPR by the Mayo Clinic, the study demonstrated "higher protective immune responses in African-American subjects with no evidence of increased vaccine side effects" and that any claim of " 'increased vulnerability' among African-Americans who receive the rubella vaccine is simply not supported by either this study or the science."

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July 19, 2021

Canada has now eclipsed U.S. in percentage of fully vaccinated residents

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/canada-has-now-eclipsed-u-s-in-percentage-of-fully-vaccinated-residents-1.5513927

TORONTO -- After lagging behind other developed countries in the early months of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, Canada has officially eclipsed the United States when it comes to its percentage of fully vaccinated residents. According to data from CTV News’ vaccine tracker, 48.8 per cent of Canada’s population has been fully vaccinated as of Sunday, compared to 48.1 per cent of Americans.

Despite this milestone, vaccination rates do appear to be slowing down, which has led to the launch of vaccine lotteries in several provinces. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau indicated that if the country’s vaccine progress continues, his government might consider reopening the border to fully vaccinated U.S. travellers.

In the U.S., where lawmakers have routinely lobbied for relaxed border measures, vaccination rates have slowed and infections among the unvaccinated are rising. U.S. President Joe Biden previously set a target to fully vaccinate 160 million Americans and to ensure that 70 per cent of adults received at least one shot by the fourth of July.

It’s been 15 days since that target date and as it stands, only 55.5 per cent of Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, CTV News data shows. With infection rates rising, driven by a surge in COVID-19 variants, the push to get everyone vaccinated is taking on new urgency.

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