Grafton is back in the news this week, and not for a good reason. On December 31, the Grafton police arrested a pharmacist who confessed to tampering with 570 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the Aurora Hospital there. The person is being held at the Ozaukee County Jail and their identity is being withheld pending charges. The pharmacist was suspended and, later, fired by Advocate-Aurora Healthcare.

Initially the spoiled vials of the vaccine were believed to have been accidentally left out, but the former pharmacist later confessed to intentionally spoiling the vaccines, hoping that the spoiled doses would be administered to the public. The vials spoiled by the pharmacist in Grafton were intended for healthcare workers at the hospital in Grafton and dozens of people, maybe more, could die as a result. In the past month over 1000 people have died from COVID-19 in Wisconsin, and the Moderna vaccine is already in short supply.

The Moderna product is incredibly important to Wisconsin’s vaccination program beyond places like Milwaukee and Madison, as it does not require being stored at extremely low temperatures like the Pfizer version. As a result, it can be more easily distributed to remote and rural communities where extremely cold storage is not available.

Incidents like this do not happen in a vacuum. Reactionary forces around the world have pushed COVID-19 denial theories. In Wisconsin, industry groups such as the Tavern League and the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, successfully sued to end the state’s “Safer At Home” order, which had successfully been slowing the spread of COVID-19.

While the complete motivations of the former pharmacist are not known, the reactionary opposition to public health measures and the COVID-19 vaccine is killing working people, and the right-wing political machine is churning out propaganda that encourages more and more of this antisocial behavior.

In countries where private profit does not control people’s healthcare and there is a better sense of collective mindedness, it is a very different picture. Take socialist China, for example. In order to make safe-at-home orders effective, the entire country has mobilized to contain the virus. Neighborhood committees distribute food where safe-at-home orders are in place. China is on track to manufacture 600 million vaccine doses by the end of 2020. Most doses will be exported to other countries, as China has been able to effectively contain the spread of the virus through effective mass mobilization, people-centered policies, and proper public education.

The approach in China and other socialist countries offers a stark contrast to the unmitigated disasters in capitalist countries like the U.S., including the widespread prevalence of dangerous conspiracy theories and antisocial behaviors. The COVID-19 pandemic has only further served to demonstrate the necessity for revolution and socialism in the U.S. and across the capitalist world as the only path to freedom for working and oppressed people.

#GraftonWI #Healthcare #COVID19Pandemic

San José, CA – Republicans in the House and Senate have blocked an effort by Democrats to increase the amount of individual payments in the new pandemic aid act from $600 to $2000. Many progressive Democrats including Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had tried to increase the amount during the negotiations over the new aid package. These payments have been very popular, and at the last minute, President Trump chimed in, saying that he would refuse to sign the bill unless the larger amount was included.

While Democrats will try for a new vote on Monday, December 28, this delay means that 14 million people will lose their unemployment benefits starting December 26. The federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance or PUA, for self-employed and gig workers, and the federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation or PEUC, for the long-term unemployed whose state benefits have run out, both expire during the last week of this month.

Extending the unemployment benefits and providing larger individual payments are critical at this time as more and more working people are being hit by the recession. While the most recent report on new unemployment claims did show a drop to just over 800,000 for the week ending December 19, this level still remains above the pre-recession record set all the way back during the brutal 1981-82 recession. But the total number of people collecting the regular state unemployment insurance, the federal PUA, the federal PEUC, the state extended benefits program for states with high unemployment rates, as well as other smaller programs, remained above 20 million.

Other economic data released in the past week painted a gloomy picture for the month of November. Sales of new homes fell 11% from October to a five-month low. Most economists had predicted an increase in sales as the growing economic inequality boosted the ability of higher-income households to buy homes, even as millions of low-income households faced growing rent debt and the threat of eviction. The Centers for Disease Control eviction moratorium will expire on December 31, 2020 unless the extension in the new aid bill is signed into law. Despite the moratorium, landlords across the country are evicting tenants in the midst of the pandemic.

Consumer spending in November also fell by 0.4%, the first drop since April. Personal income fell an even larger 1.1%, for the third time in four months as more and more people exhaust their state unemployment benefits, which last for only six months or less. The household savings rate also fell to the lowest level of the recession, meaning that consumers will be less able to spend going into the new year.

The biggest drop in spending was on restaurant and hotels which declined by 3.8%. This reflects the growing pandemic that was causing consumers to pull back and local and state governments to reimpose restrictions. This had a big impact on the first reading on consumer confidence in December. The Conference Board reported a 4.6% fall in their monthly consumer confidence reading between November and December. All of this was because of the fall in their current conditions index, which plunged almost 15% in one month.

It is no surprise that households think current economic conditions are poor. The Census Bureau estimates that almost one out of four households, or more than 80 million people, are having a hard time paying for basic needs. Along with housing insecurity, poverty and hunger are growing. The new aid bill has a small amount of food aid, $13 billion, to boost the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP that provides food stamps to poor individuals. This comes to a 15% increase in the SNAP budget, which is totally inadequate given the current needs.

While the new aid bill has many needed unemployment benefits extensions for the PUA and the PEUC, extension of the eviction moratorium, as well as smaller amounts of money for schools, renter assistance, public transit, and childcare it also contains a lot of wasteful spending. The single largest amount of money, more than one-third of the total bill, will go to businesses. Almost all of this is for a second round of the Paycheck Protection Program loans, which were riddled with problems in the first round. While claiming to be for small businesses, much of it went to larger corporations and even elite restaurants with $1200-per-person menus, not mom and pop businesses. Despite the label ‘paycheck protection,’ much of the money went to landlords in the form of rent.

Congress even added to the benefits for businesses by making the forgivable loans not taxable. In contrast, the federal government taxes unemployment benefits, another example to the double standard for business owners on one hand and workers, on the other. Congress went even further by saying that the expenses that the PPP money was spent on are deductible on taxes.

Another problem with the new bill is that it does not extend the family and medical leave provision in the first CARES act that expires at the end of the year. This provision allowed workers who had to leave their jobs because of COVID illness in their families or childcare needs and be paid by the federal government.

#SanJoseCA #PeoplesStruggles #COVID19Pandemic

Austin, TX – On the morning of September 8, a group of around 100 unemployed artisans, designers, technicians, stagehands and other entertainment industry workers held a protest to push for $600 in unemployment benefits and pass the HEROES Act now. The protest was organized by IATSE Local 484 and Local 205, along with many independent contractors.

Participants gathered at the Paramount Theatre and marched with 60 road cases up to the state capitol building for a rally. Chants included, “Push for 600, HEROES Act now!” and “They say cut back, we say fight back!” The action wrapped up with a march to the Texas AFL-CIO building.

In discussing the demands of the protesters, one of the organizers for the Push for 600 ATX protest, Jennifer Crump, said, “We all need the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance extended and the Heroes Act to be passed because none of us know when it will be safe to work in our industry again. We've bailed out several major corporations including the Airlines industries. We now need to bailout the entertainment industry workers along with all other industry workers that have been displaced by COVID-19.”

Other demands include: Send out a second round of economic stimulus checks, provide government assistance for rent and mortgage payments, extend the eviction moratorium, and increase government funding for the arts and entertainment workers.

The protest was called in light of the Senate’s continual failure to address the needs of working people, as millions remain unemployed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Entertainment workers continue to protest the government’s inaction not only in Texas, but also in other “Push for $600” actions, such as those in Michigan, and across the country.

#AustinTX #PoorPeoplesMovements #IATSE #HEROESAct #ParamountTheatre #COVID19Pandemic