This graph shows the current forecast of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, with daily new infections now approaching 500,000 [Photo by PMC via Dr. Mike Hoerger]<\/p>\n
Extrapolating from these data, the PMC estimates that over the coming month\u00a0there will be\u00a0between\u00a06,700 and 11,200\u00a0excess deaths due to COVID-19, while\u00a0up to 3.76 million Americans will join the tens of millions more already suffering from\u00a0Long COVID. Strikingly,\u00a0they estimate that\u00a0the average American has now been infected 3.85 times, meaning more than 1 billion COVID-19 infections have occurred since the pandemic began.<\/p>\n
Separate data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that official deaths in the US continue to remain elevated at\u00a010.6 percent above pre-pandemic levels<\/a>, underscoring the ongoing mortality burden caused by the pandemic.<\/p>\n The current crisis represents the culmination of a bipartisan war on public health, which began not\u00a0with Trump\u2019s return\u00a0to power but with the Biden administration\u2019s systematic dismantling of COVID-19 protections. Biden\u2019s September 2022 declaration that \u201cthe pandemic is over\u201d set the stage for\u00a0today\u2019s\u00a0wholesale\u00a0dismantling\u00a0of\u00a0all\u00a0public health measures\u00a0under the diktats of the anti-vaccine quack\u00a0Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/p>\n Since taking control of the Department of Health and Human Services\u00a0(HHS), Kennedy has unleashed an unprecedented assault on federal health agencies. HHS employment has been slashed from 82,000 to 62,000 workers through mass firings, buyouts and early retirements. The agency\u2019s 28 divisions are being consolidated to just 15, with numerous offices\u00a0entirely shuttered.<\/p>\n Mehring Books<\/p>\n The Wuhan Lab Lie and the Fight for Scientific Truth<\/p>\n This pamphlet provides an overview of the principled stand taken by the WSWS against the far-right Wuhan Lab Lie. It is essential reading for all those seeking to defend science and public health.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Under the\u00a0proposed fiscal year 2026 budget,\u00a0the National Institutes of Health\u00a0(NIH)\u00a0faces a staggering $18 billion cut\u2014a 40\u00a0percent\u00a0reduction that would devastate medical research. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u00a0(CDC)\u00a0would lose $3.6 billion, more than half its budget, with critical programs for chronic disease prevention, HIV surveillance and global health monitoring eliminated entirely.<\/p>\n These\u00a0coincide with\u00a0a calculated undermining of the scientific method itself. Kennedy has fired vaccine experts, rescinded evidence-based flu shot recommendations, and\u00a0on Friday announced\u00a0plans to\u00a0fire all 16 members of the US Preventive Services Task Force, which\u00a0determines\u00a0what cancer screenings and preventive health services insurers must cover. The administration has canceled more than $11 billion in funding to state and local health departments, severing the connections between federal agencies and frontline public health workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n The timing\u00a0of this assault on public health\u00a0is particularly sinister. As new\u00a0COVID-19\u00a0variants drive hospitalizations higher and\u00a0Long COVID cases mount, the administration is systematically destroying the capacity to monitor, respond to and mitigate\u00a0all disease outbreaks.<\/p>\n Furthermore, these deepening attacks on public health take place as\u00a0scientific evidence\u00a0provides deeper insight into one of the pandemic\u2019s most devastating long-term consequences: widespread neurological damage that will burden the working class for generations. Two landmark studies published in\u00a0Nature Communications\u00a0and\u00a0Science Advances\u00a0provide forensic evidence of COVID-19\u2019s assault on brain health, exposing the criminal negligence of\u00a0all\u00a0those who\u00a0falsely\u00a0declared the pandemic \u201cover.\u201d<\/p>\n The\u00a0Nature Communications\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0found that simply living through the pandemic\u2014even without infection\u2014accelerated brain aging equivalent to 5.5 extra months, with the greatest impacts on older adults, men and people from disadvantaged backgrounds. For those\u00a0confirmed to have been\u00a0infected with COVID-19, this brain aging was linked to measurable cognitive decline.<\/p>\n More alarming still, the\u00a0Science Advances\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 can directly trigger the formation of amyloid-\u03b2 plaques\u2014the hallmarks of Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Using lab-grown human retinal models and postmortem tissue from COVID-19 patients, researchers found viral proteins embedded within these plaques, suggesting COVID-19 may initiate or accelerate neurodegeneration through direct biological mechanisms.<\/p>\n Mehring Books<\/p>\n Sounding the Alarm: Socialism Against War<\/p>\n These speeches provide a Marxist analysis of the relentless escalation of imperialist militarism over the past decade.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Neuroscientist Leslie M. Kay\u2019s\u00a0prophetic 2022 warning<\/a>\u00a0of \u201ca looming wave of dementia\u201d now appears grimly prescient. The persistent loss of smell and taste affecting millions of COVID-19 survivors may signal early stages of neurodegenerative diseases, as the virus inflames the olfactory bulb, an area crucial for memory and emotion. Critically, this damage occurs even in mild cases, meaning the neurological toll extends far beyond those who were hospitalized.<\/p>\n These policies amount to what Friedrich Engels termed \u201csocial murder\u201d\u2014the systematic creation of conditions that shorten working class lives. The $156 billion in Social Security savings<\/a> from COVID-19 excess deaths is not incidental but rather\u00a0is built into the strategy. By gutting the public health system, the Trump administration is engineering a rise in death rates to reduce liabilities to Medicare and Social Security, freeing up funds for militarism and tax cuts for the rich.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (right) with Argentina’s fascist President Javier Milei [Photo: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]<\/p>\n
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