Dr. Iyabo Obasanjo, professor of public health at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA, talks to us about the ongoing spike in cases involving the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus, which has resulted in renewed mask mandates and closures across the country and has put the brakes on the country’s return to normalcy. We talk about how the new variant is much more transmissible and how it is now affecting more children than before, which may slow down the reopening of schools, how vaccinations need to be ramped up if we are to hold the virus at bay and prevent more mutations and the subsequent spikes associated with them, and the intersection between climate change and public health crises.
K.J. Noh, global justice activist, writer, teacher, and a member of Veterans for Peace, talks to us about Vice President Kamala Harris’ upcoming tour of Asia, where there will be a specific focus on Vietnam and Singapore as the US tries to move these two countries into the US sphere of influence and as a counter to China, and how these efforts could fall short considering growing trade ties between them, and also the history of the destruction that the U.S. visited upon Vietnam during its long war there.
Esther Iverem, multidisciplinary author, independent journalist, host of "On The Ground: Voices of Resistance From the Nation's Capital" on Pacifica Radio, and founding member of DC Poets Against the War, talks to us about the end of President Biden’s “honeymoon” as approval ratings dip around 50% and whether the accomplishments touted by the administration can pass a close inspection. We also talk about Barack Obama’s celebrity-laden 60th birthday party, and the Sackler family back in court in their bankruptcy settlement for pushing doctors to overprescribe opioids, and how the government is failing in dealing with the opioid crisis by treating a public health issue as yet another drug war.
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