Bits 'n pieces from east, west and beyond

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. A recent sampling:

According to two disinformation watchdog organizations, the Alethea Group and the Alliance for Securing Democracy, inaccurate information about COVID-19 is coming from Russian fake news sources. That evidence comes from grammatical errors typical of Russian speakers writing in English. It has targeted particular groups with the ability to undermine U.S. democracy.

The vaccine requirement for larger private companies is temporarily on hold after a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. The order will be assessed “in more depth,” MSN reported. Through OSHA, the Department of Labor instituted the ruling, which includes exemptions for unvaccinated employees who are masked and undergo weekly testing.

A U.S. House investigation looking at the meatpacking industry found at least 59,000 workers were infected with COVID-19. They were not encouraged to stay home when infected, according to The Washington Post. The House report concluded that profits were prioritized over worker safety.

With the spread of the delta variant and a stall in vaccinations, Europe has returned to being the epicenter of the pandemic, Axios reported. Across Europe cases rose 55 percent over the last four weeks. A half million more COVID-19 deaths are predicted for Europe and Central Asia by February.

In October, the U.S. economy showed the creation of 531,000 new jobs and an unemployment rate of 4.6 percent, down from 6.3 percent in January. That improved unemployment rate is one year sooner than the Congressional Budget Office predicted. There also was a correction: The Bureau of Labor Statistics said there were 235,000 more jobs created in August and September than was previously reported. The upticks are tied to the once again waning COVID-19 virus, with new infections occurring at less than half the rate of two months ago (there are still over 1,000 deaths daily from the virus), The Washington Post reported. Expected to also aid the economy is Pfizer’s newly-developed therapy that reduces hospitalization by 89 percent if the drug is taken at home when COVID-19 is detected early.

The economy is expected to improve further with final passage in the U.S. House (including 13 Republicans) of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure and Jobs Act. If the Build Back Better Act can also be passed this month, it would address women unable to re-enter the workforce due to lack of child care. Last week Republicans sought to adjourn Congress rather than address the bills, but that effort failed.

Axios says the infrastructure bill, over the next 8 year, includes funding for repairs of roads and bridges; improvements to the electrical grid; a national network of electric vehicle chargers; and funds for railroads, high-speed internet, water infrastructure (including replacing lead pipes), public transportation and infrastructure more resilient to climate change.

Congress is recessed for the week, but upon return will address Build Back Better, which has more funding for climate change, as well as for social infrastructure. That vote awaits a report from the Congressional Budget Office that will estimate the cost of measures like Medicare dental and hearing benefits, smaller prescription drug prices and childcare.

The bottleneck in supplies that fuel the economy: The Guardian reports there are specific policies at fault, including lax antitrust policies; deregulation in the railroad, shipping and trucking industries (often creating low wages that result in fewer low-pay people wanting to transport goods); disinvestment in national production; and trade policies that focus on finance over manufacturing.

The U.N. has faulty data for creating a framework to work on the climate crisis, said The Washington Post. They compared greenhouse gas reports to actual emissions in the air. The Post said fluorinated gases, such as from air conditioning and refrigeration, were not reported.

A study of almost 800,000 U.S. veterans, published in the journal Science, showed the three dominant COVID-19 vaccinations dropped in effectiveness over six months. By September’s end, Moderna had gone from 89 percent effective to 58 percent, Pfizer went from 89 percent to 45 percent and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine went from 86 percent to 13 percent. While effectiveness against contracting COVID-19 decreased, there was less risk of death for those vaccinated. The Moderna vaccinated were 76 percent less likely to die from delta as compared to unvaccinated veterans. Pfizer recipients were 70 percent less likely to die and Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients were 52 percent less likely to die. For vaccinated veterans under 65, protection against death was 84 percent using Pfizer, 82 percent using Moderna and 73 percent using Johnson & Johnson.

Blast from the past: “Remember, a number of years ago, there was a book, ‘Mein Kampf,’ written by Hitler himself. The technique was all set out in Hitler’s book — and it was copied by the aggressors of Italy and Japan. According to that technique, you should never use a small falsehood; always a big one, for its very fantastic nature would make it more credible — only if you keep repeating it over and over and over again,” said President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a 1944 speech. Estimates are that by the end of WWII up to 85 million people had died, with more than twice as many being civilians as soldiers. The U.S. suffered more than 407,000 military deaths during the war, according to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.