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The contrast between Carlos Tavares and Elon Musk can be seen in this exchange between Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk. Carlos Tavares plans a big manufacturing effort for Stellantis in electric cars- 75 models by 2030- with a very different culture than that of Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk, that builds on the dignity of each worker and family. Social media is used by Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk for their own benefit, by manipulating culture and beliefs including how capital of society should be allocated away from HEIRS (Health, Education, Infrastructure, Retirees, and Societal needs). Absent Mr. Musk America would still be producing electric cars as is evident from the intense competition between the major car companies and their complete switch to electric on a scale needed for tackling climate change. Who is the better role model for young people in the US or Europe? Carlos Tavares with his simplicity and caring for dignity of workers or Donald Trump, Elon Musk with their rancorous exchanges and comments, and extravagant behaviour.     ...

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Viewing people as "pass throughs for units of fiscal stimulus" that is no longer an option, no longer wise, no longer possible. Brian Deese, US president Biden's economic adviser, uses this sentence as he describes the approach of president Biden in putting together a $2 trillion plan to invest in infrastructure and in the people of America. He compares 2009 to 2021 and talks about the differences then and now after the pandemic. The coronavirus pandemic exposed all the weak spots in the American fabric and society and in the way national life was organized. Today the pain is felt in socio economic groups throughout the country.    US president Biden wants to make a decisive impact with large investments in infrastructure, education, health and jobs. In American manufacturing competitiveness and in America's technological advancement. The investments made in 2009 were in simple recovery mode, this time the investments are intended to bring America back to its position in the world after 1945, the hope and the optimism for a better future. ...

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Sabrina Tavernise writes about vaccine skeptics in the US. She sees it as a problem about gut beliefs. It is prevalent among people of different political views, not just conservatives. The misinformation on vaccines has made people who normally would be open to getting vaccinated a bit leery. Because of the flood of information spread in today's hyper sensitive news environment, including misinformation. Tavernise describes how different people in the US tackle the decision to get vaccinated or not and how this leads some to simply postpone getting vaccinated. Britain tackled this problem of spreading misinformation on vaccine effectiveness or risks early. It also helped that in Britain there is a very high regard for the National Health Service, the NHS. In Germany and also in France there was increasing skepticism in the beginning, yet this is reversible as there is growing recognition of the benefit of taking the vaccine in Germany and France. Much can and needs to be done to create public confidence and limit the spread of misinformation that leads to postponement of vaccination at a time when variants are becoming more contagious. ...

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PM Modi's Jal Jeevan mission In India for clean tap water for 1.4 billion people even in the Himalayan regions can be seen in the context of water scarcity across the developing world in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, with 1 in 2 persons facing water scarcity. And there is further the problem of contaminated water. It shows that it is possible if there is the will to do it and the resources dedicated to do it. Not only is it harmful and reduces health with diseases it considerably undermines women and girls in society. This is shown in ads for Jal Jeevan mission with a mother and her daughter on Indian television with the daughter telling her mother that PM Modi and the government have brought tap water to the village and it need not be carried long distances from wells, the mom incredulous till she realizes it is true and hugs her daughter. It may be the most memorable of television public service ads on Indian  television in a long long time and shows the immense changes in the world's most populous region even overcoming the challenges of the pandemic. ...

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It took 25 years for the US to recover from the 1929 stock market disaster and the Great Depression. It took Japan 25 years to recover from the 1989 stock market collapse and the lost decades since. It is finally emerging from that period with a healthier economy and business structures. China faces a situation today of a struggling economy after years of excessively rapid growth that hurt the environment and climate and health. And the uncertainty that faced Japan after 1989 also faces China in 2024- growth is never linear over very long periods and has pull backs that could stretch for decades much too familiar for Japan. For India there are lessons to be learned from Japan's and China's experience. In environment not to risk polluting the environment as China experienced with breakneck unchecked growth, to be mindful of bringing up all sectors and parts of the population, and to manage growth so that the basic instability that resulted from excessive shift to China of manufacturing and deindustrialization in US that led to worsening trade and people to people relations between US and China is not repeated. ...

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President Trump plans to give "a very, very positive message" in his third State of the Union message on February 4, 2020. This comes one day after the chaos of the Democratic Iowa caucuses and a day before the president's certain acquittal in the Senate for impeachment charges of obstruction of justice and abuse of power. The president is likely to avoid partisan jabs to focus on his economic record. The theme is "the Great American Comeback." Mr. Trump will emphasize what he has called "the blue collar boom," the ways his policies are helping the middle class, aides say. The president will point out his administration's efforts for working families, for paid family leave, affordable child care, lowering cost of prescription drugs and health care.White House speechwriters writ much of the text, with policy suggestions from key government agencies taken in. Mr. Trump makes edits with a marker, and thinks about the best way to get points across till the last minute, something that comes easily to him with his colloquial style. ...

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AP/NORC poll March 2023 shows 7 out of 10 adults in the US feel that the US is spending too much on development assistance when the budget for USAID is $40 billion. In general Republican administrations prefer foreign aid to be adminstered by the State Department not a separate agency. USAID was setup during the Cold War with the Soviet Union by president John F. Kennedy in 1961. Today it adminsters programs for HIV/Aids and for pandemics, health programs that can be done through the State Department. Attitudes have shifted following the pandemic with 9 out of 10 Republicans opposed to foreign aid through USAID. Some of the criticism is that it funds bureaucrats favorite programs. The actual impact is now uncertain in the developing of an economy. For example Sri Lanka benefits more from aid and development assistance from neighbor India than from programs of USAID as it tackles the current economic crisis following the pandemic. India pulling together the aid through IMF for Sri Lanka, and the investment in energy from India is way more important than the small USAID programs.  ...

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Emily Baumgaertner takes on the critics of children's vaccines. A major health advancement in tackling polio, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria. The NYT says most Americans and doctors today have forgotten what a scourge these disease were in the last century. Polio one of the most serous killing or paralyzing half a million people worldwide in the 1930's and 40's. A scourge deadly as it happened suddenly in a day one could get paralyzed. US president FDR had polio which changed his whole life in the 1920's. In 1952 vaccines took this down from 22,000 in 1952 to just one in 1993.  Measles - the vaccine licensed in 1963. It is highly contagious. Tens of thousands hospitalized 400-500 died each year. It is 97% effective with 2 doses, its spread require 95% coverage rate. 16 measles outbreaks in 2024- about 300,000 children not protected, parents skipping it. Diptheira respiratory disease- 100,000 cases a year in 1920 to less than one today. One in 10 died from it says CDC. Vaccine TDaP. ...

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Jimmy Carter dies peacefully at his home in Plains, Georgia, at age 100 in Christmas week 2024. He was president following Nixon-Gerald Ford and a crisis of confidence in the US after Watergate scandal and as a southern peanut farmer from Georgia brought a period of renewal to political life in the country. He became a one term president with the election of Ronald Reagan during a period of high inflation and a challenge from Edward Kennedy during the primaries. His greatest success was after leaving office when he tackled health epidemics in Africa and helped stabilize democratic governments by acting as observer in elections around the world. His legacy is a lasting one and shows the power of good works as shown in the spiritual heritage of the Nation. Reagan, Bush Sr and Bush Jr, Obama either started the wars or failed to end the wars that dragged on after Jimmy Carter left office sapping the vital energies of the Nation. Only now under Biden and Trump are these wars coming to an end. And new effort is going into reviving America as an economic powerhouse improving the lives of its people. ...

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Achieving a right balance between the needs for public health in developing countries- and the need for cost reduction in developed countries- with the need to keep innovation, is the challenge facing the Indian Supreme Court as it hears the Novartis case on its leukemia drug Gleevec. The efforts by Novartis and other western pharmaceutical companies to restrict the flow of low cost generic drugs from India. India stopped granting patents on drugs in 1970. It only resumed giving patents under a WTO agreement on patents. The Indian government denied the patent on Gleevec and the case is now coming up before the Supreme Court.

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Millenials are promoting healthy eating habits in the U.S. as awareness among young people grows about faulty eating habits that have become commonplace in the U.S.  Words such as naturally grown, organic, sustainable, locally sourced are important in the way millennials demand their food, and grocery stores are listening. Millennials are also trying vegan and vegetarian options. Packaging has to be resealable, easy to open and portable. And when it comes to baby food millennials have definite preferences. 

The result is that variety and quality is improving on grocery market shelves.

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Attorney General Barr tells American business leaders that business with the PRC has short term rewards but ultimately hurts U.S. interests. FBI Director Christopher Wray says the transfer of U.S. technology "is so massive that it represents one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history." All this has happened as communities and towns across the U.S. lost jobs as they were shifted out of the U.S. in large numbers over twenty years in accelerated manner leaving U.S. manufacturing weak. The pandemic showed the weakness of existing supply chains for delivering benefit to the American people.

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What is behind Pew Research Report finding showing an unacceptable concentration of wealth that endangers democracy. Higher income groups making $244,000 a year in 2024 gained 19 percentage points of the total US Household Income moving from 29% in 1970 to 48% in 2024. About 50% of the nation's income going to 20% of its people and most of that to 2%-5% of the people of the US. The gains meant loss of 17 of these percentage points for middle income households making $106,000 a year that went from 62% in 1970 to 43% in 2024. Another 2 percentage points was suffered by vulnerable Lower Income groups making $35,000 a year who owned 10% of US wealth in 1970 went down to 8%.  The problems of divisiveness in the Nation come from three distinct areas. First money for state financed education for all being put into wars in the Middle East from Reagan through Obama and Trump and some wasted through capital misallocation to low priority investment by faulty capital market allocation. Second the high cost of pharmaceuticals and healthcare putting a heavy burden on low income and middle income households making $35,000 or 106,000 a year. Third the neglect of manufacturing that cutoff the opportunities for middle and lower income households and their one chance to move up the ladder. And the parallel shift of resources to technology and financial sectors that created opportunities for a smaller group of immigrant and higher middle income households with these skills.  These are the sources of America's distress and each problem is being attacked at its source by president Biden- exit from Afghanistan, canceling student loans that are egregious and prevent the investment in education America needs, large sustained investment in manufacturing and new supply chains, antitrust action on tech monopolistic behaviour, redrawing the shape of America's pharmaceutical sector to provide access to medicine to all parts of the population.    ...

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This NYT editorial says the Democrats achieved much of what they wanted in the Ryan-Murray U.S. Budget deal by taking out 61.5% of the sequester cuts in domestic programs and adding back $31.5 billion for programs in transportation, health, education and other programs.

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CEO's of more than 80 large U.S. companies have come together behind a plan that would reduce the U.S. federal deficit with tax revenue increases and reduced spending. The CEO statement was organized by the Fix the Debt campaign, a bipartisan effort inspired by Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles of the 2010 Simpson-Bowles Deficit Commission. The CEO statement calls for an overhaul of the U.S. tax code to eliminate or reduce deductions, credits and loopholes (reduction of tax expenditures also referred to as "broadening the base"). The CEO statement says any fiscal plan to succeed has to control increases in health care spending, make Social Security solvent, and include "comprehensive and pro-growth tax reform, which broadens the base, lowers rates, raises revenues and reduces the deficit." This is the first time a large group of business leaders have supported raising taxes as part of an overall solution. This puts together elements of the Bowles-Simpson plan, reduces deductions and loopholes, lowers rates as part of overall tax reform and cutting spending. The CEO statement says the Simpson Bowles recommendations for $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax increases was an "effective framework" for tackling a problem that affects the economic well being and security of the U.S....

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Impossible and Beyond Meat, two new companies promoting plant based meat are popularizing the sale of plant based products that contribute to efforts against climate change and at the same time improve health outcomes. Growth of animal based meat consumption is now less than 1% compared to 14% for plant based meat.  New technology is helping improve plant based products using new engineering and production techniques to form plant fibers and proteins that mimic what consumers are used to.  The growth is bringing new companies into the market, including Nestle, Smithfield and Cargill. On the retail side Starbucks, Yum Brands KFC, and McDonalds, Burger King are adding plant based burgers to their product mix.  A new development is cost with the new manufacturing technologies leading to lower costs that compete better on price with animal meat products. Impossible based in Redwood City, California, has a 15% price cut to reduce what it charges to $7.90 to $8.50 a pound.  Impossible and Beyond Meat say they use less energy, water and grain to make burgers from soy and pea protein, than companies that feed, slaughter and transport livestock. Plant based production processes are only now reaching the kind of scale needed to compete with sales of $1 billion in plant based meat. The effects on climate change are not fully understood by people, as animal based products have a much larger footprint on the climate. In particular the health benefits are not understood fully. Animal based fat including from dairy increased chances of prostate cancer say experts. The health benefits of soy protein compared to animal protein are also being better understood in relation to cancer and heart disease. Combining plant based protein with fruits, nuts, beans, ancient grains and vegetables, and reducing meat in the diet,  is now considered a healthy alternative that also is healthy for the environment.   ...

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PFASs class of chemicals used in pizza boxes, carpet treatments and other consumer products. Experts describe the increased risk of cancer, asthma and other diseases from products that are everywhere in today's world. The NYT's Lipton and Abrams provide useful insights into the use of harmful chemicals in everyday life in 2015. Ms. Birnbaum, the head of the national toxicology program of the Department of Health and Human Services in the U.S. questions this widespread use in consumer products of PFASs and the need for alternatives in commentary in Environmental Health Perspectives, a NIH publication. 200 international scientists signed a statement urging countries to restrict use of PFASs. More public awareness is needed for the extensive use of chemicals in consumer products, so that consumers ask questions about which chemicals are in products and look for safer choices.

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One of the key findings of a joint panel of the WHO and South Korea on the MERS outbreak is the lack of transparency in the South Korean government's handling of MERS. Lee Jong-Koo, leader of the South Korean side in the panel said at a news conference: "One of the things South Korea failed to do was a transparent and rapid distribution of information, which is the most important thing to do." What caused serious concern for health officials is the speed of the outbreak- between May 20 when the first patient was identified and June 10 at least 145 people were infected. The chief WHO official on the panel, Keiji Fukuda, says South Korea needs to enforce a robust quarantine and monitoring system, and invest more in public health with more epidemiologists and laboratories' capacity.

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Elections to France's 13 regional councils is showing weak support for president Macron's En Marche party that was newly created by Macron. Macron's party won less than 10% of the vote in the regional elections. The Republicans, former president Sarkozy's party were written off after Macron's win. Instead the Republicans who are conservatives and represent the Gaullist tradition have revived under Sarkozy's health minister Xavier Bertrand. Mr. Bertrand now remains the main candidate with Macron for the French presidential election in 2022. Terrorist attacks, the sense of a lack of law and order, and the pandemic, have revived the conservatives in France. Brexit nationalism, the failure of the socialist Labor party and a shift of laborites in the north of England to the conservatives under Boris Johnson led to a Johnson win in British elections. A similar situation is unfolding in France. Xavier has served under presidents Chirac and Sarkozy, both in the Gaullist tradition. He was Sarkozy's spokesperson in 2007 and helped run Sarkozy's election campaign. He was Health Minister from 2010 to 2012. ...

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The state of India's fight against Tuberculosis is shown here by AID's Atul Gawande in NYT. He visits a homeless shelter in New Delhi and asks what can be done to prevent the number one infectious disease in India and globally. The disease affects 1 in 38000 in the US and 1 in 500 in India a huge contrast as poverty and poor health conditions increase spread of TB. It grows with depleted immune systems and poor food intake. This alone shows how important it was and continues to be that prime minister Modi put forward no cost (free) allocation of foodgrains, lentils and vegetables during the pandemic to hundreds of millions of needy households. This and Clean India campaign Swacch Bharat + Har Ghar Jal Clean Water Every Household  play a critical role in providing the basic environment for health in India at the ground level for nutrition+ clean water, and sanitation. India has allocated $1.7 billion for TB prevention and treatment. 4-5 TB vaccines are in test stages.  Nearly 90 percent of estimated TB cases are now being diagnosed with treatment success rates high, says Gawande. Prevention is also at a similar level.   ...

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Till 1997 there was a limit on how many and what drug ads could be placed on television. During the year Bill Clinton was president  the US Food and Drug Administration under Acting Commissioner Michael Friedman is reported by the WSJ as opening up American television for a flood of drug advertising that is damaging for the Nation's health leading to overuse of drugs in the US for three decades. 31% of ads on US evening television news programs are from drug brands in 2024. DJT said while appointing RFK Jr as Secretary of Health and Human Services- Drugmakers and  big food companies, “have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation.” RFK Jr. says- "We are one of only two countries in the world that allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly to consumers on television. US and New Zealand. Everybody agrees it is a bad idea. Not surprisingly, Americans consume more pharmaceutical products than anyone else on the planet. As I said earlier on my first day in office I will issue an executive order banning pharmaceutical advertising on television." ...

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Efforts to train China's rural village doctors.How a company Haoyisheng which means Good Doctor has setup 6000 clasrooms across rural China to educate rural doctors who have little medical training. The Chinese Ministry of Health has brought in 120,000 doctors to educate and is paying the company 1200 yuan out of the 3400 yuan fee for 3 years of classes. It is video and internet based and students progress on questions is monitored via intenet and the program is run from Beijing. Tests show students are making significant progress especially since the Chinese system of rural doctors is fallig apart with the intoroduction of privatized medicine and rural doctor training has suffered badly.The company was founded by Mark Engel and Gao Zhan.. Gao studied at the University of Munich for his PHD in Biochemistry and grew up in Shanghai. They own several health related businesses in China.

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The Survey published by Britain's Nationa Health Service (NHS) shows an increase by about half since 2017. The pandemic has made the problem severe with lockdowns, closure of schools and inequality in society leaving many children without access to online learning because of a lack of internet. What is seen early in this NHS Survey is probably true for many countries Mexico to Brazil, India to Indonesia, Egypt to South Africa, much of Europe and the US. This needs to be addressed quickly, for children. It also needs to be addressed for adults.