International health professionals are concerned that vaccines developed by pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are less effective against the South African variant of the novel coronavirus.
Dr. Yolandra Hancock, a board-certified pediatrician and obesity medicine specialist, joins us to discuss coronavirus vaccine issues. New variants of the COVID-19 seem to be presenting challenges to vaccine efficacy as Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech announced their vaccines are less effective against the South African variant, and that they are working to find alternatives. Also, Europe is experiencing infighting between nations who are struggling to access enough doses for their populations.
Mark Sleboda, a Moscow-based international relations and security analyst, returns to discuss the recent phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden. Putin argued for better relations between the two nuclear powers and Biden brought up a number of Western media stories that touched on the alleged Afghan bounty plot, opposition figure Alexei Navalny, and the Solar Winds hack.
Roger Harris, a human rights activist, joins us to discuss his recent article, “In the Wake of the Riots: The Blowback from Defeating Trump was Criminalizing Dissent.” Harris argues that “as the neoliberal state's crisis of legitimacy matures, anti-terrorism laws and the institutional apparatus of fascist repression are being perfected to use against future…
