Russia’s War in Ukraine; Plus, Corona Calls

The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels group and Saudi Arabia have exchanged fire over the weekend, threatening a 2022 truce in Yemen's civil war and opening another front in the already expanding war in the Middle East after the collapse of the ceasefire deal between the U.S. and Iran. Observers say the escalation risks drawing the country into a broader regional confrontation with devastating consequences for its people. UN mediators said they've engaged in intensive talks with Yemeni parties and regional governments to avert further escalation. The tit-for-tat attacks started last month with a Saudi air strike that hit the runway at the airport in Yemen's capital Sana'a, preventing the landing of an Iranian flight, carrying a high-ranking Houthi delegation. The decade-long civil war has killed roughly 400,000 people and turned Yemen into one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with people living in the Houthi-held territories most hungry. The Houthis have attacked aid shipments, detained relief workers, and exacerbated a food insecurity crisis throughout the country. congressional democrats say they are investigating the trump administration's efforts to deport military service members and their families this comes after the associated press found more than fifty active duty troops family members had been detained by ice More from Lisa Dwyer. A letter sent Sunday evening to the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Department and the Department of Veteran Affairs. The Democrats say they will investigate whether the Pentagon and DHS are coordinating the effort, saying that the apparent collaboration between DHS and the military to deport troops' families raises both ethical and legal concerns. DHS says that it values service members' contributions, but adds that U.S. military service alone does not... not automatically grant lawful immigration status or exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws. I'm Lisa Dwyer. British Columbia, Canada has declared a state of emergency as a fast-moving wildfire forced more than 20,000 people from communities in western Canada, destroying homes as it raced towards towns along Okanagan Lake. Premier David Eby announced the emergency Saturday as more than 100 wildfires burned across the province, nearly half of them out of control, amid hot, windy weather and prolonged drought. entire community of Summerland, home to about 12,000 people, was ordered evacuated overnight, along with about 8,000 people in and around nearby Peachtland. Officials had not determined how many homes were destroyed. California lawmakers are trying to set limits on artificial intelligence chatbots offering mental health support.

The AI program is called Psychologist, and it offers empathy and advice, but it's not a real therapist. State lawmakers want to regulate this fast-evolving technology. A new bill aims to restrict chatbots from practicing psychotherapy. It would ban advertising them as therapy and require professional oversight for therapeutic decisions. Supporters say it's needed to protect consumers and professionals, while opponents argue it could limit beneficial AI uses. The bill is awaiting a vote. Similar laws have been passed in other states. The nation's largest reservoir has reached its lowest level in its history. The elevation level at Lake Mead on the Colorado River hit the new low at 1,040.5 feet, breaking the previous record of 1,0.40.58 feet set in July of 2022. That's according to data by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The reservoir, formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, is located in Nevada and Arizona and supplies water to millions of U.S. residents. Prolong drought conditions and exceptionally low snowpack have contributed to the significant decline in water levels at several Colorado River Basin Reservoirs this year. The Colorado River Basin provides water for up to 40 million people and hydropower to the seven basin states, including California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. Mostly sunny today in the San Francisco Bay Area, highs in the 70s, lows in the 50s, and the Central Valley. An excessive heat warning is in place, highs around 104, lows tonight in the 70s. Those are the headlines. I'm Max Springle on KPFA. It's just about 707 in the morning. You're listening to Up Front. I'm your host, Teresa Where's Bianca, filling in for Brian Edwards-Tieker while he's on vacation. And it's Monday. So get your corona calls ready. You can email a question to Corona Calls at KPFA.org or give us a ring later in the hour. But first, we begin today's show with news from Iran and Russia and Ukraine. And joining us now is John Feffer, Director of Foreign Policy in Focus. Hi, John. How are you? Good. How are you doing? Oh, all right. It's the start of another week in foreign policy. So shall we start with Iran? Sure. And what's going on there? So just looking at the headlines, Iran says it wants major concessions before reopening Hormuz.

which includes end to military threats, lifting some sanctions, compensation for damage, and an end to the U.S. naval blockade. But the U.S. and Iran are communicating through intermediaries, and there's no direct negotiation. Trump just said that U.S. is only, quote, semi-negotiating with Iran. What is going on today? Well, I guess Donald Trump is only semi-serious then in his efforts to end this war. He, of course, trumpeted the agreement that was forthcoming with Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz without providing any specifics, only for Iran to then counter. by saying that it wasn't negotiating directly with the United States, that it was talking with its neighbor Oman about working out some details about possibly opening up the Strait of Hormuz or at least managing trade through the Strait of Hormuz. And it turned out that when Iran got around to, well, specifying what its conditions were for the United States, they were not just asking for concessions, they were asking for the entire pie, basically. In other words, everything that the United States said that Iran would get if it not only opened up the Strait of Hormuz, but also negotiated an end to its nuclear program. So Iran basically has said, hmm, we have the advantage in this situation. We know that you, Donald Trump and the United States, need an agreement on the Strait of Hormuz in order to force down the price of oil at the pumps before the election. So we're going to apply maximum pressure on you right now and ask for the whole deal just to open up the Strait of Hormuz and you know we'll hold on to our nuclear program perhaps ask for something else for that in the future so this is the second setback for Donald Trump this week his deal on demilitarizing Hamas or getting Hamas to give up its weapons in order to move from stage one to stage two and the peace deal around Gaza was rejected by Israel. And so, hmm, it seems as if Donald Trump is indeed semi-negotiating on a number of things these days. Yeah, so what does, what do you think this means and how? What do you think would have to change right now for these semi-negotiating to become full negotiating? Well, it could involve Donald Trump simply giving in to Iranian demands, or at least a large number of them, even as he declares victory, which is, of course, what he does in all circumstances.

And that would perhaps ease pressure, open up the Strait of Hormuz. He could enter into a period of what previous administrations called strategic patients, in other words, waiting and hoping that the situation will resolve itself, mostly because Iran and Oman and the Gulf powers indeed want to export their oil and so they will move to some kind of accommodation simply by virtue of the pressure, economic pressures that they face regardless of the United States. The third option, of course, would be for Donald Trump to fall back on his previous threats, which were to destroy Iranian civilization, to bomb all of Iran infrastructure, in other words, to resume the attacks. Donald Trump faces a challenge in that regard, a twofold challenge. One, he probably doesn't have enough offensive weapons to really constitute an all-out barrage on Iran. And two, he doesn't have the defensive weapons to prevent the attacks the Iran would inevitably rain down upon U.S. bases as well as, bases in the region, as well as U.S. allies in the region. Yeah, that was going to be my next question. So looks like the Pentagon now is pushing to rapidly rebuild U.S. weapons stockpiles now. What do you think this tells us about how this war with Iran has changed and what is America's military position right now? Well, I think everybody around the world is wondering what a trillion dollars a year goes to in the United States if the weapons pretty much disappear after a relatively limited engagement with Iran. I mean, the United States was supposedly spending a trillion dollars a year. in order to fight at least 1.5 wars. That would be one major war, say, with Russia or China, and half a war, say, with a regional challenger like Iran. But it seems like a half a war has exhausted U.S. arsenals. So obviously, the money has gone to other things. It's gone to, obviously, huge weapons systems that are not being used in this conflict with Iran. capabilities obviously, paying for armies, paying for defense contractors, money that's probably wasted somewhere along the line. So that's the first issue. Second, of course, a country like China is looking at this and saying to itself, well, the United States doesn't have enough weapons to fight Iran. It's obviously not going to have enough weapons to fight us. So perhaps the

contingency plan we had for, say, invading Taiwan, goes to the front burner rather than sitting on the back burner, though there are reasons why I think China is not eager to invade Taiwan anytime soon, but in any case, some people in China might be considering that. And then the third, I would say, is the news recently that three countries have joined together in a military pact. That would be Pakistan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, all three major Sunni powers. And I think they're doing that because they can no longer rely on the United States as an effective ally. And of course the United States is some form of ally with all three, in the case of Pakistan providing military supplies for the most part, with Turkey obviously in NATO together, and Saudi Arabia being the beneficiary of enormous military assistance over the years. But now they're worried about the ability of the United States. States both to come to their aid and also supply them with weapons in the future. So I think that's a third sign of kind of the repercussions of U.S. attack on Iran, its failure to initiate regime change and its inability to continue to attack the country at the levels that were promised at the beginning by the Trump administration. Right. And as we're going to segue to Russia, Ukraine in just a second, because this is connected. The U.S. has also supplied large quantities of weapons to Ukraine. How much do you think this current shortage is the result of supporting Ukraine in addition to the war with Iran? And then what do you think the longer term problems are in America's defense base? Well, as your listeners will remember, I'm sure the United States, as soon as Trump came into office, basically suspended military assistance to Ukraine. It has authorized its allies to purchase or deliver U.S. weapons, but for the most part, the direct line of supply between the United States and Ukraine has been disrupted. Now, of course, it's true for, you know, four years or so. The United States was supplying Ukraine, and I'm sure that did draw down on supplies to a certain extent, and that was also a rationale, for instance, when Donald Trump came into office for not only supporting a trillion dollar military budget, but a $1.5 trillion budget, again, per year in order to replenish U.S. military supplies. Going forward, I mean, you know, Ukraine is forced to fall back on Number one, its own resources, producing drones, obviously, domestically, and trying to come up with a system that can substitute for the Patriot Missile Defense System, a homegrown system. It has also pleaded, basically, with the Europeans and other countries, including South Korea, to please send more weapons. There's basically no Patriot missiles left in Ukraine, so Russia can...

attack not with complete impunity because, you know, Ukraine can still shoot down some things, but Russia realizes that it has a window here to attack lots of different targets in Ukraine. So, you know, that's a challenge for an ally or... sometimes ally, like Ukraine. Here in the United States, in terms of the ability to replenish supplies, well, you know, $1.5 trillion can go a long way. It takes a while, of course, to replenish some of the bigger weapons systems. I mean, it takes a while, for instance, to build PAC-3 systems. And even, you know, there was news, of course, that at one point Donald Trump considered giving the license to Ukraine to build their own PAC three. He has since kind of backed away from that. But even if the United States provided Ukraine with that license, it would take them two years to get PAC missiles online. So it takes a while. For other stuff, you know, maybe some of the... smaller range missiles, obviously for ammunition and stuff like that, you can get that up and running pretty quickly. But, you know, the problem for the United States is that the three different parts of our military, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force. They all have their own demands and they're all wedded to certain systems regardless of whether they are particularly useful in a given conflict or not. I mean, they're focused on their own imperatives. And if that means, you know, building an enormous aircraft carrier, regardless of whether it's needed or not, they're going to push forward with it. So that's another kind of challenge that the U.S. military system faces. Right. And so right now they're asking defense contractors to super quickly accelerate production right now. Do you think this means that the US just doesn't have a good estimation on how much ammunition or that these wars are going to use? Well, we should remember that the military didn't want to get into this war with Iran, so I don't think it anticipated having the war in the first place. I mean, yeah, there are contingencies in military circles. They're so-called O plans or operational plans in which they game out various scenarios, but something like the Iran War in which the United States basically decided as a result of Donald Trump himself making the decision that going along with Israel's plan was a good idea despite the advice he was being given by everybody else from the State Department through the Pentagon to stay away from this conflict yeah so I mean I think they've been

surprised by the conflict, surprised by how quickly the ammunition or the missiles have been used up, surprised by the retaliation by Iran, and how much the allies have been using in terms of defensive weapons. So all of this is a surprise. And right now they're scrambling to make up for it. You know, the military being in the military, nobody's coming out and criticizing the commander in chief, but I imagine. that in their, you know, over their dinner tables, they're grumbling to their families about the president and his impetuousness. Yes. All right, John Ferfer, moving on now to Russia, Ukraine. So I guess the big headline was that Ukraine struck a location. over the weekend, roughly 800 kilometers from Moscow. And it's a home to a major oil refinery. Does this have major significance to be able to reach so deep inside Russia? And what do you think that tells us about how Ukraine is? is sort of doing in this conflict and their military strategy. Yeah, so the strike was in Tatarstan, so yeah, quite a distance from Ukraine. But, you know, Ukraine has successfully targeted basically all the major oil refineries in Russia, and that includes refineries in Siberia. This is a far cry from a couple of years ago when, you know, in order to attack Russian targets, they had to smuggle drones into the country, but now because they have the satellite capabilities, they have the long-range attack capabilities, they can fire things. and have them hit quite far away from Ukraine. And that, I think, is really driving a dagger into the Russian war effort and its economy, because Russia is a huge country. It's huge. And it cannot protect all of its so-called soft targets. In other words, oil refineries, critical energy infrastructure, wild berries, which is kind of Russia's version of Amazon. You know, it simply does not have the defensive missile capability to protect against drones coming in for attacks. In the short term, the attacks on the oil refineries are really paralyzing Russia in terms of its ability to deliver gas to gas stations. This has been particularly difficult in places like Crimea, which is occupied by Russia at the moment. Basically, Russia has had to import, so to speak, gas from India. When I say import, so to speak, I mean that it is literally in India, but it's a Russian-owned refinery, and therefore it hasn't been attacked by Ukraine. So it's relying on this factory in India to provide it with, or this refinery in India to supply the country with gas, to ease the crisis.

But, you know, the results are pretty clear. We've seen a decline rather substantially in the favorability rating for Vladimir Putin, which was hovering in the 70s and is now down to 65, which, you know, in an American context, sounds like... It's great, you know, 65% approval rating for a leader is great. But in a authoritarian country where people are really scared to state their opinion about the leader, for 35% of people to say that they do not approve of the leader, that takes a lot of courage, and it suggests that there's a lot of other people who would say the same thing if they didn't feel scared to death. Yeah, that's interesting. I was thinking about this. So Ukraine has been targeting refineries and military targets. And they said that this strike over the weekend was targeting a military target. But Russian authorities say that the strikes also hit a residential area and killed 13 people, including a child. What do you think that, how do you think that affects support or lack thereof for this war in Russia? Well, it is an example of what the Ukrainians have, you know, suffered disproportionately. So if you look at the civilian casualties in the war so far, it is, you know, almost exclusively. exclusively been Ukrainian civilians who have died alongside Ukrainian soldiers and Russian soldiers. Very few number of Russian civilians have died simply because Ukraine doesn't have the capacity for the kind of saturation bombing that Russia has conducted over Ukraine and it hasn't wasted its precious munitions on attacking civilian targets. So my guess is this was a mistake. But, you know, it also, I'm sure, sends a signal to Russians that they can't feel entirely safe. That, yeah, that it's been mostly oil refineries and other kind of economic targets. But, you know, they can't rest completely secure in their beds at night. And that's a taste of what the Ukrainians have been experiencing. Just a few more minutes. I want to head to the next development. Volodymyr Zelensky says North Korea now could send as many as 50,000 troops to Russia. What does this mean? Yeah, well, earlier he said 30,000. So either he's escalating or the North Koreans are escalating. It's a little difficult to know. I suspect he was talking with the South Koreans. He's trying to get the South Koreans to provide more Patriot missiles and the like in order to defend Ukraine. So I think he thought that this would open up the purse strings.

in South Korea, though he really should have had somebody else advising him because I don't think the South Koreans under this particular leadership are more likely to provide armaments knowing that those armaments could possibly kill North Koreans because of course this current South Korean government is eager to have greater cooperation and collaboration with the North Korean government. So whether the North Koreans will do so or not, hard to know. I mean, obviously if Kim Jong-un decides he wants to send troops, he'll send troops. He doesn't have to worry about public discontent or anything like that or soldiers saying no. They will go. It's part of Russia's desperation to get as many people to the front line as possible. They've put out a call to the various regions to get about over 400,000 new recruits. to compensate for their losses. I mean, they're losing anywhere between 30 and 40,000 a month. So that's about a year's worth of casualties, if you add together the 400,000 plus the 50,000 from North Korea. So, you know, Russia has been losing a lot of people, and it needs to find replacements. Just 60 seconds left. What do you think before we eat parts? Do we need to be knowing about this week that we haven't talked about yet? Well, the only last issue would be the deal that Syria made with Russia about the two major Russian military bases. I mean, this was Russia's major foreign presence overseas, a naval base and an air force base in Syria. They're being renegotiated. They will be turned into training centers, and the port basically will be turned over to... the Gulf states, which are putting in about nearly a billion dollars, or nearly a trillion dollars actually, into rehabbing the port. So Russia's being kicked out, essentially. Yeah, it'll still have a couple of troops there, some training, but this is a major step down for Russia's presence overseas. Well, thanks so much, John. We will talk to you next week. That sounds good. All right. We've been speaking with John Feffer, Director of Foreign Policy in Focus. And when we come back, it will be time for Corona Calls. You can send in your questions to Corona Calls at KPFA.org. And we can read them on the air. And we'll be opening up the phone lines that's after these news headlines. With these headlines. Russian officials say a Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian oil-producing region of Tardistan killed at least 13 people and wounded 75 others. More from William Denslow.

The Ukrainian drone strike occurred roughly 750 miles east of its border, targeting a city that's one of Russia's oil refining hubs. Russian officials say industrial and civilian facilities were targeted. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization says one of its warehouses in the Ukrainian city of Nipro has been hit twice by Russian strikes in the space of 24 hours. The WHO chief says the facility contained emergency health supplies and called for attacks on healthcare sites. To stop. William Denslow, Brussels. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a 15-point peace plan for Gaza drawn up by the Trump administration's Board of Peace. Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli military won't withdraw until Hamas has fully disarmed. Jagruta Darvey has more. Benjamin Netanyahu is stuck between the hardliners in his party who think that the peace plan has too many concessions towards Hamas and then his relationship with Donald Trump, who has called this a monumental step towards lasting peace and security. This is a very rare public dissent by Benjamin Netanyahu from his ally in the White House. Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu has called Donald Trump the greatest friend that the state of Israel has ever had in the White House. But that relationship has had its ups and downs since the Iran... war, and Donald Trump has publicly rebuked Israel on occasion as well. So, you know, there is some sense that that very firm friendship has been on rocky territory. That's Jagruta Darvey. The nation's largest reservoir has reached its lowest level in its history. The elevation level at Lake Mead on the Colorado River hit the new low at 1,040.5 feet. breaking the previous record of 1,0.50.58 feet set in July of 2022. That's according to data by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The reservoir, formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, is located in Nevada and Arizona and supplies water to millions of U.S. residents. prolonged drought conditions and exceptionally low snowpack have contributed to the significant decline in water levels at several colorado river basin reservoirs this year The Colorado River Basin provides water for up to 40 million people and hydropower to the seven basin states, including California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. Mostly sunny today in the San Francisco Bay Area, highs in the 70s, lows in the 50s, and the Central Valley. An excessive heat warning is in place, highs around 104, lows tonight in the 70s. Those are the headlines. I'm Max Pringle on KPFA.

It's 7.33 in the morning. You're listening to Up Front. I'm Teresa Rezboeonska, filling in for Brian Edwards Teakert, who's taking a much-deserved vacation. Now we'll turn, as we do most weeks at this time, to new developments with COVID-19 and infectious disease. And our guest is Dr. John Schwartzberg, Clinical Professor Emeritus of Infectious Diseases at UC Berkeley. Hi, Dr. Schwartzberg. How are you? Fine, thanks. How are you? Great. And so Dr. Schwartzberg is here, as always, to answer your questions about COVID and infectious diseases. And you can give us an email at corona calls at kpFA.org. And we'll read your question over the air. Or you can give us a call at 1-800-958-908. That's 1-800-9-9-908 for your corona calls. All right, Dr. Schwartzberg. So much going on in the world of infectious disease, cyclospora, but now something new. There's a salmonella outbreak from Taylor Farms. as well. What is going on with this? Well, there's salmonella every year is really the leader in foodborne disease causing lots of misery in people. Unfortunately, causes lots of hospitalizations and tragically causes some deaths. So salmonella is something we pay a lot of attention to and really need to have much more success in terms of dealing with it. We've seen outbreaks this summer from eggs, a pretty large outbreak from eggs. And more recently, we're seeing an outbreak from jalapeno peppers. Some of those attributed to Taylor Farms, but others may not, other jalapeno peppers may not have been from that particular farm. So it's a little unclear now how much is from where. Foodborne outbreaks remain a real misery for Americans. And unfortunately, we are doing the opposite of what we should be doing in terms of trying to control them. The really profound cutbacks in public health that I've been talking about for so long have come to four with lots of infectious diseases, but certainly with foodborne diseases with this largest ever cyclospora, excuse me, cyclospora outbreak that we've seen. and the measles that, excuse me, the salmonella that we've been talking about. This directly relates to the cutbacks in support for public health. It also relates to a decline in our ability to monitor. For example, FoodNet is a very valuable 50,000 foot view at what's happening to the eight was.

a 50,000 foot view in what was happening to the eight really most prevalent infectious diseases spread by food. Cyclospora was one of these. Salmonella always has been. The decision made by the regime in Washington about a year ago was to get rid of six of those eight monitors. So that's just an example of how we're going in the wrong direction when foodborne disease remains a serious problem. Right. So, I mean, I'm just wondering, like Taylor Farms has already been facing scrutiny over the cyclospora outbreak, like you just said, involving the lettuce. What is having two different foodborne illness investigations involving products from the same company? I mean, what does that raise like larger questions about food safety oversight or what's going on with, yeah, current food safety oversight or supply chain practices? Yeah, I don't know about Taylor Farms specifically in terms of how careful they are. So I can't really opine on that. I can only say what I was saying before, and that is on the larger scale, we need to be doing a lot more. We need to at least be doing what we were doing before this regime came in in Washington. So that's the general look at that. What can we do as individuals? Well, you know, some of the foods that we're talking about, lettuce. fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs. These are really important foods for our diet, not just in terms of getting calories in, but getting good nourishment in. So we don't want to stop eating these products, but at home we can be a little more careful. With salmonella, cross-contamination in the kitchen is a major cause of spread of this. So if you bring something in and don't wash it carefully, Don't clean your cutting board or your knives well. Don't wash, for example, melons, scrub them even before you cut into them so you don't bring the bacteria from the outside inside. We can do a lot to prevent foodborne diseases in our own kitchens. The CDC... which I don't refer to as much as I used to, but the CDC's website on foodborne diseases and how to prevent them, what you can do, remains very good. Here in California, I would certainly go to the CDPH, California Department of Public Health website on foodborne diseases. That's excellent as well. So I would suggest that people pay a little more attention to how they're preparing foods and how they're making sure that they're washing off to the extent that they can, these pathogens. cyclospora has presented a unique problem or a challenging problem, I would say, compared to other organisms because it sticks so heartily to, for example, lettuce and other products like berries. So it's very hard just with washing to get rid of it. That's where we need much better controls in the fields.

We're speaking with Dr. John Schwartzberg, clinical professor emeritus of infectious diseases at UC Berkeley, and he's here to answer your questions. So please give us a call 1-800-908. And we have William in Belvedere on the line. Hi, William. What's your corona call? Yes, thank you very much. At the present time, the cyclospora is being described as coming from lettuce. Once it's in the United States, which it is already, won't it begin to be spread in other ways as people get the disease and then they spread it to other people that doesn't have anything to do with lettuce? William, thank you for that call and that question. Excuse me. Excellent. So we need to drill down a little bit in terms of how cyclospora is spread. It's a human pathogen. So any cases of cyclospora we see are related to human fecal contamination of the food we're eating. But it's not as simple as that. When someone is infected with cyclospora, the form of the protozoan that comes out in the feces is not infectious. It has to be in the environment for... several days, typically around a week, it can be, depending upon the temperatures, longer than that, before it becomes an infectious organism. That's why we don't see foodborne outbreaks with cyclospora in the household. So if I had the disease, it would be very unlikely I would spread it to my family because of what I was just talking about, because of the organism's natural history and the environment. So the outbreaks we're seeing are occur typically a couple weeks at least after somebody who's infected with cyclospor contaminates, their feces contaminate the, for example, lettuce. But it can be berries. It can be many other products. So that's why there's a significant delay between a case and then spreading further. More specifically, to answer your question, you're not going to see outbreaks occurring like we would with salmonella where they can keep perpetuating themselves person to person because of what I was just talking about. The good news with cyclospora is that we're seeing the cases decline. Michigan has, which was the epicenter for this, has just a few days ago. stopped cautioning people about the lettuce they're eating. So I think that we're seeing this particular outbreak go away. Bottom line, William, is we can control this, but we have to control it by the food we're consuming, and that means we have to control it by making sure that we're not spraying contaminated water on fields that we're going to subsequently be eating.

Thanks for the call, William. You can give us a call 1-800-958-908 if you have a question for Dr. Schwartzberg or you can email us at Corona Calls at KPFA.org. We have an email from Sonia who has a question and Sonia says, I heard that Moderna is coming out with an MRNA flu shot for this fall. What can you tell us about this new vaccine? Thanks for your ongoing help. Yeah, thanks for the question, Sonia. I'm delighted to answer that question because I'm delighted with the news. The news is that Moderna, as you said, is coming out with an MRI vaccine against influenza. We've known about this for, and it was coming for a long time, even though there were some glitches given glitches at the FDA in the spring in terms of Initially, someone in authority there saying that they would not review it because they didn't like the design of the trials and then within a week backtracked on that. That person, fortunately, is no longer at the FDA. The Moderna MRNA vaccine against influenza has been studied very extensively. in people 50 to 64. And the good news with that is it showed that it gave higher antibody levels. And not only that, it gave higher protection against serious disease and even infection than standard influenza vaccine. That is really good news. That's an advance in terms of protection. A much smaller, more preliminary study in people 65 and over showed it comparable to, and perhaps higher antibody levels against influenza than the vaccine we recommend for older people. Those studies are ongoing. But the FDA has approved. the vaccine for people 50 to 64, and it is approved with a different category, but approved it for people over 65 because we don't have as much data. Here's how I look at it after all that background. From our perspective, that is getting protection, it looks like the MRI vaccine will give greater protection than the standard influenza vaccine for people 50 and over, including older people. So I'm going to preferentially ask for this vaccine in October when I typically get vaccinated against influenza. So very good news on that front. There's also good news. on the broader perspective of this vaccine. The standard influenza vaccines that are grown primarily in eggs, but also in tissue culture, typically take six to eight months from the time that we decide what the composition of the vaccine will be to having it available to put in people's arms. The MRI vaccine, we can do that in two months.

That's a big advance because it means that a decision made in the past, we'd have to decide in late February typically what the new influenza vaccine for the fall and next winter would be. And the virus may change in the interim. So we may be vaccinating people with a vaccine that is not as closely directed at the pathogen that would be circulating in the future. With the mRNA vaccine, we just need a couple months to make that decision and get it in people's arms. So we can be much closer that is picking vaccine composition that will be much closer to the actual circulating virus. And finally, if there's another pandemic and there's going to be more pandemics and if it is influenza or if it's in a coronavirus like SARS-CoV-2, the mRNA vaccines can protect, be produced and protect us much, much more quickly than the other technology. So three big pluses for this MRI vaccine. Last comment for Sonia, and that is, and this is political again, last year, the regime in Washington, specifically Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. made the decision to defund by hundreds of millions of dollars, MRNA research. That's unconscionable, and it's slowing up the production of MRNA vaccines for other serious infectious diseases and cancers. So we need to make some changes in Washington. Thanks for the question, Sonia. We can go back to the phones. John in North Bay. Hello, John. You're on the air. Do you have a corona call? Yes. Hi. And first, thanks to KPFA for... Keep on broadcasting. You're a real light in the dark sometimes. My first question is you can wash the cyclosporal off your lettuce. I mean, it's on the outside. Are there any... potential, you know, food illnesses that are like inside the vegetables. Also, does any of the spraying kill, any of the herbicide or pesticide, or pesticide, or any other pesticide, I mean, foodborne illness? And that's my two questions. Thank you. John, unfortunately, cyclospora can... can be not only on the surface of a product like lettuce, but it can get into the more inner leaves. To my knowledge, there have been no really good studies showing that removing the outer leaves appreciably helps. It makes intuitive sense, and it seems like a reasonable thing to do if you're in a state where they're having a serious problem. But the cyclospora can...

be attached very firmly to some of the interleaves. So washing the lettuce as well as you can remains very important. And washing any product as well as you can remains very important. In terms of the question about pesticides, I'm not aware of any chemicals that can be used. commercially on products in the field that will kill cyclospora. And the advertisements that I see so often now about products that you can purchase for your home that you can spray on your food that will kill the organism. None of those have been shown to be effective. And you're just throwing your money away and diverting your attention to away from things that you can do like washing thoroughly. Thanks for your question, John. Here's another question from the emails, Dr. Schwartzberg. Patricia writes in, what kind of vaccination protocol, including for COVID, should I require of a prospective roommate slash tenant? I'm a relatively healthy 65-year-old woman. What public health institution can I rely on for trusted advice on this issue? Well, I think the trusted advice for... vaccination tragically is not the CDC. And that's, I want to emphasize that I've said this so many times, it's not because of the people working, the scientists working in the CDC. They're excellent. It's because of politics. It's because we have somebody who is anti-vax in the position of HHS. That's Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the people he's hired. and the decisions that come out of CDC have to go through a politician as opposed to a scientist. More specifically, in terms of the question that Patricia has in regards to vaccine protocols, certainly any disease that a vaccine can prevent people from getting infected, it would be nice to have somebody living with you be vaccinated against that disease. The best example we have is measles. If you get vaccinated against measles, the chances of you getting measles again are less than 3%. So if you have somebody living with you who's been vaccinated against measles, the chances of that person bringing measles into your home is minuscule. Unfortunately, While there are other examples of vaccines that have efficacy, approaching that of measles vaccine, unfortunately, the viruses that are so prominent right now and continuously are, like influenza and COVID, the vaccines against those don't do a great job in terms of preventing people from getting infected. What I mean by getting infected is you can be infected, you may not even have any symptoms.

They do much better against preventing disease. That is, you may get infected but not get sick, or if you get sick, much less sick than you would have. The problem with these vaccines from a public health standpoint is that while they do reduce the number of people getting infected somewhat, we need to really find vaccines that are going to work much better in terms of preventing infection, and that will prevent spread within a household. Asking people to make sure they're up to date with all their vaccines is always a good protocol if you're going to have somebody living in your home or being with you a lot. It's always a good protocol. But unfortunately, for SARS, COVID-2, cause of COVID and influenza, those vaccines, well, they help a little bit in terms of preventing infection and infection transmission. They don't do as much as we'd like. All right, thank you for that question, Patricia. Okay, we have time for just one quick phone call, Eid from Berkeley. You have 30 seconds. What is your question? You are on the air. Hi, Eid. How are you? Hello. Hello. Yes, we can hear you. What is your question? Quickly, we have just 30 seconds. Okay, 30 second. COVID-19 disseminated the old elephant population in the Southeast hemisphere. Dr. Pouchy had blood measure role in AIDS, HIV AIDS in 19, whenever it's heavy in San Francisco, and it was involved in that. Third, one and a half million Americans died from COVID-19. In the year 2000, because Trump denied it as a China virus, all that stuff, we are in horrible shape. I asked Dr. What can we do about this whole mess we are in right now with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is a joke? He's not health minister. He's a joke. What should all of us do to protect our kids, our parents, our sisters, our brothers? What can we do? Thanks for the question needs. 30 seconds, Dr. Schwartzberg. Got it. I'll give a pithy answer two points. One, November is coming up quickly. You can vote and you can get other people to vote and hopefully remove a lot of these people in Washington that support Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. And then two years from now, we can vote again and remove the entire regime. That's my best advice that we can do to protect the public's health. What you can do as an individual is use the CDPH website for infectious diseases, preferential to what you hear out of the CDC, unfortunately. And that is our time. Thanks as always, Dr. John Schwartzberg, clinical professor emeritus of infectious diseases at UC Berkeley. And if you want to send in a question for next week, email Corona Calls at kpFA.org.

This segment is now available as its own podcast. For those of you who can't make the live show every week, look for KPFA, Corona Calls, wherever you get your podcasts. And while you're there, won't you give us a little rate and review? We appreciate it. All right. That does it for today's show. Upfront airs weekday mornings at 7 a.m. We post information about our topics and our guests. online at kpfa.org, where you can also dig through archives of past shows. If you'd like to give us feedback on something you've heard or suggest something for us to cover, send an email up front at kpfa.org. A big thanks to everyone who makes the show happen. Producer Himia Akbari, our engineer is Kirsten Thomas. I'm Teresa Where's Bianca today, filling in for Brian Edwards Teacert. And if you're incarcerated and nails easier, write to upfront KPFA, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley, California, 94704. Stay up and stay tuned. The law and disorder is coming your way at 8 a.m.

Got a minute? Actually, 30 seconds? We want to hear from you. Tell us why you listen to KPFA. Shout out your favorite show. Share a moment that stuck with you or just say hello. Leave us a message at 510-848-67-67 extension 622. Your voice could end up on the air, online, or in a future KPFA promo. That's 510-8-48-67 extension 622. We can't wait to hear what you have to say. Hi, I'm Rod Akil. I help keep KPFA's daily broadcast schedule running smoothly. And as the afternoon board operator, I bring shows like flashpoints to your speakers. As much as I contribute, none of it happens without listener support. Right now, we need your help. If KPFA means something to you, please donate today at kpFA.org. You and only you, keep independent radio alive. Eternal vigilance is a price of liberty. We have to make sure that we stay watchful of any attacks, any threats to usurping our right to vote, things that we hold dear, the things that we normally take for granted. We can't be silent. People can't get comfortable being quiet, right? If we cherish our institutions, if we cherish our liberties, cherish the privileges that we have in this country, we have to be vocal. We have to be active. So it's more about what we do in order to protect the things that are important to us. The duty of the Patriot is to protect its country from its government. Thomas Payne. This is 94.1 KPFA and 89.3 KPFB in Berkeley, 88.1 KFCF in Fresno, everywhere at kpFA.org.