Russia’s War in Ukraine; Plus, Corona Calls

Time. So go now. KPFA.org, 1-800-439-5732. Good morning. It's Monday, July 6, 2026. This, sorry, July 27, 2006. This is up front. I'm Brian Edwards-Tekert. On today's show, Ukraine and Iran. We're starting to get into it. Ukraine struck a commercial Iranian ship in the Caspian Sea that it said was shipping military supplies between Russia and Iran. Iran is now threatening retaliation. We're going to talk about those dynamics and what to make of the fact that right-wing conspiracist influencer Laura Lumer is now traveling in Ukraine. and said she was lied to about Russia. She's had a complete about face, and she has someone who can get Donald Trump on the phone when she wants to. In the second half of the program, we'll continue talking about the growing cyclosporiasis outbreak in the United States with Dr. John Swartzburg. All that and more coming up next, after the news. I'm Max Pringle with these headlines. Mediators say they have made progress in efforts to bring the U.S. and Iran back to negotiations and prevent another all-out war in the Middle East. This comes after a pause and attacks, with neither the U.S. nor Iran reporting any strikes for three days. Mediators led by Qatar and Pakistan are working to bridge the gap between Washington and Tehran. Donna Warder has more. After nearly two weeks of intensified bombing, the U.S. military has paused its airstrikes on Iran during diplomatic efforts to try to revert a return to an all-out war. A spokesman for the Islamic Republic of Iran Army says on Iranian government TV that Iranian forces also have stopped their attacks, which he says were retaliatory because the U.S. had violated the memorandum of understanding. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he'll discuss Iran with President Donald Trump when he's in Washington Monday for the funeral of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham. But while Israel launched the war alongside the U.S. in February, it's been notably absent from renewed U.S. attacks over Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Donna Warder, Washington. Police in Seattle have arrested a suspect and are searching for another in a mass shooting at a food festival that killed three and injured four others. The shooting happened at the end of the annual bite of Seattle Festival. Assistant Police Chief Tyrone Davis said during a news conference Sunday night that detectives did not have any description of the person being sought and asked for community assistance. The big thing is we're not going to be able to figure out how this happened without the help of our community members. So if you saw something, please give us the call. Investigators believe the two were shooting at each other and there's no apparent threat to the public. The Seattle Fire Department says the four wounded people, including a two-year-old boy, were hospitalized and in stable condition.

german authorities say the suspect in the deadly berlin pride attack that killed one person and left twenty nine injured was shot and killed by police during a confrontation in a suburb of the city julie walker has more Police in Berlin say Abdul Balut was shot and killed in the suburb Sunday evening after apparently running toward officers with a sharp instrument following a manhunt lasting nearly 24 hours. Prosecutors say the 21-year-old had wanted to join the Islamic State group. Balut was the main suspect after a van drove into a crowd Saturday night near a Pride Festival. More than two dozen people were injured, either hit or stabbed with a machete. One was killed. Nigeria Minister Alexander Dobrand had said Valut, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, was on their radar and called it an act of Islamic extremist terror. Berlin's Pride Festival is one of Europe's largest LGBTQ plus celebrations. I'm Julie Walker. French President Emmanuel Macron is chairing an emergency meeting as wildfires forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people near the city of Bordeaux. The blaze has burned more than 42,000 hectares in the region. More from William Dinslow. A calmer night for first responders battling these blazes here in the Bordeaux region, but major concerns remain. On Saturday evening into Sunday, some five municipalities were forced to evacuate, adding to the number of those forced to leave their homes to over... 200,000. Now, firefighters we've been speaking to on the ground say that conditions incredibly difficult to contain. Winds are swirling the dryness of the conditions mean that some estimate that three days of rainfall might be required to fully extinguish the blazes. Real concerns, especially as local officials say that these fires are now at the Bill Gates of the municipality of Bordeaux. William Denzloke in the Bordeaux region, France. International aid groups say drone attacks by the paramilitary rapid support forces, or RSF, have caused enormous damage to civilian infrastructure, including power grids, transformers, water treatment plants, schools, universities, and hospitals in El Obide, the capital of North Cordyphon. Ahmed Awad is project manager for the UK-based Children's Rights Organization Plan International, and a native of El Obide. He said the local population is struggling to survive. He said the city, whose population previously numbered half a million, has now become home to several hundred thousand internally displaced people and has under siege by the RSF.

Awad said there is a shortage of medical supplies as well as food and clean water. Analysts, aid organizations, and the UN have warned that the RSF could soon capture El Obide. They fear a similar scenario to what happened in El Fosha in neighboring North Darfur in 2025, when the RSF began by bombing infrastructure before storming the city after an 18-month siege. earlier this year a u-in fact-finding mission for the sudan detailed atrocities in the capture of el fashir and identified what had called hallmarks of genocide as the r s ff an allied arab militias carried out an ethnic cleansing campaign against local tribes The UN has called the more than three-year-old Sudan civil conflict the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Los Angeles officials say a two-car crash involving a Waymo in L.A.'s Pico Union neighborhood sent two people to the hospital early Sunday morning. According to the LA Fire Department, the collision was reported early Sunday in the 1,000 block of Venice Boulevard. Two people were reportedly hurt. A Waymo spokesperson provided more details on the crash, saying that one of the parties involved was a pedestrian with a cart. A Waymo spokesperson provided more details on the crash, saying that one of the parties involved was a pedestrian with a cart. Mostly sunny today in the San Francisco Bay Area, highs in the 70s, lows tonight in the 50s, and the Central Valley, sunny today highs around 100, lows tonight in the 60s. Those are the headlines. I'm Max Pringle on KPFA. Bit past 708 in the morning. The show is up front. My name is Brian Edwards Teigert. We're going to start as we do at the beginning of most weeks with new developments in Russia's war with Ukraine. Our guest is John Fafar, the director of foreign policy and focus. Good morning. Good morning. How you doing today? A pretty nice weekend. Went for a bike ride up in the hills. There's this little produce stand that sets up at a crossroads there that has the best papayas we have found, this side of the East Bay, and I had a little panier with me because I brought hiking shoes for an excursion we did mid-ride, and we got a nice big papaya, and I put it in the panier, but not securely enough, and apparently... When we started down the hill, my wife watches the papaya roll out of the bag and then detonate on the pavement.

And had to pull over to kind of tidy it up so that there wasn't a skid hazard for any cars or bicyclists coming down behind us, which of course I feel terrible about because I should clean up my own messes, but I was at the bottom of the hill by that point. How was your weekend? Runaway papaya. I can't beat that. Yeah, my weekend was fine, actually. We have a pause, I guess, in the wildfire contamination from Canada. So we had a nice weekend, but I understand that the cloud is heading back over toward us this week. We've been there. Sorry. I hope you're doing what you can to take care of your lungs. Let's move on to... bigger problems than exploding papayas. Russia's war in Ukraine. Starting to get, I don't know, John. Indications that maybe it's all one war, there's been increasingly testy exchanges between Iran and Ukraine since Ukraine on Saturday attacked a ship in the Caspian Sea that it said was moving weapons from Iran to Russia. This prompted a summoning of Ukraine's diplomat in Kiev, not in Kiev, excuse me, in Tehran, for addressing down by Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister. And I don't know. It just kind of makes it seem like it's all one war. First of all, how much concern do you have about the possibility of open hostilities between Iran and Ukraine? Well, Iran has threatened retaliation, but honestly, I don't really expect there to be any significant uptick in tensions between the two countries, in part because, well, they're focused on other things. Iran doesn't really have a lot of bandwidth to take on somebody else at this point. There's been a pause in hostilities between the United States and Iran, and that's... largely because, and this goes to your point that it may just be one big conflict, that the United States has drawn down its supply of interceptors that it can use to protect its own troops in the region, but also to supply to allies in the region. And that, of course, affects Ukraine because Ukraine also has drawn down its interceptors to protect against Russian attacks. So this kind of war space is boiling down to, of course, still the capacity to attack with long-range cruise missiles with drones, of course. But really, there's been a pinch in the supply of the means to defend against these attacks. Ukraine at the moment is preparing to roll out sometime this year, I believe, a much cheaper version of the...

Patriot missiles that the system that is kind of the high end of defense against incoming, each of those interceptors costs a lot of money. And Ukraine is preparing to produce something that is way cheaper. It's going to be looked at by countries all around the world as a possible substitute for this high-end model that the United States has, but can't produce enough replacement missiles to really keep functioning in various parts of the world. Although even the cheaper Ukraine missile would not be a suitable countermeasure for the kind of drone storms, excuse me, drone swarms that Russia has been heavily reliant on. That's correct. Although, you know, there are other ways of protecting against... drones that Ukraine has actually been innovating around as well, including going up there in planes to kind of ride alongside these drones and take him out in air, which is kind of intriguing, but probably not the best use of your time and money. But still, because Ukraine, you know, is desperate to find ways of reducing the barrage. coming from Russia, it really is innovation from desperation. And again, you know, this is something that other countries are paying attention to. Ukraine has something like 10 different centers around Europe that they're using to kind of sell their new technology. So they're already kind of monetizing. some of their innovations and has even helped out the United States, although Trump has turned down the really more significant offer of assistance that Volodymyr Zelensky has put forward on the drone front. Kind of interesting development in right-wing politics around Ukraine. Right-wing influencer activist and prolific conspiracist Laura Lumer. A person who can get Donald Trump on the phone and if past reporting is any guideline, someone who can get him to fire people in his cabinet, has been touring Ukraine and saying in public appearances. that she was all wrong about Ukraine. She had been taken in by Russian propaganda, and she now supports the Ukrainian cause. And apparently she has gotten Donald Trump on the phone at least once during her trip through Ukraine. I don't follow the right-wing media sphere and nearly as closely as I probably should. I just don't have the stomach for it. How significant a development do you think this is?

Well, I'm not sure I have a stronger stomach than you do. You have at least written a book about the modern right-land political movement in Europe. That is true. That is true. But on a daily basis, one has to protect one's sanity. The bottom line on this story, Vladimir Putin has been Lomered. And Lomered, of course, is the verb that is used to describe those people who have attracted the ire of Laura Lumer, who then whispers in the ear of Donald Trump to have them fired from the administration because, for whatever reason, they have fallen a foul of her. God knows what, her conspiracy theories, her obsessions, her inanity. And for whatever reason, Laura Lumer decided, probably I would guess it's because of kind of intra-right maneuvering and and, you know, anger, competition. You know, Tucker Carlson decided that Vladimir Putin and Russia was going to be the savior of Western civilization. He pulled along a bunch of influential right-wing commentators. And Laura Lumer, I think, decided, huh, this is an opportunity to distinguish herself in the right-wing. kind of media sphere. And, you know, she went over there and of course in a side comment, I think which was very revealing, she said, you know, I I haven't seen any Muslims here in Ukraine. In other words, she's discovered that Ukraine isn't a bunch of right-wing Nazis, but that it is a country of mostly white people, mostly Christian people, and she can get behind that. And this will probably prove influential. The second kind of reason maybe she did this is she She knew which way the wind was blowing. She saw that Ukraine was doing better on the ground, bringing the attack to Russia. She saw that the Trump administration was beginning to shift its position. She saw that there were some folks in the right wing. media sphere that were criticizing Trump for this position and she decided, aha, here's an opportunity where I can be, you know, more MAGA than the rest of the MAGA nights. And Ukraine was going to be an effective kind of tool for her to, well, grab headlines, position herself more strongly within that media sphere and move closer to Trump all at the same time.

It's really interesting to see the political winds shifting as the facts on the ground shift in Ukraine. For a long time, when we have discussed it, we've been describing a war where Russia was advancing, albeit in very small increments. And the inevitable resolution looked like it would be some kind of land for peace deal, where Ukraine would cede some amount of Russian occupied territory. Now, it really does look like Russia isn't capable of taking more territory. There's some places where Ukraine seems to have pushed the front line back a little bit. And it's hold on the places it does occupy, like Crimea, seem increasingly tenuous. I mean, the peninsula is just subject to fuel shortages, continuous blackouts, and a lot of Russian nationals leaving just because life's become miserable there. Has your estimation of kind of what a resolution of the war looks like changed? Well, first of all, I would say that your assessment of the situation is heresy in the Kremlin. They don't think that they're incapable of seizing more territory. They think that what's happening today in Crimea is a passing problem that can be rectified. There are rumors, though, you know, it's... not certain that this is actually going to happen, but there are rumors that the Russian government is preparing to bring in another 300,000 troops after the elections in September. So obviously they don't want to kind of stir up public resentment before the elections, but after the elections and even bring in another 30,000, one or not another, but 30,000 North Koreans. They brought in about 16,000 previously. So 30,000 North Koreans. So from the Russian point of view, this kind of stalemate that we're seeing along the front lines is temporary. And all it needs is the application of more soldiers, many of which will be kind of sacrificed in the most brutal way to take over territory. As for my assessment of situation, I would say you're probably correct that we have ground to a halt. Russia really is... is incapable at this point of overcoming what has become an asymmetrical advantage for Ukraine. And that is that it has kind of substituted for its lack of numbers on the ground with sophisticated technology that has had profound impact on the Russian economy. So profound that not only is Crimea

isolated, experiencing electricity outages. Not only are gas stations throughout Russia, the site of fistfights as people are trying to get gas for their cars. Not only have all these refineries been hit throughout the country, including as far away as Siberia, but that Russia is forced to ban the export of gasoline and diesel for the rest of this year and import gasoline from India. Now, that import of gasoline from India comes with an asterisk. It comes from actually a mostly Russian-owned refinery. in India. But that just underscores the absurdity of the situation because they ship it to India. It's refined in India and then it's sent back to Russia. That's the length to which Russia has got has to go to avoid the consequences of Ukrainian strikes on its refineries on Russian soil. And it's not like petroleum exports are an incidental part of Russia's economy. They basically are Russia's economy. They're certainly, it's government treasury. Exactly. So, you know, Russia's capacity to sustain these body blows to its economy, well, I mean, it's in some ways unprecedented. We haven't seen anything like this in kind of modern Russian history, i.e., after the fall of the Soviet Union, at least, you know, consequences that have been... handed out by a foreign country as opposed to say what this Russia did to itself in the 1990s. But, you know, there are folks both inside Russia and outside Russia that are saying, look, you just, this can't go on. We had folks in the Duma and the Russian... Congress saying, look, we're on the verge of political unrest here. We have to do something about that. We have just recently the president of Kazakhstan saying to Vladimir Putin, you better consider freezing the war here and the only response that Vladimir Putin had to that was I will give you a personal briefing which is I suppose code word for shut up I'm gonna give you a talking to after the cameras have turned off so you know this is this is not a this is not a good situation for Russia and at the moment

You know, it seems as if the only thing that is pushing this war forward is an ideological commitment by Vladimir Putin to the principles of Russian greatness and the importance of territory to signify Russian greatness. Or the simple fear of losing face from walking back from the conflict. I mean, that's kind of the story of every ill-considered U.S. intervention since World War II. That's true. And there would be some saving of face if Russia could put the best face on what it has achieved in this war. In other words, Vladimir Putin could say, look, we We have Crimea, even if it's in a somewhat hobbled state. We have acquired certain territory in Ukraine as much as 20%. We have made it more difficult for Ukraine to join NATO, to join the European Union, or at least that's how I would imagine Vladimir Putin would characterize it, however true it might be is another question. So he could walk this back and say, look, we have achieved what we set out to achieve. His critics will say, yeah, but you said you would get rid of the Nazis in Kiev. You would change the government there. You'd acquire the entire country. You'd wipe Ukraine as a culture off the map. You didn't achieve that. But Vladimir Putin, I'm sure, since he largely controls the media, would be able to, you know, get his message out there to the Russian public, at least in the short term. I mean, obviously, if the Russian economy were not to recover quickly after a ceasefire or pause in fighting, then Vladimir Putin would obviously be in a much more difficult position. All right. John Faff, we have to leave it there. This is the one and only summer day. We'll spend fundraising on a Monday. Thank you so much for speaking to us. Thank you, and good luck with the fundraising. John Faffer is the Director of Foreign Policy and Focus. He joins us most Mondays after 7 o'clock news headlines to go over new developments in Russia's war with Ukraine. That takes us to 727. The show is up front. My name is Brian Edwards Teakert. And as I mentioned, this is the one and only Monday during the summer when we'll ask for your support of KPFA. We are in the midst of a summer drive. Our summer fun drives are normally... briefer than our regular fun drives. We have endeavored to make this one briefer still. And we'll be making a decision at 9 a.m. this morning on how soon we end the fun drive. It will be somewhere between two and three and a half days shorter than our typical summer fun drive. I desperately want us to be able to...

to prove that we can raise the money it takes to sustain KPFA while interrupting less of our regular coverage to do it. And if you care about the health of this place, I'm asking you to show your support for making those fun drives shorter. This is your one and only chance to show your support during our regular segments with John Feffer and Dr. Swartzberg. And you are running out of time to show that support while it gives us a signal to shorten the length of this fund drive. So we're asking you to pledge quickly and generously at KPFA.org or 1-800-439-5732. A minute and 35 seconds to go. I don't have any thank you gifts to dangle in front of you. We don't do that Monday mornings. We stick with our regular coverage. I don't have any fancy inducements. The one thing I have to offer you is that two of your fellow listeners, N in El Sabrante and Francis in Rodeo, have put up what is... A very large challenge for a sleepy Monday morning in the middle of the summer. They are out of their own pockets, offering to double $1,300 if we can raise enough to match them. I'll only have one more fundraising break. That'll be at the end of the hour. I don't have any particular thank you gifts to offer you. If you want to shop around, you can go to KPFA.org, or you can be the first person to hop on the phone lines at 1-800-439. 5732. 40 seconds to go. We're going to start the 1300 countdown now. If you in particular appreciate hearing the conversations with John Feffer and Dr. Swartzburg every Monday morning, this is your only chance to donate while it shows support for continuing that, and in particular for keeping it unaltered during fun drives. 15 seconds left. KPFA.org is the best place to donate. 1-800-439-5732 is the phone number. If you need to remember it, 1-800, hey, KPFA. $1,300 to go. We'll be back with Dr. John Sportsberg and Corona calls. After the news. Next Pringle with these headlines, mediators say they have made progress in efforts to bring the U.S. and Iran back to negotiations and prevent another all-out war in the Middle East. This comes after a pause and attacks, with neither the U.S. nor Iran reporting any strikes for three days. Mediators led by Qatar and Pakistan are working to bridge the gap between Washington and Tehran. Donna Warder has more.

After nearly two weeks of intensified bombing, the U.S. military has paused its airstrikes on Iran during diplomatic efforts to try to revert a return to an all-out war. A spokesman for the Islamic Republic of Iran Army says on Iranian government TV that Iranian forces also have stopped their attacks, which he says were retaliatory because the U.S. had violated the Memorandum of Understanding. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he'll discuss Iran with President Donald Trump when he's in Washington Monday for the funeral of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham. But while Israel launched the war alongside the U.S. in February, it's been notably absent from renewed U.S. attacks over Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Donna Warder, Washington. German authorities say the suspect in the deadly Berlin Pride attack that killed one person and left 29 injured was shot and killed by police during a confrontation in a suburb of the city. Julie Walker has more. Police in Berlin say Abdul Balut was shot and killed in the suburb Sunday evening after apparently running toward officers with a sharp instrument following a manhunt lasting nearly 24 hours. Prosecutors say the 21-year-old had wanted to join the Islamic State group. Balut was the main suspect after a van drove into a crowd Saturday night near a Pride Festival. More than two dozen people were injured, either hit or stabbed with a machete. One was killed. Nigeria Minister Alexander Dobrand had said Balut, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, was on their radar and called it an act of Islamic extremist terror. Berlin's Pride Festival is one of Europe's largest LGBTQ plus celebrations. I'm Julie Walker. Los Angeles officials say a two-car crash involving a Waymo in LA's Pico Union neighborhood sent two people to the hospital early Sunday morning. According to the L.A. Fire Department, the collision was reported early Sunday in the 1,000 block of Venice Boulevard. Two people were reportedly hurt, and Waymo spokesperson provided more details on the crash, saying that one of the parties involved was a pedestrian with a cart. Mostly sunny today in the San Francisco Bay Area, highs in the 70s, lows tonight in the 50s, and the Central Valley. Sunny today, highs around 100, lows tonight in the 60s. Those are the I'm Max Pringle on KPFA. Just past 733 in the morning. The show is up front. My name's Brian Edwards Teakert. Big thank you to Brian in San Jose, who was our first donation of this hour, and Janelle in Richmond, who wrote, I always appreciate the Monday morning lineup. They, plus an anonymous supporter in Sebastopol, have gotten us to $500 raised.

which means we have 800 to go to make our challenge by the end of the hour. Join them at KPFA.org, 1-800-439-5732. We're going to turn as we do most weeks at this time to new developments in the world of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. Our guest is Dr. John Swartzberg, clinical professor emeritus of infectious diseases at UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Good morning, Dr. Swartzberg. Good morning. I want to start with a quick temperature check on conditions here in the Bay Area, where the levels of COVID getting reported in local sewage samples seem to be continuing to tick up. There's some places where the sewage levels went up a little bit and down a little bit. Levels are overall quite low compared to prior outbreaks, so you do see some statistical noise. But I'm curious overall what the numbers say to you and whether you think it's worth taking extra precautions at this point. Sure. Well, every summer since COVID started visiting us in 2020, we've had a... rise in cases in the first five summers, four summers, those were real surges of cases with lots of cases. Last year, we had a rise in cases, but not very much. And this year, we're seeing a rise in wastewater data, our wastewater sampling, as you just said, Brian. But we're not seeing a significant rise in ER visits, hospitalizations, or deaths. Now, wastewater data tends to precede ER visits, hospitalizations, deaths by anywhere from two or three weeks to up to six weeks. So it's a little difficult. Actually, it's not possible to know what this rise in cases we're seeing, or rise in... wastewater sampling is telling us. But it has been now for at least two weeks, maybe a little bit longer, a significant clip. Now, I'm using different words or different adjectives to describe this because, as you said, we're not seeing a dramatic rise in wastewater sampling. So right now... That's all one can really say. If we look at the CDC's interpretation of the data for all the states, California, as are many other states, is in the low category. Many other states are in the very low category. So we're in the low category primarily because of this rise in wastewater data that we're seeing. I guess the answer is. really two things. One, stay tuned because we don't know where this is going to take us, but it's very unlikely to be a major event. But the second is that everybody needs to understand that this virus is still around. Anecdotally, I'm hearing about cases. Other people are hearing about cases, but we're not...

seeing a real significant change in terms of the real serious cases at this point. So if you're in a higher risk category, if you're over 65 and especially over 75, be sure you're getting the vaccine every six months. If you are younger than that and want to get vaccinated to protect yourself, that's fine. And if you're younger than 65, and have certain underlying conditions like heart disease, chronic lung disease, diabetes, obesity, and so on, then you should avail yourself with the vaccine every six months. So mixed messages here. We're not seeing anything serious at this point. We don't know where that's going to take where that's going to take us, but we also recognize that the virus is still around and avoiding it is a much better strategy than getting it and dealing with it. We frequently get questions from people who are up for their next vaccination and wonder if it's worth holding out for the updated version of the vaccine that'll be released next. That'll be this fall for the winter update to the vaccine. In fact, I'm in that situation. It's been a year, not since I was vaccinated, but since I was last infected with COVID. What are the merits of getting the shot now versus holding out for something that may be slightly better suited to the subvariants in circulation? Yeah, that's an interesting calculus. I think that the way I look at it is that it depends upon your underlying health. If you've got serious underlying health issues, then it's best to stay up to date with every six months and not wait for the new updated vaccine this fall. If you've got something really important plan, let's say you've got a big trip plan for... next month, out of the country, really don't want to get sick. And it's been more than six months and you are in the category where you should get it every six months, I'd get it again. Or if it's been more than a year and you're due for another one, I'd get it again to protect you for that trip. So I think that's the way I look at this situation. On the other hand, you're not at particularly high risk. You're being reasonably careful to avoid COVID and other respiratory viruses. And you feel that you have nothing coming up that where COVID would be really a real bummer. then I think it's reasonable to consider waiting until the new vaccine comes out. So I think it's an individual calculus. When I say individual, I think this is something that you should think about. You might ask your physician, what she or he thinks about it, just to get a sense. All right, Dr. Swartzberg, I want to move on to the explosive increase in cases of cyclospora.

parasitic infection that produces explosions of a different kind. The CDC is now reporting nearly 4,200 laboratory confirmed cases, 7,400 additional cases under investigation, yet to be confirmed by laboratory analysis. They've expanded the number of states that they've identified cases in. They also announced a new outbreak. 72 people, this is actually the FDA who announced this, 72 people. The announcement from the FDA did not mention where or why they think this is a separate outbreak from the one that has caused somewhere in the vicinity of 11,000 cases to date. What does it mean for there to be a new outbreak? What would it take for public health officials to consider this distinct from what we've already been seeing? Yeah, you know, it's like reading tea leaves to understand that messaging out of the FDA because they've been very, well, to be generous, circumscribed in what they're releasing in terms of data. So I can only guess, like you are guessing, Brian, what this might mean. When they say there's a new outbreak, it sounds to me like there's new epidemiologic evidence that suggests that this is not related to what is purported to be the lettuce from Taylor Farms Mexican facility. So maybe they have new information that it's not from lettuce at Taco Bell, for example, where approximately 90% of the people apparently ate. lettuce in their tacos, et cetera, with the initial outbreak. So maybe there's a different vehicle that is coming up. But we shouldn't be guessing at this point. We meaning the public. We meaning people who study these things like I. So. We need much better communication from the CDC and from the FDA. And as you and I talked about a couple of weeks ago, that new information or updated information and clear information just has not been forthcoming. I'm not blaming the people that work at the CDC, the scientists who are there, nor the scientists at the FDA. I'm blaming the organization. They've been as... I've said so many times they're so short-handed that they're doing the best they can. They've got people who dictate what kind of information comes out of the CDC and the FDA, and that's politicized information. So we don't get clear data and trustworthy data. It's a terrible situation to have an outbreak of a... of a disease like cyclospores cyclospora but at the um at the same time well you can pick up my frustration with this yeah you know we got after the the the

Outbreak was identified as possibly connected to Taylor Farms. We got a lot of emails about Taylor Farms. They are a local California agricultural dynasty, even though they're sourcing their iceberg lettuce from central Mexico for distribution to Taco Bell. Brian and Pacifica wrote in shortly after we spoke last week to say, for what it's worth, I saw a news story indicating that the FDA has announced that Taylor Farms test was a false positive. Just thought you'd want to know. I thought we should maybe take a minute to talk about what it means that they announced there was a false positive. It does not mean that Taylor Farms is not the source of the outbreak. That's right. Actually, Taylor Farms didn't perform the test. I believe that test was performed by the FDA. I'm not certain, but I believe that's the case. The test is. a type of test that we've talked about with other infectious disease outbreaks, especially COVID. That is, it's a PCR test where it detects the nucleic acid of the organism. So it's exquisitely sensitive. And it's a very accurate test. But because it's so sensitive, it does have an occasional false positive. The data prior to this outbreak on false positives was around 2% or less. So maybe 1 out of 50 or less. And this test initially suggested it might have been a false positive, meaning the test said it was positive, but it turned out it really wasn't. Because they had to amplify this test many times before it showed up. And that suggested that, gee, when you have to amplify it so many times, maybe there's something. funny about the way this result came out. And so when they repeated this and looked at it more carefully, it didn't show up. So that's what we mean by a false positive here. That says really nothing. It's nice that this test on lettuce that wasn't involved in the outbreak was negative, but it says nothing about where the source is. The data that really is compelling about where the source is is the epidemiologic data, meaning the boots on the ground talking to people, finding out what they ate, and collating that with lots and lots of cases. And that was very compelling epidemiologic data that it came from iceberg lettuce, and it came from iceberg lettuce, amongst other places that was sold at Taco Bell, and it came from iceberg lettuce that was traced back to Taylor Farms. So that's really what we know at this point. I know cyclospora, you know.

moves from feces to food to get into our systems. I'm trying to imagine what could have led to contamination so widespread that it sickened people in the five-digit numbers. Like this is more than just someone in a single field not having access to a toilet in the middle of their shift. Would this be contaminated wastewater or something at the processing facility that shreds the lettuce that causes cross-contamination? Now you're talking about all the possibilities, and these are the same questions that everybody is asking. The way that I understand the lettuce is harvested in Mexico, and this was the Taylor Farms Mexican field that was tracked back to, is these are enormous fields that are planted at different intervals. And with the... What they do is they go in and really clear out a field. They take all the lettuce from a field, so there's an enormous amount of lettuce, and that's what shipped. And then they go on after that to the next field. And at least the initial data did suggest that this came from one really big field where the reported pathogen was. initially found, or at least initially linked. So that's, once that's been done, we should see the outbreak stopping, but we haven't. It slowed down, and there's going to be a significant lag between the time that the outbreak. that the field has been completely used up and people are getting sick. So we may still be in that lagging period. And we're not, as I said, seeing as big of an explosion of cases as we did before. So one hypothesis that still stands is that the... lettuce was contaminated in a field, but it would have to, as you implied, it would have to be pretty widespread and how would you be getting fecal contamination, human fecal contamination of really an enormous field. So that brings us to thinking about any water that was used to wash it with, or as you suggested, the processing of the lettuce in terms of cutting it up and so on. So lots of possibilities here.

Well, we'll see what we know next week, and we'll leave it there for this one. Dr. Swartzberg, I've got to use our final few minutes to raise money for KPFA. Thank you so much for spending another Monday with us. You're welcome. Thank you, Brian. Dr. John Swartzberg is Clinical Professor Emeritus of Infectious Diseases at UC Berkeley School of Public Health. He joins us most Mondays after 730 news headlines to talk about new developments in the world of infectious disease. quite a big and growing world under this administration. It takes us to 7.50 in the morning, which leaves us exactly 10 minutes to raise the money it takes to show that there's support for keeping this segment on the air, even when we're in the midst of a fun drive, and to make sure that KPFA. can pay its bills. As it happens, because we have abbreviated the length of the summer fund drive, this is the one and only time this summer you will have a chance to donate during Corona calls with Dr. Swartzberg. So if you are a regular listener, if you tune in, if you appreciate it, if you talk about what you hear here, if you have learned things here, we need to hear from you. KPFA.org, 1,800, 439, 5732, 1,800, hey, KPFA. We're starting at a disadvantage because it is a sleepy Monday morning. You know, I think all of us most Monday mornings are still like shaking the cobwebs out. Also, on Monday mornings, we do not change our format to increase our fundraising. We stick with our conversations with John Feffer and Dr. Sportsberg as a consequence. You know, we're not building up to offering a thank you gift or doing any of the other things that tend to enhance the amount of money we raise. We're just standing firm in hopes that you'll support the coverage itself. And the stakes are even higher this Monday morning because two of your fellow listeners, N. El Sabrante and Francis in Rodeo, on the one and only morning that we have a chance to share your support for corona calls have given us a challenge totaling $1,300. If we can raise $1,300 or more, they will double it. That comes down to the next eight and a half minutes at KBFA.org, 1-800-439 5732. So we're asking you to join Michael, who donated from Cherryland. We're asking you to join the anonymous person who chipped in from Pacifica and said, thank you for corona calls on the Sunday show. We're asking you to join Jerry in Santa Rosa, who wrote Keep Up the Good Work. And Hetty, who just donated from Alameda and said, thank you, KPFA, unique in all of its existence. She says it's crucial that KPFA exists and remain strongs particularly, but not exclusively to these times. These are...

in my opinion, precariously close to fascism. I've met Hetty at a KPFA event. She is someone who grew up in European fascism. And she writes, KPFA is one bulwark against it. Thank you. Thank you, Hetty. Join her. KPFA.org, 1-800-439 5732. Thanks to her contribution and the others I've mentioned. We are now. $216 away from making that $1,300 challenge. But we are also down to zero callers on the line. So take two minutes out of your morning and help us over the top. As soon as Kat and I get off the air at 9, the radio station is going to make a call in how soon we can end the fun drive. We want them to end it really soon. We want to start a virtual cycle of shrinking fun drives more because they're driving away fewer listeners. KPFA.org, 1-800-439 5732. That's 1-800, Hey, KPFA. All right. I've been asking for money for three minutes, and in those three minutes have succeeded in producing zero donations. So I am going to bring in the strategic reserves. Kat Brooks is here from Law and Disorder. Good morning. Good morning, Brian Edwards Teaker. Good morning. KPFA listeners, Monday morning in what we hope is very close to the end of this fund drive. You have a big role to play in that, a big part to play in whether or not this is the... near end of this fund drive and that is dependent on whether or not you go to kpfa.org or call one 800 439 5732 and pledge this morning this is actually one of my favorite segments to pitch for corona calls and i tell the story over and over again and i'm going to keep telling it because i think it is so demonstrative of the role that KPFA plays in community and the role that upfront plays right in many of our lives to give us the information that we need in the face of disinformation and misinformation um that exists everywhere else almost everywhere else including coming from the federal government and for those you who may not be long-time listeners the story of corona calls is that we were in the middle of this pandemic and between online and those supposedly liberal left-wing mainstream media sites and certainly right-wing media sites, all of the information, so much the information, it was just wrong. It was, we were being fed soundbites in the name of preserving capitalism, in the name of ending shutdown, in the end of mitigating fear so that the government did not have to do what it's supposed to do in theory, which is protect and take care of us. And so Brian Edwards Tickert, I do know how to say his name, pivoted. and created this segment to take care of us, to get us the information that we needed and continue to need, right, in the face of those that are elected to serve us, not serving us, but rather serving their corporate buddies, the development buddies, right? And now we've got administration that just denies, you know, infectious disease is a thing at all. And so we remain in need of corona calls. And jobless, Dr. Swartzberg, who has been...

with the show the entire time, taking time out of his day voluntarily to get on the air and answer your questions. That is what happens every Monday morning on up front, right? This critical, critical pocket of information and news. Not that you're not getting anywhere else. There is nowhere else that has dedicated this kind of time, this kind of energy, this kind of effort to keep you updated, not only on COVID, but all of the other things coming down the pike, telling us how to, what precautions to take. Should we this vaccine, that vaccine, get tested, why this, whatnot, et cetera. That's what you get when you tune in here on Monday mornings, y'all. How critical is that? And then if you don't listen live, it's in the archives. You can share it with your friends. You can go repeat the information if you missed something that was said in the hour. Listen, what you don't support will go away. I don't know how else to say it. That's just the plain facts of it. If management decides that now we can't do this during Fund Drive on Monday mornings. then we won't be able to do it during Fund Drive on Monday mornings. And the way we keep management from saying that is we show them that we can raise the funds. You do that by going to kpFA.org or calling 1-800-439-5732, 1-800, hey, KPFA, and I'm looking, yep, nope, no sustainers this morning. Those of you that are regulars know what's about to come out of my mouth. We need three, three of you in the next three and a half minutes to jump on and say, yep, this is worth it to me. This is important to me. This cannot go away. This is literally a lifeline, literally, right? So five bucks a month, ten bucks a month, whatever bucks a month you can give to say yes to Corona calls, to say yes to up front, to say yes to your station. KPFA. Now is the time to do it. You do it by going to KPFA.org. or calling 1-800-439-5732, 1-800. Hey, KPFA, and if you need a gift, if you need something beyond the amazing covers that you get on the station 24-7-365, anything that we've offered over the last week is there for the taking.kfa.org, 1-800-439-5732. And a reminder that if we do not make the match, we have to call up the people that gave us the money for the match and offer it back. That is not how we end a fun drive early. KPFA.org, 1,800, 439, 5732, 1,800, hey, KPFA, Brian. All right, thanks to someone anonymous in Oakland and Deanna, who chipped in from San Bernardfield. KPFA.org, 1,800, 439, 5732, 1,800, hey, KPFA. Okay, thanks to someone anonymous in Oakland and Deanna in San Rafael. We are now down to $181 left to raise. We are also down to a minute and 45 seconds to do it. I can see a couple people on the phones. Whatever they're donating will help. It might not be enough unless you join them.kfa.org.

1-800-439-5732. Iris in San Francisco has just gotten us 50 bucks closer. We're now at $131 to go in a minute and 20 seconds. So this is it. We are hopefully almost out of time in this fund drive. We are shooting to end this thing early compared to our prior summer fund drives. It is your one and only chance to show your love and appreciation for Dr. Swartzberg and the rest of our Monday morning lineup. And it is a chance to help KPFA bring in an extra $1,300 on our sprint to the decision point when we decide how early we can end fundraising activities. seconds left. KPFA.org, 1-800-439-5732. That is 1-800. Hey, KPFA. Thank you to Robert in Berkeley. We are now $11 away from making that $1,300 challenge. And this is the very last chance I get to ask for your help. The best place to donate is kpFA.org. The phone number, 1-800-439-5732. You're tuned to KPFA, 94.1 FM in Berkeley, KPFB 89.3 FM in Berkeley, KFCF 88.1 FM in Fresno or online around the world at www.kv.org. If you're giving, stick with it. If you haven't yet, you've got five seconds to start. Stay tuned.