PACT Act: Senate passes historic expansion of health coverage for veterans – National & International News – FRI 17Jun2022

Senate passes historic healthcare expansion for veterans. FDA OKs COVID shot for youngest kids. UK official approves Assange extradition. Bodies found in search for missing Amazon pair.

NATIONAL NEWS

Senate passes historic expansion of healthcare for veterans

Yesterday, the Senate has overwhelmingly (84-14) approved the Honoring our PACT Act. If the bill becomes law, it will significantly expand health coverage for veterans exposed to toxic chemicals during their service.

Many have referred to the bill as the “burn pits” bill because of the many Iraq and Afghanistan war vets who’ve suffered rare cancers from exposure to burn pits near US military bases. Rather than trucking waste away from base and burying it, contractors just opened huge pits next to bases and burned the waste. This included every kind of waste, such as medical waste, human waste, food waste, plastic, broken furniture and other defunct equipment. For years, these fires burned day and night next to areas where soldiers ate, drank, worked and slept. President Biden has said he believes burn pits were responsible for the rare brain cancer that claimed the life of his son Beau, who served in Iraq.

Presumption of connection to service

However, the PACT Act goes further than merely addressing cancers related to burn pits. The bill demands that the VA presume that any cancer or other ill-effect a veteran may suffer is connected to their service. This means that veterans who suffered chemical exposures during Vietnam, Desert Storm or any foreign military action will be covered for treatment.

Lawmakers project that the bill will cost an extra $280 billion over the next decade. Some Republican lawmakers had raised objections to the bill due to its high price tag. But ultimately, the bill won broad bipartisan support in the Senate. Veterans’ groups brought a lot of public pressure on Congress to pass the bill. In recent years, former Daily Show host John Stewart has also lent his voice to the cause. Stewart was instrumental in pressuring Congress to pass a bill to cover the medical bills for 9/11 first responders. 

Stewart joined veterans and other campaigners for the bill outside the Capitol yesterday. After the vote, Stewart paid tribute to the family members of already deceased veterans for their tireless campaigning on behalf of others. “Advocating for a cause is – it’s a lovely thing to do, but to do that in your grief, when you know that it’s not going to help your loved one. But that’s not what matters to you – it’s that no one goes through what you went through”.

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FDA authorizes first COVID-19 shot for kids as young as 6 months

The FDA has granted emergency authorization for the first COVID-19 vaccination for children between 6 months and 6 years old. The authorization was for a Moderna vaccine, but Pfizer and others are still working on their own formulas. For months, Pfizer, Moderna and others have been conducting studies of young children to determine what dosage is appropriate and therapeutic for the youngest patients. Earlier this year, there was a false start when the FDA encouraged the companies to apply for authorization, only for the biomedical firms to tell them the application would be premature.

The FDA approval means that the government can start shipping doses out to states that have pre-ordered them. All that remains is for CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to grant approval. After that, doctor’s offices and hospitals can start administering the shots. That will likely happen early next week.

All but one of the states will have shots available by then. Florida has refused to pre-order, leaving up to individual doctors and hospitals to order the shots themselves.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

UK Home Secretary approves Assange extradition to US

Britain’s Home Secretary (roughly equivalent to Attorney General) Priti Patel has authorized an extradition order for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to face trial in the US. In 2010, Wikileaks released a trove of documents exposing war crimes perpetrated by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most infamously, this included the “Collateral Murder” video, in which the crew of a US military helicopter fires and kills two Reuters cameramen, then fires on and kills civilians who came to their aid. The act of firing on first responders is known as a “double-tap” and is a war crime.

Because of these and other leaks of secret documents, Assange faces multiple charges of espionage and hacking in the US. Assange has fought extradition for years, first taking asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Since Ecuador revoked his asylum, Assange has spent two years in London’s notorious Belmarsh prison.

Human rights considerations

Owing to Assange’s failing health, his legal team has argued that his extradition to the US would violate his human rights. In early 2021, a judge agreed with them, saying that Assange would be at risk of suicide if subjected to harsh US federal prison conditions. Attorneys from the US Justice Dept. appealed, offering assurances that Assange’s detention would be safe and humane. Judges on the High Court (equivalent to our federal appeals court) thus overturned the lower court judge’s ruling. The UK’s Supreme Court then upheld the High Court’s ruling.

Patel’s approval of Assange’s extradition is not yet the end of the story. Assange’s team has 14 days to appeal this decision and as vowed that they will. If no other British court will hear their case, Assange’s team could appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

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Brazil: Bodies found in search for pair missing in Amazon

A suspect has confessed to involvement in the murders of UK journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian indigenous expert Bruno Pereira. The suspect has led police to two bodies he buried, purportedly those of Phillips and Pereira. 

Phillips and Pereira were cooperating on a book Phillips was writing about conservation concerns in the Amazon. Phillips had written for the UK Guardian and the Washington Post as an environmental correspondent. Pereira was an expert on the indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest and had campaigned against illegal fishing in the area. Illegal fishing may sound fairly innocuous, but many of the groups involved in illegal fishing are also connected with smuggling of narcotics and other contraband. 

The Amazon rainforest is a hotbed of illegal and destructive exploitation of natural resources, including illegal mining and logging. Phillips’ hoped to shine a light on these activities and their impact in his book and to offer workable solutions.

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