The Concept of Citizenship: Challenging South Africa\u27s Policy

The concept of citizenship has come to represent the full cluster of civil rights held by individuals as members of modern states. Therefore, of all the reforms undertaken by South Africa in response to the economic and political instability of the last two years, the most potentially far reaching was State President P. W. Botha\u27s announcement that citizenship would be restored\u27 to South African blacks. In September 1985, Botha affirmed that some form of citizenship would be extended to all South Africans. Finally, on July 2, 1986, the South African government passed The Restoration of South African Citizenship Act

America and the World: Human Rights at Home and Abroad.

Multiple provisions in the Bill of Rights appear gutted around the last year. While abroad, Mr. Pitts received an outside perspective on American news which provided him with a new outlook on current events. The United Nations Social Forum brought voices into the United Nations which are not typically heard, such as poor and vulnerable populations not represented elsewhere. Concurrently, the Johannesburg Summit addressed similar issues. However, as of late, the American government suppresses the voices of the American people. The Patriot Act includes provisions which deter dissent, freedom of speech, and assembly. This Act also purported to give the government expansive new powers. The Patriot Act also allows internet providers to hand over individual email addresses of anyone deemed a threat. Already the Act appears to violate the First and Fourth Amendments. America treads further on the Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights to Due Process by refusing access to impartial courts for detainees on military bases. Along those same lines, the United States government violates the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a speedy and public trial. For each provision of the Bill of Rights, an international equivalent exists. These equivalencies are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Affording people rights enhances security, while repression of those rights diminishes security. When we feel the need to repress rights at home in America, other nations feel comfortable following suit. The bottom line is repression does not work. Repression creates more terrorism. The United States needs to realize working with other nations is the way in which to attain global security

Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19

Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2–4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes—including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)—in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease

Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19

Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2,3,4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes—including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)—in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease

America and the World: Human Rights at Home and Abroad (Speaker Presentation)

I will try and provide a bit of an inventory of some of the main provisions of the Bill of Rights that appear to me to have been gutted in this country in the last year. The 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th amendments to the U.S. Constitution have been weakened. For each provision of the Bill of Rights, there is an international equivalent in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, spelled out in more detail in various international treaties on the subject. While not identical, the major international human rights are similar in essence to their United States counterparts. The bottom line; repression doesn't work. We have alienated our closest allies. We have all-too-often used the U.N. as a cloak or mask to legitimize the pursuit of our selfish interests, instead of the genuinely global interests that we all have in this newly interdependent world. The reality now is that our interests are so often the same as their interests