The fourth panel of the conference—titled as in the headline, was moderated by Dennis Speed, and opened by Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former Surgeon General of the U.S., and co-leader with Helga Zepp-LaRouche of the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites, formed in 2020. Elders struck many themes, especially the priority of involving youth in work and hope for the future. She noted at the outset that the U.S. Public Health Commission should be a vanguard for what should be the activities of 80 to 90 percent of U.S. military forces, given today’s crises.
During the Question and Answer period, Zepp-LaRouche gave closing remarks to the whole conference. She noted that the two day event has provided a “richness of knowledge of the problems” we face, and has provided a platform for us to come together to confer on action.
Following Dr. Elders, Marcia Merry Baker, Co-Editor of EIR, presented an overview of the famine, the necessity to double world food production, and the work of the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites, followed by alternating presentations by four medical specialists and five agriculture spokesmen.
The speakers: Dr. Kadijah Lang, President of the Golden State Medical Association and Chairman, National Medical Association (NMA) Council on International Affairs; Dr. Walter Faggett, Former Chief Medical Officer, Washington D.C. Dept of Health, Co-Chair DC Ward 8 Health Council; Dr. Shirley Evers-Manley, Interim Dean of Alcorn State University Nursing School and Chairman, Global Health Committee of the National Black Nurses Association; Mike Callicrate, Kansas/Colorado cattleman, founder of Ranch Foods Direct and Mike’s No Bull Blog; Nicole Pfrang, Kansas cattle rancher, and Secretary-Treasurer of the Kansas Cattlemen’s Association; Bill Bullard, President of R-CALF USA; James Benham, President of the Indiana Farmers Union and National Board Member of the National Farmers Union; Bob Baker, Agriculture Liaison, Schiller Institute.
A special feature was a video clip of an address by Fred Wills, former Finance Minister of Guyana, at the time of his 1976 effort at the U.N. for an International Development Bank approach, as had been put forward by Lyndon LaRouche, to replace the IMF and World Bank. Wills spoke of the necessity of reason and sovereignty in foreign relations, and the need for a new world economic system.
Zepp-LaRouche gave very strong remarks during the discussion that we face a crisis of indifference. “The population is numb.” They are uninformed, and also people are concerned only “with their issue.” We must take the totality of the situation into account. We are sitting on a powderkeg of the blow out of the financial system, and social explosion. She stressed that the “degree of mobilization” we can effect is critical.
In the course of reports by the medics and farm leaders, on the health care and food supply crises, one aspect jumped out. Over this past year, a Federal waiver—No. 1135—was declared by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for hospitals, during the pandemic state of emergency, to selectively deny treatment to designated patients, without penalties on the care facility, if they determined the patient had low chances of responding to treatment, and treatment resources were limited. Dr. Lang described several incidents of this kind of what she called “rationalized care” at facilities in Los Angeles, where hospital authorities denied care to people, showing bias toward dementia, the elderly, and even cases without “conditions.” Dr. Faggett and Dr Evers-Manley also reported on the waiver, and other reflections of the same selective treatment.
Zepp-LaRouche warned that the circumstances for this happening are not an accident. The “holes in the system” that have shown up during the pandemic are not an accident. It is a policy of London, Wall Street and Silicon Valley, as they exert their consolidated power. Beware any indifference to this. Remember what jurist Leo Alexander said at the Nuremberg trials, warning about “small beginnings.” Any slight change in respect for the sacredness of life is a slippery slope that leads to the Nazi horrors. These changes are going on right now. We have to activate to the maximum.
