Universal constants are a set of mathematical values, fine-tuned to incredible precision to sustain the clockwork functioning of the universe. Life on Earth is a microcosm of those very forces, seamlessly blended to create relationships between nature and man, flora and fauna, wind, and waters, which culminate in a delicate ecosystem, a vibrant balance of life that is inviolable, that[Read More…]
Asia currently accounts for more than half of the world’s new and confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths, with India, Indonesia and the Philippines being among the hardest-hit. Combined, WHO regions Western Pacific and South-East Asia reported 1,140,000 new cases and increases of more than 20% in hospital and ICU admissions reported in several countries. These figures are widely considered as[Read More…]
At a time when most of the world has left far behind the stage of prolonged COVID related lockdowns, the Chinese authorities have continued with very long lockdowns in several parts of the country, justifying this as a policy of so-called zero tolerance for COVID. This is both surprising and unfortunate, as recent experience of long stretched lockdowns in many[Read More…]
Dealing with the Disease that Never Seems to Leave Town On New Years’ Eve 2019, Americans celebrated the advent of the roaring ‘20s with fireworks and champagne, amid ominous news alerts from China. Surely that virus would stay on the other side of the planet. I cringe at how entitled we felt then. Covid-19 has now wiped out more than[Read More…]
by Md Tabrez Alam & Achchhe Lal Prajapati ABSTRACT Jharkhand is a state rich in natural resources consisting of plateaus, small hills and forests located in the eastern part of India. Despite being a prosperous state, it faces challenges such as malnutrition, hunger, unemployment, illiteracy, corruption, poor health services and controversial politics. Even though Jharkhand is considered one of[Read More…]
Cuba and China have filed the first patent for a vaccine against not just COVID-19 and its many variants, but which could also be effective against several related viruses, the Cuban daily Granma reported on Thursday. In spite of a U.S.-directed blockade against trade with Cuba, the socialist island nation was able to develop five COVID-19 vaccines and inoculated 95% of[Read More…]
It has dominated news cycles, debates and policies since 2020, but COVID-19 continues to exercise the interest of number crunchers and talliers. While the ghoulish daily press announcements about infections and deaths across many a country have diminished and, in some cases, disappeared altogether, publications abound about how many were taken in the pandemic. The World Health Organization, ever that[Read More…]
The World Health Organization (WHO) released Thursday its much-awaited and anticipated report on global excess deaths associated with COVID-19 for the period from January 2020 to December 2021. By the end of last December, officially reported global deaths had reached 5.42 million. However, the WHO study found that almost 15 million more people perished in the same period than usual, 2.75 times[Read More…]
On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Covid-19 as a pandemic. Two years into the pandemic, Asia continues to see disparities in access to vaccines which has prolonged the pandemic for Asians and deepened existing inequalities across the region. Members of the Peoples Vaccine Alliance (PVA)-Asia called upon governments to invest in public healthcare services and ensure[Read More…]
by Shobha Shukla and Bobby Ramakant Global health thought leader Dr Tim France rightly tweeted, “Here is the WHO stating explicitly what most people I know are saying to one another privately: Is not it really risky to lift all COVID-19 related measures now, with the virus still circulating in high levels? Clearly, in these global experts’ minds, the[Read More…]
Today at 5:00 p.m., the US National Cathedral’s bell will ring 900 times, to mark 900,000 American dead from COVID-19. It has been just 55 days—less than two months—since the bells of the cathedral rang to commemorate 800,000 deaths. And, at the present daily death rate of 2,700, it will take just 37 more days for the United States to[Read More…]
Pappu Singh is bedridden in his one-room dilapidated house. His nephew Pirghas (Right) and son Pavan (next to Pirghas) stand behind him along with some of their neighbours. The pandemic wreaked havoc on Pappu Singh and Sheela Devi’s family, residents of Nagla Vidhichand village situated on the Agra-Gwalior highway in the southern part of Agra district. While none of their[Read More…]
Imagine that you were experiencing all of this (and by this, I mean our lives right now) as if it were a novel, à la Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year. The famed author of Robinson Crusoe — Defoe claimed it had been written by the fictional Crusoe himself — was five years old in 1665. That was when a year-long visitation of the[Read More…]
World Health Organization (WHO) informed: Globally, as of 4:00pm CET, 28 January 2022, there have been 364,191,494 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 5,631,457 deaths, reported to WHO. As of 28 January 2022, a total of 9,854,237,363 vaccine doses have been administered. Situation by WHO Region Europe: 138,839,947 confirmed Americas: 132,400,000 confirmed South-East Asia: 51,328,032 confirmed Eastern Mediterranean: 18,614,606 confirmed Western Pacific: 14,970,594 confirmed Africa: 8,037,551 confirmed Source: WHO, Data may[Read More…]
by Shobha Shukla & Bobby Ramakant With almost 19 million new COVID-19 cases reported, the third week of January 2022 recorded the highest-ever weekly number of new infections so far in the pandemic’s history. This was an increase of 20% more cases than the earlier ‘highest-ever record’ which was set in the previous week. With over two years into the[Read More…]
To Shri Mansukh Mandaviya Union Health Minister Dear Shri Mandaviya, At a recent meeting to review the Covid containment effort, the Prime Minister was reported to have said, “There is a need for continuous scientific research… including genome sequencing, given that the virus is evolving continuously.” Contrary to what he had said at the meeting, it has been reported (“Blow To[Read More…]
by Shobha Shukla and Bobby Ramakant Is it not shocking that after more than two years into the pandemic (when we know how to protect ourselves from getting infected, and have had vaccines for more than a year now), by far the highest-ever number of corona virus infections in a single week were reported in the second week of January[Read More…]
The short expiration dates of vaccines donated to the sharing program is a major problem, Etleva Kadilli, an official concerned with the issue told the European Parliament (EP) on Thursday. The official heads the Supply Division of UNICEF, the UN’s agency for the betterment of children’s lives worldwide. “Until we have a better shelf life, this is going to be[Read More…]
In early 2020, we saw the beginning of the COVID-19 ‘pandemic’. The world went into lockdown and even after lockdowns in various countries had been lifted, restrictions continued. Data now shows that lockdowns seemingly had limited if any positive impacts on the trajectory of COVID-19 and in 2022 the world – especially the poor – is paying an immense price[Read More…]
Quite recently, I have observed and spoken to dozens of people about the impact brought in by ongoing waves of recent pandemics in the name of Covid, Delta and Omicron. One must understand that the history of science demonstrates many more pandemics that took the toll of millions of people worldwide and in India. COVID-19 was a once-in-a-lifetime event that[Read More…]
by Shobha Shukla & Bobby Ramakant The year 2022 began on a dismal note, with its first week reporting the highest-ever number of COVID-19 cases in a week globally. Since the pandemic began in December 2019, the reported number of people who contracted the virus has been over 306 million and 5.5 million people have died due to it worldwide.[Read More…]
On Saturday, millions of people across the world will celebrate Christmas. Even with COVID-19 still plaguing the world, families will gather; bells will ring; music will be in the air. Each year, I use this column to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas. Christmas has become a holiday, a time to exchange presents and cards, to see friends and[Read More…]
To Shri A K Bhalla Union Home Secretary Dear Shri Bhalla, We are once again facing a steep surge of the Covid virus; this time it is the new mutant, Omicron looming large. This Covid variant is reported to be three times more infectious than its Delta predecessor, which wreaked havoc on the people during the second wave. In order[Read More…]
by Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young In Germany, conspiracy myths linked to the Coronavirus pandemic are spreading particularly well in the former East-Germany state of Saxony. Not by accident, Saxony remains a stronghold of Germany’s Neo-Nazi party, the Alternative for Germany or AfD. In 2021, believers in conspiracy myths are getting a lot more attention with their numbers decreasing compared[Read More…]
The decision by several governments across the globe to institute travel bans on seven African countries, starting on November 27, due to the discovery of a new Covid-19 variant, Omicron, was perceived to be hasty in the eyes of some and fully justifiable on medical grounds, in the view of others. However, the matter is hardly that of a difference of opinion. The[Read More…]
In common parlance, a “public good” refers to a commodity or service that becomes available to all members of a society with equal access, without discrimination. There are more rigorous definitions of this in economics. However, one simple way to describe a public good is to say that it is not possible to prevent individuals selectively from consuming it, unless[Read More…]
Forget any notions of juicy carrots; the stick approach of savage punishment is in vogue with the Greek government in pushing vaccination rates. It is far from the only one. Across a number of countries in Europe, governments wishing to drive up levels of COVID-19 vaccination have decided to abandon suasion and the generous supply of medical information in favour[Read More…]
Stick to the script: owe that duty of care to your population, so the legal experts in government tell you. Self-interest pays, if in small amounts. These rigid, formulaic assumptions have done wonders to harm and deter any spirit of cooperation regarding dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. History’s record of humanity’s response to plagues, pandemics and disease is one of[Read More…]
Epistemic Upheavals, Inquests and Voices of a Geographically Marginalized Researcher Social Science Research at the Crossroad As an ethnographic researcher, I am expected to take a reflexive role— that is observing, reflecting, building up a theory and going back to the field for testing— all of which demands dedicated focus, time and resources. However, the ongoing pandemic has significantly changed[Read More…]
The corona virus has brought the entire humanity to a standstill. It has pushed the world to the domains of uncertainty and perplexity, making us question the inherent mystery of existence itself. While those who succumbed to the pandemic, their existence became statistics, but for the vast majority of our country, surviving the stifling grip of poverty and the pangs[Read More…]
Britain, Germany and Italy confirm cases of Omicron while other countries suspect cases of their own. Chaos at a Dutch airport exemplified the scattershot response across Europe. A New York Times report (Covid News: Omicron Variant Puts Nations on Alert, Nov. 27, 2021) said: Scientists raced to study a new coronavirus variant as several cases were spotted in Europe and[Read More…]
To Shri Rajesh Bhushan Union Health Secretary Dear Shri Bhushan, While we are about to conclude that we longer have to feel concerned about a Covid surge for the third time, the discovery of Omicron and its own mutants with high rates of transmission in many parts of the world has put to rest any such feeling of comfort. Are[Read More…]
It has been written about more times than any care to remember. Pliny the Elder, that old cheek, told us that Africa always tended to bring forth something new: Semper aliquid novi Africam adferre. The suggestion was directed to hybrid animals, but in the weird pandemic wonderland that is COVID-19, all continents now find themselves bringing forth their types, making[Read More…]
by Thomas Klikauer & Meg Young By early November 2021, Germany’s Corona infection numbers reached new highs. Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI) registered 40,000 new infections within 24 hours, the 7-day average climbed to 30,000, the 7-day “incidence” (infection rate) to 232.1 – that measures infections per 100,000 people. German officials use simple numbers – they are not percentages. This infection rate[Read More…]
There are many news channels both domestic and foreign who propagate that China is facing a lot of trouble due to hike in corona pandemic recently. Most of them do not understand the strategy of China. The reports in Global times CN also use the words “out break” , “resurgence of covid” etc., but their concept is totally different from[Read More…]
Abstract Kerala, the South-Western State in India with a population of 35 million was in the global limelight for successfully flattening the covid curve and for the lower case-fatality ratio (CFR) during the first year of the pandemic. Ten months down the line, the State is again in the media glare for successfully implementing the covid vaccination drive. Kerala’s vaccination[Read More…]
by Will Morrow and Alex Lantier In a press conference yesterday, World Health Organisation (WHO) director for Europe Hans Kluge issued an urgent warning: Europe and the republics of the former Soviet Union are now the epicentre of the pandemic. Kluge warned that there could be 500,000 more coronavirus deaths in Europe in just the next three months, beyond the[Read More…]
As a city, Melbourne previously prided itself with the air of a prim and proper heiress, one without peer in Australia: a gastronomic wonder, a sporting goddess, and a place of orderly public transport. The Economist Intelligence Unit glowed with praise, designating the city the world’s “most liveable” for seven years running. There were few law and order issues; nothing[Read More…]
To Shri Sanjeeva Kumar Union Home Secretary Dear Shri Sanjeeva Kumar, I had earlier written to the Union Finance Minister in my letter dated 21-6-2021 on inaccuracies in the affidavit filed on behalf of the government before the apex court on the quantum of compensation payable to the victims of Covid virus. I forward here a copy of that letter[Read More…]
One of the seven sins we should not commit as warned by Mahatma Gandhi, is “science without humanity”. But are we conscious enough to ensure that the global fight against Covid is mindful of Gandhi ji’s message? Right before Gandhi ji’s birth anniversary, government of India announced its reciprocal policy for UK nationals arriving in India to undergo mandatory quarantine[Read More…]
As the weeks long birthday festivity of the leadership is rejoiced country wide, the covid is still raging. The carnival is in line with the post covid decisions and actions of the leadership demonstrating a pursuit of personal power and glory instead of national interest in the times of disease and death. The national interest, a term synonymous with the[Read More…]
The world stands at a critical juncture of the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries that lack the first round of vaccine coverage are extraordinarily vulnerable to the highly infectious Delta variant, and are also seedbeds for new variants that could quickly spread worldwide. The Lancet COVID-19 Commission, which I chair, is working urgently with the United Nations system to strengthen the multilateral response.[Read More…]
Corona Pandemic has deteriorated the Education System of Odisha, and of the country also. The Schools and Colleges have been closed since one and a half year. As a result of which the students have been deprived of from proper education. Now, the shops, markets, malls, religious institutions and cinema halls etc. have been given the permission to[Read More…]
The virus has left a lasting imprint on the present generation. Many people have not yet recovered fully from the infection and many others still lamenting on the loss of their dear ones and coping with the new realities. It is understandable that the pains will take long time to perish. Apart from such tragedies all over the world, which[Read More…]
Apartheid Israel and the UK are among world leaders in Covid-19 vaccination having achieved 63% and 64% of total population fully vaccinated, respectively. However premature cessation of Lockdown and related measures in these countries has led to increased infection and death. For economic and political reasons Australia proposes to follow suit when it achieves substantial vaccination in a few months’[Read More…]
By Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young German coronavirus conspiracy theories are available for just €24.99. Germany’s right-wing media are cashing in on the fear of the pandemic. It is good business when selling snake oil and right-wing ideology. At the top is Germany’s right-wing extremist and loosely AfD-affiliated Compact magazine. It is among the clear winners of the Coronavirus pandemic.[Read More…]
by Akhter Hussain Bhat & Dr. Mohammad Akram As of September 08, 2021, according to WHO, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected 222 countries and territories, with more than 220 million cases and 4.59 million deaths. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread mortality and has exposed the weaknesses of health-care systems worldwide. National responses to the pandemic have varied from[Read More…]
The Covid Pandemic and Climate Crisis underscores a fatal split in the 21st Century within every society and human being’s better survival instinct’s, mirrored by the irresponsibility of the corporate world’s resistance to a genuine worldwide carbon emissions tax strategy to protect us all from ultimate climate calamity. On all sides of the arguments there exists blood brothers and sisters[Read More…]
Adria Jagaranga was a student of Class 7. About 14 years old, the boy was a keen student. During the lockdown, he moved from Bhubaneswar, where he went to school, back to his village in Rayagada district of Odisha. The boy would go up the hill each day with a smartphone to attend online classes. A few days ago in[Read More…]
There are several reports in the press here in Assam that in several rural regions people queuing up from daybreak for the jab were told that the vaccine stock was exhausted after three or four hours.Incensed they created a huge ruckus,and at times vandalised the vaccine centre and attacked the staff.A friend from the countryside told me on phone that[Read More…]
The world this week marked the 200 millionth confirmed case of the coronavirus pandemic, the latest in a series of grim milestones amid a pandemic that has been plaguing humanity for the past 20 months. Alongside that sobering figure, the virus has prematurely taken more than 4.26 million human lives from their coworkers, friends and families. This week is also[Read More…]
In a patriarchal society male privilege is not far away. So it should be no surprise that it has entered the domain of Covid vaccinations in India , especially at a time of vaccine shortage. Since the beginning of the vaccination drive, 14.99 crore doses have been administered to women while 17.8 crore doses have been given to men, government[Read More…]
by Sweta Lakhani & Abhiraj Agarwal The Covid-19 crises has been witnessed by the world around and India is one of the countries with the huge population has suffered personal as well economic loses throughout this year. Due to constant lockdowns and limited hours of curfew, many young lawyers have faced a lot of challenges. It has transitioned from seeing[Read More…]
We are all concerned for family, friends, community and Humanity as a whole in the COVID-19 Pandemic especially as the much more infectious Delta strain has become dominant. However many of us will be frustrated by family members and friends who variously are vaccine hesitant, anti-vaxxer (anti-vaccination), accept bizarre conspiracy theories, and reject expert medical advice. Set out below are[Read More…]
Do you remember the United Nations Millennium Development Goals? If not, you are not alone. These ambitious goals, which included the eradication of “extreme poverty and hunger”, to “combating lethal diseases” and “reducing child mortality worldwide”, proved to be yet another empty gesture which, unsurprisingly, amounted to little. Even if the architects of the project were well-intentioned as they labored[Read More…]
On July 22, in the latest twist in the evolving debate on COVID origin, Chinese officials said that they were shocked and offended by a World Health Organization proposal to further investigate whether the COVID 19 pandemic emerged from a lab in Wuhan. Zeng Yixin, the vice minister of the Chinese Health Commission , said at a news conference in[Read More…]
He can scant resist a slogan, but UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s insistence on describing Britain’s exit from lockdown as Freedom Day came with its usual kitschy quality. All would be splendid as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in the “move to step 4.” Social contact rules would be scrapped, along with mask mandates in various public spaces. Nightclubs could reopen;[Read More…]
by Dr. Md Afroz & Md Tabrez Alam The outbreak of Covid-19 shattered the whole world, everything goes on standstill except state, it got absolute control over territory and population curtailed all civil political movement and weakened democracy. Covid-19 outbreak and Human Catastrophe The ongoing Corona virus popularly known as COVID-19 rocked the whole world with its large number[Read More…]
The significant increase in Covid 19 infections in our country in the last one week has prompted concerned Malaysians to ask the authorities to re-strategize their approach towards the fight against the spread of the virus. A total lockdown, some feel, where most movements are severely curbed is not the solution. They prefer a targeted lockdown which is focussed upon[Read More…]
by Gaurav Datt, Swati Dutta and Sunil Kumar Mishra The study The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered an unprecedented health and an economic crisis of in India. It is important to document how this crisis has affected people’s lives and livelihoods in different parts of the country. Based on phone interviews with more than 1600 households in rural Bihar, a study[Read More…]
Australia, like other island states, has had spells of isolationist fancy and hermit dispositions. Protected by geography, distant and vast, the country’s first bit of legislation in 1901 was the Immigration Restriction Act. This nasty little statute came to be colloquially known as the White Australia Policy. Doors would remain open to Europeans and preferably those of Western stock. Fortress[Read More…]
We are more than a year and half into the pandemic and this momentous time period has laid bare our vulnerabilities as a global society. The way coronavirus disease has been fought, has brought an enormous shift in our lives. Pandemic protocols, restrictions and lockdowns gave us a glimpse of the world suspended in time. The pandemic is far from[Read More…]
A survey study conducted by the Indo Global Social Service Society has found that only 2% of slum/basti dwellers have been fully vaccinated (with 2 doses) and that a little over 16% of them have received their first dose since the vaccination was made available for all above 18. As the second wave of COVID-19 cases sweeps India, informal sector[Read More…]
Policy makers who have the important responsibility of taking decisions relating to Covid response face many difficulties. On some important issues relating to this pandemic even very senior scientists at world level do not have the same opinion. A lot of their understanding is based on their experience in the richest countries and may not be applicable in conditions of[Read More…]
NAPM welcomes the Supreme Court judgment on rations for all migrant workers and time-bound registration of unorganized sector workers. SC has fallen short of delivering on its own observation of a “socialistic pattern of society”. Struggle for holding Govt and Judiciary accountable to working class must continue. 2nd July, 2021: The sudden and unplanned lockdown imposed by the union government in[Read More…]
On June 28, the Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra said that only those who have received two doses of vaccines will be permitted entry into theatres, multiplexes, coaching centres, and colleges. A few days before, on June 24, the Gujarat High Court granted temporary relief to an IAF officer who received a show-cause notice from Indian Air Force over[Read More…]
The COVID pandemic has caused unprecedented damage across the globe. Its’ gory journey, still continues to impact our lives and the world around us. Nearly a year into the pandemic, we face a human tragedy, and a public health, humanitarian and development emergency. With India’s first case of COVID-19 reported in Jan 2020, and the Government announcement of a nationwide[Read More…]
An international and independent investigation to examine the alternative hypotheses is urgently needed, and the U.S. and Chinese governments should cooperate fully and transparently with such an inquiry. Where did COVID-19 come from? The source of the pandemic is a subject of immense importance. But more than 18 months after the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), the question[Read More…]
During his campaign for the Presidency, Joe Biden called on President Donald Trump to: “Establish and enforce health and safety standards for workplaces… The Trump Administration should immediately release and enforce an Emergency Temporary Standard… to give employers and frontline employees specific, enforceable guidance on what to do to reduce the spread of COVID.” Biden became President on January 20,[Read More…]
By Dr. Sameeksha Dhillan & Dr. Divya Singh From an average of over 93,000 new cases per day in September last year to roughly 10,000 new COVID cases per day in February 2021, India has made great strides. This significant and consistent decline led to the withdrawal of lockdown with a partial relaxation in various sectors. Social or religious activities[Read More…]
by Bobby Ramakant and Sandeep Pandey When India was reeling under the severest impact of the Covid pandemic, and the peak of around 450,000 new cases was reported in 24 hours around mid April 2021, then an interesting chronology of events were taking place regarding the Covid vaccination programme (along with Kumbh in Uttarakhand and elections in West Bengal and[Read More…]
VT Padmanabhan and Joseph Makkolil After a brutal second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, Indian people are anxiously waiting for the third wave, which is expected to arrive in about 6 to 8 weeks in August-September. The first wave was driven by two variants Alpha and Delta, which were more contagious than the ancestral strains. Recently a new variant – Delta[Read More…]
To Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, I understand from recent news reports (https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/mha-tells-supreme-court-ex-gratia-payment-rs-4-lakh-covid-19-deaths-affordability-states) that the Centre has contended before the apex court that it would not be able to pay an ex-gratia relief of Rs 4 lakhs to Covid victims for the reason that “utilisation of scarce resources for giving ex-gratia, may have unfortunate consequences of affecting the pandemic response and health[Read More…]
Written by Ashish Kumar Singh & Wakar Amin India consists of a population with different sets of profiles of socio-culturally diverse identities scattered within it. Any vaccination program which is aimed at covering the whole population has to use a diverse and heterogeneous strategy like the population of the country. Not to mention the fact that the enormous size of[Read More…]
Written by Raminder Kaur and Shirin M Rai Abstract COVID-19 has revealed deep inequalities in our societies based on class, race, ethnicity, gender, age and region. These inequalities have also been marked by national borders and borderings especially between the global North and South. Orientated between India and the UK, we adopt a mobile and doubly reflexive lens characteristic[Read More…]
Asha worker Kamlesh from Haryana explained how, in a time of crisis, the government machinery can prove a hurdle – when people were reeling under the fear of the coronavirus during the first wave of the pandemic last year, there were Union ministers and ministers from Haryana asserting that Muslims who gathered for the Tablighi Jamaat in Nizamuddin, New Delhi,[Read More…]
Amidst India’s unfolding Covid disaster, the southern Indian state of Kerala has been lauded for its effective response to the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in controlling mortality. What are the factors that help explain Kerala’s record? This two-part analysis attempts to unravel the secrets of Kerala’s impressive performance against Covid, based on extensive interviews with key officials involved. This is the[Read More…]
Amidst India’s unfolding Covid disaster, the southern Indian state of Kerala has been lauded for its effective response to the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in controllsing mortality. As of June 2, Kerala, despite having the third highest cumulative case count in the country (9,60,000), had the second lowest death rate (.36%) with 3,508 fatalities. In contrast, the state of Delhi, home[Read More…]
We forget history at our own peril. In the 1980s, more than two lakh newborn babies used to die every year in India due to a dreaded infection. This, when that preventable disease was already only of academic interest in the developed world. WHO and the Indian government worked together to address the factors leading to the disproportionately high rates[Read More…]
To The Chief Minister of Odisha Bhubaneswar, Odisha Sub-Lack of human sensitivity in treatment and transparency in the process of dissemination of information on the patients in the COVID hospitals. Sir, As per the standard practice and operating norms in the treatment of patients in the COVID hospitals once a patient is admitted into the hospital the patient goes entirely[Read More…]
The sharp growth in Covid19 cases across the districts of North Bengal from a few month alarms the concerned citizen across the country, mostly the tea lovers. There is no uncertainty that the pandemic has reached community transmission even in the rural fringes of the country including the tea gardens of Darjeeling Hills or North Bengal as a whole. In[Read More…]
Written by Bobby Ramakant and Sandeep Pandey Well known Hindustani classical singer Padma Vibhushan Channulal Mishra, chosen as one of the proposers of Narendra Modi in Lok Sabha elections, lost his wife and elder daughter to Covid in private hospitals in Varanasi. Younger daughter has accused Medwin Hospital of charging Rs. 1.5 lakhs for treatement of her sister and not[Read More…]
Sincere Tony is again on the stump, promoting his vision of how best to return to a lovely, unruffled world of capitalist endeavour, circuit lecturing and summit meetings that no longer need to be held online. And when Blair has visions, they are bound to be highly selective and keen in terms of his own bank account, not to mention[Read More…]
Pune (Maharashtra): For decades, the second week of March has marked the start of the popular traditional wrestling season, that attract hundreds of participants and big audiences in the villages of western Maharashtra. Held as part of travelling fairs, that also include folk theater and music performances such as tamasha and lavani, farming communities look forward eagerly to watching the[Read More…]
I went to a birthday party recently. The celebrants greeted each other with hugs on the patio. After an outdoor barbeque dinner, we stood shoulder to shoulder around the island in the kitchen, eating cake from small paper plates. We sang “Happy Birthday.” Ordinarily, an event like that wouldn’t be worth noting, but these aren’t exactly ordinary times. In this[Read More…]
COVID-19—a gray rhino event COVID-19 is a gray rhino event, an event that is highly probable and with a large impact. It can be seen well in advance due to its size and early warning signs, but which are ignored. Now over a year into the pandemic, India remains completely unprepared for COVID-19’s second wave. India did not foresee COVID-19[Read More…]
Apprehension of contracting the disease and concurrent nationwide lockdown created uncertainty among millions of laborers compelling them to migrate from cities. Migrant workers are spine of unorganized workforce in Indian economy (1). An estimate by (Geetika et al., 2020) states that 90% of women workforce is engaged in informal sector in which 70% come from rural areas who migrate seasonally.[Read More…]
A recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that worries about the COVID pandemic in the United States are at their lowest level since it began. Only half of Americans are either “very worried” (15%) or “somewhat worried” (35%) about the virus, while the other half are “not very worried” (30%) or “not worried at all” (20%). But the news from around[Read More…]
New Delhi, June 5: The Delhi Government’s Saheli Samanvay Kendras (SSKs) have emerged as emergency response centres for the community during the ongoing pandemic. Distribution of additional relief, ration, health supplies and awareness-raising on the vaccine and other issues related to the Coronavirus is taking place through these centres that are located in densely populated, low-resourced areas with large resettled[Read More…]
Chennai: As I complete my long discussion with Muthukumar, he politely asks me if he can ask me a question. “Please do” I say and he asks “Sir, I had mortgaged my wife’s jewels with a private lender only recently, now I have no job .Will they give me any waiver for I cannot pay the dues?”. His question comes[Read More…]
Written by VT Padmanabhan and Joseph Makkoli The second wave of Covid-19 that began in Jan 2021 is on the decline, as epidemiologists expect that the infection rates would reach the nadir in a month or so. The second wave can also be called as India wave as the pandemic grew much faster here. It can also be called as[Read More…]
Written by Dr. Rabiya Yaseen Bazaz & Professor Mohammad Akram Mental health is a state of well-being whereby individuals recognize their abilities, try to cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and fruitfully, and make a contribution to their communities. According to World Health Organisation (WHO),mental, physical and social health are interwoven strands of life and as our[Read More…]
Sputnik V has already been soft launched in India on May 14 as part of a pilot study with a top official of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories receiving the first jab in India. ..Single-dose Sputnik Light could be first single-dose vaccine launched in India. The biggest commercial consignment of Sputnik-V vaccines arrived in Hyderabad on june 1, at 3:40 am with[Read More…]
To Shri Rajiv Gauba Cabinet Secretary Govt of India Dear Shri Gauba, The Pricing and Accelerated National Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy 21-4-2021 (PANCVS) notified by the Union Health Ministry has given a free license to the vaccine manufacturers to set prices arbitrarily, ostensibly in a transparent manner, as indicated in Para 8(ii) below. “Manufacturers would in a transparent manner make[Read More…]
To Shri Arjun Munda, Minister of Tribal Affairs, Government of India Subject: Covid-19, lock down and health crisis in Adivasi areas – urgent intervention called for Dear Sir, We, a group of concerned citizens engaged with Adivasis and their organisations submitted an assessment report to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in May 2020 highlighting the problems that Adivasis and other[Read More…]
Now that we’re all unmasking and the economy seems set to roar into the 2020s, what will we remember about how disastrously, how malignantly, the Trump administration behaved as the pandemic took hold? And will anyone be held to account for it? The instinct to forget pandemics, as I’ve pointed out when it came to the 1918 “Spanish flu,” has historically been[Read More…]
On 25 May 2021, the Indian Bar Association (IBA) served a 51-page legal notice on Dr Soumya Swaminathan, the Chief Scientist at the World Health Organisation (WHO), for “her act of spreading disinformation and misguiding the people of India, in order to fulfil her agenda.” The Mumbai-based IBA is an association of lawyers who strive to bring transparency and accountability[Read More…]
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, World Health Organization (WHO) and World Trade Organization (WTO) on Tuesday made a rare and what they called “extraordinary” plea for international cooperation and investment. “By now it has become abundantly clear there will be no broad-based recovery without an end to the health crisis,” the four bodies said in a joint statement.[Read More…]
It has been revealed in recently released statistics that over 8700 persons died on railway tracks during 2020. Officials have also stated that most of them are likely to be migrant workers walking along railway tracks while returning home. This is also confirmed by the fact that most of the passenger trains were cancelled during this year. Hence normally there[Read More…]
“Cow dung, cow urine didn’t work. Groundless argument. Tomorrow I will eat fish”. In mid-May this year, this simple Facebook post about the futility of bovine waste as a cure for Covid-19, was enough to get Kishorechandra Wangkhem, a journalist from Imphal, Manipur arrested for ‘sedition’ . The post upset members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as it came[Read More…]
Probably; this is for the first time, in the literary or for that matter, in the cultural history of India, that a fourteen-line poem has created, so much stir, that people are calling it, a volcano. I call the poem volcano, because very often volcanoes erupt without any history and without any prior symptoms as at the time of[Read More…]
Click on the image for a larger version Graphic artist: Madhushree Data: B.Sivaraman GET COUNTERCURRENTS DAILY NEWSLETTER STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX
When the New York Times recently claimed that the official Covid-19 figures in India grossly understate the true scale of the pandemic in the country the Indian government went ballistic. Based on an analysis, in consultation with over a dozen experts, the NYT put the death toll due to Covid-19 in India at over 5 times the official numbers – making it[Read More…]
In a world when Covid-19 has brought humanity to its knees and exposed the haughty posturing of many nation-states the lesson of its interconnectedness are still not being learnt. Despite some positive developments that give hope, there is much that should weigh heavily on the conscience of the human race. Impending systemic collapse, the crash of global economy and widespread[Read More…]
The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response was never likely to hand down a rosy report with gobbets of praise. Organised by the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last May, the panel’s gloomy assessment was grim: the COVID-19 pandemic could have been avoided. Almost nothing in the main report could be seen as remarkable in these jaded[Read More…]
Bio contamination from labs is a serious concern that can have social, economic, political and environmental implications. Sometimes, irreversible ecological contamination is a given consequence. Health Canada reports that world-wide until 1999 over 5,000 cases of accidental laboratory infections and 190 deaths[1] have been recorded. These reports are the tip of the iceberg and point to the clear dangers and[Read More…]
Taking a critical view of the Centre’s present Covid-19 vaccination policy, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on May 22 Saturday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to halt supply of vaccines to private hospitals. In a two-page letter to Modi, Reddy requested that the entire available stock of Covid-19 vaccine to be made available only to the[Read More…]
Civil Society from India seeks global support towards systemic changes in India and rest of the world committed to public health, social equity and justice in the times of COVID-19 As the country delegations gather to discuss the agenda prepared by the World Health Organization’s Executive Board at the 74th World Health Assembly (WHA), we, concerned citizens of India belonging[Read More…]
Corona pandemic is spreading and intensifying in India, in this year. Last year, despite fears, people did not feel the problem as much as now. In March, 2020, lockdown was justified citing the dismal health infrastructure in India. With images of individuals falling in the streets of China, Spain and Italy haunting, there was an expectation that situation in India[Read More…]
Activists wrote to the Chief Minister of Odisha to intervene immediately To, The Chief Minister Bhubaneswar, Odisha Subject: In the matter of immediate intervention into the issue of spread of Covid among Dongrias in Niyamgiri and Bondas in Malkangiri Hon’ble Mr Chief Minister, It is with great concern we write to you about the recent surge of Covid +ve cases[Read More…]
Allahabad: “Theek hai yaar. Koi baat nahin![i] Don’t worry. I will make some alternative arrangement”. Nihal Mishra was putting on a brave, courteous face while getting blunt refusals from three of his friends in Delhi, whom he had requested for a place to stay. He was going to Delhi to get his wife admitted at the All India Institute of[Read More…]
“However good a Constitution may be, it is sure to turn out bad because those who are called to work it, happen to be a bad lot. However bad a Constitution may be, it may turn out to be good if those who are called to work it, happen to be a good lot “ “A serious complaint is made[Read More…]
From the beginning of the COVID time it was apparent, that the only sustainable check would be vaccine induced protection. Unfortunately the GOI bungled big time, as demonstrated in the following timeline of events. No orders were placed with any of the companies who had demonstrable results in Phase 1 & 2 trials by August ’20. Instead the ICMR partnered[Read More…]
There is a very wide supply-demand gap, from a market perspective… Even if we secure necessary stocks of vaccine in near future, its cost and affordability will be real challenges. We have a wonderful government which strangely thinks only SII and BB would produce and ignore several PSU and private vaccine makers in India. ‘Vasudhaivaka Kutumbakam’ is yet another Sanskrit[Read More…]
Written by Harshavardhan Purandare and Sandeep Pandey India has been advertised as ‘the country with a great future’ ever since we globalised in the ‘90s, but now this narrative of the future has become empty rhetoric to hide our weaknesses. At present, we paint a pathetic picture of ourselves. As Covid 19 second wave reaches the marginalised sections of our[Read More…]
The tough and totally strange situation that we are being pushed into because of the pandemic makes one rethink and reassess a lot of things and feelings we have been taking for granted. The most important being freedom of movement, the ease at which we gather and share life’s simple moments, the intensity with which we argue and disagree face[Read More…]
COVID-19 Pandemic Deserves Critical Thinking and Human Unity We are living in a connect world of virtual reality – people in one part of the globe cannot be separated by resurgent COVID pandemic and continued insanity of violent political conflicts – man fighting man due to perpetuated ignorance, greed, economic and intellectual exploitation and political domination – an unending irresistible[Read More…]
The National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, India, keeping in view the large number of deaths and reports in the media about the mismanagement /mishandling of Covid-19 affected dead bodies today issued an Advisory to the Centre and States for protecting the dignity and the rights of the dead. This is the second as part of 2.0 series of Advisories that[Read More…]
They demanded: Stop Central Vista project, give free doses to all “What numbs our senses daily is not just the cries of the citizenry for medical assistance and the death toll in its thousands but the manifestly casual attitude of your government to the magnitude of the crisis and its implications for the mental and physical health of the community[Read More…]
At least nine persons have become new billionaires since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, thanks to the excessive profits pharmaceutical corporations with monopolies on COVID vaccines are making, said the People’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA), a group advocating turning vaccine receipts into a global public good. Between them, the nine new billionaires, have a combined net wealth of $19.3 billion,[Read More…]
The second outbreak of corona catastrophe in our country is leading to the most tragic consequences. According to official statistics, 4.5 lakh new cases are diagnosed daily and about 4,000 deaths occur per day. All deaths cannot be graded as inevitable. The disease is not as deadly as it appears. These deaths are caused by the failure of our system[Read More…]
Eminent economist Jean Dreze recently stated in an interview to PTI that India might be heading towards a serious livelihood crisis as the situation seems to be worse this time for the working class amid the COVID crisis and local restrictions by states already add up to something close to a nationwide lockdown. A related aspect is that in terms[Read More…]
Recurrent waves of pandemic has undoubtedly challenged the tenacity of public health system of India, over stretching the meaning of community health workers and bringing them to forefront of discourse. Where 66% of India is still rural, struggling to have one allopathic doctor in a population of 10, 926 people as against the recommendation of WHO to have 1 in[Read More…]
The architect of our constitution felt that it is workable, flexible and strong enough to hold the country together both in peace and war time. If in recent times we have Covid-warriors and Covid war-rooms that mean we are indeed at war. The Preamble indicates the basic structure of the Indian constitution which cannot be changed in any case or[Read More…]
A clean, technology driven dystopia. A representation of our techno future. These were the introductory descriptions to a piece by science fiction author William Gibson on Singapore for Wired in 1993. “Imagine an Asian version of Zurich operating as an offshore capsule at the foot of Malaysia; an affluent microcosm whose citizens inhabit something that feels like well, Disneyland. Disneyland[Read More…]
Health expert Srinath Reddy on India’s unpreparedness for the second wave, the danger of variant B.1.617, and waiving patents on life-saving medicines India’s second Covid-19 wave has been particularly vicious. On Monday, 366,161 new infections and 3,754 deaths were reported by the health ministry. We’ve seen hospitals run out of oxygen and beds, morgues and crematoria overflow, and bodies washed[Read More…]
During the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, deaths of teachers got a huge media attention especially at the intersecting period of April-May 2021. The deaths of several hundred school teachers in Uttar Pradesh and the demise of professors at considerable rate in universities especially in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and Delhi University (DU) highlighted in both print and are[Read More…]
Allahabad: The recent images of bloating human bodies floating on the Ganga, with crows and dogs picking on the carcasses have shocked the nation and made headlines around the world. Reports of burial of hundreds of dead bodies in riverside sand outside towns in Uttar Pradesh like Unnao and Kanpur have also surfaced. It is clear that most of these[Read More…]
Oxygen ‘audit’ and rationing is taking lives; anesthesiologists say planning adequate buffer stocks is the only way A string of recent directives, from the central government to states, and from states to government and private hospitals are emphasising on oxygen audits and rationing to ‘prevent wastage,’ as a strategy to ease the oxygen crisis in the country in treatment of[Read More…]
Jospeh Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate, in an essay last week , with a startling title Will Corporate Greed Prolong the Pandemic? , wrote: “…Their goal is simple: to maintain as much market power as they can for as long as possible in order to maximise profits..” Now China has gatecrashed the aggressively-guarded orchard of powerful western pharmaceutical companies… The WHO approved[Read More…]
Dumka, Jharkhand: ‘I am completely alone’, says Asha worker Jayshree Marandi sadly. ‘He would have helped me in the care and education of the children, but Covid-19 snatched him from me.’ Jayshree Marandi is talking about her husband, whom the pandemic swallowed. Jayshree remembers how he used to take her from village-to-village while he carried out his work. “ I[Read More…]
Health is a precious asset. The World Health Organization identifies health as a state of total physical, mental, and social well-being, rather than simply the absence of disease. It also claims that there can be no true physical health without mental health. A person with good mental health is aware of their abilities, can cope with life’s normal stresses, can[Read More…]
Turbulent times- that’s where we are living in! It almost feels like a flight leading to neverland that has been in turbulence since December 2019 and all of us are confused passengers in it. While 2021 has ‘brought in a fresh ray of hope’ as the government of India announcement that has been automatically set as everyone’s caller-tune by default[Read More…]
Could we know the exact or even approximate number of deaths caused due to Covid-19 and related symptoms which took place in last one month in Uttar Pradesh and which continue to take place every day? Perhaps never! Although the social and print media is full of stories, images, videos and narratives related to huge number of deaths taking place[Read More…]
The global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has topped 3.34 million and over 160.8 million cases of the infection have been detected, according to Baltimore, Maryland’s Johns Hopkins University (JHU). The U.S., India and Brazil are the top three countries in terms of the number of registered coronavirus infections, while the largest number of COVID-19-related deaths has been observed[Read More…]
It is well known that Covid pandemic is caused by a novel virus (SARS-CoV-2), Its variants and mutated forms which did not exist earlier. It is natural not to have drugs that would prevent or eradicate this new virus! But if lakhs of people are getting infected, and suffering to the tune of thousands of deaths, the medical profession[Read More…]
No one is malicious and mean enough to believe that Modi has knowingly caused the death of lacs and disease to millions. He has done his best to prevent them but failed. He failed because his priorities were wrong and he lacked far-sightedness. He took no step in time to prevent the infected to enter the country and spread the[Read More…]
Modi on April 19 announced “liberalised vaccine pricing” policy. “Private vaccination providers shall transparently declare their self-set vaccination price.” This is part-2 of a two-part article, dealing with Politics And Economics of the Vaccine policy. Covid-19 Vaccines: Politics And Economics Of The IPR Waiver Ploy –Part 1 was published on May 11: https://countercurrents.org/2021/05/covid-19-vaccines-politics-and-economics-of-the-ipr-waiver-ploy/ *** *** The Essence of Vaccine Policy[Read More…]
When Rome was burning, Emperor Nero was playing violin—it is said. What a coincidence! When India was suffering from Covid-19 our Prime Minister was busy playing with a peacock and photo-shooting for an advertisement film! When India is reeling under second and more dangerous wave of corona, the numbers of people affected and killed by the deadly virus are[Read More…]
Vaccination is the only solution to mitigate the ferocity of Covid-19. If we continue the present pace of vaccination, experts say that it would take many years to administer vaccine to all. The statistics released by the government disclose that we are unable to proceed with the vaccination due to the shortage of production of vaccine. Two vaccines Covishield[Read More…]
Why Is the Ruling Establishment Simply Incapable of Responding Any Other Way to the Pandemic? On the morning of 27th April I got a phone call from the youngest son of a trade union veteran of Kanpur, that everyone in his large household has been down with COVID-19 (henceforth Covid)-like symptoms. Though the condition of others was stable, his father’s oxygen[Read More…]
The Madras HC reminded the Election Commission that it was the “the most irresponsible institution” and even said its officials may be booked under murder charges…Causing death by negligence or recklessness by refusing to see the killer virus is murder strictly as per the definition in IPC. Please read Sections 299 and 300 of Indian Penal Code which is working[Read More…]
The World Health Organization on Monday classified a coronavirus mutation first detected in India as a “variant of concern” for global health, warning that it appears to be more contagious than other strains. Experts believe the variant, formally known as B.1.617, could be a key driving force behind the devastating coronavirus surge in India, which has been reporting more than 300,000 new[Read More…]
One does not see disturbing images of oxygen and bed shortage in Mumbai as are being seen from other cities during the Covid crisis. But he well-organised media hype over Mumbai’s handling of Covid is likely to give a very misleading picture to the outside world that all is well in the Metropolis.The picture is far from rosy. It is[Read More…]
US announcement to discuss IPR relaxation came as Modi regime, a QUAD ally, was gasping for political breath after election setbacks, and an oxygen crisis in India. In a sudden change of heart, US announced, towards the end of April 2021, that it may relent on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) restrictions and may lift the ban on export of raw materials[Read More…]
There is a general air of malaise at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). Approximately 43 professors – both serving and retired – have lost their lives due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The rate of deaths is dizzying – 18 serving teachers have died in merely 20 days. In addition, an undisclosed number of non-teaching staff have also died of the infection. Perturbed by these macabre conditions, Vice-Chancellor[Read More…]
It is now painfully clear that the Government of India has been woefully underprepared for the second wave of COVID-19. The resulting misgovernance [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, 9] is precipitating the announcement of partial or total lockdowns in various states to break the chain of infections. Like last year, informal workers have been left to fend for themselves and among them migrant workers[Read More…]
In early 2020, the Coronavirus took all countries by surprise, causing the first Covid storm (Covid-1). Even countries with a sound public health infrastructure struggled to manage the crisis arising from system overload. It was well understood world-over that the three rules of masking-distancing-hygiene were vital primary measures. Lockdowns were announced, and understood as only a means to check Covid[Read More…]
The dance of death continues and it is extremely difficult to see people dying in pain without any dignity given to them even in death. Will India ever remember this holocaust which has not yet stopped even as we are nearing to two lakh fifty thousand deaths which is actually official figure but the real figure may be much higher.[Read More…]
To Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Finance Minister With the daily new Covid cases exceeding 4 lakhs and the daily number of deaths exceeding 4,000, with nationwide shortages in terms of ambulances, hospital beds, ICU facilities, ventilators, Oxygen and even cremation space, and in view of the nationwide shortage of vaccines, people are losing their patience, looking for immediate corrective steps[Read More…]
It was a scene which will forever be etched in the memory of millions the world over: on May 25 2020, on a street in Minneapolis, US- a white police officer Derek Chauvin, had his knee pressed down on the neck of a black American George Floyd. This continued for more than nine minutes. An excruciating bystander video(which immediately went[Read More…]
Written by Joseph Stiglitz and Lori Wallach The Covid-19 vaccines have been developed by scientists from all over the world, thanks to basic science supported by numerous governments. We must not let drug companies put profits ahead of lives. The only way to end the Covid-19 pandemic is to immunize enough people worldwide. The slogan “no one is safe until[Read More…]
All media is filled with the news of death. All social media timelines are overwhelmed with accounts of suffering, pain and loss. Pictures of pyres burning that are splashed across front pages and captured by drones have developed the power to instantly dispatch across miles, to our very private corner, the smell of burning flesh caught in thick rolls of[Read More…]
The concerned experts have been suggesting an increase in the share of GDP for health for last many years. The advice fell on the deaf ears of the government. Today we are seeing the result of the callousness in not paying heed to the experts’ advice. We are facing the consequences of that neglect. Some, of course are reaping the[Read More…]
The Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) tasted the allure of partial power during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government. It has now experienced seven years of complete power under the leadership of Narendra Modi. The RSS has been nurtured in the right armpit of the Congress. Hence, it had gained some experience of sharing power since the Independence. RSS had enough time[Read More…]
Report of Press Conference held via Zoom on 6th May 2021, 3 pm Opening the press conference, Ms. Bhargavi Rao, Trustee of Environment Support Group noted “We have lost so many of our loved ones, not so much because of the virus as because of malgovernance.” She drew particular attention to the unnecessary deaths that happened in Gulbarga and Chamrajnagar due to the[Read More…]
The World health organisation the health wing of United Nations has stipulated certain public health and social measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 virus. The measures were contemplated by WHO taking into account the levels of Covid-19 transmission. One of the major measures stipulated is to maintain social distancing and avoid congregations. There is an obligation on the State[Read More…]
The United States government last night moved to support a waiver of intellectual property protections of the Covid-19 vaccine. The People’s Vaccine Alliance has been campaigning to suspend Covid-19 intellectual property protections. This is the decision the world needed: by backing a waiver of intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines the Biden Administration can increase the global supply of vaccines[Read More…]
Without doubt, Johnson has stolen a march over PM Modi just when the Indian foreign policy establishment is daydreaming about the possible induction of the UK into the Quad to contain China. Clearly, Johnson’s priorities are different — transfuse lifeblood from the former colony, the jewel in the Crown, into his “Global Britain” project. *** Three cheers for the[Read More…]
Statement by the Vikalp Sangam Core Group India is in the midst of a COVID emergency. The pandemic’s 2nd wave has exposed the abysmal state of its public health system and the poor quality and pace of response of central and state governments. While we recognise the herculean task that the public health system personnel have been performing for over[Read More…]
While triumphantly launching the roll out of India-made vaccines on January 16, 2019, with a view to drive home his point of helping others selflessly, the Prime Minister quoted the following words of Gurajada Apparao, the eminent Telugu writer. “Sontha labham kontha manuko, porugu vadiki thodu padavoy. Desamante matti kadoyi, desamante manushuloy” The above verse, which was written more than[Read More…]
As the death toll and positivity rate in the wake of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic stays alarmingly high, lockdowns and other restrictions have been instituted in many parts of the country. Even though an announcement of a nationwide lockdown has not been made, work has been severely disrupted with calls for further curtailment of non-essential economic activity.[Read More…]
On April 23, 2021 the Economic Times published a short interview with K Vijay Raghavan, the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India. It is my understanding that the Office of the PSA is tasked with advising the government on scientific matters. This interview, however, would lead one to think otherwise: when the PSA’s responses are not factually[Read More…]
In the past several weeks, the world has looked on in horror as the coronavirus rages across India. With hospitals running out of beds, oxygen, and medicines, the official daily death toll has averaged around 3,000. Many claim that number could be an undercount; crematoriums and cemeteries have run out of space. The majority of India’s population are Hindu, who[Read More…]
It has been a relationship of characterised by bitterness and misunderstanding. It began with a poorly negotiated agreement – poor, that is, from the European Union perspective – between Brussels and AstraZeneca for the supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses. Less rigorous in terms of penalties and consequences than the UK-AstraZeneca deal, the EU version was very much the poor cousin,[Read More…]
Ever Since the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine came to power in 2014 the deepest crisis it is facing is the Covid-19 dance of death. As of the end of April 2021 India has become the most Covid infected nation in the world and the prediction is that India will suffer the biggest human[Read More…]
First of all, I want to salute the front line health workers who have done a heroic job and have risked their life. No words or compensation can ever adequately express our gratitude. In the last analysis the reward of having done a good job is to have done it! Capitalism and Corona We are not the first one to[Read More…]
First the personal facts briefly: I obtained MBBS degree dated 15th February, 1975 from University of Delhi. Obtained Master of Surgery (Orthopaedics) degree dated 23rd March, 1979 from University of Delhi. Worked in Bihar in 1975 in the Small-pox Eradication Programme under the joint Govt. of India-WHO Project. Testimonial dated 6 February, 1975. Worked as Senior Research Fellow in an[Read More…]
In the middle of the serious conditions created by increasing Covid mortality, concerns over safety of teachers have increased following the allegations of deaths of nearly 700 teachers made by an association of primary teachers in the state in the context of the teachers who were assigned panchayat election duties. Government sources have denied that the election duty was related[Read More…]
As India is being devastated by COVID-19 cases that have now passed a daily rate of 400,000, affluent and callous Australia has taken the decision to suspend all flights coming into the country till mid-month. The decision was reached by the Morrison government with the blessing of the State Premiers and the Labor opposition. Not happy with banning flights from[Read More…]
“If you are lucky to get a bed in hospital, you have to buy an oxygen cylinder every eight hours to keep your patient alive. Then, you get the only dead body back”. A boy carrying the dead body of his mother in an auto-rickshaw tells the reporter in the Capital of India. “I spent seven days outside the hospital[Read More…]
By April 2020, Centre knew that oxygen generated in India is not at all sufficient if the demand is increased and all formal requirements were completed to sanction and establish the Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) Oxygen plants in 150 District Hospitals across the nation… From April to October in 2020, the Government machinery did not act. It took the Narendra[Read More…]
It will be considered no mean feat to outdo the likes of President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil. At every step of the corona crisis, he maintained a head-in-the-sand, denialist attitude. He pooh-poohed covid protocols and repeatedly played down the threat from the pandemic. He invested little to no resources in Brazil’s testing and vaccination campaigns. As a result, Brazil experienced devastating[Read More…]
Written by Shobha Shukla, Bobby Ramakant, Sandeep Pandey Narendra Modi once said he is a Gujarati and understands business. As time passes his business model is getting exposed and he is becoming more shameless like any ordinary businessman. It is quite clear to the people that he is not withdrawing the three controversial farm laws because all the three laws[Read More…]
The Hindutva socio- psychopaths are neither nationalists nor patriotic people. These medieval reactionary forces don’t understand the idea of citizenship, justice, liberty, equality and humanism. Indian democracy is merely an electoral transaction for the Hindutva forces. Hindutva forces neither follow science nor understand the sufferings of fellow human beings. These core qualities are common among the Hindutva forces in India.[Read More…]
Currently (April 2021) India is passing through its worst period as Covid19 Phase II is at its peak, with high rate of infectivity and mortality. The shortage of beds, Oxygen, test facilities and medicines is the cause of concern all over. The victims and their families are feeling the massive tragedy as the nation watches the gross mismanagement and lack[Read More…]
Indians struggle to find place and time to bury their dead due to the devastating effects of the second wave of COVID 19 in India. The crematoriums in the capital cities are overflowing with dead bodies. People are dying without oxygen and basic medical support. The cities like Delhi and Mumbai are struggling to cope with the rising number of[Read More…]
I wish to clarify that I am a scientist, I have no affiliations except to science and welfare of the society. I had made a few representations to PMO on subjects of scientific interest and societal need. I feel it is necessary to clarify the point that industrial oxygen and medical oxygen come from the same bottle! https://countercurrents.org/2021/04/a-few-facts-about-industrial-and-medical-oxygen-and-our-callousness/ With reference[Read More…]
Written by Bobby Ramakant and Sandeep Pandey As India runs a drive for vaccination against Covid the nature reminds us about our diminutiveness by an accompanying surge in Covid cases. In 2020, India had reported the highest number of 98,795 cases in 24 hours on 17 September 2020 but now the new unfortunate peak in April 2021 is past[Read More…]
For Urgent Attention Honorable Chief Minister, Punjab, Secretariate Chandigarh At the age of nearly 74 years, I need to get vaccinated for Covid19 as it is medically advisable, however I have certain concerns-personal and social, which as a citizen of Punjab (India) and as a world citizen, because of which I have not yet taken jab and I am[Read More…]
Written by Hanuman Lal Bengani and Dr. M. Bapuji Illustration by DOMINIC XAVIER / Rediff.com I, Dr. M.Bapuji, received the following information through friends from Indian Inst of Petroleum, Dehradun on oxygen availability in india. The author is sri Hanuman Lal Bengani, former CEO of Linde india.in, his own words : ” Having spent my life time of 45 years[Read More…]
Various Covid vaccines have been developed in unprecedented record time due to the widely voiced urgency . The normal time for development of a vaccine before the advent of Covid was a decade. However in exceptional conditions various Covid vaccines have been made available in about a year’s time. Therefore several experts have been emphasizing the need for very careful[Read More…]
‘The system has collapsed’, is a general cry these days as event unfolding everyday bring more uncertainty and desperation. As an Indian, I can say, we were never so helpless as we are feeling it today. I mean, you can’t help any one, you can’t go to meet families of friends, you can’t meet relatives. Common man is just alarmed[Read More…]
Bare truth When the Prime Minister imposed a sudden lockdown in the country last year on the night of 24-25 March, the heart-wrenching scenes of the exodus of migrant laborers brought forth the naked truth that the corporate India, which was being constructed for three decades, is sustained on the back of the hard-working masses. This truth is kept under[Read More…]
At a time when the entire world is focused on COVID-19, it is important to recall some important lessons which emerged from the response to previous sudden outbreaks like Ebola infectious disease and other diseases in recent times. Of course no two diseases are the same but lessons can be learnt in terms of policy responses, the various factors and[Read More…]
“Our private sector has set an exemplary example of innovation and enterprise in developing COVID-19 vaccines,” said PM Modi: “We are lucky to have such a robust pharma sector that smoothly carries out production,” he said in his address to the country on 20 April 2021. A notice about the shortage of Covishield vaccine outside a Covid-19 vaccination centre[Read More…]
My wife and I have just got our second dose of Covid vaccine. It was a triumphant moment, because there seemed to be an acute vaccine shortage in the country causing fears of its non- availability, coupled with new mutants of Covid spreading the virus like never before. The fear of those who got the first dose not being able[Read More…]
Covid-19 is a national calamity and a country-wide problem… Fundamental right guaranteed vide Article 21: the right to life which in its broad sweep also includes right to good health…Health care should not only be accessible but also be conveniently affordable to all the citizens. The core obligation of the State in securing the right to life to all its[Read More…]
Why We Forget Epidemics and Why This One Must Be Remembered The second Moderna shot made me sick — as predicted. A 24-hour touch of what an alarmed immune system feels like left me all the more grateful for my good fortune in avoiding the real thing and for being alive at a time when science had devised a 95%[Read More…]
The pandemic in which the world is embroiled today, has gripped common people with confusion due to poor information causing fear and panic. In India, this week started with 113 deaths being recorded in just one district- Nagpur, making it the district with the highest mortality. Nagpur witnessed an increase of 28 deaths in 24 hours. The district recorded 6,364[Read More…]
`Derek Chauvin found guilty on all three charges for killing George Floyd’ read the news item published on 21 April 2021. The verdict was pronounced eleven months after the video emerged that showed Chauvin kneeling on the neck and back of a 46-year-old black man named George Floyd, handcuffed and lying prone on the street, for 9 minutes 29 seconds[Read More…]
The second and more serious wave of covid 19 is in the air. While the society is in the grip of shortage of beds, shortage of Oxygen cylinders and the necessary medicines, the Covid warriors are doing a remarkable job of trying to fulfill the needs of the community to keep the impact of pandemic to the minimum. Many voluntary[Read More…]
In 2020 the overall experience of extended and stringent lockdowns on the whole was quite negative, although the official view supported by some experts remains that these were necessary and useful in saving several precious human lives. Hence the entire issue of lockdowns is quite a divisive one, in India as well in several other countries. Now that in the[Read More…]
Nation is currently reeling through a serious COVID pandemic. Daily reported cases are touching nearly 3.0 lakhs with mounting deaths in many states. Unless 30 crore population is vaccinated by beginning of August, it may not be possible to stock pile antibodies, break the disease chain and attain herd immunity. Till the third week of April despite the vaccine shortages[Read More…]
Waking up from sleep has usually been a refreshing exercise. Like, returning home after a hard day of work. But, not anymore. While we do not celebrate the little pleasures that life brings, it is only when bliss gives us a miss, that we begin to take note of how the quotidian is more than just routine. When the second[Read More…]
There was a time when it seemed Papua New Guinea had managed to dodge a bullet. Instances of SARS-CoV-2 were minimal, along with its disease, COVID-19. Through 2020, the country of eight million people recorded a mere 900 cases. The World Health Organization praised the PNG government in a September 2020 news release in “taking the threat of the pandemic[Read More…]
Mortality data is very important for understanding trends relating to health problems and diseases and hence for overall health policy and planning. Unfortunately, however, in many countries there is need for improving reliability of mortality data. In addition there is another serious and wider problem. This relates to delays in availability of mortality data, even more in the context of[Read More…]
The global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has topped 3 million people amid repeated setbacks in the worldwide vaccination campaign and a deepening crisis in countries like Brazil, India and France. World Health Organization (WHO) says pandemic is at a critical point. The number of deaths, compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the population of metropolitan Lisbon, Portugal[Read More…]
Tuberculosis has been one of the most damaging infectious diseases of India for several decades. COVID-19 has been the most feared disease In India for over a year now. From the beginning of 2020 to March 2021 , a period of about 15 months, about 150 thousand or 1.5 lakh deaths were caused by COVID-19 in India. The normal number[Read More…]
The second wave of Corona-virus has stuck hard in India particularly states such as Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar-Pradesh and Delhi have seen alarming rise in the cases and the governments have been caught by surprise. Was the Corona wave surprising or we allowed this to happen. Let us go to the latest figures. As per reports 14.5 millions cases[Read More…]
To Shri Rajiv Gauba Cabinet Secretary Dear Shri Rajiv Gauba, Enclosed are my two letters dated 12th & 13th April, 2021 addressed to the Union Home Secretary, on the responsibility for spreading COVID by permitting Kumbh Mela to take place at Haridwar in Uttarakhand. I had requested the Union Home Secretary to intervene in the matter urgently and stop the[Read More…]
Unlike Hollywood movies where Americans have the lead in saving the world, the crisis of the corona virus pandemic has shown the opposite. The first major test showed that the American health care system was inferior to the Russian one, created during the Cold War. And while the Kremlin has managed to provide real assistance to a number of European[Read More…]
Whether people of the world will have to learn to live with the virus? As India and many parts of the world seem to be engulfed by the second or third wave of the Coronavirus epidemic – which is more dangerous and has appeared with new symptoms – this idea is being pushed from different quarters. Newspaper articles or surveys[Read More…]
COVID-19 pandemic as well as the lockdowns which followed in most countries have caused a lot of distress . However the wider bitter reality is that these times were also used to push the narrow interests of very powerful persons and forces. Inequalities have increased greatly. While tens of millions have suffered great distress and loss of income, the fortunes[Read More…]
The head of the Norwegian police, Ole Saeverud imposed a fine of $2,352 on Erna Solberg, the two-term Prime Minister of the country for violating the COVID rules in a private party held by her. While doing so, what Ole Saeverud said is significant . “Though the law is the same for all, all are not equal in front of[Read More…]
“I am not going to be talking about numbers today,” Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly told Australia’s Radio National on April 12. This echoed suggestions from the Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, who had adopted the position that Australia best forget meeting any clear vaccination targets. Having left battling the pandemic to State governments, the Federal government has found[Read More…]
Coronavirus infections in the South Asia has surpassed the grim milestone of 15 million on Saturday, a Reuters tally shows. The surge is led by India’s record daily infections and vaccine shortages. South Asia — India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, and Sri Lanka — accounts for 11% of global cases and almost 6% of deaths. The region accounts for[Read More…]
The second wave of COVID-19 pandemic situation across the country is becoming alarming. With nearly 1.52 lakh new cases being reported daily (as on 10th April) and the mounting death toll a calamitous health situation is emerging. Amidst this, various states reported vaccine shortages and people are being sent home at the vacination centers. With spike in infections people started[Read More…]
To Shri Rajiv Gauba Cabinet Secretary Dear Shri Gauba, I write this letter in continuation of my earlier letter dated 30-3-2021 (copy forwarded) addressed to the Union Home Secretary on the potential danger of the huge election rallies being held in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Kerala, West Bengal and Assam becoming super-spreaders of COVID. I had earlier requested the Union Home[Read More…]
To Shri A K Bhalla Union Home Secretary Dear Shri Bhalla, It is unfortunate that we have not been able to contain the COVID virus spread and many States including the capital city of Delhi are witnessing an unusual spurt in virus cases of different mutants, some potentially dangerous. Your Ministry and several States have rightly tightened the COVID[Read More…]
Covid pandemic will remain an important chapter in India’s history. This is not only for the public health challenge it caused but it also brought out the deeply hidden flaws, biases, prejudices of the state and society. It was a mirror reflection of the state and society we are living in. The book by Harsh Mander titled “Locking down the[Read More…]
The dense worldwide transportation network constructed by humans is now powering so-called variants (mutations) of COVID-19 across the world from their countries of origin. The British variant (called B.1.1.7), the Brazilian variant (called P.1) and the South African variant (called B.1.351) are all racing across the globe. This shouldn’t be surprising since all three are thought to be more contagious[Read More…]
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top adviser to the U.S. President on the coronavirus pandemic, said he did not believe that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory for studying pathogens. Dr. Fauci’s opinion appears to contradict controversial remarks made earlier on March 27, 2021 by the former head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Robert[Read More…]
The centre’s estimates are flawed and give the impression that the economy has not only weathered Covid-19 but overcome pre-existing difficulties. But in reality, demand is short, dampening economic revival. Officially, the “growth in GDP during 2020-21 is estimated at -8.0 percent as compared to 4.0 percent in 2019-20”. Further, “GDP at Constant (2011-12) Prices in Q3 of 2020-21 is[Read More…]
The lockdown that has been imposed almost a year back in the wake of COVID-19 has introduced several changes in almost every part of the world. The virus has not only resulted in damages resulting in high mortality and morbidity, but it has also made adverse qualitative changes in the lives of billions while its socio-political repercussions have devastated economies[Read More…]
About a year ago we responded to the call for a ‘self-imposed Janta Curfew’ observed on 22 March 2020 as the first attempt to contain the spread of coronavirus which had shown its presence in the country on 30 Jan 2020. This response was closely followed by the ‘Tali and Thali’ and lighting of ‘diyas’. The spread, however, continued unabated.[Read More…]
Sensible, ideal, wonderful – if you happen to be in the European Union. This is the air of confidence surrounding the March 17 proposal for a digital COVID immunity passport, or what is officially being called the Digital Green Certificate. The Digital Green Certificate is actually a bundle of three: vaccination certificates stating the brand of vaccine used, data and[Read More…]
The slander campaign in India was meant to vitiate the atmosphere and undermine efforts for peace and friendship, and to aid the imperialists’ trade war against china, with India as a junior partner. The National Health Commission of China on March 15 released the full transcript of a joint China-WHO press conference on the WHO-convened Global Study of Origins of[Read More…]
The ongoing pandemic has deeply affected countries. The U.S. is no exception. Rather, impact of the pandemic on the U.S. is deeper than many countries. Three polls show a few aspects of the impact. Fewer than 10,000 A report said: One year ago, on the eve of the eventful day that signaled the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — March[Read More…]
By now, anybody speaking about vaccine equality and equity of access must surely be coming across as slightly deranged. In the field of COVID-19, traditional proprietorial instincts remain. Add to this the disparity in terms of manufacture, bureaucracy and the nasty flavour of politics, and we would all be entitled to long draughts of cynicism. The COVAX (COVID-19 Vaccines Global[Read More…]
Written by Rahul Konapur, Nachiket Gudi, Oommen John Countries across the globe have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Over the span of a year 2,320,497 lives have been lost and 106,125,682 infected as on date1. The scientific community across the globe are racing against time to administer safe and effective vaccines to save lives[Read More…]
The European Union has been keeping up appearances in encouraging the equitable distribution of vaccines to combat SARS-CoV-2 and its disease, COVID-19. Numerous statements speak to the need to back the COVAX scheme, to ensure equity and that no one state misses out. And EU member states could be assured of a smooth vaccine rollout, led by the EU apparatus,[Read More…]
To Shri Rajiv Gauba Cabinet Secretary Govt of India Dear Shri Gauba, It is the collective effort and a culmination of the human endeavour at the global level that has enabled the country to launch the ongoing national campaign, including the vaccination drive, against COVID. The credit should rightly go to the scientists across the world who studied the virus[Read More…]
‘They have discovered smart weapons. We have discovered something more important: people think and feel.’ [Read More…]
The COVID-19 outbreak has triggered a world economic disruption of significant magnitude with an escalating pace, resulting in steep recessions in many countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented global economic impact at an astonishing rate, leading to rapid economic downturns in many countries. Despite exceptional policy support, the baseline forecast envisages a 5.2 percent decline in global Gross[Read More…]
Economic crises shine a spotlight on a society’s inequities and hierarchies, as well as its commitment to support those who are most vulnerable in such grievous moments. The calamity created by Covid-19 is no exception. The economic fallout from that pandemic has tested the nation’s social safety net as never before. Between February and May 2020, the number of unemployed[Read More…]
Over half a million people have died of coronavirus in the U.S. Grasping the enormity — half a million people gone — is difficult to visualize. More people have died in the U.S. due to COVID-19 than any other country in the world. With 4% of the world’s population, the U.S. has 20% of all COVID deaths and one of[Read More…]
Written by Bhagyashree Dutta and Dr Chandrima Chatterjee In December 2019, in Wuhan, China, a cluster of unusual severe pneumonia cases with unknown causes were reported. These were later identified as caused by a novel strain of coronavirus [1]. Severe acute respiratory syndrome, coronavirus 2 (SARS_CoV-2) outbreaks, was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11th,[Read More…]
Among the first responders in times of emergencies or crises is often expected to be the police. This was no different when Covid-19 pandemic brought the world to a grinding halt. The public health emergency arising due to the pandemic, as well as cascading humanitarian crises in several countries and communities, only made the job of the police even more[Read More…]
It is probably not a good idea to write while in the grip of anger. But I am struggling to suppress my emotions about a wasted year, during which politicians and many doctors have ignored a growing body of evidence suggesting that Vitamin D can play a critically important role in the prevention and treatment of Covid-19. It is time[Read More…]
The coronavirus pandemic’s economic collapse in the UK is severe, worst in three centuries. The economy contracted by 9.9 percent in 2020, initial estimates from the Office for National Statistics showed on February 12, 2021. A study of historical data by the Bank of England shows that recession to be the worst since 1709, the year known as the Great[Read More…]
Written by Prabhu Dutta Shaw, Dr. Arathi P Rao COVID-19 is a disease that has indiscriminately affected individuals with unequal vulnerability. While the world is still suffering because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the risk of the emergence of a diabetes epidemic has started looming into view. On the one hand, it is seen that hyperglycaemia tends to increase morbidity[Read More…]
It began as a shudder through the scientific and public health establishments. A new variant of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 had been found, mutating in South African climes, potentially outwitting human responses to it. Vaccines such as Oxford-AstraZeneca’s would have to be brushed up. Rollouts would have to be reconsidered. The South African variant has been given a few designations:[Read More…]
Our mace shaped COVID19 enemy, and its mutations merrily popping up around the United States, ironically has opened up new possibilities for inching beyond the grimy confines of industrial capitalism to new modes of work, learning and being that were initially promised by technocrats at the dawn of the Internet/World Wide Web. Indeed, the Pandemic of 2020-21 (Pandemic) revealed that[Read More…]
The world has been on a roller coaster ride since March last year when coronavirus induces pandemic lead to the ‘closure’ of countries after countries. Now with the vaccine having arrived, and India reporting declining trends both in infection as well as mortality due to the dreaded virus, the confusion over the virus remains as before. Amidst the ecstasy of[Read More…]
The coronavirus student, a species brought forth in the world of education by a pandemic that has killed over 400,000 people in the United States and 100,000 in the United Kingdom, is a troubled creature. When universities and schools across the globe were given varying and often contradictory messages on the safety of continuing in class teaching and participation, the[Read More…]
Written by Bharat Dogra & Kumar Gautam While India had serious unemployment and livelihood protection problems even earlier, the Covid crisis accentuated these problems in unprecedented ways for some weeks, also leaving behind longer-term serious impacts. A report by Oxfam on Covid-time inequalities has highlighted this aspect of the crisis and recommended shorter as well as longer term measures to[Read More…]
Written by Thomas Klikauer and Nadine Campbell The 2020-2021 coronavirus is by no means the first pandemic that has impacted people’s lives. Throughout history, philosophers have contributed to our understanding of what pandemics mean and how to fight them. Self-evidently, philosophers are dedicated to philosophy. Like the term pandemic originating in Greek’s pandēmos – “pan” or “all” linked to “demos”,[Read More…]
Not exactly Thermopylae. Not even close. The hundred thousand who have now been taken by COVID-19 in Britain were not determined warriors holding up the forces of a mighty empire to save their land. They were the innocent victims of infection, mismanagement and miscalculation. Central to the policy which led to such losses was a practised bumbling which has become[Read More…]
Global COVID-19 cases topped 100 million Tuesday as virus mutations continue to create new concerns, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University. Although the U.S. makes up just over 4 per cent of the world’s population, the country remains the leader in recorded cases of the COVID-19, also identified as coronavirus, with more than 25 million infections. India ranks[Read More…]
Written by Bharat Dogra& Kumar Gautam India is known to have a highly unequal health system which creates problems even in normal times. However, in Covid times these problems created by inequalities and unequal access in health systems were greatly accentuated , reinforcing the need to reduce inequalities in health system. A report by Oxfam released very recently on January[Read More…]
Written by Bharat Dogra and Kumar Gautam An important report prepared by Oxfam titled ‘The Inequality Vitus’ ( as also its India supplement), released on January 25, has made a strong case for the economic recovery path to be led by reduction of inequalities. Similarly it argues that for strengthening the crucial health and education sectors inequalities in these sectors[Read More…]
The message from all scientists is very loud and clear that vaccines alone will not be able to stem the tide of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even after getting vaccinated, we will have to continue to wear masks, maintain physical distancing, wash hands frequently and avoid congregated settings, to break the chain of transmission of the virus. Some leading scientists such[Read More…]
Madhu[1], 39, works as an electrician in a private firm in Bangalore. In July 2020, while the pandemic was still at its height, his wife, elderly mother and father and Madhu all tested positive for Covid 19. Madhu lives in a ward in Bangalore where the NGO Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR) is actively working with communities in providing[Read More…]
The film industry people gathered in Mumbai on January 21 for the muhurat (initiation ceremony) of a biopic titled ‘Bangabandhu’. It is a joint collaboration between Bangladesh and India. This photo was given with the press release. From the above picture one can see more than a dozen people are gathered together who are not wearing a mask and standing[Read More…]
Written by Dr. Sudhamshi Beeram, Dr. Arathi P Rao and Prof. K Rajasekharan Nayar While the Government rolled out the much-awaited vaccination drive against the pandemic, the beneficiaries are hesitating to avail the vaccine due to mis-information and fear. The number of healthcare workers turning up for the vaccination have remained low in many states of India. The reasons[Read More…]
A few months back, I tried to imagine what set us up for such a worldwide disaster as COVID 19? I mean, if it started with fruit bats as most experts think, people have been hunting them for THOUSANDS of years! What has changed? Imagine, let’s say, in the year 1000 A.D., Hunter A goes hunting and sees bats eating[Read More…]
The global death toll from COVID-19, identified also as coronavirus, pandemic topped 2 million on January 15, 2021. The number of dead, compiled by Johns Hopkins University, U.S., is about equal to the population of Brussels, Mecca, Minsk or Vienna. It is roughly equivalent to the population of the Cleveland metropolitan area in the U.S., or the entire U.S. state[Read More…]
Israel’s decision to exclude Palestinians from its COVID-19 vaccination campaign may have surprised many. Even by Israel’s poor humanitarian standards, denying Palestinians access to life-saving medication seems extremely callous. Amnesty International, among many organizations, condemned the Israeli government’s decision to bar Palestinians from receiving the vaccine. The rights group described the Israeli action as evidence of the “institutionalized discrimination[Read More…]
After the Indian government approved two vaccines : Astra Zeneca launched by Seram Institute, Pune and Bharat Biotech which developed it with the help of ICMR and has the government of India backing it up fully, the dalal media has gone overboard to launch the maximum propaganda work for the government after it was found that Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin has[Read More…]
The Metropolitan Magistrate’s recent damaging observation vis-a-vis Delhi Police while acquitting 36 foreigners associated with Tablighi Jamaat who were accused of flouting Covid 19 protocols have largely gone unnoticed. The magistrate in the judgement acknowledged the possibility of the ‘[p]olice picking up these individuals with the malicious intention of implicating them under the directions of the Union home ministry.”(https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/justice-again-tablighi-acquittal/cid/1800862) Definitely[Read More…]
Written by Tanisha Nahar and Hadi Kangoo The coronavirus pandemic resulted in governments worldwide imposing strict lockdowns and enforced quarantines. It is common knowledge that ethical evaluations in policymaking are shunned due to political factors, and legislators, bureaucrats and policy analysts resist the challenges of moral evaluation. The Indian government’s one-day notice lockdown was a case-in-point of disregarding ethical considerations[Read More…]
As Covid and lockdowns increased distress and deprivation in many countries, governments in most countries including India responded with relief packages aimed at directly helping the poor and vulnerable sections as well as reviving the economy. However there are several indicators that the actual relief which reached needy people in India was much less than what was suggested by official[Read More…]
People are at the center in the pandemic now ravaging the world. It’s in terms of toll and contribution from the people. It’s in economy, and consequently, in life. Bangladesh is no exception. The stories of suffering are broadly the same in all lands: hunger/hunger-scar, less-/least-accessible health care, death. Reports from the country considered the world’s richest, smartest, wisest, most[Read More…]
There are increasing apprehensions worldwide that the ability to minimize pandemic related distress and damage is being compromised seriously by widespread corrupt practices at various levels. Several warnings have being voiced already that this is leading to very heavy costs and even loss of precious human lives. In order to appreciate how heavy such costs can be, some key information[Read More…]
The notion that the COVID-19 pandemic was ‘the great equalizer’ should be dead and buried by now. If anything, the lethal disease is another terrible reminder of the deep divisions and inequalities in our societies. That said, the treatment of the disease should not be a repeat of the same shameful scenario. For an entire year, wealthy celebrities and government[Read More…]
The International Movement for a JUST World (JUST) has published an ebook. “Exploring the Coronavirus Crisis”, a collection of articles contributed by the President, the Vice President, some members or the Executive Committee, some individuals within the general membership and certain staff of JUST. They run through the pandemic looking at the socio-economic consequences of the lockdowns and the persistence[Read More…]
All over the world there is increasing concern over the misuse of special difficult conditions created by Covid-19 pandemic by corrupt and authoritarian elements in various countries and societies. To counter this and to ensure a need and evidence based, honest response, many citizen groups and independent experts have called for increasing transparency and accountability in various aspects of Covid[Read More…]
While questions have been raised regarding the response to Covid19 in many parts of the world, it has still been rare for a medical journal of international repute to take a strong stand on this issue. It is in this context that the publication of a recent editorial in the famous medical journal BMJ has attracted a lot of attention.[Read More…]
As 2020 is almost drawing to a close, we’re still not sure exactly when and how the pandemic started. Now, a new study from the US adds more evidence to the idea that the virus was already circulating outside of China in December, when the Wuhan outbreak was first declared. Reports of a mysterious pneumonia spreading in Wuhan, China,[Read More…]
Along with everyone else, the fashion industry is also experiencing the effects of a global health crisis because of Covid-19. The $400 billion US fashion industry is in the middle of a huge crisis. The severe deterioration in fashion is having a serious impact on the global economy resulting in unemployment of millions of artisans, craftspeople, weavers, tailors and seamstresses[Read More…]
Ahead of the 6th International Academy for Autoimmunity, held at St. Petersburg State University on December 6, Russian scientists from Putin’s Alma Mater published a study on the direct link between slowing the spread of coronavirus in countries where mass vaccination against tuberculosis is carried out. The University of St. Petersburg, founded by order of Peter the Great, is one[Read More…]
A cursory observation and popular perceptions reveal a ‘fatigue’ with respect to the current trends. In plain language, people are fed-up with the unusual control on their lives and this is especially severe among young people and the children. The fatigued also include parents who have to manage the dichotomy with respect to professional and personal lives with extra efforts[Read More…]
The year coming within days, 2021, is shaping up to be a humanitarian catastrophe and rich countries must not trample poor countries in a “stampede for vaccines” to combat the coronavirus pandemic, top U.N. officials told the 193-member U.N. General Assembly on Friday. World Food Programme (WFP) chief David Beasley and World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke[Read More…]
As the year 2020, shattered by the Covid-19 pandemic since March, approaches the end India finds itself in an awkward situation as the south-Asian nation has lost over 50 working journalists to the severe health hazard till the first week of December. Thousands of journalists along with other media employees got infected with the novel corona virus as they have[Read More…]
Life always been and happened to be a hurdle race for every individuals in its pace; but it became merciless tyrant when the Covid-19 carved in it’s path. Casket of thoughts, some feeble vehemence and unspoken words tryst with ailing promises. Life always been and happened to be a hurdle race for every individuals in its pace; but it became[Read More…]
Co-Written by Disha Malik, Shubhangi Kandwal, Upasna Gaba and Dr. Swati Sapna COVID-19 outbreak was notified as the Public Health Emergency of International Concern by WHO. COVID-19 has spread to countries, territories, or areas around the world. Knowing the seriousness of the situation, all nations started taking steps towards the detection of the virus as well as preventing the spread[Read More…]
A group of public health experts in India including Dr Narendra Gupta, based in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan and Dr Gopal Dabade in Karnataka have urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider fully the as-yet-unknown consequences of large scale vaccination of the whole population against the SARS-COV-2 disease. This is not a “sound, rational, scientific or intelligent” approach for India, the experts[Read More…]
Co-Written by Disha Malik, Shubhangi Kandwal & Upasna Gaba In December 2019, several cases of pneumonia were reported with unknown aetiology in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Since then the disease has spread in other parts of China and the world causing a global pandemic. (Hagert & Williams,2020). The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 led to an obligation to quarantine and increased[Read More…]
Masks can prove liberating. The hidden face affords security. Obnoxious authority breathes better, hiding in comfort. Behind the material, confidence finds a home. While tens of millions of jobs have been lost to the novel coronavirus globally, security services, surveillance officers and pen pushers are thriving, policing admissions to facilities, churning through health and safety declarations, and generally making a[Read More…]
With a confirmed caseload of more than 8.5 million as on 08 November 2020, India is the second Covid power in the world. The USA is of course on top of the heap with more than 10 million cases. Infection rate (cases per 1000 population) is 31 in the world, 6.1 in India, and 31 on the US. Andorra, an[Read More…]
“The worst case scenario is a new pandemic, starting all over again out of Denmark,” came the words of a grave Kåre Mølbak, director of the Danish health authorities, the State Serum Institute. According to the Institute, COVID-19 infections were registered on 216 mink farms on November 6. Not only had such infections been registered; new variants, five different clusters[Read More…]
The WHO Director-General Tedros Adhahnom Ghebreyesus has warned: The northern hemisphere is at a critical juncture in the Covid pandemic, and some countries are on a dangerous track. “Too many countries are seeing an exponential increase in cases,” putting hospital capacities at risk, he said. He urged leaders to take quick action to contain the virus’s spread. Europe is again[Read More…]
The U.S. Coronavirus (officially, Covid-19) cases have hit a record daily high as more than 83,000 new cases were reported in the U.S. on Friday. At the same time, scientists have warned that the U.S. approach to fight the Coronavirus pandemic and the inconsistent use of masks to prevent virus spread could lead to the cumulative loss of more than[Read More…]
Savita Kumari of Rasulpur village of Pindra Block of Varanasi District of Uttar Pradesh was blessed to be born in a lower middle class Other Backward Caste family. She is studying in 9th standard in the village high school. Since the family is engaged in agriculture and milk sale, she has enough to eat and carry on her studies. During[Read More…]
With the exception of decent New Zealand and arguably Australia, the rich, European countries of the US Alliance have been involved in deliberate, intentional Gerocide in which their sustained, deliberate, Covid-19 pandemic policies resulted in overwhelmingly elderly “Covid-19 deaths per million of population” that were 10-180 times greater than that obtaining in New Zealand. Indict Trump and Johnson for Gerocide[Read More…]
The public health experts, or at least some of them, have begun to put the cat among the pigeons. And the latter are not exactly happy about it. We can witness all the fluttering and flapping in countries such as UK, USA and India. In UK, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) is up against the Boris Johnson government[Read More…]
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and an expert in infectious diseases for the last four decades, told CNBC’s Shepard Smith Monday evening that it was more critical than ever to do these five things: wear a mask, social distance, avoid crowded spaces, do things outdoors where possible, and wash your[Read More…]
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned against the idea of allowing Covid-19 to simply spread through society, calling this “herd immunity” approach to fighting the pandemic “unethical.” “Never in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy for responding an outbreak, let alone a pandemic,” said WHO chief Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus said during a[Read More…]
The tide has been turning against UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Oafishly, he has managed to convert that tide into a deluge of dissatisfaction assisted by the gravitational pull of singular incompetence. Much of this is due to such errors of communication as committed last month, when he got into a tangle over new coronavirus restrictions in England’s northeast. In[Read More…]
The human civilization, as we know it, is facing its worst crisis. One that has bought the global village to a standstill, baffled world leaders, claimed thousands of lives and endangered millions more. Not many years ago, in 1967, United States Surgeon General, Dr. William H. Stewart allegedly made a famous (or rather infamous) remark “It is time to close[Read More…]
To Smt Nirmala Sitharaman Union Finance Minister Dear Smt Stharaman, Kindly refer to my letter dated 10-9-2020 regarding the problems faced by small businesses in repaying loans taken from NBFCs as a result of the lockdown restrictions and the fall in demand for services, an inevitable consequence of the COVID19 crisis. I have enclosed a copy of that letter for your[Read More…]
Well, the United States President becomes the third important leader to be caged. First, it was UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, then the Brazilian President Bolsonaro, and now President Trump. With more than 200,000 deaths, the United States is the worst hit Covid country in the world. With over 40,000 deaths, UK is the worst hit country in Europe. And[Read More…]
Covid-19 has brought free market juggernaut to a grinding halt; now if we are serious about changing the course of history, we can’t afford to lay waste to this pandemic It’s nearly ten months since the Covid-19 first broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan, and now with many parts of the world in the midst of a second[Read More…]
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. -Marie Curie The COVID-19 pandemic is a human tragedy of potentially biblical proportions and has convulsed societies like never earlier. Even as the world remains gripped in the fright of an invisible threat, Mother[Read More…]
The coronavirus has claimed more than 1 million lives around the world, the latest dark ‘milestone’ for the worldwide pandemic first detected some 10 months ago, which continues to spread across several hotspots. Infecting more than 33 million since first emerging in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December, the global Covid-19 death toll surpassed the 1 million mark on[Read More…]
A Theater of Dark Fantasy Hearing a hushed commotion outside my room, 203 of the first-line Covid Care Centre at Makkiyad, I opened the door. A young woman with her husband and two small children, looking deeply hurt, confused and restless, was looking around the corridor. I asked if I could be of help. She was about to burst into[Read More…]
By the end of September 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic registered 34 million infection cases with one million deaths globally. Notwithstanding Donald Trump’s ultra-nationalistic “America Frist” policy, the USA had, for weeks on end, taken the lead when it came to total deaths with 210,000 deaths and by the end of September it had a total of seven million Coronavirus cases.[Read More…]
As people battle with the deadly Coronavirus, the world is sleep walking into an authoritarian future to keep capitalism alive with the help of brute force. The parliamentary and presidential forms of democracies are running the government without effective oppositions. The majoritarian governments in USA, UK, Brazil, India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and many other countries are busy in bending inclusive,[Read More…]
If Covid-19 was as lethal as Ebola, the six million US infections registered on 9/1/20, would have already resulted in 3 million Covid -19 deaths. This is the reality of the murderous; let them die “herd immunity” policy the administration is intentionally following, by forcing us back to unsafe work/school. How many deaths will they accept with this abuse and[Read More…]
This is a crucial time and an unprecedented crisis is unfolding where the worst-hit are the most neglected ones. The Government must find a way out with utmost dedication, even if it is an act of God, and look after the farmers, so that they do happy harvesting rather than committing unwelcoming suicides. How does the novel coronavirus travel from[Read More…]
The first of PUCL Maharashtra’s series of discussions on the impact of the lockdown on civil liberties, examined the rights of prisoners and the responsibility of the State to ensure the safety of all its citizens. The speakers for the session were Maja Daruwalla, Board Member and Senior Advisor, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and Mihir Desai, Senior Counsel and Convenor,[Read More…]
by Thomas Klikauer and Nadine Campbell Amidst 93,000 daily cases and 80,000 deaths, some cities in India are experiencing a lockdown because of the the Coronavirus pandemic also known as Covid-19. Just a few months ago, Germany’s capital Berlin experienced the very same. If Berlin’s experiences is anything to go by, here is what such a lockdown means for you[Read More…]
Have you heard the quote _ “Health is Wealth”? Recall it and it’s very high time to implement it now. Aren’t we creatures wearing masks since ages? “Covering ourselves – our real face and showing the fabricated image to this world, at times we hide our emotions and reveal ourselves as being so cool humans on this planet”. Yes that[Read More…]
During the initial months of the Covid-19 crisis, experts expressed their concern that this pandemic could set women back decades and rollover 50 years of progress in gender equality. As time passes, data from across the world are proving that the threat is real. With extra burden of childcare and household chores, unsecured jobs, job loss, risk-prone working conditions, hard to access[Read More…]
With every passing day, the corona pandemic is getting bigger and bigger; we have reached the figure of more than one thousand deaths and around 80 thousand reported cases every day. We are into 10 months of the pandemic, yet we seem to know little about the infectivity of the virus. Even highly protected people like Home Minster of the[Read More…]
An emergency meeting of the 50-member Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm – responsible for the selection of Nobel laureates in physiology or medicine – is having grave deliberations. Chairperson: An unprecedented situation has arisen after we received an email from the aforesaid aspirants for the Nobel Prize; the rules do not allow nomination by the potential laureates. I beseech[Read More…]
It baffles the mind whether it’s willful blindness or anterograde amnesia but while drawing parallels with coronavirus outbreak, mainstream media appears to vividly recall Spanish flu of 1918 from a century ago and doesn’t seem to have an inkling about a much more pertinent example of H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009-10, even though it shared a lot of[Read More…]
Yes, we, both me and my daughter became COVID 19 positive on August 19th after an Antigen test done. We had no major symptoms as such. I just had a chill and was feverish for a day and I became normal after that. My daughter had fever and body pain for a day or two. After that she developed total[Read More…]
The spread of Corona Virus in India has been on the upswing despite the measures undertaken by the state. In most parts of India the suffering has been immense. The central Government took up the issue of Covid 19, with great amount of delay. From early February WHO started warning the Governments all around about the impending dangers of the[Read More…]
How should one deal with COVID-19 pandemic? Certainly not with social distancing, which in South Asian context, has inbuilt casteist connotations of discrimination and exclusion. Introduction India has more than 3 million cases of coronavirus now. The situation is far from normal. It is time not only to talk about ways and means for ending the pandemic which so far[Read More…]
There are basically two different policy-approaches to the coronavirus problem: One is the passive approach, waiting for ‘herd immunity’ to develop naturally. And the other is the active approach, in which the Government does take action — not just wait while the most-vulnerable individuals die off from the disease. The “herd immunity” approach is libertarian; it assumes that “let nature[Read More…]
This is important for developing immunity to Covid and other infections and build resistance. Researchers are now pointing out the manifold benefits of rewilding of Nature for human health and well-being. This means we need to expose ourselves to more bio diversity, be in touch with a wide variety of plant life, not just manicured, artificial lawns. According to Jacob[Read More…]
The bastardization of liberty and freedom is nothing new in the United States. It extends far beyond the recent “Liberate” protests in response to pandemic lockdowns, the result of which have borne fruit in an earlier than predicted second wave of Covid-19. It is not confined to just the 21st century, during which all three presidents have directed acts of[Read More…]
Seventeen years ago, against the advice of my parents, I decided to become a public school teacher. Once I did, both my mother and father, educators themselves, warned me that choosing to teach was to invite attacks from those who viewed the profession with derision and contempt. They advised me to stay strong and push through when budgets were cut,[Read More…]
HM has been reportedly readmitted to the hospital for post-COVID care (and continues to work from there). Even as the whole country is praying for his speedy recovery, Sarkari facts and statements issued ad infinitum should give him a reason to cheer viz: The recovery rate for COVID-19 has improved and reached 73.64 % because of ‘active intervention treatment strategies’.[Read More…]
Jared Kushner, the U.S. president Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, once again gave a bullish assessment of the U.S.s’ coronavirus response on television, despite the nation leading the world in cases and deaths. The president’s son-in-law and senior adviser doubled down on comments from April, where he called the U.S. administration’s efforts a “great success story” and that the[Read More…]
A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves -Lao Tzu This pandemic has inflicted the greatest pain on those who had already been rendered most vulnerable, spurring great hardship and growing unease among low income families and micro businesses. It has uncovered existing[Read More…]
As the Covid-19 lockdown kicked in March, Bangalore and most other cities in India witnessed an exodus of migrant workers returning to their homes in northern and eastern India, by every conceivable means including by cycle and by walking, with women carrying their small children. But there were some people who could not even leave, because they were not migrant[Read More…]
The current pandemic continues to have a large negative impact on most aspects of our lives. Over 20.6 million have been infected and almost 750,000 have died worldwide (about 5.3 million infections and over 168,000 deaths in the US) due to this pandemic. Besides these horrific impacts, this pandemic has also made clearer the failure of the bipartisan neoliberal economic[Read More…]
The World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreaks a global pandemic. In India, during the last six months had a tough time for everyone as government had announced the lockdown in the month of March because of day by day increasing in the number of cases of coronavirus. Pregnant women have more stress about the effects[Read More…]
Latin America has surpassed more than 5 million Covid-19 cases to overtake North America, with 4.8 million Covid-19 cases, as the region worst-hit by the Coronavirus pandemic. This astronomic increase in Covid-19 cases has been accompanied by a corresponding economic catastrophe of great magnitude. According to a United Nations Policy Brief entitled “The Impact of COVID-19 on Latin America and the Caribbean”, “Parts of Latin America and[Read More…]
We would like to think that we can eliminate COVID-19, but doing so is far from certain. The medical system has not been successful in eliminating HIV/AIDS or influenza; the situation with COVID-19 may be similar. We are discovering that people with COVID-19 are extremely hard to identify because a significant share of infections are very mild or completely without[Read More…]
The pandemic driven lockdowns have triggered worldwide growth of unemployment, hunger, homelessness and poverty. The speed of economic descent in world economy is extraordinary. The world is sleep walking into greater economic depression of the century and its impacts will reverberate for decades. The COVID-19 pandemic led economic crisis has been used by ruling and non-ruling classes to reconfigured the[Read More…]
Co-Written by Abass Rather & Aqib Yousuf Ever since the outbreak of Covid 19 pandemic, the fear of getting infected was always there. No matter how courageous one pretends to be. Everyone utilised all resources to save themselves from it in the first stage of it and in the first lockdown period. As the days progressed, different stories among the[Read More…]
In India recently, there is all the hype in mainstream media about a probable 30 second rapid COVID-19 detection system by collaboration of DRDO with the Israeli military R&D. Reportedly, there are four developments that are planned to be tested: Online voice test along with Artificial Intelligence (AI) Breath analyser based on Terahertz waves along with AI Isothermal test using[Read More…]
The struggle against Covid-19 has often been compared to fighting a war. Much of this rhetoric is bombast, but the similarities between the struggle against the virus and against human enemies are real enough. War reporting and pandemic reporting likewise have much in common because, in both cases, journalists are dealing with and describing matters of life and death.[Read More…]
As on 6th August 2020, the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) has affected 213 countries and territories around the world infecting over 19 million people of whom 0.7 million died. The US is on top with 5 million cases and 163,000 death. Brazil and India holds the second and third slots with 2.9 and 2 million cases. In terms of infection rates, Qatar,[Read More…]
It is time to stop irresponsible finger-pointing. All over the world, as this essay is being written, well over 17 million COVID-19 cases have been reported, and 676,000 people died. And instead of concentrating on serious research, trying to save human lives and attempting to stop the global calamity, ‘residents’ of the White House are spending all the energy on[Read More…]
Amit Shah in Medanta: Are our leaders born with forked tongues or they cultivate it when they become public figures? Satyendra Jain, Delhi’s Health Minister, was on television every night for over two months harping on the impressive Covid hospitalisation facilities created in the national capital by the Kejriwal Government. He especially showcased the Lok Nayak Jaya Prakash (LNJP) Hospital[Read More…]
An NBC News report by Ben Popken said on July 31, 2020: “A $600 per week lifeline is about to run out of rope, threatening to leave millions of American families at the end of theirs. “The pandemic unemployment assistance payments, which were approved in March as part of the government’s fiscal stimulus package, known as the CARES Act, are[Read More…]
Notes on the Utter Cruelty and Obscene Irrationality of Capitalism-Imperialism [W]hile there is certainly a legitimate and positive desire on the part of people everywhere to get beyond the scourge of this virus, taking into account what is the actual situation for the masses of humanity under the “normal” domination of this system, no one should desire a return to[Read More…]
As per a recent news, a senior bureaucrat in Lucknow said, “The increase in female infection (of COVID-19) ratio is a clear indication that women are going out in the market and not following the precautions [for COVID-19 prevention]”. This statement is not only devoid of any scientific evidence but also reeks of a deep-rooted patriarchal mindset. It also assumes[Read More…]
This could be the stuff of fiction. But then again, many legal principles began, at some point or rather, in the sludge of speculation before hardening into legal briefs and prosecutorial documents. Holding heads of state to account for crimes against their people remains a perennial project with a patchy record. This is particularly the case when it comes to[Read More…]
There were 16.9 Million Covid-19 cases in the world as on 28 Jul 2020. This represents about 0.22% of the global population. Among the countries, the USA is on top with 4.5 M, closely followed by Brazil – 2.5 M and India 1.5 M. In short, these three countries with a total population of 1.9 billion have about half the[Read More…]
Five months into the pandemic, it is evident that the government is in denial. The political rhetoric is harking back a failed status quoism, with grand delusions of recovery. Rather than call for a complete reset and reconfiguration of the prevailing order, the Indian government’s approach to tackling the pandemic betrays an overwhelming faith in business-as-usual. The economic fallouts of[Read More…]
All around the world, the coronavirus and its restrictions are pushing already hungry communities over the edge, cutting off meager farms from markets and isolating villages from food and medical aid. Virus-linked hunger is leading to the deaths of 10,000 more children a month over the first year of the pandemic, according to an urgent call to action from the[Read More…]
A senior World Health Organization (WHO) official has said that coronavirus pandemic is likely to be “one big wave” as they warned people to remain vigilant despite lockdowns being eased. Margaret Harris, the WHO spokesperson, said the idea of a “second wave” is flawed since infection rates do not seem to be affected by the seasons. Instead, Harris said, people[Read More…]
Co-Written by Dr. P. S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal Bayer being allowed to hawk its drugs and agri-products in India like any other multinational corporation is one thing; being permitted to have COVID facility right within its plant premises leaves room for mischief given its track record since the Holocaust days. Bayer’s parent company – Bayer AG became a[Read More…]
I don’t trust you. Don’t take it personally. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a friend or a stranger. I don’t care about your identity or your politics, where you work or if you work, whether you wear a mask or carry a gun. I don’t trust you because you are, for the time being, a potential carrier of a deadly[Read More…]
Australia has done vastly better than other rich European countries in the Covid-19 pandemic because (a) it is a large island that accordingly could readily minimize Covid-19 importation, and (b) while notoriously anti-science over climate change, Australia’s neoliberal government chose in this instance to listen to the health experts. However an Australian Senate Covid-19 Inquiry noted but declined to publish[Read More…]
On 23rd March 2020, I was packing my bag to leave for Kashmir (my hometown) from Pune as the threat of Covid-19 was increasing and everyone wanted to stay with their families in this time of distress. I was happy and sad, happy because it was an unexpected visit to home and sad because the disease was spreading rapidly,[Read More…]
As on 26 July 2020, there are 16.5 million confirmed cases and 0.65 million deaths of Covid-19, an infectious disease caused by the virus- SARS-Cov-2 in 214 countries and territories under the United Nations system. In India, Kerala State reported the first laboratory confirmed Covid-19 on 30 Jan 2030, ten days after the eminent Chinese epidemiologist Dr Zhong Nanshan announced[Read More…]
Co-Written by Shobha Shukla, Bobby Ramakant and Sandeep Pandey “COVID-19 has exposed the lie that free markets can deliver healthcare for all, the fiction that unpaid care work isn’t work, the delusion that we live in a post-racist world.We are all floating on the same sea, but some are in super-yachts and others clinging to drifting debris” said Antonio Guterres,[Read More…]
Health Care is a fundamental right of each individual. Every person irrespective of his race, creed, colour, religion or community has a right to avail basic health Care . The initiative of primary health Care started by the government of India is one of the crucial and most important steps taken towards the achievement of ‘’Health For All Goal’’ through[Read More…]
Co-Written by Shivangini Piplani and Sandeep Pandey ‘Madam, Jhooth nahi bolenge, ‘1500 pada hai, hum 75 aadmi ek truck me aae the (Madam, I’ll not lie, we came back in Rs. 1,500 per head, 75 of us packed in one turck),’ Ram Kishore confessed to the first writer when she called him up in his village Dalkheda in Unnao District[Read More…]
Covid_19 has been changing a lot of things. We are trying to get used to the ‘new normal’. Most of us are still indoors, working from home, trying to deal with things in the best way we can. Those of us who are into teaching are working from home too and trying to learn new ways of engaging with our[Read More…]
To Shri Naveen Pattnaik, The Chief Minister, Odisha SUB: PRISONERS AND PRISON CONDITIONS IN ODISHA – AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CHIEF MINISTER Sir, We, in Jan Adhikar Manch, Odisha, are deeply concerned that the Covid-19 pandemic is rapidly spreading in Odisha too. While reports in the mass media state that jail inmates are getting increasingly affected by[Read More…]
“Don’t Need A Weatherman….. to know which way the wind blows.” Yes, another snippet from Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues where Dylan, as only a few great lyricists can do, lays it all out so succinctly. As usual, Dylan’s assessment is right on! I don’t need to be an expert, or sometimes not even relying on experts, to[Read More…]
An unusual increase in SARS CoV-2 infections and an enhancement of the COVID-19 epidemic in the United States are disturbing and dangerous. Disturbances come from President Trump’s cavalier and inept handling of the epidemic, emphasized by his constant prevarications, departure from reality, misleading the American public, and sidetracking the important health issue into becoming an economic issue. Danger arises from the nation losing[Read More…]
Auto rickshaws are a dominated transportation of Kolkata. According to a record of 2018, about a half lakh registered auto rickshaw (and a few thousand unregistered) used to ferry a few lakh passengers daily in different routes of the city before the lockdown. From unlock 1.0, government has been allowed to play auto rickshaw with some strict rules. i.e. regular[Read More…]
The buzzing tunes of a crisis at the starting of 2020 have encompassed the whole globe within a realm of euphoria setting apart new discourses of predicament, accumulating every section of the population for visualizing the unseen, thinking of the unthinkable ever. The subalterns of the working class have played a major role in today’s times of pandemic, settling differences[Read More…]
The coronavirus pandemic is set to get “worse and worse” if countries do not stick to strict healthcare guidelines, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. The disease has already killed more than half-a-million globally. Speaking on Monday during a press briefing from the WHO headquarters in Geneva via videolink, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus gave an alarming prognosis on[Read More…]
The coronavirus pandemic has caused an “unprecedented education emergency” with up to 9.7 million children affected by school closures at risk of never going back to class, warned Save the Children Monday. The British charity cited UNESCO data showing that in April, 1.6 billion young people were shut out of school and university due to measures to contain COVID-19 –[Read More…]
The COVID-19 virus gets the blame for almost every problem we are facing today. We are too focused on the temporary immediate problem caused by the virus and don’t pay any attention to deeper and more dangerous systemic problems. It is a natural human tendency to pay more attention to acute problems that appear suddenly than slow-developing problems that develop[Read More…]
Japanese authorities have demanded answers from the U.S. after a large scale COVID-19 outbreak among U.S. Marines stationed in Japan’s southern prefecture of Okinawa. The U.S. military officials told the two bases have since been put in lockdown. In recent days, 61 U.S. Marines have been infected with the virus, spread across two bases in the archipelago — which[Read More…]
United States governments have sent their children to kill and to be killed in many wars. Freely using mendacious stories, such as the Gulf of Tonkin incident, where Vietnam torpedo boats (motorboats) supposedly attacked U.S. warships close to the Vietnam shores, and the false allegation that Saddam Hussein was ready to manufacture nuclear weapons and wreak havoc on the United[Read More…]
It should surely be taken seriously that Bharat till date is distanced from community transmission of Corona virus 2019/2020 or COVID-19, as reported by the Government of India. This is notwithstanding the fact of death of persons exceeding 20,000 and affected persons more than 7,00,000 while around 10 million had already been Corona-tested. There remains 1290 million to be tested,[Read More…]
As the pandemic continues to dominate public politics around the world, a single number – the reproduction rate (R) – has become the focus of policy-making and public communication. Keeping R below 1.0 appears to be the primary objective of public health policy. In the case of climate change the number 2°C (or 1.5°C) operates in a similar way. And[Read More…]
We have been seeing and hearing a lot of visual and print media news and statistics of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. This will continue for some time to come. Almost all reports give the absolute number of cases and deaths. As on 7 Jul 20, with nearly 3.1 million cases and 134,000 deaths the USA is on top, Brazil with[Read More…]
The United States is famed for doing things, not to scale, but off it. Size is the be-all and end-all, and the coronavirus is now doing its bit to assure that the country remains unrivalled in the charts of infection. In time, other unfortunates may well catch up. Brazil, with a president freshly diagnosed as having COVID-19, is currently on[Read More…]
“No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects.” – Nuremberg Code The ABVA (AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan) views with serious concern the manner in which the alleged n-coronavirus vaccine in India is being[Read More…]
Introduction Frank Snowden[i] defines Covid-19 as the first pandemic of globalization which exploits massive population growth, crowding and mega cities; an industrial model that encourages rapacious growth without counting the environmental cost. Spillover events are becoming more and more common. All these vulnerabilities are man-made. Humans provide the conditions for epidemic to flourish. In his view, “each epidemic is unique,[Read More…]
In the month of March, people got lined up for ‘miracle drink’ in Delhi at a Sabha organised by Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha, to have their share of Gaumutra (cow’s urine). The craze for this madness was created by an infodemic, which said: ‘Covid is an avatar, which has taken form of virus to kill non – vegetarians and people[Read More…]
Gotabaya Rajapakshe the first time President, an Army veteran has proved himself as guardian of Sinhala Buddhist heritage and champion of the Armed forces. He openly and loudly said NO to Tamil political party TNA} for devolution or power sharing and the full implementation of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987. In his vocabulary devolution has become a bad[Read More…]
India has become the third worst affected country globally in relation to COVID-19 pandemic; the triad consists of India, USA and Brazil. Quite early in the course of the pandemic the Indian government either gifted or sold the drug Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) – a drug primarily used against malaria and a host of other diseases including autoimmune diseases like SLE. A[Read More…]
The freedom of press comes from the Right to Speech which is guaranteed to all the citizens by the constitution of India vide article 19 (1) (a). The media has been recognised as the fourth pillar of democracy, four in row to save and to strengthen it. In the last seventy years of independence, we have seen exponential growth in[Read More…]
California is seeing a surge in coronavirus infections, and most of our government misleaders, from Governor Gavin Newsom on down, are trying to sweep the true story under the rug with the same kind of blowhard fake news that we hear from the Trump administration. The politicians don’t want to admit that the real problem is a serious lack of[Read More…]
In the absence of a pharmaceutical remedy to the outbreak of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), non-pharmaceutical interventions have become necessary. Physical distancing, containment of areas by restricting movement of people, and a nationwide lockdown have been the strategies adopted globally. In India, after about two months of nationwide lockdown and the subsequent unlocking process, most of us are hoping for a[Read More…]
The horrors of deaths, destitutions and common vulnerabilities due to the pestilence of COVID-19 has brought back the ideals of universal unity, peace and solidarity into the center stage of a fragile world. These ideals are historically proved shelter during every crisis created by colonial, imperialist and reactionary nationalist adventures during 19th century, and productivist plunders of capitalism during 20th[Read More…]
The country has been going through an unprecedented health crisis. There is despair and desperation all around. We are constantly getting news about uncontrolled virus spread, rising death tolls and collapsing health systems. Add to this chaos the unimaginable levels of sufferings of the workers walking hundreds of kilometres to reach back their homes, sights of police beating up or[Read More…]
A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that no matter how polarized they might be politically, Americans finally seem to agree on something: that everything about America is getting worse. In his 1989 farewell address, President Ronald Reagan famously described the United States as a “shining city on a hill” — a beacon of hope and a model for the rest[Read More…]
To this writer’s mind wherever one is at anywhere in the world – given the yet unknown first, second, third, fourth or however more waves of Covid-19 are yet to come, with no vaccine in sight, for perhaps another 18 months or more, if ever, one literally must continue as if they daily are taking one’s life into their[Read More…]
The Covid-19 pandemic is a deadly and contagious disease. There is no preventive medicine or vaccine available till now. We are faced with an unprecedented public health crisis situation. However, the manner in which our government is dealing with this public health crisis by announcing a lockdown and implementing it by unleashing brute force and police repression on ordinary citizens[Read More…]
Co-Written by by Simran Kaur, Vasundhra Kaul, Varsha Sharma and Sandeep Pandey While the entire world faced the threat of the coronavirus, India was witness to a peculiar phenomenon. Hundreds of migrant workers poured into the streets, despite explicit warnings -and passionate appeals- by the Prime Minister to stay indoors. India saw numerous deaths during this time, many of which[Read More…]
Very few people actually enjoy elbowing their way into a crowded bus or train, but this seems to be like a faraway nightmare. Paradoxically, it’s one we’re sorry we won’t be able to get into again in the near future. Perhaps we look back with nostalgia at how we used to queue for hours to get a foot in the[Read More…]
On June 24, 2020, an Arab News report from Riyadh said: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday welcomed Saudi Arabia’s decision to greatly limit the number of Hajj pilgrims this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Kingdom said just 1,000 people, who are already living in Saudi Arabia, would be able to perform the pilgrimage. Last year almost[Read More…]
Many among us, more so in the western world, smug with the scientific breakthroughs of recent years, predict the unbelievable for the human race. Yuval Noah Hariri is a Professor of History at the Hebrew University in Israel. In his best-selling ‘Homo deus – A Brief History of Tomorrow’, Hariri goes to the extent of predicting that humans with ‘mastery over[Read More…]
Chennai June 24 – A Muslim group in Tamil Nadu is actively involved in conducting proper funeral rites of dead bodies mostly of Corona victims belonging to different faiths. The volunteers of Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK), a Muslim non-governmental organization have performed the last rights of about 139 dead bodies belonging to different religions commencing from March 25,[Read More…]
The continuing coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the economic and political problems of the United States and Europe, which are becoming increasingly hard to ignore. Dozens of experts from various countries attending the “COVID-19 Global Challenges” international summit, held by public organizations of India, Germany, Britain, Russia and Serbia on June 15-19, discussed the challenges that the world has faced[Read More…]
Many of our daily life events are governed by dichotomies. The world is witnessing a reorientation and reconsideration of such dichotomies and even several assumptions regarding human existence and outlook. This is not just in terms of moral aspects like honest or dishonest, love and hate, good and bad, right and wrong etc. In the backdrop of the pandemic, the[Read More…]
When Coronavirus hit China worst and then moved to Europe and the US India still had less number of Covid-19 cases and deaths due to Coronavirus. However, India had an early lockdown along with most of the worst hit countries and even after a month of lockdown India’s total number Covid-19 cases remained around 100000. That was very impressive figure[Read More…]
Co-Written by György Széll and Thomas Klikauer Free image download from: https://pixabay.com/de After each crisis we ask ourselves, can we learn from it? We will ask this question again after the major effects of the on-going Covid-19 pandemic will be over. Perhaps, one might like to look back into the history of pandemics. Every human being on earth has about[Read More…]
In the midst of the worldwide COVID Pandemic, responsible individuals and families are protecting themselves and each other by wearing protective masks so they won’t infect family members, friends or anyone else with whom they may come in contact. But there also are many more individuals and whole families who don’t care a whit about protecting themselves, their families[Read More…]
A spectre is, right now, haunting the world. The spectre of a pandemic – COVID-19. COVID-191,2,3 is a viral disease – both infectious and potentially fatal, belonging to the SARS family, caused by a zoonotic – i.e. transmitted from animals to humans, virus. It, mainly, affects the human respiratory system. While old infectious diseases – including cholera, typhoid, small pox,[Read More…]
Using the coronavirus to score political points has only made the global health crisis worse, claimed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) director-general. Some observers have interpreted the WHO chief’s claim as a broadside against U.S. President Donald Trump. The politicization of the pandemic has “exacerbated” the effects of the disease, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during an online conference on Monday,[Read More…]
Co-Written by Atul and Sandeep Pandey The COVID 19 lockdown in India has witnessed an unfathomable scale of internal migration, displacement, tragedies, and human sufferings not seen since the time of partition 70 years ago. The haphazard manner in which the government implemented the lockdown resulted in absolute chaos when crores were forced by cruel circumstances to go back to[Read More…]
Risk communication has been considered as an inevitable part of the Public Health Program which has the capacity of addressing public health issues if implemented judicially. Effectiveness has been widely accepted by the public health professionals during the vigilance & outbreak response of severe acute respiratory syndrome(SARS-CoV-2), Middle East respiratory syndrome(MERS) and Ebola in different parts of the world. Public[Read More…]
More people have now died during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States than American soldiers died on the battlefields of World War I. The acknowledged death toll of U.S. soldiers in the “Great War” is 116,516. As of this writing, 119,112 have died from a coronavirus infection in the U.S. World War I is over. The COVID-19 pandemic marches[Read More…]
The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 on June 17, 2020 informed: The world has now recorded more than 8 million cases of COVID-19. In the first two months, 85,000 cases were reported. But in the past two months 6 million cases have been reported. There have been more[Read More…]
Co-Written by Abhay Singh, Divyansh Prakash, Isha Garg, Jeevan Joseph, Ram Karthikeyan, Stuti Khandelwal The first traces of SARS-CoV-2 virus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) were discovered in November, 2019 in Wuhan, China. Since then, the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has transformed from a local disease into a global pandemic. While countries across the world, rich and poor, are[Read More…]
Since the first case of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was diagnosed in December 2019 in Hubei province of China, it has swept across the world and galvanized global action. This has brought unprecedented efforts to institute the practice of physical distancing called in most cases “social distancing” in countries all over the world, resulting in changes in[Read More…]
Health is one of the basic human rights of a human being. But this has always been undermined by the governments everywhere in the world, even though the UN has proclaimed–Health is a right. Some of the States have incorporated it in their constitution but it stands as a customary one. Majority of the countries don’t guarantee that none of
Caste, Class and India’s Covid Catastrophe
Covid-19 patients dying on the streets gasping for oxygen. Hundreds of wailing, desperate folks searching for hospital beds to access treatment. Even the dead denied dignified funerals, their bodies dumped unceremoniously in the rivers of India. Much has been written about the reasons for the Indian government’s abysmal failure to prepare for the devastating surge in Covid-19 cases in India[Read More…]