U.S. officials describe what to do in case of a nuclear attack
So what should you do in a nuclear missile attack?
That key bit of advice was mostly missing from the mistaken alert sent out Saturday to mobile phones across Hawaii. All it said was, ‘‘BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.’’
A more detailed message scrolled across television screens in Hawaii, suggesting, ‘‘If you are indoors, stay indoors. If you are outdoors, seek immediate shelter in a building. Remain indoors well away from windows. If you are driving, pull safely to the side of the road and seek shelter in a building or lay on the floor.’’
The alerts were quickly withdrawn, but widespread curiosity about how to increase the odds of surviving a nuclear attack remains.
More...
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/us ... ailsignout
MAN-MADE DISASTERS
Why Hasn’t the World Been Destroyed in a Nuclear War Yet?
When opposing nations gained access to nuclear weapons, it fundamentally changed the logic of war. You might say that it made questions about war more cleanly logical—with nuclear-armed belligerents, there are fewer classic military analyses about morale, materiel, and maneuverings. Hundreds of small-scale tactical decisions dissolve into a few hugely important large-scale strategic ones, like, What happens if one side drops a nuclear bomb on its nuclear-armed opponent?
Using a dangerous weapon like a nuclear bomb can of course provoke dangerous responses. If one country crosses the nuclear line, what will its opponent do? What will its allies, or other nuclear-armed states do? The decision to use a nuclear weapon is practically nothing next to the chain reaction it begins. The act of one nation simply developing a nuclear weapon can provoke a “nuclear proliferation cascade,” as other nations, concerned about new nuclear-armed rivals, rush to follow suit. This is cited as one reason why it’s so important to prevent Iran from building its own nuclear weapons.
During the Cold War, the important thinking about using nuclear weapons didn’t come from old military wisdom but from game theory, a new way to understand strategic decision-making. This analytical approach suggested that the standoff between the U.S. and USSR represented a Nash equilibrium: Neither superpower had reason to preemptively launch a nuclear attack, as it would surely provoke a devastating counterattack. At the same time, neither would disarm significantly enough to leave itself unable to retaliate to a preemptive strike. The doctrine of mutually assured destruction (or MAD, named somewhat facetiously by mathematician John von Neumann) seemed to keep the superpowers at a peaceful balance point. But it’s unsettling to live in a world whose existence is maintained only by the threatening logic of the Nash equilibrium.
http://nautil.us//blog/-why-hasnt-the-w ... 9-60760513
When opposing nations gained access to nuclear weapons, it fundamentally changed the logic of war. You might say that it made questions about war more cleanly logical—with nuclear-armed belligerents, there are fewer classic military analyses about morale, materiel, and maneuverings. Hundreds of small-scale tactical decisions dissolve into a few hugely important large-scale strategic ones, like, What happens if one side drops a nuclear bomb on its nuclear-armed opponent?
Using a dangerous weapon like a nuclear bomb can of course provoke dangerous responses. If one country crosses the nuclear line, what will its opponent do? What will its allies, or other nuclear-armed states do? The decision to use a nuclear weapon is practically nothing next to the chain reaction it begins. The act of one nation simply developing a nuclear weapon can provoke a “nuclear proliferation cascade,” as other nations, concerned about new nuclear-armed rivals, rush to follow suit. This is cited as one reason why it’s so important to prevent Iran from building its own nuclear weapons.
During the Cold War, the important thinking about using nuclear weapons didn’t come from old military wisdom but from game theory, a new way to understand strategic decision-making. This analytical approach suggested that the standoff between the U.S. and USSR represented a Nash equilibrium: Neither superpower had reason to preemptively launch a nuclear attack, as it would surely provoke a devastating counterattack. At the same time, neither would disarm significantly enough to leave itself unable to retaliate to a preemptive strike. The doctrine of mutually assured destruction (or MAD, named somewhat facetiously by mathematician John von Neumann) seemed to keep the superpowers at a peaceful balance point. But it’s unsettling to live in a world whose existence is maintained only by the threatening logic of the Nash equilibrium.
http://nautil.us//blog/-why-hasnt-the-w ... 9-60760513
Will the U.S. Help the Saudis Get a Nuclear Weapon?
The last thing the Middle East needs is another country with the potential to build nuclear weapons. Yet that could happen if the United States mishandles Saudi Arabia’s plans to enter the nuclear power business and erect as many as 16 nuclear reactors for electricity generation over 25 years.
The Saudis aren’t saying they want to become the second country, after Israel, to have a nuclear arsenal in the increasingly unstable region. They insist the reactors would be used only to generate energy for domestic purposes, so they can rely on their huge reserves of oil to generate income from overseas.
Still, there are growing signs that the Saudis want the option of building nuclear weapons to hedge against their archrival, Iran, which had a robust nuclear program before accepting severe curbs under a 2015 deal with the United States and other major powers.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/25/opin ... 3053090226
The last thing the Middle East needs is another country with the potential to build nuclear weapons. Yet that could happen if the United States mishandles Saudi Arabia’s plans to enter the nuclear power business and erect as many as 16 nuclear reactors for electricity generation over 25 years.
The Saudis aren’t saying they want to become the second country, after Israel, to have a nuclear arsenal in the increasingly unstable region. They insist the reactors would be used only to generate energy for domestic purposes, so they can rely on their huge reserves of oil to generate income from overseas.
Still, there are growing signs that the Saudis want the option of building nuclear weapons to hedge against their archrival, Iran, which had a robust nuclear program before accepting severe curbs under a 2015 deal with the United States and other major powers.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/25/opin ... 3053090226
I Saw a Genocide in Slow Motion
Myanmar continues to kill its Rohingya, now by denying them health care and sometimes food instead of by wielding machetes and firing bullets.
RAKHINE STATE, Myanmar — Sono Wara spent the day crying. And even after her tear ducts emptied, her shirt was still wet from leaking milk.
Her newborn twins had died the previous day, and she squatted in her grass-roof hut, shattered by pain and grief. She is 18 and this was her first pregnancy, but as a member of the Rohingya ethnic minority she could not get a doctor’s help. So after a difficult delivery, her twins lie buried in the ground.
Sometimes Myanmar uses guns and machetes for ethnic cleansing, and that’s how Sono Wara earlier lost her mother and sister. But it also kills more subtly and secretly by regularly denying medical care and blocking humanitarian aid to Rohingya, and that’s why her twins are gone.
Myanmar and its Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, are trying to make the Rohingya’s lives unlivable, while keeping out witnesses. Some 700,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh in recent months, but the fate of those left behind has been less clear, for Myanmar mostly bans foreigners from Rohingya areas. The government fired a warning flare when it arrested two Reuters journalists for reporting on an army massacre of Rohingya; the reporters face up to 14 years in prison for committing superb journalism.
Entering Myanmar on a tourist visa, I was able to slip undetected into five Rohingya villages. What I found was a slow-motion genocide. The massacres and machete attacks of last August are over for now, but Rohingya remain confined to their villages — and to a huge concentration camp — and are systematically denied most education and medical care.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/02/opin ... dline&te=1
Myanmar continues to kill its Rohingya, now by denying them health care and sometimes food instead of by wielding machetes and firing bullets.
RAKHINE STATE, Myanmar — Sono Wara spent the day crying. And even after her tear ducts emptied, her shirt was still wet from leaking milk.
Her newborn twins had died the previous day, and she squatted in her grass-roof hut, shattered by pain and grief. She is 18 and this was her first pregnancy, but as a member of the Rohingya ethnic minority she could not get a doctor’s help. So after a difficult delivery, her twins lie buried in the ground.
Sometimes Myanmar uses guns and machetes for ethnic cleansing, and that’s how Sono Wara earlier lost her mother and sister. But it also kills more subtly and secretly by regularly denying medical care and blocking humanitarian aid to Rohingya, and that’s why her twins are gone.
Myanmar and its Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, are trying to make the Rohingya’s lives unlivable, while keeping out witnesses. Some 700,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh in recent months, but the fate of those left behind has been less clear, for Myanmar mostly bans foreigners from Rohingya areas. The government fired a warning flare when it arrested two Reuters journalists for reporting on an army massacre of Rohingya; the reporters face up to 14 years in prison for committing superb journalism.
Entering Myanmar on a tourist visa, I was able to slip undetected into five Rohingya villages. What I found was a slow-motion genocide. The massacres and machete attacks of last August are over for now, but Rohingya remain confined to their villages — and to a huge concentration camp — and are systematically denied most education and medical care.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/02/opin ... dline&te=1
‘Never Again,’ Holocaust Museum Tells Burmese Leader
The decision by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to rescind its human-rights award to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is sad, and proper.
Few people in modern times had evoked as much admiration and support as the courageous daughter of Myanmar’s founding father when she defied the dictatorial junta in Myanmar through 15 years of house arrest. And few people have been as disappointing in their subsequent failure to act against, or even to acknowledge, the horrific persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority in her country.
“We had hoped that you — as someone we and many others have celebrated for your commitment to human dignity and universal human rights — would have done something to condemn and stop the military’s brutal campaign and to express solidarity with the targeted Rohingya population,” the Holocaust Museum wrote in an open letter explaining why it was taking back the Elie Wiesel Award it had presented five years earlier. Instead, the letter said, the ruling party Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi leads refused to cooperate with United Nations investigators, used “hateful rhetoric” against the Rohingya and cracked down on journalists trying to report on the vicious suppression of the group.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/11/opin ... dline&te=1
The decision by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to rescind its human-rights award to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is sad, and proper.
Few people in modern times had evoked as much admiration and support as the courageous daughter of Myanmar’s founding father when she defied the dictatorial junta in Myanmar through 15 years of house arrest. And few people have been as disappointing in their subsequent failure to act against, or even to acknowledge, the horrific persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority in her country.
“We had hoped that you — as someone we and many others have celebrated for your commitment to human dignity and universal human rights — would have done something to condemn and stop the military’s brutal campaign and to express solidarity with the targeted Rohingya population,” the Holocaust Museum wrote in an open letter explaining why it was taking back the Elie Wiesel Award it had presented five years earlier. Instead, the letter said, the ruling party Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi leads refused to cooperate with United Nations investigators, used “hateful rhetoric” against the Rohingya and cracked down on journalists trying to report on the vicious suppression of the group.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/11/opin ... dline&te=1
Weather and violence displace millions inside borders every year
Conflicts left nearly 12m people without a home in 2017
IN 2015 the refugee crisis in the eastern Mediterranean made headlines when a picture of a dead three-year-old Syrian boy, face down on a beach on the southern tip of Europe, brought home the tragic consequences of conflicts raging in Africa and the Middle East. Alan Kurdi’s desperate escape ended within five minutes of leaving Bodrum in Turkey, when the overloaded inflatable boat that carried him capsized. The journeys of those fleeing their homes to make new lives elsewhere capture headlines and animate politics. But millions more are forced out of their homes only to remain inside the borders of their countries. The number of such internally displaced people is shocking and has risen in recent years.
In 2017 over 30m people were displaced after natural disasters or outbreaks of violence, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and the Norwegian Refugee Council, an NGO. This is equivalent to 80,000 people each day abandoning their homes. As in previous years natural disasters were the biggest cause of upheaval. In the past decade a quarter of a billion people have been displaced, mostly because of storms, flooding or famine. By contrast 70m have been uprooted as a result of violent conflicts.
More...
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detai ... m=20180522
Conflicts left nearly 12m people without a home in 2017
IN 2015 the refugee crisis in the eastern Mediterranean made headlines when a picture of a dead three-year-old Syrian boy, face down on a beach on the southern tip of Europe, brought home the tragic consequences of conflicts raging in Africa and the Middle East. Alan Kurdi’s desperate escape ended within five minutes of leaving Bodrum in Turkey, when the overloaded inflatable boat that carried him capsized. The journeys of those fleeing their homes to make new lives elsewhere capture headlines and animate politics. But millions more are forced out of their homes only to remain inside the borders of their countries. The number of such internally displaced people is shocking and has risen in recent years.
In 2017 over 30m people were displaced after natural disasters or outbreaks of violence, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and the Norwegian Refugee Council, an NGO. This is equivalent to 80,000 people each day abandoning their homes. As in previous years natural disasters were the biggest cause of upheaval. In the past decade a quarter of a billion people have been displaced, mostly because of storms, flooding or famine. By contrast 70m have been uprooted as a result of violent conflicts.
More...
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detai ... m=20180522
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Carnage of the Cameroons
This is a story about an African nation’s fatal disregard of its minority population. It is also a story about the muddled sludge of colonial history.
Excerpt:
He is an Anglophone Cameroonian, and his home is in peril. News reports, sparse as they are, refer to what is going on in the western region of Cameroon as the “Anglophone crisis,” and it gives a somewhat benign linguistic tint to what is in fact a blistering devastation. Hundreds have died. Villages emptied, homes and shops reduced to blackened debris.
The carnage is not so much about language as it is about yet another African nation’s fatal disregard of its minority population. It is also about the muddled sludge of Europe’s colonial legacy.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/15/opin ... 3053090916
This is a story about an African nation’s fatal disregard of its minority population. It is also a story about the muddled sludge of colonial history.
Excerpt:
He is an Anglophone Cameroonian, and his home is in peril. News reports, sparse as they are, refer to what is going on in the western region of Cameroon as the “Anglophone crisis,” and it gives a somewhat benign linguistic tint to what is in fact a blistering devastation. Hundreds have died. Villages emptied, homes and shops reduced to blackened debris.
The carnage is not so much about language as it is about yet another African nation’s fatal disregard of its minority population. It is also about the muddled sludge of Europe’s colonial legacy.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/15/opin ... 3053090916
Your Tax Dollars Help Starve Children
ADEN, Yemen — He is an 8-year-old boy who is starving and has limbs like sticks, but Yaqoob Walid doesn’t cry or complain. He gazes stolidly ahead, tuning out everything, for in late stages of starvation the human body focuses every calorie simply on keeping the organs functioning.
Yaqoob arrived unconscious at Al Sadaqa Hospital here, weighing just over 30 pounds. He has suffered complications, and doctors say that it is unclear he will survive and that if he does he may suffer permanent brain damage.
Some 85,000 children may have already died here in Yemen, and 12 million more people may be on the brink of starvation, casualties in part of the three-year-old American-backed Saudi war in Yemen. United Nations officials and aid experts warn that this could become the worst famine the world has seen in a generation.
“The risk of a major catastrophe is very high,” Mark Lowcock, the United Nations humanitarian chief, told me. “In the worst case, what we have in Yemen now has the potential to be worse than anything any professional in this field has seen during their working lives.”
Both the Obama and Trump administrations have supported the Saudi war in Yemen with a military partnership, arms sales, intelligence sharing and until recently air-to-air refueling. The United States is thus complicit in what some human rights experts believe are war crimes.
The bottom line: Our tax dollars are going to starve children.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/07/opin ... 3053091209
ADEN, Yemen — He is an 8-year-old boy who is starving and has limbs like sticks, but Yaqoob Walid doesn’t cry or complain. He gazes stolidly ahead, tuning out everything, for in late stages of starvation the human body focuses every calorie simply on keeping the organs functioning.
Yaqoob arrived unconscious at Al Sadaqa Hospital here, weighing just over 30 pounds. He has suffered complications, and doctors say that it is unclear he will survive and that if he does he may suffer permanent brain damage.
Some 85,000 children may have already died here in Yemen, and 12 million more people may be on the brink of starvation, casualties in part of the three-year-old American-backed Saudi war in Yemen. United Nations officials and aid experts warn that this could become the worst famine the world has seen in a generation.
“The risk of a major catastrophe is very high,” Mark Lowcock, the United Nations humanitarian chief, told me. “In the worst case, what we have in Yemen now has the potential to be worse than anything any professional in this field has seen during their working lives.”
Both the Obama and Trump administrations have supported the Saudi war in Yemen with a military partnership, arms sales, intelligence sharing and until recently air-to-air refueling. The United States is thus complicit in what some human rights experts believe are war crimes.
The bottom line: Our tax dollars are going to starve children.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/07/opin ... 3053091209
The Oslo Forum Peacewriter Prize*
Monitoring ceasefires is getting harder: greater innovation is required
Aly Verjee
Senior Advisor, United States Institute of Peace
The article can be accessed at:
https://www.hdcentre.org/wp-content/upl ... e-2019.pdf
Monitoring ceasefires is getting harder: greater innovation is required
Aly Verjee
Senior Advisor, United States Institute of Peace
The article can be accessed at:
https://www.hdcentre.org/wp-content/upl ... e-2019.pdf
Jeeyo Aur Jeene Do - Kamal Haji | Raza Pirzada | Shama Judah | Rahila Babar | #LiveAndLetLive
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... e=emb_logo
Jeeyo Aur Jeene Do (Live and Let Live) is a tribute to the victims of the war, conflicts and persecutions around the world
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... e=emb_logo
Jeeyo Aur Jeene Do (Live and Let Live) is a tribute to the victims of the war, conflicts and persecutions around the world
Our Cruel Treatment of Animals Led to the Coronavirus
The conditions that lead to the emergence of new infectious diseases are the same ones that inflict horrific harms on animals.
There is the obvious and then there is what should be obvious. The obvious is that the coronavirus pandemic has brought much of the human world to a standstill. Many countries are in lockdown. So far, more than 1.7 million have been infected, more than 100,000 have died, and billions live in fear that the numbers of sick and dead will rise exponentially. Economies are in recession, with all the hardship that entails for human well-being.
What should be obvious, but may not be to many, is that none of this should come as a surprise. That there would be another pandemic was entirely predictable, even though the precise timing of its emergence and the shape of its trajectory were not. And there is an important sense in which the pandemic is of our own making as humans. A pandemic may seem like an entirely natural disaster, but it is often — perhaps even usually — not.
The coronavirus arose in animals and jumped the species barrier to humans and then spread with human-to-human transmission. This is a common phenomenon. Most — and some believe all — infectious diseases are of this type (zoonotic). That in itself does not put them within the realm of human responsibility. However, many zoonotic diseases arise because of the ways in which humans treat animals. The “wet” markets of China are a prime example. They are the likely source not only of Covid-19 but also of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and some outbreaks of avian influenza, for example. (Another possible source of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 may be one of the many mixed wildlife-livestock farms in China, but humans are responsible for those, too.)
The “wet” markets, which are found not only in China but also in some other East Asian countries, have a number of features that makes them especially conducive to spawning infectious zoonotic diseases. Live animals are housed in extremely cramped conditions until they are slaughtered in the market for those who have purchased them. In these conditions, infections are easily transmitted from one animal to another. Because new animals are regularly being brought to market, a disease can be spread through a chain of infection from one animal to others that arrive in the market much later. The proximity to humans, coupled with the flood of blood, excrement and other bodily fluids and parts, all facilitate the infection of humans. Once transmission from human to human occurs, an epidemic is the expected outcome, unless the problem is quickly contained. Global air travel can convert epidemic to pandemic within weeks or months — exactly as it did with the coronavirus.
It is these very conditions that facilitate the emergence of new infectious diseases and that also inflict horrific harms on animals — being kept in confined conditions and then butchered. Simply put, the coronavirus pandemic is a result of our gross maltreatment of animals.
Those who think that this is a Chinese problem rather than a human one should think again. There is no shortage of zoonoses that have emerged from human maltreatment of animals. The most likely origin of H.I.V. (human immunodeficiency virus), for example, is S.I.V. (simian immunodeficiency virus), and the most likely way in which it crossed the species barrier is through blood of a nonhuman primate butchered for human consumption. Similarly, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease probably had its origins in its bovine analogue — bovine spongiform encephalopathy (B.S.E.), or “mad cow disease.” The most probable mechanism of transmission is through human consumption of infected cattle.
In the future, we should fully expect our maltreatment of animals to wreak havoc on our own species. In addition to future pandemics, we face the very real risk of breeding antibiotic resistance. The major contributor to this is the use of antibiotics in the animal agriculture industry, as a growth promoter (to bring animals to slaughter weight as quickly as possible) and to curb the spread of infections among animals reared in cruel intensive “factory farmed” conditions.
It is entirely possible that the human future will involve a return to the pre-antibiotics era, in which people died in droves from infections that have been effectively treated since the discovery of penicillin and other early antibacterial agents. If so, it may turn out that the antibiotics era was a brief interlude between two much longer periods in human history in which we succumbed in large numbers to bacterial infections. That prospect, which is even more awful than the current crisis, is no less real for that. We, as a species, know about this problem, but we have not yet done what needs to be done to avert it (or at least minimize the chances of its happening).
What these and many other examples show is that harming animals can lead to considerable harm to humans. This provides a self-interested reason — in addition to the even stronger moral reasons — for humans to treat animals better. The problem is that even self-interest is an imperfect motivator. For all the puffery in calling ourselves Homo sapiens, the “wise human,” we display remarkably little wisdom, even of a prudential kind.
This is not to deny the many intellectual achievements of humankind. However, they are combined with many cognitive and moral shortcomings, including undue confidence in our ability to solve problems. In general, humans respond to pandemics rather than act to prevent them — we attempt to prevent their spread after they emerge and to develop treatments for those infected. The current crisis demonstrates the folly of this approach. The closest we come to prevention is the effort to develop vaccines. But even this sort of prevention is a kind of reaction. Vaccines are developed in response to viruses that have already emerged. As the coronavirus experience shows, there can be a significant lag between that emergence and the development of a safe and effective vaccine, during which time great damage can be done both by the virus and by attempts to prevent its spread.
Real prevention requires taking steps to minimize the chances of the virus or other infectious agents emerging in the first place. One of a number of crucial measures would be a more intelligent — and more compassionate — appraisal of our treatment of nonhuman animals, and concomitant action.
Some might say that it is insensitive to highlight human responsibility for the current pandemic while we are in the midst of it. Isn’t it unseemly to rub our collective nose in this mess of our own making? Such concerns are misplaced. Earlier warnings of the dangers of our behavior, offered in less panicked times, went unheeded. Of course, it is entirely possible that even if we are now momentarily awakened, we will soon forget the lessons. There is plenty of precedent for that. However, given the importance of what lies in the balance, it is better to risk a little purported insensitivity than to pass up an opportunity to encourage some positive change. Millions of lives and the avoidance of much suffering are at stake.
David Benatar is a professor of philosophy and the director of the Bioethics Center at the University of Cape Town. His most recent book is “The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/opin ... 778d3e6de3
The conditions that lead to the emergence of new infectious diseases are the same ones that inflict horrific harms on animals.
There is the obvious and then there is what should be obvious. The obvious is that the coronavirus pandemic has brought much of the human world to a standstill. Many countries are in lockdown. So far, more than 1.7 million have been infected, more than 100,000 have died, and billions live in fear that the numbers of sick and dead will rise exponentially. Economies are in recession, with all the hardship that entails for human well-being.
What should be obvious, but may not be to many, is that none of this should come as a surprise. That there would be another pandemic was entirely predictable, even though the precise timing of its emergence and the shape of its trajectory were not. And there is an important sense in which the pandemic is of our own making as humans. A pandemic may seem like an entirely natural disaster, but it is often — perhaps even usually — not.
The coronavirus arose in animals and jumped the species barrier to humans and then spread with human-to-human transmission. This is a common phenomenon. Most — and some believe all — infectious diseases are of this type (zoonotic). That in itself does not put them within the realm of human responsibility. However, many zoonotic diseases arise because of the ways in which humans treat animals. The “wet” markets of China are a prime example. They are the likely source not only of Covid-19 but also of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and some outbreaks of avian influenza, for example. (Another possible source of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 may be one of the many mixed wildlife-livestock farms in China, but humans are responsible for those, too.)
The “wet” markets, which are found not only in China but also in some other East Asian countries, have a number of features that makes them especially conducive to spawning infectious zoonotic diseases. Live animals are housed in extremely cramped conditions until they are slaughtered in the market for those who have purchased them. In these conditions, infections are easily transmitted from one animal to another. Because new animals are regularly being brought to market, a disease can be spread through a chain of infection from one animal to others that arrive in the market much later. The proximity to humans, coupled with the flood of blood, excrement and other bodily fluids and parts, all facilitate the infection of humans. Once transmission from human to human occurs, an epidemic is the expected outcome, unless the problem is quickly contained. Global air travel can convert epidemic to pandemic within weeks or months — exactly as it did with the coronavirus.
It is these very conditions that facilitate the emergence of new infectious diseases and that also inflict horrific harms on animals — being kept in confined conditions and then butchered. Simply put, the coronavirus pandemic is a result of our gross maltreatment of animals.
Those who think that this is a Chinese problem rather than a human one should think again. There is no shortage of zoonoses that have emerged from human maltreatment of animals. The most likely origin of H.I.V. (human immunodeficiency virus), for example, is S.I.V. (simian immunodeficiency virus), and the most likely way in which it crossed the species barrier is through blood of a nonhuman primate butchered for human consumption. Similarly, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease probably had its origins in its bovine analogue — bovine spongiform encephalopathy (B.S.E.), or “mad cow disease.” The most probable mechanism of transmission is through human consumption of infected cattle.
In the future, we should fully expect our maltreatment of animals to wreak havoc on our own species. In addition to future pandemics, we face the very real risk of breeding antibiotic resistance. The major contributor to this is the use of antibiotics in the animal agriculture industry, as a growth promoter (to bring animals to slaughter weight as quickly as possible) and to curb the spread of infections among animals reared in cruel intensive “factory farmed” conditions.
It is entirely possible that the human future will involve a return to the pre-antibiotics era, in which people died in droves from infections that have been effectively treated since the discovery of penicillin and other early antibacterial agents. If so, it may turn out that the antibiotics era was a brief interlude between two much longer periods in human history in which we succumbed in large numbers to bacterial infections. That prospect, which is even more awful than the current crisis, is no less real for that. We, as a species, know about this problem, but we have not yet done what needs to be done to avert it (or at least minimize the chances of its happening).
What these and many other examples show is that harming animals can lead to considerable harm to humans. This provides a self-interested reason — in addition to the even stronger moral reasons — for humans to treat animals better. The problem is that even self-interest is an imperfect motivator. For all the puffery in calling ourselves Homo sapiens, the “wise human,” we display remarkably little wisdom, even of a prudential kind.
This is not to deny the many intellectual achievements of humankind. However, they are combined with many cognitive and moral shortcomings, including undue confidence in our ability to solve problems. In general, humans respond to pandemics rather than act to prevent them — we attempt to prevent their spread after they emerge and to develop treatments for those infected. The current crisis demonstrates the folly of this approach. The closest we come to prevention is the effort to develop vaccines. But even this sort of prevention is a kind of reaction. Vaccines are developed in response to viruses that have already emerged. As the coronavirus experience shows, there can be a significant lag between that emergence and the development of a safe and effective vaccine, during which time great damage can be done both by the virus and by attempts to prevent its spread.
Real prevention requires taking steps to minimize the chances of the virus or other infectious agents emerging in the first place. One of a number of crucial measures would be a more intelligent — and more compassionate — appraisal of our treatment of nonhuman animals, and concomitant action.
Some might say that it is insensitive to highlight human responsibility for the current pandemic while we are in the midst of it. Isn’t it unseemly to rub our collective nose in this mess of our own making? Such concerns are misplaced. Earlier warnings of the dangers of our behavior, offered in less panicked times, went unheeded. Of course, it is entirely possible that even if we are now momentarily awakened, we will soon forget the lessons. There is plenty of precedent for that. However, given the importance of what lies in the balance, it is better to risk a little purported insensitivity than to pass up an opportunity to encourage some positive change. Millions of lives and the avoidance of much suffering are at stake.
David Benatar is a professor of philosophy and the director of the Bioethics Center at the University of Cape Town. His most recent book is “The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/opin ... 778d3e6de3
For Young Rohingya Brides, Marriage Means a Perilous, Deadly Crossing
Girls and young women from refugee camps in Bangladesh, promised to men they have never met, are undertaking the dangerous journey to Malaysia to join them.
BANGKOK — Haresa counted the days by the moon, waxing and waning over the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Her days on the trawler, crammed into a space so tight that she could not even stretch her legs, bled into weeks, the weeks into months.
“People struggled like they were fish flopping around,” Ms. Haresa, 18, said of the other refugees on the boat. “Then they stopped moving.”
Dozens of bodies were thrown overboard, some beaten and some starved, survivors said. Ms. Haresa’s aunt died, then her brother.
Six full moons after she boarded the fishing boat in Bangladesh with hopes that human traffickers would ferry her to Malaysia for an arranged marriage, Ms. Haresa, who goes by one name, and almost 300 other Rohingya refugees found sanctuary in Indonesia last month. Her sister, 21, died two days after the boat landed.
Banished from their homes in Myanmar and crammed into refugee settlements in neighboring Bangladesh, thousands of Rohingya have taken the perilous boat crossing to Malaysia, where many from the persecuted minority group toil as undocumented workers. Hundreds have died along the way.
Most of those now undertaking the trip, like Ms. Haresa, are girls and young women from refugee camps in Bangladesh whose parents have promised them in marriage to Rohingya men in Malaysia. Two-thirds of those who landed in Indonesia last month with Ms. Haresa were female.
Amira Bibi and her family escaped their native Rakhine State, in Myanmar’s far west, as the military torched hundreds of Rohingya villages three years ago. The fourth of nine siblings, she said she knew her place in life.
“My parents are getting old and my brothers are with their own families,” she said. “How long are my parents going to bear the burden of me?”
Through the matchmaking of a cousin in Malaysia who works as a grass-cutter, Ms. Bibi’s parents found a fiancé for her. She asked for details about the man but none were provided, apart from his name, she said.
After surviving more than six months at sea in a failed attempt to reach him, Ms. Bibi spoke from Indonesia with her fiancé a country away. The phone call lasted two minutes. “He sounded young,” she said. That is the extent of what she knows about him.
Ms. Bibi initially told staff from the United Nations refugee agency that she was 15 years old, but later amended her age to 18. Child marriage is common among the Rohingya, especially in rural populations.
Mostly stateless, the Muslim minority has been subjected to an apartheidlike existence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Over the past few years, waves of pogroms have pushed the Rohingya across the border to Bangladesh, where human traffickers prey on the young and desperate in the refugee camps, along with their families.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/17/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Girls and young women from refugee camps in Bangladesh, promised to men they have never met, are undertaking the dangerous journey to Malaysia to join them.
BANGKOK — Haresa counted the days by the moon, waxing and waning over the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Her days on the trawler, crammed into a space so tight that she could not even stretch her legs, bled into weeks, the weeks into months.
“People struggled like they were fish flopping around,” Ms. Haresa, 18, said of the other refugees on the boat. “Then they stopped moving.”
Dozens of bodies were thrown overboard, some beaten and some starved, survivors said. Ms. Haresa’s aunt died, then her brother.
Six full moons after she boarded the fishing boat in Bangladesh with hopes that human traffickers would ferry her to Malaysia for an arranged marriage, Ms. Haresa, who goes by one name, and almost 300 other Rohingya refugees found sanctuary in Indonesia last month. Her sister, 21, died two days after the boat landed.
Banished from their homes in Myanmar and crammed into refugee settlements in neighboring Bangladesh, thousands of Rohingya have taken the perilous boat crossing to Malaysia, where many from the persecuted minority group toil as undocumented workers. Hundreds have died along the way.
Most of those now undertaking the trip, like Ms. Haresa, are girls and young women from refugee camps in Bangladesh whose parents have promised them in marriage to Rohingya men in Malaysia. Two-thirds of those who landed in Indonesia last month with Ms. Haresa were female.
Amira Bibi and her family escaped their native Rakhine State, in Myanmar’s far west, as the military torched hundreds of Rohingya villages three years ago. The fourth of nine siblings, she said she knew her place in life.
“My parents are getting old and my brothers are with their own families,” she said. “How long are my parents going to bear the burden of me?”
Through the matchmaking of a cousin in Malaysia who works as a grass-cutter, Ms. Bibi’s parents found a fiancé for her. She asked for details about the man but none were provided, apart from his name, she said.
After surviving more than six months at sea in a failed attempt to reach him, Ms. Bibi spoke from Indonesia with her fiancé a country away. The phone call lasted two minutes. “He sounded young,” she said. That is the extent of what she knows about him.
Ms. Bibi initially told staff from the United Nations refugee agency that she was 15 years old, but later amended her age to 18. Child marriage is common among the Rohingya, especially in rural populations.
Mostly stateless, the Muslim minority has been subjected to an apartheidlike existence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Over the past few years, waves of pogroms have pushed the Rohingya across the border to Bangladesh, where human traffickers prey on the young and desperate in the refugee camps, along with their families.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/17/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Safety Message by President Al-Karim Alidina Nov 2, 2020 (Previously Recorded)
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjZg0FBR8pY
A message from the National Council on Staying Safe by President Al-Karim Alidina - Nov 2, 2020
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjZg0FBR8pY
A message from the National Council on Staying Safe by President Al-Karim Alidina - Nov 2, 2020
The Most Dangerous Roads From Around The World That Are More Terrifying Than Any Roller Coaster
Are you up for taking the ultimate road trip? For plenty of years, roads have provided people an efficient way to travel. However, that’s not always the case since some roads are heavily traveled and worn down dramatically.
Others are remote, winding, or extremely narrow that make them almost impossible to drive down. Whatever the case may be, however, you will be thankful that walking from work to home isn’t so bad.
Slide show at:
https://www.postfun.com/surprising/dangerous-roads/
Are you up for taking the ultimate road trip? For plenty of years, roads have provided people an efficient way to travel. However, that’s not always the case since some roads are heavily traveled and worn down dramatically.
Others are remote, winding, or extremely narrow that make them almost impossible to drive down. Whatever the case may be, however, you will be thankful that walking from work to home isn’t so bad.
Slide show at:
https://www.postfun.com/surprising/dangerous-roads/
Stampede at Israel Religious Celebration Kills at Least 45
An estimated 100,000 people had gathered on Mount Meron to celebrate a religious holiday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “terrible disaster.”
JERUSALEM — A stampede early Friday at a mountainside religious celebration in Israel that drew tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews left at least 45 people dead and scores more injured.
By some estimates, about 100,000 people were crammed together late Thursday to celebrate a holiday on Mount Meron in northern Israel, despite warnings from the authorities about the risk of Covid-19 transmission.
The deadly crush began around 1 a.m. on Friday, as celebrants began to pour out of a section of a compound where festivities were being held. The death toll of 45, released later by the Health Ministry, made it one of the worst civilian disasters in Israeli history.
Magen David Adom, the national ambulance service, said early Friday that it had treated 150 injured people. It posted a video on Twitter that showed a fleet of ambulances, red sirens flashing, waiting to evacuate the wounded.
“A terrible disaster,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, and Emanuele Giaufret, the European Union’s ambassador, offered condolences on Twitter to families of the victims.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews traditionally gather at Mount Meron for the holiday, Lag b’Omer, to dance and make bonfires around the tomb of a prominent rabbi from antiquity. Critics have warned for years that the site’s patchy infrastructure cannot safely handle large crowds.
A video said to have been taken right before the stampede on Friday showed a mass of people in ecstatic celebration, moving in unison to the music.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/29/worl ... 778d3e6de3
An estimated 100,000 people had gathered on Mount Meron to celebrate a religious holiday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “terrible disaster.”
JERUSALEM — A stampede early Friday at a mountainside religious celebration in Israel that drew tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews left at least 45 people dead and scores more injured.
By some estimates, about 100,000 people were crammed together late Thursday to celebrate a holiday on Mount Meron in northern Israel, despite warnings from the authorities about the risk of Covid-19 transmission.
The deadly crush began around 1 a.m. on Friday, as celebrants began to pour out of a section of a compound where festivities were being held. The death toll of 45, released later by the Health Ministry, made it one of the worst civilian disasters in Israeli history.
Magen David Adom, the national ambulance service, said early Friday that it had treated 150 injured people. It posted a video on Twitter that showed a fleet of ambulances, red sirens flashing, waiting to evacuate the wounded.
“A terrible disaster,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, and Emanuele Giaufret, the European Union’s ambassador, offered condolences on Twitter to families of the victims.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews traditionally gather at Mount Meron for the holiday, Lag b’Omer, to dance and make bonfires around the tomb of a prominent rabbi from antiquity. Critics have warned for years that the site’s patchy infrastructure cannot safely handle large crowds.
A video said to have been taken right before the stampede on Friday showed a mass of people in ecstatic celebration, moving in unison to the music.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/29/worl ... 778d3e6de3
The ‘vaccine hesitant’ are a threat to society. But we must show them compassion
When we think of vaccines, most of us focus on how they will protect our families and ourselves. But the overarching role of vaccination is to protect the population at large, especially the most vulnerable among us, through herd immunity. If we think of viruses as raindrops, then vaccines work like raincoats for each person who gets one, while herd immunity acts like an umbrella for the whole community. In rough terms, 70 per cent of a population needs to be immune to an infectious threat – through vaccination or previous exposure – before herd immunity can be achieved. And since no vaccine is 100 per cent effective, we need to immunize even more than 70 per cent of the population to make the umbrella in our analogy waterproof.
Today’s vaccines have been shown to be among the safest medications on the planet. Still, there are people who reject these miracles of modern science. They are well-meaning, educated and often pillars of their community. And yet the vaccine hesitant represent one of the greatest threats to society.
Why are their beliefs so toxic? Because not only do they risk the welfare of themselves and their loved ones, but they threaten the health of the rest of us, too. In the midst of the COVID pandemic, it is more vital than ever to try to persuade the vaccine hesitant to do what most of us view as our societal obligation.
I meet them daily in my work in the ER. Parents who refuse tetanus boosters for their children. People with chronic respiratory conditions who wind up on ventilators after balking at their annual flu shots or pneumonia vaccine. And now, alarmingly, patients – and, even more disturbingly, fellow health care workers – who swear off the COVID vaccine. Often, there is a personal basis for their views. Many of them associate their own medical conditions and tragedies, or those of their loved ones, back to a vaccination event, even after such links have been scientifically debunked.
But one of the biggest drivers behind the fear of vaccination is the idea that mainstream medicine doesn’t take their concerns seriously. That sense of being unheard drives the vaccine-hesitant right into the arms of those who push anti-vax beliefs, who make them feel counted.
Like most physicians, I view vaccination to be among the greatest achievements of modern medicine. But it does no good to demonize the vaccine hesitant. I have found lecturing and disparaging them accomplishes nothing except to entrench their views and further the divide. I believe showing compassion and trying to understand the basis of their beliefs can accomplish as much to heal the rift as providing actual proof of vaccine safety. At the very least, the sense that they are being listened to is the first crucial step to winning them over to the side of science and reason.
The ER can be a hectic workplace, but to me vaccine hesitancy represents its own form of emergency. And when I encounter such people, I take the time to approach the subject from their perspective – to try to understand what drives their fear of vaccines and to acknowledge their concerns. Then I cite some of the miraculous advances made through vaccination, such as eradicating smallpox and banishing polio to the remote corners of the planet. I describe how the trusted scientific literature uniformly supports vaccination, and I explain the importance of herd immunity. I also tell them how committed I am to fully vaccinating my own family. If they have further questions, I refer them to trusted resources such as the CDC, the WHO or Health Canada websites. But I must admit, sometimes, when most exasperated, I have to fight the urge to ask if they would turn down a rabies vaccine after being bitten by a rabid bat.
I once saw a young mother in the ER who was so concerned about her toddler’s fever and rash that she broke into tears of relief when I told her the child did not have measles. She then sheepishly confessed that she had avoided getting the child vaccinated because her husband’s family was adamantly opposed to it. After a long discussion, she promised to reconsider. Coincidentally, I saw her six months later for an unrelated complaint, and I was so gratified to hear that not only had her child been vaccinated but she had also persuaded her husband’s sister to immunize her children, too.
I suspect that this anecdote is the exception and far more often my arguments fall on deaf ears. It is impossible to overlook the irony that we live in the greatest age of information accessibility and, paradoxically, during a time with such ready acceptance of misinformation. These beliefs are contradicted by any objective scientific standard. So instead, they rely on anecdotal stories – association with diseases rather than causation – and an echo chamber of their own belief system that rises to the level of religion. I see their approach as an offshoot of the tribalism that has caused conspiracy theories to fester across the planet.
In fairness, vaccine hesitancy is a broad term that encompasses a spectrum of heterogenous beliefs, from people who will accept many but not all vaccines to those who vehemently oppose any form of immunization. But the fiercest have their own equivalent of the “Big Lie” – the conspiracy theory that drove the insurrection on Capitol Hill in Washington. It boils down to one shameful study from the 1990s that falsely equated the measles vaccine with a higher risk of developing autism. The so-called findings of this fraudulent, academic tsunami have been disproven by multiple legitimate studies. Yet their Big Lie has persisted for decades, undeterred by facts.
I do not judge the sincerity or morality of the vaccine hesitant, but I am terrified of the damage they might inflict, particularly during this pandemic. And while I do not expect to change their minds or hearts in a single encounter, I believe we all owe it to society to at least try to sway them from their ironically infectious and unfounded beliefs. But to do so with kindness and respect.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion ... VgMaFxFnIY
When we think of vaccines, most of us focus on how they will protect our families and ourselves. But the overarching role of vaccination is to protect the population at large, especially the most vulnerable among us, through herd immunity. If we think of viruses as raindrops, then vaccines work like raincoats for each person who gets one, while herd immunity acts like an umbrella for the whole community. In rough terms, 70 per cent of a population needs to be immune to an infectious threat – through vaccination or previous exposure – before herd immunity can be achieved. And since no vaccine is 100 per cent effective, we need to immunize even more than 70 per cent of the population to make the umbrella in our analogy waterproof.
Today’s vaccines have been shown to be among the safest medications on the planet. Still, there are people who reject these miracles of modern science. They are well-meaning, educated and often pillars of their community. And yet the vaccine hesitant represent one of the greatest threats to society.
Why are their beliefs so toxic? Because not only do they risk the welfare of themselves and their loved ones, but they threaten the health of the rest of us, too. In the midst of the COVID pandemic, it is more vital than ever to try to persuade the vaccine hesitant to do what most of us view as our societal obligation.
I meet them daily in my work in the ER. Parents who refuse tetanus boosters for their children. People with chronic respiratory conditions who wind up on ventilators after balking at their annual flu shots or pneumonia vaccine. And now, alarmingly, patients – and, even more disturbingly, fellow health care workers – who swear off the COVID vaccine. Often, there is a personal basis for their views. Many of them associate their own medical conditions and tragedies, or those of their loved ones, back to a vaccination event, even after such links have been scientifically debunked.
But one of the biggest drivers behind the fear of vaccination is the idea that mainstream medicine doesn’t take their concerns seriously. That sense of being unheard drives the vaccine-hesitant right into the arms of those who push anti-vax beliefs, who make them feel counted.
Like most physicians, I view vaccination to be among the greatest achievements of modern medicine. But it does no good to demonize the vaccine hesitant. I have found lecturing and disparaging them accomplishes nothing except to entrench their views and further the divide. I believe showing compassion and trying to understand the basis of their beliefs can accomplish as much to heal the rift as providing actual proof of vaccine safety. At the very least, the sense that they are being listened to is the first crucial step to winning them over to the side of science and reason.
The ER can be a hectic workplace, but to me vaccine hesitancy represents its own form of emergency. And when I encounter such people, I take the time to approach the subject from their perspective – to try to understand what drives their fear of vaccines and to acknowledge their concerns. Then I cite some of the miraculous advances made through vaccination, such as eradicating smallpox and banishing polio to the remote corners of the planet. I describe how the trusted scientific literature uniformly supports vaccination, and I explain the importance of herd immunity. I also tell them how committed I am to fully vaccinating my own family. If they have further questions, I refer them to trusted resources such as the CDC, the WHO or Health Canada websites. But I must admit, sometimes, when most exasperated, I have to fight the urge to ask if they would turn down a rabies vaccine after being bitten by a rabid bat.
I once saw a young mother in the ER who was so concerned about her toddler’s fever and rash that she broke into tears of relief when I told her the child did not have measles. She then sheepishly confessed that she had avoided getting the child vaccinated because her husband’s family was adamantly opposed to it. After a long discussion, she promised to reconsider. Coincidentally, I saw her six months later for an unrelated complaint, and I was so gratified to hear that not only had her child been vaccinated but she had also persuaded her husband’s sister to immunize her children, too.
I suspect that this anecdote is the exception and far more often my arguments fall on deaf ears. It is impossible to overlook the irony that we live in the greatest age of information accessibility and, paradoxically, during a time with such ready acceptance of misinformation. These beliefs are contradicted by any objective scientific standard. So instead, they rely on anecdotal stories – association with diseases rather than causation – and an echo chamber of their own belief system that rises to the level of religion. I see their approach as an offshoot of the tribalism that has caused conspiracy theories to fester across the planet.
In fairness, vaccine hesitancy is a broad term that encompasses a spectrum of heterogenous beliefs, from people who will accept many but not all vaccines to those who vehemently oppose any form of immunization. But the fiercest have their own equivalent of the “Big Lie” – the conspiracy theory that drove the insurrection on Capitol Hill in Washington. It boils down to one shameful study from the 1990s that falsely equated the measles vaccine with a higher risk of developing autism. The so-called findings of this fraudulent, academic tsunami have been disproven by multiple legitimate studies. Yet their Big Lie has persisted for decades, undeterred by facts.
I do not judge the sincerity or morality of the vaccine hesitant, but I am terrified of the damage they might inflict, particularly during this pandemic. And while I do not expect to change their minds or hearts in a single encounter, I believe we all owe it to society to at least try to sway them from their ironically infectious and unfounded beliefs. But to do so with kindness and respect.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion ... VgMaFxFnIY
After Kumbh, Uttarakhand Sees 1800% Jump in COVID-19 Cases
Uttarakhand recorded an 1800% increase in COVID-19 cases between 31 March to 24 April, when the Haridwar Mahakumbh was held.
The massive congregation likely turned into a super spreader event in the state as Uttarakhand recorded 1.3 lakh COVID-19 cases in over a month , which is over half of the state’s case tally till date.
Over 35 lakh people had gathered at Haridwar on 12 April and 13.51 lakh on 14 April.
What’s more, the state recorded 1,713 COVID-19 deaths during this time, which is half of the state’s total COVID-19 fatalities since the time the pandemic began in 2020.
Uttarakhand with a 24% positivity rate recorded 151 deaths on Thursday and 137 deaths on Friday .
Also Read: Kumbh Mela Now ‘Symbolic’, Yet Crowds Gather for Last ‘Shahi Snan’
The total number of active cases in state stood at 1,863 as on 31 March before the festival began and shot up to 33,330 by 24 April.
Garima Dasauni, spokesperson of the state Congress blamed the government for risking people’s lives, “The two biggest reasons for the surge in cases and deaths is the untimely Khumbh and the very untimely change of guard which shouldn’t have happened when the CM was holding the post of health minister as well. The new CM hasn’t held any administrative posts before this and his mishandling of the COVID situation started on the day he took over when he announced a grand Khumbh with no restrictions on devotees.”
The last Shahi Snan of Kumbh is scheduled for Tuesday and the authorities have clarified that it would be symbolic.
In lieu of the massive surge in coronavirus cases in the state, Uttarakhand Cabinet Minister Subodh Uniyal said, “COVID-19 infection has reached villages of Uttarakhand. The level of transmission despite corona Curfew is a matter of concern. To contain the spread, the government will take a major decision by 10 May.”
Also Read: Tests? Quarantine? Here Are States’ Rules for Kumbh Returnees
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/kumbh-uttarak ... 40227.html
Uttarakhand recorded an 1800% increase in COVID-19 cases between 31 March to 24 April, when the Haridwar Mahakumbh was held.
The massive congregation likely turned into a super spreader event in the state as Uttarakhand recorded 1.3 lakh COVID-19 cases in over a month , which is over half of the state’s case tally till date.
Over 35 lakh people had gathered at Haridwar on 12 April and 13.51 lakh on 14 April.
What’s more, the state recorded 1,713 COVID-19 deaths during this time, which is half of the state’s total COVID-19 fatalities since the time the pandemic began in 2020.
Uttarakhand with a 24% positivity rate recorded 151 deaths on Thursday and 137 deaths on Friday .
Also Read: Kumbh Mela Now ‘Symbolic’, Yet Crowds Gather for Last ‘Shahi Snan’
The total number of active cases in state stood at 1,863 as on 31 March before the festival began and shot up to 33,330 by 24 April.
Garima Dasauni, spokesperson of the state Congress blamed the government for risking people’s lives, “The two biggest reasons for the surge in cases and deaths is the untimely Khumbh and the very untimely change of guard which shouldn’t have happened when the CM was holding the post of health minister as well. The new CM hasn’t held any administrative posts before this and his mishandling of the COVID situation started on the day he took over when he announced a grand Khumbh with no restrictions on devotees.”
The last Shahi Snan of Kumbh is scheduled for Tuesday and the authorities have clarified that it would be symbolic.
In lieu of the massive surge in coronavirus cases in the state, Uttarakhand Cabinet Minister Subodh Uniyal said, “COVID-19 infection has reached villages of Uttarakhand. The level of transmission despite corona Curfew is a matter of concern. To contain the spread, the government will take a major decision by 10 May.”
Also Read: Tests? Quarantine? Here Are States’ Rules for Kumbh Returnees
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/kumbh-uttarak ... 40227.html
Scores of dead bodies found floating in India's Ganges River
Associated Press Tue, May 11, 2021, 9:12 AM
This frame grab from video provided by KK Productions shows police officials stand guard at the banks of the river where several bodies were found lying in Ghazipur district in Uttar Pradesh state India, Tuesday, May 11, 2021. Scores of dead bodies have been found floating down the Ganges River in eastern India amid a ferocious surge in coronavirus infections in the country, but authorities said Tuesday they haven't been able to determine the cause of death. Health officials working through the night Monday retrieved 71 bodies, officials in Bihar state said. (KK PRODUCTIONS via AP)
This frame grab from video provided by KK Productions shows bodies lying along the river in Ghazipur district in Uttar Pradesh state India, Tuesday, May 11, 2021. Scores of dead bodies have been found floating down the Ganges River in eastern India amid a ferocious surge in coronavirus infections in the country, but authorities said Tuesday they haven't been able to determine the cause of death. Health officials working through the night Monday retrieved 71 bodies, officials in Bihar state said. (KK PRODUCTIONS via AP)
NEW DELHI (AP) — Scores of dead bodies have been found floating down the Ganges River in eastern India as the country battles a ferocious surge in coronavirus infections. Authorities said Tuesday they haven't yet determined the cause of death.
Health officials working through the night Monday retrieved 71 bodies, officials in Bihar state said.
Images on social media of the bodies floating in the river prompted outrage and speculation that they died from COVID-19. Authorities performed post mortems on Tuesday but said they could not confirm the cause of death due to the decomposition of the bodies.
More corpses were found floating in the river on Tuesday, washing up in Ghazipur district in neighboring Uttar Pradesh state. Police and villagers were at the site, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Monday’s incident.
“We are trying to find out where did these dead bodies come from? How did they get here?” said Mangla Prasad Singh, a local official.
Surinder, a resident of Ghazipur who uses one name, said villagers didn't have enough wood to cremate their dead on land.
“Due to the shortage of wood, the dead are being buried in the water,” he said. “Bodies from around 12-13 villages have been buried in the water.”
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are experiencing rising COVID-19 cases as infections in India grow faster than anywhere else in the world.
On Tuesday, the country confirmed nearly 390,000 new cases, including 3,876 more deaths. Overall, India has had the second highest number of confirmed cases after the U.S. with nearly 23 million and over 240,000 deaths. All of the figures are almost certainly a vast undercount, experts say.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/sc ... 47995.html
Associated Press Tue, May 11, 2021, 9:12 AM
This frame grab from video provided by KK Productions shows police officials stand guard at the banks of the river where several bodies were found lying in Ghazipur district in Uttar Pradesh state India, Tuesday, May 11, 2021. Scores of dead bodies have been found floating down the Ganges River in eastern India amid a ferocious surge in coronavirus infections in the country, but authorities said Tuesday they haven't been able to determine the cause of death. Health officials working through the night Monday retrieved 71 bodies, officials in Bihar state said. (KK PRODUCTIONS via AP)
This frame grab from video provided by KK Productions shows bodies lying along the river in Ghazipur district in Uttar Pradesh state India, Tuesday, May 11, 2021. Scores of dead bodies have been found floating down the Ganges River in eastern India amid a ferocious surge in coronavirus infections in the country, but authorities said Tuesday they haven't been able to determine the cause of death. Health officials working through the night Monday retrieved 71 bodies, officials in Bihar state said. (KK PRODUCTIONS via AP)
NEW DELHI (AP) — Scores of dead bodies have been found floating down the Ganges River in eastern India as the country battles a ferocious surge in coronavirus infections. Authorities said Tuesday they haven't yet determined the cause of death.
Health officials working through the night Monday retrieved 71 bodies, officials in Bihar state said.
Images on social media of the bodies floating in the river prompted outrage and speculation that they died from COVID-19. Authorities performed post mortems on Tuesday but said they could not confirm the cause of death due to the decomposition of the bodies.
More corpses were found floating in the river on Tuesday, washing up in Ghazipur district in neighboring Uttar Pradesh state. Police and villagers were at the site, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Monday’s incident.
“We are trying to find out where did these dead bodies come from? How did they get here?” said Mangla Prasad Singh, a local official.
Surinder, a resident of Ghazipur who uses one name, said villagers didn't have enough wood to cremate their dead on land.
“Due to the shortage of wood, the dead are being buried in the water,” he said. “Bodies from around 12-13 villages have been buried in the water.”
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are experiencing rising COVID-19 cases as infections in India grow faster than anywhere else in the world.
On Tuesday, the country confirmed nearly 390,000 new cases, including 3,876 more deaths. Overall, India has had the second highest number of confirmed cases after the U.S. with nearly 23 million and over 240,000 deaths. All of the figures are almost certainly a vast undercount, experts say.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/sc ... 47995.html
Hundreds of bodies found buried along Indian riverbanks
RAJESH KUMAR SINGH and BISWAJEET BANERJEE
Associated Press Sun, May 16, 2021, 12:09 AM
PRAYAGRAJ, India (AP) — Police are reaching out to villagers in northern India to investigate the recovery of bodies buried in shallow sand graves or washed up on the Ganges River banks, prompting speculation on social media that they're the remains of COVID-19 victims.
In jeeps and boats, police used portable loudspeakers with microphones asking people not to dispose of bodies in rivers. "We are here to help you perform the last rites,” police said.
On Friday, rains exposed the cloth coverings of bodies buried in shallow sand graves on a wide, flat riverbank in Prayagraj, a city in Uttar Pradesh state. While officials say the riverside burials have taken place for decades, the sheer numbers in the shadow of the pandemic are focusing more attention on the practice.
Navneet Sehgal, a state government spokesman, on Sunday denied local media reports that more than 1,000 corpses of COVID-19 victims had been recovered from rivers in the past two weeks. “I bet these bodies have nothing to do with COVID-19,” he said.
He said some villagers did not cremate their dead as is customary, due to a Hindu tradition during some periods of religious significance, and instead disposed of them in rivers or by digging graves on riverbanks.
Ramesh Kumar Singh, a member of Bondhu Mahal Samiti, a philanthropic organization that helps cremate bodies, said the number of deaths is very high in rural areas, and poor people have been disposing of bodies in the river because of the exorbitant cost of performing the last rites and a shortage of wood. The cost of cremation has tripled up to 15,000 rupees ($210).
On Saturday, an Associated Press photojournalist estimated there were at least 300 shallow riverside graves on a sand bar near near Prayagraj. Each grave was covered by an orange, yellow or reddish cloth and appeared laid out in the same direction. Several policemen were at the scene, but allowed a family who arrived in a small truck to bury a 75-year-old woman at the site.
K.P. Singh, a senior police officer, said authorities had earmarked a cremation ground on the Prayagraj riverbank for those who died of COVID-19, and police were no longer allowing any burials on the riverfront. Authorities in Sehgal state have found “a small number” of bodies on the riverbanks, he said, but didn’t give a figure.
However, on Sunday, a 30-year-old Buddhist came to the same riverbank in Prayagraj with other family members and buried his mother, who he said had died of a heart attack.
“She was not infected with COVID-19,” Vijay Kumar told the AP, adding that his religion allows both cremation and burial, “but I chose burial.”
Health authorities last week retrieved 71 bodies that washed up on a Ganges River bank in neighboring Bihar state.
Authorities performed post mortems but said they could not confirm the cause of death due to decomposition.
A dozen corpses were also found last week buried in sand at two locations on the riverbank in Unnao district, 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Lucknow, the Uttar Pradesh state capital. District Magistrate Ravindra Kumar said an investigation is underway to identify the cause of death.
India’s two big states, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, with nearly 358 million people in total, are among the worst hit in the virus surge sweeping through the country with devastating death tolls. Hapless villagers have been rushing the sick to nearby towns and cities for treatment, many of them dying on the way, victims of India's crumbling health care.
After hitting record highs for weeks, the number of new cases was stabilizing, said Dr. V.K. Paul, a government health expert.
The Health Ministry on Sunday reported 311,170 confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, down from 326,098 on Saturday.
It also reported 4,077 additional deaths, taking the total fatalities to 270,284. Both figures are almost certainly a vast undercount, experts say.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/in ... 14298.html
RAJESH KUMAR SINGH and BISWAJEET BANERJEE
Associated Press Sun, May 16, 2021, 12:09 AM
PRAYAGRAJ, India (AP) — Police are reaching out to villagers in northern India to investigate the recovery of bodies buried in shallow sand graves or washed up on the Ganges River banks, prompting speculation on social media that they're the remains of COVID-19 victims.
In jeeps and boats, police used portable loudspeakers with microphones asking people not to dispose of bodies in rivers. "We are here to help you perform the last rites,” police said.
On Friday, rains exposed the cloth coverings of bodies buried in shallow sand graves on a wide, flat riverbank in Prayagraj, a city in Uttar Pradesh state. While officials say the riverside burials have taken place for decades, the sheer numbers in the shadow of the pandemic are focusing more attention on the practice.
Navneet Sehgal, a state government spokesman, on Sunday denied local media reports that more than 1,000 corpses of COVID-19 victims had been recovered from rivers in the past two weeks. “I bet these bodies have nothing to do with COVID-19,” he said.
He said some villagers did not cremate their dead as is customary, due to a Hindu tradition during some periods of religious significance, and instead disposed of them in rivers or by digging graves on riverbanks.
Ramesh Kumar Singh, a member of Bondhu Mahal Samiti, a philanthropic organization that helps cremate bodies, said the number of deaths is very high in rural areas, and poor people have been disposing of bodies in the river because of the exorbitant cost of performing the last rites and a shortage of wood. The cost of cremation has tripled up to 15,000 rupees ($210).
On Saturday, an Associated Press photojournalist estimated there were at least 300 shallow riverside graves on a sand bar near near Prayagraj. Each grave was covered by an orange, yellow or reddish cloth and appeared laid out in the same direction. Several policemen were at the scene, but allowed a family who arrived in a small truck to bury a 75-year-old woman at the site.
K.P. Singh, a senior police officer, said authorities had earmarked a cremation ground on the Prayagraj riverbank for those who died of COVID-19, and police were no longer allowing any burials on the riverfront. Authorities in Sehgal state have found “a small number” of bodies on the riverbanks, he said, but didn’t give a figure.
However, on Sunday, a 30-year-old Buddhist came to the same riverbank in Prayagraj with other family members and buried his mother, who he said had died of a heart attack.
“She was not infected with COVID-19,” Vijay Kumar told the AP, adding that his religion allows both cremation and burial, “but I chose burial.”
Health authorities last week retrieved 71 bodies that washed up on a Ganges River bank in neighboring Bihar state.
Authorities performed post mortems but said they could not confirm the cause of death due to decomposition.
A dozen corpses were also found last week buried in sand at two locations on the riverbank in Unnao district, 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Lucknow, the Uttar Pradesh state capital. District Magistrate Ravindra Kumar said an investigation is underway to identify the cause of death.
India’s two big states, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, with nearly 358 million people in total, are among the worst hit in the virus surge sweeping through the country with devastating death tolls. Hapless villagers have been rushing the sick to nearby towns and cities for treatment, many of them dying on the way, victims of India's crumbling health care.
After hitting record highs for weeks, the number of new cases was stabilizing, said Dr. V.K. Paul, a government health expert.
The Health Ministry on Sunday reported 311,170 confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, down from 326,098 on Saturday.
It also reported 4,077 additional deaths, taking the total fatalities to 270,284. Both figures are almost certainly a vast undercount, experts say.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/in ... 14298.html
Ambulances line up outside India crematorium
Reuters Videos Mon, May 10, 2021, 10:05 AM
Crematorium workers and relatives wearing protective suits made rows of fires to burn the dead bodies in the Indian tech hub.
Indian coronavirus infections and deaths held close to record daily highs on Monday, increasing calls for the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lock down the world's second-most populous country.
Our goal is to create a safe and engaging place for users to connect over interests and passions. In order to improve our community experience, we are temporarily suspending article commenting.
World
The bloated, decaying bodies of COVID victims are washing up on the banks of India's Ganges River
Cheryl Teh
INSIDER Mon, May 10, 2021, 11:30 PM
ganges funeral pyres
A man walks past burning pyres with people who died from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the banks of the river Ganges at Garhmukteshwar in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, May 6, 2021. Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
More
Dozens of decaying corpses are washing up on the banks of India's Ganges River.
The local authorities believe these are the corpses of COVID dead from Uttar Pradesh, a state in northern India.
The corpses may have been immersed in the river, as India faces a shortage of wood for cremations.
Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
The decaying bodies of COVID dead have been washing up on the banks of India's Ganges River, say reports from local media in India.
On Monday, the BBC wrote that dozens of bodies were surfacing on the riverbanks, on a stretch of water bordering the northern Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
According to Al Jazeera News, residents they spoke to speculated that families were immersing the bodies into the river because they can neither find open plots in cemeteries or a crematorium to burn the corpses, nor afford to buy wood to make funeral pyres.
The Ganges is seen as a viable alternative for Indian funeral rites as the river's waters, known as "Gangaa Jal," are believed to have purifying powers.
"Private hospitals are looting people. Common people are not left with money to pay a priest and spend more on cremation at the river bank. They are asking 2,000 rupees (around $27) just to get the corpse out of the ambulance. The river has become their last recourse, so people are immersing corpses in the river," a local named Chandra Mohan told the BBC.
The number of bodies pulled from the river is unconfirmed, as the local authorities have not made a tally public. But according to Indian news channel Times Now News, residents in the area said some 150 dead bodies were recovered and were likely COVID victims dumped on the riverbanks and washed downstream by the current.
The BBC confirmed that at least 40 bodies were found - with the condition of the corpses indicating that they might have been floating in the waters of the Ganges for a few days.
Indian news outlet NDTV reported that the bloated and partially-burnt bodies were found drifting in the waters near Bihar's Buxar district, a state which neighbors Uttar Pradesh.
Uttar Pradesh is the most highly-populated state in India and home to some 200 million people. It also continues to grapple with the deadly second wave of the COVID virus that has ravaged the nation's healthcare system - as it reported 21,331 new COVID cases on Monday.
Ashok Kumar, a local official, told the BBC the remains removed from the river would either be buried or cremated.
India has recorded over 22.7 million COVID cases and 246,000 deaths. The country is struggling to keep a massive surge in COVID infections under control as it tangles with deadly, more transmissible COVID variants - but the daily death toll has continued to rise far beyond what the country's crematoriums can handle.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/am ... 51432.html
Reuters Videos Mon, May 10, 2021, 10:05 AM
Crematorium workers and relatives wearing protective suits made rows of fires to burn the dead bodies in the Indian tech hub.
Indian coronavirus infections and deaths held close to record daily highs on Monday, increasing calls for the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lock down the world's second-most populous country.
Our goal is to create a safe and engaging place for users to connect over interests and passions. In order to improve our community experience, we are temporarily suspending article commenting.
World
The bloated, decaying bodies of COVID victims are washing up on the banks of India's Ganges River
Cheryl Teh
INSIDER Mon, May 10, 2021, 11:30 PM
ganges funeral pyres
A man walks past burning pyres with people who died from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the banks of the river Ganges at Garhmukteshwar in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, May 6, 2021. Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
More
Dozens of decaying corpses are washing up on the banks of India's Ganges River.
The local authorities believe these are the corpses of COVID dead from Uttar Pradesh, a state in northern India.
The corpses may have been immersed in the river, as India faces a shortage of wood for cremations.
Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
The decaying bodies of COVID dead have been washing up on the banks of India's Ganges River, say reports from local media in India.
On Monday, the BBC wrote that dozens of bodies were surfacing on the riverbanks, on a stretch of water bordering the northern Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
According to Al Jazeera News, residents they spoke to speculated that families were immersing the bodies into the river because they can neither find open plots in cemeteries or a crematorium to burn the corpses, nor afford to buy wood to make funeral pyres.
The Ganges is seen as a viable alternative for Indian funeral rites as the river's waters, known as "Gangaa Jal," are believed to have purifying powers.
"Private hospitals are looting people. Common people are not left with money to pay a priest and spend more on cremation at the river bank. They are asking 2,000 rupees (around $27) just to get the corpse out of the ambulance. The river has become their last recourse, so people are immersing corpses in the river," a local named Chandra Mohan told the BBC.
The number of bodies pulled from the river is unconfirmed, as the local authorities have not made a tally public. But according to Indian news channel Times Now News, residents in the area said some 150 dead bodies were recovered and were likely COVID victims dumped on the riverbanks and washed downstream by the current.
The BBC confirmed that at least 40 bodies were found - with the condition of the corpses indicating that they might have been floating in the waters of the Ganges for a few days.
Indian news outlet NDTV reported that the bloated and partially-burnt bodies were found drifting in the waters near Bihar's Buxar district, a state which neighbors Uttar Pradesh.
Uttar Pradesh is the most highly-populated state in India and home to some 200 million people. It also continues to grapple with the deadly second wave of the COVID virus that has ravaged the nation's healthcare system - as it reported 21,331 new COVID cases on Monday.
Ashok Kumar, a local official, told the BBC the remains removed from the river would either be buried or cremated.
India has recorded over 22.7 million COVID cases and 246,000 deaths. The country is struggling to keep a massive surge in COVID infections under control as it tangles with deadly, more transmissible COVID variants - but the daily death toll has continued to rise far beyond what the country's crematoriums can handle.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/am ... 51432.html