Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Coronavirus News (112)

Will the coronavirus pandemic open the door to a four-day workweek? The world is watching New Zealand. ....... what once in many quarters would have come across as a fringe notion no longer seemed so unthinkable. ........ spent time in offices that had implemented the policy in Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea the United Kingdom, the United States and Scandinavian countries to track why they were making the shift. “It’s not just touchy-feely social democracies that are doing it,” he said, but

also countries where “overwork is the norm.”

........ workplace productivity and satisfaction go up under a shorter, more compressed schedule. ....... 64 percent of leaders of businesses with four-day workweeks saw an increase in staff productivity, while 77 percent of workers linked it to a better quality of life ....... before the pandemic, Karen Jansen, a researcher on organizational behavior in the U.K., estimated a major shift toward the shorter workweek wouldn’t happen before 2030. Now, she said,

the coronavirus is “accelerating” that timeline

. ........ Much like remote work, four-day weeks, even if they gained widespread traction, would not likely be available to all workers evenly. There are different models for the shortened week, some of which envision the same output condensed into fewer hours while other simply imagine longer hours spread over fewer days. ......... The crisis has also amplified inherent inequalities between workers in formal jobs, with set contracts and hours, and those in the gig and informal economy. ........ the three-day weekend would become a “bubble” like remote work, encompassing a growing number of people and professions while excluding others....... women worldwide bear the brunt of child care and other domestic responsibilities under lockdowns and work-from-home orders, which exacerbate preexisting dynamics. In contrast, he argued, a four-day workweek could normalize a pattern in which people of all genders split their time more evenly between home and the workplace, removing an entrenched barrier to female professional advancement. ......... “You’re never going to get women at the top unless you get the guys out of the office,” Barnes said. “It makes it okay [for men] to spend time at home, to look after kids, to have care responsibilities.” ....... a mix of office and remote work moving forward



EARTH’S MAGNETIC FIELD IS MYSTERIOUSLY WEAKENING, CAUSING SATELLITES AND SPACECRAFT TO MALFUNCTION A localised region of weakness is 'developing vigorously', scientists warn ......... Scientists studying the phenomenon observed that an area known as the South Atlantic Anomaly has grown considerably in recent years, though the reason for it is not entirely clear. ....... the area of the anomaly dropped in strength by more than 8 per cent between 1970 and 2020. ....... The challenge now is to understand the processes in Earth's core driving theses changes ...... One possibility, according to the ESA, is that the weakening field is a sign that the Earth's magnetic field is about to reverse, whereby the North Pole and South Pole switch places. ....... The last time a "geomagnetic reversal" took place was 780,000 years ago, with some scientists claiming that the next one is long overdue. Typically, such events take place every 250,000 years. ......... the process is not an instantaneous one and could take tens of thousands of years to take place....... magnetic field observations from Swarm are providing exciting new insights into the scarcely understood processes of Earth's interior.

Coronavirus: Migrant Crisis is Due to Poor Planning, Not Poor State Capacity Some believe that the migrant crisis unleashed by India’s lockdown was inevitable. But the government’s own track record proves otherwise. It already has the infrastructure and capacity to respond, including several assets that are not currently being used. .........

Social media is awash with posts documenting the inhumane suffering of homebound migrant workers, many of whom are travelling hundreds of miles home on foot.

........ a failure of policy and have questioned the haste with which the government implemented the lockdown. .......... the government should have predicted the exodus ........ the disaster mitigation policy adopted by the government in the wake of Cyclone Fani in 2019. The government shifted more than a million people from low lying areas to cyclone shelters and ensured that there was minimal loss of human life. ..........

The government feeds more than 100 million children through its midday meal program.

The infrastructure for this distribution of food is still in place but not currently in use, since most children are now at home. The government could have used the midday meal infrastructure and augmented it with other initiatives to ensure that all migrant workers were provided for in the cities. .......... Over the last few years, through the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, thousands of schools have been constructed. These schools – presently also closed – could have been used to increase the housing capacity of the existing shelter homes. ......... public transport systems (such as railways and buses) are not presently being utilised fully and could have been used to transport the migrants home after screening them. .......

there is no coherent national plan

......... The reason for this lack of planning lies in political apathy and not in a lack of state capacity. ......... a large section of the Indian middle class, many of whom incorrectly believe that the government does not have the resources or tools to deal with the scale of the migrant crisis. ........

India’s challenge is not one of poor state capacity but of low levels of empathy among many middle-class voters.



How COVID-19 Will Impact the Indian and Global Economies apart from its tragic human consequences, COVID-19 is likely to cost around $1 trillion to the global economy ........ COVID-19 will likely contract the global economy in 2020 by 2.5 per cent – the recessionary threshold for the world economy. ........ with the spread of COVID-19 having been fuelled by international migration and travel, globalisation may itself take a hit in the post-pandemic world. ...... Each day, countries get more restrictive, requiring more people to be quarantined upon arrival. ......... Unskilled and semi-skilled migrant labours are among the worst hit by the ongoing lockdown. It has tightened a job-scarce economy into a no-work economy – leading to the mass exodus of millions of daily wage workers from the big cities to the towns and villages...... Health of a population boosts the national economy through higher productivity and greater access to education and employment, which may otherwise be blocked by poor health. A growing health sector also provides gainful employment to many. By promoting mental health, we reduce conflict in society.........

Expenditure on healthcare includes expenditure on public health, family welfare, water supply and sanitation. India needs to spend more in these areas to create a resilient healthcare infrastructure and counter any potential future pandemics.

........... Cash transfer measures are set to benefit farmers, rural workers, poor pensioners, construction workers, low-income widowers and other marginalised people in the country. ....... The central bank has also permitted all lending institutions to allow a 3-month moratorium on the payment of instalments on term loans.

Inter-Religious Harmony in India Amidst the Coronavirus there is an outbreak of anti-Muslim hate during the nationwide lockdown. ........ In Indore, in the second week of April, when Draupadi Bai Verma died, her relatives refused to touch her body out of fear of contracting coronavirus. In response, a group of ten Muslim neighbours arranged for her last rites and carried her body to the cremation ground. Abdul Rehman Sheikh, a Muslim who carried her bier, said, “This is the purpose of humanity, to serve each other.” In Bulandshahar, Uttar Pradesh, when Ravishankar died, his relatives similarly feared contracting coronavirus and didn’t turn up for his last rites. Ultimately, a group of Muslims carried his bier to the cremation ground, chanting Ram naam satya hai.







Cummings’ contempt for lockdown rules makes the public feel like fools The ordinary treachery of saying one thing and doing another – there will be £350m extra every week for the NHS; there will never be a border in the Irish Sea – is mother’s milk to them. Perhaps because it is so habitual or because they are so used to getting away with it, their sense of how it works has become dulled. They missed the crucial fact that this time it’s different. This time it’s personal. ............ the rules for collective survival in a pandemic are not ironic. They are intimate. They are embodied. They are the detailed texture of the lives we live every day. ..........

To use the Blitz analogy that England apparently cannot escape, it’s fine to leave your lights on during the blackout if you’re an important person with documents to read.

..... an unpardonable snigger of elite condescension.

at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Coronavirus News (111)

Minnesota COVID-19 survivor: 'There's this narrative that it's just the flu. It's not' Minnesotans need to understand the consequences, survivors say, particularly as many grow restless with restrictions designed to slow the pandemic. ........ Bernie Goldblatt didn’t think the lingering cough he developed back in March could be COVID-19. ........ But when it wouldn’t go away and his condition took a sudden and desperate turn in early April, the 68-year-old retiree wound up in the ICU for weeks. Nearly two months later, he’s still not home..........

“When it happens, it’s like you’re living in a nightmare and you can’t get out.”

......... Most people sickened by COVID-19 survive, but in serious cases, the experience is harrowing, the effects linger and the long-term health risks aren’t clear. .......... “Please, please, please take it seriously,” said Steve Soeffker, a 69-year-old McLeod County resident who spent 43 days in the hospital before returning home this month. .........

Doctors don’t know whether COVID-19 survivors will maintain immunity against the virus down the road

......... there are questions about long-term issues with the lungs, kidneys and liver in serious cases ...........

In the most serious cases, getting over COVID-19 is just the start of the struggle.

......... During her first night at Methodist Hospital, she couldn’t stop gasping for breath. ........

“I had this moment of total dread that came over me,” she said, “as I realized I could possibly die.”

.......... Life moved slowly in April, with Bort surprised by her fatigue walking up stairs. Now, she takes daily walks around Lake of the Isles but doesn’t feel completely recovered. ........ “Two months later, I’m still out of breath — much more out of breath than I normally would be. So, I’m a little worried. … Usually by this time of the year, I’d be riding my bike 10 or 15 miles a day.” ....... After landing in the hospital, Goldblatt spent about three weeks in the ICU and his memories are the stuff of

piercing nightmares and dark visions

. The distress is not unique to COVID-19 patients, doctors say, but a function of intensive care that can leave patients disoriented as they try to cope with disrupted sleep, heavy medications and a devastating illness. ........... “I think

I was one of those people who was in complete denial — that that was never going to happen to me,” Goldblatt said of COVID-19. “And I have to tell you — it could, and it did.”

.......... ....Soeffker didn’t have a cough or fever when he went to bed one night in early April. Around 4 a.m.,

his wife found him collapsed on the floor and gasping for air

. ......... “This COVID is real. A lot of people are thinking it’s not,” he said. “Yes, I’m sympathetic for the small businesses, sympathetic for the people who are laid off and are losing wages. But they’re in a position where they’re still alive, still functioning.” ....... “One of the most shocking parts of this illness is how quickly people can decline — go from just feeling a little short of breath to not able to breathe at all,” said Dr. Craig Marshall of Methodist Hospital. “It can happen very quickly, for some patients within six to eight hours.” ......... “I think everybody who has COVID —

there’s this narrative that it’s just the flu. It’s not

,” he said. “One of my hopes is that we tell people: Hey, this is really serious. And here’s a reasonably well-educated doctor … who just didn’t understand how serious it was.”



'The price you pay': Sweden's 'herd immunity' experiment backfires Unlike its Nordic neighbors, Sweden decided early on in the pandemic to forgo lockdown in the hope of achieving broad immunity to the coronavirus. While social distancing was promoted, the government allowed bars, restaurants, salons, gyms and schools to stay open. .........

Sweden's mortality rate is the highest in Europe.

........ "I think the mortality in Norway is something like ten-fold lower. That’s the real comparator." (Norway's daily death rate is less than .01 per 1 million people.) ........ Scientists estimate herd immunity for the coronavirus is reached when 70-90% of the population becomes immune to a virus, either by becoming infected or getting a protective vaccine. ....... only 7.3% had developed the antibodies needed to stave off the disease. ........ In Spain, for example, 5% of the population had developed antibodies as of May 14 .......... 2.5% of the U.S. population has been infected with the coronavirus. To possibly reach herd immunity, "you're going to have to get close to 100% of the population being antibody-positive" ....... we can keep doing non-pharmaceutical interventions like contact tracing, mask wearing and isolation quarantines, but also develop drugs that work better treating people who already have the infection so they don't require critical care in a hospital. ........

Sweden’s government insists that it does not have a herd immunity strategy, but Swedish virolgist Lena Einhorn said that “they have denied it, but under their breaths they have acknowledged” the strategy



The pandemic is sending India's poor into the abyss Already rife with inequality, the pandemic has distributed suffering unequally among India's underclass ........ Risk of hunger, uncertainty of future employment, and poverty-related suicide are imminent threats for many Indians. It seems that

post-pandemic India has brought massive pain and suffering among people living in extreme poverty

, particularly disadvantaged caste and religious groups, transgender people, women, and rural residents......... 46.7% of those employed earn below $3.20 a day ........ Among 5 million people employed in sanitation and cleaning work, 90% come from lower castes (including a significant number of Dalit women). Higher caste women in urban areas also likely to hire Dalit women for household work. The loss of daily wage jobs puts lower castes in economically precarious situation. Their employment in essential service jobs such as sanitation leaves them vulnerable to coronavirus exposure. ......... They face an increased likelihood of contracting the coronavirus due to their disproportionate employment in essential services — a situation that may lead to further marginalization....... neoliberal reforms, which call for deregulatory fiscal policies and privatization, have remade Indian society to favor a small portion of the wealthy class. This small proportion of affluent Indians, who have chosen to live in gated communities, are in constant need of service work from the lower class-caste poor, who generally live in shanty slums. .......

Usually, these burgeoning shanty slums are found in the rising upscale suburbs, albeit next to affluent gated high-rise buildings, in the large metropolis of Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore, New Delhi, and Chennai.

......... An example of high-rise buildings meeting the poverty-ridden dilapidated slums is clearly seen in Mumbai – the high-rises standing next to slums of Dharavi ........

since the COVID-19 lockdown, tens and millions of migrant workers have been left unemployed.

........ The lockdown has also commenced a nonessential travel ban that includes trains, buses and modes of public transportation. Meanwhile, the slums are ideal conditions to spread diseases like COVID-19: defined by small quarters, close contact, shared bathrooms and narrow alleys, constructed slums are not a safe place to be in a pandemic. Often these slums lack basic amenities, such as running water, toilets, and food, which makes living there impossible for social distancing and isolating for amid COVID-19. ..........

Amid agony, fear, and hunger, these repatriates — protesters and non-protesters — set out to walk tens or hundreds of miles back to these home villages.

........ Much of India's migrant population consists of women and children who live in shanty towns, generally built next to high rise buildings. ....... the COVID-19 situation has further aggravated the condition of victims of domestic violence, most of whom are women. Many women, like a 45-year old from the Indian city of Chennai who has lost her cooking job and has to contend with an unemployed husband, have seen their abusive relationships exacerbate. .......

The economic insecurity and uncertainty due to job loss, coupled with an existing patriarchal mindset, is fueling the rise in domestic violence against women.

.......... the pandemic has further intensified anti-Muslim sentiment in India ......... "It isn't just Hindu nationalist politicians or mobs" blaming Muslims for COVID-19, he writes. "The country's respectable press have joined in too."

at No comments:
Labels: , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)