My April 2020 FB posts on novel coronavirus 2019 (SARS-CoV-2) / COVID-19
Last updated on 14th June 2020
Given below are contents of most of my posts in April 2020 on the novel (new) coronavirus 2019 (SARS-CoV-2) with associated disease labelled as COVID-19 by WHO. Some posts have been put up as as separate posts by itself. Their contents are not included in this post.
To save time, I am usually not providing my FB post links but only contents. I am also not hyperlinking links usually. So readers will typically have to copy-paste links from this post onto a browser link box and then browse to that link.
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I was debating whether I should share this publicly. It is somewhat distressing news.
But I think that right info. being provided on the matter is appropriate and
I think the shared post seems to have correct info. about the district authorities view of the matter. The shared post has a Telugu language video and a map of Coronavirus/COVID-19 containment zone in OUTSIDE ASHRAM Puttaparthi.
As per the video, a constable (policeman) who was posted at Puttaparthi tested COVID-19 positive. He has been taken to RDT Bathallapalli hospital for treatment. His contacts have been traced and quarantined. From Gopuram gate to Hanuman temple in outside ashram Puttaparthi has been marked as a containment zone as the patient lived in this area (as per the map). The area was sanitized.
The Assistant Collector Jahnavi said that essential supplies, sanitation and health surveillance in this containment zone - these three aspects were discussed and a plan has been put in place.
[FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2830312560518636 ]
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This video has more of remarks of Joint Collector Jahnavi on the matter (she speaks mainly in Telugu but with some English in between): https://www.facebook.com/100006221509438/videos/2545491129001579/
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That is very interesting information. 75% of COVID-19 positive cases in Andhra Pradesh are asymptomatic!
How reliable is the testing? Does the RT-PCR test (which I think is used for confirming a COVID-19 positive case in India in general, and so in Andhra Pradesh too) sometimes give false positive reports?
Anyway, the good thing is that 75% of the slightly over 1000 active cases in Andhra Pradesh, as of now, are reported to not suffer from COVID-19 disease.
[FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2830106753872550 ]
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"Did Bill Gates ‘Admit’ Vaccinations Are Designed So Governments Can ‘Depopulate’ the World?" - true (yes) or false (no)?
Snopes says it is false. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bill-gates-vaccinations-depopulation/ . I read the Snopes analysis of why it is false, and it seems to make sense to me. So I will go by the Snopes assessment that this claim is false.
Now some readers/Facebook friends may disagree. That's fine by me. They are entitled to their view. But I expect that they will be tolerant of my view and respect that I am entitled to my view (of agreeing with the Snopes analysis, as of now). [I said, 'as of now', as I am willing to change my view if I find other data/analysis which seems to make sense to me.]
Now this does not mean that I support anything and everything that Bill Gates does. There have been critical reports of some of the vaccination programs that Bill Gates' foundation has been associated with. I have noted that and so have some question marks about the vaccination programs that Bill Gates' foundation is involved with. But I do not have time (or inclination) to get deep into that area and come up with my own assessment. So I read articles by others in noted media outlets and websites, and come to some assessment about such matters.
Vaccination in general, irrespective of Bill Gates and his foundation, is another area which has seen some for and against debates and hot discussions. I don't know enough about the matter. But I have noted that even if mainstream medical science view is supportive of vaccination, there seem to be some problems associated with it as reported by some others.
In case of any COVID-19 vaccine that becomes available for general human use in India, I intend to cross the bridge of whether I personally will take the vaccine or not, at that time.
But, very clearly, Indian government is supportive of vaccines, and if any COVID-19 vaccine does become available as an effective and "safe" human vaccine, as per mainstream medical science view, I am quite sure that the Indian government(s) (both union (federal) and state governments) will strongly recommend the vaccine to Indians (ask Indians to take the vaccine).
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Good to see Newsweek publish this article.
Dr. Fauci and NIH leadership may have acted in good faith. But it is disappointing that this fact of NIH funding Wuhan Institute of Virology for research work that included risky Gain-Of-Function research on bat coronaviruses, is coming to the fore so late in the day. I mean, Dr. Fauci should have made a public statement on this at least a month or two earlier and the US mainstream media should have reported that then itself.
As USA tax-payer money was used to fund this research, I think USA citizens are entitled to question Dr. Fauci on this. Top scientist-administrators who use public money for directing and doing research work have to be held accountable for what they did with the public money. I repeat that Dr. Fauci may have acted in good faith. But I think he has to give answers to the USA public on the many questions raised by this matter.
Now I am a resident and citizen of India. I am commenting on this matter as the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic has caused great damage to India as well. So I would also like to have Dr. Fauci respond to questions raised by this matter.
I have given below a small extract from the Newsweek article (published on 28th April 2020):
But just last year, the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the organization led by Dr. Fauci, funded scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and other institutions for work on gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses.
In 2019, with the backing of NIAID, the National Institutes of Health committed $3.7 million over six years for research that included some gain-of-function work. The program followed another $3.7 million, 5-year project for collecting and studying bat coronaviruses, which ended in 2019, bringing the total to $7.4 million.
Many scientists have criticized gain of function research, which involves manipulating viruses in the lab to explore their potential for infecting humans, because it creates a risk of starting a pandemic from accidental release.
...
At this point most scientists say it's possible—but not likely—that the pandemic virus was engineered or manipulated.
--- end extract ---
The article states that Dr. Fauci did not respond to Newsweek.
The article also has NIH response to Newsweek which states that research suggests that there is no evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic related coronavirus was created in a laboratory.
Good to see that NIH responded to Newsweek.
[I thank Newsweek.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above small extract(s) from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
[Newsweek article: DR. FAUCI BACKED CONTROVERSIAL WUHAN LAB WITH MILLIONS OF U.S. DOLLARS FOR RISKY CORONAVIRUS RESEARCH, https://www.newsweek.com/dr-fauci-backed-controversial-wuhan-lab-millions-us-dollars-risky-coronavirus-research-1500741 ]
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USA Senator Lindsay Graham talks tough on China in context of coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VreJQCDQpb8, 7 min. 21 secs, published on 28th April 2020 by Fox News.
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Nine meals from anarchy!
(USA) Trump expected to sign an order requiring meat plants to remain open during COVID-19 outbreak, https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/2020/04/28/coronavirus-iowa-trump-sign-order-requiring-meat-packing-plants-stay-open-during-pandemic/3040983001/, 28th April 2020.
The article references a tweet from Iowa, USA Senator Chuck Grassley: "Pres @realDonaldTrump is right 2use authority 2 keep open meat processing plants Its critical infrastructure 4 country's food supply chain As saying goes society is 9 meals away from food riots Fed govt shld help w PPE&testing/plants need 2follow CDC&OSHA guidance 2protect wrkers", https://twitter.com/ChuckGrassley/status/1255199174263439360, 28th April 2020.
Ravi: Hmm. I learned a new saying: "Society is 9 meals away from food riots." Did some browsing on it.
Given below are short extracts from: Nine Meals from Anarchy, https://internationalman.com/articles/nine-meals-from-anarchy/ :
In 1906, Alfred Henry Lewis stated, “There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy.” Since then, his observation has been echoed by people as disparate as Robert Heinlein and Leon Trotsky.
The key here is that, unlike all other commodities, food is the one essential that cannot be postponed.
...
If there were an interruption in the supply of food, fear would set in immediately. And, if the resumption of the food supply were uncertain, the fear would become pronounced. After only nine missed meals, it’s not unlikely that we’d panic and be prepared to commit a crime to acquire food.
--- end extracts ---
Ravi: Hmm again. Nine meals from anarchy! Such is the reality of human society and life!
[I thank internationalman.com and USA Senator Chuck Grassley, and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above short extract(s) from their website / tweet on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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Medical science mainstream supports vaccines. (BTW microbiologist Dr. Elisa Granato who volunteered for human trial of the potential vaccine at Oxford, UK, is ***alive*** and doing well (as per her) and NOT dead as some false reports on social media said. See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/26/uk-coronavirus-vaccine-trial-subject-doing-fine-online-death-rumours-elisa-granato.)
But some specialists from the field have a contrary view saying that vaccines do more harm than good. These specialists have suffered ostracism from the mainstream medical science community. Dr. Judy Mikovitz, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Mikovits, is one of them. She has co-authored a book which has been released recently, titled, "Plague of Corruption: Restoring Faith in the Promise of Science", https://www.amazon.com/Plague-Corruption-Restoring-Promise-Science-ebook/dp/B07S5H6T4Q .
The layman is confused, and that includes me.
I think that once a successful vaccine against COVID-19 is available, whether to take the vaccine or not should be a choice for the public.
The article shared below mentions that Serum Institute of India owned by Indian billionaire Cyrus Poonawala, plans to produce 60 million doses this year, of the potential vaccine developed by University of Oxford (UK).
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New York Doctor On Front Lines Of Coronavirus Pandemic Dies By Suicide | NBC Nightly News, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvXv57eKPB0, 2 min. 38 secs.
Dr. Lorna Breen eventually contracted COVID-19 after having treated COVID-19 patients, but she recovered from it and went back to work. It is so tragic that she decided to take her own life (as per this report).
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The 4 min. 30 secs. youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MmqJmleaw8 ) linked in the article is very, very interesting. I am not saying that Dr. Montagnier is right - I don't know. But it is great that a Nobel prize winner scientist frankly gave his views on this sensitive matter. ... I think many researchers are very dependent on funding and are scared of offending top scientists in the field (who typically control/influence the funding). Dr. Montagnier is out of that control/influence and can frankly speak his mind.
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Update: This seems to be strong scientific criticism of the IIT Delhi researchers' preprint (NOT peer-reviewed) paper that was referred to by Dr. Montagnier in the youtube interview video: No, The Coronavirus Was Not Genetically Engineered To Put Pieces Of HIV In It, https://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriaforster/2020/02/02/no-coronavirus-was-not-bioengineered-to-put-pieces-of-hiv-in-it/ .
The Forbes article quotes other scientists disputing the analysis and conclusions of the preprint paper.
This leads me to believe that the preprint paper does seem to have mistakes and so was withdrawn, and not due to influence or fear.
The IIT Delhi researchers' ***withdrawn (retracted) *** preprint paper is available on web archive here: https://web.archive.org/web/20200204204902/https:/www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.30.927871v1.full .
So I think the matter is quite transparent. Nothing is being hidden. The retraction seems to be a good thing in favour of verifiable truth winning and mistaken observations and conclusions being weeded out.
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AP Hon'ble CM Jagan Mohan Reddy garu's public remarks made yesterday 27th April, on Facebook Live about COVID-19 situation in the state and future plan
From around 1 min. 30 seconds into the video https://www.facebook.com/ysjagan/videos/546529862945103 , around 31 minutes, 27th April 2020, Andhra Pradesh (AP) Chief Minister (CM) Hon'ble Jagan Mohan Reddy garu talks in Telugu about red zones, orange zones and green zones in AP. He then speaks about other coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic issues.
I have given below an English translation of some of the points in his remarks.
We have a clear understanding of where red zones are - where (many) cases are testing positive, where we have orange zones and where we have green zones. Areas with more than 4 (COVID-19) positive cases are declared as red zones. Areas with 1 to 4 cases are declared as orange zones. Areas where there are no cases are declared as green zones.
Of the 676 mandals in the state, only 63 mandals are red zones, 54 are orange zones. The remaining 559 mandals are green zones without any (COVID-19 positive) cases. So around 80 percent of the state does not have any cases now.
[CM listed various actions taken by state govt. over the past month, in terms of designating/setting up COVID-19 hospitals, isolation wards in other hospitals, quarantine centres etc. He also talked about the great work done by village volunteers and others to help vulnerable people of the state in this period.]
But there is one thing that needs to be shared with the people, with my brothers & sisters. Even though we have done so much (to combat COVID-19), the reality is that we will not be able to (eradicate COVID-19) completely (from the state). If there is just one person (COVID-19 positive) left out somewhere, that person may (transmit it to others) by coughing and sneezing. We will not be able to eliminate it fully.
We have to learn to live with coronavirus/COVID-19 (risk). Please remove the feeling (in your minds) that if one gets coronavirus/COVID-19, it will be a (terrible and very dangerous) matter. [CM said he is humbly requesting all to do so - remove the scare of coronavirus/COVID-19 from their minds.]
This could come to anybody (in coming days). [CM referred to swine flu, a contagious disease, implying that like we lived with risk of swine flu, we have to live with risk of coronavirus/COVID-19.]
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The state (AP) has conducted 74,550 tests (https://twitter.com/ArogyaAndhra/status/1254646034896056320 dated 27th April 2020 has similar figure). The state is conducting 1,396 tests per ten lakhs (per million) which is the highest rate of tests for any state in the country. He also stated that only 1.61 per cent of the people tested were positive. He said that this is by God's Grace and we should all be proud of it. Seventy percent tests were done in hot zones - red and orange zones. The country's rate of positive cases among tests conducted is 4 per cent.
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[CM said that there should be no stigma about a person having COVID-19 disease (being infected with novel coronavirus).]
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In green zones, life must proceed as usual. We have to take some precautions - we have to protect the green zones - some physical distancing of at least one metre while working or interacting. 3 masks will be given to (each person) by the government (over time, as stitching of masks in large numbers is being done).
Public transport being re-started will have to be postponed for some time. We will think about permitting private vehicles to be used in green zones.
In green zones, regular work/business and economic activity will (have to) start. [Agricultural activity is already permitted, I think.]
We cannot avoid taking (more) precautions in red and orange zones.
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We should not have the feeling that because of corona(virus) the state is going to get into big trouble.
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Elderly people and those with pre-existing diseases have to be (more) careful, and we need to protect them. [But others should not be very tense/afraid of coronavirus.]
[CM asked Muslim, Christian and Hindu brethren of the state to pray to God for helping the state as God's compassion is very much necessary for the state.]
[CM thanked village volunteers, Asha workers, ANM (workers), nurses, doctors, COVID hospital staff, staff at (testing) labs, police, and especially sanitation staff of villages (and towns), revenue department (staff) as they are involved (in lot of work in combating COVID-19). CM thanked all of them from the bottom of his heart, not only from his side, but on behalf of all the people of the state.]
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From the recent posts that I put up on Facebook in past few hours (listed at the bottom of this post), I think it is clear that some scientists clearly saw and ***publicly wrote about*** the danger of new (novel) Potential Pandemic Pathogens (PPP) getting accidentally released among the wider population outside the bio research labs where Gain-Of-Function (GOF) experiments were being conducted on viruses including coronaviruses.
The USA temporarily banned (funding for) such GOF research work from Oct. 2014 to Dec. 2017, lifting the temporary ban in Dec. 2017.
I presume that China would not have had such bans on GOF research work, which is why some GOF type of research work on coronavirus(es) seems to have been done in the past few years in the Wuhan Institute of Virology and research papers have been published on that research work in international scientific publications.
USA's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) operates under USA's National Institute of Health (NIH). NIH/NIAID seems to have funded some research work in recent years in Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). One wonders whether NIH/NIAID funded some GOF research work on coronavirus in WIV, and if so, were there some NOT insignificant accident possibilities associated with that work? Perhaps that information is available somewhere. If not, I think it should be shared, as a public service to the world under attack from novel coronavirus 2019 (SARS-CoV-2 virus) and associated COVID-19 pandemic.
Most importantly, the world should know with a high degree of certainty (which can only be achieved by international investigators' team) about any novel (new) Potential Pandemic Pathogen risks of bio research work done in Wuhan Institute of Virology and another bio research lab in Wuhan, China in the recent past. I think that is a very reasonable demand as so many countries of the world have been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated shutdown/lockdown impact already, with no clear idea of how long the pandemic will last and how much direct (illness and death) and indirect (economic and other) negative impact it will have on the world.
Here's a list of my recent posts on this matter:
1) I am reading up on what Gain-Of-Function virus research is, and the dangers involved in it. I find it to be very disturbing but also very relevant for a better understanding of what ***could*** have caused this horrific COVID-19 pandemic and associated shutdown/lockdown that has negatively impacted the lives of so many of us, across the world., https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2827665664116659
2) USA had stopped (had a moratorium on) Gain-Of-Function (GOF) bio research experiments on some viruses including SARS coronavirus in Oct. 2014 but lifted the moratorium in Dec. 2017 allowing such GOF bio research experiments to be done from then onwards!, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2827673147449244
3) 2012 scientific paper that highlighted risks of bio research on Potential Pandemic Pathogens (PPPs), and argued that the wider population should have a say on whether such research should be conducted or not, as the wider population is also at risk (from accidents in such research), https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2827685530781339
4) 2014 scientific paper that argued against conducting Gain-Of-Function (GOF) bio research experiments for influenza strains, and argued for ethical scrutiny of GOF experiments associated with novel (new) Potential Pandemic Pathogen risks, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2827699704113255
5) 2018 sensitive scientific article covering both biological warfare concerns as well as biosafety (accident prevention) concerns about Gain-Of-Function (GOF) bio research experiments, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2827730360776856
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2018 sensitive scientific article covering both biological warfare concerns as well as biosafety (accident prevention) concerns about Gain-Of-Function (GOF) bio research experiments
A New Approach to Evaluating the Risk–Benefit Equation for Dual-Use and Gain-of-Function Research of Concern, by Michael J. Imperiale and Arturo Casadevall, published on 8th March 2018, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2018.00021/full
Given below are a few extracts from above paper [DURC stands for Dual Use Research of Concern]:
It is not an exaggeration that the situation today regarding DURC and GOF experiments remains highly unsatisfactory. Experimental work involving GOF experiments on pathogens with pandemic potential is highly regulated with proponents of such work arguing that restrictions on experimental design are unwarranted (Fouchier et al., 2012b) while opponents of such experiments argue that such work cannot be justified (Wain-Hobson, 2014a,b). Proponents of GOF experiments have noted that data generated in such experiments is useful in epidemiological surveillance (Schultz-Cherry et al., 2014), whereas opponents have argued that such work cannot be morally justified because of its inherent risk (Lipsitch and Galvani, 2014). In the U.S., government-mandated pauses on certain types of experiments remain in effect for federally funded research but such prohibitions do not extend to other countries, or to work funded by other sources. Although the NSABB continues to analyze and debate the issues involved with DURC and GOF experiments in the U.S., there is no comparable body on the international scene, where much of this type of research is done.
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For example, some risk–benefit calculations have suggested that a high consequence accident is likely to occur in the near future (Lipsitch and Bloom, 2012; Lipsitch and Inglesby, 2014), while others have estimated such probabilities to be near zero (Fouchier, 2015).
--- end extracts ---
[I thank frontiersin.org and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above small extract(s) from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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2014 scientific paper that argued against conducting Gain-Of-Function (GOF) bio research experiments for influenza strains, and argued for ethical scrutiny of GOF experiments associated with novel (new) Potential Pandemic Pathogen risks
Ethical Alternatives to Experiments with Novel Potential Pandemic Pathogens by Marc Lipsitch, Alison P. Galvani, 20th May 2014, https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1001646 [Citation: Lipsitch M, Galvani AP (2014) Ethical Alternatives to Experiments with Novel Potential Pandemic Pathogens. PLoS Med 11(5): e1001646. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001646]
I have given below the summary points from above paper/article:
Summary Points
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* “Gain of function” experiments involving the creation and manipulation of novel potential pandemic pathogens (PPPs) deserve ethical scrutiny regarding the acceptability of the risks of accidental or deliberate release and global spread.
* The Nuremberg Code, a seminal statement of clinical research ethics, mandates that experiments that pose a risk to human life should be undertaken only if they provide humanitarian benefits that sufficiently offset the risks and if these benefits are unachievable by safer means.
* A novel PPP research program of moderate size would pose substantial risks to human life, even optimistically assuming a low probability that a pandemic would ensue from a laboratory accident.
* Alternative approaches would not only be safer but would also be more effective at improving surveillance and vaccine design, the two purported benefits of gain-of-function experiments to create novel, mammalian-transmissible influenza strains.
* A rigorous, quantitative, impartial risk–benefit assessment should precede further novel PPP experimentation. In the case of influenza, we anticipate that such a risk assessment will show that the risks are unjustifiable. Given the risk of a global pandemic posed by such experiments, this risk assessment should be part of a broader international discussion involving multiple stakeholders and not dominated by those with an interest in performing or funding such research.
--- end summary points ---
[I thank plos.org and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extract from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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2012 scientific paper that highlighted risks of bio research on Potential Pandemic Pathogens (PPPs), and argued that the wider population should have a say on whether such research should be conducted or not, as the wider population is also at risk (from accidents in such research)
This paper referenced A/H5N1 viruses (one of which is the bird flu (avian influenza), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_A_virus_subtype_H5N1 ), but the argument laid out in the abstract of the paper, I think, would also apply to coronaviruses like SARS-CoV and the new SARS-Cov-2 (which causes COVID-19 disease) viruses.
The paper: Rethinking Biosafety in Research on Potential Pandemic Pathogens by Marc Lipsitch, Barry R. Bloom, 2012,
https://mbio.asm.org/content/3/5/e00360-12 .
The abstract of the paper is as follows:
If accidentally released, mammalian-transmissible influenza A/H5N1 viruses could pose a greater threat to public health than possibly any other infectious agent currently under study in laboratories, because of such viruses’ likely combination of transmissibility and virulence to humans. We advocate explicit risk-benefit assessments before work on such pathogens is permitted or funded, improvement of biosafety practices and enforcement, and harmonization of criteria for permitting such experiments across government agencies, as well as internationally. Such potential pandemic pathogens, as they have been called, jeopardize not only laboratory workers and their contacts, but also the wider population, who should be involved in assessments of when such risks are acceptable in the service of scientific knowledge that may itself bear major public health benefits.
--- end abstract ---
[I thank asm.org and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above small extract from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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USA had stopped (had a moratorium on) Gain-Of-Function (GOF) bio research experiments on some viruses including SARS coronavirus in Oct. 2014 but lifted the moratorium in Dec. 2017 allowing such GOF bio research experiments to be done from then onwards!
Given below is a small extract from https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(18)30006-9/fulltext:
On Dec 19, 2017, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that they would resume funding gain-of-function experiments involving influenza, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. A moratorium had been in place since October, 2014. At the time, the NIH had stated that the moratorium “will be effective until a robust and broad deliberative process is completed that results in the adoption of a new US Government gain-of-function research policy”. This process has now concluded. It was spearheaded by the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) and led to the development of a new framework for assessing funding decisions for research involving pathogens with enhanced pandemic potential. The release of the framework by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), of which NIH is part, signalled the end of the funding pause.
--- end extract ---
[I thank thelancet.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above small extract from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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I am reading up on what Gain-Of-Function virus research is, and the dangers involved in it. I find it to be very disturbing but also very relevant for a better understanding of what ***could*** have caused this horrific COVID-19 pandemic and associated shutdown/lockdown that has negatively impacted the lives of so many of us, across the world.
I will be sharing some material which I feel may be useful for interested readers. Rather than put up a consolidated post which will take composition and editing time, I will be sharing the info. as a series of quick-share posts.
First question: What is Gain-Of-Function (GOF) Research?
From https://www.phe.gov/s3/dualuse/Pages/GainOfFunction.aspx: "Gain-of-function (GOF) studies, or research that improves the ability of a pathogen to cause disease, help define the fundamental nature of human-pathogen interactions, thereby enabling assessment of the pandemic potential of emerging infectious agents, informing public health and preparedness efforts, and furthering medical countermeasure development.
Gain-of-function studies may entail biosafety and biosecurity risks; therefore, the risks and benefits of gain-of function research must be evaluated, both in the context of recent U.S. biosafety incidents and to keep pace with new technological developments, in order to determine which types of studies should go forward and under what conditions."
[I thank phe.gov and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above small extract from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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A 5 day old video but I think it is worthwhile sharing as, if I recall correctly, I had shared earlier CNN videos claiming that a study had shown that Hydroxychloroquine was not only not helping COVID-19 patients but could even harm them!
Fox News host Laura Ingraham attacks those CNN and some other media reports in this video: Ingraham: The truth about hydroxychloroquine, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RexUJeWmzSE, around 9 mins.
Ravi: I think the ***medical jury*** is still out on whether Hydroxychloroquine works or not for COVID-19. Ingraham says that some hospitals in USA continue to use it for serious COVID-19 cases.
Hard to know the truth about Hydroxychloroquine's efficacy against COVID-19 disease in USA as the matter has become very politicized and that's a pity.
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Over past few days, while getting some sun on the common part of the terrace of my apartment building (Ground + 6 floors) in Puttaparthi (outside ashram), I took some pics with my low-cost smartphone, in the afternoons (usually sometime between 3.30 PM to 4.30 PM). Thought of sharing a few of them.
Update: The top of Sai Kulwant Hall & Yajur mandir pics are somewhat fuzzy as the sun was directly shining on them causing a lot of reflection. Perhaps if I go up the terrace some time earlier in the day (before noon), I think I will be able to get better pics of them even with my low-cost smartphone.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2827447024138523
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200 Tablighi Jamaat members, who have recovered, pledge to donate plasma, https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/200-tablighi-jamaat-members-who-have-recovered-pledge-to-donate-plasma/story-uCGTmL5MvH5uNXRkDnCDOL.html
Good to see this!
India should fight and win this war against COVID-19 together - all Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs etc. of India should fight this war together.
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Around 7 and 1/2 minute video which I think shows an Indian health worker wearing PPE in fight against COVID-19! I had no idea that it involved so many layers of protection.
Now I understand a comment I heard in some other video about sanitary workers (in Anantapur, if I recall correctly) needing some help/training in wearing PPE!
God bless all in this fight against COVID-19 in India, especially those who are directly going to risk areas like in COVID-19 hospitals & wards, in testing for COVID-19, and in sanitizing red zone areas.
FB video: https://www.facebook.com/poornajith.rai/videos/2967339786665406/?t=0
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Tweet video has some Indian medics dancing and giving words of good cheer, a month into coronavirus lockdown in India.
I liked it. I think India needs some music, dance and joy in these lockdown times.
https://twitter.com/ErikSolheim/status/1254597393150103552
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Good to see UK PM Boris Johnson back in action after recovering from COVID-19.
https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/videos/1017613491973577/?t=0
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(USA) States try to find balance of reopening within Covid-19 curve, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbvQNWuqTLk, 8 min. 19 secs, published by CNN on 26th April 2020.
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In a comment on this share post, I will be adding a map/pic having all mandals in Anantapur district with their names. So interested readers can view that to get an idea of where mandals like Puttaparthi, Kothacheruvu and Bukkapatnam are on this map.
The map from Arogya Andhra tells us that Anantapuram, Kalyandurg and Hindupur are the red zone mandals with 4 or more cases each. Guntakal and Settur mandal have 1 case each. That's it. No other mandals in Anantapur district have COVID-19 confirmed cases now.
Kothacheruvu mandal is now having NO cases (the previous case person has been discharged after successful treatment and seems to have tested negative for COVID-19).
Anantapuram mandal is roughly to the north of Puttaparthi (with Dharmavaram followed by Bukkapatnam mandals in between roughly from north to south/south-east, and Puttaparthi mandal being to south-west of Bukkapatnam mandal). Hindupur mandal is roughly to the south-west of Puttaparthi with Gorantla as well as Somandepalle mandals in between.
...
From http://www.apagrisnet.gov.in/ . I think the NARP zones are same as mandals but I am not sure. However, Puttaparthi, Kothacheruvu and Bukkapatnam are mandals and are shown on the map.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2826749877541571 ]
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I think the Telugu text in the post says that the single person, Nazeer Basha garu, of Kothacheruvu who had been infected with Coronavirus has been successfully treated at RDT hospital (and so must have tested negative for Coronavirus), and has been discharged. I think the pic is of the gentleman after discharge, with the pic date stamp being 25th April 2020.
Great to see this very good development.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2826735230876369
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Current majority scientific view seems to be that SARS-CoV-2 (virus that causes COVID-19 disease) is NOT a lab. created virus; But it is still a possibility and so we need to know more about Wuhan Biolab(s)
While, over the past few days, I had read some articles and viewed some videos on this very sensitive matter, I had earlier not wanted to post on this. But COVID-19 pandemic is having a terrible impact worldwide including my country, India (though China and a few other countries seem to have got it under control). JHU stats today, https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html, have USA cases at 939,249, Spain: 223,759, Italy: 195,351, France: 161,644, Germany: 156,513. UK: 149,569 ... This is just horrendous. Seems to be out of some horror science fiction movie but it is the reality the world faces now. Russia cases are rapidly rising. It is 80,949 now on JHU website. India cases may be relatively low now: 26,496 but India has suffered grievously with the lockdown which is over a month now.
So we ***MUST*** know whether this SARS-CoV-2 virus (also referred to as novel Coronavirus 2019) originated from a Wuhan, China bioresearch lab. or not. That is vital. So I decided to put up this post.
Here's a ten day old video published by the Washington Post (as an opinion): Opinion | U.S. diplomatic cables warned of Wuhan lab safety issues. The world needs answers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHz9d84PYuc, 4 min. 19 secs.
Here's the associated Washington Post article: State Department cables warned of safety issues at Wuhan lab studying bat coronaviruses, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/14/state-department-cables-warned-safety-issues-wuhan-lab-studying-bat-coronaviruses/, 14th April 2020, by Josh Rogin.
A short extract from the article is given below:
The research [in Wuhan lab.] was designed to prevent the next SARS-like pandemic by anticipating how it might emerge. But even in 2015, other scientists questioned whether Shi’s [Shi Zhengli] team was taking unnecessary risks. In October 2014, the U.S. government had imposed a moratorium on funding of any research that makes a virus more deadly or contagious, known as “gain-of-function” experiments.
As many have pointed out, there is no evidence that the virus now plaguing the world was engineered; scientists largely agree it came from animals. But that is not the same as saying it didn’t come from the lab, which spent years testing bat coronaviruses in animals, said Xiao Qiang, a research scientist at the School of Information at the University of California at Berkeley.
“The cable [USA State department cable in Jan. 2018] tells us that there have long been concerns about the possibility of the threat to public health that came from this lab’s research, if it was not being adequately conducted and protected,” he said.
--- end extract ---
The afore-mentioned Washington Post article referred to this 2015 article in Nature (well before COVID-19 or the USA state department cables of 2018 mentioned in the article): Engineered bat virus stirs debate over risky research by Declan Butler, https://www.nature.com/news/engineered-bat-virus-stirs-debate-over-risky-research-1.18787, 12th Nov. 2015.
I should first say that this article has an editor's note dated March 2020 which states, "We are aware that this story is being used as the basis for unverified theories that the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19 was engineered. There is no evidence that this is true; scientists believe that an animal is the most likely source of the coronavirus."
This article references an article in Nature medicine on 9th Nov. (2015, I guess) which talked of a lab. created virus made up of "surface protein" of a bat virus (SHC014) and "backbone of a SARS virus than had been adapted to grow in mice and to mimic human disease". This lab. created virus "infected human airway cells". [Ravi: I think this lab. created virus was not able to infect humans but infected mice which may have had human airway cells implanted in them for the lab. experiment. But I surely could be wrong. This is NOT my field and so I am just layman-thinking but trying to be logical in my thinking.]
The experiment contributed to better understanding of the dangers of bat coronaviruses thay may directly infect human beings.
The article then states: 'But other virologists question whether the information gleaned from the experiment justifies the potential risk. Although the extent of any risk is difficult to assess, Simon Wain-Hobson, a virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, points out that the researchers have created a novel virus that “grows remarkably well” in human cells. “If the virus escaped, nobody could predict the trajectory,” he says.'
Another small extract from the article: '“The only impact of this work is the creation, in a lab, of a new, non-natural risk,” agrees Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist and biodefence expert at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. Both Ebright and Wain-Hobson are long-standing critics of gain-of-function research.'
About Shi Zhengli from her wikipedia page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shi_Zhengli:
Shi Zhengli (simplified Chinese: 石æ£ä¸½; traditional Chinese: 石æ£éº—; born 26 May 1964) is a Chinese virologist who researches SARS-like coronaviruses of bat origin. Shi directs the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), a biosafety level 4 (BSL–4) laboratory located in Jiangxia District, Wuhan.
...
In February 2020, the South China Morning Post reported that Shi's decade-long work to build up one of the world's largest databases of bat-related viruses gave the scientific community a "head start" in understanding the virus.[25] The SCMP also reported that Shi was the focus of personal attacks in Chinese social media who claimed the WIV was the source of the virus, leading Shi to post: "I swear with my life, [the virus] has nothing to do with the lab", and when asked by the SCMP to comment on the attacks, Shi responded: "My time must be spent on more important matters".[25] In a March 2020 interview with Scientific American, where she was called China's "Bat Woman", Shi said "Bat-borne coronaviruses will cause more outbreaks", and "We must find them before they find us."[2] According to an April 2020 opinion piece by Josh Rogin in the Washington Post, U.S. officials sent to the WIV in 2018 had dispatched two diplomatic cables back to Washington which "warned about safety and management weaknesses at the WIV lab" and "also warns that the lab's work on bat coronaviruses and their potential human transmission represented a risk of a new SARS-like pandemic," noting that they had met with Shi Zhengli.[26]
[Wiki Refs:
2. Jane Qiu (11 March 2020). "How China's "Bat Woman" Hunted Down Viruses from SARS to the New Coronavirus". Scientific American.
25. Stephen Chen (6 February 2020). "Coronavirus: bat scientist's cave exploits offer hope to beat virus 'sneakier than Sars'". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
26. Rogin, John (14 April 2020). "State Department cables warned of safety issues at Wuhan lab studying bat coronaviruses". Washington Post. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
end-Wiki-Refs]
--- end wiki extracts ---
[I thank washingtonpost.com, nature.com and wikipedia and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extract(s) from their websites (small extracts from washingtonpost.com and nature.com) on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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[I think the video is a genuine one and so am sharing it.] Around 4 min. video having a short drama-message from some Anantapur policemen about people staying at home during lockdown (in Anantapur). It is in Telugu but I think people who don't follow Telugu will also be able to get the message.
Excellent drama-message! Great to see this drama-message from these Anantapur policemen, other actors and those who made the video.
https://www.facebook.com/Md.Jabee.Vijayawada/videos/2930970123636611/?t=0
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Police ready to meet greater COVID-19 challenges: (Andhra Pradesh) DGP, https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/police-ready-to-meet-greater-covid-19-challenges-dgp/article31434888.ece, 25th April 2020 (last updated on 26th April 2020).
A small extract from the above:
Mr. Sawang (DGP) handed over a cheque for ₹50 lakh to former Parigi assistant sub-inspector Habibullah’s brother Rahmatullah. He talked to Habibullah’s family, under treatment in a COVID hospital, over a video-conference. Habibullah, hailing from Hindupur, died last week and later tested positive for COVID-19.
----
The article also has a pic of DGP Sawang handing over the cheque to Mr. Habibullah's brother Mr. Rahmatullah.
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Good to see increase in COVID-19 testing in Andhra Pradesh.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2826380607578498?__tn__=-R
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DGP Gowtham Sawang is the top police officer for the state of Andhra Pradesh.
Update: This is a longer clip covering DGP Sawang's address which is partly in Telugu and partly in English. He is also asked a few questions which he answers. I think it is worthwhile to hear him out as he speaks about Anantapur district corona issues besides Andhra Pradesh state level issues, from a police perspective.
AP DGP Gautam Sawang inspected Anantapur lockdown situation - Sakshi TV, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCs8nxac2kE, 6 min. 44 secs, published by Sakshi TV on 25th April 2020. end-Update.
The video clip below covers his visit to Anantapur city where he seems to have handed over the Rs.50 Lakh ex-gratia compensation from AP government (and other regular benefits/compensation from police) to family of an AP policeman (from Anantapur district, I believe) who had succumbed to COVID-19 a few days ago. In his remarks, DGP (Director General of Police) Sawang thanked the state chief minister for this compensation to (family of) the policeman who sacrificed his life on duty fighting COVID-19 pandemic (in Anantapur district).
AP DGP Gowtham Sawang Visits Anantapur, Inspects Lockdown Situation | NTV, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM6maR0RH7w, 1 min. 33 secs, published by NTV on 25th April 2020.
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Telugu interview: Face To Face With Anantapur Municipal Commissioner Ravindra Over Corona Precautions | MAHAA NEWS, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1djkMPH8RY, slightly less than 6 mins, published on 25th April 2020.
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(Medical) Dr. Eugene Gu of Stanford University (USA): "Clorox, Tide Pods, and Lysol will kill the coronavirus. No question about it. But if you are infected, then the coronavirus is inside your cells. If you use any of those disinfectants to kill the coronavirus within your own cells, then you’ll die right along with the coronavirus.", https://twitter.com/eugenegu/status/1253495474251694081, 24th April 2020.
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On the one hand, I fully support the truth coming out on this matter. So it is good to have such top scientists speak up. On the other hand, what they say is very, very disturbing. This article is a really scary one. I mean, even if they did not have malicious intent, the ***alleged*** 'crazy' things that were done in the Wuhan lab. seem to have been super-dangerous for humans, if there was any accident! Are there any ethical standards that govern such scientific work? ... Did the Wuhan lab. really contribute to creation of SARS-CoV-2 (virus responsible for COVID-19)?? If so, that would be devastating news. ... But even if the news is devastating, if that is the truth then that truth must be made known to the world at large.
Linked article link: Wuhan lab did ‘crazy things’ to alter coronavirus; enabled it to infect humans: Russian microbiologist, https://www.timesnownews.com/international/article/wuhan-lab-did-crazy-things-to-alter-coronavirus-enabled-it-to-infect-humans-russian-microbiologist/582309
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Very interesting interview of governor of Georgia state in USA, who has taken a sort-of lead in phased/measured opening up of business in his state, and which has attracted a lot of criticism.
Not only will other states in USA be looking at how Georgia state succeeds or struggles in its opening up efforts, but perhaps many other countries may also be looking at it, including India. There are a lot of people going through economic trauma now as the shutdown has gone on for a month to month and a half. That economic trauma cannot be dismissed away. But then if opening up leads to a big outbreak then that will be horrific not only for the people infected but also for business as business will surely suffer in such a situation.
Georgia Gov. Kemp hits back at criticism of reopening state's economy, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PbFyH-QPo4, 11 min. 42 secs, published by Fox News on 22nd April 2020.
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Watching this early Feb. USA TV video clip seems like walking down memory lane! So much has changed in less than 2 months! Unbelievable but true!
11 confirmed US coronavirus cases, experts warn of pandemic | ABC News, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdUi_kwuw7I, 2 min. 33 secs., published on 3rd Feb. 2020
Now China seems to have got the pandemic fully in control in its country. Wuhan has opened up!
USA that had 11 (eleven) confirmed coronavirus/COVID-19 cases, now has 869,172 (eight hundred and sixty nine thousand one hundred and seventy two) confirmed cases as reported by JHU website, https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html! Many parts of USA are now shut down.
As I followed the Wuhan outbreak on social media in early Feb, I simply did not anticipate where USA and many other countries of the world including India, would be today, less than two months later. Mind-boggling is the word! I just can't wrap my head around this reality. God knows what else we will see wrt this pandemic in the coming days.
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JHU graph screenshots paint dismal picture about COVID-19 pandemic in USA, UK and India. Yes, it is not as bad as it could have been without shutdown/lockdown. But the curve has NOT been flattened yet! That is the plain truth!
Russia (a time-tested friend of India) data is just scary now.
Germany has achieved significant success in the fight against COVID-19. The German confirmed cases curve has got ***flattened***. Let us hope and pray that USA, UK, India and Russia curves also get flattened quickly.
I prefer to stay grounded in reality and so am putting up this post with screenshots that I took a few minutes ago of USA, UK, India, Russia and Germany graphs on John Hopkins University (JHU) COVID-19/coronavirus website.
[I thank John Hopkins University, USA, and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above screenshots from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2824259137790645
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Have read part of it and will continue to read the whole article. But I feel it is worth sharing now itself: https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Pandemic-Innovation by Bill Gates dated 23rd April 2020.
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Good to see Chris Cuomo be out of self-quarantine (after having tested negative for COVID-19, I guess) and free to be with his family again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRfTABlqGZQ, 10 min. 26 secs, published by CNN on 21st Apr. 2020.
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Around 2 min. video. ...
The economic conditions may vary drastically. However, the problems the unemployed face during the Coronavirus shutdowns/lockdowns in many countries of the world, are similar. It is around a month now in India that we have a shutdown. I think it is the daily worker in India (unorganized labour is a very large component of labour force in India) who is facing the brunt of the suffering due to shutdown/lock down.
Some other areas in some other countries like Las Vegas, USA, have seen six weeks of shutdown resulting in many people losing their jobs (being furloughed). Restaurants, hotels etc. seem to have been hit very hard in USA. The standard practice is to just furlough staff during such difficult times. Don't know how much of USA government unemployment financial support reaches those who have been furloughed and whether it is sizeable enough.
My God! I don't think that in my entire lifetime I have seen such level of economic hardship being inflicted on so many people across so many parts of the world. While we did not have social media in 2007-08 like we have now, I don't think the 2007-08 financial crisis created this level of economic hardship for so many low-income working class people across the world.
https://www.facebook.com/TimesofIndia/videos/365967007661884/?t=0
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To open or not open is the question that Las Vegas (in Nevada state, USA) has. The videos below have the Las Vegas mayor's views followed by the Governor of Nevada's views.
Anderson Cooper presses Las Vegas mayor over wish to reopen, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APoSHB9pQk8, around 25 mins., published by CNN on 22nd April 2020.
Nevada governor responds to Las Vegas mayor's remarks, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzuDi7UIVYg, 6 min. 38 secs, published by CNN on 23rd April 2020.
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak discusses COVID-19, reacts to Las Vegas Mayor Goodman | FULL INTERVIEW, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X4WACpi574, 10 min. 53 secs. published by Fox5 Las Vegas on 23rd April 2020.
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Good to see this. I think this was very much needed. We need to protect our health workers and also ensure that those health workers who become martyrs in this fight are provided decent burial or cremation.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2823786304504595?__tn__=-R
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We are in the same storm but not in the same boat!
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2823778444505381?__tn__=-R shares Singapore Matters post which starts with the following:
WE ARE NOT IN THE SAME BOAT
I heard that we are in the same boat.
But it's not like that.
We are in the same storm, but not in the same boat.
Your ship can be shipwrecked and mine might not be.
Or vice versa.
....
-----------------------------------------
Interview is of 3 days back but I think it is still valuable. It is in Telugu. A senior doctor, Prof. (Naveed ?) Ahmed (ENT specialist), who seems to be part of the medical team in Anantapur fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, including testing and treatment of patients, speaks well explaining the background of rise in cases in Anantapur district, and how the govt. is fighting the pandemic. He also answers questions about why some people are afraid to undergo testing.
Thank to ETV Andhra Pradesh for the report. As a resident of Anantapur district I convey my gratitude to Prof. (Naveed ?) Ahmed for his valuable comments and his valuable service to the community.
Anantapur ENT Medical College Professor Naveen (I think it is Naveed) Ahmed Interview | Over Spreading of Coronavirus, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy0Ir3qpigQ, around 5 mins.
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My view is that the leadership of the country has acted in sincerity, and they seem to be in tandem with medical experts on panels in govt. responsible for providing medical advice to the govt. and managing medical testing and treatment in this crisis. This is not to say that it is all perfect. No, India is still very much in crisis mode and the new confirmed cases continue to rise. But, it seems to me that, the govt. is doing what it reasonably can to prevent the spread.
As a resident and citizen of India, I believe that the govt. is handling the outbreak quite well - not perfectly - but quite well for the many challenges that India, a large (land area wise) country with a large population and a lot of poverty, has.
[Linked article: Over 93% trust Modi govt will handle Covid-19 crisis well: Survey, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/over-93-trust-modi-govt-will-handle-covid-19-crisis-well-survey/articleshow/75312862.cms ]
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Video of 2 days back but it came to my notice only today. It is in Telugu with the collector of Anantapur district and SP (top police officer) of the district conveying their views on the matter. Specifically the lockdown in the district was declared to be kept in place till 25th April at which time a review would be made of the situation to decide whether any loosening of the lockdown is appropriate or not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj6ARGJ78aQ, 5 mins.
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Update on the very disturbing media reports of "mob" resistance to Dr. Simon burial in Chennai. I got a private message from a person which led me to do some Internet search. Here is an article claiming that it is Christian sectarian issue (Protestant vs Catholic) that is involved in the matter - I don't know how true this report is.
[Linked article: Dr Simon denied Christian burial grounds due to inter-sect rivalry; Finally laid to rest in a Hindu burial ground in Chennai, https://www.organiser.org/Encyc/2020/4/22/Dr-Simon-denied-Christian-burial-grounds-due-to-inter-sect-rivalry.html ]
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The clip has other stuff too. But the antibody test part is interesting and informative.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes coronavirus antibody test, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9FtHFAjDFM, 10 min. 39 secs, published by CNN on 22nd April 2020.
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An Indian govt. research lab's new COVID-19 test ... Looks promising as it claims to be a much simpler test which can be done at local path labs with results being known in an hour or so ****if**** (a big if) the research lab low cost COVID-19 test gets commercialized well (scales up to market need, gets (Indian) regulatory approval etc.).
[Linked article: IGIB scientists develop low cost Covid-19 test; name it after detective character 'Feluda', https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/igib-scientists-develop-low-cost-covid-19-test-name-it-after-detective-character-feluda/articleshow/75293130.cms ]
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Both China and South Korea have tamed the Coronavirus pandemic disease even though some infections continue in those countries (but nowhere near the epidemic levels they had earlier). So India which is struggling to tame this Coronavirus pandemic disease, has to learn from China and South Korea's ways to tackle Coronavirus.
However I think South Korean testing kits may be more reliable than Chinese testing kits. There were reports in Indian media of some problems faced by some Indian states with Chinese rapid antibody testing (for coronavirus) kits imported from China. So it is great news that a South Korean firm is producing these testing kits in India!
[Linked article: South Korean firm starts production for rapid antibody testing kits in India, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/south-korean-firm-starts-production-for-rapid-antibody-testing-kits-in-india/articleshow/75285680.cms]
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Tragic beyond belief!
The clip is mostly in English but has some Indian language part in the middle. The last part of the clip is in English with the journalist on the ground reporting on the matter.
12-Year-Old Walks 3 Days Amid Lockdown, Dies Just An Hour From Home, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0osOKYHDbfs, 4 min. 32 secs, published by NDTV on 21st April 2020
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Facebook invests $5.7 billion in Jio, takes 10 per cent share: 5 key points to know, https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/features/story/facebook-invests-5-7-billion-in-jio-takes-10-percent-share-5-key-points-to-know-1669633-2020-04-22
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Hmm. They seem to have been tragic mistakes! Don't want to say more in this public post.
[Linked article: CDC’s failed coronavirus tests were tainted with coronavirus, feds confirm, https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/cdcs-failed-coronavirus-tests-were-tainted-with-coronavirus-feds-confirm/ ]
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Hmm. Times of India (ToI) published this (on 19th April 2020) - ToI is a leading Indian news organization. So I am treating it with some seriousness. It reports that the French virologist and medicine Nobel prize winner Luc Montagnier claimed that the COVID-19 related virus (SARS-CoV-2) was the result of an attempt to create a vaccine against the AIDS virus in a Chinese laboratory!
Montagnier said that an industrial accident had happened in a biolab in Wuhan, China!
Hmm again! This is food for thought given the stature of the person making the allegation/claim.
[Linked article: Coronavirus man-made in Wuhan lab: Nobel laureate, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/coronavirus-man-made-in-wuhan-lab-nobel-laureate/articleshow/75227989.cms ]
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She is being honoured with this vehicle parade in USA. [Mysore origin Indian-American doctor fighting COVID-19:] https://www.facebook.com/TimesofIndia/videos/223897062220900/?t=0
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Update: I got a private message from a person which led me to do some Internet search. Here is an article claiming that it is Christian sectarian issue (Protestant vs Catholic) that is involved in the matter - I don't know how true this report is. https://www.organiser.org/Encyc/2020/4/22/Dr-Simon-denied-Christian-burial-grounds-due-to-inter-sect-rivalry.html. end-Update.
I think it is the police authorities (in this case in Chennai, India) who should have provided adequate police protection for the burial. The Corona pandemic has made people very scared and that leads some people to behave in very aggressive ways when they feel that burial/cremation may infect them (whether that is true or not may not matter).
Chennai Doctor was denied dignity in death. His best friend buried him with his own hands, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF5jYD-SaYs, 5 min. 34 secs. published by MOJO STORY on 21st April 2020.
From the description of the youtube video: "An excerpt from a heart breaking interview with Dr Pradeep Kumar who buried his doctor friend, Dr Simon with his bare hands after a violent mob denied the Doctor the right to a burial. This moving account gives you a glimpse into the state of mind of the doctor community. "
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This is from a few days back (17th Apr. 2020). It discusses the tough trade-offs in USA between opening businesses, educational institutions etc. and keeping COVID-19 infections and fatalities low.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QNT9sSMbXw, 10 min. 25 secs, published by CNN.
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Hmm. The massive (negative) impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the industry in general can be seen in the price of crude oil! I don't think I have ever seen such a crash in crude oil prices.
Troubled global oil market tanks amid pandemic's drop in demand, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DPobOCYc-4, 4 min. 40 secs, published by PBS Newshour on 21st Apr. 2020.
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Good message from Kurnool MLA (in Hindi) encouraging those who visited a particular hospital there (in the recent past) to undergo COVID-19 testing. He says that he himself has undergone the test. He also talks about precautions that need to be taken to protect oneself from coronavirus. Note that Kurnool is an area in Andhra Pradesh state and unfortunately has many COVID-19 cases.
KURNOOL MLA HAFEEZ KHAN ABOUT #Covid19 I BAZM E AAINA, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oG1JpE5mds
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Horrific mob killing in a tribal area in Maharashtra. This TV report indicates that the tribals suspected the sadhus (Hindu holy men) and their vehicle driver, to be thieves, and so attacked and killed them. The Maharashtra govt. claims that all the attackers will be dealt with very strictly - I think many tribals involved in this ghastly mob lynching have been arrested.
The policemen were mute witnesses. Perhaps they feared that if they tried to save the holy men and their vehicle driver, the tribal mob would attack them!
Palghar Mob Lynching Horror: Sadhus Among Three Killed, Nearly 110 People Arrested, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIsLMx_K2bM, 15 mins 8 secs.
A text article on the matter: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/palghar-sadhu-mob-lynching-uddhav-thackeray-says-main-accused-in-jail-assured-amit-shah-he-would-loo-2214899
Some realities of India are very, very hard to digest!
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In Chennai, doctor’s burial marred by protests, attacks, https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/in-chennai-doctors-burial-marred-by-protests-attacks/article31386195.ece, 20th April 2020.
Hmm. Sad. Such is life!
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Tragic! May Allah shower His Grace on soul of Dr. Nizamuddin!
This virus does not differentiate between religions! India should fight it in a united way.
UP doctor involved in survey of Tablighi Jamat members succumbs to COVID-19, https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2020/apr/20/up-doctor-involved-in-survey-of-tablighi-jamat-members-succumbs-to-covid-19-2132793.html
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UK nursing home scenes in COVID-19 pandemic
The 'unimaginable horror' of coronavirus in nursing homes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBl2vDsPW3s, 3 min. 51 secs, published by Sky News on 16th Apr. 2020.
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Hmm. What a complicated state of affairs!
Linked article: Doctor Charged With Fraud After U.S. Says He Sold Treatment as ‘100 Percent’ Cure for Covid-19, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/us/coronavirus-treatment-pack-jennings-ryan-staley.html
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Coronavirus: Complete list of 170 COVID-19 hotspots in India | What are Red, Orange and Green zones, https://english.jagran.com/india/red-orange-and-green-zones-all-6-metro-cities-among-covid19-hotspots-full-list-of-170-districts-10010764, 17th April 2020.
The article states that Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan said: "Containment operation would be deemed over when there is no case reported in 28 days from an area after last case tests negative. Hotspots (designated red zones) will be assumed to be undertaking effective containment activities, if no case is reported in next 14 days (designated orange zones) will be deemed successful in containment, if no case is reported for 28 days (designated green zones)".
Anantapur district is listed as a red zone by the union government as per the article.
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A good COVID-19 cases tracker for India having statewise data (compiled from govt. sources, it says), and graphs: https://www.covid19india.org/
I have attached four screenshots I took of the website a few minutes ago.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2819244301625462
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Very interesting article about fascinating work done by a charitable biolab funded by Zuckerberg and his wife. The article has an interesting sting in its tail end.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2818966238319935 has shared post of Mark Zuckerberg with into and link to article.
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DIY FACE MASK from old clothes in 2 ways - Washable & Reusable face mask - No sewing machine (but hand sewing is required), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUasSmReIVo, around 9 mins.
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Is it safe to reopen (USA) states? Virus expert responds., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_E1HzTnJsA, 10 min. 24 secs.
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On the date the Bill Gates article mentioned below was published i.e. 28th Feb. 2020, as per https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html, the world COVID-19 confirmed positive cases was around 84,100.
Yesterday, 16th Apr. 2020, this figure has spiked to 2.2 million, which is around 26 times 84,100. The graph pic is attached to this post. The way the graph curve has gone up as compared to what it was before beginning of March, is scary! I guess it is clearly now a once-in-a-century pandemic.
Responding to Covid-19 — A Once-in-a-Century Pandemic, https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2003762, New England Journal of Medicine, by Bill Gates published on 28th Feb. 2020.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2818601848356374&set=a.1616532491896655&type=3
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Interesting view of India's rate of testing from Union minister Piyush Goyal.
Rather than looking at absolute number of tests per million of population, the statistic that is used is number of tests done vs. number of (confirmed) cases.
https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2818456151704277?__tn__=-R
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Good work by Puttaparthi assembly constituency MLA Sridhar Reddy garu to boost up spirits of persons in Kothacheruvu quarantine centre and the areas in Kothacheruvu that are under strict entry/exit control ('red zone'). The post says that he was directing officials to ensure that people in quarantine as well as 'red zone' should be taken care of well. I guess the pics are of Kothacheruvu area which he visited.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2818437191706173?__tn__=-R
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Very glad to know this. Thanks to South Korea for providing Andhra Pradesh these vital test kits. South Korea has done a great job in controlling COVID-19 pandemic in their country ... Results will be given in 10 minutes ... test kits will be used across all districts (reaching them in next 4 to 5 days).
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2818419005041325?__tn__=-R
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The term 'red zone' has become a little confusing now, as I think some districts in India have now been identified as 'red zone' districts. Earlier the term was used for smaller areas where COVID-19 cases had been reported. This video is of yesterday I think when the term was used for smaller areas (not district). This video in Telugu also gives us the views of the Special officer to combat COVID-19 in Anantapur district.
District Special Officer Vijay Anand Interview | Security Beefed up in Red Zones at Anantapur, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8IKSuLhcMo, 4 min. 30 secs.
He talks about red zone areas in Hindupur (town I think) and in Anantapur town. He does not mention any red zone areas elsewhere in Anantapur district.
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I think I had read about this doctor in the past (before novel coronavirus) for his work among the poor in Kurnool, a district in Andhra Pradesh. Sad news. His son is in charge of Kurnool COVID-19 ward/hospital. Unfortunately, Kurnool has many COVID-19 positive cases.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2817923478424211 shares post about "Doctor who charge two rupees for poor patients and Very popular physician from Kurnool, passed away after getting covid -19.."
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The ER doctor says, "If I were to die from COVID right now, my family would be stuck with $433,000 (in student debt)"!
This problem impacting some doctors & other medical staff on front line in fight against COVID-19 in USA, where their lives are at risk, just did not strike me!
Some of them are having to pay off student debt! My God! I can't handle this info. There is something profoundly unjust about an ER doctor who is putting his/her life on the line in this fight against COVID-19, having to worry about unpaid student debt being passed on to his/her family, if he/she dies. Perhaps, as a special case, if such a tragedy happens, the loan will be waived. But the ER doctor should not have such a concern in the first place, if he/she is risking his/her own life in fighting this COVID-19 pandemic.
The article states that the average debt of a graduating medical student is nearly $201,500 in USA, as per one source.
Student debt trap is something that I find ****profoundly**** disturbing.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2817865075096718 shares NBC News post.
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Great to hear a British chap who was in quarantine in Tirupati profusely praise the facilities and staff there. He was only in quarantine (I don't think he tested positive). He is now, or shortly will be, on the way back to London, using a flight organized by UK govt. The initial part of the video has him speaking in English. Then we have a lady speak in Telugu.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2817796525103573?__tn__=-R shares Arogya Andhra post.
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WHO Thanks India For Using Polio Surveillance Network In COVID-19 Fight, https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/coronavirus-pandemic-who-thanks-india-for-using-polio-surveillance-network-in-covid-19-fight-2212605
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Wonderful and happy news!
The first two COVID-19 positive confirmed patients in Anantapur district were discharged and either are on their way home, or at home by now. One is a lady from Hindupur and another is a boy from Lepakshi. The pics capture the happiness of the discharged former patients as well as the medical, other hospital staff and other people gathered there.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2817781975105028?__tn__=-R shares another post
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The staggering impact of COVID-19 pandemic on USA workers - 22 million Americans lose their jobs in around a month! That wipes out all new jobs created since 2008 Great Recession!
22 million Americans file for unemployment benefits in just 4 weeks, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW36va2hydo, 9 min. 5 secs, published by CNN on 16th Apr. 2020.
Ravi: Job losses/business closures in India would be similarly staggering for this lockdown period now, though I think it is difficult to get proper unemployment numbers in India due to the huge unorganized labour and even small business sector. Wonder how it will be as and when the lockdown gets loosened/lifted in India.
Another 5.2 million workers filed for their first week of unemployment benefits last week, according to the US Department of Labor, bringing the total number...
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ICMR responds to Rahul Gandhi's statement about low level of testing, and more (in Hindi), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptXbnNkW0U4, 11 min. 50 secs.
I hope to translate some key parts of the exchange to English, and update this post with that.
=====================
Update: This article, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/indias-covid-19-testing-ratio-not-low-icmr-after-rahul-criticism/articleshow/75185981.cms, captures the key words of Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar, Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at the ICMR, from the above video.
"In countries like Japan, one out of 11.7 tests turns out to be positive, which is among the highest in the world. Italy tests 6.7 persons for one positive test while the USA tests 5.3 persons and the United Kingdom 3.4." ..."Taking their population base into consideration, it is difficult to comment about our testing rate. In India, we are conducting 24 tests out of which one comes out to be positive. Also, we have huge population and not all people belong to vulnerable groups. Hence, can't say our testing ratio is low".
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"Lockdown Doesn't Defeat Coronavirus": Rahul Gandhi's Message To Centre, https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/rahul-gandhi-says-lockdown-doesnt-defeat-coronavirus-pauses-it-asks-government-to-test-aggressively-2212760
A small extract from the above article:
"In no way does a lockdown defeat the virus. It helps only to stop the virus for a short while. The only way to do this is to increase testing," the Congress MP said, addressing the media through a video app.
--- end extract ---
Ravi: I think lockdown surely slows the virus spread, even if lockdown alone does not eliminate it from the community. But I do agree with Congress Member of Parliament and former Congress president, Shri Rahul Gandhi, that India must ramp up testing. India's testing levels are way, way too low now.
The strategy that some top experts advise on loosening lockdown/stay-at-home restrictions and allowing people to go to work physically (as against online only), has high levels of testing as a very important component. My understanding of what they say is that as people start resuming physical interactions with others outside (on the roads, public transport, workplaces etc.), the infection cases could rise. Quick identification of new cases, followed by isolation and treatment along with contact-tracing to quickly identify potential spread by new cases, seems to be the vital tool to handle these new expected cases without them becoming a big outbreak. For that, easy and quick testing is vital.
USA seems to have ramped up on testing, after having struggled on that front in the initial days of the pandemic there. But India is still just way too, too low.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ shows USA tests per million of population as 9845, whereas India is at 199 per million of population! Now USA is a wealthy country and India has lots of poverty but still this level of difference in tests is too much. India's testing rates are one of the lowest in the whole world!
So I think Shri Rahul Gandhi, as one of the opposition leaders in the country (at union govt. level), has raised a pertinent point. I thank him for this service he is providing to the country.
Please note that I have a PUBLICLY POLITICALLY NEUTRAL role in these social media posts that I put up related to Indian political leaders which may include leaders in government currently and those not in government. I am an Indian citizen and resident of India. I do vote in Indian elections but I keep who I vote for as a private matter. I should also say that I am a beneficiary, a lover and an open supporter of democracy in India.
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'We're living in fear': why US nursing homes became incubators for the coronavirus, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/15/were-living-in-fear-why-us-nursing-homes-became-incubators-for-the-coronavirus, 15th April 2020.
A small extract from the article:
“Nursing staff are living in fear. Some of them are sick but they are pushing it because this is all that they have and they don’t have the means to (just) walk away. They’re providing for their families … they don’t have any other options,” she said.
--- end extract ---
The article also says or implies that the risk of contracting COVID-19 infection in care homes (in USA) is now high.
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After he was confirmed COVID positive, once he chose not to go into isolation in an isolation/quarantine facility somewhere else (like a hotel room), and chose to isolate at home, the risk of him transmitting the infection to others in the family was there. ... But still it is very sad to know that he, in all probability, passed it on to his wife. ... Prayers to God that both he and his wife quickly recover from this disease.
In India now, as I understand it, any positive confirmed case essentially gets isolated by the government, and moved away from his/her family (which has some downsides and which is being resisted by some) and comes under government medical care. It is a more community protection oriented system and less individual freedom system for COVID-19 positive confirmed persons, as compared to what seems to be the case in USA.
Chris Cuomo announces his wife, Cristina, diagnosed with coronavirus, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsH3Y93dzLA, 3 min. 28 secs, published by CNN on 15th April 2020.
The video has some frank comments from Chris Cuomo's brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York state (USA).
-----------------------
Update: I felt it appropriate to transcribe some comments of Gov. Andrew Cuomo in this video:
At around 0:15 he says: Well look, it is something we talked about right, when this first started. It's very hard for a person to quarantine in a home and other people not to get infected. That's what we talked about - people who quarantine in hotels - they quarantine in a hotel room. The food - for 14 days - the food that comes in, they don't even take the plates out for 14 days. I mean, you want to talk about intense quarantine, right.
But to do it in a home where a person (is) bringing you dishes, bringing you food, even if they are wearing a mask and gloves - you know that virus can live, on some surfaces, for up to 2 days. So in some ways, this was inevitable. Luckily it was Cristina (Chris Cuomo's wife), not one of the kids.
Now this is what families are dealing with, right. The point of you communicating this rather than taking just couple of weeks off, is you are communicating to Americans what this is like. ... This is what it's like! One person gets the virus. Other people in the home get the virus. You now have a mother and a father with the virus. You have three kids that you have to take care of. This gets very complicated very fast. So there is a reality to this.
...
You are going to go and (be) better soon, right, because you have to be getting to the tail end of this thing. So you will be up and you will be strong. And (as) for the kids .. when all is said and done, I don't think this is a bad experience for them to go through. You want to talk about growing up a little bit and seeing reality a little bit. (Name-snipped) will step up. So it's all going to be fine. I know it makes a bad situation worse. But it's all going to be fine at the end.
--- end transcript snippet ---
[I thank Gov. Andrew Cuomo and CNN, and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above transcript snippet from their youtube video on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever. Note that this post is aimed at helping to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.]
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https://www.facebook.com/adamsautismfamily/videos/1075372999528646/?t=0 "President George Bush addressing about the threat of a pandemic in 2005."
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What an emotionally charged and superbly written article by an Emergency Room (E.R.) doctor on the front lines in New York City fighting the coronavirus pandemic, about how the crisis unfolded in the hospitals she served in, covering the period from beginning of March 2020 to 5th April 2020!
I will surely re-read this article a few times. This is tremendous testimony about how the coronavirus pandemic put enormous stress on New York City hospitals in just around a month.
Before I share the link of the article, I would like to mention another thing. Yesterday I had a telephone conversation with my elder sister in Mumbai (as some readers may have read from my earlier posts, she is a retired medical doctor). She told me that her lady colleague and friend's son is an orthopaedic doctor in a New York City hospital and that the hospital is also handling COVID-19 cases now! Now I have interacted with this colleague of hers while we lived in Bandra (East) in Mumbai in the late 1970s at which time both of them were studying medicine/doing their internship. Later in the second half of the 1980s during one of my software assignment stints in the USA, I visited this colleague and her husband's home near Washington DC, USA - they had moved to USA and settled there. It is this couple's son, whom I have never met as far as I can recall, who now is a young orthopaedic doctor in a New York city hospital and is facing this COVID-19 crisis in a New York City hospital! Now he may not be the E.R. doctor at his hospital and so he may not have gone through the horrific level of trauma that the article author went through and wrote about. But he would surely have experienced some of it. So this article's account is now having a closer personal touch to me! New York city has lots of Indian-Americans and Indian origin persons, especially from India's big cities like Mumbai. As a former Mumbaikar who also has visited New York city a few times, I can relate to New York city far more than I can relate to Wuhan in China or Northern Italy which went through similar horrific trauma in this pandemic. I think this article is something that I will not forget for the rest of my life. Not only does it chronicle the devastation the pandemic did in New York city hospitals but it teaches what a pandemic can do, in our early 21st century times, to one of the topmost cities in the entire world.
I’m an E.R. Doctor in New York. None of Us Will Ever Be the Same. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/magazine/coronavirus-er-doctor-diary-new-york-city.html, By Helen Ouyang, 14th April 2020.
While the article has many, many noteworthy passages, I felt that I should share this small extract. ... they will realize soon that everyone has the virus ...
"When we hear that the Javits Center and the Navy hospital ship Comfort will care only for non-Covid patients, my colleagues and I find this laughable, because everyone has the virus. They’ll realize it soon enough, we say to one another. (A few days after it opens, the Javits temporary hospital changes its admission policy to take in Covid patients; the Comfort does so the following week.)"
I have given below the sub-headings in the article giving dates and COVID-19 case count in New York City.
[Dr. Ouyang is in Pakistan on March 1st.]
First Week of March
N.Y.C. Covid-19 cases, March 1: 1
[Dr. Ouyang is back in New York City in her job as Emergency Room doctor before March 8th.]
Second Week of March
N.Y.C. Covid-19 cases, March 8: 14
Third Week of March
N.Y.C. Covid-19 cases, March 15: 330
Fourth Week of March
N.Y.C. Covid-19 cases, March 22: 9,045
Fourth Week of March
N.Y.C. Covid-19 cases, March 24: 14,905
Fourth Week of March
N.Y.C. Covid-19 cases, March 26: 23,112
Fourth Week of March
N.Y.C. Covid-19 cases, March 28: 30,766
Last Days of March
N.Y.C. Covid-19 cases, March 30: 38,087
First Days of April
N.Y.C. Covid-19 cases, April 1: 47,440
Second Week of April
N.Y.C. Covid-19 cases, April 5: 67,552
[I thank nytimes.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above small extract(s) from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
....
A little while back today I tweeted a response on Dr. Ouyang's tweet on her article. I just saw that she liked my response! Here's what I wrote: "Tremendous testimony of how the coronavirus pandemic put enormous stress on New York City hospitals in just around a month. Thanks for this superb chronicling of the trauma - may help to better handle things in future not only in USA but elsewhere like in India where I live.", https://twitter.com/RaviSaiIyer/status/1250815508531695616
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A four day old (11th April) interview video of around 3 mins in Telugu. I am sharing this as the video has the top police officer (SP) for Anantapur district, explaining how the police is handling containment zones/areas in Anantapur district which have reported COVID-19 positive cases. The name of the SP (Superintendent of Police) is Mr. Satya Yesubabu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwniFZzKi14&feature=share
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https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2815809918635567 - Vegetables being sold in Kothacheruvu containment (red) zone under monitoring of police & others.
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My heart goes out to the migrant workers stuck in Mumbai. What a dilemma for the administration!
Linked article: Migrant workers come out on road in Mumbai's Bandra, say want to travel back home, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/migrant-workers-come-out-on-road-in-mumbai-say-want-to-travel-back-home/articleshow/75142710.cms
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As I had shared the interview (with Jake Tapper on CNN) for which Dr. Fauci made these clarifications, I felt it appropriate to share these clarifications. The issue was with a hypothetical question that was posed to him in the interview. In his clarifications, Dr. Fauci states clearly that US President Trump went with the health recommendations he & Dr. Birx made to him on multiple occasions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUFgxduAHaM, 5 min. 7 secs.
Ravi: Sad to see Dr. Fauci getting caught up in this politics stuff. I think US media should avoid using Dr. Fauci's words to launch political attacks on US president as then Dr. Fauci may not be able to do his vital job of informing and advising the American public on this coronavirus pandemic through his media interactions.
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Video is around 3 mins. Takes you straight inside the coronavirus war zone in Queens, New York City (hospital areas treating ill (some perhaps seriously ill) COVID-19 patients) with a doctor taking the reporter around and giving a commentary on what's going on.
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/846822865827746/?t=0
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In a McDonald's restaurant in China! Unbelievable! Yes, they have apologized. But .... That they thought they could do this in a McDonald's restaurant in China, just takes my breath away. [For readers who don't know, McDonald's at least started as a USA fast food chain; now I don't know whether it is a USA owned company or an international one with global shareholders.] Hmm. The article has a tweet video capturing the English notice in that McDonald's restaurant banning blacks and asking them to 'please understand the inconvenience caused' (context being health concerns in this coronavirus pandemic).
Linked article: 'Black people are not allowed': McDonald’s China apologizes for discrimination, https://www.inkstonenews.com/society/black-people-are-not-allowed-mcdonalds-china-apologizes-discrimination/article/3079643
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Key points in the small wiki page: 1918 flu pandemic in India, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic_in_India
* Referred to as Bombay Influenza or Bombay Fever in India, it was part of the 1918-20 influenza pandemic, and is estimated to have killed 12 to 17 million people in India, making it the highest mortalities country for the pandemic. 12 million was then about 5% of India's population.
* It broke out in Bombay in June 1918 believed to have been brought into the city by ships carrying (British Indian) troops back from World War I in Europe. It spread from Bombay to the rest of the country
* It came in three waves.
* Death rate peaked in Bombay (Mumbai now) in end Sept. 1918, in Madras (Chennai now) in middle of October and in Calcutta (Kolkata now) in middle of November.
* The sanitary commissioner's report in 1918 said that rivers in India were clogged up with bodies as there was a shortage of firewood for cremation. A Hindi poet wrote, "Ganga was swollen with dead bodies."
* Mahatma Gandhi was also infected by this flu.
* Failed monsoon worsened the situation.
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102 years old Bombay Fever pandemic, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB-IoAkDXFQm, 1 min. 17 secs. published on 17th March 2020.
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When the Spanish Flu killed 14 million in British India a century ago, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3hkwJaVlto, 1 min. 28 secs. published on 8th Mar. 2020 by Times of India.
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Mass graves, scattered bones, Goa’s traumatic memories of the 1918 Spanish flu, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/mass-graves-scattered-bones-goas-traumatic-memories-of-the-1918-spanish-flu/articleshow/75113572.cms
------------------How a Premier U.S. Drug Company Became a Virus ‘Super Spreader’, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/coronavirus-biogen-boston-superspreader.html
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Such pics and drone videos of miles long cars line-up for food distributed by food banks in USA (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeRfHJQGjNA ), are just astonishing for me. It will take me some time to come to terms with this.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2814491338767425 shares another post.
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Great to see UK PM Johnson back in action. He speaks very movingly of the vital medical care he got in hospital. He says that there was a period when it could have gone either way, and that the dedication of the medical staff (he mentions 2 nurses in particular) saw him through.
One did suspect that PM Johnson could have been critical even though the reports did not say so. But it is very sobering to hear from PM Johnson himself that it could have gone either way and that the NHS saved his life! I mean, PM Johnson's speeches a few months ago in UK parliament showed a man in robust health. That even such a robustly healthy person could be made so ill by this coronavirus just shows how dangerous it can be.
Prayers for PM Johnson to recover fully (one can make out that he is getting a little breathless as he speaks).
https://www.facebook.com/10downingstreet/videos/287309838926700/?t=0
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The title of the short interaction is misleading. It has interesting questions and answers like when to re-open parts of the country, risk of rebound etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k73jqaZ2_w, 10 min. 12 secs, published on 12th April 2020 by CNN.
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https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2813661652183727?__tn__=-R shares Tata Steel post about "To enable success of the Nation’s war against #COVID19, three dedicated COVID-19 hospitals, with a total of 400 beds, have today been operationalised in Joda, Ganjam and Kalinganagar."
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Wonderful to know that Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust donated N95 masks and other PPE were given to Anantapur Govt. Gen. Hospital medical and other staff by District Collector's office
Given below is an extract from "PPEs, masks distributed to GGH doctors, staff", https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/ppes-masks-distributed-to-ggh-doctors-staff/article31320876.ece, 12th April 2020.
Doctors, house surgeons and staff nurses along with other paramedical personnel, who had expressed concern over lack of personal protection equipment and N-95 masks, were handed over those materials by District Collector Gandham Chandrudu and Assistant Collector M. Jahnavi at the Government General Hospital here on Saturday.
All junior doctors and house surgeons resumed duties on Saturday. The protection equipemt (equipment) was handed over by the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust to the District Collector on Friday. Mr. Chandrudu expressed gratitude at the gesture of the trust in supplying the materials worth Rs. 1.80 crore. “This will give immense boost to the confidence of personnel working in the care of COVID-19 patients,” the Collector added.
--- end extract from The Hindu article ---
Ravi: It is wonderful to know that the District Collector Shri Gandham Chandrudu and Asst. Collector M. Jahnavi used equipment donated by Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust for the vital needs of medical and other staff at the main COVID-19 isolation and treatment hospital - Government General Hospital, Anantapur - for whole of Anantapur district (which includes Puttaparthi).
Thanks to the District Collector & his office for good utilization of vital personal protection equipment donated by Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust to combat novel coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic in Anantapur district.
The article also mentions that RDT trust's (a Christian mission well known in Anantapur district) hospital in Bathalapalli is treating COVID-19 patients. This article, https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/covid-19-tests-at-rdt-hospital-from-today/article31320878.ece, reports that the District Collector announced that COVID-19 testing facility has been started in the same Bathalapalli hospital.
=========
Update: Saw another version of the article with a pic of the PPE being distributed by District Collector and Asst. Collector to Anantapur Govt. Gen. Hospital staff. I have attached the pic to this post. The related article link is: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/ppes-masks-distributed-to-ggh-doctors-staff/article31319649.ece .
[I thank thehindu.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above small extract and a pic from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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Video is 6 min. 17 secs. It shows us how NYC hospitals are facing the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
https://www.facebook.com/nytopinion/videos/228557311560514/?t=0
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What I admire about the USA is that such whistle-blowing articles get written and published. The unpleasant truth gets out. And while what happened was bad, it coming out is good as recurrence of such things can be avoided or at least reduced.
I should also say that I would not be surprised if some of the issues mentioned in this WaPo article in the context of a Pennsylvania hospital, are also happening in some hospitals in India that are handling COVID-19 cases. However, it will be hard to find published articles on such matters in India.
I think it is such truth coming out in the USA that will help USA beat this pandemic and be much better prepared for any future wave of this pandemic.
Anguished nurses say Pennsylvania hospital risked infecting cancer patients, babies and staff with covid-19, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/11/amid-chaos-anguished-nurses-say-pennsylvania-hospital-risked-infecting-cancer-patients-babies-staff/ , 11th April 2020.
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https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2813189308897628 shares a post on "When camera matters more than social service" ... "Just for laughs".
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Very sad statistics but I think it should be known so that the fight against coronavirus pandemic is based on reality on the ground
The United States is now reporting more coronavirus deaths than any other country, https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/11/health/us-coronavirus-updates-saturday/index.html
USA crossed Italy in deaths. As of now John Hopkins University, https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html, reports 20,071 deaths for USA and 19,468 deaths for Italy (for COVID-19 with some other additional causes at least in some cases).
So now USA has the sad statistics of leading in coronavirus reported cases (519,453 as per JHU now) as well as in deaths.
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Kothacheruvu containment zone being inspected by Anantapur district SP (top police officer for district) and Dharmavaram DSP (deputy to top police officer).
Thanks to these police officers for their work to protect society. Prayers to God for their well being.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2813004782249414 shares another post
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Hydroxychloroquine the Answer to COVID-19? Ex-IISc Director & Malaria Expert Answers, https://www.thebetterindia.com/223475/coronavirus-covid19-hydroxychloroquine-malaria-trump-modi-india-iisc-expert-nor41/
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Puttaparthi MLA Sridhar Reddy garu giving instructions to town, police and sanitation staff in Kothacheruvu today (it seems; the post has been put up today), after the corona positive case was confirmed in Kothacheruvu in previous day(s).
My prayers to God for well being of all staff in Kothacheruvu and Puttaparthi town as well as Puttaparthi MLA Sridhar Reddy garu, for the work they are doing to protect residents of Kothacheruvu and Puttaparthi.
As per latest update by Arogya Andhra around an hour or two ago, there is no new positive case in Anantapur (it remains at 15 cases): https://www.facebook.com/ArogyaAndhra/posts/744945382708782 .
I also felt it appropriate to share some info. I got from a reliable source. There has been only one COVID-19 positive case in Kothacheruvu and that person was reported to be alive (in hospital) and talking on phone to relatives as per information received a few hours ago today from a source who spoke to somebody in Kothacheruvu. Contrary information being circulated reportedly on Whatsapp and other platforms (including a comment by somebody on one of my Facebook posts which comment has since been deleted) seems to be ****WRONG INFORMATION*****.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2812950762254816?__tn__=-R shares another post.
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Mumbai crosses 1000 COVID-19 cases with 132 deaths with some of these deaths being co-morbid cases where patients had other serious health issues besides COVID-19
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/city-breaches-1000-mark-death-toll-touches-64/article31313516.ece
The city government authorities (municipal corporation) are saying that the numbers are high due to higher level of coronavirus testing in Mumbai (India's testing rates are one of the lowest in the world). The article reports that 16,000 tests have been conducted in Mumbai.
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Nice to see Magic Johnson who I first saw as an awesome basketball superstar on TV in the second half of 1980s in the USA, now being an African-American community leader trying to educate African-Americans and others, about the fight against coronavirus/COVID-19, and the fight against misinformation that coronavirus does not affect African-Americans.
Johnson makes a lot of sense - straight and sensible talk. A champ!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUDgbcjmeTY, 10 min. 31 secs.
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This video is a day old and so the info. is not updated. At that time (I think it was day before yesterday), Anantapur district suffered a surge of 7 cases, pushing up the number from 6 to 13. [Now it is 15 as per https://twitter.com/ArogyaAndhra/status/1248475960619360256 .]
At that time, a patient who was an old COPD patient had turned worse, admitted to ICU and tested for COVID-19 which came out positive. The issue was that medical staff had earlier admitted the patient to a normal (chest, I think) ward as he was an old patient - they did not suspect COVID-19 in his case. That left the staff and others vulnerable and eventually two nurses, and two doctors (one being an internee) tested COVID-19 positive, along with 3 other new cases.
I am putting up this video as this shows us the key medical official in the front line in the fight against COVID-19 in Anantapur district (wherein Puttaparthi lies). He is Dr. Anil Kumar and I think his designation is District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO). As I understand it, he is the top medical official in charge of Anantapur district in this fight against novel coronavirus/COVID-19.
The interview is in Telugu. Dr. Anil Kumar does break into English one or two times very briefly.
My prayers to God for giving strength and courage to Dr. Anil Kumar and all medical staff and non-medical staff in Anantapur Government General hospital fighting COVID-19 pandemic. Note that Anantapur city is the district Headquarters for Anantapur district - same name for HQ city and district.
Interview with DMHO Anil Kumar over Covid 19 positive cases at Anantapur, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmzNvR1DO5s, 7 min. 34 secs., published by ETV Andhra Pradesh.
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After some debate in my mind about whether I should share this on Facebook, I decided it is the right thing to do. Accurate information is the way we can beat this invisible-to-naked-eye coronavirus enemy.
Kothacheruvu near Puttaparthi has reported its first COVID-19 positive case. I think the person would have been admitted to isolation/treatment ward in Anantapur. I got some info. (don't know how true but must be true as it is a logical thing) that the family of the patient has been quarantined.
A little while back (within this hour if I got that right), I heard announcements being made in Telugu by a vehicle that had come near my apartment society buildings (in outside ashram Puttaparthi) but I could not follow that Telugu announcement well. I think they would have been mentioning this news and then announcing that all persons in Puttaparthi should strictly follow stay-at-home orders (and if they go out for essential work, cover their faces).
The associated video (54 seconds) shows the sanitization work being done in Kothacheruvu in the light of this news.
Sanitation activities at KothaCheruvu amid Corona positive case, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COhIELEAdTM
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This perhaps is the biggest challenge for the city of Mumbai in this coronavirus pandemic, and perhaps for the state of Maharashtra. How to contain the spread in Dharavi which reportedly has already seen over 20 COVID-19 positive cases (and 3 deaths).
The linked video is 1 min. 39 secs. The TV host incorrectly says that millions live in Dharavi. Later in the same video, the correspondent on the ground gives a more reasonable figure of 8 lakhs (eight hundred thousand). From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharavi, "Dharavi is a locality in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, considered to be one of the world's largest slums.[1][2] Dharavi has an area of just over 2.1 square kilometres (0.81 sq mi; 520 acres)[3] and a population of about 700,000. With a population density of over 277,136/km2 (717,780/sq mi), Dharavi is one of the most densely populated areas in the world."
[Wiki References: 1. "Dharavi in Mumbai is no longer Asia's largest slum". Times of India. 2011. Archived from the original on 11 November 2018. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
2. Arora, Payal (2019). The Next Billion Users: Digital Life Beyond the West. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 75. ISBN 9780674983786. OCLC 1057240289.
3. Gayatri Ramanathan (6 July 2007). "Shanty-towns emerge targets for development". Livemint. Archived from the original on 19 January 2017. Retrieved 27 December 2016.]
During my degree college years in Ruia college in nearby Matunga, in the early 1980s, I have visited Dharavi slum for some social work. I think it was as part of the college National Service Scheme associated social work. I also recall that my aunt who lived in Sion and who I would frequently visit during my college years receiving her and uncle's love and food, had a maidservant who lived in Dharavi area. I can recall the maid servant's face very well now - she was very kind and considerate. Dharavi had a lot of Tamil speaking people then.
It was quite congested and quite unsanitary then in the early 1980s.
My prayers for well being of the lakhs (hundreds of thousands) of people in Dharavi, and for success of Mumbai city local government and Maharashtra state government's efforts in combating the spread of coronavirus in Dharavi.
Linked article: Covid-19 in Mumbai: Sanitation tunnels being built in Dharavi, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/city/mumbai/covid-19-in-mumbai-sanitation-tunnels-being-built-in-dharavi/videoshow/75081685.cms
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This tweet has a small video showing how to make a mask using a handkerchief and two rubber bands. Simple! https://twitter.com/ArogyaAndhra/status/1248506601637433344
I wonder how stable such a mask would be. Would the cloth slip off the rubber band?
And then rubber band over the ear with the rubber directly touching the skin! Is that good?
==================
Update: Saw a similar video on CNN now: Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows how to make your own mask at home, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd54zrv8nSg, 3 min. 45 secs, published by CNN today (10 Apr. 2020).
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The power of mother's love!
Telangana Woman Rides 1,400 km On Scooty To Bring Back Son Stranded In Andhra Pradesh, https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/telangana-woman-rides-1-400-km-on-scooty-to-bring-back-son-stranded-in-andhra-pradesh-2209248, 10th April 2020.
Razia Begum (48) drove on the scooty, along with local police permission (document, I guess), from Nizamabad (around 200 kms from Hyderabad) in Telangana to Nellore in Andhra Pradesh and back, over 3 days. She packed (and ate, I guess) "rotis" for her journey! She is a headmistress at a govt. school while her son Nizamuddin (19) is a student who has finished intermediate and aspires to be a doctor.
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Good to see this tweet from Prime Minister of Israel, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, informing us that India has shipped chloroquine to Israel (and other medicines in a 5 tonne cargo as per https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/coronavirus-israel-pm-netanyahu-thanks-india-for-delivering-hydroxychloroquine/article31305220.ece).
"Thank you, my dear friend @narendramodi, Prime Minister of India, for sending Chloroquine to Israel.
All the citizens of Israel thank you! [Flag of Israel][Flag of India]", https://twitter.com/IsraeliPM/status/1248319047785119750, 10th April 2020.
The world should fight this war against coronavirus together and win together.
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So sad to know this. I think Queens, New York City has a lot of Indian origin Americans/Indians. I have visited it a few times in the 1980s.
‘A Tragedy Is Unfolding’: Inside New York’s Virus Epicenter; In a city ravaged by an epidemic, few places have been as hard hit as central Queens., https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/nyregion/coronavirus-queens-corona-jackson-heights-elmhurst.html, 9th April 2020.
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Interesting article sharing quotes of two Indians who chose to stay in Wuhan (at least partly to protect their parents and other relatives), went through the over 70 day strict lockdown in Wuhan, and have remained uninfected by COVID-19.
Indians in Wuhan say strict lockdown, social distancing only ways to contain COVID-19, https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/india/indians-in-wuhan-say-strict-lockdown-social-distancing-only-ways-to-contain-covid-19-5123991.html, 8th Apr. 2020.
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Sounds very promising. The test kit reportedly gives results in 55 minutes and can be used for 20 tests. Each test kit costs Andhra Pradesh govt. Rs.1200. Now it is manufacturing 2000 kits a day and has plans to scale it up to 25,000 kits a day once it gets some "laser-welding" equipment.
Andhra Govt Rolls Out COVID-19 Test Kits, to Expand to Ventilators, https://www.thequint.com/coronavirus/andhra-govt-rolls-out-covid-19-test-kits-to-expand-to-ventilators
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After US President Donald Trump, Brazilian President Bolsonaro thanks PM Narendra Modi, https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/after-us-president-donald-trump-brazilian-president-bolsonaro-thanks-pm-narendra-modi/575775, 9th Apr. 2020.
Brazil President Jair Bolsanaro is quoted by the article as saying, "We have more good news. As an outcome of my direct conversation with Prime Minister of India, we will receive, by Saturday, raw materials to continue our production of Hydroxychloroquine so that we can treat patients of COVID-19 as well as of Lupus, Malaria, and Arthritis. I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the people of India for such timely help to the people of Brazil".
Good to see this. May the whole world be together and win together in this fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
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Good to see this public response of (Indian) PM Modi to USA President Trump
"Fully agree with you President @realDonaldTrump. Times like these bring friends closer. The India-US partnership is stronger than ever.
India shall do everything possible to help humanity's fight against COVID-19.
We shall win this together.", https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1248110109487591424, around 2 hours back.
Ravi: As a resident and citizen of India who is fully supportive of India having close ties with USA, I think this is how public statements should be exchanged on sensitive matters by top leaders of India and USA. Any retaliation stuff should be said in ***private***.
Good to see PM Modi act as a statesman and not retaliate against retaliation word used by President Trump.
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Sharing this sad news as I think knowing such truth will make us be suitably cautious in these challenging times.
Ten Indian-origin Americans or Indians from New York & New Jersey have died in this COVID-19 pandemic as per this report: 11 Coronavirus Infected Indians Die In US, 16 More Test Positive, https://www.ndtv.com/indians-abroad/11-coronavirus-infected-indians-die-in-us-16-more-test-positive-2208582, 9th April 2020.
Four of them were taxi drivers in New York City. Yesterday I read a report about one Indian-American journalist who died of COVID-19 in New York.
The article states: "Because of the strict travel restrictions and regulations to prevent the spread of the deadly virus, local city officials have been performing the last rites of the deceased and in many cases are not allowing even their immediate family members to attend their cremations, officials said."
Hmm. May God protect us all in this horrible pandemic, and if we need to continue to face such horrible trauma in coming days, may God give us the strength and courage to face this horrible trauma.
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The US president Mr. Trump turns on his charm for Indian PM and Indian people. "Extraordinary times require even closer cooperation between friends. Thank you India and the Indian people for the decision on HCQ. Will not be forgotten! Thank you Prime Minister @NarendraModi for your strong leadership in helping not just India, but humanity, in this fight!", https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1247950299408498693, less than an hour ago.
These nice words drown out the unpleasantness about "retaliation". Mr. Trump surely could have avoided saying that in public. In private, in diplomacy between countries, strong words do get exchanged at times. That's part of the game. But not in public. Smart watchers can figure out that harsh words may have got exchanged in private but it cannot be confirmed at least during the time that the conversation is sensitive.
Anyway, I am glad that this is working out for India and countries that India exports drugs (like Hydroxychloroquine) to, like USA.
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I am not saying that it works. Just sharing an article which claims an L.A. doctor has used it and seen that it works for very ill COVID-19 patients.
LA Doctor: COVID-19 Patients Go From ‘Very Ill’ To ‘Symptom-Free’ In 8 To 12 Hours With Hydroxychloroquine & Zinc, https://www.collective-evolution.com/2020/04/06/la-doctor-covid-19-patients-go-from-very-ill-to-symptom-free-in-8-to-12-hours-with-hydroxychloroquine-zinc/
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Don't know who this Sheikh is but he seems to be from Saudi Arabia. He speaks in English explaining how it is important for Muslims in countries with lockdown to do their Friday prayers at home, and how that is being done in Saudi Arabia now with he himself offering Friday prayers at home.
Video is around 3 min. 30 secs.
https://www.facebook.com/rajendra.pandey.165/videos/2962382127138786/?t=0
------------------------------
It seems to have been just a media sensationalism issue with some Indian political leaders also jumping in.
I think President Trump unnecessarily used the word 'retaliation' ... But perhaps as he is under huge pressure in the USA now due to USA being number 1 in cases, and number 3 in deaths in the COVID-19 pandemic, he was not able to be diplomatic in this public response to a journalist. ... The important thing is that India is doing its bit by exporting drugs to other countries as its production capacity, as of now at least, seems to allow it to meet both the export orders and domestic demand.
Export of anti-malaria drug: 'Talks of Trump threat baseless', https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/did-india-fold-before-a-trump-threat-of-retaliation-new-delhi-says-no/articleshow/75033627.cms
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Good to see such positive news from Kerala, India. The husband, Thomas, is 93, while his wife, Mariamma, is 88! They seem to have got infected by their son and family who visited them from Italy on 29th Feb. A few days later, first the son and family tested positive for COVID-19, and later this elderly couple tested positive.
The couple got discharged on 3rd April. Great to know about this 93 year old & 88 year old COVID-19 survivors in Kerala, India.
India’s oldest couple to beat Covid-19 are home for Easter, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/for-them-life-after-covid-19-begins-with-tapioca-and-fish-curry/articleshow/74993685.cms
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I think this is a good development in Kerala, India in the fight against coronavirus though I don't know how well the swab sample is taken. The video seems to show the technician taking a throat sample, whereas South Korea where I think such kiosks were first used, had swab samples from deep inside the nostril. The swab sample being good is vital I think as otherwise a negative test result may be a false result as enough testing material may not have been there on the swab.
Covid-19: Kerala sets up mobile walk-in kiosks for collecting samples, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmLaEyw2wIo, 1 min. 30 secs, published by The Times of India today (7th April 2020).
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Chris Cuomo's lungs' X-Ray show that a little of the virus has got into his lungs! It is not that serious as of now. ... The interesting point Chris Cuomo mentions is that he is fighting to get the virus out of his lungs and he does that, at least partly, by doing breathing exercises (but not 'real' exercise which involves high heart-rate).
I don't know how right Cuomo is on this but I felt it appropriate to share, along with cautioning readers that this is Cuomo's opinion as a patient of COVID-19, and not a medical opinion. At the end of the clip, Chris Cuomo says, "I believe in it as a discipline. That if you want this out of your lungs you (are going to have) to keep it out of your lungs. If you just lay on your ass you are going to get it. I believe that - the cases I have been hearing - the longer people lay down, Sanjay, the more trouble they have."
Chris Cuomo shares chest X-rays after coronavirus diagnosis, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTL8tnKlHCY, around 10 mins. published by CNN on 7th April 2020.
My prayers to God for well being and cure of Chris Cuomo from COVID-19.
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I think that's good. The article states that India got new stock of 150 million tonnes of APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) from China. So it seems that now India will be able to produce enough of various drugs to meet India's export commitments (to USA, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, UK, Israel ...) as well as meet domestic demand.
I think India should have a balance between honouring international commitments as a global pharma producer (exporter) and meeting domestic requirements, during this challenging coronavirus pandemic crisis.
India partially opens exports of key drugs, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/centre-partially-lifts-ban-on-export-of-hydroxychloroquine-and-paracetamol/articleshow/75015760.cms
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Hmm. Very interesting though heated discussion between CNN host John Berman and White House trade advisor Peter Navarro. Perhaps the discussion in the White House task force where Navarro seems to have clashed with Dr. Anthony Fauci, was more heated.
For patients who are seriously ill with COVID-19, these are life-and-death decisions for patient & doctor together. To take Hydroxychloroquine or not?
Peter Navarro does get his points across even in the face of aggressive questioning by John Berman. Yes, Berman's questioning does blunt some of the points made by Navarro but still I think Navarro does a decent job of explaining why Hydroxychloroquine is now available for New York City doctors to prescribe for patients who are seriously ill with COVID-19, after discussion with the patients and excluding cases where the side-effects of it would be dangerous for the patient (e.g. patients with heart disease could have bad problems if they took Hydroxychloroquine).
This is an extraordinary level of aggressive (TV) reporting on the issue in the USA. And that's really great about USA and its democracy with a robust and independent media acting as one of the pillars of that democracy.
Berman to Navarro: Why are you qualified to weigh in on coronavirus treatments?, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_waeIUyZGKA, around 11 mins, published by CNN on 6th April 2020.
...
In response to a comment, I wrote:
Well, I do accept Navarro's point about 2nd opinion. Dr. Fauci is a very knowledgeable man. But Navarro mentioned other doctors in the USA (in New York City if I got that right), who seem to be supportive of his view of the matter, but who are not on TV (Navarro requested Berman to invite the doctor(s) he mentioned on his show). ... Similarly, I think such doctors are not on the White House Task Force. ... Science is great with Dr. Fauci being a standard bearer for it now, in this context. But science today is such that it views Homeopathy, Ayurveda and other traditional forms of medicine as unproven, if not fake! Some hard science advocates advise against taking Homeopathy, Ayurveda and other traditional medical stream medicines as they are not proven! I am NOT willing to go that far. I exercise my ***freedom*** as an individual to use Homeopathy and Ayurveda based on my positive experience of them in handling some health issues I have or had in the past.
I think the Hydroxychloroquine issue, though in the realm of Allopathy and so squarely in Dr. Fauci's field, has this ***freedom*** angle to it. People are dying of COVID-19 in New York City (where Berman lives). If I had a close friend or relative who is seriously ill with COVID-19 in New York City, I would fully support the ***freedom*** of that person to discuss the Hydroxychloroquine matter with his doctor and use it as an experimental drug, knowing that science has not validated it fully yet.
And I think this possibility of using Hydroxychloroquine as an experimental drug in New York City, has been made possible by Trump administration. Dr. Fauci is the advisor. The President of the USA is the duly elected leader of the country and it is finally his decision. Looks like here Mr. Trump has chosen to not follow Dr. Fauci's advise and I think Mr. Trump has done the right thing. Note that the FDA clearly states that the drug is NOT approved as of now for treating COVID-19. So it is clear that it is an experimental drug that can be used in cases of serious COVID-19 illness where a person may die. ... Note that I saw a video a few days back of a lady in Connecticut if I recall correctly, who while being quite seriously ill in hospital with COVID-19 took Hydroxychloroquine and she credits her recovery to that medicine. If you want I can dig up that video and share it with you. ... I think Doctors' views must be given value, like Dr. Fauci's views must be given value, but the final decision in such life-and-death situations must be that of the patient (or his/her close kin) in consultation with their doctor. In other words, Dr. Fauci's views should not ****prevent**** patients in USA from having the option of taking Hydroxychloroquine in such serious situations.
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6/4 is 6th April and so they seem to be today's pics.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2808396846043541 shares post with Puttaparthi pics.
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Nice one. Good to see positive spirit in Dombivli (city near Mumbai). I lived in Dombivli for most, but not all, of the time in the period 1980 to 2002. Dombivli does have some Covid-19 cases. So it is important to be cautious while having positive spirit of optimism and hope.
https://www.facebook.com/mesaorabh/videos/10216854421181391/?t=0
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Besides the lockdown, increasing access to affordable testing is key to beating/managing this coronavirus pandemic not only in wealthy countries like USA, but also in developing countries like India.
Pink Tests Positive for Coronavirus, Slams U.S. Government's Limited Testing: "It Is an Absolute Travesty", https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/pink-tests-positive-coronavirus-slams-us-governments-limited-testing-it-is-an-absolute-travesty-1288554
...
In response to a comment, I wrote (slightly edited):
Noted your view. Thanks. But, as of now at least, I will go by the views of Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins both of whom are key players in the fight against novel coronavirus in the USA, and whose views I respect given their track-record of decades in fighting against disease and in saying the truth as they see it.
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How NIH chief Francis Collins is trying to get people of faith to wake up to coronavirus realities, https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2020/04/03/francis-collins-interview-coronavirus-churches/ , 3rd April 2020
As director of National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA, Francis Collins is one of the top science leaders in USA in the fight against novel coronavirus/COVID-19. As far as I know, he is not on the White House task force and so is not seen as a public face in this fight. But as NIH director (Dr. Anthony Fauci works for NIH as the agency of which he is a director comes under NIH, if I am not mistaken), Dr. Collins surely is a big voice behind the scenes in this fight.
Collins also is a devout Christian and has written and publicly spoken about his faith, and how his faith and science go together.
In this very interesting interview, Collins is asked about how (Christian) faith leaders in USA should view and participate in this fight against COVID-19. He is also asked about his own faith in these challenging times.
He says that he finds himself "more engaged in prayer than usual", and that he asks "God for help for all those who are suffering and grieving".
Regarding the challenges faced now (by the USA, but applies to many other countries too I think), he says, "We all have to be strong and courageous". In this context, he says he is fond of Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." He says it encourages him and says that faith leaders should encourage others with such "exaltation".
May God continue to shower His Grace on Dr. Francis Collins and keep giving him courage and strength in his leadership role in USA's (and to some extent, the entire world's) fight against novel coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic.
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Detroit (Michigan, USA) bus driver who sadly died of COVID-19 had complained about a woman openly coughing a few times in his bus (on 21st March), 11 days before his death
Had seen a video report about this a day or two ago. Here's one such report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF2vUoH2u6k, 6 min. 47 secs., published by CNN on 3rd April 2020.
It is very sad. I decided to look around for the actual video the driver, Mr. Jason Hargrove, had put up on Facebook live. Now it is not sure whether he contracted COVID-19 from the lady. He fell sick 4 days later and died on or around 1st April 2020.
But the video clearly shows that Hargrove was seriously concerned that he (and others in the bus) may have caught the virus from the lady who perhaps was infected with coronavirus. Hargrove seems to speak very frankly and it is very sad and very touching to see how worried and how angry he was, that he (and others) in the bus were put at risk (he said he felt violated) by this lady who carelessly coughed 5 times openly without covering her mouth.
I think this is real-life testimony of the dangers faced by people on the front-lines in this fight against COVID-19. The language is strong with some swear words (so folks who prefer not to hear such stuff should not see the video; the above CNN video blips out the swear words and has only parts of his video).
Here's Mr. Hargrove's Facebook live video of 21st March, https://www.facebook.com/Dj.Infiniti/videos/10222496193013898/, 8 min 29 secs.
May God shower Grace on the soul of Mr. Hargrove and give strength and courage to his family & friends to bear this loss.
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Sharing this so that the truth about negative impact of large religious gathering while coronavirus pandemic is going on, is better known and so avoided in India in coming days till this coronavirus pandemic is defeated or very significantly controlled.
Rate of doubling of COVID-19 cases is 4.1 days (in India); without Jamaat incident it would have been 7.4, says government, https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/rate-of-doubling-of-covid-19-cases-is-41-days-without-jamaat-incident-it-would-have-been-74-says-government/article31262700.ece, 5th April 2020.
Senior official of Indian union government Health Ministry, Shri Lav Agarwal is quoted by the article as saying, "If the Tablighi Jamaat incident had not taken place and we compare the rate of doubling — that is in how many days the cases have doubled, we will see that currently it is 4.1 days (including Jamaat cases) and if the incident had not taken place and additional cases had not come then the doubling rate would have been 7.4 days."
I think the rate of doubling of confirmed cases is a key and easy to understand measure of the severity of the pandemic. Doubling in 3 to 4 days is very worrying, as happened in USA.
India's rate has spiked up with the Tablighi Jamaat cases - that is the plain and simple truth. Hopefully, this spiked up rate will come down in the next few days to doubling in 7 to 8 days as it was earlier, (and later hopefully it will become even lesser). I have created an Excel sheet with some of this data as reported by John Hopkins University for USA, UK, India and the World at large, and am keeping an eye on the rate (as a multiplier NOT percentage) at which the cases increase every 3 days. I have attached a cropped screenshot of relevant data. 'Mlt - 3 D' column gives the multiple(ier) of the figure 3 days back to get to current row's figure (e.g. on 21st March India's figure was 330 cases. Multiplying this by 1.624242424 gives the figure for 24th March of 536 cases.) A multiplier of 2.0 means it is double of what it was 3 days ago (for USA, 24th March figure of 53700 is 2.105882353 times 21st March figure of 25500).
I would like to say that the above info. about Tablighi Jamaat gathering should not be misused. South Korea had a religious gathering of a particular Christian sect which caused a huge number of infected persons there. So these things are happening across religious groups. No particular religion should be viewed negatively based on actions of a few of that religion associated with some group(s).
Hindus, Muslims, Christians and others in India should fight together against this invisible-to-naked-eye novel coronavirus enemy, and defeat it. May God give us all the strength and courage to fight and win this battle.
Ishwar Maalik! Allah Maalik! Yesu Maalik! Sabka Maalik Ek!
[Ishwar is the Lord! Allah is the Lord! Yesu (Jesus) is the Lord! The Lord of all is one!]
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6th April 2020: Now pic has final JHU data for 5th April.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2808190982730794&set=a.1616532491896655&type=3&theater
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Reading the article was very instructive about how the outbreak was beaten (very, very few cases) by these US army bases in South Korea and Italy.
'Protective bubbles': How two Army generals stopped the spread of coronavirus among their soldiers, https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/04/03/protective-bubbles-how-two-army-generals-stopped-the-spread-of-coronavirus-among-their-soldiers/23969079/
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As a resident and citizen of India, I support India accepting this request of USA President Trump and hope that PM Modi will give the go-ahead for shipment of the ordered drugs to USA. Trump requests PM Modi to release Hydroxychloroquine ordered by U.S., https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/trump-requests-pm-modi-to-release-hydroxychloroquine-ordered-by-us/article31261271.ece, 5th April 2020.
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Tweet has pic of doctors (in protective gear) at AIIMS (Delhi, India) involved in care of Covid positive mother and her delivery of healthy baby.
https://twitter.com/DrJawahars/status/1246445040936710144
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Great to know that!
AIIMS doctor's Covid-19 positive wife delivers infection free healthy baby, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/aiims-doctors-covid-19-positive-wife-delivers-infection-free-healthy-baby/articleshow/74980695.cms
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Life for India's poor, especially in North India, who want to get home across hundreds of kilometres, can be really tough
The title of the video is misleading on two counts: a) part of the journey was by vehicle (very crowded one) and b) the filmmaker lost track of them after the initial part of the journey and so does not know whether the family reached Kanpur and whether they did it by walk or by a mix of walk and vehicle (very crowded typically).
Being poor in India and raising kids can be very tough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0zyFyPsu08, 13 min. 42 secs, published by The Quint on 4th April 2020.
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Sharing this as I think this coronavirus pandemic can be beaten with proper info. and relevant precautions. We should be aware and cautious based on that awareness, and NOT panic!
55-Year-Old Man Who Was Infected By Son Is Andhra's First COVID-19 Death, https://www.ndtv.com/andhra-pradesh-news/coronavirus-deaths-india-55-year-old-man-who-was-infected-by-son-is-andhras-first-covid-19-death-2205554, 3rd April 2020.
The article states that the person who passed away seems to have been infected by his son who, the article seems to imply, attended the March gathering in Delhi of Markaz Nizamuddin and Tablighi Jamaat. May Allah grant peace to his soul and may Allah protect the rest of his family including the infected son. The deceased person was diabetic and had hypertension which may have played a role in the COVID-19 disease being too much for him.
The article states: "There are 161 COVID-19 cases in Andhra Pradesh, of which 140 have been linked to the Markaz Nizamuddin and the Tablighi Jamaat's controversial religious gathering in south Delhi. The number of cases in the state have tripled in the past two days."
Now I would like to say that the above info. should not be misused. South Korea had a religious gathering of a particular Christian sect which caused a huge number of infected persons there. So these things are happening across religious groups. No particular religion should be viewed negatively based on actions of a few of that religion associated with some group(s).
Hindus, Muslims, Christians and others in India should fight together against this invisible-to-naked-eye novel coronavirus enemy, and defeat it. May God give us all the strength and courage to fight and win this battle.
Ishwar Maalik! Allah Maalik! Yesu Maalik! Sabka Maalik Ek!
[Ishwar is the Lord! Allah is the Lord! Yesu (Jesus) is the Lord! The Lord of all is one!]
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Good to see that Puttaparthi weekly market is functioning today (Saturday) with social distancing being enforced by local officials. The last time I think there was a lot of confusion and lack of discipline... ..... People are learning to adjust to the new normal ... Good to see that they are learning and adjusting in Puttaparthi.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2806316326251593 shares a post with pics.
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Chris Cuomo on life with Covid-19: The beast comes out at night, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1Ph8pKHISI, 10 min. 20 secs, published by CNN on 3rd April 2020.
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Interesting glimpse of life in a sealed society in India, around 9 min. 15 secs.
https://www.facebook.com/quintillion/videos/255882492266371/?t=0
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Interesting account from a 1918 (to 1920) influenza pandemic survivor. Note that she refers to it as the Asian flu but its origin has not been identified for sure with UK, USA and China being mentioned as possible origin location in various hypotheses as per wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu#Hypotheses_about_the_source.
1918 influenza pandemic survivor interview: Mrs. Edna Boone, interviewed 2008, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k20VFZeLKY, 11 minutes, published by Alabama (USA) Department of Archives and History.
The description of the video: "Mrs. Boone, 100 year-old resident of Mobile, tells how her family was the only family in a small rural Alabama area that did not contract the flu during the 1918 flu outbreak. Mrs. Boone's family all became responders in her community. Her parents become instant nurses and she delivered soup to the door of ill families.
Ann Brantley, R.N., of the Alabama Department of Public Health conducted the interview on January 28, 2008, and it was recorded by the Video Communications Division of the ADPH."
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After some debate in my mind about whether I should share these two videos, I decided to do so, as I think knowing the reality that coronavirus ***can kill*** young people in their 30s and 40s ***without any underlying health conditions***, and thereby devastate their families, may help. Yes, there would be many other young people in 30s and 40s who suffer only mild symptoms when they are struck by coronavirus/COVID-19. But not all young people escape death once they are infected by this horrible virus. I think that is important to know.
1) About a 30 year old New Jersey, USA, teacher and coach: Healthy 30-year-old teacher dies suddenly from coronavirus, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l-pSTXihcY, 7 min. 33 secs, published by CNN on 2nd April 2020.
2) About a 39 year old DJ in Florida, USA: Wife of coronavirus victim: He had no underlying health issues, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8Nm3uXdxL8, 8 min. 12 secs, published by CNN on 2nd April 2020.
Don't panic but be aware and cautious with regard to this horrible, dangerous and invisible-to-naked-eye virus, while this pandemic is going on.
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As a resident and citizen of India, I very much appreciate this help provided by World Bank to India: Coronavirus: World Bank approves $1 billion emergency fund for India, https://www.livemint.com/news/world/coronavirus-world-bank-approves-1-billion-emergency-fund-for-india-11585880693965.html, 3rd Apr. 2020.
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Good to know that what appeared to be a mass sneezing video is of a Sufi ritual and NOT what some were claiming. ..
I think India needs to be united to beat the coronavirus pandemic. Acts of a few must NOT be used to tarnish a whole community. Hindus, Muslims, Christians and others of India should and will beat this coronavirus ***together***.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2804956413054251 shares a post which has a comment and then shares this article: Video of Sufi ritual falsely viral as mass sneezing in Nizamuddin mosque to spread coronavirus infection, https://www.altnews.in/video-of-sufi-ritual-falsely-viral-as-mass-sneezing-in-nizamuddin-mosque-to-spread-coronavirus-infection/
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A thought-provoking op-ed by Bill Gates in The Washington Post (article has been made free by WaPo):
Bill Gates: Here’s how to make up for lost time on covid-19, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bill-gates-heres-how-to-make-up-for-lost-time-on-covid-19/2020/03/31/ab5c3cf2-738c-11ea-85cb-8670579b863d_story.html, 1st April 2020.
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I don't think I will forget March 2020 for the rest of my life. It taught me what a pandemic is, and how it could drastically disrupt normal life across the world, including in India, besides causing a lot of suffering and, in some cases, death. Video is around 7 mins.
Video titled "MARCH 2020: THE MONTH COVID-19 CHANGED THE WORLD", https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/354156508850063/?t=0
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Dr. Fauci Answers Trevor’s Questions About Coronavirus | The Daily Social Distancing Show (Trevor Noah), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A3jiM2FNR8, 13 min. 23 secs, published on 27th March 2020.
A part transcript from the video:
At 0:06, Trevor Noah says to Dr. Anthony Fauci: You are an infectious diseases expert who has advised six presidents on everything from SARS to Ebola to the HIV epidemic and Zika. What makes coronavirus so different?
Dr. Fauci responds: Well, it's different because, you know, when people used to ask me over the years, what is it that I most worry about with regard to emerging infectious diseases, is a respiratory borne illness that easily spreads from person to person, but that has a high degree of morbidity and mortality.
And unfortunately, that's the worst nightmare you could have, is to have something like that. I mean, there are other diseases. Ebola was frightening, but Ebola gets transmitted only when you're in very close contact with a person who is very, very ill. With this disease - in some respects similar to influenza, but in some respects, very different - it spreads very easily.
Noah: Right.
Fauci: You can even spread it when you're not symptomatic. So it's insidious and treacherous in that you could spread it easily. The other part about it that's really so different from anything that we've ever faced before, is that if you look at the mortality of seasonal flu, the thing you and I go through every season, the mortality is about 0.1 percent.
That's a lot. And we get used to that morbidity and mortality.
Noah: Right.
Fauci: But the mortality of this is about ten times that. It's at least one percent. So it's a disease that not only is easily spread, but it can be devastating, particularly for a certain subset of the population. Demographically different. The elderly, those with underlying conditions - heart disease, lung disease, diabetes. It can be very serious for them with a high degree of mortality.
--- end part transcript ---
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COVID-19 updates: 320 cases in Maharashtra, Mumbai worst affected city, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_ralflCuWg, around 2 mins, published by Hindustan Times on 1st April 2020.
Maha health minister Rajesh Tope has said that private labs. testing results over a few days got integrated with other results, resulting in a spike. He is reported to have said that there is no need to panic.
Police are implementing strict lockdown in certain areas of Mumbai with high cases. I think that is necessary and good as a vital containment measure to prevent the spread spiking up in a big way.
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Hon'ble Andhra Pradesh CM on coronavirus situation and related matters ... In Telugu, around 15 mins.
https://www.facebook.com/ysjagan/videos/213495423319338/?t=0
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CNN anchor Chris Cuomo discusses his COVID-19 positive status with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. The takeaway is that Cuomo has to just go through the disease period without any drugs to cure him (they do talk about Hydroxychloroquine and other drugs which have not yet been clinically proven and so, from a professional medical point of view, are risky to take). Prayers and best wishes to Chris Cuomo for quick recovery from COVID-19.
Chris Cuomo reveals his biggest fear after positive test for Covid-19, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy82-YH1Lww, 10 min. 33 secs, published by CNN on 1st April 2020.
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The top experts in charge in the USA frankly tell the US public their assessment of the situation. It is a grim picture for the coming weeks but they expect that after a few weeks they will have got over the worst and see the situation improve from then on, ***provided communities across the USA support the mitigation efforts***. I think this is mature straight-talking to USA public and I admire the maturity of USA democracy and USA governance that enables USA citizens (and others like me in India) know the frank picture on the ground. Prayers to Almighty God that USA quickly turns the corner and brings down new cases to significantly lower numbers, in the near future.
Coronavirus experts present sobering data about projected US deaths [Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci present the data that led to President Trump extending the coronavirus social distancing guidelines to April 30th.], https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggCZXLTSbPE, 10 min. 47 secs. published by CNN on 31st March 2020.
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COVID-19 | North Kerala cases have roots in Dubai’s Naif, https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/coronavirus-north-kerala-cases-have-roots-in-dubais-naif/article31220935.ece
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Many rural workers of India who migrate to cities for work like construction work, are physically tough people, at least when viewed by a city bred physically-soft fellow like me. I am so happy to see that so many of them were successfully able to do the travel, partly by foot, partly by vehicles (trucks), of hundreds of miles. The state governments and NGOs helped by providing food to them in their migration.
Hmm. Rural India has the toughness and the traditions of centuries & millennia to survive - that is something that I have seen from close quarters among locals in and around Puttaparthi, over the past many years. They can be very practical people focused on survival during challenging times. I think that shows how traditional conservative Indian society has survived for many thousands of years, with great heroes like Rama who is believed to have lived over twenty thousand years ago in India, being very real figures for rural Hindu Indian society (other religions in India would have their own such figures mixed with the core of old Hindu society traditions which they would have adapted suitably).
Video is around 6 mins with the conversation being in Hindi but with English sub-titles.
https://www.facebook.com/quintillion/videos/508040860077444/?t=0
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I am putting up this post NOT to be a scaremonger but to share data that clearly shows that lockdown/shutdown makes a lot of sense in areas/countries which either are already having a big rise of novel coronavirus cases everyday or which are in danger of having that in the near future.
USA per day case increase ***now*** is in the range of 20,000 (20K)! That is an astounding and very scary number!
India is grappling with the news of a large religious gathering in Delhi held some weeks ago (in March) which had participants from some foreign countries in Asia (Indonesia, Saudi Arabia ...) known to have some not-insignificant coronavirus cases then, having become an outbreak source with infected persons dispersed in many states of India now!
The data tells us so clearly that the new cases per day have to be brought down. The alternative is very risky. So stay at home policy seems to be the best way forward till the new cases go down.
I have attached a few screenshot pics giving USA numbers. Unfortunately, the India numbers in the John Hopkins University (JHU) app gets mixed up with other countries. So I did not take screenshot pics of that.
As per https://www.livemint.com/news/india/positive-coronavirus-cases-in-india-near-1-400-mark-death-toll-at-35-state-wise-tally-here-11585626484363.html, India's new cases went up by 200 on 31st March to get close to a total of 1400 cases.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2803232246560001
----------------------Posts about some positive effects on nature due to lockdown
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Clean Ganga in Rishikesh
https://www.facebook.com/1932084660192772/videos/252992716088209/?t=0
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Nice pic of hills behind Karnatakanagapalli village: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2830366063846619?__tn__=-R
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Mumbai city necklace nice pic - https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2829512767265282?__tn__=-R
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Navi Mumbai Flamingoes - https://www.facebook.com/svdagli/videos/10156717341906261/?t=0
https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2823235244559701
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Guests from wild on Indian streets - https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2822824421267450?__tn__=-R
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Enjoyed watching areas (most of what was shown in the video) that I have often been to during my decades of Mumbai life, viewed from a drone and when there are very few people or moving vehicles on the roads.
Scenic Drone Shoot of Mumbai during Coronavirus Lockdown | Mumbai Live, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgUBLiF9LwU, 4 min. 35 secs.
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Nice shot of South Mumbai, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2813993598817199?__tn__=-R shares another post with pic
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