Israel’s Knesset speaker resigns in order to defend Netanyahu

Jean Shaoul

Knesset Speaker and member of caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party Yuli Edelstein resigned Wednesday morning. This thoroughly undemocratic manoeuvre comes in the wake of Monday’s High Court ruling that he must allow a vote on his replacement.

The opposition Blue and White Party, led by Bennie Gantz, had petitioned the High Court for a ruling, following Edelstein’s refusal to convene the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to choose a new speaker.

President Reuven Rivlin nominated Gantz to form a government following the third inconclusive election in less than a year. After receiving a bare majority of the 120-seat Knesset votes, he has rebuffed Netanyahu’s attempt to form a “national emergency government” under his leadership. It is very unlikely that Gantz can form a government because two members of his own party refuse to form one dependent upon the support of the third largest bloc in the Knesset, the Arab Joint List.

Instead he has, with the support of Avigdor Lieberman of Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Is Our Home), sought to take over the speaker’s office, having won the leadership of several key Knesset committees for his own party and its allies, including the Arab Joint List. His aim is to use his bloc’s control of the parliamentary process to thwart Netanyahu’s attempt to secure his political survival by short-circuiting the Knesset and using the coronavirus crisis to establish a dictatorial regime under his leadership.

Gantz and his allies have few substantive political differences with Netanyahu and his far-right allies. He said, “The proper functioning of democracy does not limit the [Netanyahu’s interim] government’s actions, rather it gives them validity. As long as these difficult processes are handled properly, we will vote in their favour and give our full support, even if it hurts us politically.”

Now that the Knesset committees have been established, the “special means” that the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, plans on using to trace people who had been in contact with coronavirus patients via their cell phones can go ahead. Last week, the High Court ruled, in response to a petition filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Arab minority rights group Adalah and attorney Shahar Ben-Meir, that if by noon Tuesday the relevant Knesset committees were not established to oversee these surveillance measures, long used against the Palestinians in the occupied territories without oversight, they had to stop. It also ruled that the police were not allowed to use digital surveillance until further notice.

In announcing his resignation, which comes into effect after 48 hours, Edelstein said the High Court’s decision “isn’t based on the law, but on a radical unilateral interpretation” and accused the court of undercutting “the foundations of democracy.”

He declared, “The High Court’s decision contradicts the Knesset protocols and is destroying the Knesset’s functionality and constitutes a blatant and vile meddling of the judicial system in matters which are under the purview of the legislature. This decision causes unprecedented damage to the Knesset and the people’s sovereignty.”

He added that his resignation meant that the Knesset—in accordance with procedural rules—would not be able to convene for a vote on a new speaker before Monday.

Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit insisted that Edelstein must obey the court’s decision and hold a vote for his replacement. But Eyal Yinon, the Knesset’s legal advisor, said that the Knesset could not convene before Monday without special instructions from the High Court. He added that the interim speaker, Labour Party leader Amir Peretz, who is allied with the Blue and White Party, could only begin his term on Friday morning.

Edelstein’s resignation has stymied parliament and bought time for Netanyahu and Likud. It serves to reduce the amount of time that Gantz of the opposition Blue and White Party has to pass legislation preventing Netanyahu from serving as prime minister while under indictment for corruption, bribery and breach of trust before Gantz’s mandate to form a government expires in April.

It also signals open war on the part of Likud and its far-right allies against the judiciary. Netanyahu has long denounced his prosecution for bribery and corruption as an “attempted coup” aimed at overturning his premiership. His aim is to incite his far-right supporters and encourage them to take to the streets.

Following Edelstein’s resignation, a convoy of hundreds of cars and around 1,000 demonstrators travelled to the Knesset to demand the election of a new speaker today. The organisers of the “Black Flag” protest said, “This is not just the test of Israel’s leaders, but also of the willingness of Israelis to fight for democracy in a time of crisis.” As in earlier demonstrations last week and on Monday, the police tried to prevent them from protesting in front of the Knesset.

On Saturday, more than half a million people watched a virtual protest broadcast over Facebook opposing Netanyahu’s imposition of strict coronavirus regulations, including permitting Israeli security services to track the phones of coronavirus patients, as well as his attempts to cling onto power. Speakers at the online event included former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy, former Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin and former Attorney General and Supreme Court Vice President Elyakim Rubinstein. Some 65,000 clicked “attending” on Facebook, while 597,000 viewed the live broadcast.

This growing constitutional crisis takes place against the backdrop of social and economic tensions that have escalated in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. There are 2,369 confirmed cases, with 39 people in serious condition. Five people have died.

On Wednesday, teachers returned to work after a near-week-long strike. The government had ordered the schools to close and teachers to deliver online lessons from March13. After four days of remote instruction, the Teachers’ Union announced that their members would stop work because the Finance Ministry had refused to pay them in full for their remote working days, claiming that many teachers, particularly in preschool, were not really working. The government has now agreed to pay them in full and extend the school year by the number of days lost.

Some 573,000 workers have lost their jobs over the past few weeks due to the stay-at-home measures, shuttered businesses and restrictions taken to control the spread of the virus, under conditions where Israel’s health care system is ill-equipped to cope.

The unemployment rate has soared to 17.6 percent, up from 3.6 percent. This is set to increase as Netanyahu has announced new restrictions banning all except essential workers from moving more than 100 metres from their homes and closing all places of worship. He also indicated that his caretaker government is set to impose a total lockdown, presumably with military and police patrols in the streets, if the measures taken thus far fail to stem the tide, saying yesterday in his daily televised broadcast, “It’s a matter of a few days.”

Israel’s central bank has stepped in to buy $13.4 billion in government bonds in a desperate effort to support the country’s declining economy. This follows Netanyahu’s announcement of a $2.8 billion economic package to shore up Israel’s corporations. While $2.2 billion would go to businesses and an unspecified amount to the aviation industry, just $281 million would go to the health system and a similar amount to stem the spread of the virus. He said that any business hit by the virus could request money from the fund.

In another move aimed at helping business and at the request of the Manufacturers’ Association of Israel, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Ophir Akunis has issued a general work permit that extends the legal maximum working day to 14 hours for up to 60 days.

US Senate passes massive economic “rescue” bill

Patrick Martin

Senate Democratic and Republican leaders reached agreement with the Trump administration early Wednesday on an economic “rescue” package of unprecedented dimensions—an estimated $2 trillion. The bill was passed late Wednesday night by a 96–0 margin, despite the effort of a handful of Republican senators to block it for providing too much money for those thrown out of work by the coronavirus crisis.

Vermont Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders voted for the bill, despite its unprecedented transfer of taxpayer funds to corporations and limited benefits for workers.

The bill’s overall terms were negotiated between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and two White House officials, Legislative Affairs Director Eric Ueland and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. McConnell and Schumer announced the deal about 1 a.m. Wednesday morning.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) talks with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) talks with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) (Erin Schaff/Pool via AP)

The major change from the first version proposed by McConnell and the Republicans last week involved an expansion of unemployment benefits for the rapidly escalating number of workers being laid off as lockdown orders are issued in state after state to try to head off the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

The number of workers filing new applications for unemployment compensation was expected to jump to more than three million this week, a more than tenfold increase over the previous week but only the beginning of what is expected to be a virtual shutdown of large parts of the US economy over the coming weeks.

Faced with the prospect of levels of unemployment that could exceed those of the Great Depression of the 1930s—and massive social unrest that would result—both Republicans and Democrats agreed on two stopgap measures to stave off an explosion of social struggle by the working class.

The first is immediate and direct federal payments to most Americans, amounting to $1,200 per adult and $500 per child. The payments are to be distributed by the Internal Revenue Service to anyone who filed an income tax return in 2018 or 2019, as well as some of those who were too poor to file, although the exact details of eligibility depend on the final language of the bill, not yet publicly available.

The second measure is a substantial temporary federal supplement to unemployment compensation benefits, which are administered by the states. The federal government will add up to $600 a week to the benefits set by the states, which themselves range on average from under $200 in Mississippi to a high of $515 in Massachusetts. The federal supplement is to last for four months, ending in early August for workers filing claims this week.

The total cost of these two measures is $550 billion—$300 billion for the direct payments and $250 billion for the increase in unemployment benefits. The still leaves the biggest share of the $2 trillion package for corporate and business interests.

Those provisions include $500 billion for corporate bailouts, with about $75 billion earmarked for specific industries, including $50 billion for passenger airlines, $8 billion for cargo airlines, and $17 billion for Boeing (although the company is not named).

Democrats objected to the $500 billion being under the sole control of Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, with even the names of the companies receiving aid to be kept secret for at least six months. They accepted a “compromise” under which auditing is to be carried out by an “independent” inspector-general—the same method employed during the 2008–2009 bailout of Wall Street—and oversight by a five-member panel appointed by congressional leaders.

While corporate borrowers are to be prohibited from stock buybacks and the payment of dividends for a year after the loans are repaid, and will have minor limitations on executive compensation, Mnuchin will have the power to waive those restrictions “upon a determination that such a waiver is necessary to protect the interests of the Federal Government.”

Corporate borrowers will have to commit to maintaining until September 30 the employment levels in place on March 24, but only “to the extent practicable,” another gigantic loophole. They will be barred from cutting employment by more than 10 percent.

More importantly, the $500 billion does not really represent an adequate measure of the scale of the bailout. Besides the $75 billion for transportation, the remaining $425 billion will be used to underwrite lending by the Federal Reserve to companies approved by Mnuchin on a much larger scale, estimated by various analysts as ranging from $2 trillion to $4 trillion.

Another $367 billion is set aside to aid “small business,” although these firms can employ up to 500 workers, a ceiling that will allow many hedge funds and private equity firms to qualify. Trump’s personal holding company, the Trump Organization, would likely have qualified but for a special provision inserted in the bill to make companies owned by the president, vice president or members of Congress ineligible.

Another $50 billion is allocated for an “employee retention tax credit” for businesses that keep workers on the payroll rather than laying them off. The details of this, including which companies will benefit, remain to be clarified.

Nearly $500 billion is to be distributed for the front-line costs of fighting the coronavirus epidemic and other social needs. That sum includes $207 billion for state, local and tribal governments, school districts and public transit agencies; $130 billion for hospitals and public health facilities; $45 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund of the Federal Emergency Management Agency; and $41 billion to pay for additional personal protection equipment for health care workers and to replenish the national emergency stockpile of such materials.

There are lesser amounts for bailouts of farmers hit by Trump’s trade war with China and for other social services, including food stamps, child nutrition, allowing students to defer loan payments for six months with interest waived, and waiving Pell grant restrictions for students forced to leave school because of coronavirus-related closures. There is even $100 million for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a provision that set off howls from the ultra-right media, although it represents 0.005 percent of the massive bill.

In sum, the spending breaks down into three major components: about $1 trillion for corporate and business interests (although with the Fed’s lending, this could climb to $2.5 trillion); about $500 billion to keep the US population from starving over the next four months; and about $500 billion more directly linked to the effort to contain the pandemic.

The money to support state governments—hit by huge drops in tax revenues just at the point when they must spend more to fight the coronavirus—is not distributed according to need, but according to a political formula that reflects the intrinsic inequities of the Senate, where every state has two votes, regardless of population.

The bill distributes $60 billion in the form of $1.2 billion for each of the 50 states, with the remaining $90 billion distributed based on population, so that New York receives less than Texas, even though it has 30 times as many coronavirus cases.

This slap in the face to the people of New York did not faze Senate Minority Leader Schumer, one of two senators from New York state. In remarks just before the final series of votes, Schumer praised the bill, claiming it would save “millions of small businesses and tens of millions of jobs.” His real concern—like that of all the other senators—was that the corporate bailout and the temporary relief checks to millions of workers would help safeguard the wealth and power of the US financial aristocracy.

One event before the bill’s passage illustrated the vast class divide between the ruling elite and the working people who are the vast majority of the American population. Four Senate Republicans began howling that the price of the bonanza for corporate America was too great. They did not object to the $500 billion for big companies. What stuck in their craw was the unemployment compensation payments to workers whose jobs have been wiped out by the lockdown of half the United States, which they regarded as excessive.

At a remarkable press conference Wednesday afternoon, the four Republicans—Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Rick Scott of Florida—inveighed against the unemployment compensation payment of $600 a week. They issued a statement declaring that the payment was a “strong incentive for employees to be laid off instead of going to work.”

Graham and Scott said that with their state’s average unemployment compensation of $360 a week, workers laid off because of coronavirus would be entitled to $960 a week in combined state and federal aid, the equivalent of $24 an hour for a 40-hour work week. They complained that South Carolina employers would be unable to find workers who would take jobs at the usual pay level for the state, a notorious low-wage haven.

Ben Sasse, of a more philosophical bent, declared that the unemployment compensation provision threatened to “disrupt the employer-employee relationship”—Karl Marx called it wage slavery—and was therefore un-American.

But the most revealing comments came from Rick Scott of Florida, a former corporate CEO in the health care industry, who claimed that small businesses could not survive if workers were unwilling to work for low wages because they could make more on unemployment pay. One reporter apologized for asking him, “Do you understand how bad the optics are to have probably the wealthiest person in the Senate potentially holding up this bill for a couple hundred bucks for some of the poorest people in this country?”

The four threatened to use procedural obstacles to slow passage of the bill, thus giving Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders the opportunity for a bit of “left” demagogy. He threatened that if they objected to the unemployment compensation section of the bill, he would raise objections to the corporate bailout. In the end, the four settled for a recorded vote on an amendment by Sasse, which was defeated, and Sanders joined in the bipartisan vote to approve the bill.

Strikes mount across Europe against official response to coronavirus pandemic

Allison Smith & Alex Lantier

Strikes and social anger are growing among workers across Europe against attempts by national governments and business groups, aided by the complicity of union bureaucracies, to force them to work at non-essential jobs amid the raging coronavirus pandemic.

After over a week of lockdown in Italy and France, and with lockdown now underway in Britain, Spain and much of Germany, the number of cases still is growing rapidly. As the number of global confirmed cases rose to 464,683 yesterday, Europe’s total rose to 254,619 including 14,375 deaths. There were 5,553 new cases and 454 deaths recorded in Spain, 5,210 new cases and 683 deaths in Italy, 4,332 new cases and 47 deaths in Germany, 2,929 new cases and 231 deaths in France, 1,452 new cases and 43 deaths in Britain and 1,020 new cases and 31 deaths in Switzerland.

Across Europe, testing and hospital care are unavailable to the broad mass of workers, who are told instead to take painkillers and wait at home to see if they develop severe pneumonia. This leads to tragedies like the death last week of Kayla Williams, a 36-year-old mother of three in south London. On March 20, paramedics told her she could not be admitted to hospital as she was not a “priority.” Williams died of COVID-19 the next day, untreated at home.

The Colosseum, that will be closed following the government's new prevention measures on public gatherings, is reflected in a puddle where a face mask was left, in Rome, Sunday, March 8, 2020. . (Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via AP)

Workers are bitterly angry at big corporations, flush with cash from multi-billion-euro government bailouts, who demand they return to work to produce profits for investors whose bloated fortunes depend on constant handouts of public money. It is imperative for as many workers as possible to shelter at home, on full pay, to avoid spreading the disease. With more social contact at work inevitably leading to more COVID-19 deaths, the question posed to workers is: how many workers want to die for the profits of the super-rich?

Yesterday, in the regions of Milan and Rome in Italy, metalworkers mounted a one-day strike called by the unions, two weeks after launching wildcat strikes across Italy that compelled Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s government and Italy’s corrupt unions to agree to a nationwide lockdown. The metalworkers strike came amid repeated strikes at Amazon plants, including the giant Torrazza Piemonte facility, and threats of a walkout by petrol station attendants and owners.

Far broader layers of workers still forced to work in Italy and across Europe—postal, grocery and bank workers—are also discussing strike action and their anger at being kept on the job, often for non-essential purposes, without proper masks and protection equipment against the coronavirus.

A grocery store attendant living in a working class district of southern Madrid told the press about his fear and anger at being kept on the job under unsafe conditions, after at least 12,000 people have been infected, 1,500 have died, and over 1,000 are in intensive care in the city. “We are the third class passengers on the Titanic,” he said. “We are playing with our lives just for shit. We have been sold out.”

Similarly, workers at the Amazon facility in Saran, France overwhelmingly called in sick last week and a few hundred attended a meeting with union officials and management to demand the right to get paid time off if there is an imminent threat to life at work—a right guaranteed under French law. One worker at Saran commented, “A package can be manipulated twenty times by different people. We come to work every day with fear in our throats. It can’t go on like this.”

Workers at Saran receive no protective equipment—even as they ship face masks, hand sanitizing gel and other critical equipment internationally—and are often packed together, violating rules requiring a minimum 2-meter distance between workers. Faced with management’s attempt to buy workers’ agreement to these deadly conditions with a measly offer of a two euro pre-tax wage increase, another worker refused, saying, “That is just shameful.”

Workers there join their brothers and sisters at PSA auto plants at Mulhouse and Trémery, the Toyota plant at Onnaing, the Renault auto plant at Sandouville, the Bombardier plant in Crespin and the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard at Saint Nazaire—all of whom have walked off the job, citing their right to avoid imminent threats to life at work.

Representatives of the ruling class are intensely aware and fearful of the growing challenge from workers for control of the factories. “In every industrial sector, including in many where activity is not banned by health measures, there is an extremely brutal shift in workers’ attitudes,” warned the vice-president of France’s MEDEF business federation, Patrick Martin. Callously denouncing workers’ “over-reaction” to the deadly threat of COVID-19, he complained that management “can no longer continue production due to pressure from workers.”

Yesterday, workers at multiple food-processing plants in Northern Ireland—ABP Meats in Lurgan and Moy Park at Seagoe, Portadown and Co Armagh—walked out. Workers at these facilities have “key worker” status, as their continued work is critical to ensuring the population’s food supply. However, despite this supposedly critical status, workers at these plants are left to work in deplorable, even lethal conditions.

Striking workers at ABP, whose owner Larry Goodman is worth an estimated €2.45 billion, demanded social distancing measures at work and the deep cleaning of workstations previously used by workers who tested positive for COVID-19. Workers at Moy Park, a UK-based transnational with operations from the Republic of Ireland to France and the Netherlands, posted pictures on Twitter showing workers forced to cram into a crowded canteen, violating basic safety guidelines for avoiding infection.

For workers, the way forward against the pandemic and the irresponsible policies of the capitalist class is to organize their struggles via committees of action, independent of the trade unions. No confidence can be given to the union bureaucracies, financed and controlled by the same corporations and governments trying to force workers back to work. If the pandemic has already shown the need for workers to take control of industrial facilities to save public health, it is also increasingly showing the need for workers to take political power.

This is the lesson of the trade union talks with Conte and the Confindustria business federation in Italy yesterday amid the one-day trade union strike. While Confindustria demanded a halt to all strikes, and Conte claimed Italy “can’t afford” strikes by workers, the unions gave their blessing to a rotten deal for police authorities and businesses to jointly issue certifications that their operations are “essential.” This would allow them to force workers back to work.

The affluent operatives of the union bureaucracy signed a deal consciously hostile to workers’ demands to shelter at home. Police prefects, the unions boasted in a document jointly published with Confindustria, “will involve territorial organizations to assist self-certification by companies that they are engaged in functional activities to maintain the continuity of essential supply chains.”

The claim that Italy or Europe cannot afford strikes is a political lie. In fact, what Europe cannot afford is more mass deaths caused by policies designed to enrich the financial aristocracy.

Corporations and billionaire investors have gotten a €750 billion bailout from the European Central Bank, a €1.1 trillion bailout in Germany and hundreds of billions in subsidies overwhelmingly benefiting big business from every major European state. A small but not insignificant part of these funds are earmarked to fund the union bureaucracy. And as the super-rich exploit the COVID-19 pandemic to grab trillions of euros, they adopt policies that ensure the pandemic will continue.

A decisive confrontation between the workers and the financial aristocracy is being prepared.

Fury is building among workers across Europe at governments’ failure to undertake an aggressive response to the pandemic. In France, an Odoxa poll found that 70 percent do not believe the government tells the population the truth, 79 percent do not believe it has a clear policy, and 88 percent believe confinement of the population should have begun earlier. Yet the main lines of the French pandemic policy—opposing sheltering at home, contempt for security measures and denying the sick testing and hospital care—were shared across Europe.

The way forward is a revolutionary struggle by the working class to expropriate the vast sums of public money handed to the super-rich, putting those resources toward socialist policies, including an internationally coordinated struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

UNESCO-Merck Africa Research Summit (MARS) 2020 for African PhD Students and Young Investigators

Application Deadline: 30th August 2020

Eligible Countries: African countries

To be taken at: Zambia

About the Award: UNESCO-Merck Africa Research Summit-MARS aims to bring together researchers from across Africa to discuss the generation, sharing and dissemination of research data and to prepare for the road ahead in Africa’s development as an international hub for research excellence and scientific innovation.
The annual Summit aims to contribute to building research capacity in the African research community, with special focus on “The Role of Scientific Research in responding to Cancer and Vaccines Development-Two emerging challenge in Africa”. The Summit will also showcase innovative research taking place in projects, programs and initiatives across African universities, and by the wider African research community.
On other note the organizing committee will launch the “Best Young African Researcher Award” and the “Best African Woman Researcher Award” to recognize the outstanding contribution of African female scientist with aim to promote women in research and advance their contribution to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
The annual Summit- UNESCO-MARS will address the vital role of research in the improvement and sustainable development of population health with specific emphasis on how to translate knowledge into action-the ‘know-do gap’- to improve health and make an impact on society.

Type: Conference, Contest

Eligibility: All should be primarily based at African research institutes and Universities, although collaboration within Africa as well as outside is encouraged. All abstracts will be peer reviewed.

Selection Procedure: 

• All abstracts will be peer reviewed and 100 winners will be eligible for Sponsorship.
• First three winners will be eligible for further number of Research Awards.
• Further Research Award will be dedicated for Best African Women Researchers

Value of Program: The summit is a unique opportunity for Africa’s young and talented scientists to share their research output and findings with the top echelon of scientists from Africa and abroad. It is also an opportunity for networking and career development. The Summit will presents a platform where young and female scientists will be able to discuss the enabling environment for better research among others.

Duration of Program: 28th –  29th November 2017

How to Apply: Applications can be submitted via email to mars@merck-foundation.com
along with your CV (including Name, Gender, Country, University/Hospital Name, Email address, Mobile Number) and the abstract document as an attachment
Or APPLY ONLINE

Visit Program Webpage for details

IvyPanda $1,500 Annual Essay Writing Contest Scholarship 2020 for Students

Application Deadline: 31st May 2020

Eligible Countries: International

To be Taken at (Country): Online

Type: Contest

Eligibility: We will accept submissions from current high school, college, or university students from any country. The winners will be required to send us proof of their academic status or enrollment.

Selection Criteria: All submitted works will be evaluated by a team of highly qualified writers and editors based on the following criteria:

• Grammar, punctuation, and spelling
• Organization
• Style
• Referencing system

The winners will be determined based on our editors’ team evaluation.

Number of Awards: 2

Value of Award:

• Winners will be announced on this page as well as on the IvyPanda blog.
• To receive their awards, the winners must provide proof of enrollment or study. If they cannot or will not provide this confirmation, the award will be given to the next appropriate participant in line.

How to Apply:

• Write an essay on one of the following topics:
  • Contribution of Technology in Education
  • Is Studying Abroad Worth It?
  • Should Video Games Be Used in Education?Your essay must:
  • Have a word count of 500-700 words (excluding title, header, and works cited page)
  • Be written in the US or UK English
  • Be 100% plagiarism-free
  • Be submitted in .doc or .docx format
  • Follow MLA style to format the paper and cite sources (download our MLA checklist to check your formatting)
  • Have three or more sources cited on the Works Cited page
  • The filename should be [IvyPanda Writing Contest_Last Name]
• Follow our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram; like and share the post with the contest description pinned on our social media pages.
• Send us an email at scholarship@ivypanda.com with:
  • Your essay
  • The screenshot proving that you followed our social media
  • The screenshot of the post with the contest description shared on your social media
  • The answer to the question: “Where did you find out about the IvyPanda Contest?”

Each participant may submit only one essay and win just one award.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Mexico and the Pandemic

Kent Paterson

As Mexico counts its first deaths from the dreaded COVID-19 coronavirus, different but not uniform measures were implemented throughout the country in an effort to prevent the spread of the disease.

Large events like the spring’s massive San Marcos National Fair in Aguascalientes (an event which attracts an estimated eight million attendees and is an economic driver of the central Mexican city) have been postponed or cancelled, gyms closed, museums and theaters shut down, masses cancelled, and public schools and universities put on extended breaks.

Cities and states have enacted varied public health rules ranging from the closure of bars and discos (Jalisco state, home of Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta) to a 50 percent reduction in customer capacity at bars and restaurants in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, bordering Dona Ana County, New Mexico, and El Paso, Texas.

Although Juarez sits next door to New Mexico and Texas, and economic, social and cultural interactions in the borderland collectively known as the Paso del Norte are a historic daily routine, Juarez’s Phase 1 social distancing rules unveiled March 19 don’t go as far either New Mexico or Texas, both of which have ordered bars closed and restaurants restricted to take-out service.

Until now, Juarez reports four confirmed cases of COVID-19, with all of them involving young people who’d traveled outside Mexico, according to Mexican press accounts.

As of March 22, El Paso counted 9 cases of Covid-19, including 3 soldiers at the U.S. Army’s Ft. Bliss, El Paso-based media outlet KVIA reported Sunday, March 22.   

In the mold of the Mexican president’s daily morning press conferences, Mexico’s Secretariat of Health is giving regular briefings on the status of COVID-19 in the country that are posted on YouTube and on Mexican media outlets like El Universal.  

On March 22, the federal agency reported that the nationwide toll of COVID-19 to date included two deaths, 316 confirmed cases, 793 suspected infections and 1,667 negatives. The numbers change daily, and a sharp spike is noted after March 7.  

The Mexican Response

Last week, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) announced the Mexican armed forces are being enlisted to help manage the crisis. At his March 19 morning press conference, AMLO said the armed forces count on specialists and trained nurses who can lend a hand in a time of need.

Concretely, the Mexican leader said the military is preparing a DN-III-E emergency plan to address the public health crisis. At the same time, he said the new National Guard will distribute advance payments of national pensions to elders residing in hard-to-reach places.

Sporadic medicine shortages and the overall, taxed condition of many hospitals were polemical issues in Mexico even before the novel coronavirus outbreak, but AMLO assured reporters that Mexico has enough hospital beds and medicine to weather the COVID-19 virus storm.

“We’ve prepared ourselves for some time to have the necessary infrastructure when we are confronted with a bigger demand for hospitalization and care of the sick,” AMLO said. 

The days ahead will test AMLO’s optimism.

Mexico’s President was the subject of ample criticism recently after he waded into crowds and was photographed kissing a little girl on one of his frequent public appearances across the nation.

Though he has asked people to stay home as a preventative measure to contain the virus, AMLO reiterated that heavy-handed policies won’t be employed and discounted ordering a curfew.

“This is what suits us, and I am sure the people will pay attention to us,” he said. “Nothing by force. All of this is being done in a responsible way.”

In an interview with the Reforma news agency run in El Diario de Juarez on March 21, two representatives of the World Health Organization and Pan-American Health Organization in Mexico, Cristian Morales and Jean-Marc Gabastou, assessed Mexico’s preparedness and prospects for confronting the pandemic.

The two health professionals assessed the current stage of the virus outbreak in Mexico as falling within Phase 1, but credited many entities for already adopting Phase 2 measures. Morales predicted the Mexico would rapidly enter Phase 2 and then Phase 3 “probably in the next few weeks,” but that a big-and critical-unknown was how the cases would stack-up geographically.

On the plus side, Gabastou said Mexico has learned from the experience of other countries, possesses “high quality technology and very well prepared personnel,” and has sufficient testing capacity at this time.

Gabastou and Morales expressed concern about the exposure of senior baggers at big box stores like Walmart who work only for tips, and contended that the country’s high rates of diabetes and obesity could contribute to elevating the number of deaths from COVID-19.

Will the junk food diet that became so implanted in Mexico during recent decades now come back to bite the country in a big way?  

Economic Blows

While AMLO maintains that Mexico has sufficient financial reserves to overcome COVID-19, the emergency is already slamming the economy, with the peso hitting historic lows in relation to the dollar, tax revenue earning oil plummeting to its lowest price in 21 years, the Mexican Stock Exchange tanking, and auto plants closing.

Moreover, the record remittances sent home by migrant Mexican workers in the U.S. during the past couple of years will surely plunge amid the mass layoffs now sweeping El Norte. 

The U.S.-Mexican decision to close border travel to all but “essential” purposes, is very bad news for U.S. border cities like El Paso, where Mexican shoppers account for a large chunk of the city’s retail sales revenues. 

Scattered accounts of price-gouging and panic buying similar to the U.S. have appeared in the Mexican press, touching such places as Mexico City and Mexico state. Earlier this month, in Ciudad Juarez, desperate shoppers from El Paso were blamed for helping strip store shelves in Juarez’s big box stores of such essentials as paper products.

The emerging economic crisis gravely jeopardizes the key tourism sector, a business which represents nearly 9 percent of Mexico’s gross domestic product- and at one of the most inconvenient moments of the year.

When the crisis struck, Mexicans were preparing for their annual Holy Week-Easter tourism pilgrimages to Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco and other beach destinations that stay afloat from the tourism economy.

“The lights of a city that lives by night are starting to turn off, an unusual and historic development that will drastically impact the economy of distinct sectors of society, where the immense majority live day by day,” editorialized El Sol de Acapulco.

COVID-19 Amid Misplaced Priorities

Mohd. Asif Shah & Ayaz Nabi Malik

Ideally human being was created as the crown of creation with dignity, bestowing him with the unique qualities of reason, emotion, sanity, morality and capacity to sift between right and wrong. This superiority was basically meant for the overall benefit of all the species on this planet and not to suppress and hegemonise things as per his whims and vanities. If we look at the overall pattern of the natural world, we will discern an underlying and ubiquitous configuration of discipline and order. Whenever man has tried to attempt to temper with this basic principle of order, the reaction would be chaos, devastation and catastrophe of the whole lot.

The instinct of man’s will to power or his urge to dominate has ended up creating the black and white binaries of strong-weak; rich-poor; developed-underdeveloped which has unfortunately bred forth a crazy and wayward frenzy (at grass root and global level) for attainment of absolute power, wealth, weaponry etc. The dominant sides of these binaries try/tried to hegemonise and suppress the weaker ones in their march forward which result/resulted in unprecedented crises and chaos across the east and west of the globe. The very idea of encroaching and appropriating the land and resources of the weaker nations by the mighty ones has resulted in an unceasing chain of fatal consequences like war, conflict, violence and destruction. It is quite obvious that man has now fallen down from the dignified and graceful pedestal and reduced to a mere animal, bothered about feeding and surviving himself alone at the cost of every other. This downfall of man from the ideal position has resulted in chaos and conflict across the globe as man is now involved in an utterly bizarre power and wealth pursuit.

Some imperial and great powers claimed to have been sent by the Providence to rule and educate the “Others” on account of their being cultured, educated, rich and pure. But with the occurrence of rampant global challenges like pandemic poverty, diseases, conflicts, restoring peace etc., their hollow tom-tom and claptrap has been punctured through and ripped apart. The recent case in point being the emergence of the pandemic Novel CoViD-19, which has literally denuded and exposed the so-called Superpower developed states vis-à-vis their preparedness and anticipation for such diseases, let alone finding antidotes for them. With great power comes great responsibility but sadly speaking, these big powers failed in being responsible in terms of trying to contribute for the solution of the global challenges mentioned just above. These powers still hold the world hostage by keeping nations like Iran (one of the worst hit nations with Covid-19) under the iron-fist of economic sanctions rather than converging on one table to fight out this conundrum unitedly. Even China (the epicentre of this Virus) could not succeed in containing it within its borders and was thoroughly exposed despite its strong economic base. Various doctors and health workers either died or were badly affected due to the deadly Virus while engaging with the Covid-19 patients, thus exposing their healthcare and preparedness for dealing and tackling such novel emergencies.

If we closely analyse the global response to Covid-19 scenario, it was largely hysterical, panicky and desperate as the entire world was caught napping and clueless. The bogus and sham claims at ultra-development and progress in science and technology have been miserably found wanting. The reasons simply being the misplaced and misdirected priorities and targets. We have directed and controlled all our energy and resources (both natural and human) towards manufacturing those things that ultimately are used and meant for destroying man and nature. The irony gets accentuated in today’s largely global and cosmopolitan world as the invention of an atomic bomb or launching of a strong missile by one nation to defend itself against its ‘enemy’ is celebrated and glorified, while as no one is bothered about fighting the common enemies like poverty, diseases and the current pandemic Covid-19 which has literally left the entire world clueless and helpless and at God’s mercy. The powerful nations would pride themselves and their people on the false notion that they are quite strong and invincible just because they have the nukes and strong technology, thus breeding a sense of complacency and self-satisfaction among them. But the reality is far removed from such notions as the nuclear stuff and technology fell flat in front of this novel virus in the mighty nations like China, Italy, America, Spain, Iran etc. You cannot buy antidotes to such diseases by selling or using your nukes. Most of the powerful nations keep fat/ lion’s share for the military or defence sector in the annual budgets at the cost of the most important sectors like Health and Education.

This virus is spreading drastically since its emergence in November, 2019 in Wuhan, China and has engulfed the entire world. Various experts in the field of Virology have hinted that a strong Covid-19 antidote can be developed in around one or one-and-a-half year; thus again exposing the real state of affairs in our healthcare.

We should allocate a strong portion in the annual budgets to enhance and strengthen the Health and Education sectors in terms of the infrastructure and human resource. We should provide adequate protective gears to the doctors and the paramedics who are literally fighting the Covid-19 on the ground zero.

The P-5 and other strong powers must ensure a quick mutual consensus to prepare a decisive roadmap and mechanism to fight this deadly Virus and should also offer unconditional support and help to the vulnerable and weaker nations rather than blaming each other for the origin of the Virus. If at all we can draw any positives from this devastating scenario which developed in wake of the Covid-19 is that it gave us a time to introspect and realise our collective weaknesses and limitations. It also should help us develop a sense of unity as this deadly Virus does not differentiate between a rich and a poor. Therefore, our reaction and response should also be inclusive and empathetic. Solutions can’t be found or imposed by mere clapping and banging utensils or Ostrich-like ignoring behaviour instead of fighting the real causes and their effects.

Is it not a dichotomous reality that there is a bizarre and absurd trend on global level of constructing or erecting pompous and useless white elephants from the public exchequer while ignoring or side-lining the millions living below poverty line in slums and without shelter? We must remember it is these people who are most vulnerable to any contagious or communicable disease like Covid-19. So, instead of squandering billions of dollars on false shows, we should take the cue from Covid-19 and devise proper and targeted welfare mechanism with utmost thrust on health and hygiene of the marginalised sections.

Since a proper antidote to Covid-19 is still a far cry and it needs no formal attestation from the White House, so we should focus on the preventive dos and don’ts. We should push our egos to the back seat for a while and behave responsibly by contributing for the safety of humanity. Since the Virus is declared as pandemic and world-wide phenomenon, we should respond in the same language by uniting together against it, cutting across the physical and mental barriers of nationalism, regionalism, ethnicity, racism etc. to be one world fighting and defeating the common enemy.

The History of Bioweapons And Why Coronavirus Isn’t One

Kabir Deb

Humans have always been the masterminds of what doesn’t belong to humankind just to satisfy innate desires of being superior to the other. Wars have been created not to dismantle other nations, but to showcase their superiority. The subsequent development of science has led to the invention of modern weapons for better warfare. It rose from picking up guns and bombs to squeezing out information. Between guns and information, the one weapon that made its own name is a bio weapon or biological weapon. From the time of the epics, bioweapons have been the major reason of fear among the masses. Its history tells us how it became the reason for more deaths than even a nuclear bomb. They remain in the form of poison or in the form of tiny microbes. Most of them require a host to survive, since in several instances, it has been seen that fungi and bacteria have given moderate results. The question comes, when did it originate and how did it reach so high in weapon textbooks even after the presence of political diplomacy.

To know that we must dive into the history of bio weapons and who normally used it on whom because the target matters a lot for the ones who deploy such weapons.

Europe has been the place from where the primitive bioweapon originated. To be more precise, Eurasia with its population of Scythians used snakes on a large scale population, remains of dead corpses to contaminate the water of the enemy land. You need to take out Homer’s Iliad and other epics of Greek and Roman literature to understand that the bioweapons were just not microbes, but they were juices of venomous plants, dead remains of animals, and in some cases, acids of ants.

The history of Italy too is filled with bioweapons. The same Italy which is today suffering from this deadly outbreak, once used to control a whole bio weapon factory. In the battle to conquer Ethiopia, the kings of Southern Europe just like Barbarossa used extracts from the dead bodies to poison water bodies leading to the initiation of a major outbreak which formed a plague conjuring one third of Africa.

The Czars of Russia too, dismantled the European nations by extracting fluid off the bodies disposed of in a plague run area and then deploying it over nations like Sweden. In many cases, they used potent antibiotics as a major bait to earn huge sums of money. Modern Europe today boasts of diplomacy, but the rightists of old Europe were the main masterminds of bioweapons.

The book of the Native Americans documents their dreadful past that came in the hands of the British. Jeffrey Amherst, commander of then the United Kingdom army was a staunch believer of the Church and used to follow the wrath of the God on those who do not obey him. Under his instruction, the British army deployed a small pox strain right over the land of the Native Americans leading to the death of lakhs. He advocated that it was much needed to conquer America. He was knighted after he successfully killed the people to conquer America. He also won against Napoleon by deploying a major biological weapon over France.

Germany under Wilhelm I used bioweapons to start a plague in Russia. Thousands were killed and that was the vital event that shook the ground of politics in World War 1. Hitler used bioweapons to tackle the Jews. Superpowers became allies because of the presence of bioweapons on both sides. It cultured the area of fear among the masses and the governments of smaller countries to automatically surrender.

Japan, to defeat the superpowers in World War II, started to experiment on smaller countries of China with strains of microbes causing anthrax, syphilis, smallpox etc. They started a plague killing thousands in China just to establish power over the allied forces.

Today the United States speaks that China may have deployed the Coronavirus over the world. But US needs to remember its history first because the US leaders first took charge to release botulinum and anthrax if Germany attacks America. In the Middle East, countries planted bioweapons on each other to showcase power and superiority.

So, history tells us that the bioweapons that have been either tested or deployed on a location belong to rich and powerful countries. Another interesting thing is that in all these countries the establishment either believed in spreading monarchy or it simply used to follow the idea of reigning on other nations. Right after the outbreak of Coronavirus, people have started bashing China as the country to have deployed a biological weapon. But I think they might have forgotten that China has signed a peace treaty to not deploy or test any kind of biological weapon. The Geneva Protocol of 1925 was signed by 108 nations. This was the first multilateral agreement that extended prohibition of chemical agents to biological agents. So there’s a chance that it might have been released from any laboratory due to a biological test but this narrative fails too. Let’s go to the basics of outbreaks from the past:

The novel strain of Ebola was thought to be the work of America to dismantle Africa. But after vital research it has been found that the Ebola strains have evolved with time and their structures have changed to better insert in a vector (carrier) to travel the world.

The H1N1 virus too was thought to be the work of China, but the narrative badly failed when researchers found that the strain has been present for hundreds of years, but due to the evolution of a flank DNA, it became much more effective in transfusing with the host.

Chicken pox killed almost half of France in the 1800s. It led to a massive economic fall across Europe. The French Government doubted that it might have been Britain to do so. But later it was found that a sailor traveled from South Asia in a ship, which infected the crew and led to this major outbreak.

Take for example, Cholera. A Portugese came with the strain in his body and infected the whole country. Cholera killed more than 60 million people in our nation. One must understand that a microbe evolves faster than any other species. It has a much higher doubling time and can better equip with the changing environment.

The Coronavirus strain was not the first virus of its family. For the very first time in 2007, three Chinese scientists started experimenting on the virus to figure out the characteristics of the virus. Its peculiar structure made it hard for the researchers to culture any type of vaccine. Never in the history of bioweapon warfare, a country has killed its own people to test a weapon. Never. The virus had a carrier in the market of Wuhan. The strain is a novel strain and when a country deploys a bio weapon, it prepares a vaccine first. China doesn’t have any kind of vaccine and so it has kept its infected people in quarantine. It has used harsh measures to take people in isolation. How many instances can you present to me where a country has done such stupidity?

One should understand the history of biowars and before that people should read the history of outbreaks. We stand in an era of globalisation where every other country needs the other to develop. China isn’t a foolish country to commit such suicide. Ideological differences have always made countries blame each other. Rightists claim the leftist ideology pushes China to do such acts. There too one must dive inside history to see that those monarchs who released bioweapons in the past 500 years, each one of them followed the fundamental structure of the society: oppression, and all of them either followed the church or they believed in establishing subjugation.

So here one must understand that wars are not fought to establish ideologies. Rather they are fought to establish power. It is most unlikely now that a major strong country would deploy any kind of nuclear weapon or bioweapon. In today’s world these are used as defensive measures. A single bioweapon or nuclear missile could be the death sentence of that country’s governance. Everyday more than a million microbes evolve into a new structure. Some we are immune to, others cause outbreak. More people died of diabetes and obesity in all these years than bioweapons. So, they’re investing their poison as food and drinks. They do not need any other weapon to do anything else. Superpowers can crush the economy of third world countries in minutes. So, it would be a great mistake to think that the strain was used as a bioweapon. To be precise, it won’t be rational by any means.

COVID-19: Misinformation, Education And The Need For Clarity

Hassanal Noor Rashid

The recent explosion of COVID-19 cases in the South East Asian region has contributed to the globally growing pandemic that has impacted our global social order and may have many dramatic unforeseen consequences to come

It has exposed the fragility of our dynamic inter-connected systems, the lack of adequate response from world leaders in an aggressively deteriorating situation, and perhaps worst of all, the apathy and ignorance of a significant segment of the global population to the severity of the pandemic.

It is not necessary to re-cap here on the origins of the COVID-19 virus. Beginning in China, the virus ultimately found its’ way to West Asia, South East Asia, Australia, Europe (which has been the worst hit to date, even surpassing China is some respects) and ultimately America. The danger it presents is undisputable, especially to the most vulnerable of us.

Governments have issued various controls to help contain the spread of the virus, but has had limited success.  The virus infection rates still continue to rise as medical infrastructures are now being strained, with a frightening prospect that when overburdened, the death tolls will begin to rise, much like the case of Italy

But why is the spread of the virus still increasing and the situation still deteriorating?

A lot has to do with the continuous movement of people who are spreading the virus around and abroad, despite movement control orders that have been issued to curb and control such movements.

France and the United States of America still see mass gatherings occurring.  Italy before the pandemic crippled the country had a lax attitude towards the severity of the disease and disregarded the government’s advice to maintain social distancing. This is also happening in South East Asia with the recent Muslim Tabligh gathering in Malaysia, with an estimated 12, to 16 thousand people attending. This particular incident was one of the catalysts for the recent spike in Covid-19 cases in Malaysia and South East Asia.

Is this incident the fault of an apathetic populace or a group that is inanely selfish as to put the lives of others at risk for their own pursuits?

Not entirely.

While it is true that there were many who were more adamant about attending such gatherings, rather than obeying the movement control orders out of some misplaced notion of religiosity, individualism or human rights, the truth is many were also not aware of the severity of the virus’s impact upon the larger community, because of ignorance, or having been taken in by half-truths and fiction from various sources that had spread false information and “fake news”.

Information, that emphasizes the allegedly low death rates associated with of the virus; that the virus only survives in certain climates; that it is no worse than the common cold; and even the latest on how the virus can be treated with simply drinking warm water to flush out the virus from one’s system, have all contributed towards prevailing misunderstandings and misconceptions about Covid-19.

This illustrates one of the greatest ironies of our times, in that social media, while it has enabled us to become more connected and informed, has also allowed for such fallacies to spread and pollute discourse and thus  affect policy and decision-making.

And the bureaucracy of the larger governments, slow-moving as is their nature, were not quick enough in many instances, to address the rumors and misinformation in an effective manner. By the time they acted, the virus had spread to such a degree, that lockdown and containments were the only drastic options left.

Many of the falsities are still being propagated to this day with some members of the elite classes and “well-learned” members of the public still defying movement controls and arguing technicalities over the directive.

Governments need to play a more dynamic role in the face of this crisis, but they  also need to draw a lesson from this crisis as well, that education of the population, clear directions and communications are also important to manage a crisis such as this.

Liberties are important in times of peace, but a clear leadership is needed in times of crisis.

There has been a lot of slow and overly cautious response from the governments and not enough pro-active decision making. People have been stricken by the disease because of all the misinformation, lack of education on the situation, and poor forms of governance in managing it.

Should there be a much larger threat looming on the horizon, far worse than COVID-19, given our current handling of the crisis, it is truly doubtful we could manage the next one at all.

However, with all the gloom that has been addressed, the ray of hope that can be gleaned is the willingness of so many people to stand vigilant against wrongdoings and misinformation.

The dedication and proactiveness of the medical community who argue against such misinformation, while serving on the frontlines to battle the disease is commendable.

The police and law enforcement personnel who are out there enforcing the movement control order putting themselves at risk to help the community retain a semblance of order also deserve our accolades.

The people who continuously reach out to educate others of the disease and of the important steps to take in managing it, while calling out those who continue to disregard the severity of the situation, are also doing a commendable job.

All these groups and others I have not highlighted could play a constructive role, once the crisis is over. They could help Malaysia and the world to be better, stronger and wiser.

Nepal declares one-week coronavirus lockdown

Rohantha De Silva

The Nepalese government has declared a one-week lockdown of the country after health authorities detected a second COVID-19 infection on Monday. The 19-year-old student who returned from Paris, via Qatar, last week is currently being treated at the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Diseases Hospital in Kathmandu. Her family is being kept in home isolation. The first coronavirus infection in Nepal—a student returning from China—was detected in January.

The defence ministry said the lockdown, which began yesterday, would be a “strict stay-at-home order” and curfew. All government offices, businesses and shops are closed with international and domestic flights and public transport shut down. The hardest hit will be daily wage earners. Already, 1.5 million people, many of them workers, have left Kathmandu, the capital, for their homes in rural districts.

The government has now sealed the country’s 1,800-kilometre border with India. The landlocked country’s main entry-exist points are with India and recently established transit points to China. A week ago, cross-border movements were partially restricted. Hundreds of Nepalese previously blocked at Indian border crossings were allowed to return home on Monday, a day before the curfew began, after taking a temperature test.

Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and his so-called Left Alliance government have been denounced in the national media for failing to take adequate precautionary measures over coronavirus or to provide health workers with sufficient supplies of personal protective equipment, face masks and caps or training.

On Monday, the Nepali Times said that most public health experts were “convinced” that there were infected people in the country and reported that there had been a “lack of preventive measures and diagnostic tests until this week.”

The Kathmandu Post noted on March 20 that health workers panicked and burst into tears when a person suspected of contracting COVID-19 visited the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital. A few days later, doctors and nurses at the Tribhuvan University (TU) Teaching Hospital threatened to stop attending work if they were not provided with proper protection.

At Sumeru Hospital in Lalitpur, over 20 workers, including nurses and doctors, applied for leave on Saturday. “The number of staffers applying for leave has been rising by the day,” Hemraj Dahal, the hospital’s chairman, told the Post. “It’s not difficult to guess the reason. Health workers fear that the coronavirus could spread.”

Nurses, lab technicians and other health workers also applied for leave last week at Green City Hospital in Basundhara. “We’ve been sewing our own cloth masks to use in the hospital,” manager Manish Dawadi told the newspaper.

Dr. Subhash Prasad Acharya, head of critical care at the TU Teaching Hospital, said: “It would be disastrous to compel them to attend to such patients without providing them with safety training and equipment.”

Government officials and health authorities have attempted to downplay the coronavirus dangers and their inaction.

COVID-19 has so far killed over 17,000 people and infected more than 400,000 globally, but Department of Health Services director-general Mahendra Prasad Shrestha claimed no special training was required. “It is impossible to impart [new knowledge] to all health workers whenever new diseases emerge,” he declared, claiming that this was only necessary for “those involved in critical care.”

The National Public Health Laboratory is currently the only facility in Nepal able to test for coronavirus. Laboratory director Dr. Runa Jha told the media that it was only equipped to test 500 coronavirus cases per week. This could be increased to 3,000 cases, he said, if adequate human resources, proper infrastructure and chemical reagents were provided.

The laboratory’s chief medical technologist admitted that the facility had been using only 1,000 testing kits provided by the WHO. Authorities had requested 5,000 more kits but they had not arrived.

The Nepali government currently does not have any plan to conduct tests at other locations, let alone provide proper health care for those infected.

The Himalayan Times noted: “The government has this indifferent attitude at a time when the South Korean experience tells that containing the spread of the virus could be a tough nut to crack.”

Although mass testing for coronavirus, quarantining and treatment of those infected should be the immediate response to this deadly disease, those reporting coughs, fever and other symptoms are being turned away in Nepal because of meager resources. Dr. Sundar Mani Dixit told the media on March 17 that three patients he referred to the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital were not tested. His patients had just returned from overseas.

The government’s main concern, however, is not the health and safety of medical professionals and ordinary people, but the impact of the lockdown on the tourist business which employs 1.5 million and provides the government with $US2 billion in annual revenue. While thousands of people in the tourist industry will lose their jobs, the government has not announced any relief program for these workers and their families.

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in Asia with around 50 percent of children up to five years old suffering acute malnutrition. A quarter of its 29 million-strong population lives on less than 35 rupees ($0.29) a day and 66 percent of all deaths in the country are the result of non-communicable diseases.

Nepal has the second worst rates of deaths from lung disease in the world, with 101 per 100,000 dying from lung ailments every year, including around 70,000 people infected with tuberculosis.

The criminal, grossly inadequate response of the Nepali government to COVID-19 guarantees that tens of thousands of people will die from this highly contagious disease.