Covid Lectures Part 6: The Injustice and Violence of Lockdown
Part 6: The Injustice and Violence of Lockdown
Suranya Aiyar
6.1 Do the Math: Covid-19 Hurt the Rich, Containment Hurt the Poor
Disease containment is presented to us not merely as a scientific imperative, but also as a moral one. The reasoning goes that if we do not contain the disease, then not only will it spread to make more people sick, but those who are poor, and countries that are poor, will have more among them falling ill, owing to population density, and more of these ill people will die owing to their own general poverty-related ill-health, and the lack of hospital infrastructure to treat them. This is well-meant, and public health experts and community advocates for poor and marginalized groups repeatedly make this point. In India and Brazil, right from the start, it has been anticipated that people in slums and favelas would be the hardest hit by Covid-19. But that is not quite how things turned out.
Jair Bolsonaro, the President of Brazil, who has resisted lockdown on principle, was widely criticized for not caring for the favelas, which it was said, would surely see the worst of a Covid outbreak. But what we need to understand about Brazil, is that contrary to the popular belief that it had no lockdown, in fact state governors did impose lockdown. Bolsonaro was critical of these measures, but as President he did not have the power to stop them. 25 of his 27 state governors went against his preferred course of less stringent measures, and began imposing containment measures, including calls for people to stay-at-home, restrictions on public gatherings and the closure of schools from around March 17, a week before India’s lockdown. By March 24th, non-essential businesses and quarantine were imposed in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, among other places (73).
But despite two months of lockdown, cases in Brazil had grown from around 2000 on March 23, to over 1 lakh by early May, with Sao Paulo accounting for about 30 percent of the total cases, and Rio de Janeiro for about 11 percent. But hardly any of this came from the favelas. The city of Rio De Janeiro has 1000 favelas, in which about a quarter of the city’s population is said to be living (74). But the outbreak in Rio started in the richest and most exclusive parts of the city
By early June, although cases nationwide in Brazil had crossed 7 lakh, and reached over 36, 000 cases and 4500 deaths in Rio de Janeiro city, the Covid outbreak in Rio’s favela’s, even assuming significant underreporting, was relatively low (77). Voz da Comunidade, a well-known favela-advocacy group, which is tabulating Covid-19 data for favelas, reported a total of 1696 cases and 379 deaths from 15 of the city’s main favelas in early June (78). Of these, 284 cases and 60 deaths were reported in early June by this publication for Rocinha, which is said to be Brazil’s most populous favela. A month later, in early July, Voz da Comunidade the cases had grown by less than a thousand reported 2357 cases and 469 deaths from Covid-19 in these favelas, while the city’s case count had grown to over 1 lakh cases (7% of the national case count).
In early July when cases had doubled over the previous month in Brazil, news reports from Sao Paulo, now at over 3 lakh cases representing 20% of the national Covid case count, still said that favela residents had been spared any major outbreak so far (80).
The favela numbers may well explode in the future, but it is worth looking into why they have not yet done so, despite the congested living conditions, which, according to research, results in people spending 50% more time per day in contact with others than those living in richer areas (79).
A similar story is heard from slums in other parts of the world. Bangladesh’s Rajbari district, that houses the Daulatdia slum, which is also one of the world’s biggest brothels, had, by early July, only 457 cases as against national figures of over 1.5 lakh cases (App-E). Daulatdia was ordered to be shut down on March 20th, when Bangladesh had around 14 Covid-19 cases.
India is said to have 2613 towns and cities with slums and unauthorized colonies (congested ghettoes) housing over 6.5 crore people (2011 Census). But while Covid-19 cases began appearing steadily in India from the second half of March (and had been appearing sporadically since January), it was, till early June, still not a predominantly slum disease. By the end of May, Mumbai, which has been a major hotspot in India’s outbreak, had over 39,000 cases (85). But less than 2000 of these cases were in Dharavi, which is said to be Asia’s largest slum and to have anywhere between 8.75 lakh to 10 lakh residents, in an area of 2.5 square kilometres. And these Dharavi case numbers were based on the screening of nearly half the residents of Dharavi by the third week of May, (86).
During April-May, the Indian newspapers tended to talk up the extent of the outbreak in Dharavi but in fact, as in Rio and Sao Paulo, Covid-19 first came to the richer parts of Mumbai. In late March, it was the well-off G South Ward of Mumbai that had the most cases. A resident of Malabar Hills, Mumbai’s most exclusive locality, who caught Covid-19 in London was among the first cases in Maharashtra. Another early case came from Scotland to Pune, another city in Maharashtra (81). In the second week of March, cases in Maharashtra were traced to the USA, Dubai, Russia, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, France and the Netherlands. In Mumbai, most of the early cases were traced to the USA.
Cases began to appear in Dharavi only in April, when there were already 300 cases in Maharashtra, of which nearly 200 were in Mumbai and 1600 overall in India (82). At this time it was reported that there were more Covid-19 cases in Mumbai’s “upscale areas of Malabar Hills, Peddar Road, Worli and Dadar” (83). Six weeks after lockdown, at the end of April, Mumbai had over 6600 cases of which Dharavi had 344 (84). In early June, Dharavi, Dadar and Mahim - all these are slum and low-income areas in the G-North Ward of Mumbai - just under about 3000 cases. But at the same time, Mumbai’s upscale localities in which super-rich neighbourhoods such as Malabar Hills, Worli and Versova are located, had between about 1000 to 2000 cases each. In Mumbai's M East Ward, which has a population of 12 lakh, comprising lower income areas like Govandi, Shivaji Nagar and Mankurd, there were 1800 cases (85). So the distribution of cases was fairly uniform across these areas despite great disparities in relative wealth and population density. Cases in Dharavi fell to nil in the first week of June, and showed daily increases only in the single digits from about mid-June onwards, when there was a second wave of cases in Mumbai’s posh high-rise buildings. It was reported that of the then 379 new cases since the start of June, 320 were from the high rises (175). Coincidently (or not) this rise came weeks after India began to repatriate citizens from overseas who had been stranded abroad owing to the Covid crisis. By early July, over 28,000 people had been repatriated of which a third each were from Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra (176).
Cases rose dramatically in Mumbai in the month of June, more than doubling to over 80,000 cases by early July (177), but about 4200 of these were in Dharavi, Dadar and Mahim (178, 179). Of the over 4600 deaths from Covid-19 in Mumbai by early July, only 82 were from Dharavi (180). Incidentally, this is nearly a third of the Covid deaths and about a quarter of the cases in Norway, even though Norway has about the same to half the population of Dharavi (depending on how many migrant workers fled from Dharavi during the lockdown).
By early July cases began to rise in the northern wards of Mumbai and the lower-middle- to low-income areas in its southern wards (181). The pattern that emerges is not so much of the disease being driven by poverty and congestion, but of its coming into the richer areas of the city via international travel, spreading from there to the lower income areas, and then coming back to the city’s better off areas often via domestic help and drivers (182). So even though, in the end, the number of cases in slums and chawls might well be higher than in the better off areas of Mumbai, owing to the much larger number of people there, the relative rates and size of spread is not in proportion to the relative disparity in population density or wealth. By mid-June, it was reported that the rate of growth in Dharavi, at 1.5%, was half that of Mumbai city overall, at 3%, and the rate in the newly emerging hotspots of Mumbai’s northern wards was nearly double the city average at 5%
Data on Covid in Chennai, Delhi and Hyderabad, is not yet being released on a neighbourhood basis, so it is not possible at the moment to plot the picture of the disease here based on locality and income profile. But there is some indication of a much more complex dynamic, than the simple one of lessor wealth or infrastructure deciding the course of this disease. The district-wise data, in Delhi, for instance, shows a fairly broad distribution of cases between richer and poorer areas. Even assuming that the poorer pockets of these cities will eventually outpace its richer ones by wider margins, there is something to be understood in the relatively slow and small spread in these areas for all these months, even after the relaxation of lockdown, despite the congestion and poverty.
We seem to be missing something about the true nature of Covid-19 transmission, even though we so confidently set out to fight it by controlling transmission. Could it be that there is more robust immunity to infectious disease among people whose work involves hard labour, or who live in chronically unhygienic conditions? Favela activists are saying, that residents in their 70s, are recovering from Covid-like symptoms without medication or testing, and this is giving rise to a feeling that Covid might not be so serious a threat to favelas (87).
While it is laudable to be concerned that poorer parts of Mumbai, or any other place, should not be left behind in receiving care for Covid-19, there has been a blind spot about the disproportionate effect of containment measures on the poor. People living in big homes with access to gardens, community parks and wide lanes are nowhere near as confined under lockdown as a family of five in a one-room shanty. This is not merely a matter of convenience, but also of health. A news report in the Indian Express from Dharavi in late May says: “Almost everyone who has lived in Dharavi for a few years agrees that it should have been obvious from the start that a ‘lockdown’ would worsen the epidemiological disaster that is a Mumbai slum colony. Already living in unsanitary conditions, sharing toilets, the forced sequestering imperilled people further” (26). Essential supplies got disrupted; for example, in Chilla Village in East Delhi, the water supply reduced to only once in four days (88). These are not problems in well-serviced higher income localities.
The degree of surveillance and police presence to which slums in Delhi were subjected was much greater than for the rest of the city. Drones were deployed in Dharavi, I am not aware of them having been used in Malabar Hills. The official policy of the Mumbai municipal authorities was to seal entire slums and place police on guard when cases were found there. But in the city’s better-off areas, containment was limited to individual buildings, or even to single floors within a building and it was left to the building society to self-police for containment
In South Africa, which called out its army as well as its police to implement containment measures, videos of brutal police action in poor, black neighbourhoods surfaced on social media within days of lockdown (89, 28). People pointed out how the police would beat up lockdown violators in black neighbourhoods, while negotiating with people in white ones (90).United Nations Human Rights officials reported that the South African police used tear gas and water bombs to enforce social distancing “especially in poor neighbourhoods”
'Residents in Hillbrow’s crowded apartment buildings watched this police brutality unfold from their buildings and would jeer whenever the policemen got out of their vehicles'
An early victim of disease policing in South Africa was the poor and densely populated Johannesburg suburb of Hillbrow. The papers reported that police with sjamboks (heavy whips made of hippopotamus or rhinoceros hide or plastic) would leap out of their cars to whip and chase civilians found out in the open. One report from South Africa’s Mail & Guardian tellingly describes the feelings of the Hillbrow residents to these measures: “Residents in Hillbrow’s crowded apartment buildings watched this police brutality unfold from their buildings and would jeer whenever the policemen got out of their vehicles”; “Many residents we spoke to felt they were on the receiving end of an excessive and unfair response by the state to the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic”. One resident is reported to have said, “if the cops find you standing, keep on talking, doing anything, they give you the sjambok…I don’t think it’s okay for the police to kick anyone, it’s not good”
As in India’s slums, stay-at-home orders in South Africa were not just oppressive, but also unhealthy considering the living conditions in its low-income localities. The Mail & Guardian report describes how apartment buildings in Hillbrow were densely packed “with people who would normally be at work at this time of day”. Tanya Zack, an urban planner in Johannesburg who was interviewed for the report says, “It is impossibly difficult to practice social distancing in circumstances where many people may share a single room and where every room is occupied…..These are situations in which people’s only access to space and fresh air may be outdoors….Denying access to any public space at all may have the unintended consequence of confining residents of Hillbrow to unbearable and extremely unsafe conditions”
Staying at home has very different implications for the rich and the poor.
Staying at home has very different implications for the rich and the poor. This was well expressed by a favela activist, Celso Athayde who said that while some can stay in the comfort of their homes with the fridge full, doing office-from-home, there are millions of Brazilians who are self-employed and with the “fridge empty”. Celso Athayde is the founder of favela-advocacy group, Central Unica das Favelas, in Rio de Janeiro. In late March when lockdown was being discussed in Brazil, a spot survey carried out by Data Favela Institute (of which Athayde is co-founder) showed that overwhelmingly people were concerned about the impact on their earnings of containment measures (94).
In Kenya, the familiar pattern was repeated of the poor being at the receiving end of mandatory containment measures, both from law enforcement and hunger. An Al Jazeera report from early April describes how informal workers like street hawkers and meat vendors disproportionately bore the brunt of Covid-19 curfew: “forcing people to be home by 7 pm significantly reduces working hours for those selling goods from roadside stands and outdoor markets, further exacerbating the economic hardship brought on by the coronavirus.
“Street vendors and workers with long commutes – some of the poorest and most vulnerable groups in Nairobi – are the ones most at risk of being caught outside and punished by the police.”
A local meat vendor is reported to say, “If you defend against corona[virus] this way, many people will die of hunger” (109).
6.2 India's Lockdown-Induced Migrant Labour Crisis
In Mumbai and Pune, when a shut-down of non-essential services was announced in March, their migrant worker population thronged train stations in the tens of thousands, desperate to get home. Most of them were daily wagers and the lockdown immediately cut them off from the means to eat and live. Construction labourers who would just camp out on building sites, now had nowhere to stay. “Asa hi maran aahe, tasa hi” a migrant worker in the crowd is reported to have said; “We will die this way, or that way” (95).
Similar scenes were reported from New Delhi’s Anand Vihar Bus Terminal, a week after its lockdown, where massive crowds of workers gathered to try and catch a bus home to their villages in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. They said they had no money or food left (96). “What corona? My children are hungry, they have walked from Gurugram [a distance of 40 kilometres that Google Maps says takes over 8 hours by foot] with me, do you think corona is what I fear?” said a labourer in the crowd (97).
With their meagre possessions in gunny bags balanced on their heads, either barefoot or in thin chappals, holding their children by the hand, migrant workers streamed out of the cities in a passionate bid to somehow get to their villages and families, far away from the city that had suddenly lost its mind. This meant a walk of several days, with nothing but tea and a little rice with salt to sustain them, starting with hundreds of kilometres on the city highways, over open roads that were already steaming in the early summer heat. Highways are not meant for walking. They have no pavements, no shelter, not a tree in sight for miles. There is nothing to give even a moment’s relief from the blistering summer sun
It is difficult to express in words the extremes to which migrant labourers were put by lockdown. With their meagre possessions in gunny bags balanced on their heads, either barefoot or in thin chappals, holding their children by the hand, migrant workers streamed out of the cities in a passionate bid to somehow get to their villages and families, far away from the city that had suddenly lost its mind. This meant a walk of several days, with nothing but tea and a little rice with salt to sustain them, starting with hundreds of kilometres on the city highways, over open roads that were already steaming in the early summer heat. Highways are not meant for walking. They have no pavements, no shelter, not a tree in sight for miles. There is nothing to give even a moment’s relief from the blistering summer sun
Some of the walking labourers were mere boys of 14 and 15. Braving life in the city all by themselves they had quickly grown older than their years. They had transformed from boys into men while shouldering the financial responsibility for their parents and siblings back home. But when they were interviewed by television reporters who asked why they were leaving, they suddenly became children again. One simply stood still and wept; he was just a boy now, who wanted to get back to his mother.
As lockdown stretched on and on in India into May, and more and more migrant labour families were forced to leave the cities, we witnessed pregnant women among the thousands walking home. Cradling their swollen bellies at seven- and eight- months pregnant, lockdown had forced these women to take to the road on foot in temperatures now touching 40 degrees Celsius. There were reports of women giving birth on the side of the highway on saris and sheets spread out by their fellow travellers, and getting up hours after delivering their babies, to continue the walk home.
Usually these labourers would go home laden with clothes and presents for their families, but now they were putting all their savings into hitching a ride on trucks and oil tankers to get home. Some of these labourers had had to write home for the money to make the trip. A black market opened where people were paying as much as the fare of a budget air ticket to get back home crammed into these trucks. Some set off for home on cycles bought at several times the market price (100). This was how loss-upon-loss of every kind was piled on their heads by lockdown.
As it grew hotter, the walking labourers began to collapse on the roadside from heatstroke (101). Others, including children, died of hunger and exhaustion on the way.
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It is completely wrong to see this suffering as a straightforward matter of better managing the lockdown. While migrant labour was jamming trains and bus stations to get a ride home, the editorial pages of newspapers in India were jammed with expert opinion on how lockdown could have been better managed. Certainly, India’s lockdown, announced with no prior notice and no arrangement for the supply of essential goods and services, was probably the most reckless and ill-planned in the world. Absolutely no one had anticipated the migrant labour crisis. But it is flying in the face of reality to assume that living for weeks and months on rice and dal in a government-sponsored camp, even if these had been provided for, was a practical, realistic or humane option for these migrant workers. “What am I here for, if I cannot earn” was the common refrain. People hid in milk tankers to get away (102). Stopping work did not simply leave these people without means, it took away the reason for their presence in the city, away from their beloved families and native soil. Lockdown was more than an economic disruption for them, it shattered the very reason for enduring the squalor and deprivation of their lives in the city.
Stopping work did not simply leave these people without means, it took away the reason for their presence in the cities, away from their beloved families and native soil. Lockdown was more than an economic disruption for them, it shattered the very reason for enduring the squalor and deprivation of their lives in the city.
Even when the government made provisions, people were not able to access them. Walking home from Delhi on the Noida-Agra Expressway daily wagers said they had had to leave as their employers had told them that they would not be paid until lockdown was over. They said they had no ration cards and so they would not have been able to avail of government rations if they had stayed on in the city (98). In Brazil, favela activists also spoke about how residents were unable to avail of government stipends, as they did not have the required identity documents (103). There were slum dwellers from all around India who reported that government rations never found their way to them. This is not a problem of lockdown management, it is a problem of lockdown in and of itself. Slums and favelas are made up of undocumented migrants living below the radar of the city authorities. No one really knows exactly how many of them there are. The lack of organization and paperwork is not an aberration to be fixed, but is integral to the presence and survival of these people in the city.
The lack of organization and paperwork is not an aberration to be fixed, but is integral to the presence and survival of these people in the city.
Measures are taken in the name of the poor without engaging with them or understanding their attitude to disease. People in slums and favelas tough it out everyday in poor and unhealthy conditions. In India, every disease known to man festers in its slums. Afterall, they come up next to garbage dumps and over canals fetid with the waste of the entire city. The poor are not unscientific in their approach to the threat of disease, they have simply learnt to live with it. When we, in India, began opening up from lockdown in May, Covid-19 was not a fraction less lethal or contagious than it was before, we had just arrived psychologically to a place where the poor have always been.
In mid-June, when the Covid cases exploded in India in numbers that were higher by the lakhs from the few hundred when we had locked down in March, we persisted in the project of “unlock”. Why? We had learnt the lesson of the futility of lockdown. A lesson learnt on the backs of the suffering of the poor. This disease is going to make its way through our population one way or the other. Had we remained unlocked, with a cluster containment strategy as we now have, we would at least have avoided the damage to from lockdown.
The poor are not unscientific in their approach to the threat of disease, they have simply learnt to live with it. When we began opening up from lockdown in May in India, Covid-19 was not a fraction less lethal or contagious than it was before, we had just arrived psychologically to a place where the poor have always been. In mid-June, when the Covid numbers exploded in India in numbers that were higher by the lakhs from the few hundred when we locked down in March, we persisted in the project of “unlock”. We had learnt the lesson of the futility of lockdown on the backs of the suffering of the poor. This disease is going to make its way through our population one way or the other. Had we remained unlocked, with a cluster containment strategy as we now have, we would at least have avoided the damage to from lockdown.
What makes the containment approach even more questionable, is that despite all the hardship that it imposed, the cases relentlessly grew and grew. As the cases grew, so did the damage caused by lockdown. Favela-activist Rene Silva said that the population of
6.3 Disease Containment as Killer and Kill-Joy
In June, after two and a half months of social distancing, some young favela-dwellers in Rio seemed to have been keen to get back to life again. There were reports of so-called “funk dances” being held, and of establishments re-opening. Conscientious community activists like Rene Silva zealously went around telling people not to have their dances, warning that such events would be “bad for everyone”. You can’t help feeling sorry for the young favella-dwellers with itchy feet after weeks of lockdown that seems not to have stopped the rise of Covid-19 anyway (106). It seems a bit unfair for them to have to remain under an endless ban from socialising, considering that Covid-19 spread among the rich folk of Rio as they met in their exclusive clubs (75); and, as Rene Silva and others, like District Health Counsellor Maria Braga are reported to have said, even without balls, social distancing is difficult for people living in the small and crowded dwellings of the favelas (107).
There is something more than a little patronizing in saying that people who choose to go ahead with praying or partying “don’t know better”, and need to be guided by their betters in the community. Maybe they were wiser and better than those who followed the hollow gospel of lockdown.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan, was severely criticized for allowing people to attend prayers in the mosques during Ramzan. This was seen as irresponsible, or somehow pandering to the religious orthodox in Pakistan. But he said, very humanely, that he could not bring himself to arrest people for wanting to go to the mosque to pray. Moreover, they went of their own volition and took precautions. There is something more than a little patronizing in saying that people who choose to go ahead with praying or partying “don’t know better”, and need to be guided by their betters in the community. Maybe they were wiser and better than those who followed the hollow gospel of lockdown.
As in the case of the funk dances of Brazil’s favelas, authorities in South Africa found it hard to stop people in the poor, and, significantly, black townships from socializing. Apparently there were many cases of “backyarding” where two or three men would get together for a beer in backyards of their own homes. Surely, this poses a minimal public health threat, especially to better off South Africans drinking beer in the privacy of their villas. But public health enforcement as party-pooper took its ugliest turn here with people actually being killed by the police for backyarding (110). South Africa’s Police Minister Bheki Cele had reportedly given orders not to “be nice” to people suspected of breaching lockdown (111). In Alexandra, soldiers stormed a man’s house after claiming to have spotted him having a beer with a friend in his backyard. They beat him up so brutally, that he died three hours later (112). In another poor, black locality called Vosloorus, a man was shot dead by police when chased into the veranda of his own home from a neighbour’s house, where the police claimed beer was being sold. Children of his household aged 5, 6 and 11 years were injured in the shootout.
In France, the enforcement of lockdown exacerbated tensions with the police in the low-income districts surrounding Paris. These districts have large numbers of residents of African origin. A few days into the lockdown, videos came out on social media of heavy-handed police arrests of people out in the open in these areas. People on social media commented that the same harsh approach would not have been taken in the better off areas of Paris. Things deteriorated to the point where there was rioting in many of these localities. The police claimed that encounters in these areas were owing to trouble with drug gangs whose activities were being interrupted by the lockdown. The French Interior Minister dug in saying the rioters would not deter the enforcement of the lockdown (113). It looked very much like a case of the authorities using lockdown to settle old scores. The situation got so bad that a petition was taken out by a number of human rights and Muslim community-advocacy groups, including Human Rights Watch, condemning these events (114).
6.4 Discrimination & Disease Control
In the USA, African-Americans were found to be faring much worse in the Covid-19 outbreak than White Americans. They were showing higher rates of mortality and in some cases also of infection. The state of Louisiana, which has a large black population that outnumbers whites in some cities, was an early Covid-19 hotspot in the USA. Many black activists and community voices were critical of the authorities for failing the black community in the Covid crisis. They said that owing to poverty and marginalization blacks in general had poorer health and lessor access to good medical services; and this was the reason Covid-19 disproportionately hurt their community.
Louisiana’s Covid-19 outbreak began in New Orleans, weeks after their famous Mardi Gras festival. Many of their initial cases were traced back to this festival, which was held in late February. The mayor of New Orleans said that the state could not blamed for having gone ahead with Mardi Gras, when the Federal Government itself was not taking Covid-19 seriously at the time (169). It is a fact that US President Donald Trump was among the world leaders who had scoffed at Covid-19 in February and early March.
It was said that many in the black community did not take social distancing, mask wearing and other containment measures seriously because the disease was perceived as not being a threat to them. If there was such a sense in black communities then there was some logic to it, as the rich international-jet-setters who brought Covid-19 to both the Americas, and, perhaps, also to the Mardi Gras which was attended by 1 million visitors from outside, were probably worlds apart from many of the black communities of Louisiana. There are reports of black doctors and activists being concerned about this from the start, and trying hard to persuade others in the community of the threat of Covid-19 (105).
But no one, of any race, was much concerned about Covid-19 at the time. Activists said that more should have been done to spread awareness of Covid-19 in black communities, and that government awareness campaigns should have included announcements that were specifically targeted at blacks. But officials said they were concerned that this would lead to stigmatisation (105). The initial approach of the authorities to not declare race-based data about Covid-19, was criticized for hiding the special vulnerability of the black community to the disease.
These concerns were correct. As soon as race-based data was released, it was clear that blacks were disproportionately affected in Covid-19 outbreaks in many places in the US. But we have to pause here to see the full implications of this line of argument, which essentially follows WHO-led public health thinking behind lockdown, which is that the poor and marginalised are especially vulnerable to disease as well as short on resources for treatment, and so containment measures are necessary, above all, to protect them (170). Imagine how it would have gone down if President Donald Trump, of all people, had suggested shutting down Mardi Gras in February because of some flu-like disease in far-off Wuhan.
It is foolish and dangerous to ask for already antagonised communities to take such severe and unprecedented self-inhibiting action at the word of authorities whom they do not trust, and who have let them down so often in the past. The explosion of the Black Lives Matters protests all across America in late May after the death of George Floyd while being arrested, shows the depths of racial tension in the USA. Versions of these tensions exist between different communities in all countries. The WHO and public health officials are demanding containment measures by assuming a trust and goodwill among the people, and between the people and the authorities that does not exist, and which has been betrayed over and over by majorities vis-Ã -vis minorities in society; not to mention the ever-present and universal phenomenon of government abuse and incompetence.
This is not to say that people would have been wrong not have heeded him, but to point out that it is foolish and dangerous to ask for already antagonised communities to take such severe and unprecedented self-inhibiting action at the word of authorities whom they do not trust, and who have let them down so often in the past. The explosion of the Black Lives Matters protests all across America in late May after the death of George Floyd while being arrested, shows the depths of racial tension in the USA. Versions of these tensions exist between different communities in all countries. The WHO and public health officials are demanding containment measures by assuming a trust and goodwill among the people, and between the people and the authorities that does not exist, and which has been betrayed over and over by majorities vis-Ã -vis minorities in society; not to mention the ever-present and universal phenomenon of government abuse and incompetence.
6.5 Nowhere to Hide
All this has to be weighed in the balance before choosing to take a containment strategy against disease in the name of saving the poor. The Indian Express report from the slums of Dharavi quoted earlier has the reporter accompanying social workers, known as “ASHA” workers, on a hunt for a family that had been snitched on by a neighbour for breaching quarantine. The public health administration is using ASHA workers who know the labyrinthine gulleys of Dharavi, to hunt the family down. All the slums and ghettoes of India are built around a maze of narrow gulleys. Ordinarily, they form an almost invulnerable shield over their residents, against even the most powerful of their counterparts in the city. “Anyone can hide for months without being found in our gulleys”, residents will tell you proudly. In normal times, they would be right. But Covid-19 has left the poor with nowhere to hide.
In Delhi, in late June, when the Central Government tried to impose mandatory institutional quarantine on everyone coming in contact with Covid positives, its decision was overturned within 24 hours by the Supreme Court. Compare that with the fate of the family in Dharavi, in the reporter’s own words (26): “the family insists it’s mistaken identity — nobody is sick. Eventually, it emerges that the neighbours had complained against the family for not completing quarantine after a contact was found positive.
“Tempers run high briefly as the young man of the family emerges at the doorway and threatens to assault the neighbour who complained. ANM Vibha Kulkarni [female health worker] says this is common, and the team deals with the reluctant family with good humour and tact. “Put them all ‘inside’ for two weeks,” a neighbour shouts.”
The hapless family is then frogmarched to some no doubt miserable hovel for a spell in the grandiosely named “institutional quarantine”. Better off people are able to quarantine at home. The numbers speak for themselves. By the end of April about 1.7 lakh people had been quarantined in Mumbai, 10,000 of them in institutional quarantine, of which by the third week of May over 7000 were from Dharavi. Officials were reported to say that “More people from slums will be kept in institutional quarantine facilities” (86).
In Africa, as in India, quarantine and other mandatory measures fell harder on the poor. United Nations Human Rights officials noted that “those who cannot pay bribes, poor people, are taken to mandatory quarantine centres” (91). In South Africa, the homeless were rounded up and taken to quarantine shelters that were in such poor conditions that they would run away. There was also the fear of contagion from being concentrated in these shelters
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6.6 The Toxic Culture of Lockdown
Officials in Louisiana were right to believe that racially targeted awareness campaigns for Covid-19 would have been stigmatizing. Asking people to essentially look upon others as contamination risks and pandering to people’s instincts of self-preservation gave free reign to their pettiest and most blatantly divisive tendencies; from rampaging through stores to hoard essential goods, to vigilantes beating up people for “spreading Covid”.
The intervention of a good, civil society ought to have been, to anticipate and moderate these reactions, but civil society advocates were at the forefront of demanding a complete lockdown, in the name of protecting the poor and marginalised. In many countries that have right wing majoritarian governments, such as India, Brazil, the UK and USA, it was liberals, left wing activists and opposition party mayors and governors, who were the earliest, loudest and most insistent voices, for social distancing, the banning of public gatherings, stay-at home orders and other restrictive and intrusive state measures, against Covid-19.
Indian progressives, saw no irony in advocating social distancing, after having spent generations, fighting caste-based personal pollution norms, and touch taboos. No one in civil society in India, raised a question, about the stigmatization that is embedded, in notions of keeping inter-personal distance. We were now one people, facing one germ and with one, united purpose – to flatten the curve. Anyone who objected, that this was actually flattening the people was unscientific, irresponsible, and callous about the poor.
As the intrusion and repression of disease containment-measures were couched in the language of public policy and social work, which is sacred to liberals everywhere, they fell into a familiar pattern, of going in the teeth of all liberal values, to become the greatest friends and advocates of state power. They did not see, the ways in which non-pharmaceutical interventions for disease control, are directly and immediately stigmatizing, divisive and generally toxic. They did not see that they were demanding what was, in effect, a total and indefinite suspension, of the very civil liberties, and constitutional freedoms, on which liberal society is founded, and on which, the poor and marginalised depend, to extract some pickings of justice and fairness from society. They rushed to show, what good global citizens they were, and how caring they were for the poor, by espousing the creed of disease-containment.
....To be continued
Suranya Aiyar is trained in mathematics at St. Stephen’s College, India and law at Oxford University, UK and New York University, USA. She lives in New Delhi, India, with her husband and two children.
This was presented live on Facebook on July 18th, 2020. Watch the video here. Listen to the podcast here.
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NOTES AND REFERENCES
a. 1 lakh = 100,000; 1 crore = 10 million
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(68) Spanish soldiers find elderly patients ‘abandoned’ in retirement home, France 24, 24 March 2020. Link: https://www.france24.com/en/20200324-spanish-soldiers-find-elderly-patients-abandoned-in-retirement-homes ; ‘Just sedate old people, pray they live’: with nearly 12k deaths in Spain, Covid-19 suffocates hospitals, News19=8.com, 5 April 2020. Link: https://www.news18.com/news/world/they-just-sedate-old-people-pray-they-live-with-nearly-12k-deaths-in-spain-covid-19-suffocates-hospitals-2564945.html; Pensioner, 84, on lockdown due to coronavirus….Daily Mail, 8 April 2020. Link: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8201815/Pensioner-84-lockdown-coronavirus-forced-eat-old-food-BIN.html; Burials on New York island are not new but are increasing during pandemic, npr.org, 10 April 2020. Link: https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/10/831875297/burials-on-new-york-island-are-not-new-but-are-increasing-during-pandemic ; Mass graves for coronavirus victims shouldn’t come as a shock, The Conversation https://theconversation.com/mass-graves-for-coronavirus-victims-shouldnt-come-as-a-shock-its-how-the-poor-have-been-buried-for-centuries-136655; ‘This whole corridor is dead’: Europe’s coronavirus care home disaster, The Irish Times, 19 May 2020. Link: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/this-whole-corridor-is-dead-europe-s-coronavirus-care-home-disaster-1.4256568 ; Coronavirus: Europe’s care homes struggle as deaths rise, BBC, 3 April 2020. Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52147861 ; A deluged system leaves some elderly to die, rocking Spain’s self-image, New York Times, 25 March 2020. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/world/europe/Spain-coronavirus-nursing-homes.html
(69) New York Governor Andrew Cuomo criticised over highest nursing home death toll, The New Indian Express, 10 May 2020. Link: https://www.newindianexpress.com/world/2020/may/10/new-york-governor-andrew-cuomo-criticised-over-highest-nursing-home-death-toll-2141550.html
(70) Nation-wise data from the International Long Term Care Policy Network, “Mortality associated with COVID among people who use long term care”, updates of 21 May 2020 and 26 June 2020. Link to 26 June 20202 update here: https://ltccovid.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Mortality-associated-with-COVID-among-people-who-use-long-term-care-26-June-1.pdf; State-wise data for the USA from Covid-19 brutal on NY long-term care facilities, The Buffalo Post quoting Kaiser Family Foundation data, 26 May 2020. Link: https://buffalonews.com/business/local/covid-19-brutal-on-ny-long-term-care-facilities-nationwide-its-worse/article_739b408b-5d34-5b8d-be83-124047368d2b.html
(71) A deluge of death in Northern Italy, 25 March 2020. Link: https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-LOMBARDY/0100B5LT46P/index.html; ‘We take the dead from morning till night’, The New York Times, 27 March 2020. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/27/world/europe/coronavirus-italy-bergamo.html?auth=login-email&login=email
(72) Mumbai: 25-year-old with no conditions dies after 3 days in hospital, Time of India, 21 April 2020. Link: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mumbai-25-year-old-with-no-conditions-dies-after-3-days-in-hospital/articleshow/75262442.cms
(73) Coronavirus: with SP and RJ from this Tuesday, all capitals stop trade to reduce the risk of contagion, globo.com, 24 March 2020 (in Brazilian Portuguese). Link: https://g1.globo.com/economia/noticia/2020/03/24/cidades-fecham-comercio.ghtml; Bolsonaro says he ‘wouldn’t feel anything if infected with Covid-19 and attacks state lockdowns, The Guardian, 25 March 2020. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/25/bolsonaro-brazil-wouldnt-feel-anything-covid-19-attack-state-lockdowns; Bolsonaro and governors on a collision course, The Brazilian Repot, 26 March 2020. Link: https://brazilian.report/newsletters/brazil-daily/2020/03/26/governors-in-brazil-on-a-collision-course-with-president-bolsonaro/; Rio and 5 other municipalities in the state declare an emergency to contain the coronavirus, g1.globo.com, 18 March 2020 (in Brazilian Portuguese). Link: https://g1.globo.com/rj/rio-de-janeiro/noticia/2020/03/18/prefeitura-do-rio-declara-situacao-de-emergencia.ghtml; https://g1.globo.com/rj/rio-de-janeiro/noticia/2020/03/17/governo-do-rj-determina-reducao-de-50percent-da-capacidade-de-lotacao-dos-transportes-publicos.ghtml
(74) Data from catcomm.org/favela-facts.
(75) Brazil’s super-rich and the exclusive club at the heart of a coronavirus hotspot, The Guardian, 4 April 2020. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/04/brazils-super-rich-and-the-exclusive-club-at-the-heart-of-a-coronavirus-hotspot
(76) Rio’s favela’s count the cost as deadly spread of Covid-19 hits the city’s poor, The Guardian, 25 April 2020. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/25/rio-favelas-coronavirus-brazil
(77) Brazil Covid-19 data from https://disasterresponse.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/b16474584d1b43948955ca1462b9e998
(78) Data from https://painel.vozdascomunidades.com.br/
(79) How one of Brazil’s largest favelas confronts coronavirus, Bloomberg, 3 May 2020. Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-05-03/how-one-of-brazil-s-largest-favelas-confronts-coronavirus?fbclid=IwAR2L1GWPMDyUgtXBdQGbcEYPbcOQ9jTccTaZiCJHH4GsmHgvshvVUAXS3fg
(80) Brazil’s favelas forced to fight coronavirus alone, DW, 2 July 2020. Link: https://www.dw.com/en/brazils-favelas-forced-to-fight-coronavirus-alone/a-54031886; Data on favelas from https://painel.vozdascomunidades.com.br/ and state-wise Brazil data from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1103791/brazil-coronavirus-cases-state/
(81) Malabar Hill resident among 5 new cases, Mumbai Mirror, 21 March 2020. Link: https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/coronavirus/news/malabar-hill-resident-among-5-new-cases/articleshow/74740898.cms
(82) Asia’s largest slum Dharavi reports first Covid-19 case, Economic Times 2 April 2020. Link: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/asias-largest-slum-dharavi-reports-first-case-of-coronavirus/articleshow/74937159.cms ; Number of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra rises to 335, LiveMint, 1 April 2020. Link: https://www.livemint.com/news/india/number-of-coronavirus-cases-in-maharashtra-rises-to-335-11585749948541.html
(83) Mumbai becomes epicentre of Covid-19 positive cases and death reports, The New Indian Express, 5 April 2020. Link: https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/mumbai/2020/apr/05/mumbai-becomes-epicentre-of-covid-19-positive-cases-and-death-reports-2126173.html
(84) Maharashtra nears 10,000 mark.., NDTV, 29 April 2020. Link: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/maharashtra-nears-10-000-mark-mumbai-has-6-644-coronavirus-cases-2220609
(85) Mumbai Covid19 Tracker: 12 BMC wards report over 1500 positive cases, Mumbai Mirror, 31 May 2020. Link: https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/coronavirus/news/mumbai-covid-19-tracker-12-bmc-wards-report-over-1500-positive-cases-dharavi-dadar-and-mahim-among-citys-worst-hit/articleshow/76120988.cms
(86) Mumbai: In Dharavi 75% infected are frontline workers, Indian Express, 23 May 2020. Link: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/in-dharavi-75-infected-are-frontline-workers-6423111/
(87) In the week funk dances returned to communities, favelas recorded more than 100 deaths from Covid-19, OGlobo, 8 June 2020 (in Brazilian Portuguese). Link: https://oglobo.globo.com/rio/na-semana-em-que-bailes-funks-voltaram-comunidades-favelas-registram-mais-de-cem-mortes-por-covid-19-1-24468827
(88) In Delhi slums people queue for drinking water ignoring social distancing norms, Business Insider, 18 April 2020. Link: https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/in-delhi-slums-people-queue-for-drinking-water-ignoring-social-distancing-norms/articleshow/75218038.cms
(89) Ramaphosa announces 21day coronavirus lockdown for South Africa, BusinessTech, 23 March 2020. Link: https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/383927/ramaphosa-announces-21-day-coronavirus-lockdown-for-south-africa/
(90) Mzansi reacts to police & army ‘brutality’ during lockdown, TimesLive, South Africa, 31 March 2020. Link: https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-03-31-mzansi-reacts-to-police-army-brutality-during-lockdown-they-must-respect-the-law/
(91) UN Raises alarm about police brutality in Covid-19 lockdowns, Al Jazeera, 28 April 2020. Link: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/raises-alarm-police-brutality-covid-19-lockdowns-200428070216771.html?fbclid=IwAR0luxsHfBtWv1GuDp46YitHRZi5ER3xjfplukqDrK7Hjb5KY5bxSOiUWAE
(92) Maharashtra government seals all hotspots including Dharavi, LiveMint, 9 April 2020. Link: https://www.livemint.com/news/india/mumbai-seals-parts-of-dharavi-11586437129347.html
(93) Coronavirus fallout: From Maharashtra an exodus of migrant workers with no work, The Wire: Science, 22 March 2020. Link: https://science.thewire.in/health/coronavirus-maharashtra-migrant-workers/
(94) Quarantine puts at risk the income of Brazilian slum dwellers, says research, globo.com, 24 March 2020 (in Brazilian Portuguese). Link: https://g1.globo.com/bemestar/coronavirus/noticia/2020/03/24/quarentena-poe-em-risco-a-renda-de-moradores-de-favelas-brasileiras-diz-pesquisa.ghtml
(95) Coronavirus fallout: From Maharashtra an exodus of migrant workers with no work, The Wire: Science, 22 March 2020. Link: https://science.thewire.in/health/coronavirus-maharashtra-migrant-workers/
(96) Ground Report: Chaos at Anand Vihar as buses prepare to take migrant workers home, The Wire, 28 March 2020. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW61drhb8FE; India lockdown: Migrant workers in very large numbers at Delhi’s Anand Vihar bus terminal, The Economic Times, 28 March 2020. Link: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/india-lockdown-migrant-workers-in-very-large-numbers-at-delhis-anand-vihar-bus-terminal/videoshow/74865929.cms?from=mdr; Watch: Thousands of migrant workers crowd Anand Vihar Bus Terminal amid lockdown, Times of India, 28 March 2020. Link: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/city/delhi/watch-thousands-of-migrant-workers-crowd-anand-vihar-bus-terminal-amid-lockdown/videoshow/74865108.cms; Covid 19 Lockdown: Hungry Helpless Migrant Workers Flee Cities, 29 March 2020, India Today (Video). Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUVGVBNWDZ0; Stranded Migrant workers walk for days to reach home amidst lockdown, CNN News18, 27 March 2020. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgIbqEzdPyg
(97) My kids are hungry, you think Covid-19 is what I fear? News18.com, 29 March 2020. Link: https://www.news18.com/news/india/my-kids-are-hungry-you-think-covid-19-is-what-i-fear-thousands-of-migrant-workers-flee-amid-lockdown-2555453.html
(98) Covid 19 lockdown triggers massive exodus of migrant workers Noida-Agra Highway, CNN News18, 28 March 2020. Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt8e8owMTGY; Migrant Workers Walking their ways back home say hunger will get them before the virus, CNN News18, 27 March 2020. Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PBD4yBJlJQ; Stranded Migrant workers walk for days to reach home, CNN-New18, 26 Mach 2020. Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgIbqEzdPyg
(99) Des ki baat Ravish Kumar ke saath: Mazdooron ki Majboori, NDTV India, 6 May 2020 (in Hindi), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfdmcaOeWmY; Des ki baat Ravish Kumar ke saath: Mazdooron ki Ghar Waapsi ki Jaddojehad, NDTV India, 11 May 2020 (in Hindi). Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovbpvCLaYL8
(100) Des ki baat Ravish Kumar ke saath: Mazdooron ki Ghar Waapsi ki Jaddojehad, NDTV India, 11 May 2020 (in Hindi). Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovbpvCLaYL8
(101) Des ki baat Ravish Kumar ke saath: Mazdooron ki Majboori, NDTV India, 6 May 2020, (in Hindi) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfdmcaOeWmY
(102) Uddhav Thackrey appeals to migrant workers to stay put, The Hindu Business Line, 28 March 2020. Link: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/uddhav-thackeray-appeals-to-migrant-workers-in-maharashtra-to-stay-put/article31189724.ece
(103) How the coronavirus is impacting favelas in Rio de Janeiro, Forbes, 29 April 2020. Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshualaw/2020/04/29/how-the-coronavirus-is-impacting-favelas-in-rio-de-janeiro/#3023c783ee39
(104) Daulatdia brothel: as clients disappear hunger sets in, The Business Standard, Bangladesh, 8 April 2020. Link: https://tbsnews.net/panorama/daulatdia-brothel-clients-disappear-hunger-sets-66586
(105) ‘This is what happens to us’, The Washington Post, 3 June 2020. Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/politics/coronavirus-race-african-americans/
(106) The social inequalities that the Covid-19 pandemic shows us, Brasil de Fato, 4 April 2020 (in Brazilian Portuguese). Link: https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2020/04/04/artigo-as-desigualdades-sociais-que-a-pandemia-da-covid-19-nos-mostra
(107) To contain coronavirus, residents negotiate end of funk balls in Rocinha, midiamax, 9 June 2020 (in Brazilian Portuguese). Link: https://www.midiamax.com.br/brasil/2020/para-conter-coronavirus-associacao-de-moradores-negociou-fim-dos-bailes-funk-na-rocinha
(108) 1 million Bangladeshi garments workers lose jobs amid Covid-19 economic fallout, mpr.org, 3 April 2020. Link: https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/03/826617334/1-million-bangladeshi-garment-workers-lose-jobs-amid-covid-19-economic-fallout
(109) Fury in Kenya over police brutality amid coronavirus curfew, Al Jazeera, 2 April 2020. Link: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/fury-kenya-police-brutality-coronavirus-curfew-200402125719150.html?utm_source=website&utm_medium=article_page&utm_campaign=read_more_links
(110) Lockdown: cops, metro cop face 3 counts of murder and other serious charges, news24.com, 31 March 2020. Link: https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/cops-face-3-counts-of-murder-and-other-serious-charges-amid-lockdown-20200331; Police brutality on the rise during lockdown, IOL, South Africa, 5 April 2020. Link: https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/police-brutality-on-the-rise-during-lockdown-46250431; SANDF issues stern warning after soldiers accused of beating Alexandra man to death, IOL, 12 April 2020. Link: https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/sandf-issues-stern-warning-after-soldiers-accused-of-beating-alexandra-man-to-death-46625061?fbclid=IwAR3j00XAzYI5j6rOLwEe5k_VoWiRQYeh4reKfCNLINELcc4JHVRSVt5S8tQ. Also see (28).
(111) Covid-19: Security forces in Africa brutalizing civilians under lockdown, DW, 20 April 2020. Link: https://www.dw.com/en/covid-19-security-forces-in-africa-brutalizing-civilians-under-lockdown/a-53192163?fbclid=IwAR1zWI6PygaOesr1Ntw32ShrUyRS2pgbYD7G_E1OCe44d1dnlK0
(112) Court orders suspension of South African soldiers over death of man in lockdown, Reuters, 15 May 2020. Link: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-safrica-military/court-orders-suspension-of-south-african-soldiers-over-death-of-man-in-lockdown-idUSKBN22R24O
(113) We’ll keep enforcing lockdown, says French Minister amid unrest, Reuters, 22 April 2020. Link: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-france-security/french-motorcyclist-whose-crash-fuelled-riots-urges-calm-amid-more-unrest-idUSKCN2240DC
(114) Containment Measures: Police checks must not be abusive, violent or discriminatory, Human Rights League and Others, France, 27 March 2020 (in French). Link: https://www.ldh-france.org/mesures-de-confinement-les-controles-de-police-ne-doivent-etre-ni-abusifs-ni-violents-ni-discriminatoires/
(115) The Religious Retreat that sparked India’s Major Coronavirus Manhunt, Reuters, 2 April 2020. Link: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-india-islam-insigh/the-religious-retreat-that-sparked-indias-major-coronavirus-manhunt-idUSKBN21K3KF
(116) Tabligh members undergoing treatment…The Economic Times, 3 April 2020. Link: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/tabligh-members-undergoing-treatment-not-cooperating-doctors-to-delhi-govt/articleshow/74969727.cms?from=mdr
(117) Tablighi Jamaat par bole CM Arvind Kejriwal, Navbharat Times, 31 March 2020 (in Hindi). Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNA_OKk4IKE
(118) Coronavirus conspiracy theories targeting Muslims spread in India, The Guardian, 13 April 2020. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/13/coronavirus-conspiracy-theories-targeting-muslims-spread-in-india ; ‘Muslim traders not allowed’, reads poster in Indore village, Scroll.in, 3 May 2020. Link: https://scroll.in/latest/960924/muslims-not-allowed-reads-poster-in-indore-village-police-file-case; Gurugram: Youths assault neighbour, 6 of them arrested, Times of India, 7 April 2020. Link: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/youths-assault-neighbour-6-of-them-arrested/articleshow/75018533.cms
(119) Press Release: International Institute for Religious Freedom and Human Rights Without Frontiers. Link: https://www.iirf.eu/news/other-news/cesnur-and-human-rights-without-frontiers-release-white-paper-on-shincheonji-and-coronavirus/ ; Shincheonji & Coronavirus in South Korea: Sorting Fact from Fiction, Human Rights Without Frontiers et al.. Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DRcWhbQ1xoJRs-tkAFp38IWi-3QB8qJX/view
(120) Coronavirus is spreading at religious gatherings, ricocheting across nations, The Wall Street Journal, 18 March 2020. Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-is-spreading-at-religious-gatherings-ricocheting-across-nations-11584548174
(121) 202 confirmed coronavirus cases in South Africa, BusinessTech, South Africa, 20 March 2020. Link: https://businesstech.co.za/news/lifestyle/383455/202-confirmed-coronavirus-cases-in-south-africa/
(122) Coronavirus: SA’s patient zero and one other are home and all clear, IOL, South Africa, 20 March 2020. Link: https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/coronavirus-sas-patient-zero-and-one-other-are-home-and-all-clear-45296869
(123) Rights in the time of Covid-19, UNAIDS, 20 March 2020. Link: https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/documents/2020/human-rights-and-covid-19
(124) African countries respond to Guangzhou’s ‘Anti Epidemic Measures’, The Diplomat, 27 April 2020. Link: https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/african-countries-respond-to-guangzhous-anti-epidemic-measures/
(125) List of incidents of xenophobia and racism related to the Covid-19 pandemic, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incidents_of_xenophobia_and_racism_related_to_the_COVID-19_pandemic
(126) Covid-19: Bangladesh Army says troops will be on streets until govt recalls, PTI, The Hindu, 29 March 2020. Link: https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/covid-19-bangladesh-army-says-troops-will-be-on-streets-until-govt-recalls/article31197469.ece
(127) Bangladesh: End wave of Covid-19 ‘rumour’ arrests, Human Rights Watch, 31 March 2020. Link: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/31/bangladesh-end-wave-covid-19-rumor-arrests?fbclid=IwAR0ZW3igg-DHw24SfVWvAdgC-bckCRRaANzt7YQf4fpcSSkdIhFW5G7IOnU
(128) Nigerian security forces kill 18 during curfew enforcement, AL Jazeera, 16 April 2020. Link: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/nigerian-security-forces-kill-18-curfew-enforcement-200416142503603.html?utm_source=website&utm_medium=article_page&utm_campaign=read_more_links
(129) South Africa’s ruthlessly efficient fight against coronavirus, BBC, 3 April 2020. Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-52125713?fbclid=IwAR3z4vjmq_PPI2_GB3divYSX3_UKODdSMa6DARgbsLFhHkRm0B8LtjJIyFs
(130) Statement by President Cyril Ramaphosa, 23 April 2020. Link: https://sacoronavirus.co.za/2020/04/23/statement-by-president-cyril-ramaphosa-on-south-africas-response-to-the-coronavirus-pandemic-union-buildings-tshwane/
(131) Des Ki Baat Ravish Kumar ke Saath, Patri par zindagi lautti hai, yahan majdooron ko mili maut, NDTV India, May 8, 2020, ; Des ki Baat Ravish Kumar ke Saath: Rail ki patriyon par chalta desh, NDTV India, 8 May 2020. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2W2Fq2-BTs&list=PLpSN4vP31-KuS06SnZK5As7hprxvALTQ8&index=59&t=0s; Des ki Baat Ravish Kumar ke Saath Media ko majdooron ki bebassi dikhane se prashasan ki taraf se roka gaya, NDTV India, 8 May 2020. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og-wP1VqRQY&list=PLpSN4vP31-KuS06SnZK5As7hprxvALTQ8&index=57; Migrant workers: Maharashtra accident victims were battling hunger; The Hindu, 8 May 2020. Link: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/maharashtra-train-accident-victims-were-battling-hunger/article31538217.ece
(132) Mapping accidents that killed over 100 migrant workers on the way home during lockdown, New18.com, 20 May 2020. Link: https://www.news18.com/news/india/mapping-accidents-that-killed-over-100-migrant-workers-on-their-way-to-home-during-nationwide-lockdown-2627947.html; UP migrant walking home dies allegedly of hunger, The Hindu, 17 May 2020. Link: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/up-migrant-walking-home-dies-allegedly-of-hunger/article31609993.ece; Coronavirus lockdown: The Indian migrants dying to get home, BBC, 20 May 2020. Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52672764; 22 migrant workers, kin have died trying to return home since the lockdown started, The Wire, 30 March 2020. Link: https://thewire.in/rights/coronavirus-national-lockdown-migrant-workers-dead; 198 migrant workers killed in road accidents during lockdown: Report, Hindustan Times, 2 June 2020. Link: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/198-migrant-workers-killed-in-road-accidents-during-lockdown-report/story-hTWzAWMYn0kyycKw1dyKqL.html; Walking home, migrant worker dies of sunstroke in Andhra Pradesh, The New Indian Express, 22 May 2020. Link: https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/vijayawada/2020/may/22/walking-home-migrant-worker-dies-of-sunstroke-in-andhra-pradesh-2146527.html; 378 die on the way home according to this report11 May Des ki Baat Mazdooron ki ghar wapsi ki jaddojehad. Coronavirus lockdown: Deaths in Shramik trains not due to lack of food, water, says government, The Hindu, 5 June 2020. Link: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/coronavirus-lockdown-deaths-in-shramik-trains-not-due-to-lack-of-food-water-says-government/article31759464.ece
(133) India should aim for 10-week total lockdown…India Today, 22 April 2020. Link: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/india-should-aim-for-10-week-total-lockdown-not-rush-exit-top-health-journal-editor-1669917-2020-04-22
(134) Congo’s Ebola fight has lessons for Covid-19, Human Rights Watch, 26 March 2020. Link: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/26/congos-ebola-fight-has-lessons-covid-19; Was DR Congo’s Ebola virus outbreak used as a political tool? The Lancet, Editorial, Vol. 393, 12 January 2019. Link: https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2819%2930002-9 ;191 Biosocial approaches to the 2013-2016 Ebola Pandemic, Richardson et al., Health and Human Rights Journal, June 2016, 18(1): 115-128. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5070685/.
(135) Ebola and the narrative of mistrust, Richardson et al., BMJ Glob Health 2019 4(6) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6936462/
(136) Bulletin of the World Health Organisation, Jane Parry, 12 December 2005. Link: https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/83/12/news21205/en/; Risky Zoographies: The limits of place in Avian Flu management, Natalie Porter, Environmental Humanities (2012) 1 (1): 103-121. Link https://read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/article/1/1/103/8073/Risky-Zoographies-The-Limits-of-Place-in-Avian-Flu
(137) China sends medical aid to Pakistan via PoK…HT, 28 March 2020. Link: https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/china-sends-medical-aid-to-pakistan-via-pok-dispatches-team-of-experts-to-help/story-K5tpx8meEnXNQ8Q9ITNxGL.html; Doxycycline and Ivermectin combo may be new effective Covid-19 treatment, Medical Dialogues, 18 May 2020. Link: https://medicaldialogues.in/medicine/news/doxycycline-and-ivermectin-combo-may-be-new-effective-covid-19-treatment-65868; 215 Pakistan to start manufacturing Covid-19 treatment drug, Gulf Today, 15 May 2020. Link: https://www.gulftoday.ae/en/news/2020/05/15/pakistan-to-start-manufacturing-covid19-treatment-drug; Bangladesh Medical College Hospital physician see ‘astounding results’ with drug combination targeting Covid-19, TrialSite News, 18 May 2020. Link: https://www.trialsitenews.com/bangladesh-medical-college-hospital-physician-see-astounding-results-with-drug-combination-targeting-covid-19/
(138) Physicians to population ratios reference: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MED.PHYS.ZS
(139) For 2019 World Bank thresholds for income classification see https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/new-country-classifications-income-level-2019-2020); Data for beds-per-1000-of-population and percentage of ICU beds taken from the Covid Expert Group’s Report No. 12, dated 26 March 2020 (at (7)). According this report, Lower Income Countries have 1.24 beds per 1000 population on average and High Income Countries have 4.82 beds per 1000 population on average.
(139A) Source: https://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/estimates_country_2004_2008/en/ . In general, I have preferred using WHO data from this year, which was updated in 2011, as this appears to be the last year for which the WHO has received and incorporated comments from other countries.
(140) These calculations are based on WHO mortality estimates for 2008 at https://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/estimates_country_2004_2008/en/ .
(140A) These percentages are NOT from the WHO, they are my calculations are based on WHO estimates for 2008 of tuberculosis incidence here: https://apps.who.int/gho/data/view.main.57040ALL?lang=en and number of tuberculosis deaths) here (see under “by sex”): https://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/estimates_country_2004_2008/en/. The underlying data used by me is in the table below:
Country | Tuberculosis Incidence | Tuberculosis Deaths |
India | 31,40,000 | 2.7 lakh (approx.) |
Italy | 4700 | 400 |
Germany | 4800 | 400 |
France | 6600 | 700 |
USA | 15,000 | 700 |
UK | 9300 | 400 |
Kenya | 2.25 lakh (approx.) | 9700 |
South Africa | 4.86 lakh (approx..) | 19,500 |
Mexico | 24,000 | 2700 |
Sweden | 590 | 100 |
(140B) For tuberculosis incidence in Norway see https://apps.who.int/gho/data/view.main.57040ALL?lang=en . 2002 was a terrible year for tuberculosis in Norway with 100 deaths estimated in that year to this disease against an incidence estimate of 280 cases, giving a crude fatality rate of over 35%. Again this percentage is NOT from the WHO, it is my calculation based on WHO estimates for tuberculosis incidence here: https://apps.who.int/gho/data/view.main.57040ALL?lang=en and for mortality here: https://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/estimates_2000_2002/en/.
(140C) Source: WHO malaria figures for 2016 from here: https://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.A1364?lang=en (incidence) and here: https://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/estimates/en/ (mortality) click under ‘By Country WHO Member States, 2016.
(140D) Source: https://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.620?lang=en. HIV positive and AIDS cases for US for the year 2010 (later year case incidence is not available) and for other countries for the years 2018.
(140E) Ebola figures from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ebola-virus-disease
(140F) “Mortality and Burden of Disease Estimates for WHO Member States” issued by WHO’s Department of Measurement and Health Information and “WHO Methods and data Sources for Country-Level Causes of Death 2000-2016” dated 2018.
(140G) Testing data from Worldometer.
(141) AIIMS data from https://www.aiims.edu/images/pdf/annual_reports/annual%20report19-e-20-1-20.pdf
(142) Becker’s Hospital Review data https://www.aiims.edu/images/pdf/annual_reports/annual%20report19-e-20-1-20.pdf
(143) ‘Doctor diplomacy’: Cuba seeks to make its mark in Europe amid Covid-19 crisis, The Guardian, 6 May 2020. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/06/doctor-diplomacy-cuba-seeks-to-make-its-mark-in-europe-amid-covid-19-crisis
(144) WHO says Madagascar’s herbal tonic against Covid-19 is not a cure, AL Jazeera, 4 May 2020. Link: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/madagascars-herbal-tonic-covid-19-cure-200504081212753.html?xif= ; Coronavirus: What is Madagascar’s ‘herbal remedy’ Covid-Organics? Al Jazeera, 6 May 2020. Link: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/coronavirus-madagascar-herbal-remedy-covid-organics-200505131055598.html
(145) The use of non-pharmaceutical forms of Artemisia, WHO, 10 October 2019. Link: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/the-use-of-non-pharmaceutical-forms-of-artemisia
(146) ‘WHO commends Madagascar’s fight against Covid-19’, AA.com, Africa, 21 May 2020. Link: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/who-commends-madagascars-fight-against-covid-19/1848550
(147) Covid-19: Tests for miracle cure’ herb Artemisia begin, DW, 15 May 2020. Link: https://www.dw.com/en/covid-19-tests-for-miracle-cure-herb-artemisia-begin/a-53442366
(148) Madagascar slams WHO for not endorsing its herbal cure, AA.com, Africa, 11 May 2020. Link: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/madagascar-slams-who-for-not-endorsing-its-herbal-cure/1836905
(149) Overview of malaria treatment, WHO, 18 January 2018. Link: www.who.int/malaria/areas/treatment/overview/en/
(150) Africans, three Ebola experts call for access to trial drug, Los Angeles Times, 6 August 2014. Link: https://www.latimes.com/world/africa/la-fg-three-ebola-experts-release-drugs-20140806-story.html
(151) Discovery and description Zaire Virus in 1976…, Breman et al., The Journal of Infectious Disease, October 2016, 15; 214 (Suppl 3): S93-S101. Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5050466/#JIW207C1; Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Zaire, 1976, Report of an International Commission. Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2395567/pdf/bullwho00439-0113.pdf
(152) Ethical considerations of experimental interventions in the Ebola outbreak, Annette Rid and Ezekiel J Emanuel, The Lancet, Vol. 384, 22 November 2014. Link: https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(14)61315-5.pdf
(153) Ebola: What it tells us about medical ethics, Angus J. Dawson, The Journal of Medical Ethics 2015; 41: 107-110; Link: https://jme.bmj.com/content/41/1/107; Ebola and ethics: autopsy of a failure, Christian A Gericke, BMJ 2015; 350. Link: https://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h2105
(154) Trial of Ebola drug ZMapp launches in Liberia, US, Centre for Disease Research & Policy, 27 February 2015. Link: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2015/02/trial-ebola-drug-zmapp-launches-liberia-us
(155) Ebola is now curable…wired.com, 8 December 2019. Link: https://www.wired.com/story/ebola-is-now-curable-heres-how-the-new-treatments-work/
(156) Politics around Hydroxychloroquine hamper science, npr.org, 21 May 2020. Link: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/21/859851682/politics-around-hydroxychloroquine-hamper-science?fbclid=IwAR3f9iSiYsnpSkaN7T-wauT0I0D3kWlyB-7_s5QkQhWIFdqhs0EW9xwqxDY)
(157) CSIR chief flays Hydroxychloroquine trial suspension, The Hindu, 30 May 2020. Link: https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/coronavirus-csir-chief-flays-hcq-trial-suspension/article31712065.ece
(158) Global experts go head-to-head over claims the coronavirus ‘no longer exists clinically’, CNBC, 2 June 2020. Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/02/claim-coronavirus-no-longer-exists-provokes-controversy.html?__source=iosappshare%7Ccom.apple.UIKit.activity.CopyToPasteboard&fbclid=IwAR2vY80wwIBIiCGbFawFU-75UoYf_junth2xy4ogfbQ8ZKaJqmfX1-YM0Lc
(159) Coronavirus could ‘burn out’ on its own before we have a working vaccine: Former WHO chief, Firstpost, 20 May 2020. Link: https://www.firstpost.com/health/coronavirus-could-burn-out-on-its-own-before-we-have-a-working-vaccine-former-who-chief-8387911.html
(160) Indians in Wuhan say strict lockdown….The Economic Times, 9 April 2020. Link: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/indians-in-wuhan-say-strict-lockdown-social-distancing-only-ways-to-contain-covid-19/articleshow/75064547.cms?from; China ends Wuhan lockdown…The New York Times, 7 April 2020. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/world/asia/wuhan-coronavirus.html
(161) Early missteps and state secrecy in China likely allowed coronavirus to spread farther and faster, The Washington Post, 1 February 2020. Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/02/01/early-missteps-state-secrecy-china-likely-allowed-coronavirus-spread-farther-faster/
(162) People in China will make 3 billion trips in the next 40 days….Business Insider, 14 January 2020. Link: https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/people-in-china-will-make-3-billion-trips-in-the-next-40-days-to-celebrate-lunar-new-year-the-worlds-largest-annual-human-migration/articleshow/73236413.cms#aoh=15910888889118&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s
(163) SARS-CoV-2 Viral Load in Upper Respiratory Specimens of Infected Patients, Zou et al., The New England Journal of Medicine 382: 12, 19 March 2020, first published on February 19, 2020. Link: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2001737
(164) Transmission of 2019-nCoV Infection from an Asymptomatic Contact in Germany, Rothe et al., The New England Journal of Medicine 382; 10 March 5, 2020, first published on January 30, 2020). Link: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2001468
(165) The Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Emergency Response Epidemiology Team, The Epidemiological Characteristics of an Outbreak of 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) – China 2002, China CDC Weekly Vol. 2 No. x, pg 1. Link: http://weekly.chinacdc.cn/en/article/id/e53946e2-c6c4-41e9-9a9b-fea8db1a8f51
(166) Bangladesh virus prayer gathering sparks outcry, Taipei Times, 20 March 2020. Link: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2020/03/20/2003733062; Brahmanbaria funeral crowd: Probe body starts investigation, Dhaka Tribune, 20 April 2020. Link: https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/nation/2020/04/20/probe-body-starts-working-over-brahmanbaria-funeral-crowd
(167) FranceInfo Survey: “The majority of people were infected”: from Corsica to overseas….franceinfo.com, 30 March 2020. Link: https://www.francetvinfo.fr/sante/maladie/coronavirus/video-coronavirus-le-nombre-de-contaminations-lors-du-rassemblement-evangelique-de-mulhouse-a-ete-largement-sous-evalue_3889133.html
(168) Back to the Future for Influenza Preimmunity – Looking Back at Influenza Virus History to Infer the Outcome of Future Infections, Francis et al., Viruses, 30 January 2019. Link: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/11/2/122
(169) ‘A terrible price’: The deadly racial disparities of Covid-19 in America, The New York Times, 29 April 2020. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/magazine/racial-disparities-covid-19.html
(170) Racial disparities in Louisiana’s Covid-19 death rate reflect systemic problems, 4WWL, 7 April 2020. Link: https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/racial-disparities-in-louisianas-covid-19-death-rate-reflect-systemic-problems/289-bd36c4b1-1bdf-4d07-baad-6c3d207172f2
(171) We have an appointment with death, Slavoj Zizek, Kultur, 1 April 2020. https://www.welt.de/kultur/article207219549/Slavoj-Zizek-The-epidemic-as-a-date-with-death.html
(172) Debate Noam Chomsky & Michel Foucault, On Human Nature https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wfNl2L0Gf8
(173) Noam Chomsky on Moral Relativism and Michel Foucault https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i63_kAw3WmE
(174) Coronavirus: What’s going wrong in Sweden’s care homes, BBC, 19 May 2020. Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52704836
(175) Mumbai high rises report spike in Covid-19…..Firstpost, 22 June 2020. Link: https://www.firstpost.com/health/mumbai-high-rises-report-spike-in-covid-19-cases-but-implementation-of-sealing-norms-patchy-bmc-puts-onus-on-housing-societies-8509391.html and High rise in number of positive cases in Mulund, Mumbai Mirror, 13 June 2020. Link: https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/high-rise-in-number-of-of-ve-cases-in-mulund/articleshow/76349782.cms
(176) More than 28,000 stranded Indians have landed in Mumbai since May, MumbaiLive.com, 4 July 2020. Link: https://www.mumbailive.com/en/transport/more-than-28000-stranded-indians-have-landed-in-mumbai-since-may-52292
(177) Updated list of containment zones or red zones in Mumbai as of July 2, Mumbai Live, 3 July 2020. Link: https://www.mumbailive.com/en/civic/containment-zones-list-mumbai-list-coronavirus-lockdown-52242
(178) Source: Mumbai Live Covid Updates
(179) Mumbai: Dharavi sees a drop in new Covid-19 cases and deaths, Mumbai Mirror, 30 June 2020. Link: https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/coronavirus/news/mumbai-dharavi-sees-a-drop-in-new-covid-19-cases-and-deaths/articleshow/76713018.cms
(180) BMC begins to withdraw after 90-day Covid-19 war in Dharavi, Mumbai Mirror, 3 July 2020. Link: https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/coronavirus/news/bmc-begins-to-withdraw-after-90-day-covid-19-war-in-dharavi/articleshow/76769595.cms
(181) Cases as on July 2 https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/coronavirus-in-mumbai-ward-wise-breakdown-of-covid-19-cases-issued-by-bmc-as-of-july-2
(182) Coronavirus: 21 cases found, building on Nepean Sea road sealed, Mumbai Live, 23 June 2020. Link: https://www.mumbailive.com/en/civic/the-bmc-sealed-an-entire-building-nestled-on-the-nepean-sea-road-after-21-cases-of-coronavirus-were-reported-from-the-society.-51737
(183) How Covid hotspot Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, fought against all odds to flatten the curve, The Print, 14 June 2020 Link: https://theprint.in/india/how-covid-hotspot-dharavi-asias-largest-slum-fought-against-all-odds-to-flatten-the-curve/441036/
(184) BMC has sealed 1,000 buildings in a week, Mumbai Live, 25 June 2020. Link: https://www.mumbailive.com/en/civic/the-surge-in-the-number-of-coronavirus-cases-in-the-suburbs-of-mumbai-has-led-to-the-sealing-of-1000-buildings-in-the-past-eight-days-51856
(185) Coronavirus UK map….BBC, 6 July 2020. Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51768274
(186) Tegnell: Italian travellers are not the main source of infection, Sweden, SVT Nyheter, 2 May 2020 (in Swedish). https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/tegnell-italienresenarerna-inte-storsta-kallan-till-smitta ; ‘Coronavirus came to Sweden from countries that were under our radar’: Public Health Agency chief, The Local, 11 June 2020. Link: https://www.thelocal.se/20200611/public-health-agency-head-coronavirus-came-to-sweden-from-countries-that-were-under-our-radar
(187) Critics question Swedish approach as coronavirus death toll reaches 1,000, The Guardian, 15 April 2020. Link https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/15/sweden-coronavirus-death-toll-reaches-1000
(188) Large reduction in travel by public transport in the county, Sweden, KalmarPosten, 15 April 2020 (in Swedish). Link: https://www.kalmarposten.se/article/stor-minskning-av-resande-med-kollektivtrafik-i-lanet/ ; Travel halved at Skanetrafiken, Sweden, Aftonbladet, 25 March 2020 (in Swedish). Link: https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/Op7rjq/resandet-halverat-hos-skanetrafiken ; West traffic takes the corona crisis very seriously, GT, expressen.se, Sweden, 8 April 2020 (in Swedish). Link: https://www.expressen.se/gt/debatt-gt/vasttrafik-tar-coronakrisen-pa-allra-storsta-allvar/
(189) Close to every third car away from Stockholm’s streets, Omni, Sweden (in Swedish). Link: https://omni.se/nara-var-tredje-bil-borta-fran-stockholms-gator/a/awQ7jL
(190) Stockholmers stay home at Easter,, SVT Nyheter, Sweden, 9 April 2020 (in Swedish). Link: https://www.svt.se/nyheter/snabbkollen/stockholmare-stannar-hemma-i-pask ; Travel from Stockholm during Passover, Telia.se, 9 April 2020 (in Swedish). Link: http://press.telia.se/pressreleases/svenskarna-stannar-hemma-under-paasklovet-2990179
(191) I call Foucault a “post-modernist” here with apologies to him. He famously disliked being called this. Certainly, his message was more profound and more delicate than the term allowed. In fact, Foucault was at his most Foucauldian when rejecting this label. Categorisation subtracts from the whole of what is being said. This is precisely the attitude we, especially scientists and doctors, need to adopt in the present crisis.
(192) Appendix-A & B; Appendix-C; Appendix-D; Appendix-E.
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