Covid Lectures Part 8: The Novel Thinking Needed for a Novel Disease
Part 8: The Novel Thinking Needed for a Novel Disease
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Contents:
8.1 Are richer countries really healthier or happier than poorer ones; 8.2 The lack of experience in the developed world with infectious disease; 8.3 Richer countries are not investing as much as we think in their health services; 8.4 The longstanding failure with respiratory infections in rich countries; 8.5
We should be looking at the poorest, not the richest countries for solutions; 8.6 Strength in Numbers;
8.7 The Latent Racism in Ideas of "Exponential" Growth
Today I would like to start by saying that I dedicate this entire lecture series my mother, Suneet Aiyar, née Suneet Vir Singh, who has given me her love for science.
8.1 Are richer countries really healthier or happier than poorer ones
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and public health thinking in general works with fixed ideas of wealth and hospital resources in evaluating health issues. But what is health and what are resources? Covid-19 reduced to nothing the resources of the world’s richest and most technologically advanced countries. We have to ask ourselves what was the worth of all these resources when looking at the ravages of Covid-19 in countries like the UK and Italy. These are countries that have made public health services into a defining socio-political project since middle of the last century.
How much of the Western response to Covid-19 was a scientific and public-spirited response to a new disease, and how much of it was the disorientation of being shocked out of its complacency and a scramble to cover-up the fallibility of its vaunted health services?
Covid-19 reduced to nothing the resources of the world’s richest and most technologically advanced countries. How much of the Western response to Covid-19 was a scientific and public-spirited response to a new disease, and how much of it was the disorientation from being shocked out of its complacency and a scramble to cover-up the fallibility of its vaunted health services?
In my previous lectures I had mentioned Professor Charles Knight. He is a senior doctor in the British NHS and was appointed CEO of the London Nightingale Hospital. This was one of the many surged facilities built in the UK to accomodate the anticipated flood of Covid patients requiring ventilators reported. It was built with 4000 beds and closed after seeing only 54 patients after having remained virtually empty for weeks. Professor Charles Knight's observations when the NHS Nightingale facility in London was closed are revealing of the true psychology of the Western response to Covid-19. He is reported to have said that, “It’s much easier to build a new hospital, than to staff it. I think the honest answer is that it would have been really very, very, very difficult to staff all those thousands of beds.
“But we were faced with a situation where people were going to die because of a lack of a ventilator so we had to do something … because the alternative was unthinkable” (57).
But,as we discussed in my previous lectures, patients will die if they are put on ventilators without the staff to operate them properly. So what was the “unthinkable” alternative – patients dying or allowing yourselves to admit that your medical services had been reduced to nothing before this novel disease?
Covid-19 put rich and poor nations on the same plane. What also comes through starkly is the lack of experience in the developed world of dealing with infectious disease.
8.2 The lack of experience in the developed world with infectious disease
What also comes through starkly is the lack of experience in the developed world of dealing with infectious disease. We have already discussed in my earlier lectures how doctors at the epicentre of the Covid outbreak in Northern Italy wrote about the misalignment of their current medical practice, with the demands of infectious disease. I quoted to you from a paper by Dr Nacoti and others that came out in the third week of March while Italy was still in the thick of its outbreak: “Coronavirus is the Ebola of the rich…..The more medicalized and centralized the society, the more widespread the virus…” (23).
In the same vein, Dr Giorgina Piccoli writes: “the Coronavirus epidemics should indeed lead to a number of reflections on the organization of healthcare and the way contemporary medicine has lost sight of some diseases, such as infectious ones, that were, probably prematurely, seen as diseases of the past….We have definitely not won the fight against infectious diseases, but we have probably forgotten about them too soon. In a high-technology setting, it is all too easy to forget the overwhelming, often dark power of nature” (24).
This lack of experience, at least of recent experience, in the developed world of dealing with infectious disease is a condition itself brought about by wealth. Most of us are familiar with the idea of demographic transition. A study of the disease profile of countries reveals that in parallel to demographic transition there is also a kind of epidemiological transition. In low income countries, the disease burden, i.e., the deaths from disease in the population, is preponderantly from infectious disease. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for instance, the infectious disease burden is 60%, while the non-infectious disease burden is 20% of the total disease burden. In high income countries like Italy, Germany, the USA, France and the UK, the disease burden is reversed, ranging from about 3 to 8 percent under the head of infectious disease and around 90 % under the head of non-infectious disease. Developing countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh show a state of epidemiological transition to a higher burden from infectious to non-infectious disease, in the proportion of about 30% infectious to 50% non-infectious (140).
Some countries, like Iceland, have no infectious disease burden at all, apart from about 100 respiratory infection deaths a year! Yearly infectious disease deaths in Norway and Sweden number in the mere thousands. This is toytown compared with larger, and more diverse and complex countries elsewhere in the world, whose infectious disease burden is in the tens of thousands, if not the millions.
Owing to their small size and relative isolation, Nordic countries were able to keep their Covid-19 incidence relatively low. But you cannot look upon these countries as models for others to follow. They are saved from disease by their smallness, lack of diversity, climate and distance from the rest from the world. These places have no lessons for us, especially not in Covid times.
When the full story of Covid-19 is finally told, a chapter will surely be devoted to the lack of experience of Western doctors with malaria, dengue and fevers uncertain provenance.
Not only do rich countries have a lower incidence of infectious disease, owing to climate and geography, many infectious diseases simply do not exist there, further limiting their experience in dealing with this type of disease. When the full story of Covid-19 is finally told, a chapter will surely be devoted to the lack of experience of Western doctors with malaria, dengue and fevers uncertain provenance which made them hesitate and hesitate again over the use of medications like hydroxychloroquine, broad spectrum antibiotics like azithromycin and doxycycline, and mild viral inhibitors like ivermectin.
These are drugs used in malaria, dengue, de-worming and other infections, and with whose therapeutic effects doctors from Asia and Africa are well familiar. Even relatively less developed countries, like Bangladesh, quickly turned to these drugs for treatment and prophylaxis of Covid-19, which may go some way in explaining why this disease spread slower and had a lower mortality in developing countries than in richer ones.
While the WHO made the case for disease-containment by invoking grim portents for what it called the “poor and dense populations” of developing countries, it was these countries who led the charge for finding therapies for Covid-19.
While the WHO made the case for disease-containment by invoking grim portents for what it called the “poor and dense populations” of developing countries, it was these countries that led the charge for finding therapies for Covid-19. In Bangladesh, the enterprising Dr Tarek Alam was the first doctor who designed the ivermectin and doxycycline protocol for patients, which he said gave excellent results, and after that countries around the world started trying these medicines. He has been asked by several Western countries, including the USA, to join clinical trials for ivermectin. I have already described the immediate issuance in India of advisories for the off-label use of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, the work started for the repurposing of drugs and the development of an indigenous version of faviparivir. Once the USA cleared remedisivir, contracts for its manufacture were given to Indian and Pakistani pharmaceutical companies. Nepal and Pakistan were able to rely on their firm ally, China, for medical supplies and other assistance. India turned to Russia for help with data on faviparivir trials. The WHO has to stop thinking of Asia and Africa as merely charity cases. We are not entirely without resources against epidemic disease. Our doctors and pharmaceutical companies have shown an agility and resourcefulness in Covid times that matches and even surpasses that of the most advanced countries in the world (137).
The WHO has to stop thinking of Asia and Africa as charity cases. We are not entirely without resources against epidemic disease. Our doctors and pharmaceutical companies have shown an agility and resourcefulness in Covid times that matches and even surpasses that of the most advanced countries in the world.
There are many ways in which we need to start thinking differently about health issues, especially when we compare countries. An interesting example is the death rate of countries. Even though we think of richer countries as being healthier than poorer ones, the annual death rates of countries are surprisingly similar, despite the massive disparities in wealth. Going by figures given out by the WHO, the death rate for most countries of the world is close to 1 percent, with a few countries at the lower end at about .5%, and even fewer countries at the higher end at 1.5% (139A). The picture that emerges is by no means one of a conquest of death or disease as countries get richer. People in richer countries tend to die from different causes – cancers and heart disease - as compared with those from poorer ones, but there is no escaping death and sickness. They merely come in different forms. People in rich countries may have greater average longevity, but the picture of old age that has been revealed from the ravages of Covid-19 in developed countries is hardly one to be envied. It looks more like a Faustian deal with disease, than a release from it. Personally, I would rather die of malaria in the arms of my grandchildren at 50 in the African bush, than slowly watch myself suffocating to death all alone in a care home in some rich Western country.
The WHO, and public health sector in general, will look at the numbers of physicians or hospital beds per thousand of population, as a determinant of the state of affairs of the health of a population. As a very generalized point, this is correct – the more doctors and hospitals you have, the more people you can treat. The richer you are, the more doctors and hospitals you can have. But what should be taken as a tentative, opening-volley sort of understanding of the health landscape of a society is interpreted too literally and given axiomatic status. Cuba probably has the most medical resources per capita, its physician-per-1000-of-population ratio is the world’s highest at eight, the second highest is Sweden’s whose figure is only half that of Cuba’s, at four (138).
8.3 Richer countries are not investing as much as we think in their health services
Even the hospital beds to population ratio of rich countries is nowhere near in proportion to their relative wealth. Going by the World Bank’s system of national income classification, the relative wealth of Lower Income Countires to the least wealthy Higher Income Countries is 1:12, but their beds-per-1000-of-population ratio is 1:3.88 (139). This ratio is even higher when it comes to a comparison of High Income Countries with Lower Middle- and Upper Middle- Income Countries. To the 4.82 beds per thousand of High Income Countries, Upper Middle Income Countries have a figure of 3.41 and Lower Middle Income Countries, 2.8. The difference in the percentage of ICU beds between these groups of countries is even lower, with High Income Countries and Upper Middle Income Countries having about the same percentage of ICU beds within their hospital beds, Low Income Countries having 1.63% to High Income Countries' 3.57%, and Lower Middle Income Countries having 2.38% (7).
If you compare the incidence of tuberculosis as a percentage of the number of tuberculosis deaths given by the WHO, you get a figure of about 8.5% for India, which is about the same as the figure for Italy and Germany (about 8.5% and 8.3%, respectively), and lower than for France at 10.6%; and only double that for the USA, 4.6%, and UK, 4.3%. The figure for Kenya and South Africa, 4.3% and 4%, respectively, is as good or better than that for the USA and the UK. The figure for Mexico is about 11%, which is close to that for France. The figure for Sweden is exceptionally high at nearly 17%. Norway has shown zero tuberculosis deaths in recent years, but the number of tuberculosis patients has remained unchanged at about 300 for several years. This might be indicative of some difficulty in Norway's ability to cure tuberculosis, even while keeping its victims alive. 2002 was a terrible year for tuberculosis in Norway, with 100 tuberculosis deaths estimated in that year against an estimated incidence of 280 cases, giving a crude mortality of over 35% (140A, 140B).
Readers should note that the calculation of tuberculosis death rates above are not from the WHO, they are my calculations based on the WHO mortality estimates and case incidence for this disease (140A, 140B). The WHO and public health officials will say that you cannot compare the country-wise data, or even the year-wise data. But if that is the case, then why are they doing exactly this when it comes to Covid-19? What do the numbers mean, if you can’t compare either year-on-year figures for a country, or country-to-country figures? All the WHO disease data seems to be nothing other than modelled estimates from the Insitute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) which is headquartered in the remote State of Washington in the USA, and for all we know they have never even been to countries like India for which they have done these estimations.
The physician-per-1000-of-population ratio for developing countries is about 0.6 to 1 in South Asian countries, .1 to .2 in poorer African countries, like Kenya, and 2.6 to 4 in high income countries like the USA, UK and European countries. Considering this disparity, South Asian and African countries are doing quite well to have comparable tuberculosis death rates to the USA, UK and Europe. The four-times higher doctor-to-patient ratio of Sweden to India’s did not stop it from having more Covid-19 deaths than India till as late as mid-May.
Even accounting for cases missed in South Asia and Africa, this says something about how well doctors are coping with the cases that do come to them, despite the relative lack of resources and larger number of cases. Even a country like the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a physician-per-1000-of-population ratio of .1, is managing extraordinarily well if you look, for instance, at their yearly malaria figures: 1.5 crore reported cases to about 62,000 deaths. So is Kenya, with over 27 lakh reported malaria cases to 9800 deaths, yearly (140C).
So there is no straight line between a country’s wealth and its hospital resources; physician density; or its ability to combat infectious disease; or to manage a high volume of patients. But this is how superficially, mechanically and crudely the WHO and public policy experts have been thinking of health issues for a long time.
There is no straight line between a country’s wealth and its hospital resources; physician density; or its ability to combat infectious disease; or to manage a high volume of patients. But this is how superficially, mechanically and crudely the WHO and public policy experts have been thinking of health issues for a long time.
8.4 The longstanding failure with respiratory infections in rich countries
We should pause here a moment to explore more deeply the rather curious phenomenon of countries like Norway and Sweden appearing to do so badly by tuberculosis patients despite their wealth and high physician per thousand ratios of 2.9 and 4.0, respectively.
If you look at the WHO’s Burden of Disease data, there is an indication that countries in North America and Europe seem to have had a persistent problem with treating respiratory infections, including influenzas that flare up into severe respiratory illnesses. This is something that the WHO has been recording in the data periodically without seeming to have noticed it, or understood its import. The Global Burden of Disease data for these countries, has a smattering of tuberculosis, meningitis and diarrhoeal disease deaths every year, but the bulk of their infectious disease burden comes in the category of “Respiratory Infections”. This is an intriguing WHO category, as it is not clear why it is taken into a separate head from other infectious diseases. Technically, under the WHO International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (“ICD”), “Respiratory Infections” includes influenzas and pneumonias, but the Burden of Disease profile does not record deaths under these disease sub-headings, simply sub-dividing Respiratory Infections into “upper respiratory”, “lower respiratory” and “otitis (ear)”-related infections.
In Italy, doctors writing about the Covid-19 epidemic noted there has been, in general, a “heavy seasonality” of deaths, with 25% more deaths in the winter as compared with other seasons, and many of these yearly excess deaths are related to respiratory infections from influenza (23). Perhaps these respiratory infections have been neglected in rich countries because in terms of absolute numbers, the non-communicable disease burden totally eclipses the communicable one. So with Covid-19, not only were richer countries caught by surprise with an infectious disease, which is a category of disease with which they already have relatively low experience, but also with a respiratory infectious disease, which is a category of infectious disease with which they were already not doing very well.
With Covid-19, not only were richer countries caught by surprise with an infectious disease, which is a category of disease with which they already have relatively low experience, but also with a respiratory infectious disease, which is a category of infectious disease with which they were already not doing very well.
By early July, deaths by Covid-19 were double (or more than double) the annual respiratory infectious disease deaths for the USA, Italy and France; nearly three times the annual respiratory infectious disease deaths for Spain; nearly double those for Sweden and well over those for the UK (140). So even though Covid-19 deaths might turn out to be a blip in the overall mortality in Western countries, this will be because their mortality profile is dominated by their non-communicable disease burden. But there is no denying that as an infectious disease, the Covid-19 mortality in these countries is unprecedented, massive and represents a real crisis in their system. At the same time, their disease profile also raises the question of how long Covid-19 can be privileged as it has been when so many, many more of their people are affected by non-communicable disease. By early July, the typical annual number of deaths in the USA from non-communicable diseases still exceeded Covid-19 deaths by 19 times (this was exceeded by 24 times in May), and in the UK and Spain by 12 times and in Italy and France by 16 times (140). What these countries need to do is not to narrow the focus to Covid-19, but to expand the focus to include more attention to infectious disease, than they have been used to doing in the last 80-odd years. And I think that the public there are right to question the excessive, almost exclusive focus on Covid-19, given the disease profile of these countries. I think that we may actually be in the middle of a much worse and silent health crisis over there in non-communicable diseases for this reason.
The situation for developing countries is different, as infectious disease already occupies a large part of medical attention here. Although, this might be a good reminder to countries like India not to lose sight of infectious disease as it goes up the income ladder. With the proliferation of private hospitals, some of our infectious disease burden may also be going unnoticed as it is less lucrative for these hospitals than cancer and heart treatment.
There is no denying that as an infectious disease, the Covid-19 mortality in developed countries is unprecedented, massive and represents a real crisis in their system. At the same time, their disease profile also raises the question of how long Covid-19 can be privileged as it has been when so many, many more of their people are affected by non-communicable disease. What these countries need to do is not to narrow the focus to Covid-19, but to expand the focus to include more attention to infectious disease, than they have been used to doing in the last 80-odd years. The situation for developing countries is different, as infectious disease already occupies a large part of medical attention here, although this might be a good reminder to countries like India not to lose sight of infectious disease as it goes up the income ladder.
8.5 We should be looking at the poorest, not the richest countries for solutions
In Covid times, it is also important to recognise the value of the experience of developing countries with large numbers of people and patients. In a given year, developing countries in South Asia and Africa see an infectious disease incidence numbering in the lakhs and crores, while developed countries like the UK, Germany, Italy or Spain see mere tens of thousands of cases. In absolute numbers, even the incidence of non-communicable disease in developing countries is much greater than that of developed ones.
At India’s 2400-bed All India Institute of Medical Services (AIIMS), a huge Government hospital in New Delhi (and this is only one of thousands of large public hospitals around the country), the average daily footfall is 15,000. This means that it sees as many patients in two or three days as some of the biggest US hospital see in a year. I take US hospitals as an example because of its large population compared with other developed countries. In 2018-19, AIIMS reported that it saw about 38 lakh outpatients, 2.5 lakh in-patients and conducted 2 lakh surgeries (141). Compare this with the USA’s biggest hospitals: according to a site called Becker’s Hospital Review, the New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weil Cornell Medical Centre which has about 2200 beds, sees 48,000 emergency room patients and conducts about 77,900 surgeries annually; the Florida Hospital in Orlando sees 32,000 in-patents and 53,000 out-patients annually; the Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis sees 97,000 patients a year (142). This is not to say that poorer countries have some kind of magic formula by virtue of seeing more cases. But a better understanding of the kinds of numbers developing countries face as a routine, would have helped both them and richer countries respond more sensibly and moderately to the Covid-19 crisis.
We need to pivot for answers from looking at the richest countries in the world, to looking at the poorest ones. They are the ones with the relevant experience, whereas the richer ones have virtually none.
We are not seeing the relevance of the differences in hospitals and medical practice that grow out of the wide differences discussed above in the disease profile of countries at different stages of theirdevelopment. Led by the world’s leading authority on disease, the WHO, we think of the differences only in terms of rich and poor; and resource-constraint or resource-abundance. We fail to see that the nature of medicine, hospital management and disease control practiced in developing countries with a large burden of infectious disease and an endemic lack of resources might actually have lessons for all of us in Covid times. We need to pivot for answers from looking at the richest countries in the world, to looking at the poorest ones. They are the ones with the relevant experience, whereas the richer ones have virtually none. We should have been speaking to doctors who function with less and not more resources, because Covid-19 dwarfs even the world’s best resources.
Talking to doctors who have cut their teeth in Indian hospitals is in of itself a fascinating experience. I am sure this is the case for doctors in any part of the Third World. In the normal round they see a breath-taking range of diseases among patients of every class and colour, and in every stage of illness. They function in conditions of perpetual resource shortage. Indian doctors familiar with big government hospitals like the AIIMS in New Delhi, will describe how patients are lined up on mattresses in the corridors at a pinch. The other day a dentist friend had me spellbound describing his early training at King George’s Medical College in Lucknow where there would be four patients lined up in a row on dental chairs in the corridor. He would treat them simultaneously, injecting one with local anaesthetic; leaving the anaesthetic to kick in while checking a cavity in the next; and so on.
In the pre-Covid era all this would have Westerners shaking their heads in horror. But this is life in a crowded and under-resourced situation. Many of the scenes from India described here would now be familiar in Covid-hit hospital in the West. A few weeks into their Covid outbreaks were reports from Europe of patients being treated in corridors.
Public policy experts who are trained in the paradigm of public health thinking that was developed in the West are particularly closed to the idea that they may actually have something to learn from Third World countries. What we really needed was public health experts who had the measure of the contrasting disease profiles and capabilities of countries. We needed experts who could have drawn upon these diverse experiences with disease and medical resources to suggest new ways of thinking in the Covid crisis. This is where the WHO as a supposedly international health authority could have shown real leadership by bringing the attention of nations to the medical experience with disease beyond their borders, in other settings, even in places far away on the other side of the globe, to spark off the novel thinking that this novel disease so clearly requires. But the WHO seems to have no sense of the richness or meaning of the information about the state of disease and medical practice at its disposal (and collected by it!) from all over the world. All the attention is on de-contextualized and disease-agnostic (and endemically inaccurate) mathematical modelling.
We should have been speaking to doctors who function with less and not more resources, because Covid-19 dwarfs even the world’s best resources.
8.6 Strength in Numbers
Almost always, when the sceptre of exponential growth is raised, it is the bigger, faster growing and coloured populations of the developing world that experts have in mind.
The idea that larger populations are nothing but a burden on countries is far too simplistic an evaluation of the dynamics of a large population, especially a young one. Having a large population to draw upon in times of emergency had its own advantages. We also have to interrogate the notion of exponential growth when applied to populations. Almost always, when the sceptre of exponential growth has been raised, it has been the bigger, faster growing and coloured populations of the developing world that experts have had in mind.
8.7 The Latent
Racism in Ideas of "Exponential" Growth The last time that exponential growth was made into an enterprise by the West, was in the era when the coloured nations had just begun to emerge from colonialism. There was a feeling in the West, that these countries would now flood them with immigrants. From the late 1940s to the early ‘80s, Malthusianism was preached to coloured nations everywhere, and they were encouraged to take drastic measures of population control. It was this that led China to implement its notorious one-child policy, and India to unleash its infamous sterilization drive. Much of this was advocated and funded by Europeans and Americans intent on improving the lives of the poor. Many oof them were great believers in eugenics and other horrible ideas as well. We have to always remember that among the ancestors of ideas of hygeine are terrible ideas like those of racial hygeine and population hygeine.
Once the atrocities of Chinese and Indian population control became known, exponential population growth was debunked as a theory. As in the case of modelling for Covid-19, nowhere did populations double at the predicted exponential rates. Instead, the phenomenon of demographic transition was observed which, though it gave big populations, also showed the “demographic dividend”, the benefits of a thriving, young population.
Now exponential growth has reared its ugly head again through the discourse of Western epidemiologists. We should not be naïve about the very real fears that the ageing and diminishing populations of the developed world have about us in the developing world. And we need to be vigilant about how agencies like the WHO and UN organisations can be used by these forces to keep developing nations in check. We should always have our eyes peeled for the tendency these developed nations display from time to time of developing exponential rates of paranoia about us, whether it is expressed in the form of concerns about population growth, pollution or pandemics.
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.
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NOTES AND REFERENCES
a. 1 lakh = 100,000; 1 crore = 10 million
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(18A) WHO Press Conference 16 March 2020. Link: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/transcripts/who-audio-emergencies-coronavirus-press-conference-full-16mar2020.pdf?sfvrsn=7c0c37bf_2
(19) COVID-19 - virtual press conference, WHO, 30 March 2020. Link: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/transcripts/who-audio-emergencies-coronavirus-press-conference-full-30mar2020.pdf?sfvrsn=6b68bc4a_2
(20) Nonpharmaceutical Interventions for Pandemic Influenza, International Measures, World Health Organisation Writing Group, Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Vol 12 Number 1, January 2006. Link: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/12/1/05-1370_article.
(21) Clinical course and risk factors for mortality of adult inpatients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a retrospective cohort study, Zhou et al., The Lancet, Vol 395, 1054, 28 March 2020, first published on 9 March 2020. Link: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30566-3/fulltext.
(22) Clinical Characteristics of 138 Hospitalized Patients with 2019 Novel Coronavirus-infected Pneumonia in Wuhan, China, Wang et al., JAMA 2020; 323 (11): 1061-1069, 7 February 2020. Link: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2761044.
(23) At the Epicentre of the Covid-19 Pandemic and Humanitarian Crises in Italy: Changing Perspectives on Preparation and Mitigation, Nacoti et al., NEJM Catalyst, 21 March 2020. Link: https://catalyst.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/CAT.20.0080.
(24) Hospitals as health factories and the coronavirus epidemic, Giorgina Barbara Piccoli, Journal of Nephrology (2020) 33: 189-191, 21 March 2020. Link: https://paperity.org/p/237906528/hospitals-as-health-factories-and-the-coronavirus-epidemic
(25) What Other Countries can learn from Italy during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Boccia et al., JAMA Intern. Med., 7 April 2020. Link: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2764369
(26) In fight against Covid, Dharavi grapples with sanitation, health, poverty, Kavitha Iyer, Indian Express, 31 May 2020. Link: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/dharavi-slum-coronavirus-covid-19-cases-6434996/
(27) Police use sjamboks and rubber bullets to enforce Hillbrow lockdown, Micah Reddy & Simon Allison, Mail & Guardian, 31 March 2020. Link: https://mg.co.za/article/2020-03-31-police-use-sjamboks-and-rubber-bullets-to-enforce-hillbrow-lockdown/
(28) Police kill three people in three days of lockdown. This is normal for South Africa, GroundUp, 1 April 2020. Link: https://www.groundup.org.za/article/police-kill-three-people-three-days-lockdown-normal-south-africa-data-reveals/
(29) Ebola – Myths, Realities and Structural Violence, Annie Wilkinson and Melissa Leach, African Affairs, pp.1-13, 4 December 2014. Link: http://www.ebola-anthropology.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Briefing-Ebola-Myths-Realites-and-Structural-Violence.pdf
(30) Barriers to supportive care during the Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa: Results of a qualitative study, Loignon et al., PLOS ONE, 5 September 2018. Link: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0201091
(31) Plague Warriors: The Deadly Ebola Outbreak in Zaire, Laurie Garret, Vanity Fair 1 August 1995. Link: https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1995/8/plague-warriors.
(32) Ebola and Learning Lessons from Moral Failures: Who cares about Ethics? Maxwell J. Smith and Ross E.G. Upshur, Public Health Ethics, Vol 8, No. 3, 305, 17 October 2015. Link: https://academic.oup.com/phe/article/8/3/305/2362913
(33) Doctor’s death from coronavirus sparks a digital uprising, rattling China’s leaders, Washington Post, 7 February 2020. Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/doctors-death-from-coronavirus-sparks-a-digital-uprising-rattling-chinas-leaders/2020/02/07/a4cb3492-4998-11ea-8a1f-de1597be6cbc_story.html; Reasons for healthcare workers becoming infected with novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Wang et al., Journal of Hospital Infection, March 2020. Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7134479/
(34) 80% of New York’s coronavirus patients who are put on ventilators ultimately die, and some doctors are trying to stop using them, Business Insider, Sinead Baker, 9 April 2020. Link: https://www.businessinsider.in/science/news/80-of-new-yorks-coronavirus-patients-who-are-put-on-ventilators-ultimately-die-and-some-doctors-are-trying-to-stop-using-them/articleshow/75065623.cms
(35) Italian mayor claims the true death toll from Covid-19 likely to be much higher, euronews.com, 21 March 2020. Link: https://www.euronews.com/2020/03/21/italian-mayor-claims-the-true-death-toll-from-covid-19-likely-to-be-much-higher
(36) ‘India has tremendous capacity to combat Covid-19’: WHO Executive Director, 24 March 2020. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bydILYTQUsA
(37) Covid 19: Tablighi Jamaat attendee attempts suicide from 6th floor of Delhi Hospital, PTI, Deccan Herald, 2 April 2020. Link: https://www.deccanherald.com/national/covid-19-tablighi-jamaat-attendee-attempts-suicide-from-6th-floor-of-delhi-hospital-820254.html
(38) Problems in identifying the origins of an outbreak, Tom Jefferson & Carl Heneghan, 3 April 2020, https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/problems-in-identifying-the-origins-of-an-outbreak/; Global experts go head-to-head over claims the coronavirus ‘no longer exists clinically’, CNBC Report, 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; 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
(39) Kya WHO ne lockdown ka sujhav diya hai? Prime Time with Ravish Kumar, 1 May 2020 (in Hindi). Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNzlq1whlq4
(40) 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
(41) Unexpected cause of death in younger Covid-19 patients is related to blood clotting, BioSpace, 28 April 2020. Link: https://www.biospace.com/article/covid-19-increases-risk-of-heart-attacks-and-stroke/?fbclid=IwAR3wum5CgAyBrlCQ2eBwQCy_sU2Evq4iuyV4dqhT7ZP5efdSOVb_KWPkUnw
(42) Revised Guidelines on Clinical Management of Covid-19, Government of India, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, 31 March 2020. Link: https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/RevisedNationalClinicalManagementGuidelineforCOVID1931032020.pdf
(43) Avigan trials will continue in Japan with drug efficacy unclear, Nikkei Asian Review, 21 May 2020. Link: https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Pharmaceuticals/Avigan-trials-will-continue-in-Japan-with-drug-efficacy-unclear ;Wanted Covid-19 patients in Japan…..for clinical trials, The Japan Times, 24 June 2020. Link: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/06/24/national/science-health/japan-coronavirus-patients-vaccine-trials/;Bangladesh Medical College Hospital Physician see ‘astounding results’ with drug combination targeting Covid-19, Trial Sites News, 18 May 2020. Link: https://www.trialsitenews.com/bangladesh-medical-college-hospital-physician-see-astounding-results-with-drug-combination-targeting-covid-19/; CSIR identifies top 25 drugs/drug candidates for repurposing, Ministry of Science & Technology, 30 April 2020. Link: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1619671.
(44) Sermo website: https://www.sermo.com/methodology/
(45) Protecting health-care workers from subclinical coronavirus infection, Chang et al., The Lancet, Correspondence, Vol. 8, March 2020, published online 13 February 2020. Link: https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanres/PIIS2213-2600(20)30066-7.pdf; Fewer deaths in Veneto offer clues for fight against virus, Financial Times, April 5, 2020. Link: https://www.ft.com/content/9c75d47f-49ee-4613-add1-a692b97d95d3; Offline: COVID-19 and the NHS – “a national scandal”, Richard Horton, Comment, The Lancet, Vol. 395, 28 March 2020. Link: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30727-3/fulltext; Italian doctors warned hospitals are coronavirus vectors. One Russian region proves their point, The Moscow Times, 9 April 2020. Link: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/04/09/italian-doctors-warned-hospitals-are-coronavirus-vectors-one-russian-region-proves-their-point-a69924
Woman is first UK victim to die of coronavirus caught in hospital, The Guardian, 24 March 2020. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/24/woman-first-uk-victim-die-coronavirus-caught-hospital-marita-edwards, We’ve become the ‘super-spreaders’: NHS doctor pleads for more protective equipment, Yahoo News, UK, 18 March 2020. https://sports.yahoo.com/dr-nishant-joshi-coronavirus-protective-masks-equioment-130525108.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEPC0bVREj6Nbb_kjlYlxY4XDEKlAUxdxO1HO__5G858semg6WxHnPlD7Q4diQV6TpI82OS_uTKs5wS1I61YuMVQ_ksQuyYW7DZr-_6ZVIDiX81iyLXNxxFPdub8AyM-safropIQ1qHKVzeWiyGrQWh0LGZScW0Yy5nd2tFUdvtE ; When our hospitals are the pandemic superspreaders, The American Conservative, 20 April 2020. Link: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/when-our-hospitals-are-the-pandemic-superspreaders/
(46) “Flattening the curve on COVID-19: How Korea responded to a pandemic using ICT”, publication of the Government of the Republic of Korea dated 11 May 2020.
(47) Blood clots in severe Covid-19 patients leave their clinicians with clues about the illness – but no proven treatments, statnews.com, 16 April 2020. Link: https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/16/blood-clots-coronavirus-tpa/; Doctors are discovering coronavirus causes blood clots harming organs from brains to toes, The Print, 5 May 2020. Link: https://theprint.in/health/doctors-are-discovering-coronavirus-causes-blood-clots-harming-organs-from-brain-to-toes/414479/
(48) Prince Charles to open NHS Nightingale to treat Covid-19 patients, The Guardian, 3 April 2020. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/03/prince-charles-to-open-nhs-nightingale-to-treat-covid-19-patients
(49) US Field Hospitals stand down, most without treating any Covid-19 patients, npr.org, 7 May 2020. Link: https://www.npr.org/2020/05/07/851712311/u-s-field-hospitals-stand-down-most-without-treating-any-covid-19-patients; London NHS Nightingale hospital will shut next week, The Guardian, 4 May 2020. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/04/london-nhs-nightingale-hospital-placed-on-standby
(50) Covid-19: Nightingale hospitals set to shutdown after seeing few patients, BMJ 2020; 369, 7 May 2020. Link: https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1860
(51) Improvisation and retraining may be key to saving patients in New York’s ICUs, npr.org, 8 April 2020. Link: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/04/08/830153837/improvisation-and-retraining-may-be-key-to-saving-patients-in-new-yorks-icus
(52) Why ventilators may not be working as well for Covid-19 patients as doctors hoped, Time, 16 April 2020. Link: https://time.com/5820556/ventilators-covid-19/
(53) From NYC ICU, Cameron Kyle-Sidell, 31 March 2020. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9GYTc53r2o
(54) Webinar on avoiding intubation and initial ventilation in Covid-19, EMCrit, 4 April 2020. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZqNiQxJLSU
(55) Management of Covid-19 respiratory distress, John J. Marini and Luciano Gattinoni, JAMA Insights, Clinical Update, 24 April 2020. Link: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2765302
(56) Do Covid-19 vent protocols need a second look? https://www.webmd.com/coronavirus-in-context/video/coronavirus-in-context-cameron-kyle-sidell
(57) NHS Nightingale chief says NHS must ‘never go back’ to old bureaucratic ways, The Independent, 28 April 2020. Link:
(58) Doctors face troubling question: are they treating coronavirus correctly? The New York Times, 14 April 2020. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp5RMutCNoI. Note that the doctors’ research referred to as an “editorial” in this report was published in a number of formal papers subsequently and can be accessed here: Covid-19 pneumonia: different respiratory treatments for different phenotypes? Gattinoni et al., Intensive Care Medicine, 46, pg. 1099, 14 April 2020. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00134-020-06033-2?tk=eo_8ec810cc-57e5-4bc1-bb85-e22b9e068904_JOUOgWdVMbWC4XIzzfHwSizVS09ocy3MoJOK and Management of Covid-19 respiratory distress, John J Marini and Luciano Gattinoni, JAMA Insights, Clinical Update, 24 April 2020. Link: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2765302
(59) Advisory on the use of hydroxy-chloroquine as prophylaxis for SARS-CoV-2 infection, Indian Council of Medical Research, 22 March 2020. Link: https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/AdvisoryontheuseofHydroxychloroquinasprophylaxisforSARSCoV2infection.pdf
(60) https://www.history.com/news/black-holes-albert-einstein-theory-relativity-space-time
(61) https://hsm.stackexchange.com/questions/5937/why-did-einstein-oppose-quantum-uncertainity
(62) Announcement of New Coronavirus Infectious Disease Control Experts Meeting dated 24 February 2020 (in Japanese): https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/newpage_00006.html ; Prevention Measures against Coronavirus Disease, Japan, 25 February 2020 (in Japanese): https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/10900000/000607629.pdf
(63) Early state of a Japan outbreak: The policies needed to support coronavirus patients, Saito Katsuhisa, Nippon.com, 19 February 2020. Link: https://www.nippon.com/en/news/l00267/early-stage-of-a-japan-outbreak-the-policies-needed-to-support-coronavirus-patients.html
(64) China coronavirus: Wuhan medical staff being infected at much faster pace than reported as national death toll hits 26, South China Morning Post, 24 January 2020. Link: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3047441/wuhan-medical-staff-being-infected-virus-much-faster-pace
(65) Coronavirus: shocking footage shows Chinese family being forced into quarantine by police, Evening Standard, 8 February 2020. Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNeTWX7WgwA
(66) Ebola community health workers trained for the future, 10 March 2020. Link: https://www.afro.who.int/news/ebola-community-health-workers-trained-future?fbclid=IwAR2zmg7cus3tbD8LCJZCzCsjFXM_BuQ9o9dhYxNx7z6u7X_cUR0DPwMNkVQ
(67) Sweden’s relaxed approach to the coronavirus could already be backfiring, Time, 9 April 2020. Link: https://time.com/5817412/sweden-coronavirus/
(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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