Human Viruses
April 15, 2020
“I believe that maturity is not an outgrowing, but a growing up: that an adult is not a dead child, but a child who survived. I believe that all the best faculties of a mature human being exist in the child. . . . that one of the most deeply human, and humane, of these faculties is the power of imagination.”
“The prisoner is the jailer’s jailer.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin
Dan Kitwood via Getty Images
Let’s Eliminate Forever These Human Viruses: Boko Haram
On April 14, 2014, the Islamic militant group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 seniors from Nigeria’s Chibok Government Secondary School for Girls. The girls spent three years in captivity enduring hunger, beatings, sexual assault and airstrikes. Of those hostages who survived, 103 were released in 2016 and 2017 in exchange for five fighters and a cash ransom mediated by the Swiss government. More than 112 remain unaccounted for — still in Boko Haram custody, or dead.
Six years later the rising pace of attacks on and near the young women’s villages are putting them at dire risk again. Chibok community leaders say the government has scaled back security forces and patrols, leaving the villages on the town’s outskirts exposed to increasing attacks by Boko Haram — more than 20 since January. 10 people have been killed and 17 abducted. Several villages are now empty, evacuated in fear.
Monday, in a statement marking the sixth anniversary of the Chibok kidnapping, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said that his government hadn’t forgotten the hostages. But officials in charge of security at the American University of Nigeria, where many of the young women study, are concerned. “This issue needs more attention from the government and the military,” said the head of security. “If the Nigerian army is not even defending the Chibok girls, what hope is there for all the other displaced people?”
Image via Getty Images
You Can Teach An Old Virus To Infect New Kids
- Public health experts warned Monday that poor countries around the world are having to stop mass immunization programs to reduce the risk of spreading Covid-19. Unlike in wealthier countries, where parents typically make appointments to follow a routine vaccine schedule at clinics or private pediatric offices, poorer countries must inoculate large numbers of infants and children in communal settings, like marketplaces, schools, churches and mosques.
- The suspension of these programs puts more than 100 million children at risk for measles and other childhood diseases. Currently 24 low and middle-income countries, including Mexico, Nigeria, and Cambodia, have postponed their immunization programs.
- Even before the coronavirus pandemic, measles was making a resurgence in some places. By 2018, there were an estimated 9,769,400 measles cases and 142,300 deaths worldwide. In 2019 the US reported its highest number of measles cases in 25 years: 1,282. (NYT)
Why So Serious? Because Autocratic Leaders Hate Science and Facts
- Iraq’s media regulator suspended Reuters license for three months, fined it $21,000, and demanded an apology for what it said was the agency’s violation of the rules of media broadcasting.
- Reuters had published a well-sourced story on April 2 that said the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country was higher than official reports. The story cited three doctors involved in the testing process, a health ministry official and a senior political official as saying Iraq had thousands of confirmed Covid-19 cases, not the 772 it had publicly reported at that time.
- Reuters had updated the story to include a denial from a health ministry spokesman who dismissed the sources’ assertions about the spread of the disease, describing them as “incorrect information.” Iraq’s media regulator said it had imposed the punishment because the story had caused societal distress by implying the government had deliberately falsified the records.
- As of April 13, Iraq had recorded 1,378 cases of COVID-19, including 78 deaths. (Reuters)
Additional World News
- In Rural Japan, a 370-Year-Old Tradition Falls to One Child (NYT, $) & ‘A Reminder That Nature Is Strong’: In Japan, A 1,000-Year-Old Cherry Tree Blooms (NPR)
- Strengthen worldwide climate commitments to improve economy, study finds (Guardian)
- Food rations to 1.4 million refugees cut in Uganda due to funding shortfall (Guardian)
Covid-19
- In India, Coronavirus Fans Religious Hatred (NYT)
- Japan Needs to Telework. Its Paper-Pushing Offices Make That Hard. (NYT)
- In Pandemic’s Grip, Russia Sees Spike in Age-Old Bane: Drinking (NYT) To quote the movie character Bane in terms of vodka’s relationship with Russians: “We will destroy your liver … then you have my permission to die.” Here is an excellent article back in 2002 when we first started reading The New Yorker in our barracks room at West Point on the weekends: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/12/16/the-russian-god (“Some fourteen thousand Russian soldiers were killed during the ten-year occupation of Afghanistan, but more than thirty thousand Russians die of alcohol poisoning every year.”) At this point, it feels appropriate to use this quote attributed to Stalin: “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”
- Opinion | America Will Struggle After Coronavirus. These Charts Show Why. (NYT) The disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street has never been stranger. & How coronavirus almost brought down the global financial system | Adam Tooze (Guardian)
- Inequality doesn’t just make pandemics worse – it could cause them (Guardian)
- The American Patient: How Trump Is Fueling a Corona Disaster (Spiegel) (An interesting perspective on how the rest of the world views America right now)
- Trump cuts WHO funding over coronavirus, global death toll mounts (Reuters)
- Trump says close to plan to reopen economy possibly, in part, before May 1 (Reuters)
- How the Coronavirus Will Change Young People’s Lives (Atlantic) (Immensely. Up to this time we had managed to avoid having a lot of screen time for our kids. The jig is up when it comes to screen time.)
- School at Home: Kids Share Experiences During Coronavirus Pandemic (NYT)
- Too early, ‘too risky?’ Italians fear second wave as lockdown is eased (NBC)
- Small Chloroquine Study Halted Over Risk of Fatal Heart Complications (NYT) (This never seemed like a good idea given there was no data-science.)
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The Prisoner’s Dilemma: Outbreak Or Jailbreak?
- Coronavirus is spreading rapidly in the nation’s penal institutions, with facilities reporting more inmates and guards testing positive each day. Officials hope to stem the spread of Covid-19 behind bars by releasing thousands of prisoners to await trial or serve their sentences at home; the decisions are spurring a debate over public health versus public safety.
- Authorities say they are prioritizing the bail or early release of inmates with health problems who have been convicted of nonviolent crimes and are at low risk of reoffending. But prison officials still have broad discretion to decide, which has spurred fights across the country over who should be freed, and produced some pretty inconsistent results.
- A 68-year-old man serving a 35-year sentence in a Florida federal prison on a drug conviction will serve the rest of his term at his sister’s home. But federal officials in California won’t release a 72-year-old man with a history of respiratory problems serving a 14-year sentence for mail fraud.
- Meanwhile, both victims’-rights groups and police chiefs complain that some of the inmates being released are dangerous. In San Jose, California two men charged with gun offenses and drug-trafficking crimes were released. And in New York City, a Rikers Island inmate also released over coronavirus concerns was accused last week of robbing a bank. (WSJ)
Additional USA News
- Native Americans were already decimated by a virus. They’re scared it could happen again (CNN)
- Obama endorses Biden for president, says he’s the right person to ‘guide us through one of our darkest times’ (NBC)
- The East Coast, Always in the Spotlight, Owes a Debt to the West (NYT, $) & Why New York has 14 times as many coronavirus deaths as California (Vox)
- Why Biden’s Polling Lead vs. Trump Isn’t as Solid as It Looks (NYT, $)
- US government agrees on $25bn bailout for airlines as pandemic halts travel (Guardian)
- Herd immunity in California? A Stanford expert on why we’re nowhere close (Guardian)
Because You’re Mine, I Take A Walk Like an Egyptian On the Wild Side
- Carol Ewing Garber, a sports and physiology expert, says that for many boys and younger men, the “gym scene” may fit with their perceptions of what “masculine” exercise should look like, especially when it comes to intense sweating. For these males, walking for exercise just isn’t “masculine” enough. “After all,” Garber says, “we don’t see media images of men going for walks . . . [who] are portrayed as ‘masculine.’
- While there is no doubt that walking is a healthful activity for both men and women, walking may be seen as something only for women or older men.” 56-year-old Michael Heisler agrees. The part-time tennis teaching professional prefers weightlifting, strengthening exercises in the gym and “getting my cardio on the court.” Like many men, he would rather not exercise at all than resort to walking. “The idea of walking feels like I’m throwing in the towel.”
- Studies have found that regular walking is associated with a lower risk of stroke, cognitive impairment and cardiovascular disease. Plus, it can be done anywhere, anytime, for free. (WaPo)
- Additional songs
- Daily Pnut commentary: the military is a great place to flush out all the toxic masculinity, nonsense, and tomfoolery conceptions that society and men have around what it means to be a man. After watching and observing the insane things young men will do to prove their manliness, one realizes it is all just a charade: big muscles, alcohol consumption, unhealthy lifestyles, and trivial competitions just to identify (or prove to be) an “alpha.” This is what we say to men of all ages: do you and don’t listen to the haters. And oh yeah, we love walking.
- Can being weird be a good thing? (Vox) TL, DR: Yes, of course it can be.