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Category: Public health

  • ‘No silver bullet against omicron’ – expect big numbers, says Hipkins

    RNZ News

    People should do everything they can against omicron, but it is likely large numbers will be infected, New Zealand’s Covid-19 Response Minister says.

    Speaking to RNZ Morning Report today, Chris Hipkins said masks, booster shots, isolating and good preparation for isolation were all vital steps people should take to slow the spread of the virus.

    But “the cat is out of the bag to some extent, and we know that we’re likely to see more cases, and potentially significantly more cases associated with these ones.

    “There’s no silver bullet we are going to experience a large number of cases.”

    The entire country is now in the red Covid-19 Framework setting, with the news announced yesterday that omicron is likely spreading in the community.

    “There are some unavoidable realities about this, and one of those unavoidable realities is that we will see omicron spreading much more quickly than previous variants of the virus,” Hipkins said.

    Booster vaccinations were going strongly, he said, but there was still a chunk of those eligible who weren’t getting them as soon as they could.

    “Our main message is once you’re eligible come forward and get your booster dose.”

    Covid-19 vaccination providers have been warned to prepare for high demand today in response to the news of omicron spread in the community, and have been asked to consider staying open late to meet demand.

    “We do know from our delta experience that when an outbreak is happening or is imminent, that drives a lot more [vaccinations].”

    Anxious locals queue for nasal swabs in Bell Block.
    Queues for testing in Bell Block, Taranaki, in December. Image: RNZ/LDR

    Making people eligible for the booster three months after their second Covid-19 shot, rather than the current four months would only shift about 100,000 people forward, Hipkins said, and while it had been considered, the benefit was not considered worthwhile at this stage.

    Testing strategy shifts expected

    Hipkins said it was expected that as the situation changed, the public will be asked to make changes in their response.

    In this future this was likely to include whether those experiencing symptoms get tested.

    Right now, Hipkins said, the government wanted everyone to continue to get tested if they had any cold or flu symptoms, or if they were a contact. But if daily case numbers rose considerably not everyone would be tested.

    “A lot more people will get it, but many of those people — particularly those who’ve been boosted … are likely to be able to recover by staying at home,” he said.

    “There will be some … further down the line … that we’ll be saying: ‘Don’t worry about getting tested … just stay home and get better’.”

    National Party leader Christopher Luxon told Morning Report the 4.6 million rapid antigen test kits (RATs) currently in the country was an alarmingly low number and the government should have acted sooner to stockpile them and authorise private importing.

    Christopher Luxon at a public meeting in Nelson
    National Party leader Christopher Luxon… “We need [rapid antigen test kits] now, and we needed them months ago.” Image: Samantha Gee/RNZ

    “We need them now, and we needed them months ago. Now we’re in a place where it’s quite an urgent situation,” Luxon said.

    “Many countries … you actually upload the result of your rapid antigen test you do at home … and that’s how the government tracks what’s actually happening with cases.”

    Hipkins said there were widespread international issues with RAT supplies; “Countries that are relying on them are now running out.”

    But before Christmas the government had begun efforts to purchase as many as possible

    “We know that as this situation unfolds we’re going to want to use rapid antigen testing a lot more.”

    Luxon said the National party supported the government’s shift to the red framework setting “reluctantly”.

    But he said the government must act more quickly at adopting international learning in how to respond to the virus: “We’ve got to keep going forward.”

    He said once daily case numbers rose drastically, managed isolation and quarantine facilities (MIQ) at the border could become redundant. If that happens, National want the government to reconsider MIQ, and in particular to allow all New Zealanders overseas to return without having to go through it.

    Mask use tutorials
    Hipkins said experts strongly advised surgical masks were still the best for the public to use, and: “We’ve got plenty of those available.”

    He said while testing showed N95 masks were more effective against Covid-19, in real world application it was not that simple.

    “An N95 mask needs to be the right fit, otherwise it can be potentially less effective. If you buy the wrong shape or the wrong size and it doesn’t sit properly, then actually the extra protection that you could be getting from that – you won’t necessarily get that.”

    The country has plenty of N95 masks for health workers and frontline workers in stock, and they were given professional fitting tutorials and had their fit checked by others.

    Hipkins said the government would enact any new advice around masks and omicron quickly as it came in, but research on masks was still evolving.

    Hipkins did not have any new updates on the Nelson Tasman region cluster of cases at this stage.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Indonesia reports first omicron deaths as covid cases surge

    By Dio Suhenda in Jakarta

    More than a month after the omicron variant was first discovered in Indonesia, the highly transmissible but less fatal variant has claimed its first fatality amid a surge in covid-19 cases, prompting calls for the government to speed up vaccination of the elderly.

    Health Ministry spokesperson Siti Nadia Tarmizi told The Jakarta Post yesterday that the country’s first two omicron-related deaths were a 64-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman with “severe comorbidities”.

    The man, Tarmizi said, was a local transmission case and died in Sari Asih Hospital in Ciputat, on the outskirts of Jakarta, while the woman was an imported case.

    She recently traveled to the Netherlands and was believed to have contracted the virus there before testing positive upon returning to Indonesia.

    She died at the Sulianti Saroso Infectious Diseases Hospital in North Jakarta.

    Dio Suhenda is a reporter for The Jakarta Post.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Tulagi bans betel nut selling as covid fears grow in Solomon Islands

    By Robert Iroga in Honiara

    Tulagi in the Central Islands province of Solomon islands is the first provincial capital to ban the sale of betel nut — for an indefinite period — as a measure to help control any potential spread of covid-19.

    Premier Stanley Manetiva told SBM Online that the measure became effective yesterday as news reports indicated fears of a community spread of the virus in parts of the capital Honiara.

    A 60 hour lockdown was declared in the city and was due to be lifted today.

    He said that this was to avoid people chewing and spitting which potentially would spread the virus and from sharing lime as well.

    He said that this was to avoid people chewing betel nut and spitting which potentially would spread the virus — and from sharing lime as well.

    Manetiva said the ban stopped people from bringing in their betel nut to the Tulagi market and from selling it in the town.

    The ban is only for betel nut while other local produce is still sold at the market.

    Tulagi starts curfew
    Meanwhile, the premier also confirmed that Tulagi had started its own curfew — banning or limiting all movements by people in the town after 10pm.

    He said it was an understanding among the residents in Tulagi that there should be no movement after that time.

    The old capital has also monitored ships entering its shores and now has only two designated places for canoes to land on the island town at Taporo and the market.

    Besides Guadalcanal, the Central Islands province, is the closest to Honiara, which is experiencing community transmission of covid-19.

    RNZ Pacific reports Solomon Islands had reported 48 new cases of covid-19 on Thursday.

    It took to 81 the number of cases in the country, which until this week had had just a handful of people with the virus.

    Robert Iroga is editor of SBM Online. Republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Rangitīkei Māori leader urges rural NZ people to prepare now for omicron

    By Moana Ellis, Local Democracy Reporting journalist

    A New Zealand iwi development and social services leader in Taihape is urging rural people to prepare urgently for self-isolation or infection as the threat of omicron looms.

    Mōkai Pātea Services general manager Tracey Hiroa, who is also a Rangitīkei District councillor, says country people think of themselves as self-sufficient but must make plans for extended periods of isolation or sickness.

    She said people must connect now with family, friends and neighbours to put practical measures in place for a worst-case scenario.

    Local Democracy Reporting
    LOCAL DEMOCRACY REPORTING

    “We’ve been very, very lucky in this region so far, but it’s just a matter of time,” Hiroa said.

    “Probably one of the key things that people need is their own whānau plan. Be prepared as opposed to sitting back and thinking, ‘oh no, that’s not going to happen to me’.

    “Preparation really is the biggest thing. If you’re self-isolating, if you are diagnosed with [covid-19], think about things that in theory are going to be able to keep you going.

    “If you’ve got animals, have you sorted out anything to make sure that they’ve got food? Make sure you’ve got kai to last you over that two-week period. Make sure you’ve got a chilly bin or something like that — with a lid — that can be left out by the front gate that kai or anything else is able to be put in, so that you’re not in contact with people.”

    Two weeks of supplies
    Hiroa said people should get in two weeks of supplies and items such as torches and batteries or candles, as well as sanitiser, masks and medicines for fever, congestion, muscular pain and sore throats or coughs.

    And she said it is vital for people to make sure they have support at hand if needed.

    “Making sure that you’ve got those relationships already in place if something was to happen. Have you made the connections out with your whānau to say here’s some of the things outside of the home that I need you to be picking up on.

    “It might mean you’ll need somebody to go and feed out your cattle. Go and meet your neighbours so that if something happens you’ve got somebody to call on.”

    Local Democracy Reporting is a public interest news service supported by Asia Pacific Report, RNZ, the News Publishers’ Association and NZ On Air.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • COVID Shows It’s Time to End the Pharmaceutical Industry

    Protesters carry cardboard coffins along Whitehall during a protest against COVID-19 vaccine patents on October 12, 2021, in London, England.

    Eighty-four million Americans remain unvaccinated against COVID-19. Nearly no one has knocked on their doors to explain why a vaccine is a good idea. Even at this late date, now is a good time to start.

    As with COVID testing, thousands of newly hired community health workers are needed to hit the streets and back roads to convince people that vaccines are safe and necessary. Daily conversations, some over the course of many weeks, are needed to turn millions of skeptics or the disconnected into participants. This would be the kind of program the Biden administration proposed, if still in an inadequate form, for contact tracing before the inauguration and never pursued after.

    Certainly, the ongoing bloodbath — only inches deep but wide as a lake — isn’t just a matter of the present administration. Trump’s vindictive inaction helped kill half a million Americans the first year of the outbreak. Biden’s smug insufficiency, however, will likely add another half a million by spring. But more pointedly, it’s as much a matter of the U.S.’s structural decline that produced the holes in our public health coverage. Beginning nearly 50 years ago, public health was increasingly abandoned or monetized under the neoliberal program.

    Public health spending clearly saves lives. Ten years ago, health policy analysts Glen Mays and Sharla Smith found that U.S. mortality rates from preventable deaths — including infant mortality and cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer — fell between 1.1 to 6.9 percent for every 10 percent increase in local public health spending.

    Yet this crucial spending has dropped. In 2018, the Trust for America’s Health reported on the effective decline of public health funding.

    The report described the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Cooperative Agreement Program as the only federal program that supports state and local health departments to prepare for and respond to emergencies. Except for one-time bumps for the Ebola and Zika outbreaks, core emergency preparedness funding had been cut by more than one-third (from $940 million in 2002 to $667 million in 2017).

    The report went on to identify precipitous declines in public health funding at the state level. Thirty one states cut their public health budgets from FY 2015-2016 to FY 2016-2017, with spending lower that year than in 2008. The budget cuts during the Great Recession were never restored.

    The impact was felt at the local level, too. Local health departments cut 55,000 staff in the decade following the Recession. By this system’s logic, an acute emergency is also grounds for such cuts. Thousands of health staff were furloughed during the COVID outbreak — cuts attributed in part to declines in more lucrative elective surgeries. One in five health workers have left their jobs during the pandemic.

    The Trust for America report went on to describe the incoming disasters for which the U.S. appeared unprepared in 2018. They sound like headlines of the past year: weather disasters; flooding; wildfires; extreme drought; hurricanes; infectious disease outbreaks; and deaths of despair due to factors including racial disparities, opioids, and regional disparities that continue to drive distrust of government.

    Trust for America placed particular focus on pandemics and the need to fully fund the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, the Hospital Preparedness Program, the Project BioShield Act and PHEP.

    The report recommended increasing funding for public health at all levels of jurisdiction — federal, state and local. It called for preserving the Prevention and Public Health Fund, increasing funding to prepare for public health emergencies and pandemics, establishing a standing public health emergency response fund, and surge funding during an emergency to avoid the delays that were apparent in the Ebola outbreak, the swine flu pandemic, Hurricane Sandy and the Zika virus outbreak.

    Trust for America concluded with a recommendation for a national resilience strategy to combat diseases of despair, for preventing chronic disease, and for expanding high-impact interventions across communities.

    While it is important to consider recommendations for increased funding and preparedness, it’s also crucial to take a step back and consider the system under which these suggestions are being made. Trust for America’s recommendations were wrapped in the worst of language and precepts. The report accepted the class character of the state. Public health is a means of cleaning up messes that capitalist production produces. Public health outcomes were pitched in terms of returns on investment.

    All terrible. And yet, in the present context, such recommendations are radical, if only in pushing back against the damage of an empire at the end of its cycle of capital accumulation, organized around helping billionaires squeeze what’s left of the commons and turning decades of social infrastructure back into bunker money.

    Anti-Public Health — at Home and Abroad

    We find an analogous fallacy in U.S. COVID policy abroad. While the Biden administration has taken a stance in favor of waiving TRIPS rules against vaccine generics for COVID, tech billionaire and philanthrocapitalist Bill Gates, funding WHO efforts, effectively sets U.S. foreign policy on the matter.

    Gates declared in April that:

    there are only so many vaccine factories in the world and people are very serious about the safety of vaccines. And so moving something that had never been done, moving a vaccine from, say, a J&J factory into a factory in India, that, it’s novel, it’s only because of our grants and our expertise that can happen at all. The thing that’s holding things back in this case is not intellectual property, there’s not like some idle vaccine factory with regulatory approval that makes magically safe vaccines.

    The reality is something different. Last month AccessIBSA and Médecins Sans Frontières identified 120 companies in Africa, Asia and Latin America with the likely capacity to produce mRNA vaccines. Human Rights Watch reported:

    “Global vaccine production forecasts suggesting there will soon be enough Covid-19 vaccines for the world are misleading,” said Aruna Kashyap, associate business and human rights director at Human Rights Watch. “The US and German governments should press for wider technology transfers and not let companies dictate where and how lifesaving vaccines and treatments reach much of the world as the virus mutates.”

    Two months earlier, The New York Times had investigated the possibility:

    “You cannot go hire people who know how to make mRNA: Those people don’t exist,” the chief executive of Moderna, Stéphane Bancel, told analysts.

    But public health experts in both rich and poor countries argue that expanding production to the regions most in need is not only possible, it is essential for safeguarding the world against dangerous variants of the virus and ending the pandemic.

    Setting up mRNA manufacturing operations in other countries should start immediately, said Tom Frieden, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, adding: “They are our insurance policy against variants and production failure” and “absolutely can be produced in a variety of settings.”

    Both at home and abroad, pharmaceutical industry apologists propose nothing can be conceived, much less pursued, unless the largest companies make billions in profit. Our men of the year are to be treated as no less than gods with rocket wings. Few of the respectable establishment have described, much less denounced, the fallacy.

    Others have been much more truculent in their commentary, connecting increasing wealth concentration with COVID failures:

    • Economic historian Matthias Schmelzer started one Twitter thread early December: “The global concentration of capital is extreme: The richest 10% own around 60-80% of wealth, the poorest half less than 5%, according to just published World Inequality Report.”
    • Americans For Tax Fairness reported: “America’s billionaires got $1 TRILLION richer in 2021, a 25% gain in collective wealth that will go largely untaxed.”
    • Union organizer Jack Califano encapsulated the damage of such an arrangement: “COVID has been a perfect illustration of how our government now works. In a crisis, it will provide benefits, but only the absolute minimum it determines necessary to protect the system from political upheaval. And then, as soon as stability is restored, it will take them away.”

    The Pandemic ThinkTank has taken up the core matter in similarly direct terms. In a report it released in November, the ad hoc group — comprised of a social psychiatrist, disease ecologist, medical anthropologist, epidemiologist, critical care physician and county official — unpacked the origins of the COVID trap that the U.S. placed itself in and offered a plan of escape other than “go to work.”

    The team described how social systems set the ways epidemics spread, the damage that accrued in the American system of disease control long before SARS-2 showed up, the history of successful public health efforts before that destruction, and what a working public health system looks like:

    Several lessons emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and frame our approach to planning for the next pandemic.

    First, there are three ‘partners’ in this enterprise: the government, the public health establishment, and the communities. Each partner has an important role to play in ensuring that we learn these lessons and can meet the next challenge with a better chance at survival. But there is an underlying issue of excess power held by the American oligopoly and the politicians allied with them. They profit in power and wealth from the array of policies David Harvey (2019) labeled ‘accumulation by dispossession’.

    Any serious examination of pandemic threat must confront the danger contained in such one-sided power. Part of the way in which the oligopoly has gained and maintained power is by undermining communities and destroying their organizations. While this is good for short-term profit, it poses an enormous threat to long-term survival. Rebuilding community power is an essential part of epidemic control.

    Rebellion as Intervention

    So, there are minds stateside who understand both disease and the country in ways the establishment that rejects their counsel does not. In contrast to the president’s chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci and a CDC that repeatedly places commerce and empire before people, Pandemic ThinkTank explicitly counsels a rebel alliance:

    Local health departments must, in many municipalities and counties, foment revolution.

    This, like most revolutions, must occur in secret and with interactions with community groups in places like neighborhood bars, playgrounds, houses of worship, and barbershops/beauty salons.

    In order to bring communities into condition for improved public health and for pandemic prevention and response, the health department must have the social and political muscle to pressure the elected executive into reforming the relevant agencies.

    The health departments themselves must feel the pressure of empowered communities to establish egalitarian planning councils that will produce plans acceptable to and supportable by the various elements that form the local communities.

    Unlike the COVID Collaborative of establishment epidemiologists who, like the CDC, push a more individualistic approach to public health, we can see why the Pandemic ThinkTank holds no direct line to the president. Indeed, ultimately, it’s going to take everyday people from beyond the Beltway to help bend epidemiology back into a science for the people.

    Younger epidemiologists are taking on that spirit, turning on Biden and their better-connected colleagues in confrontational terms for which most journeymen are punished:

    • Perhaps with the COVID Collaborative and ex-Harvard epidemiologist and now chief science officer at the eMed diagnostic company Michael Mina in mind, Columbia University’s Seth Prins tweeted: “Turns out lots of blue check public health experts moonlight as pandemic profiteers.”
    • Ellie Murray, of Boston University’s School of Public Health, tweeted: “Honestly baffled by people who claim the COVID plan put in place by the president of the united states, ‘leader of the free world’, was so fragile that an assistant professor tweeting on her coffee breaks could undermine it, & that *isnt* somehow worse than the plan just failing?”
    • Justin Feldman, a social epidemiologist at the Harvard FXB Center for Health & Human Rights, who wrote his own critique of Biden’s COVID year, followed up: “There’s ‘a lot to unpack’ about how the only substantive criticism the media has been willing to pursue wrt Biden’s pandemic response is failing to make a consumer product (rapid tests) available to individuals.”
    • From abroad, Botswanan doctor Letlhogonolo Tlhabano weighed in: “I’m an intensivist and have been taking care of COVID patients since this pandemic begun, and the new AHA guidelines are idiotic. We’re not martyrs. The CDC guidelines are also motivated by the need to protect capital, and not necessarily by any science. We’re on our own.”
    • Science organizer and biochemist Lucky Tran commented: “We are not ‘learning to live with COVID’. When we give up on protecting our healthcare systems, workers, the immunocompromised, and the vulnerable, in reality we are ‘surrendering to COVID.’”
    • It really speaks to the tenor of our times when March for Science retweets Black radical Bree Newsome on the out-of-pocket costs of COVID testing.

    I tried warning people about Biden’s pandemic-related policies before the inauguration, twice, and wrote a book titled Dead Epidemiologists, underscoring the mortally wounded thinking of even some of the field’s best and brightest practitioners.

    The advocacy work of these younger scientists, however, may signal that our ugly future also offers hope. A more recent invitation to my millennial colleagues that we had a world to win reminded me of the generation-appropriate Marx t-shirt I’m getting my kid for his birthday: “You’re A Wizard, Harry.”

    Of course, I don’t have all the answers on how we’ll get through this shit show — to use the technical term. I’m always learning alongside this new generation.

    I experienced a bout of my own booster hesitancy, born out of the ethical quandary in which Gates trapped us all. Why a third inoculation for me when much of the world hasn’t gotten stuck a single shot? The utter shame of it, with the appropriate symptoms of a red face and shortness of breath. I finally concluded that being alive allowed me to use what little power and platform I had to argue for a different public health order the world over.

    For ending a pharmaceutical industry focused on commoditizing health and reinvesting in a public health organized around our shared commons here and abroad is the only way out of this pandemic in any short order. Otherwise, we are left to letting the virus burn out on its own by something like 2025, as early models projected. The Black Plague in Europe eventually ended after eight years. Unless we act now to restore an active, on-the-ground public health mobilization helping people block-by-block and farm-by-farm, we will be forced to assimilate the possibility that we are to suffer a pandemic of a similar duration.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • COVID19, palakasan and the culture of clientelism in the Philippines

    In October 2021 discrepancies in distribution and funding of the Philippines government’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP) were queried by Senator Panfilo (Ping) Lacson during a Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) budget hearing. The DSWD claimed to have disbursed 94% of SAP aid when its financial records indicated the disbursement of only 80% of funds. In response the DSWD cited delays in updating the lists due to altered quarantine status and out-dated beneficiary data.  Clearly something is wrong with the SAP.

    These COVID-19 relief funds are legislated for under Republic Act (RA)11469, the “Bayanihan to Heal as One Act”. Eligible families on the SAP list have been able to claim funds during a number of disbursement rounds during the pandemic. However, getting on the list and receiving aid has been problematic. The problems with the SAP have not just been technical but also social.

    RA 11469 was passed on 25 March 2020 and granted President Duterte emergency powers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic for an initial period of three months. RA 11469 legislated for a minimum of 5000 (98 USD) and a maximum of 8000 (156 USD) PHP to be distributed to around 18 million low-income families twice over a period of two months. A subsequent act, RA 11494 the “Bayanihan to Recover as One Act” or Bayanihan 2, was signed into law by the president on 11 September 2020.  Bayanihan 2 extended the emergency powers granted under Bayanihan 1, which officially expired on 5 June 2020, and provided an additional 165.5 billion PHP (32.4 billion USD) for the pandemic response. Bayanihan 2 initially ran until 19 December 2020, was extended until 30 June 2021 and then extended again until the end of 2021. It was left to Local Government Units (LGUs) to identify SAP beneficiaries and submit budget proposals to the DSWD.

    We conducted interviews with over 35 community leaders, aid workers and public servants working with the urban poor in Metro Manila between September and November 2021. The evidence from these interviews indicates that the SAP has suffered from palakasan. Palakasan is a Tagalog word that means “the assertion of personal interest via lakas while subtly bypassing prescribed rules and procedures in line with delicadeza”. Lakas means power or strength and delicadeza means a refusal to be vulgar or crass in the exercise of power. Palakasan is the subtle, and therefore deniable, disregard of regulations in the pursuit of self-interest. Palakasan underpins clientelism.

    Political clientelism relies on its “lopsidedness” under which the patron offers protection and the client offers loyalty. Social protection initiatives can undermine clientelism if distribution is rule-based. This is because the client does not owe the benefactor any particular allegiance for the benefit, because they are entitled to it and disbursement is regulated. However, where the benefit is discretionary, i.e. a politician or barangay leader can control disbursement and claim credit for it, there is the potential for irregularities. In reality “virtually any programme can become a resource for clientelism if discretionary allocation is possible”. Clientelism can be dyadic but it can also characterise social networks.

    On 29 May 2020 the (DSWD) reported that 17.57 million families had received a share of 99.32 PHP billion (1.94 billion USD) in disbursed funds. 1,510 out of 1,634 LGUs nationwide had completed the SAP distribution and 774 LGUs had completed the paperwork necessary for the release of the next tranche of funds. However, by September 2020 it became evident that the SAP had run into problems. Only 13.9 families had received a second payment and only 83.5 billion PHP (1.63 billion USD) of an available 16.86 billion PHP (3.3 billion USD) had been disbursed.

    The DSWD claimed that the money had not been disbursed because the LGUs had submitted only 14 million names when 18 million were expected. It was also claimed that some families had received two payments under the first tranche of the SAP and that others had received emergency subsidies from elsewhere and were therefore ineligible for a second payment. There was also confusion over which areas were eligible for the second tranche of the SAP. The DSWD used Executive Order No. 122, dated 30 April 2020, to identify areas under emergency or general community quarantine lockdown regulations and declared only those areas eligible. By September 2020 the DSWD had received more than 400,000 complaints about the distribution of SAP funds and hotlines hotlines were set up to deal with complainants. In October 2020 the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) reported that it had investigated 7,601 complaints of corruption related to the distributed of SAP funds.

    The allocation of SAP funds was distorted at the local level because LGUs devolved responsibility for the compilation of lists of SAP beneficiaries to barangay leaders. Where qualification for the SAP was clear or rule based—e.g. if beneficiaries were already in receipt of the 4Ps—an existing cash grant programme for poor families, then SAP disbursement was mostly regularised. But in cases where the status of the beneficiary was less clear problems arose. Our interviewees reported the following problems (all names are false to protect anonymity).

    Ellen a community worker in Sampoloc, City of Manila told us that barangay officials were sometimes embroiled in personal or political vendettas with some constituents and “families did not receive food or cash aid because of this” She also stated that “officials find ingenious and cunning ways to justify why these households were not eligible to receive aid”.

    Ernest stated that he observed “an unjust and unfair implementation of programs and aid. For example, families who are friends with local government officials or local community leaders can get two stubs (used to claim government food packs) while others only receive one stub”. Arthur, a child focussed human rights worker working in Malabon and Navotas, used the term Palakasan directly. He said that palakasan was a common complaint in the communities as “those who were connected or related to the one who distributes aid were able to receive assistance even if there are others more in need”. Victor, a human rights worker active across Metro Manila, also referenced palakasan directly. He told us that “we received reports that some families that were related to the LGU officials, received aid even if there were others who were more in need”. He also told us that “our partner families indicated that there were issues of corruption within LGUs. Some families had to sign a waiver saying that upon receiving the cash donation worth 1000 pesos (USD19.6), they lose their right to ask for more donations”. This effectively meant that they were signing away their right to the second tranche of the SAP. Delia, a community worker, reported that she was aware of needy families who received no government aid, because they were not close to the barangay captain their names were not listed. Her evidence for this came from regular monthly meetings with local families over the course of the pandemic. She stated that to get on the list you had to be close to the barangay captain or barangay councillor and clarified this by saying “of course you know that in the Philippines if you’re not in the same party or in the same group you don’t receive your allocation,” thus indicating that the misallocation of resources was not a localised or one off mistake but an embedded practice—the practice of palakasan.

    Related

    Ambág and Bayanihan: The Communal Values of Philippine Populism

    …grounding democracy in ambág and bayanihan can help heal the polarized political landscape in the Philippines.

    Anthony Lawrence Borja, Janus Isaac Nolasco, Matthew Ordoñez 03 June, 2020

    Meanwhile Jacob, a field manager for the distribution of aid from the office of Vice President Leni Robredo, told us that local politicians in areas not politically aligned to the Vice President would not allow his team to distribute relief goods. That is because those politicians did not want their lakas challenged or their loyalty to their patron (Duterte) questioned.

    Whilst some of those distributing aid had it refused others were wary of having it hi-jacked. Harry, who worked with a relief foundation associated with the Vincentian Missionaries, told us that his organisation preferred to work with priests and lay workers, not political actors. This was because they wanted their relief packs to be “distributed to those who are really in need and not on the basis of how they would vote in an election”. Audrey, a businesswoman who initiated her own relief agency and campaigned for donations from friends, family and private companies, also stated that she avoided working with politicians. She was advised by “various agencies” that she should put the name of her agency “on all food-packs or the government would try and put their name on the packs. Or repack the goods in packs with their political logos”. In Tagalog the word epal is used in relation to this practice, meaning “butting in where not needed”.

    Palakasan is a “negative” social practice that distorted the allocation of the SAP and other aid which local politicians had control over. This is because members of bonded social networks in local communities trusted each other to sanction this practice for their own self-interest. The delicadeza that allowed rules to be bypassed by patrons (those in control of the lists) also applied to the subtle acceptance of what was happening by the clients (those who benefitted from the distortion of the lists). Those not bonded to the patron missed out. The SAP was in effect a resource for clientelism.

    The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over and many poor families across the Philippines, especially un- or under-employed and informal workers continue to suffer hardship. Problems with the allocation of aid under the Bayanihan Acts need to be urgently addressed, especially as palakasan is likely to be heightened as we move into the 2022 election period.

    The post COVID19, palakasan and the culture of clientelism in the Philippines appeared first on New Mandala.

    This post was originally published on New Mandala.

  • Omicron will be a ‘different foe’, PM Jacinda Ardern warns NZ

    By Katie Scotcher, RNZ News political reporter

    Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is warning New Zealand’s covid-19 case numbers in 2022 will be unlike anything seen here before.

    Jacinda Ardern today delivered her first speech of the year — to Labour MPs gathered in New Plymouth for their annual caucus retreat.

    The speech was largely focused on covid-19 and the omicron variant, which she described as a “different foe”.

    “We know … that omicron is in every corner of the world at the moment. And we also know that there will be other variants. And we know that we will experience in New Zealand cases at a level that we haven’t experienced before.”

    Ardern stressed the government had and was continuing to prepare for an omicron outbreak in the community.

    “But it will not be without its challenges, though, we are facing a trickier enemy given it keeps evolving,” she said.

    “But in my view, and I’m sure in the view of everyone in this room, we can move into 2022 feeling resolute about what is required, because we’ve seen what is required and confident because on reflection of what we’ve gone through, we know that when we build a plan, that it will end can make an absolute difference and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

    Progress needed in other areas
    Despite the challenges thrown up by the pandemic, Ardern stressed the government must continue to make progress in other areas.

    Its attention would be on keeping the economy “humming”, progressing health reforms, lifting children out of poverty, as well as having a sharp focus on climate change and mental health, Ardern said.

    The government was also looking to expand its trade arrangements, with Ardern participating in EU trade talks over summer.

    “Our eye is on the prize with EU this year. I was in talks even over summer, so that’s an agreement that I know will continue to make a difference for exporters and will be a big focus.”

    Work on the EU trade deal will work alongside the government’s plan to re-open the borders, Ardern said.

    There would be an increased amount of international travel for the government and exporters in 2022, she said.

    “Labour has demonstrated our ability to manage challenges and change and will continue to demonstrate our ability to manage challenges and change when it comes to climate, housing, poverty, and everything that we continue to face as a nation.”

    Northland to join orange setting
    Prime Minister Ardern later announced Northland would join the rest of the country in the orange traffic light setting from 11.59pm tonight, and signalled plans for omicron.

    Cabinet ministers met yesterday to assess the traffic light settings across the country, including whether Northland would drop to the orange setting.

    Ardern announced this afternoon the region would change settings tonight.

    “Vaccination rates have continued to increase in Northland and are now at 89 percent first dose. The easing of the Auckland boundary over summer did not drive an increase in cases so we believe it is safe for Northland to join the rest of the country at orange,” she said.

    Testing has found 39 new community cases of covid-19 and one new possible omicron case in Palmerston North, the Ministry of Health announced today.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Covid-19 analyst calls for Māori and Pasifika priority or risk ‘brown pandemic’

    By Moana Ellis, Local Democracy Reporter

    A covid-19 Māori health analyst is calling on the New Zealand government to prioritise Māori and Pasifika children in the 5-11 years vaccine rollout or risk the consequences of a “brown pandemic”.

    Dr Rāwiri Taonui says tamariki Māori make up 53.3 percent of all cases of those aged under 12 and 63 percent of all hospitalisations of under 12s.

    According to Dr Taonui’s analysis, when Pasifika children are included, 82 percent of cases and 78.3 percent of hospitalisations of those under 12 have been Māori or Pasifika.

    Local Democracy Reporting
    LOCAL DEMOCRACY REPORTING

    Taonui has contributed to a Ministry of Health working group for vaccination of Māori aged 12 years and under.

    He described the statistics as disturbing and said they reflect the higher disease burden on Māori in the current outbreak.

    Omicron remained a serious risk for unvaccinated Māori and Pasifika, and the tamariki rollout should focus on equal outcomes with Pākehā, he said.

    “Pacific and Māori peoples face similar prejudice. This is our brown pandemic.”

    Dr Taonui said data emerging from overseas backed the need to prioritise Māori and Pasifika children in the vaccination rollout.

    Rise in child infections
    “Last week, the American Academy of Paediatrics reported a 50 percent rise to 199,000 child infections and a 66 percent rise to a record 400 child hospitalisations in one week at the end of December,” Dr Taonui said.

    “The lesson [is that] a small percentage of severe young cases among an enormous number of mild omicron cases equals a serious number of cases among the young and vulnerable.

    “Tamariki are the taonga in the future of our whakapapa. At 24.6 percent of our population, Māori communities will be concerned that our tamariki are 29.2 percent of all Māori cases,” Taonui said.

    A new international study this month by the University of Auckland’s Professor Stuart Dalziel showed children are at risk of severe outcomes from covid-19.

    Professor Dalziel said greater numbers of children were being infected and needing hospital treatment.

    “There is a perception that covid-19 is only a very mild infection in children. Unfortunately, for some of these children, covid-19 results in severe disease,” Professor Dalziel said.

    The study followed more than 10,300 children at 41 emergency departments in 10 countries, including New Zealand, Canada and the United States.

    It found that more than 3200 children tested positive for covid-19. Of those, three percent experienced severe outcomes within two weeks, including cardiac or cardiovascular complications such as myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) and neurological, respiratory or infectious problems.

    Twenty-three percent were hospitalised and four children died.

    More than 30,000 children’s doses have been given across the first three days of the vaccination rollout for children aged 5-11 years.

    Local Democracy Reporting is a public interest news service supported by Asia Pacific Report, RNZ the News Publishers’ Association and NZ On Air.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Solomon Islands imposes 60 hour Honiara lockdown over covid outbreak

    By Robert Iroga in Honiara

    The Solomon islands government endorsed a 60 hour lockdown in the capital Honiara last night after an urgent special national address by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare confirming covid-19 community transmission.

    Honiara Emergency Zone will be in lockdown from 6pm last evening to 6am, Saturday, 22 January 2022.

    The lockdown comes with restriction of movements of people as ordered by the Prime Minister under Emergency Powers (COVID-19) (Honiara Emergency Zone) (Restriction of Movement of Persons) Order 2022.

    The order reads: “A person must not enter or leave the emergency zone on and from 6.00 pm on Wednesday 19 January 2022 until 6.00 am on Saturday 22 January 2022.”

    The order also spelt out that a person must be at his or her residence during the lockdown period.

    And it further stated that a person must not be away from his or her residence during the lockdown period.

    Essential workers exempt
    Those who are exempt to travel during the lockdown are essential services workers who are covered under the Essential Services Act (Cap. 12).

    The lockdown in the Honiara Emergency Zone is important for the Ministry of Health and Medical Services to continue to carry out contact tracing of people who travelled on MV Awka from Ontong Java on January 10 after a passenger on that trip was tested positive for covid-19.

    Prime Minister Sogavare said: “The full extent of the covid-19 infection in Honiara is yet to be established, since this diagnosis.

    “Given that the positive case lives in a household with other people, and some other passengers that travelled on the vessel have been reported to be unwell, I am sad to inform you that we already have community transmission of covid-19 in Honiara.”

    Members of the public are requested to practise basic health activities such as washing hands for 20 seconds or use hand sanitizers, keep social distancing of at least 2 meters apart from another person, always wear face masks and avoid congregating together.

    Other measures that have been put in place include:

    • Temporary suspension of all domestic flights to provinces until further notice;
    • Suspension of all incoming passenger service from international flights — humanitarian cargo flights to continue; and
    • Suspension of all incoming passenger services from international flights until further notice.

    Humanitarian cargo services will continue. Other cargo services will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

    Overseas cargo vessels, fuel and gas tankers will continue to operate as Solomon Islands depend on these vessels for its survival.

    They do not pose high covid-19 risks so they will continue to operate during the lockdown period if necessary.

    The Honiara Emergency Zone boundary is from Alligator Creek in the East to Poha in the west end of Honiara.

    Earlier warning
    RNZ Pacific reports that Prime Minister Sogavare had earlier warned the country could expect a rapid spread of covid-19 and deaths.

    This came after 10 people had illegally entered Solomon Islands at Pelau in Ontong Java – six of them were confirmed positive with covid-19.

    One of those infected is a doctor and Sogavare said he was greatly saddened by this distressing news.

    Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare.
    Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare … saddened by “distressing news”. Image: RNZ Pacific/SI govt

    A foreign national on a flight from Brisbane has also tested positive.

    It took the Solomons tally of positive cases to 32.

    Sogavare spoke on Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC), saying the number of positive cases was expected to grow rapidly in the coming weeks, and loss of life was expected.

    The SIBC reports the prime minister saying the government had sent 31 personnel, including five additional police, to Pelau to bring the outbreak under control.

    Republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • More omicron in Auckland possible after MIQ worker’s contact tests positive

    By Katie Todd, RNZ News reporter

    A microbiologist has warned more contacts of the omicron-infected MIQ worker in Auckland may test positive, after a household contact showed up as having covid-19 today.

    The new infection was reported after 75 isolating close contacts already tested negative — and it comes with people surging to vaccination sites to make the most of paediatric and booster doses.

    The Ministry of Health is yet to complete genetic sequencing to determine if it is the ultra-contagious variant.

    Microbiologist Associate Professor Siousxie Wiles said it proved the worker was infectious.

    “There’s a large number of close contacts. Those people are obviously isolating and we may well see some of them now test positive,” Dr Wiles said.

    However, health officials said they were still trying to track down 10 people who shared bus rides with the worker to ensure they isolated and got tested as well.

    Dr Wiles said getting contacts into isolation bought time for more people who were eligible “to go and get boosted”.

    More than half of the country’s eligible adults have got a third shot, with more than 789,000 booster doses administered.

    Paediatric vaccines
    Today, thousands more children rolled up their sleeve — on top of more than 14,300 during the first day of the paediatric vaccines yesterday.

    Associate Prof Siouxsie Wiles
    Microbiologist Associate Professor Siousxie Wiles … Image: Dan Cook/RNZ

    The momentum was clear at Auckland’s vaccination centres, where Northern Regional Health Co-ordination Centre clinical director Dr Anthony Jordan said the majority of parents were keen to do walk-in vaccinations for their children, rather than making bookings.

    “We haven’t had any queues today and the demand is pretty good. We’d done over 8000 vaccinations by midday — so that’s pretty good progress by midday — and we estimate about 2000 of those are 5 to 11 year olds,” Dr Jordan said.

    However, it has not been all plain sailing for the paediatric vaccine rollout elsewhere in the country.

    Charlotte te Riet Scholten-Phillips was one of several people who told RNZ they had visited sites listed as children’s vaccination centres online — only to find they were not, or they were not fully set-up.

    Te Riet Scholten-Phillips and her and her five-year-old daughter spent hours driving around the Kāpiti Coast yesterday, and even decided they would have to cancel their holiday next week before finally securing a vaccination appointment today, she said.

    “I turned up at booking appointments that didn’t go through … and [did] all this driving around the whole area trying to find somewhere that would do it.”

    It was still possible to book online at places te Riet Scholten-Phillips knew did not actually have children’s vaccines, and that was a concern for parents taking time off work.

    “I’ve been waiting for the children’s vaccine since there was one for adults … finally it was announced on the 17th of December and it would happen in a month and it’s frustrating that even having had a long lead-in time, the system still is not working properly.”

    Working with health boards
    The Ministry of Health said it was working with health boards and providers to ensure there was sufficient sites and vaccines available, and it asked people to be patient.

    In a statement, National Immunisation Programme Manager Rachel Mackay explained the number of centres would increase over coming weeks as health providers who had been taking a summer break reopened.

    “With reports of strong demand for child vaccinations, particularly in Auckland, we thank those who have been waiting at vaccination centres or holding for the 0800 number for their patience,” Mackay said.

    “It’s great to see this uptake and extra resources are being deployed to the busiest sites to reduce queues as much as possible.”

    Medical director of the Royal New Zealand College of GPs Dr Bryan Betty said just half the total number of vaccine sites were equipped for children’s vaccines.

    “We’ve got about 500 clinics and pharmacies across the country that are up and running with the paediatric vaccine. Overall there’s about 1000 centres across the country that can provide vaccines,” Dr Betty said.

    He also expected they would be more widely available soon, as more providers became accredited.

    Meanwhile, there are 14 new cases of covid-19 in the New Zealand community today and 30 in MIQ, reports the ministry.

    Thirty people are in hospital — including two people in ICU.

    Of today’s community cases, seven are in Auckland, six in the Lakes District (all in the Rotorua District) and one in Wellington.

    Solomon Islands covid cases rise to 32
    RNZ Pacific reports that the Solomon Islands Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare, has warned the country could expect a rapid spread of covid-19 and deaths.

    This comes after 10 people illegally entered Solomon Islands at Pelau in Ontong Java — six of them confirmed positive with covid-19.

    One of those infected is a doctor and Sogavare said he was greatly saddened by this distressing news.

    A foreign national on a flight from Brisbane has also tested positive.

    It takes the Solomons tally of positive cases to 32.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Cuba shows an alternative to Big Pharma hegemony through global solidarity

    Cuba puts people before profits — showing the world an alternative to the monopolistic practices of Big Pharma. It promotes a public health system, state-funded research and shows global solidarity through tech transfer and vaccine delivery to developing countries, writes Richa Chintan.

    This post was originally published on Green Left.

  • Public Health Professionals Must Demand an End to the Use of Weaponized Drones

    A man stands in the ruins of what was once his home

    On January 13, 2017, a family including a husband, wife and three small children scurried from building to building in East Mosul, Iraq. They were seeking refuge as a battle between ISIS (also known as Daesh) and U.S.-backed forces swirled around them. The family was huddled in an abandoned school surrounded by other civilians when a U.S.-operated drone struck and destroyed the structure. The father and one of his sons narrowly escaped with their lives. The tragic fate of his wife and other children would not be confirmed until months later when he watched as their bodies were excavated from the rubble.

    This account was just one of several described in a recent publication of Pentagon reports documenting the extensive civilian casualties resulting from U.S. drone and air strikes. As the reporting shows, the considerable toll armed drones reap on civilian populations has largely been obfuscated by the U.S. government. What reporting such as this makes clear, however, is that weaponized drones are becoming a serious threat to public health.

    The use of weaponized drones for targeted killings is not new and neither is the government’s lack of transparency. The U.S. government has been steadily increasing lethal covert drone operations since 2008, and almost everything we know about the program comes from whistleblowers and leakers. Specifics around the number of civilians killed and the extensiveness of the program are difficult to ascertain, but stories like the one above demonstrate the disregard for human life that results from the use of weaponized drones.

    Like all violations of human rights, the public health community, of which I am a part, has an obligation to condemn the use of weaponized drones and demand an end to these targeted killings. If the goal of the public health sector — which includes health care practitioners, researchers, academics and policy makers — is, as the American Public Health Association’s (APHA) website states, “to prevent people from getting sick or injured,” then surely lending an authoritative voice in opposition to weaponized drones is more than appropriate.

    U.S. citizens bear special responsibility. Unlike other causes of death or disability, weaponized drones are built, maintained and funded by our tax dollars. It is our elected officials who put them in action. Our complicity is unacceptable.

    The APHA has made impassioned arguments advocating for the prevention of armed conflict from a public health perspective. However, little has been written specifically with regard to drones. This omission is important when one considers how our political leaders — even those often seen as advocates for “peace” — view the use of weaponized drones. For example, the Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning former President Barak Obama saw drone strikes as an alternative to the more uncouth, “stupid wars” that he railed against during his campaign. This perspective resulted in a huge expansion of the program under his administration with well over 500 strikes, including one that explicitly targeted and executed a 16-year-old-boy. Political leaders like Obama see drones as an acceptable “middle ground” that allows for the implementation of U.S. force without, at least ostensibly, the traditional collateral of American casualties or civilian deaths.

    Drone strike-related deaths are not the only consequence felt by civilians. One researcher explains how children living in a region such as northern Pakistan — with heavy U.S. drone activity — “become hysterical when they hear the characteristic buzz of a drone,” which often circle overhead 24/7. The psychiatric toll this constant threat of violence takes on children is hard to imagine.

    Despite the common refrain from U.S. government officials that weaponized drones offer an extremely “precise” method of targeting, the truth is that civilian casualties of weaponized drone attacks are a common occurrence. The indiscriminate nature of weaponized drone attacks is reminiscent of a much older though equally brutal weapon — landmines. Over the past several decades, human rights organizations, academics and activists have worked tirelessly to show the world that landmines maim and kill civilian populations, and therefore, their use should be banned. The public health community has played a pivotal role in this movement by, for example, conducting research which adds evidentiary support for the movement’s claims. The same tact should be taken with weaponized drones. Public health researchers should work with activists and human rights scholars to form a coalition that demands an end to the use of weaponized drones.

    Professional societies such as the APHA could provide guidance highlighting the role of public health in ending the use of weaponized drones. This could take the form of a bold policy statement similar to the one APHA released in 2009 regarding public health’s role in the prevention of armed conflict.

    With political leaders from both major U.S. parties seeing drones as a convenient workaround to the traditional pitfalls of American use of force, it is imperative that the public health community remind the world that these weapons have tragic consequences. It is our responsibility to lend our voices, research skills and positions of prominence to stop the use of weaponized drones and end the pain and suffering they cause.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Omicron part of everyday life, say New Zealanders living overseas

    By Ella Stewart, RNZ News reporter

    New Zealanders living overseas say covid-19 is now part of everyday life as cases of the highly-infectious omicron variant steadily grow around the globe.

    More than 307 million covid-19 cases have been confirmed since the pandemic began, with countries now breaking records for daily case numbers as leaders struggle to keep the new variant at bay.

    Cantabrian Savannah Winter has been working as an au pair in Paris for about six months.

    France is currently reporting around 300,000 cases each day, and while she is double vaccinated and has had her booster shot, she still caught covid-19 three months ago.

    “Everyone I know, knows someone that has it and the kids I look after are constantly not at school because people in their class are getting it, so I’m thinking, ‘Oh am I going to get it again?’, we are just waiting and seeing if our kids test positive,” Winter said.

    As omicron spread, the situation became overwhelming and there was a shortage of rapid-antigen testing, she said.

    “All of the pharmacies are just inundated with people needing to get tested. I went to the gym this morning and I walked past a few pharmacies and there is just a line at 8am in the morning going around the street of people just lining up to get a test.”

    About 10 percent effective
    A study from the UK Health Security Agency found the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were only about 10 percent effective at preventing symptomatic infection from omicron, 20 weeks after the second dose.

    But two doses of those vaccines still provide good protection against severe illness, hospitalisation and death.

    The study also found that boosters are up to 75 percent effective at preventing symptomatic infection.

    In the US, the booster programme is well underway, but cases are still skyrocketing.

    Ben Fitchett, 22, moved to Los Angeles in December.

    “On my second night here, I caught it from a friend and over the period of that weekend until the week leading up to Christmas cases just exploded,” said Fitchett.

    “Everyone seems to know someone that has it. Everyone is basically dropping like flies.”

    WHO says not categorised as ‘mild’
    Last week the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that while studies suggested omicron was less likely to make people seriously ill compared to previous variants, it should not be categorised as mild.

    Fitchett said despite the high case numbers, people in Los Angeles were going about life as normal.

    “It is a deadly virus. Some people will get it and it does react differently within people, but people don’t seem to be too worried about it here. Obviously, if you are immunocompromised, you are, but people are just living life as normal and then if you get it, you get it, and you just have to stay away from everyone else.”

    In Australia, case numbers have also been rising exponentially, with the state of Victoria recording more than 40,000 cases yesterday.

    Heather Jameson and her family are in a self-imposed lockdown in Melbourne to ensure they do not catch the virus before their family holiday.

    “I personally hate the idea that I would be spreading something to immunocompromised people without my knowledge … so our own self imposed lockdown, while we are well, is purely to make sure that we don’t get it, and then risk passing it on should we have symptoms when we go away.”

    Her children would almost certainly catch covid-19 once they returned to school next month, she said.

    Case numbers blowing up
    “Case numbers are just blowing up every day, to be honest it gives me a pretty high sense of anxiety when I’m looking at the actual numbers.

    “We just have the sense that it is literally everywhere. A lot of work mates have had it, our direct neighbours have got it right now. It’s pretty panic inducing. We feel like we’re still in lockdown.”

    New Zealanders should look after each other to ensure covid-19’s spread in Aotearoa remained contained, Jameson said.

    To date, there have been 196 omicron cases detected at the border since December 1.

    The Ministry of Health says there are also 217 border cases that have been caught still undergoing genome sequencing. Most are expected to be omicron.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • ‘Don’t enter Solomon Islands’ pleads Sogavare with Bougainvilleans

    By Gorethy Kenneth in Port Moresby

    Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has appealed to his fellow Solomon Islanders at the western border not to allow Bougainvilleans into the country.

    In his nation’s address last Friday, Sogavare recapped the country’s first covid-19 case recorded from a Shortland islander, dropped off by four Bougainvilleans in Shortland, who was automatically tested positive and is still in a 14-day quarantine with his seven family members who also tested positive.

    The four Bougainvilleans returned home the same day and are back in their respective villages.

    Sogavare singled out the New Year delta and omicron cases recorded in Solomon Islands which were brought in by citizens returning from outside Honiara.

    “The western border continues to be an area of priority for health,” he said.

    “For the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force and other border force agencies, it represents a potential source of covid-19 incursion into the country.

    “For example, on New Year’s Day, a man from the Shortlands travelled with four Bougainville nationals from Bougainville to Shortland.

    “The four Bougainvilleans returned straight after dropping off the man.

    In quarantine facility at Nila
    “The man is now held at the quarantine facility in Nila along with seven of his family members with whom he had made close contact.

    “They will undergo 14 days of quarantine and only released if all tests results are returned negative.

    “Five who had been held at the Nila isolation ward at Shortlands will be released after serving 14 days if their results return negative.

    “These five individuals have made close contact with people from Bougainville.

    “My good people, living along the western border, I ask you to refrain from going across the border to Bougainville.

    “I also ask you to not allow any visitors from Bougainville to your villages during the period of the State of Emergency. Please continue to be vigilant to prevent the entry of covid-19 through our western border.”

    ABG health chief ‘not aware’
    Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) Health Secretary Dr Clement Totavun told the Post-Courier they were not aware of the incident singled out by Sogavare but also said the border had been closed since 2020 when the covid initial measures were released and PNG Immigration and other border offices had ordered immediate closure.

    “There is currently a ban on traditional border crossing,” he said.

    “The border is closed.

    “The Border Protection Authority is supposed to man the border but surveillance at the moment is not effective.”

    He said he would communicate with National Pandemic Controller David Manning on this issue.

    Gorethy Kenneth is a senior PNG Post-Courier journalist. Republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Guam breaks single-day record with 422 new covid cases – omicron fears

    Governor Lou Leon Guerrero presents her covid update message … “Our focus remains on preventing severe illness, preventing increased hospitalisation and saving lives.” Video: Office of the Governor of Guam

    By Mar-Vic Cagurangan in Tumon, Guam

    Guam has reported its 273rd covid-19 death and 422 new positive cases on Tuesday, breaking its daily record for new infections and shooting up the island’s Covid Area Risk score to 189.3.

    Despite the phenomenal increase in new infections, Governor Lou Leon Guerrero said she was not currently inclined to change the status quo.

    “Our Public Health interventions and protective measures remain effective and as such, I am not announcing any new restrictions at this time,” the governor said.

    “Our focus remains on preventing severe illness, preventing increased hospitalisation and saving lives,” she added.

    A 90-year-old man died, who died at the US Naval Hospital on January 5, was Guam’s 273rd covid-related death. He was partially vaccinated and had underlying health conditions. He tested positive on December 27.

    There are currently 14 covid-19 admissions within the island’s hospitals. One is receiving ICU level of care and “the remainder are not as severe,” the governor said.

    The 422 coronavirus infections were detected in 2304 specimens analysed on January 10. This is the largest single-day result ever recorded on Guam. Of the total number of new positive cases, 126 were identified through contact tracing.

    Speculated over omicron variant
    Although data is not currently available, public health officials speculated that the omicron variant, described as highly transmissible, is already spreading on the island along with the delta variant.

    To date, there have been a total of 21,540 officially reported cases, 273 deaths, 2062 cases in active isolation, and 19,205 not in active isolation.

    The unprecedented surge of infections has prompted the Department of Public Health and Social Services to accelerate the testing in Tiyan, which has transitioned to an appointment-based system.

    “Scheduling of appointments for Covid-19 testing will allow for more efficient processing and reduce long lines and wait times,” the department said.

    Testing has been expanded to six days a week and six hours a day.

    “We know that community testing helps us quickly identify new covid cases, so we can isolate the virus. Please get tested,” the governor said.

    Guam public health
    Although data is not currently available, Guam public health officials have speculated that the omicron variant, described as high transmissible, is already spreading on island along with the delta variant. Image: Pacific Island Times

    Booster clinics at 6 schools
    “To expand access and availability, we have added vaccination and booster clinics at six schools, in addition to clinics widely available at the University of Guam, Public Health community centers, and private providers.”

    She reiterated her advice for residents to “wash your hands, wear your mask and watch your distance”.

    Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said last week that despite the astronomic rise in omicron-related covid cases nationwide, there was a possibility that the number would fall just as fast.

    Mar-Vic Cagurangan is editor-in-chief of the Pacific Island Times. Republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Omicron Spike Is Straining Hospitals as Health Care Workers Leave the Profession

    The Omicron variant’s transmission rate is exponentially higher than Delta, leaving healthcare workers across the U.S. in dire straits. Waves of doctors, nurses and other health professionals are unionizing, and some have quit the profession over exploitative conditions. The staffing shortage has added on to the strains of increasing hospitalizations due to COVID-19, limited availability of necessary equipment and lack of federal support for preventative measures such as paid medical leave. “This is the cost of two years spent pushing prematurely for a return to normal,” says Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and science writer at The Atlantic. Yong also discusses the debate over keeping schools open during the COVID-19 surge, and challenges to President Biden’s vaccine mandates affecting nearly 100 million workers.

    TRANSCRIPT

    This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

    AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

    Here in the United States, nearly a quarter of hospitals are reporting critical staffing shortages as Omicron drives an unprecedented surge in infections. This comes as public schools in Chicago are closed for a fourth day as talks between the teachers’ union and Mayor Lori Lightfoot over in-person teaching remain at an impasse.

    For more, we’re joined by Ed Yong, science writer at The Atlantic. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for his coverage of the pandemic. His most recent pieces, “Hospitals Are in Serious Trouble” and “Omicron Is Our Past Pandemic Mistakes on Fast-Forward: We’ve been making the same errors for nearly two years now.”

    Welcome back to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us, Ed. Let’s start with the hospitals. Explain the serious trouble our hospitals are in.

    ED YONG: Yeah, they are at breaking point. It’s really hard to overstate how badly hospitals are faring right now. Even before the Omicron wave, they were already in trouble, because so many healthcare workers had left because of the collective traumas of the last two years of the pandemic. And now we have, firstly, a Delta wave and now Omicron on top of that. Huge volumes of patients are flooding hospitals. And while Omicron is less severe than previous variants, it’s so contagious that the sheer number of those patients is so high that there are still a lot of very sick people, and there are a lot people, full stop. So they are inundating hospitals at a time when there are fewer healthcare workers than ever before. Those healthcare workers are demoralized. They’re exhausted. And a lot of them are out sick because they have breakthrough infections from Omicron.

    And all of this means that hospitals are — like, I really struggle to use the words like “crumbling,” because I don’t want to, like, exaggerate the risk, but that is what I’m hearing from people all around the country. People are waiting for six to 12 hours to get seen for any kind of emergency procedure. People in the ER are on ventilators waiting to get into ICUs, which are full. The entire system is clogged up. And it’s not just about COVID anymore. This now means that medical care for basically anything is worse than it was two years ago, because the system is just so completely flooded and unable to cope with the volume of patients right now.

    AMY GOODMAN: The National Nurses United said, “Going to work should not mean putting your life and the lives of your loved ones in danger.” A group of nurses’ unions and the AFL–CIO have demanded the federal government enact permanent rules to ensure workplace safety, saying all frontline health workers should be guaranteed “personal protective equipment, exposure notification, ventilation systems, and other lifesaving measures.” Can you talk about this kind of organizing that’s going on?

    ED YONG: Yeah. I think a lot of healthcare workers are fed up. Like, there’s sort of a culture, a social contract in medicine, that you sacrifice yourself for the sake of your patients. And while that contract means that the rest of us get decent medical care when we expect it, it also creates the conditions where healthcare workers are very easily exploited by society at large, as we’re seeing now, and by their own particular institutions.

    So it’s no surprise, after two years of this, after feeling betrayed by the public, by a lot of places they work for, that a lot of them are starting to organize, and there’s more movement towards unions. There’s more of a sense of, like, “We just cannot take this anymore.” And I commend that. I do think, like, that’s necessary for creating a more stable medical system.

    What I worry is that there are a lot of people who, rather than deciding to fight for this, have just decided, very reasonably, to stop, to leave their jobs or the profession. I’ve heard from so many healthcare workers who have already made that choice. And their decisions thin the ranks of those who are left behind to take care of the rest of us and whose jobs are now that much harder.

    But, honestly, if so much of society has pretended that the pandemic is over, and has longed to get back to normal, can you really blame healthcare workers for wanting to do the same? This is the cost of two years spent prematurely pushing towards a return to normal, except, for the healthcare system, for our ability to get medical care, there might not be a normal to return to.

    AMY GOODMAN: Last week, President Biden reiterated his support for keeping schools open during the COVID surge. This is what he said.

    PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: We know that our kids can be safe when in school, by the way. That’s why I believe schools should remain open.

    AMY GOODMAN: I want to get your response to this, Ed. We see the Chicago schools are closed because the Chicago Teachers Union says they’re not going to expose their teachers in this way. Other schools that are remaining open around the country, like in New York, are just vectors for infection.

    ED YONG: So, I sympathize with everyone on this side of the debate, right? Like, on the one hand, you have parents who are really scared about putting their children in these conditions where this extremely transmissible virus is just going everywhere. I sympathize for parents who can’t handle remote schooling or just don’t have the option to do that. I sympathize with teachers who don’t feel that they can put themselves at risk anymore. I think, though, that we’re sort of — we’ve been put in a position where we’re having to choose, we’re having to, like, take sides between people who are all in the right. Like, this shouldn’t be a debate in the way it’s framed.

    The jobs of the federal government should have been to control transmission of this virus and to control the pandemic to an extent where this shouldn’t even have been an issue. And so many of the measures that were necessary — you know, the rollout of rapid tests, mask mandates — all of these things have been, if anything, got pulled back at both the federal and the state level. There’s not been enough done to control the pandemic for two years now. And last year really wasn’t that much different. Like, because our policymakers have made bad decisions, it puts individual schools, teachers, parents in an impossible position and sets them against each other, when, in fact, I think the main problem is that the policies that should have protected all of us have not been put in place.

    AMY GOODMAN: So, let’s talk about what those policies should be. I mean, you’ve pointed out in your writing, for example, that when — obviously, for politicians, they want to put this behind them, so then talking about unmasking — the fact that there aren’t tests available now, though President Biden said he’s going to get half a billion out to the country, and the fact that Abbott, which makes Binax, one of the tests, destroyed millions of those tests.

    ED YONG: Right, because we keep on treating this like a short-term problem. We keep on assuming that we’re going to get back to normal at some point in the near future without actually doing the work to get to that point. Rapid tests are a clear example of this. Like, why do we not have them deployed on a mass scale? Biden talks about deploying that number of tests out to people. It’s roughly like one-and-a-half tests per person.

    And I also want to talk about the social measures that should have been put in place right from the start. Like, we know that a pandemic is a social problem. It’s not just a biomedical one. Yes, vaccines and therapeutics and diagnostic tests are great, but we need things that actually allow people to protect their livelihoods and their lives at the same time. And paid sick leave is a great example of this. It seems like a really weird measure to be talking about in the context of a pandemic, but if you can’t actually take the time off to isolate or to take care of yourself if you’re exposed, if your workplace conditions don’t allow you to do that, then how are you going to stop yourself from spreading this disease?

    Like, we know that these things actually matter and can have an immediate impact, but they don’t seem to be part of the package of measures that we’ve been talking about. People sort of gravitate between just going on completely as normal or going to a strict lockdown. There are so many things in the middle. Like, we’ve talked about masking, we’ve talked about rapid tests, we’ve talked about paid sick leave. Ventilation is important. Having places where people can isolate is important. These kind of measures are going on in parts of the country but not everywhere, and there doesn’t seem to be any sort of federal push to really make them everywhere or to pressure states into actually putting them into place. And that is part of the problem. That is why we’re in the state where we’re having these horrendous discussions about schools and where we’re looking at a healthcare system that is collapsing under the sheer weight of infections.

    AMY GOODMAN: Do you think this could lead to Medicare for All? I mean, it has exposed the fracture of the entire system, a system that was broken already in terms of who gets healthcare and who doesn’t in this country. Now it’s who dies and who doesn’t.

    ED YONG: Yeah. You know, people who are unvaccinated are actually, like, the uninsured, make a disproportionate — I’m saying this terribly. A lot of people who are unvaccinated are also uninsured, right? And that says something about the medical system in this country. Like, there’s this sort of tendency to paint unvaccinated people as all like antagonistic anti-vaxxers. And I think access is still actually a large problem that isn’t really grappled with.

    I would hope that the lessons from these two years are that inequities harm us. You cannot fight a vaccine — you cannot fight a pandemic properly in a grossly unequal society such as what we currently live in. But that doesn’t seem to be the lesson that is being learned. Like, we’ve had lip service paid to the need to focus on inequities, but even from, like, leading public health voices, it seems to be a thing that is readily forgotten. And that is — you know, that is part of why we are where we are now. Unless we actually make efforts to protect the most vulnerable, to help people on low incomes, people from marginalized groups, disabled communities — unless we stop treating them like disposable commodities, we’re going to end up back in this situation that we currently find ourselves in.

    AMY GOODMAN: The Supreme Court hearing oral arguments around Biden’s vaccine mandates, your thoughts?

    ED YONG: I worry that we are — instead of learning the lessons that you’ve just talked about, that would make us better prepared for the next one, that we are setting legal precedent in place that would actually make us more vulnerable next time ’round. And, you know, there are many different examples of this. State legislatures around the country have put in orders that make it more difficult for people to put in, say, mask mandates or quarantine orders. That contributes to how hard it is to fight something like Omicron. It is going to make it more difficult to deal the next variants. It’s going to make it more difficult to deal with the next pandemics, which I guarantee you we will face.

    AMY GOODMAN: Well —

    ED YONG: I worry —

    AMY GOODMAN: Well, Ed, we’re going to have to go, but I wanted to wish you a happy 40th birthday. I know it was very difficult. You wrote a piece talking about canceling your 40th birthday because of Omicron.

    ED YONG: Thank you.

    AMY GOODMAN: Thank you so much for being with us. Ed Yong, science writer at The Atlantic, won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the pandemic. We’ll link to his pieces.

    That does it for our show. Remember, wearing a mask is an act of love. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Congress Is Providing KN95s to Lawmakers. What About the Rest of Us?

    People fill out paperwork behind a stack of KN95 masks in the foreground

    With Capitol Hill — like much of the United States — experiencing a major spike in Covid-19 cases, members of Congress and their offices are reportedly set to receive KN95 masks to help stem the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant.

    The public, meanwhile, has largely been left to fend for itself as much of Congress and the Biden administration ignore calls for action to ensure widespread distribution of high-quality masks.

    According to an email sent to House staffers last week and obtained by the Washington Post, “The Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) has updated its PPE monthly allotment program to include KN95 masks for all House offices” as experts warn that widely used cloth masks are less effective at preventing Omicron transmission.

    “The Office of Attending Physician (OAP) supports CDC guidelines recommending the use of a face cover such as the KN95 mask when in public spaces, particularly when a six-foot separation cannot be maintained between two individuals,” reads the email, which was sent after the U.S. Capitol’s attending physician raised alarm over an “unprecedented” surge in coronavirus infections.

    Under the new allotment program, each House office in Washington, D.C. will get 40 KN95 masks per month.

    “This is so grotesque,” said Yale epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves. “Members of Congress (and White House staff) have full access to good masks (and I bet tests too!). The little people — meaning the rest of us — are on our own.”

    Abraar Karan, a physician and infectious disease expert at Stanford University, noted in response to the new House safety protocol that “there are unprecedented infections around the entire country!”

    “What about the general public?” he asked.

    The U.S. is currently averaging roughly 700,000 new coronavirus cases per day as the Omicron variant continues to rip through the population, pushing up hospitalizations and straining overburdened healthcare systems.

    Capitol physician Brian Monahan wrote in a letter to lawmakers that, in order to combat the latest coronavirus wave, high-quality face coverings are “a critical necessity unless the individual is alone in a closed office space or eating or drinking in a food service area.”

    Monahan noted that based on a limited sample of positive tests on Capitol Hill, 61% of the cases were the Omicron variant.

    Last month, as Omicron was detected in state after state across the U.S., Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) urged Congress to guarantee the mass production and distribution of N95 masks to all households.

    In July of 2020, Sanders introduced legislation that would have required the federal government to manufacture and deliver high-quality masks to every person in the country — but the bill has gone nowhere.

    The Biden administration is in the process of enacting a plan to distribute free at-home coronavirus tests to U.S. households that request them, but it has yet to take similar action on masks. In the absence of federal leadership, some local governments have begun handing out free masks to residents.

    “With this variant, it’s really good to have an upgraded mask,” Nick Tomaro of the Milwaukee Health Department said as the city launched its mask distribution effort. “This is the opportunity to get it.”

    While N95 shortages are not currently as acute as they were in the early stages of the pandemic, genuine masks can often be difficult to find, particularly in an online marketplace still awash in counterfeits.

    “Not all face masks are created equal,” Sanders, the chair of the Senate Budget Committee, tweeted Sunday. “N95 face masks are far more effective than cloth masks in preventing the spread of Covid. We must utilize the Defense Production Act to mass produce these masks and distribute them to every household in the country.”

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Protesters in New Caledonia target state vax mandates, health card

    RNZ Pacific

    An estimated 1000 people in New Caledonia joined a protest march against the French government’s policies to fight the pandemic.

    The unauthorised march in Noumea was held just a day after the government imposed a limit of 30 people for any outside gathering.

    Police said that while the meeting was illegal, they did not intervene because many children were in the crowd.

    However, according to the public broadcaster, police used teargas after the end of the rally to disperse some demonstrators.

    The march was called to oppose a health pass required to enter venues, such as restaurants and museums, and to protest against the law making vaccinations mandatory.

    The law, which is yet to be applied, was adopted last September just days before the territory’s delta outbreak, which rapidly infected thousands and killed more than 280 people.

    Last Thursday, the first cases of the omicron variant were detected, renewing calls by the authorities to be prudent as the virus is expected to raise infection rates.

    From yesterday, vaccinations have opened for children aged five and older.

    Children aged 11 and older must wear masks in indoor settings.

    About 65 percent of New Caledonia’s population has had at least two jabs, making it the most vaccinated French Pacific territory.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Covid-19 experts fear omicron may soon be in NZ community as border cases jump

    By Jean Bell, RNZ News journalist

    New Zealand covid-19 experts are nervously observing an ever-increasing number of cases at the border, as the threat of an omicron outbreak looms.

    The highly transmissible variant has rapidly spread around the globe and New Zealand has dodged a community outbreak so far.

    But with the escalating number of overseas returnees testing positive, there are fears a new wave of the virus could be out in the community within weeks.

    Epidemiologist and University of Otago professor Michael Baker called the variant a “huge threat” and said it was not a matter of if there was an outbreak, but when.

    Professor Baker was concerned there may have been undetected transmission of the virus — whether that was the delta or omicron variant — during the Christmas and New Year period.

    “It will take a while for people to people to develop symptoms if they were exposed. Everyone should be aware of getting any cold or flu symptoms, which is unusual for this time of year.”

    Daily new community Covid-19 cases 090122
    Daily NZ new covid-19 community cases since 18 August 2021. Graph: RNZ News

    MIQ hotels well set up
    A Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) spokesperson told RNZ the hotels were well set up to cater for omicron cases and a number of precautionary measures were in place to manage the risk.

    This included travellers staying 10 days in MIQ and undergoing four tests during that time.

    Anyone who tested positive was treated as an omicron case until proven otherwise by genome sequencing.

    Despite these measures, Dr Baker was doubtful the country could make it through the month without the omicron variant escaping.

    “We’re getting more than 20 cases a day in the last three days. That’s going to put huge strain on the MIQ system, as we know every infected that arrives increases the risk of border failure.”

    Microbiologist Dr Siouxsie Wiles, who is an associate professor at the University of Auckland, told RNZ Morning Report that rather than embracing the arrival of the new variant as some have done, Aotearoa needed to be prepared for its arrival.

    ‘Back to where we started’
    “We’re kind of back where we started again, and what we really need to be doing is trying to delay that coming into our community for as long as possible so we can get everybody with that third booster dose and so that we can also get the vaccine rollout started and hopefully finished with our children,” she said.

    “There is no controlled spread with omicron, I think it’s an absolutely ridiculous idea.

    “There’s being prepared for it to come and then there’s welcoming it with open arms and all we have to look at is everywhere around the world doing open arms and it’s just not working at all.”

    There were 64 new border-related cases in MIQ during the weekend, bringing the total to 227.

    University of Otago senior lecturer Dr Lesley Gray said this did not bode well.

    “We know that for every approximately 100 that we have in MIQ there is a risk that there might be one that might end up in the community.”

    From January 7, travellers to New Zealand must return a negative test within 48 hours of their departure, down from 72 hours.

    Catching virus in short time-frame
    Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay had previously said that people may have been incubating covid-19 before their flight or been exposed during their travel.

    Dr Gray was concerned people were catching the virus within that short-time frame.

    “We do have to ask the questions of ‘how, what, when, and why’. As these people travel, they’re distanced for the most part on the planes, when they’re in airports they’re wearing masks and they have to take a reasonable number of precautions,” she said.

    She urged New Zealanders to ask themselves if they were ready for an omicron outbreak.

    This included having adequate supplies and a suitable place to quarantine if needed.

    She said getting a booster shot, scanning in, mask-wearing, and testing were among the best tools to tackle omicron.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • NZ police probe after Tamaki speaks at Christchurch anti-vaccine protest

    By Niva Chittock, RNZ News Reporter

    New Zealand police are investigating an anti-vaccine protest attended by Destiny Church leader pastor Brian Tamaki.

    A Destiny Church spokesperson confirmed Tamaki visited Christchurch over the weekend to give the Sunday sermon at the local congregation.

    Tamaki also spoke at an event in a central park on Saturday, which the spokesperson described as a “picnic”, not an anti-vaccine mandate protest.

    They said once they learnt of Tamaki’s visit, they asked him to speak at Saturday’s event in Hagley Park.

    Canterbury police district commander Superintendent John Price said enforcement action may be taken if breaches of covid-19 rules are found.

    Tamaki has been charged three times after speaking at large protests in breach of Auckland’s level three rules.

    At the time of the first event, gatherings were restricted to a maximum of 10 people. There were around 1000 people at the protests.

    Superintendent John Price said: “We encourage individuals attending protests to conduct themselves in a safe manner and adhere to current covid-19 orange restrictions, which are there to ensure the safety of all.”

    Destiny Church regularly meets in Christchurch’s Cranmer Square for their weekend sermon.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fiji’s Health Ministry reports 1280 new covid-19 cases and five deaths

    By Rohit Deo in Suva

    Fiji’s Ministry of Health and Medical Services has reported 1280 new covid-19 community cases since the last update on January 5.

    “We have recorded a total of 1280 new cases; of which 348 new cases were recorded on 06/01/2022, 320 new cases were recorded on 07/01/2022 and 612 new cases in the last 24 hours ending at 8 am this morning,” the ministry said in a statement on Saturday evening.

    Of the 1280 cases recorded since the last update, 619 cases were recorded in the Central Division; 535 cases were recorded in the Western Division, 114 cases were recorded in the Northern Division, and 12 cases in the Eastern Division.

    Overall, there have been 57,187 cases recorded, with 69 percent of the cases from the Central Division, 27 percent of the cases from the Western Division, 1 percent of the cases from the Eastern Division, and 3 percent from the Northern Division.

    Fiji’s national 7-day rolling average is 349 daily cases calculated for 4 January 2022.

    There are five covid-19 deaths to report:

    • The first covid-19 death to report is of an 89-year-old female from Taveuni who died at home on January 4. She had pre-existing medical conditions and was not vaccinated.
    • The second covid-19 death to report is of a 55-year-old male from Nausori who died at home on January 4. He had a pre-existing medical condition, received his first dose of the covid-19 vaccine in mid-July and the second dose in mid-August. He was fully vaccinated.
    • The third covid-19 death to report is of a 61-year-old female from Caubati who died at home on January 6. She had multiple pre-existing medical conditions that contributed to her death. She was not vaccinated.
    • The fourth covid-19 death to report is of an 83-year-old female from Suva who died at home on January 7. She had received her first dose of the covid-19 vaccine in mid-June and the second dose in mid-August. She was fully vaccinated.
    • The fifth covid-19 death to report is of a 27-year-old male from Nausori who died at home on January 7. He had a significant predisposing medical condition that was assessed by the attending doctors to have contributed to his death. He received the first dose of his covid-19 vaccine at the end of July and his second dose, mid-September. He was fully vaccinated.

    There has been a total of 709 deaths due to covid-19 in Fiji.

    Rohit Deo is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • New Tongan minister travels to NZ for medical treatment amid policy debate

    By Kalino Latu in Auckland

    Tonga’s new Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forests, Viliami Hingano, is currently in New Zealand for medical tests after the Vaiola hospital’s computerised tomography (CT) scanner stopped working, a government spokesperson has told Kaniva News.

    The former government approved his travel last year in his capacity as Ha’apai Governor, the spokesman said.

    The minister’s flight to New Zealand was repeatedly postponed by Tonga’s current volcanic eruptions which started in December.

    “It was important for him to be taken overseas and get his scan done so that his condition could be identified before he was given the right medical treatment,” the spokesperson said in Tongan.

    The spokesperson was responding after Kaniva News wanted to confirm that the minister was in Auckland for medical treatment.

    Kaniva News reported this week that Hingano’s family had sent him love and support after a photo of him and a cousin was shared on Facebook last week.

    The family urged Hingano to be courageous and prayed that God would help him through his medical treatment in New Zealand.

    The former governor of Ha’apai was elected MP for Ha’apai 12 on November 18, and appointed by Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni on December 29, before he left for Auckland.

    Medical issues divide community
    The Kaniva Tonga report earlier this week about Hingano has divided the Tongan online community.

    Some people were surprised to find out that instead of the minister being expected to meet his staff as the first thing he should do after his appointment, he was sent overseas for medical assistance.

    Some criticised the Prime Minister for appointing someone who appeared to be a burden on taxpayers.

    Some were irked by the fact that the minister’s travel and all his medical costs must be paid by the government because it was his ministerial entitlement.

    Others believed it was time to review the overseas medical treatment policy.

    Many suggested that all candidates who ran for Parliament must show evidence they were healthy and did not suffer from any chronic disease that would be a financial burden for the country.

    Some raised the fact that the policy only applied to government senior officers, leaders and the royals. Commoners who become chronically ill can only be treated in Tonga with the limited medical resources and doctors available at the Vaiola hospital.

    History of treatment
    Most Tongan public servants, politicians and royals who have been sent overseas on medical grounds suffered from conditions that were serious and could not be treated in Tonga.

    While many were fortunate to be cured in New Zealand or Australia and returned home, some did not.

    Two recent former Deputy Prime Ministers, Lord Ma’afu and Sione Vuna Fā’otusia, were treated in New Zealand, but eventually died from their sicknesses.

    A fierce online furore erupted in 2019 after the government hired an air ambulance which airlifted Lord Fusitu’a to a hospital in New Zealand.

    At the time, those who opposed the overseas medical policy protested on Facebook, rejecting the payment of costs from taxpayer’s money.

    The king’s noble was still in New Zealand and it appeared that he was still receiving medical assistance for his illness.

    Former MPs’ medical expenses
    Former Prime Minister Lord Tu’ivakanō was regularly sent to New Zealand for checkups after he suffered a minor stroke while in New York attending the UN General Assembly in 2013.

    His medical expenses and flights were paid from taxpayers’ money.

    The government also sent former Prime Minister Pōhiva Tu’ionetoa to Australia for medical treatment after having an injury while being an MP. He received spinal surgery at the St George Private Hospital in Sydney.

    Kaniva News understands a former Prime Minister, who was wheelchair-bound, died after being sick and spending about a year or more in an Auckland hospital. While he was in New Zealand all his expenses, including the staff looking after him, were paid from taxpayers’ money.

    A former Minister of Police was flown to New Zealand on a medical flight while he was seriously ill, but died during the flight. All expenses were paid from the taxpayers’ coffers.

    Late Opposition Leader and Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pōhiva was also sent to Auckland for medical treatment during his tenure. He died in an Auckland hospital.

    However, he paid for his travel and accommodation expenses in New Zealand with his own money.

    Kalino Latu is editor of Kaniva News. Republished with permission as community partners.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fiji denies tourist’s claims of covid ‘nightmare’ mistreatment by locals

    By Christine Rovoi, RNZ Pacific journalist

    The Australian government is assisting its citizens stranded in Fiji who also claimed they were mistreated by locals — claims rejects by tourism authorities — after testing positive to covid-19 when they arrived in the country on Boxing Day.

    The move follows claims by an Australian family that they were locked in their hotel rooms and ignored by the staff soon after returning positive results for the coronavirus.

    Fiji reopened its borders to international travellers on December 1 and that 30,000 visitors had arrived in the country since.

    Tourism Fiji said about 75,000 people had booked to stay in hotels and resorts across the country through to the end of January.

    Australia is Fiji’s largest tourism market with more than 40 percent of the visitors from Down Under.

    In a report, dated 4 January 2022 and aired on Australia’s Channel 7 network, Jacqueline Hoy claimed that what was supposed to be a dream holiday in Fiji had quickly turned into a nightmare for her family.

    Hoy said their ordeal began when her brother tested positive for covid-19 soon after the family arrived at Nadi Airport from Sydney on December 26.

    Claim family was separated
    She also claimed her family was separated and support was scarce.

    Hoy said they were locked in their hotel rooms and did not get any food for three days — with calls for help to the hotel staff ignored.

    “It is an absolute nightmare,” Hoy told the network. “On arrival at the hotel to check-in, there was no signage, no hand sanitiser and we waited four hours at the reception to check into our room.

    “We didn’t get access to our rooms until 11.30pm. We were forced to sign a consent form which basically waived all our rights in relation to covid-19, access to our reports and medical records.

    “I haven’t seen any medical reports, I’ve only been told I’m covid positive and I can’t leave my room in 10 days.

    “We’ve been told that if any of our family members are seen together, coercing in the corridors — those who are negative will have to stay an extra seven days.”

    The family is working with the Australian High Commission in Suva to get them home.

    Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said it was providing consular assistance, in accordance with the Consular Service Charter, to the family.

    “Due to privacy obligations we are unable to provide further information,” the DFAT said in a statement.

    Tourism Fiji CEO Brent Hill
    Tourism Fiji chief executive officer Brent Hill … rejected “nightmare” claims, saying this is not the full story. Image: RNZ Pacific/Michelle Cheer/Tourism Fiji

    Tourism Fiji refutes tourist’s claims
    Tourism Fiji chief executive officer Brent Hill has rejected Hoy’s claims saying this is not the full story.

    Hill did not respond to a request for comment from RNZ Pacific but he told local media that the stakeholders in Fiji’s tourism industry took these allegations seriously and were facilitating both sides of the dispute.

    The hotel in question on the popular Coral Coast strip has refused to comment.

    Fiji’s Hotel and Tourism Association said its investigation had also found that Hoy had made false claims.

    The association’s chief executive, Fantasha Lockington, said 30,000 visitors had already visited Fiji over the last five weeks and the majority of them had a wonderful experience.

    Both Tourism Fiji and FHTA are expected to release a joint statement soon.

    Fiji is currently battling a third wave of the coronavirus with a total of 3009 active cases in isolation and the death toll at 704.

    Fiji Health Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete
    Fiji Health Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete … “I’ve seen her talking and certainly she does not look too unwell.” Image: RNZ Pacific/Fiji govt

    Fiji’s Health Ministry said there were 1555 covid-19 cases recorded since January 1 with 372 of them confirmed on Wednesday.

    Health Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete said the Australian woman’s claims of mistreatment by the locals were concerning.

    Dr Waqainabete said he had viewed the Channel 7 report, adding that the safety of all visitors to Fiji was important.

    “I’ve seen her talking and certainly she does not look too unwell — so we are thankful for that. Certainly, as I’ve alluded to the fact that she is being able to be fully vaccinated also supports her in that regard.

    “But her health and safety is very important. That is something that we’ve been working on with Tourism Fiji and the Fiji Hoteliers Association.”

    Dr Waqainabete said he had visited some of the hotels and resorts to check their standard operating procedures before Fiji’s borders reopened.

    There are occasions where some challenges would be faced, he said.

    “I am also grateful that there have been thousands and thousands of visitors that have come through to Fiji safely and have gone back home safely. And that is a testament to the processes that we have in place.”

    International travellers arrive at Nadi Airport.
    International travellers arrive at Nadi Airport. Image: RNZ Pacific/Facebook/Fiji govt

    Be prepared for challenges, Australians told
    Covid-19 remains an ongoing global health risk, and Australians who travel overseas during the pandemic have been urged to be aware of the continued challenges associated with international travel.

    A government travel advisory states that Australians travelling overseas must be fully prepared, to closely monitor the covid-19 situation in their intended travel destinations and arrange suitable travel insurance.

    They are also encouraged to consult the Smartraveller website for the latest travel advice and the Global Covid-19 Health Advisory.

    Travel advice in relation to Fiji is available at Fiji Travel Advice & Safety/Smartraveller.

    Australians have also been told that the reopening of their borders is not a return to the pre covid-19 international travel environment.

    “All travellers need to be aware of risks and take care regardless of where they travel,” a government travel advisory stated.

    “This includes having sufficient funds to meet their travel needs and ensuring they have travel insurance and fully understand the details of their insurance, especially regarding contracting covid-19.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Omicron Outbreaks in Prisons Put Everyone at Risk, But Data Is Scarce

    An illustration of a prisoner curled up within the silhouette of a covid-19 particle

    The Omicron variant of COVID-19 presents a unique public health threat as the highly contagious virus drives infection rates to record highs, but a dearth of data on COVID in jails and prisons across the United States is leaving researchers, incarcerated people and the public in the dark about outbreaks that put everyone at risk.

    The law school at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) tracks the pandemic in jails and prisons, where rates of COVID infection and death are often multiple times higher than in the free population. Jails and prisons have reported 451,000 COVID infections and nearly 7,000 deaths among incarcerated people nationally as of January 1, but Josh Manson, a spokesman for UCLA’s COVID Behind Bars Data Project, said researchers think the actual number of infections is much higher.

    Manson said hard data on infections, deaths and vaccinations among incarcerated people and prison guards are inconsistently reported, manipulated and even hidden by the sheriffs and prison officials. Jails and prisons across the country restricted access to COVID data in 2021 or stopped public reporting altogether. This is especially troubling, according to researchers, because advocates, policymakers, incarcerated people and their families rely on this data to gauge health risks and hold prisons accountable.

    “It was hard to get good data before Omicron, and it’s harder now,” Manson said in an interview. “Prisons and jails generally, and especially jails, have been a block box for data and especially health data, so it’s been really frightening throughout the whole pandemic to not know what’s going on inside.”

    Prisons and jails are not prepared for Omicron, researchers say, putting many more people at risk as deadly outbreaks spread from behind prison walls to surrounding communities and contribute to millions of infections. The latest variant is incredibly contagious and, though it often causes milder symptoms among the vaccinated, vaccination and testing regimes at jails and prisons vary widely between facilities and from state to state. The same goes for reporting COVID data to the public, making Omicron behind bars extremely difficult to track.

    If incarcerated people and guards are not tested regularly, they will unknowingly spread the virus in the confines of jails and prisons, where health care is notoriously inadequate, living conditions are poor and crowded, and solitary confinement — a common response to COVID infections — leaves thousands of people with long-term physical and mental health problems.

    “I am personally worried that there are lot of asymptomatic and mild cases of COVID that are not being tested for and spreading in jails and prisons right now,” Manson said.

    Using available data from state prisons, researchers estimated that one in three prisoners had tested positive for COVID-19 in February 2021, before vaccines reached many prisoners and the Delta and Omicron variants emerged. Today, it appears that the number of infections in state prisons has dropped — but the public only has access to data that prison officials are willing to report, which is often outdated, incomplete or missing.

    Manson said many local jails do not report case totals, and prisons in several states are not reporting the cumulative number of cases either. Louisiana, for example, only reports current active cases. The data we do have on infections is only as good as testing is widespread, and Manson said testing practices are often “abysmal.” Many sites of incarceration do not report cumulative test results and positivity rates. Of course, there is an unknown number of cases that are not detected by tests.

    Vaccination is considered the best defense against COVID, but data on vaccinations is “scarce and incomplete” across state and federal prison systems, according to a recent review of available data by the Prison Policy Initiative.

    As of December 14, prisons in only four states — Delaware, Missouri, Michigan, and Minnesota — were releasing data on booster shots for incarcerated people. More recently, Montana’s prison system announced a booster program, and Hawaii began offering cash incentives for incarcerated people to get jabs this week. However, researchers were left with no evidence that boosters are available to incarcerated people in dozens of states.

    In August, as the Delta variant reared its ugly head, the COVID Behind Bars Data Project released a scathing report detailing decisions by prisons in states with some of the largest COVID outbreaks — including Florida, Louisiana, Georgia and Texas — to restrict pandemic data or stop reporting altogether. Florida, for example, was a major COVID hotspot in the U.S. and globally for much of last summer, but on June 2 the Florida Department of Corrections stopped reporting data on COVID in state prisons.

    While most states report some data in one format or another, Manson said online “dashboards” often go without updates for weeks or are replaced by PDF reports that cause trouble for web scrapers used by researchers. Only three states report data on all five metrics identified by the Prison Policy Initiative as crucial for understanding the pandemic and holding prisons and policymakers accountable, including cumulative counts of tests, vaccinations and cases. Across the country, data that prisons made available while the media focused on the massive outbreaks of 2020 has dried up.

    “A year ago — when the information peaked, and before Delta arrived — prisons slowly started reporting less information because they felt it wasn’t necessary, or wasn’t worth their resources, or they thought ‘the pandemic is over,’” Manson said. “Or, they just found an opening and an excuse to start hiding their data.”

    For example, earlier this year the UCLA researchers noticed the cumulative number of COVID cases — the number that represents cases over the entire course of the pandemic –reported in federal prisons was dropping, which didn’t make sense. It turned out the Bureau of Prisons was subtracting from its case total when prisoners who had COVID were released, allowing the federal prison system to report fewer overall cases. Only Maryland reports the number of booster shots administered to prison guards, who have refused vaccines at alarming rates and fought mandates in court.

    Social distancing is impossible in jails and prisons. In its place, many sites of incarceration have deployed solitary confinement, which is a form of torture.

    Incarcerated people continue to report terrifying conditions: An anonymous woman incarcerated at Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, California, told advocates that there’s no way to avoid COVID in prison.

    “I had over a dozen negative tests since they started testing for COVID only to have them move two inmates into our dorm while we’re on quarantine,” the incarcerated woman said in an oral history project earlier this year. “Both arrived complaining of still not having taste or sense of smell, and within a few days of arriving one began to have symptoms, fever and chills but would avoid the daily temperature checks. Within a week two more had fevers, by that time it was too late.”

    Across the country, people jailed inside the nation’s vast network of immigration jails reported “unsanitary and uninhabitable living conditions and denial of adequate PPE and COVID-19 safety measures” in calls to the National Immigration Detention Hotline, according to the organization Freedom for Immigrants, which runs the hotline. Incarcerated immigrants say Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its contractors have been slow to make booster jabs available and provide vaccine information in different languages, and civil rights groups recently slammed ICE for failing to implement a national booster program for immigration prisons as of December.

    ICE did not respond to an inquiry about booster shots by the time this story was published. Layla Razavi, interim co-executive director of Freedom for Immigrants, said ICE has failed to implement even the most basic COVID safety protocols and ignored court orders to release the medically vulnerable and make room for social distancing. At least 32,244 COVID infections occurred in immigration prisons and at least 11 people have over the course of the pandemic. However, like other jailers, the official tally reported by ICE has been disputed by observers.

    “And since President Biden took office, the number of people inside detention has multiplied, placing more immigrants inside at an even greater risk,” Razavi said in an email. “Enough is enough. We call on President Biden to act swiftly and conduct releases before more people perish.”

    There is some good news: Manson said vaccination rates among incarcerated people tend to be higher than national and statewide averages. However, it’s unclear if those who initially refuse vaccines can easily access shots if they change their minds.

    “I would like to see some evidence that people who initially refused vaccinations are being continually offered it,” Manson said.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • ‘Boost like crazy’ before omicron spreads, epidemiologist warns NZ

    RNZ News

    Rising covid-19 cases at the border are increasing the risk of the omicron variant spreading in Aotearoa but a leading epidemiologist says the country still has time to prepare for an outbreak.

    Today there were 43 covid-19 cases identified at the border, a jump from 23 cases yesterday, and the Ministry of Health believes the majority are omicron.

    But New Zealand still has time to keep omicron out and prepare the population before the virus enters the community, says University of Melbourne epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely, originally from New Zealand.

    Looking at New South Wales probably hitting its peak with omicron cases, he told RNZ Morning Report there were lessons for New Zealand to better manage an outbreak.

    He said there was a huge “five-fold” undercount of cases because those infected with omicron were more likely to be asymptomatic. There could be up to 180,000 infections a day, he said.

    His explanation for nearing the peak was: “It makes sense because of that number of infections per day … the virus exhausts the number of people it can infect because you’re chewing up all the susceptibles.”

    He said there was a massive shortage of rapid antigen tests in Australia which was “just appalling”, thereby disrupting employment and the supply chain.

    ‘Flipping lessons to NZ’
    “So flipping this to lessons for New Zealand: Get heaps of rapid antigen tests in before you get omicron and change your surveillance systems, or at least have them ready to go to pivot to being less reliant on PCR when the numbers of omicron go up.

    “And follow some of the UK example of getting some free rapid antigen tests out towards citizens who have got some ready for when omicron arrives.”

    He said New Zealand could take a few more steps to keeping covid-19 out because it had “the advantage of learning from pretty much every other country”.

    “Try and keep the borders really strong which New Zealand has excelled at and wait for better vaccines that have wider coverage and not let omicron in. I think the chances of pulling that off are remote because omicron will get in at some point.

    “The second option is, somewhat controversially, to embrace omicron.”

    Blakely said omicron was “way less severe” thereby reducing the number of people that died or had to go to hospital.

    “Omicron is less dangerous than delta … we’re talking somewhere between 1-5 percent of the mortality risk of a delta infection.”

    Good immunity against delta
    He said studies showed people who had had omicron then had good immunity against delta.

    “So if New Zealand embraces omicron in, the trick is to manage it well.

    “But there are other things to do in the next six weeks for New Zealand, which is boost like crazy, try and get at least two-thirds of the over 60 population boosted … before omicron comes in and get the public ready.

    “Have a plan in place, mandatory masks when the case numbers get to a certain point.”

    University of Canterbury professor Michael Plank said new cases in MIQ was a steep rise from last year, when most days, there were just two or three new cases arriving.

    “What that really shows, there is a high risk at the moment of the virus leaking out.”

    He said it mirrored international data showing infection rates were higher than ever, in some countries.

    No assumptions over MIQ
    Professor Plank said New Zealanders could not assume managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) would keep the variant out.

    New testing rules will come into effect for arrivals into the country, with travellers required to return a negative test result within 48 hours of departure, rather than 72 hours.

    Professor Plank said it was a helpful step, but he would like to see rapid antigen tests also used, for a final check on the day of departure.

    “These tests return a result in about 20 minutes so these can actually be done on the day. They won’t catch every last case but even if they only caught say 50 percent of cases prior to getting on the flight, that would be a help.”

    Professor Plank said Aotearoa needed to buy as much time against omicron as possible, to roll out boosters and child vaccinations.

    “If you’re eligible for that booster dose, don’t delay, don’t wait for a few weeks, because it could be too late by then.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Three US Army personnel test positive for covid at Marshall Islands border

    By Giff Johnson, RNZ Pacific correspondent in Majuro

    The US Army ignored agreed-to covid prevention rules for entry into the Marshall Islands this week and the result was the first border cases of covid in the Marshall Islands in more than a year.

    Three US Army personnel tested positive for covid soon after arrival at the US Army Garrison — Kwajalein Atoll (USAG-KA) Tuesday while starting a two-week quarantine period for entry into the country.

    Despite record-breaking numbers of covid cases in Hawai’i and the US mainland over the past several weeks, driven largely by the omicron variant, the Army brought in the largest group ever to come to Kwajalein in the weekly US Army repatriation groups since it started the process in June 2020.

    The group arrived Tuesday this week following a one-week quarantine in Hawai’i to undergo an additional two weeks of quarantine at the Kwajalein base.

    Of the 37 base workers and their families now in quarantine, three tested positive for covid. On Wednesday, Army authorities informed Marshall Islands officials of the positive cases in this group.

    These are known as “border cases”.

    The Marshall Islands is one of the few countries globally that has never had community transmission of covid in the two years since the virus appeared.

    ‘Clearly broke the protocols’
    The 37 people in this weekly Army group were allowed to board the military flight to Kwajalein from Honolulu without waiting for the results from a covid test, “which clearly broke the protocols jointly agreed to by National Disaster Committee (NDC) and USAG-KA,” said Chief Secretary Kino Kabua, who chairs the Marshall Islands National Disaster Committee.

    A negative covid test is required for anyone to fly from Honolulu to the Marshall Islands.

    A public statement issued by the Office of the Chief Secretary Wednesday said all three positive cases are showing no symptoms and are in quarantine and isolated from the community at Kwajalein.

    There were no border cases in either Kwajalein or Majuro for 14 months preceding this week’s development. This is primarily because a quarantine period in Hawai’i — two weeks for unvaccinated individuals, one week if vaccinated — coupled with three covid tests prior to departure to the Marshall Islands has ensured no border cases in the Marshall Islands for an extended period.

    Last week’s Army group saw one person bumped off the flight when they tested positive for covid prior to departure from Honolulu. But this protocol was not followed this week.

    “NDC had discussions with the colonel on Wednesday who stated it was a procedural error on their part,” said Kabua.

    “He conveyed it was unacceptable that the situation occurred and that he had already brought his entire team to rectify the problem, including pulling back the authority to authorise the flights to his level.”

    Monitoring of test results
    Kabua added: “We reiterated the importance of adhering to the joint protocols and discussed additional measures to enhance collaboration at the technical-working level, especially the monitoring of test results coming out from Honolulu.”

    Prior to the discovery of the three border cases, the Ministry of Health earlier this week issued a call to temporarily halt all repatriation for one month in light of the explosion of covid cases in Hawai’i, the US mainland and the world during the past month.

    Hawai’i has been reporting between 1500 and 3000 new covid cases daily over the past several weeks after having only 57 cases as recently as December 7. The United States set a new record with more than 500,000 cases a day earlier this week.

    The recommendation to “pause” repatriation was the lead point in a “Ministry of Health Emergency Covid-19 Resolution” issued January 3.

    There is currently one Marshall Islands repatriation group tentatively scheduled for January and the Army brings in groups of its workers weekly.

    The ministry recommended using a one-month pause on repatriation groups to enhance health and community preparation for the possible introduction of covid-19 omicron into the community, including vaccination, boosters and updating National Emergency Operations Centre plans.

    The ministry also called on the government to “mandate covid-19 vaccination for healthcare workers, front-liners, civil servants and school aged children, including booster doses”.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. Giff Johnson is editor of the Marshall Islands Journal.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Otago University covid-19 experts copping abuse from anti-vaxxers

    By Hamish MacLean in Dunedin

    University of Otago covid-19 experts are not immune to the increasingly vitriolic attacks dished out to scientists commenting on New Zealand’s pandemic response.

    Among a litany of attacks University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker has endured over the course of the pandemic, at the start of this week a caller told him he had “a target on his back”.

    Professor Baker said he kept the caller on the line for about 20 minutes and asked him what that meant “in real terms”.

    The caller was an anti-vaxxer who was accusing Professor Baker of propaganda on behalf of pharmaceutical companies, telling him vaccines were dangerous, especially so for children.

    The caller had half-baked information gleaned from various sources that did not really make sense, Professor Baker said.

    “He had these slogans he was throwing at me, but when I asked him what he meant he didn’t really have any answers.”

    This week it was revealed University of Auckland professors Shaun Hendy and Siouxsie Wiles have argued to the Employment Relations Authority their employer was not doing enough to protect them as they shared their expertise with the public.

    Professor would call police
    But Professor Baker said he had not raised any concerns for his safety with his employer, the University of Otago.

    If anyone made a threat where he felt he or his family was unsafe he would not hesitate to involve the police.

    The Wellington-based scientist received the occasional phone call where a caller delivered a stream of abuse and hung up, but Professor Baker said he was most likely to receive abuse in the form of emails, averaging a few attacks by email every day.

    As an exercise, Professor Baker began classifying the forms of abuse he received into “five categories of insult”, he said.

    There were the incoherent streams of abuse, which were easily dealt with, he said.

    Some people had major grievances but did not know where to go, and contacted him to vent and, in some extremely sad cases, he would reply and express sorrow and sympathy.

    There were anti-vax propagandists whose positions were not based on facts, which he ignored.

    There were those with ideological stances who disapproved of the government’s overall strategy, who at times delved into conspiracy theories.

    Personal attacks stream
    Finally, the group he found the hardest to deal with came as personal attacks from a small stream of people who persistently contacted him, and tried to undermine his ability to comment.

    “Talking about how you look, or how you appear – they’re obviously making quite a concerted effort to look at where you might feel a bit vulnerable,” he said.

    The attacks had never made him question his role of speaking publicly about the pandemic response, Professor Baker said.

    University of Otago virologist Jemma Geoghegan.
    Dr Jemma Geoghegan … limited her media exposure. Image: University of Otago

    University of Otago evolutionary virologist Dr Jemma Geoghegan said she, too, had not raised any concerns with her employer.

    She said “no” to about 90 percent of media requests because the issues were not related to her field of expertise.

    In limiting her media exposure, she had limited the number of people who wanted to harass her about her expertise, Dr Geoghegan said.

    “I don’t generally speak about vaccines, so [that] abuse isn’t aimed at me,” the Dunedin scientist said.

    ‘Weirdly strong views’
    However, she had published on covid-19 origins and people had “weirdly strong views about that”.

    The issues dealt with by her Auckland counterparts were not surprising though and she had sympathy for them.

    “This is happening all around the world,” Dr Geoghegan said.

    “I’ve got international collaborators that … I think their mental health has suffered.

    “Before covid, or at the start of covid, they were really prominent on Twitter and stuff like that, and now they’ve had to delete their accounts because of the amount of abuse they’ve got.”

    Hamish MacLean is an Otago Daily Times journalist. This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ and this story first appeared in the Otago Daily Times

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fiji braces for pandemic third wave as omicron cases found in community

    By Josefa Babitu in Suva

    Fiji is bracing for a third wave of the covid-19 virus after tests have confirmed the presence of the omicron variant in local communities.

    The country’s Health Secretary Dr James Fong said today the ministry was prioritising testing of suspected individuals to prevent severe illness and death and to focus on suppression where the risk of transmission was high.

    “Omicron is vastly more infectious than delta. As such, in keeping with what we see in other countries, the omicron will become the dominant variant,” said Dr Fong.

    “As omicron spreads very fast, you should assume you are infected, and self-isolate, if you develop any cold/flu-like symptoms such as runny nose, sneezing, nasal congestion, sore throat, cough, body ache, or fever.

    “Gatherings have been observed where covid-safe measures have not been followed, or people have attended while having symptoms. We ask that if you have relaxed in your observance of covid safe measures, that you please resume now.

    According to Dr Fong, 580 new cases of both the delta and omicron variant were recorded between Monday and eight o’clock today.

    Of the 580 cases recorded since the last update, 146 cases were recorded in the Northern Division, 111 cases were recorded in the Western Division, 303 cases were recorded in the Central Division, and 20 cases in the Eastern Division.

    2417 active cases in Fiji
    There are currently 2417 active cases of covid-19 in the country.

    The Health Ministry has recorded two additional deaths in its latest report, bringing the total death toll to 712 during the pandemic.

    However, Dr Fong said the omicron variant was likely to cause milder disease as data from the United Kingdom and South Africa had shown the risk of hospitalisation was reduced by 80 percent and, once in hospital, the risk of severe diseases was reduced by 70 percent when compared to the delta variant.

    “As with previous variants, unvaccinated people are at higher risk of severe disease. With more than 92 percent of adults fully vaccinated, we expect that our high vaccination rates, plus the infection-induced immunity from the large number of people who were infected during the last wave, will help to lower the number of people that develop severe disease.

    “We continue to see that the majority of individuals testing positive in medical facilities are presenting for non-covid medical problems and found to be positive while undergoing routine screening as all admissions to the hospital are currently tested for covid-19.

    “Also, the vast majority of cases turning positive have minimal symptoms and remain stable.

    He added that severe outcomes would be expected in some individuals, including those who have been immunised with two doses of the vaccine, especially people with severe underlying medical conditions and people over the age of 50.

    ‘Monitored … in a timely manner’
    “We have in place measures that ensure that those vulnerable to severe disease are adequately monitored, tested, retrieved, and effectively managed in a timely manner before their conditions worsen.

    “However, we need the cooperation and support of community networks in formal and informal community settings and business settings, working in tandem with the ministry.

    The ministry has advised the public to self-isolate at home if they have any of the covid-19 symptoms.

    A health care worker must isolate for seven days while everyone else is required to isolate for 10 days.

    Meanwhile, Fijians who are eligible to get their booster shot have been advised to do so as the country fights the new variant.

    Josefa Babitu is a University of the South Pacific student journalist and contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fiji parents warned about sick children in back-to-school catch-up

    By Timoci Vula in Suva

    Fiji parents are advised not to send their children to school today if they are not feeling well as the country is rocked by a third wave of the covid-19 pandemic.

    That was the advice from the Ministry of Education as the last term for 2021 begins on January 4 for Years 8 to 13 to make up the education gap.

    Education Minister Premila Kumar said the students were expected to comply with covid-safe measures introduced in school, including the wearing of masks.

    “We must all take the necessary steps to reduce risk of covid-19 in our communities to keep our schools safe,” Kumar said.

    The minister said the ministry was also aware that not all students had had regular and reliable access to online learning tools during the long school closure due to covid-19.

    As such, she said the return of students to school this month would provide them with the opportunity and resources to work closely with their teachers to successfully complete the requirements of the 2021 academic year before progressing to the next level.

    “We know that face-to-face learning is vital for the academic achievement, mental and physical health, and overall well-being of our students.

    “By continuing to work together, we can help ensure a positive school experience for everyone.”

    Kumar added that the schools would be finalising the provisional enrolments for the 2022 academic year by the end of January 2022, giving parents and guardians ample time to prepare their children for the new school year.

    805 new cases in Fiji
    The Ministry of Health and Medical Services reported 805 new cases of covid-19 in the last three days ending at 8am on Sunday morning.

    “Since the last update on 29/12/2021, we have recorded a total of 805 new cases; of which 316 new cases were recorded on 30/12/2021, 223 new cases were recorded on 31/12/2021, and 266 new cases in the last 24 hours ending at 8 am this morning,” stated the ministry in a statement.

    The Fiji Times reports that Health Secretary Dr James Fong said plans to amend curfew hours and close Fiji’s international borders were still under discussion.

    He said that if a variant was transmissible enough, stringent border and community measures would only delay the inevitable entry and spread of current and future variants of the covid-19 virus.

    “We must all get vaccinated when it is our turn and continue to be strict with our covid-19 safe measures,” he said.

    The ministry, in a statement, said that from January 1, 2022, travellers from travel partner and non-travel partner countries must produce a negative covid-19 PCR test taken no more than two calendar days before the scheduled day of departure.

    Timoci Vula is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Gordon Campbell: Fostering the Kiwi culture of covid complaint media

    ANALYSIS: By Gordon Campbell in Wellington

    Success can be its own worst enemy. If the plane doesn’t crash or the ship doesn’t sink, that doesn’t prove the safety measures were unnecessary, or that anyone can fly a plane.

    It can also be taken as an indication that the safety measures are working. Ditto during a pandemic.

    Arguably New Zealand has managed the best response to covid in the entire world. This didn‘t happen by accident. It reflects the skill and dedication of tens of thousands of people working at the borders, in MIQ facilities and in the public health system. Hundreds are alive and well today who would have not have been if the government had bowed to pressure from the business sector and its friends in the media, and thrown the borders open prematurely.

    Little of this reality has been reflected in a media narrative that has been skewed towards allegations of confusion, mis-management, shambolic disarray and the hardship resulting from the government’s treatment of public health as its major priority. Yes, this can be hard financially (and stressful) on people whose business model was built on a pre-covid reality where foreign tourists and locals could mix and mingle freely.

    We now have vaccines, but they do not render even the double vaccinated entirely bullet proof.

    Therefore, the need for caution in removing restrictions and safeguards remains, especially given what we know about how readily delta and omicron spread covid-19. Moreover, and throughout the pandemic, compassionate taxpayers have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the hospitality and tourism sectors. They did so (a) to keep firms afloat and workers in jobs, while (b) those firms adapted to the new reality.

    Some firms in hospo and tourism have made that adjustment. However, many others have been given a media platform to repeatedly complain about their plight, as if the government (and taxpayers) have a duty to sustain their old business model for them, forever.

    Instead of providing a megaphone for grievance, shouldn’t the media be more willing to challenge those employers to explain how they’ve dynamically changed their business practices, and what their transition plans look like?

    The last time I wrote about this, this was mis-construed by some as an argument for turning the media into government apologists or publicists, and preventing journalists from heroically doing their job. To be clear on this point: there’s not much that’s heroic about amplifying complaints without context or pushback.

    Also IMO, it isn’t particularly heroic to be wilfully naïve about the political dimensions of your work. Meaning: the risks of being an apologist and virtual publicist apply not only to government policies and actions. Especially in the aftermath of the delta outbreak mid-year, much of the media has been a virtual echo chamber for the attack lines originated by the Opposition.

    The wilful lack of context has, at times, been breathtaking. Outside the business pages, the recognition of the relative success of this country’s economic management during the pandemic has been almost non-existent.

    – Gordon Campbell

    The wilful lack of context has, at times, been breathtaking. Outside the business pages, the recognition of the relative success of this country’s economic management during the pandemic has been almost non-existent.

    Last year, New Zealand – and the rest of the world – were expecting the worst recession since the 1930s. In some countries, the covid recession has been deep and lasting. Here, not so much.

    In fact, our Reserve Bank has recently been forced to intervene to dampen down the inflationary fires within a growing economy. Much as this may hurt the feelings of the centre-right, the results have vindicated the borrow and spend approach taken by the government in unison with the Reserve Bank.

    Last month, the government books were opened. People are in jobs. Unemployment fell to 3.4 percent in the quarter to September, and is headed further downwards. Yes, prices are rising faster than wages, but this is largely due to supply chain bottlenecks and oil price rises beyond our control.

    It is also because of record global demand for our farm exports that — despite what the Groundswell protesters claim — has left farmers extremely well placed to meet the costs of meeting their climate change and water quality obligations.

    As this column has consistently argued, the inflationary surge in prices is forecast to peak early in 2022, and to recede sharply thereafter. Despite the covid effect, the Operating Balance evidence is that deficits will revert to surplus in 2023/24, three years ahead of schedule. Similarly, there will be a spectacular decline in net debt, which will peak at 40.1 percent of GDP next year, before steeply declining to only 30.2 percent within five years, a full 18 percentage points below the gloomy forecasts on debt that were made at the outset of the pandemic.

    So much for fears that covid-related spending would impose an intolerable debt burden on future generations. Instead, the borrowing sustained (and generated) levels of economic activity that will largely take care of the debt incurred in obtaining the subsequent social benefits. Another triumph of neo-Keynesianism over the policies of austerity.

    Finally on this point, the Treasury is predicting government debt will fall from 35.3 percent of GDP to only 30.5 percent next year and head further downwards over the forecast period. This means that New Zealand is blessed with one of the lowest Crown debts to GDP ratios in the developed world.

    Among other things, it leaves acres of room for the government to borrow more to invest in infrastructure and social needs. There is also plenty of headroom in the economy for a further active response to covid-induced needs. More to the point, these figures render the centre-right criticisms of government economic policy almost entirely irrelevant.

    This is what I mean about a skewed media narrative. In its horse race journalism fixations on the new leader of the National Party — did he or didn’t he best PM Jacinda Ardern in the House etc etc — there has been almost zero attention paid to what Luxon is advocating as an alternative to the current economic settings. For all his vaunted experience as a CEO, Christopher Luxon has so far brought nothing whatsoever to the table by way of an alternative economic strategy.

    All that Luxon has offered (so far) are 40-year-old Thatcherite ideas about reducing debt, balancing the budget and tinkering away at the fringes with wasteful government spending. These policies are antiquated relics of a bygone era.

    There is a fixation on style — is he John Key Redux? — as though querying Luxon closely about his lack of content would be bad form, and rather mean to such a political novice.

    – Gordon Campbell

    There is a fixation on style — is he John Key Redux? — as though querying Luxon closely about his lack of content would be bad form, and rather mean to such a political novice.

    In reality, it seems as if the centre right has slept through the Global Financial Crisis, let alone the covid recession. In both these crises, the countries that did best — including the US — borrowed and spent their way out of trouble. The countries (mainly in Europe) that did worse during the GFC in particular, had actively embraced the policies of austerity, the ideology of small government and the service cutbacks that the current leadership of the National Party is being allowed to peddle by a compliant media.

    There’s so much more media interest (and clicks) in the Luxon vs Ardern popularity contest.

    Footnote: In the US over the past few weeks, the same debate has arisen over the prevailing media narrative on the Biden presidency. Again, the lack of context (e.g. in the coverage of the US exit from Afghanistan) , the relentlessly negative focus on trivialities (e.g. Biden’s cough) and the resort to horse race journalism (e.g. the Biden approval ratings) all have their counterparts here. Here’s a Columbia Journalism Review article on the media’s skewed stances towards Biden.

    Much of the recent debate has been kicked off by a (paywalled) column written by the Washington Post’s Dana Millbank, who has argued that the US media’s amplification of what are relatively insignificant government failings is serving to advance the country’s drift to the extreme right. As Millbank says in this MSNBC interview:

    “Compare the last four months to the last four months of 2020, when Donald Trump was threatening to not honour the result of a free and fair election..He was embracing the Proud Boys white supremacists, and embracing QAnon. He was sabotaging the Post Office.[Yet] in that period of time he got similar to, and even more favourable, coverage than what Biden is getting today.”

    In this situation, the media’s ordinary combative instincts – they originate in the admirable journalistic urge to hold power to account – can be ill-suited to recognising, let alone dealing with, the bigger picture. Because, Millbank argues, the stakes involved in the US are more than the usual party political jockeying between Democrats and Republicans. In his view, the struggle is between small “d” democrats, and authoritarians.

    As Milbank said in his Post column, “Biden is attempting to re-establish democratic norms. The people opposing him are using fascist tools of deception and voter disenfranchisement. Neutrality in this struggle is not a virtue.”

    Footnote Two: Luxon’s CEO experience might be the worst possible preparation and qualification for heading a government. After all, CEOs are answerable only to the shareholders, and their main fidelity is to the bottom line. Yet governments — if they’re competent — need to be willing and able to juggle competing interests, to acknowledge the minority view, and to minimize the risks to the vulnerable, even if this involves sometimes abandoning the quest for optimal economic efficiency.

    By and large, the current government has managed that balancing act pretty well. Arguably, by focusing so much coverage on the angrily disgruntled, the media has taken an easy clickable route that downplays — or negates — the fact that such people are actually outliers within what has been so far, a successful response to the pandemic.

    Gordon Campbell is an independent progressive journalist and editor of Scoop’s Werewolf magazine. This article has been republished with the author’s permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.