Category: Public health

  • Since its first case was diagnosed 12 months ago, PNG has avoided a large number of reported cases and corresponding deaths. That situation has changed dramatically. Image: The Conversation/www.shutterstock.com

    By Brendan Crabb, Burnet Institute and Leanne Robinson, Burnet Institute

    The covid epidemic in Papua New Guinea has significantly accelerated, judging by the available reports of case numbers.

    Since its first case was diagnosed 12 months ago, PNG has avoided a large number of reported cases and corresponding deaths. That situation has changed dramatically over the past fortnight. A crisis is now unfolding with alarming speed and the response must quickly match it.

    Australia can be proud of its preparations to support PNG and the region in responding to covid-19, especially its preparations to support vaccination in the region. These include contributing A$80 million to COVAX, $523m to the Regional Vaccine Access and Health Security Initiative, and $100m towards a new one billion dose covid-19 vaccine initiative together with the United States, India and Japan (the “Quad” group of nations).

    As good as they are, these plans are unlikely to be fast enough to stop this current surge before enormous damage is done. There’s simply no time to waste in responding.

    Why the urgency?
    Reported covid-19 testing rates remain critically low, with just 55,000 taken from an estimated population of nine million people. This means we don’t yet have a precise picture of the scale of the epidemic.

    The reported numbers are highly concerning. In the first week of March, 17 percent of all people who were tested throughout the country were positive to covid-19, with over 350 newly confirmed cases.

    This is the highest number of cases in a single week in PNG since the start of the pandemic. Over half of PNG’s 22 provinces reported new covid-19 cases in that week.

    There are other indicators of a potential large scale outbreak, such as reports of increased cases among health-care workers. What’s more, the total number of documented covid-19 deaths in PNG has nearly doubled in the past fortnight alone.

    Low testing rates, combined with reports of high daily case numbers, means there are likely many thousands of current cases in Port Moresby and widespread seeding and spreading of infections throughout the country.

    PNG’s hospitals and front-line health-care workers remain particularly vulnerable. With limited public health controls in place and an effective vaccination program yet to be initiated, and with last week’s huge commemoration ceremonies for Grand Chief and former Prime Minister Michael Somare, there’s every chance the current outbreak will continue to grow exponentially for some time yet.

    Covid-19 posters in PNGThese posters in PNG’s East New Britain Province help spread covid-19 public health advice. Image: Parrotfish Journey/Shutterstock.com

    The people of PNG now face dual health emergencies: death and disease from covid-19 itself, and a likely increase in existing major diseases barely held in check by the nation’s already stretched health system.

    These indirect effects, such as potential rises in malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, cervical cancer, vaccine-preventable diseases and poor maternal and newborn health, are likely to be even worse than the direct impact of covid-19.

    Australia and PNG’s vital partnership
    This health crisis should be reason enough for Australia to respond urgently in support of PNG. But there’s another reason too. High levels of circulating SARS-CoV-2 in the Asia-Pacific region are a recipe for generating mutant coronavirus variants that might spread more readily, evade immunity more easily, and/or cause more serious disease.

    A regionally coordinated effort to combat covid-19 will help ensure protection for everyone, including going a long way to help preserve Australia’s own vaccine program.

    PNG already has a coordinated national and provincial covid-19 response and a vaccine technical working group that has begun planning for deployment of the first allocation of vaccines to frontline health-care workers.

    Meanwhile, Australia is also playing a crucial role in supporting this effort, contributing generously to the COVAX vaccine access facility and to a A$500 million fund to support covid vaccination in PNG and the wider Pacific.

    However, these plans were developed on the basis there was substantially more time for planning, deployment and phased rollout than the current case numbers would suggest.

    What action is needed?
    Two considerations are now paramount. First, the response needs to be requested by — and, more importantly, led by — PNG itself. Second, the response needs to reflect the urgency and scale of the unfolding emergency.

    This “emergency package” could conceivably involve:

    1. immediate provision of masks in the community, appropriate PPE for health-care workers and increased support for widespread testing
    2. a campaign to counter covid-19 misinformation, which is rampant, and
    3. a significant ramp-up of vaccination across PNG, with an ambitious target — perhaps a million doses before the end of the year, aimed at the most at-risk groups.

    Arguably the most important element of this would be immediate vaccination for health-care workers in the most heavily impacted areas of the country. Ideally, all of PNG’s crucial health-sector workforce should be vaccinated within the next fortnight. Australia could provide around 20,000 vaccine doses for health-care workers without putting a significant dent in its own vaccine supplies, potentially making a profoundly important intervention in the course of the epidemic in PNG.

    This is the moment for dialogue to occur between the two nations, so PNG can ensure Australia’s help with such an immediate and ambitious response.

    PNG is Australia’s closest geographical neighbour, and our countries have a deep shared history of mutual support. An out-of-control COVID-19 epidemic in PNG would be a humanitarian and economic disaster for the nation itself, and a grave threat to the health of the region, particularly with shared borders to Solomon Islands in the east and Indonesia to the west.

    Given this pandemic expands at an exponential rate, and with new variants of concern arising regularly in regions of high transmission, it’s the speed of a strong response that matters the most. A rapid public health intervention, to be supported and facilitated at the highest levels of government, would go a long way to mitigating what may well become a public health catastrophe.
    The Conversation

    Dr Brendan Crabb, Director and CEO, Burnet Institute and Leanne Robinson, Professor, Program Director of Health Security and Head of Vector-borne Diseases & Tropical Public Health, Burnet Institute; Laboratory Head, Walter & Eliza Hall Institute; Adjunct Principal Research Fellow, PNG Institute of Medical Research, Burnet Institute. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • By Katie Doyle of RNZ News

    A new anti-vaccine publication with links to the Advance New Zealand fringe political party should be ripped up and thrown in the bin, a health expert says.

    From Te Puke, Dr Christine Williams discovered the magazine in her work staff room.

    It had been brought in by a concerned receptionist, who found it in their letterbox at home and wanted to show their colleagues what was being circulated.

    The first and special edition of a magazine claimed to tell the real story about covid-19 and vaccines.

    “The danger of it to me is that it’s sitting around. Like you can find something on a Facebook site or something and you see it and it’s gone.

    “Whereas this is sitting around. Lots of people can come and read it and it’s not truthful,” Dr Williams said.

    The more than 40-page magazine contains conspiracy theories about vaccines, billionaire Bill Gates, herbal cures and lockdown.

    Hold editors to account
    Dr Williams wanted the editors held to account.

    “I think it’s dangerous. [They should be] held to account I think … made to defend their views based on science, which they wouldn’t be able to do,” Dr Williams said.

    Near the end is a half-page advertisement for the Advance New Zealand Party, formed in 2020 by former National MP Jami-Lee Ross.

    The magazine’s website credits Advance NZ for fundraising to print the magazine and inviting members and supporters to get in touch if they want to help with mailbox drops in their area.

    It says the party invited members and supporters to touch base if they wanted to help with mailbox drops in their area.

    However, the website also states its editors are not members of Advance NZ or any other political party.

    Advance NZ has also been promoting the magazine on its website and fundraising to print, post, and package 100,000 copies.

    Contact attempts unsuccessful
    Attempts by RNZ to contact Ross and Advance NZ have been unsuccessful.

    The magazine has been cropping up throughout the country, including Wairarapa and Northland.

    A Facebook post from Advance NZ in February states some 300 volunteers had received 60,000 copies for distribution.

    Masterton resident Katy McClean discovered one in her letterbox last week.

    “To me, it’s kind of scaremongering, there’s a lot of stuff in there that doesn’t seem to be very factual,” she said.

    Her husband Aiden was equally unimpressed.

    “If people don’t have an understanding of how to critically look at publications, they may take this information on face value,” he said.

    Undermining covid efforts
    “And that can really undermine the effort of everybody in order to keep covid suppressed in this country.”

    In Kerikeri, Sylvie Dickson found two copies at her local takeaway.

    “I didn’t know if they’d left it there for customers or if somebody had just left it there, but I saw the rubbish bin there and I thought I’ll do everyone a favour and put it in there.”

    University of Auckland professor of medicine Des Gorman said anyone who received the magazine should “rip it up and throw it away”.

    “In the context of encouraging free and open speech, there is a fine line, and this publication crosses that line,” he said.

    “There is no merit in this publication, so my advice to people would be not to read it, and to rely upon the advice they get from their family doctor.”

    Professor Gorman said if people were genuinely worried about health issues and vaccines they needed to speak with a trusted health professional.

    ‘Dangerous’ publications
    He said publications that discouraged masks, basic public health measures and vaccinations were dangerous and should be discouraged.

    “I’m not sure, if I read this 20 times, I could find any merit in this,” he said.

    “I’m the last person to discourage free speech and freedom of speech but there’s a helluva big difference between an honest opinion well-held and this sort of stuff.”

    Professor Gorman told RNZ Morning Report the magazine “dangerously, looks quite professionally done”.

    “It has an aura of credibility around it in terms of its construct and that’s one of the many things that worries me. For the people who are vulnerable to these sorts of arguments, and those who are already vaccine hesitant, this may look like a quasi-official or even perhaps a scientifically underpinned piece of writing, which of course it isn’t,” Professor Gorman said.

    The magazine gave an impression of a solid body of work – but really, it was a “recitation of a range of conspiracy theories”.

    He was concerned it was targeted to disadvantaged communities in terms of healthcare or access to healthcare professionals, or those who felt the health system had not met their needs.

    “This magazine violates freedom of expression because it is a litany of lies.”

    The editors of the publication said they would not speak with RNZ unless it was in a live broadcast.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • By Katie Doyle of RNZ News

    A new anti-vaccine publication with links to the Advance New Zealand fringe political party should be ripped up and thrown in the bin, a health expert says.

    From Te Puke, Dr Christine Williams discovered the magazine in her work staff room.

    It had been brought in by a concerned receptionist, who found it in their letterbox at home and wanted to show their colleagues what was being circulated.

    The first and special edition of a magazine claimed to tell the real story about covid-19 and vaccines.

    “The danger of it to me is that it’s sitting around. Like you can find something on a Facebook site or something and you see it and it’s gone.

    “Whereas this is sitting around. Lots of people can come and read it and it’s not truthful,” Dr Williams said.

    The more than 40-page magazine contains conspiracy theories about vaccines, billionaire Bill Gates, herbal cures and lockdown.

    Hold editors to account
    Dr Williams wanted the editors held to account.

    “I think it’s dangerous. [They should be] held to account I think … made to defend their views based on science, which they wouldn’t be able to do,” Dr Williams said.

    Near the end is a half-page advertisement for the Advance New Zealand Party, formed in 2020 by former National MP Jami-Lee Ross.

    The magazine’s website credits Advance NZ for fundraising to print the magazine and inviting members and supporters to get in touch if they want to help with mailbox drops in their area.

    It says the party invited members and supporters to touch base if they wanted to help with mailbox drops in their area.

    However, the website also states its editors are not members of Advance NZ or any other political party.

    Advance NZ has also been promoting the magazine on its website and fundraising to print, post, and package 100,000 copies.

    Contact attempts unsuccessful
    Attempts by RNZ to contact Ross and Advance NZ have been unsuccessful.

    The magazine has been cropping up throughout the country, including Wairarapa and Northland.

    A Facebook post from Advance NZ in February states some 300 volunteers had received 60,000 copies for distribution.

    Masterton resident Katy McClean discovered one in her letterbox last week.

    “To me, it’s kind of scaremongering, there’s a lot of stuff in there that doesn’t seem to be very factual,” she said.

    Her husband Aiden was equally unimpressed.

    “If people don’t have an understanding of how to critically look at publications, they may take this information on face value,” he said.

    Undermining covid efforts
    “And that can really undermine the effort of everybody in order to keep covid suppressed in this country.”

    In Kerikeri, Sylvie Dickson found two copies at her local takeaway.

    “I didn’t know if they’d left it there for customers or if somebody had just left it there, but I saw the rubbish bin there and I thought I’ll do everyone a favour and put it in there.”

    University of Auckland professor of medicine Des Gorman said anyone who received the magazine should “rip it up and throw it away”.

    “In the context of encouraging free and open speech, there is a fine line, and this publication crosses that line,” he said.

    “There is no merit in this publication, so my advice to people would be not to read it, and to rely upon the advice they get from their family doctor.”

    Professor Gorman said if people were genuinely worried about health issues and vaccines they needed to speak with a trusted health professional.

    ‘Dangerous’ publications
    He said publications that discouraged masks, basic public health measures and vaccinations were dangerous and should be discouraged.

    “I’m not sure, if I read this 20 times, I could find any merit in this,” he said.

    “I’m the last person to discourage free speech and freedom of speech but there’s a helluva big difference between an honest opinion well-held and this sort of stuff.”

    Professor Gorman told RNZ Morning Report the magazine “dangerously, looks quite professionally done”.

    “It has an aura of credibility around it in terms of its construct and that’s one of the many things that worries me. For the people who are vulnerable to these sorts of arguments, and those who are already vaccine hesitant, this may look like a quasi-official or even perhaps a scientifically underpinned piece of writing, which of course it isn’t,” Professor Gorman said.

    The magazine gave an impression of a solid body of work – but really, it was a “recitation of a range of conspiracy theories”.

    He was concerned it was targeted to disadvantaged communities in terms of healthcare or access to healthcare professionals, or those who felt the health system had not met their needs.

    “This magazine violates freedom of expression because it is a litany of lies.”

    The editors of the publication said they would not speak with RNZ unless it was in a live broadcast.

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

    Print Friendly, PDF & Email

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • By RNZ Pacific

    Fijians have been urged to register as the government’s covid-19 vaccination campaign got underway this week.

    The vaccine rollout started on Wednesday following the arrival of 12,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine last weekend.

    Since the vaccine requires two doses, 6000 front-line workers will get the first jabs.

    But the government said this could not happen until people registered to get vaccinated.

    With the absence of a national identification mechanism and a digital immunisation registry in Fiji, the government said the need to have a credible registration process and an internationally acceptable vaccine passport are paramount.

    Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama said the vaccine alone would not stop the pandemic or the deaths associated with it.

    But he said the vaccine rollout is a start in the fight against covid-19.

    Frontline workers first
    Since the vaccine requires two doses, Bainimarama said 6000 front-line workers would receive the first jab.

    He said at least 600,000 Fijians needed to be vaccinated against covid-19.

    “We have built an online registration portal that will give us the data we need to ensure a smooth nation-wide rollout.

    “I urge every Fijian, it’s important that we all register so that we can roll out the vaccine on the timeline that makes it most effective.”

    The government said the vaccine would not stop the pandemic or the deaths associated with it.

    Bainimarama said the other important thing to realise was that many travellers would only visit countries whose population was vaccinated “so that is why the registration process is very important”.

    He urged community leaders to assist the ministry and government in addressing the misinformation around the vaccine and to discourage those who are spreading the false information and support those who are vulnerable in the community.

    Vaccine registration in Fiji
    Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama urges community leaders to assist the ministry and government in addressing the misinformation around the vaccine. Image: Fiji govt/RNZ

    Misinformation growing – minister
    Meanwhile, Health Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete said he was concerned at the increased false claims against the government’s vaccination campaign.

    Waqainabete said claims the vaccine was a mark of 666 with a micro-chip placed within it were not true.

    The smallest microchip is still too large to insert into an immunisation shot, he said.

    Waqainabete said the vaccine also did not contain meat products as falsely claimed.

    “The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are made from mRNA while the AstraZeneca from the DNA strand and contains lipids (fats) and a few other products such as sucrose (a form of sugar), salts, water for injections and amino acids.

    “It does not contain any foetal cells, blood products, mercury, egg or latex stoppers, preservatives or pork products.”

    Waqainabete also emphasised that it was important for all Fijians to register and get vaccinated once the vaccine procurement program commenced.

    Two ways to register
    There were two ways Fijians could register, he said.

    “One is self-registration where they would fill an online form in the comfort of their homes.

    “The second form of registration is face-to-face registration, whereby Fijians can visit designated registration centres to register and give the biometrics details at the same time.

    “After registration, Fijians will be notified when to go for vaccination by a text.”

    The government said the system would be able to capture both vaccine doses as and when it was carried out.

    It said phase one of the vaccination rollout would include front-liners such as individual border controllers, sea and air transport, health and hotel workers and their immediate family members.

    Phase two would cover vulnerable persons, including but not limited to, those with pre-existing commodity issues and Phase 3 would cover all those about 60 years of age, followed by any other person above the age of 18.

    Fiji has had 66 cases of covid-19 with seven active cases in border quarantine.

    Covid vaccine immumisation
    Two ways for Fijians to register for the vaccine rollout. Image: Fiji govt/RNZ

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fiji’s covid vaccination rollout begins this week … 6000 frontline workers will get the first jabs. Image: Fiji govt/RNZ

    By RNZ Pacific

    Fijians have been urged to register as the government’s covid-19 vaccination campaign got underway this week.

    The vaccine rollout started on Wednesday following the arrival of 12,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine last weekend.

    Since the vaccine requires two doses, 6000 front-line workers will get the first jabs.

    But the government said this could not happen until people registered to get vaccinated.

    With the absence of a national identification mechanism and a digital immunisation registry in Fiji, the government said the need to have a credible registration process and an internationally acceptable vaccine passport are paramount.

    Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama said the vaccine alone would not stop the pandemic or the deaths associated with it.

    But he said the vaccine rollout is a start in the fight against covid-19.

    Frontline workers first
    Since the vaccine requires two doses, Bainimarama said 6000 front-line workers would receive the first jab.

    He said at least 600,000 Fijians needed to be vaccinated against covid-19.

    “We have built an online registration portal that will give us the data we need to ensure a smooth nation-wide rollout.

    “I urge every Fijian, it’s important that we all register so that we can roll out the vaccine on the timeline that makes it most effective.”

    The government said the vaccine would not stop the pandemic or the deaths associated with it.

    Bainimarama said the other important thing to realise was that many travellers would only visit countries whose population was vaccinated “so that is why the registration process is very important”.

    He urged community leaders to assist the ministry and government in addressing the misinformation around the vaccine and to discourage those who are spreading the false information and support those who are vulnerable in the community.

    Vaccine registration in FijiPrime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama urges community leaders to assist the ministry and government in addressing the misinformation around the vaccine. Image: Fiji govt/RNZ

    Misinformation growing – minister
    Meanwhile, Health Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete said he was concerned at the increased false claims against the government’s vaccination campaign.

    Waqainabete said claims the vaccine was a mark of 666 with a micro-chip placed within it were not true.

    The smallest microchip is still too large to insert into an immunisation shot, he said.

    Waqainabete said the vaccine also did not contain meat products as falsely claimed.

    “The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are made from mRNA while the AstraZeneca from the DNA strand and contains lipids (fats) and a few other products such as sucrose (a form of sugar), salts, water for injections and amino acids.

    “It does not contain any foetal cells, blood products, mercury, egg or latex stoppers, preservatives or pork products.”

    Waqainabete also emphasised that it was important for all Fijians to register and get vaccinated once the vaccine procurement program commenced.

    Two ways to register
    There were two ways Fijians could register, he said.

    “One is self-registration where they would fill an online form in the comfort of their homes.

    “The second form of registration is face-to-face registration, whereby Fijians can visit designated registration centres to register and give the biometrics details at the same time.

    “After registration, Fijians will be notified when to go for vaccination by a text.”

    The government said the system would be able to capture both vaccine doses as and when it was carried out.

    It said phase one of the vaccination rollout would include front-liners such as individual border controllers, sea and air transport, health and hotel workers and their immediate family members.

    Phase two would cover vulnerable persons, including but not limited to, those with pre-existing commodity issues and Phase 3 would cover all those about 60 years of age, followed by any other person above the age of 18.

    Fiji has had 66 cases of covid-19 with seven active cases in border quarantine.

    Covid vaccine immumisationTwo ways for Fijians to register for the vaccine rollout. Image: Fiji govt/RNZ

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

    Print Friendly, PDF & Email

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • ANALYSIS: By Michael Toole, Burnet Institute

    One year ago today, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared covid-19 a pandemic, the first caused by a coronavirus.

    As we enter year two of the pandemic, let’s remind ourselves of some sobering statistics. So far, there have been more than 117.4 million confirmed cases of covid-19 around the world; more than 2.6 million people have died.

    A total of 221 countries and territories have been affected. Some 12 of the 14 countries and territories reporting no cases are small Pacific or Atlantic islands.

    Whether the race to end the pandemic will be a sprint or a marathon remains to be seen, as does the extent of the gap between rich and poor contestants. However, as vaccines roll out across the world, it seems we are collectively just out of the starting blocks.

    Here are the challenges we face over the next 12 months if we are to ever begin to reduce covid-19 to a sporadic or endemic disease.

    Vaccines are like walking on the Moon
    Developing safe and effective vaccines in such a short time frame was a mission as ambitious, and with as many potential pitfalls, as walking on the Moon.

    Miraculously, 12 months since a pandemic was declared, eight vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes covid-19, have been approved by at least one country.

    A ninth, Novavax, is very promising. So far, more than 312 million people have been vaccinated with at least one dose.

    While most high-income countries will have vaccinated their populations by early 2022, 85 poor countries will have to wait until 2023.

    This implies the world won’t be back to normal travel, trade and supply chains until 2024 unless rich countries take actions — such as waiving vaccine patents, diversifying production of vaccines and supporting vaccine delivery — to help poor countries catch up.

    The vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective in preventing symptomatic and severe covid-19. However, we need to continue to study the vaccines after being rolled out (conducting so-called post-implementation studies) in 2021 and beyond.

    This is to determine how long protection lasts, whether we need booster doses, how well vaccines work in children and the impact of vaccines on viral transmission.

    What should make us feel optimistic is that in countries that rolled out the vaccines early, such as the UK and Israel, there are signs the rate of new infections is in decline.

    What are the potential barriers to overcome?
    One of the most salutary lessons we have learnt in the pandemic’s first year is how dangerous it is to let covid-19 transmission go unchecked. The result is the emergence of more transmissible variants that escape our immune responses, high rates of excess mortality and a stalled economy.

    Until we achieve high levels of population immunity via vaccination, in 2021 we must maintain individual and societal measures, such as masks, physical distancing, and hand hygiene; improve indoor ventilation; and strengthen outbreak responses — testing, contact tracing and isolation.

    Office workers wearing masks, one santising hands
    In 2021, we still need to wear masks, physically distance, clean our hands, and improve indoor ventilation. Image: The Conversation/www.shutterstock.com

    However, there are already signs of complacency and much misinformation to counter, especially for vaccine uptake. So we must continue to address both these barriers.

    The outcomes of even momentary complacency are evident as global numbers of new cases once again increase after a steady two month decline. This recent uptick reflects surges in many European countries, such as Italy, and Latin American countries like Brazil and Cuba.

    New infections in Papua New Guinea have also risen alarmingly in the past few weeks.

    Some fundamental questions also remain unanswered. We don’t know how long either natural or vaccine-induced immunity will last. However, encouraging news from the US reveals 92-98 percent of covid-19 survivors had adequate immune protection six to eight months after infection.

    In 2021, we will continue to learn more about how long natural and vaccine-induced immunity lasts.

    New variants may be the greatest threat
    The longer the coronavirus circulates widely, the higher the risk of more variants of concern emerging. We are aware of B.1.1.7 (the variant first detected in the UK), B.1.351 (South Africa), and P.1 (Brazil).

    But other variants have been identified. These include B.1.427, which is now the dominant, more infectious, strain in California and one identified recently in New York, named B.1.526.

    Variants may transmit more readily than the original Wuhan strain of the virus and may lead to more cases. Some variants may also be resistant to vaccines, as has already been demonstrated with the B.1.351 strain. We will continue to learn more about the impact of variants on disease and vaccines in 2021 and beyond.

    A year from now
    Given so many unknowns, how the world will be in March 2022 would be an educated guess. However, what is increasingly clear is there will be no “mission accomplished” moment. We are at a crossroads with two end games.

    In the most likely scenario, rich countries will return to their new normal. Businesses and schools will reopen and internal travel will resume.

    Travel corridors will be established between countries with low transmission and high vaccine coverage. This might be between Singapore and Taiwan, between Australia and Vietnam, and maybe between all four, and more countries.

    In low- and middle-income countries, there may be a reduction in severe cases, freeing them to rehabilitate health services that have suffered in the past 12 months. These include maternal, newborn, and child health services, including reproductive health; tuberculosis, HIV and malaria programmes; and nutrition.

    However, reviving these services will need rich countries to commit generous and sustained aid.

    The second scenario, which sadly is unlikely to occur, is unprecedented global cooperation with a focus on science and solidarity to halt transmission everywhere.

    This is a fragile moment in modern world history. But, in record time, we have developed effective tools to eventually control this pandemic. The path to a post-covid-19 future can perhaps now be characterised as a hurdle race but one that presents severe handicaps to the world’s poorest nations. As an international community, we have the capacity to make it a level playing field.The Conversation

    Dr Michael Toole is professor of international health of the Burnet Institute. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • ANALYSIS: By Michael Toole, Burnet Institute

    One year ago today, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared covid-19 a pandemic, the first caused by a coronavirus.

    As we enter year two of the pandemic, let’s remind ourselves of some sobering statistics. So far, there have been more than 117.4 million confirmed cases of covid-19 around the world; more than 2.6 million people have died.

    A total of 221 countries and territories have been affected. Some 12 of the 14 countries and territories reporting no cases are small Pacific or Atlantic islands.

    Whether the race to end the pandemic will be a sprint or a marathon remains to be seen, as does the extent of the gap between rich and poor contestants. However, as vaccines roll out across the world, it seems we are collectively just out of the starting blocks.

    Here are the challenges we face over the next 12 months if we are to ever begin to reduce covid-19 to a sporadic or endemic disease.

    Vaccines are like walking on the Moon
    Developing safe and effective vaccines in such a short time frame was a mission as ambitious, and with as many potential pitfalls, as walking on the Moon.

    Miraculously, 12 months since a pandemic was declared, eight vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes covid-19, have been approved by at least one country.

    A ninth, Novavax, is very promising. So far, more than 312 million people have been vaccinated with at least one dose.

    While most high-income countries will have vaccinated their populations by early 2022, 85 poor countries will have to wait until 2023.

    This implies the world won’t be back to normal travel, trade and supply chains until 2024 unless rich countries take actions — such as waiving vaccine patents, diversifying production of vaccines and supporting vaccine delivery — to help poor countries catch up.

    The vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective in preventing symptomatic and severe covid-19. However, we need to continue to study the vaccines after being rolled out (conducting so-called post-implementation studies) in 2021 and beyond.

    This is to determine how long protection lasts, whether we need booster doses, how well vaccines work in children and the impact of vaccines on viral transmission.

    What should make us feel optimistic is that in countries that rolled out the vaccines early, such as the UK and Israel, there are signs the rate of new infections is in decline.

    What are the potential barriers to overcome?
    One of the most salutary lessons we have learnt in the pandemic’s first year is how dangerous it is to let covid-19 transmission go unchecked. The result is the emergence of more transmissible variants that escape our immune responses, high rates of excess mortality and a stalled economy.

    Until we achieve high levels of population immunity via vaccination, in 2021 we must maintain individual and societal measures, such as masks, physical distancing, and hand hygiene; improve indoor ventilation; and strengthen outbreak responses — testing, contact tracing and isolation.

    In 2021, we still need to wear masks, physically distance, clean our hands, and improve indoor ventilation. Image: The Conversation/www.shutterstock.com

    However, there are already signs of complacency and much misinformation to counter, especially for vaccine uptake. So we must continue to address both these barriers.

    The outcomes of even momentary complacency are evident as global numbers of new cases once again increase after a steady two month decline. This recent uptick reflects surges in many European countries, such as Italy, and Latin American countries like Brazil and Cuba.

    New infections in Papua New Guinea have also risen alarmingly in the past few weeks.

    Some fundamental questions also remain unanswered. We don’t know how long either natural or vaccine-induced immunity will last. However, encouraging news from the US reveals 92-98 percent of covid-19 survivors had adequate immune protection six to eight months after infection.

    In 2021, we will continue to learn more about how long natural and vaccine-induced immunity lasts.

    New variants may be the greatest threat
    The longer the coronavirus circulates widely, the higher the risk of more variants of concern emerging. We are aware of B.1.1.7 (the variant first detected in the UK), B.1.351 (South Africa), and P.1 (Brazil).

    But other variants have been identified. These include B.1.427, which is now the dominant, more infectious, strain in California and one identified recently in New York, named B.1.526.

    Variants may transmit more readily than the original Wuhan strain of the virus and may lead to more cases. Some variants may also be resistant to vaccines, as has already been demonstrated with the B.1.351 strain. We will continue to learn more about the impact of variants on disease and vaccines in 2021 and beyond.

    A year from now
    Given so many unknowns, how the world will be in March 2022 would be an educated guess. However, what is increasingly clear is there will be no “mission accomplished” moment. We are at a crossroads with two end games.

    In the most likely scenario, rich countries will return to their new normal. Businesses and schools will reopen and internal travel will resume.

    Travel corridors will be established between countries with low transmission and high vaccine coverage. This might be between Singapore and Taiwan, between Australia and Vietnam, and maybe between all four, and more countries.

    In low- and middle-income countries, there may be a reduction in severe cases, freeing them to rehabilitate health services that have suffered in the past 12 months. These include maternal, newborn, and child health services, including reproductive health; tuberculosis, HIV and malaria programmes; and nutrition.

    However, reviving these services will need rich countries to commit generous and sustained aid.

    The second scenario, which sadly is unlikely to occur, is unprecedented global cooperation with a focus on science and solidarity to halt transmission everywhere.

    This is a fragile moment in modern world history. But, in record time, we have developed effective tools to eventually control this pandemic. The path to a post-covid-19 future can perhaps now be characterised as a hurdle race but one that presents severe handicaps to the world’s poorest nations. As an international community, we have the capacity to make it a level playing field.The Conversation

    Dr Michael Toole is professor of international health of the Burnet Institute. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Asia Pacific Report

    New Caledonia, one of the Pacific territories to have avoided the covid-19 pandemic so far, is to go into strict two-week lockdown after detecting nine cases, reports Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes.

    The outbreak on the French archipelago was detected after a school headteacher fell ill on the Wallis and Futuna islands leading authorities to screen for cases, France 24 reports citing AFP.

    “According to the first indications, the patient developed symptoms in mid-February and could have been infectious in Wallis and Futuna from the end of January,” the president of the terrotorial government in New Caledonia, Thierry Santa, told reporters.

    Travel between the two French territories had previously been unrestricted, while anyone arriving from elsewhere had to undergo a strict 14-day quarantine in a hotel.

    Santa announced a two-week lockdown for New Caledonia starting from Monday evening, to “break the transmission of the virus while there is still time”.

    The islands had previously succeeded in stopping community transmission of the novel coronavirus, which has reached almost all corners of the globe.

    New Caledonia was once used as a penal colony by French authorities owing to its remote location from Europe. It has a population of 288,000 and Wallis and Futuna have a population of 15,000.

    RNZ Pacific reports it is almost a year since the first covid-19 case was diagnosed in French Polynesia. This was also was the first in the Pacific Islands.

    Maina Sage, a member of the French National Assembly, brought the virus from Paris, triggering a sharp lockdown.


    But once the virus had been eliminated, Tahiti and its island opened for tourists but saw covid-19 spread throughout the community and infect thousands.

    Now the borders have again been shut on orders from Paris.

    French Polynesia has had 18,452 covid cases and 140 deaths. The population is 280,000.

    Laurent Prévost and Thierry Santa
    New Caledonian High Commissioner Laurent Prévost and territorial president Thierry Santa (right) speaking at the media conference in Noumea last night. Image: Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Asia Pacific Report

    New Caledonia, one of the Pacific territories to have avoided the covid-19 pandemic so far, is to go into strict two-week lockdown after detecting nine cases, reports Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes.

    The outbreak on the French archipelago was detected after a school headteacher fell ill on the Wallis and Futuna islands leading authorities to screen for cases, France 24 reports citing AFP.

    “According to the first indications, the patient developed symptoms in mid-February and could have been infectious in Wallis and Futuna from the end of January,” the president of the terrotorial government in New Caledonia, Thierry Santa, told reporters.

    Travel between the two French territories had previously been unrestricted, while anyone arriving from elsewhere had to undergo a strict 14-day quarantine in a hotel.

    Santa announced a two-week lockdown for New Caledonia starting from Monday evening, to “break the transmission of the virus while there is still time”.

    The islands had previously succeeded in stopping community transmission of the novel coronavirus, which has reached almost all corners of the globe.

    New Caledonia was once used as a penal colony by French authorities owing to its remote location from Europe. It has a population of 288,000 and Wallis and Futuna have a population of 15,000.

    RNZ Pacific reports it is almost a year since the first covid-19 case was diagnosed in French Polynesia. This was also was the first in the Pacific Islands.

    Maina Sage, a member of the French National Assembly, brought the virus from Paris, triggering a sharp lockdown.

    But once the virus had been eliminated, Tahiti and its island opened for tourists but saw covid-19 spread throughout the community and infect thousands.

    Now the borders have again been shut on orders from Paris.

    French Polynesia has had 18,452 covid cases and 140 deaths. The population is 280,000.

    Laurent Prévost and Thierry Santa
    New Caledonian High Commissioner Laurent Prévost and territorial president Thierry Santa (right) speaking at the media conference in Noumea last night. Image: Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Asia Pacific Report

    Indonesian police have broken up a protest action against the extension of Special Autonomy (Otsus) in Papua that took place on Jalan Imam Barjo in the Central Java provincial capital of Semarang – and they blamed covid health protocols.

    Before being broken up, the protesters from the Papuan People’s Petition (PRP) were repeatedly warned by police not to continue the action on the grounds that the crowds of protesters were violating health protocols during the covid-19 pandemic, reports CNN Indonesia.

    “We ask that you obey the law and comply with the rules. Please disperse voluntarily because there is still a pandemic and we must be disciplined about health protocols, don’t gather and create crowds,” Semarang metropolitan district deputy police chief Assistant Superintendent Iga Nugraha told the protesters at the demonstration on Friday.

    “One again, please understand.”

    Despite being asked to negotiate, police continued to ask the demonstrators to disperse immediately.

    Earlier, the protesters had tied themselves together in a barricade using ropes to prevent police from breaking up the action.

    Because the demonstrators insisted on going ahead with the action, police finally took action and tried to disperse them. A clash was unavoidable and the protesters fought back resulting in police arresting several people who were alleged to be the provocateurs.

    The action rejecting the extension of Special Autonomy for Papua was held as a reaction to protests by sections of Papuan society which are part of the PRP who feel that they have not gained any benefits from the Special Autonomy status which has had no impact on the Papuan people’s welfare.

    Translated by James Balowski of IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was “Pandemi, Polisi Bubarkan Aksi Tolak Otsus Papua di Semarang”.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Asia Pacific Report

    Indonesian police have broken up a protest action against the extension of Special Autonomy (Otsus) in Papua that took place on Jalan Imam Barjo in the Central Java provincial capital of Semarang – and they blamed covid health protocols.

    Before being broken up, the protesters from the Papuan People’s Petition (PRP) were repeatedly warned by police not to continue the action on the grounds that the crowds of protesters were violating health protocols during the covid-19 pandemic, reports CNN Indonesia.

    “We ask that you obey the law and comply with the rules. Please disperse voluntarily because there is still a pandemic and we must be disciplined about health protocols, don’t gather and create crowds,” Semarang metropolitan district deputy police chief Assistant Superintendent Iga Nugraha told the protesters at the demonstration on Friday.

    “One again, please understand.”

    Despite being asked to negotiate, police continued to ask the demonstrators to disperse immediately.

    Earlier, the protesters had tied themselves together in a barricade using ropes to prevent police from breaking up the action.

    Because the demonstrators insisted on going ahead with the action, police finally took action and tried to disperse them. A clash was unavoidable and the protesters fought back resulting in police arresting several people who were alleged to be the provocateurs.

    The action rejecting the extension of Special Autonomy for Papua was held as a reaction to protests by sections of Papuan society which are part of the PRP who feel that they have not gained any benefits from the Special Autonomy status which has had no impact on the Papuan people’s welfare.

    Translated by James Balowski of IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was “Pandemi, Polisi Bubarkan Aksi Tolak Otsus Papua di Semarang”.

    .pf-button.pf-button-excerpt { display: none; }

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Court Sheriff John Mike (right) checks people under covid-19 protocols in the Supreme and National courts complex. Image: The National

    Asia Pacific Report

    Papua New Guinea’s Supreme and National Courts in Port Moresby will be partially closed for a week beginning yesterday after a judge has been tested positive for the covid-19, reports The National.

    Registrar Ian Augerea said in a statement the closure was to prevent any further infections to both judicial and administrative staff.

    “During the closure, only essential staff will come to work,” he said.

    “Judges will continue to work as per their individual schedules and their personal staff will continue to work to assist them. Court rooms will be closed today to allow for deep cleaning and will open on Monday for court hearings next week.

    “The number of persons entering court rooms will be restricted to key people associated with a case.

    “Security personnel are to ensure compliance and number of people entering court grounds be regulated.

    “The building division will now commence deep-cleaning of all courtrooms, chambers and office space in the Waigani compound.

    “A schedule will be issued once arrangements are in place so that all judges and staff are informed of the cleaning activity,” Augerea said.

    He said the National Judiciary Staff Services Covid-19 team would be working to bring onsite test facilities for judges.

    The National 050321The National front page yesterday 5 March 2021. Image: APR screenshot

    He encouraged all staff to use the free test facilities in suburban clinics.

    “My office will distribute to all chambers and managers offices masks, gloves and hand sanitisers.

    “All staff are encouraged to use the protective gear whilst in the office and courtrooms,” he said.

    Asia Pacific Report republishes The National articles with permission.

    Print Friendly, PDF & Email

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Asia Pacific Report

    Papua New Guinea’s Supreme and National Courts in Port Moresby will be partially closed for a week beginning yesterday after a judge has been tested positive for the covid-19, reports The National.

    Registrar Ian Augerea said in a statement the closure was to prevent any further infections to both judicial and administrative staff.

    “During the closure, only essential staff will come to work,” he said.

    “Judges will continue to work as per their individual schedules and their personal staff will continue to work to assist them. Court rooms will be closed today to allow for deep cleaning and will open on Monday for court hearings next week.

    “The number of persons entering court rooms will be restricted to key people associated with a case.

    “Security personnel are to ensure compliance and number of people entering court grounds be regulated.

    “The building division will now commence deep-cleaning of all courtrooms, chambers and office space in the Waigani compound.

    “A schedule will be issued once arrangements are in place so that all judges and staff are informed of the cleaning activity,” Augerea said.

    He said the National Judiciary Staff Services Covid-19 team would be working to bring onsite test facilities for judges.

    The National 050321
    The National front page yesterday 5 March 2021. Image: APR screenshot

    He encouraged all staff to use the free test facilities in suburban clinics.

    “My office will distribute to all chambers and managers offices masks, gloves and hand sanitisers.

    “All staff are encouraged to use the protective gear whilst in the office and courtrooms,” he said.

    Asia Pacific Report republishes The National articles with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • By RNZ News

    New Zealand’s Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says the actions of the Destiny Church leaders in leaving Auckland on the eve of the alert level 3 lockdown were “completely irresponsible”.

    Earlier today it was revealed that church leaders Brian and Hannah Tamaki left Auckland on Saturday night, arriving around midnight in Rotorua, where they told a crowd gathered for the Sunday morning service they had “escaped” to avoid the level 3 lockdown.

    It comes as concern mounts over some churches defying lockdown rules and spreading misinformation about the covid-19 pandemic.

    On Tuesday, Hannah Tamaki posted on Facebook to say the couple were now touring the country and would be in Invercargill this weekend.

    In this afternoon’s daily update, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the Tamakis’ actions were “completely irresponsible”.

    He said he encouraged everybody to exercise their own judgment.

    “Sneaking out of Auckland right at the beginning of a lockdown and having large gatherings of people is simply putting people at risk unnecessarily.”

    Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said any breaches of the current health order which underpinned alert levels were a wider government responsibility.

    The Destiny Church is a Pentecostal fundamentalist Christian movement founded in 1998 by the Tamakis, who continue to serve as visionary and senior ministers. It is based in South Auckland and has a strong Māori and Polynesian membership.

    No new community covid cases
    RNZ News reports that despite more than 16,000 tests being processed yesterday, no new cases of covid-19 have been found in the community.

    Dr Bloomfield said two new cases were found in managed isolation and quarantine, and one of those was a historical case.

    Dr Bloomfield had said yesterday that any positive cases that may have resulted from potential exposure to the virus in Auckland last week would start to turn up today.

    Hipkins said tests were still coming in, however, and “we’re still in the critical period … we’re not quite there yet” in terms of being certain the latest cluster had not spread further.

    As of midnight last night, 9431 people have received their first doses of the Pfizer vaccine, including over half of New Zealand’s covid-19 frontline border workers, Hipkins said.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • By RNZ News

    The New Zealand government is being told to roll out clearer and smarter communications around the latest covid-19 community outbreak, to make sure they are reaching into every corner, and culture of the country.

    South Aucklanders spoken to by RNZ Checkpoint last night have expressed their disappointment that some of the region’s newest cases broke lockdown rules and advice to stay at home after being tested.

    But Manukau councillor Fa’anana Efeso Collins says some covid-19 messages are simply not getting through in one of Aotearoa’s most multicultural centres.

    “We need a clear South Auckland communications engagement strategy,” Collins told Checkpoint.

    “We should be working with organisations like South Seas, Vision West, Anglican Trust for Women and Children, who can reach into the community and hand over the information.

    “The bureaucrats have to let this go. They will cost us the war if they don’t let go of this now. They’ve got to let go of this power and trust the community to get the information to our households.”

    Collins said there need to be more people in the Manukau area, delivering information about Covid-19 in person.

    ‘People respond to relationships’
    “People respond to relationships. What we don’t have is people on the ground… out there making sure the message gets to our families.

    “We’ve got to go directly into the home, speak the languages that are spoken in the families – Punjabi, Hindi, Samoan and Tongan – and make sure people really understand this.


    Manukau councillor Fa’anana Efeso Collins talks about covid-19 messaging. Video: RNZ News

    “Young people are on social media all the time. They’re going to understand Instagrams, we should be TikToking this information. That’s the kind of stuff we should be doing.

    “But that’s the problem when you’ve got the bureaucracy handling it.”

    In a post-cabinet briefing, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said they were very conscious of the need to ensure everyone was aware of alert level changes, and they worked with the Ministry of Pacific Peoples, Te Puni Kōkiri, and office of ethnic communities to get those messages out.

    “I’m on a group of MPs where we look at ‘have we done a translation of the alert level changes, have we got it in multiple languages, across social media sites, so do in earnest make sure we’re not just utilising mainstream media, and nor are we just communicating in English.

    ‘People spread the word’
    “We also of course use things like Civil Defence Emergency notifications to let people know what we’re expecting of them and of course people spread the word themselves as well, and we try and use our team as social and community leaders to spread that message and ask others to do the same.”

    Asked about confusion on advice and guidance at alert level 3, Ardern said advice had remained the same throughout, but the only difference this time was being more cautious with casual contacts due to the more infectious nature of the UK variant.

    However, councillor Fa’anana said local community organisations were in a better place to get the message across.

    He said he had seen evidence the communications from Wellington were not getting into all South Auckland homes.

    “I still have people who ring and say, ‘can we still have lunch and come over to your house after church’. Church was online.”

    With the virus continuing to pop up in South Auckland, Fa’anana said priority vaccinations in the region should be given serious thought.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • NCD Governor Powes Parkop …”the impact of an economic meltdown would be more severe than the impact of covid-19 in Papua New Guinea.” Image: The National

    By Lulu Mark in Port Moresby

    Governor Powes Parkop says there will be no lockdown in Papua New Guinea’s National Capital District (NCD) despite a second spike in covid-19 cases.

    “We surely cannot afford to lock down NCD again because the economy of the country is in a precarious position,” he stressed firmly amid rumours being spread of a second lockdown, especially on social media.

    “As the governor of our capital city, I am not going to entertain, discuss or even consider a second lockdown,” he said.

    “The covid-19 pandemic and the economic downturn are two equally compelling crises challenging the country. But the impact of an economic meltdown would be more severe than the impact of covid-19 in Papua New Guinea.”

    He said he did not want to see more people getting unemployed or going into part-time employment.

    “We are not going to and I will not support any plans or suggestions to further restrict or lock down the city that will severely affect the functioning, normalcy and ability of the businesses to be carried out daily.

    “[The economy] has suffered severely since March 2020 and it’s just recovering.

    ‘We need economy to start growing’
    “We need the economy to start growing again. We need to stimulate the economy.

    “Many of our young people who (completed) school last year are seeking employment which we must create for them.

    “Many who have been laid off or gone into part (time jobs) are trying to get into small-to-medium enterprises.

    “A lockdown will surely strain the economy further and therefore sufferings for the people. I don’t want to imagine the consequences of an economic meltdown in our city and country.

    “This is why I am adamant that there won’t be any restrictions or lockdown.

    “All we have to do, and what I want to encourage, is for all of us to adhere to covid-19 prevention protocols so that everything will remain open and we proceed with reviving our country’s economy.”

    Lulu Mark is a reporter for The National. Asia Pacific Report republishes The National articles with permission.

    Print Friendly, PDF & Email

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • By Lulu Mark in Port Moresby

    Governor Powes Parkop says there will be no lockdown in Papua New Guinea’s National Capital District (NCD) despite a second spike in covid-19 cases.

    “We surely cannot afford to lock down NCD again because the economy of the country is in a precarious position,” he stressed firmly amid rumours being spread of a second lockdown, especially on social media.

    “As the governor of our capital city, I am not going to entertain, discuss or even consider a second lockdown,” he said.

    “The covid-19 pandemic and the economic downturn are two equally compelling crises challenging the country. But the impact of an economic meltdown would be more severe than the impact of covid-19 in Papua New Guinea.”

    He said he did not want to see more people getting unemployed or going into part-time employment.

    “We are not going to and I will not support any plans or suggestions to further restrict or lock down the city that will severely affect the functioning, normalcy and ability of the businesses to be carried out daily.

    “[The economy] has suffered severely since March 2020 and it’s just recovering.

    ‘We need economy to start growing’
    “We need the economy to start growing again. We need to stimulate the economy.

    “Many of our young people who (completed) school last year are seeking employment which we must create for them.

    “Many who have been laid off or gone into part (time jobs) are trying to get into small-to-medium enterprises.

    “A lockdown will surely strain the economy further and therefore sufferings for the people. I don’t want to imagine the consequences of an economic meltdown in our city and country.

    “This is why I am adamant that there won’t be any restrictions or lockdown.

    “All we have to do, and what I want to encourage, is for all of us to adhere to covid-19 prevention protocols so that everything will remain open and we proceed with reviving our country’s economy.”

    Lulu Mark is a reporter for The National. Asia Pacific Report republishes The National articles with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • By RNZ News

    Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she gets that everyone is angry over the latest New Zealand community covid-19 cases after it emerged there was contact between two families, but the important thing is to fix the situation.

    Contact between the families was not disclosed to contact tracers prior to the earlier family going into quarantine, Ardern said.

    She could not say why that was not disclosed, but it now explains how the infection came about.

    “We have now confirmed how our latest case M and N came to be infected with covid-19. That is because they had contact with another family that we had identified as part of the Papatoetoe cluster during level 3. Unfortunately this contact was not disclosed to our contact tracers prior to the individuals going into quarantine,” she said.

    Auckland is in a seven-day level 3 lockdown and the rest of New Zealand is at level 2.

    The case reported last evening is the fifth member of a six-person household to test positive. The first – a student at Papatoetoe High School – tested positive early on February 23, followed by two siblings later in the day.

    The family was moved to quarantine the same day, with another member testing positive on 26 February.

    One of the new community cases announced on Saturday is the 21-year-old sibling of a another student from Papatoetoe High School. The student had showed no symptoms and tested negative three times.

    The siblings’ mother has also tested positive.

    Family members isolating
    The 21-year-old is a student at Manukau Institute of Technology, and works part-time for Kerry Logistics (Oceania) Limited at Auckland Airport. This person was potentially infectious before testing positive and had not been self-isolating.

    All members of the household of five are now isolating.

    Ardern told RNZ Morning Report today about the contact disclosure between the families during lockdown: “Obviously very frustrating information … because this happened in a level 3 environment.

    “I cannot tell you what the cause of that was from those that were originally interviewed because of course those interviews would have taken place before this family went into quarantine over a week ago.

    “We came to discover this information through the latest case, so the latest family told us about the contact that was had. We will go back and re-interview that family to see if there is any other information that was not shared with us.

    “I cannot tell you whether it was for fear that it occurred during level 3 or lack of memory, I cannot tell you that.”

    Fines already available
    Ardern said she did not believe there was any wilful decision to ignore advice.

    There were two family members in the latest cases, and the contact was not the 21-year-old but the other case, Ardern said.

    Ardern said there were already fines and the ability to take enforcement action.

    “Those decisions are made by police.”

    She said the most important consideration was getting the truth quickly.

    “Everyone is angry. I absolutely accept that people want to see repercussions. At the same time, how do we make sure people tell us the truth, because there is nothing more valuable to us that knowing in these scenarios where contact has occurred.”

    Multiple people in the February cluster have flouted the self-isolation directives, including the 21-year-old in the latest cases who visited several numerous locations while potentially infectious.

    ‘Judgement for police”
    “This won’t be a judgement for me, this will be a judgement for police.”

    Some are now suggesting electronic monitoring, police or military checks, and fines to crack down on these cases, but Jacinda Ardern isn’t convinced.

    Ardern said electronic monitoring, for example, would not have made a difference in this case given the first family was already identified, tested and in quarantine.

    “Someone said to me ‘I’m in the seven stages of grief and I’m lingering on anger’. I totally get that. But it won’t change where we are, we have to fix the situation, right it, and get these restrictions lifted again.”

    Ardern said it was not the wrong decision to lift the first February lockdown because contact had occurred in level 3.

    “We were at the right level at the right time, we just needed people to follow the rules.”

    No one would have accepted a continual Auckland lockdown for 21 days, she said.

    Infectious exposure
    On whether Auckland’s level 3 will have to go beyond a week, Ardern said one of the concerns was the amount of exposure the 21-year-old had while potentially infectious.

    “We make sure we leave five days because you don’t generally get positives if you test too early.

    “Once we start getting results first from some of those close contacts we’ll get a bit of a sense of how this outbreak is behaving.”

    She anticipates level 3 will run for the full seven days and decisions on changing alert levels will be made as evidence comes in.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern … “I absolutely accept that people want to see repercussions. At the same time, how do we make sure people tell us the truth?” Image: Dom Thomas/RNZ

    By RNZ News

    Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she gets that everyone is angry over the latest New Zealand community covid-19 cases after it emerged there was contact between two families, but the important thing is to fix the situation.

    Contact between the families was not disclosed to contact tracers prior to the earlier family going into quarantine, Ardern said.

    She could not say why that was not disclosed, but it now explains how the infection came about.

    “We have now confirmed how our latest case M and N came to be infected with covid-19. That is because they had contact with another family that we had identified as part of the Papatoetoe cluster during level 3. Unfortunately this contact was not disclosed to our contact tracers prior to the individuals going into quarantine,” she said.

    Auckland is in a seven-day level 3 lockdown and the rest of New Zealand is at level 2.

    The case reported last evening is the fifth member of a six-person household to test positive. The first – a student at Papatoetoe High School – tested positive early on February 23, followed by two siblings later in the day.

    The family was moved to quarantine the same day, with another member testing positive on 26 February.

    One of the new community cases announced on Saturday is the 21-year-old sibling of a another student from Papatoetoe High School. The student had showed no symptoms and tested negative three times.

    The siblings’ mother has also tested positive.

    Family members isolating
    The 21-year-old is a student at Manukau Institute of Technology, and works part-time for Kerry Logistics (Oceania) Limited at Auckland Airport. This person was potentially infectious before testing positive and had not been self-isolating.

    All members of the household of five are now isolating.

    Ardern told RNZ Morning Report today about the contact disclosure between the families during lockdown: “Obviously very frustrating information … because this happened in a level 3 environment.

    “I cannot tell you what the cause of that was from those that were originally interviewed because of course those interviews would have taken place before this family went into quarantine over a week ago.

    “We came to discover this information through the latest case, so the latest family told us about the contact that was had. We will go back and re-interview that family to see if there is any other information that was not shared with us.

    “I cannot tell you whether it was for fear that it occurred during level 3 or lack of memory, I cannot tell you that.”

    Fines already available
    Ardern said she did not believe there was any wilful decision to ignore advice.

    There were two family members in the latest cases, and the contact was not the 21-year-old but the other case, Ardern said.

    Ardern said there were already fines and the ability to take enforcement action.

    “Those decisions are made by police.”

    She said the most important consideration was getting the truth quickly.

    “Everyone is angry. I absolutely accept that people want to see repercussions. At the same time, how do we make sure people tell us the truth, because there is nothing more valuable to us that knowing in these scenarios where contact has occurred.”

    Multiple people in the February cluster have flouted the self-isolation directives, including the 21-year-old in the latest cases who visited several numerous locations while potentially infectious.

    ‘Judgement for police”
    “This won’t be a judgement for me, this will be a judgement for police.”

    Some are now suggesting electronic monitoring, police or military checks, and fines to crack down on these cases, but Jacinda Ardern isn’t convinced.

    Ardern said electronic monitoring, for example, would not have made a difference in this case given the first family was already identified, tested and in quarantine.

    “Someone said to me ‘I’m in the seven stages of grief and I’m lingering on anger’. I totally get that. But it won’t change where we are, we have to fix the situation, right it, and get these restrictions lifted again.”

    Ardern said it was not the wrong decision to lift the first February lockdown because contact had occurred in level 3.

    “We were at the right level at the right time, we just needed people to follow the rules.”

    No one would have accepted a continual Auckland lockdown for 21 days, she said.

    Infectious exposure
    On whether Auckland’s level 3 will have to go beyond a week, Ardern said one of the concerns was the amount of exposure the 21-year-old had while potentially infectious.

    “We make sure we leave five days because you don’t generally get positives if you test too early.

    “Once we start getting results first from some of those close contacts we’ll get a bit of a sense of how this outbreak is behaving.”

    She anticipates level 3 will run for the full seven days and decisions on changing alert levels will be made as evidence comes in.

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

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • A public sign reads "wear a mask" as people cross the street in Athens, Ohio, on February 27, 2021.

    A popular Facebook and blog post by conservative radio host Buck Sexton claims scientific research indicates life should return to normal now despite the persistence of the covid-19 pandemic.

    “Here’s what the science tells anyone who is being honest about it: open the schools, stop wearing masks outside, and everyone at low risk should start living normal lives. Not next fall, or next year — now,” reads the blog post, posted to Facebook on Feb. 8.

    The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about PolitiFact’s partnership with Facebook.)

    KHN-PolitiFact messaged Sexton via his Facebook page to ask if he could provide evidence to back up the statement but got no response.

    So we reviewed the scientific evidence and talked to public health experts about Sexton’s post. Overall, they disagreed, noting the ways in which it runs counter to current public health strategies.

    Let’s take it point by point.

    “Opening the Schools”

    In March, when government and public health leaders realized the novel coronavirus was spreading throughout the U.S., many public institutions — including schools — were ordered to shut down to prevent further spread. Many students finished the 2020 spring semester remotely. Some jurisdictions did choose to reopen schools in fall 2020 and spring 2021, though others have remained remote.

    Throughout the pandemic, researchers have studied whether in-person learning at schools contributes significantly to the spread of covid. The findings have shown that if K-12 schools adhere to mitigation measures — masking, physical distancing and frequent hand-washing — are adhered to, then there is a relatively low risk of transmission.

    And getting kids back into the classroom is a high priority for the Biden administration.

    In a Feb. 3 White House press briefing, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said data suggests “schools can safely reopen.” The CDC on Feb. 12 released guidance on how schools should approach reopening. It recommends the standard risk-mitigation measures, as well as universal masking, contact tracing, creating student learning cohorts or pods, conducting testing and monitoring community transmission of the virus.

    Susan Hassig, associate professor of epidemiology at Tulane University, said science shows that schools can open safely if “mitigation measures are implemented and maintained in the school space.”

    Here’s some of the latest research that tracks with these positions:

    • Only seven covid cases out of 191 were traced to in-school spread in 17 rural K-12 Wisconsin schools that had high mask-wearing compliance and were monitored over the 2020 fall semester.
    • Mississippi researchers found most covid cases in children and teenagers were associated with gatherings outside of households and a lack of consistent mask use in schools, but not associated with merely attending school or child care.
    • Thirty-two cases were associated with attending school out of 100,000 students and staff members in 11 North Carolina schools, where students were required to wear masks, practice physical distancing and wash hands frequently.

    Of course, there are some limitations to these studies, which often rely on contact tracing, a process that can’t always pinpoint where cases originate. Some of the studies also rely on self-reporting of mask-wearing by individuals, which could be inaccurate.

    Additionally, Hassig pointed out that not all school districts have the resources, such as physical space, personnel or high-quality masks, to open safely.

    Sexton’s assertion that schools can reopen leaves out a key piece of information: that safe reopening is highly dependent upon use of mitigation measures that have been shown to tamp down on virus spread.

    “Stop Wearing Masks Outside”

    Because the coronavirus that causes covid is relatively new, the research on outdoor mask use is limited. But so far science has shown that masks prevent virus transmission.

    The CDC study published Feb. 10 reported that a medical procedure mask (commonly known as a surgical mask) blocked 56.1% of simulated cough particles. A cloth mask blocked 51.4% of cough particles. And the effectiveness went up to 85.4% if a cloth mask was worn over a surgical mask.

    Another experiment from the study showed that a person in a mask emits fewer aerosol particles that can be passed on to an unmasked person. And if both are masked, then aerosol exposure to both is reduced by more than 95%. A multitude of reports also show more generally that mask-wearing is effective at reducing the risk of spreading or catching other respiratory diseases.

    Sexton’s post, however, advised that people should stop wearing masks outside. To be sure, public health experts agree the risk of transmitting covid is lower outdoors than indoors. But the experts also said that doesn’t mean people should stop wearing masks.

    “The wind might help you a bit outside, but you are still at risk of breathing in this virus from people around you,” said Dr. Rachel Vreeman, director of the Arnhold Institute for Global Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

    Being outside is “not a guarantee of safety,” reiterated Stephen Morse, an epidemiology professor at Columbia University Medical Center. “Especially when those people without masks are close together.”

    The CDC addressed the issue of whether masks are needed outside in the agency’s mask guidelines: “Masks may not be necessary when you are outside by yourself away from others, or with other people who live in your household. However, some areas may have mask mandates while out in public, so please check for the rules in your local area.”

    Overall, the prevailing scientific opinion is that, while it may be OK to go maskless outside if you are physically distant from others, mask-wearing is still recommended if you are around others.

    “Everyone at Low Risk Should Start Living Normal Lives”

    All the public health experts we consulted agreed this part of the claim is absolutely false. It flies in the face of what scientists recommend should be done to get through the pandemic.

    While it’s unclear what exactly the post means by “low-risk” people, let’s assume it’s referring to younger people or those without health conditions that make them more vulnerable to covid. And that “living normal lives” refers to no longer wearing masks, physical distancing or washing hands with increased frequency.

    News reports and scientific evidence show that bars, parties and other large gatherings can quickly become spreader events. Moreover, even young people and those without preexisting health conditions have gotten severely ill with covid or died of it.

    Even if a low-risk person doesn’t get severely sick, they could still infect others in higher-risk groups.

    The sentiment of this post is similar to calls early in the pandemic to let life return to normal in an attempt to achieve herd immunity. But, on the way to achieving that goal, many would die, said Josh Michaud, associate director for global health policy at KFF.

    “Everyone going back to ‘normal’ right now, especially in the presence of more transmissible and more deadly variants, would be a recipe for further public health disasters on top of what we’ve already experienced,” he added.

    Already almost half a million Americans have died of covid.

    The push to “return to normal” is precisely what let the new variants form and multiply, said Vreeman. “If we can ramp up getting people vaccinated and keep wearing masks in the meantime, only then will we have a chance at getting back to ‘normal.’”

    Indeed, because of the new variants circulating in the U.S., Walensky and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have urged Americans not to relax their efforts to control the virus’s spread.

    Our Ruling

    A blog post by conservative talk show host Buck Sexton claims scientific evidence shows that right now we should “open the schools, stop wearing masks outside, and everyone at low risk should start living normal lives.”

    Scientific research shows that in order for schools to reopen safely, risk mitigation measures must be put in place, such as requiring masks, rigorous hand-washing and limiting the number of students in classrooms. These changes, though, would not represent a return to normal, but a new normal for students and teachers.

    The remainder of Sexton’s statement strays further from current science. Research indicates that you’re safer outdoors than indoors, but public health experts still recommend wearing masks in public, even outside. Science does not support the idea that the time is right for some people to resume life as normal. That would allow the virus to continue to spread and have a large human cost in hospitalizations and deaths, said the experts.

    Sexton’s post is inaccurate. We rate it False.

    Subscribe to KHN’s free Morning Briefing.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • By RNZ News

    Auckland Mayor Phil Goff wants tougher measures against people ignoring New Zealand’s covid-19 health guidance.

    He said it was frustrating to learn one of the two community cases confirmed yesterday was not isolating while symptomatic.

    Goff said if New Zealanders followed the rules, as most people had done in the past, then the country would get through the crisis.

    “But what’s hugely disappointing to me … is that there are some people maybe through ignorance, maybe through irresponsibility, that haven’t followed the rules and that puts all of us at risk,” he said.

    Goff said he understood that taking a highly punitive approach to those who break the rules may well be counterproductive by discouraging them from getting a test if they did have symptoms.

    But he said, for example, that he would like police to sanction people for not wearing masks on public transport.

    “If we think that somehow we’re immune or not covered by the rules and we go out and we flout them, that’s when we get the spread and you know we’ve all got the example of Melbourne, just across the ditch from us and the huge impact and deaths and in economic and in personal disruption that caused,” he said.

    Government moved decisively
    Goff said the government had moved decisively to stop any super spreading events in Auckland.

    He said the authorities may also want to consider making it mandatory to wear masks inside in a public place such as a supermarket at alert level 3, not just on public transport as is currently the case.

    Goff acknowledged moving to alert level 3 was hugely disruptive and effected major family events such as weddings, as well as restricting funerals to only 10 people.

    “It’s something you really don’t want to do but the alternative option of not doing that, we’ve seen that big gatherings like weddings have lead to the super spreading of covid-19.”

    He said a quick and efficient roll-out of the vaccine would help Auckland to get out of the situation of repeatedly going into level 3 restrictions.

    He said there had to be some priority in vaccination after the health workers and the frontline border staff.

    Some priority needed
    “There has to be some priority to the region that is just getting hammered time and again because we are the gateway city, but we can’t avoid that that’s where the international airport is for the country but because we also have more than a proportionate share of those quarantine facilities.”

    Goff said he wanted to thank the overwhelming number of staff and students at Papatoetoe High School who had done the right thing.

    He said they had all been tested twice for covid-19.

    “The fact that one of the dozen that weren’t tested was one of the ones that showed up with symptoms, I mean that just shows you overwhelmingly people can do the right thing, but it only takes one or two people to let the side down for that to undermine our overall efforts.”

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Auckland Mayor Phil Goff at the production line team at Spark Arena during New Zealand’s level 4 lockdown last year. Image: Bryan Lowe/RNZ

    By RNZ News

    Auckland Mayor Phil Goff wants tougher measures against people ignoring New Zealand’s covid-19 health guidance.

    He said it was frustrating to learn one of the two community cases confirmed yesterday was not isolating while symptomatic.

    Goff said if New Zealanders followed the rules, as most people had done in the past, then the country would get through the crisis.

    “But what’s hugely disappointing to me … is that there are some people maybe through ignorance, maybe through irresponsibility, that haven’t followed the rules and that puts all of us at risk,” he said.

    Goff said he understood that taking a highly punitive approach to those who break the rules may well be counterproductive by discouraging them from getting a test if they did have symptoms.

    But he said, for example, that he would like police to sanction people for not wearing masks on public transport.

    “If we think that somehow we’re immune or not covered by the rules and we go out and we flout them, that’s when we get the spread and you know we’ve all got the example of Melbourne, just across the ditch from us and the huge impact and deaths and in economic and in personal disruption that caused,” he said.

    Government moved decisively
    Goff said the government had moved decisively to stop any super spreading events in Auckland.

    He said the authorities may also want to consider making it mandatory to wear masks inside in a public place such as a supermarket at alert level 3, not just on public transport as is currently the case.

    Goff acknowledged moving to alert level 3 was hugely disruptive and effected major family events such as weddings, as well as restricting funerals to only 10 people.

    “It’s something you really don’t want to do but the alternative option of not doing that, we’ve seen that big gatherings like weddings have lead to the super spreading of covid-19.”

    He said a quick and efficient roll-out of the vaccine would help Auckland to get out of the situation of repeatedly going into level 3 restrictions.

    He said there had to be some priority in vaccination after the health workers and the frontline border staff.

    Some priority needed
    “There has to be some priority to the region that is just getting hammered time and again because we are the gateway city, but we can’t avoid that that’s where the international airport is for the country but because we also have more than a proportionate share of those quarantine facilities.”

    Goff said he wanted to thank the overwhelming number of staff and students at Papatoetoe High School who had done the right thing.

    He said they had all been tested twice for covid-19.

    “The fact that one of the dozen that weren’t tested was one of the ones that showed up with symptoms, I mean that just shows you overwhelmingly people can do the right thing, but it only takes one or two people to let the side down for that to undermine our overall efforts.”

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

    Print Friendly, PDF & Email

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • By RNZ News

    Auckland will move to alert level 3 for a week at 6am tomorrow morning after two new covid-19 community cases in New Zealand announced tonight could not be directly linked to earlier cases, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has confirmed.

    The rest of the country will move to alert level 2.

    A sibling of a Papatoetoe High School student, who was a casual plus contact of the recent Auckland community cases, tested positive for covid-19.

    Speaking at the briefing at 9pm, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the new case was a 21-year-old man.

    Preliminary test results show three household members are negative and another member – the mother – has a positive test result that indicated early infection.

    The man’s symptoms began on February 23, with a fever and weakness, then loss of taste and smell the next day.

    Ardern said the link to the high school could provide a straightforward link, but in this case it had not since the student had previously tested negative.

    Linked to cluster?
    Genome sequencing is underway. Ardern said officials strongly assumed this case would be linked to the cluster.

    “However, as we all know so well, if what we cannot immediately link a case person to person, what we call an epidemiological link, that is a significant issue and one we need to act on.”

    Today’s New Zealand covid update briefing. Video: RNZ News

    Ardern said the second cause of concern was because the person was possibly unknowingly infectious for as long as a week without isolation.

    “There are a number of high risk locations involved with this case,” she said, including a supermarket, a gym, and the Manukau Institute of Technology.

    Given the time that has passed by for the onset of symptoms, “we may well have close contacts who are already infected”.

    Ardern said they were assuming this case had the more infectious variant of the virus.

    Dr Bloomfield said the UK variant was proving to be “challenging” with unusual symptoms and spreading further through casual-plus contacts.

    He said local health authorities were undertaking interviews to investigate how the case may have been infected.

    The person’s airport work is not believed to have any interactions with the airside or contact with potentially infected people, Bloomfield said.

    He said it was likely the transmission route was via Papatoetoe High School.

    Alert level changes
    Ardern said Cabinet met this evening and made the decision Auckland would move to alert level 3 for seven days, while the rest of the country would go to level 2. From 6am tomorrow, the alert level changes will kick in.

    She said Cabinet would assess the alert levels along the way, but it was likely Auckland would be in alert level 3 for the full seven days.

    Aucklanders are asked to stay at home, in their bubbles other than for essential movement. Those who can work from home are asked to do so.

    If people go outside, they should maintain physical distancing. Children have been asked to stay home from school in Auckland, although for essential worker parents who need to be at work, they will remain open.

    Supermarkets, pharmacies, petrol stations, and primary produce stories can remain open. Ardern urged people not to rush to supermarkets.

    Businesses that normally operate on face-to-face basis are now asked to move to non-contact methods like click and collect or online ordering, she said.

    Public venues will be closed, including playgrounds, libraries, cinemas, gyms, pools and markets. Gatherings outside people’s bubbles is prohibited with the exception of groups of 10 for wedding services, funerals and tangihanga.

    Public health measures
    Public health measures will still need to be maintained in these events.

    All sports games will need to be cancelled, including Sunday’s Auckland Round the Bays.

    Inter-regional travel will be restricted. Those who are vulnerable with pre-existing conditions and older people are encouraged to stay at home where possible and take extra precautions where possible.

    Aucklanders are asked to wear masks when they leave their house.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Lori Lightfoot

    Over 1,900 people have died from COVID-19 in Houston, Texas, the U.S.’s most diverse and fourth most populous city. Roughly 1.4 million people (19.7 percent of the city’s population) are without health insurance, and multiple hospitals’ ICUs have been at capacity for months. Yet, the city’s police department budget for 2021 is 10 times greater than the Houston Health Department’s budget, with the police allotted nearly $1 billion and the health department $100 million.

    While the discrepancy in Houston’s budgeting priorities is particularly dramatic, a Truthout analysis found that all 10 of the U.S.’s largest cities will spend more on policing than public health during Fiscal Year 2021. Combined, these 10 cities’ policing budgets are 3.6 times greater than public health department budgets. Public health departments are generally tasked with aiding vaccine distribution, combating foodborne illnesses, homelessness and environmental toxins, and supporting addiction treatment, among other health-promoting activities.

    City Police Budget Public Health / Health Budget
    New York City $5,700,000,000 $901,000,000
    Los Angeles $1,857,330,549 $1,200,000,000
    Chicago $1,600,246,503 $57,344,506
    Houston $965,146,748.00 $94,302,696
    Phoenix $745,289,020 $470,028,800
    Philly $757,235,715 $668,653,786
    San Antonio $518,490,301 $45,816,390
    San Diego $568,243,558 $182,070,000
    Dallas $539,053,187 $117,000,000
    San Jose $471,530,192 $127,503,405
    $13,722,565,773 $3,863,719,583

    The discrepancy between public health and policing budgets is underestimated. Phoenix, Arizona, for example, does not have its own health department. In this case, Truthout included the state’s entire health budget in its analysis. Still, Arizona’s health budget is just two-thirds of Phoenix’s police department budget. For the several cities without public health departments sectioned off in their budgets, Truthout counted the entire health department budget.

    Additionally, police budgets don’t always reflect the full extent of a department’s power or presence. For instance, the Los Angeles Public Library reimburses the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for millions of dollars in services, which is not reflected in the LAPD’s $1.9 billion budget. On the other side of the country, rather than cut the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD’s) budget following the Black liberation uprising of 2020, New York City transferred funds for school resource officers — school police — to the Department of Education budget, an act of subterfuge. Further, Truthout’s analysis does not include the billions spent on confining people in jails, prisons or on electronic monitoring.

    Other studies have uncovered similar trends. Kaiser Health News found that “nearly two-thirds of Americans live in counties that spend more than twice as much on policing as they spend on nonhospital healthcare, which includes public health.” A new, in-depth report released by the Center for Community Alternatives found that New York State spent $18.2 billion on the carceral system in 2019, including policing, jails, prisons, prosecutors, parole and probation, compared to $6.2 billion on mental health services, public health, youth programs and services, recreation and elder services combined.

    Policing and public health operate under antithetical frameworks. In an article published in the American Journal of Public Health, the authors explained, “A public health approach neither accepts harm as a given nor accepts punishment as prevention. Rather, a public health approach divests from a punishment framework and invests in a prevention framework, centering community-based and community-led efforts to public safety and well-being.” Although in the U.S., even health and social work systems are often bound up with the prison-industrial complex. At their best, public health practitioners target the structural inequities that may be responsible for criminalized behaviors. For example, a true public health approach to substance use would emphasize decriminalization, harm reduction and empathetic treatment, while a policing approach criminalizes marginalized groups who use illegal substances, disappears people and often tortures them with solitary confinement.

    The United States government writ large has always prioritized the carceral system over public health, but this dynamic reached new heights during the ‘80s and ‘90s. The Federal 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, co-authored by Joe Biden and signed by then-President Bill Clinton, allocated $12 billion in state subsidies for prison construction, prioritizing states with the harshest sentencing laws.

    Moreover, already underfunded public health departments have been increasingly under threat over the past decade. A dearth of funding set the stage for mass death from COVID-19 and, in some states, is contributing to snail-paced vaccine distribution. Georgia’s COVID data task force was disassembled due to a lack of funds, and the state slashed its Fiscal Year 2022 public health budget by $7 million. Meanwhile, district and county health departments in Alabama were operating at 65 percent capacity in 2019 relative to 2010. Some county health departments in North Carolina offer such low salaries that they are unable to fill vacancies for public health nursing positions. State budgets have been supplanted with federal COVID-19 funds, but the rollout has been slow and, in some cases, insufficient.

    End Police Violence Collective (EPV), a group that writes about and generates support for the abolition of police and prisons in the public health field, has joined the chorus of rebellion-inspired voices who argue for the reallocation of funds from policing to social services, and ultimately for abolition. Omid Bagheri Garakani, a member of EPV, told Truthout that the collective formed in the process of developing and organizing a statement that addressed law enforcement violence as a public health issue for the American Public Health Association (APHA), which was permanently adopted in 2018. Last October, EPV and other activists drafted, garnered support for, and published an abolitionist statement for the APHA that emphasized decarceration during the pandemic. “While the health harms of incarceration in U.S. jails, prisons, and detention centers have long been a public health crisis,” the statement reads, “their coupling with the ongoing pandemic have made them simultaneously hyper-visible and unprecedentedly exacerbated.”

    In response, signatories recommend:

    1. Urgently reducing the incarcerated population
    2. Divesting from carceral systems and investing in the societal determinants of health (e.g., housing, employment)
    3. Committing to non-carceral measures for accountability, safety and well-being
    4. Restoring voting rights to formerly and currently incarcerated people
    5. Funding research to evaluate policy determinants of exposure to the carceral system and proposed alternatives.

    By mid-2020, for the first time since 2003, the U.S. prison population dipped below 2 million. A Vera Institute report found that a decline in local jail populations was initially responsible for the decrease, but many jails have since refilled. Prison populations declined in the summer and fall modestly. Still, the report says, “the decrease was neither substantial nor sustained enough to be considered an adequate response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and incarceration in the United States remains a global aberration.

    Rather than putting faith in public officials to shift money away from prisons and policing, some advocates –including the Movement for Black Lives — offer participatory budgeting (PB), a model for community control over money with roots in Brazil, as a more robust route toward decarceration and defunding of police. “For PB to be truly equitable,” writes The Center for Popular Democracy, “it must center the voices of those most impacted, thus giving marginalized communities power over the pots of money that most affect their lives.”

    The idea has been implemented in some U.S. cities, but on a relatively trivial scale. The “Measure U Committee” in Sacramento, California, recommended that the city allocate $15 million of its $1.3 billion budget toward participatory budgeting. On February 9, Sacramento City Council announced it would set aside $1 million, with one council member citing his belief in “representative democracy” as justification for the meager rationing.

    Black liberation uprisings in Seattle, Washington, pushed the City Council to cut its police budget by 18 percent and to allocate $30 million of its $6.5 billion budget toward participatory budgeting. A 1,000-page report submitted to Seattle City Council from the Black Brilliance Research Project’s needs assessment focused on housing, mental health, youth, crisis and wellness, and economic development. A voting process is scheduled for mid-July to mid-August 2021.

    Bagheri Garakani similarly emphasizes community empowerment as a pathway toward abolition, noting that the current public health system sometimes stands as a barrier. “Put simply, people most harmed by health harms and state violence must be shaping the ways we build and dismantle systems,” he told Truthout. “The system of public health is often complicit in the harm we are seeing — both with the pandemic and beyond.”

    For example, HIV-related criminal prosecutions may rely on medical records provided by the public health department. Furthermore, Bagheri Garakani said, public health practitioners are often complicit by supporting community policing strategies.

    “True community-based public health practice,” however, “will shift power to those who are closest to the problem and subsequently closer to the solution,” he said. “Throughout the pandemic, the enormous mutual aid efforts we’ve seen grow in communities across the country and the world are proof that communities know what is best and what is needed for our own health.”

    CORRECTION: This article was updated to reflect the Los Angeles public health budget is $1,200,000,000, not $57,344,506.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • By RNZ Pacific

    Papua New Guinean health authorities are struggling to gauge the extent of the country’s latest covid-19 outbreak.

    More than 100 new confirmed cases of the virus have been reported in the past several days, taking the total number to 1111. The National Pandemic Controller’s office reported 34 new cases overnight.

    But concern is rising over the limitations of PNG’s testing – with only around 50,000 people having been tested so far in a country of eight million.

    Health Minister Jelta Wong admits that testing capabilities are limited around the country, but said testing would be boosted in the next couple of weeks.

    “From the survey that we’ve done with how [much] testing equipment and testing UTMs [universal transport mediums] we have in the country, we should be able to get a fair idea of the outbreak,” Wong said.

    A better idea of the outbreak’s extent should become clear in coming weeks, he explained, as a team of health workers was deployed to outer provinces to ensure protocols are being followed.

    “It’s a work in progress. We’re (vying) with other countries just to get more testing capabilities and testing equipment.

    “There’s a shortage in our country, and we’ve ordered more to ensure that our testing capabilities are up to standard.”

    Cases among MPs
    The minister confirmed that seven MPs had tested positive for covid-19 so far.

    While at least three cases were reported late last year, Wong said there were currently two active cases among MPs.

    Speculation is rife that one of those infected is Prime Minister James Marape who told social media last week that he had a fever.

    But Marape’s office earlier this week denied that he tested positive, while Wong said he could not name the MP cases.

    “But they followed all the protocols and we made sure that they were well isolated. From that we’ve slowed the spread down from the government side of things,” the minister said.

    Urgent capacity required
    Meanwhile, the National Pandemic Controller, David Manning, has ordered the immediate use of the Rita Flynn sporting complex in Port Moresby as a temporary field hospital.

    Manning said the complex was urgently needed due to an upsurge in cases in the capital, which includes himself and two members of his family.

    “The isolation ward at the Port Moresby General Hospital and the Gerehu hospitals are full and it is critical that Rita Flynn is made available as a temporary field hospital for covid-19 patients, in particular, so that both PMGH and Gerehu can continue to serve the public without risking the health of inpatients and staff.

    “It is a matter of national importance that PNG continues to take strong measures to protect the health of our people,” said the Controller who is in isolation but continues to work.

    New cases
    The latest 34 cases were reported in the Western and New Ireland provinces, and the National Capital District.

    PNG Health Authorities said all but five of these 34 cases showed symptoms of covid-19 while the rest were asymptomatic at the time of testing.

    The Western Province reported 23 positive cases of which 20 are males and three females. The youngest of the 23 positive cases is 19 and the oldest is 61. Of the 23 cases, two showed symptoms of the virus while 21 were asymptomatic. All 23 cases are from the North Fly area.

    In the New Ireland Province, a 57-year-old female is the latest to be confirmed positive. She was experiencing a cough, headache and running nose at the time of testing.

    The country’s covid-19 cases as a result stands at 1111 with 10 known deaths.

    Seventeen provinces including the Autonomous Region of Bougainville have reported cases.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • By RNZ News

    Papua New Guinea’s covid-19 cases have jumped to more than 1000, including the National Pandemic Controller and members of his family.

    Eight new covid-19 cases were reported in the country over the weekend taking the country’s number of infections to 1056.

    The latest cases were reported in East New Britain, Madang and in the National Capital District.

    Ages ranged from an infant of five months old to a 43-year-old woman.

    The eight new infections follow 59 positive results reported on Friday.

    Ten cases out of the total have resulted in fatalities while 200 people are currently in isolation.

    Seventeen provinces, including the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB,) have reported covid cases.

    Pandemic controller has covid-19
    PNG’s Pandemic Response Controller David Manning is one of those people who have tested positive for the coronavirus.

    Two members of Manning’s family have also tested positive and are in isolation.

    Manning said his covid results were confirmed over the weekend.

    He said given the nature of his job and with the high level of exposure to the infection it was bound to happen sooner or later.

    Manning said he had always been impressing upon citizens the need for covid-19 tests so that they could know their status and protect their family.

    “I have been telling people to be tested for covid-19 and as the Controller I had to take the test. I am glad I did, so I am now taking measures to protect my family.

    “I urge everyone to go to your nearest health centre and get tested. It is by knowing your status you can then take steps to protect your loved ones, especially the most vulnerable including the old and those with existing medical conditions,” Manning said.

    Covid ‘not a death sentence’
    He told the public not to be be afraid, saying although covid-19 was five times worse than getting the normal flu, testing positive for the coronavirus was not a death sentence.

    “Statistics have indicated most people have recovered from covid-19.”

    Meanwhile, Manning expressed serious concerns about the low number of covid-19 tests being done in PNG.

    “Our covid-19 response is more than 12 months in place but we have only tested about 50,000 people. This is roughly 0.5 percent of the PNG population.

    “I want to see more tests being done around the country so that we can have a fair idea of where the pandemic is in PNG and take measures to mitigate and contain it.”

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • A refinery is seen on August 29, 2017, in Deer Park, Texas.

    Texas oil refineries released hundreds of thousands of pounds of pollutants including benzene, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, and sulfur dioxide into the air as they scrambled to shut down during last week’s deadly winter storm, Reuters reported Sunday.

    Winter storm Uri, which killed dozens of people and cut off power to over four million Texans at its peak, also disrupted supplies needed to keep the state’s refineries and petrochemical plants operating. As they shut down, refineries flared — or burned off — gases in order to prevent damage to their processing units.

    According to the Texas Commission on Environment Quality, the five largest refiners emitted nearly 337,000 pounds of pollutants in this manner.

    ExxonMobil’s Baytown Olefins plant in Baytown released 68,000 tons of carbon monoxide and nearly a ton of benzene in what it called a “safe utilization of the flare system.”

    Critics noted, however, that benzene is harmful to bone marrow, red blood cells, and the immune system.

    “There is no safe amount of benzene for human exposure,” Sharon Wilson, a researcher at the advocacy group Earthworks, told Reuters.

    Motiva’s Port Arthur refinery released 118,100 pounds of pollutants into the air between February 15 and February 18. This was triple the amount of excess emissions the plant reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the entire year of 2019.

    Valero’s refinery in Port Arthur flared 78,000 pounds of pollutants over 24 hours beginning February 15, while Marathon Petroleum’s Galveston Bay refinery released 14,255 pounds in less than five hours that same day.

    Hilton Kelly, who lives in Port Arthur, told Reuters that there were “six or seven flares going at one time.”

    Wilson said that the flaring “could have been prevented” by winterizing the refineries.

    “We need someone in the Texas legislature to file a bill requiring the oil and gas industry to thoroughly winterize all their equipment,” Wilson told Earther. “The bill probably won’t pass in Texas, but that will create some more scrutiny about it.”

    Earther reports that between February 11 and February 18, there were 174 so-called “emissions events” from fossil fuel facilities in Texas, compared to between 37 and 46 such events in weeks before the storm.

    In addition to the previously mentioned pollutants, chemicals released from Texas facilities include over 6,500 pounds of the carcinogen isoprene from a Shell plant in Deer Park near Houston, as well as an indeterminate amount of methane, which is 84 times more harmful to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over the short term.

    Wilson told Earther that “in Texas we don’t count methane” in pollution reports.

    The release of large amounts of dangerous pollutants during Uri stands in stark contrast with claims by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott that alternative energy sources such as solar and wind are responsible for Uri’s deadly power outages and that the Green New Deal would be a “deadly deal” for the United States.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • By Rowan Quinn, RNZ News health correspondent

    Nervous Papatoetoe High School students were lining up today in big numbers to get tested, saying they want to do their bit to stop covid-19 getting into the New Zealand community.

    A Year 9 student is among the three cases which have sparked a level 3 lockdown in Auckland, level 2 for the rest of the country.

    Hundreds of students and their families were at a pop-up testing centre at the school today.

    Head girl Rhonda Nguyen said she wanted to set an example for the other students.

    “Especially since we found out this morning it’s the UK variant which is much more transmissible so we want to do our bit to keep everybody safe,” she said.

    Another student, Armaan, said he had been feeling very anxious since finding out there was a case at the school, particularly because he sometimes studied in the same maths space as the positive student.

    “I’d rather stay vigilant and take as many precautions to avoid giving it to my family,” he said.

    ‘No drama, it’s easy’
    “I’ve been through one – no drama, it’s easy. They’re a bit worried that – ow, it’s going to get right in there – but I said ‘nah, you’ve just got to go through the drill’,” he said.

    Renay was in line early with his daughter.

    “I’m nervous that we’re in this position again – I never thought it would be so close to us but it’s just around and I think we still need to take care and be vigilant,” he said.

    Some students had already been through the nearby Ōtara community testing yesterday.

    Its operations manager Nonu Tuisamoa said they stayed open til 9.30pm last night, an hour and a half longer than scheduled, to get everyone through.

    Today they had double the normal number of staff on, with cars lining up all morning.

    “It’s super crazy, super crazy. After yesterday, the public and the community have come up in their droves and it’s strong,” he said.

    The Ministry’s of Health’s list of places where the positive cases has visited was helping drive demand, he said.

    “There’s a sense of anxiousness and wanting to make sure that everything is safe,” he said.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Ōtara testing centre operations manager Nonu Tuisamoa … “It’s super crazy, super crazy.” Image: Rowan Quinn/RNZ

    By Rowan Quinn, RNZ News health correspondent

    Nervous Papatoetoe High School students were lining up today in big numbers to get tested, saying they want to do their bit to stop covid-19 getting into the New Zealand community.

    A Year 9 student is among the three cases which have sparked a level 3 lockdown in Auckland, level 2 for the rest of the country.

    Hundreds of students and their families were at a pop-up testing centre at the school today.

    Head girl Rhonda Nguyen said she wanted to set an example for the other students.

    “Especially since we found out this morning it’s the UK variant which is much more transmissible so we want to do our bit to keep everybody safe,” she said.

    Another student, Armaan, said he had been feeling very anxious since finding out there was a case at the school, particularly because he sometimes studied in the same maths space as the positive student.

    “I’d rather stay vigilant and take as many precautions to avoid giving it to my family,” he said.

    ‘No drama, it’s easy’
    “I’ve been through one – no drama, it’s easy. They’re a bit worried that – ow, it’s going to get right in there – but I said ‘nah, you’ve just got to go through the drill’,” he said.

    Renay was in line early with his daughter.

    “I’m nervous that we’re in this position again – I never thought it would be so close to us but it’s just around and I think we still need to take care and be vigilant,” he said.

    Some students had already been through the nearby Ōtara community testing yesterday.

    Its operations manager Nonu Tuisamoa said they stayed open til 9.30pm last night, an hour and a half longer than scheduled, to get everyone through.

    Today they had double the normal number of staff on, with cars lining up all morning.

    “It’s super crazy, super crazy. After yesterday, the public and the community have come up in their droves and it’s strong,” he said.

    The Ministry’s of Health’s list of places where the positive cases has visited was helping drive demand, he said.

    “There’s a sense of anxiousness and wanting to make sure that everything is safe,” he said.

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

    Print Friendly, PDF & Email

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • An illustration of a woman breathing in toxic gas

    For $33, you can buy a Defense Technologies hexachloroethane (HC) smoke canister for crowd control purposes.

    This is what the City of Milwaukee paid per unit for 60 “Max Smoke” canisters in preparation for the Democratic National Convention in August 2020. It is what Portland Police bought in 2018, and what Denver Police likely used on Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters this summer.

    However, nowhere in the U.S. experienced more HC smoke during the summer of 2020 than Portland, Oregon, where Homeland Security and Border Patrol forces deployed at least 26 such munitions against BLM protesters in July 2020.

    BLM protesters were no strangers to tear gas and smoke — after all, the Portland Police had gassed them many times since the George Floyd protests began in late May. But once the feds arrived, protesters knew almost immediately that something was different. People reported new, strange effects that lasted days or weeks after exposure. “I puked. All night,” Gregory McKelvey, activist and campaign manager for Portland mayoral candidate Sarah Iannarone, tweeted on July 26. “This gas feels different and sneaks up on you.” Other protesters and journalists on the ground reported similar bouts of nausea and vomiting, along with loss of appetite, hair loss and a burning sensation that lasted days after exposure.

    Dr. Juniper L. Simonis, a Portland-based ecologist and evolutionary biologist, suspected that a new chemical used by federal agents might explain these troubling ailments. To find out, they collected and tested samples from plants, soil, gas mask filters and protesters’ clothing.

    Ultimately, they discovered this chemical, while relatively new to Portland, was not new at all. Nor were its side effects unprecedented. On the contrary, scientists and doctors have known about HC smoke — and its potentially lethal side effects — for nearly a century.

    Marines erect a deadly flag in an illustration

    Chemical Concealment

    The opportunistic use of smoke or fog in battle to conceal movement and supplies is as ancient as war itself. Chemical smoke, however, originated in World War I, when E.F. Berger developed the precursor to HC canisters for France. The munition, which combined powdered zinc and carbon tetrachloride to generate opaque clouds of molten zinc chloride smoke, was intended to obscure troop movements, not for crowd control.

    During the interwar years, scientists stabilized the smoke canister by replacing carbon tetrachloride with hexachloroethane, or HC. The improved smoke device still generated zinc chloride along with smaller quantities of phosgene and carbon monoxide. The munition saw heavy use in World War II as a way to obscure harbors, hide supply routes or signal to other units.

    Reports of the lethal danger of HC smoke, especially in enclosed areas, began accumulating almost immediately. In 1943, 70 people exposed to HC munitions smoke developed nausea, vomiting, chest tightness and a cough. Ten victims died in the incident. According to a study published in 1954, an 18-year-old man spent six weeks in the hospital after 10 minutes of HC smoke exposure in an enclosed space. A 1963 report found that a fireman died after exposure to the smoke.

    Numerous reports from the 1980s showed the dangers of HC exposure. Two elderly women exposed to zinc chloride for 75 minutes fell violently ill, one of whom eventually died. Two soldiers exposed to the smoke required ventilators after inhalation. A 21-year-old man took two months to recover from HC smoke. A different zinc chloride incident killed two men. Five soldiers experienced severe symptoms after breathing HC smoke. Two of these men developed acute respiratory distress syndrome and died.

    Evidence of the often-deadly hazards of HC smoke accumulated within the civilian world as well. In 2017, scientists conducted a survey of academic documentation of HC smoke exposure and found that, of 31 documented cases, eight victims died and three experienced permanent lung injury.

    The clear and well-established danger of high concentrations of HC smoke inspired the military to issue strict guidelines around its use in 1983. When deploying HC munitions, military personnel must wear gas masks. They must “restrict HC deployment to areas of the installation as far as practically possible from … populated areas” and “Take special precautions to protect higher risk individuals such as those highly allergic, children and the aged.”

    So why are police forces across the U.S. using HC smoke in densely populated urban areas against protesters?

    “Minimal Hazard”

    Given the many documented cases of injury and death from HC smoke, the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) health rating for the device comes as a bit of a shock: 0 out of 4, or “minimal hazard.”

    This rating is especially surprising given that the NFPA rating for zinc chloride — the chemical generated by the reaction between hexachloroethane and zinc oxide — is 3 of 4: “Serious Hazard.” Phosgene and chlorine gas — both munition byproducts — have an NFPA rating of 4: “Can Be Lethal.”

    How can a chemical weapon whose byproducts are so dangerous constitute a minimal hazard? Simonis suspects the answer lies in a 2002 lawsuit against HC smoke manufacturer Defense Technologies by Timothy Gamradt, a rural Minnesota prison guard. During a 1998 training exercise, nine guards (including Gamradt) threw an HC smoke canister up a flight of stairs. The munition bounced back and exploded at their feet, where it fumigated the guards with zinc chloride as the exercise continued. Almost immediately, the guards began to experience the assorted symptoms observed in other zinc chloride victims: nausea, vomiting, breathing troubles and headaches. Garmradt’s court case dragged on until 2008, at which point Defense Technologies settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

    The timing of Gamradt’s settlement may help explain the surprising inconsistencies over time between Defense Technology’s Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for HC smoke. Simonis points out that both the 1993 and 2004 MSDS lists, which came out before the settlement, declare zinc chloride as a hazardous byproduct. After their 2008 settlement date, this information changed. The 2011 MSDS byproduct list does not list zinc chloride at all.

    The chemical reagents are the same. Why are the chemical byproducts different?

    Simonis, who has over a decade of experience in their field, considers this change well beyond unusual. “I have never seen a Safety Data Sheet that has had chemicals removed over time. [Material Safety Data Sheets] have intentionally become more detailed and harmonized for ease of use and interpretation, so the company removing chemicals is antithetical to the concept of safety,” Simonis said.

    An illustration of the "Portland Oregon" sign obscured by smoke

    Poisonous Portland

    According to Simonis’s research, federal agents deployed at least 26 HC smoke munitions in downtown Portland throughout late July. “While the canisters were deployed outside, which certainly prevented many deaths, diffusion was limited by crowds of thousands of people, closed tree canopies, cars and tents,” Simonis said. Little wonder protesters and those who lived in the affected area reported the same list of symptoms HC smoke victims have reported for the last 80 years: nausea, vomiting, appetite loss and respiratory distress. The use of respiratory irritants during the COVID-19 pandemic is especially concerning. According to a statement by the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), “Chemical means to control crowds has raised great concern among medical professionals as we simultaneously try to manage a global pandemic.” Respiratory damage not only has the potential to increase infection rates but can also lead to more severe cases when infection occurs.

    Even if federal agents never again fill the streets of downtown Portland with clouds of toxic zinc chloride, the consequences of its prolific deployment may haunt the City of Roses for many years to come. HC smoke releases heavy metals along with zinc chloride. These elements bioaccumulate in livers and kidneys, where they increase the chance of cancer. This kind of damage may not be evident for many years, but those who live downtown or protested for Black Lives in the summer of 2020 may be at higher risk for kidney and liver problems down the road.

    Simonis is also concerned about the long-term effects of these chemicals on the environment. Their analysis of soil, plants and storm drains reveal a far higher concentration of heavy metals than comparable sites elsewhere in the area. Soil samples from affected areas contain higher than normal amounts of cyanide and chromium. Samples taken in August from storm drains — which lead directly to the Willamette River — contained almost 10 times more toxins than comparable sites. Harmful chemicals such as barium, chromium, copper, lead and zinc all seem posed to contaminate Oregon’s ecosystem. Simonis is especially worried about zinc chloride, which causes bone deformities in young fish and thereby threatens Oregon’s salmon: a staple of both commercial fisheries and protected sea lions.

    Dr. Paul Tratnyek, a chemist and professor at OHSU’s School of Public Health, agrees that heavy metals may have a deleterious effect on the Willamette or Columbia Rivers short term, but believes the environmental impact will fade with time. “In the long run, [the contamination is] not really going to be noticeable because all these sediments are going to settle out in the bottom of the Portland Harbor.” Portland Harbor, already contaminated with chemical runoff from other disasters, will not be made significantly worse by heavy metal runoff from chemical munitions.

    Tratnyek agrees, however, that HC smoke munitions are highly dangerous when used as crowd control. “I was surprised that it was nearly unrestricted for [police] to use these kinds of munitions on protesters.” Tratnyek says that any good-faith review of the subject must result in restrictions on what sort of chemicals police may use against protesters.

    What Can Be Done?

    Until dangerous chemical munitions like HC smoke are banned domestically as well as abroad, protesters can mitigate the danger with proper equipment. Simonis recommends covering all skin to avoid absorption of zinc chloride smoke. Eye protection is a must. Respirators are important, but even the best filter cannot block everything. The most important way to protect oneself is to move away from the smoke quickly, find fresh air and breathe deeply to expel the poisonous smoke as quickly as possible.

    When HC gas contacts bare skin, the best remedy is water — the more pressure, the better. Simonis recommends a garden hose over a shower. Clothing absorbs the smoke and should be re-soaked, then washed separately from other, non-contaminated clothing.

    Protesters often attempt to extinguish munitions with water, but Simonis cautions against this when it comes to HC smoke. Water can react with hexachloroethane and zinc oxide to explode and make a bad situation much worse.

    None of these solves the root problem, of course: The United States’s routine use of potentially lethal chemical weapons in urban areas, often during peaceful or nonviolent protests, in ways that affect the entire populace as well as the environment. “I plead with all law enforcement agencies who have HC in their arsenal to decommission it immediately,” Simonis said. “There is no reason for any police agency to possess it.”

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.