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NDTV’s Sreenivasan Jain deletes tweet casting aspersions on Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, issues apology

OpIndia Staff
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NDTV’s Sreenivasan Jain deletes tweet casting aspersions on Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, issues apology

On August 3, Sreenivasan Jain, Journalist of NDTV, rendered an apology over his tweet thread in which he tried to cast aspersions on Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. He said that several netizens pointed out that his tweet was misleading as he failed to make it clear that the initial batches of Covaxin that were found to be ‘substandard’ were not shipped out. He further added that he should have worded it in a better way.

He said, “CLARIFICATION/APOLOGY: As many have rightly pointed out, an initial Tweet I sent out based on Dr NK Arora’s interview did not make it explicitly clear that the initial batches of Covaxin found substandard did not make their way into the vaccination programme.”

He added that he made it clear in the follow-up tweets in the thread, but the initial tweet was not worded correctly. “I did clarify that in subsequent Tweets, but the initial Tweet could have been worded much better. I am deleting the original Tweet. For any confusion caused as a result, apologies,” he said.

Though the tweets were based on a professional interview with Dr NK Arora, he claimed that the tweet thread was based on his personal views. He said, “These were my personal tweets. NDTV’s focus for months has been on promoting India’s vaccination campaign – which of course I support completely.”

Netizens called out Jain for delayed clarification

Netizens were not amused with the clarification as it came out hours after the initial tweet. Some pointed out that he has already caused panic among people and such clarification should have come immediately once he was called out for spreading misinformation.

Many even wondered if the original tweet was deliberate and part of bigger conspiracy under ‘toolkit’ to defame India.

It must be mentioned that Twitter did not flag Jain’s tweet as misleading even though there was ample evidence to show otherwise.

Sreenivasan Jain’s misleading tweet may cause vaccine hesitancy

On Monday, Sreenivasan took to Twitter to make a startling revelation that Dr N K Arora, Chairperson of National Vaccine Advisory Group, said that the initial batches of India-made Chinese coronavirus vaccine Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin ‘were not of the right quality. While Dr Arora clearly mentioned in his interview that the batch that was substandard was not shipped out, Jain did not mention the point in the initial tweet. His tweet had gone viral and attracted thousands of likes and retweets, with people raising questions over the vaccination program.

The tweet where he had mentioned that those vaccines were not shipped out did not get much attention compared to the first tweet with misleading information. He deleted the tweet before it got flagged by Twitter as misleading.

Taiwan’s Olympic gold medal in badminton made the Chinese athletes listen to the Taiwanese national flag anthem

OpIndia Staff
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Taiwan’s Olympic gold medal in badminton made the Chinese athletes listen to the Taiwanese national flag anthem

On Saturday (July 31), Taiwan scripted history by defeating the Chinese athletes in the Men’s Double badminton match and securing a gold medal for their country. The event was historic and politically significant as the Chinese team settled for the silver medal and had to listen to the Taiwanese national flag’s anthem.

Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin of Taiwan defeated Chinese athletes LI Jun Hui and LIU Yu Chen in two straight sets of 21-18 and 21-12 to secure Gold Medal for their country. It was also Taiwan’s first-ever medal in badminton. However, the most crucial moment came when the Taiwanese team stood on the podium and the Chinese athletes watched the white flag of ‘Chinese Taipei’ rise above China’s flag. And this was followed by the Taiwanese national flag’s anthem.

Screengrab of the results of the Men’s Double Gold medal badminton match between China and Taiwan, via Olympics.com

While taking to Facebook, Wang Chi-Lin wrote, “We’ve made the world see Taiwan. We’ve really done it!!! Introducing myself out loud to the whole world again. I’m Taiwanese badminton player Wang Chi Lin. I am Wang Chi Lin. I am from Taiwan.” While a large portion of his Facebook post was in Mandarin Chinese, he specifically emphasised his national identity in English to send out a clear message.

On the contrary, Chinese Badminton player LI Jun Hui apologised on his Weibo page for coming second in the match. He thanked his coach and ‘the Great Motherland (of China)’ and expressed regret for disappointing those who held high hopes from him. While refusing to acknowledge Taiwan and toeing the Communist Party of China’s (CCP) line, Li Jun Hui added, “Lastly, congratulations to “China’s Taipei Team.” He followed his comment with 3 Chinese flags.

Weibo post of LI Jun Hui, image via Taiwan News

It must be mentioned that Taiwan is forced to represent in the Olympics as ‘Chinese Taipei’ due to pressure from China on the International Olympic Committee (IOC). As such, the Taiwanese national flag anthem is played instead of the country’s national anthem. The lyrics of the song, originally written in the 1930s, were tweaked to suit the Olympic event. Taiwan was barred from participating in the Olympic Games until the IOC passed the 1979 Nagoya Resolution. The country was made to use the name ‘Chinese Taipei’ and use a different flag and anthem at medal ceremonies.

China’s gold medalists wear Mao badges on Olympics podium: Here is a brief profile of Chinese mass murderer Mao Zedong

OpIndia Staff
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China’s gold medalists wear Mao badges on Olympics podium: Here is a brief profile of Chinese mass murderer Mao Zedong

Chinese sprint cycling gold medallists Bao Shanju and Zhong Tianshi are being heavily criticized on social media platforms for sporting Mao Zedong badges during a medal ceremony on August 2. Such display of political propaganda is a potential breach of the Olympic rules under Article 50 of the Olympic charter.

Last month, the International Olympic Committee had relaxed Article 50 to allow athletes to showcase gestures like taking the knee. However, they can only do so without causing any disruption or disrespect to fellow competitors. Notably, politics on the podium is still not allowed.

Though the Mao badges have faced criticism from people and media in other countries, many in China are even supporting them, praising the athletes for sporting the badges.

The IOC is also investigating a gesture made by American athlete Raven Saunders after she won a silver medal in the shot put event on August 1. She raised her arms, forming X above her head, showing support for the racially oppressed. However, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) stood by her and said it did not breach the rules as it was a “peaceful expression in support of racial and social justice (that) was respectful of her competitors”.

Saunders’ gesture is being appreciated by mainstream US media.

The case of Chinese athletes is, however, a bit different as the Chinese communist leader and founder of the People’s Republic of China, Mao, was responsible for disastrous policies that led to the death of millions of people in China.

A brief profile of the Chinese mass murderer

Born into a family of peasants in Shaoshan, Huan, Central China, on December 26, 1893, Mao Zedong was trained as a teacher. After his training, he travelled to Beijing and worked in the University Library. During that time, he came across Marxist literature and later, in 1921, he became the founder member of the Chinese Communist Party. In 1923, Kuomintang (KMT) nationalist party joined hands with CCP and defeated the warlords that were in control of the majority of northern China.

Later in 1927, Chiang Kai-Shek, KMT, launched an anti-communist drive. Mao and his associates had to retreat to south-east China. In 1934, KMT surrounded Mao and others, which resulted in Long March led by Mao to northwest China. They travelled around 6,000 miles to establish a new base.

During the 8-years-long war with Japan, KMT and Communists again came together, but after the end of World War II, civil war broke between the two groups. The Communists emerged as the winners, and on October 1, 1949, Mao founded the People’s Republic of China. As a result, Chiang Kai-Shek fled to Taiwan.

The reshaping of Chinese society

Mao’s leadership was ruthless as his aim was to reshape Chinese society. The state took over the ownership of the industry, and the farmers became more organized in collectives. If there was any opposition to his leadership, it was mercilessly suppressed. Initially, Soviet Union helped Mao’s government, but as time passed by, their relationship went cold.

The disastrous policies under the ‘Great Leap Forward’

Whatever progress Chinese Communists were making was not enough for Mao. In an attempt to introduce a more ‘Chinese’ form of communism, he introduced the ‘Great Leap Forward’ program in 1958. The aim was to mass mobilize the labour to improve industrial production and agriculture. The program was a deadly combination of disastrous farming practices that included the conversion of profitable tea plantations to rice fields, lies about grain production and massively mismanaged distribution of the food produce across the country.

As a result, from 1959 to 1961, China suffered disastrous famines. It is believed that anywhere between 30 million to 40 million people died during this period.

The suppression of the voices resulting in a million deaths

Mao saw revolutionary sentiments rising in the country and waged another war against his own people in the name of the Cultural Revolution. Red Guards, which comprised young men and women between the ages of 14 to 21, roamed around the cities. They targeted revisionists and other alleged enemies of the state. The teachers became the top targets of such groups.

While many were threatened or smeared with ink and forced down on all fours and bark like dogs, some of the teachers and professors were beaten to death. At one point, when these groups went out of hand, Red Army was called to control the Red Guards as they have started attacking Communist Party leaders. However, by the time it ended, one million Chinese had died.

Forced labour camps that killed over 20 million

During the period of 1950s to 1980s, Mao continued to run 1,000 forced labour camps across China. Around 50 million Chinese passed through these camps, and 20 million of them had died due to inhumane living conditions and 14-hour workdays.

On September 9, 1976, Mao died but left the legacy of ruthless leader that still haunts ethnic groups of China.

Pakistan: Three attacks in two days on polio vaccination team kills two cops, injures another

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistan: Three attacks in two days on polio vaccination team kills two cops, injures another

In two separate attacks on polio vaccination teams in Pakistan, a police officer escorting one of the teams was killed while another officer escorting another team was injured. As per reports, on Monday, a gunman shot dead a police officer who was assigned to protect the polio vaccination team. The incident took place in Kolachi area of Dera Ismail Khan district.

As per reports, officer Dilawar Khan was on his way to escort the polio vaccination team on his motorcycle when gunmen attacked him. Pakistani radical fundamentalists and militants often target polio vaccination drives as they believe it is ‘western conspiracy to sterilise children’.

In an attack on Sunday in Peshawar, another gunman killed a policeman returning after escorting polio vaccination workers. In another attack, a bomb went off near police van escorting the vaccinating team in South Waziristan which left a police officer injured. None of the medics were hurt.

As of now, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio is still an endemic. Nigeria was declared polio-free last year.

In June this year, Pakistan had suspended the polio vaccination programme ‘indefinitely’ over attacks on health workers. Back then too two policemen were gunned down in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two polio workers were shot dead in Swabi.

There have been reports that the Pakistanis are hesitant for getting polio vaccines and hold polio vaccine workers with distrust after the CIA carried out fake vaccination drive to nab Al Qaeda terrorist Osama Bin Laden who was hiding in Pakistan’s Abbottabad.

Strict lockdowns are back in China after rising Covid Delta variant cases, multiple cities under lockdown. Here is what we know so far

OpIndia Staff
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Strict lockdowns are back in China after rising Covid Delta variant cases, multiple cities under lockdown. Here is what we know so far

On Monday (August 2), the Chinese authorities directed the 1.2 million residents of ZhuZhou city in the Hunan province to stay at home in light of the growing cases of Wuhan Coronavirus.

As per a report in Guardian, people have been asked to adhere to the strict lockdown for a period of three days after the Covid-19 situation in the city turned ‘grim’ and ‘complicated.’ The recent outbreak of Coronavirus cases has been found to be linked to a cluster in Nanjing city in Jiangsu province where more than 360 cases have been reported in the past 2 weeks. It is believed that 9 cleaners, working at the Nanjing Lukou International Airport, who tested positive for Covid-19 on July 20 have been the primary source of the outbreak. The workers had cleaned a plane, which arrived in Jiangsu from Russia.

On Friday (July 30), a strict lockdown was imposed in the city of Zhangjiajie near Zhuzhou after three tourists brought the virus to the city last month. While speaking about the matter, respiratory disease expert Zhong Nanshan said, “Zhangjiajie has now become the new ground zero for China’s epidemic spread.” The officials are now tracking the 5000 people who had attended the theatre event in Zhangjiajie and travelled to their home cities. Reportedly, one performance alone was attended by a whopping 2000 people.

Coronavirus outbreak in Zhengzhou and Beijing

In Zhengzhou city of Henan province, all 10 million residents were asked to get tested after 30 cases of Covid-19 was detected. It is believed that two Coronavirus-positive cleaners at a hospital in Zhengzhou, with recent travel history to foreign countries, have been the source of the outbreak. The Chinese officials have asked people to not travel to Coronavirus infected areas and are tracking those with recent travel history to Nanjing and Zhangjiajie. On Sunday, the residents of Beijing were asked to avoid non-essential travel amidst the rising cases.

The Changping district of Beijing have been locked down about 41,000 residents in 9 housing clusters last week to avert the spread of Covid-19. The authorities have also restricted air and bus travel to areas in Beijing that are badly affected by the Wuhan Coronavirus. All tourists have been restricted from travelling to the Capital and only essential travellers with negative RT-PCR reports are being allowed to enter.

At the same time, the Hainan province has also witnessed new Coronavirus cases on Monday (August 2). The deadly virus has also reached the Wuhan province, where it was originally found. About 7 new people have tested positive for Coronavirus. Reportedly, a total of 15 provinces in China are badly affected by the outbreak of Wuhan Coronavirus. Interestingly, cases in 12 of these provinces were found to be linked to the outbreak in Nanjing. The Chinese authorities have claimed that the spread of the Delta variant, coupled with domestic tourism, has been responsible for the worsening Covid-19 crisis in the country.

Coronavirus outbreak brings the spotlight on Chinese vaccines

The top respiratory specialists have expressed grave concern over the Coronavirus situation in the country. Chinese State media Global Times have described the situation as ‘most serious since Wuhan’. In an editorial, the paper has criticised ‘loopholes’ in Coronavirus prevention measures for the outbreak. “It is absolutely worrying if a single flaw can affect many provinces and regions across the country… it shows that our systematic progress in fighting the epidemic needs to be strengthened,” Global Times wrote.

Nevertheless, the grim situation has brought the spotlight over the efficacy of Chinese vaccines as authorities have claimed to administer 1.6 billion doses so far. Both the Chinese jabs, namely, Sinovac and Sinopharm have low efficacies (50-79%) in preventing symptomatic Coronavirus infections.

Careful usage by vaccinators saves 5.5 lakh Covid-19 vaccine doses in Gujarat, Ahmedabad tops the chart: Report

OpIndia Staff
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Careful usage by vaccinators saves 5.5 lakh Covid-19 vaccine doses in Gujarat, Ahmedabad tops the chart: Report

A total of 5,57,507 Covid-19 vaccine doses that would have otherwise been an acceptable loss, were saved by the state of Gujarat in the last three months. As per an Ahmedabad Mirror report, with the cautious use of the Covid-19 vaccine doses, the state’s current vaccine wastage stands in the negative at -3%.

The Centre in the month of March had directed the states to keep wastage at just 1% by extracting extra doses from the vials. Acting as per orders, 22 districts and eight major cities of Gujarat extracted a substantial amount of extra doses keeping the vaccine wastage to a minimum. 

Administered 11 doses per vial

While the vaccine labels mention 10 doses per vial it usually holds one extra which is more often than not discarded as wastage. However, the vaccinators made sure to extract all 11 doses from each vial.

The last dose is usually wasted in syringe filling, lack of beneficiaries, error by a vaccinator or simply supply chain issues which are counted as an acceptable loss. 

Saurashtra and three major cities most efficient

In terms of vaccine management, rural Junagadh performed the best by extracting 13% more doses than normal while Junagadh city managed to save 9% of the total doses allotted. 

Similarly, rural Rajkot saved 10% and the city extracted 8% more doses. However, leading the chart was Ahmedabad which managed to save, extract and administer the highest number of extra doses in the last three months. 

Following Ahmedabad that saved a whopping 1.09 lakh doses is Surat city that extracted 95,263 extra doses.

Vaccine wastage

While some districts managed to outperform, the Gujarat Covid-19 task force is now focused on reducing vaccine wastage in other districts. Valsad recorded the highest number of vaccine doses wastage (13,574), followed by 12,701 in rural Ahmedabad.

Commenting on the vaccine management efficiency, Dr Naveen Thacker, member of Gujarat Covid Vaccine Task Force said to Ahmedabad Mirror, “While it is commendable Gujarat has extracted a large number of doses, it is currently very hard to say why wastage has taken place in some areas. A monitoring mechanism is in place, proformas are there to report wastage and we have the data now, but it needs to be analyzed and action needs to be taken.”

“We need to speak to vaccinators and communities to find out what’s happening and this needs to be rectified. And, this needs to be done now because as vaccine coverage increases, wastage will also increase if this is not sorted out immediately,” he added. 

“The allowable wastage for the Covid vaccine was 10% but the current wastage of 4-6% is low and quite appreciable. On the field, even 10/10 doses is an over-expectation. The wastage problem is higher in sparsely populated and tribal areas since the number of beneficiaries are few and far between. Vaccinators have to go to remote villages also to administer doses. Similar trends of more wastage in such tribal pockets have been seen in earlier vaccine campaigns also,” said Dr Anish Sinha, of IIPHG.

India has administered 47,41,32,992 Covid-19 vaccine doses till date.

How NDTV’s Sreenivasan Jain played mischief to create panic regarding Covaxin efficacy

OpIndia Staff
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How NDTV’s Sreenivasan Jain played mischief to create panic regarding Covaxin efficacy

NDTV journalist Sreenivasan Jain on Monday took to Twitter to make a startling revelation that Dr N K Arora, Chairperson of National Vaccine Advisory Group said that the initial batches of India-made Chinese coronavirus vaccine Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin ‘were not of the right quality’.

This tweet went viral and by the time of writing this report, had about 2,000 retweets and over 5,000 likes. An hour and 30 minutes later, however, Jain ‘clarified’ that these batches were not administered.

By then, however, the misleading tweet with partial information had already gone viral. The said doses which ‘fell short’ on quality were never sent out.

These tweets by Jain have about 100-150 retweets, showing how the tweet which has potential to create vaccine hesitancy against Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin reached far and wide while the subsequent clarification did not get that much traction.

Here is what Dr Arora had actually said.

Jain questioned Dr Arora over lower number of doses manufactured by Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. Dr Arora said that the government was expecting a much sharper rise in manufacturing of Covaxin. “We expect anywhere between 10-12 crore doses by Bharat Biotech. Their Bengaluru plant is one of the largest vaccine manufacturing plant globally. But initial couple of batches did not pass the quality.. whatever.. it was not of the right quality. Now third or fourth batch has come up which is much better. In next four or six weeks, the vaccine production will really ramp up from Bharat Biotech,” he said.

Dr Arora added that Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech are two suppliers of vaccines in India.

Meanwhile, Twitter has not yet flagged Jain’s tweet as misleading. Why let facts get into the way of mischief that has potential to derail India’s vaccination programme, which is the largest in the world.

UP: Naushad rapes minor Dalit for 7 months under pretext of marriage, threatened her to convert, undergo abortion

OpIndia Staff
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UP: Naushad rapes minor Dalit for 7 months under pretext of marriage, threatened her to convert, undergo abortion

The father of a 16-year-old Dalit girl has approached the Jamo police station in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh on Monday (August 2), with a complaint against a youth named Naushad and his father Islam. According to the police, while Naushad has been accused of rape, blackmail and cheating, his father has been booked for aiding his son, reports Hindi daily Patrika.

According to the police, the victim’s father has alleged that Naushad continued to physically exploit his minor daughter for 7 months on the pretext of marriage. However, when Naushad learnt that the girl had become pregnant, he started pressuring her to adopt Islam. He also threatened her to undergo an abortion. Naushad’s father, meanwhile, blackmailed the victim’s family to give in to his son’s demands or face dire consequences.

The police said that the Dalit girl’s father used to work in Ahmedabad. When he returned to his village recently, he learnt that Naushad had been forcing his daughter to get sexually involved with him for the last 7 months on the pretext of marriage. When Naushad got to know that he has impregnated the minor girl, he along with his father Islam visited the victim’s house. The duo pressurized the victim to undergo an abortion. They also told the family that if they wanted Naushad to marry the victim, she would have to go through religious conversion.

When the Dalit victim’s family refused to bow down to the demands, the accused threatened to murder them. The father, then, approached the Jamo police with a complaint against the father-son duo. The police, in turn, immediately registered the complaint and started investigating the matter.

Jamo police station sub-inspector VK Pathak informed that an FIR against Naushad and his father Islam has been filed under IPC sections 376 and 506. The police have also invoked the Uttar Pradesh anti-conversion law and relevant sections of the POCSO and other acts.

The police have launched a manhunt, as the father-son duo went missing after the complaint was lodged against them. The victim has been sent for medical examination, added VK Pathak.

Despite efforts, multiple cases of grooming Jihad are being reported from across the country. Recently, Uttar Pradesh police had arrested one Arif Hashmi for assaulting a woman physically by blackmailing her and forcing her to convert to Islam. A case had been filed against Hashmi who as per his Facebook profile is an SP leader and has posted several images with Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav on his timeline.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee invokes her inner ‘athlete’ for ‘Khela Hobe’, netizens have a field day

OpIndia Staff
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West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee invokes her inner ‘athlete’ for ‘Khela Hobe’, netizens have a field day

With Tokyo Olympics 2020 being the flavour of the season, Mamata Banerjee too evoked the inner ‘athlete’ in her, giving some of the world’s best dribblers a run for their money. The West Bengal CM today tried her ‘hand’ at football when she visited Netaji Indoor Stadium, Kolkata on August 2 (Monday), to launch the ‘Khela Hobe’ program, a state government’s flagship scheme for the youth. 

In a video of the event shared by News agency ANI, the TMC supremo could be seen dribbling and flinging a football like a ‘pro’. Mamata Banerjee, in an exemplary display of talent, was seen tossing the ball in the air, before catching it and throwing it towards her audience.

As seen in the snippet shared by ANI, Mamata Banerjee does not stop after performing the stunt once, but, tirelessly, continues doing it for quite some time, with her subordinates coming to her rescue every time she makes a slip-up.

Despite her confidence and body language, this new avatar of the West Bengal CM became fodder for netizens who flooded the microblogging website with hilarious memes and jokes mocking the WB CM. 

One of the Twitter users alluded that Mamata Banerjee might be a threat to legendary footballer Ronaldo’s career.

From a polyglot to an IT Expert to an outstanding sportsperson to an actor par excellence, Twitter user @GoliKaBhai stated how ‘multitalented’ the West Bengal CM is.

“Legend,” remarked a Netizen, complimenting Mamata Banerjee for her never seen before talent.

While another said: “we’ll be able to bid for next FIFA event basis this only, basic equipment is thrown at people, remaining is to assemble players out of this crowd”.

It is pertinent to note here that after announcing to commemorate her election slogan- Khela Hobe, in the form of ‘Khela Hobe Diwas‘, Mamata Banerjee has now turned the slogan into the state government’s flagship scheme for the youth. 

Under the scheme, the state sports and youth affairs department will hand more than one lakh footballs to various sporting clubs. Even the ones registered with the IFA will get 10 footballs each, the CM has announced.

Written by Debangshu Bhattacharya, Mamata Banerjee had coined the term ‘Khela hobe’ (we will have a match) as Trinamool Congress’ election slogan, ahead of the West Bengal Vidhan Sabha polls.

‘Khela Hobe’ and the weaponisation of political violence

Initially, the slogan appeared as a harmless jibe against the opposition but soon started to showcase its true colours. But soon, TMC members made a wall painting in Bengal wherein Mamata Banerjee was seen hitting PM Modi’s head instead of a football. During her election rallies, the West Bengal Chief Minister continued to provoke her party workers to retaliate against the central armed forces and BJP workers. Several instances of violence were thus reported during the various stages of polling and have continued ever since.

Americans cheer as ‘woke’ US women’s soccer team loses to Canada in Tokyo Olympics semifinals

OpIndia Staff
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Americans cheer as ‘woke’ US women’s soccer team loses to Canada in Tokyo Olympics semifinals

The United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) for football lost to Canada 1-0 at the semifinals of the Tokyo Olympics. It was a shock defeat as the US team were the overwhelming favourites to win. USA will now face off against Australia for the Bronze Medal match on Thursday.

While people ordinarily cheer for their national team and athletes from their nation to win in the Olympics, it was an odd situation for the USWNT as significant sections of Americans were hoping they would lose. According to them, the team had embraced ‘woke’ ideology and therefore, deserved to lose.

Following the defeat, a section of Americans are expressing their happiness at the defeat.

They say that the USWNT went ‘woke’ and therefore, they lost the match to Canada.

The fact that the USWNT took the knee, which is supposed to be a stand against racism but widely recognized as a political demonstration in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, was also mocked.

Megan Rapinoe, one of the stars of the team, was especially mocked on social media.

The celebration of the defeat of the USWNT at the Tokyo Olympics by Americans themselves reveals the extent to which American society has been polarised. They celebrated when the team lost to Sweden in their opening match and cheered again when their team crashed out of the contention for the Gold Medal.

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