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Online survey holds China’s opacity and mismanagement responsible for the global coronavirus pandemic, 67% say it is to blame

OpIndia Staff
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Online survey holds China’s opacity and mismanagement responsible for the global coronavirus pandemic, 67% say it is to blame

Over the last two months, the world has been plunged into a pandemic and a global economic crisis. Most countries across the globe are on lockdown and have sealed their borders. Thousands of people have died and a sense of insecurity is looming over people.

Though the virus originated in China, and China has tried to keep the news of an epidemic hidden, from gagging doctors to suppressing news, China has been working overtime to deny its responsibility and has even tried to guilt-trip other nations about blaming them for the pandemic.

However, an online survey by Manoj Kewalramani, an Associate Fellow-China Studies at The Takshashila Institution has revealed that a significant majority of Indians also feel that China’s opacity and mismanagement are to be blamed for the coronavirus global pandemic.

The Takshishila Institution, based in Bengaluru, is an independent networked think tank on India’s strategic affairs, public policy and governance.

Manoj Kewalramani conducted an online survey from a period of March 26, 2020, until April 3, 2020. During that time, responses were invited through email and by sharing the questionnaire on different social media platforms. Respondents were required to log in with an email id to submit their answers. They were also requested to state their nationality. Out of the 1299 respondents, the author says that 1184 provided information about their nationality. Among these, 1156 are Indian nationals.

The survey contained five multiple-choice questions, with respondents being asked to choose one option per question. This survey was conducted to assess the respondents dominant perception. 

The key findings from the survey are as follows:

China’s accountability for spreading the pandemic:

A significant majority of around 67% of respondants believe that China is to blame for the outbreak becoming a global pandemic. When this figure is broken down further it shows that out of thei 67%, a majority of 48.7% believe that the sole reason for the crornavirus spread is that China failed to stop its illegal wildlife trade, contain early outnreak and lied to the world. Moreover, 18.2% believe that the pandemic is an outcome of China biowarfare while 14.5% believe other governments are at fault for their lack of preparedness.

Graphical representation of the above statistics

While the negligence and cover-up of Chinese authorities have pushed the world to battle a pandemic, the Chinese government has peddled victimhood claiming that calling the pandemic a Chinese disease and terms like Chinese virus and Wuhan virus is ‘racism’.

The response to the question about the use of terms like “Chinese virus,” “Wuhan virus” and “Made in China pandemic” also underscores public anger.

Out of 1299 responses, a significant majority of 52.8% feel that it is just right to name it the ‘Chinese virus’ as it is needed to ensure that China doesn’t escape the responsibility.

Graphical representation of the above statistics

Mistrust of PRC’s Global Role:

Though China evidently failed to acknowledge the gravity of the problem then and allowed its lucrative wildlife trade to flourish, endowing the world with an even pernicious pandemic, for the past few weeks, Chinese diplomats and media have been pushing the narrative of China’s success in containing the outbreak and its emergence as a leading global public health goods provider.

Recently, UK think tank Chatham House, Jim O’Neill, also fawned over China’s exemplary measures to control the transmission of coronavirus.

Responses to the survey show that this narrative has not been very effective.

Out of 1299 responses, a majority of over 65% of the respondents feel that China’s response to the outbreak is opaque and draconian. They feel that China has covered up the true scale of the crisis, only 3.1% agree that China has emerged as a role model for the other countries when it comes to tackling the crisis.

Graphical representation of the above statistics

Meanwhile, when asked for an opinion on China providing support to other countries, a majority of the respondents, 56.4%, viewed this as geopolitical, claiming that China is using the crisis to project power. Nearly 19% believe that China is not doing enough to assist other states in dealing with the pandemic. In comparison to this, only 12.5% of responses were in support of China.

Beijing clearly faces a Catch-22, and it appears that its effort to spin a positive narrative is having little impact.

Graphical representation of the above statistics

Competition & Cooperation:

When asked about the dominant view regarding the Indo-China relationaship, majority of respondants, i.e 47% feel that while there is competition, both sides also have shared interests. On the other hand, 46.4% of the respondents either view China as a fundamental threat to India (33%) or want a decoupling of the two economies (13.4%).

Graphical representation of the above statistics

The Wuhan coronavirus reportedly started in China’s wildlife and seafood markets. China’s demand and consumption of wildlife have contributed significantly to a number of species being driven to the brink of extinction. The negligence and cover-up of Chinese authorities have pushed the world to battle a pandemic that has claimed thousands of lives and impacted global economies heavily.

The coronavirus is affecting 209 countries and territories around the world. The number of Covid-19 cases has reached 1,360,233 worldwide, and 75,961 people have died so far.

Gandhi: An anathema to the ‘left-liberal’ establishment

Deepanshu Aggarwal
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Gandhi: An anathema to the ‘left-liberal’ establishment

Introduction

In India, the Left-Liberal establishment has always maintained firm control over the institutions that consist of critical positions in professions such as journalism and universities. What for? To primarily pervert public discourse and thereby derail the process of public policy in the country. Perverting the public discourse is of paramount importance to this establishment in order to legitimize, in the minds of the public, its disdain for primarily three things: Indian nationalism, Hinduism and Indic civilization. Hence, it has always painted any organization that disapproves of this disdain, as communal. In doing so, the establishment pits these ‘communal’ organizations against ‘secular’ Mahatma Gandhi, thereby trying to manufacture a false binary wherein the latter’s huge legacy & incandescent national influence is perverted to ‘sell’ the said disdain. Thus, it is important to unravel the Mahatma’s core beliefs regarding the three things mentioned above. Doing so will prove that the Mahatma, if understood objectively and correctly, is an anathema to the Left-Liberal establishment and not a mascot.

On Nationality

Through its academic and journalistic projects, the Left-Liberal establishment has always presented India as an empty landfilled by successive invaders and as a geographical construct of the English. It considers our country to have gained a spirit of nationalism/oneness only after the British arrived here. However, the Mahatma vehemently rejected this idea. In ‘Hind Swaraj’, he writes ‘We were one nation before they (Britishers) came to India. One thought inspired us. Out mode of life was the same. It was because we were one nation that they were able to establish one kingdom.” He also writes “.Our leading men travelled throughout India either on foot or in bullock-carts…What do you (to the interviewer) think could have been the intention of those farseeing ancestors who established Setubandha (Rameshwar) in the South, Jagannath in the East and Hardwar in the North as places of pilgrimage? They saw that India was one undivided land so made by nature. They…fired the people with an idea of nationality in a manner unknown in other parts of the world. And we Indians are one as no two Englishmen are.” In fact, he adds that only those who considered themselves ‘civilized’ and ‘superior’ persons “imagine that India is many nations” and not one unified whole. No doubt that the said self-styled ‘civilized’ establishment considers its comrades to be more civilized and superior to others!

On Hinduism

Also, the Left-Liberal cabal has always presented Hinduism as an assortment of disparate constituents. As Arun Shourie writes in his book ‘Eminent Historians’, “They (‘progressive’ elements of the cabal) consider the religion to be just a word used by Arabs to describe the assortment they encountered, just an invention of the communalists to impose uniformity.” Thus, the cabal’s ‘eminent historians’ have, he adds, “blackened the Hindu period of our history.” This, disdain for Hinduism would surely have hurt the Mahatma, for he found Hinduism’s holy scripture, Bhagavad Gita, to be an “infallible guide of conduct”, and Ramanama(Lord Ram’s name) to be an “infallible remedy”. He writes in his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, “..I quite remember being enraptured by his (a particular Hindu preacher) reading which laid the foundation of my deep devotion to the Ramayana. Today I regard Ramayana of Tulsidas as the greatest book in all devotional literature…..(and) Gita has become my dictionary of daily reference.”

It was Gita’s teaching of ‘non-possession’ that laid the foundation for his belief in his famous principle of ‘simplicity’. He mentions that Hinduism taught him to improve his thoughts, change his diet and follow the vow of brahmacharya for life, preparing him for the Satyagraha against the British. There are numerous instances in his life wherein he vehemently resists – attempts by missionaries to convert him to Christianity and consumption of ‘beef tea’ prescribed by allopathic/English doctors to cure his wife’s illnesses, instead preferring the Ayurveda water/earth treatment. His reverence for Hinduism & its constituent ethos is in complete contrast to the sheer disdain that India’s left-liberal establishment has for the religion. 

On Indic civilization

As Arun Shourie writes in his book ‘Eminent Historians’, “These (leftist) intellectuals and their patrons have worked a diabolic inversion: the inclusive religion, the pluralist spiritual search of our people and land, they have projected as intolerant, narrow-minded, obscurantist.” The Indian civilization that the establishment, finds intolerant, was considered by the Mahatma to “represent the best that the world has ever seen.” He wrote in ‘Hind Swaraj’ – “The British Government in India constitutes a struggle between Modern Civilization, which is the Kingdom of Satan, and the Ancient (Indic) Civilization, which is the Kingdom of God…. I believe that (our) civilization is not to be beaten in the world. Nothing can equal the seeds sown by our ancestors. Rome went, Greece shared the same fate….but India is still…sound at the foundation…India remains immovable and that is her glory.”       

Conclusion

Thus, whether it is about the Quit India Movement of 1942 or about the New India of 2020, Mahatma Gandhi continues to be an anathema to the Left-Liberal establishment. But should the makers of this New India be perturbed by the disdain that this establishment has for everything that the nation holds dear? Absolutely not. Why? Because, as the Mahatma wrote and said time and again “India awakened is not likely to fall asleep.”

Coronavirus-manifesto: Understanding the pandemic at hand and its management

Lalit Ambardar
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Coronavirus-manifesto: Understanding the pandemic at hand and its management

Coronavirus-Manifesto is about understanding the criticality of the imminent threat to humanity, posed by the virus and the corresponding responses expected from the individual nations down to the community level to meet the horrendous challenge.

In the contemporary sense, complete globalisation, despite continued serious geopolitical antagonism prevailing in the world, a full-fledged conventional third world war has till date been mercifully averted. But COVID-19 caught the global community off guard, engulfed the planet so swiftly, triggering panic. The way even NATO countries are grappling with the pandemic what with the post-cold-war lone superpower USA amongst the worst affected, justifies vehement opposition to biological warfare.                                          

It will be long before it’s formally ascertained whether the coronavirus- outbreak was accidental or of natural origin or as the parallel ‘theories’ speculate that the outbreak was indeed strategically targeted but there is an unambiguous understanding across the globe that the threat is for real and the world is at war on Coronavirus.

While China is officially claiming relative calm in the Wuhan, its epicentre, the pandemic has spread across the countries with the clouds of mass deaths looming large. While grappling with the ominously evolving situation, World has literally come to a standstill. Unprecedented crisis demanding unprecedented measures like ‘lockdown’ is enforced in most parts of the world.

Read: ‘The killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan’, claims research paper published by Chinese scientists

As claimed by the Union Health Minister, India was following the developments & reacted to the evolving situation with concrete actions since the moment China alerted WHO on December 31, 2019, about the ‘unusual’ pneumonia cases in Wuhan followed by the formal identification of the virus as 2019-nCoV i.e. Novel Coronavirus 2019 now called COVID-19, by the Chinese on January 7, 2019. Precautionary measures were announced from time to time with an emphasis on personal hygiene and social distancing.

Encouraged by the overwhelming public participation witnessed during the pan India voluntary ‘Janata Curfew’ on 22nd March, a complete three weeks ‘lockdown’ was finally ordered on the 24th March to enforce social-distancing to break-the-chain. The second week into the lockdown, going by the rising figures, there is every possibility that the restrictions will be extended especially Intra-community unity infection spreads exponentially. Despite avoidable political cynicism, while both the central as well as the respective Govts. of the States and UTs across  India are working overtime in unison under the able leadership of PM Narendra Modi, the role of the public at large at the community and individual levels is no less critical in meeting the challenges due to the humanity- threatening Coronavirus.

To begin with, adherence to the lockdown is fundamental to the community response. Why? Because social-distancing is the key to check the spread and it could be achieved by restricting the population to their homes, hence the lockdown. What is social-distancing? Social distancing is limiting human to human contact with break-the-chain. What is ‘break-the-chain’? Break-the-chain is meant to prevent one asymptomatic or positive person infect another. Even while the scientists are busy in deciphering the nature of Coronavirus & design the mitigating prescription against the disease, it’s the community effort that becomes paramount in containing the spread of the infection.

Read: India under Lockdown: The downsides of under-reacting were simply too scary

As the statistics suggest, the mortality rate due to corona is not as high as compared to the other forms of flue but it is the rapidity of its spread, unavailability of specific cure & lack of sufficient critical care medical capacity that makes the pandemic so precarious.    

In terms of sheer logistics, lockdown is crucial to ‘flatten-the- curve’, i.e. to contain the spread in order to match the graph of the rising number of the affected with the available critical care infrastructure. Inability to manage this crucial interface would mean forced ‘triage’ to prioritise ‘life’ while optimising the available limited critical care facility, whereby patients with a higher degree of survival receive priority as is witnessed in other countries. Therefore, to avert the eventuality, compliance with the lockdown is imperative, demanding absolute community participation.

Social distancing ensures necessary intracommunity isolation, experts recommending social distancing even at home including celibacy, to rule out the possibility of intra-family transfer of infection, just in case a member is afflicted and is asymptomatic. Personal hygiene is equally essential.

The virus is released from the afflicted body in droplets through involuntary cough or sneeze, depositing itself either directly on the nearby human body or on the fomites and then travelling further again from human to human or human to fomites to humans and the chain goes on.  Imagine, it’s the ‘fidgety’ hand that enables the ingress of the virus into the human body via mouth, nose and eyes. So, in addition to washing hands with water and soap frequently, ‘no-touch’ the face must be the resolve even if a naughty wasp chose to park itself on one’s pretty visage. Sanitising fomites including high-touch spots like knobs, handles, food packets-containers, post, phones, gadgets etc. and washing vegetables and fruits is equally important. There are apprehensions that if the virus bypassed the lungs reaching guts straight, it could appear in faeces, thereby making handling-disposal of faeces important particularly in case of sick and children. Self-medication especially prophylactic (chloroquine intake without doctor’s supervision can be dangerous) has to be avoided. Individuals’ response to such emergency restrictions can be varying, therefore, while children and elders would need extra attention, patience and compassion are necessary to avoid disharmony and psychological distress in the family. Don’t ignore the emotional needs of the pets and bring them on to domestic kitchen food gradually in a case dependent on packed pet- food to prepare for the extended lockdown. Cigarettes may not be in supply, smokers need to withdraw gradually. Maintain routine dietary and workout schedule. Start yoga, if not already practising. Keep in touch with your colleagues and friends. In case you are not on work- from- home regime, spend time on updating your professional skills, reading and explore or refresh abandoned hobbies. Your housekeeping staff, drivers etc. might require your emotional and monetary support. It’s time to show you care. Maintaining a safe distance, balcony interaction with neighbours can be very heartwarming.  

At the community level the resident welfare associations, mohalla/ward/block committees, must in coordination with the local panchayat member, municipal councillor, MLA, MP, police and nearest designated hospital, besides ensuring thorough compliance with lockdown, mobilise volunteers for:  in house waste disposal; water storage and distribution; pump house operations and maintenance; medical emergencies other than coronavirus (for coronavirus, only officially notified contact links must be followed ); psychiatric counselling of elderly & lonely residents as well as children who may experience emotional issues due to confinement; routine care and veterinary emergencies for pets as well as stray street animals including birds etc.; monetary needs of security staff; monetary and emotional support to needy residents; enforcing social distancing at essential services delivering outlets like shops and ATMs etc.; regular awareness campaign regarding lockdown, social distancing, sanitisation of fomites etc. through public address system; ensuring dignity and compassion for quarantined or ‘positive’ residents and their families.  

The community must ensure security & utmost regard for residents who are at the ground combating coronavirus including medics; paramedics; biowaste handling & sanitary staff; communications & transport including aircrew personnel; police & civil defence personnel; defence & paramilitary personnel; media & other essential services personnel etc.

While the government is focused on overall governance and augmentation of additional medical care capacity, the role of the community is no less crucial. In fact, the success of the lockdown is directly proportional to the degree of compliance with the ‘stay home –stay safe’ purpose of it, by the individual citizens. Lockdown comes at an enormous cost on the national economy, experts suggesting, might take years to recover, it has to be a panic-less collective endeavour to ensure lockdown delivers the envisaged results and the human cost is restricted.

Delhi: 82-year-old Manmohan Singh discharged from hospital after fully recovering from coronavirus

OpIndia Staff
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Delhi: 82-year-old Manmohan Singh discharged from hospital after fully recovering from coronavirus

While the Wuhan coronavirus epidemic has been termed as fatal for older people, an an 82-year-old man has invalidated the perception after fully recovered from the contagion on Tuesday. Manmohan Singh, who was admitted to Delhi’s Lok Nayak Hospital after being diagnosed with novel Wuhan coronavirus infection has been reportedly recovered from the contagious disease and will be discharged soon.

While making this announcement the staff of the entire hospital applauded and welcomed him and addressed media with a victory sign stipulating the conquest over the contagion. In the video posted by news agency ANI, Singh is on wheelchair wearing, mask surrounded by health workers of the hospital. The doctors are also seen clapping over the exceptional recovery of the senior citizen.

Coronavirus disease causes respiratory illness (like the flu) with symptoms such as a cough, fever, and in more severe cases, difficulty breathing. Respiratory disease COVID-19 can be more fatal to children and senior citizens and those who are suffering from lung diseases. Coronavirus epidemic has reached a worrisome mark of 4421 confirmed cases across the country. 114 people have succumbed to the disease while 326 have been recovered.

150 Tablighi Jamaat members violate quarantine orders in Mumbai, only 10 traced, FIR registered: Report

OpIndia Staff
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150 Tablighi Jamaat members violate quarantine orders in Mumbai, only 10 traced, FIR registered: Report

An FIR has been lodged against 150 people who belong to Tablighi jamaat for fleeing quarantine and violating official preventive orders in Mumbai’s Azad Maidan Police station.

The FIR has been lodged under Sections 271 and 188 of the Indian Penal Code. A police official said, “FIR is registered against 150 people of Tablighi jamaat at Azad maidan police station for violating quarantine orders(IPC Section 271) and violating government official’s preventive order (section 188). Besides, FIR is also registered under IPC Section 269.”

However, as per reports only 10 of the jamaatis have been traced and rest are absconding.

Hundreds of positive cases have emerged from the Tablighi jamaat event held in Nizamuddin of South Delhi that has created panic across the country as the Jamaatis are violating the quarantine norms as well as harassing the health workers on duty.

Earlier on Tuesday, Maharashtra Home Minister had revealed that about 50 Tablighi Jamaat meet attendees in Maharashtra are on the run and their phones are switched off. He asserted that Fifty people who returned to Maharashtra from Tablighi Jamaat are missing. They are being searched. Out of 1400 people who returned from Tablighi Jamaat, 1350 people were tested. 50 people are still hiding and their phones are switched off.

Over 4000 people in India have been contracted by the contagion while 114 have succumbed to the disease and 326 have recovered. Maharashtra leads the list of states with the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country with the tally of affected nearly at the 750 mark and about 45 fatalities thus far.

Indian Railways gets into mission mode to fight coronavirus, set to manufacture 1000 PPE overall for medical personnel every day

OpIndia Staff
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Indian Railways gets into mission mode to fight coronavirus, set to manufacture 1000 PPE overall for medical personnel every day

The Indian Railways will now produce up to 1000 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) type overalls on an everyday basis across 17 workshops. These protective overalls would be used by the Railway Doctors and the paramedics.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has also approved a PPE type overall produced by the Jagadhari workshop. The Ministry of Railways had also informed that the approved overall would be used for making other protective overalls in different workshops.

Raw materials for the overalls would be sourced from a Yamunanagar-based vendor, approved by the Ministry of Textiles. “Technical specifications of these PPEs are now ready, and material suppliers are in place. Now the production can start in right earnest. This development is a big boost to equip our doctors and paramedics on the front line of this battle against COVID-19”, the national carrier said in a statement.

Earlier, the Indian Railways came up with a remarkably ingenious solution to support the country’s public health system. It had decided to convert its coaches into quarantine wards for the treatment of patients infected by the Chinese virus. Furthermore, the Indian Railways had also offered to prepare 3 lakh patient beds if the need arose in the future.

In addition, all Railway divisions had identified a ward or building for setting up isolation beds for the Coronavirus patients. Similarly, Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) fleshed out a plan to provide meals in different parts of the country and hospitals if the need arose. Pantry cars will be disinfected and converted into the mobile kitchen so as to ensure a healthy and adequate supply of food at stations where there are no base kitchens.

On March 27, the official Twitter handle of the Indian Railways informed that more than 1,00,000 wagons of essential items had been readied in the wake of the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak. The essential supplies included the likes of foodgrains, fruits, vegetables, sugar, salt, dairy products, coal, and petroleum products. The feat was achieved within 4 days wherein workers toiled 24 hours round the clock.

Here are 5 other deadly diseases apart from the Wuhan Coronavirus that originated from China

OpIndia Staff
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Here are 5 other deadly diseases apart from the Wuhan Coronavirus that originated from China

China has been struggling hard to wash its hands off its role in the spreading of the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic. It has claimed that calling it the ‘Chinese Coronavirus’ or the ‘Wuhan Coronavirus’ is racist even though the pandemic was widely reported in China first. At the heart of it all is the wet markets of Wuhan, where live animals are sold for consumption, and speculations that the virus was either accidentally or deliberately leaked by the Chinese government or that it could be a bioweapon.

As it so happens, China has been the ground zero of numerous epidemics over the years, epidemics that have inflicted great damage in terms of life and economy. From SARS to SARS-CoV-2 and the Asian Flu before that, China is a hotspot for the rise of severe epidemics. In this report, we shall go through a few of such devastating epidemics with their origins in China.

A H7N9 Flu

The first case of A H7N9 avian influenza (bird flu) was reported in Shanghai, China from where it spread to other regions. Later, it was confirmed that the virus jumped from chickens at a wet poultry market to humans by a study in the medical journal The Lancet. The virus is of concern as most patients have been observed to become severely ill due to the infection. Most patients reported recent exposure to live poultry or potentially contaminated environments. The silver lining appears to be that human-to-human transmission hasn’t been widely reported.

Having said that, limited human-to-human transmission has not been ruled out for the virus. Thus far, there have been five phases of the epidemic since it began in 2017, the latest begin in 2017. It hasn’t caused a significant damage to life as of yet. However, the virus does have the potential to cause widespread human devastation. “H7N9 viruses have several features typically associated with human influenza viruses and therefore possess pandemic potential and need to be monitored closely,” said Yoshihiro Kawaoka, one of the world’s leading experts on avian flu. “If H7N9 viruses acquire the ability to transmit efficiently from person to person, a worldwide outbreak is almost certain since humans lack protective immune responses to these types of viruses,” according to Kawaoka.

SARS

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) caused by SARS-CoV-1 first surfaced in 2002 in China. Fifteen years later, researchers discovered that the source of the virus could be traced to a group of infected bats at a remote cave in Yunnan province of China. SARS first appeared in November 2002 in Southern China before spreading around the world. It claimed the lives of 750 people across 37 countries before it was contained by placing patients in quarantine. The origin of the virus was traced to palm civets sold as exotic meat in southern Chinese food markets. SARS expert Jeremy Farrar noted, “There is no effective treatment and no vaccine. It was only contained the last time because it was possible to quarantine people while they were still infectious. Now we have a chance to create vaccines and treatments.”

The Wuhan Coronavirus is related to the SARS-CoV-1 and has been termed the SARS-CoV-2. The average incubation period of the SARS virus is 4-6 days, much shorter than the Chinese Coronavirus which has an average incubation period of two weeks. Symptoms of SARS are influenza-like and include fever, malaise, myalgia, headache, diarrhoea, and shivering (rigors). No individual symptom or cluster of symptoms has proved to be specific for a diagnosis of SARS.

H5N1 Bird Flu

The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) virus was first detected in China in geese in 1996 during a poultry outbreak in Hong Kong and has since been detected in poultry and wild birds in more than 50 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the USA, “Since its widespread re-emergence in 2003, rare, sporadic human infections with this virus have been reported in Asia, and later in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Human infections with Asian H5N1 viruses have been associated with severe disease and death. Most human infections with avian influenza viruses, including HPAI Asian H5N1 viruses, have occurred after prolonged and close contact with infected birds. Rare human-to-human spread with this virus has occurred, but it has not been sustained and no community spread of this virus has ever been identified.”

Like avian viruses, the H5N1 has great pandemic potential. If the virus mutates to a form which can efficiently cause human-to-human transmission, then widespread devastation can be expected. Since emerging out of China, the virus has been reported from various other countries. Six countries are considered by the CDC to be endemic for Asian HPAI H5N1 virus in poultry (Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam).

Hong Kong Flu (1968)

The Hong Kong Flu which emerged in Hong Kong in 1968 killed an estimated one million people all over the world between 1968 and 1969. It was caused by an H3N2 strain of the influenza A virus, descended from H2N2 through antigenic shift. The first recorded case of the outbreak appeared in Hong Kong on the 13th of July, 1968. By the end of the month, extensive outbreaks of the virus was reported in Vietnam and Singapore. By September, the flu had spread to India, Phillippines, Australia and Europe. It became widespread in the United States by December 1968. It reached Japan, Africa, and South America by 1969.

The virus had a low case-fatality ratio (CFR), it was below 0.5% of the cases. The virus is believed to have infected 500,000 residents in Hong Kong alone, an estimated 15% of the population. About 100,000 people died in the United States alone. The H3N2 virus continues to circulate worldwide as a seasonal influenza A virus.

Asian Flu (1957)

The Asian Flu, caused by the H2N2 virus, is believed to have been originated in China although CDC claims that the first reported case observed in Singapore in February 1957. However, most sources say that the virus was first reported in Guizhou province the same month in the southwest region of China. Estimated deaths caused by the virus range between one million to two million worldwide, the CDC puts it at 1.1 million with 116,000 in the United States itself. The flu impacted the economy gravely as well and India is believed to have suffered over a million cases as well.

China: A Hotspot for pandemics?

As early as in November 2017, the Smithsonian Mag published a detailed report on the H7N9 epidemic where it asked its readers the question, “Is China Ground Zero for a Future Pandemic?” Three years later, the question appears to have been answered. President Trump’s trade czar, Peter Navarro, described China as a “disease incubator,” and that was before the outbreak of the Wuhan Coronavirus. Dr. Jennifer Huang Bouey, an epidemiologist and senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, said, “There is quite a fair amount of epidemics originating in China or passing through China.”

There are numerous factors that make China a breeding ground for deadly viruses. The prominent among them being the unhealthy dietary preferences of the population. With epidemics originating from the country at such an alarming frequency, it could very well be that an even deadlier virus than the Wuhan Coronavirus emerged from China. Under such circumstances, it is of paramount importance that the world begins taking a greater interest in the underbelly of the country, in order to ensure the safety and security of its own population. Failing to do so could lead to a pandemic that has even more devastating consequences than the Wuhan Coronavirus.

Tripura reported its first coronavirus case after 44-year-old woman tests positive

OpIndia Staff
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Tripura reported its first coronavirus case after 44-year-old woman tests positive

A 44-year-old woman was tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus in Agartala on Monday, making it the first case in Tripura. The woman, who is from Udaipur town in Gomati district, about 60 km from the state capital, is currently undergoing treatment at the Agartala Government Medical College and GB Pant Hospital. The information was confirmed by Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb in a tweet.

Biplab Deb, however, stated that there is no need to panic. Instead, he said, the need of the hour was to stay safe and stay at home. “Alert! First #COVID19 positive case detected at Tripura. The patient is from Udaipur. Don’t panic, we are taking proper care of the patient. Stay Home Stay Safe. Update at: 8 PM/April 6,” Biplab Deb said in a tweet.

As per reports, the patient has already been isolated. Her travel itinerary and the other trails are being identified.

The woman was admitted to a private hospital a few days back with cough, fever and breathing difficulty, officials said, adding that she was later shifted to the government facility.

Meanwhile, a notice from the office of West Tripura District Magistrate Dr Sandeep Namdeo Mahatme informed that the rapid response teams (RRTs) were instructed to prepare a contact list of any doctor, nurse, para-medical staff, patients, attended persons or anyone who might have come in contact with the patient including her family members.

The first case of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic in India was reported on January 30 2020, originating from China. With 354 fresh cases, the virus has infected 4421 people in the country. The countrywide death toll has climbed to 114. The number of recovered patients stands at 326.

Maharashtra: Aurangabad Police books a doctor for comparing Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Saad to a terrorist

OpIndia Staff
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Maharashtra: Aurangabad Police books a doctor for comparing Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Saad to a terrorist

A non-cognizable offence against a doctor have been lodged by Aurangabad Police for allegedly sharing a post on social media terming the Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Mohammad Saad a ‘terrorist’. According to the police, the doctor had posted Saad’s photograph on social media with a caption, “Wanted, please inform your local police if you have any input about the location of this terrorist.”

The Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi’s Nizamuddin has emerged as a hotspot for the pandemic after over 2100 people were evacuated from the building in last week of March. Addressing a gathering in the Markaz building on 23 March, Maulana Saad was heard instigating the Muslims present to defy lockdown and gather at mosques as it is the time to increase mosques. Mocking the government’s call to close mosques and religious places amidst the Chinese coronavirus outbreak, Maulana Saad had called the contagion a ‘conspiracy’ to create fear amongst Muslims and keep them away from mosques.

Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Saad has been absconding since March 28 and search operation is still underway. Maulana Saad is wanted in an offence lodged by the Delhi Police under sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and sections of the Indian Penal Code, for violating government directions on steps to be taken for avoiding spread of Wuhan Coronavirus.

Read: 30-year-old man shot dead in Prayagraj over remarks on Tablighi Jamaat’s role in spreading coronavirus, accused Md Sona nabbed

However, the Aurangabad Police under Shiv Sena-NCP and Congress government has decided to take action against the doctor who likened the man who defied government guidelines and wilfully exposed the citizens to the pandemic with a terrorist. Police Sub-Inspector Prabhakar Sonawane lodged the offence against the doctor under Section 505 (b)(c) of the Indian Penal Code. The Assistant Police Inspector, G B Sonawane of Pundaliknagar police station, “Offence was lodged against the doctor by police as preventive action. He was detained and issued notice as per law.”

The Tablighi Jamaat event have been an epicentre for maximum cases of coronavirus infection across the country. As per Union Health Ministry, they account for 30% of total COVID-19 cases in India and a staggering 50% cases in Uttar Pradesh. Hundreds of people including foreign nationals who participated in the religious congregation of Tablighi Jamaat have been found positive of novel coronavirus and approximately 25000 have been traced and quarantined.

OpIndia is deliberately choosing not to publish name and other details of the doctor who is arrested by Aurangabad Police.

Propagandists equate ISKCON in UK to Tablighi Jamaat in India after ISKCON devotees get infected by Coronavirus: Here’s why they are wrong

OpIndia Staff
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Propagandists equate ISKCON in UK to Tablighi Jamaat in India after ISKCON devotees get infected by Coronavirus: Here’s why they are wrong

The United Kingdom’s handling of the Wuhan Coronavirus has received widespread criticism from people across the board. Initially, the British Government chose to pursue the ‘herd immunity’ option but it was only when it became evident that the devastation caused by that foolhardy path would be so huge, the government was forced to course-correct. It is under these circumstances that one particular meeting of ISKCON became the source of infections for many devotees in the United Kingdom. And certain motivated actors from India are now equating ISKCON and their cases of Coronavirus in the UK with the malicious conduct of the Tablighi Jamaat in India.

Shahid Siddiqui, known to be an apologist for Islamism, claimed, “Andh Bhakti, blind faith is the source of all problems not TJ or ISKCON”.

Source: Twitter

Vidya Krishnan, ‘health and science journalist’, who has earlier spread malicious lies about India’s response to the Wuhan Coronvirus pandemic to achieve politically partisan goals, said, “In London, the Hindu diaspora is at the centre of a cluster outbreak. Their govt has not vilified the minority the way Health & Home Ministry does every single day during the briefing.”

Source: Twitter

Other Islamic apologists have also joined the fray and pretending as if the case of ISKCON in the UK and the Tablighi Jamaat in India are similar even though there is nothing remotely similar in the two cases.

Source: Twitter

Now, let us get to the truth of the matter. So far, 21 devotees have been confirmed to have been infected with the Wuhan Coronavirus, of which five have passed away due to it. Two meetings, on the 12th and 15th of March, have come into question which was attended by around a thousand devotees. The infections at ISKCON represent a minor fraction of the Wuhan Coronavirus cases in the United Kingdom. As of the time of writing this report, there were 51,608 cases in the country and 5,373 deaths.

Thus, ISKCON currently contributes to only 0.04% of the cases in the UK and the percentage of deaths is at 0.09%. Thus, ISKCON’s contribution to the number of cases and deaths in the UK due to the Chinese Coronavirus is incredibly low. Compare this number to the Tablighi Jamaat in India. As of the 6th of April, 1445 of the confirmed 4067 Chinese Coronavirus cases in India were linked to the Islamic Missionary organization. That is, 35.5% of the cases were linked to it. It’s a ridiculously high number when compared to ISKCON in the UK. The two cases are definitely not the same.

Furthermore, it is important to remember that the ISKCON was not in violation of any government guidelines or order when the event was conducted on the 12th and 15th of March. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a stay at home order only on the 23rd of March, eight days after the second ISKCON event. Until then, it was still business as usual in the country. However, when Tablighi Jamaat had over a thousand members holed up at Markaz Nizamuddin, the Indian Government had already issued several social distancing guidelines and at the time of the religious event, they were clearly in violation of the orders against public gathering issued by the Delhi Government. Again, the two instances are definitely not the same.

The conduct of Tablighi Jamaat in India and ISKCON in the United Kingdom could not have been more different either. Unlike the Tablighi Jamaat, ISKCON devotees are not deliberately hiding the suspected cases to avoid detection and thereby, undermining the government’s efforts to curb the pandemic. Moreover, unlike the Tablighi Jamaat, the gathering did not claim that their God will somehow protect them from the pandemic or that the virus was a conspiracy against their religion. In fact, all ISKCON Temples were closed on the 16th of March, a week before Boris Johnson issued the lockdown orders.

The Tablighi Jamaat’s overall behaviour has been atrocious as well. Its members have misbehaved with the hospital staff, they roamed around the hospital naked and made sexually inappropriate gestures at the female healthcare staff. They threw tantrums over the food and demanded that they are served better served instead. They abused officials and spat at doctors in order to spread the virus further. Furthermore, they refused to adhere to social distancing norms in quarantine and huddled up together. They made unreasonable demands by claiming that they should be provided with entertainment and the ones which tested positive refused to take their medicines. ISKCON devotees have not done anything that is remotely comparable to any of it. People who are pretending that both cases are similar are running deliberate propaganda in order to dilute the severity of the Tablighi Jamaat’s atrocious conduct.

The people equating the conduct of the Tablighi Jamaat in India and the ISKCON in the United Kingdom are fully aware that the two cases have nothing in common with each other. But they are claiming so regardless of the truth because it serves their political agenda. It is not only in India that the Tablighi Jamaat has emerged as super spreader. The Islamic Missionary organization has spread the virus across the entire South Asian region and even in places as far off as Palestine. Therefore, to even claim that there is similarity between the cases is nothing short of acting as apologists for Radical Islam.

Moreover, certain individuals have claimed that the India government has ‘communalized’ the pandemic and is selectively targeting the Muslim community because Tablighi Jamaat has received great attention from all quarters due to its deplorable conduct. It is a familiar argument that props up every time a Radical Islamic organization indulges in criminal conduct. The same people who claim that not all Muslims are terrorists or bigots (something that everyone is well aware of) whenever a terrorist attack occurs equates the criticism directed at Tablighi Jamaat to hate spread against the entire Muslim community. It is a pathetic attempt to shield the Tablighi Jamaat from fair criticism.

In the latest instance, these people have attempted to put undue blame on ISKCON for sins they did not commit. It could be argued that they should not have organized the events on the 12th and 15th of March, something even ISKCON concedes, but their actions must be judged on the backdrop of the conduct of the British Government itself which did not take the virus seriously enough until it was too late. As such, the contribution of ISKCON to the Wuhan Coronavirus cases in the UK are not even remotely significant. It is clear that motivated propagandists are blaming ISKCON and comparing them their actions with the Tablighi Jamaat in order to shield the latter from all their fair criticism that is coming its way.

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