COVID-19 (coronavirus)

Have you noticed recently that things are collapsing?
Sure, the right-wing, nationalist rulers of many countries never stop telling us that they have made their nations “great” again.

Malaysia’s record on letting journalists be is a blotted one.  This month, authorities have been kept busy intimidating the independent news outlet Malaysiakini, with a seven-member federal court panel agreeing to hear contempt proceedings against its editor-in-chief Steven Gan.  Charged under section 114A of the Evidence Act, Gan and his outlet are said to have permitted the publication of over five reader comments critical of the judiciary.

There have been for some time, especially from libertarian quarters, accusations that the COVID-19 crisis has led to a state that has been called by some “medical martial law”. I believe the more accurate term and point of departure is “medical social engineering and management”. Martial law sounds more dramatic and seems simpler to understand. Yet we have to get beyond slogans and deal with long-term processes and policies if we are to find adequate responses today.

The state of Victoria is being sealed off from the rest of Australia.  On Tuesday, at 11.59pm, the border with New South Wales will be shut with publicised resoluteness.  It is happening at the insistence of politicians across the country with a panicked urge.  On the way are reminders about the miracle that was federation in 1901.  That a Commonwealth was ever formed from the Britannic nuts and bolts of an invasive penal settlement was remarkable, given the otherwise innate hostilities, not to mention competitiveness, the states had shown to each other.

Media Lens (ML) provides a first-rate critical eye on the media, especially the British mediascape, as well as sundry events in the world. In a recent piece, ML pointed to the science as supporting the effectiveness of wearing face masks against respiratory viral infections.

It all looked like it was going so well for Australia and Victoria, in particular.  They could point to the mishandling of the Ruby Princess, a cruise ship that docked in Sydney and whose passengers disembarked chocked with coronavirus, precipitating 700 cases and some 21 deaths across the country.  It had, till now, been the single most contagious incident in the COVID-19 annals of the antipodes.  Victorians could hold their heads hubristically high.

By most accounts, the response of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to the coronavirus pandemic has been abysmal.  When the architect of the response himself catches the virus, he is either a more informed person for his sin or a buffoon in need of serious chastising.

A view of deserted Ranganathan Street in Chennai on June 23, 2020. Hindu TimesAt times, states compete to showcase merchandise and relative productive capacities. Other times, many of these states sell misery to gain access to economic packages, charities and loans.

We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection.
— The New England Journal of Medicine, May 21, 2020

(T)hey told us exactly what was coming, and advised us to shut up and follow orders. Tragically, most people have done just that.
— CJ Hopkins, 2020

The European Union now excludes travelers from the COVID-ridden U.S., but welcomes those from the virtually COVID-free Cuba. Cuba, the country that sends doctors and infectious disease specialists around the world to fight the pandemic, the country the U.S. has held in contempt for 60 years, villified with every epithet and sanctioned and embargoed and blockaded to within an inch of its life.