The Indian Panorama

Tag: COVID 19

  • “Open Letter”- Donald Trump – Covid 19 Tsunami ravages India

    “Open Letter”- Donald Trump – Covid 19 Tsunami ravages India

    APRIL 14, 2020

    RAVl@RAV113ATRALAW.COM FAX: 212-545-0967

    H.E. Donald J. Trump

    President of the United States of America

    H.E. Nancy Pelosi

    Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives

    H.E. Addison Mitchell McConnell, Jr.

    Majority Leader, U.S. Senate

    Re: Open Letter – M/0 Novel Coronavirus Aka Covid19 Aka “2019-n-Co V” or “2019- nCoV” – Compensation Is Due from China; and If We Were Pearl Harbored, Then Reparations too.

    Honorable Messrs Trump, Pelosi, and McConnell :

    Let me begin with three obvious facts: first, the Chinese civilization is a great one, with many superlative contribution to humanity, including, empire building, martial  arts, gun  powder,  tea, and  perhaps,  best of all, Confucius  (who famously  said: May  you live in boring times); second, I I am a Blessed survivor of Coronavirus, that at 104.3 fever, when I  was on fire for 2-3 days, I was at  the surreal edge  between  live and death, where  l could calmly talk to God to allow me to live so I may serve and protect my family and serve the Greater Good. In my personal and intimate experience, I labeled Covid 19 as a Trojan (lorse, as it obviously has a very friendly “handshake” with every host’s auto  immune system  to gain entry,  before turning to destroy one’s  Walls of Troy; and third, today the known global Covid 19 cases  are 1,945,055,  with  121,897 global deaths, total US cases of 584,073 with  23,700 deaths, and  New  York, our epicenter,  nearly 11,000 New Yorker have died. As a disclaimer, I am an American first, a registered Democrat second, and I voted for Donald J. Trump  in 2016. I applaud the President for standing  up to China’s unfair trade with us, and I am most troubled  with her 24/7 global efforts to gain military and economic superiority on land, air, water and space,  well beyond  OBOR, and her continuing and enhanced misbehavior in South China Sea. Finally, yesterday, I specifically tweeted to dear Amb. Zhang Jun, China’s PR, and to her bilateral Ambassador Cui – as “fairness, respect and personal honor requires me to invite you to respond to my Tweets I’ve made re China, WHO and Covid19.” Unlike, on April 4, 2020, when PR Zhang and l respectfully conversed  on Twitter, albeit, about the serious need for China to disclose the “Raw Truth” about Covid 19, China’s distinguished diplomats incredulously maintained “radio silence,” when being forthcoming was what was required – both as a duty, and as reciprocal honor.

    Recently, on April 9, 2020, House Oversight and Reform’s Ranker Jim Jordon, and his colleagues, sent a gentle letter to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, DG, of the WHO. I join in said letter, albeit, l would not have been so gentle to a dishonest fiduciary, whose misconduct proximately caused the world’s public health to lay in ruins and the world’s economies were set adrift from both fiscal and monetary policies.

    WHO breached its fiduciary-forensic duties owed to the world, as it dishonestly enjoyed being China’s lap dog and purposefullyissued false statements, and delayed declaring a pandemic so as to create a confusing record for nations’ leaders, reasonablycausing miscalculation. I had in days prior to Rep. Jordan’s letter, called for an amendment to the UN Charter, to do away with the moth-balled Trusteeship Council and to replace it with a new Public Health UNSC, but named “UN Pandemic Council,” with 12 Permanent Members and 9 or 13 Rotating Members, charged with Responsibility to Protect, a sovereignty-piercing power, and have OPCW, as well as a reconstituted WHO, albeit, re-named, and then report to it. I am happy to say, Philippines

    Foreign Minister, dear Teddy Locsin has publicly – on Twitter – approved my proposal, and other nations’ Permanent Representatives have expressed interest in also supporting such a change to surgically remove the corruption-cancer and establish “clean margins” for honest fiduciary­ forensics to protect the global Public l lealth.

    It is a curious fact, that where-ever we have cut back in our contributions at the UN and her “organs,” China for merely givingUN the funding-shortfall we created, has become the “cherry on top” of all such organs. This is wrong, and an insult to ourmammoth contributions still being contributed, but, incredulously, taken for granted. The WHO ought be defrocked and dcfunded, while its function – only vital if the forensics arc done consistent to high fiduciary duties – and then, it too, as reconstituted, report to the new proposed UN Pandemic Council.

    The role and function of the United Nations is vital and important as ever, as the UNSC, charged with preventing WWIII hashandsomely succeeded, even as the weeds of local and regional wars have mushroomed. UN is celebrating its 75th Anniversary. Perfect time for some “spring­ cleaning,” and re-calibration to achieve necessary reforms to better effectuate the high ideals or the UN Charter. It is, after all, a paraphrased amalgam of our Declaration of Independence and our cherished Constitution, lo help form a more perfect world.

    Coronavirus – as a matter of biochemist,    (see,” l” documentary movie on the Ol’igins of CCP  virus –Trackin             Down the Ori  in of th  Wuhan Conmavirus” (The 1st Documentary) h tt p://youtu . be/dd7dL0aYmM).

    I rely upon this cited evidence, see below, as it credibly  shows, and I credit  it, that the “story of the Wuhan Seafood Market” is a pretext and an elegant cover-up, which is exposed as such with biochemistry: China denied there was any “human-to-human” transmission. Well,  we know  that to be a Big Lie, as we are all under a Lockdown to prevent “community spread,” i.e. human-to­ human transmission. Jon Cohen wrote in the Journal  Science,  “Wuhan seafood market  may not be the source of novel virus spreading globally.” In a paper entitled, The clinical features of patients with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China, published in The Lancet, whose first author Huang Chaolin, Deputy Director of Jin Yin-Tan Hospital, and Dr. Sean Lin, who said:

    1. Symptom onset of the First Patient is on December 1, [2019] had NO relation to the Huanan Seafood market;
    2. No epidemiological link was found between the first patient and later cases;
    • On December 10, [2019J, there were 3 more cases, 2 cases of the 3 cases had NO relation to the Huanan Seafood Market;
    1. Since December 15 [2019], a cluster of cases with a history of seafood market exposure have beenreported;
    2. NO one sells BATS at the Wuhan Seafood Market and NO BATS have been

    Judy A. Mikovits PhD, Molecular Biologist, Former Director of Lab of Antiviral Mechanisms NCI said: There were no bats, and the idea of the spread so fast through the population is highly unlikely and improbable.

    There were 99 confirmed cases at Jin Yin-Tan Hospital, of which 50 had NO exposure to Wuhan Seafood Market.

    45 of the 425 confirmed cases before January 22 [20201, had NO contact with the Wuhan Seafood market, albeit, the secondary source of a virus appears to be mushrooming and over­ shadowing (cover-up) the original breach of the originalvirus.

    Daniel Lucey, an epidemiologist at the University of Georgetown said the First case would have been infected by the virus already in November (2019) – if not earlier because there is an incubation time between infection and symptoms surfacing.[Means Wuhan Seafood Market is a secondary source, not the primary source, and as a result of “community spread,” at best, or a separate virus introduced to cover up the earlier one, at worstJ.

    Gordan Chang, Asian  Affairs  Expert,  and  columnist,  said:  We  know  that  Beijing  for  six  (6) weeks in December [2019] and January l2020J suppressed information, before  acknowleding  on January 20th , and they then started a campaign of suppression of information, and on January 26th created a panel, and it was very heavy with propaganda officials.  Indeed, the vice chairman  of the  group is the Communist Party’s propaganda czar. The Communist Party Group imposed a false diagnostic criteria,  starting  with  –  must  have  contact  with  Wuhan  Seafood  market,  knowing  a solid one-third of the cases had  ZERO  contact  with  Wuhan  Seafood  Market.  Thank  God,  they didn’t impose a Bat-Bite  requirement  for their  investigation.  I lence,  it  was  the  start  of  an organized cover-up, and to mislead the world as to what China was really up to.

    Gen. Robert Spalding, Senior Fellow Hudson Institute, and former NSC Senior Strategy Director, was in China when SARS happened. Same playbook.

    Critical Evidence – The M stcrious Gene Se ucnce (from the !st Documentary):

    The coronavirus, aka “£019 – n- “o V” – has a 100% amino acid similarity in the nsp7 and E proteins with “Bat-SL-CoVZC45” and “Bat-SL-CoVZXC2l, but worst of all, the “2019-n-CoV”- has a reversed-engineered and grafted-on in a lab of the natural-to-bats “receptor-binding” domain structure, the “mushrooms”on the surface, of the “SA RS-CoV” – i.e. a transplantation of the Spike G lyc oprotcin( , ), the natural “mushroom” on the surfaceof “SARS-Co V” is in a lab genetically added/spliced/grafted onto o “2019-n-CoV” – which I have, from personal experience, calleda Trojan Horse to have a friendly ”handshake,” is in fact accurate biochemically – as the”receptor-binding” unlocks the human cell, and enters the human body much easier! The SARS’ “Bat-SL-CoVZc45″ and”Bat-SL-CoVZXC21” – with its natural Bat-based “mushrooms” on the surface – did not enter humans.

    CDC’s En-01·: Curiously, the CDC.Gov site publishes the January 29, 2020 article in The Lancet- which gets into the genome characteristics of the subject coronavirus, aka “2019-n-coV” aka “2019-nCov,” at

    (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/genomic-charactcrization-of-2019-nCo V-Lancct-1-29-2020.pdf), which states the predicate findings, as “The ten genome sequences of 2019-nCo V obtained from the nine patients were extremely similar, exhibiting more than 99·98% sequence identity. Notably, 2019-nCoV was closely related (with 88% identity) to two bat-derived severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-like coronaviruses, bat-SL-CoVZC45 and bat-SL-CoVZXC21, collected in 2018 in Zhoushan, eastern China, but were more distant from SARS-Co V (about 79%) and MERS-CoV (about 50%). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that 2019-nCoV foll within the subgenus Sarbcco virus of the genus Beta coronavirus, wilh a relatively long branch length to its closest relatives bat-SL-CoVZC45 and

    bat-SL-CoVZXC21, and was genetically distinct from SARS-CoV. Notably, homology modelling revealed that 2019-nCoV had a similar receptor-binding domain structure to that of SARS-CoV, despite amino acid variation at some key residues.”

    Despite finding that 2019-n-CoV had these “receptor-binding,” which is not natural, but was reverse engineered, likethe WHO misleading the world, issued an “interpretation” that ignores the non-natural addition of these Spike Glycoprotein to Coronavirus!

    Ed ar Allan Po : Purloined Letter

    I well recall the famous American mystery writer, Edgar Allan Poe, who in his “Purloined Letter” – has the subject letter hiding in “plain sight” in a letter box on the desk, while everyone is looking for secret compartments. Here, the first case had NO exposure to Wuhan Seafood Market, and there arc NO bats at said market. Hence, Wuhan is secondary source, after community spread, and can be ignored and discarded as a “cover up.” The actual and original source of the coronavirus is therefore elsewhere. That is an undeniable fact, well capable of meeting even the criminal standard of proof – “beyond a reasonable doubt.” I, therefore charge China with hiding the actual source of coronavirus, and ignore the fraudulent assertion by the Chinese Communist Party Propaganda Czar that Wuhan Seafood Market, withzero Bats, has any value to getting to the source, or finding the most precious item right now across the world: the mosteffective vaccine to this plague from China. China, it appears, is following an old playbook it developed in SARSoutbreak

    The question, then arises: where, oh where, did Coronavirus come from?

    The answer, given the reverse-engineered receptor-binding, my “Trojan Horse” clement, which makes this virus socontagious, since it took a natural element in the two SARS virus, and spliced it on to Covid19 to unlock human auto-immune system/defense.

    Why did China allow its citizens to travel the world after November 2019, when she knew there were coroanvirus (with artificial receptor-binding) cases, which had nothing to do with Wuhan Seafood Market? Was this negligence? Was this intentional? I cannot prove intent, but negligence, is overwhelming.

    China  had a duty to tell the WHO  and  the world   not  do a “hit & run” :

    The fntcmational Health Regulations (2005) arc internationally binding  rules upon  member­ statcs, which obligate them in handling pubic health issues, especially, for highly transmissible diseases. Ironically, they were adopted after the 2003 SARS outbreak in China – and then too, China was critizcd for not promptly disclosing – what I have demanded – the “Raw Truth.” These rules are enforced by the WHO, China’s Lap Dog, and thru the ICJ. Among the Rules violated by China include, WHO’s Article 6 (Not notifying WHO of a Public Health Emergency  – in November 2019), article 7 (Un-timely information-sharing during an emergency), Article 64 (not providing timely epidemiological reports – the core violation, given China’s active cover-up, and even substituting Wuhan Seafood Market as a false source), and finally, violating the anti­ corruption regulation, Article 37 (seeking to influence the WHO DG Dr. Ghebreysus, and staff – WHO has played well as a lap dog, and hence, China has violated this Atticlc).

    Pearl Harbor – FDR: “A Day That Will Live in Infamy” – when Kamikaze Pilots of the Imperial  Forces of Japan hit us on December 7, 1941  in a sneak attack, but in broad  daylight, their attack started at 7:55 am and lasted  till 9:00am, a little over an hour, causing, according to  the National Park Service, 1998 Navy personnel, 109 Marines, 233 Army personnel and 48 civilians killed at Pearl  Harbor on December  7th, 1941; a total of 2388 Americans  killed. Still, the Japanese airmen were enemy combatants, and died in service to their Emperor – until General Douglas MacArthur had him abdicate divinity on the deck of the USS Missouri. Here, however, China used – negligently or heaven forbid, intentionally, her everyday  unwitting citizen-tourists and businessmen, contaminated with Coronavirus,  to spread  the deadly and  lab-engineered plague of death and destruction, and then covered  it up and went  ‘radio silent.” China  is criminally guilty at least of a “Hit and Run .” If our Government  was to find  out that we were Pearl l Iarbored, even more sneakily than on December 7, 941, then China must lose her UNSC Permanent Seat, and give the world$100 Trillion in reparations, and disband her military.

    Ruic of Law in our Rules-based world – The Standard of Proof and Permitted Inferences: I honor the established standard of proof, and permitted inference – Civilly,  when only compensation is due, the standard is “mere prcponderence of the evidence,” and a “negative inference’ is charged, when a party who ought to speak up or produce  documents,  but doesn’t, such party is presumed to be hiding “inculpatory” evidence of said party’s guilt. My near 10-day Tweets in seeking to honesty crack the Coronavirus case – based upon reliable evidence – and a specific tweet, predicated upon fairness, respect and personal honor, to Ambassadors Zhang and Cui, including, even a tagging of”@China_mfa,” sadly, did not cause a tsunami of facts and documents showing China’s innocence to come my way today.

    Instead, China has “closed” and “covered up” tighter than a drum used in parades. This behavior violates a core “duty” to speak up,let alone help find the best Coronvirus vaccine. Accordingly, on the established rules of law, China is at least guilty of negligence in proximately causing a world pandemic, where nearly 2 million people have suffered it’s pain and suffering, and nearly 122,000 souls have lost their lives and left their families damaged and fractured. A simple example: a trucking deliveryservice has two trucks, one that is a flat-bed, and the other, which is a closed truck-container. The Owner directs the driver to use the flat-bed truck, load it up with boxes, and then strap them down tightly. The driver, on the road, hits a few bumps, does a few hard brakes, and the next thing you know, as he is going around a tum his load becomes loose and shoots across the highway.The cars behind while trying to avoid being “shot at” by the bouncing boxes, crash into each other or the road divider, many suffering injuries, and some even dying. A lawfully negligent  driver  would stop his truck, get out, and try  to help, or at least call 911 for ambulance and police. China didn’t do that. China kept driving, and when asked, told falsehoods to deceive. Hence, under established laws, China is at least guilty of a “Hit & Run,” which is a crime .

    Additional facts: China has cancelled approximately 8 million cell phones in the last 3-4 months

    • each Chinese citizen is authenticated by their government by their cell phone. Unless you arc dead, you don’t cancel your cell phone. This suggests that China’s coronavirus death toll far exceeds its oficial number of a mere 3,300. Since President trump has sought to impose fair trade between us, China’s FOi in the United States has dropped from over $45 Billion to just over $5 Billion. This shrinking footprint suggests evasion of expected sanctions for bad

    Recommendations and Conclusions to POTUS and U.S. Congress:

    1. China owes us civil compensation – at least for negligence, which has been proven the legal standard – in a fair and reasonabe amount, which I recommend match our standard  for 9/11, but no less than $1 million dollars for every American who tested  positive  for Coronavirus, $5 million for every American who died, and $100,000 for every American who has to be “locked down.” Every other nation can negotiate – using our good offices of Secretary Pompeo – for their fair and reasonablesettlement;
    2. China owes criminal “hit & run” sanctions: I recommend, given the cover-up, which exacerbated the injury, pain and suffering globally, as well as avoidable deaths, that China’s ownership of debts in every country – for example the $1.2T in China’s ownership of our T-Bills
    • be cancelled. As a further  example,  it  means Sri Lanka’s $9 B debt is cancelled, and she gets her largest port back. Furthermore, China must vacate Mischief  Reef, and stop all  aggression, such as blocking “freedom of navigation,” or just a few days ago, ramming a Vietnamese fishing boat, with eight fishermen fishing in Vietnamese waters. This outlaw behavior, coupled with aggressive and active attempts to buy military enhancing capacities must

    As I respectfully told China’s distinguished Foreign Minster Wang three years ago in 2017 at the UNGA, China is inviting a Little War now, or a Big War later – and I prefer a Little War now. He responded, “No  War; No   War.”. The unleashing of global death and suffering with the  coronavirus, a plague upon all of us, is worse than Pearl Harbor, and given its deception and later , cover-up, lack any semblance of Honor.

    CC: Sen. Chuck Schumer, Leader  Kevin McCarthy, Chairma   Eliot L. Engel, Ranker  McCall, Chair Carolyn B. Maloney, Ranker Jim Jordan, Chairman-Senator Risch, Ranker-Senator Bob Mcnandez, Secretary Pompco, Secretary Esper, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and A.G. Tish James

  • “Open Letter” -US President Joe Biden- Covid 19 Tsunami ravages India

    “Open Letter” -US President Joe Biden- Covid 19 Tsunami ravages India

    APRIL 13, 2021

    RAVl@RAVILAW.COM

    FAX: 212-545-0967

    H.E. Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

    President of the United States of America

    H.E. Nancy Pelosi

    Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives

    H.E. Chuck Schumer Majority Leader, U.S. Senate

    Re: 1 Year after My April 14, 2020 “Open Letter” – M/0 Novel Coronavirus  Aka Covid 19 Aka “2019-n-CoV” or “2019-nCo V” – Compensation Is Due from China; and lf We Were Pearl Harbored, Then Reparations too.

    Honorable President Biden, Speaker Pelosi, and Majority Leader Schumer:

    As an un-conflicted American, I love and admire the Chinese culture; always have, and find Confucius wiser as I age. With God’s Grace I and my family survived Covid 19 on or about March 29, 2020. Treating this Virus as a cancer case that I needed to crack, and after learning biochemistry and epidemiology during an intense effort, I did so, and a year ago, on April 14, 2020, I wrote a 6-pagc “Open Letter” to then-President Trump, Speaker Pelosi and then-Senate Majority Leader (“OL”; copy enclosed, with uniform spelling of “Wuhan”), and for POTUS,emai led it to a former Marine: Deputy NSA Matt Pottinger at 8:31pm. In the OL, I had the science, the facts, and recommendations, including, bringing our “supply chains” home. The next day, April 15, 2020, about l p.m. the United States opened a preliminary investigation into inter alia the origin ofSARS-CoV2 from PLA-run Wuhan Virology Lab, and the motives of CCP China in causing its global-spread without sounding a pandemic-alarm directly or thru theWHO. Iremain grateful for the start of the April 15, 2020 ‘”all hands on deck” Investigation.

    It remains an open secret that my analysis was and is correct, and that this is a lab-created Frankenstein that transplanted the “Spike Glycoprotein(S)” (“Spike”) from Bats – a unique feature in bats, as they are either “cold” or “warm” blooded, and still, awarm Bat can procreate with a cold Bat due to the “Spike.” OL at 3. I called “Covidl 9,” aka “WuhanVirus,” a Trojan Horse, asits Spike feature does not cause our immune system to sound an alarm upon infection (and the T-cells remain asleep).Disturbingly, CCP has not turned over, to this day, the genome of Patient Zero who was admitted in Wuhan hospital on or about December 1, 2019, while a different protein string-virus was released on or about December 31, 2019 at the Wuhan Wet Market. The animal farms about a 1000 miles away from Wuhan, did not experience a Covid19 outbreak, thereby decimating the  WHO’s coddled-team’s report, after a 3-hour chaperoned  visit to the Wuhan Virology lab, falsely asserting a virus jumpfrom an animal to a human.

    WHO dishonored its high fiduciary obligations, and did not promptly alert the leaders of every nation that a pandemic was afoot and ask to lock-down CCP’s China. President Trump said  we were fighting an invisible enemy. I disagree; the cascading events in just the South China Sea – from creating Mischief  Reef, to sinking of Filipino  Fishing  boats with Fishermen  to their death, to sinking Vietnamese Fishing boats, to the recent squatting of 245 Chinese Militia ships, lashed together to appear as part of “9-Dashcs” in Philippines’  Exclusive  Economic  Zone – are in violation of inter aha the UN Convention on  the Law of the Sea (“UNCLOS”).  The  Virus is surely invisible, but this string of protein, despite its lab-based default programing, has no animus towards us and docs not benefit by causing death and destruction – and by my last count, our needlessly dead well exceed  our losses at Pearl Harbor.  A substantial  question  arises: is Covid19 a biowarfare agent? The death and destruction we have suffered suggests a motivated animus, which is a human phenomena that renders us unworthy in the eyes of God.

    Despite Truth-in-Labeling laws, CCP has succeeded in blocking this Virus from being origin­ labeled by deeming it racist. Our misguided citizens criminally attacking innocent law-abiding Asian-Americans has provided cover, while shaming us as a nation that celebrates diversity, and staining E Pluribus Unum. Our shameful chapter of interning innocent and loyal Japanese­ Americans during WWII, when we did no such thing to German-Americans while fighting Nazi Germany, is a lesson we need to learn perpetually, exactly, as Kristallnacht teaches: remember always. It is a singularly important ingredient in our effort to form a more perfect union – a point recently well made by Secretary Blinken in Anchorage.

    I write to seek from you dear and respected President Biden, given your distinguished tenure and natural God-given abilities – a clear American policy – both as to our injury from Covidl 9 and holding the sending-nation reasonably responsible (turnover all biomedical information, indemnify our losses, etc), and to restore global peace and security, byavoiding a war if we can. Indeed, pre-Covid 19, troubled by the years-long effort by China to create Mischief Reef into a military base, in September 2017, I had a respectful conversation with China’s distinguished FM Wang Yi, which in sum and substance, I explained the above facts and said, you are inviting a little war now or a big war later, and since l don’t like wars, I prefer a little war now. Minister Wang, with concern, immediately responded: No war! No war!, and left toend this conversation.

    Diplomacy is always needed, even to arrange a surrender to end a war. It has been reported that President Xi, whom I consider to be at least as much an exceptional mastermind as Chainnan Mao was, if not more, has asked his diplomatic corps to unsheathe their swords to be Wolf Warriors – a fi.mction or definition that defies diplomacy, even as it weaponizes it. Given that backdrop, we, as hosts at Captain Hook Hotel in Anchorage on March 18, 2021 – instead of a protocol-based public welcome, private candid talks, and a public press conference at the end – started with our honest expressions in public. In a moment that evokes – albeit, in part – a declaration of independence [sadly, from usJ, CCP’s Foreign Affairs Chief Yang Jiechi effortlessly responded in public, what I believe was intended for private talks. We areat the cusp of a modern day Gordian Knot.

    While f take note of William Stanton’s recent April 9, 2021 piece on “Agents of Influence,” I particularly take note of former NSA H.R. McMaster’s May 2020 piece in The Atlantic, entitled “How China Sees the World,” f freely admit that it was our then-President Nixon who opened the world for China and granted CCP a permanent seat on the UNSC. Whether we have a rules-based or law-based system of sovereigns co-existing in the comity of nations, we ought not be in the position of having to  pick  between  the ever-reasonable and well-calibrated go-along and get­ along Neville Chamberlain or Winston Churchill as being necessary to maintain our cherished freedoms and never surrender our sovereignty. Methinks, a new joint Yalta and Brentwood Conference is needed, before over-due structural  reforms  can occur,  and global  peace and security re-harnessed, without endless regional wars.

    Mr. President, you and I have had several meaningful exchanges, including, in the White House, and most relevantly,  in the UN’s Hall of Flags in Fall 2015 – when I urged you to run in 2016, as  an election you were born for – to revive the American  Dream. The American Dream  belongs more to everyday Americans, than Wall Streeters, custodians of international money and achiever of maximum profit, as it was everyday  Americans in 1814 who during heavy  bombardment  of Fort McHenry, kept our Flag high by paying the ultimate sacrifice repeatedly, and caused Francis Scott Key to pen our Star Spangled Banner. Please let it wave high, and free, in this 21sL Century.

    If I can assist, as you wished of me during our substantive talk in the Hall of Flags, as a citizen­ patriot, devastated by January 6Lh more than by 9/11, I would be happy to re-find diplomacy’s respect-based ability to “round the edges” andfashion justice-based remedies that arc equitable – as the Jesuits teach us everything must be. Sometimes, davening with theright Minyan helps to be better able to tum swords into ploughshares. As Honor and WWIII walk into the ring to face off, thetime is now for your leadership to make foreign policy into domestic policy – just as your infrastructure plan is our OBOR/BRI within our borders. Retail solutions will not work in the East or in the West; but, wholesale solutions will turnadversaries into allies. God Bless you, and continue to Bless these united States of America – I prefer“unit“the verb.

    Encl: April 14, 2020 Open Letter

    CC: Leader Addison  Mitchell  McConnell  Jr.,  Leader  Kevin  McCm1H  ,  HFAC  Chairman Greg W. Meeks, Ranker McCall, Cha i C aro lyn B. Maloney, Ra, er Jim Jordan, SFRC Chairman  Bob  Menandez,  Ranker Ri  checretary Anthony Bli     en Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, NSA Jake Sullivan.

    \041321-POTUS46-Chin11-Coronavirus-Compensation-Reparations041420

  • “Open Letter” – PM Narendra Modi- Covid 19 Tsunami ravages India

    “Open Letter” – PM Narendra Modi- Covid 19 Tsunami ravages India

    MAY 6, 2021

    RAVI@RAVIBATRALAW.COM

    FAX: 212-545-0967

    H.E. Narendra Modi Prime Minister of India

    Re:  “Open Letter” – in re as Covid 19 Tsunami ravages India, the need for the “raw truth” of this lab-created biowarfare agent is now necessary to fabricate more-accurate vaccines that can disarm the ever-mutating strains of SARS-CoV2, which if not disarmed, this virulent ever-more deadly mutating-disease can eliminate humanity globally.

    Honorable P.M. Modi:

    As an un-conflicted American, having migrated from India at the age of seven (7), I spent four­ plus years in Hong Kong and learned to love and admire the Chinese culture, although, Confucius has gotten wiser as I have aged as a happy NewYorker. Your early leadership with a strong “Lockdown” of India was a global example of a government honoring it’s duty toprotect the public health. Given the sudden Covid19-mutated strain’s tsunami ravaging India, I write to you, because now, protecting and curing all the people across the world must be Job 1.

     

    It is not a time for political advantage or even seeking compensatory damages, as it is now becoming clear that this lab-created virus can become an existential threat to humanity globally, and those who dream of building newempires will have nothing to dominate or rule over.

    Instead, India’s experience – a year after we were overwhelmed – speaks to a need for an international all-nations’ effort to disarm this biowarfare agent with President Xi’s help – using a form of Truth & Reconciliation Commission which grants legal immunity for “whole truth disclosure” – so scientists can get immediate access to all the creative knowledge,documents and lab variant-samples about this out-of-control PLA-Lab created weapon. This is much worse than a nuclear weapons threat, as its out of control, and its infection capability makes every person and animal on earth vulnerable, and rendering current vaccines potentially ineffective.

    Disclaimer

    As an open disclaimer, I see life thru an American Lens, given that human follies are well splashed across the pages of history, I am resoundingly certain of American Exceptional ism, structurally embedded in our founding Declaration and Constitution, with each American duty­ bound to help “form a more perfect union” – not shaken, until our insurrection of January 6th •

    That I successfully intervened, as requested by India, in the shameful auction of Mahatma Gandhi’s items in New York and had the items respectfully returned to India; successfully defended Krittika Biswas’ honor and won in every federal court and won the highest award for a false arrest and for a night in jail – an effort I was supported in by the now-late great Queens D.A. Judge Richard Brown, Rep. Gray Ackerman and, most effectively, by Senator Chuck Schumer; and, interalia, successfully represented the Indian National Congress and the Hon. Sonia Gandhi in U.S. Federal courts regarding the painful “1984 Riots” and helped create a legal precedent, that India, like the United States with inter alia our unconstitutional Japanese-American Internment during WWII, has the right to fix her own mistakes without our meddling in her internal affairs. By so doing, I enhanced the bilateral relationship between our two great nations, which you later described in your pivotal Joint Address to Congress as “indivisible.” That exact relationship, I have alwaysseen as our “Joint Destiny,” given the pull and push of history: Indian tea starred in the 1773 Boston Tea Party, and LordCornwallis, after losing to General George

    Washington, upon arriving as Viceroy of India ordered 5,000 Indian men, women and children be put to death for his American loss, and proceeded to rule with an “Iron Fist.” A Fist that never unclasped, until Mahatma Gandhi.  And,  Dr.  Ambedkar,  Columbia  Law-educated,  authored India’s Constitution, deeply informed by ours from 1787.

    During the last decade, my incredible wife, Ranju, then-chair of the Diwali Stamp Project, spent seven (7) years seeking a United States Postal Service Diwali Stamp, and got help from many persons, but none more than Rep. Carolyn Maloney, then-Amb. Hardeep Singh Puri, then-ASG Lakshmi Puri, Rep. Grace Meng, then-Rep. Eliot L. Engel, Rep.Greg Meeks, and inter alia, then India’s New Yark-based CG Dnyaneshwar M. Mulay who wrote the Official poem for theDiwali Stamp Project. Indeed, Ranju asked and received from you – your support for the Diwali Stamp during your UNGA visit – as she did and received from then-President Obama. Ranju’s achievement was immortal, as the DiwaliStamp successfully dedicated on October 5, 2016 was a USPS “Forever” stamp, and Ranju made personal history byselling over 170,000 stamps for Day One, beating Batman, and making the Diwali Stamp #1 in USPS history. Indeed, your 2016 Diwali Message contained a clip of that Stamp Dedication, which serves to enhance our bilateral relations forever. Indeed, the United Nations has celebrated that achievement with 24 nations coming together to honor Ranju, and now, Ranju, as chair of the Diwali Foundation USA, bestows Power of One awards, aka Oscars of Diplomacy, on exceptional world class diplomats who personify the highest ideals of the United Nations Charter and enhance global peace & security.

    More recently, I was invited by then-Chairman Eliot L. Engel of House Foreign Affairs Committee to testify on October 22, 2019 regarding Kashmir, and inter alia, issued: an apology for advocating “restraint” after India’s November 26th (akin to our 9/11); and India’s right to enact Section 370, and to restore normalcy as soon as public safety was secured. Indeed, on January 9, 2020, during our historic reception in the actual HFAC Room for strong US-India ties and celebrating Congress, your distinguished Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, with now-JointSecretary Sandeep Chakrovorty in attendance, showed pictures of a 16-nations’ strong ambassadorial visit to Kashmir earlier that day – a fact I celebrated then and there in Congress, which included, Rep. Brad Sherman and Chairman Eliot L. Engel participating.

    SARS-CoV2 aka Covid-19 aka Wuhan Virus – Case Cracked on April 14, 2020: Lab-Created With that truncated disclaimer out of the way, and with God’s Grace, I and my family survived

    Covid 19 on or about March 29, 2020. Treating this Virus as a cancer case that I needed to crack, and after learning biochemistry and epidemiology during an intense effort, I did so, and a year ago, on April 14, 2020, I wrote a 6-page”Open Letter” to then-President Trump, Speaker Pelosi and then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (“OL”; copyenclosed, with uniform spelling of “Wuhan”), and for POTUS, emailed it to a former Marine: Deputy NSA Matt Pottinger at 8:31pm. In the OL, I had the science, the facts, and recommendations, including, bringing our “supply chains” home. The next day, April 15, 2020, about 1 p.m. the United States opened a preliminary investigation into inter alia the origin of SARS-CoV2 from PLA-run Wuhan Virology Lab, and the motives of CCP China in causing its global-spread without sounding a pandemic-alarm directly or thru the WHO. I remain grateful for the start of the April 15, 2020 “all hands on deck” Investigation. I have since, written an Open Letter to President Joesph R. Biden Jr. on April 13, 2021 (copy enclosed).

    It remains an open secret that my analysis was and is correct, and that this is a lab-created Frankenstein that transplanted the “Spike Glycoprotein(S)” (“Spike”) from Bats – a unique feature in bats, as they are either “cold” or “warm” blooded, and still, a warm Bat can procreate with a cold Bat due to the “Spike.” OL at 3. I called “Covid19,” aka “WuhanVirus,” a Trojan Horse, as its Spike feature does not cause our immune system to sound an alarm upon infection (and the I-cells remain asleep). Disturbingly, China has not turned over, to this day, the genome of Patient Zero who was admitted in Wuhan hospital on or about December 1, 2019, while a different protein string-virus was released on or about December 31, 2019 at the Wuhan Wet Market. The animal farms about a 1000 miles away from Wuhan, did not experience a Covid19 outbreak, thereby decimating the WHO’s coddled-team’s report, after a 3-hour chaperoned visit to the Wuhan Virology lab, falsely asserting a zoonotic virus jump from animal to human.

    Natural viruses mutate to become safe and on-hurtful. This Virus is mutating serially, as if it was a multi-stage ICBM, becoming more and more dangerous as it continues to exist.

     WHO dishonored its high fiduciary obligations, and did not promptly alert the leaders of every nation that a pandemic was afoot and ask to lock-down China. President Trump said we were fighting an invisible enemy. I disagree. The Virus is surely invisible, but this string of protein, despite its lab-based default programing, has no animus towards us and does not benefit by causing death and destruction – and by my last count, our needlessly dead far exceed our losses at Pearl Harbor.

    Despite Truth-in-Labeling laws, China, run by 100 years’ celebrating CCP, has succeeded in blocking this Virus from being origin-labeled by deeming origin-labeling to be racist. But, its not a fight over labeling.

    Onlv Solution: Disarm Covid 19

    I now write to you – as my views have changed and evolved – as even war will not stop this mutated-variant’s tsunami that is ravaging lndiafromjumping to other nations, even as travel restrictions are imposed on India, as we have gotten earlier variants despite best efforts to block travel. Indeed, re-visiting my prior conversation with China’s distinguished Foreign Minister Wang Yi suggests – that while I wanted a Little War in 2017 due to events in South China Sea, as in a stitch in time saves nine (a la nine dashes) – whereas he did not, as he clearly said. FM Wang, I believe, with President Xi’s change of heart, can be an asset for a new just and honorable peace for all: rejuvenate the world.

    Diplomacy is always needed, even to arrange a surrender to end a war. Now, after India being ravaged by mutated-variants, with other nations to follow, this ICBM of a virus must be disarmed ASAP with Biowarfare Codes only China can share. It has been reported that President Xi, whom I consider to be at least as much an exceptional mastermind as Chairman Mao was, if not more, has asked his diplomatic corps to unsheathe their swords to be Wolf Warriors – a function or definition that defies diplomacy, even as it weaponizes it.

    How to Disarm Covid19-Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s TRC

    I urge you, as the champion of India’s sovereignty and chief protector of her citizens’ public health andsafety, as well as a vital member of the “Quad,” and SCO, run by a dear friend Dr. Vladimir Norov as its Secretary General, to change our geopolitical matrix from competitive, adversarial and crime and punishment, to arestorative formula from South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Truth & Reconciliation Commission – so we can move forward collectively as a human family, and disarm this Virus of an ICBM.

    South Africa was critical in MKG becoming a Mahatma. Perhaps, if you can get President Xi to share “nuclear codes” of this virus-ICBM to disarm it, more than Nobel Peace prizes will be awarded; prayers and blessings of humanity across India and the globe will follow for saving millions of people, who will otherwise continue to die from this ever-mutatingDeath Virus. India has a reputation throughout many millennia of being the land of peace. China is currently President of the UNSC, charged with enhancing global peace & security. If you can get President Xi to join you in peace-building the future, the “Rejuvenation” he seeks, will come with Confucius’ ultimate blessed wish: “May you live in boring

    Encl:  April 14, 2020 Open Letter to POTUS     ump, an April 13, 2021Open Letter to POTUS Biden, et al

    CC:  H.E. Joseph R. Biden, Jr., President of the United States of America

    H.E. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives

    H.E. Chuck Schumer, Majority Leader, U.S. Senate

    Leader Addison Mitchell McConnell, Jr., Leader Kevin McCarthy, Whip Liz Chaney, HFAC Chairman Greg W. Meeks, Ranker McCall, Chair Carolyn  B. Maloney,  Ranker Jim Jordan, SFRC Chairman Bob Menandez, Ranker Risch, Secretary Anthony Blinken, Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, NSA Jake Sullivan,FM Wang Yi, Amb. Zhang Jun.

     

  • Did Modi Government bungle the fight against Covid?

    Did Modi Government bungle the fight against Covid?

    By George Abraham

    “There is no doubt that India would have managed the Covid crisis better if the Government based its policies on the advice of health experts rather than relying on ancient traditions and beliefs. Banging of the thalis, lighting candles, and switching off lights at a certain time in the evening will not end this epidemic. It takes dedicated leadership that relies on science and depends on valuable advice from the country’s renowned epidemiologists. This is just another reminder to build more hospital facilities especially in rural areas to combat a sudden increase in demand in any future crisis. Building statues and other monuments may make us proud but will not substitute institutions that would serve people’s daily needs and their career aspirations.”

    ‘India is gasping for oxygen,’ said Rahul Gandhi, apparently referring to the shortage of oxygen flagged by several state governments as the country is once again fighting the Covid-19 in a second wave which many health experts have predicted. The seven-day average now stands at 264,838, which means that this new outbreak is the largest ever recorded in the world. There is little doubt that the country appears to be in a severe health crisis where patients are being turned away due to lack of oxygen, ventilators, or even beds.

    In early March, India’s health minister Harsh Vardhan declared that India was “in the end game” of this Pandemic and applauded Prime Minister Modi’s statesmanship in this regard. Soon, India started shipping millions of doses of vaccines to foreign countries. The optimism about India overcoming the deadly virus began to surface in early January among experts and policymakers. They were quite confident about bending the curve on the Covid infection rate. The country had already suffered enough, and the people were just eager to bring some normalcy to their lives.

    The election Commission of India soon announced key elections in five states where 186 million people were eligible to vote. Kerala was one of those states where election rallies were held without safety protocols or social distancing. Although on television, national leaders would occasionally appear to exhort the citizens of their solemn duty to cover their faces with masks, keep social distancing and maintain hygiene. However, in a campaign rally held by Modi in the constituency of Konni, Kerala, thousands of people were bused in from all over the neighboring districts into a crowded stadium where it was almost next to impossible to keep up with their own guidelines. It has happened with BJP rallies and every other political party in contravention to the Government’s stated advisories. Then there were cricket matches, religious festivals, and other crowded events that went on with the knowledge and consent of the authorities who miserably failed in their mission.

    Soon, it all began to unravel as India started breaking records averaging more than 100000 cases a day. Today, the social media is full of information and pictures on Covid funerals in crowded cemeteries, weeping relatives, long queues of ambulances carrying gasping patients, mortuaries overflowing with the dead, and two or more patients to a bed, and in corridors and lobbies fighting for services, tests, medicines, and even oxygen.  It has become a sad spectacle where the ordinary citizen once again has become the hapless victim of this continuing tragedy. Underlining Government’s responsibility to provide oxygen to medical facilities, the Delhi court, in a recent ruling, admonished the Administration by saying that “human lives are not important to… the State. We are shocked and dismayed that the Government is not seeing that reality… what is happening? Why is the Government not waking up to the reality?”

    What has gone wrong? We were supposed to vaccinate as many as possible to arrest this Pandemic. A country like Israel has shown the world that an effective way of prevention is a vaccination that would protect all, especially the vulnerable population. However, up until now, only less than 2% of India’s population have been fully vaccinated. In many cases, people are still waiting for their second shot. There have been vaccine shortages everywhere. While there was no countrywide vaccine strategy in place, the Modi government declared victory over Covid and started exporting them to the International market. Notwithstanding India’s obligation to the rest of humanity, Charity must begin at home. Modi administration’s callous behavior in this regard has undoubtedly contributed to the ongoing crisis. Moreover, official arrogance, hyper-nationalism, and bureaucratic bungling all might have played a part in the current fiasco.

    Addressing the nation on the latest crisis, Prime Minister Modi appears to have no answers. In the last month, the whole focus of the leadership has been on how to take Mamata Banerjee out in Bengal and take over that State for the saffron brigade. What a clever way it was to stagger the elections in Bengal in eight phases? Does one wonder what an insane idea it was to drag the polls for a month with huge rallies and other campaign-related activities in this Covid era? To the current leadership, the focus is not the governance but the power grab, whether it is overthrowing a duly elected government or buying of legislators. No wonder then, other than offering platitudes, Government appears to have no plans for aiding the poor or providing an immediate supply of oxygen or vaccines to the people of India. The United States, United Kingdom, Israel, Japan, and China are among countries that give free vaccines to their citizens.  However, States in India are told to leave it to their own devices! Total vaccination is the only way the world is going to eradicate this Pandemic. Undoubtedly, if money becomes the criteria, the well-to-do will get all the shots! Commenting on Modi’s speech on the second wave of Covid, noted journalist and social activist Yogendra Yadav wrote the following: ‘It was woefully short on everything people needed. People demanded answers; he offered none. People needed credible assurances; he offered empty words. People were angry at the criminal negligence of their elected Government; he trivialized their suffering by treating it as personal misfortune. It was not the speech of a democratically elected leader; it was an imperious ruler telling his subjects that all is well, they must trust him and his government”.

    There is no doubt that India would have managed the Covid crisis better if the Government based its policies on the advice of health experts rather than relying on ancient traditions and beliefs. Banging of the thalis, lighting candles, and switching off lights at a certain time in the evening will not end this epidemic. It takes dedicated leadership that relies on science and depends on valuable advice from the country’s renowned epidemiologists. This is just another reminder to build more hospital facilities especially in rural areas to combat a sudden increase in demand in any future crisis. Building statues and other monuments may make us proud but will not substitute institutions that would serve people’s daily needs and their career aspirations.

    Although the States were raising the alarm on the Pandemic, the central health ministry had it on record that Covid is not a concern for India. On the other hand, states like Gujarat have been vaccinating people above 18 years of age. Karnataka and Haryana started door-to-door campaigns and vaccination camps in Malls. However, when the Non-BJP States asked for the same, the requests were said to be denied. It is time to examine whether this Government treats all its citizens equally. There appears to be a communal or regional angle to everything they do. Addressing this disparity, Manmohan Singh, the former Prime Minister, asked the Government to be transparent about the supply of vaccines expected in the coming next six months and how they will be distributed to states. He further advised that “there are many things we must do to fight this epidemic, but a big part of this effort must be ramping up the vaccination program”. He also appealed to Modi to assist vaccine producers “with funds and other concessions” so that they expand their manufacturing facilities quickly.

    In an exclusive interview with PTI, Priyanka Gandhi, the Congress General Secretary, said constructive suggestions from opposition parties are dismissed as politicization rather than being accepted in the spirit that the nation is in crisis, every single life matters, and therefore, “all of us must stand together and do whatever we can to save lives regardless of our politics.” We have yet to see whether the Government would take heed or continue with championing of its electoral politics at the expense of India’s welfare!

    (The author is a former Chief Technology Officer, the United Nations, and Vice Chairman of Indian Overseas Congress. He can be reached at gta777@gmail.com)

     

  • Daily cases hit 3-month high in India

    India on Thursday, March 11,  logged 22,854 new Covid-19 cases, the highest in nearly three months as well as this year, as Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu continued to fuel the pandemic burden. The total cases reached 1,12,85,561, riding on a surge in 24-hour infections. It was 76 days ago on December 25 that 23,067 cases were recorded. India’s active cases have gone up from a low of 1.35 lakh on February 12 to a high of 1.89 lakh today, but the government said the disease graph was stable nationally. The high-burden states, it said, needed to prioritise vaccinations. The surges have been high in six states in particular. The daily new cases in Punjab grew around 4.5 times between February 11 and March 11, from 2,112 to 9,402. The rise is around six-fold when compared with 1,388 cases in the first week of February. With around 8,000 cases and over 100 deaths reported over the past one week, Punjab appears headed towards a spike worst than the one in September last when over 60,000 cases were reported in a month. The active cases too have shot up five times—from around 2,000 in February first week to almost 10,000 today. The state today also saw imposition of night curfew in Patiala and Ludhiana districts in view of the rising cases. The government said India had seen active cases as high as 10 lakh on September 18 last and the situation nationally was overall in control, except in six states. The eight of the country’s 10 highest active case burden districts are in Maharashtra and one each in Kerala and Karnataka. The government said Haryana, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh were at a tipping point and were yet to enter a surge, said Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan. In MP, daily cases have risen from 1,951 on February 11 to 3,915 on March 11; corresponding period rise in Haryana is 824 to 2,440 and in Gujarat from 1,800 to 3,529. On vaccinations, the government said the speed was satisfactory with 2,56,90,545 doses administered till today morning. Globally, India is second only to the US on the speed and scale of inoculation. As of March 9, the US had delivered 9.36 crore doses followed by India (2.43 crore) and the UK (2.37 crore). “The signs from Maharashtra are very worrying. Do not take the virus for granted. It can come up unexpectedly. We also need to caution Delhi as many adjoining districts like Gurugram, Ghaziabad and Gautam Budhh Nagar are seeing surges,” the government said. Punjab health officials said the state may see the worst spike by March-end with cases expected to soar to 3,000 a day. The state has recorded around 8,000 cases and over 100 deaths in a week. Meanwhile, PM Narendra Modi’s mother Hiraben, a centenarian, took her first dose of Covid-19 vaccine on Thursday.

  • Britain’s cats and dogs face pet-food pouch shortage

    Britain’s cats and dogs face pet-food pouch shortage

    London (TIP) : Britain’s growing ranks of cats and dogs could be left staring at empty bowls after Sainsbury’s, the nation’s second biggest supermarket group, warned of a shortage of pet food pouches. In emails to cat and dog-owning customers Sainsbury’s apologised but cautioned the issue could be long term. “Due to a national shortage of dog and cat food pouches, we’re sorry if you’re not able to find your usual product at Sainsbury’s,” it said. “We’re working hard to resolve this. We think the issue will be ongoing through the year, but we hope to get them back onto shelves as quickly as possible.” Dog and cat ownership has soared during the COVID-19 pandemic as Britons have sought four-legged companions during multiple lockdowns. That has fuelled significant growth in pet food sales. “We are seeing an increased demand for pet food pouches and are working hard to maintain stock levels,” said a spokeswoman for Sainsbury’s. She said the group continued to offer a range of canned and dry alternatives. Tesco, Britain’s biggest supermarket group, said it had experienced particularly strong demand for branded cat food pouches. It is working closely with suppliers to meet customer demand. No. 4 player Morrisons said it was also working closely with suppliers who were investing in increasing their capacity. It cautioned it may not have full availability for several months. “That being said, we do have enough stock to support all our customers and their new pets and so there is no need for people to buy more than they need,” it added. —Reuters

  • When to expect your stimulus check, and other questions, answered

    When to expect your stimulus check, and other questions, answered

    President Biden has signed a third stimulus package into law. Now, $1,400 direct payments will soon be on their way

    WASHINGTON (TIP): On Thursday, March 11, a few hours before he was to speak to the nation on the first year of COVID-19, President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan — a $1.9 trillion stimulus package — into law.

    That means a third round of direct cash payments will soon be on the way, but there are a few differences from the stimulus bill Congress passed in December.

    Specifically, this round of payments will be quite a bit larger for most of those who received checks previously. Instead of the $600 that was sent out in December, individuals will receive as much as $1,400, depending on their income. However, the income threshold to receive a check will also be stricter this time around, after moderate Senate Democrats used their leverage to negotiate a lower maximum eligible income with the Biden White House.

    Those changes mean that about 17 million fewer people will receive a third round of stimulus payments than would have under the House-passed version of the bill, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, but some 280 million people will still be eligible.

    Here’s what you need to know:

    Who qualifies for a $1,400 direct payment?

    Unlike previous rounds of payments, eligibility for the new $1,400 checks may be determined based on either 2019 or 2020 tax returns, depending on whether you’ve filed yet for 2020 — and whether the IRS has processed your return. In general, the federal government will use the most recent income information it has on file to determine eligibility.

     

    Here’s who’s eligible for a payment:

     

    Adults who earned $75,000 or less in their most recent tax year will receive the full $1,400, as will married couples who earned $150,000 or less, and heads of household who earned $112,500 or less.

    Adults who earned more than $75,000, but less than $80,000; married couples who earned more than $150,000, but less than $160,000; and heads of household who earned more than $112,500, but less than $120,000, will be eligible for a reduced payment.

    Online calculators can give you an idea of how much to expect, based on variables like your filing status and number of dependents. The White House on Thursday also rolled out a website dedicated to helping you understand what’s in the bill — including information about the direct payments.

    Adults who earned more than $80,000, married couples who earned more than $160,000, and heads of household who earned more than $120,000 will not be eligible for checks.

    Parents will also receive an additional $1,400 check for each dependent claimed on their tax returns. Unlike with previous direct payments, all dependents — including college students and some people with disabilities, not just children under 17 — will be eligible.

    Undocumented immigrants are not eligible to receive direct payments. Households in which one adult has legal residency and the other does not would be eligible for at least one check, however.

    If you didn’t file a tax return in 2019 and haven’t yet done so in 2020, you may be able to use the IRS’s free file fillable form to do so in order to receive a stimulus check.

    When will I receive a direct payment?

    White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday after the signing that some checks will start being deposited in bank accounts as soon as this weekend. Others may take longer, depending on a few factors.

    As was the case with the last two stimulus checks, direct-deposit recipients are likely to get their checks the fastest. As CNET notes, direct deposit payments began registering in accounts about two weeks after the last stimulus package was passed. But per Psaki, it could be even faster this time around.

    Physical checks are expected to take about a week longer than direct deposits, and should begin to go out starting March 29 or so.

    Economic impact payment, or EIP, cards could take the longest. The prepaid debit cards may begin to go out the week of April 5, depending on when the stimulus package is signed into law.

    Is there anything I need to do to get a check?

    As Vox’s Fabiola Cineas and Ella Nilsen explained after Congress passed its previous round of direct payments, most people don’t need to do anything to get a stimulus check. If you filed taxes in 2019 or 2020, meet the eligibility requirements, and included your direct deposit information, the payment should show up in your account in the coming weeks.

     

    If your direct deposit information isn’t on file with the IRS yet, you can still provide those details using IRS’s “Get My Payment” tool before the latest wave of payments starts going out.

    (Source: Vox)

  • Biden gives a message of hope on the first anniversary of COVID-19 Pandemic

    Biden gives a message of hope on the first anniversary of COVID-19 Pandemic

    “We are bound together by the hope, by the possibilities”

    I.S. Saluja

    WASHINGTON (TIP): President Joe Biden marked a year since the beginning of the coronavirus “shutdown” with a prime-time speech Thursday, March 11 night where he announced he would direct states to make all adult Americans eligible to get vaccinated by May 1. He also predicted a possible return to some semblance of normalcy by the Fourth of July and detailed several more measures aimed at speeding up vaccinations across the country.

    It was the first prime-time address of his presidency, delivered from the White House’s East Room. It came the same day he signed a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package into law, a major legislative victory, and several days before he planned to hit the road to pitch the law to Americans. In his remarks, Biden said he was “announcing that I will direct all states, tribes and territories to make all adults, people 18 and over, eligible to be vaccinated no later than May 1.” But Biden warned that this would not mean all Americans would have their shot on that day. “It means you’ll be able to get in line beginning May 1,” he said. While the federal government procures and distributes vaccine doses, states and other non-federal jurisdictions control eligibility for that supply. While many have largely followed federal guidance for the order in which to vaccinate different groups, there is still a patchwork of different eligibility guidelines that restrict who can receive it. The president also set the Fourth of July as a new marker for the United States on the path to normalcy, saying that if people follow guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — by wearing masks, socially distancing and getting vaccinated when possible. “By July the 4th, there’s a good chance you, your families and friends, will be able to get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout or a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day,” he said.

    But, he added, “large events with lots of people together” should still not take place. “After this long hard year, that will make this Independence Day something truly special where we not only mark our independence as a nation but begin to mark our independence from this virus,” Biden said. Earlier in the evening, the White House said the military will deploy 4,000 more active-duty service members “to support vaccination efforts,” with 6,000 total troops backing vaccination programs. It also said the number of community health centers and pharmacies administering COVID-19 vaccines would dramatically expand.

    On Friday, the White House said, the administration would allow many more professionals to give shots: dentists, paramedics, veterinarians and even medical and nursing students, among the additional groups.

    “We’re mobilizing thousands of vaccinators to put the vaccine in one’s arm,” Biden said in his remarks.

    The administration also plans to centralize information on a federally supported website to show vaccination locations — with a call center, too — as well as provide technological support to states that allow people to make vaccination appointments on their own sites, an official said.

    Biden’s remarks mixed compassion for the lives lost with hope about the path forward.

    “History, I believe, will record, we faced and overcame one of the toughest and darkest periods in this nation’s history,” he said. “The darkest we’ve ever known. I promise you, we’ll come out stronger with a renewed faith in ourselves, a renewed commitment to one another, to our communities and to our country.”

    Even so, he said the “truth” was that the country was not out of the pandemic yet — and that Americans must follow scientific guidance to emerge on its other side.

     

    “A lot can happen,” he said. “Conditions can change. The scientists have made clear that things may get worse again. As new variants of the virus spread, we’ve got work to do to ensure that everyone has confidence in the safety and effectiveness of all three vaccines.”

     

    Biden said it was up to Americans to ensure the country made it to the other side of the pandemic.

     

    “Listen to Dr. Fauci,” he said, referencing the government’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci.

     

    Biden directly condemned recent attacks on Asian Americans, describing them as “vicious hate crimes against Asian Americans who have been attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated.”

     

    “At this very moment, so many of them, our fellow Americans, they’re on the front lines of this pandemic trying to save lives, and still — still — they are forced to live in fear for their lives, just walking down streets in America,” he said. “It’s wrong, it’s un-American and it must stop.”

     

    Biden also implicitly criticized his predecessor, President Donald Trump, for intentionally downplaying the virus.

     

    “A year ago, we were hit with a virus that was met with silence and spread unchecked — denials for days, weeks, then months,” he said.

     

    Biden added that “too often, we’ve turned against one another” — with the issue of mask-wearing dividing Americans and states pitted against one another.

     

    Biden briefly mentioned the American Rescue Plan which he signed earlier in the day. He said the plan was meant to provide immediate relief to American people. A family of four will have $5600 to take care of their needs.

    The plan, he said, provided forrestoration of health of small businesses which had suffered a lot during the pandemic.

    Funds have also been provided in the plan to accelerate vaccination and contain spread of the pandemic.

    “Our economy will be back on rails”, he said.

    Lauding Americans and America, Biden said, “This country can do anything, hard things, big things”. He hastened to add that anything could be achieved if all come together as “one people, one America”.

    “We will come out stronger, with renewed faith in ourselves and America”, he said.

    Concluding his address, he offered solace to families which lost their loved ones in the pandemic.

    (Agencies)

  • Pfizer, Oxford vaccines reduce severe COVID-19 in elderly, study finds

    Pfizer, Oxford vaccines reduce severe COVID-19 in elderly, study finds

    The Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines for COVID-19 are highly effective in reducing severe coronavirus infection among people aged 70 years and above, according to a study. The research, posted as a pre-print and yet to be peer-reviewed, estimated the effect of both the COVID-19 vaccines on the laboratory-confirmed symptomatic disease in individuals aged 70 years or older in England. The researchers, including those from Public Health England (PHE), compared the rate of hospitalisation and deaths in confirmed COVID-19 patients aged over 80 who were vaccinated more than 14 days before testing positive, with unvaccinated cases.

    Data suggests that in the over 80s, a single dose of either vaccine is more than 80 per cent effective at preventing hospitalisation, around 3 to 4 weeks after the jab, PHE said in a statement.

    Evidence for the Pfizer vaccine suggests that it leads to an 83 per cent reduction in deaths from COVID-19, it said.

    The data also shows symptomatic infections in over 70s decreased from around three weeks after one dose of both vaccines.

    “Vaccination with either a single dose of Pfizer or Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccination was associated with a significant reduction in symptomatic SARS-CoV2 positive cases in older adults with even greater protection against severe disease,” said the authors of the study, adding both the vaccines show similar effects. They said the protection was maintained for the duration of over six weeks of follow-up, and there is a clear effect of both the vaccines against the UK variant of concern.

    Experts say the new analysis adds to growing evidence that the vaccines are working, and are highly effective in protecting people against severe illness, hospitalisation and death.

    “This adds to growing evidence showing that the vaccines are working to reduce infections and save lives,” Mary Ramsay, PHE Head of Immunisation, said in the statement.

    “While there remains much more data to follow, this is encouraging and we are increasingly confident that vaccines are making a real difference,” Ramsay said.

    However, she cautioned that the protection is not complete and it is not known yet how much these vaccines will reduce the risk of someone passing the coronavirus onto others. “Even if you have been vaccinated, it is really important that you continue to act like you have the virus, practise good hand hygiene and stay at home,” Ramsay added.

                    Source: PTI

  • International Women’s Day 2021

    International Women’s Day 2021

    This year, the theme for International Women’s Day (March 8) is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world”

    Women of the world want and deserve an equal future free from stigma, stereotypes and violence; a future that’s sustainable, peaceful, with equal rights and opportunities for all. To get us there, the world needs women at every table where decisions are being made. This year, the theme for International Women’s Day (8 March), “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world,” celebrates the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and highlights the gaps that remain. Women’s full and effective participation and leadership in of all areas of life drives progress for everyone. Yet, women are still underrepresented in public life and decision-making, as revealed in the UN Secretary-General’s recent report. Women are Heads of State or Government in 22 countries, and only 24.9 per cent of national parliamentarians are women. At the current rate of progress, gender equality among Heads of Government will take another 130 years.

    Women are also at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19, as front-line and health sector workers, as scientists, doctors and caregivers, yet they get paid 11 per cent less globally than their male counterparts. An analysis of COVID-19 task teams from 87 countries found only 3.5 per cent of them had gender parity.

    When women lead, we see positive results. Some of the most efficient and exemplary responses to the COVID-19 pandemic were led by women. And women, especially young women, are at the forefront of diverse and inclusive movements online and on the streets for social justice, climate change and equality in all parts of the world. Yet, women under 30 are less than 1 per cent of parliamentarians worldwide.

    This is why, this year’s International Women’s Day is a rallying cry for Generation Equality, to act for an equal future for all. The Generation Equality Forum, the most important convening for gender equality investment and actions, kicks off in Mexico City from 29 – 31 March, and culminates in Paris in June 2021. It will draw leaders, visionaries, and activists from around the world, safely on a virtual platform, to push for transformative and lasting change for generations to come.

    How did International Women’s Day start?

    Controversy clouds the history of International Women’s Day. According to a common version of the holiday’s origins, it was established in 1907, to mark the 50th anniversary of a brutally repressed protest by New York City’s female garment and textile workers. But there’s a problem with that story: Neither the 1857 protest nor the 50th anniversary tribute may have actually taken place. In fact, research that emerged in the 1980s suggested that origin myth was invented in the 1950s, as part of a Cold War-era effort to separate International Women’s Day from its socialist roots.

    The historian Temma Kaplan revisited the first official National Woman’s Day, held in New York City on February 28, 1909. (The organizers, members of the Socialist Party of America, wanted it to be on a Sunday so that working women could participate.) Thousands of people showed up to various events uniting the suffragist and socialist causes, whose goals had often been at odds. Labor organizer Leonora O’Reilly and others addressed the crowd at the main meeting in the Murray Hill Lyceum, at 34th Street and Third Avenue. In Brooklyn, writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman (of “The Yellow Wall-paper” fame) told the congregation of the Parkside Church: “It is true that a woman’s duty is centered in her home and motherhood…[but] home should mean the whole country, and not be confined to three or four rooms or a city or a state.”

    The concept of a “woman’s day” caught on in Europe. On March 19, 1911 (the 40th anniversary of the Paris Commune, a radical socialist government that briefly ruled France in 1871), the first International Woman’s Day was held, drawing more than 1 million people to rallies worldwide. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, most attempts at social reform ground to a halt, but women continued to march and demonstrate on International Woman’s Day.

    Most dramatically, a massive demonstration led by Russian feminist Alexandra Kollontai that began on February 23, 1917 (according to Russia’s Gregorian calendar; it was March 8 in the West) proved to be a link in the chain of events that led to the abdication of Czar Nicholas II and the Russian Revolution. After the czar’s abdication, the provisional government formed until a constituent assembly could be elected became the first government of a major power to grant women the right to vote.

    In recognition of its importance, Vladimir Lenin, founder of Russia’s Communist Party, declared Woman’s Day an official Soviet holiday in 1917. Communists in Spain and China later adopted the holiday as well. (Sometime after 1945, the terminology shifted, and “Woman’s Day” became “Women’s Day.”) Until the mid-1970s, International Women’s Day would be celebrated primarily in socialist countries.

    In 1975, recognized as International Women’s Year, the United Nations General Assembly began celebrating March 8 as International Women’s Day. By 2014, it was celebrated in more than 100 countries, and had been made an official holiday in more than 25. Over the years, however, many celebrations of International Women’s Day strayed far from the holiday’s political roots. In Argentina, for example, it was largely commercialized, with men buying flowers and other gifts for the women in their lives. In China, despite the country’s long history with International Women’s Day, recent holiday events have focused on shopping and beauty events, such as fashion shows. Last year, in a somewhat bizarre tribute, a group of Chinese men climbed a mountain in dresses and high heels as an attempt to “experience the hardship” of being a woman.

    Due to its ties with socialism and communism, perhaps it’s not surprising that International Women’s Day didn’t catch on here in the United States the way it did in other countries. Recently, however, international digital marketing campaigns have brought the holiday (in its less-political form) further into American culture, complete with corporate support from PepsiCo and other brands. Other groups are seeking to reclaim International Women’s Day and return it to its activist past, by continuing to demand recognition and rights for women and their work.

  • Covid-19: Phase 2 of vaccination drive stuck in first gear

    Covid-19: Phase 2 of vaccination drive stuck in first gear

    New Delhi (TIP): Rajasthan is the runaway leader in the first three days of the second phase of India’s Covid-19 vaccination drive, having given doses to 5,187 per million residents, although an HT analysis of data from the first three days of the expanded drive indicates a slow start across the country. Till Wednesday night, India vaccinated a total of 949,147 people, or 712 per million in Phase 2, which covers the most vulnerable sections of the general public. The government hopes that drafting more private hospitals to administer vaccines and keeping facilities open 24×7 will help increase the numbers. The government has previously said its ultimate target in this phase is 5 million shots a day. Delhi, which gave shots to 1,679 people per million population in the second phase till Wednesday night, was in the second spot, while Odisha (1,283 doses per million) was third. To be sure, the per-million metric provides an easy comparison, although a more accurate denominator is the number of people over the age of 60 and over 45 with co-morbidities – a number that wasn’t immediately available for all states and Union territories. In all, the second phase of the drive is expected to cover 270?million people. HT collated and analysed data for India’s 20 most populated states. In the national capital, 33,259 people lined up to receive jabs in first three days of Phase 2 – an average of a little over 11,000 shots a day. In contrast, the three days before the start of the second phase, when only health care workers and front-line workers were getting jabs, the city averaged 19,176 shots a day. On average, 316,382 people have received shots every day across the country under Phase 2 — this has less than halved (653,565 doses administered per day) from the three days before the opening up of the drive. In Bihar, the fewest people showed up to get shots in the first three days of Phase 2 — only 43 doses were administered per million residents in the state. Uttar Pradesh, with 60 shots per million, and Jharkhand (144 shots per million) accompanied it as the three worst-performing states. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh’s numbers were also skewed by their huge populations and the significant proportion of their population under the age of 18 (they are both among India’s youngest states). The numbers account for those vaccinated in the Phase 2 of the vaccination drive, which includes persons above 60 years of age and those who are 45 years or more and suffering from certain medical conditions.

                    Source: HT

  • Queens BP Donovan Richards dwells on Covid and development in his first State of the Borough address

    Queens BP Donovan Richards dwells on Covid and development in his first State of the Borough address

    QUEENS, NY (TIP): Queens Borough President Donovan Richards delivered his first State of the Borough address,  March 3, putting forth a comprehensive package of proposals to address the immediate public health and economic crises facing Queens while also looking toward a post-pandemic borough built on a foundation of equity across the spectrum for all our families. The text of the address, as prepared for delivery, can be found here.

    Below is a detailed breakdown of initiatives outlined by Borough President Richards in his address, including some that have already launched over the course of the Richards Administration’s first 100 days.

    Healthcare

    • Work with city, state and federal partners to greatly expand the network of culturally competent, grassroots COVID-19 testing and vaccination centers, especially in historically underserved communities hardest hit by the pandemic.
    • Host regional virtual vaccine town halls with health experts to build community trust in the COVID-19 vaccination process.
    • Advocate for the construction of new hospital facilities in Queens to address the borough’s unacceptable scarcity of hospital beds.
    • Advocate for the creation of more community-based health centers that offer preventative medicine, limiting the strain on our borough’s already overcrowded emergency rooms.

    Economic Development

    • Continue encouraging participation in the $17.5 million Queens Small Business Grant program, launched by Borough President Richards and the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) earlier this year.
    • Host town halls with the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS) to connect Queens businesses with all available tools to help them thrive.
    • Establish an Ombudsman within the Queens Borough President’s Office to oversee the quality of the borough’s recovery and rebuild.
    • Establish a Director of Nonprofit Opportunities within the Queens Borough President’s Office to assist community-based organizations in accessing new funding opportunities and resources from both the public and private sectors.
    • Closing the digital divide across our small business community by expanding broadband access, improving internet literacy and assisting with digital marketing.
    • Fostering job growth by implementing workforce development programs, revitalizing vacant space and more.

    Housing

    • Create at least 2,000 units of truly affordable senior housing — identifying new locations for such developments, including on underutilized, city-owned property such as vacant land or parking lots.
    • Promote supportive housing for Queens’ veterans.
    • Establish a working group of New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) Tenant Association presidents to ensure an open line of communication between the Queens Borough President’s Office and NYCHA residents.
    • Invest in NYCHA campuses using the Queens Borough President’s Office’s budget.
    • Advocate for a partnership between the city and federal governments to purchase foreclosed homes, work with area nonprofits to refurbish them and help provide affordable houses to first-time homebuyers.
    • Encourage a doubling of the city’s investment in Community Land Trusts to give communities control over their land and keep local housing affordable.

    Transportation

    • Complete the long-stalled redesign of Queens Boulevard in Kew Gardens.
    • Create a two-way bike lane on the Queensboro Bridge.
    • Establish a network of bike storage hubs outside Queens subway stations to encourage multi-modal transportation.
    • Speed up the boroughwide rollout of Citi Bike.
    • Explore making all Queens bridges more accessible to cyclists.
    • Work with the NYC Department of Transportation to establish a Five-Borough Bikeway.
    • Establish additional busways along center medians of high-trafficked corridors such as Archer Avenue in Jamaica, along with all-door boarding, to speed up the commutes of thousands of Queens riders.
    • Call on the MTA to quickly convert its full bus fleet to all electric vehicles.
    • Expand the Jamaica Bus Depot to dramatically improve bus service for Queens commuters.
    • Call on the MTA make the Long Island Rail Road’s Atlantic Ticket program permanent, complete with a free subway transfer.
    • Expand the city’s Open Streets program in partnership with the NYC Department of Transportation, the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and the Street Vendor Project — prioritizing school campuses and communities lacking green space, while fast-tracking licenses for food vendors to operate there.

    Hate Crimes

    • Demand the NYPD overhaul the threshold of what constitutes a hate crime
    • Encourage the City to increase funding for the NYC Commission on Human Rights’ Bias Response Team to help dispel and combat hate.
    • Call for the creation of a central database to allow for information sharing between relevant City agencies and law enforcement, better informing the City’s ability to address bias crimes.

    Immigrant Welcome Center

    • Establish an Immigrant Welcome Center at Queens Borough Hall, connecting new and longtime residents of Queens alike to a wide variety of services in support of our immigrant families.

    Sustainability

    • Reestablish the Queens Solid Waste Advisory Board— a diverse group of residents and industry representatives tasked with advising the Borough President on issues such as waste, recycling, resiliency and environmental equity.
    • Partner with higher education institutions, private entities and the Queens Economic Development Corporation to create sustainability innovation labs.
    • Leverage the Queens Borough President’s Office’s budget to invest in solar power and battery storage at city-owned buildings in Queens, making them fully green by 2030.
    • Ensure the full implementation of the Climate Mobilization Act.
    • Create renewable energy hubs at Rikers Island, the former Edgemere Landfill site and the Creedmoor campus to help eliminate Queens’ dependence on nonrenewable energy by 2030.
    • Partner with federal and state entities to invest in long-term resiliency measures for Queens to defend against climate change.
    • Fight for a Green New Deal for our public housing developments.

    Community Boards/Appointments

    • Overhaul Queens community boards —prioritizing board diversity, member conduct, public engagement and the modernization of bylaws to deliver a long-overdue level of transparency for our 14 community boards.
    • Digitize the Queens community board application — resulting in a 56.5 percent increase in applications from last year.
    • Continuing to ensure the Queens Borough President Office’s Queens General Assembly, the Queens Immigration Task Force, the Queens Civic Engagement Committee, or any other convening body reflect the diversity of the borough.

    Watch the video of the BP’s address.

     https://youtu.be/xPv5Ka0UFv0

    Follow the Office of the Queens Borough President via @QnsBPRichards on Twitter and @QueensBPRichards on Facebook and Instagram

    (Based on a press release)

  • China’s lies, damned lies and statistics

    China’s lies, damned lies and statistics

    • By Prabhu Dayal

      China deliberately concealed the extent of the outbreak of the Covid-19 outbreak during the early days

    • China also kept mum about its casualties after the clash with Indian Army in Galwan Valley
    • Now, after eight months have elapsed since the clashes, China has grudgingly acknowledged casualties

    Abraham Lincoln had famously said: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” The Chinese leadership does not seem to realize this and continues to use false figures and statistics to bolster its case. Thus, it weaves one web of lies after another, totally oblivious of its own eroding credibility. For example, CNN reported in December that documents from Wuhan accessed by it reveal how China deliberately concealed the extent of the outbreak of the Covid-19 outbreak during the early days by playing down the actual figures. The ‘Wuhan Files’, as they have come to be called show China’s complete lack of transparency about its poor handling of the coronavirus outbreak in the early days. The health authorities in the province of Hubei, where the virus was first detected listed a total of 5,918 cases on February 10 last year—more than double the number that was made public. False statistics were used by the Chinese authorities to hide their incompetence.

    Experts and persons in positions of authority have continued to accuse Beijing of lying and being opaque about information pertaining to the virus. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently said that Beijing has to step up and make sure it is being transparent about the deadly virus. In an interview with MSNBC, Blinken said that the Chinese government’s failure’ in sharing and providing pertinent information regarding the deadly virus is something “we must address”. He added: “There is no doubt that, especially when COVID-19 first hit but even today, China is falling far short of the mark when it comes to providing the information necessary to the international community, making sure that experts have access to China. All of that – that lack of transparency, that lack of being forthcoming, is a profound problem and it’s one that continues.”

    Not surprisingly, such jiggery-pokery also remains a hallmark of the Chinese leadership’s approach to its casualties in the savage June 15 Galwan Valley clashes. Shortly after the clashes, India had confirmed the loss of 20 soldiers. Moreover, these slain soldiers were honored for their bravery with their names installed in memorials. In sharp contrast, China kept mum about its casualties, although not just Indian but international sources too reported that the figure of such casualties was higher than that for India. For example, the Russian news agency TASS reported recently that China suffered 45 casualties during the clash.

    Simply put, Xi Jinping and his henchmen are again lying through their teeth, perhaps oblivious to the act that others can see through their lies and deception. Why are they acknowledging only four casualties when it is widely believed that the figure was much higher? Is it because they want to continue propagating their theory of China’s superiority over India? Now, after eight months have elapsed since the clashes, China has grudgingly acknowledged casualties and named four of its soldiers who were killed–a far smaller number than what is widely believed. Asked why this was being done eight months after the clash, the spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Hua Chunying said that “The report has been revealed to give the truth to the public because the truth is long-awaited and is necessary for the people to know the true story.” However, in view of the fact that international sources have reported much, much higher casualty figures, the figures now disclosed by the Chinese authorities only highlight their unflinching belief in their own ability to pull the wool over the eyes of not just their own people but everyone else’s too.

    After acknowledging the above casualties, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman went on to say: ” “India is an important neighbor of China and restoring a healthy, stable relationship is the aspiration and also in the interest of the two peoples. I hope the Indian side will work with us towards achieving this shared goal.” Given China’s track record, will anyone believe that there is even an iota of sincerity in these remarks? Will anyone be taken in by China’s lies, damned lies or it’s falsified statistics?

    (The author is a former diplomat)

    (Courtesy OPOYI)

  • New COVID variants found in New York, California

    As the country races to vaccinate as many Americans as possible against COVID-19, both New York and California are reporting new virus variants that might be more contagious than the original strain.

    In New York, a new variant that carries a mutation that may weaken the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines has been identified as the B.1.526 variant. It was first discovered in November, and now accounts for about one in four viral sequences in a database shared by scientists, according to the New York Times.

    In a paper published today from Columbia University, the authors noted a steady increase in the detection rate of B.1.526 cases from late December to mid-February, with a rise of 12.3% in the past 2 weeks.

    Cases have been detected across New York City, researchers said, and threaten to once again make the city a hot spot of viral infection. They say the strain’s “unique set of spike mutations may also pose an antigenic challenge for current interventions,” such as vaccines and monoclonal antibody therapies.

    India reports 16,738 new Covid cases, highest since January 29

    The daily rise in coronavirus infections in India was recorded above 15,000 after nearly a month taking the country’s total tally of COVID-19 cases to 1,10,46,914, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday, Feb 25.  A total of 16,738 infections were reported in a day, while the death toll increased to 1,56,705 with 138 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed. On January 29, 18,855 new infections were recorded in a span of 24 hours after which the daily rise of cases stayed below 15,000. The daily deaths were registered above 130 after a gap of 26 days. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,07,38,501 which translates to a national COVID-19 recovery rate of  97.21 per cent and the case fatality rate stands at 1.42 per cent.

    The active caseload increased to 1,51,708 which  comprises 1.37 per cent of the total infections, the data stated.

    India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.It went past  60 lakh on September 28,  70 lakh on  October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

  • African nations still encouraged to use AstraZeneca vaccine

    Nairobi (TIP): African countries without the coronavirus variant dominant in South Africa should go ahead and use the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday, while the World Health Organisation suggested the vaccine even for countries with the variant circulating widely. They spoke to reporters a day after South Africa announced it would not use the AstraZeneca vaccine, citing a small study that suggested it was poor at preventing mild to moderate disease caused by the variant.

    Africa CDC director John Nkengasong said seven countries on the 54-nation African continent have reported the variant and none besides South Africa is “overwhelmed” by it.

    No other country has expressed concerns about the AstraZeneca vaccine. The seven countries are South Africa, Botswana, Comoros, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique and Zambia.

    In a separate briefing, WHO Africa chief Matshidiso Moeti added Tanzania to that list, saying two travellers from there had been found to be carrying the variant in “the UK, I believe”.

    Tanzania’s president has denied that COVID-19 exists in the East African nation, which has not updated its number of infections since April, even though reports are growing of a surge in infections there.

    Africa is only now beginning to see the large-scale arrival of COVID-19 vaccines, and this week’s news from South Africa, the continent’s hardest hit country, was a shock.

    The Africa CDC says African countries with the variant now dominant in South Africa should speed up plans to introduce all COVID-19 vaccines that have received emergency use authorisation or approval by regulatory authorities, while considering their effectiveness against variants first reported in South Africa and the UK.

    Suggesting that countries go ahead with the AstraZeneca vaccine even if the variant is circulating widely, the WHO’s Moeti said “what’s important is the opportunity is there to continue to study the vaccine” and its effectiveness.

    AstraZeneca doses are expected to start arriving in other parts of Africa in the next two weeks, the Africa CDC’s Nkengasong said.

    And WHO’s Moeti looked forward to a significant rollout of vaccines in March, adding that 34 of Africa’s countries now have their rollout plans in place.On Thursday, Equatorial Guinea said it had received 100,000 doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine. It was the first West African nation to receive a large amount of the vaccine. Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue has said he will be the first to be vaccinated.   AP

  • Four-year-old Indian- Origin British Sikh girl joins Mensa club of high IQ kids

    Four-year-old Indian- Origin British Sikh girl joins Mensa club of high IQ kids

    LONDON (TIP): A four-year-old Indian -Origin British Sikh girl has become one of the youngest in the UK to be accepted into the elite Mensa membership club of children with a high intelligence quotient (IQ).

    Dayaal Kaur, who lives with her family in Birmingham, displayed exceptional learning abilities from very early on and had mastered the entire English alphabet by the time she was just 14 months old.

    She expressed an enthusiasm to appear for the Mensa test, conducted online from home due to the coronavirus lockdown, and achieved an IQ score of 145, which puts her in the top one per cent of the UK’s population in the “very gifted or highly advanced” category.

    We are delighted to welcome Dayaal to Mensa, where she joins a community of about 2,000 junior and teen members,” said John Stevenage, British Mensa’s chief executive.

    “Her family can make use of the supportive parents’ network that has developed, and we hope that as she grows up, Dayaal makes many lifelong friends and experiences some of the many learning and network opportunities that Mensa offers,” he said.

    The journey to this recognition has not been an easy one for the family as they struggled to convince local experts that Dayaal needed access to the gifted intelligence program within the education system.

    Her father, Sarbjit Singh, himself a teacher as a Health, Well-being and Pastoral Lead, persisted to prove that his daughter indeed was gifted.

    “Now there is official documentation that proves that she is way beyond her level. As parents, it is natural for us to consider our child is special, but in this case there is actual proof that she is one in a million,” said Singh.

    “There is a big debate to be had about how we cultivate our youth and provide the right kind of support and education so that we don’t lose future inventors and high achievers,” he said.

    Dayaal, whose dream for now is to become an astronaut and also to have a stable full of horses, took the test just before her fourth birthday in October last year.

    Her parents explained what the online process would involve, and she readily agreed in her usual spirit of “coming alive” in any kind of learning scenario.

    In her assessment, expert Lyn Kendall recommended that Dayaal’s “ability and maturity” meant that it would be worth considering accelerating her beyond her peer group in a classroom setting.

    “I am so glad we persisted because otherwise Dayaal would have been lost in the system and got frustrated when she didn’t feel like she was being challenged enough to learn new things constantly,” said her proud father, who was born and raised in Birmingham and whose family traces its roots back to Hoshiarpur in Punjab.

    “Dayaal is equally enthusiastic when we are reading about Sikh history and has a fascination for icons such as Banda Singh Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh so we try and do our best to make that learning fun. She hasn’t yet been to India, but we hope to go as a family someday post-lockdown,” he said.

    Meanwhile, Dayaal has been celebrating her big achievement with her father, one-year-old sister Kalyaan and solicitor mother Rajvinder Kaur as she has worked out that she is a “genius now”.

    As with most families, the Covid-19 lockdown has been tough because she has had to curb her sociable side but can’t wait to return to the nursery and play with her friends again.

  • Indian American NYC Health Commissioner tests COVID positive

    Indian American NYC Health Commissioner tests COVID positive

    NEW YORK (TIP): Dave Chokshi, the Indian American Health Commissioner of New York City, said that he has tested positive for the novel coronavirus and warned that the disease “continues to circulate in our communities, and all of us are potentially exposed to the virus”.

    In a statement issued on Wednesday, February 3, Chokshi, who assumed office on August 4, 2020, said: “In New York City and across the country, Covid continues to circulate in our communities, and all of us are potentially exposed to the virus. A testament to this fact is that I recently got tested and received a positive diagnosis for Covid-19.”

    The Health Commissioner said that he has mild, but manageable symptoms, adding that the city’s Test and Trace Corps has been notified of his diagnosis and will alert anyone who was potentially exposed, Xinhua news agency reported.

    “This is a reminder, if we ever needed one, that Covid is still with us and we all must continue to wear masks, wash our hands, socially distance and stay home if feeling ill,” he added.

    Reacting to the development, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that “Covid is everywhere around us”, and “Chokshi has been doing absolutely amazing work and grueling work protecting all of us, but we’re all human beings. There’s the possibility that Covid can reach us. It doesn’t change the overall reality”.

    Following the Health Commissioner’s positive Covid-19 diagnosis, the Mayor was questioned about why he and his top officials had not been vaccinated.

    “I think it is incumbent upon all of us who do not yet meet the criteria to defer to those in greater need,” de Blasio said.

    “I don’t want to get a vaccination when a senior citizen could be getting that vaccination or a first responder could be getting that vaccination.” Chokshi took over as the city’s health Commissioner in the midst of the raging Covid-19 pandemic following the resignation of his predecessor Oxiris Barbot.

    A primary care physician at Bellevue Hospital and associate professor at the NYU School of Medicine, Chokshi has served in leadership roles at NYC Health+ Hospitals over the past six years.

    Since the onset of the pandemic early last year, New York City has registered at least 621,218 confirmed coronavirus cases and 27,354 deaths.

    The city’s biggest hot spots include the South Bronx, north and southeast Queens, and much of Staten Island.

  • US Coronavirus deaths surpass 450K; daily toll continues to be high

    US Coronavirus deaths surpass 450K; daily toll continues to be high

    50,000 new fatalities in the last two weeks alone

    WASHINGTON (TIP): Coronavirus deaths in the United States surpassed 450,000 on Thursday, February 4, and daily deaths remain stubbornly high at more than 3,000 a day, despite falling infections and the arrival of multiple vaccines, says an AP report. Infectious disease specialists expect deaths to start dropping soon, after new cases hit a peak right around the beginning of the year. New COVID-19 deaths could ebb as early as next week, said the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    But there’s also the risk that improving trends in infections and hospitalizations could be offset by people relaxing and coming together — including this Sunday, to watch football, she added.

    “I’m worried about Super Bowl Sunday, quite honestly,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press. Walensky said one reason cases and hospitalizations are not rising as dramatically as they were weeks ago is because the effect of holiday gatherings has faded.

    The effect on deaths is delayed. The daily toll amounts to 50,000 new fatalities in the last two weeks alone.

    “We’re still in quite a bad place,” she said. The nation reported 3,912 COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, down from the pandemic peak of 4,466 deaths on Jan. 12.The biggest driver to the U.S. death toll over the past month has been California, which has averaged more than 500 deaths per day in recent weeks.

    California’s experience has mirrored many of the inequalities that have been exposed since the pandemic began nearly a year ago, with people of color being hit especially hard.

    For example, Latinos make up 46% of California’s overall death toll, despite being 39% of the state’s population. The situation has worsened in recent months. In November, the daily number of Latino deaths was 3.5 per 100,000 residents, but that rate shot up to 40 deaths per 100,000 last week.

    Alabama is another hot spot. The seven-day rolling average of deaths there has risen over the past two weeks, from 74 to 147 deaths per day. Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee also saw surges in deaths. The hardest hit demographic groups continue to be the oldest and frailest, said Dr. Thomas Holland of Duke University.

    When coronavirus first swept through the country, it was concentrated in nursing homes, prisons and other congregate care settings. It later spread more broadly.

    “But deaths have still been concentrated among older patients and patients” with other health problems, Holland said. “Even as the pandemic has spread more broadly in the population, the demographics of who dies from COVID has not really changed.”

    In Florida, for instance, 83 percent of deaths attributed to the virus have been in people 65 and olde Public health experts are watching Florida closely this week, because the Super Bowl will be played in Tampa. City leaders and the NFL are trying to ensure social distancing by capping attendance at a third of the stadium’s capacity — 22,000 people. Still, there will be parties, events at bars and clubs, and other activities that draw people together. While most people who become infected will recover, others face a much longer road. It can take a week or two to get sick enough to end up in the hospital. Then, those who are severely ill may end up in an ICU for many weeks, and some will die.

    “The patients who don’t do well are often in for these long and very stormy courses, and the patients who die, that’s typically weeks into their hospital stay,” Holland said.

    Treatments have evolved for COVID over time, but there have not been any “game-changing miracle treatments” on par with the development of the vaccine, Holland said.

    “We’ve had things on the margin that are helpful,” Holland said.

    Among those, the use of steroids for patients who require oxygen, different ventilator strategies and preventing and managing blood clots. There’s also the use of monoclonal antibodies for outpatients early in their illness who do not need to be on oxygen, but who might be at higher risk of complications.

    In addition, changes in testing have helped.

    “Clearly, if people know they’re infected, they’re going to be more likely to do the things they need to do, like staying at home and quarantining or isolating,” he said.

    Looking forward, the big concern is how the virus is changing, shifting into new strains that are potentially more infectious and better able to evade antibody products or to make vaccines less effective.

  • Running to stand still: Healthcare in India in 2021

    Running to stand still: Healthcare in India in 2021

    It would not be an overreach to say that India’s health policy is taking centrestage in public discourse largely because of the COVID-19 pandemic; otherwise, it has been a neglected area of state intervention in the country, as far back as after independence. To be sure, there have been efforts to undo the decades of neglect as policymakers began to acknowledge that the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — to which healthcare is fundamental — cannot be achieved if India fails to meet them. It is also true that if India indeed succeeds, with all its continent-sized problems, an “India Model” can serve as a blueprint for large parts of the world to emulate. While this is true for most social sectors, it is especially relevant for health, where globally recognised bottlenecks that limit the population’s access to healthcare services are scaled to the extreme.

    Over the past decades, India’s health outcome indicators have shown slow but consistent improvement; much of these achievements were met despite inadequacies in both policy attention and funding. When the National Health Policy 2017 set a target of reaching 2.5 percent of GDP worth of government expenditure in health by 2025, most analysts were of the view that it was highly ambitious. India indeed appeared to be far from able to achieve such target. However, the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 forced the Government of India to spend way beyond its own 2025 target, and in many ways, above its means.

    By the middle of 2020, it was clear that COVID-19 will prove to be a slow-moving national crisis, spilling over to the next year or two. To make things worse, data from years preceding the pandemic had already showed a slowdown and even reversals in infant and child mortality decline in large parts of India, particularly in urban areas. Thus, the pandemic has amplified existing problems within India’s health system — including a crisis of malnutrition — and the country faces even more massive challenges in 2021.

    Given this context of a long-drawn pandemic response, freeing up sufficient resources — financial and otherwise — for the treatment of non-COVID-19 conditions is going to be the primary challenge in 2021. By some estimates, India’s gross domestic product has contracted by 10·3 percent, and the economy is not expected to be back on track soon. This would mean that new sources will need to be tapped for sustained, extra funding for the healthcare sector. The Fifteenth Finance Commission had projected a ?5.38-lakh crore requirement for the Ministry of Health between 2020 and 2025 for providing primary healthcare, and the widely expanded requirements of immunisation, screening, testing and treatment of COVID-19 may result in an upward revision. The imperative for an almost parallel structure to treat non-COVID-19 conditions will see this amount growing many times over.

    In turn, optimal utilisation of limited resources in the health system would necessitate effective knowledge- and information-sharing. As the pandemic broke out across India, risk communication quickly emerged as the weakest link in the country’s healthcare ecosystem. Along with healthcare services, India’s Health Management Information System (HMIS) itself was severely disrupted by the pandemic, and incomplete information resulted in the proliferation of faulty analyses and conclusions that did not inspire confidence but instead induced panic. India will need to invest in a resilient information infrastructure, and 2021 would hopefully see relevant and scientific information being a catalyst in initiatives within the healthcare delivery system. The COVID-19 vaccination drive will be a testing ground. Facilitating cross-learning between states, and curation of best practices remains an area where some initial steps have been taken; but much more needs to be done. The pandemic will possibly push an estimated 400 million people deeper into poverty in 2021, and this will require a cooperative federal system handling health response as a joint responsibility of the central, state, and local governments and the citizens. Health still happens to be a State Subject in India’s federal system and the High Level Group on Health constituted under the Fifteenth Finance Commission recently recommended the shifting of healthcare to a Concurrent Subject.

    Maintaining and accelerating the progress made towards Universal Health Coverage will require innovation from the village levels, up. After all, structural weaknesses within India’s healthcare delivery system have been exposed by the pandemic, ranging from “inadequate medical supplies and insufficient numbers of health-care workers in public hospitals to irrational treatments and profiteering by private hospitals.” Ensuring the equitable distribution of vaccines, medicines, diagnostics and healthcare workforce would therefore require the Centre and States to intervene with an equal sense of ownership, even as the private sector and civil society are encouraged to become constructive participants. A study has estimated that India needs 2.07 million doctors by 2030 if it is to provide equitable healthcare. Aware of this exigency, the Government of India is expanding medical seats, both at the public and private sectors, with an aim of filling rural gaps. According to latest available estimates, the number of MBBS seats has seen a jump of 48 percent, from 54,348 in 2014-15 to 80,312 in 2019-20. There has also been a 47-percent increase in the number of government medical colleges during the period between 2014 and 2019, compared to a significantly lower 33-percent increase in the total number of medical colleges — including government and private — in the past five years, from 404 in 2014-15 to 539 in 2019.

    Inadequacies in health facilities are often exacerbated by structural inequalities drawn by class, caste, gender, geography, and religion; they require solutions that adapt to local realities. For these reasons, leveraging digital innovations to improve access in India will have to run parallel to initiatives aiming to bridge the digital divide across the country’s socio-economic gradients. India’s strengths as a digital powerhouse have yet to be harnessed by the health system to accelerate its progress towards a high-quality, affordable, comprehensive, accountable, accessible and inclusive healthcare for all. The National Digital Health Mission will have a creative role towards building a healthcare ecosystem with these characteristics, if a consultative and participatory engagement is followed with the diverse stakeholders.

    2021 could also be the year when India consolidates and expands on its social determinants of health (SDH) approach. Over the last decade, the Indian state has been silently working on translating the SDH framework into practice, with key interventions in the areas of nutrition (National Nutrition Mission), drinking water (Har Ghar Jal), indoor air pollution (Ujjwala Yojna), sanitation (Swachh Bharat), road access (Gram Sadak Yojana), and gender (Beti Bachao Beti Padhao).

    It is a truism that every crisis also presents an opportunity. For India, if the current interest in strategic health policy as a key pillar of the economy is sustained — then the pandemic can be said to have played its part in history.

                    By: OOMMEN C. KURIAN

                    Source: Orfonline.org

  • Twitter’s full tweet archive now free for academic researchers

    Twitter’s full tweet archive now free for academic researchers

    Twitter has allowed third-party academic researchers free access to the full history of public conversation via the full-archive search endpoint, which was previously limited to paid premium or enterprise customers.

    Twitter API was first introduced in 2006 and since then, academic researchers have used data from the public conversation to study topics as diverse as the conversation on Twitter itself.

    These include state-backed efforts to disrupt the public conversation to floods and climate change, from attitudes and perceptions about COVID-19 to efforts to promote healthy conversation online.

    “Today, academic researchers are one of the largest groups of people using the Twitter API,” the company said in a blog post late on Tuesday. With the new Academic Research product track on the Twitter API, qualified researchers will have access to all data released to date. They will have higher levels of access to the Twitter developer platform for free, including a significantly higher monthly Tweet volume cap of 10 million (20 times higher than what’s available on the Standard product track today). The new initiative will ensure more precise filtering capabilities “across all v2 endpoints to limit data collection to what is relevant for your study and minimize data cleaning requirements”.

  • UK university scientists finalize nasal spray that blocks out COVID-19: Report

    UK university scientists finalize nasal spray that blocks out COVID-19: Report

    A nasal spray which can prevent a coronavirus infection for up to two days is being prepped for mass production by scientists at the University of Birmingham with the hope of having them available over-the-counter in pharmacies in a few months, a UK newspaper report said on Sunday. Dr Richard Moakes, the study’s lead researcher, told ‘The Sunday Telegraph’ that he is confident in the spray’s formula to help unlock society from social distancing restrictions and “get schools going again”.

    The nasal spray, which has not yet been named, is made from ingredients that are already approved for medical use, meaning it is safe for use by humans and does not require further approval.

    The formula helps prevent infection by capturing the virus in the nose and encapsulating it in a coating which it cannot escape from. As a result, it would be safe for a person to breathe out – even if inhaled by another person – because the virus would be inactive and harmless, the newspaper reports.

    “As an over the shelf product, we have spoken to companies with a presence on the high street as we think they could distribute it effectively,” Moakes was quoted as saying.

    “Based on the product, it will be much quicker to get to the user than a novel drug. I am confident that the formulation can make an impact. Our goal is to make an impact as soon as possible, we would really like to see this happen by summer,” he said.

    In November last year, the researchers working on the spray since April 2020 announced that laboratory experiments showed the spray prevented a coronavirus infection from spreading for up to 48 hours.

    The team believes using the spray four times a day would be enough for general protection, although it is safe enough to be applied every 20 minutes if in a high-risk, densely populated environment such as schools.

    The spray is a combination of an antiviral agent called carrageenan, commonly used in foods as a thickening agent, and a solution called gellan – a gelling agent selected for its ability to stick to cells inside the nose.

  • HSBC to axe 82 branches in UK, cut services in others

    HSBC said it planned to axe 82 branches in Britain this year after a drop in footfall across its retail network and a surge in digital banking. The lender said it would be left with 511 branches in the UK following the closures, with many of the remaining branches set to be remodelled with some providing fewer services. A spokesperson for HSBC said the bank would aim to redeploy staff affected to nearby branches where possible, adding that customers would see the removal of counter services in some of the retained branches. The Covid-19 pandemic has dented bank finances, putting pressure on lenders to cut costs, while more customers have opted to bank online as people have been encouraged to stay at home to combat the spread of the virus.

    India still in bottom half of EM league table

    India moved up three rungs to the sixth position among key emerging markets last month, the latest update to Mint’s emerging markets tracker shows. A decline in inflation and uptick in manufacturing activity aided India’s rise in December.

    A sharp fall in vegetable prices and a favorable base effect helped bring down overall inflation numbers in December. However, a possible rise in commodity prices in the coming months means that the outlook for inflation remains clouded. Unless inflation is contained and other indicators see a fast improvement, it will be difficult for India to climb up the emerging markets rungs in the coming months.

  • We have hit the ground running: Kamala Harris

    We have hit the ground running: Kamala Harris

    Biden signed 15 executive reversing some of the key policies of his predecessor Trump

    WASHINGTON (TIP): With President Joe Biden signing nearly two dozen executive actions, fulfilling major campaign promises and addressing the challenges of race, health and economy head-on, Vice President Kamala Harris has said the new administration has “hit the ground running”. On day one in the office on Wednesday, Biden signed 15 executive orders and two other directives, reversing some of the key foreign policies and national security decisions of his predecessor Donald Trump. The orders, the White House said, are aimed at addressing the major problems being faced by the country. The executive orders ranged from rejoining the Paris agreement on climate change, halting America’s withdrawal from the World Health Organisation, revoking Muslim travel ban and stopping immediate construction of Mexico border wall.

    “We have hit the ground running,” Harris, 56, said on Thursday, a day after the historic inauguration wherein Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States and she became the first-ever woman vice president of the country. Harris is the 49th Vice President of the US.

    Harris, who is also the first-ever black American and Indian-origin person to occupy the position, had a busy first working day.

    In the morning, she and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff joined Biden and First Lady Jill Biden to watch the virtual presidential inaugural prayer service hosted by the Washington National Cathedral. Thereafter she joined Biden in receiving the daily intelligence briefing in the Oval Office of the White House. In the afternoon, Harris joins the president for his remarks on the administration’s COVID-19 response. She was standing by his side, as he signed a series of executive orders and other presidential actions responding to the COVID-19 crisis.

    Soon thereafter, Harris joined the president in a briefing from members of their COVID-19 team on the coronavirus response and the state of vaccinations.

    In between her busy schedule, Harris administered the oath of secrecy to Avril Haines, America’s first woman spy chief. “Earlier today, I swore in our first Cabinet member, Avril Haines, after her confirmation by the Senate last night. As the Director of National Intelligence, Director Haines will be dedicated to keeping the American people safe,” Harris said in a tweet. In her capacity as DNI, 51-year-old Haines would oversee as many as 18 American intelligence agencies, including CIA and FBI.

    Meanwhile, Emhoff posted a picture of him and Harris walking towards the Oval Office. “Honored and ready to get to work. It was a great first day,” the Second Gentleman tweeted. On Friday, Harris will join Biden in attending the daily briefing, after which the two leaders would have lunch together in the private dining room, the White House said.

    Harris will receive a briefing with the president on the state of the economic recovery in the state dining room. Then she will join Biden for his remarks on the administration’s response to the economic crisis. The president will also sign executive orders in issues related to the economy.

    In the evening, Harris will hold a virtual meeting with National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and small business owners affected by COVID-19 to discuss the Biden-Harris administration’s plan to address the ongoing economic crisis.

    “Kamala Harris is now the 49th Vice President of the United States. But, of course, in more ways than one, she is not the 49th but the first. The first African American woman, the first Asian American woman, the first woman, to hold the office of the vice presidency in our nation’s history,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor on Thursday.

    House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the inauguration was a breath of fresh air for the country. “The inauguration of Joe Biden as president, Kamala Harris as vice president of the United States, with all of the newness that that presented, first woman, first African-American woman, first Asian-American woman, the best. Not just about demography, but about the quality of leadership. So exciting,” Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol Hill.

    (Source:  PTI)

  • 15K fresh cases continue India’s low Covid streak

    15K fresh cases continue India’s low Covid streak

    New Delhi (TIP): With 15,223 new coronavirus infections reported in the last 24 hours, India on Thursday, Jan 21,  continued with its streak of low single-day cases, increasing the overall tally to 1,06,10,883, health officials said. For the past 14 days, the country has been recording less than 20,000 daily new infections even as the toll remained below 300-mark for the past 24 days. India on Tuesday reported 10,064 new coronavirus infections, the lowest single-day spike in seven months. The country had recorded over 10,000 cases on June 6 last year for the first time, and within that week it had hovered around the same number before a steady climb that took the daily figures close to a lakh cases in September. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday said that with 151 fresh deaths, the overall toll in India stood at 1,52,869. As per the Ministry’s data, 1,02,65,706 people have recovered so far and currently there are 1,92,308 active cases.

    The recovery rate stands at 96.70 per cent, while the fatality rate at 1.44 per cent. About 72 per cent of the daily new cases are reported from six states — Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka. The nationwide immunisation drive began across the country on January 16, with approval of two Covid vaccines in the country. As many as 8,06,484 beneficiaries have received the Covid vaccines jabs so far, with 1,31,649 people inoculated on Wednesday.

    France’s daily COVID-19  cases hit two-month high

    The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in France hit a two-month high at 26,784, health authorities said. A higher daily tally, at 28,393, was registered on Nov. 18, 2020, according to official data. Meanwhile, the country’s coronavirus death toll increased by 310 within a day. Currently, a total of 25,686 people are hospitalized, 2,852 of them in intensive care. The two tallies rose by 119 and 13 respectively in the last 24 hours. To date, France has recorded 2,965,117 people having caught COVID-19, of whom 71,652 have died.

    Since Saturday, a nationwide curfew starting at 6 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. has been put into effect to contain the viral circulation amid the spread of highly infectious virus variants. “The curfew is an effective protection to limit the circulation of the COVID-19,” government spokesman Gabriel Attal said early Wednesday after a cabinet meeting.

    “Let’s give this curfew a chance,” he said, noting that an earlier curfew imposed in the worst-hit departments since early January had a “positive impact on the virus circulation.” “Obviously, if the situation deteriorates in a significant way, other national measures will be decided,” Attal added. The earlier nationwide curfew was among a series of stricter COVID-19 rules announced by French Prime Minister Jean Castex last week. According to the rules, non-European travelers arriving in France would have to present a negative COVID-19 test less than 72 hours before boarding their flights. They would have to self-quarantine for seven days and then take a second test.

    Another 107,000 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in the past 24 hours in France, bringing the total to 692,777 since the start of the campaign, reported BFM TV. As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in France and some other countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.

  • Global Covid-19 cases top 96.8 mn, toll at 2.07 million

    The total number of global coronavirus cases has topped 96.8 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 2.07 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University. In its latest update on Thursday morning, the University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 96,823,968 and 2,073,866, respectively. The US is the worst-hit country with the world’s highest number of cases and deaths at 24,432,807 and 406,001, respectively, according to the CSSE. India comes in second place in terms of cases at 10,595,660, while the country’s death toll soared to 152,718.

    The other countries with more than a million confirmed cases are Brazil (8,638,249), Russia (3,595,136), the UK (3,515,796), France (3,023,661), Italy (2,414,166), Spain (2,412,318), Turkey (2,406,216), Germany (2,090,195), Colombia (1,956,979), Argentina (1,831,681), Mexico (1,688,944), Poland (1,450,747), South Africa (1,369,426), Iran (1,348,316), Ukraine (1,210,854) and Peru (1,073,214), the CSSE figures showed.

    Brazil currently accounts for the second highest number of fatalities at 212,831.

    The countries with a death toll above 20,000 are Mexico (144,371), the UK (93,469), Italy (83,681), France (71,792), Russia (66,214), Iran (57,057), Spain (54,637), Colombia (49,792), Germany (49,499), Argentina (46,216), Peru (39,044), South Africa (38,854), Poland (34,141), Indonesia (26,857), Turkey (24,487), Ukraine (22,264) and Belgium (20,554).