Pakistan coronavirus camp: ‘No facilities, no humanity’

More than 1,000 remain there as thousands more are released into impoverished Balochistan

Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi and Shah Meer Baloch in Islamabad Thu 19 Mar 2020 
 

Pilgrims wearing face masks at the camp for people 

returning from Iran via the border town of Taftan. 

Photograph: Banaras Khan/AFP/Getty

It was the smell that was the worst. In this dusty camp on Pakistan’s border with Iran, which at one stage held more than 6,000 people, the stench of sweat, rubbish and human excrement hung in the air. There was no real housing, just five people to a ragged tent, and no bathrooms, towels or blankets.

The camp, in the town of Taftan in Balochistan province, was supposed to function as a sanitary quarantine location, preventing the spread of the coronavirus from Iran, which has had one of the worst outbreaks globally.

Instead, according to Mohammed Bakir, who was held there for two weeks, it was no more than “a prison … the dirtiest place I have ever stayed in my life”.

“These were the hardest days and nights of my life,” said Bakir. “We were treated like animals. There were no facilities but also no humanity and everything was in disarray. They were not prepared; there was nothing for us to sleep in except some dilapidated tents.”

Thousands of people have been kept in close quarters in hot, squalid conditions in Taftan, with not even basic precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus. According to doctors at the camp, even those who presented with symptoms were not tested or even isolated, and there was a severe shortage of doctors and nurses. There was such a lack of medical facilities, the few doctors on site took to paying for necessary medicines themselves. Things got so bad that protests broke out among those quarantined.

“Neither the quarantining service nor the testing procedure was satisfactory at all,” said one doctor, who asked not to be named. “In the first 20 days, many people had symptoms, but there was no testing at all. We had no testing facilities for three weeks. One child was sent to [a] hospital in Quetta, and he tested positive. But there was no isolation or testing for anyone else.

“There were patients with diabetes, hepatitis and other diseases who were quarantined for 14 days without any proper medication. Their conditions were really bad there and they were treated like animals.”

The border between Pakistan and Iran is more than 600 miles and movement between the two countries is extremely common, especially among minority Shia Muslims in Pakistan who travel to Iran on religious pilgrimages. It is also a crucial trade route.

But over the past two weeks, it has become a hotbed of coronavirus, with infections going up by the dozen every day. There are 302 reported cases of coronavirus in Pakistan, the highest number of cases in south Asia .

Workers spray the quarantine camp at Taftan

 near the border with Iran. Photograph: Naseer Ahmed/Reuters

Even though infections in Iran began to rise rapidly weeks ago, the Pakistan government only officially shut the border less than a week ago. And the border is still porous; on Tuesday night at least 100 pilgrims crossed from Iran into Balochistan, reportedly after bribing border guards.

Among those held in Taftan was Abid Hussain, who is from Nagar in Gilgit-Baltistan, and was quarantined for two weeks after returning from Iran. “It’s like I have been released from prison,” said Hussain. “They call it a quarantine but we didn’t get hand wash, face masks or any other sanitary facilities. The only check was that in the morning a doctor used to come round taking everyone’s temperature. That was it for 13 days. Everyone was desperate to leave.”

Many of those in Taftan have been released or transferred to other facilities, but 1,200 remain.

Hussain also described lax regulations on movement for those in the camp, with many going to shops in the town, walking around the vicinity and having regular social gatherings. No guidelines were issued for how those in quarantine could protect themselves from getting the disease, and there was no running water for people to wash their hands.

Hundreds of people supposedly under lockdown left the camp to shop at local markets and stores, buying food and returning to the camp without any checks.

“Around these fruit stalls it was more like a scene from a busy Friday bazaar which was run by people who should have been quarantine camp in lockdown,” said one eyewitness.

The situation was equally bad in the hospitals in Balochistan, the least developed and most impoverished province of Pakistan, which were tasked with dealing with the outbreak. A doctor at one hospital in Quetta claimed that medical staff had refused to treat or even examine a young girl with all the symptoms of coronavirus, whose father had recently returned from China for work. The girl reportedly died days later without being tested.


Pakistan’s mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak, said the doctor, was “depressing and disturbing”.

Pakistan has a notoriously poor track record for containing disease outbreaks and is one of only two countries in the world that have failed to eliminate polio. The government’s fear of a coronavirus outbreak meant it even refused to evacuate the 600 Pakistani students stranded in Wuhan province in China, where the pandemic began.

Population of critically endangered African black rhino 'slowly increasing'

Numbers are set to continue rising over next five years

Poaching is the biggest threat to the large mammals (File photo) ( PA )

The numbers of African black rhinos is slowly rising thanks to the efforts of conservationists, new figures have shown.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in an update that the total number of these critically endangered rhinos increased from 4,845 in 2012 to 5,630 in 2018 - an annual rise of 2.5 per cent.

This success has been put down to a combination of law enforcement measures and actions taken to manage the rhino population, such as the relocation of certain animals.

Dr Grethel Aguilar, acting director general of IUCN, said: "While Africa's rhinos are by no means safe from extinction, the continued slow recovery of black rhino populations is a testament to the immense efforts made in the countries the species occurs in, and a powerful reminder to the global community that conservation works."

"At the same time, it is evident that there is no room for complacency as poaching and illegal trade remain acute threats,” she added.

According to the IUCN, population models indicate that the number of black rhinos will continue to rise gradually over the next five years

Although the southwestern black rhino population has been growing for three generations, the two other subspecies - the southeastern and eastern - are still critically endangered, following huge population losses between the 1970s and 1990s.

Poaching is still the main threat to these animals.

However, the IUCN said that counter-measures have improved the situation, with poaching numbers down from a peak in 2015.

In 2018, at least 892 rhinos were killed by poachers, signalling a decrease from the minimum of 1,349 that were killed in 2015. 

Read more

New fake rhino horn could push up poaching, inventors warned

Dr Richard Emslie, who works for the IUCN's African Rhino Specialist Group, said: "If the encouraging declines in poaching can continue, this should positively impact rhino numbers.

"Continued expenditure and efforts will be necessary to maintain this trend,” he added.

The white rhino, Africa's other rhino species, is currently listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List.

Additional reporting by PA

National Action: 'Miss Hitler' contestant and three fellow neo-Nazis convicted of terror offences

Alice Cutter fantasised about murdering Jews while wearing swastika knitwear and earrings

Lizzie Dearden Security Correspondent THE GUARDIAN 

Alice Cutter took part in National Action's 'Miss Hitler 2016' beauty pageant ( West Midlands Police )

A neo-Nazi who wore swastika earrings and ran in a “Miss Hitler” beauty pageant is among four National Action members convicted of terror offences.

A court heard that Alice Cutter, 23, sported “his-and-hers swastika knitwear” with her former fiancé Mark Jones – a senior figure in the banned terrorist group.

Prosecutors said the comments Cutter made about Jews, including violent fantasies of murder and ethnic cleansing, were “some of the most shocking in the case”.


She entered National Action’s “Miss Hitler 2016” competition, which was a publicity stunt to attract more members, under the name Buchenwald Princess.

It referenced a German concentration camp, where her boyfriend had performed a Hitler salute in an execution chamber the month before.

Cutter also attended National Action meetings and protests and was connected with key figures in the terrorist group including de-facto leader Christopher Lythgoe.

Jurors were shown photos of Cutter posing with what looked like an automatic rifle and knives, including blades emblazoned with Nazi symbols.

“I've gone from hanging around with humourless libtards to meeting intelligent young people who wear all black just like me,” she wrote in her “Miss Hitler” entry.
Read more

Alleged neo-Nazi entered ‘Miss Hitler’ pageant, terror trial hears

Neo-Nazi terrorist couple who named baby ‘Adolf’ jailed

'Fully-fledged neo-Nazi' jailed for leading banned UK far-right group

“Sacrifice is inevitable in life, so why not make the 'sacrifice' of a comfortable and ignorant life for the greater good.”

Cutter was convicted of membership of a proscribed organisation alongside Jones, 25, Garry Jack, 24, and Connor Scothern, 19, following a retrial.

Addressing the four, Judge Paul Farrer QC, said a date for their sentencing would be fixed in due course.

Birmingham Crown Court heard that co-defendant Daniel Ward pleaded guilty to membership during their first trial, which ended with a hung jury last year.

Prosecutor Barnaby Jameson QC said they were part of a “fellowship of hate” who continued to further National Action’s aims after it was banned as a terrorist group in December 2016.

He said the “tiny, secretive group of die-hard neo-Nazis” were prepared to achieve their goals with terrorism, including the ethnic cleansing of Jews, black people, Asians, gays and liberals.

“The ultimate aim of the group was all-out race war,” Mr Jameson said. “Members of National Action were equipping themselves with weapons and the ability to produce explosives.”

National Action: Neo-Nazi terrorist couple who named baby ‘Adolf’ jailed

After the neo-Nazi group was banned, Jones was one of the senior figures who received instructions from Lythgoe that National Action was “just shedding one skin for another” and would continue underground.

It fragmented into regional cells, and successor groups called Scottish Dawn and NS131 that were later banned by the government.

The defendants were in a chat group set up the following February called the “triple K mafia”, in reference to the Ku Klux Klan, where National Action members from across the Midlands and Yorkshire exchanged violent posts.

Former British National Party member Jones, described as a “die-hard” member in court, was a leading figure with connections to the group’s leadership and international neo-Nazi groups.
Read more

How once-ridiculed BNP Youth leader planned neo-Nazi terror attack

One of his contacts was Brandon Clint Russell, an American extremist who founded Atomwaffen Division and was later jailed for explosives offences.

In December 2017, Jones travelled to meet members of the Azov Battalion militia in Ukraine and he had been messaging a member of Lithuanian nationalist organisation Skydas.

The court heard that he was a regional organiser in London before meeting Cutter and moving to West Yorkshire to live with her in 2017.

Jones, who went by the name “Granddaddy Terror” and “Mr Angry” in chat groups, attended numerous demonstrations and flew to Germany with National Action co-founder Alex Davies in April 2016.

The pair were photographed in the execution room of Buchenwald performing a Hitler salute and holding a National Action flag.

Jones met new National Action recruits and created neo-Nazi artwork for the group, as well as Scottish Dawn and NS131.

The court heard that Jones was also photographed conducting target practice with a crossbow and assault rifle, and purchased knives and posed with them at the home he shared with Cutter.

During searches, police uncovered National Action propaganda, Nazi paraphernalia, knuckle dusters, knives, a catapult, Nazi books and Swastika earrings and scarves.

Cutter cried in the dock as the court heard that Jones had cheated on her with a 16-year-old student he was attempting to recruit.

National Action shared a photo of Jones and Davies performing 

Hitler salutes at a Nazi concentration camp in 2016

In her evidence, Cutter told jurors she had removed the engagement ring Jones had given her when he proposed in Yorkshire over the infidelity.

Unknown to the jury, Cutter - who styled herself to other members as a “fashy princess” - also gained a romantic admirer who sent a love letter via the court during her first trial.

The pair were in the Midlands cell of National Action alongside Jack, who joined in 2016 and was described as an “out-and-out fanatic” in court.

He was previously convicted of stirring up racial hatred with a neo-Nazi stickering campaign at Aston University in Birmingham, and continued meeting members after the ban.

The youngest defendant, Scothern, practiced Islam from the age of 12, then was drawn to communism before settling on National Action in his mid-teens.

The court heard that he joined demonstrations, including one that saw him make a Hitler salute at a war memorial, and downloaded a recipe for making Molotov cocktails.

In September 2017, mass arrests sparked instructions from a senior member who was jailed in a separate trial to delete messages and burn memorabilia linking them to the group.

But the four defendants and Ward were arrested on 5 September 2018 and charged with continued membership after the ban, which they denied.
Alice Cutter took part in National Action's 'Miss Hitler 2016' beauty pageant (West Midlands Police)

Jones, Scothern and Jack claimed they quit National Action when it was banned in December 2016, while Cutter denied ever joining the group and claimed she would not have been admitted as a woman.

The case brings the total number of National Action supporters convicted of membership to 15, while several others have been jailed for other offences including plotting to kill an MP and making a pipe bomb.

Det Ch Supt Kenny Bell, head of the West Midlands Police Counter Terrorism Unit, said the defendants were a “significant part of the network”.

“Clearly the convictions are a significant disruption of National Action but I don’t take for one minute for granted the ongoing challenge,” he told The Independent.

“We’re beginning to shine a light on right-wing terrorism and some of the depraved views people are spouting. I will not be resting on my laurels over this threat.”

Jones and Cutter, both of Sowerby Bridge near Halifax, Jack, of Birmingham, and Scothern, of Nottingham, will all be sentenced at a later date.

Coronavirus: One dead every 10 minutes in Iran as medics forced to treat sick without masks
SANCTIONS ON IRAN ARE CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

Families say they are digging makeshift graves for their dead, as many fear numbers of infected will soar during Nowruz new year celebrations

Bel Trew Beirut, Istanbul @beltrew,Borzou Daragahi @borzou

Iranian firefighters disinfect streets in the capital Tehran in 

a bid to halt the wild spread of coronavirus ( AFP via Getty Images )

The new coronavirus kills at least one person every 10 minutes in Iran, the country’s health ministry has warned, as shortages force medics to treat the sick without protective gear, while families say they are burying their loved ones in makeshift pits.

Nearly 18,500 have been infected and at least 1,284 people have died of Covid-19 in the country, the highest death toll outside of China and Italy.

The official body count increased by 149 on Thursday, the largest one day jump since the crisis, showing how quickly the effects of the pandemic were accelerating in Iran.

The World Health Organisation, however, has warned Iran’s toll was potentially five times higher as the testing has been restricted to the “most severe cases”. The authorities have also struggled to enforce measures like quarantine and self-isolation.

On Thursday Kianush Jahanpur, the health ministry spokesman said the crisis was so severe that Covid-19 was killing at least half a dozen an hour.

"Based on our information, every 10 minutes one person dies from the coronavirus and some 50 people become infected with the virus every hour in Iran," he tweeted.

This rate could soar: a computer simulation conducted by Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology this week concluded that in the best-case scenario the death toll could exceed 12,000 and reach a peak in mid-May.

In a worst-case scenario, if people keep travelling and ignoring health guidance, the report warned as many as 3.5 million could die.

As of Thursday, more than 9,000 people have died globally with more than 200,000 cases.

As the outbreak has spread medical professionals described unsafe conditions while they rush to treat patients with dwindling supplies.

A nurse working in Karaj, a city 25km northwest of Tehran, told The Independent protective masks are only available for those working in the emergency units, increasing the risk that those working in other sections of the hospitals could be infected and pass on the virus to other patients.

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“We are really short of equipment. Our hospitals are all full and the medical teams are already exhausted. Yet some people still don’t take this seriously,” the nurse said.

“In the first days there were masks and protective gowns for the medical staff at our hospital. But now it is getting more scarce as the number of infected people across the country is increasing.”

A lab technician in Tehran said each medical staffer is given two masks per shift, which is not sufficient.

“Infection cases among the doctors, nurses and the medical staff in general are increasing rapidly,” he said. “We're very worried about our own families since we might get infected… and carry the virus to our family.”

Read more

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe temporarily released from Iran prison

Civilians in Tehran told The Independent that bodies are massing in morgues and when the authorities bury the dead they have started to do so with lime to further prevent the spread of the disease.

In more rural areas, where citizens are largely on their own, one man said worried locals have been hastily burying bodies in makeshift graves without ceremony.

“A few days ago one of my relatives in a far off city noticed a neighbour had died likely from coronavirus. His family feared getting close to the body."

“My relative used a blanket to pack and move the body and finally just threw him in a grave, without any ceremony - like a dead animal,” the man added.

Despite reports that Iran has implemented a tight lockdown on public life, the same person said the authorities have failed to quarantine cities and enforce social distancing.

Instead many citizens are gearing up for the Nowruz, the Iranian new year, on Friday.

“Unfortunately many don’t understand and still travel around and are preparing to go on vacations,” the Tehran resident said.

“The regime simply doesn’t want to confess its incompetence,” the person added.

The nurse in Karaj also reported there was very little police presence and little enforcement of curfews.

The authorities have released statements telling people to stay home and avoid travelling during the new year holidays to help contain coronavirus contagion.
They just threw him in a grave, without any ceremony like a dead animalResident of Tehran

But on Thursday photos were shared online purportedly showing traffic jams on the Tehran-Qom motorway.

Iran’s outbreak began in Qom, a city 120km south-west of the capital and a stronghold of Iran’s shiite clergy.

There the authorities have battled to close down shrines to curb the spread of the disease: videos also shared online apparently show hard-line faithful storming the courtyards of Fatima Masumeh and Mashhad shrines demanding they open.

“From our sources on the ground - witnessing in person or getting this from reports they receive from key places - the numbers of Covid-19 cases are at least four times higher than being reported,” Mzahem Alsaloum, a researcher working for western defence contractors.

“The authorities cannot do proper tests, they have been testing only those who have extreme symptoms. They have been unable to impose quarantine or social-distancing measures, there are concerns about the New Year.

“There has been radical mismanagement by the regime.”

In his special message for Nowruz, Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif, also pointed to the United States saying it is responsible for the “destructive ramifications” of continuing to impose crippling sanctions on the country as it struggles to contain the disease.

The US administration of Donald Trump has resisted pressure to ease sanctions on Iran to allow for easier access to medical supplies, ignoring a precedent set by George W. Bush when he removed trade restrictions and dispatched aid after a 2003 earthquake.

Instead on Tuesday, Washington imposed fresh sanctions, blacklisting three Iranian individuals, for engaging in "significant transactions" to trade in Iranian petrochemicals.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted Washington will maintain its maximum-pressure campaign to choke off Tehran's ability to export its oil.

Iran has strong commercial and political ties with China, where coronavirus emerged last year. It denied for weeks that the virus had been encountered in Iran finally acknowledging its presence on 19 February.

Still, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani insisted on Wednesday that Iran had been honest with people, calling accusations that Iran first tried to downplay the outbreak of coronavirus “propaganda” in a speech broadcast live on state television.

Responding to mounting public criticism, including an actor on television who publicly blasted the authorities for lying and failing to shut down the city of Qom, Tehran has offered a major olive branch to its many opponents, releasing 85,000 prisoners on furlough.

On Wednesday Iran announced it would pardon prisoners serving sentences of less than five years for “security crimes” ahead of Nowruz.

It remained unclear if Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian dual citizen, now out on furlough while serving five years in prison on trumped-up charges of toppling the regime, would be included in the pardon.

UK
Coronavirus: Fewer than half of Britons believe government is handling outbreak well, new poll finds

Economic optimism hits lowest level since financial crisis as seven in 10 people think economy will get worse over next 12 months

Lizzy Buchan THE INDEPENDENTPolitical Correspondent @LizzyBuchan

Just under half of Britons believe the government is handling the coronavirus outbreak well as economic optimism fell to its lowest level since the financial crisis, a new poll has found.

As the country faces drastic measures to curb the spread of the virus, a survey by Ipsos MORI found 49 per cent said ministers were handling the crisis well, with 35 per cent regarding the government's efforts negatively.

Boris Johnson was regarded as acting well by 47 per cent of voters, compared to 38 per cent who thought he was handling the crisis badly.

The chief medical officer Chris Whitty inspired the most confidence on 52 per cent, with only 14 per cent critical of his efforts.

Two in five voters (39 per cent) said Matt Hancock has been handling the crisis well, while new chancellor Rishi Sunak won plaudits from 41 per cent of voters.

Coronavirus: Empty streets across the world
Show all 29





The poll, which was conducted between 13-16 March, and before some of the latest emergency measures, found seven out of 10 people (69 per cent) think the economy will get worse over the next 12 months – up from 42 per cent in February.

Only 15 per cent think that the economy will improve. The last time pessimism was this low was in November 2008 when 75 per cent thought the economy would get worse.

Young people were more critical of the government’s handling of the outbreak than older people, as just 28 per cent of 18-34s thought the government was handling it well, compared with 70 per cent of over 65s.

Confidence was lower among Labour supporters (30 per cent), public sector workers (35 per cent), and Londoners (38 per cent).

But Budget measures to fight coronavirus have gone down well, with 65 per cent saying it will be helpful in tackling the outbreak. Eight out 10 people (81 per cent) strongly supported the £5bn emergency NHS fund announced by the chancellor.

Over the weekend, half of voters said the measures the Government had taken do not go far enough and more should be done while 42 per cent said the measures the Government had taken are about right.

The poll revealed broad support for cancelling sporting events such as the FA Cup (75 per cent), the rest of the season for Britain’s football leagues (73 per cent), and Wimbledon (71 per cent), while seven in ten (72 per cent) supported postponing the upcoming local elections.

Gideon Skinner, head of political research at Ipsos MORI, said: "Britons’ worries about the economic impact of the coronavirus are laid clear with pessimism about the economy at its worst in our trends since the 2008 crash, while women are particularly concerned.

"However at the time of asking around half the public felt the government was handling the crisis well, although half were wanting more to be done, and high levels of support for the Budget’s financial measures suggests that they are looking for the government to take further action to minimise economic damage and restore confidence."

Source note: Ipsos MORI interviewed a representative sample of 1,003 adults aged 18+ across Great Britain. Interviews were conducted by telephone 13 – 16 March.

Data are weighted to the profile of the population. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.

Trump ban on research using foetal tissue from abortions blocking potential coronavirus treatments

A ban was imposed last year prohibiting government researchers from using tissue from abortions in their work

• Amy Goldstein
• 
  

A senior scientist at a government biomedical research laboratory has been thwarted in his efforts to conduct experiments on possible treatments for the new coronavirus because of the Trump administration’s restrictions on research with human fetal tissue.

The scientist, Kim Hasenkrug, an immunologist at the National Institutes of Health’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana, has been appealing for nearly a month to top NIH officials, arguing that the pandemic warrants an exemption to a ban imposed last year prohibiting government researchers from using tissue from abortions in their work.


According to several researchers familiar with the situation, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive internal dispute, such experiments could be particularly fruitful. Just months ago, before the new coronavirus began to infect people around the world, other U.S. scientists made two highly relevant discoveries. They found that specialized mice could be transplanted with human fetal tissue that develops into lungs- the part of the body the new coronavirus invades. These “humanized mice,” they also found, could then be infected with coronaviruses – to which ordinary mice are not susceptible – closely related to the one that causes the new disease, Covid-19.

Outside researchers said the scientists who created those mice have offered to give them to the Rocky Mountain Lab, which has access to the new virus that causes Covid-19, so the mice could be infected with the source of the pandemic and experiments could be run on potential treatments. Candidates include an existing drug known to boost patients’ immune systems in other circumstances, as well as blood serum from patients recovering from Covid-19.


“Kim Hasenkrug is one of the world experts in immune responses to persistent viral infection, including HIV and a whole bunch of other viruses,” said Irving Weissman, a leading stem cell researcher at Stanford University. In addition, the Montana NIH site has a biosafety lab equipped with high-level protections for experiments with dangerous microbes.


“It isn’t clear if this added layer of urgent investigations will find more effective” treatments for people infected in the pandemic than other approaches now being tried, Weissman said, “but it’s stupid not to try.”

No therapies or vaccines for the new coronavirus exist yet.

The inability of the Montana lab, part of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to pursue these experiments on the coronavirus is the latest example of disruptions to scientists’ work caused by the administration’s restrictions on research involving fetal tissue.

“When I hear the vice president saying [they’re] doing everything they can to find vaccines [and treatments], I know that is not true,” said one scientist familiar with the situation, referring to Vice President Mike Pence’s daily press briefings of the White House coronavirus task force. “Anything we do at this point could save hundreds of thousands of lives. If you wait, it’s too late.”

Caitlin Oakley, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes NIH, said, “No decision has been made” about Rocky Mountain’s request. She added that the administration’s “bold, decisive actions” to respond to the pandemic include “kick-starting the development of vaccines and therapeutics through every possible avenue.”

Hasenkrug has been forbidden by federal officials to talk publicly since the administration began to reconsider fetal tissue funding rules in the fall of 2018 at the prodding of social conservatives who oppose abortion and are part of Trump’s political base.

The fetal tissue is donated by women undergoing elective abortions, and critics say that it is unethical to use the material and that taxpayer money should not be used for research that relies on abortion.

“Promoting the dignity of human life from conception to natural death is one of the very top priorities of President [Donald] Trump’s administration,” HHS said in announcing its revised policy late last spring.

Under the policy Trump announced then, university researchers or other outside scientists face new restrictions on federal funding of such work. If an NIH grant proposal is approved through the normal scientific review process, it must then be evaluated by a new ethics advisory board that was announced months ago but does not yet exist. This winter, NIH officials officially invited nominations to the panel for the current year, but its members have not yet been determined, and no date has been set for it to convene.

The restrictions for government researchers such as Hasenkrug – known as NIH’s intramural scientists – are more severe. Those scientists have been banned from pursuing studies that involve fetal tissue. Hasenkrug was at the time of the ban collaborating on humanized mouse research aimed at a possible cure for HIV.

According to the scientists familiar with events, a researcher at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill last month offered to send to Rocky Mountain nearly three dozen mice implanted with the human lung tissue that he and colleagues had recently shown could be infected with coronaviruses. There are enough of them for experiments with three or four potential treatments, the scientists said.

The offer came six months after the UNC scientists published their findings in the journal Nature Biotechnology about having succeeded in implanting human fetal lung tissue into mice with their own immune systems removed. The mice then grew human lung structures and were able to be infected with coronaviruses and other viruses to which mice ordinarily are not susceptible.

A senior UNC scientist, who has been cautioned by the university not to speak publicly about the research, according to other scientists familiar with the situation, did not respond to requests for comment.

On Feb. 19, two individuals said, Hasenkrug wrote to a senior NIH official, asking for permission to use those mice and run experiments related to covid-19. He eventually was told that his request had been passed on to senior HHS officials.

Since then, he has written repeatedly to NIH, laying out in greater detail the experiments he wants to undertake and why several alternatives to the fetal tissue-implanted mice would not be as useful. In one appeal to NIH, Hasenkrug wrote that the mice he was offered are more than a year old and have a relatively short time remaining to live, so should be used quickly, according to Kerry Lavender, a Canadian researcher familiar with the correspondence.

Hasenkrug has not received an answer as to whether the administration will allow him to proceed, scientists familiar with his request said.

An individual familiar with where things stand, speaking on condition of anonymity about the internal dynamic, said the requests had been forwarded about two weeks ago to the White House’s Domestic Policy Council and that HHS and NIH were waiting for a decision there.

Late last week, Lavender, a former postdoctoral trainee at Rocky Mountain who helped develop a technique to implant mice with fetal tissue, heard from Hasenkrug, her mentor, asking whether she might undertake the coronavirus research that he was not allowed to do.
Lavender, an assistant professor at the University of Saskatchewan, said in an interview that she moved back to her native Canada less than two years ago because she wanted to continue pursuing fetal tissue studies and could see that the Trump administration was hostile to such research.

She said she is scrambling to try to carry out the experiments but is uncertain whether “we can pull it off . . . I’m a new investigator with only so much funding,” she said, adding that she does not have immediate access to the kind of biohazard containment facility needed to do the work safely.

“If we were able to do this within the NIH, we would be able to do this much more quickly,” Lavender said. “Because the NIH budget all comes through the government, they can easily collaborate and fund what they are doing . . . It’s much harder when we’re all separate entities to try to arrange the funding.”

According to one of the scientists, an experiment would take perhaps a week or 10 days to show whether a potential treatment was effective in the mice. Any promising therapy would then require testing in humans and approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Stanford’s Weissman said one potential therapy that should be tried is a drug, already FDA-approved, that he developed initially for cancers that he and Hasenkrug more recently have found to be effective in boosting immune response in mice. People with weakened immune systems are particularly vulnerable to severe illness from Covid-19 or death.

“Will it work? We don’t know that,” Weissman said. But he said, “this is a way to bring more minds and more hands” to the search for a treatment for the new pandemic.

The Washington Post

Virus, what virus?

 Tokyo Olympics organisers under scrutiny

#NOOLYMPICS2020      #NOTOKYOOLYMPICS2020

AFP / Kazuhiro NOGIPreparations are continuing in Tokyo 

to host the 2020 Olympics - but criticism is growing

Tokyo Olympic organisers are facing increased scrutiny over their unwillingness to either postpone or cancel the summer Games in response to the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world.

As a multitude of sporting events worldwide are scrubbed from the calendar, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been accused of shying away from what would be a huge decision on the staging of the four-yearly event.

The IOC's 600 employees in the Swiss city of Lausanne, based at home since Friday, continue to work on the planning of the July 24-August 9 Games.

IOC president Thomas Bach is one of the very few to still work from the headquarters.

"Only the president is present, along with some directors, in separate offices," a source told AFP.

Bach has held a series of meetings by video link with international federations, national Olympic committees and athletes' representatives, working on the repeated premise that the IOC is determined to work for the success of the Games in Tokyo.

"We were also very constructive in considering the path to Tokyo and everybody realised that we still have more than four months to go," Bach said after talks with 220 athletes' representatives on Wednesday.

"We aim to continue being very realistic in our analysis."

To help qualification for the Games, Bach has asked international federations to propose plans before the end of March on how to fill quotas, with just 57 percent of athletes having already qualified.

According to sources, not one of the 28 federations represented at the Olympics asked Bach if he envisaged a delay in the staging of the Games.

"We are very optimistic on the holding of the Tokyo Olympic Games on the scheduled dates," Nenad Lalovic, president of the international wrestling federation and influential member of the IOC executive committee, told AFP Thursday.

But World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe earlier admitted that the Games could be moved to later in the year because of the COVID-19 outbreak, which has caused 217,510 cases with 9,020 deaths across 157 countries and territories as of 1100 GMT Thursday.

"That is possible, anything is possible at the moment," Coe told BBC when asked whether the Games could be postponed to September or October.

"But I think the position that sport has certainly taken, and it was certainly the temperature of the room in the conversation I had the other day with the IOC and our other federations, is that nobody is saying we will be going to the Games come what may.

"But it isn't a decision that has to be made at this moment," said Coe, who headed up the organising committee of the 2012 London Games and is also a member of the Tokyo Olympics Games Coordination Commission.

- Risk to athletes -

There has been growing concern from athletes not only over the potential risk to their health, but also unfairness in pre-Games training given some countries are in lockdown with access to facilities blocked.

But the IOC has not budged on its stance, notably on Tuesday, when its executive board meeting coincided with the postponement of the European football championships, the Copa America, tennis' French Open and the Paris-Roubaix cycling race.

"With more than four months to go before the Games there is no need for any drastic decisions at this stage; and any speculation at this moment would be counter-productive," the IOC insisted Wednesday, drawing the ire of many top athletes by encouraging all sportspeople to continue to prepare for the Tokyo Games "as best they can".

One federation executive said the "Olympics overshadow everything in terms of organisation, budget and prestige".

"So you can understand that the IOC is giving itself some time to take a radical decision that also involves the future of world sport."

While many federation presidents have followed Bach and the IOC's official line, it is clear, however, that there are some doubters.

"I'm shocked," said another federation executive, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"If the IOC decides to postpone the Games, at least everybody could prepare themselves for the fall-out rather than carrying on without knowing where we're going."

Another official added: "If the IOC claims to care about the health of sportspeople, then it postpones the Games because by not taking any decision, it exposes athletes to a major risk."

ANOTHER HINDUTVA FAKIR

India political activist arrested for selling cow urine to combat virus

AFP / NOAH SEELAMMany in India, a Hindu-majority nation of 1.3 billion, consider cows sacred and believe drinking cow urine is a panacea for all manner of ailments

An activist with India's ruling party has been arrested after a volunteer fell ill from drinking cow urine at a party to combat the novel coronavirus, police said Wednesday, as interest grows in home remedies amid the pandemic.

Narayan Chatterjee, a Bharatiya Janata Party activist, was arrested by West Bengal state police late Tuesday for "organising the cow urine consumption event and compelling a civic volunteer to drink cow urine", Kolkata police chief Anuj Sharma told AFP.

"The civic volunteer fell sick on Tuesday and lodged a complaint with the police. The BJP activist was arrested on Tuesday night."

The president of BJP's West Bengal branch told AFP Chatterjee's arrest was "unfortunate".

"India is a democratic country. Everyone has the right to express his opinion," Dilip Ghosh said.

"It's unfortunate that Chatterjee was arrested for expressing his opinion organising the event. We don't know if the civic volunteer was forced to drink cow urine."

Many in the Hindu-majority nation of 1.3 billion consider cows sacred and believe drinking cow urine is a panacea for all manner of ailments, from arthritis and asthma to cancer and diabetes.

Last week, dozens of Hindu activists held a cow urine party in the capital New Delhi where they staged fire rituals and drank urine from earthen cups in order to fight the COVID-19.

Critics have rejected the urine claims as quackery.

A milk trader in the same state was arrested Tuesday for selling cow urine and dung and claiming they "would keep the novel coronavirus at bay", senior police officer from Hooghly district Humayan Kabir told AFP.

Kabir said the trader, Sheikh Masud, was selling cow urine at 500 Indian rupees ($6.69) a litre and cow dung at 400 rupees a kilogramme (2.2 pounds).

Masud, who hung a poster at his shop with the words "Drink cow urine to ward off coronavirus" told police he was inspired to sell the excrement after hearing about the Delhi party.

AFP has sought comment from the Ministry of Health on whether cow dung and cow urine are effective in curing COVID-19.

The World Health Organisation in India has also been contacted for comment over the urine and dung claims.

The government said Wednesday there have been 151 positive cases and three deaths from the virus in India, the world's second-most populous country with 1.3 billion people.

Most schools, entertainment facilities including cinemas, and even the iconic Taj Mahal have already been closed in India to try and stop the spread of the outbreak.

New coronavirus (NOVEL CORONAVIRUS) can survive on some surfaces for days: study
 

National Institutes of Health/AFP/File / Handout

A 3D print of a spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 in front of a 

3D print of a SARS-CoV-2 virus particle

The novel coronavirus can survive on some surfaces for days or in the air for several hours, according to a US-government funded study published Tuesday.

Scientists found that the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease had similar levels of viability outside the body to its predecessor that caused SARS.

This means that other factors like greater transmission between people with no symptoms might be why the current pandemic is far greater than the SARS outbreak of 2002-2003.

The new paper was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and carried out by scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), University of California, Los Angeles and Princeton.

The new coronavirus was detectable for up to four hours on copper and two to three days on plastic and stainless steel, and for up to 24 hours on cardboard.

The team used a nebulizer to simulate a person coughing or sneezing, and found that the virus became an aerosol -- meaning its particles became suspended in the air -- making it detectable for almost three hours.

The study was first posted on a medical pre-print website last week before it was peer-reviewed, and attracted much attention, including some criticism from scientists who said that it may have overstated the airborne threat.

The virus is predominantly transmitted by respiratory droplets and in this form it is viable for only a few seconds after a person coughs or sneezes.

Critics questioned whether a nebulizer accurately mimicked a human cough or sneeze.

That said, there is other evidence to suggest it can become an aerosol, albeit in rare circumstances.

- SARS comparison -

A Chinese paper that was posted last week and is awaiting peer-review found an aerosolized form of the new coronavirus was present in the bathrooms of patients in a Wuhan hospital, as the virus is shed in stools.

An aerosolized form of SARS was responsible for infecting hundreds of people in a Hong Kong apartment complex in 2003, when a sewage line leaked on to a ceiling fan creating a virus-laden plume.

The team behind the NEJM study performed similar tests on the SARS virus, finding the two viruses behave similarly.

But their similar viability fails to explain why the novel coronavirus pandemic has infected close to 200,000 people and caused almost 8,000 deaths, while the SARS epidemic infected about 8,000 and killed nearly 800.

"This indicates that differences in the epidemiologic characteristics of these viruses probably arise from other factors, including high viral loads in the upper respiratory tract and the potential for persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 to shed and transmit the virus while asymptomatic," wrote the researchers.

SARS-CoV-2 is the technical name for the new coronavirus.

The findings affirm guidance from public health professionals regarding social distancing, avoiding touching the face, covering your cough or sneeze and frequently disinfecting objects using cleaning sprays or wipes.

18 MAR 2020



SEE 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/new-coronavirus-can-survive-on-some.html

No layoffs, reduced rent: 'Italian cure' for pandemic

AFP / ANDREAS SOLARO

Shuttered market stalls in Rome's Monteverde Vecchio district on Wednesday

Companies are barred from laying off workers and rents have been reduced under Italy's economic survival plan for life at the European epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte hailed his 25-billion-euro ($28-billion) programme as the "Italian model" that the rest of Europe could adopt as it imposes its own painful lockdowns.

Italy's 2,978 official COVID-19 deaths account for more than half of those reported outside China.

AFP / ANDREAS SOLARO

The normally busy road between Rome and the Fiumicino international airport

Its nationwide containment measures are meant to see death rates that hit a global one-day record of 475 on Wednesday plateau and start to come down this month.

Other European nations are now taking on Italy's painful social distancing measures -- and Conte believes they will also adopt his remedy for families and businesses hurt by the fight against the invisible killer disease.

"When we talk about the Italian model, we are not only talking about health but also the economic response to the crisis," Conte said while unveiling his "Cura Italia" ("Italian Cure") plan at the start of the week.

Other European countries will probably never take on all 127 of the points that Conte -- a former law professor -- and his team of technocratic ministers drafted in the heat of Italy's gravest emergency since World War II.

But here are the broad outlines of what Conte thinks could be a pan-European response plan.

- Worker rights -

Companies are prohibited from laying off workers for the next two months without "justified objective reasons".

The self-employed and seasonal workers such as tour guides can expect a 600-euro ($680) payment for the month of March to help cushion the pain of lost business.

The government will also cover 100-euro bonuses for low-wage employees.

- Baby sitters -

Families are issued 600-euro vouchers to cover the expense of having to hire baby sitters to look after their children, who will be out of school at least until April 3.

The Italian government said Wednesday that its month-long shutdown of everything from kindergartens to private universities might run well into next month.

The self-employed who have to look after their kids will receive "parental leave" payments that cover half of their declared monthly incomes.

These payments can also be calculated on a daily basis.

- Rent and mortgage -

Conte has shut down all forms of business except for pharmacies and grocery stores for two weeks starting on March 12.

The government is compensating shop owners by offering them tax credits to cover 60 percent of their March rent payment.

The self-employed and freelancers with home mortgages can ask to have their payments suspended for up to 18 months if they can prove that their incomes fell by a third.

- Taxes -

A variety of taxes and social service payments are being suspended for sectors and professions deemed most affected by the crisis.

An existing list has been expanded to include everyone from truck drivers and hotel staff to cooks and clerks.

The government expects to start collecting the taxes again in May.

- Politics and prisons -

A variety of other measures affect issues ranging from prisons to politics and sport.

AFP/File / Miguel MEDINAInmates staged a rooftop protest at the San Vittore prison in Milan last week A watchdog group has urged the Italian government to release more than 10,000 prisoners from overcrowded jails as the country struggles to fight the spread of coronavirus

A planned national referendum to cut the number of parliament members has been postponed until the second half of the year.

The government is sending 20 million euros to repair the damage caused to prisons by rioters who were anxious about the new disease.

Italy's sport federations get four-month tax privileges and 130 million euros will go to support cinemas and the movie industry.