Whales face more fatal ship collisions as waters warm

By PATRICK WHITTLE MARCH 28, 2020

In this March 11, 2006 photo provided by the New England Aquarium, a whale swims off the coast of Georgia with fresh propeller cuts on its back. The whale is assumed to have died from its injuries, as it was never seen again. Ship strikes are one of the biggest causes of mortality for large whales, and scientists say the problem is getting worse because of the warming of the oceans. (Brenna Kraus/The New England Aquarium via AP)

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Climate change is imperiling the world’s largest animals by increasing the likelihood of fatal collisions between whales and big ships that ply the same waters.

Warming ocean temperatures are causing some species of whales in pursuit of food to stray more frequently into shipping lanes, scientists say.

The phenomenon already has increased ship strikes involving rare North Atlantic right whales on the East Coast and giant blue whales on the West Coast, researchers say. The number of strikes off California increased threefold in 2018 — to at least 10 — compared to previous years.

When whales are killed in a ship collision, they often sink and don’t always wash ashore. So scientists and conservationists say fatal ship strikes are dramatically under-reported.

Vessels strikes are among the most frequent causes of accidental death in large whales, along with entanglement in fishing gear. Conservationists, scientists and animals lovers have pushed for the International Maritime Organization to step up to protect the whales, but it won’t happen without cooperation from the worldwide shipping industry.

For the right whales, which number only about 400 and have lost more than 10% of their population in just a few years, the death toll is driving them closer to extinction, said Nick Record, senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine.

At least three right whales died from ship strikes in 2019 — a small number, but still dangerously high for so small a population. All three deaths were documented in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence off Canada, where scientists have said the whales are spending more time feeding as waters off New England warm.

Scientists say the changing ocean environment with global warming is causing right whales and some other species to stray outside protected zones designed to keep them safe from ships.

“When one of their main food resources goes away, it means they start exploring new areas for food,” Record said. “And that means they’re encountering all new sources of mortality because they are going into these places where they are not protected.”

On the West Coast, where there was increase in whale ship strike deaths, scientists reported that the risk of such accidents has been growing in the 2000s as the blue whale population shifted northward in the North Pacific.
FILE - In this March 28, 2018 file photo, a North Atlantic right whale feeds on the surface of Cape Cod bay off the coast of Plymouth, Mass. Ship strikes are one of the biggest causes of mortality for large whales, and scientists say the problem is getting worse because of the warming of the oceans. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

The increased ship strikes could necessitate “a broader area where ships don’t travel,” said Jessica Redfern, an ecologist with New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life and lead author of a study published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science in February.

Moving shipping lanes, and the possibility of enforcing slower speeds for large ships, is a subject of much debate among conservation groups, international regulators and the shipping industry.

Shippers say they have made attempts to work with conservationists, such as an ongoing effort to move a shipping lane in Sri Lankan waters to protect blue whales. In a statement to The Associated Press, the World Shipping Council expressed a willingness to keep working to keep shipping activity away from whales, but expressed skepticism about whether slowing vessels would help.

“Reduced ship speeds also increase the residence time of a ship in a given area where whales are active,” the council said. “Given those factors, there is some notable uncertainty about how effective reducing ship speeds is in lowering the risk of whale strikes.”

Changes to international shipping laws would have to go before the International Maritime Organization, which regulates shipping. The organization has taken numerous steps to protect whales in the past, including agreeing in 2014 to a recommendation for ships to reduce speed to 10 knots (11.5 miles per hour) off the Pacific coast of Panama for four months every summer and fall.

A spokeswoman for the organization declined to comment on the role of warming seas in increased ship strikes. But the subject has caught the attention of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees marine issues in the U.S.

Right whales, in particular, began showing a change in migratory behavior around 2010, said Vince Saba, a fisheries biologist with NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center. That happened as warm Gulf Stream water has entered the Gulf of Maine, a key habitat for the whales, he said.

“With that redistribution, the animals have moved into areas where there weren’t management rules in place to protect them. In a sense, the deck got reshuffled,” said Sean Hayes, head of the protected species branch for the fisheries science center.

Whales also face increased threat because ships now can travel in parts of the sea that were previously ice, said Regina Asmutis-Silvia, a scientist with Massachusetts-based Whale and Dolphin Conservation. As waters continue to warm, the whales will need more protections or the number of deaths will only grow, she said.

“The reality is that it’s time to actually implement the mitigation and that’s going to mean expanding areas where the speed rules would be in place,” she said.

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Follow Patrick Whittle on Twitter: @pxwhittle

TRUMP WANNABE
Brazil’s Bolsonaro makes life-or-death coronavirus gamble
By DAVID BILLER MARCH 28,2020

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro speaks to journalists about the new coronavirus at Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Friday, March 27, 2020. Even as coronavirus cases mount in Latin America’s largest nation, Bolsonaro is calling the pandemic a momentary, minor problem and saying strong measures to contain it are unnecessary. (AP Photo/Andre Borges)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Even as coronavirus cases mount in Latin America’s largest nation, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has staked out the most deliberately dismissive position of any major world leader, calling the pandemic a momentary, minor problem and saying strong measures to contain it are unnecessary.

Bolsonaro says his response to the disease matches that of President Donald Trump in the U.S., but the Brazilian leader has gone further, labeling the virus as “a little flu” and saying state governors’ aggressive measures to halt the disease were crimes.

On Thursday, Bolsonaro told reporters in the capital, Brasilia, that he feels Brazilians’ natural immunity will protect the nation.



“The Brazilian needs to be studied. He doesn’t catch anything. You see a guy jumping into sewage, diving in, right? Nothing happens to him. I think a lot of people were already infected in Brazil, weeks or months ago, and they already have the antibodies that help it not proliferate,” Bolsonaro said. “I’m hopeful that’s really a reality.”

A video titled “Brazil Cannot Stop” that circulated on social media drew a rebuke from Monica de Bolle, a Brazilian senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

“Do you know what will happen, Bolsonaro? Brazil WILL stop. Your irresponsibility will bring thousands to avoidable deaths,” she tweeted Friday. “The destroyed lungs of these people, as well as the organs of those who won’t be able to have medical care, will fall on your lap. And Brazil will not spare you.”

Bolsonaro, 65, shows no sign of wavering even as the nation’s tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases surpasses 3,400, deaths top 90 and Brazilians overwhelmingly demand tough anti-virus measures. Pollster Datafolha this month found 73% of people supported total isolation, and 54% approved of governors’ management of the crisis. Bolsonaro’s backing was just 33%.

Does Bolsonaro actually believe, as he says, that the virus will be vanquished by a cocktail of drugs and Brazil’s tropical climate? It’s possible, but analysts say a more calculated political gamble may underlie his increasingly defiant position.

Bolsonaro may have concluded that when he faces reelection in two and a half years, the economy will matter more to most Brazilians than the death toll from coronavirus. By labeling the virus threat as overblown and decrying state governors’ quarantines and shutdowns as unnecessary, he could be preparing to blame others for any recession that might happen.


“If things go really poorly from an economic point of view, he can point his finger at the governors,” Christopher Garman, managing director for the Americas at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, said by phone. “What he isn’t calculating is the public opinion hit that he can take for being seen to have not handled well the public health crisis.”

The governors of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the states hardest hit by the virus, have banned public gatherings, closed schools and businesses and called for strict social distancing. Both are Bolsonaro critics and possible contenders in the 2022 presidential race. They also have backup: 25 of Brazil’s 27 governors signed a joint letter this week begging Bolsonaro to back strict anti-virus measures.

Bolsonaro, a Trump devotee, said he has watched his U.S. counterpart speak about the virus in recent days and found their perspectives rather aligned. Like Trump, he has sought to ease anxiety by often touting the yet-unproven benefits of chloroquine in combating the virus. On Thursday, he eliminated tariffs for the anti-malaria drug.

Local media have counted some two dozen people who tested positive for COVID-19 after traveling with Bolsonaro this month to the U.S. That includes his national security adviser, who this week returned to work at the presidential palace. Bolsonaro says his two tests for the virus came back negative, but he has refused to publish his results.

From the U.S., Bolsonaro called coronavirus fears a “fantasy.”

As COVID-19 started to spread in mid-March, he issued a lukewarm call for postponement of pro-government demonstrations, then celebrated the rallies and shook supporters’ hands. For a few days, he and his ministers wore masks, but they removed them when speaking. Asked March 23 why they had dispensed with their masks, officials exchanged sidelong glances for a full 15 seconds before a moderator broke the silence to call for the next question.

Bolsonaro returned to a hard line of denial Tuesday in an address to the nation. He demanded that life return to normal and people get back to work. His athletic past, he said, rendered him impervious to the virus. The next morning, he told reporters he and his health minister would decide to isolate only high-risk Brazilians – the elderly and those with preexisting health problems. The minister, a doctor who had earned praise for his no-nonsense crisis management, changed his position and said many quarantine measures had been hasty.

“It’s a very high-risk, tremendous gamble for Bolsonaro and probably it won’t work,” said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank. “But I wouldn’t rule out that it could. He could get lucky. It seems like it is going to hurt him significantly, but he has defied the odds before.”

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death. The vast majority of people recover.

Bolsonaro, a former Army captain, was a fringe lawmaker during his seven congressional terms and gained prominence with a stream of offensive statements. Popular support coalesced around his call for aggressive policing, plans to impose conservative cultural values and promises to rejuvenate the economy. During his 15 months in office, he has battled the media, sought to purge the nation of so-called “cultural Marxism” and dismissed data showing a surge in Amazon deforestation.

He has flouted the international consensus on coronavirus even as Trump has moved toward some World Health Organization recommendations for isolation. Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador spent weeks dismissing the coronavirus threat but on Thursday closed government for all but essential work and urged Mexicans to remain indoors.

Brazil’s economy still has not healed from a devastating 2015-2016 recession, and the country cannot survive a sustained stoppage without food riots and the like, according to Tony Volpon, chief economist at UBS in Brazil. He supports a shutdown but says the government should develop a plan to gradually ease the restrictions by region and business type, accompanied by ramping up testing and clamping down wherever coronavirus cases spike.

In Sao Paulo and Rio, self-isolating Brazilians have leaned from their windows every night for the past week to bang pots and pans in protest. While that’s not indicative of nationwide discontent, Eurasia’s Garman said, it could spread if the health system begins to collapse.

Bolsonaro’s fate will depend largely on the damage wrought by the disease, according to Thiago de Aragão, director of strategy at political risk consultancy Arko Advice.

If deaths are relatively low and the economy crippled, “public opinion could side with him,” de Aragão said. “If the final outcome is 50,000 deaths and trucks carrying coffins, like in Italy, it will be tremendously negative for the president.”

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/mutual-aid-solidarity-and-humor-in.html

Bomb disrupts funeral for 25 Sikhs killed in Afghan capital
HOW'S THAT PEACE DEAL GOING

By TAMEEM AKHGAR March 26, 2020

Afghan Sikh men mourn their beloved ones during a funeral procession for those who were killed on Wednesday by a lone Islamic State gunman, rampaged through a Sikh house of worship, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, March 26, 2020. An explosive device disrupted Thursday's funeral service for 25 members of Afghanistan's Sikh minority community, killed in an attack by the Islamic State group on their house of worship in the heart of the capital. (AP Photo/Tamana Sarwary)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An explosive device disrupted Thursday’s funeral service for 25 members of Afghanistan’s Sikh minority community who had been killed by the Islamic State group. No one was hurt in the blast, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.

The explosion went off Thursday near the gate of a crematorium in Kabul, as the frightened mourners struggled to continue with the funeral prayers and cremation.

A 6-year-old child was among the victims of Wednesday’s attack by a lone IS gunman, who rampaged through a Sikh house of worship in the heart of Kabul’s old city. After holding some 80 worshippers hostage for several hours and wounding eight people, the gunman was killed by Afghan Special Forces aided by international troops.
The Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for the attack on the group’s Amaq media arm, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks militant postings and groups. The gunmen was identified as Indian national Abu Khalid al-Hindi.

Maroon-colored cloth covered the many coffins surrounded by more than 100 family members who came to say their final farewell. The coffins were taken from their house of worship, known as a Gurdwara, to the crematorium for burial.

Dozens of wailing women remained behind in the Gurdwara as their loved ones were carried away.
 
An Afghan Sikh girl looks at a funeral procession and cremation ceremony for those who were killed on Wednesday by a lone Islamic State gunman, rampaged through a Sikh house of worship, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, March 26, 2020. An explosive device disrupted Thursday's funeral service for 25 members of Afghanistan's Sikh minority community, killed in an attack by the Islamic State group on their house of worship in the heart of the capital. (AP Photo/Tamana Sarwary)

Among the dead was Tian Singh, an Indian national, India’s External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

Sikhs have suffered widespread discrimination in the conservative Muslim country and have also been targeted by Islamic extremists.

“I am under pressure from my people, who say we cannot cannot live in this country anymore. Our children and our women are not secure,” said Narindra Singh Khalsa, a member of Afghanistan’s Parliament representing Sikhs and Hindus.

As news of the attack first broke, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed tweeted that the Taliban were not involved. Earlier this month, Afghanistan’s IS affiliate struck a gathering of minority Shiite Muslims in Kabul, killing 32 people.

Afghan Sikh men mourn their beloved ones during a funeral procession for those who were killed on Wednesday by a lone Islamic State gunman, rampaged through a Sikh house of worship, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, March 26, 2020. An explosive device disrupted Thursday's funeral service for 25 members of Afghanistan's Sikh minority community, killed in an attack by the Islamic State group on their house of worship in the heart of the capital. (AP Photo/Tamana Sarwary)

The Taliban and the U.S. signed a peace deal last month that would eventually see all American troops leave the country, with the final withdrawal tied to Taliban pledges to deny space in Afghanistan to other militant groups, such as their rival, the Islamic State group.

This month’s attacks on religious minorities in Afghan capital raises concerns that the Islamic State is reasserting itself, striking out at religious minorities that are reviled by the violent Sunni militant group as heretics.

In July 2018, a convoy of Sikhs and Hindus was attacked by an Islamic State suicide bomber as they were on their way to meet Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in the eastern city of Jalalabad. Nineteen people were killed in that attack.

Under Taliban rule in the late 1990s, Sikhs were asked to identify themselves by wearing yellow armbands, but the rule was not enforced. In recent years, large numbers of Sikhs and Hindus have sought asylum in India, which has a Hindu majority and a large Sikh population.


Afghan Sikh men attend a funeral procession and cremation ceremony for those who were killed on Wednesday by a lone Islamic State gunman, rampaged through a Sikh house of worship, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, March 26, 2020. An explosive device disrupted Thursday's funeral service for 25 members of Afghanistan's Sikh minority community, killed in an attack by the Islamic State group on their house of worship in the heart of the capital. (AP Photo/Tamana Sarwary)


Afghan Sikh men attend a funeral procession and cremation ceremony for those who were killed on Wednesday by a lone Islamic State gunman, rampaged through a Sikh house of worship, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, March 26, 2020. An explosive device disrupted Thursday's funeral service for 25 members of Afghanistan's Sikh minority community, killed in an attack by the Islamic State group on their house of worship in the heart of the capital. (AP Photo/Tamana Sarwary)

Estonia won its war on fentanyl, then things got worse

By ERIKA KINETZ March 26, 2020

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Igor Smirnov was introduced to opiates the day his first son was born, when he got celebratory drunk and a neighbor injected him with an intoxicating extract of opium poppies.

“I’ve never tried anything better in my life,” he said. “It’s natural, it’s a clean high.”

Smirnov graduated to heroin during a stint in prison for robbery in the mid-’90s, as the Estonian economy was reeling from the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and drug abuse rates shot up. After the Taliban banned poppy production in Afghanistan, decimating the 2001 harvest, a new drug appeared to take the place of heroin on the quaint, cobbled streets of Estonia’s capital, Tallinn: Fentanyl. People called it “China White.”

Smirnov didn’t like the drug at first, but soon learned to live with it.

“Fentanyl costs too much,” he said. “If you use fentanyl, the dealers are simply collecting money because the high lasts a short time.”

Smirnov has lived the arc of illicit drug abuse in Estonia, a tiny Baltic state that for nearly two decades has battled a fentanyl epidemic so severe its overdose death rate was almost six times the European average.

Once fentanyl landed in Estonia, heroin disappeared. Even after poppies started growing again in Afghanistan and Estonian police choked off fentanyl supply in 2017, heroin didn’t come back. Instead, users turned to cocktails of other kinds of synthetic drugs, including amphetamines, alpha-PVP, a dangerous stimulant also known as flakka, and prescription drugs, harm reduction workers, users, public health officials and police told The Associated Press.



Video: Estonia won its war on fentanyl in 2017 after major police busts effectively cut off supply to the tiny nation. Overdose deaths plunged. But many users didn't return to heroin. Instead, they began injecting combinations of synthetic drugs. (March 26)

There are signs that the U.S. is on a similar path, tipping from plant-based drugs like heroin to synthetic ones like fentanyl and methamphetamine. That could herald big changes in global narcotics supply chains and cement the role of China -- an important source of illicit synthetic drugs -- as a vital link in the worldwide drug trafficking business.

“The trajectory is toward full synthetics,” said Daniel Ciccarone, a professor at University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, who researched heroin and opioid supply chains under a federally-funded study. “Name the major drug producers in world – Afghanistan, Colombia -- only people in the know would say China. Well, guess what? China.”

Fentanyls are easier to make and smuggle than heroin, and far more profitable to sell. One kilogram of fentanyl bought in China for $3,000 to $5,000 can generate over $1.5 million, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Fentanyl is also at least 30 times more potent, which can make it hard for users to return to heroin after getting used to the punch of synthetics.

“What happens after fentanyl is heroin doesn’t work anymore,” said Jaan Vaart, who used to use drugs and now runs a mobile outreach bus for Convictus, a harm reduction center in Tallinn. “Nobody wants to spend their money on water. Heroin was like injecting water after that.”

Dusk falls over Estonia's medieval capital, Tallinn, Thursday, June 27, 2019. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

HEALTH EXPERTS WARN: “BE AFRAID”

Estonia won its war on fentanyl in 2017. A massive law enforcement surveillance operation led to a clandestine laboratory hidden beneath a staircase in a brick home outside Tallinn. It was one of two major busts by police that year that effectively cut off fentanyl supplies to the tiny nation, which is roughly twice as big as New Hampshire. Police seized nearly 10 kilograms of fentanyl that year, up from 314 grams in 2016. Overdose deaths plunged after the busts.

What happened next took many by surprise.

Users unable to find good fentanyl didn’t return to heroin. Instead, they began injecting combinations of different synthetic drugs, including amphetamines, the opioids isotonitazene and tramadol, benzodiazepine sleeping pills and cathinones. Unidentifiable mystery drugs have also appeared.

“Something fishy is going on. They don’t like heroin after this. They prefer stimulants,” said Katri Abel-Ollo, a researcher at the center for addiction prevention of Estonia’s National Institute for Health Development. “They use different types of drugs, it’s like Lego construction. Our harm reduction workers say the mental state of patients is becoming worse and worse. They are unpredictable in how they behave.”

Ekaterina, a thin 30-year-old in methadone treatment, said if you know where to look you can still find fentanyl in Estonia. But people are increasingly into new things, especially something her friends call “crystal.”

She said crystal hits like a bunch of different drugs all at once. Her friend had the chemical formula for the main ingredient tattooed on her arm: C15H21NO, or alpha-PVP, the drug known as flakka.

“In Estonia, it’s new,” said Ekaterina, who did not want her last name published.

Flakka gained notoriety in the U.S. five years ago for the insane things it made people do: One user impaled himself on a fence. Another reportedly jumped off a bridge. A young woman in South Florida, also believed to be on flakka, ran through the streets naked and covered with blood screaming about God and Satan. After China banned the drug in late 2015, flakka use plummeted in the U.S.

New synthetics like flakka are bringing agitation and volatility to the streets of Estonia.

“A person who uses fentanyl compared to a person who uses alpha-PVP is still more in control,” said Aljona Kurbatova, head of the drug abuse prevention center at Estonia’s National Institute for Health Development. “They are mostly a danger to themselves, but with alpha-PVP, people don’t really control how they act.”

Looking ahead, Kurbatova sees two possibilities, neither good. Fentanyl comes storming back into Estonia and users with diminished tolerance overdose in droves. Another possibility is that alternative synthetics dominate the market, creating costly new health and social problems that Estonia’s drug treatment systems, calibrated to address opioid abuse, are ill-equipped to handle.

“Be afraid. Be very, very afraid,” she said. “It was so much easier when it was just heroin.”

Former drug-user turned councillor Jaan Vaart, sits inside the staff room at the Convictus drug rehabilitation center in Tallinn, Estonia on Thursday, June 27, 2019. After Fentanyl, "Heroin was like injecting water," he said. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

A GLOBAL NARCOTICS SHIFT

Supply and demand drivers are fueling the rise of synthetics in other countries as well, according to a sweeping 2019 analysis by the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit policy research group headquartered in Los Angeles.

In U.S. regions with the most extensive exposure to fentanyl, synthetic opioids appear to be replacing heroin just as they did in Estonia, drug seizures and mortality data show. Rising overdose rates from methamphetamine, often with opioids present, and studies that show growing numbers of people taking both opioids and stimulants suggest users in the U.S. also may be turning to cocktails of synthetic drugs, as they did in Estonia.

In Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio and West Virginia, per capita heroin seizures started falling around 2014, while seizures of synthetic opioids rose. By 2017, there were more fentanyl seizures than heroin seizures in all those states except West Virginia.

“It’s kind of all we see now,” said Brian Boyle, DEA special agent in charge of New England. “We do not just see pure heroin anymore.”

It’s a global trend. Illicit drug markets in Latvia and parts of Canada also appear to be tipping from heroin toward fentanyls, while in Finland, heroin has been largely replaced by the semi-synthetic opioid buprenorphine, according to RAND.

“This is a new dawn,” said Bryce Pardo, a lead author of RAND’s report. “It’s no longer plant-based.”

A young man waits for his methadone treatment at a rehabilitation center in Estonia's capital Tallinn on Friday, June 28, 2019. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

CHINA’S RISE ON THE SYNTHETIC DRUG FRONT

That shift is potentially bad news for Mexican poppy farmers and good news for unscrupulous chemists at clandestine Chinese labs.

The rise of e-commerce, darknet marketplaces and the cryptocurrency bitcoin helped China emerge as a global supplier of novel synthetic drugs. Before Chinese suppliers exported fentanyls and fentanyl precursors, they were selling cathinones, stimulants sometimes sold as “bath salts,” cannabinoids and sending methamphetamine precursors to super-labs in Mexico, according to U.S. and international law enforcement agencies and officials, as well as U.S. legal cases and U.S. Treasury Department sanctions.

“China has been doing this for the last ten years,” Pardo said. “The synthetic opioid phenomenon is one chapter in the new psychoactive substances saga.”

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says China’s vast, freewheeling chemicals industry is the largest source of synthetic opioids that end up in the U.S., either via mail directly or through Mexico.

Beijing disagrees. Chinese officials have lashed out at U.S. assertions that Chinese supply is at the root of America’s opioid problem and called for evidence to support claims that China is the top supplier.

DEA data shows that after China bans a specific kind of fentanyl, seizures of that substance in the United States drop, suggesting that China is a meaningful source of synthetic opioids. In May, China designated all kinds of fentanyls as a class of controlled substances, a move that appears to be having an impact.

“We are seeing less coming directly from China, and more fentanyl and precursors being routed through Mexico,” Mary Brandenberger, a DEA spokeswoman, said in an email.

Igor Smirnov sits inside a drug rehabilitation center with his councillor in Tallinn, Estonia on Thursday, June 27, 2019. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

The takedown of Estonia’s main Russia-linked fentanyl networks in 2017 did not appear to disrupt flows of fentanyl analogs, suggesting alternative supply chains may still be active.

“While fentanyl is reported to enter the country from Russia, the new fentanyl derivatives mainly originate in China,” according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction’s 2019 report on Estonian drug markets.

Estonian police told the AP they’d gathered a few investigative leads implicating Chinese sources but have struggled to trace supply chains definitively. Estonian customs said each year a handful of packages with synthetic drugs shipped directly from China are seized, but more may be transshipped via larger European countries.

China’s National Narcotics Control Commission told the AP that Estonian authorities have not asked for help. “We really have not received this kind of cooperation request from Estonian police, nor have we received contacts providing leads,” a NNCC spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the volume of synthetic narcotics coming into Estonia by mail is growing and new psychoactive substances, or NPS, are proliferating.

“We see more and more drugs being sold in crypto markets and more and more drugs are being shipped by post,” said state prosecutor Vahur Verte. “We see the emergence of more and more NPS.”

Many long for the simpler days of heroin.

Today, Smirnov is in treatment and, like Estonia itself, is off fentanyl. He still yearns for a lost organic past, when he could head out into Estonia’s poppy fields and harvest the bulbs for a clean, natural high.

“Poppy liquid is better,” he said wistfully. “One hundred percent.”

Igor Smirnov leaves a drug rehabilitation center in Tallinn, Estonia on Thursday, June 27, 2019. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

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Associated Press newsperson Kali Robinson in Washington and researcher Chen Si in Shanghai contributed to this report.https://apnews.com/be15d6289f39b45742d598f6f65185ce

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Follow Kinetz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ekinetz

Rumors hampering fight against coronavirus in South Asia

By SHEIKH SAALIQ MARCH 28, 2020

In this Tuesday, March 24, 2020 photo, an Indian girl wearing a face mask as a precaution from coronavirus watches a video on the WhatsApp app in New Delhi, India. With the pandemic starting to gain a foothold in the region, social media are rife with bogus remedies, tales of magic cures and potentially hazardous medical advice. Experts are urging caution and say the “coronavirus infodemic” could have disastrous consequences. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

NEW DELHI (AP) — The message started with an outlandish claim: The coronavirus was retreating in India because of “cosmic-level sound waves” created by a collective cheer citizens had been asked to join.

Messages were pinging from phone to phone across this country of 1.3 billion saying the applause Prime Minister Narendra Modi had organized for health workers had been detected by a “bio-satellite” that confirmed the weakening of the virus.

Soon, Siddhart Sehgal’s family group chat on WhatsApp was buzzing with messages hailing Modi as India’s savior.

It of course wasn’t true.

In this Sunday, March 22, 2020, photo, Ringhuila Zimik, 26, smiles as she speaks about the rumor of medicine being sprayed from the sky to contain a new virus, in Shangshak village, in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur. "We all heard about it. I didn't know whether to believe it or not but stayed indoors anyway," she said. As India and other South Asian nations brace for the likely spread of the virus, they are facing another battle: reams of misinformation, misleading rumors and false claims. This battle has been hard to contain as social media continues to be rife with bogus remedies to tales of magic cure and potentially dangerous medical advice. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur)

As India and other South Asian nations work to stop the spread of the virus, they face another battle: reams of misinformation.

With the pandemic starting to gain a foothold in the region, social media sites are rife with bogus remedies, tales of magic cures and potentially hazardous medical advice. Experts are urging caution and warning that the “coronavirus infodemic” could have disastrous consequences.

Its a trend also seen elsewhere and governments around the world have been urging citizens not to listen to or spread rumors about the pandemic.

So far it hasn’t worked in South Asia, a region where online misinformation has in the past had deadly consequences such as lynchings, arson and communal riots where neighbors turn on one another.

On Tuesday, Indians were ordered to stay indoors for three weeks in the world’s biggest coronavirus lockdown. In announcing the move, Modi reiterated the danger of misinformation.

FILE - In this Sunday, March 22, 2020, file photo, families of roadside shopkeepers ring bell and clap to cheer health workers during 14-hour "people's curfew" called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in order to stem the rising coronavirus caseload, in New Delhi, India. As India and other South Asian nations brace for the likely spread of the virus, they are facing another battle: reams of misinformation, misleading rumors and false claims. The WhatsApp messaging app was flooded with claims that “cosmic level sound waves” generated by a collective cheer Modi had asked the country of 1.3 billion to participate in last Sunday had weakened the virus in India. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File)

“I appeal to you to beware of any kind of rumors or superstitions,” the prime minister said.

Earlier appeals against virus rumors have yet to prove effective.

Poultry sales in India plunged following false claims that chickens were linked to the pandemic. Racial attacks against people from the country’s northeastern states increased after rumors spread that they carried the virus.

On Sunday, people in a remote village in Manipur state locked themselves inside their homes because of rumors that fumigants were being sprayed from the sky to kill the virus.

The government has asked social media companies to launch awareness campaigns about virus misinformation. It also set up a government WhastApp channel where people can ask questions about the virus and vet claims they hear.

Still the falsehoods spread.

FILE - In this Thursday, March 5, 2020, file photo, an Indian doctor displays homeopathy medicine recommended by a group of experts under India's AYUSH ministry, that claims to prevent COVID-19, at a government hospital in Hyderabad, India. As South Asian nations, including India, brace for the likely spread of the virus, they are facing another battle: reams of misinformation, misleading rumors and false claims. In India, a major challenge comes from advisories released by a parallel health ministry set up by the Modi government that promotes alternative therapies such as yoga and traditional Ayurveda medicine. The advisories by AYUSH recommend herbs and homeopathy as cures and prescribe virus prevention methods. These advisories have drawn widespread criticism. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A., File)

On Monday, Amitabh Bachchan, a top Bollywood star who has more than 40 million Twitter followers, said clapping and blowing conch shells would “destroy virus potency.” He later deleted the tweet after facing criticism.

Elected representatives from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party have also offered bizarre claims of cures for the virus, ranging from cow urine and cow dung to cloves “energized by mantras.”

Rumors have spawned concerns elsewhere in the region as well.

In Bangladesh, some clerics claimed Muslims would not be affected by the virus and exhorted tens of thousands of people to gather for a mass prayer last week despite concerns about the health risk.

One preacher claimed to have interviewed — in his dream — a man in Italy to obtain a cure for the virus.

When a journalist at a leading private television station reported about the misinformation, he received death threats.

“We are monitoring and doing our part, but it (misinformation) comes from various sources, one after another,” said Zakir Hossain, a spokesman for the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission. “This is a huge task.”

Pakistan too has had to fight against religious leaders urging the devout to attend prayers and promising their faith will protect them. A cleric in Lahore made a video saying it was impossible to catch the virus while praying and said he should be hanged if he were wrong. Police arrested him instead and he made another video urging people to take the pandemic seriously and wash their hands.

FILE - In this Sunday, March 22, 2020, file photo, people clap from balconies in a show of appreciation to health care workers during a 14-hour "people's curfew" called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in order to stem the rising coronavirus caseload, at a Chawl in Mumbai, India. As India and other South Asian nations brace for the likely spread of the virus, they are facing another battle: reams of misinformation, misleading rumors and false claims. The WhatsApp messaging app was flooded with claims that “cosmic level sound waves” generated by a collective cheer Modi had asked the country of 1.3 billion to participate in last Sunday had weakened the virus in India. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

On the outskirts of Islamabad the army was called in to shut down a mosque after its prayer leader despite exhibiting symptoms kept his mosque open.

In Sri Lanka, authorities warned that legal action will be taken against people who spread false information over social media. Several people have been arrested.

Pakistan has been the worst hit South Asian nation with some 1,200 virus cases reported. India has reported more than 725.

For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in a few weeks. But for some it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

There are concerns that if cases were to surge in South Asia, it would overwhelm already strained health systems.

Sumaiya Shaikh, an editor for fact-checking website ALT News, has been tracking misinformation on messaging apps in India since before the pandemic.

In January, when the virus was still largely limited to China, Shaikh said India experienced a deluge of false WhatsApp messages claiming that Chinese police were shooting people suspected of having the disease.

When India started having cases, rumors about cures began, Shaikh said.

“This misinformation has reached a critical mass and is jeopardizing public health,” she said.

The search for accurate virus information in India is complicated by advice issued by a parallel health ministry, the Ministry of AYUSH, created in 2014 by Modi to promote alternative therapies such as yoga and traditional Ayurveda medicine.

The ministry has recommended herbs and homeopathy as cures for the virus, along with frequent sipping of water boiled with basil leaves, crushed ginger and turmeric.

P.C. Joshi, a medical anthropologist at the University of Delhi, said that advice “falls into the category of misinformation which can be hazardous for public health.”

The ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

The messages spreading online, often shared among friends and relatives, have unnerved many Indians who don’t know whether to take them seriously.

When the messages claiming that the virus was retreating in India spread on WhatsApp, members of the Sehgal family wanted to leave their home and join others outside celebrating. But Siddhart stopped them.

“My family usually believes whatever they get on WhatsApp regarding the virus,” he said. “It’s hard to explain to them that most of it is fake.

FILE- In this Sunday, March 22, 2020, file photo, a woman walks her dog, as most people in this mountain village stayed indoors with fears of a rumor of medicine being sprayed from the sky to contain the new virus, in Shangshak village, in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur. As South Asian nations, including India, brace for the likely spread of the virus, they are facing another battle: reams of misinformation, misleading rumors and false claims. This battle has been hard to contain as social media continues to be rife with bogus remedies to tales of magic cure and potentially dangerous medical advice. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur)

Associated Press writers Julhas Alam in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Bharatha Mallawarachi in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Yirmiyan Arthur in Manipur, India, and Kathy Gannon and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Widow of Yuri Gagarin, first human in space, dies at 84
March 17, 2020

FILE - In this Tuesday, April 5, 2011 file photo, an undated photo of the first man in space Yuri Gagarin and his wife Valentina is on a display at the upper house of Russian parliament in Moscow, Russia. The widow of Yuri Gagarin, the first human to fly to space, has died at the age of 84. Russia's space agency Roscosmos announced Valentina Gagarina's death Tuesday, March 17, 2020 in a short statement, offering condolences to her relatives. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
MOSCOW (AP) — The widow of Yuri Gagarin, the first human to fly to space, died Tuesday. She was 84.

Russia’s space agency Roscosmos announced Valentina Gagarina’s death in a short statement, offering condolences to her relatives. It didn’t give any details about the cause or circumstances of her death.

Born Valentina Goryacheva, she married Gagarin in 1957. After Gagarin’s pioneering April 12, 1961 space flight she appeared alongside him at official events but mostly sought to avoid the limelight.

Following Gagarin’s 1968 death in an air crash, Gagarina worked as a biochemical experts at the Star City cosmonaut training center outside Moscow. She dodged the media but published a book of memoirs about her husband.
FILE - In this Thursday, Sept. 6, 1962 file photo, Russian spaceman Major Yuri Gagarin replaces his cap, and a footman helps his wife, Valentina, with her coat, as they leave after visiting King Frederik of Denmark in Copenhagen, Denmark. The widow of Yuri Gagarin, the first human to fly to space, has died at the age of 84. Russia's space agency Roscosmos announced Valentina Gagarina's death Tuesday, March 17, 2020 in a short statement, offering condolences to her relatives. (AP Photo, File)

NATIONALIZE PG&E
PG&E to use wildfire victims fund to pay for past crimes

MARCH 27, 2020

In this photo taken Feb. 18, 2020, people walk behind a Pacific Gas and Electric truck parked in San Francisco. The stock market turmoil triggered by the coronavirus pandemic is raising worries that Pacific Gas & Electric's $13.5 billion settlement with victims of catastrophic wildfires may be worth far less by the time the beleaguered company emerges from bankruptcy. A lawyer who represents more than 81,000 wildfire victims flagged the escalating concerns during a Wednesday, March 25, 2020, court hearing held by conference call. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric is warning its elaborate plan for getting out of bankruptcy might collapse if the utility can’t pay for its crimes in a deadly Northern California wildfire by taking money away from a fund set up to compensate thousands of victims for their losses.

The latest twist in an already complicated saga emerged this week after PG&E disclosed it will plead guilty to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter for neglecting to properly maintain equipment that ignited a 2018 wildfire that destroyed three towns in Butte County.


PG&E will pay a $4 million penalty as part of the plea agreement, but plans to do so by drawing upon a $13.5 billion settlement that it reached with wildfire victims as part of its bankruptcy case.

Although the $4 million represents a tiny fraction of the $13.5 billion fund, the notion that PG&E may be siphoning away any money earmarked for fire victims to pay for its criminal behavior is provoking more outrage about a company already widely unpopular for its role in other catastrophic wildfires, a malfunctioning gas line that blew up a neighborhood, and its bungling of power outages.

“It is my sincere hope that PG&E finds another way to pay the penalty because it’s not what I want, and it certainly doesn’t look good for PG&E in terms of the public relations or the overall optics,” Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey told The Associated Press.

Ramsey, though, said he has no control over over where PG&E gets the money to pay the fine.

PG&E also says its hands are tied by a clause included in the settlement with wildfire victims that won bankruptcy court approval three months ago. The provision requires all fines and other penalties arising from the wildfires that drove PG&E into bankruptcy last year be paid from the victims’ fund.

If PG&E doesn’t abide by the settlement terms, the company said it could cause other deals reached in its complex case to unravel. In addition to the victims’ fund, PG&E has negotiated another $12 billion in settlements with insurers and government agencies, and also has lined up commitments to raise tens of billions of dollars through stock sales and loans to help the company continue to operate after it gets out of bankruptcy. PG&E also expects to pay $1.6 billion to the lawyers, bankers and other specialists that help it put together its bankruptcy deals.


Any revisions to its past settlements “risks investors walking away from their commitments to provide the funding essential to the company’s ability to make payments to victims,” PG&E said in a statement Friday.

But PG&E already has made several other changes to its plan since reaching the settlement with wildfire victims. The latest, reached with Gov. Gavin Newsom, came just a week ago. PG&E left the crack open for making a change that would allow it to pay its criminal penalty without tapping into the victims’ fund if it can get “the necessary consents.”

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali has made it clear throughout the case that he is unlikely to approve any plan that doesn’t pay the wildfire victims as much as possible. The judge could still prevent PG&E from using the victims’ fund to pay its criminal fine.

Some of the more than 81,000 victims who filed claims in PG&E’s bankruptcy case already have been raising doubts about whether the $13.5 billion will be enough to pay everyone for the losses of loved ones and property in a series of 2017 and 2018 fire that killed nearly 130 people and destroyed more than 25,000 homes and other buildings. Two of the victims, Kirk Trostle and Adolfo Veronese, recently resigned from a 11-person committee overseeing people’s claims in the bankruptcy case because of their misgivings over the settlement with PG&E.

S.D. Gov. Kristi  Noem signs hemp and other bills, but says budget in doubt

MARCH 27,2020

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Gov. Kristi Noem on Friday signed 15 bills that allocate millions of dollars to South Dakota programs, including industrial hemp, but offered no guarantee on whether the funding would remain after the state reworks its budget in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Noem said the budget allocations likely depend on how much money the state gets from the federal government in a stimulus bill. The bills give millions of dollars to an industrial hemp program, repairing abandoned natural gas wells, a veteran’s cemetery, a School of Health Sciences building at the University of South Dakota and expanding broadband services to rural communities.

“I’m signing these 15 bills with one caveat — we may need to come back in June and make drastic changes to both the current budget and next year’s fiscal year budget,” Noem said in a statement.

In the 15 days since the Legislature finalized the state budget, the state’s economic outlook has changed drastically due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Lawmakers will meet via teleconference on Monday to consider action on the four bills the governor has vetoed. Noem is also asking them to act on a series of emergency bills to address the coronavirus crisis.

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Water shutoffs in sharp focus amid coronavirus outbreak

By KAT STAFFORD MARCH 27,2020


Rabbi Yosef Chesed, left, helps unload bottled water being donated from Lorie Lutz, right, at the Brightmoor Connection Food Pantry in Detroit, Monday, March 23, 2020. The global coronavirus pandemic has brought water shutoffs in Detroit and in communities across the nation into sharp focus again amid a crucial time when officials are urging Americans to practice social distancing and basic hand-washing techniques to stop the spread of COVID-19. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

DETROIT (AP) — The advice is simple and universal: Washing your hands with soap and water is one of the most effective ways to stop the spread of the coronavirus. But for millions of people across the country, that’s not simple at all: They lack running water in their houses due to service shutoffs prompted by overdue bills.

The Rev. Roslyn Bouier remembers when children began to show up at the Brightmoor Connection Food Pantry on Detroit’s northwest side, clutching empty pitchers. It was the summer of 2014 and the kids were parched. But their thirst didn’t come from playing outside — they had no water at home.


That was the year the city of Detroit started its water shutoff campaign, turning off water to 28,500 residential accounts behind on payments. Through the end of 2019, the city has recorded about 127,500 total service cutoffs, according to the water department, though that figure includes households where the water was turned off repeatedly.

“In this pandemic, it’s the people who are living on the margins of society and the poorest of our society that’s being the most adversely impacted,” Bouier said.

Michigan has the sixth-highest number of coronavirus cases in the country, according to Johns Hopkins University’s data tracking of the disease. The state has reported 3,657 cases and 92 deaths as of Friday afternoon. Detroit leads Michigan with 1,075 cases and 23 deaths.

We the People of Detroit co-founder Monica Lewis-Patrick said her organization, which has campaigned for years to end shutoffs, has struggled to find bottled water to deliver to families without service because supplies are being hoarded.

“Water is locked down,” Lewis-Patrick said. “Many people have been texting and emailing me to say ‘What else can we do?’ The world is crying out that there must be a turning on of the water.”

Water advocates and elected officials argue that it’s impossible for families to follow the hygienic coronavirus standards outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization when they don’t have water in their homes. And members of Congress and national organizations are pushing for federal legislation and other action to protect residents facing high water bills and shutoffs amid the crisis.

House Democrats released proposed legislation Monday that included a $1.5 billion allocation to help cover water bills for low-income families and also would ban utility shutoffs during the pandemic.

Rev. Roslyn Bouier, Director of the Brightmoor Connection Food Pantry prepares bags of food in Detroit, Monday, March 23, 2020. The global coronavirus pandemic has brought water shutoffs in Detroit and in communities across the nation into sharp focus again amid a crucial time when officials are urging Americans to practice social distancing and basic hand-washing techniques to stop the spread of COVID-19.(AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Michigan U.S. Congress members Rashida Tlaib, Debbie Dingell and Dan Kildee also sent a letter to the congressional leadership Wednesday, signed by 80 members, urging them to take action, citing Detroit’s water shutoffs and the longstanding water crisis in nearby Flint, where lead leached into the municipal water supply. The allocation was not part of Friday’s approved $2.2 trillion rescue package, so Tlaib is pushing for another bill to address shutoffs.

A White House official said Thursday that Wayne County, which includes Detroit, could be the next hotspot for COVID-19.

The coronavirus has sickened more than 566,000 people and killed more than 25,000 people worldwide. For most people, it causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. But for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

Water shutoffs have been recorded in all 50 states, according to Mary Grant, director of the Food & Water Action’s Public Water for All Campaign.

Grant said her organization has tracked 417 municipalities and states that have issued moratoriums on the shutoffs, including the state of New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the suspension of utility shutoffs March 13. The group estimates the moratoriums protect more than 142 million Americans from disconnections — or more than 40% of the U.S. population.

In Alaska, the Rural Utility Collaborative advisory committee, which manages water systems for 26 communities, just voted to immediately reconnect running water to homes cut off for not paying their bills.

“Hand-washing is the No. 1 prevention for spreading any illness,” said Francine Moreno, the utility’s senior program manager.

Grant’s group is calling for the moratoriums to be extended nationwide.

“At a time when we’re hearing the federal government, the CDC, our governors say ‘wash your hands,’ for people who have lost their water service because they can’t afford the water bill, they can’t take these measures,” she said.

A team of independent experts affiliated with the United Nations Human Rights Council has called on governments around the world to end water cuts.

“The global struggle against the pandemic has little chance to succeed if personal hygiene, the main measure to prevent contagion, is unavailable to the 2.2 billion persons who have no access to safe water services,” the experts said.

While many U.S. communities have announced moratoriums, the city of Detroit is one of the few to have a specific plan to turn on the water, announcing a program March 9 that would restore service for $25 a month.

The city has restored water to more than 840 homes, with about 190 work orders still pending, but does not know the exact number of homes without service, the water department said. An official said the city plans to reach out to 5,400 houses “out of abundance of caution.”

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said Monday that he hopes service will be restored to all within the next two weeks, with crews working around the clock.

But some question the plan’s ambitious timeline and stipulations. After the COVID-19 outbreak passes, residents will be responsible for the full bill and any past due amounts incurred, though the city says individuals would be enrolled in plans to keep “water service affordable” afterward.

Nick Leonard, the executive director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, said the center has asked the Michigan Department of Human Services to immediately require all the state’s public water systems to turn water on, provide service at a flat rate no greater than $25 a month as long as COVID-19 is classified as a pandemic, and prevent them from assessing or collecting deferred payments for service provided during the crisis.

“At this point, it’s a bigger public health question now than it’s ever been,” Leonard said.

A spokesperson said the state is reviewing the most recent request and “believes that water is critical to ensuring the public health and safety of Michiganders.”

Already, an additional 150 accounts in Detroit have been unable to be restored because the homes need significant plumbing repairs.

Black and Hispanic households are more likely to have incomplete plumbing in their households, according to a 2019 study by Shiloh Deitz & Katie Meehan. African Americans account for just 12.8% of U.S. households, but 16.6% of households with incomplete plumbing.

Of U.S. cities larger than 100,000 households, San Francisco has the highest number without plumbing facilities with 2.5%, followed by Detroit with 1.1%, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

California grassroots organizer Crystal Huang noted that even though the Bay Area is one of the richest regions in the U.S. “a lot of people, especially service workers, still have to work two or three jobs and are still barely able to survive.”

“I think it’s a very common reality across the country,” she said.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Tlaib, the Michigan congresswomen, echoed that the problem stretches beyond Detroit.

“These are front-line communities and neighborhoods that haven’t actually recovered since the Great Recession,” she said. “And now with the coronavirus, they are going to be hurt the most if we don’t do something very aggressively and with a sense of urgency.”

Drugmaker backpedals on specialty status for COVID-19 drug

By MATTHEW PERRONE March 25, 2020

FILE - In this July 9, 2015, file photo, a man walks outside the headquarters of Gilead Sciences in Foster City, Calif. Gilead Sciences said Wednesday, March 25, 2020 it will give up the specialty status it received days earlier for its COVID-19 drug amid public outrage that the company was seeking to boost the profits of its treatment. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing public criticism, the maker of a promising coronavirus drug said Wednesday it will waive a special regulatory designation that could have allowed it to block competition and boost profits for its treatment.

Gilead Sciences said it will ask U.S. regulators to revoke the so-called “orphan drug” status it received for its experimental drug remdesivir. The status would have entitled the company to financial incentives and exclusive marketing intended for rare disease treatments.

The Food and Drug Administration granted the company’s request for the designation on Monday, noting that COVID-19 qualified as a rare disease under U.S. rules, since fewer than 200,000 Americans are infected.

But experts and public advocates blasted Gilead for seeking the status.

“COVID-19 is anything but a rare disease,” stated a letter sent to the company earlier Wednesday by more than 50 consumer and patient advocacy groups. The groups noted that millions of Americans are expected to eventually be infected with the virus. As of Wednesday, cases in the U.S. topped 61,000.

Gilead said in a statement Wednesday afternoon that it asked the FDA to rescind the orphan drug designation and that the company “recognizes the urgent public health needs posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Currently, there are no FDA-approved drugs, vaccines or specific treatments for the coronavirus. A few existing and experimental drugs are being studied, and vaccines are being developed.

Remdesivir, originally developed for Ebola, is being tested in at least five experiments. The drug interferes with viral reproduction and has shown some promise in lab and animal studies against other coronaviruses that cause similar diseases, MERS and SARS.

The drug has been given to hundreds of COVID-19 patients thus far, but rigorous studies are needed to determine if it works before it is approved.

Congress created the orphan drug program more than 35 years ago to encourage companies to develop drugs for niche diseases and conditions Since then, filing for the program has become a standard industry tactic.

Under FDA rules, manufacturers of orphan drugs receive seven years of exclusive U.S. marketing rights and tax credits on their research and development costs.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

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