It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
WHO: Coronavirus likely came from animal, not a laboratory
By Don Jacobson & Darryl Coote Pedestrians in Beijing, China, continue to wear face masks on Tuesday although the government has declared the coronavirus threat has largely passed. Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo
April 21 (UPI) -- The coronavirus disease that's disrupted life for billions of people around the world probably came from an animal and was not created in a laboratory, the World Health Organization said in an update Tuesday.
All evidence so far has indicated COVID-19 was not "manipulated or constructed" in a lab or anywhere else, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told reporters at a briefing in Geneva.
"It is probable, likely that the virus is of animal origin," she said.
Chaib said the WHO's analysis concluded there had "certainly" been an intermediate animal host, most likely bats, by the time the virus infected humans.
By Tuesday, the number of cases reported worldwide so far approached 2.5 million and the death toll was close to 172,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the most cases, 788,000.
Earlier, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced that his nation will move to gradually lift its lockdown starting May 4. He promised details of the plan by the end of this week and "a reasonable prediction."
Italy's population of 60 million were placed under lockdown March 9 when it had fewer than 10,000 cases. Restrictions were tightened two weeks later to prohibit movements within Italy and close all non-essential businesses.
Conte said his government can't "abandon the line of maximum caution" to "indulge" public opinion, industry and companies that have demanded the lockdowns be lifted.
In Spain, organizers on Tuesday canceled the San Fermin Fiesta this summer in Pamplona, best known for its "running of the bulls." The annual event typically attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors. Organizers said it's not possible to stage the festival safely this year.
In Germany, officials said the famed Oktoberfest has also been canceled. It was scheduled to start Sept. 18.
"We are living in different times," he said. "And living with corona means living carefully."
Russia interfered in 2016 to help elect Trump, Senate Intel report says
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., chairs the bipartisan committee, undercutting Trump's claims that the U.S. intelligence findings were a "hoax" led by Democrats. The Senate Intelligence Committee's report Tuesday confirmed Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the goal to help elect Donald Trump. Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo
April 21 (UPI) -- A Senate Intelligence Committee report confirmed Tuesday the U.S. intelligence finding that Russia interfered in the 2016 election with the goal to help Donald Trump become president.
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., chairs the bipartisan committee, undercutting Trump's claims that the U.S. intelligence findings were a "hoax" led by Democrats.
The January 2017 U.S. intelligence report provided "specific intelligence reporting to support the assessment that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and the Russian government demonstrated a preference for candidate Trump," the Senate Intelligence Committeefound in its report Tuesday.
The committee also found that "specific intelligence" along with other assessments supported the finding that Putin "approved and directed aspects" of the Russian government's interference efforts.
The 158-page report was heavily redacted, but it was clear that it supported the reasoning behind the intelligence committee's findings.
"The committee found no reason to dispute the intelligence community's conclusions," Burr said in a statement, adding that the intelligence community's findings showed "sound analytical reasoning."
There was "no reason to doubt that the Russians' success in 2016 is leading them to try again in 2020," Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., the committee's vice chairman, warned.
Warner also praised the agencies reviewing the matter for their "unbiased and professional work."
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., added that the report also negated "false assertions" that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 elections.
"The report also provides additional evidence against Donald Trump's false assertions regarding Ukraine," by delving further into Russia's inference in Democratic National Committee networks, Wyden said. The committee confirmed the U.S. intelligence community's findings, which are "fundamentally incompatible with Trump's conspiracy theories about Ukrainian involvement."
The report is the fourth of five committee reports on the Russian government's interference in the 2016 presidential election campaign.
"Russia's goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary [Hillary] Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency," the January 2017 assessment found.
The fifth and final report will address allegations that Trump campaign officials coordinated with Russian operatives.
Former special counsel Robert Muellersaid last year that he did not find collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign before the 2016 election, but there were several "episodes" where Trump may have obstructed justice with attempts to disrupt the investigation.
Former British spy Christopher Steele's unverified claims about Trump's ties to Russia are also expected to be addressed in the fifth and final report.
A release date for the final report has not been set yet.
Workers open the first batch of Anheuser Busch hand sanitizer after it arrives at a distribution center in St. Louis on April 17. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo
Poll: Face mask use in U.S. rises to more than 60 percent Firefighter Mark Nagel wears a protective mask while on a call Wednesday in St. Louis, Mo. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo
April 17 (UPI) -- The use of face masks by U.S. residents rose dramatically in one week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended them in public, a new survey showed Friday.
Gallup said it found face mask use increased from 38 percent before the CDC advice to 62 percent the week after. Another 24 percent said they are now considering wearing a mask outside the home, while 14 percent said they would not.
Seventy-one percent of people living in cities and 72 percent living in the West said they're wearing masks in public.
Those less likely to wear them are those in the Midwest (46 percent), Republicans (48 percent) and those living in small towns or rural areas (52 percent), the poll said.
"Those in the Western and Northeastern regions of the U.S. where the outbreaks have been worst are significantly more likely than those in the Midwest and South to have donned face coverings in public," Gallup's Megan Brenan said. "Likewise, residents of cities and suburbs are more likely than those in more rural areas to have worn masks."
Gallup interviewed 2,400 adults for the survey, which has a margin of error of 4 points
THE NUMBER GALLUP INTERVIEWED IS GREATER THAN THE PROTESTERS
AT STATE CAPITALS PROTESTING THE LOCK DOWN.
20 attorneys general call on 3M to prevent price gouging of N95 masks
A healthcare workers wears an N95 respirator as she consults with a patient who arrives to be tested for coronavirus in Yonkers, N.Y., on April 17. Twenty attorneys general urged 3M to take steps to prevent price gouging on the respirators. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
April 21 (UPI) -- The attorneys general from 19 states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday called on 3M to do more to fight price gouging on its N95 respirator masks, part of the critical equipment healthcare workers need to battle the coronavirus pandemic.
In a letter sent to CEO and board Chairman Michael Roman, the states's top law enforcement officials praised the work 3M has done to boost its production of the face masks. The officials, though, said the Saint Paul, Minn.-based manufacturer should do more to fight price gouging so health facilities, nurses and doctors can better access them.
The attorneys general said their offices have been "flooded" with complaints and "excessive prices" for the respirators.
"As you know, there have been critical shortages of N95 respirators and other [personal protection equipment] due to the increased use and demand worldwide as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic," the letter reads. "While 3M has committed to maintain the same prices for N95 respirators, others in the marketplace are charging unconscionable prices."
The letter urged 3M to publish its policies prohibiting price gouging and refrain from doing business with distributors who violate those policies. The attorneys general also asked the company to submit a database of its N95 inventory to government officials and make it transparent how the inventory is distributed.
N95 respirators are among the most critical PPE items in use by doctors and nurses during the COVID-19 crisis. They are specially designed to filter out most airborne particles and liquid. A shortage of the devices has left healthcare workers relying on less-protective surgical masks or even reusing N95 respirators while treating multiple patients.
Gallup: Americans more concerned with getting COVID-19 than economic fallout By Danielle Haynes A healthcare worker with George Washington University Hospital administers a COVID-19 test during the coronavirus pandemic in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo
April 21 (UPI) -- The coronavirus pandemic tops the list of the most important problems facing Americans, a poll released Tuesday indicates.
The Gallup poll found that 45 percent of Americans find COVID-19 to be the biggest problem facing the United States, up from 13 percent in March. The pollster didn't ask about the virus prior to the March survey.
The second-most important problem facing the United States is the government and poor leadership at 20 percent, down from 27 percent in March. The government was the top concern in February with 32 percent.
The remaining responses were healthcare and the economy in general at 6 percent each; unifying the country and unemployment at 3 percent each; and immigration, the environment/climate change/pollution, ethics/morals, lack of respect for each other, the media, and the gap between rich and poor at 2 percent each.
Concerns about unemployment rose from 1 percent in February to 3 percent in April, while immigration dropped from 8 percent in February to 2 percent in April.
While economic and job concerns have risen since February, the poll results indicate Americans are more concerned with getting the virus than the financial fallout from the pandemic, Gallup said.
"Since February, mentions of the economy or unemployment have ticked up slightly. But even with unemployment soaring, economic confidence tumbling, and seven in 10 Americans saying the U.S. economy is in a recession or depression, government is seen as more of a problem than the economy," the pollster said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, there were more than 816,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, with a death toll of at least 43,000, according to Johns Hopkins University
The coronavirus pandemic might make buildings sick, too William Rhoads, Research Scientist, Virginia Tech, Andrew J. Whelton, Associate Professor of Civil, Environmental & Ecological Engineering, Purdue University, and Caitlin R. Proctor, Lillian Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellow, Purdue University, The Conversation•April 21, 2020 Discolored water can be caused by heavy metals, such as iron or copper. Iron can also act as a nutrient for organisms to grow in the pipes. Kyungyeon Ra/Purdue University, CC BY-ND
While millions of people are under orders to stay home amid the coronavirus pandemic, water is sitting in the pipes of empty office buildings and gyms, getting old and potentially dangerous.
When water isn’t flowing, organisms and chemicals can build up in the plumbing. It can happen in underused gyms, office buildings, schools, shopping malls and other facilities. These organisms and chemicals can reach unsafe levels when water sits in water pipes for just a few days. But, what happens when water sits for weeks or months?
There are no long-term studies of the risks and only minimal guidance to help building owners prepare their water for use again after a long shutdown.
As researchers involved in building water safety, we study these risks and advise building owners and public officials on actions they can take to reduce the potential for widespread waterborne disease. A new paper highlights these issues and our concerns that the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders may increase the chance of harmful water exposure when people return. What happens when water gets old?
Just like food that sits in a refrigerator for too long, water that sits in a building’s pipes for too long can make people sick.
Drinking this water is a problem, but infections can also result from inhaling harmful organisms. This occurs when water splashes and becomes an aerosol, as can happen in showers, hot tubs and pools and when flushing toilets or washing hands. Some of these organisms can cause pneumonia-like diseases, especially in people who have weakened immune systems.
Water inside a building does not have an expiration date: Problems can develop within days at individual faucets, and all buildings with low water use are at risk. Keep the water flowing
To avoid water issues, “fresh” water must regularly flow to a building’s faucets. Most U.S. water providers add a chemical disinfectant to the water they deliver to kill organisms, but this chemical disappears over time.
Medical facilities, with their vulnerable populations, are required to have a building water safety plan to keep water fresh and prevent growth. Schools, which have long periods of low use during the summer, are advised to keep water fresh to reduce water’s lead levels.
Health agencies in the U.S., Canada, England, Europe and somestates have released recommendations in recent weeks, advising that building water be kept fresh during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. There’s some debate over the best way to do that, but the core message is the same: Do not let water sit in buildings.
Faucets, water heaters and softeners, appliances such as refrigerators, toilets and other water systems, including cooling towers, all need to have water turnover. Some of these can require specialized attention. Faucet aerators should be removed because they accumulate materials and slow down the flow.
How long flushing takes depends on the building’s piping design, devices and the speed of water exiting the faucets. All buildings are different.
It took more than 80 minutes of flushing to draw fresh water to the farthest faucet of one 10,000-square-foot building. In another building, it took 60 minutes just to get fresh water from the water meter to the basement of a building 30 feet from the street. A single large building may take hours or days to clear. Easier to avoid contamination than clean it up
For building managers who haven’t been running the water during the pandemic, the water sitting in pipes may already have significant problems. To perform flushing, safety equipment, including masks, currently in short supply, might be needed to protect workers.
A slow “ramp-up” of the economy means buildings will not reach normal water use for some time. These buildings may need flushing again and again.
Shock disinfection, adding a high level of disinfectant chemical to the plumbing to kill organisms living in it, may also be necessary. This is required for new buildings and is sometimes done when water in new buildings sits still for too long. Cut-open shower pipes reveal a biofilm with metal deposits. Caitlin Proctor/Purdue University, CC BY-ND
Inexpensive chemical disinfectant tests can help determine if the water is “fresh.” Testing for harmful organisms is recommended by some organizations. It can take several days and requires expertise to interpret results. Metals testing might be needed, too. Public health departments can provide specific recommendations for all of these actions and communication of risks. The need for standards and water safety
Water left sitting in the pipes of buildings can present serious health risks.
Standards are lacking and very much needed for restarting plumbing and ensuring continued water safety after the pandemic passes.
Right now, building managers can take immediate action to prevent people from becoming sick when they return.
Caitlin R. Proctor receives funding from Purdue University College of Engineering, the National Science Foundation, and Warm Springs Foundation.
Andrew J. Whelton receives funding from the US National Science Foundation (CBET 2027049), US Environmental Protection Agency (R836890), Warm Springs Foundation, and Water Research Foundation.
William Rhoads receives funding from the National Science Foundation (CBET 1706733). He is affiliated with the American Waterworks Association.
Higher death rate for malaria drug touted by Trump: coronavirus study
April 21, 2020 By Agence France-Presse A malaria drug widely touted as a potential cure for COVID-19 showed no benefit against the disease over standard care — and was in fact associated with more deaths, the biggest study of its kind showed Tuesday.
The US government funded analysis of American military veterans’ treatment courses was posted on a medical preprint site and has not yet been peer reviewed.
The experiment had several important limitations, but adds to a growing body of doubt over the efficacy of the medicine that counts President Donald Trump and right wing news channel Fox News among its biggest backers.
Researchers looked at the medical records of 368 veterans hospitalized nationwide who either died or were discharged by April 11.
Death rates for patients on hydroxychloroquine were 28 percent, compared to 22 percent when it was taken with the anti-biotic azithromycin — a combination favored by French scientist Didier Raoult, whose study on the subject in March triggered a surge of global interest in the drug.
The death rate for those receiving only standard care was 11 percent.
Hydroxychloroquine, with or without azithromycin, was more likely to be prescribed to patients with more severe illness, but the authors found that increased mortality persisted even after they statistically adjusted for higher rates of use.
Other drawbacks include the fact that the study did not assign people randomly to groups, because it was a retrospective analysis meaning it looked back on what had already happened.
In addition, the results are hard to generalize because the population was highly specific: most of the patients were male, with a median age over 65, and black, a group that is disproportionately affected by underlying illnesses like diabetes and heart disease.
There was no added risk of being on ventilator among the hydroxychloroquine only group, leading the authors to suggest that increased mortality among this group might be attributable to side-effects outside the respiratory system.
Previous research has found that the medicine is risky for patients with certain heart rhythm issues and can cause blackouts, seizures or at times cardiac arrest in this group.
Hydroxychloroquine and a related compound chloroquine have been used for decades to treat malaria, as well as the autoimmune disorders lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
They have received significant attention during the novel coronavirus pandemic and have been shown in lab settings to block the virus from entering cells and prevent it replicating — but in the pharmaceutical world, “in vitro” promise often fails to translate into “in vivo” success.
The true answer can only be determined through very large, randomized clinical trials that assign patients to receive either the drug under investigation or a placebo.
Several of these are underway, including notably in Europe, Canada and the United Kingdom.
“How about real clinical trials?” Cornyn tweeted, quoting an AP report stating the study “was not a rigorous experiment, but it is “the largest look so far of hydroxychloroquine with or without the antibiotic azithromycin for COVID-19.” Given this and other studies clinical trials would likely lead to increased deaths.
A study of chloroquine in Brazil was stopped after patients suffered heart problems. A French study found hydroxychloroquine offered no benefits.
Earlier in the day Cornyn tweeted about a separate study he said that “showed that 9 of 10 patients had an underlying medical condition.”
#COVIDー19 The data showed that 9 of 10 patients had an underlying medical condition, including: —Hypertension: 49.7% —Diabetes: 28.3% —Chronic lung disease: 34.6% —Cardiovascular disease: 27.8% —Obesity: 48.3% https://t.co/YjabN89Bwc — Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) April 21, 2020
His remarks were not met with praise.
What is your point here. That those people deserved to die? — Joe Lockhart (@joelockhart) April 21, 2020
wow, sucks to be them, right, senator? — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 21, 2020
Well, luckily none of these things exist in Texas, which has the highest % of ppl lacking health insurance in the country (nearly 1 in 5), a number you’d like to make much, much larger by trying to eliminate the ACA pre-existing-condition protections — Cliff Schecter (@cliffschecter) April 21, 2020
‘Listen… and take action’: In front of White House, nurses read names of colleagues who have died from Covid-19 April 21, 2020 By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams
“We are here because our colleagues are dying. I think that right now people think of us as heroes, but we’re feeling like martyrs. We’re feeling like we’re being left on the battlefield with nothing.”
Dozens of nurses gathered outside the White House Tuesday and—while wearing face masks and adhering to social distancing guidelines—read aloud the names of 50 fellow healthcare workers who have died of Covid-19 in an effort to pressure Congress and President Donald Trump to provide frontline workers with adequate protective equipment.
“We’re tired of being treated as if we are expendable.” —Deborah Burger, National Nurses United
“We’re demanding that the Trump administration and the U.S. Congress listen to these names, all dedicated nurses who have left families, friends, and colleagues behind,” said Melody Jones, a member of National Nurses United (NNU), the union that organized the demonstration. “Listen to their names and take action.”
“Let us remember and honor the ultimate sacrifice these nurses paid, mourn their passing, and recommit ourselves to fight like hell for the living,” said Jones.
This morning nurses protested for PPE – in front of the White House.
They read the names of healthcare workers who have given their lives trying to save others from COVID-19.
NNU, the largest nurses union in the U.S., has for weeks been urging the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to enact an emergency temporary standard to ensure that all healthcare workers have the protective equipment they need to do their essential jobs safely. The Labor Department agency has thus far refused to act on the nurses’ demand.
“We are here because our colleagues are dying,” one nurse who participated in Tuesday’s demonstration told MSNBC. “I think that right now people think of us as heroes, but we’re feeling like martyrs. We’re feeling like we’re being left on the battlefield with nothing.”
Nurses hold a protest at the White House to call attention to healthcare workers nationwide who have been infected with COVID-19 and demanding the Trump administration provide more protective gear. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo
An analysis released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that more than 9,200 healthcare workers have tested positive for the novel coronavirus as of April 9. The CDC acknowledged that the number “is likely an underestimation.”
“We’re tired of being treated as if we are expendable,” NNU president Deborah Burger told the Washington Post. “If we are killed in this pandemic, there won’t be anybody to take care of the rest of the sick people that are going to come.”
“Everybody says they love nurses, they want to protect us,” said Burger, “but we still don’t have the safety gear that we need.”
Watch the demonstration:
Nurses protest in front of White House
The National Nurses United union protested at the White House on Tuesday calling for President Donald Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act to produce more PPEs, including N95 masks.
Nurses hold photos of fellow healthcare workers who have died from COVID-19. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo
Nurses protest for protective equipment at White House
April 21 (UPI) -- Nurses protested Tuesday at the White House to demand President Donald Trump use the Defense Production Act to produce personal protective equipment in response to COVID-19.
The nurses are members of National Nurses United, the largest nurses union in the United States.
While practicing social distancing, they read aloud the names of U.S. nurses who have died of COVID-19.
The protest aims "to call attention to the tens of thousands of health care workers nationwide who have become infected with COVID-19 due to lack of personal protective equipment," the union said in the statement.
In response, nurses have been demanding that "Trump use his authority under the Defense Production Act to order the mass production of PPE, including N95 respirators, face shields, gowns, gloves and shoe coverings, as well as ventilators and COVID-19 testing kits," the union said. "NNU is calling on Congress to mandate the DPA's use to produce the equipment and supplies health care workers need to care for COVID-19 patients as well as to conduct mass testing that is required to control the spread of the virus."
Trump invoked the DPA in late March to push General Motors to produce ventilators and has also used it more recently for COVID-19 testing swabs, but he has urged hospitals and states to take the lead in getting other supplies.
The NNU petitioned the Trump administration's Occupational Safety and Health Administration in early March for an emergency temporary standard to provide healthcare workers "optimal PPE," the union added, but never received a response.
"With no federal health and safety standard, nurses and other health care workers in many hospitals across the country have not been provided with adequate PPE to protect them from exposure to the virus," the union statement said.
Now, "the NNU is demanding Congress include a mandatory OSHA emergency standard in its next COVID-19 legislative package," the union statement said.
Violence flares in tense Paris suburbs as heavy-handed lockdown stirs ‘explosive cocktail’April 21, 2020 By Agence France-Presse
Three nights of unrest in the French capital’s northern suburbs have stoked fears of a major flare-up in deprived neighborhoods where weeks of lockdown have exacerbated the simmering tensions between restless youths and police.
Six weeks into France’s nationwide lockdown, Zouhair Ech-Chetouani is an increasingly worried man. In more than 20 years of social work, the community leader says the restive northern suburbs of Paris have never felt quite so tense.
According to Ech-Chetouani, the strict confinement rules to halt the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with tough policing enforcing those rules, have mixed up an “explosive cocktail” in areas already blighted by poverty, unemployment and now a worsening health crisis.
“The spark has been lit,” he says, referring to the unrest that has swept through several northern suburbs of Paris in recent nights.
The trouble in Villeneuve-La-Garenne first flared late on Saturday after a motorcyclist collided with the open door of an unmarked police car during a pursuit. Witnesses said the officers had deliberately opened the door into the motorcyclist’s path, a claim denied by police.
The skirmishes lasted into the early hours of Sunday before calm was restored but unrest broke out again the following two nights, spreading to other suburbs north of Paris. Police said fireworks were aimed at them and several cars were torched while officers fired tear gas to disperse the troublemakers.
A history of violence
Relations between police and residents have long been a fraught issue in France’s economically poor and ethnically diverse suburbs, where men of African and North African origin complain about being routinely stopped and searched simply because of the colour of their skin.
A study by France’s National Centre for Scientific Research has shown that blacks are 11.5 times more likely to be checked by police than whites, and those of Arab origin are seven times more likely.
In what has become a depressing cycle of violence and resentment, such routine checks can lead to violent altercations and eventually riots, a daunting prospect the French government is desperate to avoid as it grapples with a health emergency.
When President Emmanuel Macron imposed a nationwide lockdown starting March 17, police officers privately expressed concerns that tough restrictions on public life could amplify tensions and spark unrest.
However, activists on the ground say the police approach has been anything but light.
Disproportionate force
On the first day of confinement, the Seine-Saint-Denis department northeast of Paris – home to France’s poorest districts – accounted for 10 percent of all fines handed out for breaching the lockdown despite comprising just over 2 percent of the country’s population.
Since then, videos of heavy-handed arrests have circulated widely on French social media, along with calls for revenge.
“You’re much less likely to see police fining and harassing parents who play with their children in the Bois de Boulogne,” says Echi-Chetouani, referring to the park that borders the 16th arrondissement (district) of Paris in the French capital’s affluent west.
The social worker says the situation has considerably worsened since the start of the lockdown, which he argues has only heightened a sense of power and impunity among the police.
“When there are people out in the streets, police abuses are less likely to go unnoticed,” he explains. “But with residents locked up at home, the police have become more violent and arbitrary.”
He adds: “Of course, most officers do their work conscientiously. But it only takes a few bad apples eager to settle scores for things to get out of hand very fast.”
In late March, a coalition of rights groups including Human Rights Watch released a statement denouncing the police’s “unacceptable”, “illegal” and “sometimes dangerous” practices.
“The current state of sanitary emergency should not be in breach of the rule of law and does not justify discriminatory checks or unjustified and disproportionate force,” the statement read.
Police unions, which did not return FRANCE 24’s requests for comment, have rejected the accusations, noting that officers are constantly targeted and provoked by youths in tense suburbs.
‘All we got was an order to stay home’
Critics of police tactics say they reflect a wider failure to take into account the specificities of the impoverished and densely populated suburbs as they grapple with the twin challenges of a health emergency and home confinement.
While Seine-Saint-Denis was hit by Covid-19 later than other territories, health officials have since declared it one of four French departments suffering from an “exceptional” spike in deaths.
The combination of large families in cramped quarters and the lack of doctors and hospital beds has left the local population particularly exposed to the virus. And while many Parisians fled to countryside homes or switched to working from home, the capital’s poorer suburbs have supplied most of the workers who keep the metropolis running.
The French newspaper notes that several other factors conspire to make the coronavirus lockdown more challenging in banlieue high-rises than elsewhere in France, including the dearth of food outlets. In northern Bondy, for instance, there is just one supermarket for a population of 21,000.
Seine-Saint-Denis is also home to France’s youngest population, with 30% of inhabitants aged under 20.
“By and large, the lockdown is being respected in the suburbs, but there comes a point when restless youths in overcrowded homes need a breath of fresh air,” says Echi-Chetouani, lamenting the authorities’ failure to prepare for lockdown.
“There has simply been no outreach, no attempt to explain to the locals how the virus spreads and why social distancing is important to protect vulnerable family members,” he adds. “All we got was an order to stay home, followed by repression.”
Police clash with residents in Paris suburbs amid lockdown
Issued on: 20/04/2020
The tensions were ignited in the early hours of Saturday when a motorcyclist was injured during a police check GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT AFP ALL VIDEOS ARE AT THE END Paris (AFP)
Police fought running battles overnight in Paris's low-income northern suburbs with residents alleging heavy-handedness by officers enforcing France's strict coronavirus lockdown.
Residents burned trash and cars and shot fireworks at police, who responded with rubber bullets and tear gas in the suburbs of Villeneuve-la-Garenne and Aulnay-sous-Bois, witnesses and police said on Monday.
The tensions were ignited in the early hours of Saturday when a motorcyclist was injured during a police check in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, prompting about 50 angry bystanders to gather.
A police statement said the group targeted officers with "projectiles" in a near two-hour standoff.
The motorcyclist, 30, was hospitalised with a broken leg and had to undergo surgery after he had crashed into the open door of a police car.
Residents allege the door was opened deliberately so that the rider would smash into it.
The man will lodge a complaint against the officers, his family and a lawyer told AFP, while prosecutors have opened an investigation.
By Monday morning, calm had returned to Villeneuve-la-Garenne after a second night of riots marked by suburban fires and explosions, an AFP journalist observed.
The trouble had also spread to nearby Aulnay-sous-Bois, where police claimed they were "ambushed" by residents in a district of dense, high-rise social housing of mainly immigrant occupants who claim they are regularly the victims of harsh police treatment.
Police said they were targeted by residents using fireworks as projectiles. Four were arrested.
- 'Confinement and tensions' -
After the motorcyclist was injured on Saturday, rights group SOS Racisme issued a statement calling on authorities to shed full light on the incident, and urging police restraint "in this time of confinement and tensions".
Earlier this month, prosecutors opened an investigation into the death in detention of a 33-year-old man arrested for allegedly violating the home confinement measures imposed by the government to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Police said the man resisted arrest. According to his sister, he had suffered from schizophrenia.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said Sunday police had carried out 13.5 million checks since the lockdown started on March 17, with people allowed outside only for essential purposes, and then with a self-certified letter explaining their reasons for leaving their home.
More than 800,000 people were written up for violations.
Several complaints of brutality were lodged against French police during recent months of pension reform protests and "yellow vest" anti-government rallies.
Anti-lockdown riots break out in Paris amid anger at police 'heavy-handed' treatment of minorities after Macron extends social distancing to fight COVID-19 until May 11
Tear gas and baton charges were used by police in northern suburb of Paris
Squads of Republican Security Company officers were called in to tackle dissent
Comes after 30-year-old motorcyclist was critically injured by police car
Riots have broken out in Paris amid anger over police 'heavy-handed' treatment of ethnic minorities during the coronavirus lockdown.
Police used tear gas and baton charges in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, northern Paris, in the early hours this morning as fireworks exploded in the street.
Armed police were seen moving through the area as groups of protesters congregated.
It comes after a 30-year-old was critically injured in the neighbourhood in a collision with an unmarked police car.
President Emmanuel Macron has extended France's social distancing measures until May 11. Its daily death toll from the virus fell to the lowest level in three weeks today as 395 deaths were recorded, bringing the total to 19,718, though deaths are typically under-reported over the weekend. Riots have broken out in the Parisian suburb of Villeneuve-la-Garenne following allegations of heavy handedness against ethnic minorities by police forces. (Pictured: An officer asks a journalist to step back in the suburb early on Monday morning) A firework explodes in the middle of the street in the French suburb early this morning
Bins were also filmed blazing and filling the air with smoke as armed police moved into the area.
Videos of the trouble posted by the French journalist Taha Bouhafs, who is from an Algerian background, includes one of him being manhandled by police – leading to allegations of racism.
Mr Bouhaf’s earlier images show tear gas canisters being fired by the police, who were hit my numerous fireworks.
The early morning violence followed prosecutors opening an enquiry after a 30-year-old motorcyclist was critically injured following a collision with an unmarked police car in Villeneuve-la-Garenne.
Friends of the victim, who have not been named, claimed the incident on Saturday night was an example of police heavy-handedness against ethnic minority communities during the lockdown.
‘The very badly injured man comes from an Arab Muslim background,’ said a source close to the case.
‘He is critical in hospital, and people in the area have reacted very badly to what has happened.’
A local police spokesman said: ‘Police and their reinforcements have been the target of rioters, who have thrown stones and fireworks.
‘The violence started in Villeneuve-la-Garenne and has spread to other towns and estates nearby.’
Protesters let off fireworks. The riots were triggered after a 30-year-old man was severely injured in a collision with an unmarked police car in the area Police threw tear gas and baton charges as they moved to disperse protesters in the area A police officer was seen carrying a large gun as they moved through the neighbourhood
Mr Gabsi had suffered a heart attack by the time he arrived at a local police station, and witnesses saw two of the officers sitting on top of him in their patrol car.
Mr Gabsi’s suspicious death follows numerous complaints about police racism as forces across France enforce one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe.
A spokesman for France’s Human Rights League described the death of Mr Gabsi, who was from an Arab background, as a ‘scandal that shows how the poor are being killed’ by the lockdown. French journalist Taha Bouhafs, who is from an Algerian background, is manhandled by police Two officers hold the journalist's arms behind his back. He was reporting on the protests
France on Tuesday reported a total of 19,718 deaths from coronavirus since the start of the health emergency. A total of 152,894 cases have also been detected in the country.
Its stringent lockdown measures are 'working', Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told a press conference today.
French authorities have said they will publish plans for ending the lockdown 'within two weeks', and begins to air their strategy 'in the coming days'.
'It is likely that we are not going to see an end to confinement that would happen in one move everywhere and for everyone,' Mr Philippe said, revealing details of the strategy.
The French lockdown could lead to a 10 per cent contraction in the French economy this year.
PARIS - On a national discrimination hotline that she helps manage, Rafaelle Parlier hears troubling reports: a veiled woman fined by police for using her veil as a face mask, and a man of North African descent similarly sanctioned for picking up his wife, a nurse, from her hospital shift — although both had appropriate justifications.
“These are practices we usually denounce,” said Parlier, who works for anti-discrimination coalition En finir avec les contrôles au faciès (End Racial Profiling). “The confinement just makes it easier.”
A woman walks in front of a hotel of the Accor group in Paris, April 16, 2020, during a nationwide confinement to counter the coronavirus. The Accor facilities are taking in people with COVID-19 who show no symptoms but risk infecting others.
If COVID-19 touches all of France, its effects are not being felt equally. Poor, ethnically diverse residents are suffering disproportionately, rights activists and local officials say. The fallout varies, from reports of police intimidation and violence to more arduous conditions under lockdown and potentially more coronavirus cases than elsewhere in the country.
“The problem with this epidemic is that it underscores all the other pre-existing inequalities,” said Laurent Russier, mayor of Saint-Denis, a working-class Paris suburb with a large immigrant population. “And Saint-Denis is marked by sharp inequalities.”
Few areas manifest the national disparities more sharply than the broader Seine-Saint-Denis department, France’s poorest region, where Russier’s town is located. A recent government report found a sharp spike in deaths during the last half of March, when the COVID-19 lockdown began — higher than in neighboring departments.
While the government has not linked the uptick to coronavirus, local officials list a raft of underlying weaknesses in the banlieues, as the gritty, working-class suburbs are called.
Disparities ‘that kill’
In an op-ed piece, Russier joined a half-dozen mayors and elected officials in outlining several disparities “that kill” in the Seine-Saint-Denis department — in justice, security, health, education and jobs.
While some Parisians headed to country houses to wait out the pandemic, and a number are telecommuting for work, many of Russier’s residents have "front-line" jobs as health aides, supermarket cashiers and delivery workers, sometimes without protective masks. Peeling housing projects sometimes pack large, intergenerational families into tiny, unhealthy spaces, creating coronavirus clusters in some cases.
“So if someone catches COVID-19 in an apartment that’s multigenerational, the contagion is more rapid,” Russier said, “and the confinement is harder.”
Some banlieue graveyards report they are close to saturation, a situation that has not been helped by the recent uptick in deaths.
“Usually, I sign three or four burial certificates a week. But over the last few weeks, I’m signing three or four a day,” Sylvine Thomassin, mayor of another working-class suburb, told Le Monde newspaper.
FILE - A family watches French President Emmanuel Macron's televised speech, April 13, 2020, in Lyon, central France. Macron announced an extension of France's nationwide lockdown until May 11.
The message seems to have hit home with the French government. Addressing the nation Monday, President Emmanuel Macron — who has earned underwhelming marks for addressing banlieue grievances — promised nearly $1 billion more in financial aid for poor families.
France’s banlieues have long been considered flashpoints for unresolved social and economic grievances. In 2005, they exploded into rioting — a theme of the recent hit movie “Les Miserables” — revealing the tense and violent relationship between police and banlieue youngsters.
Old story, new context Today, the coronavirus simply offers a new context for discriminatory treatment, some activists say. Several videos posted on social media show police slapping and otherwise harassing youngsters for allegedly violating tough lockdown measures. In some cases, the young people have filed legal complaints.
“The issue of police violence is not new. It’s the usual targets, this time with the pretext of enforcing the confinement,” said Lanna Hollo, senior legal officer with the Open Society Justice Initiative in Paris.
"There are young people terrified to go out,” she added. “They may be the ones charged with the shopping or who have to go to work, and they’re afraid of being abused.”
In the Seine-Saint-Denis department, mayors and other officials say residents are largely following lockdown measures. Russier is among them.
But he denies excessive police behavior — at least in his town.
"There are some youngsters who don’t respect confinement, in some cases, defiantly,” he said. “But police are being careful. The idea is to avoid confrontation. They are very, very vigilant not to pour oil into the fire.”
FRANCE DISPATCH NEW YORK TIMES
‘Like a Prison’: Paris Suburbs Simmer Under Coronavirus Lockdown
A combination of cramped quarters, economic stress and accusations of police abuse is inflaming tensions in the poorer districts around the city.
Clichy-sous-Bois, an eastern suburb of Paris, is one of four French areas hit by “an exceptional excess” of coronavirus deaths, France’s national health director said Tuesday night.Credit...Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
By Adam Nossiter Published April 10, 2020 Updated April 13, 2020
CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS, France — The young men, immigrants with no papers and nowhere to go, chatted at close quarters outside the shopping strip, social distancing be damned. Above loomed the shabby facade of one of France’s most notorious housing blocks, packed with families waiting out confinement.
The pain of the moment is concentrated in this dense, impoverished district of the Paris immigrant suburbs, one of four French areas, including Paris and Alsace, hit by “an exceptional excess” of coronavirus deaths, France’s national health director said this week.
Much of Paris — perhaps a quarter of the population — packed up and went off to the countryside when the French government announced strict confinement rules on March 16. But just across the line in Seine-Saint-Denis, France’s poorest department, people didn’t have that choice.
Inside the Paris city limits, the streets are now as quiet as any French provincial town on a Sunday; in the suburbs the streets are mostly empty too. But the apartments are full.
Handing out food on Tuesday.Credit...Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
The grim and tired faces of the residents, lining up to get into the post office or the supermarket in the worn shopping strip, tell the story: small public housing apartments packed with families, jobs that have disappeared and an aggressive police force clamping down on youth restless with the confinement rules.
The combination of cramped quarters, acute economic stress and tough policing has made Paris’s poorer suburbs a more dangerous place for the virus to spread, as well as a special source of tension during the epidemic.
Relations between residents and the police, with their undercurrent of racial discrimination, are often fraught even in the best of times, and the current lockdown is not one of them.
Over and over, residents compared the confinement rules to conditions in a prison, and they charged that the police were taking advantage of their mandate to keep the streets clear by harassing, even beating, youths, no questions asked. Some are warning that the pressures are ripe to explode.
“We’ve got a lot of young people in big families, shut up in tiny apartments, and it’s difficult to close them up like that,” said Bilal Chikri, a filmmaker who lives in the neighborhood. “There’s a lot of clashes with the police, lots of police missteps, lots of abuse of power.” The approach has left residents vulnerable to both the police and the virus. Paris had 732 virus deaths compared with 402 in Seine-Saint-Denis as of April 8, but the city has half again the population of the suburb, where many of the metropolis’s cashiers, deliverymen, transit workers, nurses and couriers live.
“People can’t support their families anymore,’’ he added. “And with the cops now, it’s all about score-settling.” A residential compound reflected in a window of a food donation outpost.Credit...Mauricio Lima for The New York Times The stresses, from a lack of money and small spaces, were accumulating.
“It’s like a prison. There are three of us in two rooms,” said Drissa Fofana, an out-of-work construction worker. “But we’ve got to accept it. If this goes on, the little that we’ve got saved up will be all gone,” he said.
Outside the apartment blocks, small groups gather, here and there, mostly at bus stops. But the wide streets are largely quiet.
“On the whole, people are respecting the confinement rules,” said Hamza Esmili, a sociologist who has studied the Paris suburbs. “There isn’t a sort of collective indiscipline about it.”
“But the illness has the potential to continue spreading,” Mr. Esmili warned.
Playing at a housing complex.Credit...Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
“We’re seeing whole families arrive in the emergency rooms,” he said. “There’s familial contamination. People live, five or six, in little, little apartments.”
Paris had its exodus to country homes. “We didn’t see that in the Seine-Saint-Denis,” Mr. Adnet said. “They don’t have country homes here. So we didn’t benefit from that drop in the population.”
In the last few days the pressure on the area’s three public hospitals has eased a little, officials said. But the tension inside the tired old apartment blocks is spilling into the streets.
The French police have come down hard, in the accounts of several residents, responding to perceived lapses in the confinement rules with beatings, harassment, humiliation and intimidation.
A coalition of rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, denounced “unacceptable and illegal behavior” by the police in the Paris suburbs in a March 27 statement, saying the health crisis “doesn’t mean a break with the rule of law and doesn’t justify discriminatory checks or unjustified force.”
It noted that these abuses “are common, and rarely punished” in France.
Inside a residential building.Credit...Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
A leading police union, in a post on Twitter, called the residents’ accounts “fables,” and blamed them on “little Dzerjinskis” — a reference to a celebrated Bolshevik revolutionary — who are “holed up in the Latin Quarter, or their country homes.”
But the accounts are consistent, widespread and tied to the French government’s confinement rules. Since March 17 authorities have demanded a self-signed interior ministry release form giving one of four preapproved reasons for being outside.
In the Paris suburbs, if the police catch you without the form, or if there is an error on it, you are in trouble, residents said.
“The police just jump in, just like that, with force,” said Fiston Kabunda, who works as a mediator for the city of Clichy-sous-Bois. “There’s no discussion.”
“It’s an abuse of power: ‘We’re going to beat up some black and Arab,’” he added.
“Look, it’s like this: The police come, and they start to beat up on the kids,” he said. “They’re not even checking them. It’s brutality, no questions asked.”
A spokesman for the police prefecture of Paris, which is responsible for Seine-Saint-Denis, said the police would not comment on accusations that were “not specific.”
A commercial area in Clichy-sous-Bois.Credit...Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
Mr. Chikri, the filmmaker, said he had forgotten his release form in his car when a group of police surrounded him last week, threw him to the ground, handcuffed him, kicked him and squeezed his carotid artery. “You can stuff your release form,” the police told him, Mr. Chikri recalled.
“With these guys, it’s all hatred and violence,” he said.
The police in Paris did not respond to a specific inquiry about Mr. Chikri’s accusations.
In a video widely circulating on French social media, a young man in the suburb of Les Ulis can be heard screaming in pain during a police “check” for a missing release form.
“He was savagely beaten with truncheons, fists and kicks until he fell to the ground, but the punishment continued,” said a criminal complaint filed on behalf of Sofiane Naoufel El Allaki, a 21-year-old deliveryman for Amazon, by a Paris human rights lawyer, Samim Bolaky.
“The screams of Mr. El Allaki penetrated the whole neighborhood,” the complaint said.
“This is not about confrontation,” Mr. Bolaky said. “This is not urban violence. The streets are deserted. They didn’t even ask him for his release form. He didn’t resist at all.”
The police in the Essone department, where the incident took place, did not respond to a specific inquiry about Mr. El Allaki’s claims. Mr. El Allaki’s case is one of several involving police violence being investigated by prosecutors.
Mr. Esmili, the sociologist, warned that the way the authorities were enforcing the lockdown was only reinforcing the worst expectations of many in France’s poorest areas.
“Look, the state is completely ignoring how people live in these neighborhoods,” he said. “Its only response to them is an excess of authoritarianism. And the people are beginning to understand, the only response is police force.”
Clichy-sous-Bois is in Seine-Saint-Denis, France’s poorest department.Credit...Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
Constant Meheut contributed reporting.
Adam Nossiter is the Paris bureau chief. Previously, he was a Paris correspondent, the West Africa bureau chief, and led the team that won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for coverage of the Ebola epidemic. A version of this article appears in print on April 11, 2020, Section A, Page 5 o
