Google searches for malaria drug spiked after Trump, Musk endorsements

Searches for two anti-malarial drugs touted by public officials as treatment for COVID-19 shot up nearly 500 percent and 1,400 percent, researchers report.

April 29 (UPI) -- Google searches for the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine increased by nearly 1,400 percent after high-profile endorsements of possible benefits in treating COVID-19, an analysis published Wednesday in JAMA Internal Medicine said.

Similar searches for chloroquine, another drug that treats malaria, jumped more than 440 percent, the researchers reported.

The analysis of search traffic from the beginning of February through the end of March covers the period from the start of the outbreak of the disease caused by the new coronavirus in the United States, which through Wednesday has infected more than 1 million Americans.

The two drugs were touted as possible treatments for COVID-19 by President Donald Trump and billionaire businessman Elon Musk in mid-March, despite a lack of evidence to support the claims.

RELATED FDA issues warning on side effects of malaria drug for COVID-19

"We hear a lot of talk about misinformation all the time, but it's very nebulous," study co-author Dr. John W. Ayers, a behavioral scientist at San Diego State University, told UPI on Tuesday night. Researchers at the University of California, Harvard, Johns Hopkins and the University of Oxford worked on the study.

"It's like pornography in the Supreme Court in the 1970s: We don't know it until we see it, and even then you don't agree on it," Ayers said. "But with misinformation during the pandemic, there is an acute danger. The stakes are high. We need to address it before it adds to the public health problem we're already facing."

For the study, researchers reviewed daily Google search data from Feb. 1 to March 29 of this year, comparing it to historic trends. Search terms such as "buy," "order," "Amazon," "eBay" and"Walmart," combined with the names of the drugs, were checked.

Musk endorsed chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine -- drugs used historically to treat autoimmune disorders and malaria -- on Twitter on March 16 and Trump first mentioned them in a press briefing three days later.

The researchers found that the "first and largest" spike in searches for purchasing the drugs corresponded directly with Musk's tweet, with 100,000 additional searches the next day. On March 20, the day after Trump's comments, more than 250,000 additional searches were conducted.

Overall, Google search activity for purchasing chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine increased 442 percent and 1,389 percent, respectively, researchers found. They also noted that even after news reports of a fatal poisoning in Arizona, searches to buy chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine remained 212 percent and 1,167 percent, respectively, above expected levels.
Consumers turning to the internet for health information is not a new phenomenon. Research has shown that people frequently research their symptoms online before visiting a healthcare provider for diagnosis and treatment.

A study published last month in PLOS Computational Biology found that, during the Zika pandemic in 2016, Wikipedia page-views increased as much as 10 times, and that the rise corresponded directly with media mentions of the mosquito-borne virus.

"Wikipedia represents an important source of information during the current pandemic and its editors are doing their best to provide the most up-to-date information regarding COVID-19," Michele Tizzoni, lead author on the Zika study and research leader at the ISI Foundation in Torino, Italy, told UPI on Wednesday.





"However, as is stated by Wikipedia itself, Wikipedia or other Web sites cannot substitute for the advice of a medical professional," Tizzoni said.

Tizzoni and her colleagues focused on the role of media, especially television, in shaping public opinion.

She noted that during a pandemic, "the diffusion of accurate and reliable information on TV becomes even more important," as public attention -- and fear -- can be "explained by exposure to online and TV coverage, rather than the magnitude or extent of the epidemic itself."

The researchers behind the JAMA Internal Medicine study suggested that regulatory agencies and companies like Google and Bing need to "actively mitigate the negative consequences" of misinformation.

They specifically pointed to Google's integration of educational information into search results related to the outbreak -- an approach they would like to see expanded to and embraced by other platforms.

They also advised retailers to draft warnings or even withhold products that might be linked to use for COVID-19 treatment, as online retailer eBay did when it removed chloroquine products from its site.

The FDA last Friday also imposed restrictions on prescriptions for chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for the new coronavirus, after research indicated potential dangers associated with their use.

"We thought if we could identify the outbreak of the misinformation and learn how widespread it was, we could start to learn about ways we can correct it and stop it from spreading," Ayers, co-author of the JAMA Internal Medicine study, said.

Torment in Ecuador: virus dead piled up in bathrooms

AFP/File / Jose SANCHEZHealth ministry personnel test a woman for the novel coronavirus in northern Guayaquil, Ecuador, on April 19, 2020

Front line medics in one of Latin America's coronavirus epicenters are lifting the lid on the daily horrors they face in an Ecuadoran city whose health system has collapsed.

In one hospital in Guayaquil overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients, staff have had to pile up bodies in bathrooms because the morgues are full, health workers say.

In another, a medic told AFP that doctors have been forced to wrap up and store corpses to be able to reuse the beds they died on.

Ecuador has recorded close to 23,000 coronavirus cases and nearly 600 deaths, with Guayaquil by far its worst affected city. But the real toll is thought to be far higher.

A 35-year-old nurse at the first hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the trauma of what he saw had affected him professionally and personally.

When the health emergency broke out in March, every nurse went from caring for 15 patients to 30 in the space of just 24 hours, he added.

"So many people arrived that... they were practically dying in our hands," said the nurse.

Patients were discharged or referred to other facilities "to free up all these beds" for coronavirus patients, he told AFP.

"They took out anesthesia machines from operating rooms to replace them with ventilators.

"People are alone, sad, the treatment wreaks havoc on the gastrointestinal tract, some defecate; they feel bad and think they will always feel that way, and they see that the person next to them starts to suffocate and scream that they need oxygen."

It isn't just hospitals that have been overwhelmed, but morgues too.

"The morgue staff wouldn't take any more, so many times we had to wrap up bodies and store them in the bathrooms," the nurse said.

Only when the bodies were "stacked up six or seven high did they come to collect them."

A 26-year-old colleague, also a nurse, confirmed the chaotic scenes.

"There were many dead in the bathrooms, many lying on the floors, many dead in armchairs," she told AFP.

- 'Sanitary disaster' -

Guayaquil's health system has collapsed under the pressure of the coronavirus, and it seems to be having catastrophic knock-on effects.

In the first half of April, the province of Guayas, whose capital is Guayaquil, recorded 6,700 deaths, more than three times the monthly average.

AFP/File / Jose SánchezWorkers make coffins at the Angel Maria Canals cemetery in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on April 9, 2020

The disparity suggests that the real COVID-19 death toll is far greater than the official nationwide tally of fewer than 600.

President Lenin Moreno has acknowledged that Ecuador's official coronavirus tallies "are short" of the true figures.

A 28-year-old doctor at a second Guayaquil hospital, who also insisted on anonymity, conjured a similarly grim picture of health services in crisis.

"Bodies were in the corridors of the emergency ward because the morgue was full," the medic told AFP, describing "20 to 25 corpses" waiting to be taken away.

"It was up to us to collect and wrap the corpse and store it so we could disinfect the bed for the next patient," he added.

At the first hospital, refrigerated containers were brought in to store bodies, some of which remained for up to 10 days.

Some family members "break the covers... so the fluids come out. It's a sanitary disaster," said the 35-year-old male nurse.

- 'It kills you psychologically' -

The number of daily deaths fell last week but that was scant consolation for this nurse, who says he is tormented by what he has experienced.

AFP/File / RODRIGO BUENDIAA paramedic enters the disinfection booth outside the emergency room of the IESS Sur Hospital in Quito on April 18, 2020

When he goes home, after a 24-hour shift, his feet hurting, he tries to rest but then the "nightmare" strikes.

He dreams of running until he falls and knocks "open the bathroom door with the number of bodies... and you can't go back to sleep."

His home life has also changed. He is following strict isolation so cannot see his parents or brother.

When he goes home he begins his ritual of disinfecting his car and shoes, hosing himself down on the patio before washing his clothes in hot water.

"I eat on a plastic table away from everyone. I leave my home with a mask, I can't hug anyone, not even the pets," he said.

Every now and then he thinks about the psychological mark left on him every time he has to make do with hooking them up to cannula tubes when what they really need is a ventilator.

"They tell you, 'It's okay -- give them oxygen and a slow drip serum and leave them,'" he told AFP.

"But what if that was my mom? What if it was my dad? That kills you. It kills you psychologically."

AFP sought comment from health authorities in Guayaquil but did not get a reply.

A national public health authority official said he had been in an emergency unit in Guayaquil where bodies were piled up.

"A morgue for eight deceased persons and you have to manage 150 bodies, what can you do? You have to put them anywhere nearby that you have space," he told AFP.

The official said the number of cases in Guayaquil rose dramatically and rapidly in a matter of days, overwhelming an inadequate emergency healthcare system.

"There was such a speed of contagion that it reflected a large number of seriously ill and a large number of deaths at a specific time," he said.

WESTERN CANADA CRUDE WAS HEDGED TO JUNE PRICES

Oil rebounds above $14 after massive sell-off

AFP/File / Frederic J. BROWNOil prices have fallen to historic lows this month as governments worldwide shut down businesses and air travel ground to a halt

US oil prices rebounded above $14 a barrel Wednesday, a day after a sell-off sparked by a major fund selling its short-term holdings of the commodity amid virus-triggered storage concerns.

West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, for June delivery jumped 14.5 percent to $14.13 a barrel in Asian morning trade.

It had plunged by more than 21 percent at one point Tuesday after the United States Oil Fund -- a major US exchange-traded fund (ETF) -- started selling its short-term contracts of the commodity.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, was trading 3.27 percent higher at $21.13 a barrel.

Traders "are bargain hunting after a couple of days of massive sell-offs", OANDA senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley told AFP.

ANZ Bank said in a note that the market was hit by volatility Tuesday "as ETFs and index funds moved contract positions amid renewed concerns of negative prices" in short-term holdings.

The Oil Fund had sold its contracts due to expire in June to move into longer-dated holdings amid fears about storage space running out in the short term.

Following the US ETF's move, Standard & Poor's also told clients to sell their stakes in the June contracts and move them into July, ANZ said.

S&P operates the GSCI commodity index, which is tracked by pension funds and other big investors.

Other indices, including the Bloomberg Commodity Index, took similar steps.

Oil prices have fallen to historic lows this month, with WTI crashing deep below zero for the first time as governments worldwide shut down businesses and air travel grinds to a halt due to the virus.

An agreement by top crude-producing nations to cut output by 10 million barrels a day from May 1 has done little to calm the market.

The production cuts "will probably take weeks to show up in the physical market, hence we are still stuck with the inventories issues that will continue to curb any semblance of bullish appetite", said AxiCorp global market strategist Stephen Innes.

Lebanese protesters back on the streets as economy crumbles

AFP / Fathi AL-MASRI

Lebanese anti-government protesters burn tyres amid overnight

 clashes with security forces in the northern city of Tripoli
Lebanese protesters confronted soldiers for a second day Tuesday as anger over a spiraling economic crisis re-energised a months-old anti-government movement despite a coronavirus lockdown.

In second city Tripoli, protesters hurled rocks at security forces, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

The violence came after a protester died on Tuesday from a bullet wound he had sustained during overnight confrontations between troops and hundreds of demonstrators in Tripoli.

Following the funeral of 26-year-old Fawaz al-Samman in the city's central Al-Nour Square, demonstrators went on the rampage, torching and vandalising banks and military vehicles.

AFP / Fathi AL-MASRI

Lebanese anti-government protesters smash the facade of a bank

Troops fired live rounds into the air to try to disperse stone-throwing protesters under clouds of tear gas.

Tuesday's confrontations were the latest in a string of anti-government protests fuelled by unprecedented inflation and a plummeting Lebanese pound.

Angered by the financial collapse, demonstrators have rallied across Lebanon, blocking roads and attacking banks, re-energising a protest movement launched in October against a political class the activists deem inept and corrupt.

"I came down to raise my voice against hunger, poverty and rising prices," Khaled, 41, told AFP, saying he had lost his job selling motorcycle parts and could no longer support his three children.

- 'Increasingly desperate' -

AFP / Ibrahim CHALHOUB

People inspect a bank set ablaze by protesters in Tripoli

After a few hours of calm in Tripoli on Tuesday evening, protesters again hit the streets, vandalising the facade of a bank in the al-Mina district.

A demonstration was also held outside the home of former prime minister Najib Mikati, who has been accused of wrongly receiving millions in subsidised housing loans -- charges he denies.

More than 20 protesters were injured in the Tuesday night clashes, including four who were hospitalised, according to the Lebanese Red Cross.

Sixty people, including some 40 soldiers, were injured during the clashes on Monday night.

In the capital Beirut, an AFP reporter saw dozens of protesters chanting slogans against the governor of the central bank.

In the southern city of Sidon, demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails at the bank's local headquarters.

Lebanon is mired in its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, now compounded by a nationwide lockdown to stem the spread of the coronavirus that has killed 24 people in the country and infected almost 700 others.

The Lebanese pound has lost more than half of its value against the dollar on the black market, hitting record lows of 4,000 pounds to the dollar this week.

Economy Minister Raoul Nehme on Tuesday said that prices have risen by 55 percent, while the government estimates that 45 percent of the population now lives below the poverty line.

This has unleashed a public outcry against a government that has yet to deliver a long-awaited rescue plan to shore up the country's finances more than three months since it was nominated to address the crisis.

On Tuesday evening, Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni tweeted that his French counterpart Bruno Le Maire had given his backing to a rescue plan, but had stressed the need for long-overdue structural reforms.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab acknowledged that living conditions have "deteriorated at a record speed" but said on Tuesday he would not tolerate "riots" and that perpetrators would be held accountable.

UN envoy to Lebanon Jan Kubis said that the "tragic" events in Tripoli send a "warning signal."

"This is the time to provide material support to increasingly desperate, impoverished and hungry majority of Lebanese," he said on Twitter.

- 'Social explosion' -

Lebanon's economic crisis has forced large chunks of the population into unemployment.

AFP/File / ANWAR AMROLebanese protesters chant slogans in front

 of the building of the central bank in Beirut on April 23, 2020

Meanwhile, a kilo of meat -- which used to sell for 18,000 Lebanese pounds ($12 at the official rate) -- now costs 32,000 (around $22), while the price of vegetables has doubled.

With no clear government plan to exit the crisis, Lebanon is heading "towards an inevitable social explosion," Sami Nader, director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs, told AFP.

Public anger has been increasingly directed at banks, accused by protesters of helping a corrupt political class drive the country towards bankruptcy.

Lebanese banks, many of them owned by prominent politicians, have since September imposed restrictions on dollar withdrawals and transfers, forcing the public to deal in the nose-diving Lebanese pound.

Since March, banks have stopped dollar withdrawals altogether, further fuelling public anger.

In Tripoli, the army accused demonstrators overnight of torching three banks, destroying several automated teller machines and attacking an army patrol and military vehicle.

The Association of Lebanese Banks said that commercial banks would be closed in the city on Tuesday because of "attacks and acts of vandalism."

The renewed protests came after Diab said Lebanese bank deposits had plunged $5.7 billion in the first two months of the year, despite curbs on withdrawals and a ban on transfers abroad.

Brazil judge orders probe into accusations against Bolsonaro 

AFP/File / EVARISTO SAA Brazilian judge has ordered an investigation of allegations that President Jair Bolsonaro sought to interfere in police investigations

A Brazilian supreme court judge on Monday ordered a probe into accusations by former justice and security minister Sergio Moro that President Jair Bolsonaro sought to "interfere" with police investigations.

In his decision, obtained by AFP, Judge Celso de Mello gave the federal police 60 days to question Moro about his explosive allegations against the right-wing president.

The findings, which will be handed over to the attorney general, could result in either a request for a political trial against Bolsonaro or an indictment against Moro for false testimony.

According to the judge, the alleged crimes seem to have "an intimate connection with the exercise of the presidential mandate," thus allowing for an investigation of the leader.

Moro, a former anti-corruption judge, resigned on Friday after clashing with Bolsonaro over the sacking of the federal police chief, accusing the president of political interference.

The judge's document lists seven accusations against Bolsonaro, including malfeasance and obstruction of justice.

Should the investigation confirm the allegations, it will be up to the lower house of the National Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings against Bolsonaro and potentially remove him from office.

AFP/File / EVARISTO SASergio Moro resigned as justice minister over the sacking of the head of the federal police, accusing the president of political interference

In 2017, the prosecutor general's office asked to open two investigations against then-president Michel Temer, and in both cases the request was rejected by the Chamber of Deputies.

The tensions come at the height of the global coronavirus crisis.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly downplayed the danger of COVID-19 and earlier this month fired his health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who supported isolation as a tool to contain the spread of the pandemic.

A poll published Monday night shows divided opinions about Bolsonaro's future, with 45 percent of Brazilians saying Congress should open an impeachment process against him.

In comparison, 48 percent think Bolsonaro should not be impeached, according to the Datafolha poll, which ran in the Folha de S. Paulo daily.

- Other investigations -

Behind the scenes, changing the head of the federal police, an investigative body that reports to the justice ministry, is seen as an attempt by Bolsonaro to control investigations that surround his family and political allies.

AFP/File / EVARISTO SAPresident Jair Bolsonaro (pictured with supporters protesting against quarantine measures) has repeatedly downplayed the danger of the coronavirus and fired his health minister who supported isolation

One probe, opened in March 2019, is investigating false news campaigns to threaten or slander supreme court judges who opposed Bolsonaro's projects, such as liberalizing the carrying of arms.

Another, initiated by the attorney general last week, is investigating a demonstration outside the army headquarters in Brasilia by Bolsonaro supporters who called for military intervention in handling the coronavirus pandemic while protesting against stay-at-home orders.

Bolsonaro, a former army captain who has been criticized for previously praising Brazil's brutal 1964-85 military dictatorship, also attended the protest.

Moro, who made his name leading the corruption investigation that saw former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva jailed for accepting a bribe, resigned after Bolsonaro dismissed the federal police chief, who was a close ally of the minister.

"The change at the head of the federal police without a genuine reason is political interference that harms my credibility and that of the government," Moro said Friday.

Moro said Bolsonaro had told him he was replacing the federal police chief for someone with whom he had "personal contact, whom he could call, ask for information, intelligence reports."

"Providing this type of information is not the job of the federal police," Moro said, insisting on independence for investigations.

That night, he presented on television a WhatsApp exchange with Bolsonaro in which the president appears to exert pressure for the replacement of the federal police chief.

According to Brazilian media, the former judge has recordings of discussions with the president.

Bolsonaro hit back at Moro, accusing him of being motivated by "ego" and making "unfounded accusations."

IN DEPTH

Where could Brazil's criminal 

investigation of Jair Bolsonaro lead?

Brazil's Supreme Court has approved an investigation into whether President Bolsonaro meddled with federal police to protect allies. The results could trigger a dramatic chain of events that hinge largely on one person.

As world leaders focus on fighting the coronavirus pandemic in their countries, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro faces another major battle — potentially his biggest political crisis since taking office.

The Supreme Court on Monday authorized an investigation of claims that Bolsonaro interfered with federal law enforcement. Former Justice Minister Sergio Moro, a highly popular politician, made the bombshell accusation during his resignation speech Friday, the same day Bolsonaro announced he had fired the federal police chief.

"I told the president that [changing the police chief] would be political interference. He said that it would be, too," Moro said.

Moro alleges that Bolsonaro wanted to replace the police head with someone who would give him access to information and reports and would shield his relatives and allies from investigations.

Federal police are currently investigating Bolsonaro's son Carlos for allegedly having organized a fake news scheme, according to major newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.

On Tuesday the president tried to name a family friend to head the police, but a Supreme Court justice halted the nomination the next day.

From investigation to charges to trial?
Authorities will now look into whether Bolsonaro obstructed justice and meddled with federal police work, among other crimes.

Meanwhile, if Moro doesn't show proof of Bolsonaro's alleged interference, he could be charged for making a false accusation. He could also be charged for not doing his obligation as justice minister and failing to report Bolsonaro's possible crimes when he knew about them.

A key figure in the proceedings is Augusto Aras, the attorney general. According to the Brazilian Constitution, the attorney general is the only person who can press charges against the president for a common crime, which under Brazilian law doesn't require either legal party to have any specific characteristics. In contrast, a crime of responsibility requires the alleged perpetrator to be a public official.

If after the investigation Aras does press common crime charges, approval by two thirds of the lower house of Congress — at least 342 of the 513 deputies — would be needed to open a criminal trial before the Supreme Court. Without approval, the issue would be archived.

In a Supreme Court trial, Bolsonaro would become the defendant and would have to give up office for 180 days.

However, Bolsonaro could also be charged with a crime of responsibility, the Brazilian equivalent of high crimes and misdemeanors associated with the presidential office. Any Brazilian citizen can accuse the president of this crime. If the lower house accepts an accusation and a two-thirds majority votes to pass it on, Bolsonaro would face impeachment proceedings in the Senate.


Attorney General Aras could press charges depending on the result of the investigation into Bolsonaro

Attorney general plays it safe

Aras, whom Bolsonaro nominated in September 2019, has been criticized for siding too much with the president. He refused to break with the government when Bolsonaro supported protests against social distancing measures during the coronavirus pandemic, when government measures threatened indigenous communities' rights and when decrees made it easier to buy guns and ammunition.

Read more: Brazilian President Bolsonaro sides with anti-democracy protesters

Aras asked the Supreme Court to greenlight investigations into both Bolsonaro and Moro the same day the latter made the meddling accusations. However, Rubens Glezer, a law professor with the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo, said the attorney general was "ambiguous" and left enough leeway to maneuver depending on how the case develops.

"If [after the investigation] things look bad for Bolsonaro, Aras can say he did his part and no one can accuse him of having stayed silent," Glezer said. "If Bolsonaro continues stable and the investigation turns against Moro, [Aras] can show that he was a 'good soldier' [to the government] and pave his way to a vacancy on the Supreme Court."

Deputies' decision uncertain

If Aras presses charges against Bolsonaro, the political context and the level of support for the government will determine the reaction of the lower house.

Maria Paula Dallari Bucci, a law professor at the University of São Paulo, is uncertain that two thirds of the deputies would want to open a criminal trial against Bolsonaro.

"According to the data that we have, the lower house will only be convinced if there is definitive proof," she said.

She added that some parties are looking into starting a parliamentary inquiry committee, which would run parallel to the criminal investigation. It would also look into Moro's allegations and could change the deputies' opinions. Such a committee was started in the case of Fernando Collor, a former president who resigned in 1992 during an impeachment trial that eventually found him guilty of corruption.

"A committee was installed and information, and details were disclosed that made it clearer to the public opinion that the president was incapable of continuing his mandate," Bucci said.

If Aras presses charges against Bolsonaro, the president's only chance to save himself would be to block the process in the lower house, according to Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, a constitutional law professor at University of Brasilia. If the case were to reach the Supreme Court, he believes the justices would side against the president unanimously.

"Bolsonaro is so explicit in his madness from an institutional point of view that, in the Supreme Court, both sides would unite against him," Benvindo said.

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Date 29.04.2020

Bangladesh garment factories reopen, 
defying virus lockdown

AFP / MUNIR UZ ZAMANGarment workers wash their legs before entering a factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where hundreds of such factories reopened despite a nationwide lockdown against new coronavirus

Hundreds of Bangladesh's garment factories defied a nationwide coronavirus lockdown to reopen on Sunday, raising fears the industry's vulnerable and largely female workforce could be exposed to the contagion.

Big-name international brands have cancelled or held up billions of dollars in orders due to the pandemic, crippling an industry that accounts for nearly all of the South Asian country's export earnings.

Factories shut their doors in late March but some suppliers said they were now being pushed by retailers to fulfill outstanding export orders.

"We have to accept coronavirus as part of life. If we don't open factories, there will be economic crisis," said Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association vice president Mohammad Hatem.

He said his MB Knit company had reopened part of a factory that makes clothing for Britain's Primark and several other retailers.

AFP / STRBangladesh's garment factories are "under pressure" from brands to meet export deadlines despite the pandemic, an industry group said

Factories were "under pressure" from brands to meet export deadlines and feared the risk that billions in orders could be diverted to competing operations in countries like Vietnam or China, Hatem added.

More than four million people work in thousands of garment factories across Bangladesh, which last year shipped out $35 billion of apparel to retailers such as H&M, Inditex and Walmart -- second only to China.

Hundreds of those factories had resumed operations over the weekend in the industrial areas of Gazipur and Ashulia, just outside the capital Dhaka.

Some 200,000 workers were likely back at work just in Ashulia, police spokeswoman Jane Alam told AFP.

Mofazzal Hossain said he felt compelled to return to his factory, where he earns $115 a month.

"The fear of coronavirus is there," he told AFP.

"But I am now more worried about losing my job, wages and benefits."

Labour rights leaders said they were fearful the return to work could spark an explosion of COVID-19 cases.

"Its impact could be worse than Rana Plaza," said activist Kalpona Akter, referring to the collapse of a garment factory complex in 2013 that killed 1,130 workers.

Bangladesh, a nation of 168 million people, has almost 5,500 confirmed COVID-19 infections and 145 deaths according to the government.

Experts say the real number is likely much higher due to a lack of patient testing by authorities.

‘An economic model that must fail’

Chile, no peaceful oasis

The protests in Chile are against a state that sold out the majority in favour of a tiny minority that has long profited from what should be communal resources.

by Luis Sepúlveda 

Enough! Chileans protest against the Piñera government in November 2019

Marcelo Hernandez · Getty

Violent protests have rocked Chile since early October 2019; at least 27 people have been killed, hundreds maimed, thousands injured and an unspecified number arrested. The police and armed forces have raped, tortured and committed other atrocities. Just before the protests began, President Sebastián Piñera commented on upheavals in other parts of Latin America, and described Chile as an oasis of peace and calm in the middle of a storm.

What characterised this oasis was not its sweet water or its lush palm trees, but the apparently unscalable fence that ringed it, made of a curious alloy of the basest metals: neoliberal economic policy, absence of civil rights, and repression. Chileans were on the right side of this fence.

Until the recent street protests, economists and politicians had held fast to the mantra that smaller government means more entrepreneurial freedom. They claimed a miracle, a spontaneous generation, had taken place in Chile, and they saw irrefutable proof of this miracle in growth figures and economic statistics praised by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The coup that ousted Allende

But not everyone in Chile was included in this little southern paradise. It lacked such trivial details as a right to fair wages, decent pensions, good-quality state education and a healthcare system worthy of the name. It was not concerned with the right of citizens to determine their own fate rather than just swallowing the macroeconomic figures the government force-feeds them.

What characterised this oasis was not its water or palm trees, but the fence that ringed it, made of neoliberal economic policy and repression. Chileans were on the right side of this fence

On 11 September 1973, a military coup toppled Chile’s democratic government. A brutal dictatorship took over in Santiago and under General Augusto Pinochet lasted until March 1990. Its objective was not to restore order nor save the country from a communist threat but to implement principles advocated by the gurus of neoliberalism, led by Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics. The aim was to establish a new economic model that would lead to the creation of a new society in which precarity and absence of rights would be the norm, silence would be enforced and guns would ensure social peace.

The civilian-military dictatorship achieved its goals, writing them into a constitution that enshrined the economic model established by force and made it the definition of Chile. No other Latin American country has adopted a model so carefully designed to benefit a minority at the expense of the rest of the population. The rules did not change with Chile’s ‘return to democracy’ in 1990, or, to be more precise, its ‘transition to democracy’. The dictatorship’s constitution was retouched, but not revised at a fundamental level. All successive centre-left and rightwing governments maintained the economic model as sacrosanct, though precarity affected ever more people.

If two people sit down to a meal and eat two cakes, then, statistically, the rate of consumption is one cake per person, even if one of them eats two and the other has none. This is the sleight of hand that allows Chile to present its economic model as a success. It’s not really a dictatorship, but neither is it a democracy; it relies on repression and fear.

Julio Ponce Lerou, former son-in-law of Pinochet, is one of the world’s richest men and heir to an economic empire built by robbing Chileans of what was rightfully theirs (1). He has paid huge sums to most Chilean senators, deputies and government ministers to encourage them to pursue privatisation. When Chileans found out about this, the government suggested that criticising these actions would end the ‘Chilean miracle’, then it repressed the protests.

Multinationals own all the water

Chile’s water — all of it, in rivers, lakes or glaciers — belongs to a handful of multinationals. The government responded to popular protests at this situation with the only form of communication it is prepared to countenance, police brutality. The same thing happened when people mobilised to defend Chile’s natural heritage from power generation transnationals; and when high school students demanded good quality education, not governed by market forces; and when much of the country came to the defence of the oppressed Mapuche people. The government responded in the same way every time, repressing the protesters and claiming that they were endangering the Chilean economic miracle.

Chile is not really a dictatorship, but neither is it a democracy; it relies on repression and fear

The peace of the Chilean oasis was not shattered just because the price of metro tickets in Santiago went up. It has been destroyed by injustices committed in the name of macroeconomic statistics, and by the insolence of ministers who suggested that people get up earlier to save money on public transport (cheaper outside peak hours), buy flowers instead of bread (because the price of flowers, unlike that of bread, hadn’t increased), and organise bingo nights to raise money for the repair of school roofs.

Saying no to precarity

The peace of the oasis has been destroyed because it is not fair that students graduating from university are burdened with a debt that will take 15-20 years to pay off.

It has been destroyed because the pension system is controlled by predatory companies that speculate with their collected contributions and pass their losses on to pensioners, who receive tiny annuities based on a morbid calculation of the number of years they have left to live.

It has been destroyed because workers, labourers and small employers choosing a fund to manage their pension capitalisation accounts have to remember the government warning that ‘the size of your pension will depend on how clever you are when investing your savings on the financial markets.’

It has been destroyed because a majority of Chileans are now saying no to precarity and setting out to win back their lost rights.

No rebellion is more just and democratic than that of the Chileans. The demonstrators demand a new constitution that represents the whole country in all its diversity. They demand the reversal of the privatisation of sea and water. They demand the right to exist and to be considered as active participants in the country’s development. They demand to be treated as full citizens, not as an unimportant element of an economic model that must fail because of its inhumanity.

No rebellion is more just and democratic than that of the Chileans. And no repression, however harsh or criminal, can hold back a people rising up against it.

Luis Sepúlveda

Luis Sepúlveda is a Chilean writer and the author of The Story of a Seagull and the Cat who Taught her to Fly (translated from Spanish), Alma, Richmond (Surrey), 2016.