New Technology Could Allow You to “Hack” Your Dreams and Control Lucid Dreaming

MIT scientists are building a wearable device that allows you to "hack" your dreams.


(TMU) — Brain activity during sleep and dream states represents one of the many persistently nebulous aspects of the human mind that has defied easy explanation over the years. Researchers are taking a whole new approach to the field, conducting next-level dream research in a clinical, real-life version of Inception. And they believe dreams can be “hacked, augmented, and swayed” and are developing tools to mine the subconscious like never before.

A team of researchers at MIT’s Dream Lab is developing an open-source wearable device that tracks bio-rhythms and engages with a person’s mind while they’re dreaming. The device, which they call Dormio, looks like an old-school Nintendo glove adorned with a full array of sensors and tracking mechanisms that study muscle tone, heart rate, and skin conductance.

When a person drifts into the hypnagogic stage of sleep, the glove emits a pre-recorded audio signal. The researchers believe that because dreams have a synergistic role in mental health, including memories and emotions, they can be tapped and harnessed for a better understanding of and control over mood regulation.

“People don’t know that a third of their life is a third where they could change or structure or better themselves,” said PhD student, Adam Horowitz, who is one of the Dream Lab’s researchers. “Dreaming is really just thinking at night. In dreams, we’re turning any sensory input into part of a story. Whether you’re talking about memory augmentation or creativity augmentation or improving mood the next day or improving test performance, there’s all these things you can do at night that are practically important.”

Dream Lab hosted a workshop in 2019 that explored the realm of “lucid dreaming.” Since then, they’ve conducted a 50-person experiment in which the Dormio glove delivered an audio cue of “tiger,” which subsequently caused the participants to experience a tiger in their dreams.

Dream Lab is making its device open-source and has posted the source code to the biosignal tracking software on Github.

Another Dream Lab researcher, Judith Amores, is experimenting with the olfactory sense to tap further into the unconscious science of sleep. Her project, BioEssence, works similarly to the Dormio except its primary mechanism is a wearable scent diffuser that monitors biorhythms and brain waves. When the wearer reaches the N3 stage of sleep, which scientists believe is linked to memory, the device releases a triggering scent tied to a specific memory or behavior.

“The sense of smell is particularly interesting because it’s directly connected to the memory and the emotional parts of the brain—the amygdala and the hippocampus,” Amores, who believes one day we could alter the content of dreams to treat PTSD and other conditions, says. “And that’s a very interesting gateway to access well-being…you can heal without being fully conscious.”

While scientists consider the therapeutic applications of controlled lucid dreaming, it’s hard not to imagine the recreational potential of being able to steer and author the content of a dream. Professor Tore Nielsen compares the “exhilarating feeling of a lucid dream” to virtual reality. “You can try flying, singing, having sex—it’s better than VR.”


While some may brand the Dream Lab researchers as renegade pioneers on a new frontier of science, not everyone is impressed with their work, nor receptive to their end goal. And though they’ve made both their hardware and software open-source, some have questioned the ethics of dream engineering.

Rubin Naiman, PhD, a psychologist and sleep and dream expert with the University of Arizona’s Center for Integrative Medicine, for example, says the idea of hacking dreams is arrogant and potentially dangerous. He claims patients “could end up with sleep-onset insomnia.”

“The unconscious, it’s another kind of intelligence,” Rubin explains. “We can learn from it. We can be in dialogue with it rather than dominate it, rather than ‘tap in’ and try to steer it in directions we want.”


However, Amores counters that what they’re doing is not about controlling dreams:“This is about bringing awareness to the capabilities that we already have.”

Would you volunteer to be a test subject? Do you want to hack your dreams?

By Jake Anderson | Creative Commons | TheMindUnleashed.com

Icelanders Urged to Hug Trees Instead of People to Overcome Isolation During Pandemic

When was the last time you hugged a tree?
TRUTH THEORY

Image credit: Instagram @realandrews, @sofiamakkyla, @julianepfeiffer.today
click here for the article with more Instagram pics 

(TT) — The coronavirus-enforced social distancing regulations have taken away the comfort of human contact from us. But there are other ways to nourish the soul—such as tree hugging, according to the Icelandic Forestry Service.

Until quite recently, tree hugging had been seen as the domain of the ecologically friendly hippies of the 1960’s and 70’s.

But studies in the last few years have shown that there is indeed a science behind tree hugging.

It’s now believed that mental illnesses, depression, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), reaction times, concentration and even headaches can be alleviated by bonding with a tree.

Indeed, there are a growing number of people who are questioning the Western medical establishment and are understanding better the benefits of natural or holistic treatments.

So it seems the forest rangers at the Hallormsstaður National Forest in east Iceland may be onto something in these stressful times amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

“When you hug [a tree], you feel it first in your toes and then up your legs and into your chest and then up into your head,” explained forest ranger Þór Þorfinnsson.

“It’s such a wonderful feeling of relaxation and then you’re ready for a new day and new challenges.




The rangers have been hard at work clearing snow-covered tracks to enable people the space they need to wander through the forest and find a tree which they feel attracted to.

According to Þorfinnsson, the tree can be of any size, and even a five minute hug will be enough to leave one feeling renewed and invigorated.

“You can also do it many times a day – that wouldn’t hurt. But once a day will definitely do the trick, even for just a few days,” he added.

It’s not so much about how much time is spent with the tree, but rather the quality of the interaction.

“It’s also really nice to close your eyes while you’re hugging a tree,” Þorfinnsson explained. “I lean my cheek up against the trunk and feel the warmth and the currents flowing from the tree and into me. You can really feel it.”

The History of Tree Hugging

It wasn’t the hippies who started tree hugging. It actually began as far back as 1730, with a group of around 363 people belonging to the Bishnois branch of Hinduism in India.

When foresters decided to chop down trees to build a palace, the Bishnois protesters tried to stop them by clinging to the trees.Tragically, they were all killed by the foresters. But their efforts were not in vein as a royal decree was later issued, banning the felling of trees in any Bishnoi village. Resultantly, a wooded oases remains in what is otherwise a desert landscape.

By Anthony McLennan | TruthTheory.com | TMU

Grisly gladiator fresco discovered in tavern at PompeiiGrisly gladiator fresco discovered in tavern at Pompeii

AFP 11 October 2019

Grisly gladiator fresco discovered in tavern at Pompeii

Photo: Press office of the Pompeii Archaeological Park/AFP

A vivid fresco depicting an armour-clad gladiator standing victorious as his wounded opponent stumbles, gushing blood, has been discovered in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, Italy's culture ministry said on Friday.

The striking scene in gold, blue and red was uncovered in what experts think was a tavern frequented by gladiators, who fought each other, prisoners, and wild animals for the public's entertainment.

"We do not know how this fight ended. Gladiators were killed or shown mercy," Pompeii's director Massimo Osanna said.

A "Murmillo" fighter wearing a plumed, wide-brimmed helmet with visor, holds aloft his large rectangular shield in his left hand, as he grips his short sword in the right.

On the ground next to him lies the shield of the defeated "Thraex", who has suffered deep wounds and is on the point of collapse.

Photo: Press office of the Pompeii Archaeological Park/AFP

"What is particularly interesting is the extremely realistic representation of the wounds, such as the one on the wrist and chest of the unsuccessful gladiator, from which the blood runs, wetting his leggings," Osanna said.

"The Thraex is gesturing with his hand, possibly asking for mercy," he said.

The fresco - which measures 1.12 metres by 1.5 metres - was found in what excavators believe was a basement room, as the imprint of a wooden staircase can be seen above it.

Treasures of a ruined city

The building was situated not far from the gladiators' barracks in Regio V, an entire quarter of the site that has recently offered up several impressive archaeological finds but is yet to open to Handout photo: Press office of the Pompeii Archaeological Park/AFP the public.

It was most likely a tavern with an upper floor of rooms used either by the innkeeper or by prostitutes, the ministry said.

The discovry was made during works to secure an area of the north of the archaeological park under the Great Pompeii Project, launched after years of poor maintenance and bad weather caused a series of wall collapses.

Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said the find showed Pompeii was "an inexhaustible mine of research and knowledge for the archaeologists of today and the future".

The ruined city in southern Italy is the second most visited tourist site in the country, after the Colosseum in Rome, with more than 3.6 million visitors in 2018.

Perhaps the most significant find at the Regio V so far has been an inscription uncovered last year that proves the city was destroyed by Mount Vesuvius after October 17, 79 AD and not on August 24 as previously thought.

The most eye-catching one, however, was the skeleton of a man in 2018 whose torso was found protruding from a large stone block which had crushed his head.


He appeared to have survived the initial eruption, and attempted to flee Grisly gladiator fresco discovered in tavern at Pompeii

AFP

Ancient Romans had 'overwhelming' genetic diversity, study finds
AFPnews@thelocal.it

Performers from historical group Gruppo Storico Romano dressed as ancient Romans. Photo: AFP

DNA study of inhabitants of ancient Rome found some surprising results, and helps chart mass migration dating back 9,000 years.

At the height of its empire, the inhabitants of ancient Rome genetically resembled the populations of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, according to a new DNA study.

READ ALSO: Rome Reborn: take a virtual reality tour of Ancient Rome

The paper is based on genome data of 127 individuals from 29 archaeological sites in and around the city, spanning nearly 12,000 years of Roman prehistory and history.

Rome and central Italy's antiquity is well-documented in the rich archaeological and historical record, but relatively little genetic work had been carried out until now.


The Ancient Roman Forum (Foro Romano) in central Rome. Photo: AFP
Writing in the journal Science, researchers from Stanford and Italian universities said people from the city's earliest eras and from after the Western empire's decline in the 4th Century CE genetically resembled other Western Europeans.

But during the imperial period, Romans had more in common with populations from Greece, Syria and Lebanon.

The earliest sequenced genomes, from three individuals living 9,000 to 12,000 years ago, resembled other European hunter-gatherers at the time.

Starting from 9,000 years ago, the genetic makeup of Romans again changed in line with the rest of Europe following an influx of farmers from Anatolia or modern Turkey.

READ ALSO: Why the average ancient Roman worker was dead by 30

Things started to change however from 900 BCE to 200 BCE, as Rome grew in size and importance, and the diversity shot up from 27 BCE to 300 CE, when the city was the capital to an empire of 50 million to 90 million people, stretching from North Africa to Britain to the Middle East.

Of the 48 individuals studied from this period, only two showed strong genetic ties to Europe.
The genetic "diversity was just overwhelming," added Ron Pinhasi of the University of Vienna, who extracted DNA from the skeletons' ear bones.

After the empire split into two parts with the eastern capital in Constantinople (now Istanbul), Rome's diversity decreased once more.

"The genetic information parallels what we know from historical and archaeological records," said Kristina Killgrove, a Roman bioarchaeologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who wasn't involved in the study.

Jonathan Pritchard, a population geneticist at Stanford University who sequenced and analyzed the DNA, said mass migration is sometimes thought to be a new phenomenon.

"But it's clear from ancient DNA that populations have been mixing at really high rates for a long time," he added.



Photo: AFP

'Hands off women': Anger in Italy over Salvini's comments on abortion

AFP/The Local

Matteo Salvini brandishing the crucifix at an election rally in 2019. File photo: AFP

Italian medical professionals spoke out on Monday after right-wing opposition leader Matteo Salvini claimed that women go to emergency rooms for abortions because they live an "uncivilised lifestyle".

The comments from the ex-interior minister and League leader that some women having abortions were using emergency rooms "like health ATMs" came during a political rally in Rome on Sunday.

"Emergency room nurses in Milan let me know there are women who have shown up for the seventh time for an abortion," Salvini told supporters.

READ ALSO: Italy's Senate has voted to send Salvini to trial. What happens now?

"It's not for me to judge, it's right for a woman to choose, but the emergency room can't be the solution for uncivilised lifestyles in 2020."

The country's medical community cautioned that Salvini's comments were inaccurate as abortions are not performed in an emergency room.

The general secretary for the union of Italian doctors, Pina Onotri, told AFP it would be "impossible" for a woman to have an abortion in an emergency room unless it involved a miscarriage.

Gynaecologist Gisella Giampa at the Sandro Pertini hospital in Rome said Salvini was taking "rare cases" and generalising.

"Before speaking, he could inform himself, and, when one wants to be a statesman, not to take his information from one single nurse,” she said.

Just before this comment, Salvini had railed against "non-Italians" using emergency rooms for free, saying the "third time you have to pay."

Anti-migrant diatribes regularly launched by Salvini, who maintains that he is a staunch Catholic, have increased his popularity among supporters.

READ ALSO:
Salvini wants Italy's 'little ethnic shops' to close at 9pm
Italy's Senate passes tough anti-migrant decree
As racist attacks increase, is there a 'climate of hatred' in Italy?

Abortion has been legal in Italy since 1978. The law allows women to terminate their pregnancies within three months of inception, with later-stage abortions permittable in some cases.

Women must request the procedure and then wait seven days to lower the chance of them later having misgivings, Italian law states.

But despite its legality, in reality women often find it nearly impossible to get an abortion because many Italian gynaecologists, legally allowed to be "conscientious objectors", refuse to perform the procedure.

READ ALSO: An Italian woman was forced to go to 23 hospitals to have an abortion

Womens' rights activists said Salvini "seemed to be very confused about abortion judging by his comments."

"The morning after pill is not a method of abortion, but of contraception," Beatrice Brignone, equality activist and secretary of the left-wing Possibile movement, wrote on Twitter.

Salvini sembra essere molto confuso sul tema dell'#aborto, a giudicare dalle sue dichiarazioni di ieri.
Ma, visto che insiste a volerne parlare, facciamo chiarezza: magari può essergli utile. pic.twitter.com/bynpUPgAzk— Beatrice Brignone (@beabri) February 17, 2020

The head of Italy's Democratic Party (PD), Nicola Zingaretti, said Salvini's comments showed him increasingly desperate ahead of regional elections this spring where he hopes to win key regions of Italy for the League.

"Salvini mouths off even more every day because he's in trouble. With insults, outlandish theories and random numbers," Zingaretti wrote on Facebook.

"Luckily, Italian emergency rooms don't listen to his provocations,” he said. “Get your hands off women."

The spokesman for the Five Star Movement, which currently shares power with the PD, said women were Salvini's latest target.

"After migrants, gypsies and gays, Matteo Salvini now has it out for women who choose abortion," Giuseppe Buompane said on Twitter.


Women taking part in a protest against the League in Milan in 2019. Photo: AFP

ANALYSIS: Could Italy's coronavirus crisis boost euroscepticism and the far right?

AFP

Will the Covid-19 emergency fuel populist and far-right narratives in Italy? Photo: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP

Italy is staring down the barrel of the worst recession since World War II, which could bolster the far-right and damage the country's love affair with the European Union, analysts say.

Much will depend on how Rome handles the easing of the national lockdown, how quickly it manages to get liquidity to suffering businesses, and how much solidarity it is seen to get from the EU at a key meeting this week.

The coronavirus emergency in Italy has fuelled not only national pride but also eurosceptic and populist narratives.

That brew could play right into the hands of Matteo Salvini, whose League party governed Italy in a coalition for a year until summer 2019 and who is determined to return quickly to power, to rule alone.

"The [economic] blow is going to be extremely hard, that's clear. But it can be merely extremely hard, or it can be exceptionally hard," Giovanni Orsina, professor of politics at Rome's LUISS University, told AFP.

"If people begin to suffer seriously, rage could spread throughout the country... at which point far-right propaganda becomes very effective", he said.

READ ALSO:
The knock-on effects of the coronavirus on Italy's economy
Why the coronavirus is hurting Italian farmers
'We have no visitors now, none': Italy's tourist towns suffer under coronavirus lockdown

At the height of the health crisis, which has killed over 22,000 people and infected around 169,000, largely in the country's wealthy northern powerhouse, Italy's warring political parties called a temporary truce of sorts. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's popularity shot up to a record high of around 63 percent, polls showed.

But as preparations for relaunching parts of the economy begin, cracks have emerged in the already fragile ruling coalition, made up of the centre-left Democratic Party and anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S).

And opposition leader Salvini has resumed his attacks on the government, along with Giorgia Meloni, head of the small far-right Brothers of Italy party, which has been enjoying a sharp rise in popularity.

Bitter spats have broken out over the length of the economically crippling lockdown, which has been extended by Conte and is currently due to be lifted on May 4th, after a near two-month stoppage.

Millions of Italians are either furloughed or have lost their jobs, and the northern regions -- League strongholds -- are champing at the bit to reopen.

The economic fallout forecast is mind-boggling. The International Monetary Fund expects Italy's economy to shrink by 9.1 percent in 2020 -- the worst peacetime decline in nearly a century. The Confindustria big business lobby has said every week of the shutdown chops another 0.75 percent off GDP.

READ ALSO: When will Italy's lockdown 'phase two' begin and what will it involve?


Closed shopfronts in Bergamo, one of the worst-hit provinces in Italy. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFP

Yet Conte has hesitated over entering the so-called "Phase Two", the easing of the lockdown, amid advice from top scientists that the epidemic could flare up again, forcing him to shut down the country a second time.

He is banking on help from the EU to weather the storm. Eurogroup finance ministers have approved a 500-billion-euro rescue package to help European countries hit hard by the pandemic -- but some Italians fear that the cross-border solidarity will come with strings attached.

Rome is reluctant to use the rescue plan, which includes loans from the financial-crisis-era European Stability Mechanism (ESM), despite an easing of the tough economic and fiscal reform usually tied to it as requirements.

The ESM evokes bad memories of Brussels dictating policy to bailed-out Greece, and Salvini and Meloni have both said Conte would be stripping Italy of its sovereignty if he uses it. They also complain Italy is being offered a fraction of the money it pours into the EU, and will have to pay interest.

"It's stealing," Salvini said, dismissing the suggestion Italy had got a good deal in terms of the reduced conditions. Meloni said using the mechanism was "worthy of a totalitarian regime" and "a democratic point of no return".


Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini at a rally last year. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP
Conte's problems are not limited to the right-wing. While the PD is in favour of using the ESM, part of the Five Star Movement is stridently opposed, with party leader Vito Crimi saying in an interview on Wednesday that Conte's premiership was at risk over it.

According to political analyst Stefano Folli, a fracture like the one currently dividing the ruling majority "would usually have already toppled the government".

Conte has said no decision will be taken before the exact conditions are drawn up and can be studied by parliament.

Analysts say the PM is gambling on getting more attractive aid from the EU if he drags his feet over the ESM.

The government hopes it will score an important win on the question of joint bonds to finance reconstruction at a videoconference meeting of EU leaders on Thursday -- perhaps allowing it to avoid using the ESM.

READ ALSO: 'Europe needs an answer': Italian PM tells Germany to back 'coronabonds'


Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

EU ministers have so far refused to counter a proposal from Italy, Spain, and France for a joint borrowing instrument, dubbed a "coronabond", that would have raised money towards a recovery after the outbreak.

The bonds could reduce Italy's borrowing costs, but northern nations say they unfairly help countries that had been spending beyond their means for years. That has incensed many Italians.

Italy also felt abandoned at the start of the crisis, with European countries reluctant to share much-needed medical supplies, for which the EU Commission president offered a "heartfelt apology" this week.

A Tecne poll from April 9th and 10th found the share of Italians that would vote to leave the EU in a referendum was up by 20 percentage points to 49 percent, compared to a previous poll from the end of 2018.

Former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta implored Brussels, Berlin and Paris "not to underestimate... growing euro-frustration" among Italians. It would be "a big mistake", he tweeted.

Conte has been accused of avoiding difficult decisions on lifting the lockdown by simply extending it. He has called on Italians to be patient, saying financial aid was coming.

But it is not clear his assurances will soften the rumblings of discontent inside and outside the government.

There are real fears that widespread job losses, poverty, homelessness and hunger could spark social unrest. Media reports have flagged a rise in domestic abuse and suicides as quarantined families snap under the strain.

READ ALSO: Italy 'considering psychological tests' to judge how long people can stay at home

Italy's interior minister has put the police on alert. Particular attention will be paid to the poorer regions south of Rome, where the lockdown is costing some €10 billion a month in lost productivity, according to the SVIMEZ association.

Anger is rising there that an area already dogged with high unemployment has not been allowed to leave the lockdown early, despite having relatively few virus cases.

"If you have a very, very troubled country, you cannot have Salvini and Meloni fanning the flames," LUISS University's Orsina said.

"You risk serious trouble: very bad polling numbers for the government, people protesting in the streets, people stealing in supermarkets, a furious country," he said.

READ ALSO: Which Italian regions will be first to beat the coronavirus?


Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP

Not all are as pessimistic. The Stampa daily's commentator Ugo Magri said Salvini or Meloni were unlikely to go for Conte's jugular now, largely because they would be blamed if the manoeuvre slowed or hampered the easing of the lockdown.

"Conte will be politically untouchable throughout 'Phase Two', so until the autumn," he wrote.

And while fellow analyst Massimo Franco thought Italy's anti-European forces could prevail in the short term, he told AFP he believed Italians would soon realise their connection with Europe "is increasingly necessary and important".

"Problems like pandemics need a supranational effort. And Europe, in spite of everything, is doing what it can for Italy," he said.

By AFP's Ella Ide

ANOTHER ALL CAPS WRITER

Hassan's debut poetry collection was printed in a record 120,000 copies after it was released in 2013, in a country where poetry collections are usually printed in the hundreds. 

Writing in all capital letters without any punctuation, he used street slang and blunt word play to deliver a damning indictment of his parents' generation of immigrants who came to Denmark in the 1980s, describing domestic violence, benefit fraud and religious hypocrisy on the Aarhus housing estate where he grew up.   In the poem "Satellite dish" he wrote: "WE HAD NO DANISH CHANNELS/WE HAD AL JAZEERA ... WE HAD NO PLANS/BECAUSE ALLAH HAD PLANS FOR US."   

Danish -Palestinian poet Yahya Hassan dead at 24

AFP 30 April 2020

Yahya Hassan giving a reading last year. Photo: Ida Guldbaek Arentsen / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP

Danish-Palestinian bad-boy poet Yahya Hassan, who stormed on to Denmark's literary scene in 2013 and quickly became a household name, has died aged just 24, his publisher said Thursday.

The exact cause of his death on Wednesday has not been made public but police said they did not believe it was a criminal act.

"Twenty-four years. That's nothing, this is a catastrophe," Simon Pasternak, head of publisher Gyldendal, said in an Instagram post. "I have known him, since he was 16 years, this brilliant boy with enormous talent."

Police in Aarhus, the country's second largest city where Hassan lived, told local media that they had responded to reports of the death of a man in his mid-20s.

"Currently there is nothing in our investigation that indicates that this is a criminal act," police spokesman Jakob Christiansen told newspaper BT.

Hassan's debut poetry collection was printed in a record 120,000 copies after it was released in 2013, in a country where poetry collections are usually printed in the hundreds.

Writing in all capital letters without any punctuation, he used street slang and blunt word play to deliver a damning indictment of his parents' generation of immigrants who came to Denmark in the 1980s, describing domestic violence, benefit fraud and religious hypocrisy on the Aarhus housing estate where he grew up.

In the poem "Satellite dish" he wrote: "WE HAD NO DANISH CHANNELS/WE HAD AL JAZEERA ... WE HAD NO PLANS/BECAUSE ALLAH HAD PLANS FOR US."

"Yahya insisted on not bending to anyone, he didn't want to be anyone's representative... He wanted to be himself," Pasternak said.

Many young Danes of immigrant origin disliked Hassan for his negative views on their communities and their religion. In November 2013, he was assaulted in Copenhagen's main train station by a 24-year-old man previously convicted of trying to commit an act of terror.

In November 2019, Hassan released a follow up poetry collection, which like the first was named after himself, also to critical acclaim.

In between, he made headlines more for his rantings, his attempts to enter politics and his dealings with justice than for the quality of his writing.

In 2016, he was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison for shooting a 17-year-old boy with a pistol, wounding the boy's foot and leg.

Opinion: An American perspective on the Swedish coronavirus strategy

Sweden's strategy has relied partly on voluntary measures. Photo: Ali Lorestani/TT

How do we measure the human and social costs of our countries' coronavirus strategies, ask Stockholm-based researchers Andrea M Voyer and Jason J Czarnezki.

As Americans living in Sweden, we have found it is impossible not to notice how President Trump, the media, and scientists have criticized Sweden's coronavirus response. Even though we are so early in the Covid-19 crisis, the desire to declare which countries have winning and losing strategies for protecting their citizens appears to be a common and powerful sentiment among experts and laypeople alike.

But is it really possible to talk about victory in the face of such loss of life? The American president's description of Sweden as "suffering" applies to every country in the world, noted both Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde and Swedish state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell.

As American songwriter and Swedish nobel laureate Bob Dylan famously sang, "Don't criticize what you can't understand." These words caution us not to rush to judgment and to instead base our conclusions on careful and detailed analysis.

There remains a fundamental misunderstanding of the Swedish strategy to Covid-19, especially when compared to the United States. Exploring this misunderstanding illustrates why we should be careful in our comparisons of national responses to Covid-19.


Tensta, a suburb north of Stockholm, is one of the areas overrepresented in Sweden's infection statistics. Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT

To get it out of the way, the primary misconception is that Sweden is taking an experimental approach by doing nothing and letting the virus spread rapidly in the desire to build immunity. Swedish officials have repeatedly stated that the country is not pursuing a herd immunity strategy. Sweden's goal now, like many other countries, is to flatten the curve (i.e. lowering the rate of infection so that the need for hospital beds and ICU units does not overwhelm the healthcare system).

However, while the goal is the same (again, to flatten the curve), the Swedish method of achieving this goal is clearly different from the countries that rely upon a "lockdown" strategy enforced by police and the military, or that have limited movement to "essential" workers.

Instead, while it has relied on some formal legal tools like bans and closures, Sweden's response has also relied upon voluntary compliance with the Public Health Authority's evolving set of "recommendations" that are not optional and individuals are obligated to follow, despite the lack of punishment or fines for any failure to follow them.

Events over 50 people have been banned. Swedes have been told to work from home if possible, avoid travel, limit their social contacts, and especially avoid having contact with people at greatest risk for coronavirus complications. Restaurants and bars remain open with new requirements to reduce the threat of Covid spread. In contrast to many countries, Sweden's preschools and grade schools also remain open while its high schools and universities have moved to distanced learning. Social distansering (social distancing) is the effective law of the land during this coronatiden (time of the coronavirus).


Two people relaxing on a bench in Stockholm. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT
In our corner of busy and well-off central Stockholm, life has slowed to a calm and quiet pace; an endless parade of weekend afternoons. "No, it's not business as usual in Sweden," noted Swedish Health Minister Lena Hallengren.

The evidence shows that social distancing has already led to an early end to this year's flu season, and travel over the Easter holiday decreased significantly as requested by the Swedish Public Health Agency and King Carl XVI Gustaf who, in a prime time speech on the eve of what we Americans call "spring break," noted the significance of the request that people give up their holiday plans:

"For me, and for many people in our country, this is an important celebration and one we look forward to. It is a time when we are keen to travel and perhaps spend time with family and friends. Many go to church. But, this Easter, some of this will not be possible. We have to accept this. We have to rethink, prepare ourselves for staying home."

As noted by others, several characteristics of Sweden and Swedish life account for this strategic difference between outright bans and closures and voluntary compliance – higher social trust, a general preference for social distancing in everyday life, high rates of people living alone, most parents of small children are working parents, a strong legal commitment to democratic values, and a constitutional commitment to physical freedom of movement. It is not the goal of Sweden to stand out with a novel Covid-19 approach, but nor is it the way of Sweden to give in to pressure to conform to a one-size-fits-all international strategy.

You cannot use the same approach when fighting a crisis in different landscapes. Under one view, the Swedish corona strategy began in 1946 with the rise of the Swedish social welfare state.

The United States government was built on the idea of separation – protecting private actors and entities from government authority and limiting state power over civil society. In contrast, the Swedish model emphasizes solidarity, commonality, and the construction of a state that encompassed all aspects of civic life–unions, the church, and economic interests were incorporated into the Swedish welfare state, which was dubbed "the people's home".

Expanding participation in the welfare state through employment, paying taxes, and using one's benefits is a stated goal of the Swedish system; a goal perhaps only shared in the US during the New Deal following the Great Depression. In pursuit of this goal, the Swedish welfare state ensures that residents have rights to healthcare, unemployment insurance, paid sick leave, and family leave. Swedes generally see "the economy as an engine of the welfare state". This is not the landscape in the US.

People outside a job centre in the US earlier in April. Photo: AP Photo/Nam Y Huh

That the same virus may have very different impacts in different social landscapes does not come as a surprise. For example, Sweden has a healthier population than the US based on obesity and life expectancy. Despite sharp contrasts, however, in both countries coronavirus is a mirror that reflects social inequalities and injustices by highlighting them with numbers in the form of race, class, and ethnic disparities in death rates, affected neighborhoods, jobless claims, and the ability to limit risk by working from home.

Sweden has failed its minority population, with many groups, in particular those Somalian, Turkish, Syrian communities, significantly overrepresented in coronavirus cases and deaths. The Swedish elderly are suffering as well. The privatization of old age facilities in Stockholm, staffed by low paid hourly workers who did not skip work when sick due to a law (now repealed) making the first day of sick leave unpaid, may have facilitated spread in many elderly communities seeing increased death rates.
In the US, persistent racism, and social and economic disadvantage produces a "weathering effect" eroding physical health above and beyond the race and class disparities in access to healthcare, and quality of care received. The virus is projected to claim the lives of a disproportionate share of America's large incarcerated population, also predominantly poor and non-white, as well as the over 50,000 immigrants and asylum seekers held in detention as a result of draconian immigrant policies implemented in 2018.


Swedish newspaper DN on Sunday had nine pages of obituaries, compared to a normal average of four. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/TT

How do we measure the human and social costs of any particular strategy to Covid-19?

Should it be measured by how fast we start national economies? Should we simply measure the death toll when some countries may be engaged in systematic undercounting of Covid deaths, while others evaluate each death as a potential Covid-19 death? Should we consider the long-term impacts of quarantine, lockdown, and decreased social relations on mental health and quality of life?

How do we value the lost educational attainment of students? What are the secondary effects that could arise as a result of the pandemic such as lack of access to other necessary medical care and increase in non-Covid deaths? What are the health impacts of long-term unemployment and economic decline?

National differences in risk assessment and rebuilding strategies do not just provide insight into how countries will be compared when coronatiden is done; they highlight the unique factors every country is considering in its response to Covid-19. There are no winners here.

Friends and family lose parents and grandparents. School children lose class time and even their teachers. High school and college students lose their final semester and coming-of-age rituals. Businesses lose customers. Workers lose jobs. Parents lose alone time. Healthcare workers lose their sense of security and sometimes their lives.

Again, there is no winning here; only the question of how we will take stock of our losses.

Andrea M Voyer is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Stockholm University.

Jason J Czarnezki is the Olof Palme Visiting Professor at Stockholm University (Sweden) and Kerlin Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University (New York).

MUTATION TEMPERS ENTHUSIASM FOR A VACCINE
Scientists Discover “Significant” Coronavirus Mutation That Could Threaten Vaccine Development

A coronavirus strain isolated in India carried a mutation that could threaten the race to develop a vaccine.



(ZH Opinion) — The prospect that SARS-CoV-2, the “novel” coronavirus responsible for causing the illness COVID-19, might be mutating and evolving as it spreads across the globe has been such a terrifying prospect for the scientific community, that medical experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci seem to avoid even engaging on the topic.

Asked about the possibility of viral mutation during one of the White House’s inaugural task force press briefings, Dr. Fauci assured the public that scientists have found “no evidence” of any concerning mutations, though the prospect that a mutated version of the virus might return during next year’s flu season has kept some virologists up at night with nightmares about needing to start the vaccine clock from zero.

The problem is that vaccines often aren’t as effective against viruses that mutate, like the flu does every season (that’s why you need to keep getting that flu shot year after year). And now, a new scientific paper that – like most of the coronavirus research being cited in the press – has yet to be peer reviewed claims to have identified a mutation in a sample of the virus collected in India that could create serious problems for researchers working on a vaccine.

“Monitoring the mutation dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 is critical for the development of effective approaches to contain the 21 pathogen. By analyzing 106 SARS-CoV-2 and 39 SARS genome sequences, we provided direct genetic evidence that 22 SARS-CoV-2 has a much lower mutation rate than SARS. Minimum Evolution phylogeny analysis revealed the putative original status of SARS-CoV-2 and the early-stage spread history. The discrepant phylogenies for the spike protein and it receptor binding domain proved a previously reported structural rearrangement prior to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2. Despite that, we found the spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 is particularly more conserved, we identified a mutation that leads to weaker receptor binding capability, which concerns a SARS-CoV-2 sample collected on 27th January 2020 from India. This represents the first report of a significant SARS-CoV-2 mutant, and raises the alarm that the ongoing vaccine development may become futile in future epidemic if more mutations were identified.”

The ominous discovery underscores how the virus’s destructive potential will likely be tied to the vagaries of viral evolution.

Fortunately, the team appeared to confirm an earlier finding by a team of researchers in Italy that the virus “has a much lower mutation rate and genetic diversity” than SARS, which means that a vaccine will likely be able to treat wide swaths of people before becoming ineffective as the virus changes and evolves.

However, this new finding shows that it’s not just the speed of the mutation that matters, but the specific nature of the mutations, when scientists are developing a vaccine.

Experts say that a vaccine could take up to two years to develop, and some city officials have warned that life likely won’t return completely back to normal until a vaccine is ready for mass production. But a mutation could throw a wrench in this process, transforming the process of developing a workable vaccine into a “cat and mouse” game – or at the very least lengthen the time it takes for the initial vaccine to be developed.

By Tyler Durden | ZeroHedge.com

2.7 million people apply for Italy's basic income scheme

The Local news@thelocal.it 24 April 2019

A tax centre employee preparing paperwork for citizens income applications.

 Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

Italy's 'citizens' wage' basic income scheme has had fewer applications than expected, and there are smaller payouts than advertised for most.

900,000 families, or a total of 2.7 million people, have so far applied for the government scheme, said the head of Italian pensions and social security agency INPS Pasquale Tridico on Tuesday.

There have been fewer applications than expected, local media reports.

Before the scheme came into force, writes QuiFinanza, many had imagined there would be “a mad rush” to claim the payments. So far, this hasn't materialised.

Tridico described the number of applications, which can be made in tax offices and through the official website, as a "good result".


The basic income application form. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

He added that not all of these applications have yet been processed, and the rejection rate stands at 25 percent.

Payments are available to low earners and indiividual jobseekers with an annual household income below €9,360 who sign a form declaring themselves immediately available for work.

The scheme was advertised as offering up to €780 to individual claimants. But in reality only one in five will get that amount.

Tridico said 70 percent of applicants will receive more than €300 euros, and the average payment approved is of €520 euros per family.

Some seven percent of the monthly payments approved so far have been as little as €40-50.

Payments of over €1,000 are available to families, depending on their circumstances, but only around five percent of applicants wiill receive this amount.

Ministers now believe the scheme will cost less than expected, and Tridico said that any savings will be used for other social security measures.

People in the streets of Bari, Puglia, a part of Italy which suffers high levels of poverty and unemployment. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

Though the name means it's often mistaken for a form of universal basic income, the payment is in fact more like unemployment benefit schemes seen in many other European countries.

Successful applicants must have been in Italy for at least two years if they are Italian citizens, and ten years for foreign nationals.

Politicians had initially insisted the payment would not be available to non-Italian citizens and the anti-immigrant League has amended the policy to make it harder for non-EU citizens to claim.

The measure will help around 1.3 million of Italy's poorest families, according to the Italian statistics institute Istat, particularly in the more impoverished south of the country.

READ ALSO: Number of Italians at risk of poverty reaches record high

On average, low-income families will end up receiving around 5,000 euros more annually.

The money will be paid into bank accounts which can be accessed using a special debit card, which at the moment can be used only to buy food in certain shops.

In future, the cards can be used to pay for clothes or other necessities, the government said.

Any money left on the cards at the end of the month goes back to the state, an incentive to spend the full amount which M5S leader Luigi di Maio hopes will help boost the economy.

A previous "minimum income" unemployment scheme in Italy offered a far smaller amount of money and little help with finding work.



Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte (L) and Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio punveiled the first basic income payment card in February. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP