Commercial airliners monitoring CO2 emissions from cities worldwide

Statistical characterization of atmospheric CO2 variations from measurements onboard Japan Airlines' commercial aircraft

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES


IMAGE: (LEFT) AIRCRAFT OF JAPAN AIRLINES WITH A SPECIAL PROJECT LOGO (CONTRAIL) TAKING OFF AT TOKYO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AND (RIGHT) CONTINUOUS CO2 MEASURING EQUIPMENT ONBOARD THE AIRCRAFT view more

CREDIT: CONTRAIL TEAM (PHOTO: JAPAN AIRLINES)

Cities are responsible for more than 70% of the global total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Ability to monitor GHG emissions from cities is an important capability to develop in order to support climate mitigation activities in response to the Paris Agreement. The science community has examined the data collected from different platforms, such as ground-based, aircraft and satellites, to establish a science-based monitoring capability. A study by an international team, published in Scientific Reports, examined the data collected by commercial airliners and showed the potential of the aircraft data to contribute to the global GHG emission monitoring.

The CONTRAIL (Comprehensive Observation Network for TRace gases by AIrLiners) program is Japan's unique aircraft observation project. Since 2005, the CONTRAIL team has achieved high-precision atmospheric CO2 measurements using instruments onboard Japan Airlines' (JAL) commercial airliners. "Following the aircraft measurements conducted between Tokyo and Australia that I initiated in 1993, and had maintained during my entire career, the CONTRAIL program continuously expanded its global network and has provided numerous data to understand the carbon budget of this planet," stated Hidekazu Matsueda, co-author of the study and researcher at the Meteorological Research Institute, Japan.

Recently, the team analyzed thousands of vertical ascending and descending measurements over airports and characterized CO2 variations over 34 major cities worldwide for the first time. Airports are often located in the proximity of large cities to ensure convenient access. The CONTRAIL aircraft fly up and down over Narita International Airport many times nearly on a daily basis (7,692 times in total during 2005-2016) and are able to obtain atmospheric chemical signature of the Greater Tokyo Area (~several tens km away). With similar geographical locations of major airport relative to large urban centers, the research team examined the data collected around global airports in order to retrieve urban CO2 emission signatures from the data. "We analyzed millions of observational data collected at and around the Tokyo Narita Airport and found clear CO2 enhancements when the wind comes from the Greater Tokyo Area," Taku Umezawa, leading author of the study and researcher at the National Insititute for Enviromental Studies, Japan, said. "That was also the case globally for other airports, such as Moscow, Paris, Beijing, Osaka, Shanghai, Mexico City, Sydney, and others."

The team also examined the magnitude of CO2 variability in the lowermost atmosphere over these airports. "Short-term changes in the CO2 concentration in the lower atmosphere are associated with various factors such as the upwind pattern of CO2 emissions and uptakes, flight path and its geographical position relative to the locations of emissions and uptakes, and meteorological conditions during each landing and takeoff," said Kaz Higuchi, co-author of the study and adjunct professor of Environmental Studies, York University, Canada. "Despite these complex conditions under which the measurements are made, it was very interesting that we found a relationship between the magnitude of CO2 variability and CO2 emissions from a nearby city." The results show that the commercial airliner-based CO2 dataset can consistently provide urban emission estimates when combined with atmospheric modeling framework.

"But still there are missing pieces to examine the physical link to city emissions to establish urban monitoring," said Tomohiro Oda, scientist of the Universities Space Research Association, Maryland, USA, who collaborated with the team as a PI of a NASA-funded emission modeling project. "Cities are considered to be responsible for more than 70% of the global manmade greenhouse gas emissions. Accurate estimation of CO2 emissions from urban areas is thus important for effective emission reduction strategies." This study suggests that commercial airliner measurements can collect useful urban CO2 data that are complementary to the data collected from other observational platforms, such as ground stations and satellites, in order to monitor CO2 emissions from cities. The advantage of commercial airliners is the great global spatial coverage of the measurements even in regions where we only have sparse greenhouse gas measurement networks, especially places where securing ground-site measurements is challenging, such as in developing countries. "A further implementation of similar CO2 instruments into other domestic and international flights will significantly extend our global monitoring capability of cities," said Toshinobu Machida, project leader of the CONTRAIL program and head of the Office for Atmospheric and Oceanic Monitoring at the National Institute for Environmental Studies.

Maps of magnitude of CO2 variability over airports worldwide. Large and red circles indicate large variability. Cities are denoted by nearby airport codes. It was found that the CO2 variability was large over airports where a nearby city has large CO2 emissions.

CREDIT

CONTRAIL Team (Photo: Japan Airlines)

Exploring climate change impacts through popular proverbs

UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA
NEWS RELEASE 15-MAY-2020


IMAGE: FARMER WORKING HIS LAND AND LOOKING AT THE MOUNTAINS, BARE OF SNOW. CREDIT: DAVID GARCÍA DEL AMO

The proverbs related to environmental issues traditionally used by the local population in rural areas of Spain are currently considered imprecise and unreliable due to climate change impacts. This is the result of a study carried out by the Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) that presents a novel way of using the local knowledge embodied in popular proverbs to explore climate change impacts at local scales.

The study, published in the journal Regional Environmental Change, took place in Sierra Nevada (Granada, Southern Spain); a perfect location to study climate change through the view of local people for two main reasons. First, because high mountainous regions are some of the most vulnerable ecosystems in the world to climate change, and second because Sierra Nevada historically has been a region in which local knowledge has been of great importance for water management and agricultural production.

Traditionally weather forecasting methods were critical to better cope with weather variability. "I was particularly impressed by the numerous indicators (clouds, wind patterns, animal behaviour) that, still nowadays, people in the area use for weather forecasting", says María Garteizgogeascoa who led the study that also included the involvement of ICTA-UAB researchers Victoria Reyes-García and David García del Amo. Although these indicators are still used by local people, their perceived reliability is changing. "I no longer pay attention to water signals because they are no longer credible" or "In the past, cattle used to announce the rain; but now they only know when it rains after they get wet, as rain now is unpredictable", are some of the statements made by the inhabitants of Sierra Nevada who participated in this study.

The study used information contained in local proverbs to explore the impacts of climate change on climatic aspects of the environment such as precipitation, on physical aspects like snow cover; and finally, on biological aspects, such as flowering periods.

For example, the proverb por Todos los Santos la nieve en los altos, por San Andrés la nieve en los pies indicates the arrival and abundance of snow cover. So, according to the proverb, at the beginning of November (Todos los Santos is celebrated on November 1st) snow can be found on the peaks of the mountains, and by the end of the month (November 30th) it normally reaches lower altitudes. When they asked participants about their current perception of the accuracy of this proverb, many stated that the proverb barely reflects the current situation, as snow arrives now later and it is less abundant. And indeed, the scientific data and literature for the region shows a delay in snow periods.

The proverb "Septiembre o lleva los puentes o seca las fuentes", describes rain variability during the month of September. In this way, September could be a time of the year in which it either rains a lot (the bridges are washed away) or barely rains (the fountains dry up). Participants explained that the proverb is no longer accurate, as there is hardly any rain in the month of September now.

Certainly, the scientific data and literature for the region shows that precipitation has decreased during that time of the year. The same could be said for 19 of the 30 proverbs used in the study.

Moreover, some of the proverbs examined provided information about climate change impacts not yet described by scientists. For example, "Cuando vienen los vilanos es conclusion del verano" encodes knowledge of the flowering period (end of August, beginning of September) of the cardus flower and other plants of the same genus that produce thistledown (small fluffy seeds that are transported by the wind). This proverb was considered not accurate nowadays by most of participants due to variations in flowering periods. However, we could not find local literature reporting those variations.

The study reveals that although the selected proverbs were still generally well recognized, many informants considered them not accurate nowadays. Specially, older informants and people working in the primary sector thought that the proverbs they use to guide their decisions in the past are not reliable anymore. The study documents how this perception of lack of accuracy goes in line with trends documented by local, regional and scientific literature and impacts of climate change documented through a Global Change Observatory established in the area in 2007. And how for others, the perceived accuracy provides novel information for scientifically undocumented climate change impacts in the area.

"Very few studies, and none in Spain, have ventured to study climate change at local scales through songs, stories or proverbs. However, this work shows that, despite some limitations, these traditional ways of encrypted local knowledge could be a useful source to do so and a window of opportunity to engage with local communities. During my work in the field, proverbs proved to be a useful tool to engage participants in discussions about climate change issues", says María Garteizgogeascoa. She hopes that this study, together with the increasing literature around climate change and local knowledge, will "contribute to bring visibility to the benefits and needs of having a climate change science that integrates different knowledge systems in part to develop a more democratic and targeted policy making".

According to researcher Victoria Reyes-García, "in the absence of meteorological data from the past, traditional knowledge collected in proverbs and other forms of popular knowledge can be an alternative source of information to understand the impacts of climate change."

Members of an irrigation community doing maintenance work in an "acequia de careo" (irrigation canal built at the top of the mountain) to improve the circulation of water for irrigation and human consumption.

Bizarre new species discovered... on Twitter

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN NEWS RELEASE 15-MAY-2020

IMAGE: THE PHOTO SHARED ON TWITTER OF THE MILLIPEDE CAMBALA BY DEREK HENNEN. THE TWO RED CIRCLES INDICATE THE PRESENCE OF THE FUNGUS. view more 

CREDIT: DEREK HENNEN

While many of us use social media to be tickled silly by cat videos or wowed by delectable cakes, others use them to discover new species. Included in the latter group are researchers from the University of Copenhagen's Natural History Museum of Denmark. Indeed, they just found a new type of parasitic fungus via Twitter.

It all began as biologist and associate professor Ana Sofia Reboleira of the National Natural History Museum was scrolling though Twitter. There, she stumbled upon a photo of a North American millipede shared by her US colleague Derek Hennen of Virginia Tech. She spotted a few tiny dots that struck her well-trained eyes.

"I could see something looking like fungi on the surface of the millipede. Until then, these fungi had never been found on American millipedes. So, I went to my colleague and showed him the image. That's when we ran down to the museum's collections and began digging", explains Ana Sofia Reboleira.

Together with colleague Henrik Enghoff, she discovered several specimens of the same fungus on a few of the American millipedes in the Natural History Museum's enormous collection -- fungi that had never before been documented. This confirmed the existence of a previously unknown species of Laboulbeniales - an order of tiny, bizarre and largely unknown fungal parasites that attack insects and millipedes.

The newly discovered parasitic fungus has now been given its official Latin name, Troglomyces twitteri.

SoMe meets museum

Ana Sofia Reboleira points out that the discovery is an example of how sharing information on social media can result in completely unexpected results:

"As far as we know, this is the first time that a new species has been discovered on Twitter. It highlights the importance of these platforms for sharing research - and thereby being able to achieve new results. I hope that it will motivate professional and amateur researchers to share more data via social media. This is something that has been increasingly obvious during the coronavirus crisis, a time when so many are prevented from getting into the field or laboratories."

Reboleira believes that social media is generally playing a larger and larger role in research.

She stresses that the result was possible because of her access to one of the world's largest biological collections.

"Because of our vast museum collection, it was relatively easy to confirm that we were indeed looking at an entirely new species for science. This demonstrates how valuable museum collections are. There is much more hiding in these collections than we know," says Ana Sofia Reboleira.

Underappreciated parasitic fungus

Laboulbeniales-fungi look like tiny larvae. The fungi are in a class of their own because they live on the outside of host organisms, and even on specific parts of bodies - in this case, on the reproductive organs of millipedes. The fungus sucks nutrition from its host animal by piercing the host's outer shell using a special suction structure, while the other half of the fungus protrudes.

Approximately 30 different species of parasitic Laboulbeniales-fungi attack millipedes. The vast majority of these were only discovered after 2014. According to Reboleira, there are most likely a great number remaining to be discovered. Research in the area of Laboulbeniales remains extremely scarce.

Nor is much known about their own biology, says Reboleira, who researches these fungi on a daily basis. She believes that these fungi can not only teach us about the insects upon which they live, but also about the mechanisms behind parasitism itself - that is, the relationship between parasites and their hosts. She hopes that the research will also provide useful knowledge about the parasites that attack and can be harmful to human health.

FACTS:

• The new species Troglomyces twitteri belongs to the order of microscopic parasitic fungi known as Laboulbeniales. These fungi live on insects, arachnids and millipedes, and rely on their host organisms to survive.
• The research results are published in the scientific journal MycoKeys: https://mycokeys.pensoft.net/article/51811
• The research was conducted by: Sergi Santamaria of the Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain; and Henrik Enghoff & Ana Sofia Reboleira from the Natural History Museum of Denmark at the University of Copenhagen.
• Follow Ana Sofia Reboleira on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SReboleira
• Millipede specimens from the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN) in Paris helped confirm the discovery of the new species of fungus.
• The Natural History Museum of Denmark's entomological collection is one of the world's largest, housing more than 3.5 million pin-mounted insects and at least as many alcohol-preserved insect and land animal specimens. About 100,000 known species are represented (out of a total number of over one million species).

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Some Comments on Psychedelic Research
Alan F. Schatzberg, M.D.
 MAY 1, 2020
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY 
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.20030272

The review in this issue by Reiff and colleagues (1) on psychedelics and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy from the American Psychiatric Association’s Council of Research is to be commended for its thorough review of studies in the past 12 years in the area. 
The authors nicely lay out the rationale for reviewing the literature, which is in part based on the recent resurgence of interest and the potential to gain regulatory approval to make these treatments available to patients. Proposed industry studies are likely to yield informative data on the efficacy and safety of these compounds that will ultimately guide their clinical use. In the meantime, a detailed review of the entire area from its historical perspectives through pharmacology/mechanisms of action to clinical benefits and risk of abuse is extremely helpful for the field. This effort is to be lauded and will be of great benefit in informing patients, providers, and researchers, as there are a number of issues relevant to studying and ultimately using these agents.

Lessons We Can Learn from Mandatory Vaccine Policies in Europe
Lewis First, MD, MS, Editor in Chief, Pediatrics
January 16, 2020


We focus a lot of attention on articles that deal with ways to increase vaccination rates in the United States. We do so because our vaccine rates are suboptimal for a variety of reasons, many of which are related to unsubstantiated risk. What can we do to improve vaccination rates? Europe may offer us an answer. Did you know for example that there are 7 countries in Europe that mandate vaccination and only 2 of these allow nonmedical exemptions? In addition, 6 of these 7 countries will inflict financial penalties to families who do not immunize their children. So what are the vaccination rates in these countries and what about the incidence of vaccine-preventable diseases like pertussis and measles?

Vaz et al (10.1542/peds.2019-0620) evaluated these questions in new study being early released in our journal. The authors used data from the European Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization to look at European countries that do and do not mandate vaccine administration to children in regard to vaccination against measles and pertussis, as well as the annual incidence of these two diseases in these countries. The results are interesting and perhaps not exactly what you might expect. On the good side, mandatory vaccinations did result in statistically significant increases in childhood vaccination against pertussis and measles. The interesting news is that only when a country did not allow nonmedical exemptions did the mandatory vaccine policy result in a significant decrease in measles, but not for pertussis. Why?

We asked Drs. Sean O’Leary (University of Colorado) and Yvonne Maldonado (Stanford) (10.1542/peds.2019-2436) to weigh in with an accompanying commentary. They draw some interesting lessons about vaccination mandates and changes in disease burden and bring to light other important considerations related to financial penalties and vaccination mandates. One important takeaway is that vaccine policies are uniform across each specific European country instead of the patchwork that exists across states. There is a lot of great information injected into the pages of this important study—so take a shot at reading both this study and commentary and then share with parents who will hopefully be even more convinced about why vaccination should be mandatory for their child. If state legislators read this study and commentary, perhaps vaccination policy, including mandates, will be made stronger.


Copyright © 2020 American Academy of Pediatrics

Mandatory Vaccination in Europe and Epidemiology of Vaccine Preventable Diseases 
 https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/145/2/e20190620?utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medium=TrendMD&utm_campaign=Pediatrics_TrendMD_0

VIDEO
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.20030272

Vaccination Policies and Disease Incidence Across the Pond: Implications for the United State

Sean T. O’Leary and Yvonne A. Maldonado
Pediatrics February 2020, 145 (2) e20192436; 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2019-

2436https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/145/2/e20192436.full.pdf

Abbreviation:CI — confidence interval

In this issue of Pediatrics, Vaz et al report the results of their study, “Mandatory Vaccination in Europe."1 Although this study analyzed vaccination and vaccine-preventable disease trends in Europe, the policy implications are timely and relevant to US vaccination practices given the ongoing measles outbreaks in the United States and the legislative responses playing out in state capitols across the United States.

In this study, the authors examined the associations between vaccination mandate policies and subsequent vaccination coverage and measles and pertussis incidence in 29 European countries. Stated another way, the authors wanted to know if having a stricter vaccination policy resulted in higher vaccination rates and a lower incidence of 2 highly contagious vaccine-preventable diseases.

We already know that in the United States, a stricter state-based vaccination policy leads to lower rates of nonmedical exemptions2,3 and lower rates of vaccine-preventable diseases,4,5 but before the study by Vaz et al,1 these questions had not been examined among European countries. We can think of 3 main reasons this study is highly relevant to US vaccine policy: First, it demonstrates that the impact of such policies is not country specific, offering guidance to countries throughout the world on strategies to increase or maintain high vaccination rates. Second, some of the policies used in Europe are strategies that have not been tried previously in the United States and may offer US policy makers strategies to consider. Third, and most important, vaccine-preventable diseases are a worldwide problem; they know no borders, and therefore, it is in the interest of all of us to study and understand how to best achieve high vaccination coverage throughout the world. Indeed, many US measles outbreaks in the last decade have been a result of cases imported from Europe, (most recently and visibly, the Clark County outbreak in Washington state).6

To examine these questions, the authors used data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization to examine the relationship between country-level vaccination policies and measles and pertussis vaccination coverage and the annual incidence of these diseases in 29 European countries. To try to assess the specific impact of the vaccination policies, the authors used regression models to examine these associations, adjusting for numerous country-level covariates likely to have an impact on vaccination coverage or disease incidence, such as education, urbanicity, income, and age of the population.

The authors found that mandatory vaccination was associated with 3.00 percentage points higher prevalence of measles vaccination (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.35–5.64) and 2.14 percentage points higher prevalence of pertussis vaccination (95% CI, 0.13–4.15) compared with countries that did not have mandatory vaccination. Mandatory vaccination was associated with decreased measles incidence in countries that did not allow nonmedical exemptions (adjusted incident rate ratio = 0.14; 95% CI, 0.05–0.36), although there was no significant association between mandatory vaccination and pertussis incidence. The authors also found that incorporating financial penalties for not vaccinating increased vaccination uptake. In countries with such policies, every €500 increase in the maximum possible penalty was associated with an increase of 0.8 percentage points for measles vaccination coverage (95% CI, 0.50–1.15; P ≤ .0001) and an increase of 1.1 percentage points for pertussis vaccination coverage (95% CI, 0.95–1.30; P ≤ .0001).

In Europe and other parts of the world, policy makers have (to varying degrees) employed financial penalties for parents who choose not to vaccinate. Policy makers in the United States have for the most part shied away from such policies. This study should make us reconsider this approach because it appears to be effective. In Hungary, for example, parents could face a financial penalty of up to ∼€1600 (∼$1800) if they fail to comply with vaccination requirements; this has resulted in high vaccination coverage and essentially no measles or pertussis cases. Importantly, these types of financial penalties may also be fair because it is clear that persons unvaccinated by parental choice place an unneeded financial burden on our health care system.7–9

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Europe Will Not Tolerate an ‘America First’ VaccineCOMMENTARY By Peter Liese May 15, 2020 BARRONS

Photograph by Pedro Vilela/Getty Images

The novel coronavirus has the world firmly in its grip. Images from northern Italy, Madrid, and New York City have shown that the threat of the virus should not be underestimated. Tens of thousands of people have died because of it. Most countries now face a dilemma: If drastic shutdowns continue, serious economic and social problems will arise, but going back to normal life is very dangerous and will risk tens of thousands of additional deaths. The final return to normalcy will be possible only if there is a vaccine or an effective medicine against Covid-19.

The European Union is on the front line of developing this vaccine. Some companies and laboratories that cooperate with experts from other parts of the world are already conducting human clinical trials. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen led a worldwide virtual summit on cooperation in this area.

While public and private stakeholders from all over the world—including Israel, Canada, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and China—pledged more than $8 billion, unfortunately no United States government official participated.

We are grateful that private stakeholders, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, indicated that U.S. citizens are ready to cooperate with the rest of the world. Even though the United Kingdom has left the European Union, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson rightly said, “We are in this together.” I hope that the absence of the U.S. government wasn’t an indication that President Donald Trump thinks he should not cooperate.

I was born in an economically prosperous and free West Germany. I have experienced firsthand how the world can change for the better due to strong cooperation by the free world. I really hope that cooperation and solidarity will lead to the development and distribution of a vaccine or a therapy. The U.S. administration must join this international effort.

If Europe is first in developing a vaccine, we are ready to share our knowledge with the rest of the world and to make the vaccine available to all those in need, as soon as possible. We expect the same from the United States. If, however, Trump applies his “America first” principle and excludes non-U.S. citizens from the benefits of a drug or a vaccine, Europe is not unprepared.

Under the legislation of most European countries, compulsory licensing is possible. That means that European companies can produce pharmaceuticals even without approval of the owner or its government. In trade issues, Europe has shown that we are not ready to accept unfair practices. When Trump threatened the EU with excessive taxes on European cars, then–European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker went to the White House with a list of products that we could tax, most of them produced in swing states in which Trump had a narrow majority in the 2016 election. That led to an immediate agreement between the U.S. and the EU.

Nobody in the current administration should think that the health of our citizens and the possibility of overcoming the major economic problem linked to the coronavirus are less important to Europe than the European car industry. We are for cooperation and dialogue, but we also have a plan B.

Peter Liese is a German physician and member of the European Parliament. He is the health spokesperson for the European People’s Party.


Coronavirus Sanofi: French drug giant rows back after vaccine storm

BBC 14 May 2020

REUTERS

Sanofi's HQ is in Paris and the firm has received French state tax breaks

The French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi has rowed back on an apparent promise to prioritise the US market with any potential Covid-19 vaccine.

Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson sparked a row by saying the US government had "the right to the largest pre-order because it's invested in taking the risk".

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe responded by saying access for all was "non-negotiable".

Sanofi's chairman has now vowed equal access for everyone.

"I am going to be extremely clear: there will be no particular advance for any country," Serge Weinberg told France 2 TV.

He said Mr Hudson's words had been distorted.

Prime Minister Philippe said he had spoken to Mr Weinberg and received "all the necessary assurance regarding the distribution of an eventual Sanofi vaccine".

President Emmanuel Macron said that recent efforts had proved a vaccine should not be subject to market forces and he is due to meet top Sanofi officials next week.

The EU insisted that all countries should get equal access to a vaccine. "The vaccine against Covid-19 should be a global public good and its access needs to be equitable and universal," said European Commission spokesman Stefan de Keersmaecker, quoted by AFP news agency.

Why is the issue so delicate for Sanofi?

The deadly coronavirus pandemic has made the search for a Covid-19 vaccine the top priority for labs worldwide, with intense pressure to speed up a process that usually take years to develop.

Earlier this month the EU chaired a global online summit to boost coronavirus research, and secured pledges of $8bn (£6.5bn) from some 40 countries and donors. The funding is aimed at developing a coronavirus vaccine and treatments for Covid-19.

The UK co-hosted the summit but the US and Russia did not take part.

Sanofi's Covid-19 vaccine research is partly funded by the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (Barda) but in recent years Sanofi received tens of millions of euros in tax credits from the French government to help its research.

Mr Hudson's remarks in a Bloomberg interview provoked uproar among politicians on the right and left in France. The Socialists estimated that Sanofi had received some €150m (£133m; $162m) in research tax credit and millions more in other tax credit.

Sanofi's chief in France, Olivier Bogillot, said the goal was to have a vaccine "available to the US as well as France and Europe at the same time".

But speaking on French news channel BFMTV, he said this would only be possible "if Europeans work as quickly as the Americans", and added that the US government had pledged to spend "several hundreds of millions of euros".

The row was reminiscent of reports in March of a US attempt to buy German biotech firm CureVac, which has also been researching a possible vaccine. CureVac insisted there had been no US attempt to buy the firm or its manufacturing capacity.

Last month Sanofi also teamed up with Britain's GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to work on a vaccine, though trials have not yet started.

INDIA
Under Pandemic Garb and Modi Sanction, States Unleash War on Workers
After some states extended working day to 12 hours, UP and MP have relaxed all labour laws to the delight of the corporate sector.

Subodh Varma 09 May 2020

Representational image. | Image Courtesy: Scroll.in

The working class in India is facing a lethal crisis that promises to push their lives back a century, and turn them into modern day slaves. As Newsclick had warned earlier, a savage attack is being unleashed on the workers through wholesale changes in protective laws, patronised and sanctioned by the Narendra Modi-led Central government, and implemented by diverse state governments, mainly ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

On Thursday, it was reported that the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government had passed an ordinance to keep all labour laws in abeyance, barring four. Another BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, formed by a coup d’etat recently, has exempted new businesses from labour laws for a thousand days.

These legislative changes follow the extension of working days to 12-hours in five states, three of them BJP-led while two are Congress-run.

This is happening at a time when workers and employees across the country have already been pushed to the brink by the ongoing lockdown that started about 40 days ago. Unemployment is at a staggering 27%, according to Centre of Monitoring Indian Economy or CMIE’s latest estimates, wages have been denied to lakhs of employed workers despite government advisories to the contrary, and millions of small businesses are closed, perhaps permanently.

As if this mountain of misery was not enough, death continues to stalk hapless migrant workers with over 15 of them mowed down by a train as they fell asleep with exhaustion after walking 65 kilometers in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, while many poor villagers and workers died in a chemical gas leak from a polymer factory in Visakhapatanam, Andhra Pradesh, which was reopening after the lockdown.

WHAT DOES EXEMPTION FROM LABOUR LAWS MEAN?

Of all the possible measures a government could undertake to revive the economy and boost productive activity, why this single-minded focus on labour laws? Will it really help in increasing employment and production?

Have a look at the reported changes in UP: only laws related to bonded labourers, construction workers, and for compensation for injuries or death will be exempted, as also Section 5 of the Payment of Wages, which says that wages should be paid by the seventh day of the next month. This means that all other laws about working hours, shifts, wage scales, overtime, benefits of diverse kinds (like a canteen) are no longer applicable. Also, industrial disputes will be kept in abeyance, enabling employers to, say, hire and fire at will. And, finally, trade union rights, collective bargaining and the right to protest will be gone.

This is the kind of situation that existed last in the 18th and 19th Centuries in the capitalist world, and has since existed as fantasies of the corporate class.

But, why this obsession with labour laws? The answer is that this is the only way corporate profits can be kept afloat in conditions where demand has virtually disappeared due to the lockdown.

Although the chief secretary of UP was quoted as saying that these measures are being taken to deal with influx of migrant labour and need to maintain employment, the reasoning is faulty, if not delusional.

“Unless there is demand for products, no amount of tinkering with labour laws will help. Who will buy the products?” asks Surajit Mazumdar, economics professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

“The only way to increase employment – and revive the economy – is to increase public expenditure in a big way. The private sector cannot do this. And in any case, the segment covered by labour laws is only a fraction of the economy. So, these changes in labour laws will have no impact on employment,” he added.

In fact, it is possible that these changes will lead to increased anger and discontent among workers, and production will suffer as a result. The increase in work day to 12 hours is a measure to achieve the same production levels with fewer workers. So, there is no question of any employment increase!

These muddled policies are all a fig leaf for the real intention of labour law changes – which is to boost corporate profits that are flagging in the current tailspin, Mazumdar argues.
LARGER VISION

The recent changes in labour laws must be seen in the context of the BJP government’s overall approach to labour or the working people in general. Since last year, the Modi government has been pushing for labour law changes. It proposed four Codes to replace 44 separate laws and in the process diluted all of them, providing for immense power of the government to notify changes on any aspect, including wages, working hours, dispute resolution and trade union formation. Two of these Codes are already cleared and the other two are in the pipeline.

The Modi government has also been launching an economic attack by refusing to increase minimum wages. Trade unions have been demanding Rs.18,000 as a minimum level, based on a well-known and accepted formula. The government has refused to even talk about it, while groping around with other fixes, like setting up a committee (then rejecting its recommendations). Unable to contain unemployment, the Modi government has contributed to keeping wage levels low by having such a large army of unemployed at the factory gates.

“The problem in India is that wages are too low. Real wages have declined over the past 25 years, according to the Annual Survey of Industries data. This prevents demand from growing and keeps the economy in perpetual crisis. Labour law relaxation can never increase wages – it is ludicrous to think so,” Mazumdar says.

As part of this hostile vision towards labour – something that has its roots in the RSS or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideology – the Modi government has been chafing at the reins to remove all protection for this class. It has found a golden opportunity in the current pandemic, or rather in the sudden lockdown that it imposed in such an ill-thought out manner. It is using it to push through all that was otherwise difficult in normal times. For the corporate class in India, yesterday’s dreams are today’s reality. For the working people, it’s a nightmare come true.

India 

Maharashtra Govt Increases Daily Working Hours to 12, Workers’ Unions Object
Companies will have to pay double to the workers for this extra work; the weekly work hours can not exceed 60, and a shift longer than 13 hours at a stretch can not be assigned to the workers, said the government.

Amey Tirodkar 11 May 2020

Representational Image. Image Courtesy: The Hindu

In the backdrop of scarcity of labour in the state amid the nationwide lockdown, the Maharashtra government has allowed employer companies to increase working hours of the workers from eight to 12 per day till June 30. The labour unions are perceiving this as an attempt at “undermining the workers’ rights”.

However, the companies will have to pay double to the workers for this extra work; the weekly work hours can not exceed 60, and a shift longer than 13 hours at a stretch can not be assigned to the workers, said the government. These guidelines were reportedly brought in after the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Maratha Chambers of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture submitted a memorandum to the state government reporting reduced labour force.

Maharashtra government has also asked the industries to take all precautionary measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus, to provide sanitisers and masks, etc. and to keep safe distance between two workers as per health guidelines.

However, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) Maharashtra secretary Vivek Montero said, “It was absolutely unnecessary. Labour laws have a history. They have helped workers as well as industries grow. These changes undermine the rights of labours. This has been done without consultation with labourers and it is atrocious. This view that labour law is a hurdle for the growth of industry is fundamentally wrong and we have serious objections to that.”

Sarva Shramik Sanghatna, too, has slammed the state government for allowing these changes. "There is a clause of double payment to workers for those extra four hours. Do you think companies will respect it? No. Central and state government appealed to industries to not cut salaries of employees. Has that happened? Workers will work for extra hours, but there is no surety about whether they will get benefits from it. State government has made this decision without even consultation with labour unions. This is a violation of law in itself," said chairman Uday Bhat.

Bala Hivrale of Thane's Kopri MIDC Worker’ Union told NewsClick: "Ideally, the state should have left these things to unions and industries locally. It could have been done with mutual understanding. Now with this order, the state government has exposed the workers to further exploitation," said Hivrale.

Vishwas Utagi, coordinator of Workers’ Unions Front, appealed to the state government to reconsider the decision. "This will be wrong on so many levels. This situation is unprecedented, but we all are seeing how the poor and labourers are suffering. It was the duty of the state government to protect their rights in such times. Instead of that, it acted on the memorandum from the industry," said Utagi.

INDIA
Stop Dispensing with Progressive Labour Laws: Adopt Gandhi's Trusteeship for Cause of Labour

While rights of labour are being withdrawn, the beautification of Central Vista in New Delhi is being carried forward by spending Rs. 20, 000 crore.

S N Sahu 13 May 2020



The colossal magnitude of the migrant labour was not known to the general public, influential leaders ruling India, and movers and shakers of Indian economy. Only now there is the agonising realisation that without migrant labour, the destiny of India would have been shattered. It is they who provide skilled and unskilled labour, and run the wheels of economy. It is they who build India and provide essential services without any social security and social safety net. Migrating from their home and hearth to far off places of India, and living in clumsy and congested surroundings of cities and towns, they earn bare minimum subsistence amount or even less, for leading a life which in most cases is sub human. Forget about fair or living wages, they even do not get minimum wages for the work they do. Long hours of work in violation of existing labour laws and the indignity they suffer while working explain their daily trials and tribulations.

The sudden imposition of a lockdown, without factoring the concerns of migrant labour, has unfolded before the nation the unimaginable plight which they had to undergo. The so called economic security for which they left their hearth and home in the villages was not assured to them by the ruling leaders of India. Robbed of their paltry income and their shanty dwelling units, they were left to fend for themselves. They were made to realise that the towns and cities where they worked and toiled for earning their livelihood by giving their services have no heart to look after them. In such a situation, these towns and cities had no meaning for them. They desperately wanted to go back to their villages and poor rural settings where they thought they would die in presence of their kith and kin.

Indeed, they deserve all salute for showing such courage to walk hundreds and thousands of kilometres to be in their villages. They displayed stoic courage and walked along roads and railway tracks without food and money and with their children in their arms. Fear of death was not a deterring factor for them even as several hundreds of them lost their lives. However, the death of migrant labour on roads and railway tracks hardly moved the ruling leaders. Unmindful of deat.h the labour marched on. Ruling leaders only tweeted to express anguish over their death.

Also read: Under Pandemic Garb and Modi Sanction, States Unleash War on Workers

The builders of India have real strength. Otherwise they could not have summoned courage to walk hundreds and thousands of kilometres. I recall the words of Gurudeb Rabindranath Tagore who, during the second decade of the 20th century, saw Chinese labourers loading goods in a ship in Hongkong. The movement of their robust limbs and strong legs moved him to say that there was poetry and rhythm in the heavy work they were doing. He then said that if the whole of China would display that rhythm then what a mighty country it would become.

The labour remains at the root of the rise and progress of any society and country. We can ignore labour only at our own peril. Even prior to Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi gave primacy to labour. Before he started his Satyagraha in South Africa, he had drafted a petition to safeguard the rights of Indians and he did so by first consulting the labourers. When he was asked as to why was consulting the labourers to draft the petition he famously said that they had as much right to exercise their brains as any body else. He advocated the idea of trusteeship to ensure that that those who had wealth and knowledge to create wealth would act as trustees of that wealth and after keeping some amount of wealth for their living, should use rest of the wealth for society. He proclaimed that the idea of trusteeship aimed at resolving the contradiction between capital and labour. At a time when labour is getting crushed that idea of trusteeship assumes relevant. It is tragic that now the ruling leaders of India have failed its labouring class and miserably ditched them by not recognising them as equal human beings through their attempts to dispense with labour laws.

Taking advantage of the economic imbroglio caused by COVID-19 pandemic and serious livelihood consequences suffered by labourers due to the unplanned lockdown, now a new architecture for revival of economy is being prepared by dispensing with security and safety guaranteed to labour through statutes. Changing labour law to force workers to work for 12 hours with pay of eight hours of work is like introducing bonded labour system which was abolished by Indira Gandhi during the time of she held the Prime Minister’s office. Only the Odisha Government, while altering the labour law to work for 12 hours, has prescribed over time pay for work rendered beyond eight hours.

Also read: Covid-19 Crisis Exposes India’s Neglect of Informal Workers

Labourers are already worst hit by the pandemic, and the unplanned and abrupt all India lockdown has destroyed their livelihood. Millions of migrant labourers are walking on road and railway tracks without food and money to reach their destinations located thousands of kilometres away and thousands of them are getting killed in the process. The country recently witnessed the tragic incident involving killing of hungry and tired migrant labourers who were mauled by a goods train near Aurangabad when they dozed off because of fatigue and sheer exhaustion due to walking hundreds of kilometres.

The vulnerability of migrant labour to hunger and poverty in their native places, due to absence of social security for them, is well known. In such a tragic situation, the modification of labour laws by taking away all security guaranteed by the Constitution and numerous progressive labour laws enacted after centuries-old struggle would mean heralding the era of unimaginable exploitation of labour reminiscent of the British period. It was Dr. Ambedkar, who, as a Labour Member in the Viceroy's Executive Council, had framed several progressive labour legislations which are being withdrawn in the COVID-19 ridden world. One fails to understand as to how some of the state governments are withdrawing progressive labour legislations for a period three years in violation of many international conventions signed by India to protect the rights of labour.

While rights of labour are being withdrawn, the beautification of Central Vista in New Delhi is being carried forward by spending Rs. 20, 000 crore. Is it justifiable to do so when millions of people have lost livelihood and employment because of mismanagement of economy from 2014 and now, are under the onslaught of global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus? Approval of beautification project in such times marked by a spiraling viral disaster speaks volumes for the lopsided priority of the people ruling India. It is quite evident that these rulers are insensitive to the pain and suffering of people who are now caught in the whirlpool of economic mismanagement and rising levels of COVID-19 infections. We now require the caring governance, at the heart of which remain rights and entitlements of labour and ordinary people of India.

Also read: Maharashtra Govt Increases Daily Working Hours to 12, Workers’ Unions Object

The writer served as Officer on Special Duty and Press Secretary to Former President of India, late K R Narayanan. The views are personal.

INDIA
New Dilemmas for the Distressed Workers of the Country
The long march home of workers exhibits the paralysis of India’s politics.
Rashme Sehgal  16 May 2020


Ram Prakash, who used to work as a loader in Khari Baoli in Delhi, started walking the 900 kilometres to his village in Chhapra tehsil of Saran district in Bihar when the first lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24 March. Prakash is happy to be home, but his relief is tinged with sorrow. “I don’t know how to make ends meet. We migrant labourers are entitled to Rs.1,000 from the state government, which a local organisation is helping me get,” he says.

Some 1,000 km from Saran, in Gafed village of Rudraprayag district in Uttarakhand seven workers are presently quarantined at a school. They have volunteered to refurbish the premises, where 100 students attend school. These hotel workers reached their village from Chandigarh and so they know how to cook their supplies, which they are getting from the district authorities.

In a third instance, Vijendra Dhangwal, who returned to Bagyan village in Tehri district, was not allowed to enter his village, where the people feared he would infect them with the Novel Coronavirus. Dhangwal had returned to perform the last rites of his father, but could not even attend the funeral.

These are just three vignettes of the different fates befalling the country’s workers these days. These workers have hit the highways and by-lanes to make their way back to their villages, expecting relative safety from the Covid-19 pandemic, and to escape starvation after the sudden lockdown deprived them of their means of livelihood.

If during their long march they faced trauma unlike ever before, with hundreds dying en route, the return home has made these desperate workers confront a fresh set of problems. There feel relieved to be home, but there is no or little work available in villages. The families of most workers were living on close to subsistence incomes anyway.

Women and young children who trudged home under a hot May sun are also not finding it easy to adjust to their new circumstances, of living with their in-laws in their village homes. Enakshi Ganguly, who heads HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, an NGO, has been in touch with such migrant women and their children. She says, “Women living in urban centres had an income, even if it was very little. In villages their situation is precarious because there is little work.” And for children, things are worse. Ganguly expects the school drop-out ratio to worsen. Plus, the young ones are no longer getting their mid-day meals. “I expect malnutrition levels to rise alarmingly as schools are closed. A majority of workers do not have smart phones, so online learning is out of question,” she says. In addition, pregnant women need special diets, as do lactating mothers.

Migrant workers say that they could complete their journeys home only because volunteer groups helped them. Rajendran N, who teaches at the Azim Premji University in Bengaluru, and is a member of SWAN, a network to assist stranded workers, says, “We started on 27 March with two people and now we are a 100-volunteer team that contacts organisations which can supply rations or try to ensure government help to the workers.” So far SWAN has assisted around 20,000 people.

Such networks have sprung up across the country, and they often find workers in such dire circumstances as to need small cash transfers, of Rs 1,500 or so, just to tide over some immediate crisis, like a health emergency or lack of food. Seema, another SWAN volunteer, also a teacher at Azim Premji University, says, “The first wave of workers who reached Bihar in mid-April are now telling us that their families need food, money for gas connections and basic medical care.”

Even though SWAN does not help workers once they reach their villages, they are making exceptions for medical emergencies; for instance a worker in Bihar who needs Rs 4,500 every fortnight for a medical procedure. Over 400 workers died of exhaustion and starvation while walking home, the RoadScholarz network of volunteers have estimated.

Grassroots activists are trying to get the Public Distribution System to work for these migrants while trying to get them the money being promised by state governments. The Jharkhand government has assured Rs 1,000 to every migrant worker and the Bihar government Rs 2,000.

The problem is that workers must have smart phones to download the App that leads to this money. And they need a bank account in their own state, other than a password and a good enough internet connectivity. In reality, the situation is different: for instance, SWAN has been contacted by 1,100 women workers who have young children. Of them, only 20 held Jan Dhan accounts in which the government has credited Rs 500.

Workers in West Bengal, Odisha and Assam face a different set of problems. Siddhartha, a volunteer overseeing the migrants returning to these states, is also a member of the Safai Karamchari Monitoring Committee to End Scavenging. He says that West Bengal and Assam are experiencing two simultaneous migrations—thousands are leaving and thousands coming back.

Both these states have industrial clusters which have shut, and for two months workers have not been paid by the contractors who put them to work. “Unable to pay rent and with no food, they turned to us for help,” Siddhartha says. Similarly, West Bengal’s industrial clusters employ people from Jharkhand and Bihar, who now want to return home. “We cannot assist such large numbers so we contact state helplines for migrant workers. Unfortunately, in West Bengal none of them work,” he says.

Jadavpur University has formed an informal group to supply rations, which is helping out. “But ultimately, we have to fall back on governments. As the government machinery in West Bengal is not working, we approach MLAs directly, and if even that does not work, we resort to social media. We asked the chief minister of Jharkhand and West Bengal for help on Twitter,” says Siddhartha.

Besides, attempt to catch a special “workers’ train” has taken a toll on migrants. Seema cites the Karnataka government’s flip-flop. First the state decided to run trains, then it decided to stop running them. As a result, some two hundred construction workers stranded at the Bengaluru railway station decided they would walk home to villages in Bihar. They were stopped on the outskirts of the city by police and sent to a tented facility. “There at least the local authorities are giving them food,” Seema says.

Workers have to register on the railway website before they are given a ticket but the Railway’s website does not provide train departure schedule. It is state governments that are putting up separate websites with those details. Only Madhya Pradesh and Bihar have, so far, consented to accept migrants back. The others are dragging their feet.

Their next dilemma is that a phased withdrawal of the lockdown seems on the horizon which raises the possibility of finding work. This has convinced some, though they are near-starvation, to not leave the cities. Mumbai-based Navmee Goregaonkar, a student of St Xavier’s College, says, “Some workers from Haryana and the NCR region who work here were given part-payments by their employers, who do not want them to leave.” She has been trying to arrange food coupons for these workers, but many have been put, rather shockingly, on a “waiting list”.

“Unfortunately, the site [to apply for coupons] keeps crashing,” Goregaonkar says. The Delhi government has appointed nine nodal officers, but their phones, she finds, are “switched off”. “Over 400 workers from the NCR have sought financial help. Wherever required, we provide Rs 1,500,” she says. Among the women workers from NCR and Haryana who reached out, 50 are pregnant.

Sharanya Das, who works with St Judas Child Care Centre in Mumbai also interacts with migrant labourers from north India. She says, “Ninety per cent of those who contact us have run out of ration. Many do not have Aadhaar cards or other requirements and we are helping facilitate this,” she says.

The pressure to find work is intense among the labouring sections of Indian society. Many are realising that they soon will be forced to return to the cities they had fled because of the Covid-19 “mahamari” or epidemic. Many are also swearing never to return, considering the bleak future they confront if they do...

Hopefully, whenever the workers return, the Centre and states will ensure proper transport facilities and financial support for those who make up the backbone of the country. The plight of Indian workers really shows the paralysis of its politics. It shows the vulnerability of this vast class who received little support from the government.

The author is an independent journalist. The views are personal.