Coronavirus is paving the way for a return to military rule in Asia

Poor leadership, weak institutions and public mistrust have exposed the fragility of countries which have embraced democratic reform

As the going gets tough, some are falling back on militaries that still command extensive networks of power and influence

Asian Angle by Michael Vatikiotis Published: 4 Apr, 2020

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte visits a military checkpoint during the coronavirus lockdown. Photo: Presidential Security Group

As governments in Southeast Asia struggle to contain the spread of Covid-19, poor leadership, weak institutions and high levels of public mistrust have exposed the fragility of countries that made a transition to more democratic government over the past two decades. The worry is that coping with Covid-19 will mean a return to authoritarian habits, backed by military power.

Two trends are discernible. The first is the tendency in those countries that have experienced either direct military rule, or periodic military intervention, to fall back on the military to lead or bolster management of the health crisis.

The second is that post-transition governments that allowed some measure of decentralisation but which retained extensive centralised power, are seeing an erosion of control as communities introduce their own preventive and protective measures. This may tempt governments to pull in the reins and roll back decentralisation.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Photo: Reuters

Indonesia illustrates both trends amply. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo dithered and delayed a firm response to the spread of Covid-19, following advice he was given by his inner circle of the dangers of social unrest if restrictions on movement were too stringent. Initially, the president relied on cabinet members such as health minister Terawan Agus Putranto, who made a mess of messaging at a critical moment.

Then in mid-March, the president pivoted and appointed someone else to lead the government’s task force. Lieutenant General Doni Monardo was already head of the country’s national disaster agency. On March 13, the former special forces general was appointed chief of the Covid-19 task force. Since then, local media reports say, he has not left his office: a black couch is marked up with yellow tape to remind people to keep a safe distance when they visit him.

The two-star general has close ties to other members of the president’s inner circle, who have military backgrounds, observers say. The Jakarta military commander, Major General Eko Margiyono, was also appointed to lead the team in the capital, which has been badly hit by infections, killing more than a dozen doctors.

A joint police and military patrol enforces coronavirus measures in Indonesia. Photo: EPA

Even before re-election last year, Jokowi showed an inclination to rely on the military to make up for weak, often factional civilian bureaucracy, and also because many of the country’s problems are beyond his own experience and ability. Often this has made sense because the Indonesian military is a large, relatively cohesive organisation that can draw on an extensive network across the country because of a strategy of internal security that in the past ensured that soldiers were posted in every village. As The Jakarta Post commented in mid-March: “Having clung to power or revolved around it for most of the nation’s history, former military figures are able to tap into the ample resources of a well-established network of influence.”

The Indonesian military’s reach down to the local level may help protect the integrity of the central government. Many governors, mayors and local heads of communities have started imposing their own lockdowns to prevent the spread of the virus, challenging central authority. Asked about this recently, Doni Monardo said the deputies of provincial governors were the regional military commanders – implying a more effective and assertive chain of command.

How the coronavirus may change the geopolitics of Southeast Asia
23 Mar 2020


There is no question that even in countries where civilian primacy has been long established, governments have turned to the military to accelerate the implementation of Covid-19 countermeasures, although this has dredged up memories of military intervention at the political level.

In the Philippines, the lockdown of Manila and other areas of Luzon was quickly enforced by the military and police. Philippines army chief Lieutenant General Gilbert I. Gapay posted on social media that “as the country’s fight against Covid-19 is expected to impair some of our government services, the Philippine Army is projected to perform functions beyond its major roles”.

That’s all very well, but some reports from areas where the Armed Forces of the Philippines already operate in a counter-insurgency role say that overzealous commanders have operated checkpoints more stringently, which has become a source of tension.
Some have commented that the current situation is a de facto state of martial law, but the president’s office has stated multiple times that the quarantine is not, nor is it leading to, martial law. Still, people were not comforted when President Rodrigo Duterte later said he had “given a go signal” to the military and the police to shoot people violating the lockdown orders.

A soldier disinfects Silom Road as a coronavirus measure in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Xinhua

Thailand has experienced nothing but military rule since a coup in 2014. An election last year partially restored a parliamentary system of government, but the former army chief who launched the 2014 coup, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, has remained as prime minister. His handling of the Covid-19 crisis so far has been heavily criticised for being too little, too late.

Initially it seemed the experts would fill the policy vacuum as groups of doctors connected with civil society pressured the government to roll out measures to tackle the crisis. But as the number of cases went up and local administrators and strongmen in the provinces began to put their own restrictions in place, the army stepped in. Prayuth has now declared a state of emergency and a panel set up to oversee the crisis reportedly does not include medical experts and is mostly composed of senior military officers.

Members of the Myanmar Red Cross disinfect a street as a preventive measure against the coronavirus in Yangon. Photo: AFP

It’s the same in Myanmar, where the civilian-led government of Aung San Suu Kyi has been struggling to contain the powerful military since elections in 2015. When the government finally woke up to the threat of Covid-19 at the end of March, the response was to form an emergency task force comprised mostly of military and one civilian-led ministry – social welfare. This has mostly had the effect of stricter controls over media – with hundreds of websites shut down – and barring humanitarian access to conflict-wracked Rakhine State on the grounds that ongoing military operations are a priority.

In many countries around the world, fears of social unrest and the lack of trust in government authority are resulting in a resort to tougher law enforcement. But the integrity of political reform has always been weak and prone to setbacks in Southeast Asia, particularly in countries where the military has a long history of political intervention, such as Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand. Notions of civilian primacy are weak, and, with a paucity of external threats, the army sees itself as the guardian of internal national security, especially in times of crisis. The aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis could therefore see a weakening of boundaries that had begun to strengthen between military and civilian power. 

Michael Vatikiotis is the author of Blood and Silk, Power and Conflict in Modern Southeast Asia

Coronavirus quarantine murders and domestic violence mean Malaysian ministry’s sexist advice is no laughing matter

The Malaysian women’s affairs ministry putting the onus on wives to maintain harmony in the family during the coronavirus lockdown is particularly insidious given the rise in cases of violence against women worldwide


Alice Wu Published:6 Apr, 2020

A woman watches a drone, used by the Malaysian police to remind people to stay at home during a lockdown imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19, in Kuala Lumpur on March 24. Photo: Reuters

Confirmed coronavirus cases  crossed 1 million last week and most of the world remains under lockdown or practising social distancing. One of the best pieces of advice on how to cope is to keep getting “ready in the morning” – get out of bed, change out of our pyjamas and try to maintain a semblance of normality as much as possible.

When our days morph into night and night into day, and we lose count of how many days we’ve been living in our PJs, we are at risk of getting depressed. That’s no way to fight the plague.

However, it takes very little effort to turn well-intentioned advice into a political disaster – and that’s what happened with a series of public service announcements put out by the Malaysia’s Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development last week.

In the global fight against Covid-19, the ministry suggested women should dress up and wear make-up when working from home, refrain from sarcasm if they need help with household chores, avoid nagging their husbands and, instead, talk like the blue robot cat Doraemon, a popular Japanese anime character, to keep the peace at home.

One of the coronavirus campaign posters shared by Malaysia’s women’s affairs ministry. Photo: Twitter

Leaving aside why anyone would want their wife to sound like a robot cat, let’s try to get past the absurdity of these tips and the ensuing hilarity, and recognise the sinister thinking behind them. The most obvious is that the onus of “maintain[ing] a positive family relationship while working from home” – as the ministry claims to be its intention – lies with the wives. And nothing objectifies women like telling them to imitate a robot cat.

The ministry has since removed these misogynist posts and offered the classic “nonpology”: “We apologise if some of the tips we shared were inappropriate and touched on the sensitivities of some parties.”

Coronavirus: Malaysia arrests hundreds for violating restrictions
29 Mar 2020


Well, I’m not sorry for my “sensitivities” because here are some harsh truths. A Malaysian government-run helpline for vulnerable people, which includes victims of domestic abuse, has reportedly seen the number of calls for help rise by more than 50 per cent since the beginning of the country’s March 18 lockdown. And the tips, no doubt, were issued, in response to that.

The government ministry is tasked with achieving gender equality, family development and a caring society in line with the country’s commitment to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. So when it blames women for increased tensions at home during the pandemic, and its rationale is exactly the sort of poison that has sustained gender inequality and reinforces the abuse of women in the home, no one should be giggling like Doraemon.

There has been a surge in domestic violence worldwide. Lockdowns and social distancing are pushing families at risk over the edge. We are seeing a spate of “quarantine murders” and victims of domestic violence are forced to be with their perpetrators 24/7, with no chance of escape in the form of work or social gatherings.

Just last week, Britain recorded two cases of lockdown-related femicide. Since the beginning of France’s lockdown, domestic violence has risen 36 per cent, including two cases of femicide. The Australian prime minister has noted the alarming 75 per cent rise in Google searches for domestic violence help since the start of its lockdown.


According to Chinese activists, the enforced lockdown in China saw a tripling of the number of domestic violence cases reported to local police in February.

Activists hold photographs showing half the faces of victims of domestic violence during a protest in Bucharest on March 4 to draw attention to the lack of monitoring bracelets on the aggressors once a restraining order has been issued. Photo: AFP

Even in normal times, one in three women experience gender-based violence. While the United Nations and NGOs are calling for governments to step up measures to prevent such violence during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Malaysian government is telling women to stop nagging.

Researchers at Northwestern University, the University of Mannheim in Germany and the University of California, San Diego, have just put out a new paper examining the impact of Covid-19 on the economy and, right off the bat, the researchers pointed out that the pandemic will have “a disproportionate negative effect on women and their employment opportunities”.

This is the onslaught women now face.

Alice Wu is a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA

Alice Wu
Alice Wu fell down the rabbit hole of politics aged 12, when she ran her first election campaign. She has been writing about local politics and current affairs for the Post since 2008. Alice's daily needs include her journals, books, a multi-coloured pen and several lattes.

Why we need to uncover the origins of Covid-19

Washington and Beijing are playing an unproductive blame game, but getting to the bottom of it all has nothing to do with politics

To prepare for the next such viral outbreak, every effort must be made to understand how Covid-19 came about

Asian Angle by Leslie Fong Published: 8 Apr, 2020

A worker wearing protective gear sprays disinfectant at Wuhan’s Tianhe Airport after it was reopened on April 8. Photo: AFP

China and the  United States may have stepped back, for now, from their war of words on the origins of Covid-19 and the labelling of it as the “China” or “Wuhan” virus, but the facts have still to be established.

Some might argue that we should move on and not be mired in an unproductive blame game. But that is not the point. Getting to the bottom of it all has nothing to do with politics. Instead, it is about uncovering the truth, because that will guide governments when they need to formulate policy responses should another pandemic strike in the years ahead – something experts have not ruled out.

It is thus imperative that every effort be made, under the auspices of the World Health Organisation, to understand how the virus came about, its paths of transmission, the mutations it can go through, indeed everything that can be known about it, just so the world can better prepare for the next such viral outbreak.

Far-sighted people like Microsoft founder Bill Gates had years ago warned the global community of the real probability of a pandemic such as Covid-19. Hardly any government, except possibly Singapore’s, paid enough attention, much less geared up for the eventuality. Hopefully, history will not repeat itself because of a reluctance to uncover facts deemed too politically sensitive or embarrassing for some governments.

Separately, people of Chinese ethnicity around the world, who have been at the receiving end of racist taunts and even physical assaults, deserve closure. The H1N1 pandemic at the end of World War I that infected about 500 million people globally and killed an estimated 17 to 50 million has been mislabelled the “Spanish flu” pandemic ever since – even though it has been established beyond doubt that the virus did not originate there.

A person is transported from an ambulance to the emergency room at Wyckoff Heights Medical Centre in New York, United States. Photo: AFP

Spain, neutral at that time, was stuck with this dubious honour because it was the first to report the outbreak, whereas Britain, the US and other Allied countries suppressed all news to preserve troop morale. No doubt the first reported spread of Covid-19 was in Wuhan, but if it should transpire that the virus did not originate there, then it would be unfair for ethnic Chinese, and probably other East Asians too, to bear the brunt of increasing anger and hate from those whose lives and fortunes are being devastated by the pandemic.

The seeds of the Sino-US spat were sown on January 24 when The Washington Times, known for its ties with the anti-China religious cult, Falun Gong, published two articles alleging that the virus – formally called Sars-Coronavirus 2 (Sars-CoV2) by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses – was part of a Chinese biological weapons programme conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

This allegation was spread on social media and soon, the WIV and its 55-year-old lead researcher on coronaviruses, Dr Shi Zhengli, came under attack. She refuted any suggestion that the WIV was involved in bio-warfare research and that the virus could have leaked from her laboratory. When pressed on other allegations, she replied tersely that she had more important things to deal with than answer baseless accusations.

She did indeed have plenty on her plate, as she has been in the thick of China’s fight against the pandemic. A virologist who did her doctoral dissertation at Montpellier 2 University in France, she has spent the past 16 years of her life researching into coronaviruses and was the first scientist to link them to bats.

As Scientific American reported, Shi was recalled to Wuhan from a conference in Shanghai on December 31 last year after health authorities there detected a novel coronavirus in two patients with atypical pneumonia. The first thing she did upon arrival at her high-security laboratory was to spend several days without sleep checking through every piece of paper logging every specimen to satisfy herself that there had not been any accidental, improperly supervised or unauthorised removal, disposal or transfer of any sample.

Shi’s denial did not stop Tom Cotton, the Republican senator for Arkansas, from repeating the accusation in a tweet on January 31 – which in turn elicited a response from Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the US.

When interviewed by CBS host Margaret Brennan on the programme Face the Nation on Feb 9, Cui said it should be left to scientists to investigate and determine the origins of the virus.


Then he added: “It’s very harmful, it’s very dangerous to stir up suspicion, rumours and spread them among the people. For one thing, this will create panic. Another thing is that it will fan up racial discrimination, xenophobia, all these things that will really harm our joint efforts to combat the virus.”

Undaunted, Cotton shot off another tweet: “Here’s what’s not a conspiracy, not a theory: Fact; China lied about virus starting in Wuhan food market.” Then he added another: “Fact: super-lab is just a few miles from that market. Where did it start? We don’t know. But burden of proof is on you and fellow communists. Open up now to competent international scientists.”

Notwithstanding his warped logic – that it is the accused party that has to disprove baseless accusations – he was soon joined by other right-wing politicians and their media supporters in putting China on the defensive.

Perhaps they had taken a cue from the National Security Council, no less. According to The Daily Beast and two State Department officials, the NSC had issued a directive to all levels of American government to point the finger at China in all their public communication.

By the third week of March, “China virus”, “Wuhan virus” , “cover up” and similar invectives echoed across congressional and other forums, with even President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo making it a point to insert them into their speeches – in flagrant disregard for the WHO’s admonition not to stigmatise any country and to just call the virus Covid-19. Pompeo was particularly hawkish, nearly scuttling a communique by G7 foreign ministers on joint action to curb the pandemic with his insistence that “Wuhan virus” be inserted into the text.

Meanwhile, on March 11, an unexpected bombshell dropped. Testifying before Congress, Dr Robert Redfield, director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), admitted that posthumous autopsies had shown that some deaths in the US that were attributed to flu were actually the result of Covid-19. He did not elaborate when such deaths occurred or over which period.



This prompted Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), to tweet: “CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in the US? How many people are affected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be the US Army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owes us an explanation!”

His remark about the US Army was a reference to reports circulating on Chinese social media that five people from the American delegation taking part in the world military games in Wuhan from October 18 to 27 last year had to seek treatment at the Jinyingtan Hospital there for an unspecified illness.

It had also been widely reported by then that Dr Zhong Nanshan, the respiratory diseases specialist who led the Chinese team fighting severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) more than 16 years ago, had said in January that while Wuhan reported the first cases, the virus did not necessarily originate in a seafood market there, as speculated.

A group of soldiers on a side street behind the medical examiner’s office in New York, United States. Photo: AFP

Also on the mind of Zhao from the MFA, no doubt, was the fact that the CDC had ordered a shutdown of Fort Detrick in Maryland, the US Army research centre for biological warfare, late last July after discovering that it had failed to follow safety procedures in handling specimens, including coronaviruses and Ebola.

Prior to that, there had been reports of some deaths from pneumonia near Fort Detrick attributed to vaping, or inhaling vapours from e-cigarettes. Lung scans from these victims – shared on the likes of the New England Journal of Medicine and Researchgate – showed white patches akin to ground glass, exactly like those found in Covid-19 deaths.

The CDC did not say there had been any leakage from Fort Detrick. But soon after, flu cases spiked in Maryland and nearby Virginia to Level 5, the highest seen since 2014, according to tracking statistics from CDC and other monitoring bodies.

As expected, Zhao’s tweet raised hackles in the US. And so the war of words intensified, culminating at one stage with Hua Chunying, another Chinese MFA spokesman, accusing Pompeo of “lying through his teeth”. It only abated when Trump abruptly stopped using the term “China virus”, saying he did so to protect innocent Asian Americans from “nasty remarks”. Oh, really?

What is one to make of all this? As of now, one convergence of research in universities and medical centres from Sydney to Edinburgh is the conclusion that Covid-19 is not a synthetic, bio-engineered weapon.

Another is that intensive tracing shows that the early patients in Wuhan detected in December last year could not be linked to that seafood market. A study by Chinese scientists published in the authoritative British journal, The Lancet, also ruled out the link. As reported in the South China Morning Post, Chinese government data points to a 55-year-old from elsewhere in Hubei province being the first ever patient

A spokesman for the Jinyingtan Hospital has also clarified that the five US soldiers admitted during last year’s world military games were treated for malaria, not atypical pneumonia. But whether others in the contingent carried a virus without showing symptoms can only be determined if tests for antibodies are carried out on them.

Also unanswered is the question why the viruses found in Hubei and other Chinese provinces carried only Group C haplotypes (genetic determinants on a single chromosome), which in plain language means they are the third generation in the mutation cycle.



These haplotype findings were discovered by Chinese research scientists who shared their mapping of the virus genomes with the world through the WHO in January. These are also published in scientific journals as well as Researchgate. All five haplotypes from A to E are found in the US.

But the most critical questions that need to be answered centre on what Redfield told Congress, that some deaths originally attributed to the flu were later found to be from Covid-19. How many were there? When? How many of the thousands of deaths attributed to the flu epidemic throughout the US from September last year, way before the Wuhan outbreak, were misdiagnosed cases?

Dr Helen Chu, lead researcher for a project called the Seattle Flu Study, wants to know and has asked for access to the trove of flu swabs collected by the CDC during that period. The CDC as well as the Federal Drug Administration said no, citing national security.

Unless CDC answers Senator Cotton’s call and opens up to competent international scientists, the world will never know.

Leslie Fong is a former editor of Singapore’s The Straits Times

RIP
Honor Blackman, Who Played Pussy Galore In The James Bond Movie "Goldfinger," Has Died Aged 94

Blackman was also known for her work in the 1960s TV series The Avengers.

Ariane LangeBuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on April 6, 2020, at 1:29 p.m. ET

Rosie Greenway / Getty Images
Honor Blackman recording a single in 2008.

Honor Blackman, the English actor best known for being a Bond girl in the 1960s, has died, her family announced Monday. She was 94.

In a statement to the Guardian, Blackman's family said she died "peacefully of natural causes" at her home in Lewes in Sussex surrounded by her family.

Her family described her as a much-adored mother and grandmother who doubled as an actor of "of hugely prolific creative talent."

"With an extraordinary combination of beauty, brains and physical prowess, along with her unique voice and a dedicated work ethic, she achieved an unparalleled iconic status in the world of film and entertainment and with absolute commitment to her craft and total professionalism in all her endeavors she contributed to some of the great films and theatre productions of our times," said her family.


ABC Weekend Television / Getty Images
Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman on the set of The Avengers.

Born in 1925, Blackman grew up in working-class London, where both she and her brother, Ken, learned how to box as children. Encouraged by the elocution teacher who coached away her East End accent, she started taking acting lessons. During World War II, Blackman volunteered to ride a motorbike around London transporting medical supplies; she would have to turn off the headlight during blackouts.

Although she began acting professionally in the 1940s, it wasn't until Blackman's 1962 debut on The Avengers that her career took off: She played Cathy Gale, the spy, anthropologist, and martial artist who replaced David Keel as the male lead's sidekick. Her Avengers episodes were filmed without stunt doubles, and Blackman became very good at judo. She said she received a lot of fan mail, including a sizable amount from lesbians; some of the letters were very shocking to her publicist. In the Toronto Star in 1987, she said, "While [Cathy] wasn't the first female who was allowed to think or be without reference to a man — although she was that — she was certainly the first woman to defend herself physically. I think it must have been threatening for the male sex." In the 1960s, she wrote Honor Blackman's Book of Self-Defence, the cover of which features an image of Blackman doing something very painful to a man's arm.

Despite the character's acknowledged threat to the male ego, Blackman diagnosed Cathy's limitations in the Globe and Mail in 1987: "Judo was her specialty, and with judo it's almost impossible to attack somebody." Because the martial art relies on the attacker's momentum, "Cathy only defended herself. That is why she seemed so pure and good and righteous."

Sunset Boulevard / Getty Images
Gert Fröbe, Honor Blackman, and Sean Connery in Goldfinger.

Blackman left The Avengers to appear in 1964's Goldfinger as Bond girl Pussy Galore, whose slightly obscene name was censored multiple times during the publicity tour for the movie.

Blackman told the New York Times in 1981 that many people didn't know Pussy was a lesbian in the 1959 Ian Fleming book. The filmmakers "wouldn't allow that in the movie," she said, though there are hints: She is a pilot who runs the all-women Pussy Galore's Flying Circus, and she tells Bond she's "immune" to his charms. Blackman was glad the character's homosexuality wasn't made explicit, "because it would have seemed so ridiculous that she would change overnight just because James Bond took her to bed."

MGM In Goldfinger, 1964.

The role did not particularly help Blackman's career: Post-Goldfinger, she said, she was typecast as a "glamour puss." Blackman said Mervyn LeRoy, directing her in 1965's Moment to Moment, would call for "a wobble shot" — a shot in which her breasts were jiggling.

Blackman remained a realist about her work: In 2007, she told the Guardian that she got the role of Pussy Galore because "I was very, very hot at the time." In the same article, the reporter made a crude joke about getting into bed with her.

In addition to appearing in more than 100 films and TV series, Blackman worked extensively in theater, including a turn in Nunsense, in which nuns stage the musical Grease. In 2007, she told the Halifax Courier that she had no wish to retire: "I would just be bored and get fat," she said. At the time, she was in her eighties and touring a one-woman show.

She was also active in politics, campaigning for the Liberal Party in 1964 and advocating for the UK to become a republic. She joined the list of people who've turned down a CBE when she refused the royal distinction in 2002, citing her opposition to the monarchy.

After a divorce from her second husband and the father of her two children in the 1970s, the actor never remarried, and she embraced living alone. She told Lady, "I do whatever I want when I want and that's how life should be as far as I am concerned."

Blackman is survived by her two children, Lottie and Barnaby, and her four grandchildren.

David Mack contributed reporting.

Ariane Lange is a national reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in the Bay Area.

Coronavirus: Asia-Pacific nations unleash massive stimulus measures as scope of Covid-19’s economic impact grows clear

• From Singapore to Japan, governments are deploying billion-dollar rounds of fiscal stimulus to minimise economic pain for businesses and households
• But analysts say these measures are not without their downsides, and the way they are implemented can also be controversial

Bhavan Jaipragas Published: 8:00am, 8 Apr, 2020

A Thai man uses his mobile phone in a deserted street in Bangkok after shopping centres were closed to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Photo: EPA

Asia-Pacific economic policymakers who chose to keep their powder dry in the early days of the
Covid-19 pandemic have begun unleashing massive new rounds of fiscal stimulus as the full scope of the global health crisis’ financial impact becomes apparent.
With the fresh injections, spending boosts by the likes of
Japan, Malaysia,
Singapore and Thailand are now almost on equal footing – when compared to their respective gross domestic product (GDP) – as the so-called fiscal bazookas deployed by the
United States and the
European Union.


Asia-based economic watchers said while they welcomed the new economic measures, their hope was for regional governments to continue to view the public health crisis, and not the economy, as the biggest priority.

Coronavirus: Singapore unveils US$3.6 billion third stimulus package for battered economy
6 Apr 2020



Rajiv Biswas, chief Asia-Pacific economist at IHS Markit, said any amount of fiscal injections, liquidity boosts or interest rate cuts would not have as much impact as successfully containing the outbreak.

“Even with stimulus it’s really just about trying to keep the economy on hold, if you like, and mitigating the negative shock,” Biswas said. “You cannot offset the impact of escalating cases firstly of people being afraid to go out … and secondly of governments putting lockdowns in place.

“The bottom line of fiscal or monetary stimulus is that these are band-aids … the real recovery has to be linked to containing the number of cases until the caseload is very low.”

Workers load food onto a traditional boat at Sunda Kelapa port in Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo: EPA

Song Seng Wun, a Singapore-based economist with CIMB Private Banking, concurred with that position but added that governments were “doing what they have to do” – including putting aside concerns about fiscal sustainability – to minimise the economic pain for businesses and households

Few have argued about the crucial need for fresh injections, with more evidence surfacing every day on just how badly the pandemic will roil the world economy.

An April 1-3 snap poll by Reuters of over 50 economists in North America, Europe and Asia showed the global economy would shrink 1.2 per cent this year, compared with a 1.6 per cent expansion predicted in a survey just three weeks ago.

Coronavirus: Malaysia announces US$2.3 billion third stimulus package for economy
8 Apr 2020


Asian governments have signalled that they are ready to take more aggressive steps. Japan’s government on Tuesday approved an eye-popping 108 trillion yen (US$990 billion) package – worth about a fifth of its GDP.

In comparison, the US recently passed a stimulus package of US$2 trillion, which was worth about 10.5 per cent of American annual output.

Also showing off its fiscal firepower this week was Singapore, which unveiled its third set of measures in three months on Monday. In total, the city state’s total stimulus now stands at some S$60 billion (US$41.7 billion), or 12 per cent of GDP.

Also on Monday, Malaysia topped up its previously announced 250 billion ringgit (US$57.4 billion) stimulus with a further 10 billion ringgit to fund enhanced wage subsidies. That move followed complaints from the corporate sector that the initial measures did not pay enough attention to the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises

Rounding off the past two days of Asian stimulus blitzes is Thailand, which on Tuesday unveiled a new 1.9 trillion baht (US$58 billion) package – worth about 9 per cent of GDP – that is partly funded by US$30.6 billion of new borrowings.


Also on Tuesday in
Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati hinted to lawmakers that the government might soon join its neighbours in further boosting stimulus measures.

Its 436.1 trillion rupiah (US$26.36 billion) worth of emergency health care and economic stimulus measures unveiled thus far amounts to just 2.5 per cent of GDP.

Analysts told This Week in Asia the stimulus measures were not without downsides. The way the injections are allocated by governments can also be a matter of controversy.

Terraces sit empty in riverside restaurants and bars at Boat Quay in Singapore. Photo: Bloomberg

Stephen Innes, global chief market strategist at forex trader Axicorp, said there could be a case of “policy fatigue setting in where [fiscal measures] are almost expected not to work”.

On how the funds would be used, Innes said governments needed to strike a balance between paying for wage subsidies so that companies – especially small firms – could retain workers, and handing out transfers directly to citizens. But a lot of such decisions had political undertones, he said.

Innes pointed to Malaysia’s initial 250 billion ringgit package, in which the direct fiscal injection of around 25 billion ringgit was skewed heavily towards citizens.

The measures were unveiled by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin weeks after he seized power from elder statesman Mahathir Mohamad in a controversial political coup.

Compared with Singapore – which has allocated the bulk of its stimulus to wage subsidies – the “environment in Malaysia is riskier because there’s different political divisions”, Innes said.

Analysts are also keeping an eye on the fiscal health of countries as they roll out their respective borrow-and-spend measures.

In announcing the new stimulus round on Tuesday, Thailand’s finance minister Uttama Savanayana said its debt-to-GDP ratio was likely to rise to 57 per cent next year – below a self-imposed limit of 60 per cent.

Song, the Singapore-based economist, said with jobs and livelihoods at stake, even countries with the most vulnerable fiscal positions were throwing in the kitchen sink to deal with the economic fallout.

Things might get “tricky” if these countries found themselves needing external help, he said.

Like in the EU, where regional powerhouse Germany is resisting the idea of “European crisis bonds”, Asia’s wealthier nations might have little appetite to bail out at-risk neighbours, Song said. “I suppose this is where the multilateral institutions have to step up, whether the World Bank, Asian Development Bank or [the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank]”.


Bhavan Jaipragas
Bhavan is Asia Correspondent for the SCMP, covering breaking news, politics,

US 'wasted' two months before preparing for the coronavirus pandemic and only placed bulk orders for N95 masks in mid-March after pleas from frontline workers 

A review of federal purchasing contracts shows federal agencies largely waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks 

Federal agencies also held off on ordering mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers 

By that time, hospitals were treating thousands of infected patients and were pleading for shipments from the Strategic National Stockpile 

Cache of supplies was created more than 20 years ago to help bridge gaps in the medical and pharmaceutical supply chains during a national emergency 

HO declared the outbreak a global public health emergency on January 30 but Trump assured the American people that the virus was 'very well under control' 

Trump declared a national emergency on March 13 

'We basically wasted two months,' Kathleen Sebelius, health and human services secretary during the Obama administration, said

By ASSOCIATED PRESS PUBLISHED: 6 April 2020

As the first alarms sounded in early January that an outbreak of a novel coronavirus in China might ignite a global pandemic, the Trump administration squandered nearly two months that could have been used to bolster the federal stockpile of critically needed medical supplies and equipment.

A review of federal purchasing contracts by The Associated Press shows federal agencies largely waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers.

By that time, hospitals in several states were treating thousands of infected patients without adequate equipment and were pleading for shipments from the Strategic National Stockpile.

That federal cache of supplies was created more than 20 years ago to help bridge gaps in the medical and pharmaceutical supply chains during a national emergency.

In this March 24, 2020, file photo stacks of medical supplies are housed at the Jacob Javits Center that will become a temporary hospital in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in New York. A review of federal purchasing contracts by The Associated Press shows federal agencies waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers

Now, three months into the crisis, that stockpile is nearly drained just as the numbers of patients needing critical care is surging. Some state and local officials report receiving broken ventilators and decade-old dry-rotted masks.

'We basically wasted two months,' Kathleen Sebelius, health and human services secretary during the Obama administration, told AP.

As early as mid-January, U.S. officials could see that hospitals in China's Hubei province were overwhelmed with infected patients, with many left dependent on ventilator machines to breathe. Italy soon followed, with hospitals scrambling for doctors, beds and equipment.

HHS did not respond to questions about why federal officials waited to order medical supplies until stocks were running critically low. But President Donald Trump has asserted that the federal government should take a back seat to states when it comes to dealing with the pandemic.

Trump and his appointees have urged state and local governments, and hospitals, to buy their own masks and breathing machines, saying requests to the dwindling national stockpile should be a last resort.

'The notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile,' Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and adviser, said at a White House briefing Thursday. 'It's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use.'

Experts in emergency preparedness and response have expressed dismay at such statements, saying the federal government must take the lead in ensuring medical supplies are available and distributed where they are needed most.

'The notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile,' Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and adviser, said at a White House briefing Thursday. 'It's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use'

Jared Kushner gets masks to NYC hospitals at Trump demand

Now, three months into the crisis, that stockpile is nearly drained just as the numbers of patients needing critical care is surging. Some state and local officials report receiving broken ventilators and decade-old dry-rotted masks.

 'We basically wasted two months,' Kathleen Sebelius, health and human services secretary during the Obama administration, told AP. As early as mid-January, U.S. officials could see that hospitals in China's Hubei province were overwhelmed with infected patients, with many left dependent on ventilator machines to breathe. Italy soon followed, with hospitals scrambling for doctors, beds and equipment.

 HHS did not respond to questions about why federal officials waited to order medical supplies until stocks were running critically low. 

But President Donald Trump has asserted that the federal government should take a back seat to states when it comes to dealing with the pandemic. Trump and his appointees have urged state and local governments, and hospitals, to buy their own masks and breathing machines, saying requests to the dwindling national stockpile should be a last resort.

 'The notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile,' Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and adviser, said at a White House briefing Thursday. 'It's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use.' 

Experts in emergency preparedness and response have expressed dismay at such statements, saying the federal government must take the lead in ensuring medical supplies are available and distributed where they are needed most. 

'The notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile,' Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and adviser, said at a White House briefing Thursday. 'It's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use' 

 'The notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile,' Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and adviser, said at a White House briefing Thursday. 'It's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use'

 'States do not have the purchasing power of the federal government. They do not have the ability to run a deficit like the federal government. They do not have the logistical power of the federal government,' said Sebelius, who served as governor of Kansas before running the nation's health care system.

Because of the fractured federal response to COVID-19, state governors say they're now bidding against federal agencies and each other for scarce supplies, driving up prices.

'You now literally will have a company call you up and say, "Well, California just outbid you,"' Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, D-N.Y., said Tuesday. 'It's like being on eBay with 50 other states, bidding on a ventilator.'

For nearly a month, Trump rebuffed calls from Cuomo and others to use his authority under the Defense Production Act to order companies to increase production of ventilators and personal protective equipment. He suggested the private sector was acting sufficiently on its own.

More than three months after China revealed the first COVID-19 cases, Trump finally relented last week, saying he will order companies to ramp up production of critical supplies. By then, confirmed cases of COVID-19 within the United States had surged to the highest in the world. Now, the number of people infected in the U.S. has climbed to more than 337,000 and deaths have topped 9,600.

Trump spent January and February playing down the threat from the new virus. He derided warnings of pandemic reaching the U.S. as a hoax perpetrated by Democrats and the media. As the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global public health emergency on January 30, Trump assured the American people that the virus was 'very well under control' and he predicted 'a very good ending.'

His administration was so confident that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Febuary 7 that the government had airlifted nearly 18 tons of donated respirator masks, surgical masks, gowns and other medical supplies to China.

On February 24, the White House sent Congress an initial $2.5 billion funding request to address the coronavirus outbreak. The next day, federal health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the virus was spreading quickly in the US and predicted that disruptions to daily life could be 'severe,' including school and business closures.

In this March 5, 2020, file photo, Dr. Deborah Birx, Ambassador and White House coronavirus response coordinator, holds a 3M N95 mask as Vice President Mike Pence visits 3M headquarters in Maplewood, Minnesota. The government still hadn't ordered supplies for frontline workers

Trump suggests NY healthcare workers may be stealing face masks

Unfazed, HHS Secretary Alex Azar told lawmakers on February 27 that 'the immediate risk to the American public remains low.'

During those crucial early weeks when the US could have been tracking the spread of the disease and containing it, hardly anyone was being tested after a series of federal blunders led to a shortage of tests and testing capacity, as AP reported last month.

Without data showing how widespread the disease was, federal and state governments failed to prepare.

By the middle of March, hospitals in New York, Seattle and New Orleans were reporting a surge in sick patients. Doctors and nurses took to social media to express their alarm at dwindling supplies of such basic equipment as masks and gowns.

Trump accused some Democratic governors of exaggerating the need and derided those that criticized the federal response as complainers and snakes.

'I want them to be appreciative,' Trump said on March 27.

At the start of the crisis, an HHS spokeswoman said the Strategic National Stockpile had about 13 million N95 respirator masks, which filter out about 95 per cent of all liquid or airborne particles and are critical to prevent health care workers from becoming infected. That's just a small fraction of what hospitals need to protect their workers, who normally would wear a new mask for each patient, but who now are often issued only one to last for days.

Trump during a White House briefing on March 26 claimed that he had inherited an 'empty shelf' from the Obama administration, but added that 'we´re really filling it up, and we fill it up rapidly.'

Federal purchasing records, however, show the Trump administration delayed making big orders for additional supplies until the virus had taken root and was spreading.

By the middle of March, hospitals in New York, Seattle and New Orleans were reporting a surge in sick patients. A patient is loaded into an ambulance, Tuesday, March 10, 2020, at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington on March 10

Paediatric nurse speaks out on the N95 masks shortage

HHS first announced its intent to purchase 500 million N95 masks on March 4, with plans to distribute them over the next 18 months. The following day, Congress passed an $8.3 billion coronavirus spending bill, more than three times what the White House had originally asked for.

Eight days later, on March 13, Trump declared the outbreak a national emergency. That was almost six weeks after the WHO's action. By then, thousands of U.S. schools had closed, the National Basketball Association had put its season on temporary hiatus and there were 1,700 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country.

The government had already sent tens of thousands of masks, gloves and gowns from the stockpile to Washington state, which was hit early with a coronavirus outbreak. But state officials even then said the supplies weren't enough.

Federal contracting records show that HHS had made an initial order March 12 for $4.8million of N95 masks from 3M, the largest U.S.-based manufacturer, which had ramped up production weeks earlier in response to the pandemic. HHS followed up with a larger $173 million order on March 21, but those contracts don't require 3M to start making deliveries to the national stockpile until the end of April. That's after the White House has projected the pandemic will reach its peak.

On Thursday, Trump threatened in a Tweet to 'hit 3M hard' through a Defense Production Act order, saying the company 'will have a big price to pay!' He gave no specifics.

HHS declined this past week to say how many N95 masks it has on hand. But as of March 31, the White House said more than 11.6 million had been distributed to state and local governments from the national stockpile - about 90 percent of what was available at the start of the year.

Dr. Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS, testified before Congress last month that the country would need roughly 3.5 billion N-95 respirators to get through the pandemic, but the national supply chain then had just about 1 percent of that amount.

Federal contracting records show that HHS had made an initial order March 12 for $4.8million of N95 masks from 3M. In this March 24, 2020, file photo stacks of medical supplies are housed at the Jacob Javits Center

Stacks of medical supplies are housed at the Jacob Javits Center that will become a temporary hospital in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Tuesday, March 24, 2020, in New York

Greg Burel, director of the Strategic National Stockpile from 2007 until his retirement at the start of this year, said the cache was only ever intended to serve as a short-term 'bridge-stock.'

The stockpile was created in 1999 to prevent supply-chain disruptions for the predicted Y2K computer problems. It expanded after 9/11 to prepare for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks. Congress provided money in 2006 to prepare for a potential influenza pandemic, though Burel said much of that stock was used during the H1N1 flu outbreak three years later.

'There's never enough money to buy everything that we want to see on those shelves,' said Burel, who stressed the stockpile uses its annual funding to prepare for a wide array of potential threats.

'Most of the time, commercially available products like masks can be bought in quantity at the time of an event.'


This time, it hasn't worked out that way. As AP reported last month, much of the world´s supply of N95 masks and other basic medical supplies is made in China, the first nation hit by COVID-19. As a result, the Chinese government required its producers to reserve N95 respirators for domestic use. China resumed exports of the precious masks only in recent days.

Experts are now worried the U.S. will also soon exhaust its supply of ventilators, which can cost upward of $12,000 each.

The White House said Tuesday that it had already distributed nearly half the breathing machines in the stockpile, which at the beginning of March had 16,660; some of them dated back to the flurry of post-9/11 purchasing. An additional 2,425 were out for maintenance.

Cuomo said New York may need as many as 40,000 ventilators to deal with the outbreak that is already overwhelming hospitals there.

Medical workers take in patients at a special coronavirus intake area at Maimonides Medical Center in the Borough Park neighborhood which has seen an upsurge of (COVID-19) patients during the pandemic on April 5, in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City

Throughout March, governors and mayors of big cities urged Trump to use his authority under the Defense Production Act to direct private companies to ramp up production of ventilators. It wasn't until last week that Trump finally said he would use that power to order General Motors to begin manufacturing ventilators - work the company had already announced was underway.

The federal government had made an effort to prepare for a surge in the need for ventilators, but it was allowed to languish. Since 2014, HHS has paid a private company, Respironics Inc., $13.8 million to develop a cheaper, less complicated ventilator that could be bought in bulk to replenish the national stockpile. In September, HHS placed a $32.8 million order with the Dutch-owned company for 10,000 of the new model, set for delivery by 2022, federal contracts show.

Respironics' parent company, Royal Philips, said it's planning to double U.S. production of ventilators to 2,000 a week by the end of May.

Steve Klink, a spokesman for Royal Philips in Amsterdam, said the company is now focused on producing its other commercial models and will deliver the first ventilators to the national stockpile by August, long after the White House projects COVID-19 cases will peak.

Trump, who pledged on March 27 that his administration would ensure that 100,000 additional ventilators would be made available 'within 100 days,' said on Thursday that he'll use the Defense Production Act to order Respironics and other ventilator makers to step up production.

It's not clear that Trump's order would translate into the 100,000 new ventilators he promised. In a House Oversight and Reform Committee briefing last week, top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials hedged, saying 100,000 ventilators would be available by late June 'at the earliest.'

Cuomo predicted on Friday that New York would run out within days. With coronavirus deaths in his state surging, the governor vowed to use his authority to seize ventilators, masks and protective gear from private hospitals that aren´t utilizing them.

Meanwhile, federal health authorities are lowering standards.

New guidance from the Food and Drug Administration allows hospitals to use emergency ventilators typically used in ambulances and anesthesia gas machines in place of standard ventilators. The agency also said nightstand CPAP machines used to treat sleep apnea and snoring could also be used to keep coronavirus patients breathing, as a last resort.

The CDC advised health care workers last month to use homemade masks or bandanas if they run out of proper gear. Across the country, hospitals have issued urgent pleas for volunteers who know how to sew.

President Trump provided his own input, suggesting that Americans without access to factory-produced masks could cover their faces with scarves.

'A scarf is highly recommended by the professionals,' Trump said during a White House briefing Wednesday. 'And I think, in a certain way, depending on the fabric - I think, in a certain way, a scarf is better. It´s actually better.'

HOW NEW YORK IS USING BIPAP MACHINES AS VENTILATORS TO SAVE COVID-19 PATIENTS AND HOW THE TWO DEVICES DIFFER

As a critical shortage of ventilators looms, New York Governor Andre Cuomo revealed Friday that the state will begin repurposing BiPAP machines to sustain severely ill coronavirus patients.

Last week, the state resorted to converting anesthesia machines to supplement its stockpile of an estimated 6,500 ventilators.

Thursday, Cuomo said he wasn't sure if BiPAP machines could or would be used as ventilators, but by Friday the state had included them in the list of alternatives it was pursuing.

WHAT IS A BIPAP MACHINE?

BiPAP is an acronym for bilevel positive airway pressure. These and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines are used to treat patients with sleep apnea.

People with sleep apnea may stop breathing during while asleep for a number of reasons, and the machine ensures they continue to have normal respiration.

One of the machine's positive pressure airways helps to push air into the lungs while a second is set to a lower pressure that makes it easier for a patient to breathe out normally.

The alternation of these two components is set to match the patient's normal inhalation and exhalation pattern, which makes it feel more comfortable and similar to natural breathing when in use.

Pressure is delivered through a tube connected to a face mask that's worn at night.

HOW IS A BIPAP MACHIE DIFFERENT FROM A VENTILATOR?

Ventilators are typically reserved for only the sickest patients who may not be able to breathe on their own at all, as opposed to sleep apnea patients, whose breathing is abruptly interrupted periodically, but whose lungs are generally functional.

So-called mechanical ventilation is both more invasive and more forceful than a BiPap.

Patients on ventilators are intubated, meaning a tube is threaded through the mouth and airway and the machine creates the contraction and expansion action their lungs are no longer able to do on their own.

They can, however, be used less invasively, with a mask like patients on BiPAP machines use.


HOW CAN A BIPAP MACHINE BE USED AS A VENTILATOR?

Both machines broadly help the lungs when they're struggling to function.

For one, the settings have to be adjusted to not just augment the patient's inhalations and exhalations, but to do the work for them.

To convert BiPAPs, which are typically used with masks, to be used on intubated patients, scientists at Northwell Health in New York City 3-D printed a T-shaped adapter.

Their method has been tested successfully on dozens of patients.

At the University of California, Berkeley, team reconfigured a BiPAP machine so that it can take in oxygen from a tank, rather than just drawing on the air around it.

Endotracheal tubes that go down the windpipe were then attached in addition to a double-filtering system to ensure that pathogens like the coronavirus don't get in or out.

Already, the FDA has cleared the way for sleep apnea machines like these to be used as ventilators, a previously unapproved use for BiPAP or similar CPAP machines.


DO FACE MASKS MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND WHAT SHOULD YOU WEAR IF YOU CAN'T GET ONE?

Americans are increasingly being spotted wearing face masks in public amid the coronavirus pandemic, as are people are around the globe.

Soon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may advise all Americans to cover their faces when they leave the house, the Washington Post reported.

The agency is weighing that recommendation after initially telling Americans that they didn't need to wear masks and that anything other than a high-grade N95 medical mask would do little to prevent infection any way.

FACE MASKS DO HELP PREVENT INFECTION - BUT THEY'RE NOT ALL CREATED EQUAL

Research on how well various types of masks and face coverings varies but, recently, and in light of the pandemic of COVID-19, experts are increasingly leaning toward the notion that something is better than nothing.

A University of Oxford study published on March 30 concluded that surgical masks are just as effective at preventing respiratory infections as N95 masks for doctors, nurses and other health care workers.

It's too early for their to be reliable data on how well they prevent infection with COVID-19, but the study found the thinner, cheaper masks do work in flu outbreaks.

The difference between surgical or face masks and N95 masks lies in the size of particles that can - and more importantly, can't - get though the materials.

N95 respirators are made of thick, tightly woven and molded material that fits tightly over the face and can stop 95 percent of all airborne particles, while surgical masks are thinner, fit more loosely, and more porous.

This makes surgical masks much more comfortable to breathe and work in, but less effective at stopping small particles from entering your mouth and nose.

Droplets of saliva and mucous from coughs and sneezes are very small, and viral particles themselves are particularly tiny - in fact, they're about 20-times smaller than bacteria.

For this reason, a JAMA study published this month still contended that people without symptoms should not wear surgical masks, because there is not proof the gear will protect them from infection - although they may keep people who are coughing and sneezing from infecting others.

But the Oxford analysis of past studies - which has not yet been peer reviewed - found that surgical masks were worth wearing and didn't provide statistically less protection than N95 for health care workers around flu patients.

However, any face mask is only as good as other health and hygiene practices. Experts universally agree that there's simply no replacement for thorough, frequent hand-washing for preventing disease transmission.

Some think the masks may also help to 'train' people not to touch their faces, while others argue that the unfamiliar garment will just make people do it more, actually raising infection risks.

If the CDC does instruct Americans to wear masks, it could create a second issue: Hospitals already face shortages of masks and other PPE.

WHAT TO USE TO COVER YOUR FACE IF YOU DON'T HAVE A MASK

So the agency may recommend regular citizens use alternatives like cloth masks or bandanas.

'Homemade masks theoretically could offer some protection if the materials and fit were optimized, but this is uncertain,' Dr Jeffrey Duchin, a Seattle health official told the Washington Post.

A 2013 study found that next to a surgical mask, a vacuum cleaner bag provided the best material for a homemade mask.

After a vacuum bag, kitchen towels were fairly protective, but uncomfortable. Masks made of T-shirts were very tolerable, but only worked a third as well as surgical mask. The Cambridge University researchers concluded that homemade masks should only be used 'as a last resort.'

But as the pandemic has spread to more than 164,000 people worldwide, it might be time to consider last resort options.

US 'wasted' two months before preparing for coronavirus pandemic and ordered N95 masks in mid-March

The EPA’s “Enforcement Moratorium” During The Coronavirus Outbreak Is Coming Under Fire
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION AGENCY
“This pandemic isn’t an excuse for polluters to ignore the law and for EPA to let them get away with it,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said.

Zahra Hirji BuzzFeed News Reporter Posted on April 6, 2020

Drew Angerer / Getty Images
EPA head Andrew Wheeler testifies at a Congressional hearing in March 2020. 

WHEELER IS A FOSSIL FUEL LOBBYIST

Lawmakers are pushing back against a sweeping rollback of pollution regulations recently announced by the Environmental Protection Agency in response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a letter from Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey shared with BuzzFeed News.

On March 26, the EPA announced a temporary relaxing of enforcement rules, allowing factories, power plants, and other companies to stop conducting routine tests for pollutants and reporting them to the agency if they could claim the pandemic had led to a shortage of staff or other operational challenges.

“This pandemic isn’t an excuse for polluters to ignore the law and for EPA to let them get away with it,” Warren told BuzzFeed News in an email. “It’s absurd that Donald Trump and former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler are using this public health and economic crisis as a cover to roll back environmental laws. The government should be focused on protecting public health now, not making it worse.”

The new EPA rule states that the agency would not issue fines for "violations of routine compliance monitoring, integrity testing, sampling, laboratory analysis, training, and reporting or certification obligations in situations where the EPA agrees that COVID-19 was the cause of the noncompliance.” The guidance is retroactively effective to March 13 with no current end date in place.

Companies are still being required to maintain various records and must turn them over to the agency upon request, according to the EPA. Moreover, companies are being told to “make every effort to comply with their environmental compliance obligations.” EPA has said it will review all identified violations on a case-by-case basis.

“The claims made by the Senators’ are false,” an EPA spokesperson told BuzzFeed News in an email. “EPA’s enforcement authority and responsibility remains active. It is not a nationwide waiver of environmental rules.”

In their letter, Warren and Markey asked the EPA to respond to six questions about the rationale for the new policy and who weighed in on it, clarification on how it will be carried out, and what will factor into the decision to end it.

“Did you meet with or communicate with officials or lobbyists representing the oil and gas, coal, automobile, or other polluting industries prior to announcing this decision? Please provide a record of all meetings and communications regarding this decision with these industry representatives,” the senators wrote.

The EPA is refusing to say how many companies have requested noncompliance waivers under the new policy, E&E News has reported.

The senators also asked about whether the agency conducted any analyses to determine how the policy will impact pollution levels and what that could mean for environmental justice communities.

Some public health experts have warned that people suffering from lung damage due to poor air quality, such as from air pollution, could experience serious complications if they contract the coronavirus.



Zahra Hirji is a science reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC