COVID-19 death toll may be 3 times higher than official record, study finds

Deidre McPhillips
CNNDigital
Friday, March 11, 2022 

The COVID-19 pandemic may have been three times deadlier than the reported death toll suggests.

Globally, official reports through the end of 2021 show that 6 million people have died directly because of COVID-19. But researchers estimate in a new study that from the start of 2020 through the end of 2021, there have been at least 18 million more deaths than researchers would typically expect over the course of two years.

Some of this excess mortality may have been missed in official counts due to lack of diagnostic or reporting resources. But some may be attributed to other indirect effects of the pandemic, such as lack of access to health care, behaviour changes during lockdowns or economic turmoil. There was not enough data to distinguish the cause of death.

Excess mortality is "a much more accurate measurement of the true impact of the pandemic" precisely because of the known issues in underreporting of direct COVID-19 deaths and because of the deadly indirect effects of the pandemic, said Haidong Wang, a demography specialist at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Researchers, led by Wang, analyzed all-cause mortality for 187 countries, using weekly or monthly reported data when available and creating models to estimate for others. Their study was published Thursday in the journal The Lancet.

They found that seven countries accounted for more than half of all excess deaths over the past two years: India, the United States, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia and Pakistan. There were more than 4 million excess deaths in India alone and more than 1.1 million in the United States.

For every 1,000 people in the world, the pandemic caused more than one excess death over the course of two years, according to the study.

The World Health Organization has also advocated for the importance of understanding broader COVID-related mortality. In February 2021, an advisory group was formed in partnership with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs to explore the topic.

"Gaps in high-quality, timely and disaggregated data are a major challenge in global health," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the group's inaugural meeting. "COVID-19 has created an unprecedented demand for this data. While we're all familiar with daily death tolls, total mortality figures are likely far higher."

An information page for the advisory group promotes the importance of understanding this data sooner rather than later to build an equitable response.

"Deaths directly attributable to COVID-19 provide only a narrow perspective of the wide ranging harms being caused by the pandemic. The collateral damage from COVID-19 is much wider," says a statement on the group's website. "It is important to quantify this now as it can inform choices that governments must make regarding prioritization between routine and emergency health systems."

Understanding excess mortality is also critically important to future estimates of global population and pandemic preparedness. But a recent WHO assessment of health information systems capacity found that in parts of Africa, only 10% of all deaths were being registered.

According to the new study, excess mortality rates over the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic have varied greatly by country and by region.

Bolivia, Bulgaria and Eswatini had the highest estimated excess mortality rate, each with more than six excess deaths for every 1,000 people. Excess mortality rates were also particularly high in their respective regions: Andean Latin America, Eastern and Central Europe, and southern sub-Saharan Africa.

But five countries reported fewer deaths in 2020 and 2021 than prior trends would have predicted: Iceland, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand and Taiwan.

Cause of death needs to be investigated more, but the hypothesis is that strict lockdown policies in these countries led to fewer deaths from external factors such as traffic accidents, Wang said. Masking and social distancing have also led to reduced flu mortality in many countries.

"That's the impact of mediation policies or intervention strategies on all-cause mortality," he said.

Excess mortality due to the COVID-19 pandemic varied widely within the United States, according to the study. Per capita, it was estimated to be nearly twice as high in Mississippi as it was in the nation overall, for example, but only half as high in Washington state.

"Some excess deaths in Texas are the result of the blackout there last year. And there are always deaths due to natural disasters," said Bob Anderson, chief mortality statistician at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was not involved in the new study.

"To some extent, the quality of reporting will depend on resources available to do things like postmortem testing. The jurisdictions with medical examiner's offices that have resources for death investigation are going to tend to do better than your local elected coroner."

AMERIKA; WHITE SUPREMACIST SOCIETY
Black Panther director mistaken for bank robber in Atlanta, US

Movie director Ryan Coogler was briefly handcuffed by the police after trying to withdraw more than $10,000 from a bank.

Photo: AP 

PUBLISHED A DAY AGO
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Movie director Ryan Coogler was briefly handcuffed by Atlanta police after he was mistaken for a robber when he passed a teller a note while trying to withdraw a large amount of cash from his account, police said.

The Black Panther director, who is Black, walked into a Bank of America branch, January 7 and passed the teller a withdrawal slip with a note written on the back asking her to “be discreet when handing him the cash,” according to a police report.

He was trying to withdraw more than $10,000, and the teller “received an alert notification” on her computer and quickly alerted her manager that Coogler was trying to rob the bank, the report says. The bank employee is a Black woman, the report says.

Police responding to the bank branch in the upscale Buckhead neighbourhood saw a black Lexus SUV parked out front with the engine running. An officer talked to the male driver who said he was waiting for Coogler, who was inside the bank. A female passenger gave police the same information.

A description of Coogler given by the driver matched the description of the man reported to have been trying to rob the bank, the report says. The officer detained both the driver and passenger in the back of a police vehicle but they were not placed in handcuffs.

Two other officers had gone inside the bank and led Coogler out in handcuffs.

Body camera video released by police shows officers approaching Coogler from behind as he stands at the counter wearing a light grey hooded sweatshirt, a black cap, sunglasses and a white mask. As an officer pulls his gun and another tells him to put his hands behind his back, Coogler says, “Whoa, whoa, what’s going on?”

As he’s led from the bank, Coogler tells them he’s just trying to pull money out of his own account.

Police determined the whole thing was a mistake by the teller and Coogler “was never in the wrong,” the report says The handcuffs were immediately removed and the other two people were released from the back of the patrol vehicle.

Police can be seen on body camera video explaining to Coogler that they were responding to a call of a bank robbery and had to take appropriate precautions. Still sitting in the back of the police SUV, Coogler is seen on video looking down and shaking his head as the officer explains.

Coogler explained to the officers that a medical assistant who works for him prefers to be paid in cash. When he withdraws a large sum to pay her, he said, he passes the teller a note because he doesn’t want the cash run through a money counter right there because it attracts attention and makes him feel unsafe.

“I don’t know who made what call, who did what, but I just had guns drawn on me for taking money out of my own account,” Coogler told police.

The teller never indicated there was a problem and when she went to talk to her manager, other bank employees kept asking if he was being taken care of, he told officers. The next thing he knew, he heard guns being pulled from their holsters.

Another body camera video shows the teller explaining that Coogler gave her the withdrawal slip and after he inserted his debit card and asked to make a withdrawal, he pointed at the note instead of answering her questions. When she asked for his ID and he gave her a California ID, she said the transaction seemed odd and her “stomach started turning.”

When her computer notified her that it was a high-risk transaction, she went to speak to her manager. When she explained Coogler wanted $12,000 and the transaction made her feel uncomfortable, her manager suggested going to talk to him, she told officers. But she refused because she was pregnant and did not know if he had a gun, she said. She called 911.

“This situation should never have happened,” Coogler said in a statement to The New York Times, but he added that Bank of America “worked with me and addressed it to my satisfaction and we have moved on.”

A representative for Coogler did not respond to messages from The Associated Press.

“We deeply regret that this incident occurred. It should never have happened and we have apologised to Mr. Coogler,” a statement from Bank of America says.

Released in 2018, the Marvel superhero film Black Panther became the year’s biggest film release, earning more than a billion dollars worldwide and inspiring “Wakanda Forever” salutes everywhere. The film was nominated for best picture; Coogler shared in the honour as one of the film’s producers. Work on the sequel has been happening in Georgia. The film is scheduled for release in November 2022.

While the director is best known for Black Panther, he also co-wrote the Rocky spin-off Creed. His breakout movie was writing and directing Fruitvale Station, about the last day of Oscar Grant, who was fatally shot by police in the Bay Area in 2009.

Pressure builds on Biden to repay Venezuela’s goodwill moves

By JOSHUA GOODMAN and REGINA GARCIA CANO

1 of 6

Gas prices are displayed at a Mobil gas station in West Hollywood, Calif., Tuesday, March 8, 2022. The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. hits a record $4.17 on Tuesday as the country prepares to ban Russian oil imports. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)


MIAMI (AP) — Pressure is building on the Biden administration to begin unwinding sanctions on Venezuela after President Nicolas Maduro freed two American prisoners and promised to resume negotiations with his opponents.

Maduro’s goodwill gesture came during a weekend trip to Caracas by senior White House and State Department officials that caught off guard Maduro’s friends and foes alike.

While the Biden administration is saying little about what was discussed behind closed doors, a smug Maduro — who has sought face-to-face talks with the U.S. for years — bragged that careful protocol was followed, with the flags of the two nations “beautifully united, as they should be.”

For the past five years, the U.S. has, with little success, tried everything from punishing oil sanctions to criminal indictments and support for clandestine coups in its campaign to remove Maduro and restore what it sees as Venezuela’s stolen democracy.

But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has upended the world order, forcing the U.S. to rethink its national security priorities.

Hostile petrostates under U.S. sanctions like Iran and Venezuela are seen as the most likely to benefit as President Joe Biden seeks to mitigate the impact from a ban on Russian oil imports that may aggravate the highest inflation in four decades.

Venezuelan oil might help ease inflation pressures, at least psychologically and in the medium term, even if it would take time for significant supplies to reach the U.S.

But while Venezuela is eager to win relaxation of the economically devastating sanctions, there were signs Thursday it’s not ready to immediately abandon ties to key ally Russia.

Only days after the U.S. talks, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez met in Turkey with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sideline of his talks with Ukraine, according to a photo tweet from Russia’s embassy in Caracas, though no details of their discussions were released.

Still, the approach has changed in Washington.

“Clearly at some level a decision was made to abandon some of the pillars of the U.S. policy toward Venezuela these past few years,” said Brian Winter, vice president of the Council of the Americas. “But until we know precisely what the Biden administration is trying to achieve, it’ll be difficult to evaluate how far this détente can go.”

U.S. officials have not detailed any other specific outcomes of the talks, which were led by Juan González, who is responsible for Latin America on the National Security Council. It was the first Venezuela visit by a White House official since Hugo Chávez led the country in the late 1990s, and a rare opportunity to discuss policy issues with the Maduro government.

One official described it as “a constructive, diplomatic but very candid dialogue” that did not entail any quid pro quo but allowed the Biden administration to share its “view of the world” with Maduro.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that it was an encouraging sign that Maduro decided to return to negotiations in Mexico with his opponents.

But neither she nor anyone else in the administration would say how the U.S. would reciprocate, if at all.

“There are a range of issues moving forward, but right now we’re just celebrating the return of two Americans,” Psaki said.

But some American lawmakers are hopeful that direct talks with Maduro can produce meaningful changes. Rep. Gregory Meeks, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, applauded Biden’s efforts and said he should next suspend oil sanctions to provide support for negotiations without letting up pressure on human rights abusers and corrupt officials.

“The Trump-era oil sanctions currently in place have only deepened the suffering of the Venezuelan people and failed to weaken Maduro’s control of the country,” Meeks said in a statement Wednesday.

One of the Americans released, oil executive Gustavo Cardenas, had been imprisoned in Venezuela since 2017, when he and several colleagues at Houston-based Citgo were lured to Caracas for what they thought was a meeting with their parent company, state run oil giant PDVSA.

Instead, masked security officers bearing assault rifles burst into a conference room and arrested the men. Later they were sentenced on corruption charges stemming from a never-executed plan to refinance some $4 billion in Citgo bonds by offering a 50% stake in the company as collateral.

Cardenas, in a statement Wednesday, said his imprisonment of more than four years “has caused a lot of suffering and pain, much more than I can explain with my words.”

The eight Americans who remain imprisoned in Venezuela, including five of Cardenas’ colleagues from Citgo, are an important obstacle to normal relations with Maduro.

But even if a release of the remaining prisoners seems remote, Winter says there is a small window now to keep momentum building, as the U.S. gears up for a long geopolitical standoff with Russia.

Among the options available to the U.S. is allowing Chevron — the last remaining American oil company in Venezuela — to boost production and possibly resume oil exports to Gulf Coast refineries tailor made to process the country’s tar-like crude, a U.S. official said prior to the weekend’s shuttle diplomacy. Under U.S. sanctions, Chevron is banned from negotiating with Maduro and doing all but basic upkeep on wells it operates in connection with PDVSA.

There has also been speculation the U.S. could seek to reopen its embassy in Caracas, which has been shuttered since the Trump administration and other governments in 2019 recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.

Much depends on how much Maduro sets aside his authoritarian impulses.

Even as he hosts top U.S. officials, Maduro has shown little sign he is willing to abandon Russian President Vladimir Putin. He spoke by phone with the Russian leader last week in a show of support and attended a rally in Caracas where Putin’s ambassador received a roaring ovation from ruling socialist party stalwarts.

Winter said Maduro will also have to show a real willingness to negotiate in earnest with his opponents and not use the talks as he has in the past as a delaying tactic to ease international pressure.

Opposition hardliners, as well as their allies in the U.S. Congress, have started to chastise Biden for abandoning a multilateral policy of isolating Maduro.

Wherever the outreach ends up, some Venezuelan government insiders are already giddy over the prospects of a better future if not the return to the days when they could buy up real estate in the U.S. and spend weekends in Miami.

“It’s the beginning of the end of the conflict,” quipped one wealthy Venezuelan businessman who has been a longtime target of U.S. federal investigators. He spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive bilateral issues. “Now you’ll have to write about Russia and the oligarchs that the U.S. is going to pursue there.”

___

Associated Press writer Joshua Goodman reported this story in Miami and AP writer Regina Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela. AP writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

AMERIKA; WHITE SUPREMACIST SOCIETY

SPLC report: Hate groups in decline as views hit mainstream

By AARON MORRISON

March 9, 2022

 White nationalist demonstrators walk into Lee park surrounded by counter demonstrators in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. In its annual report, released Wednesday, March 9, 2022, the Southern Poverty Law Center said it identified 733 active hate groups in 2021, down from the 838 counted in 2020 and the 940 counted in 2019. Hate groups had risen to a historic high of 1,021 in 2018, said the law center, which tracks racism, xenophobia and far right militias.

(AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

The number of white nationalist, neo-Nazi and anti-government extremist groups across the U.S. fell for a third straight year in 2021, even as some groups were reinvigorated by the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol last year and by the ongoing culture wars over the pandemic and school curriculums.

In its annual report, released Wednesday, the Southern Poverty Law Center said it identified 733 active hate groups in 2021, down from the 838 counted in 2020 and the 940 counted in 2019. Hate groups had risen to a historic high of 1,021 in 2018, said the law center, which tracks racism, xenophobia and far right militias.

The number of anti-government groups fell to 488 in 2021, down from 566 in 2020 and 576 in 2019. Such groups peaked at 1,360 in 2012, the year former President Barack Obama was elected to a second term.

“Rather than demonstrating a decline in the power of the far right, the dropping numbers of organized hate and anti-government groups suggest that the extremist ideas that mobilize them now operate more openly in the political mainstream,” says the new report, shared with The Associated Press ahead of its release.

The Montgomery, Alabama-based law center cited several examples including Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, whose discussion of a conspiracy likening immigration from nonwhite countries to a “great replacement” of white Americans last September was welcomed by white nationalists who were linked to the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. The law center counted 98 active white nationalist groups in 2021.

The report’s release comes one day after a federal jury convicted a Texas man of storming the Capitol with a holstered handgun, in an attempt to obstruct Congress’ joint session to certify the Electoral College vote that cemented President Joe Biden’s victory over former President Donald Trump. Separately on Tuesday, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, a longtime leader of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group, was arrested on a conspiracy charge related to his alleged role in coordinating the Capitol attack.

Active Proud Boys chapters jumped to 72 in 2021, up from 43 in 2020. The rise in chapters was noteworthy considering that more than three dozen members of the group had been charged in relation to their role in the Capitol attack, according to the law center.

“After Jan. 6, in the immediate aftermath, these groups did lay low,” Susan Corke, SPLC’s Intelligence Project director, told the AP. “I had a moment of hope that was quickly extinguished when I didn’t see more mainstream Republicans condemn these groups.”

The extremist ideas expressed by active hate and anti-government groups “are increasingly normalized,” Corke added.

Beyond the Capitol attack, the law center’s report details how several factions of the far right movement have been reinvigorated by political wedge issues. Issues fueling active hate and anti-government extremist groups include the banning of critical race theory and books that discuss LGBTQ identity in public schools, coronavirus vaccine and mask mandates, and immigration.

“This movement is working feverishly to undermine democracy, but what’s more startling is that they are also coalescing around a willingness to engage in violence,” Corke said.

Slowing any push toward authoritarianism, according to the SPLC, requires elected leaders to universally embrace democratic institutions, while also protecting the right to vote for communities of color and other marginalized people. The law center has also called for better funding of prevention programs that interrupt the radicalization of young people by hate and anti-government groups.

The SPLC is a liberal advocacy organization that, in addition to monitoring hate groups, files lawsuits over justice issues and offers educational programs to counter prejudice. Frequently criticized by conservative groups as biased, the nonprofit group has faced lawsuits in the past over its designation of various organizations as hate groups.

___

Aaron Morrison, who reported from New York, is a national writer on AP’s Race & Ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter at: https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison.

A look inside the 1st official ‘safe injection sites’ in US
By JENNIFER PELTZ

March 9, 2022

1 of 10

Brian Hackel, right, an overdose prevention specialist, helps Steven Baez, a client suffering addiction, find a vein to inject intravenous drugs at an overdose prevention center, at OnPoint NYC in New York, N.Y., Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. Also known as a safe injection site, the privately run center is equipped and staffed to reverse overdoses, a bold and controversial contested response to confront opioid overdose deaths nationwide. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)


NEW YORK (AP) — Jose Collado settled in at a clean white table in a sunlit room, sang a few bars and injected himself with heroin.

After years of shooting up on streets and rooftops, he was in one of the first two facilities in the country where local officials are allowing illegal drug use in order to make it less deadly.

Equipped and staffed to reverse overdoses, New York City’s new, privately run “overdose prevention centers” are a bold and contested response to a storm tide of opioid overdose deaths nationwide.

Supporters say the sites — also known as safe injection sites or supervised consumption spaces — are humane, realistic responses to the deadliest drug crisis in U.S. history. Critics see them as illegal and defeatist answers to the harm that drugs wreak on users and communities.

To Collado, 53, the room he uses regularly is simply “a blessing.”

“They always worry about you, and they’re always taking care of you,” he says.

“They make sure that you don’t die,” adds his friend Steve Baez. At 45, he’s come close a couple of times.

In their first three months, the sites in upper Manhattan’s East Harlem and Washington Heights neighborhoods halted more than 150 overdoses during about 9,500 visits — many of them repeat visits from some 800 people in all. The sites are planning to expand to round-the-clock service later this year.

“It’s a loving environment where people can use safely and stay alive,” says Sam Rivera, the executive director of OnPoint NYC, a nonprofit that runs the centers. “We’re showing up for people who too many people view as disposable.”

Supervised drug-consumption sites go back decades in Europe, Australia and Canada. Several U.S. cities and the state of Rhode Island have approved the concept, but no authorized sites were actually operating until New York’s opened in November (researchers have documented an underground site in an undisclosed U.S. location for several years). New York’s announcement came six weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling that a planned Philadelphia site was illegal under a 1986 federal law against running a venue for illicit drug use.

Despite winning the Philadelphia case, the U.S. Justice Department indicated last month it might stop fighting such sites, saying it was evaluating them and discussing “appropriate guardrails.”

New York City’s only Republican in Congress, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, has pressed the Justice Department to shutter what see sees as “heroin shooting galleries that only encourage drug use and deteriorate our quality of life.”

She has proposed to strip federal money from any private group, state or local government that “operates or controls” a safe injection site. (Her efforts spurred a protest in lower Manhattan Wednesday by VOCAL-NY, a social service group interested in eventually opening a consumption site.)

Another New Yorker in Congress, Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney, is a leading sponsor of an addiction-fighting proposal that could make money available for such facilities. Organizers say the New York sites currently run on private donations, though their parent group gets city and state money for syringe exchange, counseling and many other services offered alongside the consumption rooms.

Several state and city officials have embraced them. But they also fueled a December protest that drew over 100 people, including U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a New York Democrat, to complain that drug programs in general are unfairly concentrated in the injection sites’ neighborhoods and kept out of whiter, wealthier areas.

“The safe consumption site is doing God’s work, but they’re doing it in the wrong place,” says Shawn Hill, who co-founded a neighborhood group called the Greater Harlem Coalition.

People bring their own drugs — of whatever type — to the consumption rooms, but they’re stocked with syringes, alcohol wipes, straws for snorting, other paraphernalia and, crucially, oxygen and the opioid-overdose-reversing drug naloxone.

Staffers, some of whom have used illegal drugs themselves, watch for signals of overconsumption or other needs, from advice on injection technique to more complicated help.

Resting a supportive hand on the shoulder of a slumping, dejected man, Adrian Feliciano encouraged him to talk with a mental health counselor — and brought one in — on a recent afternoon.

“For a lot of our folks, just providing a safe space is an introduction to services,” Feliciano, the center’s clinical and holistic care director, said afterward.

For all the services it offers and the overdoses it has turned around, OnPoint has also come up against its limits. During a 10-day span in February, two regulars died and a third was in a coma for a time after apparent overdoses elsewhere when the sites were closed at night, according to senior program director Kailin See, who believes longer hours would have saved those who died (the third person recovered).

There have been no recorded deaths in supervised injection facilities in countries that permit them, and there’s some evidence linking them to fewer overdose deaths and ambulance calls in their neighborhoods, according to a 2021 report that compiled existing studies.

The report, by the Boston-based Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, found no link between safe injection sites and the rates of various crimes, though public drug use dropped off in some places.

“If you believe in harm reduction, here’s harm reduction that saves you money” in ambulance runs, said Dr. David Rind, the think tank’s chief medical officer.

But to Jim Crotty, a former Drug Enforcement Administration official during the Obama and Trump administrations, the sites’ lifesaving purpose comes at steep social cost.

“The goal can’t simply be to keep people alive,” said Crotty, who argues that policymakers should concentrate instead on expanding drug treatment. “If you believe, like me, that doing drugs is very destructive, then the goal has to be to stop doing drugs.”

Rivera, for his part, stresses the need to stanch the flow of drugs into the U.S., rather than what he sees as blaming people in poor communities “for using the drugs that were let in.” OnPoint says staffers regularly foster, but don’t force, conversations about treatment, which many clients have already tried.

“You need to be alive to try again,” See says.

Collado has tried to quit drugs, stopping at times during his four decades of using, he said. Like many of people who use the consumption rooms, he lives on the streets.

He and Baez look out for each other. They’ve helped one another solve problems, shared money when one was broke, and tried to make sure that neither would overdose and die alone. The room, and everything offered along with it, fill that last role now, and more.

“This is my home right here,” Collado said. “This is my family.”

‘Scum of the earth’: Drug victims face Purdue Pharma owners

By GEOFF MULVIHILL and JENNIFER PELTZ

1 of 15

Cheryl Juaire holds photos of her sons, both of whom died from overdoses, Sean Merrill, left, and Corey Merrill, after making a statement during a hearing in New York, Thursday, March 10, 2022. Victims of opioids and those who have lost loved ones to the addiction crisis are unleashing their emotions on members of the family they blame for fueling the deadly epidemic. Thursday's unusual hearing is being conducted virtually in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. It is giving people the chance to confront members of the Sackler family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and tell them about the lasting pain that addiction and overdoses have had in their lives.

 (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)


NEW YORK (AP) — Angry, defiant and sometimes tearful, more than two dozen Americans whose lives were upended by the opioid crisis finally had their long-awaited chance Thursday to confront in court some members of the family they blame for fueling it.

They were unsparing as they unleashed decades of frustration and sorrow on members of the Sackler family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma over the course of a three-hour virtual hearing.

One woman played a recording from when she called 911 to get help for her overdosing son, then called one of the Sacklers the “scum of the earth.” Several displayed pictures of loved ones who died too soon because of their addictions. Many spoke about forgiveness, with some trying to find it — and others definitely not.

“I hope that every single victim’s face haunts your every waking moment and your sleeping ones, too,” said Ryan Hampton, of Las Vegas, who has been in recovery for seven years after an addiction that began with an OxyContin prescription to treat knee pain led to overdoses and periods of homelessness.

Dede Yoder poses for a picture with a photo of her son, Chris Yoder, after making a statement during a hearing in New York on March 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

“You poisoned our lives and had the audacity to blame us for dying,” he said. “I hope you hear our names in your dreams. I hope you hear the screams of the families who find their loved ones dead on the bathroom floor. I hope you hear the sirens. I hope you hear the heart monitor as it beats along with a failing pulse.”

The unusual hearing was conducted virtually in U.S. Bankruptcy Court at the suggestion of a mediator who helped broker a deal that could settle thousands of lawsuits against Purdue over the toll of opioids, generating billions for the fight against the addiction and overdose crisis and giving Sackler family members protection from lawsuits.

Appearing via audio was Richard Sackler, the former Purdue president and board chair who has said the company and family bear no responsibility for the opioid crisis; he is a son of Raymond Sackler, one of the three brothers who in the 1950s bought the company that became Purdue Pharma. Attending on video were Theresa Sackler, a British dame and wife of the late Mortimer D. Sackler, another of the brothers; and David Sackler, Richard Sackler’s son.

Theresa’s and David’s expressions remained largely neutral as people spoke on video about the pain of losing children after years of trying to get them adequate treatment, about their own journeys through addiction, and about caring for babies born into withdrawal and screaming in pain.

Under court rules, the Sacklers were not allowed to respond to the victims, who were selected by lawyers for creditors in the case. Some victims spoke from a law office in New York; others were at their homes or offices around the country.

Jannette Adams told of her late husband, Dr. Thomas Adams, who was a physician and church deacon in Mississippi and a missionary in Africa and Haiti. He became addicted to opioids after pharmaceutical representatives pitched them, she said. After a terrible decline, he died in 2015.

“I’m angry, I’m pissed, but I move on,” Adams said. “Because our society lost a person who could have made so many more contributions. ... You took so much from us, but we plan to, through our faith in God, move forward.”

Tiffinee Scott poses for a picture with a photo of her daughter, Tiarra Renee Brown-Lewis, after making a statement during a hearing in New York on March 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Kristy Nelson played for the Sacklers a tense recording of a 911 call in which she summoned police to her home the day her son Bryan died of an opioid overdose. The dispatcher asked whether his skin had gone blue; she said it was white. She said she replays the call in her mind daily.

Thursday was Richard Sackler’s 77th birthday, according to public records. Later this month, Nelson said, she and her husband will visit the cemetery on what would have been Bryan’s 34th birthday.

“I understand today’s your birthday, Richard, how will you be celebrating?” she said. “I guarantee it won’t be in the cemetery. ... You have truly benefitted from the death of children. You are scum of the earth.”

Her words echoed a 2001 email from Richard Sackler, made public during lawsuits over OxyContin, in which he referred to people with addiction as “scum of the earth.”

Jenny Scully, a nurse in New York, gave birth in 2014 while on OxyContin and other opioids prescribed years earlier when she was dealing with both breast cancer and injuries from an accident. She was told her baby would be healthy, Scully said, but the little girl has had a lifetime of physical, developmental and emotional difficulties.

“You have destroyed so many lives,” she said, pulling her daughter into view. “Take a good look at this beautiful little girl you robbed of the person she could have been.”

Kara Trainor poses for a picture with a photo of her son, Riley, 11, after making a statement during a hearing in New York on March 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

The forum was unconventional for the White Plains, New York, courtroom of Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain, who on Wednesday gave tentative approval to key elements of a plan to settle thousands of lawsuits against the company.

Other drugmakers and wholesalers and even a consulting company have also been settling lawsuits over the opioid crisis, which has been linked two more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. over the past two decades. But Purdue’s case stands out because it was an early player with OxyContin and is privately owned.

The settlement is estimated to be worth at least $10 billion over time. It calls for the Sacklers to contribute $5.5 billion to $6 billion over 17 years to fight the opioid crisis. That’s an increase of more than $1 billion over a previous version rejected by another judge on appeal. Most of the money would be used for efforts to combat the crisis, but $750 million would go directly to victims or their survivors.

The overall settlement, which still requires actions by multiple courts to take effect, provides more than $150 million for Native American tribes and over $100 million for medical monitoring and payments for children born in opioid withdrawal.

The plan also calls for family members to give up ownership of the company so it can become a new entity, Knoa Pharma, with its profits dedicated to stemming the epidemic. In exchange, Sackler family members would get protection from lawsuits over opioids.

The family also agreed not to oppose any efforts to remove the Sackler name from cultural and educational institutions they have supported and to make public a larger cache of company documents.

Purdue Pharma starting selling OxyContin, a pioneering extended-release prescription painkiller, in 1996. At the same time, Purdue and other drug companies funded efforts to get doctors and other prescribers to think differently about opioids — suggesting they be used for some pain conditions for which the potent drugs were previously considered off limits.

Over the decades, there were waves of fatal overdoses, first associated with prescription drugs and then, as prescriptions became harder to obtain and some drugs became harder to manipulate for a quick high, from heroin. More recently, fentanyl and similar drugs have become the biggest killer.

Purdue has twice pleaded guilty to criminal charges, but no Sacklers have been charged with crimes. There are no indications any such charges are forthcoming, although seven U.S. senators last month asked the Department of Justice to consider charges.

The Sacklers have never unequivocally apologized. Last week, they released a statement saying in part, “While the families have acted lawfully in all respects, they sincerely regret that OxyContin, a prescription medicine that continues to help people suffering from chronic pain, unexpectedly became part of an opioid crisis that has brought grief and loss to far too many families and communities.”

Following the hearing, a spokesperson for Mortimer Sackler’s descendants said the family would not make a statement; a representative of Raymond Sackler’s side of the family did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The family of the other brother, Arthur, sold its share of Stamford, Connecticut-based Purdue before OxyContin was developed.

Several speakers noted the lack of an apology, and some called for prosecutors to pursue criminal investigations.

“When you created OxyContin, you created so much loss for so many people,” said Kay Scarpone, who lost her son Joseph, a former Marine, to addiction a month before his 26th birthday. “I’m outraged that you haven’t owned up to the crisis that you’ve created.”

___

Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

OPIOIDS

Yale strikes Sackler name from campus amid opioid outrage

NJ to distribute $641M from settlement for opioid crisis

Ohio doctor sentenced for overprescribing painkillers, fraud

Facing Purdue owners brings pain, closure for opioid victims

SNAFU

Scathing reports find military failures in 2020 Kenya attack

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

March 10, 2022

 In this photo taken Aug. 26, 2019 and released by the U.S. Air Force, a U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt., salutes the flag during a ceremony signifying the change from tactical to enduring operations at Camp Simba, Manda Bay, Kenya. U.S. officials tell The Associated Press that military investigations have found that poor leadership, inadequate training and a "culture of complacency” among U.S. forces undermined efforts to fend off a 2020 attack by militants in Kenya that killed three Americans. 

(Staff Sgt. Lexie West/U.S. Air Force via AP, File )


WASHINGTON (AP) — Military investigations have found poor leadership, inadequate training and a “culture of complacency” among U.S. forces undermined efforts to fend off a 2020 attack by militants in Kenya that killed three Americans, U.S. officials familiar with the probes told The Associated Press ahead of the release of the findings, expected Thursday.

Two military reviews of the attack by al-Shabab militants are scathing in their conclusions that there were failures across the board at the Manda Bay air base, where senior military leaders said there was a “deeply rooted culture of a false sense of security.” The attack also wounded three people and destroyed six aircraft, and killed at least six insurgents.

Army Gen. Stephen Townsend, head of U.S. Africa Command, which did the first review, told the AP that while the actions of no one person caused the attack or the casualties, the reviews concluded that security, intelligence, training and command failures contributed to the losses.

And Air Force Maj. Gen. Tom Wilcox, who was part of the team that did the second review, said that “none of the negligence that we found contributed to the primary cause of the loss of life or damage. However, we did find that they potentially contributed to the outcome, to vulnerabilities on the airfield.”

Defense officials said that a number of Air Force personnel were reviewed for possible disciplinary action and, as a result, eight have received some form of administrative punishment, including written reprimands and loss of certification. The eight range from junior enlisted airmen to officers below the general ranks. A written reprimand can be career-ending for an officer. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe personnel discipline.

The Manda Bay base, in the Kenyan seaside resort, was overrun by 30 to 40 of the al-Qaida-linked insurgents on Jan. 5, 2020, marking al-Shabab’s first attack against U.S. forces in the East African country. The pre-dawn assault triggered a lengthy firefight and daylong struggle for U.S. and Kenyan forces to search and secure the base.

The initial investigation into the attack was completed a year ago by U.S. Africa Command, but last April Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a new, independent review led by Gen. Paul Funk, commander of Army Training and Doctrine Command.

The new report largely mirrors the findings in the initial probe but expands its scope. Both are sharply critical of the inadequate security, training and oversight at the base. Austin has accepted the reports and their findings.

The base at Manda Bay has been used for years by the U.S. military, but it only became a full-time airfield in 2016, with increased personnel, aircraft and operations. According to the reviews, the military there never adjusted security to account for the expanded use and was lulled by the fact the base hadn’t been attacked in 16 years.

The complacency, said the Africom review, permeated every echelon and existed for several years.

The reviews criticized leadership at all levels, from the Air Force wing and security forces to special operations commanders and U.S. Africa Command. They found there was an inadequate understanding of and focus on the threats in the region.

Townsend said a vague intelligence report prior to the deadly attack referred to al-Shabab planning to attack United Nations aircraft. But that report didn’t get to the right people due to staff shortages, And, he said, those who saw it “didn’t connect the dots” — that it could be referring to the unmarked contract aircraft the U.S. has at Manda Bay.

He also noted, “We get these every day — al-Shabab is going to attack. Most of them never happen.”

The reviews also said that the various command and service units at the base didn’t communicate or coordinate well with each other or with the local Kenyan forces.

As a result, at 5:20 a.m., 20 to 30 al-Shabab militants were able to slip through a forest and fired rocket-propelled grenades onto the Magagoni Air Field at the base. In the first two minutes, the RPGs killed Army Spc. Henry Mayfield in a truck and killed two contractors, Dustin Harrison and Bruce Triplett, in an aircraft. Another soldier and a civilian contractor were wounded.

About a mile down the road, another smaller group of the militants fired on Camp Simba, a section of the adjacent Kenyan Navy base where U.S. forces are housed.

The reviews say security troops at the airfield were unprepared to respond to the attack and several never really engaged the insurgents. Instead, Marines at Camp Simba about a mile away responded first.

“Someone starts shooting, and Marines are going to go to the sound of the guns. And so they did. They mounted up, and they led the counterattack,” said Townsend, who visited Manda Bay three weeks ago.

It took about 20 minutes for the Marine special operations team to get to the airfield and begin to fight back against the militants, who had made it onto the flightline and into buildings.

As Kenyan and additional U.S. security forces responded, al-Shabab attacked again. It took until midnight for the military to search the airfield and adjacent buildings and declare the area secure. During the counterattack one Marine and one Kenyan service member were wounded.

In interviews, Townsend and Wilcox said that substantial changes and improvements have been made — some in the first hours after the attack and others that have continued and grown over the past year.

Almost immediately, Army infantry soldiers were brought in for added security, and now the protection force is more than double the size it was during the attack. Fencing and other barriers now ring the entire base, including Camp Simba. And there have been overhauls of intelligence sharing and Air Force security training.

The Air Force now trains all deploying security forces together before they depart for the country, and it requires that personnel be more experienced in force protection to get senior jobs at the bases.

In addition, the reviews recommended that one senior commander at each base be in charge of force protection for the entire facility and that the commander be able to order training for all troops there. That would include units that may report to other commands -- such as special operations forces or Space Force teams that may be housed at the base.

Russia-Ukraine war: Some pastors wonder about “end of days”

By DAVID CRARY
THE CONVERSATION

1 of 3

Ukrainians cross an improvised path under a destroyed bridge while fleeing Irpin, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted some of America’s most prominent evangelical leaders to raise a provocative question — asking if the world is now in the biblically prophesied “end of days” that might culminate with the apocalypse and the second coming of Christ.

There’s no consensus on the answer, nor on any possible timetable.

Megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress, addressing his congregation at First Baptist Dallas, said many Christians are wondering, in the face of carnage in Ukraine, “Why does God permit evil like this to continue? …. Are we near Armageddon and the end of the world?”

“We are living in the last days,” Jeffress said, “We’ve been living in the last days for the last 2000 years. We don’t know, is this the end? Is this the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning?”

The curators of raptureready.com -- which shares commentary about “end of days” prophesies – suggest things could move quickly. Their “Rapture Index,” -- on which any reading above 160 means “Fasten your seatbelts” -- was raised this week to 187, close to its record high of 189 in 2016.

One of the most detailed alerts came from televangelist Pat Robertson, who came out of retirement on Feb. 28 to assert on “The 700 Club” that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “compelled by God” to invade Ukraine as a prelude to an eventual climactic battle in Israel. Robertson said verses of the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel support this scenario.

“You can say, well, Putin’s out of his mind. Yes, maybe so,” Robertson said. “But at the same time, he’s being compelled by God. He went into the Ukraine, but that wasn’t his goal. His goal was to move against Israel, ultimately.”

“It’s all there,” added Robertson, referring to Ezekiel. “And God is getting ready to do something amazing and that will be fulfilled.”

Also evoking Ezekiel – and a possible attack on Israel -- was Greg Laurie, senior pastor at a California megachurch whose books and radio programs have a wide following.

“I believe we’re living in the last days. I believe Christ could come back at any moment,” Laurie said in a video posted on YouTube.

Citing the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic, he said biblical prophesies “are being fulfilled in our lifetime.”

“We are seeing more things happen in real time, closer together, as the scriptures said they would be,” Laurie said. “So what should we do? We should look up. We should remember that God is in control.”

Predictions of an imminent “end of days” have surfaced with regularity over the centuries. Pat Robertson, for example, has inaccurately predicted apocalyptic events on previous occasions.

“One of the characteristics of apocalyptic thinking is that the most recent crisis is surely the worst — this is the one that is going to trip the end times calendar,” said Dartmouth College history professor Randall Balmer.

“Now, admittedly, there may be some evidence for that, especially with Putin mumbling about nuclear weapons,” Balmer added via email. “But I also remember the urgency of the Six Day War and George H. W. Bush’s Persian Gulf War and, of course, 9/11.”

The suggestion that God is somehow using the Russia-Ukraine war to fulfill biblical prophesies troubles some Christian scholars, such as the Rev. Rodney Kennedy, a Baptist pastor in Schenectady, New York, and author of numerous books.

“This evangelical insistence of involving the sovereignty of God in the evil of Putin borders on the absurd,” Kennedy wrote recently in Baptist News.

“Rapture believers fail to understand that if they assist in bringing about world war, there will be no Superman Jesus appearing to ‘snatch’ all true believers into the safety of the clouds,” Kennedy wrote. “The rapture is an illusion; the rupture caused by Putin is a deadly reality.”

Russell Moore, public theologian at the evangelical magazine Christianity Today, said it’s wrong to try to connect world events to end-times prophecy, noting that Jesus himself said his second coming would be unexpected and unconnected with “wars and rumors of wars.”

“It’s not consistent with the Bible and it’s harmful to the witness of the church,” said Moore, noting that the world has outlived many episodes of end-times speculation.

Moore said most Christians he’s talked with are more concerned about Ukraine’s well-being.

“I’m surprised at how little I am finding the idea that these events are direct biblical prophecy,” he said. “I’m just not seeing that in the pews.”

That’s a change from the recent past, he noted, when many evangelicals tried to interpret world events as a road map to the apocalypse – driving sales for hugely successful authors Tim LaHaye (“Left Behind”) and Hal Lindsey (“The Late Great Planet Earth”).

“It’s very rare for me to find someone under the age of 50” preoccupied with such views today, Moore said.

Jeffress said members of his congregation in Dallas are “very troubled by the atrocities being committed against the Ukrainian people and think we should push back forcefully against Putin’s aggression.”

“However, they are not headed toward their bunkers and preparing for Armageddon — yet,” Jeffress said via email. “Most of our members understand that while the Bible prophesies the end of the world and return of Christ one day, no one has a clue when that day will be.”

Laurie, in a written reply to questions from The Associated Press, said his congregation at Harvest Christian Fellowship “isn’t fixated on the ‘end times.’”

“My message for Christians during this time and really all people in general is don’t panic, but pray,” Laurie advised. “Live every day like it may be your last.”

The war in Ukraine has heightened anxieties for some members of Mercy Hill Chapel, said Oleh Zhakunets, lead pastor of the small Southern Baptist church that holds services in Ukrainian and English in Parma, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb.

Several members have close relatives in Ukraine – some in more dangerous zones in eastern Ukraine and others who are welcoming refugees in the west, he said.

“It’s a bag of mixed feelings,” said Zhakunets, citing their worries for loved ones and their hope that God is in control.

Congregation members believe in biblical passages detailing signs of Jesus’ return, he said, but they don’t see Russia’s invasion as fulfilling a specific prophecy.

“A lot of that is just guesswork,” Zhakunets said. “We have hope that he’s coming, but in terms of specifics, we’re not going to give that kind of what we see as a false hope.”

___

Associated Press reporters Peter Smith, Holly Meyer and Deepa Bharath contributed to this report.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Red Cross official asks world not to ‘shift’ away from Yemen

By JON GAMBRELL

 People gather at the site of a Saudi-led airstrike near Yemen's Defense Ministry complex in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2017. The world must not lose sight of the plight of those living through the yearslong war in Yemen, Katharina Ritz, the International Committee of the Red Cross’ head of delegation in Yemen said Friday, March 11, 2022, urging continued aid for the Middle East's poorest nation as the war in Ukraine grabs the world's attention. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The world must not lose sight of the plight of those living through the yearslong war in Yemen, a Red Cross official said Friday, urging continued aid for the Middle East’s poorest nation as the war in Ukraine grabs the world’s attention.

Katharina Ritz, the International Committee of the Red Cross’ head of delegation in Yemen, also said discussions continue over possible future prisoner swaps between the Houthi rebels and a Saudi-led coalition fighting on behalf of the country’s exile government.

However, a major swap hasn’t happened in several years as the war intensified around several front lines, including the energy-rich city of Marib.

“I think our duty is to respond equally to the needs and do our best,” Ritz told The Associated Press. “I think it’s not about is it Ukraine or not? Now it’s Ukraine and Yemen and Syria and Iraq and Congo and so on. ... We have to add Ukraine on all the crises, but we shouldn’t shift.”

The Iranian-backed Houthis seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in September 2014. A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in March 2015 to back the country’s expelled government.

In the time since, Yemen has become one of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. More than 150,000 people have been killed in the warfare, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. Those include both fighters and civilians; the most recent figure for the civilian death toll in Yemen’s conflict stands at 14,500.

Also, Saudi airstrikes have killed hundreds of civilians and targeted the country’s infrastructure. The Houthis have used child soldiers and indiscriminately laid landmines across the country.

Meanwhile, the splintered nation has faced the coronavirus pandemic and still sees African migrants hoping to cross Yemen and reach neighboring oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

The country also has been on the brink of famine for years, a crisis that may be exacerbated by Russia’s war on Ukraine. Yemen imports some 40% of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine.

“Now obviously, we have the wheat supply, which will have an impact on the the food supply for Yemen,” Ritz said. “The coping mechanism in the country is very limited, and I think that is going to be a major struggle.”

Meanwhile, the Red Cross continues to have access to prisoners held by militias, the Houthi-controlled government in Sanaa and that of the Yemeni government in Aden, Ritz said. In 2020, the warring sides engineered a mass prisoner exchange, but there hasn’t been one of a similar size since. A 2018 agreement in Stockholm saw the sides agree to swap over 15,000 prisoners.

“The dialogue between the parties is ongoing. The negotiation has never stopped,” Ritz said. “I think it is an important part also to keep the parties on the table engaged.”

The Houthis meanwhile have seized nearly a dozen former Yemeni employees of the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa. Asked about their case, Ritz said prisoners’ families would need to come forward to the Red Cross for its assistance. She declined to say whether the families had.

The Red Cross also saw its name invoked by Saudi Arabia after a coalition airstrike in January struck a Houthi prison in the city of Saada, killing at least 87 people. Saudi Brig. Gen. Turki al-Malki alleged at the time that the Houthis hadn’t reported the site as needing protection from airstrikes to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“The responsibility remains with the parties of the conflict, Ritz said. “No matter what ICRC says or does not say or does or does not do, the responsibility remains.”

However, Ritz said the Red Cross worked with the Saudi-led coalition, the Houthis and other militias in the war to stress the importance of protecting civilians and civilian infrastructure in the country.

___

Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

Human trafficking case sparks government response in China
By HUIZHONG WU

March 9, 2022

1 of 7

Delegates leave after the opening ceremony for the National People's Congress held at the Great Hall of the People on March 5, 2022, in Beijing. Sustained, palpable anger in China over the case of a mother-of-eight found chained inside a shed has prompted an unusually strong government response to human trafficking at the annual session of China's rubber-stamp legislature. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)


TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Sustained, palpable anger in China over the case of a mother of eight found chained inside a shed has prompted an unusually strong government response to human trafficking at the annual session of China’s rubber-stamp legislature.

The issue even merited a brief mention by China’s premier Li Keqiang in his annual report on government performance delivered Saturday. That marked part of a direct attempt by a government not often given to responding to public pressure to address the widespread outrage.

Local governments have announced crackdowns on the practice of trafficking vulnerable women in the vast country, while the Public Security Ministry is pursuing a nationwide anti-trafficking campaign aimed at solving a backlog of cases, to be carried out by all levels. On Tuesday, China’s top prosecutor, Zhang Jun, announced his department would “strictly enforce” laws against abduction and trafficking.

The woman found on the outskirts of the eastern city of Xuzhou had been trafficked multiple times and had eight children by the man who ultimately purchased her.

State media reported that at least half a dozen proposed legal reforms on the issue were brought by members of the National People’s Congress and its consultative body, which are holding their annual sessions this week in Beijing.

A proposal from delegate Jiang Shengnan would raise criminal penalties in trafficking cases so that the buyer would face the same penalties as the seller, according to state newspaper Beijing Youth Daily.

“Appropriately increasing the penalty and increasing the criminal penalty for buying will play a certain deterrent effect,” Jiang was quoted as saying by the paper.

Activists have welcomed the response, though some question whether the focus on heavy criminal penalties is the best approach to take.

“I personally think all of these proposals are positive, and they are meaningful,” said Feng Yuan, co-founder of Beijing Equality, a group that focuses on gender-based violence.

“But I think they are missing some important angles,” Feng said, because the proposals she saw have been too focused on the buyers’ criminal penalties.

Under current Chinese criminal law, those who traffic women or children can be sentenced to between five and 10 years in prison, and even a death sentence. Purchasers can be sentenced to no more than three years.

Jiang’s proposal also included the prospect of a follow-up mechanism after victims are rescued from trafficking. Others called on local governments to correctly identify trafficking victims who may have been registered under false names, create a nationwide alert system for kidnapping and trafficking, and increase criminal penalties.

Authorities did not respond to a request to interview NPC delegates, including Jiang. A similar request for members of the advisory body the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference was declined.

NPC delegates do not directly draft legislation, although their proposals are passed on to the appropriate ministries. The body’s Standing Committee, aided by legal experts, actually writes the laws.

The chained woman’s plight ignited a public demand to ensure a crackdown on trafficking. According to Zhang’s 2022 report, the number of people charged annually with trafficking women and children declined from 14,458 in 2000 to just 1,135 people last year. However it’s unclear if the decline in the number charged is due to less trafficking or due to looser enforcement.

A desire to quiet and divert public anger while China was hosting the Winter Olympics last month may have been a factor in the government’s response.

“They don’t want this case to suck up all the air,” said Dali Yang, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. “So there’s clearly an interest in, ideally, resolving it in a way that it would disappear.”

Yang said proposals to address the issue appeared to be politically “within the realm of acceptability.”

Feng, the women’s rights activist, urged the government to look at reform beyond criminal penalties. More urgent issues include verifying a victim’s identity, helping them live independently after rescue and providing resources for mental health and physical recovery, she said.

Among activists’ concerns is whether those rescued will be able to register for public services such as health insurance because they had been given new names and household registrations in the places to which they had been trafficked.

“I hope these points can also attract attention,” Feng said.

China’s Cabinet addressed some of those issues in an April 2021 document, including verifying marriage registrations and increasing anti-trafficking education in remote areas. New measures seek to give these initiatives a boost.

Trafficking is fed in part by a large gender imbalance resulting from China’s former one-child policy.

“The logic of constructing a family as being the most important thing in a way overrides concern about where someone came from,” said Johanna Ransmeier, a professor at the University of Chicago who studied the history of human trafficking in China.

Ultimately, such underlying attitudes need to change for a solution to be found, Ransmeier said.

“It’s distressing that this remedy is purely about punishment, and not about social change,” she said.