The rise of artemisia in Cameroon in the fight against COVID-19

'Shouldn't Africa take a deeper look at natural medicines?'

THE STAR CALLED WORMWOOD

The Bible

Posted 8 June 2020

The artemisia plant has long been used as a medicinal herb to cure malaria and other ailments in Cameroon and throughout Africa. Screenshot from “The malaria business: Big pharma vs natural medicine,” a documentary by Franc24 via YouTube.

When Cameroon recorded its first COVID-19 case on March 6 in Yaounde, the capital, public health officials reassured citizens that the government would take swift measures to contain the spread of the virus, including compulsory face masks in public areas.

But the virus rapidly spread and also wreaked havoc on its economy.

By March 17, when Prime Minister Joseph Dione Ngute announced 13 guidelines to stem the spread, 10 people had tested positive. Since March, Cameroon has recorded 8,060 cases, with over to 200 dead and over 4,700 recovered cases since June 8.

Yet, on April 30, Ngute eased various COVID-19 measures, following an inter-ministerial committee meeting aimed at restoring the economy and local markets.

As the coronavirus cases continue to soar in Cameroon, many who believe in local herbs have turned to the artemisia plant as the government plans to reopen the country. Most Cameroonians believe in the efficacy of the artemisia plant to treat malaria and other illnesses.

Conglad Ngwa, a plant scientist and fungi researcher at the University of Buea, told Global Voices that the edible artemisia plant can treat headaches and stomach disorders, in addition to many other ailments.

On April 25, Archbishop of the Douala Metropolitan Diocese, Samuel Kleda announced over the national broadcaster CRTV that he has come up with an herbal treatment for COVID-19 that features the artemisia plant. Archbishop Kelda said:

Given that I already knew the plants according to the symptoms of the coronavirus, I have simply put together these combinations, prepared them and given to persons with the symptoms and they were relieved.

Kleda has about 30 years of research experience with medicinal plants, with a focus on herbal treatment for ailments affecting the respiratory system.

The government of Cameroon took some time to react to the clergy’s treatment of the coronavirus, raising questions among Cameroonians. Surprisingly, on May 19, President Paul Biya encouraged the use of homemade treatments to beat the dreaded coronavirus in a televised address to the nation.

The president’s call prompted Cameroonians to further rely on the local herbal combination to treat COVID-19 symptoms. The potency of artemisia — also known as wormwood or absinthe — has caused an upsurge in its cultivation in Cameroon.

The common recipe includes lime, lemon, pineapple, fever grass — and the artemisia plant, boiled and drunk as a tea.

When I flew to Cameroon few months ago, I was given this ‘Artemesia’ tea to drink, as a preventive shield against malaria.

Interesting to learn it may offer some level of immunity against CoronaVirus too, should be further studies on this plant's properties vs. Covid-19 👁️👁️ https://t.co/LYF5RY0qbY

— FLOЯIΛN 🏁 (@Florianaire) May 1, 2020

Atoh Mercy Acca, an accountant working in Doula, Cameroon, told Global Voices that her parents sent her pre-prepared traditional herbs for her to boil and drink after she complained that her boss’ family were exhibiting coronavirus symptoms:

As soon as I informed my parents about my boss whose child died of an alleged COVID-19, my parents did not hesitate to send my bottles of traditional herbs for me to boil and drink.

Bekondo Nestorine, a printing press clerk in Limbe, Cameroon, told Global Voices that he and his colleagues boil and drink the artemisia plant nearly three times a day in his office, including ginger to fortify their immune systems.

A return to growing artemisia plants

Asaba Lynda, an environmental enthusiast working with the southwest regional delegation of environmental nature protection and sustainable development, told Global Voices that “it is thanks to the coronavirus that lots of persons have turned back to growing plants — especially those they think help in the treatment of the virus.”

Set Ekwadi Songe, another regional delegate, expressed concern about a possible shortage of the artemisia plant due to its surge in popularity as an essential ingredient in herbal home remedies:

As people want to protect themselves from COVID-19, many herbalists, many traditional practitioners, are now going to nature to look at all types of species to produce cures, hence tampering with the existence of such species. Like the artemisia plant, it’s going to be difficult for us to get the plant because everybody wants it to treat COVID-19.

Delegate Songe added, however, that he is happy because the plant is there to help the population.

Respecting traditional medicine

The rise of artemisia as a respected plant is not a surprise in Cameroon, where traditional healers have used the plant for centuries to cure a host of ailments including malaria.

Now that the pharmaceutical world has recognized the efficacy of the plant in potential cures for contagious diseases, there's been an increase in artemisia plantations, both large and small. This may be perceived as an affront to big pharmaceutical companies who attempt to control its production, according to Irene Teis, in her blog for Malaria World. Last year, she wrote:

Artemisia plantations are spreading like a bushfire all over Cameroon, under the vigilant eye of universities and local organizations who avoid that the plant is improperly cultivated, handled and used.

Teis claims that the lives of traditional healers have been threatened and local artemisia plantations have been destroyed by police:

Several cases of murder or attempted murder have become known recently. It is also discouraging for them that their research and numerous clinical trials are ignored or depreciated by the medical neocolonialism, mostly by French experts.

The artemisia plant recently made headline news when Madasgar President Andry Rajoelina put forth the claim that COVID organics, a locally-produced herbal concoction featuring artemisia, could cure symptoms caused by the virus.

The World Health Organization quickly dismissed the efficacy of COVID organics, insisting there is no known cure for COVID-19, but the leaders of several African nations signed on to the product, including Tanzania and Comoros.

Netizen Kathleen Ndongmo made a plea on Twitter for further research on the power of traditional plants and herbs to cure contagious viruses.

Madagascar's recently released #COVID19 drug is largely artemesia based.

Now, shouldn't #Africa have a council of experts taking a deeper look at the natural medicines we've used for years?

How many of us “swear” by lemongrass, pineapple skin tea, hibiscus, paw-paw leaves?

— Kathleen Ndongmo (@KathleenNdongmo) April 30, 2020


Written by Boris-Karloff Batata

Download PDF

Bioactive Compounds and Health Benefits of Artemisia Species

Show all authors

Manisha Nigam, Maria Atanassova, Abhay P. Mishra, ...

First Published July 24, 2019 Review Article

https://doi.org/10.1177/1934578X19850354

Article information

 

Abstract

Artemisia L. is a genus of small herbs and shrubs found in northern temperate regions. It belongs to the important family Asteraceae, one of the most numerous plant groupings, which comprises about 1000 genera and over 20000 species. Artemisia has a broad spectrum of bioactivity, owing to the presence of several active ingredients or secondary metabolites, which work through various modes of action. It has widespread pharmacological activities and has been used as traditional medicine since ancient times as an anthelmintic, antispasmodic, antirheumatic, and antibacterial agent and for the treatment of malaria, hepatitis, cancer, inflammation, and menstrual-related disorders. This review comprises the updated information about the ethnomedical uses and health benefits of various Artemisia spp. and general information about bioactive compounds and free radicals.

Traditional and Current Uses

One of the most known plants of the genus Artemisia is A. absinthium L., commonly known as “wormwood,” a yellow-flowering perennial plant distributed throughout various parts of Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia, and several chemotypes have been recognized.¹³ The plant is used for its antiparasitic effects and to treat gastrointestinal problems, anorexia, and indigestion.¹⁴ The aerial parts are present in many gastric herbal preparations, in dietary supplements, and in alcoholic beverages, for example, absinthe products, which enjoy a resurgence of popularity all over the world.^2,15 Moreover A. absinthium and other plants of this genus were used to control pain in childbirth and to induce abortions.^5-17

In North African and Middle Eastern countries, A. abyssinica Sch. Bip. ex A. Rich. is used in folk medicine as an anthelmintic, antispasmodic, antirheumatic, and antibacterial agent.¹⁸ This plant grows abundantly in various parts of the Arabian peninsula and is locally known as “ather” (Saudi Arabia) and “boitheran” (Yemen).^2,19,20

AS DOC SPICE LOCAL ALCHYMIST I PRODUCED ABSINTHE IN THE 1980'S USING WORMWOOD AND PERNOD. IN FACT ABSINTHE WAS MADE BY PERNOD IN THE 19TH CENTURY, AND THE WORMWOOD WAS SIMPLY REMOVED FROM THE RECIPE ONCE ABSINTHE WAS BANNED IN EUROPE.

Trinidadian Tony Hall, visionary of ‘play and performance’, leaves behind a precious legacy

"Tony always emphasized play and performance as tools for self-emancipation"

Posted 29 April 2020


A portrait of Trinbagonian playwright, actor and director Tony Hall, by Maria Nunes. Used with permission.

On April 27, 2020, one of the pillars of Trinidad and Tobago's film and theatre community — actor, playwright and director Tony Hall — died suddenly of a heart attack, leaving the heart of a nation in pieces. He was 71 years old.

Hall dedicated his life to the performing arts, writing both stage and screenplays, directing theatrical and film works and often appearing on stage and screen as an actor or interviewer.

After getting his bachelor's degree in drama and education from the University of Alberta in 1973, Hall cut his teeth in community theatre in Canada; he also did work in prisons, where he created workshops for the inmates using role-play as a technique. A lifelong learner who enjoyed the questions just as much as the answers, Hall earned a diploma in film and advanced television production from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in 1980.Both qualifications served him well when he returned home and became an integral part of the pioneering group of television producers that created “Gayelle” [this clip features his brother, Dennis “Sprangalang” Hall], a cultural magazine-type series that began to transform the landscape of regional television in the mid-1980s.

For many years, Hall apprenticed as an actor and director with Nobel laureate Sir Derek Walcott in the seminal Trinidad Theatre Workshop (TTW), where he performed in the world premiere of Walcott's “The Joker of Seville” and “O’ Babylon” (1975-81).

Speaking with me by telephone, Bruce Paddington, one of the founders of Banyan Limited, the video production company through which Hall put his unique artistic stamp on various indigenous soap operas, drama series, and current affairs programmes, recalled that Hall was so deeply involved in the TTW that he was “widely viewed as Walcott's heir apparent”. He described Hall as “an ultimate artist and renaissance man” who would often develop scripts from improvised sessions with other theatre giants like Errol Jones and Eunice Alleyne.

“He loved satire skits and social commentary,” Paddington said. “He was always off the wall, but very authentic — and very socially committed.” He remembers the pairing of Hall and fellow actor Errol Sitahal in the “Gayelle” series as “wonderful”, noting that Hall would usually insist they approach topics from an unexpected angle. “Tony would, therefore, do interviews for events like the Hindu festival of Phagwa,” Paddington explained, while Sitahal, of Indian descent, would host segments on things like the Orisha religion. In Trinidad and Tobago, where the population is almost evenly split between people of African and Indian descent, Hall helped make the country's rich cultural diversity more inclusive, and accessible to everyone.

Niala Maharaj, who co-hosted “Gayelle” with Hall, said on Facebook:


Tony’s pursuit of truth had no room for pettiness, for jostling for stardom, for ethnic competition, pretense and pappyshow. […] Making Gayelle was always a hunt for the unexpected twist that would flip a situation out of the mundane.


A promotional still from Tony Hall's play, “Jean and Dinah”. Photo by Abigail Hadeed, used with permission.

In a career that spanned five decades in various media — in his words, “play and performance in space, street, stage and screen” — nothing Hall ever worked on was short of original ideas. Some of his most recognised pieces of work, staged through his Lordstreet Theatre Company, include the critically acclaimed play “Jean and Dinah” (based on The Mighty Sparrow's famous 1956 calypso of the same name), “The Brand New Lucky Diamond Horseshoe Club” (a musical collaboration with calypsonian David Rudder), and “Miss Miles, Woman of the World”, a play based on the life of Trinidadian political whistleblower Gene Miles. He also co-directed the award-winning BBC/Banyan documentary, “And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon”.

Film producer Danielle Dieffenthaler, who worked with Hall at Banyan from 1990, remembers him as “the ideas man”. “Tony's brain always worked so much faster than everyone else's,” she told me over the phone. “He was always mulling over some concept or the other.”


Actor Penelope Spencer (left), at work with Tony Hall. Photo by Abigail Hadeed, used with permission.

Hall was passionate about the culture of Trinidad and Tobago and in the 1990s, according to Dieffenthaler, was instrumental in reviving the commemoration of the Canboulay Riots, an event that birthed j'ouvert, the ritual loosely translated as “the opening of the day,” which heralds the official start of Trinidad and Tobago's annual Carnival celebrations. A lecturer at Connecticut's Trinity College at the time, Hall would bring his American students to Trinidad to experience the event first-hand, as he always believed that education and Carnival — the ultimate performance art — were closely interwoven.

Dieffenthaler also remembers, however, the frustration Hall sometimes felt as a member of Trinidad and Tobago's creative industries. Though he had many successes, some of his projects remained in flux waiting for adequate funding.


Trinbagonian playwright, actor and director Tony Hall. Photo by Abigail Hadeed, used with permission.

In a tribute posted on the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival website, Paddington noted:


Tony played the leading role in the local film, ‘Obeah’ (1987) – initially known as ‘The Haunting of Avril’ – which was directed by Hugh Robertson [the director of the classic Trinidadian feature film, “Bim”]. Unfortunately, the film is still awaiting post-production funds, and it would be a great tribute to Tony if the government or private sector would pay for the completion of this film. […]

Tony always had great plans to complete major film projects such as a film version of his play, ‘Jean and Dinah’, and a major documentary on the life of [Trinidad-born civil rights advocate and Pan-Africanist] Kwame Ture. Unfortunately, he did not receive the support for these and many other worthy cultural projects which he developed.

“Yankees Gone”, the film version of “Jean and Dinah” to which Paddington refers, was particularly close to his heart; he had been working on it with Canadian filmmaker Mary Jane Gomes for more than a decade.

Via WhatsApp, Gomes called the collaboration “the most gratifying working relationship of [her] whole career”. “I learned so much,” she told me. “Tony was a friend and a teacher, a colleague and a comrade, a brother — everything, all rolled into one — and he will always, always be an inspiration”:


He was one of the most creative forces, and so insightful. He'd never compromise for anything he didn't believe in, but he would always embrace the journey to learn. He lived to provoke thought. Tony represented the best of that kind of extempo wordsmithing that Trinidad is famous for; he was a master of it.

In fact, Hall helped establish the Jouvay Popular Theatre Process, a drama workshop approach that draws on a type of improvisation born from this extemporaneous, lyrically improvisational form of calypso, coupled with oral storytelling using traditional Trinidad Carnival characters and regional folklore.

On Facebook, fellow academic Lorna Baez explained:


Tony always emphasized play and performance as tools for self-emancipation and as a life-organizing principle. […] He was inspired by Garveyism in the Grand Caribbean and opening up spaces of self- discovery and introspection.

Actors Michael Cherrie and Penelope Spencer in Tony Hall's Marcus Garvey Popular Theatre Project. Photo by Abigail Hadeed, used with permission.

Hall's inimitable style left its mark on members of the regional and international arts community, many of whom posted their tributes on social media, especially given the fact that current COVID-19 stay-at-home measures will prevent them from gathering to celebrate his life.

Apart from watch-party tributes, there is a plan to have a memorial for Hall via Zoom, where his friends and colleagues can honour his memory through stories and songs.

Baez ended by remembering:


Our resilience, he once said to me, ‘is not in spite of being from the Caribbean but BECAUSE WE ARE from the Caribbean’. I honor his rebellious spirit and mind. ‘Most of us’ he once wrote, ‘have allowed all sorts of schemes to disconnect us, sometimes through no direct fault of our own. We are all born connected. There are many ways and means through play and performance in which we can allow ourselves to realise our connection to the energy of the universe.’ I am grateful to have met someone with such an elevated sense of courage, clarity and artistry. May you Rest In Peace and Power.


Written byJanine Mendes-Franco

Surprise in Papua New Guinea as Prime Minister rejects the renewal of license for major gold mine

"The world will not end if Porgera closes.”

Posted 14 June 2020 15:16 GMT


Porgera gold mine. Photo by Richard Farbelini from Wikipedia licensed under public domain.

In an unexpected move, Papua New Guinea (PNG) Prime Minister James Marape announced on April 24 that one of the largest gold mines of his country will not see its mining lease renewed. This decision has launched a intense debate about the future of the mining industry, a key pillar of the PNG economy.
A surprising announcement

Marape's decision has ignited an intense discussion PNG: the Porgera mine site which will see its license end is a major and international investment in the country. The site is is managed by Barrick Niugini Limited (BNL), a joint venture between Canada-based Barrick Gold, Chinese firm Zijin Mining, the Enga’s provincial government, and Porgera landowners.

The Porgera site started operating in 1990. It is an open-pit and underground mine which produces a million ounces of gold a year, and employs more than 5,000 people. The mining operation has boosted local revenues but it also drew local complaints about its negative impact on the environment. Human rights violations were also reported in communities surrounding the mine. Marape cited environment and resettlement issues to support his announcement to close the mine.

BNL’s lease expired on August 18, 2019. There were negotiations about extending the lease for another 20 years but in the end, Marape decided to reject the application, surprising key players in the mining industry. Yet Marape, who ran on a ‘Take Back PNG’ election campaign in 2019, had announced that if elected, he would seek to get a bigger revenue share from the operations of multinational companies in the extractive industry.

Marape wrote on Facebook on April 27 to assure his constituents that “the world will not end if Porgera closes.” He also asked Barrick Niugini Limited to work with his government in implementing a transition phase and exit plan:

Now that your lease has expired, the legal process is there for Barrick to comply so you can maintain your operation until an agreed exit time we both secure at negotiations when mutual obligations are retired.

My letter will ask Barrick to continue operating the mine when we go through this phase, but if you sabotage or close the mine, you leave me no choice but to invoke orders to take over the mine for the sake of land owners and provincial government who should be getting bigger equities, plus the employees and contractors who are presently working with the mine.

In a subsequent Facebook post on April 29, he reminded local stakeholders that the government has a plan for them:


To all staff at Porgera that is laid off at this time, we are working to restore you all back to work at the earliest. Hang in there!

Your loss of income will be compensated and none of you will lose your job and you will be back working when the mine is opened.

To all contractors of Porgera, you will still be required.

To all land owners of Porgera, this is your moment! You will sit on the table as greater free equity owners.

BNL described Marape’s decision as “tantamount to nationalisation without due process.” The company added that Marape’s government has failed to consult local landowners:


The Government has also ignored the wishes of the Porgera landowners, who overwhelmingly support the extension of BNL’s lease, and the Prime Minister has refused to consult them or even hear their views.

A group of landowners criticized the non-renewal of the lease and warned about its disastrous impact on the local economy:


The ill-conceived decision not to extend the Porgera Mining Lease, and the resulting economic chaos that has brought to our people is causing us much pain, but the Government has never come to us to ask our views or to explain why they are making these decisions that affect us so much.

We already suffer from an uncertain future as our peoples’ livelihoods are impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and the suspension of mining operations at Porgera after an ill-conceived decision by the government over the refusal of SML [Special Mining Lease] extension without consulting the landowners.


Landowners are challenging this decision too. They have already negotiated with Barrick and want them to stay They’re claiming #PNG gov not even listening to them? https://t.co/t2bHqm9dum pic.twitter.com/qN0xU1DEX3

— Susan Abel (@SusanAbel) April 26, 2020
Can PNG make the shift to sustainable development?

The underlying issue for PNG is to what extend it can control its model of economic development. Public opinion, though, remains divided over the question: some landowners saw the wisdom of what Marape did and its potential to develop a better development model for the country. An editorial published by Post-Courier newspaper urged the government to manage the country’s resources well and pursue programs aimed at establishing a self-reliant economy.

But there are also other views: a writer cautioned Marape not to act like a dictator in a democracy where rule of law is supposed to be upheld. BNL has since filed a court petition questioning the action of the PNG government.

While a PNG journalist has appealed for dialogue to resolve the issues related to the lease, it is unclear if both sides are ready for negotiations: On May 29, BNL announced that it is ready to increase the stake of local landowners in the Porgera lease, yet on June 5, PNG’s Mineral Resources Authority accused BNL of attempting to illegally export gold to Australia, an act denied by the company. On the same week, BNL said it received a court notice that there will be a judicial review of the non-renewal of the lease scheduled on July 20.

Finally, on June 10, the country’s parliament has passed an amending law that would increase the government share in extracting the country’s oil, gas, and mining resources. Marape thanked the parliament for the law. He wrote a message addressed to investors on his Facebook page:


I can assure our investors that we know they must make money for their shareholders too so we will not be greedy but we just asking for a fair share, if they want to harvest our resources.

The Porgera mine lease issue has rekindled previous debates about what constitutes a fair deal in allowing companies to extract the country’s finite resources. This will remain a contentious issue but whatever action the government will carry out is going to have a lasting impact on the country’s economic future.


Written by Mong Palatino

In Brazil, COVID-19 death rate for black community is higher than for other populations

The results of an analysis by Agência Pública

Translation posted 29 June 2020


Photo by Pedro Conforte in Plantão Enfoco, used with permission.

This article was first published in Portuguese on May 6, 2020, and translated into Spanish by our Brazilian partner Agência Publica. It was then republished and edited by Global Voices with their permission.

The number of black people who have died from COVID-19 in Brazil increased fivefold over a period of two weeks. From 11 to 26 April, the number of federally confirmed deaths rose from just over 180 to more than 930 among black Brazilians infected with the coronavirus. The number of black patients hospitalized for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) caused by the coronavirus increased 5.5 times.

For the white Brazilian population, the rise in deaths during these same two weeks was significantly smaller: deaths increased three times and the number of hospitalizations increased by a similar proportion.

By 18 June, the total number of deaths from the coronavirus in Brazil had risen to 46,842. Since the beginning of the pandemic, President Jair Bolsonaro has minimized the seriousness of COVID-19 and argued for keeping the economy open. Quarantine rules have been decided by regional governors. Today the country has the second-highest number of cases in the world.

The large increase in the number of black people who have been hospitalized or have died due to COVID-19 has highlighted issues of racial inequality in Brazil. Among the black population, one in three patients has died from complications due to the virus compared to one in 4.4 deaths among white Brazilian patients.

[Translators’ note: Below, the graphs include “branco”, referring to white people and “preto” and “pardo”, referring to black and mixed-black people. For the English translation, we will refer to the latter group as black people.]




Deaths from COVID-19 in Brazil increase more among black people. Graph used with permission.




The percentage of deaths among white people has decreased, while among black people it has increased. Graph used with permission.




Deaths caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Graph used with permission.

These data have been taken from an analysis carried out by Agência Pública based on epidemiological reports from the Ministry of Health which contain information on race in hospitalisations and deaths from coronavirus. The federal government published these updated figures on 26 April.


Graves are opened in the Vila Nova Cachoeirinha cemetery, which serves the community of Brasilândia, a neighbourhood in São Paulo where black people comprise half of the population and have the highest number of deaths from COVID-19. Used with permission.
For every death in Moema, four die in Brasilândia

São Paulo, the country's biggest city and the one with the highest number of deaths from COVID-19, has registered increased death rates in neighbourhoods where the black population is larger. According to Agência Pública, of the ten neighbourhoods with the highest death rate from coronavirus, eight have a larger percentage of black residents than the São Paulo average.

The neighbourhood with the highest number of deaths is Brasilândia, where 103 coronavirus patients have died. Nearly 50 percent of the residents in this area identify as black (the average in São Paulo is 37 percent). In contrast, Moema, the neighbourhood with the lowest percentage of black residents (less than 6 percent), registered 26 deaths.

When adjusting the figures proportionally, the two neighbourhoods still have different realities: compared to the number of residents in Moema, Brasilândia has approximately 25 percent more deaths. Agência Pública used data from the last census (2010) to analize the population size and residents’ race.

.




COVID-19 data for black residents in Brasilândia and Moema. Graph used with permission.

In Jardim Ângela, the neighbourhood with the highest percentage of black people in the whole city, deaths from coronavirus almost tripled in about two weeks. In other neighbourhoods with a majority black population, such as Grajaú, Parelheiros, Itaim Paulista, Jardim Helena, Capão Redondo and Pedreira, deaths from COVID-19 more than doubled during the same period.

The spread of the coronavirus in São Paulo’s suburbs has slowed down in wealthier neighbourhoods where the first cases of COVID-19 appeared. On 17 April, neighbourhoods with fewer black people than the city average had 13 percent more deaths than areas where more black people live. Two weeks later, that difference fell to 3 percent. If the trend continues, deaths from COVID-19 in neighbourhoods with a majority black population will exceed those in neighbourhoods where fewer black people live.

The areas with denser populations of black people are the areas where the Municipal Human Development Index (MHDI) — which calculates longevity, education and income — is at its lowest. The ten neighbourhoods with the worst MHDI in São Paulo are where more black people live than the city average. The ten neighbourhoods with the best MHDI are where fewer black people live. In the ten neighbourhoods with the highest number of deaths, eight have an average MHDI below 0.8. The percentage of black people in these eight neighbourhoods is higher than the city average.
In Rio, neighbourhoods where more black people live than the city average already have more deaths


In Rio, increasing cases of COVID-19 in neighbourhoods where there are more black residents than the city average have led to these areas recording more and more deaths. Used with permission.

In Rio, neighbourhoods with more black people than the city average already have already seem more deaths in absolute numbers than neighbourhoods with fewer black people.

Currently, Campo Grande, which has more than 50% black inhabitants, is the neighbourhood with the most deaths. The neighbourhood overtook Copacabana, which previously had the highest number of deaths from COVID-19. After Copacabana, Bangu and Realengo, two neighbourhoods with a majority black population are the third and fourth most affected in the city.




Neighbourhoods with most COVID-19 deaths in Rio de Janeiro. Graph used with permission.

In Rocinha, the city's largest poor neighbourhood, there were nine deaths according to official data at the time of the investigation. Doctors working in that community questioned the number and pointed out that there were already 22 deaths in the favela.

The relationship between the number of confirmed cases and deaths is also quite different between the rich and poor neighbourhoods of Rio de Janeiro, which may indicate difficulties to get tested for residents of favelas and suburbs.
In Amazonas, white people survive more than black people

In Amazonas state, where the public health system has collapsed, black people are dying in higher numbers than white people who are severely affected COVID-19 patients. According to Agência Pública, one black person dies for every 2.4 patients in serious condition, while among white people there is one death for every 3.2 seriously ill patients.




COVID-19 data from Amazonas. Graph used with permission.

The state of Amazonas, which was the first to reach its maximum capacity of intensive care units for patients with COVID-19, has recorded a more significant increase among black people severely affected by COVID-19 than among white people. At the end of April, the number of seriously ill black patients doubled.

In Amazonas,13 black people died for every white person who died. The health department had registered about 850 black patients with severe coronavirus infections and over 340 deaths. Among white people, there were 81 serious cases and 25 deaths. The data on race was updated on 29 April.


In Manaus, the first Brazilian city to have its public health system collapse, more than 13 black patients died per one death of a white patient. Used with permission.

Despite data that shows a greater increase in deaths in the black population and more deaths among hospitalized patients, the Federal Government does not release details about this information. For example, there is no information available about how many cases were confirmed by race, nor the number of tests done on black people, white people, and other populations.

The lack of official data on race has a long history in the country, says lawyer Daniel Teixeira, director of the Centre for the Study of Labour Relations and Inequalities (Ceert). According to Teixeira:


There are several factors that may explain the high lethality [of COVID-19 among the black population]. Indeed, having more information means that we can even confirm or exclude the importance or relevance of each of these factors, as the case may be. That's where the importance of the data lies.

Teixeira believes that the gap is not only in the area of health and that it is widespread in the country.


The lack of this type of data could prevent people from having public policies that take into account this situation which, historically, ignores the factors of structural inequalities in Brazil.

The Report was originally published by Agência Pública.

How Trump's ‘game-changer’ drug is boosting nationalism in Brazil and India

Politicians, not scientists, lead the hydroxychloroquine discussion

Posted 17 June 2020

Photo of Jair Bolsonaro and Narendra Modi by Palácio do Planalto (CC BY 2.0). Photo of Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 3.0). Image remix by Georgia Popplewell.

As COVID-19 spread around the world in early 2020, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), an anti-malaria drug touted as a miracle cure by the US president Donald Trump, triggered a global, polarized debate with significant geopolitical impacts.

The debate around HCQ in the United States was widely covered in international English-language media, but the controversy swirling around the same drug in Brazil and India — two countries where partisanship is equally as rife — has received less attention.

The countries deployed drastically different responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. India declared a national lockdown on March 25, while Brazil never instituted one. In both countries, however, the HCQ debate quickly became a useful rhetorical lever to push nationalist positions. Even as HCQ's efficacy remained unproven, its use was aggressively touted by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.

HCQ has now been removed by the US Federal Drug Administration's list of drugs approved for use against COVID-19, yet both India and Brazil continue to recommend its use as a treatment.

Brazil and India have plenty in common. Both are middle-income economies and large democracies that have elected far-right nationalist leaders in the past decade. Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have galvanized support around Hindu-nationalist sentiment in an attempt to raise India’s profile as an international powerhouse. Brazil elected Bolsonaro president in 2018 on a platform that blended tough-on-crime-and-corruption rhetoric with hardline cultural conservatism and ultra-liberal economic policy that promised sweeping labor and environmental deregulation.

India, the world's largest manufacturer of HCQ, was in a unique position to exploit the opening provided by Trump and his supporters’ championing of the drug. The Indian government had initially banned the exportation of HCQ, then reversed the ban and began supplying the drug on a large scale to the US, Brazil, Morocco, and other countries.

In Brazil — a modest manufacturer of the drug in comparison to India — Bolsanaro ordered an Armed Forces’ pharmaceutical lab to boost its production of HCQ three days after Trump first called the drug a “game-changer.” By mid-April, the lab had increased its output of the drug a hundredfold.

Bolsonaro began aggressively promoting HCQ as a miracle cure, causing the resignation of two health ministers between April and May. In April, Twitter deleted a video post by Bolsonaro in which he defends the drug's use at a political rally. Twitter asserted that the tweet violated the platform’s rules, marking the first time the company deleted a post by a Brazilian head of state. In May, Bolsonaro said in one of his weekly live broadcasts on social media that “if you’re right-wing, you take chloroquine; if you’re left-wing, you take Tubaína” (Tubaína is a soft-drink popular in some Brazilian regions).

Bolsonaro, Modi, and Trump all employ conspiracy narratives and seek enemies or traitors in order to energize their supporters. In both India and Brazil, as in the US, these narratives hinge on unproven claims of scientific evidence that HCQ is effective against COVID-19. The imagined enemy in these narratives is the World Health Organization (WHO) and China, which are accused of suppressing this information in collusion with social media companies and the media. The beneficiaries of this alleged scheme include big pharmaceutical companies, who are said to be poised to produce a new treatment that is sure to be both expensive and lucrative.

The idea that there’s a miracle cure for a disease that has killed over 400,000 people, and that a few powerful but morally dubious elements are preventing people from accessing it, allows these leaders to them cast themselves in the role of saviors fighting against an evil system.
Brazil’s selective science

A favorite tactic of Bolsonaro’s supporters is amplifying the opinions of the handful of scientists and doctors who defend the early administration of hydroxychloroquine to COVID-19 patients.

When Exame, a well-established Brazilian business magazine, reported on a study conducted by a private hospital network that allegedly “cured 300 COVID-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine,” the article was shared extensively on social media in right-wing circles. According to the Exame story, Brazilian hospital Prevent Senior administered HCQ to 500 COVID-19 patients, of whom 300 recovered from the disease.

Similarly to the discredited French study that sparked the HCQ debate in the first place, the Prevent Senior trial was neither randomized nor double-blind, the gold standard for clinical drug trials. Many experts pointed to problems with the study’s sample.

Two weeks later, Brazil’s National Ethics Board in Medical Research ordered the suspension of the study, on the grounds that Prevent Senior had not obtained prior authorization to begin the research. Its directors will be investigated by the board for misconduct.

None of that prevented Carla Zambelli, one of Bolsonaro’s closest allies in Congress, from promoting the study on Twitter and on Facebook, where the post was shared over 6,800 times.


Social media posts by Brazilian federal deputy and member of Congress Carla Zambelli, promoting an article highlighting a discredited research study on the efficacy of HCQ in treating COVID-19. The post attracted hundreds of comments and was shared thousands of times on both platforms.

An English-language text detailing the study was also published after the suspension on Medicine Uncensored, a portal frequently mentioned by supporters of Trump and Bolsonaro in Brazil and the United States.

Other favored targets of Bolsonaro supporters are medical studies concluding that HCQ is ineffective or unsafe for treating COVID-19. On social media, death threats were leveled at the authors of a study conducted in Manaus, one of the cities hardest hit by the pandemic, which compared the effects of different dosages of HCQ on patients with severe symptoms. After the authors published a preliminary finding that HCQ could be lethal in severely ill patients on the online portal medRxiv, the New York Times picked up the story, which drew widespread attention to the study in Brazil. Bolsonaro supporters began digging through the researchers’ social media profiles, allegedly finding evidence showing the researchers’ support for leftist politicians.

On an April 16 Facebook post by federal deputy and Bolsonaro ally Bia Kicis criticizing the study, many of the commenters call for one of the researchers to be arrested or killed for “murdering people on purpose in order to disprove HCQ.” The post has been shared over 29,000 times.


A photo of one of the researchers of the Manaus medical study is shown in this Facebook post by Bolsonaro ally Bia Kicis. Many commenting on the post called for the researcher to be arrested or killed.

Conexão Política, a pro-Bolsonaro website, added fuel to the fire when it published a story with screenshots and links to the researchers’ social media profiles. According to the story: “Everything seems to suggest that the research was financed by federal funds allocated by leftist senators, and it was also known by the former Minister of Health Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who at a press conference on Wednesday (April 15) cited the clinical trial by political militants of Manaus, without criticizing or denouncing the irresponsibility of leftist activist researchers.”
India’s diplomatic lever

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has trumpeted India’s massive exportation of HCQ as one of its great achievements. The BJP sees India’s HCQ production as an opportunity to develop soft power as well as strengthen its position in relation to its regional rival China.

In early April, Trump praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his leadership in the export of HCQ in a tweet and a press conference. On the same day, Bolsonaro sent Modi a letter thanking his Indian counterpart for resuming HCQ exports. Pro-BJP media and Hindu nationalist social media spaces glorified Bolsanaro’s message, which they viewed as proof of India's success in strengthening diplomatic relations between the two countries, and noted the Brazilian president’s reference to the Hindu god Hanuman.

The idea that India is leading the charge against COVID-19 through its production of HCQ has resonated strongly among BJP and Modi supporters, some of whom have exploited existing tensions with China and Pakistan to further exalt India as a COVID-19 leader. One Facebook post asks whether India should make supplying Pakistan with the drug conditional. Other posts on pro-Modi Facebook groups promote the characterization of China as an aggressor who infected the world with COVID-19 and posted graphics bearing statements such as “China sent the virus to the world…My India sent medicine to the world. Proud to be an Indian.”


Popular social media posts exploiting tensions between India and Pakistan and India and China.
The WHO and China: perfect enemies

A major element of the right-wing discourse around HCQ in both Brazil and India is antagonism toward the WHO, though on this score Bolsonaro and Modi diverge in terms of approach. Bolsonaro has long disdained multilateralism, while Modi holds a more favorable, if opportunistic view, believing that multilateralism could help advance India’s national interests.

In both countries, however, a series of recent missteps by the WHO gave a boost to each leader’s agenda.

In late May, after a highly publicized study published in the prestigious Lancet medical journal concluded that HCQ increased the risk of death and cardiac complications in COVID patients, the WHO temporarily suspended trials of the drug. Ultimately, the study was retracted by its lead author, and the WHO rescinded the suspension of the clinical trials.

The WHO’s indecision, combined with the growing skirmishes at the China-India border and a more global narrative that seeks to blame China for the pandemic, triggered a surge of Indian right-wing discourse against the organization.

The day after the WHO announced the suspension, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) stated that India would continue testing HCQ in combined trials. BJP supporters applauded the ICMR’s decision, calling the WHO “incompetent” and trotting out the claim that the organization was controlled by China and big pharmaceutical companies who want to “diminish India’s global impact and economy.”

After the WHO reversed its decision, Modi supporters celebrated the organization's “caving in” to India, which they viewed as a strike against China’s attempts to diminish India’s importance in the international market.


Popular social media posts by a journalist from a pro-government news outlet and a pro-Modi Facebook group touting India's HCQ production and promoting the idea of COVID-19 as “made in China” virus.

A similar dynamic played out in Brazil. Immediately after the May 15 resignation of Nelson Taich as health minister — the second to resign since the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic — his replacement, General Eduardo Pazuello, signed a protocol recommending that Brazilian doctors use HCQ for COVID-19 patients.

Brazil's government didn't change its stance after the Lancet study appeared, and when the study was eventually retracted and the WHO apologized for having suspended solidarity trials based on it, Bolsonaristas gloated that their hostility toward the WHO was justified.

Pro-Bolsonaro social media pages and legislators have claimed that denying HCQ to COVID-19 patients is a “crime against humanity,” an assertion also made in April by US doctor Vladimir Zelenko in an interview with former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon. Dr. Zelenko rose from obscure general practitioner to right-wing media stardom in the US for trumpeting the use of the hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and zinc sulfate against COVID-19. He is being investigated by federal prosecutors in the US for falsely claiming that a hospital study of drugs he had promoted had won federal approval.
Two nationalisms

While Indian opposition to China stems from regional disputes and competition for global influence, in Brazil the anti-China narrative is more abstract and based on a deep ideological allegiance— some would say subservience— to the United States.

Militant anti-communism has been a staple of Brazilian right-wing politics since the 1930s, with the Bolsonaro government its most recent incarnation. Part of the current anti-communist narrative is that there is a new cold war, a global struggle between freedom— represented by the Trump’s United States— and communism— represented by China — and Brazil is simply siding with morality. This is the logic by which Bolsonaro critics, including some of Brazil’s most emblematic right-wing figures, end up being labeled as “communists” by his supporters.

The controversy surrounding hydroxychloroquine and COVID-19 is a testament to the challenge scientists face in a post-truth era. As research on effective treatments for COVID-19 continues, hydroxychloroquine stands on a precarious pedestal. It is used to advance partisan geopolitical anxieties about science and healthcare, and influences and overshadows coverage of other aspects of the pandemic.

In Brazil and India, which are experiencing a rapid decline in both democracy and public faith in the democratic process, that challenge can be particularly hard to navigate and understand.

Modi was notorious for his misrule as chief minister for the state of Gujarat, where under his tenure Muslims were targeted and killed. Bolsonaro rose up from the fringes of Brazilian Congress, where he made a career out of insulting LGBTQ+ people and praising Brazilian’s right-wing military dictatorship, which ruled from 1964 to 1985.

Both administrations have been marked by the erosion of institutions, attacks on the press, and persecution of critics. In India, religious minorities, especially Muslims, bear the brunt of that persecution, to the detriment of a multicultural and secular India enshrined in the republic's 1947 constitution. In Brazil, it is plurality of political opinion, and the social rights enshrined in the country’s progressive 1988 constitution that are most at risk.

Asteris Masouras and Alex Esenler contributed research for this story.

BRAZIL
In the wake of Black Lives Matter's protests, death of black 5-year-old becomes symbol of Brazil's racism and inequality

Miguel plunged from the ninth floor of a building while under the care of his mother’s white employer

Posted 22 June 2020

A protester holds a sign saying ‘what if it was the employer’ son?

 Justice for Miguel. Image: Mídia NINJA/CC BY-NC 2.0

On June 2, Mirtes de Souza, a domestic worker at an upper-class family home in the northeastern Brazilian city of Recife, brought her 5-year-old son Miguel to her workplace. While nurseries and schools have been shut in Recife since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mirtes wasn't granted time off by her employers.T

That day, Mirtes asked her white boss to mind Miguel while she went out to walk the house dog. When she came back, she found her son on the ground floor of the building after an apparent fall. Miguel was taken to the hospital alive, but didn't survive.

CCTV images obtained by the police later showed Mirtes’ boss, Sari Côrte Real, placing Miguel into an elevator by himself, and pressing the button to one of the top floors of the building. Images then show Miguel leaving the elevator on the ninth floor where, authorities later deduced, he climbed an unprotected gallery with air-conditioners, and fell.

Côrte Real was arrested and charged with manslaughter but released after paying a 20,000 BRL bail (around 4,000 US dollars). Police says it's investigating the possibility that Miguel was pushed from the ninth floor.

In the wake of George Floyd's protests in Brazil, the case sparked outrage on social media, with many considering Miguel's death yet another example of the racism Brazil's black citizens endure.

When local media avoided releasing Sari's name and photos (social media users eventually uncovered them), Mirtes gave an interview to TV Globo that went viral:

Translation
Original Quote


If it was me, my face would be on the front pages, as I’ve seen happening many times on TV. My name would be on the headlines and my face would be everywhere. But hers can’t be in the media, it can’t be made public. (…) I hope that justice is served, because if it was the other way around, I think I wouldn’t even have the right to post bail. A life is gone, because of a lack of patience. To leave a child on their own, in an elevator, you can’t do that. A child that was entrusted to her.
Brazil's racism

Miguel's story quickly became national news. Many have seen it as a symbol of the worst in Brazil, especially its systemic racism against black citizens.

Brazil forcibly brought around 5 million Africans to work as slaves in a period spanning 400 years — over ten times more than the United States. Brazil was also the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery (in 1888).

But Miguel's death was also a reminder of Brazil's rampant corruption and inequality, and how both have been exacerbated in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mirtes had no choice but to keep working during the pandemic in order to provide for her family. She wasn't an exception: The first COVID-19 death registered in Rio de Janeiro, in March, was of a domestic worker who was also impeded to quarantine by her employer.

In an interview, Mirtes said that she, her mother, and her son Miguel all had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19's virus), but their symptoms were mild.

Brazil registered over one million cases of the new coronavirus as of June 22, and over 50,000 deaths. It's second on both counts only to the United States.

Meanwhile, Mirtes’ employer Sari, a white woman living in one of the wealthiest areas of Recife, was a member of a traditional political family in the state of Pernambuco. Sari's husband, Sérgio Hacker, is the mayor of Tamandaré, a small town 100 km away from Recife to where Mirtes says she was frequently brought over by the family.

Following Miguel’s death, it was revealed that Mirtes had been hired as a public employee of Tamandaré. According to the registry, Mirtes had a management position in the city hall, earning 1,517 BRL — Brazil’s minimum wage is 1,045 BRL (282 and 194 US dollars respectively). Mirtes said she never worked for the city hall and denied knowing that she was officially hired as such. The case is under investigation.
Protests


QUEREMOS JUSTIÇA POR MIGUEL!

Em Recife, manifestantes realizam intervenção em protesto na frete do local onde Miguel morreu, o condomínio de luxo conhecido como Torres Gêmeas.

20 mil é a vida de uma criança negra pobre e a dor de uma mãe.

Fotos: Ernesto de Carvalho pic.twitter.com/6CdwWQgEU5

— Mídia NINJA (@MidiaNINJA) June 5, 2020


WE WANT JUSTICE FOR MIGUEL!
In Recife, protesters make an intervention in front of the place where Miguel died, the luxury condo known as Twin Towers. 20,000 is the life of a poor black child and a mother's pain.

Miguel’s death sparked protests in the streets of Recife and on social media. The building where it happened made it even more symbolic to activists: its construction has been marred in controversy as it's located in a protected historical area.

On June 5, dozens of protesters, alongside Miguel’s family, marched towards the buildings, where Corte Real and her family lives. People laid down on the street to remember how the child died.


“Eu quero minha mãe”, manifestantes protestaram hoje no Recife, em memória e por justiça ao pequeno Miguel, de 5 anos. #justicaparamiguel pic.twitter.com/0fYVW5kKZA

— Mídia NINJA (@MidiaNINJA) June 6, 2020


“I want my mother”, protesters today in Recife, in memory and asking for justice to little Miguel, age 5.

Miguel's death was also remembered in Brazil's protests against racism in the wake of the death of George Floyd in the United States and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Another case remembered at the protests was of João Pedro, a black 14-year-old killed by the police inside his own home in Rio de Janeiro on May 18.

A collective of daughters and sons of domestic workers, created in March to ask for social isolation rights for their parents, published a note reminding that what happened to Miguel could have happened to any of them:

Translation
Original Quote


What happened with Miguel, 5 years-old, opened wide the INEQUALITY, RACISM, CLASSISM. The denied right for isolation that are mothers are facing. How many of us died in the big house? How many will have to die in the buildings until something is done?


Written by Fernanda Canofre