In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the media and the Trump administration have taken to blaming the coronavirus pandemic solely on China. The claims made by people in power go beyond pointing out that the virus originated in China, and in many cases are statements of fear-based racism. Trump has referred to COVID-19 as the “Chinese Virus’ on several occasions. When China is mentioned in the media, it is largely negative. 

The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus. We will be stronger than ever before!

Trump via Twitter

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With the negative media coverage of China, there has been little to no reporting on the Chinese billionaire who recently shipped half a million testing kits and a million face masks to the U.S. On March 16th, Jack Ma announced that he would donate 1 million masks and 500,000 coronavirus testing kits to the U.S. through his charitable foundation. Additionally, Ma has donated $14.5 million for the development of a vaccine for the virus. 

At this moment, we can’t beat this virus unless we eliminate boundaries to resources and share our know-how and hard-earned lessons. United we stand, divided fall!”

Jack Ma

Additionally, Ma’s foundation is donating materials to Japan, Italy, Korea, Spain, and Iran. The destination of the tests and masks has not been specified. 

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Sources:

• Chinese Billionaire Ships 500,000 Coronavirus Test Kits to US -Futurism
• Chinese billionaire Jack Ma tweeted for the first time ever to say he’s started shipping 1 million masks and 500,000 coronavirus testing kits to the US -Business Insider

In light of the current pandemic, human activity and a large portion of transportation have been shut down. New research, from experts who study Earth’s movements, has indicated that shutdowns have resulted in a significant drop in seismic activity.

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Campo Dei Fiori Square is seen empty on March 10, 2020 in Rome, Italy Campo Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images

Data from a seismometer at the observatory show that measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Brussels caused human-induced seismic noise to fall by about one-third”

 Thomas Lecocq, seismologist, the Royal Observatory of Belgium

Seismic noise is the hum of vibrations within Earth’s crust. Earthquakes cause the Earth’s crust to vibrate, but on a day to day basis vehicles and industrial machines also add to vibrations. These day to day vibrations create background noise which can impair seismologists’ ability to detect other signals that occur at the same frequency. A decrease in seismic noise could allow detectors to recognize smaller earthquakes and increase efforts to monitor other seismic events such as volcanic activity.

If lockdowns continue in the coming months, city-based detectors around the world might be better than usual at detecting the locations of earthquake aftershocks”

Andy Frassetto, a seismologist at the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology in Washington DC

This research comes from Brussels and similar changes have been found in a station in Los Angeles. It’s estimated that not every monitoring station will see a significant difference in activity. Certain stations are located in remote areas to avoid human vibrations.

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Sources:

• Coronavirus Lockdowns Have Changed the Way Earth Moves- Scientific American

At least seven Philadelphia police officers forcibly removed a man off of a city bus on Friday. People who were there say the man was removed for not wearing a mask.

The incident was caught on camera and the video was shared on Twitter by the Philly Transit Riders Union, an organization that advocates for public transit users. The organization is asking for the incident to be investigated.

While viewers aren’t able to see the events that led up to the officers’ arrival, the footage shows the man, who was not wearing a face mask, being dragged off the bus by several uniformed officers with police yanking at his limbs as he seems to resist being removed. He then tells them he wants their badge numbers.

According to the group, the man was pulled off the bus because he wasn’t wearing a face mask.

Buzz Feed

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The Karipuna people in the Brazilian Amazon are in isolation due to COVID-19, but the presence of loggers close to their villages is compromising their efforts to stay safe. The Karipuna Indigenous People’s Association (Apoika), Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi), and Greenpeace Brasil have filed a joint complaint with the local federal prosecutor’s office. Multiple complaints by both Brazil and international agencies have been submitted in regards to relentless logging and land invasion in the Rondônia state where the Karipunia live. The current pandemic means the invasion of indigenous land is especially dangerous for the occupants of the land.

We are scared that one of these invaders will bring the virus inside our territory…Bolsonaro has told these people that it’s just a little flu and that they can go back to work.”

Adriano Karipuna, one of the group’s leaders – Mongabay

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The Yanomami people in the Roraima state are experiencing the same threats. Illegal mining activity in the region has not ceased during the pandemic, and a 15-year-old Yanomami boy has died from the coronavirus.

Both the Amazon and the indigenous peoples who live there are vulnerable right now. Many native customs facilitate the spread of respiratory diseases. Other factors like poor sanitation, immune systems that are not used to contact with many modern diseases, and a lack of healthcare facilities will exacerbate the risk. Meanwhile, deforestation attempts have not slowed. Clearance rates are 10% higher this year than they were for the same period last year. In addition, deforestation figures for August 2019 to the end of March 2020 are twice the rate they were for August 2018 to the end of March 2019.

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Sources:

• Amazon indigenous put at risk by Brazil’s feeble Covid-19 response: Critics – Mongabay
• In the midst of the pandemic, squatters and invaders approach Karipuna village – CIMI.org
• Amid covid-19, gold digging advances and approaches isolated Indians in Roraima – BBC Brasil
• Boy from isolated Amazon tribe dies of COVID-19, raising fears of devastating outbreak – Japan Times

At this point, many epidemiologists do not believe that SARS-CoV-2 made the jump from animal to human in the infamous Wuhan wet-market. Since a lot of people caught it from the market back in January much of the media decided that the Chinese proclivities for wild animals were to blame for the pandemic. This helped perpetuate a racist narrative. Many are even calling for a ban on wet markets.

There is a growing body of evidence that points to a different origin story for Covid-19. We now know that none of the animals tested at the Wuhan seafood market tested positive and about a third of the initial set of reported cases in people in Wuhan from early December 2019 had no connection to the seafood market, including the first reported case. And we also now know, thanks to the leak of an official Chinese report to the South China Morning Post that the actual first known case of Covid-19 in Hubei was detected in mid-November, weeks before the cluster of cases connected to the Wuhan seafood market were reported.

…

The scientists conclude that SARS-CoV-2 evolved from natural selection and not genetic engineering in a lab, and they say that this natural selection occurred through two possible scenarios. One is that it evolved into its highly pathogenic form within humans. In this case, a less pathogenic form of the virus would have jumped from an animal to a human host and then would have evolved into its current form through an “extended period” of “undetected human-to-human transmission”. Under this scenario, there is no reason to believe that the Wuhan seafood market had anything to do with the evolution of the disease, even if it is quite possible that an infected person at the market could have transmitted it to others.

New research suggests industrial livestock, not wet markets, might be origin of Covid-19

Farm animals can be an excellent incubator for virtual diseases that are evolving to make a jump to humans.

The overwhelming majority of farmed animals are kept in dark, unsanitary, overcrowded factory farms, which stresses their immune systems. Worse, they’re bred primarily for rapid growth and maximum output, not robustness, and their genetic similarity makes them especially likely to transmit disease to one another. Animal after animal, they are churned through the system, often on the same dirty floors, the same stagnant trucks, and the same slaughter lines. This system puts everyone’s health at risk.

Reducing pandemic risk begins with ending factory farming

But even if the first human was infected at the Wuhan market it’s still easy to point a finger at factory farming.

It’s true, in other words, that an expanding human population pushing into previously undisturbed ecosystems has contributed to the increasing number of zoonoses – human infections of animal origin – in recent decades. That has been documented for Ebola and HIV, for example. But behind that shift has been another, in the way food is produced. Modern models of agribusiness are contributing to the emergence of zoonoses.

Is factory farming to blame for coronavirus?

If you’re not doing it already, it’s time to start growing your own food!

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Isoxaflutole is a herbicide that’s manufactured and sold by BASF, the second-largest chemical producer in the world, under the name brand name Alite 27. It’s currently used on corn plants in 33 states, and the EPA has recently registered the use of the chemical on soybeans in 25 different states. This registration is the Environmental Protection Agency’s assurance that Isoxaflutole does what the label says it does and should not pose an unreasonable hazard to your health. Isoxaflutole is classified by the EPA as a probable human carcinogen, and it is phytotoxic to non-target aquatic and terrestrial plants and moderately toxic to freshwater fish.

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The EPA requested public comment on the proposed registration decision and cited that feedback as a key factor in the organization’s decision to move forward with the registration. All fifty-four comments left during the public review period were positive, a show of overwhelmingly support for the use of Isoxaflutole on soybeans.

Alexandra Dapolito Dunn, EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, says, 

We’ve heard from farmers across the country about the importance of having new means available to combat economically-damaging weeds…We listened and believe this action balances the need to provide growers with the products necessary to continue to provide Americans with a safe and abundant food supply while ensuring our country’s endangered species are protected.”

EPA.gov

The comments reviewed by the EPA did not include feedback from environmental groups and journalists. The EPA circumvented a critical part of the usual chemical approval process, opening the herbicide registration for public comment without notifying the Federal Register. The Federal Register notifies the press and environmental groups of significant rule changes and without this notice, the opponents of Isoxaflutole were unable to register their comments.

Nathan Donley is a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, a national, nonprofit conservation organization. He stated,

The press release caught everyone off guard. We were just waiting for the EPA to open the comment period, and we never saw it.”

AP News

Sources:

• EPA sidesteps normal public process to approve BASF’s cancer-linked pesticide – St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• Isoxaflutole | New Active Ingredient Review – MN Department of Agriculture
• Public Participation for Isoxaflutole: New Use on Herbicide Resistant Soybeans – Regulations.gov

Under the relative peace and privacy afforded to animals during the CoVID-19 lockdown, panadas are finally “screwing to save their own species,” and Sea Turtles are also benefitting from the pandemic.

Odisha’s Rushikulya rookery, a coastal beach in India, is where the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtle lay their eggs.

At least 50% of the world’s population of Olive Ridley turtles come to the state’s coasts for nesting, according to the Odisha Wildlife Organisation.

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This event happens once a year and is typically a tourist attraction, but India is under a stay-at-home order. Every year, the Forest Department creates hatcheries along the Indian coast. Authorities aren’t having to work as hard to protect the hatcheries from human intervention. Last year a cyclone severely damaged the hatcheries and the sea turtles were unable to reproduce at normal levels.

According to the Forest Department, over 70,000 Olive Ridleys arrived to take part in the unusual event of day-time mass nesting. Normally, throngs of people — tourists and locals — generally show up to watch the sea turtles and authorities have to deploy considerable resources to keep them away from the habitat.

Business insider

While locals have been forbidden from gathering on the shoreline since last weekend because of the partial shutdown, 97 critically endangered hawksbill sea turtles have hatched on a deserted beach in Brazil.

According to Brazil’s Tamar conservation project, which protects sea turtles, hawksbills lay their eggs along the country’s north-eastern coast and are considered a critically endangered species.

They can grow up to 110cm in length, weigh 85kg and owe their Portuguese name, which translates as “comb turtles”, to the fact that their shells were once widely used to make combs and frames for glasses.

The Gaurdian