Sunday, June 1, 2025

Spring 2020

Coronavirus mutes Earth Day – but the celebrations go on

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By Lizzie Stricklin

MAIN IMAGE: Planet Earth is celebrated in the fiftieth annual Earth Day celebrations. SOURCE: Orlando, Pixabay

As the world marked the fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day today – the largest secular holiday celebrated internationally – people across the globe were forced to move events planned for the day to online platforms.

Efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic meant that many in-person celebrations were cancelled but many found alternative outlets.

https://twitter.com/EarthDayNetwork/status/1252982322460348421

The first Earth Day held in 1970 was the brainchild of a US senator from Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson, who proposed an environmental teach-in on college campuses that, under the direction of American activist Denis Hayes, evolved into the first Earth Day. Nelson’s proposal came at a time when the US  environmental movement was gaining traction over concerns about increasing air and land pollution, documented in books like Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. According to the Earth Day Network, the first Earth Day was celebrated by 20 million Americans in colleges and cities across the United States.

After 20 years of being a US-centred event, Earth Day festivities expanded internationally in 1990 to incorporate 141 countries. These festivities were organized by two groups, the Earth Day 20 Foundation and Earth Day 1990 to bring environmental issues to a global front.

Since the 1990s, Earth Day has expanded to become an internationally recognized holiday, with events spanning over 190 countries, organized by the Earth Day Network.

The theme for Earth Day 2020 is “climate action”, reflecting a surging global initiative to limit carbon emissions and combat the effects of the climate crisis. Global efforts to combat the climate crisis is just one of the ways in which the Earth of today is vastly different to what it was 50 years ago.

Despite the almost constant flow of negative news about the extent of human destruction of the earth, the Earth Day movement has had an impact – there have been many positive environmental changes since 1970.

In 1974, just four years after the first Earth Day, American scientists reported that the ozone layer, which envelopes the planet and reflects harmful ultraviolet rays, was being depleted. Although the US government responded by banning chemicals from aerosol cans that contributed to this depletion in 1977, the problem persisted, building up to a hole in the ozone layer discovered in 1985. In 1987, however, the international community came together to sign the Montreal Protocol, phasing out production of substances responsible for ozone depletion. Since then, scientists have reported there is evidence that the ozone layer has begun healing itself.

Increased efforts to demarcate nature reserves have led to the protection of 15 percent of the world’s land and seven percent of the world’s oceans. Animals like elephants have also been protected since 1990, when the international trade of elephant ivory was banned.

In the United States, this is the first Earth Day in which wind power has outpaced coal-fired electricity. However, in the rest of the world, coal is still a primary energy source, especially in countries like China, India, and Indonesia.

At the same time, however, many new threats to the Earth have emerged since 1970. The Amazon rainforest faces the threat of becoming a non-forest ecosystem. Deforestation has already destroyed 17 percent of the rainforest. Similarly, the Great Barrier Reef faces the threat of coral bleaching from rising ocean temperatures, which killed at least 29 percent of the reef’s coral population in 2016 alone.

Nuclear accidents like the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 have resulted in mass radioactive pollution that will require decades of clean-up. Wildfires have ravaged Australia since June 2019, with air quality dropping to hazardous levels and millions of animals dying there. Global extinction rates are expected to rise to include as many as one million new plant and animal species, placing species like the honeybee, which is an integral part of the ecosystem, at risk.

The world has been aware of the effects of climate change since 1988, when American climatologist James Hansen presented evidence of global warming to the United States Congress. Although 196 nations signed the Paris Climate Agreement on Earth Day in 2016, in which it was agreed that they would develop plans to limit carbon emissions, new reports have shown that the world is already experiencing many of the feared effects of the climate crisis.

The Earth Day Network has devoted a 24-hour cycle of virtual programming to addressing the climate crisis. It is encouraging participants to advocate for climate action by contacting their government representatives to demand action and speaking out on social media.

Ramaphosa announces historic R500bn economic rescue package

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By Skylar Thoma

MAIN IMAGE: SA President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a plan for R500 billion in government spending to address the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. SOURCE: Twitter @PresidencyZA

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the largest economic relief package in South Africa’s history, amounting to approximately 10 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, in a televised address Tuesday evening.

The R500-billion stimulus package includes increased spending on health care, additional social grants, and loan guarantees.

Explaining the plan to the nation, Ramaphosa defended the current nationwide lockdown as “absolutely necessary” but acknowledged that measures to combat the virus have severely damaged the country’s economy, which had already been struggling prior to the outbreak of the epidemic.

“The pandemic requires an economic response that is equal to the scale of the disruption it is causing”, he said. 

As part of the massive surge in spending, R20bn will go to health care interventions, R200bn will be spent on loan guarantees, R100bn on job creation and support, and R20bn on supporting municipality spending.

Social grants will also be increased for a six-month period. Recipients of child care grants will see their grants go up by R500, and people who are unemployed and not receiving any social grants can apply for a temporary R350 monthly grant.

Ramaphosa also announced tax deferments and certain tax holidays for companies, including a three-month holiday on carbon taxes. In total tax measures will amount to an additional R70bn in relief.

The government will pay for R130bn of the package by transferring funds from other government departments. 

The remaining money will have to be borrowed from external sources, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The IMF had announced on Tuesday that South Africa could be eligible for $4.2 billion USD (R80 billion) in loans under certain conditions, according to Bloomberg.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is scheduled to announce details of how the plan will be funded, and is due to present an adjustment budget for the country. However, a time for this has not yet been specified.

Opposition parties generally welcomed Ramaphosa’s announcement. The DA said the president’s plan, “if executed correctly, could be the kick-start our economy needs to recover from the effects of Covid-19 and the lockdown”.

The EFF released a cautiously optimistic endorsement of the president’s stimulus package, calling the increases in social grants “a step in the right direction”. But the party asked for further details of how the relief will be implemented before they fully embrace the government’s strategy.

Some worry the stimulus package will not be enough. Reuters reports that COSATU, which participates in the National Economic Development and Labour Council, had demanded a stimulus package of 1 trillion Rand.

University of Witwatersrand economist Gilad Isaacs raised a number of concerns in an opinion piece about Ramaphosa’s plan. For instance, he suggested the amount that would be needed for the additional social grants would exceed the amount that had been set aside for that purpose.

Isaacs also pointed out that South Africans are generally skeptical of international financial institutions like the IMF which he said were “notorious for accompanying loans with anti-poor, pro-market measures of deregulation and slashing government and social spending”.

Ramaphosa promised that details of further relief efforts will be announced in the coming days. Plans to ease the lockdown in order to restart the economy in a phased way are expected to be announced on Thursday night when Ramaphosa is due to address the nation again.

South Africans face extended coronavirus restrictions

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By Skylar Thoma and Ayinde Summey

MAIN IMAGE: Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma speaks at a press briefing Thursday, announcing that some lockdown regulations “will remain in place for a long time”. SOURCE: Screen grab from Twitter @PresidencyZA

South Africa is facing an extended period of coronavirus restrictions – even if the country’s lockdown is partially lifted on April 30.

This was the message of Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Thursday as she announced details of a two-week extension of the country’s lockdown which has been in place since March 26.

In a publicly broadcast briefing of the national command council (NCC) on COVID-19, Dlamini-Zuma said that when regulations are eventually lifted, this would have to be done gradually. “When we do stop the lockdown, we cannot do it abruptly – that today it’s complete lockdown and tomorrow it’s open completely”, she explained. “We have to phase it in, so that there is an orderly move towards normality.”

Many of the regulations that have been in place since the start of the lockdown are being extended, the NCC announced. These include the existing ban on cigarettes and current restrictions around funerals, which limit the number of attendees to 50 people.

But some amendments have been introduced. Dlamini-Zuma said the government is expanding the ban on liquor products by banning the transport of alcoholic beverages. Earlier this week the Gauteng Liquor Forum threatened legal action against the government if it did not ease restrictions on alcohol sales. The government asked the organisation to wait until Friday for an official response. The Forum has not yet responded to the announcement of the extension of the liquor ban. 

The government is also beginning to open up the mining industry, allowing many mines to operate at 50 percent capacity. Dlamini-Zuma added that “all the mines that supply Eskom must be fully operational”.

“Some [regulations] will remain in place for a very long time”, Dlamini-Zuma said, although she did not specify which these would be.

As of Thursday South Africa had 2605 confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Worldwide there are now over 2 million cases with over 140,000 deaths. 

Other countries are contemplating how and when to relax their measures to combat the virus. Japan announced Thursday that the government is extending lockdown measures to the entire country, intensifying its State of Emergency which was introduced less than two weeks ago in some of the country’s prefectures. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he wants to limit contact among the public by 80%,” reported Kyoto News. 

In the United Kingdom, foreign secretary Dominic Raab has said that stay home orders will be in place for at least another three weeks to avoid damage to the economy and public health.

Raab told reporters that according to research done by Sage, a company advising the UK government,  the infection rate in the country is below one per person, meaning each infected person is passing on the virus to one or less than one person. The government wants the rate to reduce further and is concerned that lifting the restrictions might cause another peak.

“We have been very clear that we will take the right decisions at the right moments based on the evidence. And they may well involve a transition out of the current measures. And, of course, they could be calibrated in different ways.” The Guardian reported Raab saying.

Five conditions will have to be met before restrictions can be lifted.

Among these are whether the NHS is able to handle the infection load; whether the death rate is consistently falling (to indicate whether the peak has passed throughout the country), and that there are sufficient testing spaces and PPE to account for future demand.

The Guardian quoted Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK’s chief scientific advisor saying that to disrupt transmission and avoid a second wave, it would likely be necessary for people to prepare to work from home for a long period of time. Medicines and vaccines that are also essential have not yet been identified and, there is currently no way to tell when that will arrive, he said.

Here’s the Reason South Africa is Banning Alcohol and Tobacco

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By Laura Peterjohn and Lizzie Stricklin

MAIN PHOTO: The sale of tobacco has been banned in South Africa as part of the lockdown measures to combat the spread of COVID-19. SOURCE: Gerd Altmann, Pixabay

Lockdown in South Africa means no social gatherings, no travel, and no smoking or alcohol – much to the public’s disdain. But the science behind this decision suggests that alcohol and smoking not only help spread COVID-19, but weakens users’ immune systems.

The South African government banned the sale of alcohol and tobacco on March 27 as the state went into lockdown to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Although state officials have argued that the ban is a necessary precaution that has reportedly reduced crime, liquor license holders have stressed that the ban is causing undue economic hardship – even going so far as to threaten to take the government to court to force it to lift the ban on alcohol.

On Thursday the Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, announced the ban on alcohol and tobacco sales would continue until the end of April, and that it would be expanded to also include the transportation of alcohol.

Although the ban has induced massive public outcry, medical and scientific studies support the government’s decision.

Links between COVID-19 and smoking – whether it’s tobacco, marijauna, or vaping

Numerous studies have shown that smoking both tobacco and marijuana damages the lungs, which makes the possibility of contracting a respiratory illness like the novel coronavirus more dangerous. Although fewer studies have been conducted on the health risks of vaping, studies suggest it poses a similar threat to healthy lungs.

Smokers may also be more likely to touch their face in the process of smoking or spread the virus by coughing or exhaling, according to Dr. Jonathan Winickoff of Harvard Medical School.

“You bring this device or cigarette to your mouth to inhale and you do so repeatedly,” Winickoff told The New York Times. “You touch the cartridge. You put it next to your face. You are spreading whatever is in your hand into your body. At the same time, many of my patients who smoke or vape have increased coughing or expectorating. And that’s a recipe for increased spread.”

A recent study in the European Respiratory Journal expanded on this, and reported that smoking tobacco may increase the risk of contracting COVID-19 because it elevates levels of an enzyme that makes it easier for the virus to enter the smoker’s lungs. Smoking was even identified in a past study as a factor in patients who contracted another coronavirus, known as MERS, in 2012.

The medical (and social) harms of alcohol

When it comes to alcohol, South Africa’s ban on its transportation and sale is, in part, to limit social gatherings, enforcing policies of social distancing with the hopes of slowing the spread of COVID-19. In doing so, the ban may also lower incidents of violence, freeing space in emergency rooms for those fighting the disease.

The UN has reported a spike in cases of domestic violence since the beginning of the month, calling it “horrifying global surge in domestic violence”. The ban on alcohol sales is hoped to tamper down those incidents as alcohol is considered to be a fuel, although the increased proximity to abusers in abusive relationships during a lockdown is recognised as a concern.

The consumption of alcohol is also known to weaken one’s immune system. The World Health Organization has stressed that alcohol limits the body’s ability to fight infectious diseases like COVID-19, and encouraged people to remain sober and “make decisions with a clear head”. Studies have also shown that individuals who consume alcohol are at a higher risk for developing pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, both of which are common complications in severe cases of COVID-19.

Aadielah Maker Diedericks, a coordinator for the Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance, told Public Radio International that “the ban is for people’s own good.”

“Food security is going to become a big issue,” she added. “And if we have people spending the little resources they have currently on alcohol, the bigger issue is going to be hunger.”

Divided support

Despite the scientific and medical backing for South Africa’s bans, calls against it have won some traction. The Garden Route Municipality in the Western Cape lifted the ban on tobacco sales in grocery stores, reportedly to prevent illegal cigarette sales. The Office of the State Attorney will release an official decision on Friday in response to the Gauteng Liquor Forum’s petitions against the ban on alcohol.

Organizations like the Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance have supported the ban, however, emphasizing, “It is critical for the government to ensure its efforts to mitigate the economic impact of the Covid-19 lockdown include those running liquor outlets, but without rescinding the ban.”

The Economic Freedom Fighters party also rejected calls to end the ban on alcohol, saying, “there is nothing essential about alcohol and it will only serve a destructive purpose in a time when we all need to practice maximum discipline and self-control.” This is in agreement with the African National Congress, which has urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to deny the Gauteng Liquor Forum’s petitions and continue the ban on alcohol transportation and sales.

The blood of life: Culture of Zulu women showcased at Durban museum

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By Lizzie Stricklin

MAIN IMAGE: Zulu storyboards in the Phansi Museum depict a girl’s transition into womanhood. SOURCE: Lizzie Stricklin

Deep in what was once a Durban home, in a cramped, shadowy room, lies a glass shelf dedicated to unodoli. These beaded figurines are shaped in the form of a young girl but lack eyes and a mouth, so as not to “replace [the work of] God.” Small enough to fit in a child’s hand, they resemble a colorful toy – but these are not dolls made for play.

“You don’t play with a blessing around,” said museum manager Phumzile Nkosi.

These Zulu fertility dolls, or unodoli, are given to girls as they enter puberty. SOURCE: Lizzie Stricklin

These are Zulu fertility dolls, passed from mother to daughter to mark the daughter’s first period and passage into womanhood. Later, these fertility dolls may be given to a man to mark an engagement, and one day would be passed down to the next daughter in a continuous cycle of growth and creation.

At the Phansi Museum in Durban, which specializes in art from the nations of southern Africa, curated Zulu artifacts like the unodoli are brought to life by stories from Zulu experts themselves.

As she gazed at the fertility dolls on the shelf above her, museum manager Phumzile Nkosi recounted how her mother, like most Zulu mothers, did not tell her about menstruation before her first period. When her first period arrived, she “screamed and screamed”, Nkosi said.

By contrast, Nkosi described how recently she was shocked to discover a sanitary pad in her young granddaughter’s school bag, and to realize that her granddaughter was unceremoniously approaching what would have been a momentous life event in Nkosi’s youth.

The life of Zulu women is showcased throughout the museum, in the art of painted storyboards and handcrafted utensils. On one mannequin, the role of the wife as the bearer of children is woven into every aspect of the outfit on display: from her embroidered apron, which one day would be transformed into a baby blanket, to her circular hat, woven from the hair of her family and children and permanently braided into her own.

A traditional woman’s outfit features an apron that would one day be transformed into a baby’s blanket. SOURCE: Lizzie Stricklin

Through creatively curated displays and intriguing guided tours, the Phansi Museum connects primary stories to visual art to bring Zulu culture to light.

For Nkosi, the museum has rejuvenated her personal connection to her culture.

 “The museum restored the health of my culture,” she said. “When we came to the township, we had to hide everything … but now I feel proud.”

Greenland ice sheet hits record melt rate in 2019

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By Lizzie Stricklin

MAIN IMAGE: A new study published Wednesday revealed that Greenland’s ice sheet experienced record melting in 2019. SOURCE: Bernd Hildebrandt, Pixabay

Greenland’s ice sheet experienced record melting in 2019 due to “unprecedented atmospheric conditions” which meant that the earth absorbed more sunlight than usual, according to a new study published in The Cryosphere on Wednesday.

The study, conducted by Marco Tedesco of Columbia University and Xavier Fettweis of the University of Liège, revealed that surface melt in 2019 was the highest since 1948. Runoff in 2019 was also the second highest ever, only following that of 2012.

The researchers used regional climate model outputs and satellite data to compare ice melt in 2019 to that of the average ice melt from 1981 to 2010. Their research revealed that in 2019, up to 95.8% of the ice sheet underwent melting, compared to the average of 64.3% from 1981 to 2010.

“We’re destroying ice in decades that was built over thousands of years,” Tedesco told Reuters. “What we do here has huge implications for everywhere else in the world.”

Speaking to the Guardian, co-author Feittweis said, “This melt event is a good alarm signal that we urgently need to change our way of living to hold [back] global warming because it is likely that the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] projections could be too optimistic for [the] Arctic.”

The authors attributed the unprecedented melting to persistent high pressure systems, which caused reduced cloudiness in the south, and thus less summer snowfall and less reflection of sunlight. Together, this meant the earth absorbed more sunlight than usual, increasing the rate at which the ice covering the land mass melted. Similar conditions also caused the big melt in 2012.

The researchers said that the effect of high pressure systems on Greenland’s melting is not adequately simulated in popular climate models. Most global climate models currently used by the scientific community to predict Greenland’s current and future ice loss underestimate the magnitude of Greenland’s warming since the mid-1990s.

The authors hope their work will assist with better estimates of Greenland’s current and future contributions to sea level rise. This may have been under-reported in current climate datasets.

South African Airways denied more funding

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By Ainsley Ash 

MAIN PHOTO: After being placed under business rescue in December, South African Airways has been denied further funding from the government. SOURCE: Maria Tyutina on Pexels

The South African government has denied further funding to South African Airways, its national carrier. 

In a letter signed by Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan  and addressed to the airline’s business rescue administrators, SAA was told that the government would not support the airline’s bid for funds from foreign banks, nor was it able to offer any funds itself.

The airline was placed under business rescue in early December 2019. 

Gordhan’s decision comes after SAA asked the government for an additional R10 billion to supplement the R5.5 billion it had already received for business rescue operations. 

Gordhan ‘s letter said the government would not be able to provide additional funding because the Covid-19 pandemic had “stretched national government resources”. 

The airline has accumulated R26 billion in losses over the past six years and last turned a profit in 2011. SAA has largely relied on state bailouts to continue operations throughout these years. 

The EFF has responded to this decision by accusing Gordhan of engineering the “deliberate collapse” of the airline. In a statement released on Wednesday, the EFF said that it was disingenuous to label the requested R10 billion as a bailout, because the funds would put in place measures that would have rescued the organization and secured jobs. 

“It is therefore clear that Gordham has no intention of rescuing SAA or protecting the incomes and livelihoods of its employees,” the statement said. 

The EFF called for a multi-ministerial oversight of all State-Owned Enterprises “to prevent the inevitable arrogance of Gordhan from collapsing them”. 

SA Express, the regional carrier, is also facing uncertainty. In March, the Business Rescue Practitioners made the decision to liquidate SA Express. 

According to notes prepared for a briefing to journalists by Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni on Tuesday, economic measures being considered by the government include the “consolidation of public entities and closure of SAA and SA Express”. However, Mboweni later told journalists that he was unaware that the phrase had been included in his notes, reports the Daily Maverick. 

SAA has halted all domestic and international commercial flights since the government imposed the coronavirus lockdown on the country. Apart from recent chartered repatriation flights, SAA has been out of operation since the end of March. 

Parents knew it all along: kids just want to know, Why?

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By Renny Simone

MAIN PHOTO: A young child and an adult read a storybook together. SOURCE: Lina Kivaka from Pexels

If you want to nurture the little scientist in your child, give him or her a book. That, at any rate, is what the scientists are saying.

A new study published this week has found that children prefer storybooks that tell them something about how things happen – which may help parents understand why their children’s favourite question is, Why?

Jean Piaget, a 20th century pioneer of developmental psychology, often called children “little scientists” because of their natural curiosity and insistence on explanation.

Piaget and others established that children tend to prefer “causally rich” information – that is, information that helps explain “the why and how of the world”. 

But the new study by researchers from Vanderbilt University and the University of Texas, published in Frontiers in Psychology, has taken a novel approach to the question.

Where most previous studies have taken place in artificial laboratory settings, the authors of the latest research wanted to see whether the findings could be repeated in a more practical context.

“There has been a lot of research on children’s interest in causality, but these studies almost always take place in a research lab using highly contrived procedures and activities,” according to one of the researchers, Margaret Shavlik, of Vanderbilt University.

“We wanted to explore how this early interest in causal information might affect everyday activities with young children – such as joint book reading.”

Shavlik and her co-authors – Amy E Booth, also from Vanderbilt, and Jessie Raye Bauer from the University of Texas – anticipated that young children would prefer books with more explanatory information to those with less. The researchers selected two books by the same author – one “causally rich”, the other “minimally causal” – and controlled for factors like subject matter, art style, and words per page, minimizing the chance that preferences would be influenced by anything other than causal content.

A group of 48 children, all three or four years old, were selected for the study. A female experimenter read both books to each child. Afterwards, the children answered some basic comprehension questions, and told researchers which book they liked better. Two weeks later, the process was repeated, except that the books were read in reverse order.

The results? Over 40% of the children preferred the causally rich book in both sessions. If left to pure chance, only 25% of the children would go for causality both times – leading researchers to conclude that their hypothesis has some validity.

“We believe this result may be due to children’s natural desire to learn about how the world works,” Shavlik said.

The results of the study.
SOURCE: “Children’s Preference for Causal Information in Storybooks”, Frontiers in Psychology, Shavlik, Bauer, and Booth

In addition to affirming the causality hypothesis, the study has important implications for childhood literacy. Parents might have better luck getting their child excited about reading if they choose books that explain something. 

“If children do indeed prefer storybooks with causal explanations, adults might seek out more causally rich books to read with children – which might in turn increase the child’s motivation to read”, Shavlik said. In other words, adults can stimulate young minds (and make their own lives easier) by picking books that satisfy children’s natural curiosity.

The researchers say these findings raise important questions about the practical relevance of causality. Does causal richness have an impact on how easily kids acquire information? Can these results be repeated in a more natural setting, such as by recording parents and children in their home?

The authors don’t have answers yet, but they believe their study “lays a solid groundwork” for exploring the questions.

World leaders dismayed as Trump cuts US funding to WHO

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By Skylar Thoma

MAIN IMAGE: WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks to the press following President Trump’s announcement that the United States’ funding for the organisation would be cut. SOURCE: Twitter @WHO

World leaders expressed concern on Wednesday after President Donald Trump moved to cut off US funding to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The move, which Trump said would be in place while his administration assesses the WHO’s response to the global coronavirus pandemic, drew criticism from the European Union, the African Union, and the United Nations.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus ‘expressed regret’ at Trump’s decision and told reporters the organisation is assessing how its operations will be affected it. The United States contributes between $400 million and $500 million USD to the WHO’s annual budget.

“The United States of America has been a longstanding and generous friend of the WHO, and we hope it will continue to be so”, Tedros said. “Our commitment to health, science, and to serving all the people of the world, without fear or favor, remains absolute.” 

International leaders from various countries and organisations have criticised Trump’s decision which came at the same time as news that the global tally of coronavirus cases passed two million on Tuesday. 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged “the international community to work together in solidarity” and said now was “not the time” for President Trump to cut funding. 

China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian urged President Trump to reconsider his decision, praising the WHO’s efforts to combat the virus and pledging China’s continuing support for the organization.

Leaders from the African Union and the European Union took to Twitter to condemn Trump’s decision.

Trump has previously accused the WHO of being “China-centric”, claiming “the outbreak could have been contained at its source” had the WHO not defended China’s response to the virus in January.  Some scientists quoted by The Atlantic and the New York Times have suggested that the WHO was too willing to take China’s assurances on the spread of the virus at face value, and did not insist on sufficient transparency.

Guterres said a full assessment of what happened with management of the pandemic would need to be conducted in time, but not until the crisis had passed. 

“It is my belief that the World Health Organization must be supported, as it is absolutely critical to the world’s efforts to win the war against COVID-19.  This virus is unprecedented in our lifetime and requires an unprecedented response.”

The WHO is a subsidiary of the United Nations (UN), which works around the world to fight various epidemics, including COVID-19, Ebola, polio, influenza, HIV, tuberculosis, and others. They also support research into vaccines and help deliver key medical supplies to countries in need.

At present the WHO is coordinating global efforts to find a vaccine for the coronavirus. Tedros announced that “3 vaccines have already started clinical trials, and more than 70 others are in development”.

Trump has come under fire for his handling of the pandemic and his early suggestions that it was a hoax. Although he declared a national emergency on March 13, Trump has not invoked the Defense Production Act, which would allow him to force companies to manufacture critical medical supplies. His administration has so far refused to impose national social distancing measures, instead leaving those decisions to state and local governments.

In an interview with CNN on Sunday, the president’s chief health advisor Dr Anthony Fauci acknowledged that lives might have been saved had the federal government acted more swiftly. Fauci revised his statement on Monday following reports that Trump was considering firing him. He said he had used a “poor choice of words”.

The United States is now the centre of the global pandemic, with almost 580,000 cases and more than 22,000 deaths as of April 14. The official death toll in New York City, the centre of the country’s outbreak, rose to over 10,000 this week after officials began to include in their count people who had presented with coronavirus symptoms when they died but had not been tested, according to the New York Times. 

Global domestic violence surges under coronavirus restrictions

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MAIN IMAGE: Domestic violence cases have increased across the world since the start of coronavirus restrictions. SOURCE: Tumisu on Pixabay

By Ainsley Ash

With at least a third of the world’s population on coronavirus lockdown, many women and children are at home, safe from the virus, but find themselves in more immediate danger of domestic violence.

“For many women and girls, the threat looms largest where they should be safest — in their own homes,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said earlier this month, during an address in which he urged governments to address the “horrifying surge” in domestic violence.

Argentina has seen emergency calls for domestic violence cases increase by 25% since the beginning of their 20 March lockdown, reports The Guardian. In Italy, advocates have said that calls have sharply decreased, but they have seen a massive increase in texts and emails. 

After lockdown was implemented in the Chinese province Hubei, reports of domestic violence in a single county in February tripled compared to a year ago, according to the Globe and Mail.

The UK’s largest domestic abuse charity, Refuge, has reported a 700% increase in calls to its helpline in a single day, reports The Guardian.

“It happens in all crisis situations,” Marcy Hersh, a senior manager for international humanitarian advocacy at Women Deliver said to The Guardian. “What we worry about is just as rates of violence are on the rise, the accessibility of services and the ability of women to access these services will decrease. This is a real challenge.” 

Some countries have responded by adjusting  the restriction of movement in cases of abuse. 

In Spain, the government has told women that, despite rigid lockdown rules, they will not be fined for breaking them if they are leaving home to report abuse. 

The UK government has developed an app called “Bright Sky” to discreetly provide information and support to victims while also promoting the #YouAreNotAlone hashtag on social media.

In South Africa, a country with already high rates of gender-based violence, resources are being stretched thin. Since the beginning of the lockdown, 148 people have been charged with crimes of gender-based violence. The national police hotline for gender-based violence reports received 2,300 calls in the first week of lockdown.

“Domestic violence shelters in South Africa are reaching capacity or are unable to take new victims due to lockdown and social distancing measures. In other cases, they are being re-purposed to serve as health centres,” Tina Thiart, a founding member of 1000 Women Trust, told Independent Online, 

President Cyril Ramaphosa wrote an open letter to the nation on Monday, addressing the increase in violence. 

“It is disturbing that during a time of such immense difficulty for our country, women and girls are being terrorised inside their own homes, forcing them to make desperate calls for help,” Ramaphosa wrote. 

He said the Interim Steering Committee on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide wasconsulting with civil society organizations to develop guidelines to address gender based violence during Covid-19. 

He expressed condolences to the families of individual victims of gender-based violence.

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