Tag: COVID-19

Albatross

Migratory Birds Of Mass Destruction

The UN Security Council held an extraordinary event on April 6 under the rubric Arria Formula Meeting on Biological Security regarding the biological activities in countries including Ukraine. Predictably, the US and UK representatives didn’t show up at the event and the western media also blacked out the proceedings. But […]

PCR

Surrender, Accommodation And RATs

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test has been the mainstay of COVID-19 testing.  But reliance upon such a regime, which requires the administration of middlingly competent personnel at appropriate testing sites, has caused its fair share of global disruption. The dreaded queue, where one waits for hours only to be […]

Billionaires got richer amid COVID-19

Arise, Pandemic Profiteers

History’s annals are filled with war profiteers and hustlers for the opportunistic return.  They come in the form of hoarders, arms manufacturers and wily business folk making a steal on slaughter and mayhem.  But the other conflict – that of battling a pandemic – has also shown that profits exist […]

Novak-Djokovic

Dangerous Precedents And Hypothetical Threats: The Deportation Of Novak Djokovic

Australia’s treatment of Novak Djokovic, the tennis world number one, has been revelatory.  Unintentionally, this has exposed the seedier, arbitrary and inconsistent nature of Australia’s border policies.  The approval by the Australian Federal Court of the Immigration Minister Alex Hawke’s decision to re-cancel the prominent Serb’s visa left the country […]

Xi Jinping

China’s Success Against Covid Dwarfs The West’s

Libertarians/neoliberals in The West can’t believe the enormous extent of China’s success at keeping down the rates of disease, and of death, and of unemployment, from covid-19, because China’s policies on covid are, and have been, the exact opposite of libertarian/neoliberal. (What’s called “libertarian” in America is called “neoliberal” throughout […]

Omicron travel restrictions

Omicron And The Travel Ban Itch

Stick to the script: owe that duty of care to your population, so the legal experts in government tell you. Self-interest pays, if in small amounts. These rigid, formulaic assumptions have done wonders to harm and deter any spirit of cooperation regarding dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. History’s record of […]

Melbourne: The Longest In Lockdown

As a city, Melbourne previously prided itself with the air of a prim and proper heiress, one without peer in Australia: a gastronomic wonder, a sporting goddess, and a place of orderly public transport. The Economist Intelligence Unit glowed with praise, designating the city the world’s “most liveable” for seven […]