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General Context
In a BBC programme in 2014, Dr. Larry Brilliant, the eminent epidemiologist who helped eradicate Smallpox “Outbreaks are inevitable. Pandemics are optional.” This was quoted again by Sonia Shah, a science journalist in an article on Feb 18 2020 in The Nation, where she points to the complex impacts of the human footprint on eco-systems, habitats, environments and climate through urban expansion, industrial agriculture, indiscriminate industrial activity, extractive industry and environmental pollution in creating the conditions for pandemics to occur and flourish.
The COVID 19 pandemic is truly novel, not only because of the novel corona virus, but equally—perhaps more so—because of the context in which it is manifesting.
We live in an extremely globalized world, where national economies and much of the world population’s welfare depends on global supply chains that span the entire world, which in turn requires international travel and mobility, allowing the virus to spread exponentially.
The globalization of supply chains also means that most countries depend upon goods produced in quite distant places for meeting everyday consumption, medical needs, public health, and even food staples. As COVID 19 spreads and countries close borders and stop international travel to contain the disease, shortages increase of essential supplies such as medicines, gloves, masks, protective gear, etc.
The SARS COV-2 virus does not discriminate who it infects by age, class, race, gender, ethnicity; but the way things are now, class, social privilege, race and ethnicity are important in determining who are most exposed and vulnerable, and who experience the worst impacts of the pandemic---which include not only infection, but also the economic, social and health impacts of the measures that govts are taking, for example lockdowns, curfews, and so on. This is especially true in Asia, but also among working class and migrant populations in the North.
Another critical aspect of the COVID pandemic context is the huge, entrenched inequality within and across countries. I am sure all of you have read the statistics presented every year about how inequality is being entrenched. But what that means in practice is horrifying visible when we are hit by a crisis like COVID 19.
Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) and neoliberal reforms over the past 4 decades have resulted in the “unbundling” of manufacturing, food production and services into global value and supply chains. Workers, peasants, artisanal fishers, herders, and people in low income brackets have become the precariat:
• Millions of people across the world are migrant workers in agriculture, factories, mining, the hospitality industry, construction industry, domestic work, food and goods deliveries, home care for the elderly, public works that are essential to maintaining public hygiene—for e.g. cleaning sewers and streets, etc.
• These workers are poorly paid, have little or no access to basic services (even regular water supply) and adequate food, live in cramped homes, slums and shanties: how can they practice physical distancing? How can they wash their hands several times a day, not touch their face, wear masks, and follow the protocols that many health services have mandated?
• Many workers are daily wage earners; they and their families can only eat if they earn, and if there is food available for them to buy. With the lockdowns we have in many countries, how will they eat? Without adequate, nutritious food, how will they build immunity to fight the virus?
SAPs and neoliberalism have resulted in the gutting of public health systems, and public services and goods in both the South and North. In many countries, hospitals have been privatized and govts have “disinvested” from public hospitals, health services, ensuring clean water, food procurement and distribution, public transportation, etc.
As a result, not only low income, but and even relatively wealthy countries simply do not have the infrastructure to deal with a pandemic of these proportions—this includes trained medical staff, life-saving equipment, hospital beds, testing facilities, systems for triage, research and monitoring, medicines, protective equipment such as masks and gloves, safe food, safe transportation, etc. But again, this is manifested most among low income populations.
Weak infrastructure is exacerbated by respiratory and other virus-related health problems among populations who have been exposed over long periods of time to environmental pollution, toxins and unsafe work conditions—agricultural workers; workers in chemical plants, extractive industry, sewage and cleaning works; street vendors; delivery persons; and others who live in heavily polluted cities and use public transport. Their immune systems are already compromised to fight new viruses.
Responses of governments (govts):
The responses of governments need to be assessed in terms of effectiveness, equality, justice and human rights.
Public health is related to many more factors than medical facilities although medical facilities are important: these include access to essential goods and services, adequate food and shelter, safe working and living environments, affordable medicines, fundamental rights, and social as well as legal justice.
And here again we see inequalities of impacts: natural calamities, economic crises, epidemics and pandemics hit the poorest and marginalized sectors the hardest; and it is these sectors who are most often ignored, discriminated against, and marginalized further through Government responses.
Covid 19 has exposed the weaknesses of the public health system across the board: the crowded and ill equipped government hospitals simply cannot accommodate the needs, especially of the poor during health crises.
In Thailand, the government has maintained good public health care centers and hospitals from local areas to large cities, as well as allowed private hospitals to flourish. The first place of call for most people are these public health care centres.
Example of India
• In India, health care has been privatized since the 1990s and the Indian govt started disinvesting in health care about 20 years ago; the public health system in India was never robust, but SAPs, privatization and disinvestment made it much worse.
• Govt. hospitals lost the public financing they needed for equipment, training, materials, competitive salaries and other facilities.
• All small towns and cities had GPs who most people went to for small ailments, and were then referred to for tests or specialized treatments to hospitals.
• Those who can afford it go to private hospitals, which are quite expensive; insurance in India is to cover hospitalization costs, not health maintenance, etc.
• But COVID is different: govt hospitals have been made the first centres of call and they are completely unable to handle the complexity of bring at the frontlines of a pandemic.
• News reports of doctors in municipal hospitals working shifts of 15-18 hours, without sufficient protection; the numbers of patients can be as many as 300 a day, handled by just a few doctors.
• Reports of quarantine centers show cramped, dirty places, where healthy people are likely to get sick and those who are already sick have little chance of getting well.
In India, Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, apart from lockdowns and curfews, and closing borders, the strategy is simply not clear.
What is clear though is how, in times of crisis, the rich and powerful flaunt privilege:
• Top political leaders and their families, and those who are wealthy have direct and easy access to testing and treatment, while the State continues to deny mass testing.
• Privileged people who break quarantine rules and endanger people around them are forgiven; but the poor are crammed in crowded spaces, harassed, humiliated, beaten.
• Rich and politically powerful people have access to food and hoard supplies; the poor and low income groups do not have the money to buy enough food and places to store food; with the lockdowns in India, Philippines and Thailand, they do not even have access to places that sell food.
• Socialism for the rich and brutal capitalism for the poor.
Then there are the impacts of the crisis and the lockdown as a response- on workers particularly daily wage earners, workers in the informal sector, indigenous peoples.
There have been no congressional and/or parliamentary oversight on “coronavirus emergency funding” legislation, that is skewed towards corporate bailout packages, rather than providing economic relief for the poorest of the poor, daily wage workers, and migrant labor.
There are many proposals about “economic stimulus packages” but no clear plans and concrete actions to address unemployment, social welfare, and peoples’ access to food, water, shelter, transportation and healthcare.
Frontline workers risking their lives to provide healthcare, food, and other essential work are taking the hardest hit and receiving little to no support—not even personal protective equipment.
In the Philippines—not having any public transportation means that daily wage earners have to resort to illegal transportation or walk kilometers back to their homes.
Food Security, Sovereignty, Right to Food
Philippines: statement by LILAK on the impacts of COVID-19 sheds light on the worsening inequality in the Philippines:
• Before the health crisis brought by the virus, communities in the rural areas are already suffering especially indigenous women and their families.
• Farmers and vegetable growers carry the heaviest burdens of extreme weathers brought by climate change. It ruins their harvest – their food and their income. Many indigenous communities are victims of land grabbing by corporations and the government to make way for mega-dams, large-scale mining, industrialized plantations, and projects that treat natural resources as profitable commodities.
• Militarization runs rampant in their communities. They have no choice but to leave their ancestral lands or be killed. And indigenous women whose primary role is to secure food in their households suffer the most. They have no means to earn and they have no means to feed their children and themselves.
• The response from our government was deployment of military and police in checkpoints. The President demands obedience or be put to jail. In this time of health and food crisis, instead of a mechanism to secure peace and order, should we not have a mechanism that is more geared towards helping and supporting our vulnerable communities?
The situation expressed by LILAK and their members are also experienced in other countries in Asia.
In India:
• food grown by farmers, fish caught by fishers are rotting because the govt has made no provisions to collect this food, get it to markets and distribute it. In most urban areas, markets are open – not in rural areas.
• Govts need to provide safe trucking facilities, safe storage, wages for transporters and loaders, and adequate prices to food producers. But they are not doing this.
• Instead they ordered a 21 day lockdown with 4 hours-notice and provided no support to the hundreds of thousands of rural poor, daily wage earners and migrant workers, who are facing hunger, and are either walking for days to get to their villages, or are risking transportation in crammed containers to get out of cities.
In so many places across India, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Philippines, the resilience of rural communities to cope with environmental, economic, climate and health crises are already undermined by the expansion of industrial agriculture, extractive industry, real estate development and land grabbing. When they face hunger and disease, they do not have access to emergency relief and heath care that are available in some urban areas.
The situation of migrant workers
Migrant workers are the most vulnerable and exploited among the precariat. Our societies depend on them for so many of our daily comforts and consumption, and our economies are built on their labour. But they do not have even a modicum of the protections that should their rights.
In addition to poor working conditions and pay, many do not have legal papers and documentation, or any kind of social security, and fear deportation. This prevents them from seeking medical care when they most need it. They face detention in facilities that are hotbeds for coronavirus infections. People seeking asylum are kicked out as countries close their borders.
There is increase in racist fearmongering and xenophobic attacks to further sow division within communities already reeling from the loss of social ties and support systems due to lockdowns, restriction of movement, and ban on public gatherings. Migrants face these when they work away from home, but also when they return home.
In India, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers are at risk: with the short notice period of the 21 day lockdown, they had no way to go back to their villages; they do not have safe places to stay in the cities; they do not have food or wages; they are scared and desperate, especially worried about their children. Many started walking to their villages carrying their children---some have walked for 2-3 days. The govt response to this has again been brutal: arresting them and converting sports stadia into holding centres—basically jails
Thailand: My colleague in Thailand shared the following account of what is happening to migrant workers in Thailand from neighbouring countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Currently, there are approximately 3 million migrants from neighbouring countries, mostly from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, in Thailand.
• Migrants can be seen as a vulnerable group left behind during the pandemic and the crisis mismanagement of the Thai government.
• According to Migrant Working Group (MWG) [1], some construction migrants could not make a living because their employers reduced working hours of migrants or unfairly terminated them without payment.
• Migrants in the tourism sector were terminated without a clear compensation package. Without income and relief measures, many migrants decided to return to their countries; otherwise, they would starve in Thailand.
• Since a partial lockdown in Thailand since March 22, 2020, especially Bangkok areas to curb the spread of COVID-19, about 60,000 migrants who were working in the service sector, such as malls, tourism, and entertainment, etc. fled the country to their countries of origin because their workplaces have been shut down and no relief measures from their employers and the government.
• In addition, the closures of land borders since March 23 left migrants stranded at borders which they are anxious and do not know how to do.
• Without effective and clear communication about an emergency plan and relief measures from the government, migrants have negative impacts from restrictive measures, such as arrest and unfair termination. In addition, migrants find difficulty in access to key messages and updated announcements issued by the Thai government because they are mostly in Thai. None of the hotline related to healthcare advice and updated situations is available in migrants’ languages.
• At this moment, CSOs working on migrant issues are approaching the government to clarify how migrants can access relief measures for migrants. CSOs also translate key messages related to healthcare, updated situations and government announcements and share with migrants as much as possible. They also fundraise among their members to assist migrants who need emergency assistance.
Impacts of wars/violent conflicts, refugees fleeing conflicts, wars, occupations
Those affected by wars, violent conflicts and occupations are another very vulnerable population group, whose physical and social abilities to combat disease are severely compromised.
In India, we have the case of Kashmir has been under severe and brutal lockdown since August 2019. The population of the Kashmir has been made susceptible to COVID and other health crises because of the brutality of the Indian government’s “law and order” measures.
Health care facilities are skeletal and even communications services through mobiles and internet are minimal. Internet access is considered a basic human right today—crucial for access to information, communication, access to services, etc.
The lack of high-speed internet has resulted in health professionals getting unduly delayed in accessing important guidelines and updates on COVID-19. Medical practitioners face acute problems because of slow internet availability in the region even at a time of acute health crisi.
In a letter to the Indian Prime Minister, the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA)—Peoples Health Movement (PHM) in India emphasize: with news and breakthroughs in the treatment of COVID-19 changing rapidly, it is not just medical guidelines and updates that the doctors lose out on accessing but also “the latest guidelines and breakthroughs issued by the Government of India, the World Health Organisation (WHO) regarding testing and treatment for people suspected of being exposed to the virus or who are infected with the virus… “Internet with a good speed is also essential today; a lot of information is shared through the internet, and substantial work, application to health schemes, most payments, taxes, etc., which have been digitised by the government and cannot be carried out without internet with a good speed.”
Responses of government: battling the crisis or consolidating state power?
The responses of governments need to be assessed in terms of effectiveness, equality, justice and human rights.
We see a repetition of past patterns in terms of inequalities of impacts: natural calamities, economic crises, epidemics and pandemics hit the poorest and marginalized sectors the hardest; and it is these sectors who are most often ignored, discriminated against, and marginalized further through Government responses.
On one hand, Covid 19 has exposed the weaknesses of the public health system across the board: the crowded and ill equipped government hospitals simply cannot accommodate the needs, especially of the poor during health crises.
However, public health is related to many more factors than medical facilities although medical facilities are important: these include access to essential goods and services, adequate food and shelter, safe working and living environments, affordable medicines, fundamental rights (including right to information, right to freedom of expression), social justice, legal justice, etc.
Consolidating power, Cementing Authoritarianism
There are many aspects to battling a pandemic and when we look around the world, it seems clear that the govts do not know the most effective course of action.
It is clear though that many governments are also taking advantage of the pandemic to consolidate power, cement authoritarian rule, and further erode human rights.
Emergency powers have been invoked by govts and either passed by parliaments, or bypassed them altogether. The public, for the large part, is so frightened and taken by surprise that we are willing to accept the “firm hand” needed to combat the crisis.
Again, we see a repeating pattern: In times of crises, human rights, civil liberties and public scrutiny/oversight are the first systemic casualties: we hear government officials declaring: “human rights are suspended during a state of emergency” and “a heavy-handed approach is needed because the masses are unruly and undisciplined.”
Joseph Cannataci, the UN special rapporteur on the right to privacy recently said in an interview to Reuters that “Dictatorships and authoritarian societies often start in the face of a threat,” and he cautioned on the importance of being vigilant today and not giving away all our freedoms.
The coronavirus pandemic has led governments to declare themselves essentially on a war footing – with many politicians referencing an “invisible” enemy or attacker. The military and special police are called up because they can supposedly get things done and enforce the order needed to address the emergency.
However, what we are facing is a public health emergency that has been precipitated because of a highly infectious pathogen, and public health-welfare systems and infrastructure that have been greatly weakened by neoliberalism and hyper capitalism.
The “law and order” problem is created by pharmaceutical and other corporations who benefit from these crises, and by those govt officials, police and military who persecute the poor, defenseless and any person who asks for the truth, or asserts their rights.
Full, accurate information is not shared to “avoid panic” and “allow the professionals to do their job.” Journalist who report the real situation from the field are penalized for spreading fake news, inciting unrest, etc.
But the reality is that many of our governments do not know all the facts themselves; they do not have clear plans for combating the pandemic, building trust with the public to win compliance for severe measures, and for ensuring that those who are economically and socially vulnerable are looked after.
They do not share full information about the national situation, or even admit they do not know; they prevent medical professionals, health workers, researchers and journalists from sharing information by arresting them for spreading fake news, creating unrest, etc.
On March 16, many UN Special Rapporteurs on human rights issued a statement asking governments to avoid “overreach” of security measures and make sure that human rights are at the core of their efforts to tackle COVID 19.
The UN experts made it clear that declarations of states of emergency, whether for health or security reasons, have clear guidance from international law, that must be used. “The use of emergency powers must be publicly declared and should be notified to the relevant treaty bodies when fundamental rights including movement, family life and assembly are being significantly limited.”
“Moreover, emergency declarations based on the Covid-19 outbreak should not be used as a basis to target particular groups, minorities, or individuals. It should not function as a cover for repressive action under the guise of protecting health nor should it be used to silence the work of human rights defenders.
“Restrictions taken to respond to the virus must be motivated by legitimate public health goals and should not be used simply to quash dissent.”
Example: Philippines
In the Philippines, the Philippines Congress gave President Duterte blanket emergency powers, which basically allow him to use state funds as he sees fit—including cutting and re-allocating funds from social security programmes for the poor; declaring martial law; taking over privately owned utilities including transportation, water, hotels, telecommunications, etc.
President Duterte now has full power over the country’s economy, security apparatus, finances, legal system, governance, media, telecommunications. Congress has given up its power to legislate, and abdicated its responsibility to provide checks and balances to the actions of the Executive, or challenge the abuse of executive power.
At the same time, the Philippines govt has not unveiled any kind of comprehensive plan to deal with the COVID 19 pandemic. Instead, has imposed enhanced community quarantine across the island of Luzon, where people have to stay at home and only one family member can go out to get food and medicines; armed police and military are on the streets.
More than 2 weeks since the lockdown, there has been no mass testing, no increased support to hospitals and medical personnel to help them deal with the influx of cases, no support for the daily wage earners (who do not have enough food), no financial subsidies for people unable to work because of the absence of a coordinated system for food deliveries in households that are worse affected economically.
Instead a wave of VIP testing has taken over the health department, hampering the crucial work on the frontlines. Human rights violations continue, such as illegal arrests and detention, including of minors and mostly the poor. Minors who were caught breaking quarantine were put on cages; there are criminal penalties for any perceived violation of govt orders.
Journalists, lawyers and civil rights activists have pointed out that peoples’ right to information and freedom of the press are in danger because of the govt’s control over telecommunications: also concerns that state-controlled telecommunications might become a source of indoctrination, misinformation, or underreporting.
On April 2, Duterte gave the police and military permission to shoot civilians if they do not follow quarantine rules. And a man in his sixties was shot after that.
“I will not hesitate. My orders are to the police and military, as well as village officials, if there is any trouble, or occasions where there’s violence and your lives are in danger, shoot them dead,” he said in a mix of Filipino and English in the televised address. “Do not intimidate the government. Do not challenge the government. You will lose.”
A public health crisis has been militarized.
Example Cambodia:
On March 31, 2020, the Council of Ministers approved the “Law on Governing the Country in a State of Emergency,” which would allow the government to restrict all civil and political liberties and target human rights, democracy, and media groups.
The one-party National Assembly is expected to vote on the bill later this week or early next week.
Hun Sen has claimed that the law is necessary to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Human Rights Watch, Article 5 of the law gives the Cambodian government:
• Unlimited surveillance of telecommunications: “Putting in place measures to surveil and keep track of all means [of communication] for the receipt of information via telecommunication contact systems in every form” (art. 5(10));
• Control of media and social media: “Prohibiting or restricting the distribution or broadcast of information that could generate public alarm or fear or generate unrest, or that could bring about damage to national security, or that could bring into being confusion regarding the state of emergency” (art. 5(10) and (11));
• Catch-all unfettered powers: “Putting in place other measures that are deemed appropriate for and necessary to responding to the state of emergency” (art. 5(12)).
• Article 5 would also give the government complete authority to restrict freedom of movement and assembly.
• Articles 1 and 4 of the bill would allow the law to be used even after the COVID-19 crisis ends. It says that a state of emergency can be declared when, “The people of the nation face danger” and “in order to defend national security, public order, the lives and health of citizens as well as property and the environment,” and “particularly” in cases of “an urgent public health crisis arising from the wide-spreading of contagious disease” and of “grave disruption of national security and public order” (arts. 1 and 4).
• Article 3 makes it clear that a state of emergency could be declared “for a limited or unlimited period of time,” without specifying the basis for making decisions about the length (art. 3).
The bill also would create a permanent opportunity for the government to declare martial law. Article 5(2) states that, “At times of war, or in other circumstances in which national security is confronted with grave danger, the country can be governed while under a state of emergency via a martial law regime”.
On April 1, a Council of Ministers statement said that a state of emergency would not be declared for longer than three months – but added that the government would have discretion to extend it.
Note: the bill has now been passed by the Cambodian parliament.
Example Hungary:
On March 30 [2], the Hungarian Parliament, which is controlled by Victor Orbán’s party, Fidesz, voted to cancel all elections, suspend its own ability to legislate, and give the prime minister the right to rule by decree—indefinitely. These powers were supposed to be to tackle COVID 19.
Almost immediately, these powers were used to pass controversial edicts on museum construction and theater management [3], and to prohibit transgender people from legally changing their sex [4]—issues without the remotest relevance to the pandemic.
The government also wants to use its new powers to pass a decree classifying all information about a major Chinese railway investment in the country [5], the single largest infrastructure investment in Hungarian history. This has nothing to do with fighting the virus but it will conveniently keep the details of the business deal, and the names of the businessmen who benefit, out of the public view for 10 years.
Corona virus protection act: has indefinitely extended the state of emergency which was declared in the country on March 11.
It also lays down imprisonment terms of up to five years for spreading false information or undermining efforts to tackle the pandemic.
The country’s parliament has also been suspended.
Critics have said that the law could be used to silence independent media organisations, who are already struggling, and that public money would be spent on media that would follow the government line.
State-controlled media have gone further, openly labeling the government’s opponents as proponents of the virus.
Surveillance and Monitoring
Local level:
• Philippines Barangay level—testing, reporting and arrests
• India Home Quarantine (HQ)—posters/notices, stamps on hands, phone calls, visits from health officials and police
• Resident associations, building associations – reporting of travel; discrimination and prejudice
Digital and high-tech surveillance
Poland:
• People who are supposed to be isolating themselves at home take selfies and upload them to the app as proof that they’re not outside. “People in quarantine have a choice: either receive unexpected visits from the police, or download this app,” Karol Manys, Digital Ministry spokesman, told AFP.
• The “Home Quarantine” app is available in the iTunes app stone. Upon downloading, the app asks you to add your phone number, hunker down in your quarantine location and then follow the instructions for uploading your photographic evidence. The app uses geolocation and facial recognition technology, and randomly requests selfies. The user has 20 minutes to upload the selfie from safe inside their quarantine – or the police will pay them a visit.
Singapore:
• Using Bluetooth signals between cellphones to keep track of who people come into contact with.
• Called TraceTogether, the app taps Bluetooth signals to detect other participating mobile devices in close proximity to allow them to identify those who have been in close contact when needed.
• The app is able to estimate the distance between TraceTogether smartphones as well as the duration of such interactions. It identifies participating TraceTogether users who are within 2 metres of each other for more than 30 minutes. The data then is captured, encrypted, and stored locally on the user’s phone for 21 days, which spans the incubation period of the virus.
• To safeguard personal privacy, it added that users would have to provide consent during the initial setup of the app to participate in TraceTogether and agree to have their mobile number and captured data used for contact tracing.
• The data logs would be extracted only when needed by the authorities for contact tracing, it said. Refusal to provide such data when requested might result in individuals being prosecuted under the country’s Infectious Diseases Act.
South Korea:
• The “self-quarantine safety protection” app was, developed by the country’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety. It allows those in mandatory quarantines to stay contact with case workers and report on their progress.
• The app also uses GPS technology to keep track of users’ locations, making sure they don’t breaking their quarantine.
• Overseas travellers who do not download a government-mandated quarantine app are barred from coming in.
Hong Kong:
• Arrivals at the airport are tested, instructed to download a government mandated app - StayHomeSafe - and wear a wristband that is linked with the app.
• Developed by Gary Chan, a professor at the Department of the Computer Science and Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the app maps a unique footprint of person’s locality. Should someone venture out beyond certain perimeters, an alert will be triggered. Chan has licensed the technology to his private company, Compathnion Technology.
China:
• In February, a Chinese government-backed app that logs close contacts was launched. The app, which is registered using the person’s phone number also collects names and national ID numbers.
• People in quarantine are monitored by the police, security guards and their neighbours.
• China already been using facial recognition, cyber-surveillance and social media monitoring for many years now.
Israel:
• The Israeli government has approved emergency measures for its security agencies to track the mobile-phone data of people with suspected coronavirus.The new powers will be used to enforce quarantine and warn those who may have come into contact with infected people.The temporary laws were passed during an overnight sitting of the cabinet, bypassing parliamentary approval.
• Such powers are usually reserved for counter-terrorism operations.
• Details of how the “cyber-monitoring” will work were not disclosed but it is understood the location data collected through telecommunication companies by Shin Bet, the domestic security agency, will be shared with health officials.
• Once an individual is highlighted as a possible coronavirus case, the health ministry will then be able to track whether or not they are adhering to quarantine rules.
• It can also send a text message to people who may have come into contact with them before symptoms emerged.
Although some protest, many are prepared compromise on their civil rights in order to contain the pandemic.
• By and large, people are prepared to put up with intrusive surveillance methods and give up their privacy because of the current climate of fear regarding COVID-19.
• Many of us may hope that measures to track and monitor will stop the spread of the virus and help us get back to the “normal” life we had before.
Continuing states of emergency
But many emergency measures that are supposed to protect people during exceptional circumstances can easily become a fixture of our lives even after the pandemic is over.
There are always emergencies lurking around the corner. Even now, in the midst of COVID19, avian flu is back.
COVID-19 has provided political leaders in many countries to enact policies that favour their interests, under the pretext of responding to the pandemic. These policies can easily become institutionalized and stay on.
Surveillance technology is developing very quickly, and we don’t know how data collected today will be used tomorrow, especially during an emergency situation when safeguards are not put in place and civil liberties are increasingly suspended.
Many gadget lovers use fit-bits, apple watches, and other kinds of electronic bracelets that are synchronized with our phones: they tell us when and how much to walk; our pulse and temperature; how much we slept and how often we woke up; etc.
They wear them 24 hours a day and insist that it helps them to stay healthy. Where is this data stored and who else has access to it?
In the last 20 years we have seen many viral outbreaks become epidemics and a few became pandemics: SARS, MERS, Avian flu, H1N1 (Swine flu), Nipah, Ebola, Zika, etc. COVID 19 is the worst so far, similar to the 1918-1920 flu pandemic. All these viruses remain in our eco systems, animal and human populations, and there is enough reason to believe that there will be future outbreaks of these viruses with mutated, stronger genotypes.
Now what if governments start mandating that we wear biometric bracelets that monitor our vital signs 24 hrs. a day, to warn us when we start to get sick, and to monitor who we have been in contact with? This could be billed as prevention of future epidemics, and even sounds sensible… But the same technologies that could help prevent public health crisis can also make us captive in an alarmingly scary surveillance system.
As it is, when we use search engines, YouTube and other apps, the algorithms remember what we read, listen to, consume, etc., and this data is rechanneled back to us through marketing pitches…
Data collected for health purposes can easily be abused by govts and society to target particular ethnicities, races, genders, religions, making them vulnerable to discrimination and violence.
Such surveillance that can restrict people’s access to social services, finance, credit, healthcare, travel, etc., abused by both the state and corporations (look at medical insurance and all the exceptions for pre-existing conditions).
COVID 19 thrown up a lot of false choices: privacy vs health; strong policing vs public safety; public health vs economy; lockdown vs stopping the virus spread; democracy vs. decisive state action; free speech vs fake news; access to information vs. panic
But the real choice we need to make is whether we are willing to accept totalitarian measures and give up on our agency as the public (whether or not we are citizens) and . societies governed by rule of law, with democratic oversight over actions that are taken in the name of keeping us “safe”.
Responses by People and Social Movements
People of course are mobilizing everywhere, and we are trying to work with local, state and national govts to respond to the COVID 19 in effective, responsible and humane ways.
In India, the Right to Food Campaign, peoples’ movements and many CSOs, are pressuring local/state govts to set up shelters in schools for stranded migrants and daily wage earners, and provide food for them. Many state govts have responded positively.
Also in India, the JSA—Indian chapter of the PHM—has presented several proposals to the central govt to urgently pass policies to enable the production of COVID test kits, and make available free test and treatment services, and make the necessary arrangements with the private sector for its services. Given the already weakened state of India’s public health sector, the burden of COVID 19 is simply too much for the public sector. Collective efforts are needed now to enable the Government to fulfill its duty in protecting peoples’ health. Private laboratories, hospitals and health care institutions must be brought into the solution, not for receiving subsidies, but to contribute their facilities and resources to fight this crisis that affects everyone. JSA has also made proposals regarding confidentiality of patient information to prevent discrimination and prejudice, and building self-sufficiency in the key goods and services to rebuild India’s public health system.
The Coalition for Environmental Justice in Asia, a large group of activists and social movements recently proposed principles that they consider crucial in tackling the pandemic:
• Transparency, Accountability and Federated Democratic Governance
• Humane and Decentralised approach to tackling COVID-19
• Sensitive handling of travel restrictions
• Environmental measures to immediately stop environmental and forest clearance
• Accountability of private sector and involvement of civil society
• Safeguarding rights of workers and vulnerable communities
Similar strategies have been proposed by social movements and civil society across Asia.
An extremely important issue is working out the nuts and bolts of international solidarity in the context of COVID 19. While Cuba and China are sending doctors and medical supplies to many countries, the US continues to maintain sanctions on Iran and Venezuela, and international institutions refuse to lift economic embargoes against them. This is shocking beyond expectation, and unacceptable. We simply have to pressure all our govts to set these self-interested politics aside and concentrate on ensuring the safety of people everywhere. Trade negotiations that allow corporations to corner the market are especially criminal at this time and will further deepen economic inequalities.
This is a time when all political systems and regimes are overwhelmed, trying to deal with the pandemic. The media is rife with numerous competing theories, changing narratives and conspiracy theories. This is a time when we, as the public, can and must push our proposals for rebuilding strong public health systems, and infrastructure for public goods and services, with special provisions for those who are most vulnerable and least protected, especially the precariat, migrant workers, small scale food producers, indigenous peoples, and among all these, women, who are usually the primary care providers.
It is absolutely clear that the post COVID 19 “normal” will have to be very different: the institutional and governance structures of the world and national economies must fundamentally change. Corporations and financial markets must not be bailed out; but public goods, services, infrastructure, health and welfare need to be invested in, including research and development. However, signs from the G 20, International Financial Institutions (IFIs) indicate that they remain committed to the same economic model that has left the entire world blindsided by this public health crisis.
This includes dismantling the power of corporations—especially in pharmaceuticals, healthcare, food, water and all those aspects with public interest implications. It includes changing the way food is produced, distributed and consumed, stopping industrial agriculture and the assault on environments and eco-systems from our wasteful lifestyles.
Finally, it is very important to distinguish our progressive strategies to combat financial and corporate globalization from those of right wing regimes that foster racism, prejudice and xenophobia while deepening ties with transnational capital.
Shalmali Guttal, Focus on the Global South, 10 April 2020