The Week of January 25th, 2016
Care
1. Going viral
Zika virus
The World Health Organization called an emergency meeting to address the spread of the Zika virus, which has infected up to four million people across 23 Latin American countries. Although scientists do not yet understand the connection, they suspect a link between Zika and a rare condition called microcephaly, which causes a baby to be born with an unusually small head. Zika has been most widespread in Brazil, which says it is currently investigating 4000 cases of microcephaly, well above the 150 cases it normally sees per year. Four countries – Ecuador, El Salvador, Jamaica and Colombia – have all recommended that women delay their pregnancies because of the epidemic.
Despite the WHO convening on February 1st to vote on whether Zika should be treated as a global emergency, many think their response has not been urgent enough. The American Medical Association blasted the organization for not meeting earlier, citing the WHO’s slow response to the last official global emergency, the Ebola outbreak that killed over 11,000 people in West Africa.
With Rio de Janeiro set to host the Olympics this summer, there are concerns of a drop in attendance due to the outbreak. Because there is neither a vaccine nor a specific medication available to prevent the symptomless virus, the Center for Disease Control recommended that pregnant women consider postponing travel to infected areas. All three major American airlines announced they will allow customers concerned about Zika to postpone trips if they bought tickets to countries where the virus is currently being transmitted. Meanwhile, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff said her country has “waged war” on the mosquito that transmits the Zika virus. The virus is concentrated in the poorer regions of northeastern Brazil, although the southeast, where São Paulo and Rio are located, has been the second-hardest hit.
2. Staying in its shell
Vietnamese leadership contest
Cụ Rùa, one of the last remaining survivors of a rare species of turtle and a sacred resident of Hanoi’s Hoàn Kiếm Lake, was found dead. The turtle’s passing is considered a sign of bad luck. That was certainly the case for Nguyễn Tấn Dũng. Mr. Dũng is the country’s prime minister and one-time favorite to become the Communist Party of Vietnam’s next general secretary, the de facto leader of Vietnam. Mr. Dũng is considered reformist and carried out policies of economic liberalization over the past 10 years. He also boosted his popularity by publicly criticizing China. But more conservative politicians resented Mr. Dũng for the pace of his reforms, increased corruption, and his personal popularity. In the end, Mr. Dũng withdrew from the leadership contest. His political career may be over.
Instead, Nguyễn Phú Trọng, the sitting general secretary, won a new term. Mr. Trọng, who was technically ineligible for reelection because of age limits but managed to win an exemption from the rule, represents the party’s old guard, which espouses Soviet-style socialism. Mr. Trọng is unlikely to undo Mr. Dũng’s reforms, which he backed. (Mr. Trọng also helped lead Vietnam into the American-led Trans-Pacific Partnership). But he will probably slow down the rate of new reforms and is unlikely to open much more of Vietnam’s economy to foreign competition. And while Mr. Trọng sees value in increasing ties with the United States, he is far friendlier towards China than Mr. Dũng. Unlike the members of Cụ Rùa’s near-extinct species, the Communist Party’s old guard is unlikely to disappear any time soon.
3. The noes don’t have it
Chinese anti-gay discrimination lawsuit
A gay couple from the southern provincial capital of Changsha made headlines of both foreign and prominent state-run news outlets by becoming the first ever to successfully file an anti-discrimination lawsuit in China. Sun Wenlin and Hu Mingliang initially applied for a marriage license at a local civil affairs bureau but were turned away by an employee, who cited the Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China. This law explicitly defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and officials consistently approach gay marriage with the so-called “three noes” policy: “no approval, no disapproval, no promotion.”
Similar to the now-abolished “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in the US military, the three noes reflect a wider culture of silence and taboo surrounding gay rights issues in China. Until 2001, homosexuality was considered a mental disorder, and the first ever gay pride parade in the nation took place only seven years ago in Shanghai. Though significantly hindered by a general lack of free press and access to the outside world, both gay and straight Chinese citizens have found ways to bypass the so-called “Great Firewall” and discover how gay people are treated around the world. The US Supreme Court’s 2015 decision to legalize gay marriage seems to have especially empowered people like Mr. Sun, who told the New York Times, “I have seen the outside world.”
A marriage license approval would represent a huge victory for the extremely nascent gay rights movement in China. Regardless of the outcome, this couple has already begun to undermine a third of the three noes (promotion) by putting their struggle on the public radar. The key now is to watch for how officials react as others follow Mr. Sun and Mr. Hu’s example and carry the struggle forward.
4. No longer alone
US solitary confinement reforms
President Barack Obama announced a new set of executive actions to tackle the abuse of solitary confinement in the nation’s prison system on Monday. Among the proposals were a prohibition on the use of solitary for juveniles, a ban on solitary for low-level offenses, and tighter limits on when and for how long a prisoner can be sentenced to solitary confinement. In an op-ed in the Washington Post, the president outlined his new policies, citing successful examples of cutbacks to solitary confinement in Colorado and New Mexico. Solitary confinement has been broadly condemned as a cruel means of punishment that can have lasting psychological effects. The president also issued a broader call for continued criminal justice reform.
Although the proposals apply only to the roughly 10,000 prisoners in the federal system, the president’s sentiments are being echoed at the state level as well. The Indiana Department of Correction issued a new set of rules on Wednesday that would prevent the use of solitary confinement for mentally ill prisoners and require them to be removed from solitary confinement if they develop a mental illness while there. The rules, which arose out of a settlement from a 2008 case brought by the ACLU of Indiana and the Indiana Protection and Advocacy Services Commission, will apply to some 30,000 prisoners in the state of Indiana. Although these policies offer promises of increased federal and state commitment to criminal justice, they are but a small step towards a more equitable and fair system. Many systemic issues have gone unaddressed, including the rise of private prisons and the disproportionately frequent arrests and sentencing of people of color.
5. Backfiring
Anti-Planned Parenthood activists indicted
The sweetest victories are sometimes those least expected. For Planned Parenthood, the American nonprofit which provides reproductive health services, this week brought a sweet victory indeed. In Houston, a grand jury announced their findings into the group, after Republican officials requested the examination. Unexpectedly, rather than indicting the group or dropping the case, the grand jury instead indicted two activists involved with the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), an anti-abortion group, on felony charges related to videos released by the center under false premises.
The case stems from videos that were released last year by the Center for Medical Progress alleging Planned Parenthood illegally tried to sell fetal body parts. The center claimed the videos proved Planned Parenthood profited from the sales, an illegal practice in America. Planned Parenthood vehemently denied the charges and now, it seems, is justified. The indictment stems from the use of fraudulent IDs as well as violations of state and federal law relating to corporate filings and tax-exempt organizations.
Last year, Republicans were quick to condemn the organization in an effort to court conservative voters and the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, even resigned his position rather than lead a government shutdown to force an end to the federal funding of the organization. However, now it seems the move by the GOP to align themselves against Planned Parenthood may backfire. A majority of Americans continue to support the organization and its federal funding, and the party may be punished in the general election.
Don’t Care
0. That’s no moon…
Ninth planet
In the most recent case of the public misunderstanding scientific publications, people all around the world have rushed to accept the existence of a hypothesized ninth planet. Some astrologers even claim that David Bowie predicted this with his final album, Blackstar (some even wish to name the planet after the deceased rock star). Others, of a more evangelical persuasion, were quick to explain how this discovery spells out doom for our planet. Famed moon-lander Buzz Aldrin has stated that this (as yet unverified) discovery makes the case for the importance of space exploration, a somewhat more sober claim than those of the soothsayers and diviners. With headlines ranging from “Scientists: Solid evidence for new planet in our solar system,” from Fox 13, to “The Meaning of Planet Nine,” from the Atlantic, it often take a paragraph or two for journalists to note that the planet has yet to be seen and the belief in its existence is based on mathematical speculations to explain orbital perturbations of several objects in the distant Kuiper Belt. The Atlantic article even extrapolates on the usefulness of this still-unseen planet, which, according to calculations, could be 10 times the mass of Earth, in accelerating spaceships for intergalactic journeys.
In an attempt to quiet the storm of premature conclusions and ridiculous predictions, officials at NASA have cautioned that this is still only a hypothesis and that the movements of these distant objects may have some other cause. Even Neil deGrasse Tyson has discussed his trepidation in accepting the ‘discovery’ so quickly. Yet no amount of cautioning by scientists seems to have calmed anyone down. Much like the resveratrol hype (the supposed holy grail of anti-aging found in red wine that was only proven to be effective in mice at dosages that for humans amounted to 1,000 liters a day), or the (untrue) belief that vitamin C can cure or prevent colds and other illnesses, once people find something they enjoy believing, it is extremely difficult to disabuse them of these illusions. The tentative and skeptical language used by scientists in describing their discoveries is found to be off-putting by many, resulting in far more sensational headlines. However, a healthy dose of realistic skepticism and a scientific disinclination to believe the wild claims that pepper everyday life are certainly less harmful than the alternatives.
See the publication itself here.
Philip Straus, Wooyoung Lee, Daniel Sacks, Dan Ruswick, David Gernon, and Liam Conway-Pearson contributed