U.S. NEWS A25
Wednesday 25 March 2020
Volunteers sew masks for health workers facing shortages Continued from Front
And for those sitting at home worrying as the virus strains hospitals and the economy teeters, sewing masks makes them feel less helpless. “Whatever it takes to get the job done, that’s what I want to do,” said Purdue, 57, whose daughter works at the women’s hospital in Evansville, Indiana. He and his friend Mike Rice responded to a Facebook post last week from Deaconess Health System in Evansville asking the public for help. The efforts mirror those in other countries, including Spain, where mask-making volunteers include a group of nuns and members of the Spanish Air Force. Around 500 masks a day are coming off sewing machines at the Paratroop School in Murcia, in the country’s southeast, according to the Air Force’s Twitter account. In Belgium, what began as a one-woman operation about a week ago grew to a small army of homesewing mask-makers within days. In Kosovo, inmates in a women’s prison volunteered to make masks. For most people, the new virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority recover. But the virus is spreading rapidly and starting to max out health care systems in several cities. Deaconess spokeswoman Pam Hight said the hospital system realized it could face a shortage if local infections skyrocket like they have elsewhere. So officials produced and posted a how-to video that has been shared across the country. “We had people who wanted to ship them to us from all over the United States and we started saying, ‘Please, please use them in your communities,’” she said. “It makes your heart warm; people are so
In this Sunday, March 22, 2020 photo, Bill Purdue, left, cuts pieces of fabric while Mike Rice sews them into face masks in Rice's autobody and upholstery shop in Washington, Ind. Associated Press
good.” She said Deaconess expects to collect thousands of masks this week at an off-hospital site and sanitize them before distributing them to nurses and doctors or sending them to local nursing homes and homeless shelters. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, New Hampshire’s largest hospital, is preparing kits with fabric and elastic and encouraging volunteers to sew face masks for patients, visitors and staff so medical-grade protective equipment can be conserved for front-line health care workers. Providence St. Joseph’s Health in the hard-hit Seattle area last week put together kits using special material and distributed them to people willing to sew them. But the company said Tuesday that it was discontinuing the effort because local manufacturing companies had begun making masks and face shields quickly and on a larger scale. Federal officials had previously advised hospital workers to use surgical masks when treating patients who might be infected with coronavirus amid reports of dwindling supplies of fitted and more protective N95 respirator masks. “If nurses quit or become too fatigued or even become ill themselves, then we
don’t have a frontline anymore,” said Wendy Byard of Lapeer, Michigan. She began organizing friends to make masks after learning her daughter, a nurse at a suburban Detroit hospital, was told to wear the same mask all day. Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly updated its guidance, saying hospitals that run low on surgical masks should consider
ways to reuse them or to use them through an entire shift. And if hospitals run out, the CDC said, scarfs or bandanas could be used “as a last resort,” though some health officials warned cloth masks might not work. Mary Dale Peterson, president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists and chief operating officer at a Corpus Christi, Texas, children’s hospital, said she
declined volunteers’ offers to make masks. She said construction and manufacturing industries instead should donate or sell the high-grade masks they have to hospitals. “It would be only an extremely, extremely last resort that I would have my staff” wear homemade masks, she said. “I really hope it doesn’t get to that point in the U.S.” At the Missouri Quilt Museum in Hamilton, Missouri, board members asked local hospitals if masks were needed and “they emphatically said yes,” said director Dakota Redford. Soon other health care providers, including ambulance crews and nursing homes, were requesting masks. “This has been a true grassroots effort that has exploded across the country in the quilting world,” she said. Businesses also are stepping up. Crafts chain Joann Stores is making all of its 800-plus stores available for up to 10 people at each location to sew masks and hospital gowns, offering sewing machines and supplies, spokeswoman Amanda Hayes said. q
Census mails out more notices, judge tosses lawsuit by group By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The U.S. Census Bureau has mailed out a second round of notices reminding people to participate in the 2020 census, officials said Tuesday. The bureau also said it now has more than 37,000 temporary workers and hopes to hire as many as 500,000 temporary workers to help with its once-adecade head count. Bureau officials said last week they may hire even more to make up for lost time due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. The Census Bureau last week suspended field operations until the start of April, and pushed back the
Residents have begun receiving the U.S. Census Bureau's request for information receiving letters with a census identification number to answer questions about their households online. Associated Press
deadline for finishing the count by two weeks to mid-August. Meanwhile, a federal judge in New York has tossed out a lawsuit from an advocacy group and a small New York city that argued the Census Bureau wasn't devoting enough resources to the 2020 count. The lawsuit from the Cen-
ter for Popular Democracy Action and the City of Newburgh accused the Census Bureau of reducing staffing and offices for the 2020 census compared to earlier counts. The lawsuit demanded that the agency spend more money, arguing not doing so would result in an undercount of minority groups.q
A26 U.S.
Wednesday 25 March 2020
NEWS
People practice social distancing as they sit on chairs spread apart in a waiting area for take-away food orders at a shopping mall in hopes of preventing the spread of the coronavirus in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, March 24, 2020. Associated Press
U.S. climate activists to livestream Earth Day due to virus By MARTHA IRVINE Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — As the coronavirus causes shutdowns across the U.S., a coalition of youth-led organizations that had planned massive marches for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day next month are now planning a three-day livestream event instead, organizers said Tuesday. " Earth Day Live " will happen April 22-24 and will include speakers, voter registration, protests against financial institutions that support the fossil fuel industry, and entertainment. The event will be accessible on computers and mobile devices in the hopes that it will encourage engagement and action among people who are secluded at home and who may have planned to march in Washington and other places. "It's a time to really rethink our strategy," said Katie Eder, the 20-year-old executive director of the Future Coalition, one of nine youth-led organizations
that are coordinating the event. "We are really looking at this as a way to reimagine what a social movement can look like in a digital age." The first Earth Day, the brainchild of the late Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, happened in 1970 and sparked an environmental movement that led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and many laws to protect water, air and wildlife. While led by youth organizations, including the Sunrise Movement, Zero Hour and Amazon Watch, the invent is intended to be intergenerational, with an eye on building on momentum from a massive global climate march in September. Members of these groups said they are very much focused on the crisis at hand — the coronavirus — but they say climate change also will affect vulnerable populations the most. "It's not just about the environment and the climate," said 17-year-old Naina Agrawal-Hardin, of the Sunrise Movement. "It's also about building a society and an economy that's going to take care of the people who've been affected by this crisis, the people who are on the front lines of this crisis, whether that's through health care efforts or economic efforts."q
Commuters cross 42nd Street in front of Grand Central Terminal during morning rush hour, Monday, March 23, 2020, in New York. Associated Press
'A bullet train': Virus peak may come soon, swamp hospitals By JOHN MINCHILLO and MARINA VILLENEUVE Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo sounded his most dire warning yet about the coronavirus pandemic Tuesday, saying the infection rate in New York is accelerating and the state could be as close as two weeks away from a crisis that sees 40,000 people in intensive care. Such a surge would overwhelm hospitals, which now have just 3,000 intensive care unit beds statewide. The rate of new infections, Cuomo said, is doubling about every three days. While officials once projected the peak in New York would come in early May, they now say it could come in two to three weeks. "We are not slowing it. And it is accelerating on its own," he said during a briefing at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. "One of the forecasters said to me we were looking at a freight train coming across the country. We're now looking at a bullet train." New York officials have been racing to essentially double their hospital capacity to up to 110,000 beds. Cuomo now said there could be a peak need of 140,000 beds. There were more than 25,000 positive cases in New York state and at least 210 deaths, according to state figures. Most of the cases and deaths have been in New York City, an emerging worldwide hotspot in the outbreak. New York officials are planning to add at least 1,000 temporary hospital beds at the Javits Center for non-COVID-19 patients and thousands of beds elsewhere. But Cuomo said "they're nowhere near" the number that will be needed. The state also faces shortages of ventilators and protective equipment for medical workers. New York has 7,000 ventilators. Cuomo
called for a national push to send ventilators to New York now, saying the city needs 20,000 of them in a matter of weeks. He said the equipment could then be redeployed to different areas once the peak passes in New York. "I will take personal responsibility for transporting the 20,000 ventilators anywhere in this country that they want, once we are passed our apex," Cuomo said. "But don't leave them sitting in a stockpile." Peter Pitts, a former associate commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration and president of the New York-based Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, said that ventilators — about the size of two old VCR machines — are certainly portable. But he said there would need to be a regional or national coordinator of medical products "to make sure that the goods needed are where they need to be." THE TOLL The death toll from COVID-19 has left people in mourning around the state. In Brooklyn, Dez-Ann Romain, 36, principal of a school for students who had struggled in traditional high schools, was remembered as a dedicated educator who gave her all to her students and staff. In the Albany area, 92-year-old technology pioneer Walter Robb died just days after being admitted to the hospital with a severe cough and being put on a respirator. Robb had spent years working at General Electric Co., pushing advancements in imaging equipment used in health care. Alan Finder, a former reporter at The New York Times, was remembered for his decency and kindness. Current Times reporter Kevin Sack said on social media that Finder was a terrific reporter, a calming presence and one of the "menschiest" guys around. q
WORLD NEWS A27
Wednesday 25 March 2020
China to lift lockdown in most of virus-hit Hubei province By KEN MORITSUGU Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — Chinese authorities said Tuesday they will end a two-month lockdown of most of coronavirus-hit Hubei province at midnight, as domestic cases of what has become a global pandemic subside. People with a clean bill of health will be allowed to leave, the provincial government said, easing restrictions on movement that were unprecedented in scale. The city of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected in December, is to remain locked down until April 8. China barred people from leaving or entering Wuhan beginning Jan. 23 in a surprise middle-of-thenight announcement and expanded that to most of the province in succeeding days. Trains and flights were canceled and checkpoints set up on roads into the central province. The drastic steps came as the coronavirus began spreading to the rest of China and overseas during the Lunar New Year holiday, when millions of Chinese travel. The virus raged for weeks in Wuhan, the provincial capital, and surrounding cities. Hospitals overflowed, and temporary ones were hastily set up to try to isolate the growing number of infected patients. More than 2,500 people have died in Wuhan out of 3,270 nationwide. The outbreak has since been brought under control, and Hubei has seen almost no new infections for more than a week. The move to end the lockdown showed the authorities' apparent faith in the success of the drastic measures as they try to kick start
the world's second-largest economy and put money in the pockets of workers, many of whom have gone weeks without pay. It remained unclear, however, which cities and provinces, including Beijing, the capital, would allow people from Hubei to enter their jurisdictions. About 120,000 migrant workers, including many who had made the traditional trip home to Hubei for Lunar New Year, have already been allowed to leave in recent days on special buses and trains, according to Chinese media reports. The reports said manufacturing centers such as Guangdong and Zhejiang province are open to people from Hubei, Outside of Hubei, the government says work has restarted on about 90% of major public construction projects across the country. While many migrant workers remain trapped by travel restrictions and quarantines, factories are operating again, though not at full capacity. In the Beijing area, the city zoo and parts of the Great Wall reopened this week, though they required advance reservations to limit the number of visitors. Some restaurants were reopening for business, some on the condition that customers do not sit facing each other. At the Xibei restaurant inside a mall in eastern Beijing's Shuangjing neighborhood, a line formed at around 11 a.m. Tuesday for the lunch opening, although managers said they expected to serve only around 140 customers, down from the usual daily number of 900 before the virus outbreak. Half of the establishment's
20 tables had "closed" signs on them to help keep a distance between customers, while food delivery workers rushed in and out with orders of grilled beef and lamb, noodles, pancakes and other northern Chinese dishes. Wu Lin, who works in cosmetics, was dining out for the first time since restrictions were imposed because of the outbreak. "Since (the restaurant) can open at the moment, I believe their prevention and control is fairly good," Wu said. "For example, they check the temperature of every customer and staffer. It gives us a sense of safety." Officials have turned their attention to the threat of the virus entering from
In this March 23, 2020 photo released by Xinhua News Agency, workers disinfect a subway train in preparation for the restoration of public transport in Wuhan, in central China's Hubei province. Associated Press
abroad, with almost all new cases being recorded among people arriving from overseas. China's National Health Commission on Tuesday reported 78 new coronavirus cases,
among which 74 were imported. Starting Wednesday, Beijing will require everyone coming from overseas to be tested for the coronavirus on top of being quarantined for 14 days. q
A28 WORLD
Wednesday 25 March 2020
NEWS
Europe eyes smartphone location data to stem virus spread By FRANK BAJAK and NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press The Czech Republic has become the first European country to announce plans to deploy a powerful but potentially intrusive location-tracking tool for fighting the coronavirus pandemic, as others consider similar moves bound to put public health in conflict with individual privacy. The effort announced Tuesday by the head of a Czech government crisis team will use real-time phonelocation data to track the movements of virus carriers and people they come in contact with. The aim is to pinpoint where infections are flaring up, how they are spreading and when health authorities need to order quarantines and other containment measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. Britain, Germany and Italy are among countries similarly considering enlisting individual location data in the fight against the virus. That worries privacy advocates, who fear such ubiquitous surveillance could be abused in the absence of careful oversight, with potentially dire consequences for civil liberties. "These are testing times, but they do not call for untested new technologies," a group of mostly British activists said in an open letter Monday to the country's National Health Service. The letter noted that such measures could put human rights at risk and may not work. Czech officials said Tuesday that they will use data from wireless carriers for a voluntary app in which the movements of people who test positive for the virus will be mapped out and the people with whom they
In this March 10, 2020 file photo, a woman wearing a face mask checks her phone as she walks at the Naviglio Grande canal in Milan, Italy. Associated Press
have intersected in the previous five days would be individual contacted by phone so that they can get tested. Officials said they expect to launch in midApril. The new tool marks a substantial departure from existing European diseasesurveillance efforts, which have focused on tracking people's movements with aggregated phone location data designed not to identify individuals. Italian police also began mobilizing drones on Monday to enforce restrictions on citizens' movements. But there is a powerful argument in favor of more powerful digital tools, even if they shred privacy: They have been used by several of the Asian governments most successful at containing the pandemic, including in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore. Last week, Israel took the most extreme step yet by charging its Shin Bet domestic security agency with using smartphone lo-
cation data to track the movements of virus carriers for the prior two weeks, using historical data to identify possible transmission. Epidemiologists call this process "contact tracing," which has traditionally relied on infected people's memories to identify individuals with whom they came into contact. So far, there's no indication the U.S. government plans to track identifiable individuals for disease sur-
veillance. A spokesperson for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said it was not currently working on such an app. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press. The White House has reached out to Big Tech companies for help in the worst pandemic in a century, but Google and Facebook both told the AP they
are not sharing people's location data with governments. A Google spokesperson said the company was exploring ways to use aggregated location information against COVID-19, but added that the location data Google normally gathers from phone users isn't accurate enough for contact tracing. An AT&T spokesperson said the company was not sharing real-time location tracking with U.S. government virus-trackers. Sprint declined to comment and Verizon did not immediately respond to a query. Israel's effort and the newly announced Czech initiative go well beyond what Europe's governments are currently getting from wireless carriers to identify "hot spots" of disease and human concentration. While legal safeguards exist in most democracies to protect digital privacy, the danger of the coronavirus could quickly compel policymakers to override them. On Friday, the European Union's Data Protection Authority cautiously endorsed putting privacy on pause during the public health emergency.q
Bangladesh says it will release jailed former prime minister By JULHAS ALAM Associated Press DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh's government will release imprisoned former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia for six months on the condition that she stays at home and does not leave the country, the law minister said Tuesday. Anisul Huq said Zia, 74, is being released on humanitarian grounds considering her age. Zia, the country's opposition leader, was sentenced to 17 years in prison in two corruption cases. Her Bangladesh Nationalist Party says the cases were politically motivated. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Zia's archrival, de-
In this Dec. 28, 2017, file photo, Bangladesh's former prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia, center, leaves after a court appearance in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Associated Press
nies the allegation. Zia's party says she is seriously ill with ailments including respiratory problems and arthritis. She is
currently being treated in a prison cell at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in Dhaka. q
BUSINESS/TECHNOLOGY A29
Wednesday 25 March 2020
With billions at stake, banks try to save stunned borrowers By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Tarred as villains during the 2008 financial meltdown, banks of all sizes are trying to help out Americans reeling from the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Banks are scrambling to put into place loan forgiveness and relief programs, working to keep their customers from panicking or falling into financial ruin. They have a vested interest preventing millions of people and businesses from defaulting on hundreds of billions of loans at once, something that would do significant damage to the banks' own finances. Unlike 2008, banks are not the cause of economic crisis gripping the nation. And banks now have plenty of capital on hand to handle this crisis, economists say. But the potential for millions of their customers to default on credit cards, small business loans and mortgages means banks have to do something to protect borrowers, many of whom went from having a job or a business to nothing, sometimes in a matter of days. Husband and wife team Shari and Larry Kaynen were forced last week to close their chain of six high-end clothing stores called Shari's Place, based in Greenvale, N.Y. They are now working with their bank to rework their long-term debt into new terms with lower interest rates that will help their cash flow. Larry Kaynen said that their bank is polling all of its retail industry clients to figure out how they are going to stay in business for week with "zero" sales. "This could mean a lot of ruin to a lot of small business" said Shari Kaynen. "I am not corporate America. I have millions of dollars worth of merchandise, but I still have to pay my landlord rent." The aid the bank provide varies in generosity depending on the bank, however. Some are just allowing customers to defer payments, meaning interest
This Oct. 8, 2014, file photo shows a Wall Street address carved in the side of a building, in New York.
is still accumulating while in these programs. Others have instituted forbearance programs, where there will be no penalty for a customer who wants to hold off paying debts for 30 or 60 days. Huntington Bancshares, a $100 billion bank operating mostly in the Midwest, has instituted 30-day deferral programs for any borrower who asks for help — no paperwork or questions asked — and is reaching out to customers asking if they need more time. They are extending the deferrals 30 days at a time, if necessary. "There is a place for our industry, in this crisis, to do all we possibly can to mitigate the damage that is happening," said Stephen Steinour, Huntington's chairman and CEO. The bank has even moved employees at its branches — which are operating under reduced or restricted hours to protect against virus transmission — into new roles like calling borrowers or potentially even helping customers refinance their mortgage. The biggest banks are taking similar actions. Bank of America is allowing customers to defer payments across all of its products and is not reporting
any negative activity like missed payments to the credit bureaus. So has JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup. Smaller banks are also acting to help customers. Southern Bancorp, with roughly $1.5 billion in assets headquartered in Arkansas, is modifying loans as quickly as possible or charging only interests on loans where it can for small business borrowers or customers. "We're telling our folks, 'Be safe. Be calm. We're here to help however we can,'" said Darrin Williams, CEO of Southern Bancorp. Banks are putting these programs in place partly because they would be facing a massive number of defaults and bad loans on their books without them - causing billions of dollars worth of paper losses to the banking sector. Bank stocks have been hit particularly hard this year as they are considered a proxy for the overall economy. The KBW Bank Index, composed of banks from across the country, is down 45% this year alone compared with the 15.5% decline of the S&P 500. Further, the credit reporting companies like Experian and Equifax would be swamped with nega-
tive credit reporting data, which would destroy the credit scores of millions of Americans who were paying their bills on time but suddenly find themselves out of a job. That would make giving loans in the future to these impacted borrowers more difficult. Lastly there's the politics. The Great Recession was caused by careless banks making too many bad loans, which ultimately required U.S. taxpayers to backstop or bail them out. The bailouts of 2008 and 2009 have not been forgotten by the industry. While other industries like the restaurants, hotels and airlines have petitioned Washington for aid in the aftermath of the coronavirus-fueled economic meltdown, the banks have largely remained on the sidelines - asking for changes to how bank capital is measured during a crisis and other minor issues. The CEOs of the big banks went to the White House earlier this month to meet with President Trump with a "we are here to help." While the banks are not asking for large things in this bailout bill, they know a lot is at stake. By proxy, banks would benefit from any government aid to companies because
Associated Press
those companies would in turn continue paying their bills. "We are in a strong financial position, and because we are doing so well, we can hopefully provide some relief," Williams said. While the banks are not asking for a government bailout this time, they have benefited from the recent moves by the Federal Reserve, which has slashed borrowing costs to zero and instituted bond-buying programs to help banks quickly offload high-quality assets for cash. quickly. The Federal Reserve has expanded that to include things like commercial paper, corporate debt and other assets in a way not seen since the Great Recession. While banks are taking their own actions, State and federal regulators are also stepping in to protect borrowers. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York imposed a 90day moratorium on mortgage payments if a borrower has been financially struck by the outbreak. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has imposed a 60-day moratorium on all evictions and foreclosures on all homes with a loan through the Federal Housing Administration, or FHA.q
A30
Wednesday 25 March 2020
FEATURE/PEOPLE&ARTS
Groceries to go ORANJESTAD — “On behalf of everyone at ‘GroceriesToGo Aruba’, our hearts go out to all those impacted by COVID-19— this includes not only those diagnosed with the virus, but also their friends and family, those whose jobs and schools have been impacted and so many more. Our focus is, as always, on the health and safety of our employees, customers and communities.” During this time when it is safer to stay in your home,
‘GroceriesToGo Aruba’ can deliver your groceries, beverages and essentials to you anywhere in Aruba. They have the highest standards for food safety, hygiene and freshness. They are taking additional measures to keep the products, employees and YOU safe during this time. Their dedicated staff will not enter the home/ address of delivery, but instead makes plans with the people ordering as to where they would like their groceries to be placed. The delivery drivers are
protected with mask and gloves when needed, using hand sanitizer and washing hands when and where it is necessary. Online grocery shopping allows you to receive anything you need while staying safe at home. ‘GroceriesToGo Aruba’ is very easy to use. You can go to www.GroceriesToGoAruba.com<http://www.GroceriesToGoAruba.com> you will see thousands of items to select. Check off what you want, the time you want it delivered and it will be delivered right to you. Their dedicated team
continues to deliver to homes across the island every day. Knowing how important it is right now, they will do anything and everything they can to meet the needs of the people of Aruba. For additional information you can email info@GroceriesToGoAruba.com<mailto:info@Gro-
ceriesToGoAruba.com>. There is no question this is a time of great uncertainty. While we don't know exactly what the future may hold, we feel confident that by sticking together and supporting each other, we'll emerge from this stronger than before.q
Albert Uderzo, a creator of French hero Asterix, dies at 92 PARIS (AP) — Albert Uderzo, one of the two creators of the beloved comic book character Asterix, who captured the spirit of the Gauls of yore and grew a reputation worldwide, died on Tuesday. He was 92. The French press quoted family members as saying that Uderzo died of a heart attack in the Paris suburb of Neuilly. Asterix, portrayed as a short man with a droopy mustache always wearing a helmet with wings, was created in the early 1960s by Uderzo and Rene Goscinny. The character lived in a village in Gaul, present-day France, resisting Roman conquerors, along with his inseparable big-bellied friend, Obelix. "Albert Uderzo died in his sleep at his Neuilly home of a heart attack with no links to the coronavirus," the French press quoted his son-in-law, Bernard de Choisy, as saying. "He had been very tired for several weeks." French Culture Minister
Franck Riester said that Uderzo "found the magic potion," referring to his spirit, craftsmanship and long hours of work. Riester may also have been making a reference to the famous magic potion in the Asterix series, which gave the hero and his fellow villagers temporary superhuman strength. "Supreme nobility, he accepted that his heroes survive him for the happiness of the public," Riester said. Uderzo initially illustrated the characters created along with writer Rene Goscinny. Together, they created 24 comic books. After Goscinny's death in 1977, Uderzo also took over the comic books' writing duties, deciding to continue without his creative partner. Goscinny's daughter, Anne, called the two men "brothers" and praised Uderzo's "courage" for continuing without his collaborator. "They were as different as fire and water, but they lived something that few among us could live," she
In this Oct.23, 2005 file photo, French author and illustrator Albert Uderzo waves from behind a cardboard cutout showing his comic heroes Asterix and Obelix at the 57th Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany. Associated Press
told the French daily Le Parisien. "They were the kind of friends you don't often have in life." Uderzo, whose father was an Italian immigrant, was born on April 25, 1927, in France's Marne region, but grew up outside Paris. As a child, he was captivated by Walt Disney characters, notably Mickey Mouse, one of the inspiration of his own artistic talents. After numerous jobs and referrals, he met Goscinny when he was 24. An instant friendship developed "and we decided to remake the world with all the thoughtlessness and the boldness of our youth," Le Monde
quoted Uderzo as saying in his memoirs. After collaborating on other projects for some nine years, "Asterix Le Gaulois" appeared in 1961. Fans offered thanks on social media and recollections of childhood memories reading the Asterix comic books whose fan base includes adults. The Asterix books have been translated into dozens of languages. Asterix-based spinoffs include movies and a theme park outside Paris that draws tens of thousands of fans of the iconic resistance hero and his mighty sidekick, Obelix.q
local A31
Wednesday 25 March 2020
Aruba has a total of 156 guests at the moment ORANJESTAD – CEO of Aruba Hotel & Tourism Association (AHATA), Tisa LaSorte, is reporting that more than 80% of all hotels have suspended operations immediately and have closed their doors until further notice. According to AHATA’s calculations, there is a total of 156 tourists in a few different hotels remaining in Aruba. Most of them have left the island last night or
today. In some of the hotels with a few guests remaining, there is still minimum service being provided. During the public health and economic crisis, all hotels keep a team of security and a minimum maintenance team to keep their properties in good condition; this with the goal to be able to be operational as soon as possible when tourists start traveling back to Aruba.q
Send us your positive message from home ORANJESTAD — In these difficult times we would like to reach out to our friends abroad who were supposed to spend their tropical vacation on Aruba or who had to break up their vacation due to the COVID-19 situation. Aruba Today invites you to send us your picture and words expressing your memory of our island or your dream vacation for the future. You may also just say hello and show us how you feel because we are all in the same boat right now. Send us your picture(s) together with completing the sentence: Aruba to me is …….. (Email: news@arubatoday.com). Please do note: By submitting photos, text
Happy days in Aruba at
or any other materials, you give permission to The Aruba Today newspaper, Caribbean Speed Printers and any of its affiliated companies to use said materials, as well as names, likeness, etc. for promotional purposes without compensation. Take a look at the pictures we received from our readers these last days. Thank you for sharing and do keep them coming. Last but not least: check out our website and Facebook page! Thank you for supporting our free newspaper, we strive to make you a happy reader every day again and look forward to have you here with us soon again! Stay healthy and keep safe! q
Casa Del Mar, Feb.2020
“Aruba to me is our 2nd home!” Guido Loseto
A32 LOCAL
Wednesday 25 March 2020
American continent strucked by epidemics
Episode 61- LXI
ORANJESTAD — Way before Columbian times, a variety of diseases existed in the Americas. The limited populations and interactions between those populations, who had or showed symptoms of a contagious illness, in contrast to places like Europe, hampered the development of widespread deadly diseases throughout the continent.
One notable disease of American origin is syphilis aside from that, most of the major epidemic diseases we are familiar with today originated in the Old World. The Native American era of limited disease ended with the arrival of Europeans in the Americas and the Columbian exchange of organisms, including those that cause human diseases. European diseases and epidemics are still present among Native American populations today; these had enormous influence especially on their past generations. European diseases devastated entire nations and their tribes. Because Native American populations were not previously exposed to most diseases introduced by the Europeans, populations rarely had built up individual or population immunities to those diseases. In addition, Europe’s position as a crossroads between many different peoples, many of whom were separated by hundreds, if not thousands, of miles through things like constant war spreading afflictions throughout the continent and the Silk Road bringing diseases from the East—resulted in that Europeans developed immunity to a large variety of diseases. Therefore, the diseases brought by the Europeans, which had little effect on them as a population, greatly affected, and often continue to affect, Native Americans. This phenomenon is known as the virgin soil effect.
Numerous diseases were brought to The Americas, including smallpox, bubonic plague, chickenpox, cholera, the common cold, diphtheria, influenza, malaria, measles, scarlet fever, sexually transmitted diseases, typhoid, typhus, strings of tuberculosis, and pertussis. Each of these brought destruction through sweeping epidemics, involving disability, illness, and extensive deaths. Arriving Europeans infected with diseases either possessed them in a dormant state or were not adequately quarantined, allowing the diseases to spread into epidemics. The trade of Native American captives and the use of commercial trade routes contributed to the spread of disease.
The diseases brought by Europeans are not easily tracked, since there were numerous outbreaks and all were not equally recorded throughout the Americas and by the end of 1494, disease and famine had claimed two-thirds of the Spanish settlers and their Caribbean counterpart, the Taino`s. The most destructive disease brought by Europeans was smallpox. The first well-documented smallpox epidemic happened in 1518.The Lakota Indians called the disease the running face sickness. Smallpox was lethal to many Native Americans, bringing sweeping epidemics and affecting the same tribes repeatedly. Certain cultural and biological traits made Native Americans more susceptible to these diseases. Emphasis placed on visiting the sick led to the spread of disease through continual contact. Native Americans first exposed to these diseases also had an approach to illness relating primarily to religious beliefs. Their societies typically believed that disease is caused by either a lack of charm use, an intrusion of an object by means of sorcery, or the free soul’s absence from the body. Disease was understood to enter the body if one is not protected by the spirits, as it is a natural occurrence. Religious powers were called on to cure diseases in the practice of shamanism. Between 1837 and 1870, at least four different epidemics struck the Plains tribes. When Plains tribes began to learn of the “white man’s diseases”, many did intentionally avoided contact with them and their traded goods. But the lure of trade goods such as metal pots, skillets, and knives sometimes proved too strong, leading people to trade with the white newcomers anyway and inadvertently spread disease to their villages. Our island has also its history of coping with many diseases. There was a claim that one disease had come in a banquet that covered a sick person on a ship. Others carried by a new arrival and others even by insects. Hygiene and prudence are in your hands. Today again we are confronted with many serious threat of invisible enemies and their imperil menaces to our health. Stay healthy, strong and solitaire for a while and for the sake of the good times we’ve had. To immerse in what Aruba is all about, its people, its origins, its animals and culture, you can mail us at etnianativa03@gmail.com. For more information you can also check our Facebook page Etnia Nativa. q