BusinessMirror March 29, 2020

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UNDETERRED SCIONS OF DAVAO

LEGACY Leisure Residences

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By Manuel T. Cayon

AVAO CITY—The scions of two business families have teamed up to establish a sprawling fourbuilding mixed-use residence complex in what used to be a secluded piece of land along a less traveled highway, an addition to a growing short list of big-league construction projects here.

Notwithstanding the global and domestic onslaught of the dreaded novel coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19), Legacy Leisure

launched an ambitious P4-billion project comprising of four mid-rise buildings on a strip of land along a less-frequented section of the

Ma-a Road, some seven kilometers northwest of downtown.

Short of a township, the area is carved out from a 2.8-hectare property and consists of four 15-story buildings and a commercial strip at the front section of the property.

Unlike any other residential development projects, property developers assured the city and its clientowners that the vertical residential property is more than a home leisure living. It would also serve as a “legacy” to residential homeowners.

Green leisure

ALONG the strip of the property is a jogging lane that winds through the buildings, and across the Olympic-sized pool, the only residential sprawl in the Philip-

pines with an international-standard swimming facility.

Adjacent to that Olympic pool is a number 8-shaped waterthemed park, said Clark Lawson Yap, vice president for marketing of CrisRon Holiday Builders Inc., and the partner-developer of Legacy Leisure.

It also has a spray park, pitch and putting green and parks and playgrounds.

These are some of the features that set it apart from the common residential property development. “[While] the city required all developers to allocate 30 percent of the property for green space and when property development only has 30 percent for amenities, we have 68 percent for green and ame-

nities,” he said.

The property has only a 32-percent building blueprint, said Wesley Bangayan, Legacy Leisure VP for sales and marketing.

Residences only

THE property did away with the studio units and proceeded with the one-, two- and three-bedroom units.

Each building has 429 rooms and discussions are under way on whether to accommodate short stays, or hoteltype accommodations.

“Right now, we prefer medium- to long-term stays if we would open a portion of the place to rents,” Yap said.

The discussion revolves around addressing the business side of the clientele’s desire to earn with the

extra units they buy. “Say, a client buys six units or 10 units, it is understood as intended for income generation of the buyer,” he said.

“We have to address that reality. We are accommodating that reality among our buyers,” he added.

Aside from the issue of security and continuity of income for their clients, “we prefer walk-in clients on medium- to long-term stays of four or six months, even longer.”

It would also depend, he said, “on the desire of the homeowners on how they want the property to be used.”

The developers said the project is mixed-use, but as residences and commercial uses—unlike other residential buildings, which are partly Continued on A2

Countries starting to hoard food, threatening global trade

By Isis Almeida & Agnieszka de Sousa

I

are still loading their pantries— and the economic fallout from the virus is just starting. The specter of more trade restrictions is stirring memories of how protectionism can often end up causing more harm than good. That adage rings especially true now as the moves would be driven by anxiety and not made in response to crop failures or other supply problems.

Bloomberg News

T’S not just grocery shoppers who are hoarding pantry staples. Some governments are moving to secure domestic food supplies during the coronavirus pandemic.

Kazakhstan, one of the world’s biggest shippers of wheat flour, banned exports of that product along with others, including carrots, sugar and potatoes. Vietnam temporarily suspended new rice export contracts. Serbia has stopped the flow of its sunflower oil and other goods, while Russia is leaving the door open to shipment bans and said it’s assessing the situation weekly.

To be perfectly clear, there have been just a handful of moves and no sure signs that much more is on the horizon. Still, what’s been happening has raised a question: Is

this the start of a wave of food nationalism that will further disrupt supply chains and trade flows?

“We’re starting to see this happening already—and all we can see is that the lockdown is going to get worse,” said Tim Benton, research director in emerging risks at think tank Chatham House in London.

Though food supplies are ample, logistical hurdles are making it harder to get products where they need to be as the coronavirus unleashes unprecedented measures, panic buying and the threat of labor crunches.

Consumers across the globe

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 51.0740

Extreme measures

SHOPPERS wait on the street for the general opening of the store, during a time set aside for elderly and vulnerable members of the community to shop, at an Iceland Foods Ltd. store in London, UK, on March 18, 2020. Growing fears about the coronavirus pandemic have led to extraordinary scenes in British grocery stores with people lining up outside shops before opening times and bulk-buying items such as toilet paper and pasta. BLOOMBERG

AS it is, many governments have employed extreme measures, setting curfews and limits on crowds, or even on people venturing out for anything but to acquire essentials.

That could spill over to food policy, said Ann Berg, an independent consultant and veteran agricultural trader who started her career at Louis Dreyfus Co. in 1974.

“You could see wartime rationing, price controls and domestic stockpiling,” she said.

Some nations are adding to their strategic reserves. China, the biggest rice grower and consumer, Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4669 n UK 62.1162 n HK 6.5885 n CHINA 7.2241 n SINGAPORE 35.6986 n AUSTRALIA 30.8436 n EU 56.3448 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.6016

Source: BSP (March 27, 2020)

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Angel R. Calso

Sunday, March 29, 2020

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World trade rocked by coronavirus sees worst collapse in a generation

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he global economy’s most abrupt and consequential shock in at least a generation is unfolding at ports and other hubs of international commerce as the US and Europe struggle to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

The Great Recession, the September 11 attacks, the 1973 oil embargo—none of these moder n c r i ses const r ic ted t rade f lows as quickly and as shar ply as the Covid-19 disease has.

Not even World War II delivered the kind of sudden economic knockout that is paralyzing global supply chains and rendering almost silent the most bustling cities in the developed world as businesses close and consumers obey orders to stay at home.

“This could be seen as a warlike scenario without the physical asset destruction,” World Trade Organization Chief Economist

Coronavirus largely spares kids, making them ‘covert’ spreaders

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hildren seem to be largely spared from the life -threatening complications of Covid-19, but they might be silently spreading the disease, doctors in China found.

Detailed analysis of 36 pediatric cases in Zhejiang province found that the pandemic-causing coronavirus had little effect on their upper airways. Although fever, cough and pneumonia were the most common symptoms, about half the children had mild disease with no obvious signs—amounting to a “covert presentation,” researchers said Wednesday in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

Although small in scope, the Lancet study from China, where the virus originated, may be the most comprehensive analysis yet of pediatric patients with Covid-19, according to the authors. The findings suggest that infected children showing no clinical signs of disease are both difficult, and important, to find and isolate to stop the pandemic spreading.

The children, ages 1 to 16, were treated in the hospital for about two weeks with at least one antiviral drug. All patients, including socalled asymptomatic ones, took an average of 10 days to test negative for the coronavirus.

“The propor tion of asymptomatic cases indicates the difficulty in identifying pediatric patients without clear epidemiological information,” Haiyan Qiu and colleagues wrote.

“This finding suggests a dangerous situation if community acquired infections occur.”

Ten-year-old boy raises fears Wuhan virus could spread undetected

The children recruited in the study were thought to have been mostly infected via close contact with family members or from living in an epidemic area.

The virus’s genetic material is shed in patients’ stools for a prolonged period, resulting in a “potential risk for transmission,” the authors said.

What You Need to Know About the Coronavirus Pandemic: QuickTake

Older age is one of the biggest risk factors for developing a severe form of Covid-19. While some children are reported to have become critically ill, the risk of death among patients younger than 16 is ex tremely low, raising questions about the anatomy and immune system of children that helps them avoid the coronavirus’s potentially lethal effects.

Adult patients are more likely than pediatric cases to have an abnormally high level of a blood marker of inflammation, “suggesting a much milder immunological response in children and less immune damage,” the authors said.

A striking characteristic of Covid-19 is that it affects the lungs, heart and other vital organs, even in mild or moderate forms of the disease, they said. Bloomberg News

Robert Koopman told Bloomberg in a telephone interview.

Incoming data from some of the world’s busiest ports, already seeing diminished cargo traffic with China’s economy shut down during the past two months, paint an ugly picture of a further collapse that many economists expect to persist well into the first half of the year.

US import and export volumes slowed in the weeks leading up to shutdowns in American cities, according to IHS Markit data compiled by Bloomberg. US exports have been hit particularly hard, and those figures will be key to watch in the days ahead to gauge

the severity of the downturn.

The port of Shanghai—the l a rgest i n t he world— saw a 20-percent year-over-year drop in container throughput in February, according to the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau. Last month, cargo volume at the Port of Long Beach declined 9.8 percent from a year earlier and the total container throughput at Hong Kong’s port fell 11 percent on a cumulative basis.

Ports in British Columbia, in Canada, have seen a “material slowdown” in cargo volumes due to a number of events, including the impact of coronavirus on imports from Asia, said Mike Leonard, president and CEO of the BC Maritime Employers Association.

The Port of Savannah has seen a 20-percent drop in container business in March. It’s expecting a surge of full containers to sit in storage for at least a short period, as the current lockdown at many US retailers and factories reduces demand, said Georgia Ports Authority Executive Director Griff Lynch.

“We are looking at a very sharp,

unprecedented decline in trade, especially because of the speed at which it is happening,” former White House economist Phil Levy said by phone.

“If we are already starting to match Great Recession statistics, that means we are on pace for the modern record,” said Levy, now the chief economist at freight logistics company Flexport Inc. As reported cases approach ha lf a mi l l ion people worldw ide, the disease has forced governments to implement nationwide lockdowns that have stalled factories, closed many restaurants and retail shops, and left consumers scrambling for necessities. The result has been a twin supply-and-demand crisis that’s upended the shipping industry, which transports about 80 percent of the world ’s food, energy, raw materials and manufactured goods.

On Wednesday, India’s gover nment created uncer taint y about how goods will f low in and out of the world ’s seventhlargest economy when it told its major ports that the pandemic

prov ides reasonable g rounds for invoking force majeure— a contractual escape clause in the event of natural disasters.

On Tuesday, the Manila International Port temporarily closed after one of its employees tested positive for the new virus, and the Port of Houston temporarily closed two of its public container terminals last week after an employee contracted the disease.

Few spared

Few economies have been spared the v irus’s w rath—especially those in Europe, which is currently the epicenter of the global pandemic.

Europe’s largest seaport, in Rotterdam, obser ved a “significant” drop in throughput volumes for all cargo f lows over the past three months, said Leon Willems, a spokesman for the Port of Rotterdam. “ T he pandemic is disr upting the production and logistics chains at the global level,” Willems said by e-mail. “There is a realistic probability that throughput volume for the whole of 2020

will be significantly lower than in the past two years.”

Even China, which is gradually beginning to recover after its cases first emerged in December, is still having trouble rebooting its stalled supply chains.

Driver dearth

“Production is starting to slowly restart in the country but they are having challenges finding truck drivers and getting through the heightened levels of screening that’s required to get these products overseas,” said Gaurang Shastri, managing director at Lincoln International’s North American Logistics & Transportation.

The US experienced an unprecedented 45-percent year-on-year slump in imports from China during the first two weeks of March, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. The consumer electronics industry is taking a hard hit with a 66-percent drop in Chinese shipments of machinery and electronics and a 64-percent decline in imports of computers compared with a year earlier.

Bloomberg News

World’s airports are fast becoming ghost towns

By Chris Bryant

Bloomberg Opinion

A

tlanta’s Ha r tsf ie ldJackson International, the world’s busiest airport, has turned a runway into a parking lot for grounded aircraft; about 80 percent of Frankfurt airport workers have had their working hours cut and many now won’t go to work at all; Manchester has closed two of its three terminals and short-hop specialist London City Airport is suspending all flights until the end of April. Orly Airport near Paris is also closing temporarily.

The sudden collapse of air travel triggered by travel restrictions and customer fears of coronavirus is having a severe impact on airport cash flows. The fees they get from airlines have been cut to the bone, as have commercial revenues from services like car parking. If retail concessions or car rental agents go bust, another source of income could be wiped out. European airport operators estimate that they face a 14 billion euro ($15 billion) hit to revenues.

Like their airline customers, the world’s airports are calling on governments for financial assistance. Some help is justified— not least because airports play a vital role in transporting essential medical supplies. But for privatized airports, like those in the UK, it could be more difficult to convince authorities that help is merited. International investors who’ve funded a massive expansion of global airport capacity in recent years may have to make sacrifices, too.

Where airports remain in public hands, as in the US, bailouts aren’t so controversial: Airports are due to get a $10-billion handout as part of the government’s $2-trillion rescue plan. Without it, they worry they won’t be able to service a combined $100-billion debt load. A default would push up borrowing costs across the sector.

The main Paris and Frankfurt

In this March 20, file photo, an empty baggage carousel spins in Denver International Airport as travelers deal with the spread of the coronavirus in Denver. Airline service in the United States is teetering on the brink of collapse, with near-empty planes and coronavirus-caused outbreaks that have left some air traffic control towers empty. Even with sharply reduced schedules, airlines are consolidating some of the remaining flights because passengers aren’t showing up. AP/David Zalubowski

airports, though part of listed groups, also have public anchor shareholders, which guarantees them a sympathetic ear should the need arise. French President Emmanuel Macron has wanted to sell down the state’s 50-percent shareholding in Aeroports de Paris but hasn’t made much progress.

But in the UK, ta xpayer help for air ports is more sensitive because much of the infrastructure is owned by international investors who’ve piled on debt and reaped large profits.

Heathrow’s co-owners, which include Qatar Holding, the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. and China Investment Corp., have lately collected about 500 million pounds ($592 million) annually in dividends. London Gatwick’s owner Global Infrastructure Partners pocketed a 640 million pound dividend before selling a majority stake to French infrastructure group Vinci SA for 2.9 billion pounds last year. GIP also sold the much smaller London City Airport to a Canadian-led consortium in 2016 for 2 billion pounds. Willie

Walsh, the boss of British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines Group SA, described the sky-high price as “foolish.” After its temporary closure this week, Walsh probably wouldn’t revise his opinion.

It’s no wonder the new UK Finance Minister Rishi Sunak is playing hardball. Writing to airlines and airports this week, Sunak told them to first try to raise money from shareholders or to seek flexibility from lenders before asking the public for help. Because of favorable regulation and the asset-heavy nature of the business, airports have been thought capable of supporting higher than average debt loads. Heathrow has 12.4 billion pounds of net debt, or 6.5 times ebitda (an imperfect measure of cash earnings).

But it’s still a risky business.

The danger that a global pandemic could sap future demand for air travel is clearly spelled out in airport loan documents.

The financial health of airports is also intertwined with the airlines that use them most.

British Airways contributes more than 40 percent of Heathrow’s airline-related income, while Lufthansa provides Frankfurt airport with about 60 percent of its passengers. Both are now grounding the bulk of their fleets.

For now, UK airports have stopped short of asking for government cash or loans. Some are better placed to cope than others. Heathrow says it has 3.3 billion pounds in liquidity, sufficient for at least a year of cash needs. In contrast, Gatwick held only about 15 million pounds of cash, plus a 300-million-pound undrawn loan facility, according to the most recent accounts. But its new majority owner Vinci has 14.5 billion pounds of cash and undrawn credit facilities.

Instead, UK airports are calling for a reduction in regulatory and policing costs, relief from business taxes and that lenders be required to not enforce loan covenants temporarily. European peers are saying all aviation taxes should be suspended until the end of the year.

This is controversial stuff. Until a few weeks ago, politicians in Europe were leaning toward making air travel more expensive to discourage planet-heating carbon emissions. Still, there are decent arguments for why airports, even those in the UK, should be cut some slack. In recent weeks their workers have braved crowded terminals to get passengers home, risking contracting the coronavirus themselves. And when the virus is defeated, we’ll need airports around the world to help kick-start an export recovery.

After warning that its financial performance would be “significantly impacted,” Heathrow has announced a variety of steps to cut costs, including canceling executive pay and delaying investments. But unlike Frankfurt airport operator Fraport AG, which is scrapping shareholder payouts, Heathrow has been oddly reticent about dividends. A clear statement that these payouts will now end might make Sunak more sympathetic to the industry’s plight.

Bloomberg News

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, March 29, 2020

www.businessmirror.com.ph

UNDETERRED SCIONS OF DAVAO

Continued from A1

LEGACY Leisure Residences

LEGACY Leisure Residences Clubhouse Continued from A1

used for condominium, hotel, apartment and commercial uses.

Strength

THE strength of this project is its compliance with tensile strength standard to withstand a super temblor of mag-

nitude 7 to 8.4 earthquake.

“This is beyond the quakes that have hit the Philippines but that is how strong our buildings are,” Bangayan said.

He said the project hit a low in sales after the series of three strong quakes in October last year and up to last month. “This was

what we all experienced in the construction sector in Mindanao. But last month, sales perked up.”

“For us local developers entering the big league and competing with giant names in the industry, this is our assurance of building stability and strength, and an offering of lots of green and leisure

and health and wellness amenities,” Bangayan said.

The project is in the construction phase of its first building, which is expected to be done by next year, and the rest of the project in three years.

Yap and Bangayan are the scions of the business families here.

The Bangayans are known for their taxi and bus fleets, apartelles and resort hotels in Samal. The Yaps are into the first convenience stores, a high-rise business and commercial building, and besides this building, a planned high-rise hotel and convention center building.

The new partnership has eyed

similar mixed-use residential and commercial project within the next 10 years in Tagum City, Davao City and Cagayan de Oro City.

“We are looking at areas whose pattern of commercial and business movement converges in Davao City, now the current center of development,” he said.

Countries starting to hoard food, threatening global trade Continued from A1

pledged to buy more than ever before from its domestic harvest, even though the government already holds massive stockpiles of rice and wheat, enough for one year of consumption.

Key wheat importers including Algeria and Turkey have also issued new tenders, and Morocco said a suspension on wheat-import duties would last through mid-June.

As governments take nationalistic approaches, they risk disrupting an international system that has become increasingly interconnected in recent decades.

Kazakhstan had already stopped exports of other food staples, like buckwheat and onions, before the move this week to cut off wheat-flour shipments. That latest action was a much bigger step, with the potential to affect companies around the world that rely on the supplies to make bread.

For some commodities, a handful of countries, or even fewer, make up the bulk of exportable supplies. Disruptions to those shipments would have major global ramifications.

Take, for example, Russia, which has emerged as the world’s top wheat exporter and a key supplier to North Africa. Vietnam is the third-largest rice exporter,

sending many of its cargoes to the Philippines.

“If governments are not working collectively and cooperatively to ensure there is a global supply, if they’re just putting their nations first, you can end up in a situation where things get worse,” said Benton of Chatham House.

Vicious cycle

HE warned that frenzied shopping coupled with protectionist policies could eventually lead to higher food prices—a cycle that could end up perpetuating itself.

“If you’re panic buying on the market for next year’s harvest, then prices will go up, and as prices go up, policy makers will panic more,” he said.

And higher grocery bills can have major ramifications. Bread costs have a long history of kickstarting unrest and political instability. During the food price spikes of 2011 and 2008, there were food riots in more than 30 nations across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

“Without the food supply, societies just totally break,” Benton said.

Unlike previous periods of rampant food inflation, global inventories of staple crops like corn, wheat, soybeans and rice are plentiful, said Dan Kowalski, vice president of research at Co-

IN this March 19, 2020, file photo, Wade Warner picks up a toilet paper roll at a Stop & Shop supermarket during hours open daily only for seniors in North Providence, Rhode Island. Reaction to the coronavirus, change came to the United States during the third week of March in 2020. It did not come immediately, though it came quite quickly. There was no explosion, no invasion other than a microscopic one that nobody could see. AP/DAVID GOLDMAN

Bank, a $145-billion lender to the agriculture industry, adding he doesn’t expect “dramatic” gains for prices now.

While the spikes of the last decade were initially caused by climate problems for crops, policies

exacerbated the consequences. In 2010, Russia experienced a record heat wave that damaged the wheat crop. The government responded by banning exports to make sure domestic consumers had enough.

The United Nations’ measure

of global food prices reached a record high by February 2011.

“Given the problem that we are facing now, it’s not the moment to put these types of policies into place,” said Maximo Torero, chief economist at the UN’s Food and

Agriculture Organization. “On the contrary, it’s the moment to cooperate and coordinate.”

Of course, the few bans in place may not last, and signs of a return to normal could prevent countries from taking drastic measures.

Once consumers start to see more products on shelves, they may stop hoarding, in turn allowing governments to back off. X5 Retail, Russia’s biggest grocer, said demand for staple foods is starting to stabilize.

In the US, major stores like Walmart Inc. have cut store hours to allow workers to restock.

In the meantime, some food prices have already started going up because of the spike in buying.

Wheat futures in Chicago, the global benchmark, have climbed more than 8 percent in March as consumers buy up flour. US wholesale beef this week shot up to the highest since 2015, and egg prices are higher.

At the same time, the US dollar is surging against a host of emerging-market currencies. That reduces purchasing power for countries that ship in commodities, which are usually priced in greenbacks.

In the end, whenever there’s a disruption for whatever reason, Berg said, “it’s the least-developed countries with weak currencies that get hurt the most.”

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Sunday, March 29, 2020

The World BusinessMirror

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Trump’s push to open economy Airlines swap passengers for cargo to stay afloat could come at cost of many lives U

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ASHINGTON—The contrast could hardly be more stark. Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York has said that if all of his sweeping, expensive measures to stem the coronavirus saved one life, it would be worth it. President Donald J. Trump has another view: The costs of shutting down the economy outweigh the benefits, frequently telling Americans that 35,000 people a year die from the common flu.

Though it may seem crass, the federal government actually has long made a calculation when imposing regulations, called “the value of a statistical life,” that places a price tag on a human life. It has been used to consider whether to require seat belts, air bags or environmental regulations, but it has never been applied in a broad public health context.

The question is now an urgent one given that Trump in recent days has latched on to the notion that the cure for the pandemic should not be worse than t he d isease and arg ued t hat “more people are going to die if we allow this to continue” if the economy remains closed. He has targeted a return a semblance of normalcy for the economy by Easter Sunday, April 12.

Critics say he’s presenting the nation with a false choice at a moment when deaths and infections from the virus are surging.

“We’re not going to accept a premise that human life is disposable,” said Cuomo, whose state has seen far more infections and deaths from Covid-19 than any other state. “And we’re not going to put a dollar figure on human life.”

For decades, the federal government has made calculations on how policies intended to safeguard American health could impact the economy. Since the Reagan administration, federal agencies have been required to perform analysis of any proposed regulations that are expected to have $100 million or more impact on the economy.

The Environmental Protection Agency, for example, conducts cost-benefit analysis to estimate in dollar terms how much people are willing to pay for reductions in their risk of death from adverse health conditions caused by pollution. The Transportation Department estimates the additional cost that consumers would be willing to bear for improvements in safety at $9.6 million.

Now, the push-pull of when to re-open the economy during the coronavirus crisis centers on a similarly bleak question: What’s an economically acceptable death toll? Putting dollar figures on the value of life and health is inherently uncomfortable, one expert said.

“People hate that question,” said Betsey Stevenson, an economics and public policy professor at the University of Michigan who served on the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration.

“By laying out the math in such a crude way, people cringe when they see it.”

Days into his own call for Americans to dedicate themselves for 15 days to social distancing, including staying home from work and closing bars and restaurants to help try to stall the spread of the disease, Trump has changed his tune.

Trump has grumbled, “Our country wasn’t built to be shut down” and vowed not to allow “the cure be worse than the problem.”

“The LameStream Media is the dominant force in trying to get me to keep our Country closed as long as possible in the hope that it will be detrimental to my election success,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday. “The real people want to get back to work ASAP. We will be stronger than ever before!”

He also pushed back against suggestions that he is being cavalier about the prospect of more deaths being caused by a premature of reopening of the economy.

“How many deaths are acceptable to me?” Trump told reporters on Wednesday evening. “None.”

But Democrats say that Trump was prioritizing the economy over the health and safety of Americans.

“I’d like to say, let’s get back to work next Friday,” said former Vice President Joe Biden, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. “That’d be wonderful.

But it can’t be arbitrary.”

President Donald J. Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Briefing Room on Wednesday, in Washington as Vice President Mike Pence and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin listen. AP/Alex Brandon

Trump certainly has his defenders. Fox News commentator Britt Hume has called it an “entirely reasonable viewpoint” that older Americans would be willing to sacrifice for the good of the economy, and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has said he’s “all in” on lifting social distancing guidelines in order to help the economy.

Mike Leavitt, a Health and Human Services secretary in the George W. Bush administration, said the battle against the virus is shaping into a “supremely local fight” and communities may need to periodically adjust as the crisis unfolds.

“Each jurisdiction may not come to the same conclusion—because each jurisdiction may have different situations about shopping and businesses reopening,” Leavitt said in an e-mail.

In the recent past, the government has also put a dollar figure on American life in the aftermath of man-made calamities, including the 9/11 attacks and the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 and devastated the regional economy, to compensate victims.

Kenneth Feinberg, who administered the victims’ funds stemming from those events, said the formula used in the nation’s courts was a simple one: W hat wou ld the v ictim have earned over the course of their life at work but for the tragedy that took their life? On top of that, there was some added compensation for pain and suffering and emotional distress, he said.

“It is a rather straightforward calculation,” Feinberg said.

But when it comes to the current pandemic, Feinberg said calculating the impact is not so simple.

“When somebody says, ‘You know the risk of the virus is not as great as the risks to everybody through a deteriorating economy,’ that’s a choice that everybody will have to make,” Feinberg said.

In the case of the coronavirus crisis, some economists and policy experts say the pandemic continues to present too many unknowns

to employ the sort of coldly calculated, cost-benefit analysis that’s been used to evaluate the impact of policies such as federal highway and air quality rules.

“It doesn’t help to save the economy if a tremendous number of people have died or fallen ill and their lives are changed forever,” said Lisa Heinzerling, who grappled with regulatory impact on the economy as the head of EPA’s policy office at the beginning of the Obama administration.

Northwestern University economists Martin Eichenbaum and Sergio Rebelo and German economist Mathias Trabandt said in a working paper published this week that optimal containment efforts would lead to deeper economic damage and that recession in the US was inevitable. But the economists also projected that maintaining social-distancing measures before the US hits its peak in infections “saves roughly half a million lives.”

Stepping back from efforts to preserve human life in the midst of an event of this scale could also have enormous impact on the trust of institutions for generations to come, said David Ropeik, a former instructor of risk communication at the Harvard School of Public Health.

“The benefit of an all-out fight against a virus includes reassuring the public that the government is on their side. Backing off that fight reasonably questions whether the government we have created to protect us from things like this crisis will do so,” said Ropeik, the author of the book How Risky Is It, Really?

“The loss of that to protect the economy is undermining that faith. How can you price that?” he asked.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. The vast majority of people recover. AP

Jobless after virus lockdown, India’s poor struggle to eat

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EW DELHI—Some of India’s legions of poor and people suddenly thrown out of work by a nationwide stay-athome order began receiving aid distribution on Thursday, as both the public and private sector work to blunt the impact of efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic.

India’s finance ministry announced a 1.7 trillion rupees ($22 billion) economic stimulus package that will include delivering monthly grains and lentil rations to an astonishing 800 million people, some 60 percent of people in the world’s second-most populous country.

In the meantime, the police in one state were giving rations of rice to shantydwellers, while another state’s government deposited cash into the bank accounts of newly unemployed workers. Aid groups,

meanwhile, worked to greatly expand the number of meals they can hand out.

The unprecedented order keeping I n d i a’s 1 . 3 b i l l i o n p e o p l e a t h o m e f o r all but essential trips to places like s u p e r m a r ke t s o r p h a r m a c i e s i s m e a n t t o ke e p v i r u s c a s e s f ro m s u rg i n g a b o ve t h e 5 5 3 a l re a d y re c o rd e d a n d ove r w h e l m i n g a n a l re a d y s t r a i n e d h e a l t h - c a re s y s t e m .

Yet the measures that went into effect on Wednesday—the largest of their kind in the world—risk heaping further hardship on the quarter of the population who live below the poverty line and the 1.8 million who are homeless.

Rickshaw drivers, itinerant produce peddlers, maids, day laborers and other informal workers form the backbone of the Indian

economy, comprising around 85 percent of all employment, according to official data.

Many of them buy food with the money they make each day, and have no savings to fall back on.

Untold numbers of them are now out of work and many families have been left struggling to eat.

“Our first concern is food, not the virus,” said Suresh Kumar, 60, a bicycle rickshaw rider in New Delhi.

He said he has a family of six who rely on his daily earnings of just 300 rupees ($4).

“I don’t know how I will manage,” he said.

In the nor theastern state of Assam, police started handing out rice in some of the poorest districts, an informal effort they said they hope to ramp up in coming days.

In India’s most populous state, Uttar Pra d e s h , t h e g ove r n m e nt a l re a d y s e nt 1,000 rupees ($13) to 2 million informal workers who are registered in a government database and have bank accounts. It was handing out free food rations to those are are not registered, though some in the state capital, Lucknow, said they weren’t aware of such handouts.

In New Delhi, authorities teamed up with local charities and aid groups to map out locations where the city’s poor tend to congregate, distributing 500 hot meals cooked in government schools, political party headquarters and shelter kitchens.

Details of the programs, from how well funded they were to how many people they hoped to help, remained scant, however. AP

nable to fill planes with passengers as the coronavirus destroys travel demand, airlines are instead using their fleets to transport more cargo, including medicines, smartphones and Korean strawberries.

The likes of Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Korean Air Lines Co. and American Airlines Group Inc. are hauling a greater amount of goods in the belly of their passenger planes to keep up with demand. Cargo rates have risen over 10 percent in recent weeks as some companies are prepared to pay more to ship goods after drastic cuts in passenger flights left airlines with less capacity for cargo.

Airlines typically don’t operate in this fashion. Yet they are desperate to use whatever capacity they can for cargo as earnings from passenger operations have almost vanished with traffic down 90 percent. Though travel has been decimated, global trade continues, especially with factories reopening in China and demand surging for medical supplies to fight the pandemic.

“At least for the short term, as long as passenger flights are disrupted, cargo operations are expected to help some airlines make up for some of the losses,” said Um Kyung-a, an analyst at Shinyoung Securities Co. in Seoul. “With oil prices falling and higher rates, it’s become economical for some airlines to be using passenger planes for cargo.”

Airlines could lose $252 billion in revenue from passenger operations this year because of the pandemic, according to the International Air Transport Association. In normal times, about half of the world’s air cargo is transported on dedicated freighters and the rest goes in the bellies of passenger aircraft along with people’s baggage. Airlines have increasingly relied on passenger planes to transport cargo since the global financial crisis.

Airlines are asking governments to ensure vital cargo supply lines remain open and efficient, calling for measures including the removal of slot restrictions and operating-hour curfews, and exempting crew who don’t interact with the public from 14-day quarantine requirements, IATA said on Wednesday. “We are still seeing examples of cargo flights filled with life-saving medical supplies and equipment grounded due to cumbersome and bureaucratic processes to secure slots and operating permits,” it said in a statement.

While about 90 percent of global trade is carried by sea, air cargo transports over $6 trillion worth of goods annually and accounts for about 35 percent of trade by value.

Airlines including Cathay and Korean Air have more exposure to airfreight operations, which account for over 20 percent of their annual revenue. While many other airlines around the world become more reliant on passenger aircraft to haul cargo, they still operate freighters. Emirates, Qatar Airways, Cathay, Korean Air and Deutsche Lufthansa AG are the world’s top 5 cargo airlines.

Stemming losses

While it won’t be enough to salvage the fortunes of airlines this year, earnings from cargo operations will help them narrow losses from the collapse in passenger operations, Um said.

Some carriers such as Delta Air Lines Co., Japan Airlines Co. and Air Canada don’t have freighters and have relied on passenger planes to carry cargo. That’s because many companies have been opting to move products by using less expensive modes of transport like ships.

“There’s a shortage of cargo space in the short term while demand is still there,” said James Teo, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence in Singapore. “Cargo yields are up double digits during this time. With passenger planes taken out, it has created a shortage of cargo capacity.”

For these flights, the belly holds of passenger aircraft are filled with items including mobilephone parts and perishable goods in containers mounted on pallets to prevent items from shifting during flights. Usually, the cargo hull is shared with luggage from passengers. The planes will be empty of passengers and flight attendants, with only pilots in the cockpit flying the plane.

Chinese authorities warned about the implications of dwindling passenger flights on cargo shipments, saying international supply chains have been significantly affected and calling for measures to increase airfreight capacity. Chinese carriers will be helped to expand their fleets via lease or purchase, the State Council said in a statement after a meeting on Tuesday.

The State Council also said mergers of airfreight and logistics firms will be encouraged and express delivery companies will receive support for expansion. Where conditions allow, airports in places such as Beijing, Guangdong, Hong Kong and the Yangtze River Delta will provide aroundthe-clock customers clearance services, it said.

Cathay’s case

Cathay, Asia’s biggest airfreight airline, has said a third of its cargo capacity was eliminated with the passenger service halts. Typically it carries half of its cargo load on passenger planes and the rest on its freighters. Its Cathay Dragon unit is using Airbus SE A330 aircraft to send cargo to China.

The carrier was struggling to fill planes with passengers even before the virus outbreak as traffic slid in the second half of last year with the anti-government protests in Hong Kong, its base.

“While our freighter network remains intact, we are also ramping up our cargo capacity by mounting charter services and operating certain suspended passenger services purely for airfreight to meet cargo customer demand,” Cathay Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Ronald Lam said on March 20. Chief Executive Officer Augustus Tang said in a memo to staff the same day that cargo capacity has been added for March and April.

Korean Air, Asia’s second-biggest cargo airline, is also deploying its A330 aircraft to Ho Chi Minh City and Qingdao to transport such products as LCD displays, ship components, mobile phone parts and Korean strawberries starting this month. Scoot is using its Boeing 787 aircraft to fly to Guangzhou and Nanjing twice a week each as charter flights for Singapore Air’s cargo operations, the budget carrier said.

Etihad Airways said on Tuesday it would deploy Boeing 787 planes to complement its freighter fleet and operate 34 weekly flights to 10 markets, including India, Thailand and South Korea. “It is essential these trade lanes remain open, and with the addition on this capacity we are able to serve those constrained markets that face decreased passenger freight operations,” Etihad Aviation Group’s managing director of cargo and logistics, Abdulla Mohamed Shadid, said in a statement.

Medical supplies In the US, American Airlines Group Inc. is shifting some of its biggest idled jets to ferry freight, its first scheduled cargo-only flights since 1984 when the airline retired the last of its freighters. The carrier will use its Boeing 777-300s to fly medical supplies, military mail, e-commerce packages and high-demand office equipment as more people work from home.

The flights are between Frankfurt and Dallas-Fort Worth airports.

United Airlines Holdings Inc. is also using some of its 777 and 787 aircraft to make vital shipments, such as medical supplies, to Frankfurt from Chicago, the company said in a statement.

It will initially operate 40 cargo charters a week and will continue to seek additional opportunities.

Delta said it is carrying medical supplies on A350 aircraft to Dublin from Atlanta and using its 777200LRs to fly cargo and mail overseas. Hawaiian Airlines said on Wednesday it is also bolstering cargo services as it reduces its April passenger flight shedule.

Lufthansa is looking to possibly deploy A330, A350 and 747 jets as freight-only flights to help secure supplies across Europe as it had inquiries to fly medical supplies to Eastern Europe, CEO Carsten Spohr said on March 20. That freight would usually travel such distances by road, but the delays at some borders with lines as long at 70 kilometers are causing problems, he said. Among the large network airlines in Europe, Lufthansa is the only one that has kept a sizable full-freighter fleet.

The move to operate passenger planes as freighters appears to be limited to short routes for now as cargo demand for longer distances won’t generate profit for most airlines. Still, as more carriers in Europe and the US cut services and oil prices remain low, using passenger planes on longer routes could make economic sense for carriers. Fuel is one of their biggest costs.

“As more flights are cut on long-haul routes and oil prices stay where they are now, airlines could also consider using passenger planes for cargo to Europe,” Um at Shinyoung said. “While people put off any travel plans due to the coronavirus, that doesn’t mean they will stop buying.

Global trade will still go on.” Bloomberg News

Science

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Sunday

Sunday, March 29, 2020 A5

Covid-19: Promise of malaria drugs spurs hope and shortages

This undated image provided by Mount Sinai Hospital in March 2020 shows a CT scan from a 65-year-old man in China with Covid-19. Pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus can show up as distinctive hazy patches on the outer edges of the lungs, indicated by arrows.

Mount Sinai Hospital via AP

Covid-19 lung patterns show clues for treating pneumonia

W

ASHINGTON—Scans of the lungs of the sickest Covid-19 patients show distinctive patterns of infection, but so far those clues offer little help in predicting which patients will pull through.

For now, doctors are relying on what’s called supportive care that’s standard for severe pneumonia.

Doctors in areas still bracing for an onslaught of sick patients are scouring medical reports and hosting webinars with Chinese doctors to get the best advice on what works and what hasn’t.

One thing that’s clear around the globe: Age makes a huge difference in survival. And one reason is that seniors’ lungs don’t have as much of what geriatrics expert Dr. Richard Baron calls reserve capacity.

“At age 18, you have a lot of extra lung capacity you don’t use unless you’re running a marathon,” explained Baron, who heads the American Board of Internal Medicine.

That capacity gradually declines with age even in otherwise healthy people, so “if you’re an old person, even a mild form can overwhelm your lungs if you don’t have enough reserve.”

Here’s what scientists can say so far about treating those who become severely ill.

How does Covid-19 harm the lungs?

The new coronavirus, like most respiratory viruses, is spread by droplets from someone’s cough or sneeze. The vast majority of patients recover, most after experiencing mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough.

But sometimes the virus makes its way deep into the lungs to cause pneumonia.

Lungs contain grapelike clusters of tiny air sacs called alveoli. When you breathe, oxygen fills the sacs and passes straight into blood vessels that nestle alongside them.

Pneumonia occurs when an infection—of any sort, not just this new virus—inflames the lungs’ sacs.

In severe cases they fill with fluid, dead cells and other debris so oxygen can’t get through.

If other countries have the same experience as China, about 5 percent of Covid-19 patients could become sick enough to require intensive care

How does that damage appear?

Doctors at New York’s Mount Sinai Health System analyzed 121 chest CT scans shared by colleagues in China and spotted something unusual.

Healthy lungs look mostly black on medical scans because they’re full of air.

An early infection with bacterial pneumonia tends to show up as a white blotch in one section

of one lung. Pneumonia caused by a virus can show up as hazy patches that go by a weird name—“ground glass opacities.”

In people who get Covid-19 pneumonia, that haze tends to cluster on the outside edge of both lungs, by the ribs, a distinctive pattern, said Dr. Adam Bernheim, a radiologist at Mount Sinai.

As infection worsens, the haze forms rounder clusters and gradually turns more white as the air sacs become increasingly clogged.

How to treat the pneumonia?

There are no drugs so far that directly attack the new coronavirus, although doctors are trying some experimentally, including an old malaria treatment and one under development to treat Ebola.

“The best treatment we have is supportive care,” said Dr. Aimee Moulin, an emergency care physician at the University of California Davis Medical Center.

T h a t c e n t e r s a ro u n d a s s i s t a n c e i n breathing when the oxygen levels in patients’ blood starts to drop. For some people, oxygen delivered through a mask or tubes in the nose is enough. More severely ill patients will need a breathing machine.

“The goal is to keep the person alive until the disease takes its course,” and the lungs begin to heal, explained Mount Sinai’s Dr. Neil Schachter.

The very worst cases develop an inflammatory condition—called acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)—that floods the lungs with fluid. That’s when the immune system’s attempt to fight infection “is going crazy and itself attacking the lung,” Baron explained.

Many things besides the coronavirus can cause the condition, and regardless of the cause, it comes with a high risk of death.

What else is impacted?

Severe pneumonia of any sort can cause shock and other organ damage. But in a webinar last week, Chinese doctors told members of the American College of Cardiology to watch for some additional problems in severe Covid-19, especially in people with heart disease.

The worst off may need blood thinners as their blood starts to abnormally clot, and the heart itself may sustain damage not just from lack of oxygen but from the inflammation engulfing the body.

Another caution: The sickest patients can deteriorate rapidly, something a hospital in Kirkland, Washington, witnessed.

Of 21 patients who needed critical care at Evergreen Hospital, 17 were moved into the ICU without 24 hours of hospital admission, doctors reported last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. AP

E

xcitement about treating the new coronavirus with malaria drugs is raising hopes, including with President Donald J. Trump. But the evidence that they may help is thin, and a run on the drugs is complicating access for people who need them for rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.

Chloroquine and a similar drug, hydroxychloroquine, showed encouraging signs in small, early tests against the coronavirus. But the drugs have major side effects, one reason scientists don’t want to give them without evidence of their value, even in this emergency.

Yet, those preliminary studies sparked intense interest after Trump tweeted that hydroxychloroquine plus an antibiotic could be “one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine” and should “be put in use immediately.”

He cited a French study that gave the combo to six patients.

Some French doctors and politicians also are pushing to expand hydrox ychloroquine’s use. T he mayor of the French city of Nice, Christian Estrosi, said on television last week that he was on his sixth day of treatment and has “the sense I’ve been cured.”

Scientists, however, warn about raising false hopes and say major studies are needed to prove the drugs are safe and effective against coronavirus, and to show that people would not have recovered just as well on their own.

One such study started last week in New York.

“Right now, there is no drug that looks like it’s proven so overwhelming in early-stage clinical trials that we can say it’s highly promising,” former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said Sunday on CBS’ Face the Nation.

Some people are even trying to take matters into their own hands, with disastrous consequences.

A Phoenix-area man died and his wife is in critical condition after taking chloroquine phosphate, an additive used to clean fish tanks. The cleaning agent has the same active ingredient as the medicine chloroquine but is formulated differently.

Dr. Daniel Brooks of Banner Health Care’s poison center in Phoenix urged people not to self-medicate. “The last thing that we want

right now is to inundate our emergency departments with patients who believe they found a vague and risky solution,” he said.

The drugs and side effects

Chloroquine has been used to treat malaria since the 1930s. Hydroxychloroquine came along a decade later and has fewer side effects.

The latter is sold in generic form and under the brand name Plaquenil for use against several diseases.

The drugs can cause heart rhythm problems, severely low blood pressure and muscle or nerve damage.

Plaquenil’s label warns of possible damage to the retina, especially when used at higher doses, for longer times and with certain other medicines, such as the breast cancer drug tamoxifen.

“Chloroquine is an extremely toxic drug with a terrible side effect profile. Hydroxychloroquine is far safer, but its side effects are still significant,” Meghan May, a microbiologist at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Biddeford, Maine, wrote in an e-mail. “If it is not abundantly clear that it is beneficial, giving this drug to a critically ill patient feels risky.”

Evidence

That’s where the evidence comes in—and, so far, there is not much.

Hydroxychloroquine curbed coronavirus’s ability to enter cells in lab tests, researchers reported last week in the journal Nature Medicine. That doesn’t mean it would do the same in people or that they could tolerate the doses tested in the lab.

A report from China claimed chloroquine helped more than 100 patients at 10 hospitals, but they had various degrees of illness and were treated with various doses for different lengths of time.

They also might have recovered without the drug—there was no comparison group.

This undated electron microscope image made available by the US National Institutes of Health in February shows the virus that causes Covid-19. The sample was isolated from a patient in the US. NIAID-RML via AP

The French study has attracted the most attention. Doctors gave hydroxychloroquine to 26 people with confirmed coronavirus infections, including some with no symptoms.

Six also were given the antibiotic azithromycin.

Some of the 26 were not counted in the final results because they didn’t complete the study—what’s known as “lost to followup”—but that included three who worsened and were sent to intensive care, one who died a day after later testing negative for the virus, and one who stopped treatment because of nausea.

After six days, no patients given hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin had virus detected in swabs from the back of the nose, versus 57 percent of those given the malaria drug alone and 12.5 percent of some other patients who received neither drug.

That’s encouraging, but many things could have affected the outcome, such as how sick people were, when they were treated, what other treatments they received, as well as their age, gender and underlying health conditions.

“It is a very weak study—leaving us in suspension of whether the combination strategy has any merit,” said Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist and head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in San Diego.

Its biggest limitation: A drop in detected virus doesn’t mean the drugs will improve survival or shorten illness.

“It could very well be that the drug is reducing viral shedding but having no impact on the clinical course of those patients,” Gottlieb said.

Strained supply

The supply already is pinched for patients who need the drugs for other reasons.

A University of Utah service

With schools suspended, will kids learn anything?

M

ost of the school systems that shut their doors due to the Covid-19 outbreak initially said these closures would be temporary. But health authorities warn that Americans may need to keep up their social distancing for months.

Jon Pedersen, dean of the University of South Carolina College of Education, answers some key questions about how this unprecedented situation might affect the education of millions of children.

Will kids learn anything while schools are closed?

Not all school systems are going to count schoolwork done while schools are closed toward grades.

Educators will have to figure out how to motivate kids to do what it takes to keep learning.

If dull worksheets don’t excite kids at school, then those worksheets really won’t work at home.

Teachers will have to be more creative and resourceful than ever with what they do while classes are suspended.

For example, they can take students on virtual classroom field trips to places like the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

Kids can see everything from wild bears in Alaska to classical music concerts through the Virtual School Activities web site. They can learn how to conduct science experiments and make collages that look like kooky monsters at Fun Learning for Kids, which has a multitude of activities children will enjoy.

In addition, the New York Public Library has more than 300,000 books you can download

for free.

There are also options for children with special needs, such as Educational Technology and Mobile Learning—a great resource for activities for dyslexic learners, autistic learners, apps for the visually impaired and apps for learners with writing difficulties.

Parents will also have a role to play.

Will anyone have to repeat a grade or not graduate as expected?

We don’t know how long this crisis will last.

If it drags on, every state and school will have to decide whether students should move on to the next grade or graduate.

Not promoting students or not graduating seniors would obviously have broad implications for all public schools, colleges and universities— including community colleges.

There will also be fallout for families and the work force.

It may be hard in part to see whether students are ready to move forward to the next grade because the federal government has authorized states to let public schools skip otherwise mandatory standardized tests this school year.

When could lost time be made up?

There are options, some more challenging than others. For example, local districts could switch to year-round schooling, extend their current or upcoming academic year beyond the usual minimum of around 180 instructional days, lengthen school days and skip some holidays once things are back to normal.

There are precedents for those arrangements.

Numerous schools already operate year-round or with longer school years in places like El Paso, Texas; Romeoville, Illinois; and Bardstown, Kentucky.

And countless schools have had to extend the school year by days, weeks or more due to closures brought about by blizzards, hurricanes, floods and other disasters.

But whatever school leaders decide to do, it’s going to come with serious consequences and costs. Adding instructional time at a future date will cost more money.

And it’s not clear how school districts will be able to foot the bill.

Are there any grounds for optimism?

Yes. I believe that the United States has some of the best teachers and professional educators in the world and we will come through this not losing ground.

Although I would not rule out some sort of extended school year for schools, I do believe that the rapid response of states, districts, schools and teachers have reduced the likelihood that extreme measures will be needed.

My colleague, the education Prof. Gloria Boutte, always starts meetings with a traditional Masai greeting: “How are the children?”

I think this is very appropriate to keep in mind. How are the children? How are they doing?

What do we need to do as a community to ensure their success?

Together, we can make sure children succeed.

Jon Pedersen/The Conversation (CC)

In this July 11, 2006, photo, a display of spices lends color to a section of the Fancy Food Show in New York City. Doctors are reporting that people infected with the pandemic virus may lose their sense of smell and, perhaps, taste.

Virus infection is already a known cause of smell loss and, in some cases, it can be permanent.

But in cases of the pandemic virus, it looks more like a temporary effect. AP/Seth Wenig

Loss of smell, taste, might signal pandemic virus infection

N

EW YORK—A loss of smell or taste might be an early sign of infection with the pandemic virus, say medical experts who cite reports from several countries.

It might even serve as a useful screening tool, they say.

The idea of a virus infection reducing sense of smell is not new. Respiratory viral infection is a common cause of loss of smell, because inflammation can interfere with airflow and

the ability to detect odors.

Th e s e n s e o f s m e l l u s u a l l y re t u r n s when the infection resolves, but in a small percentage of cases, smell loss can persist after other symptoms disappear. In some cases, it is permanent.

Now, there’s “good evidence” from South Korea, China and Italy for loss or impairment of smell in infected people, says a joint statement from the presidents of the British

that tracks shortages says 4 of the 7 companies that make generic hydroxychloroquine have reported them. Three other generic drugmakers previously stopped making the tablets.

Five manufacturers have stopped making chloroquine, but three others still do.

Erin Fox, senior director of the Utah service, wrote in an e-mail that the university’s health system has detected that some doctors are writing prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine “for themselves and family friends to have on hand or hoard just in case.”

The university refuses to fill those prescriptions, and at least one state has banned hoarding: The Ohio Board of Pharmacy says pharmacists can’t dispense hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine unless for lupus or rheumatoid arthritis or a confirmed Covid-19 case.

Patients already are feeling pinched. Toni Grimes, 47, has been taking hydroxychloroquine for 13 years for lupus and said that, for the first time, her standard 90-day refill order is being delayed until March 30.

Grimes, who runs a Phoenix-area Lupus Foundation support group, said another member also hasn’t received her refill.

“This is our mainstay” treatment, she said.

Studies have started

Among the studies under way is one led by the University of Minnesota throughout the US to see if hydroxychloroquine can prevent people exposed to the virus from getting sick or reduce the severity of illness if they do.

It’s aimed at health-care workers and people with someone in their home who has tested positive. People can e-mail Covid19@umn.edu if they think they’re eligible. AP Rhinological Society and of ENT UK, a British group that represents ear, nose and throat doctors.

In South Korea, some 30 percent of people who tested positive for the virus have cited loss of smell as their major complaint in otherwise mild cases, they wrote.

So that might be useful as a way to spot infected people without other symptoms— fever, coughing and shortness of breath—of the new coronavirus, they wrote.

A similar proposal was published by the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

It noted “rapidly accumulating” anecdotal evidence from around the world that the pandemic virus can cause not only loss of smell but also a diminished sense of taste.

So the appearance of those symptoms in people without another explanation should alert doctors to the possibility of a Covid-19 infection, the group said.

Maria van Kerkhove, an outbreak expert at the World Health Organization, told reporters last week that the UN health agency is looking into the question of whether the loss of smell or taste are a defining feature of the disease.

Dr. Eric Holbrook, an expert on nasal and sinus disease at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear hospital in Boston, said the reports have been a hot topic among researchers and doctors.

But “we don’t have hard evidence right now” about how often smell loss occurs in people infected with the pandemic virus, he said in an interview. AP

Faith

Sunday

A6 Sunday, March 29, 2020

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion •www.businessmirror.com.ph

‘No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’

Indulgence granted to Covid-19 patients and praying Catholics

V

ATICAN—The Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary granted a plenary indulgence for people with 2019 novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and for those who care for them, including medical staff and family members, and for those who pray for them.

Saint Peter’s Basilica. CNA

Announced last week, a plenary indulgence is granted to Catholics—who, infected with the coronavirus and quarantined at home or at the hospital by order of health officials—participate spiritually in a devotion, such as the rosary or the Way of the Cross.

Catholics around the world who pray for an end to the pandemic, healing for the sick and the eternal repose of the dead are also granted the indulgence, according to the decree.

Plenary indulgences, which re-

mit all temporal punishment due to sin, must be accompanied by full detachment from sin.

In this case, the person must also fulfill the ordinary conditions of an indulgence, which are sacramental confession, reception of the Eucharist, and prayer for the intentions of the pope, by having the will to satisfy the conditions as soon as possible for them.

Other devotions which may grant the indulgence, the penitentiary said, are participation in

Mass through the Internet, and the recitation of the Creed, the Our Father, and a “pious invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, offering this trial in a spirit of faith in God, and charity toward their brothers and sisters.”

Health-care workers and family members who have exposed themselves to the risk of contagion in caring for those ill with Covid-19 are also granted the indulgence under the same conditions, according to the declaration, which quoted Christ’s words that “no one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

The indulgence is granted “from the authority of the Supreme Pontiff,” with a decree signed by Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, penitentiary major of the Apostolic Penitentiary.

To receive the indulgence, always under the usual conditions, Catholics not sick with Covid-19 may offer at least a half hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament or a half hour of prayer with scripture, or the recitation of the rosary or chaplet of divine mercy “to implore from the Almighty God an end to the epidemic, relief for those who are suffering, and eternal salvation of those whom the Lord has called to Himself.”

The indulgence is granted, the decree stated, “so that all those who suffer because of Covid-19, in the very mystery of this suffering, can rediscover ‘the same redemptive suffering of Christ.’”

“Be glad in hope, constant in tribulation, persevering in prayer’ [Romans 12.12]. The words written by Saint Paul to the Church of Rome resonate throughout the history of the Church and guide the

judgment of the faithful in the face of every suffering, disease and calamity,” the announcement stated.

It explained that the coronavirus, which threatens humanity, has altered people’s lives by bringing fear, uncertainty and widespread physical and moral suffering.

“The Church, following the example of her Divine Master, has always had assistance to the sick at heart,” the decree said.

The document quoted Saint Pope John Paul II, who wrote in Salvifici doloris that the value of human suffering “is supernatural, because it is rooted in the divine mystery of the redemption of the world, and it is also profoundly human, because in it man finds himself, his very humanity, his very dignity, his very mission.”

Pope Francis, too, it noted, has invited constant prayers for those sick with Covid-19.

The coronavirus indulgence is also granted to those who are at the point of death, provided they are properly disposed and in the habit of prayer.

The decree said “the Church is praying for those who find it impossible to receive the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick and Viaticum, entrusting each and every one to Divine Mercy by virtue of the communion of saints.” “ T he Blessed Virgin Mar y, Mother of God and of the Church, Health of the Sick and Help of Christians, our Advocate, would like to come to the aid of a suffering humanity, driving back from us the evil of this pandemic and obtaining all the good necessary for our salvation and sanctification,” the document concluded.

Hannah Brockhaus/Catholic News Agency via CBCP News

In this file photo, then-Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle presides over the blessing of palms during Palm Sunday. Pope Francis appointed Tagle as Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples based in Rome in December 2019.

Roy Lagarde/CBCP News

Priests urged to bless palms on the streets O

n Palm Sunday, priests can go around the streets to bless the palms carried by the faithful who wait in their homes, the Catholic bishops hierarchy said.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) published the guidelines for bishops and priests on the celebration of the Holy Week during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a circular, the CBCP said the faithful, who will be following the celebration online or on TV, may hold their palm branches while the priest passes along and recites the prayer of blessing of palms.

This year’s Palm Sunday falls on April 5, which is a commemoration of Jesus Christ’s humble and triumphant entry to Jerusalem, only to be crucified later by the very people who welcomed Him. Popular tradition include processions with palm branches and the blessing of palms.

“In this case, those who follow the celebration on TV, there is no need for Holy Water to bless the Palm branches,” the CBCP said.

After the Mass, the bishops recommended that priests can go around the streets of the parish to bless the palms of the faithful who wait in front of their homes, “without using holy water.”

The CBCP warned that the blessing with holy water “might cause commotion.”

“The priest makes the sign of the cross as he passes through the streets,” part of the circular reads, as “the lector reads the Passion Narrative along the way.”

The CBCP also suggested that parishes use sound system to make people aware that the priest is passing by.

“All of these must be done with only two to three ministers to accompany the priests. This is to avoid gathering of people,” the CBCP suggested.

Several bishops across the country have already suspended public Masses and other religious activities when the government declared enhanced community quarantine on March 16 to prevent the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Archbishop Romulo Valles, CBCP president, said that “social distancing” is a “necessity” in this time of pandemic to stem the transmission

Baptism through Zoom: An innovation with deep historical roots

T

he coronavirus pandemic is forcing entire countries to rethink deeply-held social norms. Faith leaders are coming up with new ways to reach their communities, with many turning to online platforms to perform rituals.

Among the ser vices being offered via new technology are some of the most fundamental customs, or rituals—such as baptism.

This ritual in Christianity normally involves either sprinkling or immersion in water and signals a special connection between the baptized individual, God and the religious community.

Some Churches are now offering Zoom sessions in which a priest or pastor virtually places water on an individual.

Zoom is a remote conferencing service that combines videoconferencing, online meetings, chat and mobile systems.

This might seem surprising to those who believe that religious rituals are unchanging or frozen reflections of past practice.

As an historian of the Bible, I know that religious rituals have always evolved in the face of changing circumstances.

A particularly important example of this change occurred when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, twice.

Following the destruction, the way that Jewish communities worshiped God changed forever.

Temple worship

The temple in Jerusalem occupies an important place in both Jewish and Christian thought.

David, the King of Israel who ruled from around 1010 to 970 BC, is said to have first envisioned the temple. It was, however, built by his son Solomon.

The temple played a central role in ancient Israelite worship. According to the Bible, the temple in Jerusalem was where God lived. The belief was that as long as God remained in Jerusalem, the city would be indestructible.

In 701 BC, a king named Sennacherib tried to invade Jerusalem but was unsuccessful. The military campaign devastated the surrounding villages, but Jerusalem survived.

According to some biblical texts, God had chosen the temple as a special place to dwell.

Sacrifices were performed in the temple to ensure that God stayed forever in Jerusalem. The belief was that the sacrifices provided food for God. The blood from the sacrifices was also intended as a purge. It was believed that sinful actions of Israelites could travel through the air, generating a stain, called a “miasma.”

This stain was believed to stick to various parts of the temple. According to the Book of Leviticu s, in the Old Testament, the more important the person in Israelite society committing the sin, the closer the stain would land to the place where God was believed to have lived, called the “Holy of Holies.”

The blood of sacrifices was applied to these places, making God’s dwelling clean and tidy.

As such, these sacrifices were designed to keep God happy and they were essential to maintaining order in the divine dwelling.

Religious reordering

Except that the biblical texts claim that God did not stay in the temple forever. According to the Book of Ezekiel in the Bible, God became unhappy with the state of affairs in Jerusalem and abandoned the temple.

Following the divine abandonment, Jerusalem was no longer indestructible.

In 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar, a Babylonian king, conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the temple.

The temple was rebuilt around 515 BC But this “Second Temple” too was destroyed, this time by the Romans in 70 AD. This destruction left Jewish leaders with profound questions. Without a temple, they asked, how could people access God and offer sacrifices.

Another vital question before them was: How were these Jewish communities to relate to God, particularly in view of the commands of sacrifice in the Bible, when the temple was gone?

Ritual innovation

Religious texts were believed to hold answers for why these disasters occurred.

According to the scholar James Kugel, Jewish prophets and sages explained that these events

were “God’s punishment” for the failure to “obey the divine laws.”

As a result, those who survived were “resolved to learn the lesson of history” by studying ancient texts and performing the laws as God intended.

In this way, it was believed, they would find “favor with God” and “head off another disaster,” according to Kugel.

Other scholars, such as Mira Balberg and Simeon Chavel, have argued that the same biblical texts were also thought to contain the key for constructing new religious ideas.

In fact, these texts gave license for ritual innovation in light of changing historical circumstances.

Such innovations were often, though not always, grounded in sacred texts and traditions. That way they had a continuity with the past.

Adapting to change

It was through this process that prayer in the Jewish tradition came to be seen as a form of sacrifice.

Both the act of sacrifice and prayer connected the divine and human realms. Some passages in the Bible made the connection explicit.

For example, Psalm 141:2 t hat says, “Take my prayer as an offering of incense, my upraised hands as an evening sacrifice,” drew similarities between prayer and sacrifice.

So did another book in the Bible, Hosea 14:3 , which says, “Instead of bulls we will pay the offering of our lips.”

The verses even put prayer and sacrifice in parallel poetic lines as a way to almost equate the actions.

In fact, the prayer in Judaism, known as the “Amidah,” was conceived as a substitute for sacrifice very shortly after the destruction of the Second Temple.

The destruc tion of the temple created unimaginable crises in the religious sensibilities of ancient Jews, but also became a platform to reimagine how religious ritual worked.

The ability for modern religious communities to adapt and innovate rituals in light of circumstances, then, has deep and very productive roots.

Samuel L. Boyd/The Conversation (CC)

A priest wearing a mask walks in the Vantiniano cemetery, in Brescia, Italy, on March 16. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some, it can cause more severe illness, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems. AP/Luca Bruno

60 Italian priests died after contracting Covid-19

R

OME—In the past week alone, more than 3,000 people have died in Italy after contracting the coronavirus. Among the dead are at least 60 priests this month, local media reported on March 24.

“I pray to the Holy Spirit to give us the gift of light and strength. Everyday I do the Via Crucis asking the Lord...to carry this cross with us,” Bishop Gianni Ambrosio of PiacenzaBobbio said in an Italian interview. Àvvenire , the newspaper owned by the Italian bishops conference, published the names of 51 diocesan priests who died after contrac ting the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19), and noted that religious communities in Italy had also reported nine coronavirus related deaths.

The majority of the deceased were over the age of 70 years old, and some of these priests had underlying health conditions.

The youngest priest to die from Covid-19 in Italy was Father Paolo Camminati, who died in the hospital on March 21 at age 53.

Fr. Camminati was known for his dynamic

youth ministry, service to the poor, work with Catholic Action, and passion for the mountains.

He was the parish priest of Our Lady of Lourdes in Diocese of Piacenza, where five other priests with Covid-19 have died.

Among the dead in Piacenza is Fr. Kidane Berhane, a Cistercian monk originally from Eritrea, who resided in the historic Chiaravalle Abbey in Lombardy.

Also deceased are 87-year- old t win brothers, Fr. Mario Boselli and Fr. Giovanni Boselli, who died within a day of each other.

“It is a tough trial. We are dismayed. We feel great suffering,” Bishop Ambrosio told Àvvenire .

“It is a darkness that we must face, but with the hope that God never abandons us, that He Himself has gone through all the suffering to overcome it,” the bishop added.

Other priests who have died of Covid-19 in Piacenza include Fr. Giuseppe Castelli, 85, and Fr. Giovanni Cordani, 83.

The Diocese of Bergamo has reported the deaths of 20 diocesan priests and two religious.

Fr. Fausto Resmini, a former prison chaplain

of the virus.

He said that the CBCP guidelines aims “to keep a balance” of the centrality of the Paschal Triduum and the demands of the measure to prevent the spread of the disease.

Besides the blessing of the palms, Holy Week activities in Metro Manila this year will be closed to the public as part of the Church’s efforts to contain Covid-19.

Among the other affected traditional Holy Week activities are the, Visita Iglesia, Siete Palabras, Good Friday procession and Easter Sunday salubong .

In a pastoral statement, the bishops said they decided to prevent the spread of the disease through the Holy Week activities, “which usually attract huge crowds of the faithful.”

The Holy week—from Palm Sunday (April 5) until Easter Sunday (April 12) falls within the National Capital Region community quarantine period, it would mean that the liturgical celebrations during those days, “will not be open to the public,” the prelates said.

Duterte declares National Week of Prayer

At the same time, President Duterte has declared a “national week of prayer” as the country battles the coronavirus crisis.

After a declaring a nationwide state of calamity, he urged Filipinos to turn to God in prayer in this time of “affliction.”

In Proclamation 934, Duterte announced that moments of prayer would be taking place on the fourth week of March.

He asked Filipinos of all faith to pray for those afflicted with Covid-19, and for the frontliners in the fight against pandemic.

Bishop Ruper to Santos of Balanga has welcomed the initiative, saying that “we have to pray unceasingly and return to Him all the praise and glory which are rightly His.” “We should not only pray but much more honor God. God should never be mocked nor make fun of. All of us should always respect God, and one’s religion,” he said. CBCP News

and minister to the homeless, died on March 23 at the age of 67. He had been treated in intensive care since March 5.

“In these days I am listening to the voices of many people, feeling pain for the loss of their loved ones,” Bishop Francesco Beschi of Bergamo said on March 19.

In response to this suffering, the Diocese of Bergamo has opened a telephone service that offers free psychological and spiritual counseling and support.

Other Italian dioceses that have lost priests to coronavirus include Parma, Cremona, M ilan, Lodi, B rescia, Casale Monferrato, Tortona, Trento, Bolzano, Salerno, Ariano Irpino, Nuoro and Pesaro.

Italy has the highest coronavirus death toll in the world. The Italian Ministry of Health reported on March 23 that 5,476 people have died. More than 59,000 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Italy since February.

The B ishop of Pinerolo has tested positive for Covid-19. Bishop Derio Olivero was hospitalized March 19 with breathing complications. He is 59 years old and remains in stable condition.

Bishop Antonio Napolioni of Cremona has recovered after being hospitalized for 10 days with severe respiratory symptoms after contracting Covid-19. He returned to his home March 16.

Four diocesan priests and one Passionist missionary, Fr. Edmondo Zagano, have died after contracting Covid-19 in the Diocese of Cremona.

“I experienced minute by minute the dramatic crescendo of problems in the situation and the workload on doctors, nurses and all the staff,” Bishop Napolioni recalled of his time in the hospital.

“It is an absurd Lent,” he said. “But in a certain sense perfect. Jesus is in the desert for 40 days, fighting with the devil. Lent is not about the beauty of custom, but the profound myster y of the evil, death and despair that exist. But also of the Lord who is there. We must recognize His presence.”

Catholic News Agency via CBCP News

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

A7

Quezon City air quality improves during Covid-19 quarantine

I

n the last couple of months many countries worldwide implemented quarantines and lockdowns to prevent the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) that has affected more than 474,200 people and claimed the lives of more than 21,270 globally.

A group of roosting megabats Wikimedia Commons

‘Don’t blame bats for Covid-19’

G

e n o mic re s e a rc h s h ow i n g t h at the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) likely originated in bats has produced heav y media coverage and widespread concern. There is now danger that frightened people and misguided officials will try to curb the epidemic by culling these remarkable creatures, even though this strategy has failed in the past.

As an environmental historian focusing on endangered species and biological diversity, I know that bats provide valuable services to humans and need protection.

Instead of blaming bats for the coronavirus epidemic, I believe it’s important to know more about them. Here’s some background explaining why they carry so many viruses, and why these viruses only jump infrequently to humans—typically, when people hunt bats or intrude into places where bats live.

These include at least 200 coronaviruses, some of which cause human respiratory diseases like SARS and MERS. Bats also host several filoviruses, including some that in humans manifest as deadly hemorrhagic fevers like Marburg and probably even Ebola.

Normally, these viruses remain hidden in bats’ bodies and ecosystems without harming humans.

People raise the risk of transmission between species when they encroach on bats’ habitats or harvest bats for medicine or food.

In particular, humans pack live bats into unsanitary conditions with other wild species that may serve as intermediate hosts. This is what happened at the Wuhan wet market where many experts believe Covid-19 emerged.

With a few exceptions—such as rabies— bats host their pathogens without getting sick.

The challenges of life as a bat

What makes bat a bat

It’s not easy being the world’s only flying mammal. Flying requires a lot of energy, so bats need to consume nutritious foods, such as fruits and insects.

As they forage, bats pollinate around 500 plant species, including mangoes, bananas, guavas and agaves (the source of tequila).

Insect-eating bats may consume the equivalent of their body weight in bugs each night—including mosquitoes that carry diseases like Zika, dengue and malaria.

Bats convert these foods into droppings called guano, which nourish entire ecosystems, have been harvested for centuries as fertilizer, and have been used to make soaps and antibiotics.

Since fruits and insects tend to follow seasonal boom-and-bust cycles, most bats hibernate for long periods, during which their core body temperatures may fall as low as 43 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius).

To conserve warmth, they gather in insulated places like caves, use their wings as blankets and huddle together in colonies.

When fruits ripen and insects hatch, bats wake up and flutter out of their roosts to forage.

But now they have a different problem: Flying requires so much energy that their metabolic rates may spike as high as 34 times their resting levels, and their core body temperatures can exceed 104 degrees F. To stay cool, bats have wings filled with blood vessels that radiate heat. They also lick their fur to simulate sweat and pant like dogs.

And they rest during the heat of the day and forage in the cool of night, which makes their ability to navigate by echolocation, or reflected sound, handy.

Diverse and unique

Humans are more closely related to bats than we are to dogs, cows or whales. But bats seem more alien, which can make it harder for people to relate to them.

Bats are the most unusual of the world’s 26 mammal orders, or large groups, such as rodents and carnivores. They are the only land mammals that navigate by echolocation, and the only mammals capable of true flight.

Many bats are small and have rapid metabolisms, but they reproduce slowly and live long lives. That’s more typical of large animals like sharks and elephants.

And a bat’s internal body temperatures can fluctuate by more than 60 degrees Fahrenheit in response to external conditions. This is more typical of cold-blooded animals that take on the temperature of their surroundings, like turtles and lizards.

Carries 200 coronaviruses

Bats carry a range of viruses that can sicken other mammals when they jump species.

Recent media coverage attempting to explain this riddle has focused on a 2019 study suggesting that bats carry a gene mutation, which may enable them to remain healthy while harboring such viruses.

But while the mutation may be of interest from a public health perspective, understanding where this novel coronavirus came from requires understanding what makes a bat a bat.

Why do bats carry so many diseases but seem unaffected by them?

Genetic mutations that boost their immune systems may help. But a better answer is that bats are the only mammals that fly.

With thousands of bats crowded together licking, breathing and pooping on one another, bat caves are ideal environments for breeding and transmitting germs.

But when bats fly, they generate so much internal heat that, according to many scientists, their bodies are able to fight off the germs they carry. This is known as the “flight as fever hypothesis.”

These actions caused the closure of smoke-emitting factories, and the running of less vehicles in the streets.

As a result, several environment assessments recorded reduction in air pollutants.

In Europe, the European Union’s space agency's Earth-observation satellites have detected a significant reduction in the pollutant nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a by-product of the use of diesel motors and other human activities, in northern Italy as the advance of the Covid-19 has led to drastic measures curtailing ordinary life, The Associated Press (AP) reported earlier.

The agency’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service reported last week that with the “abrupt changes in activity levels” in northern Italy, it has tracked a “reduction trend” of NO2 in the last four to five weeks.

S i m i l a r d r o p s i n p o l lut a nt s were detected in China after the gover n ment t here i mplemented widespread shutdowns of factories and emptied airports to slow the spread of Covid-19.

Calling the reduction in emissions “very dramatic,” Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in Helsinki, calculated that China’s carbon emissions from coal, steel, oil and other industries, were 25 percent lower in the four weeks following the end of the Lunar New Year holiday—roughly the month of February—compared to the same time last year, another AP report said.

The www.airtoday.ph stations in Quezon City are recording improvements in PM2.5 since the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) was imposed in Metro Manila in March 16. In Figure 1, top line is the PM2.5 concentrations every hour, two weeks before the ECQ; center line is a week before the ECQ, and third line is during the first week of ECQ. EPSL IESM-CS-UP Diliman the atmospheric ventilation is low (evenings and early morning), from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. in LCP compound, EPSL, IESM-CS-UP Diliman news release said.

The same trend was obser ved in another www.airtoday.ph station along Edsa Muñoz, at 70 percent to 90 percent improvement in PM2.5 since the ECQ. “On ord inar y T hursd ays, t he PM2.5 would peak to 38 ug/m3 during evening rush hours, which can be unhealthy to sensitive groups,” said Dr. Mylene Cayetano, technical adviser of www.airtoday.ph, an initiative by the Rotary Club of Makati, in collaboration with LCP and UP Diliman IESM. This cleaning of the air in the hospital zone is a feedback of the 500-meter quarantine radius that

was implemented around the government-run hospitals in the city.

It includes—the Philippine Heart Center, East Avenue Medical Center, National Kidney and Transplant Institute and PLC—to control public access and vehicle traffic to the four city-based national hospitals. The area from East Avenue and BIR Road up to Elliptical Road has been closed since March 18.

“Majority of the air pollution comes from vehicle emissions. Cordoning off East Avenue and Quezon Avenue, both hospital zones, brings positive feedback of cleaning the air.

The Covid-19 patients and the rest of the patients present in these QC hospital zone have either obstructive or restrictive breathing, thus, are in much need of clean air,” Cayetano, the EPSL head, said.

Conserving inland waters, handwashing are needed today

By Dr. Theresa Mundita S. Lim

Bats at risk

Bats may not always be around to eat insect pests, pollinate fruit crops and provide fertilizer.

According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Bat Conservation International, at least 24 bat species are critically endangered, and 104 are vulnerable to extinction.

For at least 224 additional bat species, scientists lack the data to know their status.

O v e r h a r v e s t i n g, p e r s e c u t i o n a n d habitat loss are the greatest threats that bats face, but they also suffer from their own novel diseases.

Since it was first documented in upstate New York in 2007, the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), which causes white-nose syndrome, has infected 13 North American bat species, including two listed as endangered.

Nobody knows where Pd came from, but the fact that several bat species seem never to have encountered it before suggests that people probably introduced or spread it.

The fungus thrives in cool, damp places like caves. It grows on bats while they’re hibernating, causing such irritation that they become restless, wasting precious energy during seasons when little food is available.

White-nose syndrome has killed millions of bats, including more than 90 percent of the bats in some populations.

Bats are extraordinary creatures that benefit people in myriad ways, and our world would be a poorer, duller and more dangerous place without them.

They need protection from the cruel treatment and wasteful exploitation that also threatens human health.

Peter Alagona/The Conversation (CC)

The same cleaner air was also observed in some areas in the Philippines. The lockdowns in Metro Manila due to the Covid-19 pandemic have resulted in an apparent improvement in air quality.

Among them was the clear sunset over Manila as shown from Antipolo, Rizal, without any smog obstructing the view, a news report said.

Li kew ise, a sig nif ica nt proof of reduced air pollution in Metro Manila was recorded in a study in Quezon City.

A 180-percent decrease in fine particulate matter (PM) air pollutant in the city was recorded since the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) was declared by President Duterte in Metro Manila in March 16.

The data were gathered from www. airtoday.ph stations in Quezon City, according to the Environmental Pollution Studies Laboratory, Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology-College of Science-University of the Philippines Diliman (EPSL, IESM-CS-UP Diliman).

From the www.airtoday.ph station in the Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) compound, the PM2.5—the minute airborne dust that can penetrate the lungs, can cause shortness of breath, and may aggravate preexisting respiratory conditions—is showing decreasing trends.

Comparing the levels of PM2.5 preand while on ECQ, an improvement of 80 percent to 180 percent (percent PM2.5 prevented due to ECQ ) happened during the window hours when

W

Executive Director, Asean Centre for Biodiversity

ater supports the sustenance of all life on the planet, more so in this time of the 2019 novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic when handwashing and proper hygiene with clean water prove to be humanity’s best defence against the disease.

However, access to clean water remains a global problem with 2.2 billion lacking access to safely managed drinking water, while 3 billion lacking basic handwashing facilities, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization.

As the Asean Centre for Biodiversity joined the recent international community in celebrating World Water Day with a focus on how water can help mitigate the impacts of climate change, we take this opportunity to emphasize the inextricable relationship of biodiversity and water.

Inland waters—such as lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, groundwater, springs and wetlands— supply water for the irrigation of agricultural areas in the region.

The agriculture sector alone consumes

85.5 percent of the total water withdrawals in the region.

This is followed by the industrial sector at 7.8 percent and the domestic sector at 6.6 percent, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

Inland waters, likewise, support aquatic biodiversity—including reptiles, amphibians, fish, mollusks, insects, other aquatic invertebrates, and water plants, and water birds and several other migratory species in this region.

In this time of climate crisis, conserving inland waters, which are known to contribute to ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation.

While the region’s abundant freshwater resources are fortunate to get 9.5 percent of the total global precipitation, water availability is largely influenced by seasonal changes and the rise of global temperatures.

The increasing water requirements for agricultural, industrial and domestic uses of a growing Asean population also pose a threat to the region’s inland waters, in effect putting the water supply at risk.

In the region, leading the inland waters conservation are the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance and the

East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership.

At present, the region has 54 Ramsar sites covering 25,160 square kilometers. In terms of coverage, Indonesia has the largest area (13,730 sq km), followed by Thailand (3,997 sq km), and the Philippines (2,440 sq km).

The Asean member-states recognize the value of robust ecosystems in meeting the region’s water requirements, thereby integrating sustainable resource management measures into their respective national biodiversity strategies and action plans. The ACB has been mobilizing initiatives across sectors and generating participation of governments and stakeholders to ensure that biodiversity targets are within reach.

Although progress in increasing protected areas has been made in the past years, there is a need to transform individual protected areas into protected area networks to increase the effectiveness of species and their corresponding habitat conservation.

In Cambodia, its protected area system, which has expanded by 23 percent between 2016 and 2018, according to Cambodia’s Sixth National Report submitted to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

It said effective protected area management

boosts efforts in conserving natural resources like water, and guaranteeing resilience of the ecosystems and human communities.

Indigenous knowledge is an important element in effective community-based resource management.

In Sabah, Malaysia, fishing communities employ the tagal system, which prohibits anyone to fish in parts of a river at certain times.

This partnership between the communities and the authorities raises awareness of the importance of conserving freshwater resources while increasing the income generated by the members of the communities.

To date, there are more than 600 tagal zones in nearly 200 rivers in 17 districts in Sabah.

Conserving biodiversity is in everyone’s interest. A holistic, multidisciplinar y and multisec toral approach is key to strengthening existing laws and policies governing the management and sustainable use of biodiversity.

Under these exceptionally difficult circumstances in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, may we fully appreciate the values of the ecosystem services that inland waters provide.

In the end, the whole of society stands to gain from conserving and restoring these ecosystems.

Virus spread engulfs Tokyo’s famed cherry blossom season

A

dd one more to the long list of pastimes impacted by the global spread of novel coronavirus: enjoying Tokyo’s cherry blossom season.

The Japanese government is asking people against holding cherry blossom watching parties as it also urges vendors in parks to stop selling food and beverages to parties gathered there for the tradition known as hanami, TV stations reported.

The cherry blossom season, a big draw for the millions of tourists who flock to Japan each year, is

also a major economic contributor.

Kansai University Prof. Katsuhiro Miyamoto in 2018 estimated the nationwide annual economic impact from cherry blossom season at more than ¥650 billion($6 billion).

Tokyo’s cherry blossom season typically stretches from late March through the end of April, but the flowers can sometimes be seen into May. In the hanami tradition, people gather under the trees to enjoy the sight, ordering food and drink from nearby standing vendors or supermarkets. Bloomberg News

Visitors wearing face masks walk under cherry blossoms at Ueno Park in Tokyo on March 24. The Covid-19 illness causes mild or moderate symptoms in most people, but severe symptoms are seen in the elderly or those with existing health problems. AP/Koji Sasahara

A8 Sunday, March 29, 2020

Sports BusinessMirror

Editor: Jun Lomibao | mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph

THE BIG SHIFT Hockey equipment maker produces medical shields

H

OCKEY equipment manufacturer Bauer has shifted from making visors for helmets to medical visors for those fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

When hockey came to a halt amid the global pandemic, Bauer faced the possibility of closing its manufacturing plant in Blainville, Quebec, but engineers there instead brainstormed the idea of producing medical shields to help protect people on the front lines of the fight against Covid-19.

They came up with a prototype, and Bauer Vice President of global marketing Mary-Kay Messier said there were already 100,000 devices ready for distribution. They’re expected to first go to doctors and nurses in Canada, then the US. The medical shields are being produced in Quebec and a facility in Liverpool, New York, that primarily makes Bauer’s lacrosse equipment.

The company, which is headquartered in Exeter, New Hampshire, said its Liverpool facility made 1,300 face shields Thursday with a goal of producing 2,000 more Friday and 4,000 daily next week.

“There’s a real shortage, a dire shortage of medical devices and gear

that’s needed to keep people on the front lines safe,” Messier said. “We all want to figure out how we can make a difference.”

US Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire said on Twitter she’s “proud to see this NH business adapt to help health care workers’ needs during this time.” Columbus Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno tweeted his support: “Awesome work @ BauerHockey. Like many, I’m proud to wear your equipment! Thanks for making a difference where it matters!”

Spokeswoman Vanessa McMains of Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore said volunteers are assembling face shields and 35,000 fanny packs with gloves, masks and hand sanitizer to be distributed to those in close contact with Covid-19 patients. She said Johns Hopkins was preparing for a shortage in the US similar to what has happened to other countries around the world.

Congress’ $2.2-trillion virus relief package earmarked $1 billion under the Defense Production Act to help private industry boost the production of medical gear.

“Every company has something that they can contribute,” Messier said. “It’s

just a matter of a little bit of creativity to try and think about what it could be.”

Bauer is still ramping up production of the medical shields, and Messier said she hopes other companies follow suit. She said in times of tragedy, rival manufacturers should not be competitors.

“You’re really just all in on it together in how you can help the team,” she

said. “I think about hockey. It’s really a team sport, right? And we’re fortunate to work in that kind of environment, and in this time it’s about how can we support the greater community.”

Fellow manufacturer Warrior Hockey tweeted: “In times of need, we’re all on the same team. We commend @ BauerHockey’s efforts to help keep our medical professionals safe.” AP

MODELS wear the protective mask and gown for medical professionals made from the fabric of baseball uniform Fanatics, as well as the medical face shield by hockey equipment manufacturer Bauer. AP

From baseball uniforms to medical masks, gowns P

HILADELPHIA—The Bryce Harper jersey that could have been worn this baseball season by the biggest Philadelphia Phillies fan is now a protective mask in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Fanatics, the company that manufactures uniforms for Major League Baseball (MLB), has suspended production on jerseys and is instead using the polyester mesh fabric to make masks and gowns for hospitals in Pennsylvania and nearby states.

New York Yankees and Phillies pinstripes were still in vogue on baseball’s scheduled opening day—only stitched on the protective wear made by the apparel company.

Michael Rubin, the founder and executive chairman of Fanatics, was watching TV last week when he was struck by the idea to turn the 360,000-square foot facility in Easton, Pennsylvania, into a factory for the Covid-19 virus fight.

While Rubin considered how he could make it happen, Saint Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem reached out to Fanatics late last week about the possibility of the company manufacturing masks. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Attorney General Josh Shapiro each contacted Rubin over the weekend and told Rubin the state was in “dire need” of more masks and gowns.

Fanatics developed a prototype that was approved by the state’s emergency agency and by Tuesday the company halted production of all baseball jerseys.

Rubin, a limited ownership partner of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and NHL’s

New Jersey Devils, said he had the blessing of MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to stop producing jerseys.

“We’ve got a million yards of fabric that we make these baseball uniforms from, what would you think if we take that fabric and make masks and gowns,” Rubin told The Associated Press. “He immediately said, ‘Great. I want to do it immediately. The most important thing is we’ve got to help the heroes on the front line and baseball can help play a role in it.’”

So with Manfred’s support, production on the $300 jerseys for Harper, Aaron Judge, Mookie Betts and the rest of baseball’s brightest stars was stopped. The company makes the uniforms for MLB and Nike.

Fanatics stated fashioning masks and gowns on Tuesday and Rubin hoped to produce nearly 15,000 masks and gowns a day. Rubin, whose Reform Alliance lobbies for changes to state probation and parole laws, said the demand was for 95 percent masks. The production plant had been shut down as a nonessential business but about 100 workers have returned to work for Fanatics.

The company is making Level 1 masks, used for low-risk, nonsurgical procedures that are for single-use only.

Rubin said Wolf told Fanatics they would pay for the masks and gowns. Rubin, though, said he spoke to Manfred and Fanatics teamed with MLB to provide hospital uniforms at no cost to those in need in Pennsylvania, New

Jersey and New York.

Rubin, who has a net worth of $2.3 billion according to Forbes, said it would cost Fanatics about $3 million to make the masks and gowns and the company would produce at least 1 million over the course of several months.

And if you are one of the few Phillies fans left who doesn’t have a Harper jersey but want one?

“I think we’ve got them, but I’m not 100 percent sure,” Rubin said with a laugh. “I know we can get a mask and a jersey made from one.”

There was a bit of a dust-up this week when the Devils and 76ers did an about-face on cutting salaries for employees making more than $100,000. A day after announcing the temporary 20-percent pay cuts because of the economics effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the teams’ co-owners rescinded them.

“As an organization, I don’t believe we got right up front,” Rubin said. “But I believe we got it right. I think people who know me, know I’m a transparent person. I believe when you get something wrong, you just kind of fix it. Ultimately, as an organization, we fixed it.

I’m proud the organization came together and did the right thing by our employees. I think we’ll be rewarded by our employees who will feel we did the right thing. We got to the right place.”

But when it comes to Fanatics assisting in the coronavirus fight, Rubin added, “we’re less worried about manufacturing jerseys and more worried about just saving lives.” AP

INDYCAR GOES VIRTUAL RACING I

NDYCAR isn’t sure when it can get its cars on track to officially start the season. For now, the series will follow the lead of other racing leagues and go virtual.

IndyCar’s first iRacing event will be Saturday with a 25-car field. The track is still being decided by fan vote.

IndyCar, like all sports, has been idled during the coronavirus pandemic, which hit the United States just as the series was ready to open its season. The league had a hectic 24-hours in Saint Petersburg, Florida, where the March 15 season opener was scheduled to be run through the downtown city streets.

The mayor of Saint Petersburg first said the race could not have spectators, and IndyCar planned to proceed with strict guidelines to limit the amount of fans. A day later, the series followed Nascar and called off the race.

IndyCar on Thursday postponed the Indianapolis 500 until August and moved the road course race to July 4 in an unprecedented doubleheader with Nascar, which will run its Cup Series race the next day.

As plans for the schedule were being wrangled, IndyCar followed Nascar, IMSA and Formula One into the eSports realm to create new content for its fans.

Nascar’s debut event last Sunday was aired live on Fox Sports One and with 903,000 viewers it was the most watched eSports event

in US history, bettering the 770,000 viewers Mortal Combat drew to The CW in 2016. It was the highest-rated FS1 broadcast since sports were canceled the second week of March.

IndyCar’s broadcast partner is NBC, but the network passed on coverage and Saturday’s race will instead by streamed by IndyCar, and many drivers will have social-media feeds running live during the race.

Most series regulars have committed to participate for events scheduled to run through May 2. The entry list has only 25 confirmed drivers but it is widely believed seven-time Nascar champion Jimmie Johnson, who is scheduled to retire from full-time racing at the

end of the season, will join the field.

Johnson wants to dabble in other series when he’s done, and the simulator he used last week for Nascar’s first iRacing event appeared to have seat settings for Johnson to be driving Indy cars or sports cars, two of the series he’s interested in racing next year.

Among those confirmed to compete in the IndyCar event is Australian V8 SuperCars champion Scott McLaughlin, who is scheduled to make his IndyCar debut on the road course at Indianapolis.

McLaughlin is racing along with all three of the full-time Team Penske drivers, including reigning series champion Josef Newgarden and reigning Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud. AP

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Covid-19 in young people:

Is it dangerous? Data show it can be

2

BusinessMirror MARCH 29 , 2020 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

YOUR MUSI

LIVE ON SOCIAL MEDIA Couch concerts quench thirst for live entertainment

By Kaye Villagomez-Losorata

J

OHN Legend is just one of the many artists that entertained stay-at-home netizens during the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (AP File Photo

by Willy Sanjuan)

A

COUPLE of days ago, I woke up at 3am and saw my son sleeping peacefully beside me. The deafening silence pushed me to realize that the very future I have been working hard

Publisher

: T. Anthony C. Cabangon

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: Niggel Figueroa Anabelle O. Flores : Tony M. Maghirang, Rick Olivares, Darwin Fernandez, Mony Romana, Leony Garcia, Stephanie Joy Ching Pauline Joy M. Gutierrez

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: Bernard P. Testa Nonie Reyes

Y2Z & SOUNDSTRIP are published and distributed free every Sunday by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror Publishing Inc. as a project of the

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for suddenly reached a level of uncertainty that we all are trying to understand every single day.

To drown my thoughts, I reached for my phone, put on my earphones and blasted “Push” from Matchbox Twenty’s 1996 record, Yourself Or Someone Like You. Days before quarantine, I’ve been reaching for random songs from iTunes; Rob Thomas was on my “recently played” alongside Maroon 5, ABBA, Taylor Swift, Incubus, and Steps. Yup, that late ’90s version of TV’s High 5 was part of my instant happy soundtrack, anything to take a quick break from fear.

We need these quick escapes now more than ever. Just imagine if we’re doing this worldwide quarantine and we only have free TV or radio broadcast as windows to the outside world. From where we are quarantined in QC, we are blessed with a steady wired connection and an even better LTE. Connectivity affords life to go on during these uncertain times.

I’m able to beat deadlines while making sure the kids wash their hands every chance they have.

Most of us are able to provide for our families while spending time with them.

This mandatory distance has definitely made us closer to those who truly matter. This is one fact the COVID-19 uncertainty could not take away from us.

The music industry was the first to adapt to the new normal.

Some OPM artists have turned their social media accounts into a virtual live stage with scheduled performances that are actually fundraisers for our frontliners.

Smart is currently hosting a slew of FB live “concerts” where the public is encouraged to donate via

John Legend

its MVP Rewards platform. Track #StaySmart and Smart Music Online for more details.

National Artist Ryan Cayabyab did an impromptu Bayanihan Musikahan—a play on his old musical TV series, Ryan Ryan Musikahan—that went on to become a serial livestream meant to raise fund for those whose livelihood have been affected by the ongoing lockdown.

On the international front, celebrities like John Legend, Chris Martin and Norah Jones have posted performances of covers and hit songs to help ease boredom and pump up the sanity meter for online viewers. The Coldplay frontman gifted the online world with “Trouble,” “Viva La Vida,” “Yellow,” and covered David Bowie’s “Life On

Mars.” While John Legend played “All Of Me” and covered classics like “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Love’s In Need Of Love Today.”

Both impromptu livestream efforts are part of the #TogetherAtHome campaign initiated by the World Health Organization and GlobalCitizen.org.

We now attend “concerts” in our PJs and pambahays, at home where the stage is something we can literally hold at the palm of our hands, armed with only our earphones and decent internet connectivity.

The author is a former entertainment reporter and editor before shifting to corporate PR. Follow @kayevillagomez on Instagram and Twitter for more updates.

Moonstar 88 is part of an all-star, FB live fundraiser series to support the fronliners in the time of COVID-19

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | MARCH 29 , 2020

3

IC OUR BUSINESS

A TRIBUTE TO LADY MUSICIANS ON WOMEN’S MONTH

T

By Tony M. Maghirang

WO years after her successful sophomore album “Far Out,” Ruru’s latest 5-song EP titled The Odds traces familiar territory although this time, the old yearnings acquire the fresh glow of topnotch lounge pop. Where before, she came on as a friendly singer-songwriter willing to please everyone, she now fortifies her tender songs with a quiet force that should connect more with the lonely and the wallflower in her audience. Songs like “Nowhere Girl” and “Old friend” carry a sadcore undertow but their emotional impact reboots previous themes of loneliness, estrangement and social distancing in a new glow. And yes, the odds are, the beat will get you shaking your booty even by your lonesome.

Björk (AP Photo)

The liner notes to the album states “Beware of The Hangman, do not talk to him… unless all you want is to burn and die.” It’s good these notes are tucked near the end of the record because the songs that make up the album hardly exude horror nor terror. Instead, when you get to the second cut, the title track, its imaginative use of reverb should bring on the warm fuzz of nostalgia.

Then comes “Proud” packing a dance backbeat and “Blue Roses,” which got the blues aching to break out in a riot of plucked chords and martial drums. Later titles like “Lovely Is The Sound Of The World When It’s Silent“ or “Sleep Paralysis But I’m Not Dreaming” looks pretty weird but they’ll rock you rather than make your skin crawl.

“Hangman” is a low key,

U. S. GIRLS, Heavy Light

lo-fi release that would profit immensely in the guiding hands of an experienced record producer.

Nevertheless, it’s a splendid effort for a comely lass from San Pablo City.

This long-running project by Canadian artist Meg Remy plus a rotating stable of co-conspirators has been associated with forays into prog-rock, noise and avant-rock.

On her seventh album, Remy and her band of merry pranksters have settled into pop and funk with a few sideways nods at the Talking Heads and The Slits, among others.

“4 American Dollars” starts the proceedings on a swirl of airy riffs suggesting a feel-good song. “State House” flies on wings of gospelreferencing soul while “And Yet It Moves” is a swinging disco number.

Close harmonies mark “Born To

Lose” but a closer listen reveals how little lies gets peddled as the truth when there’s nothing left to say.

In truth, Meg Remy couches her stinging worldview in hooky riffs and buoyant rhythms. The title of her latest album is, in fact, drawn from Kafka’s “A belief is like a guillotine. Just as heavy, just as light” and it’s emblazoned across a mother and child at dusk. Such subtle manipulation is quite cool as f**k.

Confessional singer-songwriters have all been obliterated off the pop map by bombastic divas and sex kittens pretending to be R&B starlets. For the last five years, New Zealand’s Nadia Reid has quietly built a reputation for introspective songwriting that shines brightly guided by the sounds of modern pop, soul and folk rock.

Now, on her latest album, Nadia may yet push the envelope for wider respect for singer-songwriters.

“Oh Canada” carries the torch for the mighty Bic Runga (“Sway”).

Something about “Heart To Ride” reminds of Joni Mitchell at the height of her folkie days. The brass accompaniment lifts the likes of “Best Thing” and “All of My Love” out of soft-rock ghetto to the more glorious chambers of pop-rock heaven.

Nadia Reid produces ear candies and for all that, she creates exquisitely constructed confections. “Out of My Province” is a strong contender for the best pop album of 2020 so far.

Classic and Essential

Lest we forget, there are women who have made an indelible contribution in shaping contemporary music as we know it. In this case, we pay tribute to the little pixie named Bjork Gudmunsdottir who first came out of Iceland via the punk/avant pop outfit The Sugarcubes.

Simply called Bjork, she embarked on a solo career that would make significant influences to indie pop, rock and electronica.

Post. Bjork’s sophomore recording as a solo artist, is credited as that landmark album. First, there was Bjork’s unique voice that was second to none at a music scene ruled by the likes of U2 and Public Enemy. Then, she hooked up with producers who would eventually make their name in new musical subgenres such as trip-hop and shoegaze.

Despite its title Post, Bjork’s second album heralded both a new voice and sound. “Possibly Maybe” inspired the gloom and doom atmospherics of trip-hop. The hit single “Army of Me” is as noisy as a hit could be in its time.

Free jazz flirts with Sonic Youth’s free rock styling in “Modern Things” while “Oh So Quiet” takes on cabaret and Broadway in one lovely tune.

What’s more, Bjork’s colorful music would be reflected in her own fashion sense and the promotional videos on MTV. With Post, the pixie from Iceland grew larger than life into a global multimedia sensation.

Covid-19 in young people: Is it dangerous? Data show it can be

By Michelle Cortez, Angelica LaVito & Robert Langreth

N

Bloomberg

ew evidence from Europe and the US suggests that younger adults aren’t as impervious to the novel coronavirus that’s circulating worldwide as originally thought.

Despite initial data from China that showed elderly people and those with other health conditions were most vulnerable, young people—from twentysomething to those in their early 40s—are falling seriously ill. Many require intensive care, according to reports from Italy and France. The risk is particularly dire for those with ailments that haven’t yet been diagnosed.

“It may have been that the millennial generation, our largest generation, our future generation that will carry us through for the next multiple decades, here may be a disproportional number of infections among that group,” Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said in a press conference last week, citing the reports.

The data bears out that concern. In Italy, the hardest hit country in Europe, almost a quarter of the nearly 28,000 coronavirus patients are between the ages of 19 and 50, according to data web site Statista.

Similar trends have been seen in the US. Among nearly 2,500 of the first coronavirus cases in the US, 705 were aged 20 to 44, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 15 percent and 20 percent eventually ended up in the hospital, including as many as 4 percent who needed intensive care. Few died.

One of those younger adults is Clement Chow, an assistant professor of genetics at the University of Utah. “I’m young and not high risk, yet I am in the ICU with a very severe case,” Chow said in a March 15 tweet. “We really don’t know much about this virus.”

According to his Twitter posts, Chow had a low-grade fever for a few days and then a bad cough that led to respiratory failure. It turned out to be the coronavirus. He ended up on high flow oxygen in the ICU. When he arrived two Thursdays ago, he was the first patient there. “Now there are many more,” he tweeted.

Chow didn’t give his age in the tweets, but his laboratory web site indicates he graduated from college in 2003 and has two unruly children. He didn’t respond to an e-mail and Bloomberg was unable to independently confirm his status as a patient.

It’s true that risk of death climbs precipitously with age.

While there were only 144 patients over age 85, as many as 70 percent were hospitalized and 29 percent needed inten-

sive care, according to the CDC report. One in four died, the agency said in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Yet, emerging evidence suggests that infants and toddlers may also be at risk of severe complications.

In a study of more than 2,000 young children with Covid-19 from China, published last week in Pediatrics, Chinese doctors found that about 11 percent of cases in infants were judged to be severe or critical, as were 7 percent of those in toddlers and preschoolers. While still a lower rate of severe disease than adults, it’s hardly insignificant.

In the White House press conference last week, President Donald Trump implored younger people to stop reckless behavior, such as partying, going to the beach and hanging out at bars. Yet, as college campuses across the country close down and require students to leave, even the most conscientious young adults face a difficult choice. Finding their academic years abbreviated and graduation plans shattered, many are driving or flying home, where they risk exposing their parents and grandparents to Covid-19.

The same concerns apply to young people starting out in big cities who suddenly find themselves under pressure to head back to their hometowns.

Livia Calari’s father has been begging her to come home for weeks. The 25-year-old and her boyfriend live in Brooklyn, New York, and have been nervously watching the warnings from officials intensify and the city they live in shut down. But they’re staying put, for now at least.

The couple has two cats they’d have to move. If they did hunker down with Calari’s father in Washington, D.C., they would be asked to self-quarantine on a separate floor for two

weeks. Plus, the thought of accidentally bringing the virus worries them.

“I have a lot of anxiety, maybe irrationally, about bringing it to him,” Calari said of her father, who’s 65. “I would feel awful.”

After days of thinking over their options, they decided to stay in New York and re-evaluate if a lockdown gets to the point where they can’t even leave their apartment to take walks.

Stay home Infection-fighting officials are willing to go to unusual lengths to get the word out to young people where they congregate, including on the Pardon My Take podcast from Barstool Sports—one of the most popular sports shows with younger listeners. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute on Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the hosts how stressful the outbreak has been.

“You cannot imagine,’’ he said. “You see what happened in China, you see what’s happening in Italy. We have the virus in the United States, and we want to make sure by our efforts that we don’t have that degree of disease and suffering that we are seeing in other countries.’’

And he called on young people to embrace the effort to protect themselves and the broader population. “No one is invulnerable, but even if you are doing very well, you have to be a very important part of our national effort to contain the outbreak,’’ Fauci said.

“You are not a passive person in this. You are an important part of the active plan to contain this epidemic. We really do need you. This isn’t something that can be successful without you.”

SB19 postpones first Araneta concert

T

he first concert at Smart Araneta Coliseum of Filipino boy band SB19 has been moved to a later date.

Presented by Dunkin’, Give in to SB19 was originally slated on March 19, but is now shelved due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Blending the distinct instrumentals of

Koreans with proud OPM vocals, SB19 is the first Filipino boy band trained by Korean entertainment company, ShowBT. Comprised of members Sejun, Stell, Ken, Josh, and Justin, the group quickly launched into stardom with the viral fame of their second single “Go Up,” along with

4 BusinessMirror

their inclusion in the international Billboard Next Big Sound Chart.

Give in to SB19 concert tickets were given away for free by Dunkin’ through a promotion, letting fans enjoy their favorite donuts while making sure they get seats for the concert. In fact, vouchers for VIP seats

March 29, 2020

were sold out in just three minutes.

“The concert is our way of reconnecting the brand to the younger generation, who are the fans of SB19,” said Lea Nicart of Dunkin’.

Follow Dunkin’ on Facebook for updates.