The genesis of the second wave and the probable way forward for India

An unprecedented pandemic affecting 210 countries emerged in the watershed year of 2020 and involved India as well (1). We mined the number of daily cases of three equal periods of importance during the evolution of the pandemic in India, namely 1) initial lockdown (March-April 2020), 2) early days of unlocking (June-July 2020), and 3) second wave (March April 2021). Notice the March 2020 series in [Figure 1] and country-wise cases in [Figure 2], and we can observe that India was able to sustain itself against the first wave of the SARS Coronavirus-2 in a much better way compared to other developed countries. Social lockdown and other preventive strategies paid off even in the face of criticisms regarding lack of preparedness and economic slowdown due to strict enforcement of harsh measures. Soon, there were demands of decentralized control measures with more testing and local containment measures than the centrally dictated regimen. Lockdown was suggested for only local clusters with high positivity rather than a general clampdown (2). The June-July series in [Figure 1] represents the increasing numbers of cases resulting from suspicions, fear-mongering, and resultant relaxation in social restrictions as part of the phase-wise unlocking across the country.

Communicating Health Uncertainty: How Australia’s only National Broadsheet Newspaper Reported the Emerging COVID-19 Pandemic

The news media play an important role in communicating health topics to the public (Hallin & Briggs, 2015, Media, Culture & Society, vol. 37, pp. 85–100). Often journalists are the first to raise an alarm about the safety of vaccines, medicines and pathogen outbreaks including emerging infectious diseases (Joffe, 2011, Public Understanding of Science, vol. 20, pp. 446–460). But the news media have also been accused of distorting, exaggerating or amplifying risks which can lead to fear-mongering and public panic (Klemm et al., 2016). This paper examines how the only national broadsheet newspaper of Australia, The Australian, reported the COVID-19 pandemic from its first media appearance in January 2020 with a focus also on 2 days in February and March 2020. These timeframes coincided with significant coronavirus milestones for Australia, such as the first COVID-19 infection; the first deaths; and the World Health Organisation’s declaration of a global pandemic. This paper found that The Australian coverage was not hyped but measured, with heavy reliance on analysis of the economic fallout of COVID-19. It also found evidence the conservative newspaper used war metaphors to convey the fight against the coronavirus.

“The Looming, Crazy Stalker Coronavirus”: Fear Mongering, Fake News, and the Diffusion of Distrust

The authors explore media distrust among a sample of precarious and gig workers interviewed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although these left-leaning respondents initially increased their media consumption at the outset of the pandemic, they soon complained of media sensationalism and repurposed a readily available cultural tool: claims of “fake news.” As a result, these unsettled times have resulted in a “diffusion of distrust,” in which an elite conservative discourse of skepticism toward the media has also become a popular form of compensatory control among self-identified liberals. Perceiving “fake news” and media sensationalism as “not good” for their mental health, respondents also reported experiencing media burnout and withdrawing from media consumption. As the pandemic passes its one-year anniversary, this research has implications for long-term media coverage on COVID-19 and ongoing media trust and consumption.

Radiophobic Fear-Mongering, Misappropriation of Medical References and Dismissing Relevant Data Forms the False Stance for Advocating Against the Use of Routine and Repeat Radiography in Chiropractic and Manual Therapy

There is a faction within the chiropractic profession passionately advocating against the routine use of X-rays in the diagnosis, treatment and management of patients with spinal disorders (aka subluxation). These activists reiterate common false statements such as “there is no evidence” for biomechanical spine assessment by X-ray, “there are no guidelines” supporting routine imaging, and also promulgate the reiterating narrative that “X-rays are dangerous.” These arguments come in the form of recycled allopathic “red flag only” medical guidelines for spine care, opinion pieces and consensus statements. Herein, we review these common arguments and present compelling data refuting such claims. It quickly becomes evident that these statements are false. They are based on cherry-picked medical references and, most importantly, expansive evidence against this narrative continues to be ignored. Factually, there is considerable evidential support for routine use of radiological imaging in chiropractic and manual therapies for 3 main purposes: 1. To assess spinopelvic biomechanical parameters; 2. To screen for relative and absolute contraindications; 3. To reassess a patient’s progress from some forms of spine altering treatments. Finally, and most importantly, we summarize why the long-held notion of carcinogenicity from X-rays is not a valid argument.

#DisarmUC

As scholar-activists, the authors explore efforts of police disarmament within the context of an emerging social movement sweeping the University of California system. The Disarm UC coalition challenges the myth of policing as necessary for the production of a “safe” society, especially in an era in which fear-mongering has helped to naturalize far-right and authoritarian systems of control. Instead, this article asks how policing is always already a violent system within the American academy and how these historical precursors normalize the current militarization and mobilization of lethal force within universities. Such normalized violence reproduces historical inequities within academia and has material consequences for students and workers. Finally, the authors explore how social movements like Disarm UC disrupt police violence within the university, producing new social and material conditions for change.

Cultivating the Soil of White Nationalism: Settler Violence and Whiteness as Territory

This paper considers the emergence of white nationalist movements in Canada and their relationship to settler colonialism. How do ideas of Canada as a white nation, and fear mongering about white Canadians being “replaced” come to be so effective in a context in which white people have typically been the replacers themselves? While the Canadian state frames itself as multicultural, many of its laws and practices cultivate white nationalist beliefs, affects, and feelings. The state informally deputizes white settlers as owners and protectors of private property and uses them to dispossess Indigenous peoples from their land in order to appropriate it. This deputization protects both the material territory of the state and the affective and ideological justification for the continuation of settler colonialism. Private ownership of land cannot be understood merely as a legal capitalist relation, but is feltby many settlers as a deep, primordial connection to the land. Acts of settler violence both express and shape the racialized core of Canada. I propose thinking about settler private property as what I call “settler whitespace,” which is not only protective and expansive, but also involves the fabrication of an idea of white nativity to Canadian territory. This racialization of space serves to naturalize racist violence, cultivate hypermasculine expressions of whiteness, and ground white claims of exclusive belonging to Canada, all characteristic of the resurgent far-right. The property regime of Canada is not just part of its territorializing project; it lays the groundwork for white nationalist movements.

“When spotted deaths ran arm’d through every street”: Women-Healers and the Great Plague in Geraldine Brooks’ Year of Wonders

In the late 1600s, England was reeling under the recurrence of the pandemic that had swept continent-wide in the 14th century. However, it was not the only disease lurking around. At the heels of the scarlet-ringed Black Death, came the scarlet letter of witchcraft accusations, mostly geared towards Wise Women in the margins of society- women who exhibited knowledge and skill in medicine, herbal remedies and midwifery. Set in the time when religious fanaticism and Puritanical fear-mongering was at its height, Year of Wonders presents before us an opportunity to delve into the web of lies and life-threatening allegations that formed the bedrock of the English witch trials continuing in full swing since the incursion of Continental lore ever since James I came to power. Furthermore, with midwives and female herbalists in the area falling prey to targeted sexual and physical violence in the wake of the pandemic in the story, what needs to be inspected is the inescapable link between Church-backed patriarchy’s delusional fear, jealousy and consequent scapegoating of the economically and socio-sexually marginalized woman-healers in the countryside and the failure of the male-dominated medical field in effectively containing the spread of the virus. The paper investigates further the generational flow of biomedical wisdom in a female-oriented domain which becomes significant in the presentation of the two female leads inheriting the function of the Wise Women from the original holders of the position, thus solidifying the sense of found family and sisterhood standing against the mounting social pressure to bend to the will of the Church and the men in their lives.

Security and democratic equality

After a recent spate of terrorist attacks in European and American cities, liberal democracies are reintroducing emergency securitarian measures (ESMs) that curtail rights and/or expand police powers. Political theorists who study ESMs are familiar with how such measures become instruments of discrimination and abuse, but the fundamental conflict ESMs pose for not just civil liberty but also democratic equality still remains insufficiently explored. Such phenomena are usually explained as a function of public panic or fear-mongering in times of crisis, but I show that the tension between security and equality is in fact much deeper and more general. It follows a different logic than the more familiar tension between security and liberty, and it concerns not just the rule of law in protecting liberty but also the role of law in integrating new or previously subjected groups into a democratic community. As liberal-democratic societies become increasingly diverse and multicultural in the present era of mass immigration and global interconnectedness, this tension between security and equality is likely to become more pronounced.

Reactions to the Coronavirus: A Content Analysis Examining the Extent to Which Media Shapes Public Reactions in Response to COVID-19

This qualitative study explored the extent to which mass media exposure shapes public reactions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. A purposive sampling procedure was used to employ a content analysis on a sample of 100 of the most recent comments that included reactions towards COVID-19 from a CBC news article. An open-coding procedure was utilized to examine any themes or categories present in the comments, and the frequency of occurrence of any themes or categories were recorded. Results showed that eight categories of reactions were present: Fear, Warnings, Frivolous, Anger, Hope, Inevitable, Science, and Environment. Further sub-categories were identified within the overarching themes of fear, warnings, frivolous, and anger. This study demonstrated that fear is the most prevalent reaction towards COVID-19, keeping in line with existing research that media exposure and its use of fear-mongering tactics play a central role in shaping public reactions in response to pandemics.