Daily-Dose

Contents

From New Yorker

From Vox

There have been reports of Black refugees, many of them third-country nationals who were students in Ukraine, facing difficulty crossing. At the Polish border, some Ukrainian guards sent Black people to the back of the line last week, saying that “Ukrainians” took priority. Polish authorities have said that anyone who shows up at the border is being allowed to cross.

“We strongly condemn this racism and believe that it is damaging to the spirit of solidarity that is so urgently needed today,” Kenyan ambassador to the UN Martin Kimani said Monday at the security council meeting.

Ensuring that refugees in line have adequate access to food, water, and medical support is also a problem. One Nepalese man who had been studying in Ukraine said he had not eaten anything for three days while waiting to enter Poland, and another elderly woman died at one of the border checkpoints, according to the Washington Post.

NGOs have tried to help. Chef Jose Andres’s World Central Kitchen, for instance, handed out 4,000 meals over the course of 18 hours at Medyka, currently Poland’s busiest border crossing. The Polish authorities have also tried to streamline processing, but the resources and personnel at their borders just aren’t equipped to deal with the current volume of arrivals.

 Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images
Ukrainian refugees wait in line to enter Poland at the border crossing in Medyka on February 28.

European countries are ensuring that Ukrainians have a place to go

The European community has mobilized to ensure that Ukrainians have a place to stay in both the short and long term. Local governments created temporary shelters, and civilians are welcoming refugees into their homes. The EU also asked all 27 member nations to grant asylum to all Ukrainians for up to three years, which would give them access to social services and permission to work. EU commissioner for home affairs Ylva Johansson said Sunday that an “overwhelming majority” were in favor of doing so, but did not specify which countries opposed the measure.

In Poland, where at least 40 percent of Ukrainian refugees have gone so far, new arrivals are being transported via tour buses to one of nine reception centers, where they are being provided meals, medical care, beds, and information and legal services. In the town of Korczowa, for instance, a makeshift shelter with folding cots has been set up inside a warehouse. There, they can also meet up with family; Poland was already home to about 2 million Ukrainians before Russia’s most recent incursion.

Polish civilians have also clamored to support refugees. Locals in the Polish capital of Warsaw have advertised roughly 2,500 apartments where refugees can stay. They have also flocked to reception centers offering to transport or host refugees and bringing donations of food, water, clothes, sleeping bags, shoes, blankets, diapers, toys, sanitary products, battery packs, and cellphone charging cables.

After arriving at the border, some refugees are budded here where strangers are standing with dings offering work, rides and housing all over Europe. #Ukraine #Poland pic.twitter.com/1JoM90oHVb

— Ruffini (@EenaRuffini) March 1, 2022

Private companies have funded accommodations for Ukrainians, too. Airbnb, for instance, has offered free short-term housing for up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and is working with countries in the region to arrange long-term stays. There is also an online directory of hotels and hostels that have openings for refugees.

The government, citizens, and private companies will have to continue to ramp up capacity to prepare for even more arrivals, but other EU states have promised to share responsibility by also taking in refugees.

The Ukrainian refugee population needs more humanitarian support in the coming weeks

The needs of the Ukrainian refugee population in Europe will likely only balloon in the coming weeks, and meeting those needs will require money.

 Omar Marques/Getty Images

A Ukrainian family has a meal on a train relocating refugees on February 28 in Przemysl, Poland.

The UN, which has set up a Ukraine Humanitarian Fund, has requested a preliminary $550.6 million from member states in addition to the $190 million it had already sought to help support reception efforts in neighboring countries. Humanitarian groups are still assessing the most pressing gaps in assistance, but that money would go toward shelter, emergency relief items, cash assistance, as well as mental health and psychosocial support for refugees.

For its part, the US has recently approved $54 million in humanitarian aid for Ukraine, and Congress is considering issuing another $2.9 billion. Every day that lawmakers deliberate, however, delays the delivery of aid.

The European Commission has also said that its commitment of 90 million euros in aid on February 28 is just the beginning.

“So far, [the needs of Ukrainian refugees] have been met, though I am seriously concerned about the likely further escalation in the number of arrivals,” Grandi said Monday.

Students wait to receive the Covid-19 vaccine at a government school in Jammu, India, on February 14.

But momentum might be stalling. Shah said that while raising vaccination rates in India and sub-Saharan Africa would reduce the risk that a new variant of concern would emerge, the appetite for vaccines in these regions varies. There are also supply chain hurdles and personnel shortages hampering the effort to reach the most remote and most vulnerable people.

The best we can do to prepare for new variants is to be on the lookout for them.

The most concrete way to identify variants of concern is through genomic surveillance, regularly scanning virus samples from infected people for mutations. But the US still has a patchwork system for finding variants, according to Dr. Shweta Bansal, an infectious disease ecologist at Georgetown University. As a consequence, new variants arising in the US may not be found right away.

However, other trends can signal that a concerning new variant is taking hold. If scores of previously vaccinated or infected people start to get sick, it could suggest a variant has developed that can evade the immune response. Scientists will be closely monitoring changes in case numbers, hospitalizations, or excess deaths in the US or in other countries.

Human behavior is an important wild card

Public responses to policy are another important determinant in the future of the pandemic. We’ve “learned a ton in terms of behavior, and how people tend to kind of react to policies of controlling viruses,” said Bansal.

But it’s unclear that the institutions responsible for crafting policy and messaging are equipped to overcome social divisions that have hampered widespread preventive efforts. “We’re obviously not having a great discussion about civic values and responsibility, and I thought we would by this point,” said Dr. Sarah Cobey, a University of Chicago infectious disease researcher and modeler.

On the other hand, the Covid-19 pandemic created dozens of natural social science experiments as states and cities deployed different tactics. That’s given researchers real-world feedback on what kinds of messages and policies motivate people to use preventive measures like social distancing and mask-wearing, pointing the way toward more effective public health strategies.

We’re not really taking advantage of transmission lulls to improve preparedness

With transmission now receding throughout the US, policymakers are now taking off-ramps from intense preventive measures, loosening mask requirements, vaccination mandates, and restrictions on gatherings. “But we’ve seen that movie before,” said Bansal, and “the virus has a way of roaring back.”

“We really should be taking advantage of this hiatus” to build up our preparedness capacity, she said.

Others agreed that the best way to avoid another disastrous transmission surge is to get ready for it — but they’re not convinced we’re doing that effectively: “I’m fearful that the country wants to be done with Covid-19 — and thus, many of the things that we need to do to prepare for the next wave are not being done,” said Shah. He would like to see broader use of wastewater testing as an early warning system, and assurance that our rapid test and PPE supply chains are robust and responsive to transmission surges.

Ranney agreed that improving preparedness was critical to ensuring the worst is behind us, and that ensuring good systems for early outbreak detection are key. Improving global and local vaccination rates, developing and scaling up access to Covid-19 treatments, and getting community buy-in around preventive measures are also important, she said.

 Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at a press conference unveiling the next phase of California’s pandemic response in Fontana, California, on February 17.

We always have to ask: The worst may be over, but for whom?

When we asked experts “is the worst over?” some responded with a question of their own: “For whom?”

Even as the peak of the pandemic crisis fades into the rearview mirror for some, others — generally those already marginalized by poor access to healthcare and other vulnerabilities — will still be living with its worst effects.

“The pandemic being mostly over for me might not mean that it’s over for somebody else,” said Debbink. She worries that declaring the worst is over “kind of allows people to disregard those who are still at great risk.” That includes immunocompromised people and those living in parts of the world with limited vaccine access. “There are millions and millions of people that don’t even have access to a vaccine yet,” she said — and the worst might still be to come for them.

Plus, she said, we don’t really know the long-term toll that long Covid symptoms will continue to take on people. “With each person that gets infected, you still have this huge group of people that may suffer long-term impacts,” she said. For them, the worst might not be over, but just beginning. “At this point, we have no idea if long Covid symptoms are going to be permanent.”

The global view is particularly sobering. The US has high levels of infections and vaccinations, but “are probably yet to see their most damaging waves, or would require ongoing harsh restrictions” to delay surges of transmission, Dr. Adam Kucharski, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, wrote in an email.

The SARS- CoV-2 virus will likely cause human disease well into the future, and in that sense, it may yet do more damage than it has already done. But because those effects will be distributed over a longer period of time, we may not perceive them to be as severe as the waves of hospitalization and death we have experienced over the past two years. “I think we’re going to be living with it for a very, very long time — so in that sense, the worst isn’t behind us,” Cobey said.

We may never get a definite answer for when this is all over

The worst of the pandemic is probably behind us in the US. But the virus is still infecting, hospitalizing, and killing people. How much longer that will continue has to do with variables that are hard to predict right now: the duration of immunity over the course of years, and risks even further afield, like the chances of a new variant emerging from wildlife like deer.

Because sanguine pandemic predictions have so often been proved terribly wrong, few of our experts were willing to forecast sunny skies without qualification. “Historically, though, we know that all pandemics eventually end, and this one will as well,” said Dr. J. Alexander Navarro, assistant director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan. “That day is likely sooner rather than later, but we will have to see what the future has in store for us.”

And we may not even recognize the end of the pandemic as we pass it. Instead, it may require some historical distance before we can look back and find a point that may have been an exit. “There will not be a particular day or week or month when we wake up and say ‘I’m sure glad that’s over,’” said Dr. Maureen Miller, a medical anthropologist at Columbia University. “Even the pandemic end date, like everything else Covid-19, will likely be the subject of heated debate.”

Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova acknowledges President Joe Biden as first lady Jill Biden applauds during Biden’s first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on March 1.

Biden campaigned on rebuilding relationships with allies after former President Donald Trump openly mocked global alliances and even threatened to pull out of NATO. On Tuesday, Biden emphasized the united global response to Putin’s hostility. “We see the unity among leaders of nations and a more unified Europe, a more unified West,” he said.

Explaining the coordinated international response from NATO, the EU, Asian partners, and beyond — “even Switzerland” — Biden said the US is “inflicting pain on Russia and supporting the people of Ukraine,” including levying intense economic sanctions, choking Russia off from international banking, targeting the country’s central bank, and limiting its access to technology.

“To all Americans, I will be honest with you, as I’ve always promised. A Russian dictator, invading a foreign country, has cost around the world,” Biden said. “He has no idea what’s coming.”

At times, Biden’s description of the unfolding war against Ukraine echoed the language of the Cold War. “Six days ago, Russia’s Vladimir Putin sought to shake the foundations of the free world,” said Biden. “We countered Russia’s lies with truth. And now that he has acted, the free world is holding him accountable.”

There were a few new policies announced: American airspace will now be closed to Russian flights, and a new Justice Department task force will go after “Russian oligarchs and corrupt leaders who have bilked billions of dollars off this violent regime.”

This is not the State of the Union that Biden likely imagined he would give a year ago when he took office. Russia merited just four paragraphs at his wide-ranging address on global affairs that he delivered upon taking office. “We will not hesitate to raise the cost on Russia and defend our vital interests and our people,” he said a year ago.

China is closely watching the US reaction to Russia, and Biden’s message for the Chinese premier was short and largely economic — that we can still make things in America. —Jonathan Guyer

  1. He made a familiar-sounding — but unconvincing — pitch to fight inflation

With inflation at a four- decade high and hurting Americans’ spending power — as well as Democrats’ poll numbers — Biden used the State of the Union to put forward his plan to stop it.

That plan sounded rather … familiar.

“I call it building a better America,” Biden said. And indeed, much of what he then laid out had been featured in his stalled Build Back Better agenda — though he did not utter that exact phrase. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who is blocking the bill, also happens to dislike the name Build Back Better. Biden attempted to rebrand this plan as one that would fight inflation and reduce the deficit, both major concerns of Manchin.

 <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/fVmrLRVbE43F_gLGpNEKB_Vs9tY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox- cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23281861/GettyImages_1238863378.jpg" /> Sarahbeth Maney/Getty Images
Sen. Joe Manchin stands and applauds during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address to Congress on March 1.

Some Build Back Better policies got more airtime than others, and three got detailed shoutouts. The focus was on cost-cutting: Biden said he wanted to cut the cost of prescription drugs, cut energy costs by combating climate change, and cut child care costs. A few other Build Back Better policies were briefly name-checked, but those three may be the heart of what Biden still thinks he can pass. Others that are reportedly being dropped from the bill, like paid leave and the expanded child tax credit, got only a passing mention.

Biden’s attempt to claim these BBB policies would fight inflation was unconvincing. These are long-term priorities that Democrats think would be good ideas, but they aren’t responsive to the current inflationary situation.

In fact, that’s been a major issue with Build Back Better all along: The bill is far more focused on achieving long-term Democratic social policy goals than it is on addressing the economy’s current problems. If Biden hoped to pivot and convince Americans he was taking inflation seriously, it’s not clear this will do the job. —Andrew Prokop and Li Zhou

  1. He laid out the path forward on Covid-19 to a newly unmasked Congress

Biden’s message on Covid-19 aimed to thread a needle: that the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic is over, and the government still wants to help America fight the virus.

But with almost no one in the House chamber wearing masks, it was evident that many in Congress are ready to move on.

“I know you’re tired, frustrated, and exhausted,” Biden said. “Tonight I can say we are moving forward safely, back to more normal routines.”

However, Covid-19 has not gone away. While the peak in omicron variant cases has passed, Americans are still getting sick and dying, with the daily average of new cases at 65,000 and an average of 1,800 Americans still dying each day as of February 28. Infections and deaths are poised to drop further, but how fast depends on the spread of the disease, as well as any mutations to the virus itself.

To contend with the current phase of the pandemic and future threats, Biden laid out a four-part strategy that includes using more Covid-19 tools like vaccines and a new “test to treat” program; preparing for Covid-19 variants; reopening schools and businesses for in-person attendance; and expanding US vaccine distribution around the world.

These things cost money, however, and will require Congress to grant the funds to pursue them. A divided legislature in an election year does not bode well for getting this done any faster. —Umair Irfan

 Shawn Thew/AP
President Joe Biden delivers his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on March 1.

  1. Biden hasn’t fulfilled — and isn’t even pledging to fulfill — his promises to Black communities

A handful of issues that Biden prioritized earlier in his tenure got short shrift in his marquee annual address, a fact sure to grate on their proponents. But the lack of messaging to Black voters was particularly notable.

At a moment when many Black Americans have lamented Biden’s silence and lack of action on key equity issues, the president barely acknowledged the issues most important to them.

And though Biden once emphasized his desire to improve the unique challenges that historically underserved racial groups face, he avoided targeted messaging to those groups. Notably absent from Biden’s speech were the terms “Black,” “African American,” “Asian American,” and “Latino,” despite public pressure to make antiracism a part of his policy platform. Biden’s comments on issues like policing, voting rights, and gun violence did address some demands of racial minorities.

Biden made it clear that his administration has never supported the movement to reallocate police funding to community services. “The answer is not to defund the police. The answer is to fund the police with the resources and training they need to protect our communities,” he said, after bemoaning the recent deaths of two Dominican American NYPD officers.

Biden pointed to community policing as a solution to restoring trust and safety in communities, in addition to requiring body cameras, banning chokeholds, and restricting no-knock warrants for police officers — all measures that the Justice Department has already taken and that Biden has pushed for in the past. He even mentioned the need to fund strategies like community violence interruption, an alternative to policing that has not been proven to work. Evidence also shows that banning chokeholds does not reduce police violence.

Biden’s commentary on neighborhood violence generally favored the police and his failure to mention the recent convictions in high- profile cases involving the police killings of Black people was stark.

The president’s very brief mention of voting rights is likely to agitate advocates who saw the window to pass legislation like the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and Freedom to Vote Act close in January, after months of delay from the Biden administration. Republicans across dozens of states have passed dozens of restrictive voting laws that threaten what Biden called a fundamental right. The same voting rights activists who helped mobilize voters for Biden’s victory believe Biden cannot meet the moment with just words.

Chief among Biden’s promises was nominating a Black woman to the Supreme Court, a move he made by naming Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday. But on Tuesday night, Biden didn’t frame the nomination as a promise fulfilled to the Black community. The president briefly mentioned the need to “increase our historic support” in historically Black colleges and universities. —Fabiola Cineas

From The Hindu: Sports

From The Hindu: National News

From BBC: Europe

From Ars Technica

From Jokes Subreddit