Corona Daily 342: Testing Times

Since the time life became surreal, the world has been in a tearing hurry to end the nightmare. State health regulators committed serious compromises. In April, America’s Food and Drug Administration decided to approve tests without reviewing their safety and effectiveness data. The US market was flooded with poorly performing tests.

In March, the UK bought 2 million unproven finger prick tests from China, which Boris Johnson advertised as the “game changer”. In April, an Oxford study confirmed the tests were too inaccurate to be used. In May, a new antibody test from Roche was reported to be 100% accurate. Public Health England showed that the test couldn’t identify 16% samples who had suffered from covid-19. In June, MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency) banned sales of several tests, including all finger-prick tests. (Antibody tests either draw blood that is sent to the lab, or are rapid finger-prick blood tests.)

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Wrong/unproven drugs/vaccines can cause damage, occasionally kill. Hydroxychloroquine was given an emergency authorization under political pressure. Later when it was clear the possible heart damage outweighed any benefits, the authorization was withdrawn. Tests don’t kill directly, so the regulation is more lax. The world over, Covid-19 tests are prone to give wrong results because the regulatory process is weak, and inadequate. Approvals are issued based on self-declaration rather than scientific scrutiny. This is particularly true of antibody tests. An expert panel in the USA examined 9500 papers describing test validation and found only 47 worth considering. The UK has not approved any at-home tests. Several people offering tests are arrested, and over 47,000 tests have been seized.

Generally, after many tests, follow-up testing is recommended. Canada, with fewer people and ample resources insists on two virus tests. The first result is called presumptive and second confirmatory. The result is confirmed only when the two tests match. Neither such luxury nor the required resources exist in most parts of the world. The world is living with false positives and false negatives.

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Antibody tests for Covid-19 have largely been unreliable, inaccurate and devoid of meaning. They may look for the wrong antibodies, the timing of the test may be wrong, or the right antibodies may fade away. For people from low-prevalence areas, the test gives a large number of false positives. (Even without doing the test, we know the probability of having antibodies, and not having them, is 50% each.)

There is a global consensus among doctors and healthcare experts that antibody tests should be used only for checking the virus spread in the community, not for testing an individual. Due to poor controls, and unreliability, a positive result may create a sense of false security.

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To make matters even more exciting, CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) admitted they were mixing the results of viral and antibody tests. That way USA could show a higher number of tests done. Mixing the tests makes it much harder to understand the meaning of “positive” tests (in a viral test, one hopes to be negative, in antibody test, the reverse). Virus testing shows the number of people infected, whereas the antibody testing is compared to a rearview mirror. A Harvard professor of global health called it a total mess.

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In short, avoid an antibody test, unless you are taking part in a population survey where you live. If for some reason you must give blood to check antibodies, please ask the service provider about the regulatory approval they have got.

Abandoning scientific method in crisis times simply creates additional crises.

Ravi

Corona Daily 343: Think You Already Had It?

Years ago, in my black and white thinking, I had thought a person can have either a virus or antibodies against it, not both at the same time. Now I know I was wrong. From the time the virus enters its host, antibodies can start forming.

In case of Covid-19, a person can start spreading the virus and infecting others even 2 days before he displays any symptoms. Antibodies are not detectable for 6-7 days after the symptoms. In this window of 9 days, two days before and 7 days after, a virus test is critical to detect its presence.  (An antibody test should not be done during this period, because it will be misleading.)

The duration of the presence of virus (meaning positive virus tests) was thought to be 21 to 35 days. The latest CDC guidelines say it is possible for people to get “positive” virus tests up to 90 days. In that time frame, meaning after 7 days from the symptoms and 21, 35 or 90 days as the case may be, an individual can be “positive” on the virus test as well as antibody test.

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As a rule, the sicker one becomes due to an infection, and the stronger the immune response to it, the stronger is the immunity provided. In other words, someone who has been to ICU, battled with Covid-19 and managed to survive may have the longest and most effective immunity. This immunity is specific to Covid-19 and not general immunity as we know it. That person may still be susceptible to a load of other infections.

Some people are convinced they have had a brush with the novel coronavirus. They remember a day or two when they felt feverish in April, or were coughing mildly in June. An article in Washington post called this condition “Thinkihadititis”. These people are happy in the hope they already beat the virus. Well, if the level of immunity is inversely proportional to how ill the virus made you, the joy is misplaced.

A report from China found that younger people had fewer antibodies, and 30% of those sampled had low levels. Some individuals, who had tested positive, either with mild symptoms or were asymptomatic, had no trace of antibodies. This has made immunologists wonder if all such cases may be susceptible to a second infection.

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Antibodies decline, and disappear over time. As one immunologist puts it, if that didn’t happen, there would be only antibodies in our blood with no room for anything else.

How long can neutralizing antibodies last? Covid-19 is not yet a year old, so the data is insufficient to draw any conclusions. Scientists are quoting the data for other coronaviruses in the hope there may be some similarity.

SARS, which triggered an epidemic in 2003, showed survivors maintaining antibodies for 2 years on average. Two milder coronaviruses, OC43 and HKU1, that cause common colds, result in about 45 weeks of immunity on average.

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The important action point from the discussion is that a “positive” viral test in the past does not guarantee continuous or more robust immunity. Particularly the asymptomatic or mild cases should be treated as if they never had the disease, from the social distancing perspective.

Having shared the disappointing news, I will discuss the antibody tests tomorrow.

Ravi

Corona Daily 344: The Soldiers within Us

Two weeks ago, during my morning walk; I met V. and M., a young couple, good friends of mine. Hadn’t seen them for a few weeks. Walking without a mask, they looked cheerful. V and his family had been down with Covid-19 for a few days. All nine family members, including two young daughters, had now taken antibody tests. All tests were positive, the source of their joy.

“Antibody tests are more reliable,” V. said, “because they are blood tests, not swab tests. Now that all of us are positive, we are immune. Widespread antibody tests will allow people to resume their work. You test positive, and you start a normal life.”

Curious, I began researching antibodies and Covid-19 antibody tests. As someone with no medical education, I am not qualified to write on the subject. However, in coronavirus times, you will notice that nobody is an expert (or everybody is an expert). The novel coronavirus retains its novelty, and the scientific world continues to update facts and opinions.

Today and tomorrow, I aim to reproduce some stuff in simple-to-understand language. For a start, I recommend the paper “Understanding Antibody Testing for Covid-19” by the Jacofskys, a family of doctors. For those short of time, I give its précis here.

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When a foreign substance such as a virus attacks us, our immune system produces protective proteins. They are called antibodies (or immunoglobulin). After an infection, the cells producing virus-specific antibodies multiply and increase proportionally. These are the newly recruited soldiers within us who will be alert to stop the virus from attacking us again. This feature is called “immunological memory”. Like a smart policeman recognizing a criminal from a previous crime, and stopping him from committing another. One exceptional quality of our immune system is its ability to remember previous infections. This ability is also the foundation of vaccinations.

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Each antibody recognizes a particular virus, a phenomenon known as “antibody specificity”. An antibody that recognizes the mumps virus can’t recognize the measles virus and the other way round. A virus has multiple binding sites. Like in a football field, where different players mark different opponents, multiple antibodies are required to recognize multiple binding sites of a virus. Only when two different, but very similar, viruses have identical structures will cross-reactivity occur. (The hypothesis that Indians may be protected against Covid-19 by the BCG vaccines taken in childhood may not be true).

Immune memory is long-lasting. Measles infection memory in adults is so strong it would take 3000 years to decrease it by half. It is obvious humans can’t get measles two times.

Within an individual, the immune memory must be located throughout the body, to prevent attack from every side. Our blood does that job, by circulating antibodies. Natural killer (NK) cells within tissues remain “alert”, but not activated. They are ready to attack rapidly if reinfection occurs.

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Some infections are so powerful they can leave an impact beyond a generation. When an infection is lethal, individuals with genes that fight, resist and survive can transfer the immune memory to their children. Herd immunity in such a case is possible through natural selection, rather than vaccination or infection.

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The word “immunity” is understood differently by immunologists and lay people. For immunologists, immunity simply means the immune system has responded to a virus, for example by producing antibodies. Most others understand immunity as being protected from infection. Unfortunately, this colloquial use is not correct. Immunity depends on how effective, numerous and durable the antibodies are. More on that tomorrow.

Ravi

Corona Daily 345: The Bicycle Story

Yesterday, I wrote about the bicycle boom in the current pandemic. A German Baron Karl Von Drais invented the bicycle two centuries ago, in 1817. He called it Laufmaschine (running machine) in German, velocipede in French. The story of what triggered that invention is fascinating and instructive.

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That history begins two years earlier, on 5 April 1815. Mount Tambora in Indonesia, then a Dutch colony, erupted in history’s largest volcanic explosion, producing an ash cloud that brought down temperatures even in far-flung Europe and North America. The whole mountain turned into a flowing mass of liquid fire. The village of Tambora disappeared from earth. The sound of the explosion was heard on Sumatra Island, 2600 km away. The ash was found more than 1300 km away. An estimated 70000-90000 people died.

Like the after-effects of a strong drug, the world suffered in the subsequent years. 1816 was a singular “Year with no summer”. It has two more names: ‘Poverty year’ and ‘Eighteen hundred and froze to death’. The climate change disrupted Indian monsoons, causing famine for three years. A cholera epidemic began in Bengal, and typhus epidemics in southeast Europe. In North America, a dry fog made the sun red. New York experienced summer snowfall.  In China, the cold weather killed trees, crops and water buffalos. The Thames froze over, it snowed heavily in July.

(In May 1816, Lord Byron, one of the greatest British poets, had 18-year old Mary Shelley as a guest in his Geneva house. The miserable weather had locked them in. Byron proposed an in-house “ghost story competition”. Mary Shelley won it by writing “Frankenstein”).

Food prices had risen sharply everywhere in Europe. Germany suffered terribly. Hungry people demonstrated in front of markets and bakeries. Riots, arson and looting were everywhere. Rioters carried flags that said ‘bread or blood’. Food riots of 1816-17 were so violent; the violence was compared to that of the French revolution.

Livestock died of starvation. Horses starved or were killed, since the prices of available oats were so high, people needed to choose whether to feed the animals or themselves.

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The horse was the only mode of transport. Attempts to design a car were unsuccessful as yet. 

If all horses were to disappear, a bleak but realistic scenario, the world would come to a standstill, thought Karl von Drais. He successfully designed a machine that could replace a horse. In fact colloquially, it was called a ‘hobby horse’ or a derogatory ‘dandy horse’. His bicycle made of wood had no pedals; the rider ran his feet along the ground to give the machine a momentum. The first bicycle managed to achieve speeds of up to 10 miles per hour, comparable to a trotting horse. Drais’s design had a saddle for the rider. The rider had in his hand a cord, just like the horse’s rein. To brake, that cord was pulled to stop the back wheel. Pedals, proper brakes, a steel frame, metal wheels and chains gradually modernized the bicycle over the years. 

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After reading the history of the volcanic eruption and its aftermath, the current pandemic appears mild. The bicycle story shows how natural disasters can inspire inventions. The last five months have brought in new ideas in online education, zoom conferencing, drone deliveries, handsfree door handles, cuddle curtains. The longer the Covid-19 pandemic runs, more will be the number of inventions and innovations. Bad times can stimulate good things.

Ravi

Corona Daily 346: Two Wheels Better

Since the time the world went into lockdown, one business has super-boomed. Bicycles. Factories in China and Taiwan, despite running three shifts, are unable to meet the demand. (China ordinarily produces 70 million bicycles a year). The average priced bikes (below $1000 in the USA) required buyers to wait for a few weeks or months. People took their old bicycles out of the garage. Mechanics risked repairing them during the lockdown. Many people are riding the bikes for the first time. Funny as it may sound; some companies are running online courses to teach you how to ride a bicycle. The Trump administration had lifted tariffs on Chinese goods not strategically important. Fortunately, bicycles were on that list.

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Gyms were shut. Sweating it out on a gym bicycle takes you nowhere. Fitness enthusiasts started riding real bikes in fresh air. Empty roads in the lockdown were safer, tempting children and first time riders. For social distancing, a bicycle is an ideal vehicle. In New York City, bike trips surged to more than half a million in April.

Governments supported the interest by assigning pop-up bike lanes. Across Europe, more than 2000 km of pop-up “corona-cycle-ways” have been promised, and over 1000 km implemented. Brussels, in certain areas, has reduced car speed limit to 20km/hour to encourage biking and walking. Paris has subsidized e-bikes, reimbursed bike repairs and created more bike parking spaces.

Singapore plans to invest S$1 billion to triple the existing cycle path network, taking it to 1320 km by 2030. Any place in Singapore will have a maximum of 250 meters distance from the cycle path.

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Bicycles are flying off in India as well. Certain medium and high end cycles made in India have shock absorbers and gears imported from China. That has been a problem. In the last five months, I have been riding my daughter’s bicycle. Except during holidays, I have not ridden so much for decades.

In Kolkata, one of India’s poorest cities, a perceptible rise in cycle thefts is recorded. (Reminds one of the Italian masterpiece “Bicycle thieves”). Many thieves caught were first timers.

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Denmark and Netherlands are two countries with a prominent bicycle culture. They have a developed cycling infrastructure, segregated bike lanes and bike racks. In Denmark, 16% of all trips are made by bike, and 50% of the population cycle to work and school.

Netherlands is the only country with more bicycles than people. In Amsterdam, 63% of Dutch ride the bike every day. They don’t need to wear helmets. They call it a form of walking with wheels. Amsterdam’s ultimate goal is to make it a car-free city.

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That is the opportunity the pandemic presents. To make the bicycle boom permanent. Climate change is a threat as vicious as a pandemic. It would be wonderful to cultivate the bicycle culture everywhere.

A similar bicycle boom had happened in the 1970s in North America. Baby boomers had reached bike-riding age, and they were becoming aware of environmental issues. US government committed to build 100,000 miles of bike lanes. In 1973 alone, 252 bicycle-oriented bills were passed in 42 states.

What happened? Nothing. The car lobby won. The bicycles went back to the garages and were forgotten.

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The boom this time is not North American, it is global. The world has a choice of using this opportunity, emulating Denmark and Netherlands, develop cycling infrastructure and culture. For our health and the health of our planet, two wheels are better than four.

Ravi

Corona Daily 347: Work from Paradise

For the past five months, many of my friends are working from their homes in New York, London, Bombay or other corona red zones. Some of them are top executives, earning handsomely, working even more than usual, but under house arrest. Their spouses work online, children attend schools virtually, and this situation is not expected to change anytime soon. From this month, they get an opportunity to “work from paradise”.

Since the advent of internet and wifi, a new tribe called “Digital nomads” came into existence. In 2019, USA had 41 million independent workers, including freelancers, consultants and temporary contract workers. That group included 7.3 million self-declared digital nomads. They were location-independent, technology-enabled. They could move to places with lower cost of living, better weather and quality of life, and still work for their American employer.

2020 Pandemic is likely to push this figure further. The added benefit is relocating to virus-safe places to enjoy weekends and evenings. This month, four countries have started giving you a legal 12-month residence. Barbados, Bermuda, Georgia and Estonia. You can migrate there, and continue to do the same online work you are doing now.

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Barbados, in fact, calls its program “work from paradise”. It gives an applicant a 12-month Barbados welcome stamp. Tourism was Barbados’s lifeline. International tourists were more than twice the number of locals. Between April and June this year, not a single tourist flew in. The work from paradise initiative attempts to attract foreigners back. Barbados’s population is less than 300,000, infection cases 164 and corona deaths 7. It is in the same time zone as New York. Driving is on the left side of the road, though.

The Barbados program requires an annual income of $50000, but appears to be more flexible in practice. Anyone in the world can come there, as long as you have the means to sustain your stay. In the first week itself, Barbados received more than 1000 applications, mainly from the USA, Canada and Britain.

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Bermuda offers a “work from Bermuda” certificate. The entire process is online and takes only five working days. Bermuda’s population is 62,000, with 168 cases, and 9 deaths. One hour ahead of New York, Bermuda also drives on the left. You can bring not only your families, but also the domestic staff. Bermuda allows only one car per household. Application fee is $263 per person. In the first week, it received 69 applications.

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Georgia, the former Soviet republic, now an independent country, offers long term visas. A nation of 4 million people, it has had 1436 cases, and 19 deaths. Two bedroom apartments in Tbilisi, the capital, cost $500 a month, utilities $50 a month, and wifi is fast and reliable. I have been to Georgia. Its cuisine, wines and bathhouses are outstanding.

A great offer for nomads. Unfortunately, it is restricted to 95 countries, and India is not among them.

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Estonia, part of Soviet Union in the past, but now part of the European Union, offers high quality of life and safety. With a population of 1.33 million, it has had 2311 cases and 64 deaths. It requires 3500 Euros as your monthly income. Its visa is called the “digital nomad visa”.

I can vouch for the beauty of Tallinn and its center. People, like in neighbouring Finland, are phlegmatic and the Estonian language is unintelligible. But it is a civilized European place. Estonia has prescribed a threshold (infection rate in your country) based on which they will accept applications. Currently, neither Americans nor Indians qualify for obvious reasons.

Ravi 

Corona Daily 348: Panda and the Pandemic

The National Zoo in Washington D.C. has two giant pandas. Tian Tian (pronounced Tee-YEN Tee-YEN) and Mei Xiang (May-SHONG). Pandas’ life expectancy is 14-20 years. Mei is 22 years old. An endangered species, fewer than 2000 pandas exist in the world, all of them owned by China. China leases them to zoos like the National Zoo for $1 million per annum. Any cubs born in the zoo must be sent back to China on their fourth birthday.  

The National Zoo shut on 7 March. And Mei began to ovulate on 14 March. Normally, the zoo must collect her urine without her knowing about it to test her hormone levels. On 22 March, her hormone levels peaked, during lockdown.

In 2004, when Mei hit puberty, the Zoo staff had tried to mate her with Tian to breed naturally.  Female pandas are in heat only once a year, and only for a day or two. Pandas lack the skill, if not desire, to mate properly. Believe it or not, male pandas are given Viagra, and shown “panda porn”. The sex education didn’t help either of them. Mei always lay flat on her stomach, and Tian had no idea what to do.

Artificial insemination was the only choice, not an easy one. One team needed to sedate Tian to extract fresh semen. Another team would anesthetize Mei and deposit the semen in her uterus.  Mei successfully delivered three cubs, Tai Shan (2005), Bao Bao (2013), and Bei Bei (2015).

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So far, only one panda has delivered in her 20s. In March, when Mei started her high pitched chirp, the few staff members present were at a loss. Taking fresh semen from Tian was impossible, that team was at home. The zoo decided to use the freezer. It used 800 million frozen, five year old sperm. The probability of Mei becoming pregnant was less than 1%.

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In Pandas, phantom pregnancies are common. So are stillbirths and miscarriages. A female panda weighs around 230 pounds. The cub is incredibly tiny, 1/900th the size of the mother, weighing only 3-4 ounces. Sometimes the fetus gets unexpectedly absorbed into the mother’s body, this is called resorption. When twins are born, the mother nurses only one of them, letting the other die. Zoo staff tries to play tricks by swapping the other cub every few hours. This doesn’t always succeed. Mei has lost two cubs in the past.

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On 14 August, Mei gave a signal suggesting she may be pregnant. There have been many false signals over the years. She was fed honey water; in exchange she allowed an ultrasound. Currently, the National zoo doesn’t allow visitors to the Panda House, but anyone can watch live action on PandaCam. The website crashed that day. For an ageing matriarch panda to be pregnant was a miracle. Unlike in humans, panda pregnancy can be seen only close to the delivery, because of the tiny fetus.

On Friday, 21 August at 06.35 pm, Mei successfully delivered a single cub. Its gender will be known after a few months. Cubs are generally named after 100 days. The American media celebrated the addition to the zoo, a rare dose of good news.

Tian, whose five year old semen was used, seemed quieter than usual, probably because he could hear the cries of the baby. But both in the wild, and in the zoo, male pandas have no role in raising the cub. While Mei was busy nursing the cub inside the den, Tian was busy outside, enjoying his breakfast.

Ravi

Corona Daily 349: Pas De Deux: Part Final

In the second week of August, one Mariinsky ballerina complained of an elevated temperature- 38.7 degrees. And weakness. Then another. And another.  Mariinsky tested once every two weeks. In one go, 30 members tested positive- most of them ballet dancers. One of them was to play Myrtha in Giselle.

Three people were hospitalized, including a 20-year old male dancer who was put on a mechanical ventilator. On 15 August, the theatre sent an email asking 300 artistes and staff to isolate themselves at home. All ballet performances, classes and rehearsals were suspended.

The theatre didn’t offer these details to the spectators who had bought the tickets. Mariinsky’s statement said: “The administration of the Mariinsky theatre takes extra care about the health of the artistes and other employees, by following all the guidelines of the Russian Health Department. At present, as a matter of precaution, ballet rehearsals have been stopped. Ballet performances are postponed. The tickets will be valid for the new dates.”

Russia’s health body, however, confirmed 30 Mariinsky ballet members had tested positive, and three were hospitalized.

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Meanwhile, Bolshoi had one ballerina testing positive. 54 dancers who had come in contact with her were sent home. Bolshoi has started testing weekly. All dancers have been asked to wear masks outside the studio, and not to go out unless absolutely essential.

The Staatsballett in Berlin is planning to conduct tests more than once a week. They plan to open with a ballet on 27 August, where only 6 dancers are on the stage, each of them staying 10 feet apart throughout.

Ballet is a contact dance. Dancers hold hands, touch each other, men lift women. The Oklahoma ballet director said it is not going to be safe, unless the dancer is living with the partner. His suggestion is to select pairs living together, whether romantically involved or not. Not really practical, considering many dancers are married, and dance with different partners.

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In the ballet world, the biggest casualty of the coronavirus is “the Nutcracker”. This fantastic Tchaikovsky ballet starts on Christmas Eve. The two-act ballet is full of adults and children occupying the stage. On 18 December 1892, it premiered in the same Mariinsky, much before Russia becoming Soviet. It is probably the most performed ballet in the world. Most ballet companies in Europe and America run it throughout November and December, the culminating performances happening in the Christmas week. (Worth finding two hours to watch it online, if you haven’t seen it, or if you have).

Nutcracker starts with nearly 100 people on the stage. The mesmerizing Waltz of the Flowers has more than 50 dancers. Even the pas de deux (the duets performed by a danseur and a ballerina) have dozens of supporting dancers surrounding them. Cracking the nut of social distancing is simply impossible. The Belfast Grand opera, the Scottish ballet, Birmingham Royal ballet, Texas ballet, Charlotte ballet in North Carolina, Sacramento ballet are among the several ballet companies that have cancelled the Nutcracker season and tours.

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The latest health expert advice says this virus can stay in the body for up to 3 months. People who have recovered from Covid-19 may continue to test positive during the three month period. If Mariinsky and Bolshoi rely on testing, some ballerinas will be out of action for three months.

The ballets can surely get the Russian vaccine on a priority basis. Ballet performances can offer proof of the pudding for that vaccine.

For the time being, Mariinsky has replaced all ballet performances with operas. It is likely that for many months, ballet lovers will have to be satisfied with what is available on YouTube.

Ravi

Corona Daily 350: Pas De Deux: Part III

The news that Mariinsky theatre will start performing from 7 July brought cheer to the world of ballets and operas. It was announced Mariinsky’s orchestra would go on a Russia-wide tour. Valery Gergiev, the head of Mariinsky, was considered valiant or foolhardy depending on whom you spoke to.  

One of the fears mentioned by Gergiev in his meeting with Putin was about opera singers. Opera singers sing in four or five languages, from memory. They sing even in languages they can’t speak. Unlike the instrumental players, singers can’t keep notes in front of them, they must rote learn. The top opera singers may memorize fifty different operas. If they don’t sing for five months, is it possible for them to recall the lyrics?

(Sometimes, opera stars invited from abroad can sing in their own language. Once I went for Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin at Bolshoi. I was perplexed to note I could understand some languages, and didn’t understand others. Though Italian was historically the default language of the opera, it is now possible for an opera production to be multilingual.)

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Mariinsky’s online ticket chart followed a chessboard design. Meaning next to every white square (spectator), there was a black square (empty seat). The audience would be provided with free masks and gloves, when they arrived at the theatre. Their temperature would be measured. Bags would be screened superficially, only as a formality, with minimum contact. The theatre café would serve pre-packed food with disposable plastic cutlery.

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Inspired by the Mariinsky news, John Neumeier, the legendary choreographer of the Hamburg ballet announced an opening in September of the new pandemic special ballet called The Ghostly Light. All sixty dancers of the troupe will perform, but never more than eight dancers on the stage. They have been rehearsing maintaining required distance during the rehearsals.

Moscow local government has been more charitable. In its regulations, it allows up to 70 people on the stage at a time. Bolshoi theatre has taken that as a basis in planning. It is set to open on 6 September with the production of “Don Carlo”.

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Russian theatres are asking the ballerinas, opera singers, instrument players and supporting staff to sign contracts waiving the responsibility of the theatre. If artistes employed by the company, or under contract, get infected with coronavirus or something worse happens to them, the theatre company is not responsible. Not only that, they must agree to abide by all the rules- masks, handwashing, social distancing, quarantine and bubbles when necessary and not going anywhere except home and theatre. People must sing, play, dance, conduct, and choreograph at their own risk. Many artistes were so desperate by now, they signed the contracts. Make-up staff was very unhappy. Ballerinas were growing alarmed with the use of bare hands by make-up women. But they could neither use gloves nor maintain social distance.

The online booking said in bold letters: The theatre reserves the right to change any artiste without prior notice.

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On 7 and 8 August, Mariinsky accomplished what was thought improbable. It staged on both days a full-length Romantic classic “La Sylphide”. Simply as a matter of precaution, Sylphide and James were played by two different pairs on the two days. Spectators wearing gloves and masks, sat between empty chairs, applauded.

Alas, that would be Mariinsky’s last ballet performance. Something happened that caused the postponement of all ballets from 13 August.

(To be continued)

Ravi

Corona Daily 351: Pas De Deux: Part II

Domestic performances and world tours of the ballets are generally planned 3-4 years in advance. Mariinsky and Bolshoi had plans till the end of 2022. This year, Bolshoi opera would spend a few months in France, the ballet and orchestra would perform in the festival in Slovenia, then a lengthy season in America, and the final two months in Japan. The Russian ballet has numbers that allow part of the troupe to travel abroad, while others perform domestically.

In March, when like everything else, the theatres shut; Russians were holding 7 million expensive tickets in their hands. Theatres offered them a choice of a voucher that can be used for a show in the future. Maintaining hundreds of ballet dancers and support staff is extravagant. Usually 60% of the spend is funded by the government, 40% from ticket sales and sponsors. In 2019, Bolshoi earned 2.7 billion rubles ($36 million) from ticket sales. Since April, they have been losing $3 million a month.

Ballerinas and musicians were locked up at home, in unfamiliar roles of housewives, child-carers, cooks. Alexander Krilov, a solo dancer from Bolshoi had an idea. His colleagues and he created a six-minute clip called “The Quarantine Nutcracker”. You can watch world-famous ballerinas in t-shirts and jeans, violin players playing in bed or bath, cello players wearing masks, children and dogs running around, a ballerina simultaneously dancing and cooking.

Bolshoi ballet couriered linoleum carpets to the ballerinas’ homes. They were asked to train on them, take self-videos and send to their choreographers.

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Bolshoi and Mariinsky began online concerts. These included recordings of past performances. The quality was high, viewing was free. In the first month Mariinsky had 72 million viewers, including 12 million foreigners. Bolshoi’s Swan Lake was watched by 1.3 million and sleeping beauty by 1.5 million. (In Soviet times, Swan Lake was a mourning symbol, shown on the deaths of Brezhnev, Andropov. In August 1991, with Gorbachev under house arrest, and tanks on Moscow streets, Soviet TV was showing beautiful white swans playing to Tchaikovsky’s tune.)

This democratization of elite art was a welcome result of the pandemic. Even this evening you can attend a high class opera/ballet on mariinsky.tv. However, it can’t replace the energy in the hall that inspires the performers and electrifies the audiences. If online could substitute real life, then we would watch screensavers instead of travelling.

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In May, ballet and opera theatres were negotiating with the governments for reopening. Based on scientific advice, governments were forming rules for the pandemic. Many rules were impractical. Players on string instruments such as violins, harps, cellos were asked to keep a distance of 2 meters (6 feet). The German government recommended musicians on wind instruments like flutes, horns, clarinets and saxophones to sit 15 meters (50 feet) away from everyone else. There is no orchestra pit in the world that can accommodate musicians at such a distance.

Opera singing is so powerful that an infected singer’s vocal chords can spread the virus across the stage and possibly in the stalls.

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Valerie Gergiev, a great conductor himself, and now the managing director of the Mariinsky, found a way out. On 6 June, he set up a meeting with Vladimir Putin. Putin was born and bred in St Petersburg (nee Leningrad). That helped.

Mariinsky got permission to reopen before any other theatre. Ignoring the coronavirus, its orchestra would go on a tour around Russia. From 7 July, live ballet performances would begin. The festival of white nights would be held just like every year.

(To be continued)

Ravi  

Corona Daily 352: Pas De Deux: Part I

Mariinsky ballet from St Petersburg was, until the collapse of the USSR, known as the Kirov Ballet from Leningrad. In 1987, the ballet toured around India for a few months, sponsored jointly by Gorbachev and Rajiv Gandhi. I was fortunate to be assigned as the interpreter-cum-manager for the Kirov ballet. The ballerinas and ballerinos were my age, we became good friends. An unexpected perk of my job was free access to the Kirov theatre once I started living in Russia. In the 1990s, I managed to watch Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, the Nutcracker, Giselle and Les Sylphides dozens of times sometimes from the Royal Box. Makhar Vaziev, a top male lead then, is the choreographer/artistic director of the Bolshoi ballet now. Another soloist, Yuri Fateev, is the director of the Mariinsky ballet. When I came across these familiar names I was naturally drawn to the news reports.

Since July, not only the Bolshoi ballet in Moscow, but ballets from all over the world have been anxiously watching the Mariinsky ballet. It has become the guinea pig for the ballet world.

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Like Olympic gymnasts, classical ballet dancers perform a precision form of art. During the season, prima donnas survive on a meager diet to make sure their male partners can seamlessly throw them in the air. A single wrong move can result in trauma, as well as an end of career. A ballet dancer’s career usually lasts until the age of 35. The thought of the pandemic eating a year or two of that career is scary for the ballerinas. This is the first time ballet dancers are confined to their homes with no performances and no rehearsals. Singers can sing, musicians can play alone, but you can’t ask Romeo and Juliet to keep a social distance. Dancers were keen to risk rather than rest. Bolshoi’s Olga Smirnova said Art was more powerful than fear.

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Performances were out of the question. But training classes started in France, Germany, Iceland and Russia in May.

In France’s Ballet Du Rhin, the dancers started gentle exercises at the barre. The director then asked them to perform pirouettes in socially distanced pairs. Performing a routine with a mask on and trying to catch your breath before the next steps was not easy.

Germany, typically, has several rules. The dancers are banned from using changing rooms. They must go the studio, stand at a marked spot, 11 feet away from others. After the dance, their dance clothes go into a bag, which is put into another bag, which is then thrown into the trash. (Germany is rich). Each ballerina has a spray to disinfect the barre. Masks are mandatory. They worked in groups of eight to ensure social distancing.

The Iceland Dance company allowed the dancers to come close. They held the rehearsals outdoors, in graveyards and beaches, to allow enough space. They tried experiments like dancing with a tree instead of a partner.

In May, the Mariinsky ballet restricted their class size to three; a dancer, a teacher and a pianist. Temperatures were checked, and rehearsal rooms disinfected between classes. They were asked to avoid all non-essential visits. The next step they took was to move to eight couples- each couple at a safe distance from other couples. Fortunately, nothing happened.

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(To be continued)

Ravi