Corona Daily 133: The Balmis Expedition

P.S. By way of postscript to yesterday’s piece, all vaccine-afflicted people mentioned in it are miraculously back to normal today. The immense readers’ response, apart from good wishes, mentioned their own post-vaccine experiences that ranged from no effect to becoming vegetables for a day or two. No reader has reported two bad shots so far. One kind reader has sent a link that says reactions after the second dose of AstraZeneca/Oxford’s are milder. Thanks to all.

For the record, my vaccine after-effects began 12 hours after the shot, lasted for 36 hours (i.e., 48 hours from the shot). In our domestic experiment, my wife and brother took Dolo (paracetamol tablets), I didn’t take any. That made no difference whatsoever (except to the Dolo sales). For those waiting for their first shot, I suggest budgeting 48 hours of inactivity after it.

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A year ago, I wrote about Smallpox, one of the deadliest viruses that killed eight European kings and queens. In the sixteenth century, Spain actually sent an infected African slave to spread smallpox to defeat the Aztec and Inca empires. In today’s world, we would call it bioterrorism. The Aztec population of 26 million before the Spanish conquest (1520) was reduced to 1.6 million (1620). (If conspiracy theorists were to study that history, they may believe China did the same in 2020 to defeat America and Europe.)

In 1797, Edward Jenner, the English scientist, used pus from blisters due to cowpox, a relatively minor infectious disease, to offer immunity against smallpox. Jenner coined the term vaccine from “vacca”, Latin for cow.

King Carlos IV was the king of Spain then. His brother and sister-in-law had succumbed to smallpox. It was a difficult time for Europe. Napoleon had invaded Spain; Nelson had defeated French and Spanish armies at Trafalgar. Still, the compassionate Spanish King decided to send a warship to vaccinate people from different continents for smallpox.

But how to carry the live virus around the world to vaccinate millions? We must remember this was a time when there was no refrigeration, no sterilization, and no concept of asepsis. A decision was made to bring to the project 22 orphaned children, aged between eight and ten. In November 1803, Maria Pita, a warship sailed on its global expedition. It was led by Francisco Xavier de Balmis, an enthusiastic physician, world traveller and one who had translated a book on vaccines in Spanish.

Before the warship sailed, Balmis infected two orphans with cowpox. By passing of vesicle fluid from the skin of one child to another, it was decided to form a living transmission chain. Over the next four years, the infection was kept alive by carefully transferring it from boy to boy, in the process inoculating hundreds of thousands of people from Peru to Philippines.   

In February 1805, when the ship planned to leave Mexico for Philippines, 25 orphaned Mexican children were recruited as human carriers. The orphaned children from Spain stayed back in Mexico.

The orphan story tells us about a basic truth. Creating vaccines is a job for biology, and biology requires living systems. That is why some flu vaccines are cultivated in eggs.

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The territory covered by the Balmis expedition was not only vast, but brutally harsh, with dense jungles, mountains, and uncharted rivers. They encountered political rivalry, tribal attacks, cultural beliefs preventing vaccination attempts. The mission took the vaccine to the Canary islands, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, the Philippines and China.

King Carlos IV’s vaccination campaign was visionary, launched 150 years before the formation of the WHO. Balmis expedition was successful due to the heroic perseverance and dedication of those who took part in it, the creativity to use human carriers, and the orphans who served humanity in this way. In A Coruna, a Spanish city, a monument (picture above) is built in honour of the orphan children who took part in the expedition.

Ravi 

Corona Daily 134: First Hand Experience

I am writing today’s column on my reserves. It was a struggle to get up from bed, and reach my computer chair. My body is aching. Last night was awful. An uncontrolled shivering attack meant I went to bed wearing a jacket, enveloped in a duvet. I lost count of how many times I had to visit the bathroom. My fever is about 101 F (38.5 C). Haven’t measured it, but I know because my wife, my brother, my neighbours, and a couple of friends have 101 F. No, none of us has covid-19, I don’t think. This is sort of self-inflicted. This week, India made 45+ eligible for vaccines. We all took our Oxford shot (called Covishield in India) yesterday, and are in bad shape today.

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There is nothing like a first-hand experience (or first-arm experience). You can spend hours and weeks studying everything on the coronavirus. But nothing can match empirical evidence. Yes, my left arm is sore and sensitive. During last night’s sleep, I was like a circus acrobat, trying to avoid leaning on that arm.

Honestly, despite my year-long research, I was not prepared for this. My parents in their eighties had no after effects. They have had both their shots. If they didn’t suffer, how can a marathon runner like me suffer? Well, it seems science is exactly the reverse of common sense.

Younger people with higher immunity suffer more. Because their bodies start fighting the vaccine with all their strength. Elderly people, their immunity weak with ageing, report few side effects. In short, I am supposed to feel happy for my flattened state. If I am bad, my immunity system is good.

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Are the side effects worse if you already had Covid-19? It appears so. My brother was under house arrest for five weeks last August-September. He had symptoms for about ten days, but his tests continued to be positive. Of all of us, he is in the worst state. He says he is almost in the same physical condition today as he was when he contracted Covid-19 last year.

Because my wife, neighbours, friends and I have fatigue and fever, scientists say it is possible we have had covid-19 without knowing.

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Dr D.V., our family friend is 59. As a doctor, on priority basis, he was fully vaccinated. This week, he has tested positive, is feeling terrible, has all the symptoms. For the next two weeks, he is to be isolated. Dr D.V. is an ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) doctor. That may make social distancing difficult. But his case shows that fully vaccinated people can still contract covid-19, and presumably spread it as well. Two vaccine shots offer no guarantee it won’t happen again. Scientists say full vaccination reduces the chances of hospitalization and death. Until we collect enough evidence to support that, better to continue life as if we haven’t taken the vaccine.

*****

There is still some confusion in India about the gap between the shots. It was meant to be four weeks. Now Covishield (Oxford) gap can be stretched up to 56 days. Covaxin (Bharat Biotech) up to 42 days.

Britain took a pragmatic and unscientific decision to give first shots to a lot more people by widening the gap between the doses. Luckily, it has worked for them. Top epidemiologists insist the gap should be whatever it was in the trials. (Four weeks for Oxford). If you ask me, take the second shot after 28 days. Cowin, the government website, allows it. My parents took their second shot yesterday after 28 days.

*****

When I browsed the internet to find out how long my misery would last, it says “a few days”. What on earth is meant by a few days? Why can’t they specify the exact number of days? Anyway, now I will be able to know empirically.

In my research, I came across the following: The Covid vaccine side effects, especially after the second dose, can be really bad. That immediately lifted my spirits. What I am experiencing today is not as bad as what will follow after four weeks.

*****

Ravi 

Corona Daily 135: Her Vogue Outfits

For La Verne Ford Wimberley, the coming Sunday will be the second Easter Sunday when she will attend the church service virtually.

La Verne from Oklahoma is 82, a widow living on her own since 2009. She is formally referred to as Dr Wimberley. Holding a doctorate in education, she was a school principal for many years.

For more than twenty years, she has been going to the Metropolitan Baptist Church on Sunday mornings. She had picked up a little routine from her mother. On Saturday evening, she would choose a nice outfit and a matching church hat and lay it out. She wanted to be prepared and presentable before going to the church. She always sat in the last row, section two, dressed to the nines.

*****

On 29 March 2020, Le Verne learnt that the Sunday mass would be streamed online due to the coronavirus threat. She couldn’t imagine herself wearing her gown and slippers to attend the service on screen. ‘Oh my goodness’, she said to herself, ‘I can’t sit here looking slouchy in my robe.’ That Sunday, she woke up early as always to style her hair, put on some lipstick and wore a favorite white dress trimmed with eyelets, a pure white ruffled hat, matching shoes and a beaded turquoise and gold necklace.

On a whim, after the service, she took a selfie and posted it on Facebook.

The following Sunday she was all blue, and on Easter Sunday last year, she chose a pink skirt, a beaded sweater jacket, and a hat decorated with pink and yellow lilies.

***** 

She started dressing up every Sunday, and posting her selfies. She kept a calendar so as to never repeat an outfit. (Clever, because in photos it is easier to notice someone repeating an attire). On the previous fifty-three Sundays, she has worn fifty-three different outfits, all coordinated down to the smallest detail. Her fashion includes a variety of hats with huge bows and ribbons, statement jewelry, matching shoes, pearl necklaces, lipstick, tidy hair.

Le Verne is no Princess Diana, but her outfits are tasteful and diverse. On social media, her outfits started receiving hundreds of comments, positive. The photos made them smile. She said she wanted people to focus not on the selfies but on the message that her fellow churchgoers should keep faith. She wished to inspire people and make them feel good. On her facebook page, so many strangers wrote their spirits were boosted seeing her enthusiasm and optimism.

*****

Recently, she was interviewed by the media. People notice she hasn’t repeated an outfit for an entire year.

Le Verne said being 82 years old had its advantages. She has been buying clothes for many years, and she has kept most of them because they are of good quality. She has three wardrobes and a collection of church hats, neatly placed in hatboxes.

*****

I have a group of international friends covering the global map all the way from America to Australia. All of us studied Russian language together at a Moscow university. On one Sunday every month, despite awkward timings for some, we gather on Zoom and spend a delightful couple of hours.

After reading the story of Le Verne, I have decided to wear a suit, tie and shoes for the next meeting. If I make this suggestion to my friends, I think most of them will be tempted to dress up as well. It is time to come out of the wretched sweatpants and t-shirts. The theatre comes alive only with the right costumes.

*****

Ravi 

Corona Daily 136: The Worst Pandemic Leader

Which world leader has the worst pandemic record? In yesterday’s Washington Post, Frida Ghitis, a columnist, analyses this interesting question.

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Anyone who didn’t vote for him would think of Donald Trump as a candidate. USA has had 31 million cases, over half a million deaths. With an estimated 3.2 million American deaths, 2020 was the deadliest year in American history. This week Dr Deborah Birx, the former White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, said only the first 100,000 deaths were unavoidable. (Meaning the next 400,000+ were avoidable). It may be an exaggeration, but America was truly unfortunate in having Trump as the pandemic president. He justified his behaviour by calling himself a cheerleader, when there was little to cheer about.

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When other countries were announcing lockdowns, Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega organized a festive parade called “Love in the time of Covid-19”, a parade as surreal as Marquez’s novel. His son tweeted Nicaragua was a unique country and asked the citizens to enjoy life as usual. Months later, Nicaragua published a white paper comparing their strategy with Sweden. If you want to criticize Nicaragua, criticize Sweden first.

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I have written earlier about Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro. He called it “little flu”, to which Brazilians were immune anyway. He coughed in the crowd and shook everyone’s hands to rubbish the social distancing concept. Stop whining, he said to people who pointed out the terrible pandemic toll. Bolsonaro militarized the government, an Army general is his health minister. He is the world’s only leader to use military to oppose lockdowns. Brazil’s supreme court equated his covid policies to genocide. This week heads of the Brazilian army, navy and air force resigned. Brazil is currently the worst placed nation with nearly 4000 deaths a day, and a near collapse of health care. It is also serving as an epicenter for Latin America.

*****

Mexico’s Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador rejected masks. He also asked people to live life as usual. He promised he would wear a mask only when Mexico is free of corruption. This week, Mexico officially admitted their covid death toll is underreported by 60%. Mexico’s new tally of 321,000 dead suddenly puts it in the second place jointly with Brazil.

Belarus’s dictator Alexander Lukashenko called the whole thing a “psychosis”, and suggested vodka and sauna as the definitive cure.

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Berdimuhamedow’s Turkmenistan has reported no cases, because reporting cases is banned. Mask-wearing is banned, discussing the pandemic is banned. Masks can be worn voluntarily to protect against “airborne dust”. The website of the US embassy in Turkmenistan mentions reports of people with covid-like symptoms placed in hospital quarantine. A human rights group calls the situation in Turkmenistan a disaster. The government’s denial prevents sick people from getting proper treatment or doctors from having the basic knowledge to treat them.

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Tanzania’s John Magufuli belonged to the covid-denial group. He assured the nation that three days of prayer eradicated the virus. The virus was a western hoax and couldn’t survive in Christ’s body. He suggested steam inhalation and traditional herbal medicines.

Trump, Bolsonaro, Lukashenko and most other leaders in this article were infected despite their displayed masculinity. If you have wondered how no political leader dies, well, Tanzania’s president did. Two weeks ago, on 17 March, the 61-year-old Magufuli died, with covid-19 as the suspected cause.

*****

Who wins the prize for the worst pandemic leader? In my view, it is a tight race between Trump and Bolsonaro, because USA and Brazil are, or are supposed to be, democratic countries.

USA was the best prepared nation for the pandemic. USA has a fearless media, world’s best epidemiologists, and strong financial muscle. Despite all that, the bull-headed Trump managed to bring America to its knees and thousands of Americans to graveyards.

My vote goes to Donald Trump.

*****

Ravi 

Corona Daily 137: Purple Visits

After banning them for more than a year, in-person family visits to the prisons have started in the UK this week. Prisons around the world are susceptible to outbreaks. They are crowded, with poor ventilation, inadequate healthcare, low hygiene. Even in developed nations; gym sessions and prison jobs have been suspended. The result is a 23-hour cell lockdown for most inmates. In many countries, prisoners were not allowed to take showers for weeks. Infected patients moved to isolation cells had to beg for medicines and hydration. In the USA alone, there have been 660,000 cases and 3,000 deaths in prisons so far.

In Delhi, certain prisons allowed in-person visits in October, after a gap of more than six months. Prisoners asked their families for a fresh set of clothes. Their clothes were worn and torn. As per covid regulations, fresh clothes had to be soaked in soap water for an hour before they could be worn for the first time.

Indian prisons have jail phones that can be used for a few minutes every month to contact the family. Strangely, in many Indian states, women prisoners are not allowed to use the phone, reportedly because it is installed in the male section.

From 11 February, Bombay’s Arthur Road jail allows two visitors (instead of five pre-covid). Those below 15 or above 55 are prohibited from visiting the jail.

*****

The in-person visits after a year create anxiety and awkward interactions. Children are older by a year. California will allow visits from 10 April. Michelle Tran plans to visit her husband for the first time after 8 March 2020. She needs to see that her husband is still real, she says. She needs to see his face.

Lamont Heard, 43, has struggled with his mental health because he hasn’t seen his family. “I’m not evolving.” He said in an email. “Having the feelings of being ignored, rejected, left out and cut off. It makes me feel like I’m by myself, and I go into a deep depression. But a visit takes all of that away.”

*****

UK has 312,000 children with a parent in prison. A study has shown they are at an increased risk of future crime, mental health issues and poor educational achievements.

Most prisons in the world don’t allow cell phones, wifi, or internet access. This is hard to believe, because we take these things for granted. The in-person visits and the jail phone communication happen strictly under supervision.  

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Against this backdrop UK’s “Purple Visits” rollout started by the Ministry of Justice is commendable. This is a video calling software exclusively for the prison population. (Zoom and Skype are not allowed inside prisons, since in theory prisoners could communicate with the world outside).

This month, an English reporter was allowed to interview Al, a prisoner since 2013, on Purple Visits. They chatted for the allowed thirty minutes.

Al said this year was the first time he saw his dog in seven years. His wife and two children could visit him every two weeks before lockdown, but never his dog. The family has shifted since Al went behind bars. On the video call, his children showed him around the house, their bedrooms, the posters, everything. All that couldn’t replace hugs, but it was still a bonus. Al’s prison is pragmatic. Though two purple visits a month is the official maximum, he is allowed three or four, if there is a free space.

At the moment the UK government pays for the video calls. Post-covid, Al feels prisoners will have to pay something like five pounds. Anyway, his family spends more in travelling to the prison to meet him. The Purple Visits currently make the best of a bad situation. In future, ideally, Al would like to have four visits a month – two in-person and two Purple. That way he can see the environment in which his family lives.

Prisoner family support groups had been urging the UK government to invest in video call technology for years. Finally, the pandemic made it happen.

Ravi 

Corona Daily 138: Should Go to Bed, but Not Yet

The Latin “cras” meaning tomorrow is the root of the word procrastination. We were aware of the word since we were students, faithfully postponing studying for an exam month after month, until a deadline provoked us into action. (My 2007 article on procrastination is still not outdated). For writers, perfectionism is often a major reason for procrastination. The writer wants to write that great novel, so great that it never gets written.

Procrastination is defined as a voluntary delay of an intended act despite knowing you will be worse off in the long run for not acting. I know a CEO of a mid-size company, who is sick of his current employer. Every time we talk, he says he wants to prepare a top-class resume, meet headhunters, update his LinkedIn profile. Last two years, he hasn’t managed to do any of it. And he can’t explain why.

*****

Today, I want to talk about only one aspect of procrastination, and how it has been affected by the pandemic.

In 2014, Kroese and others from the Netherlands first published a research paper on Bedtime Procrastination. The paper studied the modern tendency of delaying going to bed. This form of procrastination has some peculiarities. Unlike other tasks we keep postponing (and eventually not do at all), going to bed is a question of when and not if. Secondly, sleeping is not something we want to avoid, like going to a dentist. Delaying sleep is technically called an intention-behaviour gap. We simply engage in a trade-off of pleasures and prefer other activities (like Netflix binge watching, online games, Instagram, senseless browsing) before going to bed.

Students and women are the two most vulnerable groups. Students are young, usually unemployed, textually active. University students are capable of postponing sleep till sunrise or beyond. For them, artificial lighting has eliminated the distinction between darkness and light.

Women everywhere perennially suffer from time poverty. Working women are engaged in additional unpaid work at home. A mother may get some peace to read or watch, only once the children are in bed. Plus, she has the morning alarm to feed, prepare and send them to school on time.

In a global research, 62% adults complained of sleep deprivation. On average the weeknight sleep for them was 6.8 hours. Hectic work and school schedule were mentioned as the two culprits.

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Pandemic and lockdowns have added fuel to the fire. The increased stress, anxiety and depression have led to aggravation. In a multi-nation study, 40% of the population complains of sleeping difficulties during the pandemic. Patients with active covid-19 have higher rates.

Revenge bedtime procrastination is a 2020 term originated in China. People who don’t have much control on their daytime life refuse to sleep early in order to regain their sense of freedom during late night hours. With technology, the boundary between work and home was already blurred. With work from home, it has vanished. You have spent the day working for someone else (employer), now you want to have your revenge by having your own time.

This should not be confused with insomnia. Revenge bedtime procrastination is a deliberate act of postponing sleep, in order to relax. (Though you may regret it the next morning).

*****

Sleep deprivation is a common technique used for torture. And now we inflict it on ourselves. Several solutions are suggested to fight this phenomenon. You may want to appoint an accountability partner (usually a spouse, unless he/she wants to binge watch with you). Digital curfew for the family is an option. I recommend setting a going-to-bed alarm and respecting it.

While-in-bed procrastination is an extension of the problem. Bed is meant only for two things: sleep and sex. Social distancing and sex drive generally don’t go together. Screen time must be avoided before as well as in bed. Now work and leisure are all on lit screens, making sleeping difficult. The presence of electronic devices in bed ruins the quality of sleep.

Having said all this, if it is any comfort to you, I must mention that procrastination is one disease for which no drugs or vaccines are yet developed.  

Ravi 

Corona Daily 139: Indignity

Even before the pandemic started, USA had a huge problem of unclaimed dead bodies. Around the country, medical examiners were flooded with cadavers nobody claimed. This was partly attributed to the opioid epidemic. The drug overdose deaths grew 10% annually in certain years. Cash-poor cities like Detroit have no policy and few resources. They scatter human remains in haphazard ways. After the earlier financial crisis, there were a couple of high-profile scandals with unclaimed bodies stuffed in refrigerated trailers.

The Coronavirus pandemic made the situation catastrophic. People started dying every minute in hospitals, nursing homes, at homes. Strict covid regulations and lockdowns meant many relatives couldn’t reach the deceased. In some cases, authorities were so overwhelmed, they had to transfer the dead person before finding the family. The dead had to make way for the sick. Funerals and cemetery plots are expensive. Americans in dire economic state sometimes opted to not claim the body.

*****

I mentioned Hart island in the previous article. This place was unknown to most New Yorkers before the pandemic. This largest public cemetery in America is the graveyard of the last resort. Generally, the poor, forgotten or lonely were buried here. Half a mile from the Bronx, this island has served this purpose since 1869, and has sheltered the victims of the Spanish flu, tuberculosis, AIDS and now Covid-19.

Burials here lack dignity. Bodies are stacked by hundreds in long muddy trenches. Plain pine boxes are loaded one on another. Since the 1950s, there are never any ceremonies, just a simple burial. The plots don’t have unique markers. AIDS victims were buried here by those wearing protective gear, until it was found AIDS doesn’t transmit through air or by touch.

Burying is done by prisoners. 10% of New York city is resting on this island. In 2019, 846 New Yorkers were brought here. In 2020, the number shot up to 2,334. Initially, short-term prisoners were put on the job. When the world was not working, why were they made to work, they thought. With the numbers growing, pre-trial detainees were added to the task force. Then the prison officers became ill with covid-19. The virus was spreading among the prisoners. They were released. Private contractors brought in 40 workers, but most of them refused to start the assignment on learning the job description.

Hart island has no electricity. It is isolated from the city. It can be reached only by a ferry. Because the prison department is in charge of the island, visiting it is difficult – unless you are dead. Visits are allowed once a month, and after some serious form-filling. It is expected that by 2027, Hart Island will have no capacity left.

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In 2016, New York banned unclaimed body donations. So, pathology students or medical schools can no longer receive them.

In the first year of the pandemic, New York city has lost nearly 35,000 people. Some remains are with foreign consulates, at various funeral homes, makeshift storages and trucks. As of today, some 800 bodies are languishing in refrigerated trucks.

During the first wave, shelves were placed inside trailers at hospitals to double the storage capacity. But the shelves were unstable. When the trailers moved, the shelves and the bodies they carried started collapsing.

In April, it was decided to set up a disaster morgue on the 39th street’s Pier in Sunset Park. This long-term storage facility can hold at least 1500 bodies. Storage is free, and there is no time limit.

Long-term freezer storage in containers is a pandemic outcome. It appears to be more socially acceptable than an unceremonious burial on Hart island. In the second wave; hospitals, funeral directors and city medical examiner’s office started discussing how to store hundreds of bodies over long stretches.

Many of the unclaimed bodies belonged to the uninsured urban poor. Now the Biden administration has offered a reimbursement of up to $9000 for funeral expenses. Cost should no longer be a reason for not claiming a body.

*****

The nearly 3000 toll of 9/11 is dwarfed by covid numbers. New York’s 9/11 memorial and museum are considered the fabric of New York city. Now, there is a demand for building a memorial for Covid-19 victims. Perhaps New York will wait till the end of the pandemic before planning the memorial.

Ravi 

Corona Daily 140: Ellen Torron’s Story: Part Final

At the Mount Richmond Cemetery on Staten island, the chief Rabbi greeted Donofrio. A group of volunteers wearing protective gear dressed Ellen’s corpse in eight separate pieces of white linen clothing, including a bonnet, shirt, pants, gown and belt. They carried the coffin to Ellen’s new burial plot, in section 91 of the cemetery. The Rabbi opened a prayer book and recited prayers in Yiddish. The ritual was over once the coffin was covered with soil.

*****

About a month later, Rhoda Fairman, 83, accidentally saw a brochure from the Hebrew Free Burial Association. Normally, it would have been junked, but Rhoda noticed it on her kitchen table. The brochure displayed the names of the 333 people the association had buried in the past few months. Rhoda was stunned to see the name Ellen Torron.

Rhoda and Ellen had worked together for more than twenty years as legal secretaries at a Manhattan law firm. Ellen had never opened a Facebook account, and lost touch with colleagues. The two women would share lunch, shop together, occasionally visit museums. On 9/11, they were together watching the second plane crashing in the South tower from their 49th floor office of One Penn Plaza.

Ellen was born in 1946, the only child of Polish and Lithuanian immigrants. Since the age of 18, she lived on her own, graduating with a double degree in English and classical studies. As far as Rhoda knew, Ellen had never married. She claimed to have a daughter in Brazil, but nobody ever met her or saw any picture. Ellen was intelligent and well travelled. She didn’t mind travelling alone.

*****

In the eight months since her second burial, investigators found over $56,000 in her bank accounts plus jewelry including a pearl necklace, silver brooches and ruby-diamond earrings. By law, the Queens county public administrator must attempt to track down Ellen’s relatives to distribute the estate. No daughter has ever emerged. Only relatives who are siblings or first cousins (till once removed) are eligible.

Meryle Mishkin-Tank, 56, was found to be a daughter of Ellen’s first cousin. She had never met Ellen Torron, nor was she aware of her existence. However, Meryle, a paralegal, has taken great interest in trying to uncover details about Ellen’s life and death. Thanks to this episode, and extensive genealogical research, she has found and contacted five more cousins and an aunt. None of them knew anything about Ellen Torron.

*****

Meryle Mishkin-Tank grew up in Manhattan. But until she was told about the death of Ellen, her unknown cousin, Meryle had not heard of the Hart Island or the Mount Richmond Cemetery. Through her committed research, she found out that Ellen’s paternal grandfather, Zelman, and grandmother, Elka, were buried in the Mount Richmond cemetery as well. In fact, it turned out that their graves were located quite close from their granddaughter’s plot.

In that sense, Ellen Torron is not alone any more.

*****

P.S. In summer 2020, TIME magazine was granted unprecedented access to Hart Island to observe burial and exhumation operations. W. J. Hennigan, a TIME reporter witnessed first hand the retrieval and formal reburial of Ellen Torron. He just happened to be there on that day. TIME was also allowed to join the investigators’ team and visit Ellen’s apartment in July. W.J. Hennigan deserves readers’ thanks for unearthing the story.

More than a million people are buried in unmarked graves on Hart island. Most of them are anonymous and forgotten. But Ellen Torron’s story shows that with the efforts of social workers, government employees and reporters, a biography of an anonymous person can be resurrected.

Ravi 

Corona Daily 141: Ellen Torron’s Story: Part One

On 16 March 2020, the porter of the red brick building in Queens finally called the police. Tenants were complaining of a strange stench from the fifth floor. It came from the apartment of Ellen Torron, a petite 74-year-old with short gray hair and piercing dark brown eyes. She lived alone in the building for more than twenty years. She wore gloves even before the pandemic.

At around 2 pm, the police broke in. The 800 sq feet studio apartment was full of books, magazines, paperwork boxes, suitcases. On the flat screen television, a cable channel was on. Unopened letters lay at the door. Through the hundreds of things, the police made their way to the bathroom. In the bathtub, they found Ellen’s body under water. She had been dead for quite some time. No signs of struggle or injury, foul play was ruled out. Once the porter identified the body, it was put in a body bag, and carried to the morgue at the Queens Hospital Center.

*****

Neither the porter nor the neighbours knew of Ellen’s family. Nobody came forward to claim her remains. By now, cases and lockdowns had overwhelmed the authorities. Investigators couldn’t return to her house to look for a will, savings or evidence of a burial plot. Her body lay inside a refrigerated drawer for 24 days. Autopsy gave the cause of death as cardiovascular disease. The pathologist couldn’t determine if she had contracted covid or not. New York city’s death toll had passed 27000. There were far more corpses than morgues could hold.

Early in the morning on 9 April, a white truck carrying 24 pine boxes was rolled onto a ferry for a ten-minute voyage to Hart Island. One of the pine boxes had Ellen Torron lying in it. The pine boxes would have a mass burial at America’s biggest public graveyard.

Isn’t cremation a more sensible option, when all systems are overwhelmed? “What if someone is sent by mistake?” answers Captain Thompson, in charge of the operations on Hart island for the last fifteen years. “You can’t reverse a cremation”.

When Ellen arrived, the rate of burials at the island had gone up from 25 a week to 25 a day. The mass grave trench was supposed to last for a year, instead it was full within two months.

*****

Captain Thompson was right, cremation is irreversible, burial is not.

On 26 June, two and a half months after Ellen Torren was buried, a black van arrived. James Donofrio, 61, stepped out, and handed the necessary paperwork to Captain Thompson. It showed he was authorized to take custody of Ellen’s exhumed coffin.

Fifteen workers began digging. In a football field size pit, 1165 identical pine caskets were stacked three high, two wide. The men in the Hazmat suits were given the task of digging up casket no. 40-3. Masks on their face, shovels in gloved hands, they climbed ten feet down. The numbers are engraved at a corner of the pine boxes. After a search, the casket 40-3 was retrieved and along with its occupant brought back aboveground.

*****

City investigators couldn’t revisit Ellen’s apartment, but discovered her birth certificate. It showed she was born at the Jewish maternity hospital in Manhattan. Hebrew Free Burial Association (HFBA) is a 132-year-old nonprofit organization that offers free burials for Jews.

James Donofrio was sent by that association to recover Ellen Torron’s body. He had come prepared. To guard against the stench, he had brought a second large casket that would take the pine box in. Between the two caskets Donofrio generously spread packets of espresso coffee. Espresso can kill any odors.

Once the twin coffin was loaded into the van, Donofrio left for the opposite side of the city to bury Ellen Torron for the second time.

*****

(Continued tomorrow)

Ravi 

Corona Daily 142: They Love Bad News

In the last twelve months, there have been many occasions when I am back from my morning run, the phone rings, my mother starts telling me how terrible the pandemic is getting in Bombay. Cases have gone up, the state is thinking of another lockdown, five buildings are sealed.

“I’m just back from my run.” I tell my mother. “there were about two thousand people at Shivaji Park, some of them wearing masks - properly. Shops and cafes are open. The market is flooded with people. There are traffic jams, and buses are packed.”

“Now they have found a virus with double mutation.” Mother continues. “Vaccines won’t have any effect on them – they are saying.”

“Well, I’ve told you to stop watching TV.” I tell mother. “I’m telling you about real life, as it exists. You’re telling me about the life the TV channel shows you.”

*****

Bruce Sacerdote, an Economics professor at Dartmouth, noticed that the British media began reporting encouraging progress on covid vaccine developments in February 2020. American media didn’t report those results until April, and with caveats that suggested developing vaccines in 2020 was a pipe dream. The professor wondered if the American mainstream media specialized in giving negative stories about the pandemic.

Along with two other professors, Sacerdote actually conducted a comprehensive study. The group studied over 9.4 million published news stories on Covid-19 since 1 January 2020. They conducted several forms of textual analysis, human and algorithmic, to examine levels of negativity. (The software used Hu-Liu (2004) dictionary of positive and negative words. For example, the phrase ‘clinical trial’ is positive, but ‘death toll’ is negative.)

The study found that 87% stories by US major media outlets are negative in tone versus 50% for non-US major sources, and 64% for scientific journals.

The negativity of the US media stories didn’t change whether the cases were going up or down. When cases went down nationally, the media picked on states and counties where they were rising. The most popular stories watched on CNN or read in the New York Times had high levels of negativity, but the level was particularly high for covid-19.

Surprisingly, the negativity didn’t depend on political leanings. Liberal (MSNBC) and conservative (Fox News) were equally negative.

This could have practical consequences. The school re-opening decision might have been influenced by the level of negativity in the local media.

 The top newspapers in the study included Newsweek, USA today, Politico, New York Times and others. The TV channels (transcripts were analysed) included CNN, CBS, ABC, Fox news, NBC, MSNBC. Science, Nature, the Lancet, The New England Journal of medicine, JAMA represented some of the scientific journals.

Ranjan Sehgal, a co-author of the study said, “The media is painting a picture that is a little bit different from what the scientists are saying.”

*****

It is not that US journalists are producing false stories. They may simply be picking negative stories. One reason, the authors suggest, is that there is consumer demand for negativity. This is seen by our private gossip and social media. Schadenfreude, the German term, describes the feeling of joy at reading or watching others in trouble.

Other countries have dominant channels such as BBC (UK), CBC (Canada), Doordarshan (India) financed by the respective governments. They have no particular reason to cater to consumer demand. USA, among the democratic countries, has the highest level of media competition. They are competing on using negativity as a tool to attract viewers.

In 1987, USA eliminated its “fairness doctrine regulation” that required broadcasters to fairly represent opposing views. Such regulations exist in most other countries.

*****

As part of the research for my daily articles, I read many newspapers and TV websites. My view is that ideology is a key factor that decides the level of negativity. The Economist, for example, is far more positive than the Guardian, though both are British. I personally find Guardian more negative than NYT, though I enjoy reading both.

I don’t have television in my house. I recommend not watching covid-19 news on TV, just as advise my mother not to. That brings a lot of positivity to life.

Ravi