Corona Daily 097: Back to Prison

In April 2016, Gwen Levi's sisters applied to President Obama for clemency.

Gwen was 70, suffering from lung cancer. Her 90 year old mother was unlikely to see her again. Since Gwen is black, her family perhaps thought they had a good chance of presidential pardon from Obama. Obama didn’t grant the pardon, perhaps fearing criticism of racial favoritism.

With the pardon rejected, everyone knew Gwen would never return home. Even if she survived the lung cancer, her release date is 2033 when she would be 88 years old.

*****

Born in 1945, Gwen is one of the thirteen children raised by her mother. The father didn’t live with them, Gwen rarely saw him. At 25, she married a man who had three children from an earlier marriage. The couple had three children of their own.  Gwen looked after all six.

In 2000, she was arrested as part of a group selling a kilo of heroine. That crime carries a minimum punishment of ten years. The prosecutors tried to cut a deal, called plea bargain, with her. She should testify against her co-conspirators to get a lighter sentence. Not known whether she had good lawyers, and whether she understood the contractual agreement with the prosecution.

When she stood in the court to testify, one of the co-conspirators was her son. Her testimony would incriminate him. Gwen refused. The prosecution reminded her of her plea bargain obligation. She still refused. This turned out to be as serious a crime as the selling of heroine. Her co-conspirators got lower sentences than her, even those carrying guns. Gwen was not accused of any violence. She was sentenced to 400 months, which is more than 33 years in prison. Among developed nations, America has harsher sentences. It is a rare democracy that regularly executes people. In several cases, Blacks have got longer sentences than Whites for the same crime.

*****

The clemency letters were rejected in 2016. Four years had passed. Gwen’s mother had turned 94. And coronavirus entered America. Prisons were a dangerous area. Prison staff along with inmates was getting infected and dying. It was decided that 25,000 inmates would be transferred to home confinement.

Gwen Levi qualified under the CARES act. She was 75, was in cancer remission, posed no danger to anyone, her crime was non-violent, her conduct in prison was excellent, her disciplinary record spotless. In prison, she advocated for senior inmates, and trained to become a service dog handler. Her sisters were willing to accommodate her in their home. Gwen was keen to become part of society. In June 2020, she was finally going home.

She still needed to wear an ankle monitor, and give her work schedule regularly. However, she joined her sons, held her grandchildren, hugged her mother and sisters. Her bed and toilet were not in the same room any more. This is what rehabilitation was, Gwen thought.

*****

Donald Trump had shown his bloodthirstiness by executing three people during his last days despite knowing Biden intended to cancel their executions. Five days before Trump left office, his justice department issued a memo confirming that all released prisoners should be sent back to prisons when the pandemic in the USA ends. Gwen must go back to prison at some point, and serve out her remaining sentence till 2033.

*****

Out of the 25,000 prisoners sent home due to the pandemic, only 21 have violations that sent them back to prison. This is a high success rate. Male inmates who couldn’t find work are raising their children, while their wives work. Others are taking care of their parents. All of them must go back to prison, once the pandemic ends.

*****

Last month, 28 congress members urged Biden to reverse the “Trump administration’s cruel and misguided decision” saying a return to prison would harm families and waste tax dollars. People like Gwen were not told they would have to return to prison. Forcing them to do so would be cruel and devastating.

Gwen in her interview says she thought she was already rehabilitated. President Biden has a chance to prove her right.

Ravi

Corona Daily 098: The Black Blinding Fungus

India’s BBC correspondent reports on his interaction with Dr Akshay Nair, an eye surgeon from Mumbai. Yesterday, Dr Nair operated on a 25 year old girl who had recovered from covid three weeks ago. She was diabetic. The ENT specialist had inserted a tube in her nose, and was trying to remove tissues infected with mucor, a rare but deadly fungus. In the three hour surgical procedure, in order to save her life, Dr Nair had to remove her eye.

In April, Dr Nair saw forty patients with mucormycosis. Eleven of them (28%) had to have an eye removed.

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Mucormycosis, informally known as the Black Fungus, usually infects the sinuses and via the eyes rapidly moves to the brain. Patients typically have a stuffy and bleeding nose, swelling of and pain in the eye, drooping of eyelids, blurred vision. Black patches of skin can form around the nose. Mucor can grow behind the eye, and compress the optic nerve.

Suddenly, Indian newspapers are filled with reports of black fungus patients from around the country. The numbers are small by Indian standards, but that was the case when coronavirus started. Awareness is useful before things get out of hand.

Dr Shailesh Kolhatkar is a practising head and neck cancer surgeon in Nagpur. During the last twenty years, he operated on just 11 patients with black fungus. In the last two months, he is performing three to four surgeries every day. Similar stories are happening in several states. The Gujarat government has set up a special ward for mucormycosis, and bought 5000 vials of the expensive injection Amphotericin B for Rs 3.12 crore ($450,000). It can happen at any age, but most common is 35-65 years.

*****

Diabetic patients are in the high risk category. Mucor attacks people with uncontrolled sugar.  It rarely happens to non-diabetic patients, unless their immunity is severely compromised by AIDS or cancer.

The main reason behind a black fungus infection is man-made. Covid patients are given dexamethasone or other medicines that suppress immunity. Steroids have a tendency to increase blood sugar levels even in non-diabetics.

If such patients are exposed to wet surfaces, the chances of mucormycosis grow. Some covid patients are put on oxygen support, which has a humidifier containing water. If the water leaks from the humidifier, or general hygiene is not good, the fungus has ideal conditions to infect.

*****

This is a fast-moving disease with high mortality. It takes only a few days for the fungus to reach the brain.

If detected early, an anti-fungal intravenous injection costing $50 has to be administered daily for eight weeks. The total cost of the treatment is beyond the budget of an average Indian.

*****

In terms of prevention, doctors say it is important to keep the sinuses open. That can be done by applying steam. Diabetic covid patients should watch their sugar levels. Hygiene is important. Oxygen cylinders when required must be clean. Humidity can increase the risk. Black fungus is an invasive disease.

The most important preventive measure is to focus on the use of steroids. Some covid patients graduating from WhatsApp University are themselves opting for steroids when not necessary. The general advice is not to take steroids for the first five-six days of covid infection. Steroids should never be given in mild cases. The doses and duration of life-saving steroids must correspond to the severity of covid.

The medical community in general is trained to offer strong medical interventions. In covid times, there is little opportunity for doctors to diagnose and treat each patient individually. Indian standards seem to be more relaxed than in America and Europe. Recognising this, the Indian medical body issued altered guidelines in April. They recommend reduced uses of steroids based on the covid severity.

Not only for covid, but for any disease if, god forbid, you or your loved ones land in a hospital, you must always insist on knowing what medicines are administered. That is a patient’s right. Even for patients in the ICUs, that right should not be surrendered.

If the cure for Covid makes the patient blind, the virus can’t really be blamed for that.

Ravi   

Corona Daily 099: The Great Unwashing

As an Indian who lives in hot, humid, dirty, polluted Bombay; who gets drenched in sweat after a morning run; who after returning from a visit to the crowded vegetable market first rushes to wash up; who is among the privileged Indians to have access to water round-the-clock; I found the newspaper reports from North America and Europe shocking.

In the pandemic, people are taking fewer showers. Some Brits and Americans, displaying their names and photos in leading national newspapers, say that before the pandemic they were showering every day. Now they shower once a week.

In a major survey by the UK government, 17% of the population said it is showering less. Younger people, between 18 and 24, have a higher percentage of unwashing: 27%. In total, 28% are using less or no deodorants. 45% of generation Z and 40% of millennials are skipping deodorants. 30% of Britons are less inclined to put on fresh clothes. 25% have cut down on hair-washes. Women are delaying hair-washes twice as much as men, presumably because they have more hair to wash.

 The survey also includes stats about reduction in change of underwear and socks, but I will leave the more curious readers to probe those stats on their own.

Teenagers in America and Europe are dodging showers. After children reach a certain age, parents can’t force them to shower. Currently, that age seems to be nine.

*****

The less-washing people have made several observations. Many are happy they have one less thing to do. Ms W, 49, says she began thinking deeply about why she was showering every day before the pandemic (a truly philosophical question). Another lady, a school teacher said with British candidness that she takes a weekly shower, but washes essential parts at the sink. Her youngest kids at school would tell her if she didn’t smell good. Now they are learning remotely. Zoom hasn’t yet introduced a function where you can smell the person on screen. One man actually said he doesn’t shower until he smells.

Another person showers only when he leaves the building. In full lockdown, that person showered only once a month. He claims he started feeling grimy only after twenty-five days or so.

One interviewee says that with no one around except his flatmate, he doesn’t see the point in keeping clean.

Three in five people said they are using much less makeup in the pandemic, reducing the need for daily showers.

While reading the stories, I remembered a Swiss boy at my voluntary camp in Poland. The year was 1987, Polish summers were cooler. This boy arrived at a two week-camp only with a toothbrush. As an Indian, that was my first introduction to how customs can differ. The boy wearing the same t-shirt and shorts for a fortnight had chosen me as his roommate.

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Donnachadh McCarthy, 61, a Londoner, said showers are relatively new, a twentieth century phenomenon. Earlier, Britons had a bath once a week, usually on Sunday nights, and for the rest of the week washed only armpits and privates. Later, indoor plumbing improved, giving the middle class more access to running water. You were rich if you could bathe every day.

Some health experts call the daily showers aesthetic, unnecessary, commercialized by soap and shampoo companies, and even counterproductive. Washing with soap daily can strip the skin of its natural oils and leave it feeling dry.

Climate advocates love the concept of washing once a week, which they call environmentally friendly, practical and freeing. An eight minute shower uses 65 liters of water, according to the water research fund. (And a running bath ten times more).

The reduction in dating and overall sexual activity has also had its impact on the washing habits.

*****

Pandemic is clarifying which part of grooming we do for our own sake, and which for others. Men are shaving less. All are wearing formal clothes less. Women are giving up bras.

It seems, daily showering was another activity some people largely did for the sake of others.

Ravi 

Corona Daily 100: The Giving Wall

Miami is a former mining town with a population of 13,000 in Oklahoma State.

28 year old Jennifer White should be admired for her courage to open The Dawg House in September 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic. She sells hot dogs with extra meat, cheese, bacon, three-egg omelettes, and other hot meals.  

As if the coronavirus was not enough, Miami was hit with blizzards just like neighbouring Texas in February. The town was without power for a couple of days. The local mayor helped get homeless people into church shelters.

Jennifer wanted people in her community to be fed whether they had money for a meal or not. She came up with the idea of the giving wall. She put a sign near the entrance inviting her customers to buy receipts for extra meals and post the receipts on the café’s walls.

The mayor was the first to buy an extra meal and post the receipt on the wall. As the word spread, the café wall was filled with receipts within eight hours.

*****

Poor hungry people may not have money, but they have dignity.

They can simply come to the café, in an unobtrusive way pull off a receipt from the wall, sit at a table and get served a hot meal. The waiters are trained not to distinguish between guests who pay money, and those who pay with wall receipts. No questions asked. Tipping is not necessary. But some donors, who buy extra meals, attach one or two cash dollars as a tip to the prepaid receipt.

This infectious idea has spread to other towns such as Grove and Vinita in Oklahoma. Zack’s café has a notice that says: “If you are hungry or know someone who is… these tickets have been paid for in advance by previous customers. Please grab a ticket and eat!” The local church in Grove put up receipts worth $100 on the church wall.

Lasay Castellano, a nursing student who until recently worked as a manager of Zack’s café, said the diner serves about 600 people a day. She has been taping up receipts throughout the day for the last two months.

At Montana Mike’s, the general manager said she answered a call from a person from Chicago. He read the story about the giving wall, and wanted to purchase several meals and add them to the wall. He had never been to Oklahoma, but he loved the concept and wanted to be a part of it. People like him can keep the idea going, felt the manager.

In all these places, some people who were the beneficiaries of the giving wall, have now regained their lost jobs. They have come back to the same cafes, and bought an extra meal themselves.

*****

Jennifer White says among all the people who were the recipients of the free meals at The Dawg House, one family stood out. A couple and four daughters had quietly taken the receipts and sat at a table. “They were just so sweet, and their parents were beyond grateful and thankful.” Jennifer said. “They seemed like they had a lot going on and got to sit for an hour or so to just have a meal, have fun and laugh, and not worry about how much they were having to spend.”

*****

From each according to ability, to each according to need, a slogan by Karl Marx was dismissed as idealistic, impractical, and not consistent with human nature. Yesterday’s bicycle man and the giving wall stories suggest that human nature is still capable of being humane.

Ravi   

Corona Daily 101: The Bicycle Man

The elderly man wearing a cap stood outside the church – Light of the World – on Georgia Street. He looked fit and athletic for his age. It was Sunday morning and in this part of Maryland, church services were open. The churchgoers, wearing masks, and avoiding groups, were puzzled by the big sign next to him.

“Free Bikes”. Big Bikes, Little Bikes, Tricycles. All free.

People curiously looked at him, the row of bicycles next to him and wondered what sort of new scam this could be. Soon boys and girls, men and women, were seen talking to him, asking him questions. In a matter of minutes, all cycles were gone. The man adjusted his cap, and started walking home.

*****

The man’s name is Manuel Vera. He is 71, now in his fifth year of retirement. Even when he worked for a company, he loved to ride bicycles. He had taken part in triathlons and cycle races. Over the years, as is common with cycle racers, he had become a self-taught mechanic. He replaced tires, tubes, adjusted brakes, tightened cables, adjusted derailleurs and replaced shifters.

When the first lockdown started, he realized a bicycle was an ideal vehicle. (Last August, I wrote why two wheels were better in the pandemic, and also how a natural disaster had triggered the bicycle invention).

A lot of cycles must be lying idle, doing nothing, thought Manuel. Children outgrow the bicycles they ride. Adults with big houses keep buying new ones without getting rid of the old. And for many, the enthusiasm at the time of buying a bike is short lived, resulting in a decaying unused bike. In rich nations such as America; garages, sheds and basements are full of old bicycles. (In my apartment complex in Bombay, literally dozens of bicycles are parked in the courtyard, in special racks, where they rust and rot rapidly in the humidity.)

*****

Manuel started talking to his neighbours. Just like pianos, bicycles need to be tuned regularly. He said he would be happy to perform tune-ups on their bicycles. He began repairing 3-4 bikes every day. He asked the neighbours to pay for the parts to be replaced. His labour was free.

His corporate career had taught him to keep records meticulously. He tuned up 104 bicycles from his neighbourhood in the first few months.

In November, he sent a note around saying if people had any bikes that were simply taking up space; he would fix them up and give them away free. The response surprised him. He agreed with the local church to take the bikes there on Sunday mornings, and give them free to whosoever wanted.

Most recipients of the free bikes were blue collar workers, immigrants, poor teenagers, people who never thought they could afford to own a bike.

*****

In the first few months of the pandemic project, Manuel gave away 40 bicycles and spent about $300 from his pocket which he didn’t mind. Every day, he works on three or four bikes, clamped to a washing station in his backyard, before moving up to his deck to work on them. He now gets his donor bikes through a Facebook group called “Buy Nothing”. Now instead of the church, he stands outside the neighbourhood park, a location with a food pantry nearby.

He still rides, doing a 13-mile loop twice a week. Sometimes a bike passes by, and like a teacher recognizes past students, he immediately knows the bike that has passed through his hands. It was full of cobwebs, not ridden for ten years before he worked on it.

When he sees a child riding, he remembers his childhood in Peru. He remembers that moment when his father let him go. Little Manuel was surprised when he managed to balance himself on the bicycle for the first time. That moment, though some sixty-five years ago, is still fresh in his memory.

Ravi   

Corona Daily 102: Mexico’s Math Sleuths

Politicians, particularly the Presidents or Prime Ministers are rarely interested in giving accurate Covid-19 figures. High figures often reflect their handling of the pandemic. Donald Trump likely lost his presidency due to covid mismanagement. More heads will roll before the pandemic is over.

Excess mortality, the all-cause total deaths, is the tool journalists use to learn the scale of under-reporting. Last summer, BBC’s Persian service found out that Iran’s coronavirus deaths were three times the official numbers. In Nicaragua, a civic group counted 3,000 burials, when the official tally was 179. Russia classifies a death as covid only if post-mortem confirmed the virus presence. Different tricks are used to bring the real numbers down. Politicians are capable of flattening the curve for preserving their power.

*****

In Mexico, the covid mortality reports are produced, but released much later. And the daily count of deaths was always suspiciously low.

Laurianne Despeghel, 31, is an economic consultant. She graduated from the London school of Economics. Romero Zavala, 37, is a software developer. Both are fond of numbers. In May 2020, they met on WhatsApp, through a forum which was trying to track the real numbers of the covid toll in Mexico City. Both were keen to find the real picture.

In the middle of May, they got their first clue. “Mexicans against corruption and impunity”, a civic group, had obtained a set of leaked death certificates. Their authenticity was verified. The group estimated that the deaths were three times the official count.

*****

Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, has 52 civil registry offices to register death. Mexicans can simply type the number of the death certificate in the website and a copy pops up, a bit like typing a flight confirmation PNR number to get your air ticket on screen.

You need the info for each death certificate, Laurianne told Romero. Romero is an internet research fan. On a hunch, he wondered if a lazy programmer started the numbering from 1. Like lazy individuals who keep the password or pin as 1234. Surprisingly, that intuition was right. In each of the 52 registry offices, the first death certificate issued in 2020 was number 1. And the certificates were in ascending order. He simply needed to find the last number.

Romero wrote an algorithm. It would pretend to be a human asking for a copy of the death certificate. The true objective was to find the last number. Through repetitive trials (called the binary search), the algorithm found the latest certificate number for each of the 52 offices.

Romero discovered that between January and May 2020, Mexico City had 8072 excess deaths. The government had confirmed only 1832.

He did the same exercise for years 2019/2018/2017 and found that the officially reported numbers matched with the number of death certificates. What remained was replicating the method for the entire country.

*****

On 25 May, the findings were posted on a blog. That post went viral internationally. Two days later, when Romero returned to the civil registry site, he was greeted with a captcha, asking him to confirm “I’m not a robot”. The algorithm could no longer work. In subsequent months, Romero and Laurianne did their updates manually. By August, the excess deaths for the capital rose beyond 31,000. Under pressure, the city government posted in August its full database of deaths, scrubbing out the names and IDs. This would have normally taken two years.

*****

In March 2021, the federal government admitted the covid fatalities have been under-reported by at least 61%. On 29 March, the Health Ministry said the covid deaths exceeded 321,000, which at that point was second only to the USA.

Despite that, today the official figure for Mexico is only 217,000. The civil registry website is now improved. One must write the name and surname to get a copy of the certificate. The monthly updates have stopped.

Romero and Laurianne continue to look for new solutions. “I am now motivated by rage” wrote Romero on his blog post.

Ravi 

Corona Daily 103: When the Chips are Down, and a War Looms

The official name of Taiwan is the “Republic of China” (ROC). It is a relatively tiny island of 24 million, situated within breathing distance of the giant mainland, which goes by the official name of the “People’s Republic of China” (PRC).

China had a communist revolution in 1949. In the civil war, the nationalist government headed by Chiang Kai-Shek was driven to Taipei. This Chiang Kai-Shek had been declared a victor of the WWII along with Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. Taiwan alias ROC became a member of the United Nations, as well as the Security Council. Mainland China alias PRC was denied a seat, because there could be only one China, and that was represented by Taipei. The start of the cold war and the anti-communist feelings contributed to this bizarre turn of events. To recognize Taiwan as the successor state of China was as absurd as say terming Lithuania or Latvia as the successor of USSR after its collapse.

Communist China kept fighting to regain its deserving stature, and Americans kept obstructing the attempts as much as they could. Finally, in October 1971, UN passed a General Assembly Resolution (no. 2758) to make communist China a UN member. It was also given a seat on the Security Council. USA and a few other countries tried to retain Taiwan in the UN, but were outvoted. Taiwan was expelled from the UN, because there could be only one China. Till today, only 14 out of 193 UN members recognize Taiwan as a state. China threatens to cut diplomatic relations with any state that dares to recognize Taiwan.

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Taiwan, unlike its big brother, is a democratic, prosperous country. It is aptly one of the four Asian tigers.

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is one of the key reasons for its prosperity. When it comes to the most advanced chips, TSMC produces 90% of them. Founded in 1987, it really took off in 2012, with its first contract to make powerful chips for the iphone. Apple got along very well with Morris Chang, the founder, whose priority was to protect trade secrets. Even casual guests to TSMC had their laptops’ USB ports sealed. Sales of 220 million iphone-6 units kick-started TSMC’s meteoric rise. In 2009, Intel owned the chip making market. By 2020, Intel was nowhere.

Last year, TSMC made an operating profit of $20 bn on revenues of $48 bn. It is now the world’s eleventh most valuable company. In 2020, 62% of its revenue came from North America and only 17% from China.

Its gap with rivals like Samsung and Intel is wide. It will spend $100 billion over the next three years on advanced technologies. Neither USA nor China can come close. Though Intel plans to make chips in Arizona, USA is inching towards $15 as its minimum wage. Taiwan’s minimum wage is $5.70. Cutting-edge chip factories (fabs) and thirty years’ experience keep TSMC far ahead of any competition.

*****

In 2019, after Apple, Huawei was TSMC’s biggest buyer. The chips sold to them were for smartphones and handset-makers like Oppo. The USA has now prohibited TSMC from supplying to Huawei. To China, this must rank as among the strangest stories related to Taiwan. It calls Taiwan its province, but the USA can forbid a Taiwanese company from supplying chips to a Chinese company.

The world can see what China is doing in Hong Kong. It would like to bring Taiwan under its wings as well. In the past, when China tried, America threatened military action. Now located next to Taiwan, China has a war fleet of 360 ships, compared with America’s 297. And China has the home advantage.

Semiconductors are the new oil. Every superpower would like to control chips. And the best way to do it is to control TSMC. Last month, newspapers were writing about a possible USA-China war over Taiwan. USA intelligence says it can happen within six years.

One hundred years ago, a pandemic followed a World War. This time, history could happen again, in reverse.

Ravi 

Corona Daily 104: When the Chips are Down and…

One of the biggest pandemic shortages, a supply shock, is that of the sixty year old invention – the chip, the semiconductor.

General Motors, Volkswagen and Ford have halted car production. Ford said it will produce 1.1 million fewer cars in 2021. This week Apple, Samsung and Caterpillar issued warnings that the chip shortage crisis is likely to go beyond the next year. Playstations and Xboxes are hard to find. Lead times for Broadcom Inc., which offers Wi-Fi 6E, has gone up to 22.2 weeks from 12.2 weeks in February 2020.

An analysis by Goldman Sachs shows the chip shortage touches a mindboggling 169 industries, including steel and ready mix-concrete manufacturing, air-conditioning, refrigerators, soap making and breweries. In the automotive sector, 4.7% of industry GDP is spent on microchips. What is not so widely known is that many electronic dog washing booths (like car washing automats) that use shampoo, water and fur-drying are shut for want of chips.

On 12 April, President Biden called an emergency chip summit, attended by senators from both parties, chip developers and makers.

Every smartphone, every telemedicine, every remote worker, all online education, every autonomous vehicle, every aspect of humanity is becoming more digital. The moment it becomes digital, it needs semiconductors.

*****

When the coronavirus pandemic started a year ago, it was a shock for all professional forecasters. In the heaviest lockdowns, car manufacturers predicted dramatic declines in sales. The chip manufacturers in Taiwan and South Korea reduced their production forecasts. While this was happening, suddenly the sales of smartphones and PCs shot up. By 13% as we now know. People were using more broadband, more online meetings, buying more advanced smartphones. The chips required for smart devices are modern, complex and more profitable. The manufacturers are more interested in making chips for i-phones than a Ford car.

At the end of 2020, demand for cars picked up. Probably because many people were worried about using public transport. By the time car-makers went back to the chip producers, the capacity had been diverted to smartphones. Smartphones outnumber cars by a large margin. In 2019, before the pandemic disrupted the supply dynamics, the world produced 93 million vehicles and 1.4 billion smartphones. It’s a no-brainer which customers chip-makers prefer.

Chips that may cost a dollar or so can now hold up the production of a car priced at $100,000.

*****

The 1985 James Bond movie “A View to a Kill” begins with Bond going to Siberia to recover a Soviet microchip. The Bond villain in that movie plans to detonate explosives beneath the Californian lakes to cause floods that will submerge Silicon Valley forever. The prescient chip-centric plot also includes blowing up of an atomic weapon in space to disable chips in everything. If succeeded, the plot would stop everything from the modern toaster to the most sophisticated computer (as understood in 1985). Of course, Bond foils the plot and saves the world.

The importance of chips was known to villains even in 1985.

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The most complex and expensive chips are logic chips from Qualcomm, Nvidia or Apple. These companies don’t operate fabrication plants (fabs) or foundries to make the chips. Intel (inside) and AMD, two of the best known names in the semiconductor industries, are also the developers, not necessarily the makers. Taiwan makes chips for all these companies.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Samsung Electronics are the duopolists. Situated in Asia, they make nearly 80% of all the chips in the world. This makes the Americans very uncomfortable. That is why Joe Biden talked about supporting the “CHIPS for America program”. Intel now wants to start manufacturing chips in Arizona.

The world is going to become smarter and smarter. Electric cars are far more reliant on chips. The chip shortage and the geographic imbalance may result in something far more serious. Why? I will explain it tomorrow.

Ravi 

Corona Daily 105: Time Capsule: Return to Office

The United States of America is planning to get its workers back in offices soon. Goldman Sachs and Amazon expect the office staff back from 1 July. Ernst & Young has already called them in. As per data released on 29 March, 24.2% staff in ten big American cities has returned to the office. Difficult to say if this post-vaccination euphoria is premature. Time will tell.

Employees, by now accustomed to getting up from bed and going over to the computer, not having to iron their clothes, not worried about commuting, will need to re-adjust to the new old life. The white collars who have resumed work still find old social distancing and traffic flow signs lingering in the office building corridors.

Brittany Dales, 27, a legal secretary returned to her Californian law firm recently. One of the attorneys started talking to her, the printer was running, and there was office noise in the background. Brittany couldn’t focus, because she had grown accustomed to working in a quiet place for a year. Even a little bit of noise, not too loud, felt unbearable.

*****  

Maura Judkis, a features reporter for the Washington Post, this week describes the reactions of different employees returning to work for the first time.

Ellery Frahm is an archaeologist who studies artifacts from nearly 500,000 years of human history. When he reached his desk in his Yale University office, he found a phone number written in his own hand in March 2020. Just a number with no name. He tried hard to remember whose it could be and why he wrote it. He could have called the number and tried to find out, but he felt awkward after a year’s gap. Maybe the other side also wouldn’t remember what the whole thing was about.

Vanessa Jae, 25, from Sterling Heights, Michigan was a little shaken when she saw that her wall calendar was showing March 2020. When she left office in March 2020, she had expected to be out for two weeks, not thirteen months. Papers were still spread out on desks. On the side table, the coffee pots still had coffee inside. Next to them was a half-finished bag of chips.

*****

Tim Halbach, 41, a meteorologist working for the National Weather Service had visited his office last time in October. In March, back in office, he went to the fridge in the office pantry. He wanted to put his turkey sandwich in the usual place, the back corner of the top shelf. He was stunned to see a Turkey sandwich was already there. It was his five-month-old sandwich. He had forgotten about it. The two sandwiches looked identical. The five month old sandwich showed no signs of decay. It bothered him as to why no rot was visible on the old sandwich.

*****

Some people opt to call the offices they re-visit time capsules. A massive event has separated the office workers from their own past.

Ralph Esperas, 33, a marketing coordinator from an Arizona company was overwhelmed by a sense of sadness on seeing his dusty desk. It made him think of the lost time and lost lives.

In most offices, the un-watered and un-cared for plants have died.  

Alex Grimaudo is a graduate student at Virginia Tech. During lockdowns, he couldn’t complete his fieldwork, and was forced to change his entire dissertation. When he saw his jacket hung on his chair, the coffee mug in its place surrounded by his old papers, he felt he had walked into a personal museum.

*****

The scene in the office reminded Ellery Frahm, the archeologist, of Pompeii, the city frozen in time in 79 AD. That year Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the city in volcanic ash. Fleeing residents had left their bread in the ovens, their shops were later found mostly intact. In a recent excavation study, much tangible evidence of daily life was found in that place.

If you are an office worker returning to your desk after months, you are likely to feel like those archeologists.

Ravi                    

Corona Daily 106: Does Your Doctor Speak in Your Language?

Lourdes Cerna, 58, goes to her desk in the living room at 5 am with a hot mug of tea. She lives in Los Angeles. As soon as she logs in, the calls start. That day, the first call is from Texas. The doctor on the other side speaks about the lady patient who is struggling to breathe.

Please tell her if she doesn’t agree to go on a ventilator, she will not survive the day, says the doctor. Cerna faithfully translates it in Spanish. You may use your own words, the doctor says. Cerna asks the lady about her family, and tells her that her grandchildren will be happy to see her back. The lady is determined. This is the end; she doesn’t wish to go back. Cerna says bye to her, translates everything to the doctor. Moves to the next call in line.

Cerna is a professional medical interpreter. Before the pandemic, she would be in the hospital room talking face-to-face with a patient. She misses it now. But for a whole year, she has been working fifteen hours a day. USA’s different time zones make the working day longer. For many patients, she was the last person they spoke to. She also often needed to call the relatives to deliver the worst possible news.

Professional interpreters are expected to do their job keeping emotions aside. But Cerna has a handkerchief and a bottle of solution to clean her glasses next to the computer. There have been dozens of days at the end of which she sat there drained, crying alone.

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Dr Alister Martin faced his patient, a Hispanic man who spoke no English. Speaking clearly, he told him he would be intubated. He asked the patient, a bus driver and a father of three, to call his wife, give her his love and say goodbye. Then Dr Martin held the phone closer to the patient’s ear. The interpreter translated everything Dr Martin had just said.

At the Boston hospital, the quality of care for non-English speaking patients has deteriorated. “Someone’s oxygen is dropping, I have to get an interpreter on the phone, put in an access code, tell them where I am.” Dr Martin said. “It’s hard for the patient. Imagine you’re in a loud room with a mask blowing oxygen in your face at fifteen liters a minute and you feel crummy. You can’t comprehend things much.”

Normally, non-English speakers have some family members who can speak English. They hold hands, help with translation. But in covid times, family visits are barred.

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In nations with a single language, this problem rarely arises. But in countries such as the USA or Canada or Australia, with a large number of immigrants, not having a common language with the doctor or nurse can spell the difference between life and death. USA has 65 million people who speak limited English. The language discordance undermines communication and trust, and leads to suboptimal care, less understanding of the diseases and treatments, and difficulties in joint decision making. Patients end up staying longer at the hospital, and more likely to return there.

In a detailed study one hospital found something shocking. Even among the Hispanic covid patients, those speaking only Spanish had a 35% greater risk of death.

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USA has a legal requirement to have medical interpreters. But it is what is called an “unfunded mandate”. The certification is not strict, and remuneration is not specified. Once the pandemic began, the role of medical interpreters was so underestimated that initially no PPEs were ordered for them. Many of them now work from home, like Lourdes Cerna does. It’s not easy, because many patients are breathing with effort, coughing or their voices are muffled. Richer hospitals are trying to get i-pads and microphones for the patients. Some hospitals are consciously employing Spanish speaking doctors to attach to each medical team.

The relatively lucky patients speak their last words to the interpreter on an i-pad in their own language before dying. Others who have no common language with the attending doctors die silently.

Ravi