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

Corona Daily 353: Diamonds Are Not Forever

Amongst other things, coronavirus has shaken the global diamond industry. Mines from Africa to Canada were shut for months. Diamond shows were cancelled. With the decline in sales, Alrosa and De Beers, the two top diamond miners, have a large inventory. Cutters, polishers, traders, everyone is carrying large stocks. The Argyle mine in Western Australia producing 10% of the world’s diamonds is the source of the rarest, costliest gems: pink, purple and red diamonds. Its owner, Rio Tinto, announced Argyle will close for ever by the end of this year. Prices for rough diamonds have declined by 15% to 27%.

In February, India imported $1.5 billion worth of rough diamonds. In April, only $1 million. By June, India’s imports were down by 52%, and exports of polished diamonds by 40%. The Russian state- controlled Alrosa’s second Q net profits fell by 98% year on year. Its sales in carats shrunk by 92%. Banks are reluctant to continue credit lines. ABN-Amro was the latest bank to scale down financing, citing lack of profitability.

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This scary scenario has in no way affected the most expensive diamonds. The super-rich of the world, bored at home, are participating in online jewellery auctions.

In April, Sotheby’s sold the Cartier Tutti Frutti bracelet, made of sapphires, rubies and emeralds in a platinum setting of diamonds, onyx and enamel for $1.34 million. The twelve online sales generated $20 million. In June, Christies succeeded in selling a 29 carat VVS1 white, emerald-cut diamond ring for $2 million. Auction houses are providing private Zoom viewings and offering guidance on phone and online. The Doyle auctioneer works live (rather than from home) to give the auction authenticity.

Most buyers are women. Irina Maleeva, 60, an actress living in Beverly Hills feels bidding at the jewellery auctions is like men playing football. In May, Doyle sold $800,000 online that included a $5000 Tifffany Angela Cummings gold rose-petal bracelet bought by Ms Maleeva. Ms Maleeva’s previous purchase of a multicoloured white gold, moonstone, sapphire and diamond bracelet cost over $16000.

“I like to wear things that have an impact.” She said.

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An unnamed buyer has ordered an 18-karat white gold mask decorated with 3600 white and black diamonds and fitted with top rated N99 filters. Designed by Isaac Levy, an Israeli jewellery company is working on it. This most expensive coronavirus mask with gold and diamonds will cost $1.5 million.

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The diamonds in Ms Maleeva’s bracelets and in the $1.5 million mask were probably polished in Surat, an Indian city. 90% of the world’s natural diamonds are cut and polished in India. In Surat, third and fourth generations of specialized craftsmen are in this business. Nearly 750,000 workers are employed in some 5000 diamond factories, most of them private and unorganized.

Once India’s strict lockdown shut factories, the migrant workers left Surat. Typically, four diamond workers sit around one emery wheel, close to each other. Social distancing is not possible. Over 700 workers were infected, causing repeated shutdowns. Out of the 200,000 workers left in the city, 50000 are now unemployed. A diamond worker’s average monthly salary is $200-$270, but those still employed are paid half of that.

Bharat Sarvaiya, 42, was one of seven diamond workers who committed suicide. In June, Mr Sarvaiya hanged himself while his wife and two sons were in the outer room. His wife, when interviewed said she thought it was ironic that workers polishing diamonds, one of the most precious gemstones, should end their lives because of impoverishment.

Ravi

Corona Daily 354: Trust Your Dog’s Nose

Did you visit Dubai recently? Unlikely.

Those who did were taken to a private room at the Dubai airport. A border official took a sample of sweat from the passenger’s armpit. In another room, a trained K-9 sniffer dog smelled it to decide whether the passenger was infected by coronavirus or not.

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Over the last few months, dogs have been intensively trained in the USA, UAE, Chile, Finland, Australia, Germany, Argentina, Brazil and Belgium. Most studies conclude dogs can sniff and detect the virus with over 95% accuracy. Chile trains Labradors and Golden Retrievers. Saudi Arabia Jack Terriers. UK has Labradors and Cocker Spaniels.

Scientists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine are currently recruiting volunteers to help train dogs. Volunteers with mild symptoms need to give samples of breath and body, wearing a mask for three hours and nylon socks and t-shirt for 12 hours. The aim is to collect 325 positive and 675 negative samples to train dogs.  

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Since April, the University of Pennsylvania has trained eight Labradors and one Belgian Malinois. A dog is let into the room that contains a giant horizontal metal wheel. The wheel has metal cans, each containing urine samples from patients testing positive or negative. The Labrador sniffs each can, and stops at the container with a positive sample.

Olfactory disease detection is an evolving field. We know the simple mechanism of a breathalyzer for levels of alcohol. A dog’s nose has 300 million receptors compared to 5 million in a human. Dogs can be trained to smell drugs, explosives, some hidden cancers, diabetes, malaria and other infections.

Changes in our health alter the way we smell. Spouses of some patients with Parkinson’s have noted their partners smelling differently. Human bodies give off a cocktail of chemicals known as VOCs (volatile organic compounds) in sweat, saliva, urine, breath and sebum that change when cells grow. When infected by a virus, some cells die and the smell changes. Dogs don’t detect Covid, but they detect the cells dying because of the virus infection.

To systematically train a dog to detect the novel coronavirus, it takes 6-8 weeks if the dog is already trained to detect other scents. A new dog needs 3-6 months. How does the dog know the object of detection? Like in a circus, the dog is initially “bribed” for performance. When the Labrador or German shepherd smells a “positive” can, it is given a pet food - Kibble. At the “negative” can, nothing. Over the weeks, the Labrador realizes the trainer is interested in finding the “positives”. The dog is also interested, because it gets a kibble every time. After two months, it stops at a positive can, and looks at the trainer to indicate victory. By this time, bribing can stop.

In a single case, one Labrador made a mistake. It stopped at a “negative” can. When investigated, it was found that the patient had earlier tested positive, and the smell had lingered.

Like human beings, dogs also come with superior ability, inferior ability and laziness.  A dog can sniff 250 people per hour. This is hard work. (It’s a dog’s life). Not every dog manages this. The best ones are chosen for airports. After UAE, Saudi Arabia will employ them soon at its international airport.

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Dogs are accurate, but require long training and expensive maintenance. “Electronic noses” are now invented that successfully detect toxic gases and explosives. Scientists believe they are the future. Until then, airport authorities will continue to trust the noses of the Labradors.

Ravi  

Corona Daily 355: Up and Down in Covid Times

Last weekend, my family visited a shopping mall after five months. I didn’t know riding in an elevator could be a novel experience. The lift attendant, facing the panel, had turned his back to us. Markers on the floor indicated where we should stand. We were five of us in a lift with a capacity of thirty, but the attendant refused to let anyone in until we came out. All of us were wearing masks.

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We may not realize it, but lifts gave birth to megacities. There would be no Manhattan without lifts. On 23 March 1857, the world’s first passenger lift ran in Haughwout building, a five floor department store in New York. The lift was installed by Elisha Otis, the founder of the famous elevator company. Early lifts had instructions posted inside and outside: Enter and leave swiftly. Face the door while inside. It is believed lifts initially had benches at the back to sit on, making passengers naturally face forward.

In the nineteenth century men faced a dilemma. When a lady entered a lift, should they take off their hats? New York Times suggested a compromise. In elevators serving crowded office buildings, it was all right for men to keep their hats on. But in hotels or private apartment blocks, they must remove them when a lady entered the lift.

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By the twenty-first century, several lift etiquettes are followed intuitively. The list is long, I will mention a few. A two floor (two-flight) rule requests able-bodied people to take stairs up to the second floor. Respect personal space of others and distribute evenly. (Difficult in rush hours, and impossible in India). Don’t talk. No phones, please. Face the door. Minimum eye contact. Here getting your foot in the door is bad manners. If you are close to the panel, press floors for others. Hold objects next to your feet, because legs occupy less space than your upper body. Don’t eat, certainly not ice-cream, don’t drink, sing, whistle, burp or fart. Don’t chew gum, and don’t spit it out. Don’t look around. Even in a hurry, don’t apply lipstick or perfume in the lift.

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In the pandemic, new rules are emerging. Use knuckles or elbows to push buttons. Yoga instructors may be tempted to use feet, but that is bad manners. New apps will allow you to press the lift buttons with your Smartphone. I fear young pranksters using this to remotely operate the lift. Companies in skyscrapers are moving to staggered schedules. Salesforce plans to issue tickets to employees giving elevator times, like we have on cinema tickets. A consultancy has suggested a cheaper alternative of installing full size mirrors in the lobby, where people can look at themselves while waiting.

Facing the walls may become an acceptable etiquette. In a small enclosure, a virus can be transmitted through loud talking as well. South Korea now legally bans talking in the lifts. One academic paper from South Korea studied a large outbreak at a call center. 94 out of 97 cases of Covid-19 were on the same floor. This suggests lifts are not such a threat. We spend little time in them, unless trapped in one.

In a forthcoming horror film “Corona”, seven people are stuck in a lift. One of them, a Chinese woman, starts coughing badly. Before the pandemic, who would have thought this could be a film’s storyline?

Ravi

Corona Daily 356: Allowing Women to Vote?

Yesterday, I talked about the 2020 US presidential election. Something extraordinary happened 100 years ago, before the 1920 election.

If we think times are bad today, please read the history of 1914-1920. First the World War followed by a pandemic called the Spanish Flu. Year 1918 was the worst when the war and the lethal virus overlapped. WWI killed 17 million people, but the Spanish flu killed 50 million. More American soldiers died from the flu than in a battle.

In the 19th century, women didn’t have a right to vote anywhere in the world. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were elected exclusively by white males. In 1872, the nine male Supreme Court justices had confirmed the expression “all persons” in the 14th amendment doesn’t include women. Men opposed to allowing women to vote feared “petticoat rule”.

When men started dying in large numbers in the war, women took over their roles. Their number in the workforce was soon 25% higher than before the start of the war. Women had been banned from working in the textile industry. Now they started working not only there, but also in the military and police force.

Sometimes disasters can bring in revolutionary changes. The 14th century plague, one of history’s deadliest epidemics, set free many slaves in Europe and increased wages for the surviving labourers. The WWI and the Spanish flu made it impossible for men to ignore women’s contribution.

The woman suffrage (right to vote) movement gathered momentum. As women took over men’s jobs, they blew apart the arguments they were delicate and intellectually inferior.

US President Woodrow Wilson, silent for five years, finally said, “We have made partners of the women in this war. Shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering, sacrifice and toil and not a partnership of privilege?”

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However, the start of the 1918 Spanish flu nearly put an end to the women’s voting movement. By October, the pandemic was so bad it was considered immoral for six women to meet in a parlour. They could campaign only through street signs.

Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the American Woman Suffrage association, was bedridden by the flu. She needed to negotiate with John Walsh, a senator, but he was stricken with flu as well. Catt couldn’t come down, and Walsh couldn’t go up. A middleman was appointed to shuttle between them to conduct confidential discussions.

The Senate was dominated by Democrats from the South who were determined not to allow black women to vote. If black women can vote, they will think of themselves as socially equal, and the premise of white supremacy will be eroded, they said openly.

In two attempts, the women voting rights bill fell short by two votes. Then in September 1918 the flu came roaring back, eventually killing 675,000 Americans.

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During the war, the Red Cross had not allowed black nurses. But the pandemic became so severe that 18 black nurses were allowed to serve for the first time. Flu became an important moment for gender as well as race. Americans saw that not only women, but women of color were valuable as well. In total, eight million women volunteered as American Red Cross workers taking on duties from nursing to mechanics and bike messengers.

Throughout the pandemic, women suffragists fought for ratification. States, one after another, started granting voting rights. On 18 August 1920 Tennessee, the last state endorsed the 19th amendment (voting equality between genders), and US women won the right to vote. The presidential election of 1920 was the first when women from across the USA had voting rights on the same footing as men.

Ravi

Corona Daily 357: Post as a Weapon

Donald Trump has displayed admirable skill in using the U.S. Postal Service as a weapon to remain in office even after he is kicked out by the voters in the upcoming November elections.

In this pandemic election, with winter projected to bring about a more hostile wave, health experts advise voting by mail where possible. In this matter, USA is a surprisingly backward country, still using paper ballots. Only 5 out of the 50 states have universal “voting by mail” legislation and infrastructure. At least 16 states need a valid documentary reason such as a medical certificate to allow postal voting.

Postal service is a critical component. States will first send to voters applications for mail ballots by mail. Registered voters fill and mail them back. On scrutiny of the application, the actual ballots are sent to the voter, by mail. The voter ticks, signs and mails it back just before Election Day. (It can also be dropped off in person at the voting center). Votes are discarded if received after the Election Day.

Once the vote count begins, signature verification is a lengthy process. In 44 states, signatures must match with one on the file, and some states require witnesses or notaries. In 2016 elections, 92000 ballots were rejected due to signature mismatch. The postmark and its date must be accurate. Missing or late postmarks invalidate the vote, for no fault of the voter.

USA has a population of 330 million, including 250 million voting-age. Voting lethargy means a maximum of 160 million will register to vote. About 140 million will actually vote. In 2016, 33 million votes were cast via mail. Because of the coronavirus risks, this year it is expected to be much higher. If allowed.

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First thing Trump succeeded was to appoint Louis DeJoy, an outsider, as the new Postmaster General in June 2020. A Trump loyalist, he has donated more than $2 billion to the Republican Party since 2017.  In the name of cost cutting, Mr DeJoy has started a massive go-slow operation. Despite 40,000 postal workers affected by quarantine, he has drastically reduced overtime, banned extra trips needed for on-time mail delivery. Reportedly, the postal service is asked to remove and destroy 969 out of its 4926 mail sorting machines. They sort ballots by barcodes. Mail delivery has been delayed by a week in some places.

USPS has sent CYA letters to all states warning the ballots may not reach their destinations because deadlines are too tight for its delivery standards.

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Secondly, Trump has condemned mail-in voting as an opportunity for fraud and election interference. On 12 August, in front of TV cameras, he said he refused to sign off on $25 billion in emergency funding for the postal service or $3.5 billion for election security. He said people should vote in person.  On the beautiful election day of 3 November itself, there will be an announcement of his re-election. But with voting by mail, it will take months or years to figure out.

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Does Trump think voting by mail will help the Democrats? Not necessarily. He is simply preparing a back-up option for not leaving the office. If he loses, as he is expected to, he will rush to the Supreme Court. He has already managed to install two young conservative justices, achieving 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court. Bush-Gore (2000) post-election battle had gone on for a month. The Supreme Court by 5-4 had declared Bush a winner based on 537 extra votes in Florida, governed then by Jeb Bush. Neither Bush nor Gore was a ruling president, Trump is. He is far more powerful.

Expect a legal battle in Trump-Biden to go on for months after the Election Day.

Ravi

Corona Daily 358: Face under a Knife

In these coronavirus times, despite economies crashing, companies going bust, one business is booming extraordinarily – Cosmetic Surgery. Facelift, necklift, rhinoplasty (nose job), breast enhancement, tummy tuck, skin removal, you name it. At the start of the lockdown, elective surgeries were disallowed as being non-essential. Since May, in most countries, they have restarted. Most surgeons are unable to cope with the demand. In the USA, South Korea, Japan, Australia, plastic surgeons are booked at least till the end of September.

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One key reason is the Zoom calls. In face-to-face meetings, we used to look at people we were talking to. Now Zoom participants spend most of the time observing themselves on the screen. The crooked teeth, shapeless nose, double chin, slumped shoulders, loose flesh, wrinkles shock them. It is known that the chin looks ten times worse on an iphone. Our self-image is much refined than the real thing. People unhappy at their Zoom image now have more time to research the cosmetic surgeons in their locality.

The second important reason is the ability to get operated secretly, and recover secretly. Nobody outside your house needs to know. After the surgery, on the road, you can cover the bruises and swellings with a mask. And locked up in the house, you can recover in peace.

In the USA, cosmetic surgery is not covered by insurance. A full body makeover including face, tummy and breasts costs $25000, an eyelid surgery $3300, and breast lift or enhancement $10000. Patients are diverting funds from what they have saved on travel, concerts, restaurants, malls and gas.

Patients who have gained 10-20 pounds in the lockdown are asking the surgeon: Along with doing my breasts, could you please do a little lipo? Rhinoplasty (nose job) operations are the most popular. They are doubling faster than the corona cases.

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Earlier, majority of the patients were in the 35-50 age group. Now 18-34 are also rushing for face and body alteration. Apple has an app called “Facetune”. It allows the user to alter the size and shape of her nose, lips, eyebrows, jaw line. In 2017, it was Apple’s most popular app, downloaded 20 million times. A study found that young men and women were more likely to consider cosmetic surgery just one week after using the app. Snapchat, Instagram and the obsession with selfies have all contributed to the cosmetic surgery boom. “Snapchat dysmorphia” is when patients bring their app-altered selfies to surgeons to illustrate the desired changes in real life.

Women still account for a majority of the treatments, almost 91%. For them the most popular treatments are breast augmentation, neck lifts, facelifts, and eyelid surgery. But men are no longer shy, particularly in pandemic times. They go for breast reduction, nose jobs and eyelid surgeries.

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Cosmetic surgeries are not always safe, and rarely everlasting. During my career as an interpreter, I was once working with a renowned Russian superstar whose facelift malfunctioned. One of his eyes became visibly narrower than the other. We spent a frantic week trying to get it repaired.

If someone simply wants to renovate their face for Zoom calls, there is a safer and cheaper way. Zoom has a filter called “touch up my appearance”. It smooths any wrinkles and spots on your skin. Without spending obscene money, you will look much younger on the Zoom screen.

Ravi

Corona Daily 359: Putin Wins the Vaccine Race

On 11 August, Russia launched Sputnik V, the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine. Vladimir Putin declared the vaccine, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, was safe, works quite effectively, forms strong immunity, and has passed all the needed checks. More importantly, his daughter had taken two shots, and except for a slight increase in temperature for a day, she felt well and had a high number of antibodies. Alexander Gintsburg, the director of the Gamaleya Institute, when asked, said he had no idea how Putin’s daughter managed to get vaccinated. She was probably one of the volunteers, he said.

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Fontanka.ru, an electronic newspaper from St Petersburg, is one of the few surviving media outlets in Russia publishing fact-based reports. It offers the history of the five attempts by Gamaleya Institute to produce vaccines.

That history begins in 2009, with a company called Rosnano investing heavily to create an influenza vaccine AdeVac-Fleu. Gamaleya institute was the co-executor and curator of the scientific program. Rosnano’s plan was to capture the global influenza vaccine market and earn $3 billion per annum. Clinical studies have been ongoing since 2015, and expected to last till the end of 2020. NT-Pharma, a little known company, was a partner. The project seems to have ended in January 2020, when a Moscow court convicted the NT-Pharma directors of embezzling a billion rubles from Rosnano. The vaccine is not available, but a billion rubles have disappeared and partners gone to jail.

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In mid-2010 Gamaleya scientists tried to create another flu vaccine. Clinical studies were carried out in the military hospital Burdenko for two years. This brought the Ministry of Defence close to Gamaleya. That ministry can easily bypass many international rules. Coincidentally, the GamFluVac research is also scheduled to end in December 2020. Russia’s Health Ministry hasn’t registered the vaccine.  

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After the failure of the flu vaccines, Gamaleya scientists had focused on Ebola, an epidemic raging in Africa. Back in January 2016, Vladimir Putin announced Russia was the first country to develop an Ebola vaccine. Health minister Veronica Skvortsova presented in Geneva two developments by Gamaleya – GamEvac and GamEvac-combo. Russia was surprised when WHO asked for clinical trial data and documents. (Surely, it is Russia’s intellectual property). Clinical trials still continue. In one of those trials, 2000 volunteers from Guinea were injected. Academician Gintsburg was awarded the Order of Merit by the Republic of Guinea. Notwithstanding, the vaccine has not been recognized or approved anywhere.

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Gamaleya has also worked on a vaccine for the MERS epidemic that had started in Saudi Arabia and spread to 27 countries. In May 2020, Alexander Gintsburg said the vaccine MERS-GamVac was successfully created by Gamaleya eighteen months ago. (Though MERS was long gone). WHO clarified that no specific drug or vaccine exists against MERS anywhere.

Gintsburg, along with others, published a nine-page paper detailing the success of MERS-GamVac on mice and monkeys. No human tests were done. The Russian Health Ministry issued a permit to conduct clinical trials in Sept 2019. They were to be tested on 276 volunteers by the end of 2020.

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In April 2020, the health ministry asked Gamaleya to produce a Covid-19 vaccine. In May, Gintsburg announced it was ready. His deputy Denis Logunov confirmed Gam-Covid-Vac (aka Sputnik V) was a copy-paste of the MERS-GamVac. In his meeting with Putin, Gintsburg asked for 1.5 billion Rubles for bottling the vaccine. The vaccine has so far been tested on 76 volunteers, including Putin’s daughter.

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At least until 2036, in every major epidemic, Vladimir Putin will always make sure Russia will bring out the first vaccine and save the world.

Ravi

Corona Daily 360: Champagne but No Sparkle

Champagne, an extravagant drink of pre-revolutionary France, and a premium luxury brand in the modern world is capable of satisfying all human senses. Champagne exclusively comes from the French region by the same name; it is illegal to call another sparkling wine Champagne. Not every photocopier is Xerox, and not every wine that sparkles is Champagne. The grapes, vineyard practices, grape-pressing methods and fermentation define its authenticity. The grapes are mainly Pinot noir (red), Pinot meunier (black) and Chardonnay (green). Champagne sets the standard with its capacity for elegance, grace, subtlety and depth. Historically, the drink was associated with royalty and nobility.

Next week, on Tues. 18 August, a crisis meeting will take place in Champagne to decide how to save the premium drink.

2019 was an excellent year; Champagne sales worldwide were $6 billion, an all time record. The 2o20 weather was perfect for the grapes, plenty of sunshine, rains at the right time in right quantities. Winegrowers were delighted. This year would produce huge quantities of outstanding Champagne.

With the arrival of coronavirus, all celebrations stopped. No weddings, no corporate events, no formula one drivers spraying Champagne, no airport lounges, no business banquets. True, in the lockdown, more people drank, and people drank more. UK wine sales grew by 40%, USA by 53%. But not Champagne. Its sales went down by 70%, because nobody was celebrating anything anymore. Champagne sales fell by $2 billion, one third of the usual sales. Statistics darker than during the great depression or either World War.

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Just like the output of oil is pre-agreed to control prices, winemaking houses such as Bollinger and Krug (buyers) and vine-growers (sellers) agree every year to a fixed yield. It is expressed in tons per hectare. Nearly one hundred Champagne houses on one hand, and 19,000 smaller vignerons (grape growers) negotiate a figure and abide by it. Both sides have unions, with the Champagne houses generally having a better bargaining position.

The parties met last on 22 July. Sales are so bad, it is certain that those houses will end up having at least 100 million bottles unsold by the end of the year. They want the growers to produce not more than 7 tons per hectare. (200 million bottles). The union of growers can produce up to 16 tons, the crop is so good. 8.5 tons per acre is their minimum (250 million bottles) demand. For reference, in 2019, the agreed figure was 10.2 tons/ha (300 million bottles).

What can be done with so much Champagne when nobody is buying it? The houses have suggested that the extra grapes are used to make hand sanitizer. After all, it contains alcohol. The wine growers are incensed at the suggestion. Send the great Champaign grapes to make hand sanitizer? The alternative is to let the grapes rot. That July meeting ended in a stalemate.

August is the picking season. Usually, temporary East European migrant workers are contracted for harvesting. This year, many of them can’t come to France. That is one problem to tackle. And the other is to agree to the sanitizer making proposal, or let the excess crop, however great, rot. The war meeting on 18 August must come up with a solution.

With the onset of the pandemic, the noble Champagne has lost its sparkle. Connoisseurs will rue the bursting of this bubble.  

Ravi

Corona Daily 361: Buchette del Vino

Florence, one of the world’s most charming cities, has successfully revived for the pandemic something created four centuries ago.

Northern and central Italy, including Florence, was ravaged by the bubonic plague between 1630 and 1633. It reportedly killed two million Italians, one third of its population then.  Wine merchants understood the plague’s gravity. They created Buchette del vino (little wine holes) to pass the flask to the client. Customers would place their coins on a metal pallet passed through the wine hole. Sellers disinfected the coins with vinegar before putting them away. When the plague was raging, the wine would be passed through a metal tube to the customer’s flask. People could knock on the little wooden shutters and have their bottles filled with wine from the Antinori, Frescobaldi and Ricasoli families. Some of these names are still around.

Even after the plague epidemic was over, the little wine holes served several functions. Traditionally, Italian aristocratic families had diversified businesses such as real estate or wine production. Behind the pintsize wine hole was a ground floor room that was connected to the cellar. The wine producer could sell directly to the consumer avoiding all middlemen, making the wine cheaper. For some merchants, it was a discreet way to avoid taxes. Anonymity was assured for both the customer and the seller. Occasionally, passing monks or beggars were given free wine as charity.

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The Buchettes were unique to Florence and Tuscany. Other than the functional use, the wine windows display renaissance-era architecture. Each window represents the taste and architectural style of the elite owner. Most windows are elegant, arch shaped, but each one is different. Some are encased by coloured stone frames, some made of bricks, others feature iron grates. In some cases, the holes are built straight into the mansion’s gates. An American photographer Robbin Gheesling has published a book “Wine doors of Florence”, exhibiting some lovely pictures.

Since it is Italy, the original hatches were created aesthetically. Usually made of wood, some had miniature paintings – still life or religious imagery. Functionality was primary, but cultural refinement was evident.

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Over the centuries, the wine windows gradually became defunct. Many wooden holes were permanently lost in the 1966 floods. In 2015, the Wine Windows Association was formed to preserve this singular heritage. The latest count on their website shows about 175 Buchettes in Florence and some 100 outside.

Once the Covid-19 pandemic began, and Italy was in particularly bad shape, enterprising Florentine wine window owners repeated the 16th century history. Babae bistro, with uncanny foresight, had started serving customers through the little window in the summer of 2019. Gelateria Vivoli, Florence’s famous ice cream parlour, started in May. Since then, several antigerm windows sell wine, Aperol spritzes, ice creams and sandwiches.  

While Covid-19 continues, it may be a good idea for other cities in the world to consider copying this renaissance-era invention. In times of epidemic, people will welcome a mechanism to buy booze safely.  

Ravi