All right! Hello!
We are going to go ahead and get started.
Just so everybody know, this is being recorded.
And the link will be available.
As soon as possible, and in probably a day
or so. In addition today we have an additional
resource of closed captioning.
So, if you go to the bottom of your screen.
On the toolbar, if you click on,on, "more",
you will see.
A spot, where it says "show subtitles" so
please, check that out, if you would like
to use closed captioning.
So I am Kristin Hedges, I use she/her pronouns,
I am a middle aged white female with long
brown hair currently sitting in my newly created
home office in my bedroom. The reason for
this verbal description is to address
any accessibility needs of those who may be
blind, low vision, or no visual access. So
I want to begin by saying good afternoon,
good morning, good evening, depending on where
you are in the world.
And thank you for joining us today for this
webinar titled COVID-19 "Ongoing Global Responses
and Social Impact".
This is being hosted by the American Anthropological
Association,
Society for Medical Anthropology,
Special Interest Group Anthropological Responses
to Health Emergencies.
During this extraordinary
global pandemic, and leading to lots of stress,
and anxiety, and the difficulties of physical-distancing
protocols we want to thank you for joining
us today.
In our field of anthropology, we truly feel
like we all have a role to play in this. We're
all in this together and it's our hope that
today is a discussion, a conversation,
and the beginning of ways to connect, and
collaborate and to think forward and together
to figure out ways that we can contribute
and proceed.
So first, a few housekeeping tips!
Next slide please!
First, disclaimer: this is a very fluid situation
as I know everybody -- I'm sure everyone is
aware of by now please keep in mind the date
of this webinar as information, and facts
and data and everything that's in here
changes very quickly so keep that date in
mind if you're looking at future recordings.
We will make this recording available,
and we will also make the slides available
so you will have access to the recording in
the slides later on.
If you run into trouble, with the bandwidth,
if the connection to Zoom, is difficult -- you
can feel free to dial in too. These instructions
are here.
And a few other instructions on the Zoom menu:
On the bottom, these are the icons showing
you the icons that you can find, if you hover
over the bottom of your screen, we do ask
can that everybody
keeps their microphone on mute.
This just helps us each to be able to hear
the speakers.
Also, if you could turn your video off.
Those help, actually, with the lag in the
bandwidth. So if everybody could keep their
videos off and mute off.
Or the microphone off.
We are going to be collecting questions. We're
going to hold all the questions until the
end, so if you go into the chat function on
the bottom, that is where you can submit your
questions.
My cochair Deon Claiborne is in the chat room
and collecting the questions to make it easier,
for her because there is a lot of information
if you can put question in all caps, it allows
her to collect the questions quickly.
And we are going to end with a Q&A discussion
and try to get to as many questions as we
can.
Next slide, so I am Kristin Hedges. I am
the cochair of Anthropological Responses to
Health Emergencies along with Deon Claiborne.
Our group is a special interest group out
of the Society for Medical Anthropology and
our first group first emerged after the Ebola
health emergency,
and emerged and came together with the Zika
crisis and Zika health emergencies, formed
as an official special interest group in 2017.
Since then, we've worked on Zika, Ebolales
outbreak and now COVID-19, newly created website
so please check out our website, the link
is here,
and on our website, we've actually posted
a call to action, for research, and right
now, it's a call to action on engaged research
items, we're actually working on a critical
meck anthropology list also.
This is we are hoping, to turn into a group
think, so we posed this call of action of
items that need to be researched within medical
anthropology, and there's a link on there
to the Google docs to add your own comments
and suggestions of what else you think needs
to go in the this, check out our call to action,
the link to our Facebook group. And third
thing expertise database. We are trying to
collect.
Experts and have an expertise database that
way whenever health emergency comes on, and
emerges we're able to quickly see who has
some expertise, either geographic or thematic.
And be able to respond very quickly.
Next slide!
This is an outline of our webinar, and I'm
going to give a chance for each speaker to
give a verbal description of themselves.
Before we launch into each speaker.
The first speaker Isaac Nyamongo is actually
from Kenya, the cooperative development university
in Kenya due to time differences he has done
a prerecording. We won't actually see him
but we will have his portion of that first,
next up is Suman Chakrabarty.
I don't know if I said that right, if you're
on here, could you go ahead give a verbal
description.
>> Suman Chakrabarty: Yes, I am from India,
and eastern part of India. I am
anthropology.
Apart from being the head of the department.
I serve as coordinator of food and nutrition,
I want to share my ideas and knowledge, local
values related to the COVID-19 crisis.
>> Kristin Hedges: Thank you, and our third
speaker today, will be Jorge Benavides-Rawson.
Can you hear us?
>> Jorge Benavides-Rawson: Yes, I hear you
perfectly. Hello, everyone, yeah, my name
is Jorge Benavides-Rawson.
I am white Latino male, I use he him, his
pronouns and I'm over here in my
home office, that used to be my living room.
But in this situation, we have made shifts.
I am Costa Rican, a physician.
And I practice, for almost a decade,
[interruption in audio]
and my research has been for.
Few years now on epidemics and pandemics.
And Kristin and the rest, I think I cut off.
Can you hear me?
>> Kristin Hedges: Yes.
>> Jorge Benavides-Rawson: So I'm part of
the -- a member of the special interest group,
that started back in Zika.
And my research has gone a lot more into,
COVID-19 and what's going on. So I hope I
can share with you a little bit more about
what's going on back in my home country.
Kristin Hedges: Thank you, Jorge, next slide,
I'm going to give the introduction for Isaac,
prerecording due to time difference, he couldn't
be with us life, but
he was able, to share his slides and do a
recording of it.
And due to, I think, the bandwidth, it could
be the sound could be a little low, so just
bear with us as we get his section.
Of the webinar, going!
[ON
VIDEO].
[ON VIDEO]
DR. ISAAC NYAMONGO: Yes, good afternoon, My
name is Isaac
Nyamongo. I am currently at the
cooperative university of Kenya.
I'm unable to join you live in
today's presentation, but I do hope that the
thoughts that I share with you this afternoon,
will be of value, to all of us.
I am cognizant of the fact that, perhaps,
most of us -- joining,
I am indeed,
from my own house, At home. My presentation,
is going to focus on the social impact, that,
a government of nation has put in
The government of Kenya has put in place,
place, its having on the social impact, of
the Kenyan society.
It is, of course, difficult to
state exactly, how, these measures are impacting
us.
That, I will leave, to Research.
In my next slide, Globally we
know that COVID-19, has had a devastating
effect, on our
lives.
And, it's no longer
business-as-usual, given that,
many of us, and our lives have been turned
upside down.
We are not doing things, as the way we have
been accustomed to.
And, many of the things that we took for granted,
are no longer
within -- within reach.
Globally, more than a million
people have been infected.
And we know that more than
110,000,deaths have occurred around the world.
In terms of mortality: Africa has a mortality
rate of 2 -- of
5.2%, and recoverys, of 19.5%.
Within the east African region, we have about
3% death rate, and
just over 17% recorded recoveries. Now, this
trend is not indifferent, from what we see,
in Kenya.
We must, however, take note that
there is, limited COVID-19 testing abilities
or capacity
within Africa; and in Kenya, for instance,
we have tested just
over 9,000 people, Uganda studied about 5,000
people, and
Rwanda has tested about 2000 people.
We do not know, however, how many tests for
example has in
the done, Tanzania has done in the east African
region.
We do not know how many tests
Burundi has done in the east African region;
nor do we know
what south Sudan is doing.
Next slide -- Dr. Nyamongo: The
distribution of COVID is shown in this slide,
and what we see, are regional differences
across
the continent.
With southern Africa having more cases and
more cases having
been reported in the northern part of the
continent, and in the western part of the
continent.
But within the east African region, we see
Kenya, with quite a number of cases.
Shown.
Next slide.
Now, in Kenya, the first case was reported
just about a month
ago, involving a traveler, a student, who
had traveled in
from the U.S., through Heathrow airport in
London. And since
that time, we have had close to 208 case as
of 13th, and 9 deaths
reported with 40 recoveries, and the initial
people who are
tested positive, are those who are coming
from abroad. And
those who are traveling --
Basically, we're seeing, currently, a new
level of
transmission at the community level.
And this is, of course, of great concern to
us, From the data we have so far, we notice
that more
men than women, are getting affected.
And in terms of urban-rural differences, we
see, many more cases within the urban areas,
compared to the rural areas.
But, in the most recent data
that we have been able to get, we are now
seeing
community-level transmission, and that should
be an area of
concern for us ..In terms of the age distribution,
about 2.4% of
those infected, fall in the age range below
15 years.
Whereas 27.9% of the persons who have been
infected fall within
15 to 29 years.
The majority of the people, who
are affected, are those between 30 and 59
years.
And, we have fewer within the --
The age range of about 60 years.
And as the map shows, the
epicenter of the infections in Kenya is Nairobi,
with another
cluster appearing at the coast, in the coastal
region, the three
counties of the Kenya coast, which include,
Kwale, Mombassa,
and Kilifi. Next Slide.
Now, the government of Kenya has rolled out
a number of
public health interventions, which are mainly,
non-pharmaceutical, and these include, social
distancing,
Washing of hands, with soap, or using a sanitizer,
where one
does not have access to water:
Wearing of masks, especially in crowded place-places.
We have a
curfew, dusk-to-dawn curfew, which targets
mainly social
places as bars and nightclubs but we have
more seen in the
Also, recent past, a partial lockdown
affecting...
...Nairobi,...
[Bad audio]
(No audio) environ is 
and the
question, we have is putting a Also,
response committee, whose key
mandate is to manage the
pandemic, to manage the manner
in which the government is responding to the
challenge,
Now, the representation of the technical committee,
has experts, which do not include
social scientists. Including, of course, anthropologists.
These could impact the successful roll-out
of the
intervention measures, which address the social
and the
behavioral aspects of the people.
Now, let us look at the social distancing
in.... -- that have been put in place Next
slide.
Now, we are being asked to keep a certain
distance, which is defined as 2 meters. Would
it \
be better to use physical distance given the
cultural context within which the term is
being used Social distancing vis-à-vis physical
distancing?
We may ask, when we tell people to keep at
least 2 meters,
between -- between themselves, what exactly
is 2 meters to a local person, who is in an
open-air market?
Or even to a person who has just taken public
transport to get home from a long day's work?
Or
to a person in a queue at a supermarket? What
is 2meters?
One challenge is getting this message in the
rural areas, where, risk perceptions, may
not
necessarily be the same, as those in urban
areas.
And we have instances, for example, in the
rural areas,
where relatives see a person, as their son,
as their relative, as their brother, but not
as a
potentially COVID-19 case.
And, therefore, social distancing is of least
concern to those people.
As part of the social distancing measures,
the government has advised that places of
worship
be closed.
But within the region north of
have not done so and for example, Tanzania,
for example, has not, you know ,put this measure
in place.
Washing of hands, is another area, in amy
next slide. Now, when it's easy for government
to
make a proclamation asking for people to wash
hands, or to wear masks, communities are asking,
what is more important?
Is it to use the little savings to buy food
or to go looking for
masks? Access to water, particularly in the
urban
informal settlements, is another area of concern.
And one of the major measures that the government
has put in
place, to complement social distancing, is...
Curfew.
The curfew, which I cover in my next slide,
is bound to affect
social relations It's found to affect access
to food.
And, of course, it's found to affect distribution
of
commodities across the country.
And in a recent briefing, from the minister
of health,
official, it was noted that there has been
an increase, in
the reported cases of sexual violence.
Gender-based violence And domestic violence.
And these are issues, these are social issues
that we need to address. These are social
issues that social scientist would be best-placed
to -- to address.
And in the initial enforcement, for example,
when the curfew was
declared, the initial enforcement, witnessed
police beatings as they were forcing
people to comply, to the requirement.
And these, of course, enlisted
immediate public outcry from the community.
It makes people angry.
But we also, have to ask, what happens to
people, who are laid off work?
Or those who live on daily wages, how do they
cope? For
these people, the difference between having
a meal, or not, lies, in whether they have
something to do, that day.
These are issues, of anthropological concern:
People
who, for them to have a meal on
their table, requires that they must leave
every day, and yet we have all these limitations.
Of course, in the informal settlements, a
curfew could also mean access to or lack of,
a
toilet.
Which, often, in those, you know -- in that
setup, are found
outside the house.
Or even access to water,
[interruption in audio]
(Live captioner standing by) Also found outside
the house, (continuing) Now, one was to
quarantine people.
And...
This is especially travelers, In
my next slide...
Next slide.
(Live captioner standing by)
next slide, Yes!
Yes, in my next slide, We see that, in a number
of....
Instances, especially, at the beginning, international
travelers were forced to be quarantined at
their own cost,
at designated places.
Some of the facilities that were used, for
quarantined people,
were ill-equipped; and for instance -- for
instance, some had common ablution blocks
and
dining areas that did not prevent people from
even mixing,
needless, of course, to say some
of the travelers were unable to pay for their
14 days of unprepared forced quarantine.
Or even the additional days of quarantining
for those persons who are unlikely to have,
to
have a positive case, within
their group.
[background noise]
[Interruption in audio] now, of
The extended burden... (life (live captioner
on stand by)
course, (Dr. Nyamongo)...
Pardon, the extended quarantine was those
who had been asked to
stay longer than they had prepared. Or even
planned or
budgeted for.
And, therefore, that caused a
lot of challenges for -- yes, we must have,
of course, address stigma and hostility in
the
community for those people who have been found
to have been COVID-19 positive. And here,
for instance, I just need to point out that
in some cases we have had situations in which
community members, have wanted to raze the
compounds of people
or ban compounds of people, who have been
found to be COVID-19 positive, accusing, those
people, of wanting, to infect or kill the
whole community.
And this is not just ones, not an isolated
incident. We also have another one in which
a local leader to be branded to be
worse than a murderer after he had failed
to quarantine himself, and later turned out
to
be COVID-19-positive.
In my next slide, We see that, the effect
of COVID-19 clearly manifested.
The tourism industry, the horticultural center,
the
transport sector -- are some of the areas
that have been adversely affected due to this
pandemic.
And, at the cost, for example, where tourism
is the mainstay,
we have seen closure of hotels, in the horticultural
sector, particularly where flowers are
produced for export purposes to Europe and
other places -- we
have seen workers in those places followed,
because the
companies are no longer able to pay them.
And this, of course, has led to a lot of losses.
Now, without income, individuals can not afford
to purchase food or to even pay their rents.
A raft of measures put in
place include the reduction of taxes that
have been, you know, instituted by government,
to
cushion people.
Similarly, we have seen additional social
safety nets
that have beenn put in place to
protect the elderly, to protect the orphans;
and to protect, vulnerable people. And this
is being instituted through cash
transfers.
Finally, in my next slide, We should not forget,
students who
are worried, because they cannot take their
national examinations
Or, the frontline health workers, who have
had to deal with patients and deaths that
occur in their facilities.
These groups need proper psychosocial support
to cushion them, and therefore, as we discuss,
the issues, and -- the
effect of COVID-19, I hope that, you know,
these are some of the areas that we can look
at, as anthropologists, in order to
generate further discussion, and interventions.
Thank you.
[Transmission concluded]
Kristin Hedges: Thank you so much. Isaac,
so just as a as a reminder, if you're joining
us late, Isaac did his recording, he prerecorded
that.
Due to the time difference So he is not on
live with us, but we will, be able to answer,
any questions, that you have, for Isaac, we'll
be posting them to the Community's platform
after this webinar.
And a few questions, were brought up in the
chat. The --
The recording will be available and the slides
will be available. So next up, we have, Suman
Chakrabarty
>> Suman Chakrabarty:
>> Kristin Hedges: Are you still there?
>> Suman Chakrabarty: Yes, yes.
>> Kristin Hedges: I'll pass it to you.
>> Suman Chakrabarty: Thank you, Kristin,
and this is my first.
Presentation, to -- a webinar.
So, let me begin with -- one story.
During -- which I perceived my Ph. D. Work.
I stayed inside the forested areas of several
installments for the last at least three years.
So at the beginning, of my fieldwork.
I roots, consumed by the tribal people, now,
initially.
I have been known to take this route, because
I do not know what kind of things are --
Have been embedded in the particular root,
but they assured me if you consume this root,
it is very, beneficial for your survival.
So later, when I analyzed this root for my
own understanding, I got this root contains,
21% carbohydrate, and.
Other properties, that is the beauty, where
the.
The food habits and daily life, and also how
different kind of medicines embedded in the
population in India.
In that particular context, I am try to conceptualize,
COVID-19, takes unprecedented conditions throughout
the world.
And there are no exceptions. In the view of
the meckical student of medical anthropology,
I am trying to conceptualize these things.
So when you began to talk of the COVID-19,
cases in India, we have to understand what
kind of.
Cultural diversities in India.
So.
In India we have different cultural cities,
and in which we have largest one, and we have
the minorities.
Next please, so within -- next please.
The Hinduism, they have the patriarchy nature.
And please -- reverse, please, reverse please,
yes.
And we have the -- the Hinduism, indeed embedded.
Which already, are have existed in Indian
culture.
And you see that there's untouchability, also
that's there.
I have the different kinds of stories throughout
my fieldwork, last 15 to 16 years.
So if I get the time, I will share with you
later.
Now, apart from the big caste group and different
culture group, another cultural group, that
is the indigenous group we-
-- we call these the tribal group in India,
the population is composed only 8.6% of the
total population of India.
But this 8.6%, had deep connections with nature,
consist of 75 tribal groups.
And apart from that within the 75 different
tribes we have the 75 tribal groups -- 705
different tribes, we have 75 tribal groups
so one of the criteria to particular, Tribal
groups is their populations.
And now the anthropological point of view
is any sort of populations, infected by this
-- infected by this, COVID-19.
The population, maybe -- may wipe out in a
shorter period of time, we have to keep that
in mind.
So in that particular context --
next please, in that that particular context
another major problem in India is migratory
level.
You see that migratory level comes from the
northeastern part of India, to travel to the
southern part of India. So there's a huge
differences existing
Migrations are come from the west Bengal -- all
things are going -- going simultaneously,
with the way of life.
Apart from that, you see that in a single
village in northern part of Bengal, 11.43%
of the youth are from the Rabha
tribal village. 25th of March, huge rush of
travel, migratory level from the capital,
The different capitals of India, to their
own villages. So that is an important part,
and social distancing, So in
that particular context, next please -- you
have different disparity in the poverty levels.
There's different disparity in socioeconomic
inequities there.
Next please, disparity, between, the -- the
educational attainment in the state. You see
both of these states, Kerala west Bengal,
have a higher educational level If you go
into deeper
understand, you see, the tribal people, majority
of the tribal people in India, that --
exchange of ideas is not so high. So the people,
are high -- human population index and all
of these things are important in the context
of India as a whole.
Yes, now the important thing, I captured,
this -- photograph, 14th or 13th of April,
from the Internet, and I can see, there's
a huge COVID-19 cases in
Western part of India, compared with the northeastern
and eastern part of India. Though, the COVID
case, first, was reported in 13 in January.
The screening of inairports that's a long
time. In between that particular. There's
no such cases, no such measures, I think,
maybe,
offered in this particular kind. The first
study, in 25th March and second lockdown started,
15, 15, 14, April.
So there's a time frame, where, in the lockdown,
there's a rise of the prevalence Prevalence
of the COVID-19, in the different states.
Now, apart from
that, there is a --
there's a -- heart of transportation, railways,
so into the 25th or 22nd or 24th of March,
this is stopping of the --
heart of the Indian communications so it also
hampered the -- transferred the migratory
level from the place of work to the origins.
Next please, next please, now, the Indian
health system is very important in the context
of
public healthcare systems. So we have the
-- the national health, block level, we are
doing a lot of models,
in state governments, no things -- no --
hesitation, going on, in the particular, action.
But the thing is, how this information, analyzed
from the national level to the block levels
-- it is very important And is in fact, the
cause
next please, the -- huge number of initiatives
taking by the central government of India.
We see that they have
the Sanskrit word of bridge of healthcare
systems
And I have already downloaded this app in
my -- in my mobile.
And from my mobile, now, the cases, 12,759
And recovered cases
1,515.00
420 disease. Now, in west Bengal, it's 231,
recovered 42, and
-- in the context of Indian populations, this
is very small cases, that, affected by the
--
by the -- things.
By by by by by COVID-19. Now, this is the
phase of Indian initiatives, the face of him,
trying to give
basic understanding through the video link,
you can get it from myIndia.com, and Modi
is there,
And has repeatedly, become, the
national -- he comes on television and get
the -- gives the lectures. Next please.
Now, what are the different min stairial and
nodal agencies they are green. So there's
the ministry of health, doing their jobs,
They are giving the services the ministry
of Ayush [phonetic], we know that the Ayush
was formed in
2014, and they are -- full name, is (in Sanskrit)
this is all -- a traditional, And we are trying
to implement this sort of medicines,
the knowledge to the overall Indian population,
so there is a problem. So, see, there's a
severe equity disparity, in this one, paper
published by one nodal agency,
Medical research, in our journal, and also,
medical research, they have their own theme.
So I think nobody from the anthropological
backgrounds,
it is one of the important things that should
be taken into account. Though, I say they
have their own units, social sciences headed
by Dr. Babu, from an
anthropological background, India is also
consulting with different kind of anthropologists
heavily worked in the particular domain.
Now, what Ayush advisory committee, not giving
advisory for claiming COVID-19 treatment -- what
the important thing is Ayush advisory for
immunity, enhancement. Wildly important basis
for fighting
Fighting -- for the --
coronavirus, coronavirus infections We have
the -- different kind of yoga postures, different
kind of -- this is recommended by the -- the
different traditional healers, you know, across
India, they
form a group, government of India from the
AYUSH formed the group, and describe some
of those remedies.
How to boost the immunity, overall Indian
population, that is the problem.
Next please, next please, Now, the -- who
are the key soldiers, in the rural and remote
areas?
Because, 68.84% of the Indian population belong
to the rural infection, if the infection is
going to the rural population,
largest, then the accredited social health
activities --
ASHA, the connector between, the -- the villages,
that is important, how important the religions
are perceived.
State government west Bengal our chief
\minister, She she repeatedly symbolizes to
grow, the --
Awareness, throughout west Bengal, and every
day, she came to media telling what the situation
that's going on.
They have their own Web site and you can get
all the information, why
is it important? Because in why is Bengal
is important?
Because it is the international border of
Bangladesh,
and also is a with the demeanor part of India.
There is an increase of COVID-19 cases, in
the --
in the northern part of Bengal, or margin
of the borders, then, obviously, it crosses
across borders so that is important, and also
different states, are also,
also, the -- margin,
positions, so, for the transmission of the
disease.
Next please, in west Bengal, educational lockdown
is going on.
Government decided to promote the students,
up to class 8, because a lockdown is going
on, all the educational institutions are closed.
So we -- that the online classes are carried
out by students of class 9 and 10, by involving
the media, specifically Different news channels.
Private schools are taking the classes through
the online mode.
So we see that two pictures.
One picture, where the the children are taking
the teaching, from, home, And from the private
schools, and this is a villages, we are also
taking the classes,
to --
to the online, and this is a different kind
of exposure from the students, and teachers'
point of view. So, I think, this is also,
available, very important things we should
learn lessons from the education lockdown.
Next please
so this is the local perceptions regarding
COVID-19.
Nationwide lightning in the lamp as proposed
by our power plant, minister Modi, 9 p.m.
for 9 minutes, this is an area in India,
And this particular, one of the important
temples, worshiping of the hare Krishna, one
of the important symbolizing place,
for the Hindu people but simultaneously, we
suspended community religions program for
worship, that were -- lord Sheba is there,
who suspended the community religious in one
locality.
Otherwise there is a huge gathering, happens
every year in the particular locality.
So that's -- those things are where we're
conceptualizing the severity of disease and
if we are infected due to the --
maintaining sort of the community, sustaining
community programs.
Next please, now, the lockdown in urban areas
city of joy, during lockdown, lockdown is
going on, shopping is closed mall. Next please.
Now, the thing is social distancing and physical
distancing Now, the people, the village populations,
70% of the --
nearly 70% of the population is living in
the village area, trying to maintain, even
though they're not conceptualizing the things
that are going on
Relief camp near border area, social distancing,
or physical distance whatever it is --
still we are not conceptualizing, though,
the police are coming in heavily,
By capturing, law and order in the village
areas, very
much trying, but if the people, are not coming
from the --
Part of this -- not conceptualizing the actual
positions of what kind of disease this is,
it's very hard to maintain all this. Only
really, what's going on. Next please, now,
what the indigenous people are doing, this
is a picture, I captured, from
this person, the sent me this picture through
the WhatsApp, and this is Santa WLSHGS, people
villages maintaining distance. And from the
Puruilia district in west
Bengal, two districts, heavily populated by
tribal peoples, and this is the indigenous
groups.
They're maintaining social distancing. And
social distancing,
is very encouraging for Kashi tribal peoples
living in northeastern part of India.
So while they have a better understanding
of what is going on, hopefully, the historical
understanding will also give some clue.
Next please, now, I captured, also, telephonic
conversations, the community northern part
of our -- BODO community.
Informant, Samar Singh thakur, I tried to
capture the
conception of the community, perception, regarding
COVID-19. What he said, is that they all -- are
aware regarding the COVID-19, but young people,
refuse to make the social distancing.
So even though they are knowing the consequences,
what is going on -- but, the cases are not
--
yet embedded in the particular community.
So they refuse to make the young generations
-- they're not so much bothered about this.
Now, third, the most important thing, when
he asked them, they know what the consequences
that are coming through the infections, That
they have their own traditional medicines,
they declared that they have their own traditional
medicine The belief in evil spirits, they
want to wait and see the consequences.
So
the people -- the tribal people specifically
close to nature, They are trying to see what
happens if the COVID-19 will arise in their
particular community. How different by using
traditional medicines.
And their age-old traditions that is important,
how they're connected.
Next please.
Next please. See the medicinal plant, for
the gangaseoli. And people are basically,
Primarily depend on these type of
trees, for their different kinds of diseases,
you see there's a different part, a different
doses, and different tablets related to this
particular plant. The thing is not only the
medicine, but also the people values, what
kind of value is added to the medicine, are
very important things.
So they believe in the nature.
Very good connections between, the -- what
are the usual prescribing, and what the medicinal,
indigenous populations are
Believing for fighting COVID-19.
Next please.
Next please, so what makes medical anthropologists,
in India, during COVID-19 emergency? To act
as cultural interpreter in the context of
public health care system, I do not
know, whether the the government are not capable
to adopt, Anthropologists to do with the healthcare
system, because if the COVID-19,
embedded into the world and tribal government,
obviously, there's a huge role for anthropologists
to act as a control, and because the acceptance
Of the community, there's a huge number of
anthropologists there, doing huge job, very
good job in the medical anthropological perspective
to look into the ethics human ethics during
the implementation, mass awareness.
So, yes, discrimination
is there, Discrimination, untouchability is
also active in Indian caste system from different
communities, we have to keep in mind, human
ethics is basically the primary
duty for anthropologists to -- we should look
into help the communities, decision making
specifically, who are in the cultural
transition.
So their stance in the dilemma, whether they're
taking the drugs, from the government or the
practicing their age old traditions.
So this is a very transitional phase.
I've done different kind of work regarding
the community decision making and Dr. Babu
also did one work and published in anthropological
review journal.
Tribal people who are living in the urban
areas migrated from rural to urban areas,
exposed to the urban settlements.
They are in the dilemma of what type of treatment
they are getting, because this is unknown
thing, COVID-19 is unknown thing. They're
not conceptualizing what these things are
going
on.
So -- [interruption in audio]
COVID-19 through theemic perspectives.
That is important, Policy makers -- knowledge
why -- why is knowledge important, unless
and until, you are connected with those things,
to intensify community participation is new
crisis,
important things With this particular note,
With that note, I thank you, Specifically,
the Kristin for inviting me and a picture
drawn by my -- our family.
My doctor, Because, last day after --
tomorrow, so yesterday,
15 or 14th, April, we crossed, passed bengali
new year, my doctor asks me How we can,
use our celebrations in the -- I -- I told
him,
that we may develop some kind of photographs,
so with that particular note, I invite questions,
if anyone -- for a specific purpose. Thank
you.
Kristin Hedges: Thank you, so much, Suman
Chakrabarty, for that, wonderful discussion,
and giving us perspectives, on different responses
from India.
On making sense of fear, and risk, and care.
And, and what modifications are happening,
at the community level. And I love the drawing
from your daughter!
So thank you for sharing that
>> Suman Chakrabarty: Thank you.
>> Kristin Hedges: We're going to hold the
congestion until after Jorge Benavides-Rawson's
presentation, so if you can hold it on, we
will pass it on to Jorge Benavides-Rawson.
>> Jorge Benavides-Rawson:
Hello everyone.
Can you hear me all right?
>> Kristin Hedges: Yeah, we can hear you.
>> Jorge Benavides-Rawson:
Perfect, so, as we mentioned, I'm going to
talk to you about a little bit first about
the general situation in Costa Rica, but then
we'll go more into, of course, more socioeconomical
and cultural issues.
About the response, and about the results
that we're having.
So next please.
And, please let me know if I go too fast,
I do that.
When I speak, even faster in my native language
in Spanish, so it could be worst!
[LAUGHTER] Jorge Benavides-Rawson: Just to
give you a situation about the area where
we are, which is in Central America,
of course, you know Costa Rica is the one
in the darker green, sorry. That we have the
-- the second-highest.
Number of cases in Central America, that the
graph on the side includes Dominican Republic,
and that's because, economically, we are
the country that is signed agreement with
United States.
But in the mainland, Panama has the highest
number of cases.
And this probably has a lot to do with.
The fact that they are, a hub for COPA, the
-- flights Costa Rica Central America have
to go through Panama and Costa Rica,'s main
industry is tourism as you may know, we receive
2 million tourists a year in a country of
5 million, so that's a lot of people coming
in.
And, in fact,
the first person who was diagnosed American
from New York, who was there as a tourist.
And then another, case.
Was a physician from abroad, and after that,
is when we started getting our first domestic
cases.
So far,
we have four deaths, No.
4 was announced yesterday by our minister.
Of health.
And that puts Costa Rica in a fatality or
mortality rate of 0 o.6%, quite low, one of
the 10 lowest in the world, and we're going
to talk a little bit why that might be.
On our northern border we have Nick Nicaragua,
pan American health organization here in
D.C., has expressed concern, about their inability
to confirm these numbers.
They are not sure, if it's --
possible to have such low numbers and the
way that it's been measured. Early on, the
government started, public campaign to control,
coronavirus that
included, massive or mass congregations or
parades of people.
So singing and chanting, and, again, the virus.
So we are not sure, of how the situation,
there is -- and that has concerned, in our
conversation a bit, it has informed it.
Next]please.
So up to yesterday, numbers from yesterday,
Costa Rica had 626 cases.
As you can see.
324 men, 302 women, for that, in terms of
severity: Only about 16 people are hospitalized
and 11 have required intensive care unit.
And that has helped and also the fact we have
prepared beforehand. I'm going to tell you
a little bit, in a second about what I talked
about with several participating doctors about
their preparation and how they're handling
this.
The majority of cases are in middle-age adults.
Few in children, and about 5% in elder people,
but as you can imagine,
the mortality is higher among that group.
The majority of cases, in the dark areas,
and the dark areas in the map are the main
provinces and have the highest density of
population.
San Jose, is the capital. Has the most of
the cases there.
And then alahuela a province next to the capital,
and it's, what we call, a dormitory town,
meaning a lot of people who work in San Jose,
live there.
So during work hours, you know, regular day.
San Jose could have about 2 million people
working there.
About 40% of the entire population.
So, in the rural areas, in the coastal areas,
we're having a lot less cases, which -- you
know, has to do with density of population.
But also, has to do with the fact that tourism
has stopped.
And those are the highly tour istic areas
of our country, now that they're not receiving
tourists, the instances of infection are lower
and also the economic impacts have been quite
high.
Next please, so the way that our government
has responded, is interesting to analyze,
because it also reflects a lot of, the cultural.
Beliefs and practices of Costa Ricans, so
the first case was reported on March 6th.
And very quickly.
I think the next weekend, the government suspended
all face-to-face classes in high schools.
And universities.
And by the 16th we had declared a national
emergency, and closed borders.
For and that the closure of borders meant,
that only Costa Ricans, and legal residents
could come in for a period of time if they
were abroad. But it also meant.
That if you are, a legal resident, if you
leave the country, after that day.
You will lose your status, not permanently,
but until the crisis ends. So if you're a
legal resident and you leave the country now,
you won't be able to get back in.
Until after the crisis.
Even if you have -- a document that says you
are a legal resident. And anyone who comes
in to the country has to go, to 14-day mandatory
isolation. Or quarantine, usually at home.
And number of flights have diminished drastically,
into the country, now, I think it's mostly.
People who have left, and there have been
some charters going in, and some commerce
going in.
But passenger flights, have almost stopped.
And the government also closed.
All the beaches, temples and religious services.
And this was early on, the government did
not
do this.
But it became evident that people were still
congregating in spaces like -- on the beach.
At bars.
So the government had to sort of put a hand
in there, because there was a little bit of
lack of discipline there.
In going, so all those spaces are now closed.
They increased fines.
For bars or restaurants, if they have people
in there.
Fines have gone a lot higher now. In terms
of religious services -- and this is -- I
think it's interesting because we are analyzing
this here in D.C.
And the Costa Rica is fairly homogeneous,
the majority Christian, and majority Catholic.
So the Catholic church has worldwide already
issued guidelines of not holding mass, et
cetera.
So that has helped, we are still looking -- and
this part of my research is looking at how
different faiths respond to this.
In Costa Rica, in the -- and the need to not
congregate.
I understand, from interviews I've done, that
some of the Christian denominations were not
as...
Willful to stop, services, and that's part
of why the government had to order the closure
of.
Temples, to make them do that.
The other one, the other interesting thing.
Is the vehicular restrictions as a method
of control.
Costa Rica is used to this. We used to have
restrictions.
Aimed at controlling, traffic, and -- and
air pollution in the capital. So before this
started, for many years, depending on the
last number of your license
plate -- you -- you cannot go, one of the
five days of the work week. That already was
already there. This idea of having restrictions.
So what the government did.
Was extend it, first,
it started restricting of after 5:00 p.m.
Until 5:00 a.m. the next day, so all night,
not go out.
Weekend could not circulate.
Then it got extended to only two days you
were allowed to. And that get particular hard
and hit particularly hard during Easter week.
Again, being a majority Christian country,
Easter week is an important holiday.
Usually, people don't work the whole week.
People tend to go to the beach for that weekend.
Thursday, and Friday, of holy week, are national
holidays. So people have a long weekend.
So it was a feat of the government trying
to --
restricting car movement was one of the ways
to prevent the mass exodus from the central
valley to the beach area.
Which worked -- there's two people who left,
but the majority of people did stay home.
The following Monday, so this Monday, there
was sort of, like, a pushback.
And a lot of people after the restrictions,
eased a little bit, went out and there was
a lot of criticism in the media, about how
many people.
Went out, but this has to do, also, with the
different socioeconomic situation of different
individuals.
And I'm going to talk about this, in a little
bit. But the obligation to stay home, cannot
be.
Followed the same way by different people,
under differing economic situations.
Let's see.... next please...
So as I mentioned on the 30th of March, the
government did pass, legislation, increasing.
The fines for violation of sanitary orders.
And on the 31st, it is important, the government
preemptively transformed the hospital, used
for physical rehabilitation, it was converted
completely, into a.
COVID-19 center.
They sent respirators there.
Different beds for isolation, not made for
severe cases, not an ICU.
So the point of this is to keep the patients,
who are, severe enough to need hospitalization,
but not those who require, intensive care,
for that the three main hospitals, the biggest
hospitals in the country, have set up their
intensive care units for this.
Some, I talked to the head of one, of the
hospitals, and what they did is they actually
split their ICU. So in one -- two different
floors, one floor is for COVID-19 patients.
And all the other nonCOVID-19ICU patients
are in a different floor of the hospital.
So far they have not maxed out.
They have not been full at all.
There's only 11 cases in ICU, countrywide.
So the country has not reached that.
You know, peak use of.
The hospital system, which -- in a big part
has helped in that, control of the mortality.
It's important here to note also, a little
bit of the context, Costa Rica has a universal
healthcare system.
That's been there since 1949 --
48,
sorry!
It's mandatory so everyone is part of it but
it also operates under private healthcare
system, private options and the government
has authorized several private labs to also
conduct COVID-19 testing.
The president of our healthcare system has
also come out, to clarify, that everyone will
be treated And -- in the epidemic regardless
of insurance or migratory status. He has been
very vocal
about it, People should not in any way fear
going to the hospital, if they have symptoms.
The -- the distribution or the information
that's given also by the government, and the
healthcare system, has been constant.
In our country, it's been the --
the minister of health, who is the -- who
makes all the policy for the country. And
president of the healthcare system.
Who have been pretty much running the show,
in the country.
They used to give -- long --
press conferences like in the United States,
every day.
Now, they're doing it a short one during the
day and a longer one, about three times a
week.
So they kept the community informed. A big
part, I think, a cultural situation here,
in terms of the response of the population
to the system,
Is an ongoing trust, that, the -- the average
Costa Rican has in the system. Critiques,
of course, sometimes you have to wait a long
time for elective surgeries.
Which, by the way, have all been cancelled
during this crisis.
But for the most part, as a system, people
do, you know, trust, The intentions of the
system.
And the -- the people are used to knowing
that it's there for the emergency, You don't
have a co-pay, so there's no Fear of going,
bankrupt, for having to pay high medical bills.
Which also, then, promotes more people, to
going to get tested with -- without the fear,
you know, of having to pay, a certain amount
for this.
Next please.
So now, I want to talk about, how, How this
has maybe exacerbated socioeconomic inequities
in the country, and how the inequalities take
part in the response of people to the measures.
So as I said, about roughly 5 million people,
poverty is 21%, but before the epidemic started.
About 1.6 million households in the country,
of those, and according to a -- Nacion, a
publicly-funded.
Accumulation of data and information about
the demographics And economic status, they
say 90,000 of those households don't reach
minimal children nutrition, before the pandemic.
9% of houses are inbed state, and 2% are overcrowded
already, Which, of course, as we know, overcrowding
will increase the risk.
There is an important socioeconomic divide
inequality.
You see the top picture is one of the nice
neighborhoods in Costa Rica.
In the upper middle and upper-class. The bottom
picture is a lower-income neighborhood with,
you know, houses Closer together. Without
Strong walls,
or leaks, some houses in lower economic areas
are built in -- part of the cities that flood
sometimes, forcing people to have to leave.
And... already, about only 77% of the population
is employed now. Because of COVID-19. The
increase in people losing their jobs.
In the formal area, but also a lot of informal
jobs have been lost -- people who work in
delivery.
Or, you know, drive things around, People
who have, you know, day-to-day jobs.
Also there's been a mass mobilization of -- Nicaraguans,
who work in Costa Rica. Costa Rica About six
to 7% of
the national population is Nicaraguan, and
Nicaraguans work in Costa Rica in domestic
labor, construction and on the farm areas.
And so those tend to be jobs that are, you
know, paid --
day-to-day or week by week, a lot of them
are not enrolled in a salary that gives them
certain access to other benefits.
And those are a lot of people who have larger
incomes, and, of course, a lot of people have
decided to not employ people who provide services
Inside their households, because of fear of
transmission.
Another, you know, worry here, then, of course,
with insecurity, has to do on the one hand,
with -- (food insecurity) not being able to
purchase enough food but on the other hand,
thecheck,
Affects of this pandemic in the production
of sufficient food.
So far,
it's not been terrible, but it is happening,
and there are already NGOs working on this.
I talked with someone who works, NGO called
Alimentalistas, food rescue.
They work with companies or farms that have
to -- are about to get large quantities of
food.
Because they cannot sell it.
And then they take it and bring to together
prepare foods or to distribute it to people
who cannot
You know, purchase it regularly.
Also, the socioeconomic inequities make Make
it so that a lot of people, cannot stock food
for a lot of days. So telling people to stay
at home, is not the same, if you have a middle
-income that lets you buy food let's say for
a whole week or two weeks, for your entire
family. Versus people who have You know, get
paid day-to-day week to week, and can only
accumulate enough food to have at home for
2, three, four
days.
Especially if their families are larger. Next
please.
Another big impact, and --
that's on education.
So, as I mentioned,
the president early on declared or sent people
to study at home.
But that has shown what -- the inequalities
and access to certain technologies are for
this, in order to continue, with...
Online education, as you can see in the top
quintile, of income families 80%, have good
access fiber optic or cable high speed Internet.
But when you look at the bottom quintile with
regard to income, Only about 37% have good
access,
a lot more people, rely only on their cell
phone to get access.
And that access is not constant.
I talked with a few professors, in the universities
there, and one told me how he --
of his class, he was with 9 students, figure
out where they were, they were not showing
up for online classes, Only able to contact
2 and those two, one, told him that, yeah,
I have
-- my phone, has Internet access, but where
I live, there's no Internet access so I have
to walk about an hour, because there are no
buses anymore just to get signal. And the
other student said, yeah, I do have access,
But, I have to work now, because my family
of four has a total income of about $200 a
month.
So, you know,
education has --
been put on hold.
The social gap in the expertise of educators
being able to use the technology, 7% of private
institutions are -- tend to have better outcomes.
The educators are used to technologies. In
public schools it's not the same, it has also
limitations as you can imagine, we will see
in the future, how these inequities, in education
access, will reverberate In future -- income
inequalities of people who are not able to
access education or have to drop out of it.
Next please, and concerning social distancing:
Curfew is illegal under our law.
Costa Rica, has big history of, patriotism,
abolishing the armed forces in 1949, And any
law that could give the government sort of
a totalitarian power has been taken out. For
example in Costa Rica, people in jail,
get to vote in every election, And curfew
cannot be ordered so the country has to invent
other ways, The restrictions I mentioned,
The country, the government has used a lot
of rhetoric, in similar to the United States
of patriotism and exceptionalism, urging people,
to work for their homeland.
We can do this, or we'll show the world how
good we are.
That's sort of the message that's been used.
But those perceptions change depending on
your income, again, for high, middle income
countries people make sense.
And you see a lot of shaming towards those
who leave the house.
But then in lower-income households, a lot
of these Might sound nice in theory, but in
practice they cannot stay home all the time.
Especially if you were in the informal employment
sector as I mentioned.
Next please, and -- last two slides, are more
an interesting culture analysis of The discourse,
analysis in the country. Here in the United
States you see a lot of metaphors used by
the government Or public health people,
we are at war, with the invisible enemy, healthcare
workers front line, heroes That's sort of,
like, the metaphors used to represent this,
in Costa Rica, Culturally that does not work.
We do not have a military. So the metaphor
that has been used now in terms of bringing
up, again, that sort of, like, Patriotism
or exceptionalism
is soccer, soccer, players officials from
the government talk about we're only in the
halftime of this game.
We are winning 1-0 but still have the half
of the game to go.
We can still win this game. We did great in
the world cup. We bet rich countries we can
also beat rich countries in this.
That's the sort of narrative --
the government is using to bring up these
nationalist ideas.
The downside of this is as I mentioned large
population of Nicaraguans, Work in Costa Rica
have also brought up a lot of xenophobia.
Increased attacks And discussion about reopening
borders and how a lot of Costa Ricans feel
about,
Particularly Nicaraguans and foreigners, another
neglected work is indigenous people, only
about 2.5% of Costa Ricans are indigenous,
because they don't live in the main cities,
so far they have not made the news, but they
are a particularly vulnerable population,
While they're getting some attention, for
example all the education, from the government
is done in six different languages.
Other than Spanish.
There's not enough of that. And last of -- to
end, on an interesting note, There's been
a -- sort of a cult of personality in Costa
Rica, with minister of health, the guy in
the center.
And, you know, the young good looking guy,
been very strong about this and he's gotten
quite famous, actually more famous than the
president right now.
Memes about him, About him being "Dancing
with the Stars", after this. Some already
made a bubble head figure of the minister
of health.
So I -- I wanted to end on this, and I think
it's an interesting situation, and also shows,
like, the sort of the cultural interaction
that people in Costa Rica, have, with politicians
but particularly with healthcare, politicians,
minister of health.
Usually in every single administration, the
politicians related to health are the ones
that are Greatest -- regarded higher among
the population in any poll. That is showing
up here as well.
And with that, I will end, that took a little
bit longer than I should have. And be happy
to have questions
>> Kristin Hedges: Great, thank you so much,
Jorge, enjoyed your presentation, and the
different cultural metaphors, the difference
of being in a war versus being on a team.
Thank you for sharing all of this.
We have about 12 minutes left for our Q&A
session, so we have collected the questions
in the chat. If you have other questions,
go ahead and throw them into the chat function,
what we're going to do, obviously, there's
lots of
questions in there we won't be able to get
through all of them, but with your registration,
for this webinar, you can use that same log-on
information to get to the AAA Communities
platform.
The link is here, but you also received that
in your e-mail.
When you registered for the webinar. And we
will take all the questions, on here the ones
we don't get to, we'll post them in there
and hopefully, if our speakers have time,
they can return and kind of answer those,
but it's also a
way to have ongoing discussion and collaboration,
in the communities' platform so we're not
just ending right here. We can keep having
these great conversations.
>> Kristin, if I can, we can go a little bit
past, if you want to.
It's up to you.
>> Kristin Hedges: We'll see if our speakers
are able to.
>> Okay, thanks.
>> Kristin Hedges: That will be great. One
was -- let's see, for Suman Chakrabarty, one
of the questions that came up --
and I actually saw you made a note we were
hoping to have a chance to talk to.
A few people asked about, yurvedic practices
and medicine in a response, and if that was
accepted especially considering maybe there's
roots in Hinduism and thinking about Muslim
and Christian populations.
>> Suman Chakrabarty: Thanks Ayurveda a one
of the traditional medicines and practiced
by Indian people long before. It started in
700BC, now, the thing, is
in 2014, when the government come -- the government
came, in the parliamentary democracy, in India,
then they revised this --
this ayurveda and put into the separate ministry.
This the ministry known as AYUSH.
So these kind of knowledge, have, the different
parts of India, the rural people, the tribal
people.
The Muslims are also, there.
All of the know what kind of things -- specifically
for the ayurveda Hindu tradition is there.
Basically they're using natural
resources, by using natural resources as remedies,
for medicines, but there's a clash between
modern medicines and ayurveda, no? All -- from
India, folks they know
very well, about ayurveda but the thing is
people are trying to get their results more
faster.
So when I did my work, into the -- forest
areas, the state in India, Orisa, the tribal
people, basically, they.
Know that, different types of hubs are different
for curating malaria, but never taking the
--
the sort of things, very, rigorously, because
it depends on the clore quin SHGS /* /* clor
quin, gives them better results because they're
going into their own
day-to-day activities, ayurveda is still there,
longtime tradition, people are accepting
ayurveda, but not in a dominant way, so ayurveda
is operating on a secondary level, of the
different high degree level of defense mechanism,
any sort of health problem in India.
In India, we have now, Bengal --
also, different medical colleges.
And we have also, different Ayurveda university
also.
The government has given an opportunity to
practice Ayurveda with doctors at different
hospitals, people are coming now, today, to
understand the beauty of Ayurveda chronic
disease is very important. So people, knowing
these things.
People are knowing these things, but they
are first referred to the other medicines
first.
>> Kristin Hedges: Thank you, so much for
elaborating
more on this. Jorge Benavides-Rawson, there
were some questions for you, thinking of,
Central America, thinking of Costa Rica.
And infection rates being lower.
If you were able to.
Maybe give some reflections on why, why you
think they're lower, and you did a great job
of discussing the strong primary healthcare
system in Costa Rica.
I don't know if you can reflect on if that's
playing a role, testing playing a role?
>> Jorge Benavides-Rawson: So, in terms of
Costa Rica:
I mean, it's -- low, in terms of worldwide,
but in terms of Latin America, it's high,
we're one of the four with the highest.
Numbers but the mortality is very low.
All the central American countries Panama
is actually quite high for their population.
As I mentioned, Nicaragua a little bit uncertain,
other countries like Salvador, Honduras and
Guatemala.
We did an early lockdown.
The countries, you know, early on, decided
to -- to close borders for example. And the
other reason is.
Costa Rica and Panama have the highest, burden
in terms of international flights. So the
other countries.
They're less-exposed to people from abroad
coming in.
So that was already a risk, as opposed to,
say, New York or something. A hub for the
entire world.
So already, that -- that aided in -- in that
situation.
Also depends -- countries who have bigger
rural populations.
The density -- the lower density of population
allows for lower progression of transmission
of disease.
You can also, see that, depending on, the
-- the way the different countries.
Have a majority -- a greater population versus
-- you see it in Costa Rica, where you see
two -- 80% of all the cases and the rural
areas have very little. So every response.
Early in Costa Rica, early sort of, like,
sending people to do telework and possible,
the government itself.
It was about five days, from the first case
and the president ordering the government
to do telework.
It was very fast.
And testing has been, good, actually, in Costa
Rica, testing.
People with symptoms as well, less restrictive
than, say, here in the United States.
So, of course, the absolute number is never
as high as here, but in terms of.
The number of people, with symptoms, and what
percentage of those get tested, it is -- a
bit higher.
The -- another situation has to do, with -- again,
healthcare system, organizing beforehand.
In terms of getting, aid to those people,
that doesn't mean, you just -- having the
ICU beds, but it means, the ERs, had a set
of protocols.
For receiving patients to avoid transmission
from one to another. My father.
Was -- in the hospital with pneumonia, nonCOVID.
He got tested, but he, himself told me how
strict it was, going through.
And getting tested and being isolated from
the rest of the hospital.
So very strong protocols are there, already
in place.
That seems to be, so far, what, you know,
we can think of in terms of -- of the -- the
reason for why there isn't that much of transmission.
And I think the general trust of the population
with the healthcare system has allowed that
even though we cannot
do very strong enforcement because of our
legislature, people do follow, for the most
part, the -- the regulations.
Kristin Hedges: Great, thank you, let's see.
Inspiring to hear, actually, hearing, like,
an early response, and a trust in the -- in
the recommendations of people, following
thanks for sharing that. One question, for
both, Jorge, and Suman Chakrabarty, one of
the comments in the chat, was, discussing,
the effect of this pandemic, that is --
You know, a global pandemic affecting all
parts of the world, the question is, do you
think that this pandemic will either enhance
that concept or sense of global community?
Or do you think it could decrease it?
>> Jorge Benavides-Rawson: You cut off half
of the question.
>> Kristin Hedges: I'm sorry, so the question
was asking, like, thinking of a global community
with this pandemic, do you think the.
Kind of the concept of global community, is
it going to enhance, where we're more united?
Or do you think, the --
it could decrease it because of the inequalities.
>> Suman Chakrabarty: May I talk.
>> Kristin Hedges: Yeah.
>> Jorge Benavides-Rawson: Go ahead.
>> Suman Chakrabarty: I can it would connect
the global community.
Because in the era
of globalization, we have to depend on the.
Different
nations in terms of the our living and also,
after the pandemic is over. So this pandemic
creates.
More understanding, more sharing of knowledge.
Of the -- like, in ayurveda in Indian traditions,
government is trying to disperse knowledge
worldwide. So how -- the governments are also
trying to see, different cultural backgrounds.
How they are perceiving Ayurveda in the context
of their own development and welfare. In my
opinion, a time will come.
When this pandemic is over. But the -- after
we get the new kind of, cooperations, new
kinds of.
#NAME?
>> Jorge Benavides-Rawson: I think, I'm on
the fence a little bit. So on the one side,
I do feel, this happening, again, but our
president.
A couple of weeks ago sent a proposal to the
WHO, the secretary general, actually took,
and he -- is using it and the proposal was.
That all members of the WHO, sign an agreement,
to openly share the results of all research
that has to do with COVID-19.
As an open-source, or create a pool of knowledge,
to do this.
So I think in terms of international cooperation,
this will help.
And also, you know, training systems of sharing
information, because as we know, otherwise,
the.
#NAME?
I think as an anthropologist, my worry, is,
the narrative, that many countries -- United
States, Costa Rica.
Are putting a lot of, importance on this idea
of nationalism, of we're exceptional. Of -- we're
going to be the best. At controlling this
disease.
And then that can create an issue of those
who don't do as well. We don't like them.
So there is this double-edged sword of -- of
appealing to people to control this disease,
delve into issues of xenophobia, or agora
phobia, or different ways of not wanting to
engage, with people of.
Of different nationalities, that's why I say,
I'm a little bit on the fence, on what will
happen after this.
>> Kristin Hedges: Yeah, going to be -- we'll
see where we do progress.
>> Suman Chakrabarty: Kristin?
>> Kristin Hedges: Yes.
>> Suman Chakrabarty:
Yes, may I -- may I give some answer for that?
-- the questions as given by Dr. Polanko international
development and social justice and human rights.
Can you give me the permissions to tell something?
>> Kristin Hedges: Go ahead.
>> Suman Chakrabarty: Thank you, she posed
some questions, No. 1, where you work --
working in India, eastern part of India, as
teachers and researcher in medicine, and biology
and anthropology, next community response
to COVID as I presented my
presentations.
So external interventions, yes, we have the
national level government interventions rights
right now. And the parent planning commission
of India.
The secretary of the planning commission of
India, he wrote one letter to 92,000 NGOs
in India, to come, and to work together.
In the ground level in the microlevel, rural
level.
Into the different basic level, and provide
them the food, provide them with different
type of equipment for protecting them from
COVID-19.
So the -- one of the NGOs came first, Gunch
a national based NGO working at very down
level.
The local practice, with examples, as I have
put, some of the examples.
From the tribal communities so far the data
have -- I have collected from the -- to my
phone.
So the contradictions, yes, contradictions,
there is no solid contradictions still now,
immersed so maybe the contradictions come
when -- if the COVID-19 cases, embedded into
the rural and remote populations. So we should
look into this matter very meticulously as
a student of anthropology, thanks, Kristin.
>> Kristin Hedges: Thank you, before we do
have a few -- we can extend a bit. But before
we do maybe keep going, I wanted to pause
here, and move to the next slide.
Just moving forward, I think there is -- save
the date for the 16th because that's today,
I think there is going to be an economic inequality
webinar coming up. So keep your eye out on
the AA's Web site for that.
All the webinars are recorded.
And then available on there, and I will also
post this recording when it's available, I'll
post it to the community's platform.
There also, is an open anthropology and new
volume that members from our group have been
working on, that just came out.
And the open anthropology, it takes, articles
that have been published within anthro source
and is able to open them up this edition,
pandemic perspectives responding to COVID-19
is wrapping in what
we already know, and what's already been published
on pandemics and how to respond. Please check
out that resource, I will take the links and
have them on the community's platform, so
we can have the slides.
>> We have about until 2:45, about 10 more
minutes.
>> Kristin Hedges: Thank you, Jeff. So the
next slide. -- so just in case people have
to jump off now, and then we'll continue on
for ten minutes, but I did want to especially
say thank you to each of our speakers.
To Isaac, even though he couldn't join us
live we appreciate him taking the time to
record, and to Suman Chakrabarty and Jorge
Benavides-Rawson for the wonderful presentations.
Giving us an idea of how people are thinking
of COVID-19, and responding, in your different
areas, and special thanks to everybody at
the American Anthropological Association.
Ed and Jeff and Scott and Gabriel, and there's
Mel, and I think Anthony helping with the
closed captioning and that was a wonderful
extra resource to have.
So thank you, so much for putting all this
together for us.
We can just leave it on that slide. And then
we do have about 10 more minutes for questions.
And discussing, some questions, Suman Chakrabarty,
there was one question on there that I was
curious, about, if you were able to respond.
And the question was in the past, small podcast
and measles in India -- that some have associated
that with.
Receiving Mata, and a question of, is there
any conversations that you're hearing, of
people, of having a similar kind of construction
of COVID-19? In that way?
>> Suman Chakrabarty: You are right, Kristin.
That -- the bengali people, I am of the native
people, we have connections with the measles
and basically.
The measles with the MAT A, so the mothers,
still now, the people are not able to conceptualize
what kinds of things are coming. Because the
symptoms of COVID-19, the flu and people.
All these people, flu and fevers and cough
and cold -- very common in -- in this part
of the world.
So -- even if they're not going to.
Doctors, as you know, in medical anthropology,
there's a separate concept of disease.
Disease and sickness, people are not even
going for these things.
But let us see, what will happen in the populations.
If -- if that is very.
Pandemic in nature, in the local population
as a whole. So, obviously, people have tried
--
they will try to connect, some of the deities
we have to link to this particular COVID-19.
I think so.
So, yes, obviously, there is some -- there's
a possibility, that, people are -- will try
to link to it.
Our mother Godesses with this particular disease
to try to impact particular things, you know?
>> Kristin Hedges: Thank you.
>> Suman Chakrabarty: Another question, is
it possible, to --
give another answer? Regarding the -- untouchability?
>> Kristin Hedges: Go ahead.
>> Suman Chakrabarty: Yeah, I would like to
share my experiences.
So one of my experiences, like, when I -- worked
around the tribal areas, in central part of
India, so.
I visited one village where the 5 pregnant
mothers were staying, no?
So, after that day, when I visited there,
we had different types of programs in the
microlevel.
Like, ICD, and they are the facility related
to pregnant mothers for money, for.
For food and all these things, then I just
-- the particular lady, I approached, whether
you visited this particular village, they
have the five pregnant mothers, and she said,
replied to me, there is no.
Pregnant mother. So I said, I even visited
the particular village why are you not going
there? I am not going, because they're not
untouchable groups.
So this is the basic things no?
So that -- that's why I'm telling that --
the -- the --
habits and attitudes of the peoples working
on the ground level is very, very important
in Indian context, regarding the untouchability,
whether they are going to the macro level,
each and every households.
And every persons. So I repeatedly, I -- I
first, faced this sort of discrimination untouchability,
throughout my career, up to the -- from 2003,
to 2020.
in this matter. it's yes, it's deeply embedded
concept and affect, and we should be looking
Kristin Hedges: Thank you for elaborating
on it disparities, both you and Jorge, brought
up education, and disparities of distance
learning which will continue, and reverberations
we're seeing in the U.S., COVID-19 having
a clear way of highlighting what disparities,
are already there.
So Jorge Benavides-Rawson, there's a question.
If you're still on, I don't know if you had
to jump on or not, are you still here?
>> Jorge Benavides-Rawson: I'm here.
>> There's a question about Chinese businessmen,
investing quite a lot in Costa Rica, and wondering
if there has been pushback in foreign investment
in Costa Rica, because of the pandemic?
>> Jorge Benavides-Rawson: I did not know
that part about the actual, like, investment
part.
January in general, the common -- the expressions
of xenophobia have been there just, like,
here you see it -- I do a lot of digital anthropology,
so looking at memes.
And message boards, and on people putting
things on social media.
But, for example I know that a lot of the
-- the masks and the equipment does come from
China.
So the masks have been sold there, either
in the healthcare system, but also, people.
For -- for regular citizens.
Those do come from China.
The -- in general, I would say -- and looking
at -- in the digital anthropology part,
while the narratives, of it being, you know,
a virus from China, et cetera et cetera, is
not as strong here, I think it also that has
to do with the fact that as nations we are
not.
Engaged in any sort of geopolitical fight
with China.
So that -- that -- that I think has led us
to not be as.
To have a -- that much animosity, but I will
not say it's on there, on the popular level.
On the governmental level, there has not been
any.
Issue or any comment from the government,
if anything, the --
the time the officials have mentioned on TV,
has been about telling people, hey, we're
calling this COVID-19, not anything else.
We don't do that kind of.
That's been it. I think for the general people,
but definitely not the government there. And
definitely not -- because we are buying a
lot of equipment there.
>> Kristin Hedges: Great, that's good to hear,
at least from the top hearing a pushback on
names, and xenophobia, ideas around that.
So one question that could be for both of
you and this might be our last one, we can
do, and then we'll put the rest, up on the
community's platform.
But one of the questions that I would just
be curious on, each of you kind of reflecting,
from different areas.
Is the extent to public health measures and
directives.
And -- if it's being used to kind of mask
maybe other government failings.
In a way that, if there is, you know, other
failings, of people, of it spreading in terms
of lack of testing or lack of healthcare providers
-- if the government, if the measures that
are being put out there, could be flipped
to views of blaming the victim, if they do
become infected.
>> Jorge Benavides-Rawson:
Suman Chakrabarty, if you want to go first
-- back home, what -- what did happen, is,
early, before this happened --
there was.
The government -- the current administration,
did have -- have been losing favor, so the
popularity levels had dropped quite a bit,
since -- when they won the election.
A couple of years ago.
So these -- the current management has helped
them, you know, gain more momentum, but I
think that's -- that's Those numbers are happening
all over the world. Most -- most --
it's sort of, like, a natural effect of it.
In terms of -- used to disguise other things,
I don't think so, because they've actually
been very transparent about that.
For example every day, in the graph I gave
you
at the beginning, is the official ones from
the government. They put out every day.
And it includes the number of tests done,
And the number of tests, that have -- came
out negative. So they do give the total number
of tests every day.
And how they're done. So I think it has helped
in terms of more helping the government popularity
wise in general; but in terms of trying to
hide specific areas of the management of the
pandemic -- at least not that I have identified.
If anything, it has done -- it has changed
a little bit, the relationship with it, though,
The administration sometimes you see them
as -- he gets angry sometimes when people
don't do stuff. It's an interesting thing
to see, but it's not common before.
But, yeah, that's what my take is
>> Kristin Hedges: Okay.
>> Suman Chakrabarty: In India -- can you
hear?
>> Kristin Hedges: Yes.
>> Suman Chakrabarty: In India, yes,
there is a question regarding the trust, and
responses.
So that, in -- back when the government of
Bengal one
of the states of India, is trying to build
some isolation ward in the northern part of
Bengal.
Then the local people came around, and they
shouted, for it -- to stop this thing during
the isolation.
Ward near the villages, so it is a good challenge
for the government also, masks.
They have to build clear strategies, management,
how to battle, the pandemic.
Where the -- populations are from the
rural and remote ones, 70%, this is very important,
for the point of
point of people understanding, so, how -- to
manage, the --
the -- 
it's important for anthropological perspectives
too.
So 
this is a great challenge, for the India -- as
a whole.
Kristin Hedges: Thank you, well, we are out
of time, but thank you so much for spending
-- spending this, almost, close to two hours,
with us, we appreciate you taking time out
of your busy days. We will over the next,
probably take a -- two days, maybe three days
to get all the questions put onto the community's
platform, but we'll be working in that direction,
and as soon as
the video, is available, I'll also put that
on the platform.
So that way anyone who registered but wasn't
able to jump on, you can have a copy of it.
Jorge Benavides-Rawson: Thank you everyone!
>> Kristin Hedges: Thank you.
>> Suman Chakrabarty: See you, thanks!
>> Thanks everyone, thanks Kristin!
>> Suman Chakrabarty: Thanks, Jeff, Scott,
for giving me the opportunity, to share, the
first, in our conference, in my life, so thank
you.
>> Entirely our pleasure.
>> See
you soon, next time (Suman Chakrabarty) thank
you!
