What’s in a name? A look at the politics that is unfolding in India over the name of a COVID variant. Thread 👇1/n
Learning from past experience, WHO’s 2015 guidelines warn against location based naming of new infectious diseases in order to avoid stigmatizing the communities involved and minimize negative effects on nations, economies and people. 2/n
Despite the guidelines, many like Trump insisted on calling COVID-19, the “China virus”. In India too such terms are popular in RW circles. Zee’s English channel WION for eg, makes a point every time to call it “Wuhan virus”. Another eg is propaganda outlet Opindia 3/n
As the virus mutated, new variants emerged. WHO gave them names like B.1.1.7, B.1.351 and P.1. For ease of reference, many started calling them as UK, SA and Brazil variants. This included the Indian govt 4/n
Things started to get complicated when a new strain was detected in India and caused a massive surge in cases. Like the other variants, media outlets started to refer to it as the ‘Indian variant’. 5/n bbc.com/news/health-55…
Not just the international media but Indian media also called it the “Indian variant” or the “Indian strain” 6/n
The South Asian Journalists Association reminded news organizations against using the term “Indian variant”. They said like other variants, it could refer to it as a “variant first detected in.....” 7/n
The matter started to heat up when in its weekly epidemiological update of 11 May 2021, WHO declared B.1.617, the variant first reported in India, as a variant of concern. 8/n
Note that WHO didn’t call it the “Indian variant” but it was widely reported globally and in India that WHO has classified the “Indian variant” as a variant of concern. 9/n
India immediately objected. PIB issued a clarification that WHO has not associated the term “Indian Variant” with the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus in its 32 page document. 10/n
WHO does not name variants by their location. WHO gives an alphanumeric name to the variant and identifies where it was first detected. This is what it had done in the 32 page document. who.int/docs/default-s… 11/n
WHO also clarified that they do not identify viruses and variants with names of countries 12/n
Just a reminder that even though WHO had not associated country names with earlier variants, Indian official handles had routinely referred to them as UK, SA and Brazil variants. 13/n
But now all hell broke loose because a variant was being referred to as ‘Indian variant’. India asked social media platforms to remove reference to ‘Indian variant’ from their content. 14/n
WION of ‘Wuhan virus’ fame called strains first detected in other countries as UK, SA, Brazil variants and the strain first detected in India as B.1617.2 variant. International outlets were not so pliant and continued to refer to all variants by location. 15/n
First, there was an attempt to blame the name on a “Congress Toolkit”. Then, of all the media outlets around the world using the term ‘Indian variant’, BJP’s Patra picked two Pakistani ones and blamed it on the opposition for defaming India. 16/n
It’s entirely a different matter that some time ago, Patra was himself sharing articles that used the term ‘Indian variant’
Patra’s allegations were immediately countered by Congress by producing a document where the government itself had used the term ‘Indian double mutant strain’ in an affidavit to the Supreme Court 18/n
BTW there is talk that WHO is going to announce a new system to name virus variants - something ‘like hurricanes’, letting the countries of origin to pick a name. 19/n thehindu.com/news/national/…
But for now this controversy over the variant name provides a ‘useful’ distraction from issues that matter. Who said what’s in a name? And that a rose by any name would smell as sweet and a virus by any name would be as deadly....No, it’s not so simple! 15/15
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
“At a time when the world is facing a shortage of wheat, farmers of India have stepped forward to feed the world”. It was not even two weeks ago that Mr. Modi had made this statement in Berlin. Let us talk about wheat and our ambitions of feeding the world. Thread.👇1/n
India is the world’s second largest producer of wheat. But as we are also world’s second largest consumer of wheat, bulk of the production goes towards feeding our own population. Less than 1% of the wheat consumed in the rest of the world comes from India. 2/n
Indian wheat exports form less than 4% of the global wheat exports. While Indian wheat exports have grown rapidly in the last few years, claims of being a global ‘annadata’ feeding the world are premature at this stage. 3/n
Do you know how many foreign tourists visit India every year and which is top source country? There is a good reason why I’m asking this question. Read on. Thread 1/n 👇
In 2019, before the pandemic, India had 10.93 million tourist arrivals. Out of this 2.58m (23.6%) were from Bangladesh. In 2020, total tourist arrivals fell due to the pandemic but still 20% were from Bangladesh. 2/n
Bangladesh is India’s largest source country for foreign tourists. These are foreign nationals who visit India on valid visas issued by the Government of India. 75% for tourism, 18% medical and 5% Business/Professional. 3/n
Here is a reality check jhatka to help to understand Halal better. Thread 1/n 👇
What is common between these random items? The packet of Atta, sugar and a 3-minute snack are all imported from India and they are all certified ‘Halal’. 2/n
Companies around the world simply can’t afford to ignore the USD 1.3+ trillion Halal food market. Many products from all over the world are certified halal to tap into this market. 3/n
“The world came to know about Gandhi after a film was made on his life by a foreigner in 1982”. Really? Thread👇 1/n
In 1930 with the Dandi March, Gandhi’s popularity had surged the world over. 2/n
‘Gandhi makes Salt’ was on the front page of New York Times. The paper also carried his appeal for expression of public opinion for India’s right to freedom.3/n