Covid-19 continues to kill journalists, global casualties may reach 2,000 by end of 2021
Posted on October 8th, 2021
Nava Thakuria
Geneva/Guwahati, 8 October 2021 : The number of journalists dying of
Covid-19 are still growing globally, where at least 1830 scribes have
succumbed to the novel corona virus infection in 83 countries since
March 2020, revealed Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), the Geneva-based
global media safety and rights body. India after showing some
improvements in the last few months, once again starts losing media
workers to corona crisis this month.
The populous country witnessed the demise of three scribes because of
corona complications within the first week of October.
Bhubaneswar-based senior Odia journalist Vivekananda Dash died of
Covid-19 on 6 October. Dash (70), who worked for Janatantra, Sambad,
Eastern Times, Organiser etc, passed away while undergoing treatment
at a private hospital. Earlier, Kochi-based cartoonist C J Yesudasan
(83) died of post corona complications on the same day, who was
preceded by another Odisha scribe Satyajit Mohapatra (44) losing his
battle on 4 October to the virus infection.
Given the new variants, the PEC warns that the number of journalists
who have died from Covid-19 is likely to reach the 2,000 marks by the
end of 2021. ‘Journalists on the ground remain one of the most exposed
professions. The number of registered victims has slowed down since
June, but the vaccination rate remains insufficient in many
countries,’ said Blaise Lempen, general secretary of PEC
(https://pressemblem.ch/) adding that some politicians, also a section
of media, continue spreading false information about vaccination at a
high cost.
Till date, more deaths have been reported from Brazil, where 282
journalists lost their live to corona related complications. India is
just behind with 275 journo-corona casualties, followed by Peru (198),
Mexico (121), Colombia (78), Bangladesh (66), USA (61), Italy (60),
Venezuela (55), Ecuador (51), Argentina (45), Indonesia (41), Iran,
Russia (33 each), United Kingdom (31), Dominican Republic, Turkey (28
each), Pakistan (27), Nepal (23), Bolivia (20), Honduras (19), South
Africa (18), Egypt, Panama (17 each), Spain (16), Ukraine (15) etc.
During July, August and September, India lost only five journalists
to corona related illness. We witnessed the demise of only two
journalists namely Gautam Das (70) from Agartala and Syndor Singh
Syiem (67) from Shillong because of Covid-19 in the last two months,”
said Nava Thakuria, PEC’s India representative, adding altogether
three scribes namely Lairenjam Bijen Singh (45, Imphal), Rajiv Ghosh
(59, Kolkata) and Manik Lal Das (58, Kumarghat) succumbed to Covid-19
complications in July.
October 9th, 2021 at 7:15 am
Covid is unique on so many levels that it should be categorized as a new field of science. What stands out is that criticism is forbidden so I am constrained from openly commenting about it. What I can say is that Quarantines which were the standard procedure to deal with epidemics was not applied for Covid and Lockdowns which were never applied in the past for any infection, epidemic or pandemic was applied across the planet – the lockdowns have caused far more misery than any infection could possibly do. The last part is the odd reaction to covid and lockdowns where articles liberally discuss the impact of covid but not the lockdowns
October 9th, 2021 at 7:20 am
I can comment on two more aspects of this extremely unique phenomenon. The 6 feet of Social Distancing is supposed to slow down infection. I doubt it. However it is good for facial recognition by any surveillance. The Mask is supposed do the same thing as that 6 foot distance. The maker of the mask has a disclaimer that it doesn’t block pathogens of any kind and it cannot even block dust Yet it is enforced across the planet The only time public used masks during an epidemic was brief period in 1918. They proved to cause a secondary infection of Pneumonia. Dr. Fauci’s research paper supported this