German doctors pose naked to protest protective equipment shortages

German medical workers is calling attention to the working conditions and protective equipment needed by frontline workers amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"Blanke Bedenken," shows photos of apparently nude people, some of whom are partially obscured by medical equipment, paperwork and other props, including stethoscopes, anatomical skeletons and even toilet rolls.

"We are your GPs. To be able to treat you safely, we need protective gear. When we run out of the little we have, we look like this."

As the coronavirus pandemic spreads around the world, healthcare workers on the frontline of the fight against Covid-19 in countries around the world have warned of shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE).

"Due to worldwide rapid rise of Covid-19 infection numbers the demand for medical supplies, such as gloves, breathing masks, protective clothing and ventilators, increased. This led to worldwide supply shortages," a spokesman for Germany's Federal Ministry of Health told CNN in a statement.

India's History of Ideas

 

Koi Bole Ram Ram (hymns from Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji - page #885) shabad by Bhai Jaswinder and Saathi

UK says India will manufacture the Coronavirus vaccine

India is among the largest manufacturer of generic drugs and vaccines in the world. It is home to half a dozen major vaccine makers and a host of smaller ones, making doses against polio, meningitis, pneumonia, rotavirus, BCG, measles, mumps and rubella, among other diseases.

The world's largest vaccine maker is producing 40 million units of a coronavirus vaccine on trial in Oxford.

Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine maker by number of doses produced and sold globally... Now the firm has stitched up collaboration with Codagenix, an American biotech company, to develop a "live attenuated" vaccine, among the more than 80 reportedly in development all over the world... "We are planning a set of animal trials [on mice and primates] of this vaccine in April. By September, we should be able to begin human trials," said Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of Serum Institute of India.

Pakistani artist Bushra Ansari on her Viral song ‘Gawandhne-Gawandhne’ with BBC Punjabi

Pakistani artist Bushra Ansari on her Viral song 'Gawandhne-Gawandhne' with BBC Punjabi.

 

 You may watch the complete song below:

How will the vaccine be shared fairly around the world?

Governments, including in the UK, are being questioned about how they will get to the front of the queue. How will any eventual vaccine be shared out? Who decides? Will supplies go to the highest bidder? Are rich nations buying up potential vaccines already? And what will stop governments from simply seizing vaccines made in their country?

Amid the swine flu outbreak in 2009, the Australian government ordered a vaccine manufacturer to meet its demand before fulfilling orders overseas. That November, after several rich nations had secured vaccines, officials from the World Health Organization aired concerns that disaster could lie ahead.

According to experts and industry, it will take at least a year to vaccinate the world from the moment vaccines become available. That's a 12-month queue, if things go well – after a vaccine is found. "The reality is that there is no process established for this," says Steven Jones, a Canadian member of a team that created a successful Ebola vaccine.

In December 2006, the Indonesian authorities refused to hand over samples of the bird flu virus without guarantees that it would benefit from any vaccine produced from them.

The potential problems have been spotted. On April 24, 2020, a parade of world leaders, charity bosses and industry chiefs, including French president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Angela Merkel and philanthropist Melinda Gates, united to back a WHO initiative to ensure any treatments and vaccines are shared equitably around the world. Dominic Raab also supported it. Yet just as notable were the nations not in attendance – the US, China, Russia and India.

Cross-Border Trade

Border trade specifically refers to the increase in trade in areas where crossing borders is relatively easy and where products are significantly cheaper in one place than another, often because of significant variations in taxation levels on goods such as alcohol and tobacco.

Border trade, in general, refers to the flow of goods and services across the international borders between jurisdictions. In this sense, it is a part of normal legal trade that flows through standard export/import frameworks of nations.

By definition: The buying and selling of goods and services between businesses in neighboring countries, with the seller being in one country and the buyer in the other country, for example, a company in the United States selling to a company in Canada. Also called CBT, international trade, and international selling.

Where border trade is done for tax evasion it forms part of the underground economy of both jurisdictions.

In Europe, residents of Switzerland and Liechtenstein who are non-EU residents can purchase many items in nearby Germany from anything from two to seven times the price they would pay for the same products in their own countries. Austria is also somewhat cheaper than Switzerland. Residents of Switzerland usually qualify for a tax refund on purchases made in all of the surrounding EU countries making cross border shopping even more attractive, particularly in Germany where there is no minimum-purchase requirement for claiming the tax back.

Between U.S. States

Although not crossing a national boundary, residents of one state may often travel across a state line in order to shop for a variety of goods. In some cases, a larger city or metro area in one state may draw a population in from another state. In other cases, residents may take advantage of more friendly legislation regarding restricted products, such as alcohol, tobacco, fireworks, firearms, gambling, etc. For example, a New York City resident may engage in illicit cigarette trade by purchasing products in a nearby state with lower taxes and re-selling them illegally in New York. Furthermore, states which have legalized recreational marijuana may experience a high-amount of out-of-state customers.