Category Archives: Germ Warfare

"[P]andemic preparedness must be taken as seriously as we take the threat of war."

That's according to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's annual letter published Wednesday.

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Although the Covid pandemic is still raging, the billionaire philanthropist has ideas about how the world can better address the next pandemic.

Gates, whose foundation has committed$1.75 billionin the fight against Covid to date, wrote that the world needs to be spending tens of billions of dollars each year on pandemic preparedness.

"I think of this as the best and most cost-efficient insurance policy the world could buy," he said.

Here are strategies that Gates believes will help future outbreaks:

At the start of the pandemic, the United States lagged behind many countries in terms of diagnostic testing capacity.

"By the next pandemic, I'm hopeful we'll have what I call mega-diagnostic platforms, which could test as much as 20% of the global population every week," Gates wrote. (In the past, Gates has discussed the need for more efficient tests, like at-home rapid tests.)

In addition to testing, Gates pointed to promising therapeutic treatments, such as monoclonal antibodies, which have been shown to be effective at reducing the risk of death and hospitalization from Covid. Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-produced molecules that mimic the immune system's ability to fight off harmful antigens such as viruses, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

The success of messenger RNA vaccines (both the Pfizer and Morderna Covid vaccines are RNA) is another reason to be hopeful. They "essentially turn your body into its own vaccine manufacturing unit," Gates wrote in an April 2020 blog post. And RNA vaccines are more versatile and can be manufactured more easily and faster than conventional vaccines.

The efficiency of RNA vaccines will only increase: "I predict that mRNA vaccines will become faster to develop, easier to scale, and more stable to store over the next five to ten years," Gates said in the foundation's annual letter. "That would be a huge breakthrough, both for future pandemics and for other global health challenges."

In early December, Gates said that there needs to be a team of 3,000 infectious disease experts whose job it is to spot and quickly address a pandemic when it arises.

"Think of this corps as a pandemic fire squad," Gates wrote in the letter. "Just like firefighters, they're fully trained professionals who are ready to respond to potential crises at a moment's notice."

"When they aren't actively responding to an outbreak, they keep their skills sharp by working on diseases like malaria and polio," Gates said.

There should also be a large scale "global alert system" that healthcare workers can use to log patient data, identify trends and ultimately pick up on a pandemic sooner, he added. (Smaller decentralized systems for spotting infectious disease outbreaks exist. For example, last year, the Canadian startup BlueDot used its artificial intelligence platform to pick up on a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China before the pandemic was declared.)

In order to stay prepared, Gates suggested worldwide "germ games," which are organized and sophisticated "simulations that let [experts] practice, analyze, and improve how we respond to disease outbreaks, just as war games let the military prepare for real-life warfare," Gates said.

Before the pandemic, the United States did not have ample experience handling respiratory outbreaks, which is one of the reasons the country's response was delayed and fragmented. Simulations could help train and prepare the groups of infectious disease experts.

"Speed matters in a pandemic," Gates said. "The faster you act, the faster you cut off exponential growth of the virus."

Check out:Bill Gates: Climate change could be more devastating than Covid-19 pandemicthis is what the US must do to prepare

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See the article here:

Bill Gates: 3 innovations that will help America get ahead of the next pandemic - CNBC

THE PRESS 160 YEARS is a series marking the launch of The Press newspaper in Christchurch on May 25, 1861. Between now and the anniversary, The Press will revisit stories from every year of publication.

Canterbury was preoccupied with an infestation of rabbits in the late 1880s. They were to the north of us and heading south. They were crossing the border from Otago.

It was even a talking point during an otherwise dry pre-election address by Premier Julius Vogel when he spoke at the Theatre Royal on July 19, 1887.

Stacy Squires/Stuff

This rabbit in north Canterbury is probably the distant descendant of those that preoccupied 19th century politicians.

He had been looking into this question lately, and it seemed to him that Canterbury was threatened with an invasion of rabbits which would reduce by one half the carrying capacity of the land, The Press reported.

He need only point to the examples of Southland and Otago to show the evil effects of the pest. Some years back these districts exported 46 per cent of the total value of wool for the colony. Now it had fallen to 25 per cent, and all this was due to the incursion of the rabbits which had taken place there.

READ MORE:* 1886: 'The weather here is fearful'* 1885: Temperance and the vote * New strain of virus welcomed in South Canterbury

In view of the importance of dealing with the matter without any of the delay which had taken place elsewhere, and which was to some extent responsible for the damage done, the Government had taken the responsibility of ordering netting to be brought out in anticipation of Parliament dealing with the question on an ample scale. He could only hope that they would not allow such desolation on the Canterbury Plains as had occurred in Otago and Southland.

Another idea had been floated at a Canterbury Chamber of Commerce meeting in May. How about using stoats and weasels to combat the rabbits? While some objection has been taken the evidence of a most reliable authority on the subject proves clearly that the nature and instinct of the animals will prevent them from ever becoming a nuisance in the colony.

As for germ warfare promoted by the celebrated inoculator Louis Pasteur and others, The Press urged caution in an editorial published on December 3, 1887: It is to be remembered that many diseases fatal to mankind have arisen from cognate forms in the lower animals. It is necessary to repel the invasion of the rabbit, but if the war is to be waged with microbes and sarcoptes cuniculi, the matter should be cautiously undertaken.

Continue reading here:

1887: The invasion of the rabbit - Stuff.co.nz

Grandma believed in germs. Or at least in germ warfare. She monitored our feet, swiped at our hands, assaulted our ears and boiled the canned peas within an inch of their lives. Grandma was out to get the germs before they got us.

A survivor of Russian Pogroms, shed never forget or forgive the twin enemies of life: Cossacks and germs.

As a child, when a Sabretts hot dog truck moved into our neighborhood, emitting its delectable odors of franks, onions, sauerkraut, I lined up. But Grandma launched her squat body between the hot dog man and her grandchildren.

Dead pigeons, she whispered. Dead cats, she hissed. Eat and youll die.

Weeks later, when Uncle Arthur gave me a quarter, I went by to the corner and bought my hotdog. The works, I said, then snorted it down whole and waited to die. The next morning, alive, I dismissed Grandmas germs. That is, until recently when I got a serious infection called C-Diff.In this time of hunkering down to avoid COVID, we forget that there are other germs that can make you die.

Germ Warfare begins:

Do not cook.

Do not open the refrigerator.

Do not touch the utensils that you my beloved partner use.

Wash clothes, towels, sheets every day but notdearest one, mine and yours together.

Clothesexposed in the hospital (leggings, shoes, toiletry bag etc.) must be summarily thrown out.

Wash hands to two rounds of happy birthday and knuckles grow raw.

Clorox assaults doorknobs, faucet handles and screen surfaces.

Stay vigilant.

C-Diff, not COVID, was the cause. My infection with C-Diff was a fluke. The blocked carotid artery that required surgery. The routine of antibiotics added to the anesthesiologists infusion.

The presence of a toxic C-Diff bacteria that lives in hospitals and guts, and the antibiotics that offset the normal bodily balance that may allow the infection to grow. Not my fault. Not a social failure, not the broken compact of shunning masks or dishonoring distancing. Not arrogance or carelessness and yet, I experienced my bodys frailties with moments of shame and apology. Sorry so sorry, I kept saying.

In sum, its been a difficult learning experience. One that made me grateful and humble with a dash of the paranoid. The experience of isolation and quarantine is hard to imagine, though, in this time of pandemic, we do imagine. To be restricted to a small space, to rely on a call button and the merciful care of nurses who probably have too many of you anyway, is more than sobering. Its traumatizing.

I salute the many heroes of our local hospital: the housekeepers, doctors, the three shifts of nurses, the ambulance crew that manipulate you downstairs and around curves and never lose a beat. My gratitude grew daily for the hospital staff, sheathed in suffocating PPE, who heeded my call button to bring meds, take my vitals, wash me down, bring my food and even take time to chat. Like that time a nurse attached antiseptic wipes to her shoes to Charleston across my floor!

All that competence and grace under fire and yet, during those five days, I battled an emotional landscape that swung from stoic to desperate: the endless interruptions of the night, the sudden awakenings, the blasts of light, the indignity of a body in the throes of the uncontrollable. Even with a family that rallied with every trick they had up their sleeve, sending selfies, loving messages and call me any time offers, I felt desperately alone.

There was a patient down the hall, I couldnt see but could hear perfectly, who screamed out her tribulation, I want coffee. Whats so friggin hard about that? Or I have to go to the bathroom. Whats so friggin hard about that? Protesting her situation with the madness of illness. While I remained submissive, but yearned to yell, I dont want to be sick, whats so friggin hard about that?

And now knowing from experience what I know, I can only plea that in this time of surging pandemic that you Dear Readers will take every single precaution wear your mask, wash your hands, keep necessary distances and do not become the one on the other end of a call button, when its all that links self to life saving care.

And what would Grandma Annie say now, long dead these 30years? Theyre back, shed say. I told you so. Shed say. Wash your hands. Better. Again. Then shed spit three time ptui ptui ptui and raise a small fist against the germs and the Cossacks.

See the article here:

The Recorder - My Turn: Germ warfare - The Recorder

We have often been warned, not least by the US, aboutthe risk of a "rogue" state acquiring nuclear weapons. But few imagined a dangerous malcontent like Trump would get his finger on the American nuclear button.

Its not as if Trumps nature was a secret. He promoted the racist "birther" conspiracy, aimed at derailing Obama, spouted anti-Muslim venom, and has given succour to neo-Nazis. He has normalised hatred and bigotry, trashed experts and science, and shown contempt for truth and integrity. It was entirely predictable he would deny losing the election, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and incite mob violence.

Our group was proud to protest during Trumps London visits. But despite his obvious traits many rushed unreservedly to cosy up to Trump and give him the UKs finest red-carpet treatment. It shows the fragility of our democratic systems and how easily someone so flawed can gain sway.

Nuclear weapons are no less inhumane than chemical and germ warfare, long-since outlawed. They are indiscriminate. Victims die, or suffer agonising injuries, in their thousands. The US is the sole country to have used them, twice in 1945. Only a rogue, a spiteful egomaniac or someone delusional would contemplate using them again. Trump is arguably all three.

Our planet is in a terrible place. Man-made climate change, environmental destruction, and now Covid. Trump acted recklessly towards them all. The worlds priorities are ripe for review. Nuclear weapons should be one. They are hugely expensive, unproductive, and yet another threat to life on earth. Trump makes the unimaginable frighteningly imaginable.

Nuclear disarmament should not be a party-political issue. The UK signed up to the Non-proliferation Treaty in 1968, along with the US and other nuclear states. It has been ratified by most countries. All signatories undertake to pursue negotiation with a view to full disarmament. The governments commitment to renewing the Trident weapon system flies in the face of this.

Taking Trumps finger off the button has been a close call. To borrow from the Bible, surely now is the time to beat swords into ploughshares".

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Paul Kaufman on Trump and nuclear weapons - Newham Recorder

On July 17, 2020, the well-known civil rights activist and Supreme Court lawyer Nandita Haksar, in an article (Stranger than fiction: Did the CIA conduct secret mosquito experiments in India in the 1970s?), posed a question: Is scientific collaboration a battle between politics for profits and politics for the people? As the daughter of the late P.N. Haksar, a distinguished bureaucrat, Planning Commission member and Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi , she was aware of the controversial closing down of the Genetic Control of Mosquitoes Unit (GCMU) under the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). She says: It was in this room that I heard many stories of covert operations. That day, a young journalist came by and told my father of a strange experiment with mosquitoes being conducted right near Palam airport, as Delhi airport was then called. The man said it was an experiment on yellow fever. But we dont have yellow fever in India, my father had exclaimed. The journalist said that this was exactly his point. He claimed it was a part of a biological warfare experiment. We all sat in shocked silence. The journalist, Chakravarthi Raghavan, went on to head the Press Trust of India (PTI). Dr K.S. Jayaraman, who did the investigations, was also no ordinary correspondent. With a PhD in nuclear physics from a university in the United States and journalism as an elective subject, he had resigned his government job as a scientist and joined PTI as its Chief Science Reporter.

The entire story of how the GCMU, established in 1970 by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to study the genetic control of mosquitoes, had to close down in 1975 is now forgotten. The guidelines issued by a committee of learned scientists such as Prof. M.S. Swaminathan and Prof. M.G.K. Menon in 1975 on international scientific collaboration have also been forgotten. As a scientist with the GCMU, and with fading memories today at 91, I would reminisce on what happened .

The funding of the GCMU project was entirely from the PL 480 Funds [Public Law 480 established for U.S. distribution of foreign aid] in rupees left with the U.S. Embassy; it was an all American funding managed by the WHO. It was a lopsided collaboration between the two, with the WHO administering through its representative (Dr R. Pal) all aspects of the project and the ICMR paying only the salaries of the Indian staff recruited. There was an agreement between the WHO and the ICMR, and a separate agreement between the WHO and the United States Public Health Service (USPHS); the ICMR was not even aware of it. Nor was the Health Ministry of India. The USPHS took all the policy decisions; a representative from Fort Detrick, the headquarters of the U.S biological warfare division, attended the scientific and technical meetings. The aim of the project, according to the agreement with the ICMR, was to investigate the possibilities of using genetic methods to control vectors of malaria and filariasis. But contrary to the spirit of the agreement, no work was done on Anopheles stephensi, the urban malaria vector prevalent in Delhi. Extensive studies, however, were carried out on the filariasis vector Culex quinquifasciatus although there was no filariasis in Delhi. There was also undue emphasis on the work on Aedes aegypti, the dangerous vector of yellow fever though the disease was not prevalent in India. Thus, right from the beginning, the policy was flawed.

First of all, why was Delhi, which was not endemic for either malaria or filariasis, selected for locating the GCMU. The late Dr N.G.S. Raghavan, an authority on filariasis and Director of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), was quoted by the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament to have questioned the rationale for locating the centre in Delhi. Was it because of its proximity to the defence establishments? Obviously, the NICD was never consulted. This was surprising since the NICD, the successor to the Malaria Institute of India (MII), was a premier Central government research institute with branches all over India. Moreover, the WHO representative in the GCMU (Dr Pal) and person in charge of all operations was a Malaria Inspector at MII for many years before he joined the WHO even as he kept his lien on his position at the MII. (It may be noted that his lien for more than 10 years was against the rules and it was terminated only in 1975 while an inquiry was held on the GCMUs work.)

The GCMU carried out extensive studies by mass rearing, with automation, of millions of Culex quinquifasciatus (Cq) mosquitoes and chemosterilising supposed-to-be males using the drug thiotepa (and also irradiation). The unit developed a mechanical gadget for separation of males and females at the pupal stage itself. The males were then released in many villages around Delhi. The released males were to compete with indigenous males and mate with the wild females, which in due course would lay sterile eggs. But the ecologists in the project showed that (i) the released males were not competitive in many aspects with the wild males and therefore not able to induce 100 per cent sterility in the wild mosquito population. (ii) The separation of sexes at the pupal stage was not very effective, and the female contamination rate was about 3-5 per cent. That means, at every release, there were thousands of females among the released males, and which bit humans. This is because the sexual dimorphism in the size of the male and female pupae was not very distinct. (iii) Other methods like irradiation were adopted and cytoplasmically incompatible Cq mosquitoes were also released. The latter method developed by a German scientist, Hans Laven, was later found to be a flop as it was shown that the so-called incompatibility was due to the presence of a rickettsial infection and could be cured by treating the animals on which the mosquitoes are fed with tetracycline. (iv) There were, however, noteworthy and extensive field studies on the ecology, behaviour and population dynamics of the filarial mosquito, Culex. (v) Finally, undue emphasis and extensive work was done on Aedes aegypti.

Why were detailed studies undertaken on the yellow fever vector, Aedes aegypti, when India did not have yellow fever? An unclassified document from the United States Army Chemical Corps in 1960, describing its chemical and biological warfare efforts, revealed: In 1953, the Biological Warfare (BW) Laboratories in Fort Detrick established a program[me] to study the use of arthropods for spreading anti-personnel BW agents. The report cited the advantages of using insects and pointed out that they will remain alive for some time, keeping an area constantly dangerous. The programme studied the use of Aedes aegypti and the yellow fever virus. During the Cold War era, the obvious target was the Soviet Union. The report noted, Yellow fever has never occurred in some areas, including Asia, and therefore it is quite probable that the population of these areas would be quite susceptible to the disease.

Between April and November of 1956, the Corps released uninfected female mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti) in a residential area in Savannah, Georgia. It was learnt that within a day, the mosquitoes had travelled one to two miles and had bitten many people. A 1958 test in the same area confirmed that mosquitoes could be spread over areas of several miles by means of devices dropped from planes or set up on the ground. And while these tests were made with uninfected mosquitoes, it is a fairly safe assumption that infected mosquitoes could be spread equally well. Therefore it was significant to note that the GCMU had perfected mass production techniques and developed an automatic distribution of Aedes mosquitoes through a gadget mounted on a cycle rickshaw which could go into narrow lanes in a crowded city and release them in clusters.

But the seeds for a controversy were laid on February 11, 1972, less than two years after the GCMU started, when National Herald, a national daily from Delhi, published an article Science or Neo Imperialism authored by A scientific Worker. (It was later revealed that the article was written by a high-ranking defence scientist of Directors rank, who is now no more.) This created a flutter. The article highlighted that thiotepa, used by the GCMU for sterilisation of mosquitoes, was a carcinogen. Later, Blitz, a weekly tabloid from Bombay, splashed it in the headlines. Surprisingly, at about the same time, German News, a regular publication of the Embassy of Germany in Delhi, published an article by Prof. Hans Laven, who was with the GCMU, advocating the use of his strain of Cq with cytoplasmic incompatibility, supporting the views in National Herald. A panic button was pressed immediately, and it was reported that the Director General of ICMR requested C. Raghavan, the PTI Chief, to send someone to investigate the matter. That is how K.S. Jayaraman entered the scene. He made detailed investigations for 15 months and came out with a report in PTI on July 9, 1974, which was critical of the GCMUs functioning. Newspapers all over India carried it.

This created a sensation as it involved the WHO. Mainstream quoted Raghavan as saying, It took us nearly nineteen months of patient investigation, cross checking of all leads, and reading up a great deal of technical material, to understand the ramifications of various foreign-sponsored research activities in the country. Our main effort centred on the work of the Genetic Control of Mosquito Unit (GCMU), an outfit run by the World Health Organisation (WHO) under an agreement with the Health Ministry in the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and financed by the United States out of PL-480 Funds. The report further quoted Raghavan as saying, While it took us fifteen months to put together the story and issue it, it took the Minister just twenty-four hours of reading up on mosquitoes to dub the report tendentious, unfair, and misleading.

The matter was raised in Parliament, which decided that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) should investigate the matter. Raghavan said: It took nine more months of patient inquiry by the PAC before the PTI team was vindicated, and the Health Ministry indicted. In the process of digging up material to help the PACs investigation and present a picture of what goes on in this land of ours, we came across so much of material that perhaps would fill a book, and almost read like a thriller. The obstruction and non-cooperation of the bureaucracy in our attempts to get at the facts did not come as a surprise to us, though my colleague, Dr K.S. Jayaraman, who did all the legwork and reading and researching, was aghast, as a scientist, to find out that in the Health Ministry scientists and doctors could not freely discuss matters even on a scientific level without being afraid of action from the top. One of the top Indian scientists was also harassed for collaborating with Jayaramans inquiry.

For the first time in the parliamentary history of India, an adjournment motion was passed on a subject of biological warfare. As already stated, the PAC, headed by two brilliant parliamentarians, Prof. Hiren Mukerjee (167th Report) and Jyotirmay Basu (200th report), exposed many things going on under the auspices of the WHO and under the garb of international collaboration in India. They exposed the biological warfare angle of the U.S., camouflaged by the USPHS, in the GCMU and how contrary to the agreement between the WHO and the Government of India, work was done not on malaria but on filarial vector control in a place where the disease was not endemic. But the horror of it all was that there was intensive work on Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever and dengue vector, but not a vector of human malaria nor filariasis. Mass rearing of the mosquito, and a perfect mechanism for distribution of Aedes aegypti in every street of a busy city, Sonepat, Haryana, was developed for which a detailed map of every street was made. And just when the operations were about to be launched, the Indian Army moved in. There were many individuals and agencies involved in stopping the operations: Raghavan, Jayaraman, and an unknown entomologist were involved in the operation, with the active support of P.N. Haksar, Ashok Parthasarathy, the then scientific adviser to the Prime Minister, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the Army bigwigs (including the Chief of Staff). The Chairman of the PAC wrote to the Prime Minister on January 31, 1975 (PAC 225), asking her to set the best intelligence services at her disposal on this and other connected projects. The defence authorities also woke up to the articles in National Herald.

The Haryana government too intervened. On February 17, 1975, it reported to have physically caught hold of a GCMU official on the outskirts of Sonepat when she was there with the paraphernalia and was about to distribute Aedes aegypti in the streets. She was allowed to go only after extracting a promise that no experiments would be conducted in Sonepat without the Haryana governments specific approval. The Prime Minister then appeared to have intervened and instructed the Health Minister to abandon the project. The GCMU was wound up in June 1975.

Nearly five decades later, as one who was part of the GCMU, I thought it necessary to tell the story so that present-day policy planners and scientists are aware of what really happened, and the pitfalls of international collaboration in science and technology (Mosquito in the ointment, Frontline, January 28, 2018).

The PAC did an exhaustive job. It relied also on the reports of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). One former additional Director General of ICMR had also given many references to the PAC on biological warfare. The PAC said the WHO had been used as a cover for certain U.S. research projects in India having a bearing on biological warfare (PAC report 167 para 7.1.4). It upheld the substance of an earlier news report by PTI and charged that these and other connected projects had little utility to India but had biological warfare or other significance. It has been known since the beginning of the twentieth century that India is a country receptive for yellow fever. It has plenty of Aedes aegypti and monkeys which are excellent reservoirs for the yellow fever virus. Aedes aegypti and other species of mosquitoes present in India can spread the virus from monkey to man and from man to man. Despite these ideal conditions, yellow fever has not struck India. Indias vulnerability to a yellow fever biological warfare attack was known to the U.S. and Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Early in 1940 the Government of India had received confidential information from the U.S. that in the event of war breaking out in the Far East, there is the possibility of Japan resorting to biological warfare with the yellow fever virus (C.G. Pandit, Indian Journal of Medical Research, p. 1524). In the autumn of 1939 Goebbels, broadcasting from Munich, accused the British of attempting to introduce yellow fever into India by transporting infected mosquitoes from west Africa and liberating them from aeroplanes over Indian cities, the whole scheme being presided over by a high permanent official of the foreign office (British Medical Journal, Vol.1 (1947), pp.893-895). Shortly before the beginning of the war, an enemy agency actually did attempt to gain possession of a virulent strain of yellow fever virus (ibid). Viewed against this background and the tremendous progress made at Fort Detrick in the development of a biological warfare system, the experiments by USPHS experts in India gave a new dimension to GCMU activities on Aedes aegypti. Furthermore, the USPHS, which sponsored the GCMU, is well known to have maintained a close liaison with Fort Detrick and receives a few hundred thousand dollars for its efforts (Steven Ross, p.123).

The U.S. biological warfare laboratory at Fort Detrick had examined over 200 candidates, but the greatest biological warfare interest was attached to a few agents that included the yellow fever virus (SIPRI Vol.II, pp.37-38). Attention was also paid to an aerosolised yellow fever virus (Science, January 13, 1967). As early as 1960 the U.S. germ warfare programme had progressed from concept to feasibility and from basic research to development of a completely new and potentially most effective biological warfare weapon system. This apparently related to a combination of yellow fever virus and Aedes aegypti mosquito (SIPRI Vol.II, p.81). Techniques had been developed for infecting mosquitoes of this species with yellow fever virus and keeping them alive for a month. Research on entomological warfare was highly classified and none of the U.S. congressional briefings ever delved into entomology (Seymour Hersh, p.88).

In India the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) admitted that the knowledge gained by the genetic control experiment could certainly be used for putting virus into mosquitoes and starting a focus on a disease like yellow fever (PAC, p. 135-137). In international scientific circles the biological warfare allegations against the WHO-ICMR project produced mixed reactions. New Scientist (October 9, 1975, p. 102) said the allegations were far less ridiculous. It quoted a biological warfare expert as saying that the GCMU data would be useful if one intended a yellow fever attack on India. It said the Indian data might have been useful in finding out why yellow fever had not occurred even though the vectors and monkeys were present. But even the critics admit that the WHO-ICMR project concerned an area where there was an overlap of public health and biological warfare interest. But the biological warfare implications were either ignored (in India) or were not pointed out at all when the project was mooted and many of the scientists became aware of it only after the investigative news report in 1974 and the subsequent PAC report.

There are, however, some pointers suggesting that the project was conceived with biological warfare as the main aim. The Sonepat site for the release of Aedes aegypti was selected by the WHO and the USPHS even before the GCMU formally took shape. Despite objections on scientific grounds from the local institute of health (NICD), the site was not changed (PAC, p.191). The testing of foreign strains of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes for their potential virulence of yellow fever vectors was considered unnecessary by the USPHS and by the WHO virologist (Dr Paul Bres), who (coincidentally?) happened to be a former colonel of the French Army. This is strange in a scientific project like this, particularly when experts had warned that it might be extremely serious if yellow fever were ever introduced in Asia or the Pacific Islands where the disease had never occurred (Biological and Chemical Warfare policies of the U.S., p.411). Also of concern was the units reluctance to change the priority from mosquitoes carrying malaria (problem number one not only in India but throughout the Indian subcontinent and neighbouring areas) to its obsession with studies on Aedes aegypti. It is well known that this species may be playing a beneficial role in the tropics by spreading the flu-like dengue fever which, in turn, protects the population against yellow fever (Max Theiler and W.G. Downs, pp. 442-443; also C.G. Pandit, IJMR, p.1541).

Was the mosquito research in India part of a research programme in biological warfare which had been banned by world bodies but not from the minds of elite scientists and politicians? It is hard to say. But where the number of coincidences defies the law of averages they are not random occurrences, and probabilities must go the other way. Scientific espionage in developing countries is easy because scientists and scientific departments in these countries are starved of funds. Many of the key scientific figures have been trained in advanced nations which facilitates establishing contacts with would-be collaborators on a personal level. The inferiority complex and lack of suitable machinery to evaluate foreign-sponsored projects also expose the countries to evil designs of foreigners. Such an evaluation can be made by countries that are scientifically equal, but many developing countries are not in a position to make such an evaluation of foreign projects from security or economic angles, not even from the angle of utility to themselves.

The PAC, after considering the entire gamut of foreign financial or foreign collaborative research, recommended in its report (PAC, 1974, Nos. 167 and 200, pp. 209-210) thus:

Government should identify a set of scientific or operation areas in which investigations by foreigners or by foreign assisted programmes should be subjected to the most careful and comprehensive scrutiny on a case by case basis before approval is given for the initiation of the project. The scientific areas selected at a particular point of time would need to be defined in the context of the prevalent international situating and advances in science and technology.

To start with the committee would suggest the following areas: (a) Any and all aspects of oceanography and research related to ocean resources and our coastal areas; (b) any and all aspects relating to meteorology and weather, especially weather modification projects; (c) remote sensing by aircraft and satellites particularly for the assessment of natural resources; (d) areas in biology such as microbiology epidemiology, ecology and virology; (g) all aspects of toxicology of drugs, pesticides and other chemicals; (f) propagation of radio waves including studies aimed at collecting information about the ionosphere and other upper atmosphere layers over our country; (g) any and all scientific investigations in border areas such as Himalayan Geology.

The government should decide that all proposals for scientific investigations undertaken in these defined areas with the help of or in association with foreign organisations or with foreign monies from any source should be sent by the Ministry, agency laboratory or private institution concerned to a nodal point within the government for a comprehensive review and clearance. The nodal point should be a high-power committee of scientists headed by the scientific adviser to the Ministry of Defence but include and perhaps ought to include other high security agencies of the government. The committee desires that once this mechanism has been set up it would also review all existing projects or of the type mentioned in preceding paragraph. But as far as I know, there is no such nodal point in existence, and our various institutions are having, even now, many foreign collaborative projects.

The kind of mechanism suggested by the PAC could at best deal with security and defence angles. But it cannot really deal with internal haemorrhage issue. In any event, unlike India, many developing countries do not even have the necessary scientific talent to assess these issues. Perhaps a solution for Third World countries is to set up their own organisation secretariat or centre staffed by personnel selected for their integrity and ability and societal purpose and use its resources for looking at and advising Third World countries in projects and proposals in the fields of S&T. The United Nations and its specialised agencies could have been the proper places to set up a watchdog agency in liaison with the plans for transfer of S&T to help developing nations consult and assess foreign projects in scientific research. However the U.N. and its agencies like the WHO, structured as of now, are really controlled by the Big Powers.

Dr P.K. Rajagopalan is former Director, Vector Control Research Centre, Pondicherry, Indian Council of Medical Research.

References

1. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (1973): The Problem of Chemical and Biological Warfare, Vol. I: The Rise of CB Weapons, Vol. II: CB Weapons Today, Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell.

2. Hersh, Seymour N. (1968): Chemical and Biological Warfare, London: McGibbon and Keet Ltd.

3. Public Accounts Committee (1974-75) Fifth Lok Sabha, 167th report, and 200th report, Foreign participation or collaboration in reserve projects in India, New Delhi: the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

4. Cookson, John and Judith Nottingham (1970): A Survey of Chemical and Biological Warfare, U.S. government publication, London: Sheed and Ward.

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Biological warfare experiment in India and the curious case of yellow fever mosquitoes - Frontline

In July 1983, an Indian newspaper in New Delhi published an article alleging U.S. experiments were the likely cause of a new mysterious disease dubbed AIDS. Five years later, CBS anchor Dan Rather announced to millions of concerned Americans allegations that their own military might have been behind the deadly virus.

CBS News anchorman and broadcast journalist Dan Rather.

On that very day, a few KGB operatives in the secret agencys Lubyanka headquarters in Moscow likely praised each other for a job well done.

The story about U.S. military experiments that might have produced AIDS caught up slowly but eventually started spreading on the African continent and beyond like a bushfire.

Yankee business, not monkey business, Experts slam silence over man-made AIDS, AIDS is germ warfare by the U.S. Govt against gays & blacks! were only a few of countless headlines that appeared in the press all over the world, including the London-based Daily Express, from 1983 to 1987, before it eventually gained TV coverage inside the U.S.

"The story about U.S. military experiments that might have produced AIDS caught up slowly but eventually started spreading on the African continent and beyond like a bushfire."

A Soviet military publication claims the virus that causes AIDS leaked from a U.S. army laboratory conducting experiments in biological warfare, announced CBS anchor Dan Rather on March 30, 1987, to millions of unwitting Americans, who had virtually no way of verifying the validity of the Soviet report.

At the crux of this brewing international scandal was a little known local publication in New Delhi, India, as it was the first to link the Pentagon to AIDS. In summer 1983, the Indian daily newspaper Patriot claimed that AIDS was believed to be the result of the Pentagons experiments to develop new and dangerous biological weapons. It also asserted that the disease mostly struck Haitian immigrants inside the U.S., as well as American drug addicts and homosexuals, an implicit allegation that the viruss creators purposefully targeted marginalized groups of people in their sinister and inhumane experiment.

As it turned out, the story in the Patriot newspaper had been planted by the KGB.

Various departments of the Second Main Directorate of the Soviet KGB, responsible for counterintelligence and established on March 18, 1954, were marked in various letters of the Cyrillic alphabet.

A view of the general office of the KGB building.

The first letter of the alphabet A was assigned to an analytical department with an unusual task: to prepare and conduct clandestine initiatives and campaigns to influence foreign governments and publics, as well to shape perceptions of individuals and groups hostile to Soviet interests.

The agents in department A used to set honey traps, plant false stories and oversee their development in a way favorable to the Motherland.

Deceased Ladislav Bittman, who in a later stage of his life went by the name of Lawrence Martin, had been a KGB operative in department A before he defected to the U.S. in 1968. Bittman participated in many of the KGBs clandestine operations.

Lawrence Martin-Bittman.

At the beginning of his career, he established a whore house in Germany to compromise politicians and planted fake Nazi documents at the bottom of a lake to stir up anti-German sentiments.

During one of his last interviews before his death in 2018 at the age of 87, Bittman, a fragile-looking old man, did not hesitate a bit before he provided a sharp definition of disinformation his lifelong occupation and expertise, also called the active measures in the KGB circles.

[It is] deliberately distorted information that is secretly leaked into the communication process in order to deceive and manipulate, said Bittman.

Yuri Bezmenov, Bittmans former colleague at the KGB, who also defected to the U.S. in 1970 and assumed the name of Tomas David Schuman, claimed that over 80 percent of the money the Soviet KGB spent abroad was used to fund ideological subversion, a process that destabilized economic, political and ideological systems of the country in question.

Yuri Bezmenov.

In the case of the AIDS story, the destabilizing effect for the U.S. was imminent.

In 1981, a few employees from the U.S. State Department, CIA, FBI, Department of Defense and other U.S. agencies formed what became known as Active Measures Working Group (aka The Truth Squad) an interagency team whose task it was to counter Soviet disinformation.

Everybody was working part-time on the issue. We all sat around the table once every week or two, those who could volunteer the time to come in did, Kathleen C. Bailey, Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of State and a member of the The Truth Squad at the time, described the strangely laid-back approach of the U.S. government to counter the Soviet disinformation efforts.

The U.S. State Department Building.

In the meantime, the AIDS story started hurting the U.S. interests abroad for real. The allegations that the U.S. military bases overseas had passed AIDS to a local population of host countries undermined prospects of extending lease contracts for the bases. U.S. military personnel were compromised in countries like Germany, South Korea, Nicaragua, Panama, Turkey, Kenya, Zaire and others.

"The allegations that the U.S. military bases overseas had passed AIDS to a local population of host countries undermined prospects of extending lease contracts for the bases."

I was so angry that they accused the U.S. of creating the AIDS virus, because I knew how effective that was going to be as a tool against us. It angered me deeply. For them to think that [the U.S. created AIDS] damages their view of the United States, not only as a culture, but it taints all our policies. Its in the backs of their minds every time they discuss anything with us, said Bailey in an interview she gave years later.

In 1987, Bailey hosted a press conference at the State Department where she presented a report detailing the KGBs efforts to spread the AIDS story and link it to the U.S. government. U.S. image abroad is damaged and U.S foreign policy is complicated by disinformation. The primary origin of disinformation about the U.S. abroad is the Soviet Union, said Bailey.

Surprisingly, Baileys efforts had also been unwittingly supported by the Soviet medical community. Soviet scientist Viktor M. Zhdanov, who headed the Ivanovsky Institute of Virology in Moscow for 26 years, attended international conferences and gave interviews to mass media where he always categorically denied AIDS was artificially created.

Soviet scientist Viktor M. Zhdanov categorically denied AIDS was artificially created.

In an interview with Soviet publication New Time, Zhdanov said: Indeed, the most diverse views are expressed. I must say with regret that these were mostly the views of non-specialists. The AIDS virus appeared naturally and seems to be undergoing rapid evolution.

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A private hospital group in South Africa has defended itself amid an uproar that the man dubbed Dr Death practises from two of its clinics. Mediclinic said it could not stop Wouter Basson from practising as he was a registered doctor. The cardiologist headed an apartheid-era secret germ warfare programme. He has faced down numerous legal challenges over his work to produce drugs and agents to target anti-apartheid activists. Details of Project Coast emerged after the end of apartheid when it was revealed he was searching for a black bomb a biological weapon that would only attack black people. Dr Basson is also alleged to have provided security forces with cyanide to help them commit suicide, weaponised thousands of 120mm mortar bombs with teargas, provided drugs that would disorientate prisoners and looked at ways of making black women infertile. Dr Basson, who has been working as a cardiologist in Cape Town since 2005, was due to lose his medical licence after the countrys health council convicted him of professional misconduct in 2013. But in 2019 a judge ruled that two members of the disciplinary panel of the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) had to recuse themselves because of bias meaning the proceedings would have to start from scratch. Mediclinic Southern Africa was responding to a Twitter storm after Dr Basson was found listed on its website as working at Mediclinic Durbanville and Mediclinic Panoroma in Cape Town.

SOURCE:BBC

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South African Doctor Who Tried to Wipe Out Black People Still Practising - iAfrica.com

In October, Thomas Weiss and I urged all of us to keep calm in the face of what might be a violent election and transition season. We foresaw the need to say, among other things, that the military should affirm the rule of law and their oath to the Constitution. Sadly, the Joint Chiefs felt the need to do just that last week.

When President TrumpDonald TrumpClinton, Bush, Obama reflect on peaceful transition of power on Biden's Inauguration Day Arizona Republican's brothers say he is 'at least partially to blame' for Capitol violence Biden reverses Trump's freeze on .4 billion in funds MORE extolled strength to a nascent mob in Washington on Jan. 6, he wasnt talking about moral force. In militarized societies, the model of political change is often military. War is the assertion of might makes right, the negation of the rule of law.

Political scientists worry these days about democratic erosion, when the norms and institutions of previously stable representative democracies decline. We usually ponder the causes of erosion in other countries.

Democracy is, on one hand, democratic elections where the people decide who will govern them, and processes for horizontal and vertical oversight and accountability. There is also a deeper conception of democracy the norms of citizen deliberation, and human and civil rights that guarantee expression, inclusion and collective action. Democratic legitimacy depends on the ability of citizens to engage in public reason. The more democratic a society is, the greater the limits it has on the use of force both at home and abroad. We dont take out weapons to resolve our disputes.

Democratic erosion or backsliding occurs when democratic institutions, norms and values are gradually and sometimes almost imperceptibly reduced. Democratic erosion includes the decline of competitive elections, the reduction in forums where citizens can deliberate and form policy preferences, and the diminished ability for accountability. The indicators of erosion also include constraints on freedom of the press, which reduces transparency and accountability, the unchecked accretion of power in the executive branch, and the loss of civil rights, including the right of assembly.

Democratic erosion has various causes. Some blame power-hungry executives who dont want to give up power. The question, here, is why democratic institutions arent able to stop power-hungry elites who would concentrate power and economic resources.

Suzanne Mettler and Robert Lieberman, in their book Four Threats, also highlight excessive executive power but then add political polarization, racism and nativism, and economic inequality that prompts the wealthy to mobilize to protect their position.

War and militarism exacerbate all those things. But more than that, war and militarism are antipodal and undermining of democratic norms, institutions and practices.

At the beginning of the post-9/11 wars, we worried about the effects on our civil liberties and democracy. But after nearly 20 years, weve almost forgotten about these wars and have underappreciated their effect on our democratic institutions and values.

The urgency of war is often used to justify the concentration of executive power and deference to the executive in times of national emergency. In the United States, the trend toward the concentration of power in the executive was accelerated in the George W. Bush administration. John Yoo, working for President Bush, argued the legal basis for what he called the unitary executive theory where, in war, the presidents powers are essentially unchecked. Other officials excused secrecy and torture because the United States was at war. President Trump has continued in that tradition, acting as if the laws and the rule of law do not apply to him.

President Dwight Eisenhower is usually given credit for pointing out the dangers of a military industrial complex. Eisenhower rejected massive conventional forces quite explicitly because he sought to prevent the United States from becoming a garrison state: If the U.S. were to do so, Eisenhower said, we might as well stop any further talk about preserving a sound U.S. economy and proceed to transform ourselves forthwith into a garrison state.

Militarization is a perennial concern. James Madison warned in the Federalist Papers in 1795 that Of all the enemies of true liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. Madison worried that war is in fact the true nurse of executive aggrandizement that could increase public debt and lead to a degeneracy in manners and morals. George Washington, in his 1796 farewell address, urged Americans to protect their union and avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.

In war, fear is often part of the equation and fear may be deliberately heightened, threats inflated. We have been living in fear for nearly two decades. When humans are fearful, they tend to pay more attention to fearful information and think less critically. This can bolster groupthink dynamics among decision-makers who otherwise might provide horizontal checks and accountability for leaders. Trumps Muslim travel ban was, if anything, rooted in fear of another terrorist attack and racial animus.

Elements of our political culture also have been militarized. And, as Kathleen Belews research shows, veterans also flock to the white power movement and paramilitary organizations. Veterans are often at the forefront of these movements including the Air Force veteran who was killed trying to get into the chambers of the House of Representatives on Jan. 6 and another Air Force veteran who was recently arrested. Active duty military personnel also were present.

Militarized right-wing extremism emulates the military, even if the actors arent veterans themselves. It is no accident that many who marched in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 at the Unite the Right rally, who occupied the Michigan State Capitol in 2020, and who stormed the U.S. Capitol wore military-style uniforms, khaki camouflage and bulletproof vests.

In sum, we dont just have a right-wing violence problem. We have a democracy problem fueled by a war problem.

Neta C. Crawford is professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at Boston University and co-director of the Costs of War Project.

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The militarization of American democracy | TheHill - The Hill

Lower Manhattans Local News

Four Walls for a Few Months Longer

State Extends, Expands Eviction and Foreclosure Bans Credited with Saving Thousands of Lives

Above: Belongings of a homeless person. Below: State Senator Brian Kavanagh: We are delivering real protection for countless renters and homeowners who would otherwise be at risk of losing their homes.

The State legislature has enacted, and Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed, a measure designed to provide relief for rental tenants and homeowners experiencing financial hardship as a result of ongoing pandemic coronavirus.

At a special session on December 28, the State Senates Democratic majority opened a special session to ratify the the COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act. The measure, which had been passed earlier by the State Assembly, was signed into law on the same day by Mr. Cuomo.

The law imposes a standstill on residential evictions through May 1, provided that can document a COVID-related hardship. (Renters who are unable to provide this proof are still subject to eviction.) Also frozen until May 1 are residential foreclosure proceedings. During that period, both homeowners can offer hardship declarations in court to forestall a bank seeking to seize their property.

This measure takes up where a nationwide federal ban on evictions (imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in September) left out. The national moratorium was originally set to expire on December 31, although Congress subsequently extended it through the end of January.

The New York State bill was spearheaded by Senator Brian Kavanagh, who chairs the Senate Housing Committee. From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, we have understood that housing security must be an essential part of our effort to protect the health and wellbeing of all New Yorkers. By enacting this comprehensive residential eviction and foreclosure moratorium, we are delivering real protection for countless renters and homeowners who would otherwise be at risk of losing their homes, adding to the unprecedented hardship that so many are facing.

The new law was hailed by housing advocates, with a spokesman for the Lower Manhattan-based Legal Aid Society saying, this critical legislation which establishes one of the strongest statewide eviction moratoriums in the country will defend hundreds of thousands of families from eviction and homelessness.

The stakes appears to be significant in more than just the obvious ways. A December report, Expiring Eviction Moratoriums and COVID-19 Incidence and Mortality, from the Social Science Research Network concluded that the earlier ban on evictions saved the lives of a large number New Yorkers between May and September. The review used statistical analysis to determine that out of the total number of tenants who would have been facing eviction if no ban had been in place, more than 10,000 would have been likely perish from COVID-19 after losing their homes.

Matthew Fenton

Whatever Floats Your Boat

During Pandemic and Revenue Shortfall, City Hall Prioritizes Plans for New Ferry

Amid a massive budget crunch that may require laying off several thousand City employees and slashing services, the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio has nonetheless found room in municipal coffers to move ahead with plans for a new subsidized ferry that will connect Staten Island with Battery Park City, and Midtown.

Construction began in December at the Staten Island site of a new landing for the planned service, which was originally slated to begin running before the close of 2020, but has now been pushed back to the summer of this year, due to logistical complications caused by the ongoing pandemic.

Lower Manhattan Unchained

Questions about Whats In Store for Local Retail Point to Glum Answer: Not Much

Small businesses arent the only ones hurting in Lower Manhattan. Large national retailers are also shuttering their local stores in record numbers, according to a new report from the Center for an Urban Future (CUF), a public policy think tank that uses data-driven research to bring attention to overlooked issues. The analysis documents that the number of chain stores in Lower Manhattan decreased dramatically during the past 12 months, with a total of 63 national retailers shutting their doors permanently.

Vile Vexillology

Confederate Battle Flag Found Tied to Front Door of Museum of Jewish Heritage

The stars and bars standard flown by the army of the Confederate States of America, as they battled to preserve slavery during the Civil War, was found tied to the front door of Battery Park Citys Museum of Jewish Heritage (MJH) on Friday morning.

This Weeks Calendar

Thursday January 14

6PM

Landmarks & Preservation Committee

AGENDA

1) 17 Battery Place, application for renovation of existing entry and storefront including replacement of entrance infill and new louvers Resolution

Staycated

Appeals Court Upholds Order Delaying Move of Homeless Men to FiDi

On Tuesday, a five-judge panel of the New York State Supreme Courts Appellate Division affirmed an earlier ruling (issued on December 3), which has the effect of halting once again the planned transfer of more than 200 men from the Lucerne Hotel, on the Upper West Side, to the Radisson Wall Street Hotel, located at 52 William Street. This order amounts to a partial victory for both sides in the lawsuit, granting some of what opponents of the plan were seeking, while also allowing the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio limited latitude to begin implementing its proposal on a smaller scale than originally envisioned.

What Killed All Those Fish?

The dead menhaden fish that bobbed at the surface of the water off Lower Manhattan and throughout the Hudson-Raritan Estuary and Long Island Sound during the month of December are gone now. But the concern remains. What killed the fish?

Adit Up

Architects Propose to Reclaim Park Tribeca Lost Nearly a Century Ago

Community Board 1 (CB1) is supporting a plan to create a new park in Tribeca, within the Holland Tunnel Rotary, the six-acre asphalt gyre of exit ramps that connects traffic from New Jersey to Lower Manhattans street grid.

The husband-and-wife architecture team of Dasha Khapalova and Peter Ballman are proposing to create a constellation of small, street-level parks at the corners of the complex (bounded by Hudson, Laight, and Varick Street, as well as Ericson Place) which will double as entry points for a new, submerged central plaza. This plaza is anachronously known as St. Johns Park, although it has not been a publicly accessible space since the Holland Tunnel opened, 94 years ago.

Eyes to the Sky

January 4 17, 2021

Early nightfall and late sunup beckon to stargazers before days lengthen

CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS

Swaps & Trades, RespectableEmployment, Lost and Found

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TUTOR AVAILABLE FOR HOMEWORK SUPPORT

Stuyvesant HS student available for homework help. All grades especially math. References available upon request

SHSAT TUTORING

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NURSES AID

Caring, experienced Nurses Aide seeks PT/FT position.

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TODAY IN HISTORY

January 14

1984 Ray Kroc, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1902)

1236 King Henry III of England marries Eleanor of Provence

1539 Spain annexes Cuba.

1911 Roald Amundsens South Pole expedition makes landfall on the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf.

1943 World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to travel by airplane while in office when he flies from Miami to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill.

1950 The first prototype of the MiG-17 makes its maiden flight.

1953 Josip Broz Tito is inaugurated as the first President of Yugoslavia.

1954 The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation forming the American Motors Corporation.

1967 The New York Times reports that the U.S. Army is conducting secret germ warfare experiments.

Births

83 BC Mark Antony, Roman general and politician (d. 30 BCE)

1683 Gottfried Silbermann, German instrument maker (d. 1753)

1741 Benedict Arnold, American-British general (d. 1801)

1875 Albert Schweitzer, French-Gabonese physician and philosopher, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)

1904 Cecil Beaton, English photographer, painter, and costume designer (d. 1980)

1952 Sydney Biddle Barrows, Mayflower Madam

Deaths

1555 Jacques Dubois, French anatomist (b. 1478)

1742 Edmond Halley, English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist (b. 1656)

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The BroadsheetDAILY ~ 1/14/21 ~ State Extends, Expands Eviction and Foreclosure Bans Credited with Saving Thousands of Lives - ebroadsheet.com

The beginning of a new year typically comes with the usual reflections of the year just ended. Reflecting on 2020 is bound to keep us busy for a while.

In confronting what we can only hope is a once-in-a-century global pandemic, we were forced to adapt to massive changes in our daily lifestyles, almost overnight. Preparing to go to the supermarket became an exercise in germ warfare. Working from home was no longer an employee perk but a necessity for continuity of business. Seeing friends and extended family was suddenly too dangerous.

In the throes of shutdowns and quarantines, 2020 demonstrated just how complex and interconnected the world is, and the extent to which decisions we make affect others whether its where we shop, how we socialize or what we choose to wear (or dont wear) on our faces. The pandemic has renewed a recognition that, even in isolation, the choices we make have broader impacts, and that challenging practices and conventions designed to benefit the greater good has consequences.

As we begin a new year that offers hope of a return to some sort of normalcy, the renewed recognition of our interconnectedness will have implications for global business leaders as well.

Even before the pandemic arrived, the concept of stakeholder capitalism defined as the belief that organizations need to prioritize societal, environmental, and governmental initiatives that benefit all, not just immediate investors, shareholders, and executives was gaining steam. Today, corporate focus around ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) and DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) initiatives are rapidly becoming the norm.

Last year, 181 CEOs of large U.S. companies members of the Business Roundtable agreed in a policy statement that businesses cant flourish over the long term or appropriately reward their shareholders without investing in the stakeholders who make success possible. Prominent voices, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink among them, are now on record stating directly that stakeholder capitalism is the way forward. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has emerged as a lead evangelist for the movement.

But while there has been big talk around stakeholder capitalism, for the most part, companies have failed to deliver fundamental shifts in corporate purpose in a moment of grave crisis when enlightened purpose should be paramount, according to a KKS Advisors study published in September.

As we continue to grapple with the pandemic, alongside a deteriorating climate crisis, escalating demand for real social reform, and an ongoing, stark need for greater diversity in the workplace, chances are good that expectations for companies to deliver on their pledge to contribute more positively to society will grow. CEOs will face greater scrutiny as they are challenged to ensure that their organizations deliver more than just investor rewards, without compromising shareholder value. As this happens, leaders will be equally challenged with gauging and demonstrating the impact of their respective stakeholder initiatives. Doing so will require a rethink in the approach to measurement.

Why? Because measuring good, old-fashioned shareholder value is a relatively straightforward proposition. Corporations have a trove of real-time, historical, empirical data and established processes for collecting, capturing, analyzing, and publishing financial results. Investors, analysts, board members, and executives know where responsibility for financial operations resides within the company.

However, initiatives intended to affect broader stakeholders are more ambiguous, less obvious, and require input from well beyond the CFOs office. They are, therefore, more difficult to measure. The International Business Council has taken significant steps to provide organizations with a uniform set of measurement guidelines for progress reporting. After a year of development, the IBC presented a series of common stakeholder metrics at its Summer Meeting in August 2020, and secured support from a majority of participating members.

But even with this guidance, the onus is still on individual companies and senior leadership to ensure they have the capabilities and processes needed to measure their efforts and demonstrate impact. To do so, organizations engaging in ESG and DEI efforts must ask, and honestly assess, the right questions:

As stated, when it comes to shareholder value, there is no shortage of tangible, financial-based metrics captured by companies and accessible to investors and analysts. The data needed to appropriately measure stakeholder-focused initiatives will be different. Identify the data you will need, determine if you have the ability to capture it, and, if not, identify from where it can be sourced.

Whereas financial performance is the domain of the CFO, performance against ESG and DEI initiatives requires participation from elsewhere in the organization, such as human resources, legal, IT, etc. Determine who, within the company, needs to be involved to measure impact holistically, and ensure they understand their role and responsibilities in the measurement process.

In addition to human capital, determine if your organization has the technological capabilities required to appropriately and accurately capture data and enhance collaboration from disparate sources and corners of the organization. Can the new data streams be effectively combined with your existing analytics to generate useful and valuable insights?

You have the data, the resources, and the insights. Now what? Its time to determine if you have the ability to convert all this intelligence into actionable behavior. Consider the feasibility of creating a cross-operational role responsible for launching new programs, interpreting data, and, as needed, redirecting resources or implementing course corrections.

Time will tell if 2021 will be the year that enlightened business leaders with a renewed respect for our global interconnectedness and an understanding of the inextricable link between stakeholder capitalism and shareholder value will actually make a measurable impact. As we head into a hopeful new year, the organizations that act on their values will create value for everyone. Effective measurement will be crucial in demonstrating the impact of those efforts for all constituencies.

See more here:

Measuring Impact in a Complex and Interconnected World - Chief Executive Group