News — COVID

Community leaders in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria state say the government is undermining its own coronavirus prevention measures by allowing people to freely enter the country from Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

CoronavirusOutbreak Covid PorousBorders SouthSudan

Community leaders in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria state say the government is undermining its own coronavirus prevention measures by allowing people to freely enter the country from Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Locals in Yei River County, which borders both countries, say there are at least 15 porous entry points at Busia, Tamania Teletin, Bazi, Ondako, Esebi, Lasu, Kirigwa and other towns. Uganda and the DRC have small but growing numbers of COVID-19 cases, while South Sudan confirmed its first case on Sunday, a United Nations staffer who entered the country legally in February. The cases had risen to five as of April 11. Justoson Victor, who works for the nonprofit organization Yamora in the Yei River area, said South Sudan authorities and health officials are making no effort to trace people...

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That’s the last joke I told you before I was bundled up and carted off like my own little packet of radioactive material

Advice COVID DouglasMoser GriefAndLoss Masks

That’s the last joke I told you before I was bundled up and carted off like my own little packet of radioactive material

The truth is that your love has always been my hazmat suit, surrounding me, engulfing, protecting me from unseen horrors in the world around us. Funny thing about “last times” — we rarely know when exactly the last time we do anything will be. Sure, sometimes we can gauge it by the inevitable: the last time I will walk in this school, the last time I will sit at this desk, or the last time I kiss my mother goodbye. Those last times we see coming, and if we’re smart enough, we make the most of the moment, memorializing it...

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CharlesFoster COVID Ethics FeaturedContent TheConversationUs

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— By Charles Foster, University of Oxford To be clear, and in the hope of heading off some trolls, I would like to make two observations. First, of course I don’t welcome the epidemic. It will cause death, worry, inconvenience and great physical and economic suffering. Lives and livelihoods will be destroyed. The burden will fall disproportionately on the old, the weak and the poor. And second, these suggestions are rather trite. They should be obvious to reasonably reflective people of average moral sensibility. That said, here goes: 1. It will make us realise that national boundaries are artificial The...

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