Ships can be some of the most dangerous places for a viral epidemic to flourish, and even more so in the cramped, communal quarters of a naval vessel. Thus far, the COVID-19 pandemic has counted 18 warships from five countries amongst its victims. In terms of the total number of infections and deaths, it is difficult to directly compare this subset of the outbreak with the dozens of cruise ships... Continue Reading
In January 1919, an invite to present a lecture was extended to a leading German intellectual and political theorist Max Weber. The young members of Munich University’s Free Students Union had requested that he elucidate himself on the “vocation” of politics, with the added subtext of threatening to invite Weber’s nemesis, the socialist Bavarian President Kurt Eisner instead if he... Continue Reading
Up until April, the COVID-19 outbreak in Singapore had largely been kept under control, to the extent that it was considered one of the best examples of pandemic response in the world. By speedily rolling out measures — including contact tracing, aggressive testing and isolating potential carriers — the Singaporean government had done well enough to merit significant praise from... Continue Reading
“We need the masks. We don’t want other people getting it,” was US President Donald Trump’s defiant justification for temporarily halting the export of N95 respirators to Canada and Latin America. The decision triggered an equally blunt response from the premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, who said: “I’m not going to rely on President Trump, I’m not going to rely on any prime minister... Continue Reading
Tracing the ever-rising death toll of the COVID-19 outbreak to the exotic meat on sale at a wet market in Wuhan, China, probably feels a bit surreal. If anything, it serves as a sobering reminder of how, in our globalized, interconnected lives, a plate of dubiously sourced food can rapidly lead to packed hospitals, empty supermarkets and general panic around the world. On top of this,... Continue Reading
