Last Thursday, NBC announced it'll be doing a reunion episode of Parks and Recreation this Thursday, April 30,to benefit Feeding America'sCOVID-19 Response Fund.

Thanks to an inside source (who is 100 percent not Chris Pratt's dog baptizer), wewereable to get our hands on a leaked script of the special. It is WILD. (Editor's note: This is a parody, so read on.)

If you want to know all the nitty-gritty deets about the special, read on as we break down the scripts with this detailed recap. It is nothing but spoilers (not really), so don't put us on your list because we ruined things for you.

We begin with a cold open. Tom struts into the office, wearing a floor-length chenille parka. Except for Donna, nobody pays it any mind. Enraged that his sweet fit isnt getting the respect it deserves, Tom vows to turn the streets of Pawnee into his own personal runway.

People will be lining up around the block to give me high-fives when they see this, he shouts as he storms out. He comes back an hour later: It was a hit! I touched so many people both literally and poetically, like Babyface!

Two Days Later...

Perd Hapley announces that there are over 400 cases of COVID-19 in Pawnee. Nobody knows how the disease spread so quickly, but the town is in a panic.

Leslie fully activates her centrist Democrat powers and vows to beat this virus with 100 plans, 1,000 action items, across-the-aisle cooperation, and a little American can-do spirit. She convinces the city council to pass a stay-at-home order and close all nonessential businesses.

Unfortunately, everybody in town is written to be raving morons (like always) and wont cooperate. Ron Swanson is infuriated at this government overreach and vows to stay out of his house at all times. He walks within two feet of everybody else, shakes every hand within his reach, and makes a point to cough on any vegetables he sees.

Tom, feeling a little unwell but seeing a business opportunity, takes a meeting with Dennis Feinstein and pitches him on partnering up to produce a line of designer hazmat suits. Dennis instead convinces Tom to invest in Feinsteins Hand Xani: hand sanitizer that is 10 percent aloe vera and the remainder as liquid Xanax. Everybody coughs on Jerrys desk and touch it constantly because they're monsters.

Ann Perkins, the only useful person on this show, does what she can to fight the pandemic by pulling in extra shifts at the hospital.

Worried about his immune system being compromised, Chris orders a stillsuit that converts his waste into sanitizer. Ben tries to help Leslie sell her plan to the town by appearing on Joans talk show, but instead flies into a rage and ends up punching out Joan when she says that R.E.M. sucks. Andy, watching the show with a giggling April, mutters, Its not like it can get any worse, babe.

One Week Later...

Chaos reigns in Pawnee. Over 3,000 Pawneans are dead from COVID-19. Ron buries stashes of toilet paper around town. Tom dies after overdosing on Dennis Feinsteins Hand Xani and posthumously treats himself to being buried in a Gucci body bag. Due to Leslies stay-at-home orders, nobody attends his funeral except for Jean-Ralphio and DJ Roomba. Tears in his eyes, Jean-Ralphio empties a bottle of Snake Juice on Toms grave while Roomba plays Flo Rida.

April and Andy both get the virus. April seems to become even more dark and evil while Andy gets his brain super-sized and starts getting smarter.Chris has a plastic bubble built around him and his Peloton to protect his microchip from being compromised.

Ben scrambles to stop Sweetums from releasing a line of edible face masks while Leslie, in full-on crisis mode, produces a 2,000 page color-coded manual on stopping the pandemic. Nobody reads it.

Everyone in the office continues coughing, spitting, licking, and rubbing themselves all over Jerrys desk. He bears this constant, life-threatening germ warfare with good humor. Ann is too busy fighting the disease and helping people to waste her time with a B plot.Leslie, who is desperate for guidance, prays to Nancy Pelosi late at night. The silence of Nancy, like the silence of a merciful God, is deafening.

One month later.

A quarter of Pawnee is on fire. Eagletonians, realizing that their plan to literally throw money at sick people is failing, take refuge in Pawnee.

Diane and the girls are dead. Ron, broken and in the depths of despair, dyes his mustache black. After her beloved Mercedes gets infected, Donna empties a full clip into the engine and falls on top of the hood. She stains the pristine paint job with her tears. Ben receives a used Letters From Cleo CD in the mail and forgets to disinfect it. Leslie visits him every day in the hospital as he succumbs.

A guilt-ridden Ron, upset that his individualist beliefs doomed the town and destroyed all the people he loved, attempts to hang himself. However, the chair he stands, with its shabby craftsmanship, cant hold his weight. He weeps and begs God to take him.

Ben is dead. A numb and devastated Leslie leaves the hospital, leaving Ann behind, and walks down the burning streets. She finds Ron asleep outside a furniture store and lies down next to him. She dreams about a shirtless John McCain riding across the sky on a pale horse.

In the midst of all this, Andy has become a super genius. He has built a beer helmet that lets him talk to Bandit. He tries to get Mouserat back together, but the rest of the band are dead

Mark Brendanawicz returns to Pawnee as part of an emergency team sent by the federal government. Orrin, doing an archery recital for April and Andy, fires an arrow out the window and accidentally kills Mark. Nobody notices or cares.

Leslie returns home and is shocked to find Ben waiting for her. He reveals that hes Ben-Prime, a Ben from an alternate timeline who created a board game so complex, it opened a rift in the space-time continuum. Other Bens appear in the house from other timelines. The sight of them destroys Leslies fragile psyche.

The episode ends with a cut back to Chriss office. Traeger, injecting apple cider vinegar into his toes, notices theres a small rip inside his bubble. He screams in horror as the bubble collapses around him.

"The microchip," he shouts.

TO BE CONTINUED

We jump 10 years into the future.The U.S. government, desperate to prevent the Pawnee death-clap from spreading across the rest of the world, has dropped a giant dome on top of Pawnee and Eagleton. Chris Traeger, driven insane after catching a common cold, has transformed himself into a Randall Flagg-style satanic despot and rules "Plaguee" with an iron fist.

April, thanks to years of overbearing mentorship from Leslie, has become Chriss trusted aide-de-camp. She spends her days cheerfully typing up death lists for Chris to approve. April is jubilant every day now. Thats how bad things have gotten under the dome.

Opposing the dark lord Traeger is an underground resistance led by Jerry and Ann Perkins. Jerry is now a fearsome robo-warrior who crushes enemy skulls. Ann, still the only useful person in the hellscape, is hard at work developing a vaccine.

Leslie has retreated into alcoholism. A still-mournful Ron, refusing to be a joiner, hides inside the bunker and bides his time. Hopelessly addicted to snorting luxury shoe polish, Jean-Ralphio secretly leaks information about the resistance to Kyle, Chriss reluctant lackey.

Thanks to Ben-Primes time-shattering board game, more and more Bens continue to enter this reality and have become the new dumb and angry population of Plaguee. A Benleads a brutal attack on the resistance base. Leslie is taken prisoner while Donna goes down guns blazing. In her dying moments, she sees her 2011 Mercedes-Benz ML350 flashing its high beams down at her from Heaven.

In their darkest hour, the resistance is saved by Andy Dwyer, who has gotten so smart that hes figured out a plan to stop Chris and has come up with a way of sending all the Bens back to their original timelines. Ann sends Leslie to recruit Ron for a suicide mission: assassinating Chris Traeger by force-feeding him a double-patty bacon Angus slider.

Everything converges back at City Hall for the climax. Jerry rips out Kyles spine (after apologizing profusely), andApril kills Jerry by putting a spider in his inhaler. Ron succeeds in feeding Chris the burger, but dies from getting grazed by a tofu-laced bullet. His redeemed soul is borne aloft to Paradise by a heavenly host of angelic Tammies. At last, he can be with Diane and the girls!

Leslie, the newly elected president of Plaguee, sees that nobodys done any paperwork in the last 10 years and sobs uncontrollably on her John McCain body pillow.

Ann and Andy are both moments away from succeeding in making a vaccine when disaster strikes. Someone wheels an idol of Zorp the Surveyor into the town square in a shopping cart, claiming they found it in the woods. The idol is actually a nuclear bomb that Ron bought from a suspicious Russian at a woodcarving convention. The bomb goes off, instantly killing everyone in Pawnee and Eagleton.

Adult superstar Brandi Maxxx, who got the hell out of Pawnee long before the dome went down, watches all this happen on TV. The disintegration of Pawnee and Eagleton is the nations most popular reality show. She is now the only Pawnee citizen left.

Fade to black.

Ben-Prime returns to his timeline. He and Leslie are getting ready to move out of Pawnee. He tenderly embraces his wife. The camera pulls away from the couple and zeroes in on the TV in the living room. Hapley is on the air, positive and professional as always, reporting that Pawnee just got its first confirmed COVID-19 case. Cut to Andy making an OH MY GAWD face.

The end.

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Treat Yo Self to the (Fake) Leaked Parks and Recreation Reunion Special - Phoenix New Times

Saturday began as a day like any other for me: I woke up, poured myself a pot of coffee, and opened up Twitter to discover that I was a propagandist for the Chinese Communist government.

It turned out that Toronto Sun scribe Candice Malcolms weekly column was, in part, about me.

Dont let anyone stop you from asking tough questions about China, the headline read, and I was one of those supposedly standing in the way of her quest for Sino-justice.

Malcolm wrote that, in January, she had taken to her podcast and raised questions about the link between the new coronavirus and Chinas lone biosafety level-4 laboratory, but as has become a sad sign of our times, agenda-driven journalists quickly attempted to discredit these questions.

Canadian freelance writer Justin Ling wrote a post for Foreign Policy regurgitating Chinese propaganda that implied I and others were spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories by bringing up these questions.

The column, which ran across the country, is part of Malcolms attempt to rewrite her own corner of history, to make herself look like the Nostradamus of the Sun. Judging by some of the emails in my inbox, people are buying it.

Malcolm wrote that the theory that COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese laboratory is looking more credible with each passing day.

Which is, to begin with, not really accurate. But, for Malcolm, an occasional Rebel Media guest and former contributor, the theory has to be true. She, after all, predicted it! Or so she implies in the column.

On the January 27 edition of her YouTube show, Malcolm asked her 4,901 viewers: Why isnt the mainstream media talking about the origin of this deadly virus? Could it be linked to Chinas biological warfare program?

She later introduces the story by saying she noticed this story in The Washington Times over the weekend.

First off: Why is Candice Malcolm reading The Washington Times? Many have a habit for confusing the Times with the conservative-but-still-reputable Washington Examiner. They are very different. The Times has a long history of running junk race science and publishing literal white-supremacist writers, is virulently Islamophobic, has run stories contributing to the Seth Rich conspiracy theory, and was a major proponent of the Barack Obama birther movement.

The story Malcolm referred to reported that COVID-19 may have originated from a covert biological weapons program, citing an Israeli biological warfare analyst.

Reading the whole story, it is immediately clear that the only evidence for this theory was a very vague quote from that analyst, Dany Shoham. (The full quote: Certain laboratories in the institute have probably been engaged, in terms of research and development, in Chinese [biological weapons], at least collaterally, yet not as a principal facility of the Chinese BW alignment.)

Malcolm read out an excerpt from the story, adding we dont know anything, and Im not going to speculate, but Im just saying that, you know, an expert who knows what hes talking about is linking this.

That sort of speculation is not helpful, its dangerous. It is not asking hard-hitting questions in the name of the truth, its being duped by a conspiracy rag and repeating it verbatim. Even the Times later appended an editors note to its story, conceding that COVID-19 does not show signs of having been manufactured or purposefully manipulated in a lab.

Around then, I wrote a piece for Foreign Policy, speaking to actual epidemiologists, and debunking the claim that COVID-19 was a lab-made bioweapon. I cited Malcolms bonkers YouTube show, and fellow Sun columnist Tarek Fatahs sharing of an even more absurd conspiracy theory, as evidence that quasi-mainstream figures were spreading misinformation. I even did a followup when the theory was amplified by noted conspiracy- and Russian-propaganda-peddling website ZeroHedge.

The nugget of truth in the theory is that there is, in fact, a highly-secure government lab in Wuhan which handles highly infectious viruses, like Ebola and some strains of coronavirus.

It is not, however, a military lab, nor does it research germ warfare. The lab works to prevent and cure infectious diseases we can say this pretty confidently because it works with an equivalent lab in Canada, and American health officials have toured the lab on multiple occasions. China, undoubtedly, researches biological weapons, but it would not allow American teams into such a site.

In recent weeks, it has become clear that the lab was cited for lax security standards as recently as two years ago. Those revelations appear to have sparked interest from the White House.

Last week, Fox News wrote that there is increasing confidence that the COVID-19 outbreak likely originated in a Wuhan laboratory, though not as a bioweapon but as part of Chinas attempt to demonstrate that its efforts to identify and combat viruses are equal to or greater than the capabilities of the United States.

Despite that apparent confidence level, Fox didnt actually cite any evidence for the theory, simply attributing it to multiple sources who have been briefed on the details of early actions by Chinas government and seen relevant materials. The story does quote U.S. General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who when asked about the possibility of the virus beginning in a Chinese lab and maybe having been released accidentally, said, The weight of evidence seems to indicate natural [origin]. A full-scale investigation has since been ordered.

Peer-reviewed research, published in the journal Nature, has pretty definitively concluded that COVID-19 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.

This news does not in fact back up Malcolms musings from January. Nor have I, or most other journalists working on this story, ruled out the possibility that this was in fact some horrible lab accident.

Nevertheless, Malcolm used her YouTube channel to take a victory lap, declaring that its important that fake-news journalists like Justin Ling at Foreign Policy be called out for their dishonesty.Justin Lings column for Foreign Policy is fake news, and it should be taken down immediately.

She then echoed the message from her perch in the Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, and EdmontonSuns.

Anyone who raised questions about the link between the new coronavirus and Chinas lone biosafety level-4 laboratory located in the same city were attacked and maligned, including myself, she wrote.

While Malcolm might want to believe its all true, there is still no hard evidence for this theory, let alone the explanation she offered in January.

And, look, this isnt my first rodeo. Infowars readers giving me the gears for not ascribing to their string-corkboard theories is pretty much a daily occurrence. Most of them, however, do not have a dedicated Saturday column in a national newspaper chain. (While our data is about five years old, the Sun chain used to boast a print circulation of around 250,000 copies on Saturdays.)

I contacted the Sun to write a rebuttal to Malcolms claims, but was immediately turned down by editor Anthony Furey.

The Sun has been a vector for this sort of irresponsible misinformation for some time. Underneath it is a pretty serious set of ethical problems.

Malcolm is both a weekend columnist for the Sun and the founder of True North Canada, a think tank and media outlet. It is also a registered charity, under the name True North Centre for Public Policy.

She actually inherited the charitable registration from a group whose stated mission was to provide support and assistance to UK immigrants coming to British Columbia, which had brought in just a few hundred dollars in donations a year.

True North now reports an income of $500,000 more than half coming from donations, and about a third coming as gifts from other registered charities. The source of True Norths income isnt clear, but PressProgress has reported that $18,000 came from a charity linked to a long-time Conservative donor.

Also on the True North team as a fellow is Furey, Malcolms editor at the Sun.

That potential conflict aside, the Sun has let its already-lax standards slide for some time.

Trying to undercut trust in the mainstream press in favour of Malcolms brand of nonsense, especially at a time of national crisis, is playing with fire. If we dont keep some level of trust in our institutions right now, the effectiveness of our response to this pandemic is going to be severely weakened.

Whats more, buying into whatever conspiracy theory we find on the internet that matches our worldview is giving a free pass to Chinas actual crimes.

Beijing runs a brutal, repressive regime. It has built a rickety empire through exploiting its own workers and keeping them in check through a surveillance regime which they perfected via treatment of religious minorities. It seems fairly obvious now that Beijing has also tried to cover up the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, potentially robbing the world of crucial time to prepare.

Given all the ways in which we know Xi Jinpings China is dangerous to its own citizens and others, why would we play fantasy?

After the 2003 SARS outbreak, shoddy Russian research helped spark a conspiracy theory in China that the virus was a biological weapon developed by the Americans. China has tried to do the same thing this time.

There is plenty of blame to be directed at China, both in their response to COVID-19 and on their human rights record. We dont need to cling to unproven theories to hold them to account and we certainly dont need to start inventing them.

Justin Ling is a freelance journalist who writes for everybody.

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I Called Out A Sun Columnist For Spreading A COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory, And She Did Not Take It Well - CANADALAND

Sequestered away in my apartment in Washington, D.C., I listen to the sounds of construction outside my window. Despite stay-at-home orders and closures of non-essential businesses, the construction bringing gentrification and overpriced apartment buildings most D.C. residents cant afford continues on. Its a beautiful sunny day and Id like to be anywhere but at my computer right now.

Im multiply disabled and chronically ill with several of the underlying health conditions that make me vulnerable to COVID-19. For the sake of my life and all others I come in contact with Im staying home. However, the vulnerabilities that put my life in jeopardy under this pandemic arent simply the fear of contracting the virus. Im vulnerable during this time partially due to the lack of disability resources and access to my regular medical care. Even if I manage to avoid contracting COVID-19 I could still very well die due to this pandemic.

All of my regular medical care, including pain management, is canceled for the foreseeable future. My pain levels are rising with every day. Soon I may not be able to work or pay my bills. Not only is this a financial hardship, but it could mean one less media professional to cover the stories of my hyper-erased and misrepresented communities. Not only am I disabled and chronically ill, but Im also bisexual, Two Spirit and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. I spend a great deal of my time just trying to get people to understand that all of my communities are real and exist. While I dont want to be one of the very few journalists in my communities, it is the reality. It infuriates me that our stories could further go unheard.

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Coupled with the lack of resources pre-pandemic, the crisis has put me at a real risk of losing my home health aide. In 2019 the D.C. government significantly reduced and kicked many people off of the local home health aide program. Many of us, myself included, were already in the midst of filing appeals and suing the government to keep our aides. Now with COVID-19, more of us are losing our aides because they either cant or wont come to work, and the D.C. and federal governments are doing nothing to rectify this situation. The average home health aide in D.C. earns between $11-16 hourly. Benefits are few and far between. Most of the aides are womxn of color and immigrants. The work they do isnt valued because disabled and ill peoples lives, along with elders lives, arent valued.

As public transit has been significantly reduced, many aides are unable to get to their patients homes, and alternate, affordable means of transportation have not been provided to them. My aide and I are paying out of our pockets so she can take rideshares and cabs to my home. Neither of us has this kind of money, but its whats now necessary. With the closures of public schools, many are without their free or low-cost childcare, creating yet another barrier to work. Personal protective equipment (PPE) and information on COVID-19 arent available to many aides either. The agency my aide works for hasnt given out any information to the aides on the pandemic and how to keep themselves and their patients safer. Nor has it given out hand sanitizer or wipes. It only began giving extra gloves and giving the aides one mask each about two weeks ago. When Ive spoken with my case manager and the agency, Ive been told, We cant make people work. This is true, but what they and the government more broadly should be doing is providing health care workers with the supports they need to do their jobs with lower risks to their well-being and that of their patients.

Discrimination and a lack of resources are going unchecked. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the city council have done little to ensure people such as myself are cared for during this time. The aides arent receiving any additional paid sick leave, hazard pay, nor are their increased expenses being covered.

Access to food for disabled and ill people is an issue. Just this week while attempting to shop at a Trader Joes, I was denied use of an elevator and told that despite being disabled I still had to stand in line to enter the store. Most of the grocery stores in D.C. arent offering special shopping hours for those of us who are vulnerable but arent elders, putting us in the position to either go hungry or risk our lives to grocery shop. Delivery services are often more expensive than shopping in the stores, and they dont all accept SNAP, creating another barrier for many disabled people. Buses, when theyre even running, are only opening the front doors for those who are visibly disabled or elders, but as roughly half the disabled people in the U.S. have invisible disabilities, this has created larger access barriers. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority paratransit program, which is the only way some disabled people are able to get around, has suspended all evaluation processes, leaving some disabled people without paratransit.

Disabled people are more likely to live in poverty and suffer from higher rates of houselessness than the abled. This is partially because employment is difficult for many of us to obtain and keep. Ive had several employment situations where I was denied my federally protected right to reasonable accommodations, such as working from home. I was repeatedly told its not doable, so Ive stayed in poverty even when I was physically able to work full time. Its rather ironic that the universities and other workplaces that have refused to make accommodations for me are now offering these same accommodations widespread to the abled and healthy. I sincerely hope that those of us that come out the other side of COVID-19 have the opportunity to sue employers, institutions of learning and the governmental bodies that are have denied us our federally protected rights.

Compounding my fears are the projections that the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area could become one of the next hotspots, with our peak cases anticipated to possibly hit in late June or early July. I worry that the photos of mass graves being dug for the excess bodies in New York City could become a reality here.

By the time this is all said and done, most of us in the U.S. will know at least one person that contracted COVID-19; many of us will know people whove died from it. As I confront this reality, I think of my communities with deep concern. The Native population only recently grew to 2 percent of the total U.S. population. While this number is small, its significant and represents how were rebounding from over 500 years of genocide, but now we have to worry again about entire tribes ceasing to exist. Indigenous people were already suffering multiple crises pre-coronavirus. Despite the federal governments trust and treaty responsibility, our Native health care system is the worst in the country. The Indian Health Service (IHS) is grossly underfunded, understaffed and without many of the resources even the most bare-bones of medical facilities have. Its also important to note that Native people have the highest rates of disabilities and illnesses in the U.S.

Funding streams and access to supplies have been grossly less than what our tribal leaders have requested or theyve been flat out denied. Many health care facilities that serve Native communities are without COVID-19 tests and the labs to process them. The numbers of confirmed cases and deaths in IHS system continue to grow rapidly. The Navajo Nation has had as many confirmed COVID-19 deaths as thirteen states combined. A lack of accurate data collection, however, doesnt reflect the true rates of contraction and death. Seventy-one percent of Natives are urban based, but our ethnicity often isnt accurately counted in non-Native health care. Despite repeatedly checking American Indian on health forms, throughout my life, Ive often found that Im listed as white in my medical records. The numbers from IHS also dont include the number of cases in tribal-run and urban Indian health centers. Im terrified at what this all means for my communities especially as we now face state economies being reopened. Frankly, Im pissed off that I, and my loved ones, could die due to preventable causes.

Its becoming more difficult for me to maintain my composure every time I leave my home and see people without their faces covered or taking any precautions such as social distancing.

The lack of access to medical care is also further setting us up for eugenics and even genocide. Determinations of whos socially useful and therefore worthy of medical care exclude the vast majority of my community members and many other marginalized people. Our lives are deemed worthless in the best of times, so its not surprising that were deemed unworthy of care during a pandemic. The only real chance I have in being deemed socially useful is that I have the privilege of a graduate education, am a journalist and not an elder. Many of my people arent that fortunate.

The weight of historical and intergenerational trauma from the government restricting Native peoples movement and germ warfare are a heavy burden Im carrying. It wasnt so very long ago that Native people werent allowed to leave reservations without the white mans permission. Pandemics and germ warfare have been used to kill us, and there are signs that this could happen again. Some white supremacists have been reported encouraging each other to go into Indigenous, people of color, and Jewish spaces to cough on us and spread COVID-19 in the hopes that well die. This is a modern-day version of smallpox blankets that were used to solve the Indian problem.

Every day is a struggle to remain hopeful and to continue fighting to live. Since the stay-at-home orders and rising numbers of cases and deaths, Ive had days when my depression has been so bad, I felt a complete void of interest and motivation in anything, including my work, which I love dearly and feel a responsibility to. I worry how many in my communities that struggle with trauma and addiction will fare during this time.

Im especially worried for my home state of Oklahoma, which is one of the very few states that hasnt issued a stay-at-home order. Instead, Gov. Kevin Stitt has told Oklahomans to practice personal responsibility. The first person to die of COVID-19 in the state was a fellow Cherokee Nation citizen. Stitt and the other right-wing, oppressive monsters that run Oklahoma have blood on their hands, proving just how little they value life despite their claims to the contrary.

Regardless of whether or not I make it through this pandemic, I know my communities will endure, as we always have but well pay a very heavy toll along the way.

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I'm Native and Disabled. The US Government Is Sacrificing My People. - Truthout

By JC Chaudhry. Dated: 4/26/2020 11:14:24 PM

The tightly connected systems of a globalized world have transformed the novel corona virus from a handful of cases in China to a global pandemic in a few months. More than one-quarter of the world's 7.8 billion people are now largely confined to their homes, as governments step up curbs on movement and social contact in a bid to contain the virus.As the global health crisis surrounding the corona virus pandemic worsens and as lockdown quickly becomes the new norm for many, there is a growing realization that even once corona virus is over in the immediate sense, it will have changed the shape of the world forever. The consensus is that the entire world will probably be dealing with the immediate threat from COVID-19 for the next 18-24 months, in some way or another, and even then, the rebuild and the lasting impact will no doubt be felt for years to come. In many parts of the world, borders are closed, airports, hotels and businesses shut, and educational institutions are closed. These unprecedented measures are tearing at the social fabric of some societies and disrupting many economies, resulting in mass job losses and raising the spectre of widespread hunger.At present, there are many unknowns about how this crisis will unfold. The highest priority is survival (Jaan Hai Toh Jahaan Hai). And the purpose of survival is future success. But in order to succeed in the future, countries across the world must plan for it. While references to World War II are understandable, corona virus cannot be fought and beaten as if this were a war. While wartime enemies often are unpredictable, they are rarely invisible. Still, as in a shooting war, sound planning is vital and irreplaceable if victory is to be achieved.Two similar layers are emerging as this pandemic closes the world down. (a) The first is a public health emergency that is likely to last for two years. The virus will remain a threat until a vaccine is developed as countries struggle to flatten the curve of new infections and keep their health systems afloat. Collective action is also needed to clear barriers to the development, manufacture, and equitable distribution of a vaccine. International supply chains must be put on a wartime footing to produce the supplies needed, from masks to ventilators, to treat rapidly growing numbers of patients who need intensive care.(b) The pandemics second-order effects of this infectious disease can devastate global financial markets rapidly, with China facing the disappearance of export markets and fraying of supply chains. Covid-19 has not only crashed asset prices and stock markets, but real lives and real activity.There is little doubt that the world is staring into a recession, likely to manifest fully next year. The projections for world GDP 2021 have fallen below 2.5%. When production comes to a halt, this is the expected outcome. Businesses have been forced to stop operations, there is loss of production across the board.COVID-19 will fast-forward the fourth industrial revolution and digitalization of all services, including public services. The relationship between the community and the state will become ever more remote, whereby states are now expanding their remote control over civil society and private life.Technology-led impact of Corona Virus on World Economies1. Strengthened Digital InfrastructureCOVID-19 caused people to adapt to working from home and in isolation. By forcing our collective hand to find digital solutions to keep meetings, lessons, workouts, and more going when sheltering in our homes, it allowed us to see the possibilities for continuing some of these practices in a post-COVID-19 world.2. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Enabled Drug DevelopmentThe faster we can create and deploy an effective and safe drug to treat and a vaccine to prevent COVID-19 and future viruses, the faster it will be contained. Artificial intelligence is an ideal partner in drug development to accelerate and complement human endeavors. Our current reality will inform future efforts to deploy AI in drug development.3. TelemedicineTo curb traffic at hospitals and other healthcare practitioners offices, many are implementing or reminding their patients that consultations can be done through video. Rather than rush to the doctor or healthcare center, remote care enables clinical services without an in-person visit. Some healthcare providers had dabbled in this before COVID-19, but the interest has increased now that social distancing is mandated in many areas.4. Increased Reliance on RobotsRobots are not susceptible to viruses. Whether they are used to deliver groceries or to take vitals in a healthcare system or to keep a factory running, companies realize how robots could support us today and play an important role in a post-COVID-19 world or during a future pandemic.We will also witness more government use of surveillance. It is a useful weapon to fight the virus - for instance, countries like India and Israel are using smartphones to figure out who's been where in order to track clusters of the virus - but at the same time, such moves threaten to undermine individual freedom and privacy.Separately, China will benefit greatly from this crisis as it was the first country to experience the epidemic and to get out of it though speculations are rife that it might be entering a second wave of outbreak of the virus.More retail will be carried out online and customer service interactions will be virtual. "Social distancing" means face-to-face interactions between employees and customers and partners will be on a decline, and electronic interactions will be on the rise. As with the work-from-home trend, even when the crisis is over new habits will have been formed and the post-pandemic world will look very different from the pre-pandemic world. The higher cost of face-to-face interactions will go way down, but the relatively lower cost of electronic interactions will go up.Social media companies and news organizations will have an especially important role in framing how we think about the outbreak, particularly when it comes to countering the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories on their platforms.Global Impact of Corona Virus On Education/Learning-Based Sector1. The corona virus pandemic has changed how millions around the globe are educated.Over 421 million children are affected due to school closures announced or implemented in 39 countries. In addition, another 22 countries have announced partial "localized" closures.(a) With the corona virus spreading rapidly across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States, countries have taken swift and decisive actions to mitigate the development of a full-blown pandemic. In the past two weeks, there have been multiple announcements suspending attendance at schools and universities. (b) These risk-control decisions have led millions of students into temporary home-schooling situations, especially in some of the most heavily impacted countries, like China, South Korea, Italy, and Iran. These changes have certainly caused a degree of inconvenience, but they have also prompted new examples of educational innovation. (c) To help slow the virus' spread, students in different parts of the world including India started to learn at home via interactive apps. Majority got access to learning material through live television broadcasts. (d) With 5G technology becoming more prevalent in countries such as China, US and Japan, the learners and solution providers will shift towards truly embracing the learning anywhere, anytime concept of digital education in a range of formats. Traditional in-person classroom learning will be complemented with new learning modalities - from live broadcasts to educational influencers to virtual reality experiences. Learning could become a habit that is integrated into daily routines - a true lifestyle.2. Learning consortiums and coalitions could take shape, with diverse stakeholders - including governments, publishers, education professionals, technology providers, and telecom network operators - coming together to utilize digital platforms as a temporary solution to the crisis. In emerging countries where education has predominantly been provided by the government, this could become a prevalent and consequential trend to future education.3. The pandemic is also an opportunity to remind ourselves of the skills students need in this unpredictable world such as informed decision making, creative problem solving, and perhaps above all, adaptability. To ensure those skills remain a priority for all students, resilience must be built into our educational systems as well.Indias education system is impaired, and students are unable to follow their regular academic routines. In wake of this emergency and keeping the student safety in mind and their academic concern, most of the institutions have taken the initiative to provide the facility of telecommunication, skype call, zoom call and access to other virtual options to fill the gap of learning. It is giving training to students and teachers to use technology to facilitate virtual classes and exchange of information. Undoubtedly, this is a very crucial time for students. So, the move is aimed at easing the pressure on students and helping them use their time profitably without compromising on the quality. Economic Impact of Corona Virus on World Economy And Viable Measures 1. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) states global growth, which was already low at 2.9 per cent last year, could fall below 2 per cent this year. A global recession is now all but certain.Apart from the tragic human consequences of the COVID-19 corona virus epidemic, the economic uncertainty it has sparked will likely cost the global economy $1 trillion in 2020. The UNCTAD assumes India will have a trade loss of 348 million dollars due to the corona outbreak.Nearly 25 million jobs could be lost worldwide due to the corona virus pandemic, but an internationally coordinated policy response can help lower the impact on global unemployment. 2. The United States of America is incredibly dependent on China. Not many people understand what is happening to our world and economy right now. Often in companies, up to 90 per cent of all goods are made in China from oil-derived substances such as plastic and polyester. We will soon see shelves empty of shoes, phones, clothes and even toothpaste. We will have a shortage of medical supplies and will see a stop in the endless production of ugly souvenirs and useless goody bags.The world order stands to change due to Covid-19. Even assuming erratic pandemics do not recur, what is clear is that the Chinese governments totalitarianism and lack of transparency will continue to hurt the world. Today it is Covid-19, tomorrow it may be their financial system. What is clear is that putting all eggs in one basket and shifting 80% of supply chains to China just on considerations of profit is myopically unsustainable. The endless Chinese exports of synthetic saris to India and plastic household objects to Africa, which have severely disrupted local economies there and created a lot of joblessness (and pollution) over the years might also come to a halt, possibly bringing new opportunities for making locally.The United States and Europe should take this moment as a wake-up call to pay far more attention to addressing non-military national security threats, including their excessive dependence on China for crucial supply chains that reach from pharmaceuticals to rare earth materials used in almost all our high-tech gear. Today, about 80% of pharmaceuticals sold in the US are produced in China. China is also the largest and sometimes only global supplier for the active ingredient of some vital medications.3. China's attempts to limit the spread of a deadly viral outbreak have crippled factories that produce everything from cars and electronics to clothes and greetings cards. That, in turn, has reminded the rest of the world just how dependent it is on China as a source of components and finished products.Countries need to seriously start considering setting up indigenous production of goods and medicines as a strategic asset necessary for running the day-to-day life of a country.In this context, India is very well positioned to help build a more dynamic and sustainable world. India has a competitive advantage in the services including the Information Technology Services, Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology, and Medical tourism sectors.India has massive potential to grow. Just 35 years ago, the Indian and Chinese economy had similar exports. The Chinese economy experienced massive growth, in part, due to substantial market friendly reforms. Iran, one of the four countries hit hardest by corona virus, with more than 4,700 cases and 124 deaths, is lurching between measures to stop its spread among an increasingly distrustful population and steps it has taken to accelerate its uranium enrichment toward a nuclear weapon. Iran could choose to rapidly reduce its costly, malign regional behavior, which neither its citizens nor its neighbors can afford. It could pull back from recent steps to increase its uranium enrichment in the direction of weapons grade materials.Of the worlds 10 largest ports, seven of them are in China. It was built to be the worlds manufacturer. It was not built to be the worlds importer. China has 1.3 billion people to feed and house. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that the overwhelming dependence on China needs to reduce and drastically, a thought uppermost in many parts of the world.4. The outbreak of the virus has placed tremendous power and responsibility in the hands of governments. This is not a problem that can be dealt with bottom up, but need specific guidance, orders, and regulation from the government. Recovery will be centrally driven. Governments have a long road ahead.(a) Firstly, concerted effort across the globe is required to keep interest rates down till economic activity revives which is expected to trigger demand for goods and services and subsequently revive economies. (b) Secondly, when the government asks people to stay indoors and not turn up for work, the responsibility of providing for those who lose their income is high and real. There are millions of daily wage earners who have been put out of work due to shutdowns. There would be widespread layoffs, cutbacks, leading to eventual unemployment. Governments must find the resources for handouts and borrow heavily, since tax collections will have dropped.The other drivers of the economy private consumption, investment demand, export growthwill all slow down and take time to revive. Without government spending, the recessionary impact will be deeper.(c) The co-operation between economies will have to be reworked to facilitate global recovery. Economies that depend on world trade for growth, will take longer to bounce back. The uneven stages of economic activity will mean that as China and South Korea are ready to return to production, UK and US are falling into a low consumption and shut down mode. India might be fortunate in comparison, given the high level of domestic consumption and relatively lower dependence on external sector.At the national level, this pandemic will force many countries to reconsider their social policies, especially social protection and healthcare. In addition, there will be efforts to help workers in the informal sector. 5. Health is now a strategic issue, accompanied by defence and security. The world has been spending huge amount of money over new and innovative technologies with regards to hard power which emphasizes over military might and destructive weapons since long. Those states which are spending more money on acquiring new technology in weapons and arms remain much influential and powerful nations of the world. Over the past fourteen years, the government of United States has spent $1.5 trillion for military operations, $92 billion for indigenous security forces, $92 billion for state and foreign aid, and $5 billion for other services.The changing dynamics of world also effect the moods of war, transitioning from traditional to other forms such as Bio-War, Hybrid war, and Cyber war etc. Some contend that the corona virus is an experimental germ that accidently escaped from a Chinese lab. Others argue it is the handiwork of the worlds most powerful military i.e. United States of America, which used the planets most populated country as proving grounds for a new bioweapon. An alternate theory is that China deliberately launched a biological attack in order to position itself as the single greatest superpower, while flattening its rivals industrial and economic capacity.Bio-warfare labs everywhere have been a source of serious threats, with the big powers seeing them as potentially usable as weapons of mass destruction, proved by the large number of such facilities worldwide. The world will be judged not only on how many people are lost to the Wuhan virus, but how it acts with respect to issues of governance, crisis management and preparation for the days after.Having let the germ war genie out of the bottle, none of the big powers can now disown responsibility. To fight the corona virus, a global fund to support public health and address the humanitarian and sanitary needs of partner countries by providing financial assistance will be a step in the right direction.Setting up of an integrated commission and thinktank teams at national level consisting of non-political members and scientists to coordinate sustained multilateral efforts against the corona virus outbreak is the need of the hour. This will reinforce the public health sectors and mitigate the socio-economic impact. Economic Impact of Corona Virus on World Economy and Viable Measures 1. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) states global growth, which was already low at 2.9 per cent last year, could fall below 2 per cent this year. A global recession is now all but certain.Apart from the tragic human consequences of the COVID-19 corona virus epidemic, the economic uncertainty it has sparked will likely cost the global economy $1 trillion in 2020. The UNCTAD assumes India will have a trade loss of 348 million dollars due to the corona outbreak.Nearly 25 million jobs could be lost worldwide due to the corona virus pandemic, but an internationally coordinated policy response can help lower the impact on global unemployment. 2. The United States of America is incredibly dependent on China. Not many people understand what is happening to our world and economy right now. Often in companies, up to 90 per cent of all goods are made in China from oil-derived substances such as plastic and polyester. We will soon see shelves empty of shoes, phones, clothes and even toothpaste. We will have a shortage of medical supplies and will see a stop in the endless production of ugly souvenirs and useless goody bags.The world order stands to change due to Covid-19. Even assuming erratic pandemics do not recur, what is clear is that the Chinese governments totalitarianism and lack of transparency will continue to hurt the world. Today it is Covid-19, tomorrow it may be their financial system. What is clear is that putting all eggs in one basket and shifting 80% of supply chains to China just on considerations of profit is myopically unsustainable. The endless Chinese exports of synthetic saris to India and plastic household objects to Africa, which have severely disrupted local economies there and created a lot of joblessness (and pollution) over the years might also come to a halt, possibly bringing new opportunities for making locally.The United States and Europe should take this moment as a wake-up call to pay far more attention to addressing non-military national security threats, including their excessive dependence on China for crucial supply chains that reach from pharmaceuticals to rare earth materials used in almost all our high-tech gear. Today, about 80% of pharmaceuticals sold in the US are produced in China. China is also the largest and sometimes only global supplier for the active ingredient of some vital medications.3. China's attempts to limit the spread of a deadly viral outbreak have crippled factories that produce everything from cars and electronics to clothes and greetings cards. That, in turn, has reminded the rest of the world just how dependent it is on China as a source of components and finished products.Countries need to seriously start considering setting up indigenous production of goods and medicines as a strategic asset necessary for running the day-to-day life of a country.In this context, India is very well positioned to help build a more dynamic and sustainable world. India has a competitive advantage in the services including the Information Technology Services, Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology, and Medical tourism sectors.India has massive potential to grow. Just 35 years ago, the Indian and Chinese economy had similar exports. The Chinese economy experienced massive growth, in part, due to substantial market friendly reforms. Iran, one of the four countries hit hardest by corona virus, with more than 4,700 cases and 124 deaths, is lurching between measures to stop its spread among an increasingly distrustful population and steps it has taken to accelerate its uranium enrichment toward a nuclear weapon. Iran could choose to rapidly reduce its costly, malign regional behavior, which neither its citizens nor its neighbors can afford. It could pull back from recent steps to increase its uranium enrichment in the direction of weapons grade materials.Of the worlds 10 largest ports, seven of them are in China. It was built to be the worlds manufacturer. It was not built to be the worlds importer. China has 1.3 billion people to feed and house. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that the overwhelming dependence on China needs to reduce and drastically, a thought uppermost in many parts of the world.4. The outbreak of the virus has placed tremendous power and responsibility in the hands of governments. This is not a problem that can be dealt with bottom up, but need specific guidance, orders, and regulation from the government. Recovery will be centrally driven. Governments have a long road ahead.(a) Firstly, concerted effort across the globe is required to keep interest rates down till economic activity revives which is expected to trigger demand for goods and services and subsequently revive economies. (b) Secondly, when the government asks people to stay indoors and not turn up for work, the responsibility of providing for those who lose their income is high and real. There are millions of daily wage earners who have been put out of work due to shutdowns. There would be widespread layoffs, cutbacks, leading to eventual unemployment. Governments must find the resources for handouts and borrow heavily, since tax collections will have dropped.The other drivers of the economy private consumption, investment demand, export growthwill all slow down and take time to revive. Without government spending, the recessionary impact will be deeper.(c) The co-operation between economies will have to be reworked to facilitate global recovery. Economies that depend on world trade for growth, will take longer to bounce back. The uneven stages of economic activity will mean that as China and South Korea are ready to return to production, UK and US are falling into a low consumption and shut down mode. India might be fortunate in comparison, given the high level of domestic consumption and relatively lower dependence on external sector.At the national level, this pandemic will force many countries to reconsider their social policies, especially social protection and healthcare. In addition, there will be efforts to help workers in the informal sector. 5. Health is now a strategic issue, accompanied by defence and security. The world has been spending huge amount of money over new and innovative technologies with regards to hard power which emphasizes over military might and destructive weapons since long. Those states which are spending more money on acquiring new technology in weapons and arms remain much influential and powerful nations of the world. Over the past fourteen years, the government of United States has spent $1.5 trillion for military operations, $92 billion for indigenous security forces, $92 billion for state and foreign aid, and $5 billion for other services.The changing dynamics of world also effect the moods of war, transitioning from traditional to other forms such as Bio-War, Hybrid war, and Cyber war etc. Some contend that the corona virus is an experimental germ that accidently escaped from a Chinese lab. Others argue it is the handiwork of the worlds most powerful military i.e. United States of America, which used the planets most populated country as proving grounds for a new bioweapon. An alternate theory is that China deliberately launched a biological attack in order to position itself as the single greatest superpower, while flattening its rivals industrial and economic capacity.Bio-warfare labs everywhere have been a source of serious threats, with the big powers seeing them as potentially usable as weapons of mass destruction, proved by the large number of such facilities worldwide. The world will be judged not only on how many people are lost to the Wuhan virus, but how it acts with respect to issues of governance, crisis management and preparation for the days after.Having let the germ war genie out of the bottle, none of the big powers can now disown responsibility. To fight the corona virus, a global fund to support public health and address the humanitarian and sanitary needs of partner countries by providing financial assistance will be a step in the right direction.Setting up of an integrated commission and thinktank teams at national level consisting of non-political members and scientists to coordinate sustained multilateral efforts against the corona virus outbreak is the need of the hour. This will reinforce the public health sectors and mitigate the socio-economic impact. Social and Cultural After- Effects of Corona Virus1. More Contactless Interfaces and InteractionsThe physical analog world is being decimated, with traditional analog businesses including hotels, restaurants and airplanes in crisis. The digital world, however, is thriving through this pandemic because of technology. Everyone is sitting at home, and their window to the world is through their smartphone. In the post-pandemic world, technology will be found everywhere as it is now, if not more, and tech companies will become even more powerful and dominant. That includes smaller firms like Zoom, and the big players such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Paypal. There was a time not too long ago when we were impressed by touch screens and all they enabled us to do. COVID-19 has made most of us hyper-aware of every touchable surface that could transmit the disease, so in a post-COVID-19 world, it is expected that we will have fewer touch screens and more voice interfaces and machine vision interfaces. 2. Personal Becomes Dangerous. A crisis on this scale can reorder society in dramatic ways, for better or worse. And it will. The corona virus pandemic will reshape society in lasting ways, from how people will travel and buy homes, to the level of security and surveillance they are accustomed to, and even to the language they use. This virus that keeps us contained in our homesmaybe for monthsis already reorienting our relationship to government, to the outside world, even to each other. Changes expected to occur in the coming months or years might feel unfamiliar, even unsettling. Will nations stay closed? Will touch become taboo? What will become of restaurants and travel? What behaviour will be exhibited in health clubs? Sit-down restaurants also could close permanently as people frequent them less, it is likely there will be many fewer sit-down restaurants across the world.We know now that touching things, being with other people and breathing the air in an enclosed space can be risky. It could become second nature to recoil from shaking hands or touching our facesand we might find we cannot stop washing our hands. The comfort of being in the presence of others might be replaced by a greater comfort with absence, especially with those we do not know. People will distrust crowds. Limits on social gatherings, how we interact in the workplace, in school and in public, even how children play together, all will be very different in the new normal. The social fabric that breaks might not be repaired. There will be questions ranging from whether we will still shake hands, whether we will be able to travel safely or even vacation to whether we will dismantle our home office set-ups when the pandemic is over. 3. Many people will look back and see this as a time when things changed in their lives.A lot of our lives are habitual, and habits are highly effective in helping us work, look after our families and pursue our goals. What a shock to the system does is change those habits. People work and travel in a different way, their daily routines and the very rhythm of their lives change, including when they eat and how they communicate with their families. And when people are forced to do things differently, new habits begin to form.4. Another aspect of life that has been badly affected by the outbreak is culture, to be specific - religion. The pandemic has impacted religion in various ways, including the cancellation of the worship services of various faiths as well as the cancellation of pilgrimages surrounding observances and festivals. In some countries such as South Korea, Iran and Malaysia, the surge of COVID-19 cases was attributed to pilgrimage sites and closer home at India, to religious gatherings.This pandemic is far from a war, but it requires pulling together. And when people realise what collective action can achieve, it could change how they relate to others, resulting in a greater sense of community. Envisioning that post-pandemic world is key in ensuring we change for the better, not the worse. The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly changed the world. The how is growing clearer with each day of its global spread.When we emerge, we will be different people in a different world. *(The writer is a renowned entrepreneur, motivational speaker and numerologist)

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PRESENT AND AFTER-EFFECTS OF CORONAVIRUS THE WORLD OVER - Kashmir Times