L'Shem Shamayim

‫לשם שמים‬ Community Discourse on International Relations

“Every dispute that is for the sake of heaven will be constructive.”

Pirkei Avot 5:17

In This Issue

Crises ‫ לשם שמים‬is a periodic opinion journal featuring the writing of Barrack students, alumni, and faculty. Our goal is to provide interested individuals with a diverse forum in which to express their views, while fostering greater understanding in the community of the critical issues that face us as Americans, as Jews, and as supporters of Israel.

Spring 2021

‫לשם שמים‬

3

Crises Editors

Luke Finkelstein, Editor-in-Chief Sarah Miller, Copy Editor Daniel Bernstein, Copy Editor, Layout Editor

Advisor

Lilach Taichman

Spring 2021

‫לשם שמים‬

4

Spring 2021

‫לשם שמים‬ In This Issue

The Burgeoning Space Race and the Anti-Militant ....................... 5 Luke Finkelstein

How Metro Fares Sparked Chile’s Constitutional Reckoning ....... 9 Amina Levites-Cohen

An Avalanche of “Fake News”: The Global Misinformation Crisis............................................................................................... 12 Benjamin Zelnick

The Downfall of Democracy in Hong Kong ................................. 15 Sarah Miller

Brazil’s Bolsonaro Strikes a Blow to the Amazon and its People .18 Niva Cohen

How Covid Tells Us to Fight Climate Change .............................. 21 Daniel Bernstein

Abortion in Poland ........................................................................ 23 Eliana Pasternak and Rebecca Miller

The Unfortunate Reality of Worldwide Vaccine Nationalism .... 26 Benjamin Beal

The Effectiveness of Each Country Handling COVID-19 ........... 28 Jonah Shapiro

‫לשם שמים‬

5

Spring 2021

The Burgeoning Space Race and the AntiMilitant

By Luke Finkelstein

In 1969, the U.S. landed on the moon.1 Then there was silence. This is, of course, a poor summary of the Space Race of the Cold War: Russia successfully launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into low Earth orbit; Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet, became the first person in space. Indeed, the U.S. only “won” the Space Race at the very end, but this is not how Americentrism would report it.2 Still, the Cold War ended, and NASA was reimagined as the scientific body, not a military one, that it can genuinely claim to be today.3 Then, in 2019, the U.S. established the Space Force, creating a branch not interested in science or discovery, but rather in military opportunity.4 The U.S. is not alone in its ambitions. Indeed, space is on the verge of being militarized in a more diverse and complex form than it ever was in the 1960s, but it must be realized as a place of scientific discovery and international collaboration instead.

One main reason why the world may be converging upon a new space race is because the United States has convinced itself of the looming inevitability of the race. In 2019, the Trump administration, viewing the lack of U.S. space militarization as a domestic liability, founded the Space Force.5 Its mission statement focuses on a U.S. military presence in space, calling for “acquiring military space systems, maturing the military doctrine for space power, and organizing space forces.”6 In a speech about the founding of this new military branch, then-Vice President Mike Pence spelled out why these objectives were so necessary: “we’re

in a space race today, just as we were in the 1960s, and the stakes are even higher.”7 He may have been referencing a 2019 report produced under the same administration, in which U.S. intelligence highlighted the growing space prowess of China. The research suggests that China’s main goal is to militarize space, and that “it is likely to accomplish in 20 years what took the United States 40 years to complete.”8 The fact that China is communist, echoing the ideological battle between the communist Soviet Union and capitalistic United States, further drills into the Ameri-centric mind that the world is gearing up for another space race.9 And if China can do in 20 years what the U.S. can do in 40, then the U.S. is already behind.

While there are psychological elements that raise fears of being left behind, the overall assumption is well-founded: China has meticulously tended to its space aspirations for decades, and the U.S. has done little to respond.10 In 1957, just after Sputnik was launched, Mao Zedong declared to the U.S. and other countries, “we too shall make satellites.”11 Under Xi Jinping, China has been accomplishing far more than that.

While NASA, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is one of the first budgets to get cut during a new fiscal year, China has prioritized its space industry with firm resolve.12 According to the same U.S. governmental report, China’s space ambitions are “backed by high levels of funding and political support.”13 While China’s budget is undisclosed, the U.S.’s claims can be confirmed

‫לשם שמים‬

6

in real-life observations. Through investment and encouragement by its government, China currently has more than 60 private space companies of which to boast.14 As the U.S. had done all those years ago, China has now planted a flag on lunar soil.15 China soon after became the first country to soft land on the far side of the moon.16 Even though NASA has also accomplished much in the past decades in terms of rovers and probes, it does not share in China’s exponential success, for China prioritizes space, and the U.S. does not.17 It is as simple as that.

Spring 2021 may thrive behind a competent leader like Xi Jinping, the United States is now focused on continuity of space policy.

A modern space race would bring with it many dangers, for the breadth of interests and parties would clash without proper frameworks of collaboration. The United States and China both have goals of establishing lunar bases on the moon for military prowess and the mining of resources, and neither country has shown a willingness to collaborate with the other.23 If this mentality continues, then it is quite possible that a proxy war could emerge

Further worrying the prospects of a new in this environment; in addition to potential space race is the emerging discord between lives lost, diplomatic relations on Earth would the United States and China, especially when be distinctly affected as well. Interestingly, it comes to space diplomacy. Already setting China and the U.S., in collaboration with up hurdles, NASA is explicitly prohibited by a other countries, signed an Outer Space Treaty 2011 U.S. law from sharing data and research in 1967 that explicitly prohibits these types 18 with China. This law comes from a number of military installations on the moon, but of legitimate reasons, ranging from Chinese international law requires self-enforcement.24 human rights abuses to fear of Chinese Under President Trump, the United States information theft; nevertheless, it does well to reevaluated its position and issued the Artemis undermine space diplomacy between the two Plan, a framework it envisions as a fair guide to countries.19 Moreover, the U.S. and China have the “Recovery and Use of Space Resources.”25 participated in a call-and-response dialogue This was a unilateral accord, yet it filled a that is reminiscent of the Cold War. When vacuum of modern space agreements. If China China announced that it would be going and other countries refuse to be signatories to to the moon in the 2030s, the U.S., under the Artemis Accords, then the world still needs then-President Donald Trump, shot back a multilateral agreement describing a means 20 that the U.S. would return there by 2024. to conduct itself in space. Without a refined Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (D) treaty, and considering the numerous private tried to downplay the provocative dialogue, space industries in the U.S. and China, leaders 21 saying, “we won that race a half-century ago.” may just duck around the existing Outer Space However, when President Joe Biden assumed Treaty by proxying private industry instead.26 the presidency, he did not revoke the U.S. It would then be a proxy war within another objective, a very revealing move: Biden has proxy. sought to undo his predecessor’s legacy in

Yet the U.S. and China are not the only nearly every sphere.22 Thus, in order to compete parties interested in space supremacy. Japan, with China’s authoritarian model, one that India, several Middle Eastern countries, and

‫לשם שמים‬

7

the European Union have all expressed a desire at some point or another to flex their innovation skills and national prestige.27 Couple those with private industry--SpaceX, a private aerospace company based in the United States, has already launched Americans into orbit--and one finds tens, if not hundreds, of competing interests when it comes to mining resources and establishing footholds in different parts of the solar system.28 Many of these subjects may seem foreign at first, but countries like the U.S. and Luxembourg have already passed laws that regulate the exploitation of resources in space.29 China has yet to pass a similar law, and industry has very rarely self-regulated throughout history. The world has the benefit of hindsight to know that a complete absence of regulation results in inequities, not optimal prosperity.

International collaboration is a viable alternative to another space race, and it has the potential to solve global problems and bring mutual prosperity. The ESA (European Space Agency) has been researching space-based solar technology, a very efficient and experimental method of sustainable energy that could power the entire world.30 Interested in the proposition, The California Institute of Technology, a private university in the United States, invented a type of solar panel that could put the ideas into practice.31 Japan’s aerospace industry then created antennas that would be able to beam back the energy to Earth.32 Imagine if these competing agencies, industries, and research institutions collaborated with each other. Now assume that they were given funding on par with that which accompanies militarization: in effect, prioritizing science with a comparable investment to the military. As a reference, the U.S. military in 2020 had well over $700

Spring 2021 billion to spend33; NASA was awarded a paltry $22 billion.34 If such research had a greater investment, the world might have 24-hour solar energy production that would power the global grid, free of carbon emissions.35 While the space race of the 1960s produced technology as a secondary result of a military rivalry, the world now has an opportunity to elevate innovation and science in their own capacities, not downplay them as a means to an end of military supremacy. For this reason alone, space offers so much more than national prestige: it offers solutions.

But why should anyone care? After all, talks of a new space race and resource mining seem like science fiction. And international collaboration to solve global issues? That sounds ludicrous, naive, insane! But these topics are maybe a mere ten years away, if not already here; and the greatest global strides have come about not through competition, but collaboration (e.g., Allies in World War II; denuclearization; Montreal Protocol). In retrospect, it is remarkable that the space race from the Cold War did not descend into a hot war. Advancements came as a result, of course, but there was always a risk of nuclear holocaust.

Remember that, when Sputnik was placed into orbit, there was widespread fear across the world of impending doom.36 So, it is more accurate to say that, at the expense of terror and possible war, some advancements came about as a byproduct. Now the world enters a new era of innovation, and it has the opportunity to prioritize science above militarization; for it is a wonderful place to be where it is psychology, not irreversible military action, that ushers in a new space race--and mindsets can change. They must change, for the space age is coming, and there are two drastically different outlooks for

‫לשם שמים‬

8

how that may come to pass: in discord and tension, if not war, where inequities grow and competition brings out the worst in human behavior; or a world that embraces science and discovery with open dialogue, where onceunbeatable giants like climate change can be addressed with just a bit of funding and sharing of knowledge. The world must choose.

Spring 2021 Next 50, Britanica.com, 2019, acessed March 16, 2021, https://www.britannica.com/explore/space/the-newspace-race/.

10 Bowe.

11 Ben Westcott and Matt Rivers, “50 years after U.S. moon landing, China is catching up in the space race,” Beyond Earth, CNN, July 19, 2019, acessed April 7, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/19/asia/chinaapollo-us-space-race-intl-hnk/index.html.

12 Bowe.

1 “1969 Moon Landing,” History, A&E Television Networks, July 17, 2020, accessed March 15, 2021, https://www.history.com/topics/space-exploration/ moon-landing-1969.

13 ibid.

14 Westcott and Rivers.

15 Steffi Paladini, “How Mars became a prize for a new space race -- and why China is hellbent on winning it,” Space.com, February 17, 2021, accessed March 16, 2 History.com Editors, “The Space Race,” HISTORY, 2021, https://www.space.com/new-space-race-moonA&E Television Networks, February 21, 2020, accessed mike-pence-says.html.

April 8, 2021, https://www.history.com/topics/cold16 ibid. war/space-race.

17 Bender.

3 Brian Bender, “A new moon race is on. Is China already ahead?,” The Agenda, Politico, June 13, 2019, 18 Christian Davenport, “The Biden administration has accessed March 15, 2021, https://www.politico. set out to dismantle Trump’s legacy, except in one area: com/agenda/story/2019/06/13/china-nasa-moonSpace,” The Washington Post, March 2, 2021, accessed race-000897/.

March 16, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/ 4 “United States Space Force Mission,” Official United technology/2021/03/02/biden-space-artemis-moontrump/.

States Air Force Website, United States Government, 2019, accessed March 15, 2021, https://www.spaceforce. 19 ibid. mil/About-Us/About-Space-Force/.

20 Bender.

5 ibid.

21 ibid.

6 ibid.

22 Davenport.

7 Mike Wall, “US Is in a New Space Race with China 23 Bowe. and Russia, VP Pence Says,” Space.com, March 27, 2019, accessed March 16, 2021, https://www.space.com/ 24 Nahal Toosi, “Who owns the moon?,” new-space-race-moon-mike-pence-says.html.

POLITICO, June 13, 2019, accessed March 15, 2021, https://www.politico.com/agenda/ 8Alexander Bowe, “China’s Pursuit of Space Power story/2019/06/13/space-travel-moon-resourcesStatus and Implications for the United States,” U.S.000899/#:~:text=The%201967%20treaty%20 China Economic and Security Review Commission, prohibits%20placing,%E2%80%9Cexclusively%20 United States Government, April 11, 2019, accessed for%20peaceful%20purposes.%E2%80%9D. March 14, 2021, https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/ files/Research/USCC_China%27s%20Space%20 Power%20Goals.pdf.

9 Elizabeth Howell, “The New Space Race,” Space

25 “The Artemis Plan, NASA, September 2020, accessed April 18, 2021, https://www.nasa.gov/sites/ default/files/atoms/files/artemis_plan-20200921.pdf.

‫לשם שמים‬

9

Spring 2021

26 ibid.

32 ibid.

27 Howell.

33 U.S. government, “DOD Releases Fiscal Year 2021 Budget Proposal,” U.S. Department of Defense, February 10, 2020, accessed April 9, 2021, https:// www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/ Article/2079489/dod-releases-fiscal-year-2021-budgetproposal/.

28 James Cawley, “NASA and SpaceX Complete Certification of First Human-Rated Commercial Space System,” NASA, November 12, 2020, accessed April 8, 2021, https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-andspacex-complete-certification-of-first-human-ratedcommercial-space-system.

34 “NASA’s FY Planetary Budget,” The Planetary Society, planetary.org, 2019, accessed April 9, 2021, 29 Juan Cruz González Allonca, “Abogados del https://www.planetary.org/space-policy/nasas-fy-2020espacio,” October 2019, TEDxRiodelaPlata, local audience, 9:08 minutes, TED en español, https://www. budget#:~:text=NASA%27s%20budget%20in%20 ted.com/talks/juan_cruz_gonzalez_allonca_abogados_ fiscal%20year,from%20the%20previous%20fiscal%20 year. del_espacio?language=es.

35 Hughes and Soldini.

30 Amanda Jane Hughes and Stefania Soldini, “The solar discs that could power Earth,” Future Planet, BBC, November 26, 2020, accessed April 4, 2021, https:// www.bbc.com/future/article/20201126-the-solar-discsthat-could-beam-power-from-space.

36 Alison Stewart, “Revisiting America’s Fear of Sputnik,” The Bryant Park Project, npr, October 4, 2007, accessed April 9, 2021, https://www.npr.org/templates/ story/story.php?storyId=14980366.

31 ibid.

How Metro Fares Sparked Chile’s Constitutional Reckoning

By Amina Levites-Cohen

In October of 2019, one million Chileans took to the streets of Santiago to protest a 4% increase in metro fare. Even though Sebastián Piñera, the country’s President, called off the government-mandated increase, the protesters demanded that Chile’s dictatorship-era constitution be rewritten. The constitution, written under the brutal dictator named Augusto Pinochet, comes from a period when the government relocated many lowincome urban citizens to the outskirts of major cities. This exacerbated class divides because city governments ignored the needs of economically disadvantaged Chileans and directed funds towards developing affluent areas of cities instead.1 Many Chileans living in

poverty used the metro as a cheap and efficient mode of travel, so the increased prices posed an immediate and tangible problem to families.

For Chileans, the metro was not just a way to get from the edge of the city into the heart of a bustling metropolis; it was their opportunity to escape economic hardship and gain access to a host of social services and job opportunities.

The protests became broader, using the metro fare hike as a symbol of the decades of economic and social inequality.2 In response, the government heeded the protesters and issued a referendum asking citizens whether the constitution should be rewritten.3 On the brink of political turmoil, Chile evaded crisis by resorting to democratic practices and

‫לשם שמים‬

10

Spring 2021

expanding social and economic rights, despite budget to give adequate care. Also, government its authoritarian history, which marks the start branches, like the army, are responsible for of a hopeful phase for the country. dealing with acts of violence towards women,

Chile’s history as a country that defeated but often, these authorities cover up the crimes they are supposed to be investigating. bureaucratic authoritarianism makes it a The Chilean legal system does not prosecute model for other struggling countries in the domestic violence with the same severity region. In 1974, Augusto Pinochet staged that it does typical assault and often punishes a coup d’etat, overthrowing Chile’s socialist perpetrators of gender-related violence for government. The following sixteen years of commiting mere misdemeanors.8 Priscila his violent dictatorship resulted in a dated González, a feminist organizer, believes that the constitution that impacted the country for government effort to downplay misogynistic several decades. While Pinochet’s policies led violence “generates and perpetuates systemic to a stage of economic growth for Chile, the violence against women.”9 Currently, the ruler did everything in his power to suppress feminist movement in Chile focuses on dissent, including the torture of 35,000 preventing domestic violence and broadening Chileans.4 Pinochet’s constitution guaranteed authority to the military, curbed the power of abortion access. The government has allocated $1.7 million to combat domestic violence,10 the representative government, and allowed and in 2017, Chile ended its abortion ban, the Constitutional Tribunal to deem its extending legality to the procedure in dire opposers as “hostile” to democracy.5 In 1988, circumstances. A Chilean women’s rights however, 53% of the Chilean people voted in activist, Estefanía Campos says that “women’s a plebiscite against giving Pinochet another term.6 Ironically, this plebiscite was mandated rights used to come in second place, but now they are primordial” with the prospect of a new by the constitution of Pinochet’s creation. constitution, showing the value of grassroots While it took Chile years to recover from 11 Pinochet’s abuse of military power, the country organizing on democratic legislation. began having democratic elections in 1989 and has continued since.7 Chile’s status as a newly democratic state recovering from dictatorship gives hope to other countries in the regions in similar situations.

One flaw in the Pinochet-era constitution is its lack of social equality, which drove millions of Chileans to fight for the rights of marginalized groups such as women.

For example, the constitution delegates some social services to local organizations in a method called subsidiarity. These services include help for domestic abuse victims, but the organizations do not have the resources or

These victories are promising, but there is more work to do, and social justice activists hope that the new constitution will aid their efforts. The constitutional assembly to write a new constitution has pledged to add a gender parity clause to its draft after the clause garnered 79.81% of voter’s approval.

Other activists aim to use the momentum from the parity clause to extend rights to LGBTQ+ people.12 In 2019, after the Chilean Constitutional Court denied a same-sex couple recognition for their marriage, the government proposed a bill to establish marriage equality that has been stalled in Congress for almost

‫לשם שמים‬

11

four years.13 A constitutional overhaul would compel lawmakers to reevaluate court decisions and possibly enhance rights for historically marginalized groups.

Today, Chile is recognized as a democratic country despite its tumultuous past. The Economist’s Democracy Index ranks Chile as seventeenth in overall democracy and classifies it as a “Full Democracy,” while the United States is considered a “Flawed Democracy.”14 Chile’s historical tendency to hold referendums, or national elections on one specific issue, certainly contributes to its status as a “Full Democracy.” Referendums are more direct and represent the will of the people accurately because they do not involve dividing the country to create representative districts that may serve the rulers instead of the people.

The words “plebiscite” and “referendum” are often used synonymously, but the former has negative connotations because rulers like Napoleon and Mussolini have used them to stay in power.15 Countries and political leaders often avoid the word “referendum” because of its associations with the word “plebiscite,” but Chile has redeemed the word by upholding the democratic and self-determining intentions behind it.

Chile’s history as an authoritarian bureaucracy during the 1980s makes it unlikely for the country to handle protests well. Nonetheless, the government listened to the people’s needs and utilized democratic practices. The new constitution would make Chile even more democratic and Chile is already often regarded as one of the most stable countries in a region facing instability and despotism. Hopefully, Chile will pave the way for other nations to adopt more democratic governments.

Spring 2021

1 Alisha Holland, “Analysis | Chile’s Streets Are Filled with Protests. How Did a 4 Percent Fare Hike Set off Such Rage?,” The Washington Post, WP Company, October 30, 2019, www.washingtonpost. com/politics/2019/11/01/chiles-streets-are-fire-withprotests-how-did-percent-fare-hike-set-off-such-rage/.

2 Daniel Alarcón, “Chile at the Barricades,” The New Yorker, October 5, 2020, www.newyorker.com/ magazine/2020/10/12/chile-at-the-barricades.

3 Holland.

4 Amy Tikkanen, “Augusto Pinochet,” Encyclopedia Britannica, December 9, 2020, https://www.britannica. com/biography/Augusto-Pinochet.

5 “Constitutional History of Chile,” ConstitutionNet, January, 2014, constitutionnet.org/country/ constitutional-history-chile.

6 Eugene Robinson, “Chile’s Pinochet Beaten in Plebiscite on Rule,” The Washington Post, WP Company, October 6, 1988, www.washingtonpost. com/archive/politics/1988/10/06/chiles-pinochetbeaten-in-plebiscite-on-rule/cbc2e773-f1cc-4c37-bcb591b9de1e8084/.

7 “Chile Profile - Timeline,” BBC News, BBC, November 20, 2017, www.bbc.com/news/world-latinamerica-19356356.

8 Katherine M. Culliton, “Legal Remedies for Domestic Violence in Chile and the United States: Cultural Relativism, Myths, and Realities,” Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons, April 10, 2021, scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil/vol26/ iss2/1/.

9 Fernanda Gandara, “What the Constitution Says About: Women’s Rights,” Chile Today, October 19, 2020, chiletoday.cl/what-the-constitution-says-aboutwomens-rights/.

10 Charis McGowan, “Why Chile’s New Constitution Is a Feminist Victory,” Foreign Policy, January 1, 2013, foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/15/chile-constitutiongender-parity-feminist-protest/.

11 “World Report 2020: Rights Trends in Chile,” Human Rights Watch, January 14, 2020, www.hrw.org/ world-report/2020/country-chapters/chile#d91ede.

12 McGowan.

‫לשם שמים‬

12

13 “A Step Backward for Same-Sex Couples in Chile,” Human Rights Watch, October 28, 2020, www.hrw.org/ news/2020/09/24/step-backward-same-sex-coupleschile.

14 “Global Democracy Has a Very Bad Year,” The Economist, The Economist Newspaper, February 2,

Spring 2021

2021, www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/02/02/ global-democracy-has-a-very-bad-year.

15 Richard Rose, “Referendum or Plebiscite: What’s the Difference?,” UK in a Changing Europe, October 8, 2020, ukandeu.ac.uk/referendum-or-plebiscite-whatsthe-difference/.

An Avalanche of “Fake News”: The Global Misinformation Crisis

By Benjamin Zelnick

Over the past five years, Americans have been bombarded with the term “fake news,” particularly as a description of politically slanted media outlets. The 2016 presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were marked by invective about the alleged spread of inaccurate or misleading information pertaining to the candidates. In fact, during the first weeks of November 2016, the number of Google searches for “fake news” in the United States increased by 1,100 percent; in American literature published in 2019, the term is referenced 35,000 percent more often than it was at the beginning of the millennium.1 Even though the public is searching for, writing about, and referencing fake news, few truly understand that “[f]ake news is not news you disagree with.”2 The most pressing threat to information integrity, rather than biased news, is deliberately circulated fake news: disinformation propagated by foreign actors as an efficient “weapon of mass distraction,” intended to destabilize societies and generate panic while remaining difficult to detect and rectify.3

campaigns on the Internet. According to a 2012 methodical analysis, three out of ten Barack Obama followers (totaling 5.3 million “people”) on Twitter show behavior consistent with that of bots: accounts that are controlled by computer programs rather than humans.4 These bots could be used not only to mislead Americans about Obama’s popularity, but also to unleash a barrage of false information to sway public opinion; each of these accounts can post up to 2,400 Tweets per day, adding up to a staggering daily tsunami of 12.7 billion lies.5 A recently declassified National Intelligence Council report confirms that foreign governments used such disinformation warfare in an attempt to influence the outcome of the 2020 elections. The document, released on March 15, 2021, reveals that Russia was responsible for disseminating injurious, false claims about Hunter Biden to support the Trump campaign; then-President Trump’s lawyer was even used to magnify false claims and channel them to the American public.

It additionally confirms that Iran attempted to encourage Biden’s election by forging Boys, a

One of the potent and insidious methods threatening emails from the Proud 6 far-right white nationalist group. Both of these of foreign interference in American politics, disinformation attacks wielded a destabilizing especially during the recent 2020 elections, influence in the United States, causing was the coordination of disinformation

‫לשם שמים‬ confusion and increasing division.

13

Spring 2021

disinformation campaign by Russian state outlets regarding

Disinformation by foreign actors has also media and pro-Kremlin 10 COVID-19.” The purpose of this effort, promoted conspiracy theories and generated according to the document, is “to aggravate the panic during the coronavirus pandemic. One and of the best-known allegations is that the virus public health crisis in Western countries” 11 to “subvert European societies.” False claims and vaccines are part of a government plot about the pandemic, largely spread by foreign involving 5G cellular technology. On July 16, powers such as Russia and China, intentionally 2020, an Italian journal published an article provoke fear and deepen fissures in American entitled “5G Technology and Induction of Coronavirus in Skin Cells.” Three of its authors society. were affiliated with the I.M. Sechenov First

As misinformation propagates Moscow State Medical University, which rampantly, it remains extremely difficult to receives funding from the Russian government. pinpoint and thwart, allowing it to wreak havoc The report, which concluded that 5G radiation that could be eliminated by proper regulation. could be a main factor in promoting the Worldwide, there are 547,200 websites created production of SARS-CoV-2 within the daily, and any one of these may be used to body, was later retracted, but not before it spread fake news.12 Even if a website is found had been cataloged on PubMed, the United to be spreading false information, the Internet States National Library of Medicine’s online Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers 7 database of journal articles. Rumors about (ICANN), which is responsible for allocating connections between the coronavirus and 5G domain names, is not permitted to suspend or technology spread rapidly and detrimentally revoke an assignment based on site content.13 throughout Italy and across the world, with On social media platforms, which have policies theorists showcasing a mislabeled diagram of that enable the removal of misleading content, a guitar pedal as the wireless chip allegedly the sheer number of posts makes effective 8 included in vaccine doses. Researchers at regulation nearly impossible. Twitter users, Carnegie Mellon have discovered that foreign for instance, post six thousand Tweets per governments were largely responsible for second.14 Furthermore, for a relatively low sowing panic about COVID on social media, cost, an individual or foreign government reporting that forty-five percent of Tweets can purchase a large number of social media about the pandemic had been posted by accounts to spread false information. In 2017, suspected bot accounts. These bots circulated for example, an investigative journalist at The over one hundred “false narratives” about the Daily Beast spent $45 on a Russian website to virus, including the 5G conspiracy and claims instantaneously gain access to one thousand that hospital beds were filled with mannequins, already-created Twitter accounts.15 Another not COVID patients.9 One of the scientists issue with regulating access to social media working on the investigation stated that the platforms is controlling their application campaign “definitely matches the Russian and programming interface, or API, which allows Chinese playbooks,” underscoring a European computers to perform actions such as creating Union document that exposes a “significant or replying to posts with simple lines of code.

‫לשם שמים‬

14

While some companies use this feature for legitimate purposes, such as automating posts to their social media accounts, malicious actors can abuse it to simplify the creation of bots to spread disinformation. From June to November of 2017, Twitter suspended 117,000 parties who had used the API to produce 1.5 billion “low-quality tweets”—a description that was likely a euphemism for fake news.16 Because of insufficient regulations and preventative measures, the threat to information integrity has reached record heights.

Although widespread strategies to combat disinformation have not yet been implemented, individuals have many resources for recognizing and rejecting fake news. The most useful of these strategies is to critically evaluate the information provided by media outlets. According to Common Sense, a nonprofit organization that promotes media literacy, readers can use a five-step process to verify the reliability of their online sources: checking the URL for irregularities, looking for grammatical mistakes and sensationalism, finding more information on the author and publisher, corroborating facts with trusted sources, and searching for images that are reused in irrelevant stories.17 On social media platforms such as Instagram, users can help the community by flagging false or misleading information.18 Finally, independent organizations such as NewsGuard Technologies offer browser extensions that detect fake news websites, warn users, and provide understandable summaries of media outlets’ reporting practices.19 Although the misinformation crisis remains dire and the world’s governments must work together to disarm these “weapons of mass distraction,” individuals can still protect themselves from

Spring 2021

the avalanche of fake news by vigilantly controlling their own media consumption.

1 Google, Google Trends, accessed March 28, 2021, https://trends.google.com/; Google, Google Books Ngram Viewer, last modified 2019, accessed March 28, 2021, https://books.google.com/ngrams/ graph?content=fake+news&year_start=2000&year_ end=2019&corpus=26.

2 Cornell University Library, “Fake News, Propaganda, and Disinformation: Learning to Critically Evaluate Media Sources: What Is Fake News?,” LibGuides at Cornell University, last modified March 11, 2021, accessed March 25, 2021, https://guides.library.cornell. edu/evaluate_news.

3 Christina Nemr and William Gangware, Weapons of Mass Distraction: Foreign State-Sponsored Disinformation in the Digital Age, title page, March 2019, accessed March 25, 2021, https://www.parkadvisors.com/s/PA_WMD_Report_2019-dcjm.pdf.

4 Marco Camisani Calzolari, Analysis of Twitter Followers of the US Presidential Election Candidates: Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, 7, August 8, 2012, accessed March 16, 2021, https://web.archive.org/ web/20140307095016/http://digitalevaluations.com/ DigitalEvaluations-Obama_Romney.pdf.

5 Twitter, “About Twitter Limits,” Twitter Help Center, accessed March 26, 2021, https://help.twitter.com/en/ rules-and-policies/twitter-limits.

6 Julian E. Barnes, “Russian Interference in 2020 Included Influencing Trump Associates, Report Says,” The New York Times, accessed March 25, 2021, https:// www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/us/politics/electioninterference-russia-2020-assessment.html.

7 M. Fioranelli et al., “5G Technology and Induction of Coronavirus in Skin Cells,” Journal of Biological Regulators and Homeostatic Agents 34, no. 4 (2020): 9, https://doi.org/10.23812/20-269-e-4; Federal State Autonomous, “Grants to Universities Are the Key to National Academic Excellence,” Sechenov University, last modified May 30, 2016, accessed April 3, 2021, https://www.sechenov.ru/pressroom/news/grantsto-universities-are-the-key-to-national-academicexcellence/.

‫לשם שמים‬

15

Spring 2021

8 Andrew Daniels, “Conspiracists Say This 5G Chip Is in the COVID Vaccine. It’s Just a Guitar Pedal,” Popular Mechanics, January 5, 2021, accessed March 16, 2021, https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/ a35122832/.

12-6-2015-en.

9 Bobby Allyn, “Researchers: Nearly Half of Accounts Tweeting about Coronavirus Are Likely Bots,” National Public Radio, last modified May 20, 2020, accessed March 26, 2021, https://www.npr.org/sections/ coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/20/859814085/.

15 Joseph Cox, “I Bought a Russian Bot Army for under $100,” The Daily Beast, last modified September 13, 2017, accessed March 16, 2021, https://www. thedailybeast.com/i-bought-a-russian-bot-army-forunder-dollar100.

10 Allyn; Robin Emmott and Anastasia Teterevela, “Russia Deploying Coronavirus Disinformation to Sow Panic in West, EU Document Says,” ed. Mark Heinrich, Reuters, last modified March 18, 2020, accessed March 16, 2021, https://www.reuters.com/article/ idUSKBN21518F. 11 Emmott and Teterevela.

12 Nick Huss, “How Many Websites Are There around the World? [2021],” Siteefy, last modified March 19, 2021, accessed March 26, 2021, https://siteefy.com/ how-many-websites-are-there/.

14 Kit Smith, “60 Incredible and Interesting Twitter Stats and Statistics,” Brandwatch Blog, entry posted January 2, 2020, accessed March 26, 2021, https://www. brandwatch.com/blog/twitter-stats-and-statistics/.

16 Natasha Lomas, “Study: Russian Twitter Bots Sent 45k Brexit Tweets Close to Vote,” TechCrunch, last modified November 15, 2017, accessed March 25, 2021, https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/15/study-russiantwitter-bots-sent-45k-brexit-tweets-close-to-vote/.

17 Cornell University Library, “Fake News,” LibGuides at Cornell University.

18 Hadas Gold, “Instagram Now Lets Users Flag Misinformation,” CNN Business, last modified August 16, 2019, accessed March 28, 2021, https://www.cnn. com/2019/08/16/tech/instagram-misinformation-intlscli.

13 Allen Grogan, “ICANN Is Not the Internet Content Police,” ICANN Blogs, entry posted June 12, 2015, 19 NewsGuard Technologies, Home page, NewsGuard, accessed March 26, 2021, https://www.icann.org/en/ accessed March 28, 2021, https://www.newsguardtech. blogs/details/icann-is-not-the-internet-content-police- com/.

The Downfall of Democracy in Hong Kong

By Sarah Miller

China is known today as an authoritarian-style communist government where Western democratic rights and freedoms are often suppressed. China does its best to enforce its own values on its people, although one place where this narrative has faltered is Hong Kong, an island off China’s southeastern coast. Hong Kong currently enjoys democratic rights and freedoms, as well as a capitalist economy, although recent actions by China have led to growing uncertainty over the

future of the island. Hong Kong’s century-old democracy is now in danger due to increased infringement on its democratic process and citizens’ rights by Beijing.

Hong Kong spent 99 years under British rule, as it was leased to Great Britain as the price of defeat after the Opium Wars in 1898.1 As a result, Hong Kong thrived under a capitalist nation and developed its culture and economy separately from the rest of mainland China. Hong Kong became a hub of capitalist

‫לשם שמים‬

16

trade and culture, whereas China became communist in 1949. As the lease came to a close, Hong Kong wanted to ensure that it would be able to keep its culture, economy, and rights even after returning to Chinese rule.

The Sino-British Joint Declaration, signed by China and Britain in 1985, laid out what Hong Kong’s economy, culture, and government would look like and established the “one country, two systems” doctrine describing China’s relationship with Hong Kong.2 This agreement guaranteed that even though Hong Kong would be under Chinese rule, it would remain autonomous to a large extent especially with regard to its economy and culture, which China was not to interfere with for 50 years.3 Hong Kong also adopted its own constitution, known as Basic Law, which establishes the Hong Kong legal and governing system, as well as protecting the rights of citizens, such as the freedoms of speech, expression, and press.4 Hong Kong also became a Special Administrative Region of China after the lease to Britain ended in 1997 to ensure that it would be able to continue to enjoy its freedoms within communist China.5 Under this system, Beijing still maintains a good deal of control over the island. Only a minority of Hong Kong’s government officials are actually democratically elected by the people, and the island’s politics are dominated by officials loyal to Beijing.6 This drastically limits the power of Hong Kongers within their own government. China also has authority over matters of diplomacy and defense, as well as the power to interpret Basic Law, thus allowing China to severely restrict the freedoms guaranteed to Hong Kong citizens.7

Since 1997, there has been constant tension between Hong Kong and the mainland, as Beijing has made many attempts

Spring 2021

to infringe upon Hong Kong’s autonomy.

Initially, these efforts were met with enough popular opposition to dissuade many of these initiatives from actually being implemented.

In 2003, a law was proposed that would ban any speech or action that could be construed as treason, sedition, secession, or subversion against the Chinese government.8 This law would, in effect, eliminate all opposition to the mainland government through suppression of free speech and expression. This legislative proposal was met with massive popular protests in Hong Kong which stopped its passage.

Beijing continued its attempts to meddle in Hong Kong’s affairs, a noticeable example of this being in 2012, when Beijing made an effort to reform the Hong Kong school curricula to include the promotion of Chinese national identity. This was also met with massive protests, as the Hong Kong population was opposed to such obvious propaganda efforts meant to repress Hong Kong’s culture and identity. The Chinese government once again made an effort to increase its influence over the Hong Kong government in 2014 by proposing a law that would guarantee universal suffrage for Hong Kong, but would only allow them to vote for candidates that had been approved

by Beijing.9 This proposed change would have eliminated any support for democracy within the government, as only candidates that were Beijing loyalists would be approved. What followed became known as the Umbrella Movement, a mass protest movement calling for true democracy in Hong Kong. Although no true democracy was established, the proposal that led to the protests was put aside.10 Until this point, the mass protests in Hong Kong had been enough to keep Beijing from implementing the most suppressive measures.

However, after the Umbrella

‫לשם שמים‬

17

Spring 2021

Movement, the Chinese government did more to suppress opposition movements than ever before. Leaders of the protest movement were prosecuted and expelled from government.11 These protests marked a shift in Hong Kong’s paradigm, as it showed how much Beijing was willing to do to suppress democracy in Hong Kong.

promptly resigned in protest of their colleagues’ removal.17 This move was incredibly dangerous for Hong Kong, as now there are none left in their government who support democracy and oppose Beijing’s restrictions of freedoms within Hong Kong. This lack of opposition has solidified Beijing’s control over the island, and has put the future of Hong Kong into jeopardy.

Beijing’s most recent crackdowns have posed the most serious threat yet to Hong Kong’s autonomy, and its future as a capitalist democracy is in jeopardy. In 2019, Beijing proposed a bill that would allow extraditions to mainland China, which sparked another wave of mass protests.12 This particular bill was significant as it would have vastly limited the power of Hong Kong’s independent judiciary, which had been established in its Basic Law.13 The 2019 protests were massive in scale, as approximately a quarter of the island’s total population took to the streets. China responded with even harsher crackdowns, as since the protests, 2400 people have been charged with “unlawful assembly” and jailed.14 Beijing continued its dismantling of the opposition in Hong Kong in June of 2020, when the same national security bill that had been met with protests in 2003 became law.15 This law was imposed on the island by the Chinese government without any input from the Hong Kong legislative body, which sets a dangerous precedent for future action by Beijing. One effect of the law that has been widely protested is the power it gives Beijing over who can run in Hong Kong elections.16 Tensions continued to escalate after four pro-democracy lawmakers were forcefully removed from government in November 2020, a move which violated the system set up in the Basic Law. The rest of the pro-democracy faction of the legislature

The tensions between communist China and Hong Kong have drastically escalated in recent years, and Hong Kong’s special status within China is now more fragile than ever.

Beijing has become increasingly hostile and aggressive, and does not seem to be backing down. A continuation in this direction by Beijing, if left unchecked, could mean the end of all hopes for real democracy in Hong Kong.

This would be not only disastrous for the inhabitants of the island, but could signify more aggression by the Chinese in other areas, such as the South China Sea and Taiwan.

1 Erin Blakemore, “How Hong Kong’s Complex History Explains its Current Crisis with China,” National Geographic, Aug. 7, 2019, https://www. nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/hong-konghistory-explain-relationship-china/.

2 Ibid.

3 Louisa Brooke-Holland, “Hong Kong: the Joint Declaration,” House of Commons Library, July 5, 2019, https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/researchbriefings/cbp-8616/.

4 “Chapter II Fundamental Rights and Obligations of Citizens,” Full Text of the Constitution and the Basic Law, April 29, 2020, https://www.basiclaw.gov.hk/en/ basiclawtext/index.html.

5 Blakemore.

6 Lindsay Maizland and Eleanor Albert, “Hong Kong’s Freedoms: What China Promised and How It’s Cracking Down,” Council on Foreign Relations, Feb. 17, 2021,

‫לשם שמים‬

18

Spring 2021

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/democracy-hongkong.

https://time.com/5912573/hong-kong-democracyfuture/.

7 Ibid.

13 Maizland.

8 Maizland.

14 Austin Ramzy, “Hong Kong Court Convicts Democracy Leaders Over Protest March,” New York 9 Lily Kuo, “Hong Kong ‘Umbrella Movement’: Nine Convicted Over Protests,” The Guardian, April 9, 2019, Times, March 31, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/09/ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/world/asia/ hong-kong-umbrella-movement-protesters-guilty-over- hong-kong-democracy-protest.html. pro-democracy-rallies-jail.

15 Barron.

10 Maizland.

16 Maizland.

11 Kuo. 12 Laignee Barron, “With Opposition Lawmakers Exiting the Legislature, What is the Future of Hong Kong’s Democracy Movement?” TIME, Nov. 20, 2020,

17 Zen Soo, “Hong Kong’s Pro-Democracy Lawmakers to Resign En Masse,” Associated Press, Nov. 11, 2020, https://apnews.com/article/hong-kong-pro-democracyresign-en-masse-7434a6f1ac28a059827b51d02987f71c.

Brazil’s Bolsonaro Strikes a Blow to the Amazon and its People

By Niva Cohen

Like other demagogues in recent years, President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil has gained power through divisive rhetoric and a tough persona. He governs based on self-interest, not ideology. Many have paid the price for Bolsonaro’s egotistical and irresponsible approach. The trees of the Amazon rainforest die, and the lungs of the world blacken, as the president rolls back environmental regulations and pushes development of the Amazon.

Indigenous people struggle in unclean towns, trying to ward off invaders who poach their land as Bolsonaro turns a blind eye. Nothing encapsulates his flawed leadership so much as his response to COVID-19, which killed Amazonians at three times the rate of urban Brazilians.1 The president did not enforce travel rules and did little to protect the vulnerable.

Jair Bolsonaro’s policies wreaked havoc on the Amazon region because of their effect on the environment and Indigenous communities,

made worse by COVID-19.

The Amazon rainforest is vast and lively.

It includes one in ten known species and 1.4 billion acres of trees, which combat greenhouse gas emissions by trapping 90-140 billion metric tons of carbon.2 The Amazon makes up 40% of South America, and 60% of it lies in Brazil.3 Bolsonaro’s policy of exploiting the Amazon will negatively impact not only Brazilian citizens but everyone on Earth.

Bolsonaro’s attitude toward the Amazon is politically motivated and shows little concern for the environment. He preys on the nationalistic fears of his base that other countries will take the Amazon away if leadership does not develop it, labeling foreign interference a product of “collonialist spirit.”4 Brazil’s urban citizens view the Amazon as an empty wasteland, despite an industry boom since the 1970s.5 The timber and mining

‫לשם שמים‬

19

Spring 2021

industries give financial support to Bolsonaro, so he champions deforestation as a development tool that will uncover hidden wealth where Amazonian trees once stood.

The president’s opportunism shines through in his past environmental policies, or lack thereof. Bolsonaro has defunded environmental protection programs and authorized illegal activities such as logging, mining, and deforestation. His government has ignored calls from other countries to seek more sustainable paths toward economic success.6

Bolsonaro has neglected their rights and, in this time of need, their health, too.

The human victims of illegal activity are members of Indigenous communities. Ten years ago, there were one million Indigenous Brazilians. Most of them live in Amazonian villages in Northern Brazil. Their towns are extremely remote: Manaus, the Amazon’s largest city, is 50 hours away from Sao Paulo by car.8 Many Amazonians are poor and undernourished. Their water is dirty and their towns lack good sanitation. Their isolation and relative misfortune leave them susceptible to disease. Despite natives’ vulnerability,

halfhearted resistance. Even after commercial boating paused, rural citizens continued to travel by private boat, contracting COVID-19 and bringing it deeper into the forest.11 Miners and loggers carried the disease into remote communities. Bolsonaro has not proposed straight-forward quarantine guidelines or contact tracing.12 His administration has consistently mocked and minimized the effects of the virus, neglecting to appoint medical experts to the health ministry.13 When the president finally sent officials to protect remote

Much like his approach to the environment, Bolsonaro’s attitude toward Indigenous people is careless and inhumane.

His racist language has alienated Indigenous communities and emboldened prejudiced citizens. In January, 2020, he remarked on Twitter that “more and more, the Indian [Indigenous person] is a human being the same as us,” normalizing language that portrays natives as “the other.”9 Bolsonaro’s policies

A lack of governmental supervision has reflect his rhetoric. He has denied Indigenous encouraged illegal activities in the Amazon, territorial rights and appointed leaders to creating a host of environmental disasters.

Amazon regions with little knowledge of While Bolsonaro turns the other way, invaders native peoples. Using the economy as an enter the rainforest to mine precious substances excuse, Bolsonaro vetoed a law in July, 2020 and displace vulnerable communities from that would bring fresh water and healthcare their land. In 2020, wildfires were 28% more to remote areas. He has allowed missionaries common than the year before. People illegally to take positions that historically belonged start fires to deforest parts of the Amazon for to Indigenous people.10 They disrupt native agriculture and industry, but they lose control, communities by forcing their religion and and the flames spread. The government could interfering with ancient traditions. As much enforce deforestation laws, but Bolsonoro has as he talks about developing the Amazon, yet to make them a priority. Set free by the Bolsonaro hardly mentions the 10% of Brazil president’s environmental apathy, miners and that lives there. loggers have brought destruction to land that

COVID-19 spread throughout the much of Brazil regards as sacred.7 Amazon by the river, undeterred by Bolsonaro’s

‫לשם שמים‬

20

Spring 2021

populations, he did not equip them with tests, so they brought COVID-19 with them.14 These government vectors, combined with infected invaders and missionaries, fostered the pandemic’s Amazon explosion, which killed 700 people in six months.15

There is a price to President Jair Bolsonaro’s laissez-faire approach to the Amazon, a price that the rainforest and its inhabitants pay. He seeks to exploit the Amazon’s resources and assimilate its people.

What Bolsonaro and his base fail to realize is that the rainforest and Indigenous communities

Because of limited government help, hold inherent value. As he turns a blind eye Indigenous Brazilians resorted to desperate to deforestation, everyone worldwide could measures as the pandemic devastated their communities. In Manaus, they dug mass graves experience the consequences. As he turns his back on natives, thousands of people suffer, to bury their dead. They made emergency grieve, and lose their culture. The COVID-19 calls to medical professionals, who took days pandemic has brought to light the flaws in to reach the rainforest by boat and lacked adequate protective equipment.16 As hospitals Bolsonaro’s leadership and the problem with ran out of stretchers, they turned to hammocks a short-sighted and often cruel governance and boat ambulances. Medivacs often arrived approach that elevates short-term economic too late, and patients onboard faced the danger gains above all other values. of lowered blood oxygen levels.17 Bolsonaro offered some support in stimulus checks. To get their money, however, people had to go into the cities, which led to infection. Bolsonaro 1 Ritula Shah, “What is Covid Doing to the Amazon?,” claimed that he was lending a hand, but his August 7, 2020, in The Real Story, produced by BBC, help put native people at greater risk. podcast, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3cszcn7.

Bolsonaro’s negligence has taken its toll on the Amazon. By August, more than 21,000 Indigenous people had become infected, and more than three percent of them had died.18 People were as likely to get COVID-19 in the most remote villages as if they had lived in New York City. During the worst of the pandemic, 100 people died daily in Manaus.19 The loss to native people is not only of loved-ones but also of tradition. Indigenous elders serve as libraries to people depending on the oral transmission of culture, and more than 200 of them have died.20 They were the most valuable and esteemed members of their communities, but their age left them vulnerable. Had Bolsonaro acted with more care and diligence, perhaps they could have survived.

2 “Amazon,” World Wildlife Fund, 2021, accessed March 15, 2021, https://www.worldwildlife.org/places/ amazon.

3 Shah.

4 “Amazon Rainforest Belongs to Brazil, Says Jair Bolsonaro,” September 24, 2019, BBC News, https:// www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49815731.

5 Shah.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Marcelo de Sousa, “Brazil Indigenous Groups Accuse Bolsonaro of Racist Comment,” ABC News, January 24, 2020, accessed April 7, 2021, https://abcnews.go.com/ International/wireStory/brazil-indigenous-groupsaccuse-bolsonaro-racist-comment-68515577.

‫לשם שמים‬

21

Spring 2021

10 Shah.

coronavirus-brazil-indigenous.html.

11 Julie Turkewitz and Manuela Andreoni, “The Amazon, Giver of Life, Unleashes the Pandemic,” The New York Times, July 25, 2020, accessed March 16, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/ interactive/2020/07/25/world/americas/coronavirusbrazil-amazon.html.

13 Turkewitz and Andreoni.

12 Manuela Andreoni, Ernesto Londoño, and Letícia Casado, “Brazil Health Workers May Have Spread Coronavirus to Indigenous People,” The New York Times, July 28, 2020, accessed March 16, 2021, https:// www.nytimes.com/2020/07/19/world/americas/

14 Andreoni, Londoño, and Casado.

15 Shah.

16 Ibid.

17 Turkewitz and Andreoni.

18 Shah.

19 Turkewitz and Andreoni.

20 Shah.

How Covid Tells Us to Fight Climate Change

By Daniel Bernstein

For years, health experts warned about the possibility of a pandemic that the world would not be prepared to handle. Since a viral outbreak seemed impossible to most, these scientists were not given attention.1 Had everyone known for certain of the terrors that Covid would bring, each country could have mobilized earlier to prevent death and chaos.

The world faces this exact situation with climate change today; scientists warn of the terrible consequences climate change will bring in the coming decades. Despite these daunting predictions, relatively little is done to combat it.

The Covid-19 pandemic must act as a warning sign for what can happen if the climate crisis is neglected any longer.

for those infected, as opposed to 1.8% for the United States.2 These numbers reflect Mexico’s impoverished public health system, which struggled to get ventilators and staff hospitals.3 Similarly, warming and other effects of climate change will hurt poorer countries the most.

Average temperatures will increase more near the tropics, which are made up by some of the world’s least developed countries. Countries such as Zimbabwe and Guatemala, with GDPs per capita less than a 20th of the United States’, will become 15% hotter on average by 2100 if trends continue.4 This prediction poses catastrophic expectations for these populations made up of subsistence farmers, for whom droughts will become exponentially more common, and coastal residents, who

Just as Covid especially hurt countries with ill-equipped health care systems, climate will experience more frequent and damaging change will affect vulnerable populations most. hurricanes. While scientists struggle to make specific predictions for decades in the future, While no country was adequately prepared to handle the spike of Covid cases, some were there is a general consensus in the scientific community that warming will dangerously disadvantaged more than others. Mexico, for exacerbate these areas’ weather related issues.5 example, saw a startling 9.0% mortality rate These countries will pay the price for climate

‫לשם שמים‬ change despite contributing the least to the problem.

22

Spring 2021

disastrous consequences. As of March 2021, there have been over 125,000,000 cases of the virus and 2,750,000 deaths because of it.8

Covid and climate change have also Staggering statistics like these are what drive shown that individual responsibility is key to addressing serious issues, but that government the world to make alterations to everyday lives. This idea can set a precedent for the action is equally important, if not more world, preparing people to make sacrifices for lasting. Pandemics are challenging threats common safety. The effects of climate change because they require each individual to act are harder to quantify because of its indirect responsibly. Lockdowns would have been the effects, but its outcomes look just as grim. If left ultimate mitigators for the virus had people followed the guidelines. As much as everyone unaddressed, current rates of carbon entering the ocean and increasing temperatures will kill wants to believe that the general public can coral reefs in just 20 years, which over a billion band together to solve a common threat, the people worldwide rely on for food. Select areas pandemic has shown that that is not realistic of the world, like the Persian Gulf and China, in every country. While bottom-up action will experience unbearable hot seasons, which certainly has a part to play in climate reform, will significantly raise the rates of dehydration such as the growing demand for vegan food and heatstroke for the hundreds of millions of and eco-friendly products, it will not be 9 enough on its own. Luckily, the world can solve people who live there. By 2100, rising sea levels climate change on a bigger scale. Government have the potential to displace 2 billion people, creating an international climate refugee regulations like the Biden administration’s crisis.10 Educating people about these statistics goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 will make change seem more necessary, just or the Paris Climate Agreement’s vision of like how Covid numbers influenced large-scale international climate aid and accountability action. are achievable because governments can more easily enforce executive decisions than

People have done incredible things to 6 people’s behavior. Likewise, research to create mitigate the Covid outbreak, which shows that environmentally friendly alternatives to energy immense change is also possible to combat and material production can be funded and global warming. The world knows what it is 7 carried out by a few donors and scientists. up against with climate change, which puts it These avenues only require people to vote in at an advantage. Now, the only thing left is to climate-conscious leaders who can spend their rally support for comparable action. Using what time addressing the problem. With Covid was learned from the pandemic response, the lockdowns, countries rely on each person world has an incredible opportunity to prevent taking action, but with climate change, the another global catastrophe. world must depend on a top-down approach.

Just as the world took difficult but necessary social distancing precautions to prevent Covid complications, climate change will require drastic changes to avoid equally

‫לשם שמים‬

23

1 Bill Gates, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: the Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need (New York: Doubleday, 2020), 198.

2 “Mortality Analyses,” coronavirus.jhu.edu, Johns Hopkins University & Medicine, April 7, 2021, https:// coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality.

3 Nathaniel Parish Flannery, “Why Are So Many People Dying Of Covid-19 In Mexico?,” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, September 3, 2020, https://www. forbes.com/sites/nathanielparishflannery/2020/09/03/ why-are-so-many-people-dying-of-covid-19-inmexico/?sh=3c95afe318e7.

4 Chris Mooney, “The People Who’ll Be Most Hurt by Climate Swings Did the Least to Cause Them, Study Says,” The Washington Post, WP Company, April 29, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energyenvironment/wp/2018/05/02/scientists-just-showed-

Spring 2021

why-climate-change-is-enormously-unfair/.

5 Bill Gates, 30.

6 “Plan for Climate Change and Environmental Justice: Joe Biden,” Joe Biden for President: Official Campaign Website, Democratic National Committee, October 29, 2020, https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/.

7 Bill Gates, 84-97.

8 “COVID-19 Map,” coronavirus.jhu.edu, Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, April 7, 2021, https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html.

9 Bill Gates, 31.

10 Blaine Friedlander, “Rising Seas Could Result in 2 Billion Refugees by 2100,” Cornell Chronicle, Cornell University, June 19, 2017, https://news.cornell.edu/ stories/2017/06/rising-seas-could-result-2-billionrefugees-2100.

Abortion in Poland

By Eliana Pasternak and Rebecca Miller

Among the many crises currently ravaging the world, oppressive policies on abortion stifle womens’ voices. One of these overlooked crises revolves around abortion issues in Poland. The latest in a series of injustices committed against Polish women is the draconian abortian ban recently passed by Poland’s right-wing Law and Justice Party (PiS), causing mass protests and general outrage against what is clearly an attack on women’s already diminished rights.

many benefits on paper, including up to three years of maternity leave, free daycare, and leave to take care of their sick children. Following the fall of communism, state-financed childcare ended and it became harder for women to find jobs.1 In 1992, the average wage gap between men and women was 25%. 75% of Polish men and 60% of Polish women believed the women’s place was at home cooking, cleaning, and raising children.2 The early 2000s marked a time of hopefulness for the women’s rights

While Poland used to have more liberal movement in Poland. The 2001 elections had 20% of Parliament, more policies on women’s rights, it has a tumultuous women making up 3 than ever before. But recent events prove that history of institutionalized sexism and has the battle is far from over. Because Poland long been one of the worst countries when it comes to women’s rights, despite brief periods is a staunchly Catholic country, abortion has always been taboo. The fight over outlawing of liberal gains on the issue. Interestingly, the communist era was a time of improvement for abortion has been long-fought. The PiS tried to implement abortion bans in 2016 and 2018, but women in Poland. Emancipation of women 4 was a communist slogan, and women received backed off after protests ensued. However, they

‫לשם שמים‬

24

Spring 2021

are now trying again and have not shown signs Polish nation,” both the government as a whole of backing down. and PiS parliamentarian Gazeta Wyborcza

The new abortion regulations in Poland worry that the recent rulings on abortion, are harsh and exacting, outlawing abortion in namely, that it is illegal in all cases except rape, incest, and threats to the mother’s health, are nearly all cases. Prior to these new policies, what could be harmful to “Catholic Poland” Poland’s stance on abortion was still fairly conservative, allowing women to abort fetuses and give a negative image to the Church.

This seems rather unlikely though, as PiS has only in fetal abnormalities, rape or incest, state media and courts for the past and threats to the mother’s health.5 Under the manipulated 10 six years. If the PiS’ power continues to go new regulations, abortions in the case of fetal abnormalities are now illegal. These comprised unchecked, women in Poland could have a dark of 1074, or 98%, of the 1100 abortions allowed future ahead of them. in Poland in the last year. Thus, Poland is the European country with the most restrictions on abortion, barring Malta, which has a total ban.6 Fearing legal backlash, many hospitals in Poland pre-emptively instructed doctors to stop performing abortions for fetal abnormalities even before the bill was passed in January.

If not for the protests, staged by hundreds of thousands of protestors toting signs with mottos such as “This is war” and “I wish I could abort my government,” the bill would have been passed sooner than October 2020, and its subsequent publication in the government’s journal would have been earlier than January 2021.7 These harsh regulations on abortion are incredibly limiting and sexist to Polish women, and yet, lawmakers from the PiS still hope to push further.

These severe policies on abortion sparked public outrage and protesting. The protests have been the largest seen in Poland since the fall of communism. The protestors, ranging from teens to older women, chant slogans like “I think, I feel, I decide,” and blast girl power songs such as Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.”11 Some women showed up dressed as characters from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. And the protestors are not exclusively women. They also include farmers, miners, taxi drivers, and all sorts of people, many of whom violated COVID restrictions during the gatherings.12 Marta Lempart, a protest coordinator was quoted as saying, “We are dealing with incompetence, corruption, a total decay of the state, so these men are doing what they know best — taking away rights and freedoms from the citizens” and “this is about

Polish policy has gotten increasingly women, but also about all the other minorities more conservative since the rise of the PiS. and majorities that Law and Justice hates.”

The party’s leader and co-founder, Jarosław Kaczyński, is behind the brunt of the abortion Many people, not just women, are frustrated with PiS. There has been a police presence at policy. He introduced the ban through the these protests, along with an unclear number Constitutional Tribunal, where decisions cannot be appealed,8 bringing in judges friendly of arrests. Police made protestors show their IDs before leaving, blocked protestors, and to PiS policy for the vote.9 While Kaczyński even dragged them away. Another effect of the worries that the protests are an attempt to abortion ban is greater numbers of people, “destroy Poland and end the history of the

‫לשם שמים‬

25

Spring 2021

especially in the younger demographic, turning away from the Church.13 All in all, many are unhappy both with the current leadership and the new abortion regulations.

oct/28/the-guardian-view-on-polands-abortion-ban-abetrayal-of-democracy

Women in Poland are scared and angry.

The abortion ban has caused them to be terrified of pregnancy. Frankly, women have had enough of being marginalized and their voices unheard. Going forward, the future of women’s rights in Poland is uncertain, but this much is clear: women are not going down without a fight.

9 “The Guardian view on Poland’s abortion ban.”

1 “No place to be a woman: Poland,” The Economist, December 12, 1992, 60, Gale In Context: World History, accessed 19 Jan 2021, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A13242426/ WHIC?u=meri10431&sid=WHIC&xid=6720c32f 2 “No place to be a woman: Poland.”

3 Ginanne Brownell, “Hear Them Roar; In a Catholic country, feminism is now trendy,” Newsweek International,Gale In Context: World History, July 26, 2004, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A119580284/ WHIC?u=meri10431&sid=WHIC&xid=f6218638.

4 Monika Pronczuk, Isabella Kwai, and Anatol Magdziarz, “‘Declaration of War’: Protesters in Poland Vow to Fight Abortion Ban,”, The New York Times, Jan 28, 2021https://www.nytimes. com/2021/01/28/world/europe/poland-protestsabortion-ban.html?action=click&block=more_in_ recirc&impression_id=a9bf8920-61bc-11eb-80cd-0f979 11f875a&index=2&pgtype=Article&region=footer 5 Isabelle Kwai, “Near-Total Abortion Ban Takes Effect in Poland, and Thousands Protest,” The New York Times, 27 Jan. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/world/europe/ poland-abortion-law.html?smid=wa-share 6 “The Guardian view on Poland’s abortion ban: a betrayal of democracy,” The Guardian, 28 Oct. 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/

7 Kwai.

8 Pronczuk, etal.

10 “The Guardian view on Poland’s abortion ban.”

11 Kwai.

12 “The Guardian view on Poland’s abortion ban.”

13 Kwai.

‫לשם שמים‬

26

Spring 2021

The Unfortunate Reality of Worldwide Vaccine Nationalism

By Benjamin Beal

With the unbelievably quick development and implementation of a vaccine for COVID-19 from the United States to the United Arab Emirates, it would be easy to expect that a return to relative normalcy is on the horizon. However, despite the unprecedented progress made in fighting COVID-19 to this point, if some major changes are not made to the vaccine distribution process, the world will never fully eradicate the coronavirus, and the virus will continue to mutate for years to come.

while Latin America and the African Union, two bodies that contain about 17% of the world’s COVID cases, only account for about 1% of the world’s distribution forecast.4 With these troubling figures, the threat of COVID could persist in countries unable to access vaccines. At the same time, nations like the US could accept the false notion that the coronavirus is effectively eradicated, while poorer, less powerful countries are still ravaged by its effects.

Even going beyond the health of citizens,

Wealthy countries like Israel and the the toll that the continued spread of the virus United Kingdom are inoculating large numbers could have on global economies would be of people on a daily basis, providing some hope catastrophic. The global economic disparity for a light at the end of the COVID tunnel, present could not only spell disaster for low1 but this may just be false hope. The problem income nations but also for wealthy nations as lies in the fact that Vaccine Nationalism well. The World Economic Forum estimates prioritizes limiting transmission of the disease that wealthy countries will spend $1.2 trillion within countries’ borders as opposed to the on dosage orders to vaccinate their respective eradication of COVID worldwide, setting up populations, while the entire cost for supplying the unfortunate reality that herd immunity or low-income nations is estimated to be only eradication may not be as close as we think.2 about 2% of that, around $25 billion.5 The The phrase “Vaccine Nationalism” was coined Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) reached a by the World Health Organization in response conclusion that the global economic loss (in to massive purchase orders placed by large terms of GDP) as a result of COVID-19 spread nations and their own populations immediately in low-income countries could come at a $132 following human trials.3 The distribution of billion per-year toll for countries across the vaccines has thus far been more on a basis globe like the US and UK, further incentivizing of who can afford doses as opposed to who other economically stable countries and bodies necessarily needs them. For example, The like the EU to pay greater attention to this RAND Corporation, a nonprofit political and disastrous trend.6 advocacy think tank, estimates that countries

Economics and politics are neither the representing 16.5% of the world’s population sole issues present within the umbrella issue of have ordered 60% of available vaccine doses,

‫לשם שמים‬

27

Spring 2021

Vaccine Nationalism, nor are they potentially the most catastrophic. Biologically, the more time that it takes for the virus to be eradicated, the longer it has to mutate, which could impact the mRNA vaccine’s efficacy against variants, states the World Health Organization’s Dr. Tedros Adhanom. This cycle could repeat for decades, posing the question of why these individual countries neglected to take action for the sake of humanity and instead only acted on behalf of those living within their nation’s borders.7 Dr. Adhanom predicts variants will only get worse and will become increasingly vaccine-resistant in the future, and it could be as late as 2025 until third-world countries see any relief from the harsh effects of COVID-19.8

of society rather than to their own citizens, the world will at least begin to shift towards becoming a better place. Nationalism is not new, nor will it go away any time soon. But hopefully it takes a worldwide pandemic for countries around the world to look beyond their domestic interests for the betterment of humanity.

There are ways we could alter our current course of action regarding vaccine distribution, and could still turn the tide in the right direction for inoculation equity.

The Center for International Governance Innovation, partnered with Foreign Affairs, laid out a vaccine rollout plan that overviews the process by which to send superfluous doses from wealthy countries that have overordered for their own populations to countries like Nigeria, which has 200 million people and not one dose of the mRNA vaccine.9 The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has also outlined the establishment of a similar vaccine distribution organization to the United Against AIDS initiative erected under the Bush administration.10

2. Ibid

There are so many injustices throughout our world, and economic disparity is at the center of it all, especially considering the COVID-19 pandemic. These plans outlined above certainly will not eliminate the issue in its entirety. However, if countries around the world were able to contribute to the betterment

1. Khan, Dr Amir. “What Is ‘Vaccine Nationalism’ and Why Is It so Harmful?” Coronavirus Pandemic News | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 8 Feb. 2021, www.aljazeera.com/ features/2021/2/7/what-is-vaccine-nationalism-andwhy-is-it-so-harmful.

3. De, Abhishek. “Explained: Vaccine Nationalism, and How It Impacts the Covid-19 Fight.” The Indian Express, 23 Aug. 2020, indianexpress.com/article/ explained/what-is-vaccine-nationalism-how-does-itimpact-the-fight-against-covid-19-6561236/.

4. Hafner, Marco, et al. “COVID-19 ‘Vaccine Nationalism’ Could Cost $1.2 Trillion a Year.” RAND, RAND Corporation, 28 Oct. 2020, www.rand.org/pubs/ research_reports/RRA769-1.html.

5. Kretchmer, Harry. “Vaccine Nationalism – and How It Could Affect Us All.” World Economic Forum, WEForum, 6 Jan. 2021, www.weforum. org/agenda/2021/01/what-is-vaccine-nationalismcoronavirus-its-affects-covid-19-pandemic/.

6. “The Many Guises of Vaccine Nationalism.”

The Economist, The Economist Newspaper, 13 Mar. 2021, www.economist.com/finance-andeconomics/2021/03/13/the-many-guises-of-vaccinenationalism.

7. Eaton, Lynn. “Covid-19: WHO Warns against ‘Vaccine Nationalism’ or Face Further Virus Mutations.”

The BMJ, British Medical Journal Publishing Group, 1 Feb. 2021, www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n292.

8. Ibid

‫לשם שמים‬

28

9. Gold, E. Richard, et al. “The Antidote to Vaccine Nationalism.” Centre for International Governance Innovation, 1 June 2020, www.cigionline.org/articles/ antidote-vaccine-nationalism.

Spring 2021

10. Suzmann, Mark. “Why We Focus on Vaccine Equity.” Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 26 Feb. 2021, ww2.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/articles/coronavirusvaccine-equitable-access.

The Effectiveness of Each Country Handling COVID-19

By Jonah Shapiro

The differences between countries have been nothing less than drastic when looking at how they have handled COVID-19; from keeping everything open to regular lockdowns or contact tracing and closing towns, there is no perfect way to combat COVID-19. While strategies among countries vary, countries such as New Zealand and Australia have by far been the most effective and successful due to their detailed government plans, and overall cooperation of their citizens.

One major difference between the United States and other countries is that regulations for each individual state are made by the state government, instead of the federal government.1 States and territories with no mask mandate include Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Indiana while California, Colorado, Kentucky and Louisiana require face masks. The overwhelming majority of states with masks mandated have had fewer known cases and a lower positivity rate, proving that masks are effective. While the state governments control mask mandates, the capacity of stores and vaccine rollout, the federal government takes action on travel restrictions, and securing the vaccine for each state. Since President Joe Biden has entered office, many of these federal policies have dramatically changed.2 While cases did start receding January 20, in the month of April,

there has been a surge in COVID-19 cases as vaccines are being distributed and businesses are starting to get back up to full capacity.

This method of state government determining how to handle COVID-19 has proven to be too political, often causing decisions on mask mandates and the capacity of stores and stadiums to be more political than being based on science and statistics.

While the U.S. has had a moderately effective patchwork response, Brazil has fared quite poorly due to the lack of a plan along with incompetent leadership.3 In Brazil, as of April 18 there have been nearly 14 million COVID-19 cases as well as 371,000 deaths.4 Nearly all tourist attractions have reopened in the country along with stores being at nearly full capacity now that restrictions have been eased since late November. To get into the country, one must take several COVID-19 tests, but once into the country one may do as they please. While having a failing plan with minimal action taken, the Brazilian government did postpone the world famous Carnival festival, in order to stop the spread of the virus.5 Another reason for lack of action taken is due to President Jair Bolsonaro. He takes no urgency when it comes to the virus, and overall just does not care for it as a whole.6 He even went on to say, “All of us are going to die one day,” and, “There is no point running

‫לשם שמים‬

29

away from it, from reality. We have to stop being a country of sissies.” Due to the lack of urgency from the president, a weak plan to vaccinate citizens and contain the virus, Brazil has become an epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.

The United Kingdom has been characterized by lockdowns and strong restrictions, which have been moderately effective, but these have been undermined by Boris Johnson’s contradictory words when addressing the public.7 In the United Kingdom, they have reached 4.38 million cases with 137,000 deaths.8 The UK has been going into consistent lockdowns since March 2020 when a surge is an imminent threat or the Government fears of one. Unlike President Jair Bolsonaro, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been thoughtful and methodical when it comes to COVID-19, though throughout his press conferences and whenever he addresses the people, he seems to contradict himself; this has not instilled enough confidence in the UK citizens to believe that Prime Minister Johnson is capable of making the right moves. For example, in May, Johnson put the UK into a full lockdown, though he urged people who could not work from home to go back to work.9 These contradictory statements caused many UK citizens to be weary of Johnson’s words. Since July, the UK has been easing and enforcing lockdowns based on the amount of cases in the country. Since July, there has been an uptick in COVID-19 cases, proving that Prime Minister Johnson’s plan of constant lockdowns did prove effective. In early October they introduced a tier system to justify when the country would be put into and taken out of lockdowns.10 While the UK’s lockdown method has not been the citizens’ favorite, everything started to look up

Spring 2021

when the UK became one the first countries in the world to approve and start distributing the vaccine, which started in early December.

Between all the lockdowns and Johnson’s contradictory words, while his method was effective it certainly was not as effective as it could have been, due to Boris Johnson’s contradictory words.11

Similar to the UK, France has been in a lockdown for almost the entire span of COVID-19, with many of its restrictions just starting to ease up, though they have taken a more strict approach to their lockdowns.12 In France, there have been 5.2 million COVID-19 cases with 100,000 deaths.13 The website Healthcare in Europe states, “Leaving one’s residence is only permitted for purposes which include; essential work that cannot be done at home, for which written proof from the employer must be provided.” If you need to go shopping for food, exercise, etc, it is limited to one outing per day. The police enforce this rule and if it is not obeyed, one is liable to receive a ticket, though again in the recent months, these restrictions have started to ease but not fully.

PPE such as face masks and gloves are often still scarce in France, making it hard for average citizens to obtain what is necessary to go out of their homes. A main reason for outbreaks in France is due to ski resorts, this is where many cases are contracted in the country.14 While France’s lockdowns have been effective, in between them, places such as ski resorts have undermined the efficiency of France’s lockdowns and methods to combat COVID-19.

Australia and New Zealand have been most successful due to their geographical isolation and strict Covid measures.15 New Zealand has had a minuscule 2,596 COVID-19 cases along with 26 deaths since the virus first

‫לשם שמים‬

30

hit the country.16 The country was prepared from the beginning, they had a “pandemic influenza plan”, and braced their hospitals for full capacity when preparing for the virus to hit their country.17 The lack of testing caused them to try to eliminate the virus instead of trying to mitigate it. The government had an initial 7 week lockdown in March. Due to the country’s isolation from all others, and the cooperation of all citizens, this stay at home order worked to perfection. After the lockdown, there were almost no Covid cases, and when there was one, the government created a patient based isolation method in order to stop the spread of the virus.18 On account of the preparation and contact tracing after the lockdown, New Zealand’s method of combating the virus was successful, as they declared the pandemic to be over on June 8th.19 As for Australia, they have had 29,000 cases with 910 deaths.20 Australia has had minimal amounts of Coronavirus cases due to their clear and concise plan to contact, trace and isolate when there is a case in one’s community.21 Australia also had an 111 day lockdown starting in August due to a spike in COVID-19 cases. The Australian government took much criticism from its citizens for its long lockdowns, but in the end it worked to their advantage. Australia is nearly back to normal, only averaging 5 cases per day. They have now even opened up their borders to New Zealand.

Each country’s response to COVID-19 was extreme, ranging from keeping everything open to frequent lockdowns, contact tracing, and segregation. Each country will stick to the plan they have created, yet countries such as New Zealand and Australia have proven that their methods of contact tracing and isolation are most effective and successful, so successful,

Spring 2021

it would be wise to mimic the methods that Australia and New Zealand have enforced, and have been successful with.

1 “These States Have COVID-19 Mask Mandates,” U.S. News & World Report, updated April 19, 2021, accessed April 18, 2021, https://www.usnews.com/ news/best-states/articles/these-are-the-states-withmask-mandates.

2 “CDC COVID Data Tracker,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Accessed April 18, 2021, https://covid. cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home.

3 “Brazil,” Worldometer, updated: April 25, 2021, accessed April 18, 2021, https://www.worldometers. info/coronavirus/country/brazil/.

4 Manuela Andreoni, “Coronavirus in Brazil: What You Need to Know,” The New York Times, June 18, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/article/brazil-coronaviruscases.html.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

7 “United Kingdom,” Worldometer, updated: April 25, 2021, accessed April 18, 2021, https://www. worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/.

8 Garry Blight et al., “Covid Chaos: How the UK Handled the Coronavirus Crisis,” The Guardian (Guardian News and Media), February 3, 2021, accessed April 18, 2021, https://www.theguardian. com/world/ng-interactive/2020/dec/16/covid-chaos-atimeline-of-the-uks-handling-of-the-coronavirus-crisis.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

11 “How France Handles the Coronavirus Pandemic,” Healthcare business news, trends & developments, March 23, 2020, https://healthcare-in-europe.com/en/ news/how-france-handles-the-coronavirus-pandemic. html.

‫לשם שמים‬

31

12 “France,” Worldometer, updated: April 25, 2021, accessed April 18, 2021, https://www.worldometers. info/coronavirus/country/france/.

13 “How France Handles the Coronavirus Pandemic,” March 23, 2020, https://healthcare-in-europe.com/en/ news/how-france-handles-the-coronavirus-pandemic. html.

14 Ibid.

15 “New Zealand,” Worldometer, updated: April 25, 2021, accessed April 18, 2021, https://www. worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/new-zealand/.

16 “How Did New Zealand Control COVID-19?,” Contagion Live, August 9, 2020, accessed April 18, 2021, https://www.contagionlive.com/view/how-didnew-zealand-control-covid19.

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid.

19 “Australia,” Worldometer, updated: April 25, 2021, accessed April 18, 2021, https://www.worldometers. info/coronavirus/country/australia/.

20 Jenny Child et al., “Collaboration in Crisis: Reflecting on Australia’s COVID-19 Response,” McKinsey & Company (McKinsey & Company, December 15, 2020), https://www.mckinsey.com/ industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/ collaboration-in-crisis-reflecting-on-australias-covid19-response#.

21 Ibid.

Spring 2021

‫לשם שמים‬

32

Spring 2021

‘‘‫ סופה להתקים‬,‫’’כל מחלוקת שהיא לשם שמים‬ “Every dispute that is for the sake of heaven will be constructive” Pirkei Avot 5:17

‫י׳׳ז‬:‫פרקי אבות ה‬

‫לשם שמים‬

Spring 2021