Daily UPSC Mains Question – July 17/2020

GS – 2

China’s moves are spurring support for coordination between other Indo-pacific partners with their desire for US leadership. Comment 250 Words

In the News:

• India’s deadly encounter with China in the Galwan Valley is not an outlier in Beijing’s recent behaviour in Asia. China’s coronavirus “mask diplomacy” has given way to tense geopolitical confrontations with a growing array of its neighbours, from stand-offs with Vietnam and Malaysia in the South China Sea to threatening Australia with boycotts of wine, beef, barley, and Chinese students.

Catalyst for change:

• Beijing’s blatant aggressiveness is accelerating long-standing debates about the underlying costs of reliance on China and spurring support for closer coordination between other Indo-Pacific partners.
•  The Quadrilateral Dialogue between Australia, India, Japan, and the United States is growing stronger and even expanding. And recently as well, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers issued one of their strongest statements to date on the South China Sea, insisting that maritime disputes must be resolved in accordance with the UN Law of the Sea treaty.

America and geopolitics:

• If crises and wars tend to be the crucibles in which new orders and institutions are forged, the COVID-19 crisis is likely to be no exception — it may be remaking the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific.
• The ongoing crisis seems to have imbued countries in the region with a new seriousness of purpose about the risks of a slow slide toward Chinese hegemony. At the same time, the crisis is also raising renewed questions about the durability of American leadership. U.S. policy needs to start supporting, rather than attempting to commandeer, regional efforts to build a less China-centric future for the Indo-Pacific.

US versus China:

• Across the Indo-Pacific, the desire for U.S. leadership remains strong, with the U.S. still viewed more favourably than China. Similarly, the U.S. public continues to express widespread support for America’s alliances and partnerships.
• Facing the unprecedented health and economic crises spawned by COVID-19, the U.S. and Asian partners will need to coordinate more closely than ever. They have a unique chance to build more equal and capable regional partnerships and institutions in the long recovery ahead.
• For American and Asian leaders, the choice is stark: encourage and foster this trend, recognising that stronger regional coordination will require more compromises as well as tougher choices, or resist it and risk being left behind.

Groups labelled Covid-19 super spreaders represent some of the most vulnerable categories in Indian society. Explain in detail.250 Words

In the News:

• The term super spreader means an individual who transmits infection to many others than is typical. It emerged in the context of the research on transmission of a wide range of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, Ebola, and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which shows that 80% of the infections in a population are transmitted by only 20% of those infected — the so-called 20/80 rule.

Challenge of containment:

• Why some individuals tend to be super spreaders is a question epidemiologists continue to grapple with, more so in the context of COVID-19, the science around which continues to evolve.
•  Initial evidence indicates that factors such as the mode of transmission through finer aerosols that can be suspended in the air for long, an individual’s ability to shed higher loads of virus than is typical of others and the presence of an infected individual in indoor, closed spaces could make such persons super spreaders.
•  A particularly challenging aspect of this pandemic has been the large proportion of asymptomatic infected patients who can shed high virus loads before experiencing symptoms and can spread infection to many contacts without their knowledge. Because of this complexity, practices such as universal masking, social distancing, and hand hygiene have become key to containing the pandemic.

The fallout:

• Research documents a range of negative consequences (direct and indirect) associated with negative stereotyping, such as discrimination and hostility, negative attitudes, and a lingering effect of lack of self-control and aggression.
• The groups labelled super spreaders represent some of the most vulnerable groups in Indian society.
• Vegetable vendors and others that supply essential services during this crisis are not only more vulnerable for infection because of the nature of their profession but are also more likely to face adverse outcomes, if infected, because of their marginality.
•  These groups are less likely to have access to good health care, more vulnerable to economic shocks caused by the illness, and little voice in the political process to defend their rights.

Government support is key:

• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had urged the citizens to “not label any community or area for the spread of COVID-19”. State and local governments are undertaking testing drives to identify the infected among these groups.
• But by simply excluding them from their livelihoods, if found positive, and providing them no other form of support, they are failing to protect them from the consequences of negative stereotyping and marginality.
•  Beyond exhortations and free testing, the governments should develop a supportive infrastructure for these groups. For example, the governments could provide them cost-free masks and sanitiser’s and supports the families of infected individuals.
• Public officials and the media could also refrain from the indiscriminate use of the term super spreaders, when referring to these groups, to avoid the resultant negative stereotyping and its adverse effects on these groups.