India’s drug laws
Independent journalist Priyanka Pulla does a deep dive into India’s drug regulatory system and explores how the Food and Drug Administration functions. In 2020, 13 children died after drinking an adulterated cough syrup called Coldbest manufactured by Digital Vision. In a year-long investigation published by the Mint, she brings out the lapses in manufacturing practices in the pharmaceutical industry in India and why Indian manufacturers are not penalised as harshly as they should be for substandard, spurious or adulterated medicines.
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The death of Mohib Ullah and the continuing Rohingya crisis
Rohingya leader Mohib Ullah was gunned down on September 29 in Bangladesh. He was a human rights defender fighting for the rights of Rohingya Muslims who fled from Myanmar to evade persecution. His death has shifted the focus back to refugee camps in Bangladesh where Rohingya Muslims live under fear and face an identity crisis. The Diplomat writes about deteriorating mental health of these refugees and how their life has changed during the pandemic.
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The other Afghan women
The current scramble for an exodus from Afghanistan brings to fore concerns that women living in the Islamic country face. The Taliban’s advent dates back to the eighties when the Soviets invaded. From them, the Mujahideen took over before the Taliban came to power in the nineties. In last two decades, Afghanistan has witnessed a shift of control to the United States and then back to Taliban.
Journalist and author Anand Gopal navigates the rural terrain of Afghanistan to listen to the stories of several burqa-clad women who still remain silent sufferers. These women have the most to lose as they fight to survive amidst battles for power. Gopal writes for the New Yorker through the lens of Shakira, a woman in the Sangin Valley of Helmand Province.
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Freediving
Alexey Molchanov is one of the most daring divers in the world. With breathtaking pictures, GQ writes about the Russian’s free diving style, the risks he takes, the depths he can swim to in order to break world records and the life of divers. This piece talks about a sport not discussed much and explains the techniques divers use to bear the mounting pressure of water.
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Reaching the last mile
In an opinion piece in the LA Times, epidemiologist David Heymann, physician Ashish Jha and health advisor Edward Kelley discuss the key issues surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic and how the global community did not learn its lessons from the earlier Ebola outbreak. They raise concerns over the shortage of syringes for vaccination and the unequitable distribution of vaccine doses.
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Tabassum Barnagarwala covers health for Scroll.in.