Criticalpoint

Overburdened ASHA workers, lack of access to contraceptives: How COVID-19 impacted family planning services across India

COVID-19 impact on family planning: In the wake of the pandemic, ASHA workers had to shoulder additional responsibilities, which prevented them from creating awareness about family planning and distributing contraceptive pills and condoms

Donated by India, COVID-19 vaccines languish and may expire in Afghanistan amid misinformation, scepticism

A mixture of scepticism and misinformation perpetuated on social media has slowed an already under-resourced vaccination campaign in Afghanistan.

Rafale, Dassault and beyond: The travesty of defence procurement in India, as explained by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

We have a DPP which can make all the defence PSUs almost redundant, choose any corporation – like mine – for any contract and nobody would even know I am the one behind the biggest contract in the country because the DPP gives me that confidentiality? All in the interest of the country, of course?

Nandini Krishnan, Penguin Random House committed serious breach of trust, ethical lapses in publishing book on us, charge trans men

At least 22 trans men featured in Nandini Krishnan’s recently released book, Invisible Men: Inside India’s Transmasculine Network, have accused the author of committing serious ethical transgressions

Vaccine passports: How a global verification system would work for international travel

Keen to avoid losing another summer of holiday revenue to COVID-19 pandemic, the EU and some Asian governments and the airline industry are scrambling to develop so-called vaccine passports

Gaza conflict stokes ‘identity crisis’ for young American Jews as pro-Palestine sentiments overtake activist spaces

Some young, liberal Jewish activists have found common cause with Black Lives Matter, which explicitly advocates for Palestinian liberation, concerning others who see that allegiance as anti-Semitic

COVID-19 deaths in Bihar: 2,579 last rites held in Patna between 1 April-13 May, but govt reports just 2,092 deaths for state

Official accounts from various crematoriums and burial grounds point towards underreporting of COVID-19 deaths in Bhagalpur district, as well. A total 672 COVID-19 victims were cremated from 1 April to 16 May in just one crematorium while official records say only 162 COVID-19 patients died during this period

Vaccine tourism: Is it legal and ethical to fly out for COVID-19 shots? All you need to know

Ever since vaccines became available, rich Indians with Dubai residences have been flying to the country to get Pfizer shots, South Africans have been flying to Zimbabwe, Canadians and Latin Americans to the US and Europeans to Russia for COVID-19 shots

Fake videos, misinformation on social media inflame Israeli-Palestinian conflict

A video shared by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesperson purportedly of Palestinian militants firing rockets at Israelis from civilian areas in Gaza Strip was taken down by Twitter, as it was a 2018 clip from Syria or Libya

From supply chains to vaccines, China has frequently thrown spanner into works of India's COVID-19 battle

From tactfully disallowing Chinese firms to participate in BMC's global vaccine tender to exorbitant pricing of necessary equipment, India's battle against COVID-19 has often run into rough weather with China