US Elections 2020: Is it Trump versus Science?

“If you vote for Biden, he will surrender your jobs to China. He will surrender your future to the virus. He’s going to lockdown. This guy wants to lock down. He’ll listen to the scientists.”

That last sentence, I think, takes the cake.

US President Donald Trump’s warning that his rival presidential candidate will “listen to the scientists” and that it could be detrimental to his country, must be taken with a pinch of salt; or, perhaps, with some icing on top.

A 2017 Picture of scientists taking to the streets of Boston

In his rally, on Sunday 18 Oct 2020, at Carson City, Nevada, – as the US elections-fever has reached hotter levels - Trump, fighting for re-election, created a huge furore as he mocked Biden’s willingness to consider scientific evidence.

Interestingly, just a few days earlier to Trump’s statement, sciencemag.org had published an article with the title “Trump has shown little respect for U.S. science. So why are some parts thriving?”

According to the article, two of USA’s preeminent scientific bodies, National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, have issued an uncharacteristically harsh rebuke. Their statement, dated 24 September 2020, did not name Trump. But it was clearly aimed at him.

“We find reports and incidents of the politicization of science, particularly the overriding of evidence and advice from public health officials and derision of government scientists, to be alarming.”

It was a covert allusion to current leadership and its unwillingness to listen to the governments’ own public health officials and scientists.

On 7 October 2020, the 208 year old scientific journal NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine) did something it had never done before.  The apolitical journal suddenly published an editorial with political comments.

A total of 34 editors of the journal had signed off an editorial blaming the current leadership of the USA, for listening to ‘charlatans’ and not to ‘scientific evidence’.

They wrote: “Our current leaders have undercut trust in science and in government, causing damage that will certainly outlast them. Instead of relying on expertise, the administration has turned to uninformed 'opinion leaders’ and charlatans who obscure the truth and facilitate the promulgation of outright lies.”

Another journal, on 1 Oct 2020, announced that it favours Joe Biden. It said:  “Scientific American has never endorsed a presidential candidate in its 175-year history. This year we are compelled to do so. We do not do this lightly.

“The evidence and the science show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the U.S. and its people—because he rejects evidence and science”.

Even earlier, on 2 September 2020, a total of 81 Nobel laureates announced their support for Biden saying, "At no time in our nation's history has there been a greater need for our leaders to appreciate the value of science in formulating public policy."

Donald Trump has, quite clearly, rubbed the scientific community on the wrong side. And his denial of the value of science could cost him his reelection.  

A group called ‘Scientists for Trump’ which was very active in the 2016 elections is now lying low.  And I read an article which called the phrase an oxymoron!

His leadership is blamed not only for the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation but also for encouraging it.

Cornell University researchers, after analyzing 38 million English-language online articles about the pandemic, said this: "We conclude that the President of the United States was likely the largest driver of the COVID-19 misinformation 'infodemic’ (The New York Times, 30 Sept 2020).

A pdf file of the report is here, for those interested.

Furthermore, Trump’s pulling out of the Paris climate change treaty, the Iran nuclear deal, and the World Health Organization show him as anti-science.

So, now, can these angry scientists win?

We must wait and watch.

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Additional Reading:

1. How Trump damaged science — and why it could take decades to recover
   (Nature, 7 Oct 2020)
2. CORONAVIRUS MISINFORMATION: Quantifying sources and themes in the COVID-19 ‘infodemic’ (Cornell university research)
3. Scientific American Endorses Joe Biden
   (ScientificAmerican, 1 Oct 2020) 
4. Study Finds ‘Single Largest Driver’ of Coronavirus Misinformation: Trump
   (The New York Times, Updated: 22 Oct 2020)

Video Conferencing and Data Security

“Zoom, the video conferencing app that has become wildly popular during the coronavirus crisis admitted that it had “mistakenly” routed some user data through China.”

This news in the Financial Times of 4 April 2020 said that Zoom “had ‘mistakenly’ allowed the calls to flow through its two Chinese data centres since February as part of its efforts to cope with increased traffic, as millions of users flocked to use its technology to host business meetings and social catch-ups during the lockdown.

“The company said it had since fixed the flaw, adding that the error occurred only “under extremely limited circumstances” and that government customers were not affected”.

As Zoom is based in California’s Silicon Valley, the government it refers to is the US government.

But, what is wrong if its user data had flowed through two Chinese data centres?

Simple. It creates strong suspicions, and fears, that Beijing could be spying on all that data. The Chinese privacy laws could demand that those companies with data centres in China should necessarily share data with the Chinese government when required.

These same security concerns are among the top reasons why Huawei is unable to roll out its 5G plan, globally, as quickly as it wants; especially in the USA.

China’s Huawei is the world's No. 1 telecom supplier and No. 2 phone manufacturer. But the latest news is that Huawei is not allowed to roll out its 5G Plan in the UK too.

One of the biggest concerns for the future is ‘data security’ today. And unless companies make appropriate strategies to protect their consumers’ data, we will be diving into a big-brotherly world where individuals would have to fear the abuse and misuse of their privacy.

We have heard of how Facebook and Cambridge Analytica together misused individual users’ privacy.  We have heard of how Apple’s iCloud data-breach put up thousands of intimate and private pictures of celebrities out in the public domain. We have heard of how some governments’ data centres - of millions of utility accounts of citizens - were hacked by cybercriminals who put up some of the personal user data online. We have heard of the Wiki Leaks!

Take an interesting case from India. It is being alleged that India’s defence minister had recently used Zoom Conferencing tools to discuss with the Chief of Defence Staff, a few days ago.

India and China are both nuclear powers, and neighbours, who do not see eye to eye on some national borders which are disputed.

So, with Citizen Lab, a Canada-based independent research organisation, finding out that Chinese servers are being used to distribute encryption and decryption keys for video links on Zoom, there are new apprehensions on India’s defence security too.

In today’s COVID 19 global scenario, there is a huge surge in demand for video conferencing tools.

Zoom’s usage alone went up 20 times! It had announced on 1 April 2020 that “as of the end of December last year, the maximum number of daily meeting participants, both free and paid, conducted on Zoom was approximately 10 million. In March this year, we reached more than 200 million daily meeting participants, both free and paid” ( for their statement click here).

Apart from Zoom, there are several other videoconferencing tools like Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Skype, Google Hangouts, Cisco Webex Meetings and GoToMeeting which have all seen an enormous surge in usage in just the last three months.

They are being used not only for office meetings but also for holding online webinars and conferences as well as for virtual get-togethers of family and friends.

As various files and pictures - some private and confidential - get shared over the Internet, what is the guarantee that they are safe from the criminals and competitors?

We must hold accountable all the software companies to ensuring that our privacy and our user data is well protected.

A common argument they might give is that some of their services are free.

But they get good revenues from advertising.

And it does not give them any right to be careless when they sharing our data with third parties; or when protecting our data from being criminal-hacker.

Data Ethics and Data Legislation will become growing fields in the future.

Bahrain's Battles against Epidemics

The Arabian Gulf region may have experienced many waves of epidemics over the last few centuries, but not enough documentation is easily available.

However, “the British authorities’ records of epidemics between 1893 and 1924 serve as our best historical source of information” says Dr Abdul Aziz Yousif Hamza who was the Undersecretary of Bahrain’s Ministry of Health and whose contribution towards improving emergency services of hospitals here is immense.

In his book, “Tears on an Island: A History of Disasters in the Kingdom of Bahrain” (2009), with his painstaking research, he offers us excellent documentation on the various battles Bahrain had fought against disasters – both, natural as well as man-made.

Dr AbdulAziz Yousif Hamza's Book contains 
clear and comprehensive listings 
of epidemics in the country.

Cholera was the first recorded epidemic. And, it was contained in the same year it had broken out, in 1893; but sadly, not before it took the lives of 7000 people. With all steamers enforcing a strict quarantine against Bahrain at that time, there was a 33% decline in the annual pearl fishing income, according to the author.

Oral history tells us that even a few decades earlier to this, two outbreaks of Cholera, in 1820 and 1871, with origins in India, had already been very tragic for Bahrain. They are remembered as ‘Dharb Al-Awal’ and ‘Dharb Al-Thani’ - ‘The First Hit’ and ‘The Second hit’.

No proper numbers are available on the deaths, but outbreaks will remain in Bahrain’s collective memory.

In his book, Dr Abdul Aziz Hamza writes that “In the period 1893-1924, nine epidemics of plague, three epidemics of cholera, and one wave of influenza occurred in Bahrain, six of which were severe. A total of 24,205 people are estimated to have died”. The devastation will seem larger only when we realize that the population of Bahrain had only been around 100,000 then; which meant that nearly 25% had lost their lives.

But thanks to doctors, nurses, and paramedics of the American Mission Hospital (established in 1900, which had had 110 beds by the 1910s), of the small Victoria Memorial Hospital (which closed in 1948), and also of the Quarantine established in Halat Abu Maher, in Muharraq, the country had come out undaunted from these huge medical crises.

To write this piece, as I dug into material related to contagious diseases in Bahrain, I found it fascinating that despite its small size, Bahrain had always fought these outbreaks with formidable courage and resilience.

Plague, cholera, typhoid, smallpox, poliomyelitis, influenza, hepatitis a, rubella, mumps, measles, and meningitis have all affected Bahrain at different points in recorded history. They took scores of lives. But Bahrain’s medical facilities quickly rose up to meet these challenges and successfully thwarted the outbreaks. More recently, even fears of SARS and Swine Flu have been effectively tackled and contained.

Our faith in the medical facilities of this nation, therefore, can be reinforced and bolstered when we look at history; and especially at the quick action we are seeing all around us, on the arrival of coronavirus to Bahrain’s shores.

It is good to see that the government has quickly sealed off entry-points, such as airports and seaports, cancelled classes, in public and private schools, set up hotlines like 444 so that medical authorities can be easily reached, and even disseminated the needed information through text messages.

But, we should avoid panic and paranoia by not getting swayed easily by misinformation that’s floating around as Whatsapp forwards.

We must remember that the real experts are the doctors and medical authorities. We must pay attention to their announcements, and heed to them.  Our friends, however good their intentions could be, are not really experts. And we must be careful in evaluating their forwards.

With today’s advanced medical techniques and global cooperation, Bahrain, like always, will come out strong. Yet again.