COVID CORNER
Cambodian scarecrows versus the coronavirus, plus giant veg in lockdown
“We’ve been fine since the outbreak,” said Ton Pheang
SCARE-COVIDS
Cambodian farmers have been erecting scarecrow-type effigies to ward off coronavirus. Known as ‘Ting Mong’ in the Khmer language, they have been used in the past to protect villages from sicknesses like dengue or water-borne diarrhoea. “It is our ancient superstition to set up Ting Mongs when there are dangerous diseases or to avert evil,” farmer Sok Chany, 45, told reporters. She has posted two in front of her wooden stilt home in Trapeang Sla village located in Kampong Cham province, about 110km (68 miles) northeast of the capital Phnom Penh. One floral-shirted Ting Mong is armed with a stick and has a plastic pot for a head. The other has a stick propped like a rifle across its hay-stuffed chest, and wears jungle greens.
Despite the majority of Cambodians being Buddhist, animistic beliefs and practices survive and are incorporated into the peoples’ daily lives and rituals. The Ting Mongs are intended to ward off evil spirits who may seek to harm a family by inflicting disease upon it.
In Trapeang Sla village, a Ting Mong is tied to the gate of nearly every home, though the skill and effort with which each has been constructed does vary. Some are elaborately dressed in military
uniform or floral pyjamas, while others are basically stuffed bags wearing sunglasses.
Farmer Ton Pheang’s Ting Mong is dressed in a bright pink shirt and wears a helmet for a head. “This is my second one,” explained the 55-year-old. He said that his first creation had been standing guard under sun and rain since April when the pandemic first began to spread across Southeast Asia, but then “it broke”. “We’ve been fine since the outbreak,” he concluded. “I’ll continue to leave it up as long as Covid still exists.”
So far, Cambodia appears to escaped the worst of the pandemic, with just 283 infections and no deaths – so perhaps the Ting Mongs are doing their job. france24.com; bangkokpost.com, 11 Oct 2020.
VACCINE FEARS
A World Economic Forum poll has revealed that only three in four adults would be happy to take a coronavirus vaccine, were an effective one to be developed. The survey questioned 20,000 people worldwide, with 26 per
cent saying they would not willingly accept a Covid-19 vaccination. Evidently the antivaxxer movement has gained some traction as a result of the pandemic, with (albeit discredited) concerns about a link between autism and the MMR vaccine encouraging suspicion about a mass antiCovid vaccination programme. Some of the wilder theories see Bill Gates using the pandemic as a Trojan horse with which to introduce microscopic chips into people’s bodies by means of a mass coronavirus vaccination programme. Billionaire George Soros has become another hatefigure for the conspirasphere, who accuse the Hungarian Jewish financier of everything from destabilising sterling (he actually did do this in 1992, pocketing £1 billion in the process), working towards a one-world government, and advancing the ‘transgender agenda’. D.Telegraph, 2 Sept 2020.
SNAKE MASK REPLICA
A passenger boarded a bus going from Swinton to Manchester using a snake as a face covering. Another traveller reportedly thought the snake was a “funky mask” before she saw it slithering over handrails. Greater Manchester transport officials have confirmed that a snake is not a valid face covering. BBC News, 16 Sept 2020.
NEANDERTHAL GENES
Researchers at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institutet and Leipzig’s Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have suggested that people with Neanderthal genes have a greater risk of developing severe Covid-19 symptoms such as respiratory difficulties that require artificial ventilation. The study analysed a gene cluster on chromosome 3, and found that people with a certain version of this cluster were three times more likely to have severe Covid-19. Further analysis revealed that this version is very similar to DNA sequences seen in the remains of 50,000-year-old Neanderthals found in Croatia.
The study’s leader, Hugo Zeberg, said: “It turns out that this gene variant was inherited by modern humans from the Neanderthals when they interbred some 60,000 years ago. Today, the people who inherited this gene variant are three times more likely to need artificial ventilation if they are infected by the novel coronavirus SARSCoV-2”.
According to the researchers, this gene variant is particularly common among people in South Asia, which may be a clue as to why Britons with South Asian ancestry are at higher risk of serious illness and death from Covid-19 and have featured in disproportionately high numbers in national coronavirus death statistics. In Europe, around one in six carries the risk variant, while in Africa and East Asia it is almost non-existent. Disproportionately high Covid death rates among Black British people have instead been attributed to demographic factors, particularly employment, with, for example, bus and train drivers having been particularly vulnerable to contracting the virus.
Svant Paabo, director of the Max Planck Institute, said:
“It is striking that the genetic heritage from the Neanderthals has such tragic consequences during the current pandemic. Why this is must now be investigated as quickly as possible”. D.Mirror, 1 Oct 2020.
TURNIP FOR THE BOOKS
Most horticultural shows have been cancelled this year due to the pandemic, leaving supersized vegetable growers few opportunities to show off their produce in the flesh. Instead, some growers have been submitting photos of their prize produce by email. The National Vegetable Society (NVS) moved some of its competitions online, while other competitions went on tour. Thus, five-time record holder Joe Atherton, from Mansfield Woodhouse in Nottinghamshire, was able to have his swedes scrutinised and his parsnips perused by the judges. Mr Atherton, 65, took some of his giant vegetables to The Grow Show: On Tour in Mansfield. He is hoping to have set a sixth world record this year, for the longest salsify (similar to a parsnip). His whopping root vegetable grew to 5.5m (18ft) during lockdown. He also beat his own longest beetroot record with an 8.5m (28ft) behemoth.
Several first-time giant veg growers have also expressed an interest this year. “I don’t usually do giant vegetables,” said Dominic Driscoll, from Wingerworth in Derbyshire. “I do the show vegetables where they look nice, rather than oversized, but I got the seeds and thought I’d give it a go.” His 22kg (48lb) cabbage grown on his allotment during lockdown is certainly oversized. “It’s kind of exciting, the thrill of the growing,” he commented, adding “the harvesting is the sad bit really.” Mr Driscoll, 39, unable to display his Cornish cabbage, did the only thing he could do – eat it. “We had some last night,” he said. “It was fantastic – really fresh and crisp.” BBC News, 4 Sept 2020.