Hello NL team,

Saving your time, straight to question.

To Abhinandan: you say the subscription model for journalism is not ideal but only next to best we have right now, and way better than the ad-funded model. What downsides do you see in the subscription model adopted for news, however few they may be?

Prayash Mohapatra

***

Hi there,

I keep hearing chatter/mumbling about why we sent vaccine outside to the world in the first few months of the year.

It was because we had an international obligation to do so. And we have failed to carry them out to get our own house in order.

I have not yet heard any argument of how our stupidity (Kumbh Mela and elections) and the monstrous spike in Covid cases have led countries, to which we had an obligation to supply vaccines, to suffer.

And that, in a way, has led to this:

These countries relied on Chinese vaccines. Now they’re battling outbreaks

These countries, which should have got the AstraZeneca vaccine from us, couldn't. There is a story here which will affect people in other countries in the future.

If you can, please look into the orders placed by poorer countries with Serum and others and how our irresponsibility has affected them.

In my opinion, if not anything, this is a human interest piece.

We are all in this together! Or are we, really?

Best regards,

Dhiraj

***

Hi,

It’s highly disappointing hearing the attitude of the Hafta team towards Covaxin. Covaxin uses the inactivated virus technique which is based on 120 years of use has proven to not cause humans any harm, unlike mRNA vaccines which have eight months of data. But I guess Pfizer is made by the white man so it must be better than something made in Hyderabad, right?

Harish Nair

***

Hi NL!

I was so excited to listen to Rukmini speak in the last Hafta. As a data journalist myself, I concur with her that the government is probably not outright fudging Covid-19 data.

What I can say with certainty is that they have manipulated data calculation and visualisation methods to confuse the people. I've made some observations in how they have done so:

1) Using whole numbers for showcasing vaccinations

2) But using percentages to show how many people have died

3) Using a heat map to show vaccine availability; that shows UP has the most stock compared to other states. But failing to mention the population of those states. And even that is kind of a lie because they have included vaccines "in pipeline" in the figures

4) Not talking about positivity rates

5) Not following WHO's guidelines as to what counts as a Covid death and using a stricter method

List could go on but this government and/or BJP is notorious for producing strange infographics. I'm attaching two of these. The petroleum prices one is a classic!

Best,

Sania Rahman

***

Hi guys, just finished listening to Hafta 333 during my weekend run. This episode of Hafta was crisp and concise with Manisha hosting it. Kudos to her that I could finish it during my weekend run. Also thanks for sparing us the lengthy monologues of Anand and Abhinandan this week.

Also, I would like to request that you put some focus on climate change related news, particularly through the political lens. I think we do not discuss this again because we are not directly impacted due to our economic privilege. However, the poorest amongst us pay with their lives like the dust storm in 2018 in Uttar Pradesh or Amphan in West Bengal. It will also be great if we can hear from both activists like Disha Ravi and politicians like Aditya Thackeray who claim to work in the field on this. Finally in-house it will be nice to hear more from Shardool on these matters as I believe he doesn’t get the space and time to put thoughts on climate change enough.

Cheers,

Satwik Banerjee

***

This Hafta was a bit low on energy without Abhinandan's "muffatkhor". It was limited to three topics but your discussion regarding Abdul Samad was very wholesome. This thing you said, that "though primary intent might not be communal, the second attack is always on the caste, religious identity"...My grandmother, who is slightly delusional, accused our help (non-Muslim) of beating her. And the next line was, "Kitne himmat vo kamzaat aurat ki mujhe chuye." That's the degree of rot.

Please bring someone who talks about caste in Muslims. Like Abhinandan said, we live in closed worlds. I still have no real-life knowledge of caste in Muslims and only recent exposure because of some Twitter handles and Mehraj. And please bring Mehraj to Hafta more or make him write opinion pieces on different topics.

Rukmini was awesome, she had a very nuanced and close-to-ground view of things.

And when is your podcast on religion coming out?

Keep up the good work.

Shehba Fathima

***

Hello Newslaundry team,

Hope all of you are doing well and staying safe.

I have been a Newslaundry subscriber for a few years now and this is the first email I am writing for the NL Hafta. I will divide this email into two sections: a suggestion and an appreciation.

Suggestion: I think you should add a few more dissenting voices, especially from the right apart from Anand, as the panelists sometimes are too aligned with each other. My views are typically Left and, in general, I tend to disagree with Anand but in a few cases, his points have made sense to me and it is refreshing to see a different worldview.

Appreciation: Unlike many of your subscribers, whose introduction to Newslaundry is typically NL Hafta or Newsance, my "gateway drug" was the series of "I Agree" interviews by Abhinandan, especially the ones with Subramanian Swamy and Tavleen Singh. His disdain for the "big names" was refreshing and his assholey-ness struck a chord with me :) While "I Agree" video series was the gateway drug, NL Hafta and Newsance by Manisha is the reason for staying. She is an amazing news professional, and my wife and I wait for each new episode of Newsance every Saturday. I hope she continues her amazing work for a long time.

Apologies for having gone slightly over the 200-word guideline.

Ritesh Rao

***

Hi NL Hafta team!

Love the work you guys do, funnily I feel like I'm sitting at the table with all of you as you guys dive into the NL Hafta cause it is such an organic and real-time discussion.

I'll get straight to it, I have one question for the panel or more of an alternate opinion. I believe that the prime opposition's high command on a national level is somehow a puppet to the ruling party's high command because it is very hard for me to believe that a national party who has stayed in power forever is the only one oblivious of the fact as to what needs to be done to take on the current ruling party, while every journalist, activist or just an average citizen knows what needs to be done.

I'm not into conspiracy theories, but the sudden emergence of regional parties along with the support of Prashant Kishor put more fuel to this thought of mine as I feel that's how they're working on some sort of a third front for 2024.

Disclaimer: I have been apolitical till a few years ago and I rely only on mediums like yourself to gain any sort of answers so I'm really sorry if this question comes off as stupid or irrelevant.

Regards,

Sarfaraz Khan