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Covid‐19 Coronavirus

It has been medically established that gatherings of all sorts are responsible for spreading Covid-19. These gatherings could be linked to religious festivity or prayers, mass migration, travel, or relief distribution efforts among communities affected by extended lockdowns. In Pakistan, officials and experts are in agreement that the ongoing lockdown has not been as successful as hoped mainly because of religious gatherings. The continuing Friday congregations, Tableeghi Jamaat (TJ) preachers, and Pakistani Shia pilgrims returning from Iran are considered to be the main sources of the spread of Covid-19. In Pakistan, hundreds of cases have been linked with the congregation held in March in Raiwind. The TJ gatherings in Malaysia and Pakistan contributed to Covid-19’s spread in other countries too, including the Philippines, Kuwait, Thailand, Indonesia and Tunisia.

The government’s confusion and delay in deciding to suspend religious gatherings in general and Friday congregations in particular was unnecessary. All the government needed to do was issue an executive order (as in many other Muslim countries) but it was nervous and continued to appease the clergy. Obviously, this lenient attitude encouraged the religious circles to flex their muscles. It also created space for sectarian and radical groups.

Pakistan’s financial and institutional limitations are known to all, but no one is stopping the government from investing in its future. The prime minister has promised a ‘naya Pakistan’ — which is not possible without the transformation of society, which in turn requires investing in the knowledge economy, education and health, besides reaffirming a strong belief in the practice of democratic norms and ideas.

Google's Core Search Update Had Big Impact On Health/Medical Sites

A week ago today, we were the first to report on the big core Google algorithm update - in fact, we covered it several hours before Google confirmed the update. I have also been collecting a lot of survey data around sites that were impacted by this update and I have some news to share. I reviewed over 300 sites, sites that said they were impacted by this update. The first bit of data that sorely stood out around this was that a huge percentage of the sites impacted were specifically in the medical, health, fitness, healthy lifestyle space. It is actually shocking to me since Google said this was a global and core update which normally means it impacts all flavors of sites, in all areas, everywhere. The interesting thing, many of those "e-commerce" sites sell health/medical related product, so the 42% number might be closer to 50%.

This data stood out like a sore thumb. I am not sure we can just be lax about it and say this update was targeting the medical and health space. It clearly was not just health and medical but the data 100% skewed specifically to health and medical related web sites. This ranged across all countries, languages, types of sites including blogs, doctor practices, e-commerce, advice, life style tips, and more. The one common thread was that close to 50% of these sites all were medical and health related. I am super curious to hear everyone's feedback on this. I know Marie Haynes wrote she thinks this is targeted on YMYL sites but I think we can even more narrowly say it was zoned in on health. Again, we all think it was broader but the most impacted, in my opinion, is focused on health.