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world news Dialuna 22 november 2021
Chileans vote in highly polarized presidential election

(AP) — Chileans were an outsider on the far-right months of massive protests
voting for a new president fringe, having won less than that quickly spiraled into a
Sunday following a polar- 8% of the vote in 2017 as an nationwide clamor for more
izing campaign in which independent. But he’s been accessible public services and
the leading candidates steadily rising in the polls exposed the crumbling foun-
vowed to chart starkly this time with a divisive dis- dations of Chile’s “economic
different paths for the re- course emphasizing conser- miracle.”
gion’s most economically vative family values as well as
advanced country stag- attacking migrants — many Gravely weakened by the
gered by a recent wave of from Haiti and Venezuela — unrest, Pinera begrudgingly
social unrest. he blames for crime. agreed to a plebiscite on re-
writing the Pinochet-era
Pre-election polls point to a A fervent Roman Catholic constitution. In May, the as-
large number of undecided and father of nine, Kast has sembly charged with draft-
voters but consistently have also taken aim at the outgoing ing the new magna carta was
favored two of the seven can- President Sebastian Pinera elected and is expected to
didates running: former stu- former Education Minister says he will raise taxes on the for allegedly betraying the conclude its work sometime
dent protest leader Gabriel Yasna Provoste. Also up for “super rich” to expand social economic legacy of Pinochet, next year.
Boric and his ideological grabs is Chile’s entire 155- services and boost protec- which his brother helped
opposite, José Antonio Kast, seat lower house of Congress tions of the environment. implement as the dictator’s Meanwhile, in a fresh sign of
who has a history of defend- and about half the Senate. central bank president. the tensions Pinera will leave
ing Chile’s past military dic- He’s also vowed to eliminate behind, the billionaire presi-
tatorship. Boric, 35, would become the country’s private pension Whoever wins will take over dent was impeached in the
Chile’s youngest modern system — one of the hall- a country in the grips of ma- lower house before dodging
But neither is expected to gar- president. He was among marks of the free market re- jor change but uncertain of removal by the Senate over
ner enough support to cross several student activists elect- forms imposed in the 1980s its future course after decades an offshore business deal in
the 50% threshold required ed to Congress in 2014 after by Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s of centrist reforms that large- which his family a decade
to avoid a runoff vote next leading protests for higher dictatorship. ly left untouched Pinochet’s ago sold its stake in a mining
month. Within striking dis- quality education. Running economic model. project while he was serving
tance of the two frontrunners as the head of a broad alliance Kast, 55, from the newly the first of two non-consecu-
are center-right candidate Se- that includes Chile’s Com- formed Republican Party, Pinera’s decision to hike sub- tive terms.
bastián Sichel and center-left munist Party, if elected he until recently was seen as way fares in 2019 sparked

UK to probe racial bias in medical devices after COVID toll

(AP) — The British gov- was deliberate by anyone, I
ernment is investigating think it’s just, it’s a systemic
whether built-in racial issue potentially, with medi-
bias in some medical de- cal devices and it may go even
vices led to Black and further than that with medi-
Asian people getting sick cal textbooks, for example,”
and dying disproportion- Javid told Sky News.
ately from COVID-19.
Writing in the Sunday Times,
Health Secretary Sajid Javid he said “the possibility that a
said Sunday that the pan- bias — even an inadvertent
demic had highlighted health one — could lead to a poorer
disparities along race and health outcome is totally un-
gender lines. He said that a acceptable.”
third of intensive care admis-
sions in Britain at the height He said he hoped to work
of the pandemic were people with his U.S. counterpart,
from Black and ethnic mi- Health and Human Services
nority backgrounds, more Secretary Xavier Becerra, and
than double their share of the officials in other countries, to
population. eliminate bias in the health
system.
Britain’s statistics office has
found that in the first year of He said a U.K. review, which
the pandemic, up to March will also look at gender bias,
2021, Black and South Asian will report its findings by the this weekend after the gov- Britain had the higher infec- immunity in the population.”
people in the U.K. had end of January. ernment said it would “re- tion rates than its neighbors Britain is also now rolling out
higher death rates than their strict access for unvaccinated for several months, and some booster vaccine doses to ev-
white compatriots, even after Britain has recorded more people to some venues.” scientists say that puts the eryone 40 and up.
factors like occupation and than 143,000 coronavirus country in a better position
underlying health conditions deaths, the highest total in In the U.K., however, cases now. Oxford University professor
were taken into account. Europe after Russia. are broadly flat and deaths of medicine John Bell said he
and hospitalizations are slow- Linda Bauld, a professor of didn’t think the U.K. would
Javid said one issue was re- Europe is currently the only ly falling. Prime Minister public health at the Univer- face another Christmas lock-
search showing that pulse part of the world where CO- Boris Johnson said this week sity of Edinburgh, said the down, as it did last year.
oximeters, which measure VID-19 cases are rising, and that he saw no need to move U.K. had been dealing with
blood oxygen levels through many countries are reintro- to the government’s winter the highly transmissible delta “My advice is, order that tur-
the skin, work less well on ducing restrictions to fight “Plan B,” in which people variant of the virus longer key, because it’ll all be fine,”
darker skin. He called it a the surge. Austria will enter would be required to wear than its European neighbors, he told Times Radio. But, he
“systemic” worldwide issue. a nationwide lockdown on masks indoors and advised to and “because we’ve had high added, “if you’re planning
Monday, and violent protests work from home. infections in the past, we’ve a skiing holiday in Austria,
“Now, I’m not saying this erupted in the Netherlands probably a bit more natural things may not go so well.”