How bernie can win 2020

Associate Professor Trương Thanh Hương speak with a foreign colleague at work.— Photo suckhoedoisong.vn

HÀ NỘI — Associate Professor Trương Thanh Hương, senior lecturer at the Hà Nội Medical University and expert at the Việt Nam National Heart Institute under Bạch Mai Hospital, has been given Việt Nam’s 2020 Kovalevskaya Award for her contribution to helping thousands of people with cardiovascular diseases over many years.

Hương is one of the country’s leading medical experts, with many scientific works published.

Hương has conducted many studies related to congenital and genetic cardiovascular diseases, genetic pharmacology in individualising treatment of cardiovascular disease and development of new technologies in echocardiography. She has also chaired 19 scientific studies and published 75 scientific articles in domestic and international journals so far.

Hương is also the editor of 20 medical textbooks and documents.

Her two most outstanding scientific studies consist of the project “Building genetic mutation map of familial hypercholesterolaemia and proposing a disease management model in Việt Nam” and the project “Surveying some common polymorphisms of CYP2C19 gene related to Clopidogrel medicine’s response in people with coronary artery disease in Việt Nam”.

According to medical experts, the first project is a process of screening, diagnosis, genetic testing, genetic counselling and setting up a managing model of familial hypercholesterolaemia in Việt Nam. The project’s results have been transferred to medical facilities to serve healthcare.

Associate Professor Phạm Mạnh Hùng, president of Việt Nam National Heart Institute, said familial hypercholesterolaemia was a hereditary disease, affecting generations of a family and causing dangerous complications such as heart attacks and strokes in young people.

Worryingly, there were nearly 500,000 patients in the country contracting the disease. In the past, very few patients were detected and treated early, he said.

Hùng said they received many children with familial hypercholesterolaemia with dangerous complications. The study by Hương had assisted medical experts to detect the disease, quickly intervene and screen family members that had yet to suffer complications for early treatment.

The other project has already been transferred to producers to make a chip that could quickly diagnose the polymorphism of the CYP2C19 gene, he said.

It had helped hundreds of thousands of patients with coronary artery disease minimise complications and the risk of death as well as save annual medical expenses for the country, he said.

He also said that statistics showed that cardiovascular diseases were believed to cause the highest number of deaths, leading to the death of 18.6 million people worldwide; about four times higher than HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.

Hùng said data revealed that over 32 per cent of patients died of cardiovascular diseases in Việt Nam.

Therefore, cardiovascular-disease studies by Hương were very meaningful, contributing to improving treatment efficiency and reducing risks of death for patients with cardiovascular diseases, he said.

Also thanks to Hương’s studies, patients and their families had the opportunity to access optimal diagnosis and treatment, limiting the occurrence of cardiovascular complications, especially in adolescents, thereby helping to protect people’s health, he said.

Doctor, teacher

Hương’s father and mother worked for the military. When she was a child, she went with her father and saw many soldiers with injuries treated in poor conditions.

“The image stuck with me, inspiring my dream to become a doctor in the future,” she said.

She studied hard and became one of the first two cardiologists to graduate from Hà Nội Medical University with excellent results. After graduation in 1987, she started to work as a lecturer at the university and a doctor at the Việt Nam National Heart Institute.

She was soon sent to Paris, France, to study Clinical Cardiology and Doppler echocardiography at the University of Paris and the Saint-Antoine Hospital and learn about congenital heart disease at the Robert Debré Hospital.

She returned to Việt Nam in 1997 and continued working at the institute and the university. Hương was given the Việt Nam’s Scientific and Technological Innovation Award in 2012 for her tireless efforts in scientific research.

As a senior lecturer at the university, she always renews her teaching methods. She applied modern teaching methods such as the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) and Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEX) for medical students, contributing to improve the quality of teaching and learning at the university.

She also actively participated in training high-quality human resources for the national health sector. She has directly trained more than 40 Ph.D, MBA and resident doctors and instructed and transferred advanced technologies to hundreds of doctors and medical staff at medical facilities across the country.

Hương works as a bridge for many young doctors and scientists to have the opportunity to access international scientific environments to study and improve their capacity, contributing to raising the quality of scientific research of Việt Nam.

She was given the title of “Excellent Teacher” in 2014.

Kim Ngọc Thành, a lecturer at the university and one of Hương’s students, said: “Hương is an honourable teacher for many generations of students.

“Not only enthusiastic about the profession and ready to teach all she knows to the next generation, she also helps young doctors have the opportunity to participate in major medical forums around the world.

“She gives us all her knowledge and experiences and always says she hopes we will teach all we know to the next generations as well,” he said.

Hương said: “Knowledge must be spread to really have great value and power.”

Hùng, president of Việt Nam National Heart Institute, said Hương completely deserved Việt Nam’s 2020 Kovalevskaya Award. The award is the driving force and a great encouragement for female scientists, who have devoted their whole life to contributing to society. — VNS

Juventus’ Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo (C) celebrates with Juventus’ Swedish forward Dejan Kulusevski (L) and Juventus’ Turkish defender Merih Demiral after scoring his second goal during the Italian Serie A football match Juventus vs Crotone on February 22, 2021 at the Juventus stadium in Turin.(Marco BERTORELLO / AFP)

The latest figures compare to losses of 50.3 million euros in the first half of the club’s 2019/20 financial year, which runs from July 1 to June 30.

“The first half of the 2020/2021 financial year was heavily penalised by the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent restrictive measures imposed by the authorities,” Juventus said of a season played with matches behind closed doors.

“The pandemic directly and significantly affected, above all, ticket sales and sales of products and licenses, with a consequent negative impact on operating income, net income and financial debt.”

The club had reported losses of 89.7 million euros for the year 2019/2020.

Juventus noted the “positive trend of revenues from sponsorships and advertising” which were slightly higher than the previous year.

“These negative effects were partly offset by higher revenues from radio and television rights.”

E-commerce figures also grew by 60 percent to offset the decline in revenues from physical retail stores.

Juventus won a ninth consecutive league title last season but failed to advance past the Champions League last 16.

AFP

When his roommates turn the lights off to go to bed at 10 p.m., Hoang Minh is just starting his eight-hour shift at work.

Sitting with a laptop on his bunk bed, the 21-year-old enters information about overseas orders his company has received into the system.

“This job just needs hands and eyes,” he says.

Because of the Covid-19 outbreak, Minh was allowed to work from his room in Hanoi’s Cau Giay District.

But within two days the company required him to return to office since his output had been lower than normal.

His salary has remained at VND6 million ($260) a month since he began working here since 2019.

Hoang Minh doing his data entry work in his room in Hanoi’s Cau Giay District. Photo courtesy of Minh.

After dropping out of college, the young man from central Vietnam had been dreaming of working in the technology field, a job he perceived as “computer-related.”

But instead he ended up with a data entry job.

After two months of working through the night and going home to sleep in the morning, he quit just after the 2020 Lunar New Year ( Tet ) just as Covid-19 first appeared in Vietnam.

He began to apply for all sorts of jobs.

However, the pandemic was causing a huge number of layoffs. According to the General Statistics Office, the employment rate in the first quarter of 2020 was the lowest in 10 years.

Minh got a job as a bank credit officer, who had to persuade individuals and businesses to borrow. But there was no salary and instead employees got paid based on performance. This time he quit after just one month.

He then worked as a real estate agent and quit again when he could not find a single client in three months.

During that time he had to borrow money just to eat.

Around this time a former colleague and friend also wanted to quit his data entry job, and Minh texted him saying: “Don’t be foolish to quit your job at this critical time. I really regret my action now.”

Luckily for him, his old company again recruited people for data entry, and Minh immediately applied and got it.

“I have not paid off my debts yet,” he says.

Minh opted to stay and work through Tet this year. He took a few minutes off on Lunar New Year’s Eve, a time when the whole country celebrates, and sat with his roommates to eat instant noodles.

“The noodles tasted bitter.”

His parents have urged him to return home and learn vocational skills or become a blue-collar worker, but Minh wants to decide “his own fate.”

Feeling depressed on the second day of the new year, he called his father to say he would go visit home for two days. But his boss warned him saying if he failed to fulfill his contract the company would not accept him back when he returned.

Being unemployed for four months in 2020 had taught Minh to be patient, and he decided to stay.

“As a 21-year-old, I don’t have time to date or hang out with friends since everyone goes to school or work during the day.”

But he does not dare quit his current job, knowing that Covid-19 has put paid to employment opportunities.

A woman filling for unemployment benefits at the Hanoi Center for Employee Service in Cau Giay District. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh.

But people can be dissatisfied with their current jobs but dare not quit amid a global pandemic or not.

Pham Manh Ha, an associate professor of psychology at the Vietnam National University in Hanoi, said this is most common in the 30-45 age group.

“These people are frustrated with their current jobs, have no opportunities for advancement, are not interested in a career, and have difficulty finding new jobs. They fall into a state of internal frustration and constant stress, resulting in poor performance and unexpected outcomes.”

Minh Huong, 32, of Saigon’s District 1 identifies herself as one such person. For several months now she has been crying every day on the 5km trip from her rented room to office.

The admissions officer at an English language center says: “I am shy and have an inferiority complex. I dare not speak up when I have a grievance. I do not dare express myself, and so I am locked in a vicious circle.”

Huong was an excellent employee in 2019, but got a Tet bonus of just VND500,000 ($21.68), just like her roommate. Since reward was based on collective performance, just one team member performing poorly could affect everyone’s year-end bonus.

Her labor contract said, unless she violated rules, she was entitled to a salary increase every six months. But it took her a year to get a raise of just VND450,000 ($19.52).

Feeling unhappy, she resigned.

“But since our center lacked manpower and there was no one to fill my position, my boss asked me to stay for another two months. And then the pandemic broke out.”

She continued to work there because she had applied to five language centers but either received no response or canceled her scheduled interview due to the outbreak.

The fact she had resigned but decided stay on because of the pandemic did not endear her to her boss or colleagues.

“I emailed my boss to suggest adding a few designs in the classroom to attract students. But my boss dismissed it saying it would be approved if a teacher suggested it. But the next day a colleague in the room suggested it again and got approval.”

The office has more than 10 employees who eat lunch together, but no one wants to sit next to her. Her boss only gives her minor work.

Huong is terribly depressed, and does not know how she can carry on much longer.

“I plan to find a new job around mid-June; I hope the outbreak will be completely under control by then.”

Vu Quang Thanh, deputy director of the Hanoi Center for Employee Service, said there are more job opportunities now than in the early part of last year, with enterprises’ demand for workers increasing by around 5 percent.

At his center, 207 enterprises in the telephone components, machinery, textile and other sectors have registered to recruit more than 5,000 workers.

But he said people who want to find new jobs should assess their capabilities, recruitment demand in their field, salary, and other factors.

The pandemic has made it difficult for many businesses and so salaries are down, he said.

So, instead of worrying about their income, people should try to stay back and share the difficulty with their employers instead of jumping to other jobs, he said.

Besides, people need to accurately assess the cause of their current situation. If the problems are caused by technology changes or a mismatch between their abilities and job requirements, they need to improve their personal skills, he added.

Household waste, stored in plastic bags, is piled in Hoang Van Thai Street, Hanoi.

Phạm Huy, a small trader in a traditional market in Long Biên District, said plastic bags and products were selling in large quantities in local markets because they were not only cheap but also convenient.

It costs VNĐ30,000 (US$1.3) per roll of 100 plastics bags and VNĐ20,000 ($0.8) for 50 plastic cups, he said.

Huy said the number of people shopping at the market was very large and most of them asked for plastic bags. Few people carried their own bags to the market.

“If we do not use plastic bags, we have nothing to store things for our customers,” he said.

An owner of a food shop in Quán Thánh Street, Ba Đình District, said his customers often asked for takeaway food in plastic containers.

Although he knew of the impacts of plastic bags and products on the environment, he still bought them to store food for his customers, he said.

Hồng Hà, a resident of Ba Đình District, said due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, food and beverage outlets had to close and only sell online.

People often ordered using popular applications such as Grab and Now to eat and drink at home, she said.

The shops often used plastics bags and products to wrap up their wares for shippers to bring to customers, she said.

Solutions

Lê Tuấn Định, deputy head of the city’s Natural Resources and Environment, said it was estimated that about 6,000 tonnes of waste were discharged daily in the capital, including 60 tonnes of plastic waste.

Plastic waste discharge was believed to increase year after year, adversely affecting the environment, he said.

In response to the situation, the city administration views combating plastic waste as a key task.

In 2019, the city issued Plan No 232/KH-UBND on ‘Preventing plastic waste and bags by 2020, a vision towards 2025’, calling on local administrative and public service agencies and State-owned enterprises not to use disposable plastic products and plastic bags, as well as mobilising organisations and individuals to say no to disposable plastic products.

The department has relevant agencies to strengthen dissemination to improve people’s awareness of the impacts of plastic waste on the environment. The agencies were told to find alternative materials to reduce the use of plastic products.

He said the department would conduct surveys on the use of disposable plastic products and the demand for recycled products to find alternative products to replace disposable plastic in local traditional markets and trade centres.

The department also compiled mechanisms to support enterprises to manufacture environmentally-friendly packaging, he said.

It was strengthening inspections and encouraging enterprises to manufacture environmentally-friendly packaging and pilot training programmes to improve capacity to design environmentally-friendly products for commercial, service and manufacturing facilities in the city.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), around the world, 1 million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute, while 5 trillion single-use plastic bags are used worldwide annually. In total, half of all plastic produced is designed to be used only once and then thrown away. — VNS