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99-515: Because loan sharks operate mostly illegally, they cannot use the legal system to collect such debts, thus they often resort to enforcing repayment by terms of blackmail and threats of violence. Historically, many moneylenders skirted between legal and criminal activity . In the recent western world, loan sharks have been a prominent feature of the criminal underworld . Loan sharking is not to be confused with predatory lending with extremely high interest rates such as payday or title loans , which

198-625: A healthy diet are also recommended. Supportive care in severe cases includes treatment to relieve symptoms , fluid therapy , oxygen support and prone positioning , and medications or devices to support other affected vital organs. More severe cases may need treatment in hospital. In those with low oxygen levels, use of the glucocorticoid dexamethasone is recommended to reduce mortality. Noninvasive ventilation and, ultimately, admission to an intensive care unit for mechanical ventilation may be required to support breathing. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has been used to address

297-615: A variant of concern (VoC) or a variant of interest (VoI). Many of these variants have shared the more infectious D614G . As of May 2023, the WHO had downgraded all variants of concern to previously circulating as these were no longer detected in new infections. Sub-lineages of the Omicron variant (BA.1 – BA.5) were considered separate VoCs by the WHO until they were downgraded in March 2023 as no longer widely circulating. As of 24 September 2024 ,

396-424: A "payday advance", effectively a short-term (no more than one or two weeks) loan for which charges may run 3–5% of the principal amount. By claiming to be charging for the "service" of cashing a paycheck, instead of merely charging interest for a short-term loan, laws that strictly regulate moneylending costs can be effectively bypassed. Licensed payday advance businesses, which lend money at high rates of interest on

495-493: A comprehensive international study. Such deaths include deaths due to healthcare capacity constraints and priorities, as well as reluctance to seek care (to avoid possible infection). Further research may help distinguish the proportions directly caused by COVID-19 from those caused by indirect consequences of the pandemic. In May 2022, the WHO estimated the number of excess deaths by the end of 2021 to be 14.9 million compared to 5.4 million reported COVID-19 deaths, with

594-455: A criminal organization made the loan shark's threat of violence more credible. Although the reform law was intended to starve the loan sharks into extinction, this species of predatory lender thrived and evolved. After high-rate salary lending was outlawed, some bootleg vendors recast the product as "salary buying". They claimed they were not making loans but were purchasing future wages at a discount. This form of loansharking proliferated through

693-468: A customer. These licensing laws made it impossible for usurious lenders to pass themselves off as legal. Small loans also started becoming more socially acceptable, and banks and other larger institutions started offering them as well. In the 1920s and 1930s, American prosecutors began to notice the emergence of a new breed of illegal lender that used violence to enforce debts. The new small lender laws had made it almost impossible to intimidate customers with

792-476: A form of extortion and may be covered in the same statutory provision as extortion. Although the two are generally synonymous, extortion is the taking of personal property by threat of future harm. Blackmail is the use of threat to prevent another from engaging in a lawful occupation and writing libelous letters or letters that provoke a breach of the peace, as well as use of intimidation for purposes of collecting an unpaid debt. In many jurisdictions, blackmail

891-697: A full value of 250% or more. Loan sharks in Vietnam are very common, especially in high population density areas and industrial park surroundings. They focus on poor workers and gamblers, advertising their services on walls and electric poles as well as online platforms such as Google and Facebook. Their operations vary from pawn shops to online operations via illegal applications. These operations are not usually controlled by Vietnamese, but rather Vietnamese people living in Cambodia or Chinese operators. Many of these sharks offer very high loan rates at 20% to 1000% per month. When

990-590: A large number of people". During the COVID-19 pandemic, as with other pandemics, the meaning of this term has been challenged. The end of a pandemic or other epidemic only rarely involves the total disappearance of a disease, and historically, much less attention has been given to defining the ends of epidemics than their beginnings. The ends of particular epidemics have been defined in a variety of ways, differing according to academic field, and differently based on location and social group. An epidemic's end can be considered

1089-440: A legal loan at 36% or 42% a year could secure a cash advance from a mobster at the going rate of 10% or 20% a week for small loans. Since the mob loans were not usually secured with legal instruments, debtors pledged their bodies as collateral. In its early phase, a large fraction of mob loansharking consisted of payday lending . Many of the customers were office clerks and factory hands. The loan fund for these operations came from

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1188-514: A legal loan. Violent loansharking was typically run by criminal syndicates, such as the Mafia and Irish Mob . Many of these were former bootleggers who needed a new line of work after the end of alcohol prohibition . Towards the 1960s, loan sharks grew ever more coordinated, and could pool information on borrowers to better size up risks and ensure a borrower did not try to pay off one loan by borrowing from another loan shark. The fearsome reputation of

1287-481: A lower rate of unpaid loans. The absence of taxes further reduces the cost of lending in this case. Mark H. Haller; John V. Alviti (April 1977). "Loansharking in American Cities: Historical Analysis of a Marginal Enterprise". The American Journal of Legal History . 21 (2). Oxford University Press: 125–156. doi : 10.2307/845211 . JSTOR   845211 . Blackmail Blackmail

1386-448: A median range of 0.24% to 1.49%. IFRs rise as a function of age (from 0.002% at age 10 and 0.01% at age 25, to 0.4% at age 55, 1.4% at age 65, 4.6% at age 75, and 15% at age 85). These rates vary by a factor of ≈10,000 across the age groups. For comparison, the IFR for middle-aged adults is two orders of magnitude higher than the annualised risk of a fatal automobile accident and much higher than

1485-538: A neighbourhood, thus vandalising public property, as authorities must remove such advertisements. They charge high interest rates (generally about 40% per month/fortnight) according to Anti-Crime, Drug and Social Development Voluntary Organisation and frequently threaten violence (and administer it) towards those who fail to pay on time. When a person fails to pay on time, the Ah Long will set on fire, spray paint, lock up gates, splash, or write threats in paint or markers on

1584-815: A random sample have consistently found that total infections considerably exceed the reported case counts. Many countries, early on, had official policies to not test those with only mild symptoms. The strongest risk factors for severe illness are obesity, complications of diabetes , anxiety disorders, and the total number of conditions. During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic it was not clear whether young people were less likely to be infected, or less likely to develop symptoms and be tested. A retrospective cohort study in China found that children and adults were just as likely to be infected. Among more thorough studies, preliminary results from 9 April 2020 found that in Gangelt ,

1683-457: A social phenomenon, not just a biological one. Time reported in March 2024 that expert opinions differ on whether or not COVID-19 is considered endemic or pandemic, and that the WHO continued to call the disease a pandemic on its website. During the initial outbreak in Wuhan , the virus and disease were commonly referred to as "coronavirus", "Wuhan coronavirus", "the coronavirus outbreak" and

1782-462: A steady and respectable job, a regular income and a reputation to protect. This made them less likely to leave the area before they paid their debt and more likely to have a legitimate reason for borrowing money. Gamblers, criminals, and others who were disreputable or likely to be unreliable were avoided. They made the borrower fill out and sign seemingly legitimate contracts. Though these contracts were not legally enforceable, they at least were proof of

1881-451: A test. Conversely, deaths of people who died from underlying conditions following a positive test may be included. Countries such as Belgium include deaths from suspected cases, including those without a test, thereby increasing counts. Official death counts have been claimed to underreport the actual death toll, because excess mortality (the number of deaths in a period compared to a long-term average) data show an increase in deaths that

1980-530: A veneer of legality, and many customers were less vulnerable to shaming because they were either self-employed or already disreputable. Thus, violence was an important tool, though not their only one. These loan sharks operated more informally than salary lenders, which meant more discretion for the lender and less paperwork and bureaucracy for the customer. They were also willing to serve high-risk borrowers that legal lenders would not touch. Threats of violence were rarely followed through, however. One possible reason

2079-513: Is a criminal act of coercion using a threat . As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States , blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a threat to do something that would cause a person to suffer embarrassment or financial loss. By contrast, in the Commonwealth its definition is wider: for example

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2178-768: Is a statutory offense, often criminal, carrying punitive sanctions for convicted perpetrators. Blackmail is the name of a statutory offense in the United States, England and Wales, and Australia, and has been used as a convenient way of referring to certain other offenses, but was not a term used in English law until 1968. Blackmail was originally a term from the Scottish Borders meaning payments rendered in exchange for protection from thieves and marauders. The "mail" part of blackmail derives from Middle English male meaning "rent or tribute". This tribute (male or reditus )

2277-421: Is against the law that sets the maximum interest rate at 20%. These lenders usually do business with those who cannot get more money from banks, legitimate consumer loans, or credit cards. The Central Bank of Ireland were criticized for doing nothing to protect those with low incomes, the vulnerable or those who have low levels of financial literacy, from loan sharks, when it emerged in 2015 that up to 100,000 of

2376-518: Is associated with COVID-19 and is reported in as many as 88% of cases. The disease is mainly transmitted via the respiratory route when people inhale droplets and small airborne particles (that form an aerosol ) that infected people exhale as they breathe, talk, cough, sneeze, or sing. Infected people are more likely to transmit COVID-19 when they are physically close to other non-infected individuals. However, infection can occur over longer distances, particularly indoors. SARS‑CoV‑2 belongs to

2475-600: Is discouraged altogether by the World Health Organization (WHO), due to limited evidence of its efficacy. The severity of COVID-19 varies. It may take a mild course with few or no symptoms, resembling other common upper respiratory diseases such as the common cold . In 3–4% of cases (7.4% for those over age 65) symptoms are severe enough to cause hospitalisation. Mild cases typically recover within two weeks, while those with severe or critical diseases may take three to six weeks to recover. Among those who have died,

2574-439: Is intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID-19 ). Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, an established body of knowledge existed about the structure and function of coronaviruses causing diseases like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). This knowledge accelerated

2673-628: Is legally registered, pays taxes and contributions, and can reclaim remittance if taking the case to adjudication; likewise there is no threat of harm to the debtor). In the late 19th-century US, the low legal interest rates made small loans unprofitable, and small-time lending was viewed as irresponsible by society. Banks and other major financial institutions thus stayed away from small-time lending. There were, however, plenty of small lenders offering loans at profitable but illegally high interest rates. They presented themselves as legitimate and operated openly out of offices. They only sought customers who had

2772-485: Is not explained by COVID-19 deaths alone. Using such data, estimates of the true number of deaths from COVID-19 worldwide have included a range from 18.2 to 33.5 million (≈27.4 million) by 18 November 2023 by The Economist , as well as over 18.5 million by 1 April 2023 by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and ≈18.2 million (earlier) deaths between 1 January 2020, and 31 December 2021, by

2871-424: Is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to family members or associates rather than to the general public. Acts of blackmail can also involve using threats of physical, mental or emotional harm, or of criminal prosecution, against the victim or someone close to the victim. It is normally carried out for personal gain, most commonly of position, money, or property. Blackmail may also be considered

2970-562: Is sometimes considered to be "loan sharking" (or, at least, unfavorably compared to loan sharking by critics) regardless of whether it is legal. A key difference between "traditional" loan sharking and predatory lending is that lenders alleged to be engaged in the latter practice are expected to stay within the law when making and collecting loans , and thus the debate into such practices often focuses on whether they are ethical as opposed to whether they are legal. However, laws regulating lending practices vary so widely between jurisdictions (even in

3069-427: Is that injuring a borrower could have meant he could not work and thus could never pay off his debt. Many regular borrowers realized the threats were mostly bluffs and that they could get away with delinquent payments. A more certain consequence was that the delinquent borrower would be cut off from future loans, which was serious for those who regularly relied on loan sharks. One important market for violent loan sharks

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3168-452: Is the ratio of deaths to diagnoses. This metric can be misleading because of the delay between symptom onset and death and because testing focuses on symptomatic individuals. Based on Johns Hopkins University statistics, the global CFR was 1.02 percent (6,881,955 deaths for 676,609,955 cases) as of 10 March 2023. The number varies by region and has generally declined over time. Several variants have been named by WHO and labelled as

3267-406: Is the seventh known coronavirus to infect people, after 229E , NL63 , OC43 , HKU1 , MERS-CoV , and the original SARS-CoV . The standard method of testing for presence of SARS-CoV-2 is a nucleic acid test , which detects the presence of viral RNA fragments. As these tests detect RNA but not infectious virus, its "ability to determine duration of infectivity of patients is limited." The test

3366-614: Is typically done on respiratory samples obtained by a nasopharyngeal swab ; however, a nasal swab or sputum sample may also be used. The WHO has published several testing protocols for the disease. Preventive measures to reduce the chances of infection include getting vaccinated, staying at home or spending more time outdoors, avoiding crowded places, keeping distance from others, wearing a mask in public, ventilating indoor spaces, managing potential exposure durations, washing hands with soap and water often and for at least twenty seconds, practising good respiratory hygiene, and avoiding touching

3465-514: The Chicago Outfit organized crime syndicate and payday lenders in California revealed that, depending on when a payday loan was paid back by a borrower (generally 1–14 days), the interest rate charged for a payday loan could be considerably higher than the interest rate of a similar loan made by the organized crime syndicate. However the violent collection practices of the organized crime can ensure

3564-501: The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market there, but it is possible that human-to-human transmission began earlier. Molecular clock analysis suggests that the first cases were likely to have been between October and November 2019. The scientific consensus is that the virus is most likely of a zoonotic origin, from bats or another closely related mammal. While other explanations such as speculations that SARS-CoV-2

3663-407: The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimating the true number of cases as of early 2022 to be in the billions. One measure that public health officials and policymakers have used to monitor the pandemic and guide decision-making is the test positivity rate ("percent positive"). According to Johns Hopkins in 2020, one benchmark for a "too high" per cent positive is 5%, which was used by

3762-597: The basic reproduction number (R 0 ) for COVID-19 in January 2020 were between 1.4 and 2.5, but a subsequent analysis claimed that it may be about 5.7 (with a 95 per cent confidence interval of 3.8 to 8.9). In December 2021, the number of cases continued to climb due to several factors, including new COVID-19 variants. As of that 28   December, 282,790,822 individuals worldwide had been confirmed as infected. As of 14 April 2022 , over 500 million cases were confirmed globally. Most cases are unconfirmed, with

3861-574: The decades-long depression lingers, banks are reluctant to loan money and regulation has become tighter, illegal moneylending has become a social issue . Illegal moneylenders typically charge interest of 30 or 50% in 10 days (in Japanese, these are called "to-san" ('to' meaning ten and 'san' meaning three, or 10-3) or "to-go" ('to' meaning ten and 'go' meaning five, or 10-5), which correspond to effective interest rates of about 1.442 million % and 267.5 million % per annum respectively. This

3960-1000: The informal sector or who are deemed to be too risky even by the check-cashing creditors. Some beat delinquents while others seize assets instead. Their rates run from 10% to 20% a week, as was common with the mob in the past. In the United States, there are lenders licensed to serve borrowers who cannot qualify for standard loans from mainstream sources. These smaller, non-standard lenders often operate in cash, whereas mainstream lenders increasingly operate only electronically and will not serve borrowers who do not have bank accounts. Terms such as sub-prime lending , "non-standard consumer credit", and payday loans are often used in connection with this type of consumer finance . The availability of these services has made illegal, exploitative loan sharks rarer, but these legal lenders have also been accused of behaving in an exploitative manner. For example, payday loan operations have come under fire for charging inflated "service charges" for their services of cashing

4059-474: The variants of interest as specified by the World Health Organization are BA.2.86 and JN.1, and the variants under monitoring are JN.1.7, KP.2, KP.3, KP.3.1.1, JN.1.18, LB.1, and XEC. Symptoms of COVID-19 are variable, ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness. Common symptoms include headache, loss of smell and taste , nasal congestion and runny nose , cough, muscle pain , sore throat , fever, diarrhoea , and breathing difficulties . People with

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4158-429: The "Wuhan coronavirus outbreak", with the disease sometimes called "Wuhan pneumonia ". In January 2020, the WHO recommended 2019-nCoV and 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease as interim names for the virus and disease per 2015 international guidelines against using geographical locations (e.g. Wuhan, China), animal species, or groups of people in disease and virus names in part to prevent social stigma . WHO finalised

4257-469: The 1920s and into the 1930s until a new draft of the Uniform Small Loan Law closed the loophole through which the salary buyers had slipped. Salary-buying loan sharks continued to operate in some southern states after World War II because the usury rate was set so low that licensed personal finance companies could not do business there. Organized crime began to enter the cash advance business in

4356-592: The 1930s, after high-rate lending was criminalized by the Uniform Small Loan Law. The first reports of mob loansharking surfaced in New York City in 1935, and for 15 years, underworld money lending apparently did not expand beyond that city. There is no record of syndicate " juice " operations in Chicago, for instance, until the 1950s. In the beginning, underworld loansharking was a small loan business, catering to

4455-405: The 1960s, the preferred clientele was small and medium-sized businesses. Business customers had the advantage of possessing assets that could be seized in case of default, or used to engage in fraud or to launder money. Gamblers were another lucrative market, as were other criminals who needed financing for their operations. By the 1970s, mob salary lending operations seemed to have withered away in

4554-531: The 360,000 loans given by the moneylenders violated the law. Loansharking is one of the main activities of the Israeli mafia . The National Bank of Kazakhstan has been consistently fighting loan sharks since 2018. Thus, the maximum interest rate on a loan was limited to no more than 100% of the loan amount. In 2020, a financial market regulation agency was separated from the National Bank of Kazakhstan to monitor

4653-422: The United States. At its height in the 1960s, underworld loansharking was estimated to be the second most lucrative franchise of organized crime in the United States after illegal gambling . Newspapers in the 1960s were filled with sensational stories of debtors beaten, harassed, and sometimes murdered by mob loan sharks. Yet careful studies of the business have raised doubts about the frequency with which violence

4752-636: The WHO in the past. As of 10 March 2023, more than 6.88   million deaths had been attributed to COVID-19. The first confirmed death was in Wuhan on 9 January 2020. These numbers vary by region and over time, influenced by testing volume, healthcare system quality, treatment options, government response, time since the initial outbreak, and population characteristics, such as age, sex, and overall health. Multiple measures are used to quantify mortality. Official death counts typically include people who died after testing positive. Such counts exclude deaths without

4851-419: The WHO, US, European Union, and Australia. On 12 November 2022, the WHO released its Global Vaccine Market Report. The report indicated that "inequitable distribution is not unique to COVID-19 vaccines"; countries that are not economically strong struggle to obtain vaccines. On 14 November 2022, the first inhalable vaccine was introduced, developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics , in

4950-624: The amount loaned to borrowers. In addition, compound interest on high interest loans were banned while fees for defaulting on payments were capped. By June 2024, figures released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment showed that no customers had been granted high-cost loans in 2023. Several organizations regulate the loan market in Russia: In 2024, the Central Bank plans to impose higher requirements on loan loss provisions for loans with

5049-483: The borrower (e.g. imposing late fees). Because salary lending was a disreputable trade, the owners of these firms often hid from public view, hiring managers to run their offices indirectly. To further avoid attracting attention, when expanding his trade to other cities, an owner would often found new firms with different names rather than increasing the visibility and recognizability of his existing firm. The penalties for being an illegal lender were mild. Illegal lending

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5148-444: The borrower is unable to pay their debt, the sharks will force the borrower to take out further loans. If the borrower is unable to pay those on time, the sharks will use intimidation tactics such as sending threatening messages to the borrower and their family and friends. Additionally, some resort to vandalism and kidnapping. Most borrowers only loan relatively small amounts of money, below 10 million VNĐ, but due to compound rates,

5247-439: The borrower will ultimately have to pay much more than they would have with official credit service suppliers. There are a lot of cases reported and most are solved by the police, but many remain unsolved. In recent years, the government has tried to stop these loaners from operating and encouraged people not to borrow money from them. The victims are largely under-educated people with limited financial knowledge. The research by

5346-448: The broad family of viruses known as coronaviruses . It is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA (+ssRNA) virus, with a single linear RNA segment. Coronaviruses infect humans, other mammals, including livestock and companion animals, and avian species. Human coronaviruses are capable of causing illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS, fatality rate ≈34%). SARS-CoV-2

5445-574: The centre of a major infection cluster in Germany, 15 per cent of a population sample tested positive for antibodies . Screening for COVID-19 in pregnant women in New York City , and blood donors in the Netherlands, found rates of positive antibody tests that indicated more infections than reported. Seroprevalence -based estimates are conservative as some studies show that persons with mild symptoms do not have detectable antibodies. Initial estimates of

5544-746: The city of Shanghai, China. For the first two years of the pandemic, no specific and effective treatment or cure was available. In 2021, the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) approved the oral antiviral protease inhibitor , Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir plus the HIV antiviral ritonavir ), to treat adult patients. FDA later gave it an EUA. Most cases of COVID-19 are mild. In these, supportive care includes medication such as paracetamol or NSAIDs to relieve symptoms (fever, body aches, cough), adequate intake of oral fluids and rest. Good personal hygiene and

5643-480: The cumulative number of infected individuals (including asymptomatic and undiagnosed infections and excluding vaccinated infected individuals). It is expressed in percentage points. Other studies refer to this metric as the infection fatality risk . In November 2020, a review article in Nature reported estimates of population-weighted IFRs for various countries, excluding deaths in elderly care facilities, and found

5742-441: The development of various vaccine platforms during early 2020. The initial focus of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines was on preventing symptomatic and severe illness. The COVID-19 vaccines are widely credited for their role in reducing the severity and death caused by COVID-19. As of March 2023, more than 5.5 billion people had received one or more doses (11.8 billion in total) in over 197 countries. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine

5841-588: The early COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the New Zealand Government launched a crackdown against loan sharks to ease economic hardship. Commerce Minister Kris Faafoi announced that the Credit Contracts Legislation Amendment Act 2020 would come into force on 1 May 2020 rather than 1 June 2020. Under the new law, high-interest lenders charging interest at 50% or more would not be allowed to charge interest as well as fees over 100% of

5940-693: The example of a person who threatens to expose a criminal act unless he is paid money. The person has committed the crime of blackmail, even though he separately has the legal right both to threaten to expose a crime and to request money from a person. COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic ), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ( SARS-CoV-2 ), began with an outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan , China, in December 2019. It spread to other areas of Asia, and then worldwide in early 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared

6039-513: The eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands. Those diagnosed with COVID-19 or who believe they may be infected are advised by healthcare authorities to stay home except to get medical care, call ahead before visiting a healthcare provider, wear a face mask before entering the healthcare provider's office and when in any room or vehicle with another person, cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue, regularly wash hands with soap and water and avoid sharing personal household items. A COVID-19 vaccine

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6138-474: The general public beginning in December 2020, made available through government and international programs such as COVAX , aiming to provide vaccine equity . Treatments include novel antiviral drugs and symptom control. Common mitigation measures during the public health emergency included travel restrictions , lockdowns , business restrictions and closures, workplace hazard controls , mask mandates , quarantines, testing systems, and contact tracing of

6237-462: The government and other agencies estimates that 165,000 to 200,000 people are indebted to loan sharks in the United Kingdom. Illicit loan sharking is treated as a high-level crime by law enforcement, due to its links to organized crime and the serious violence involved. Payday loans with high interest rates are legal in many cases, and have been described as "legal loan sharking" (in that the creditor

6336-657: The infected. The pandemic caused severe social and economic disruption around the world, including the largest global recession since the Great Depression . Widespread supply shortages , including food shortages , were caused by supply chain disruptions and panic buying . Reduced human activity led to an unprecedented temporary decrease in pollution . Educational institutions and public areas were partially or fully closed in many jurisdictions, and many events were cancelled or postponed during 2020 and 2021. Telework became much more common for white-collar workers as

6435-484: The issue of respiratory failure. Existing drugs such as hydroxychloroquine , lopinavir/ritonavir , and ivermectin are not recommended by US or European health authorities, as there is no good evidence they have any useful effect. The antiviral remdesivir is available in the US, Canada, Australia, and several other countries, with varying restrictions; however, it is not recommended for use with mechanical ventilation, and

6534-449: The jurisdiction of organized crime, charging usurious rates of interest for cash advances. These informal networks of credit rarely came to the attention of the authorities but flourished in populations not served by licensed lenders. Even today, after the rise of corporate payday lending in the United States, unlicensed loan sharks continue to operate in immigrant enclaves and low-income neighborhoods. They lend money to people who work in

6633-423: The laws of England and Wales and Northern Ireland state that: A person is guilty of blackmail if, with a view to gain for himself or another or with intent to cause loss to another, he makes any unwarranted demand with menaces... In popular culture, 'blackmail' involves a threat to reveal or publicize either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It

6732-436: The loan and the repayment plan were often tailored to suit the borrower's means. The smaller the loan, the higher the interest rate was, as the costs ( overhead ) of tracking and pursuing a defaulter did not depend on the size of the loan. The attitudes of lenders to defaulters also varied: some were lenient and reasonable, readily granting extensions and slow to harass, while others unscrupulously tried to milk all they could from

6831-418: The loan sharks could not blackmail their debtors ("pay up or we'll tell your boss that you're a deadbeat and you'll be fired"). Charities provided legal support to troubled borrowers. This fight culminated in the drafting of the Uniform Small Loan Law, which brought into existence a new class of licensed lender. The law was enacted, first in several states in 1917, and was adopted by all but a handful of states by

6930-498: The loan, which the lender could use to blackmail a defaulter . To force a defaulter into paying, the lender might threaten legal action. This was a bluff, since the loan was illegal. The lender preyed on the borrower's ignorance of the law. Alternatively, the lender resorted to public shaming , exploiting the social stigma of being in debt to a loan shark. They were able to complain to the defaulter's employer, because many employers would fire employees who were mired in debt, because of

7029-576: The majority of the unreported 9.5 million deaths believed to be direct deaths due the virus, rather than indirect deaths. Some deaths were because people with other conditions could not access medical services . A December 2022 WHO study estimated excess deaths from the pandemic during 2020 and 2021, again concluding ≈14.8 million excess early deaths occurred, reaffirming and detailing their prior calculations from May as well as updating them, addressing criticisms. These numbers do not include measures like years of potential life lost and may make

7128-402: The middle of the 20th century. The model statute mandated consumer protections and capped the interest rate on loans of $ 300 or less at 3.5% a month (51% a year), a profitable level for small loans. Lenders had to give the customer copies of all signed documents. Additional charges such as late fees were banned. The lender could no longer receive power of attorney or confession of judgment over

7227-495: The official names COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 on 11 February 2020. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus explained: CO   for corona , VI   for virus , D   for disease and 19 for when the outbreak was first identified (31 December 2019). WHO additionally uses "the COVID-19 virus" and "the virus responsible for COVID-19" in public communications. WHO named variants of concern and variants of interest using Greek letters . The initial practice of naming them according to where

7326-534: The outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on 30 January 2020, and assessed the outbreak as having become a pandemic on 11 March. COVID-19 symptoms range from asymptomatic to deadly, but most commonly include fever, sore throat , nocturnal cough , and fatigue. Transmission of the virus is often through airborne particles . Mutations have produced many strains (variants) with varying degrees of infectivity and virulence . COVID-19 vaccines were developed rapidly and deployed to

7425-407: The pandemic 2021's leading cause of death . The time between symptom onset and death ranges from   6 to 41 days, typically about 14 days. Mortality rates increase as a function of age. People at the greatest mortality risk are the elderly and those with underlying conditions. The infection fatality ratio (IFR) is the cumulative number of deaths attributed to the disease divided by

7524-491: The pandemic evolved. Misinformation circulated through social media and mass media , and political tensions intensified . The pandemic raised issues of racial and geographic discrimination , health equity , and the balance between public health imperatives and individual rights . The WHO ended the PHEIC for COVID-19 on 5 May 2023. The disease has continued to circulate, but as of 2024, experts were uncertain as to whether it

7623-415: The population's age structure and the age-specific pattern of infections. There have also been reviews that have compared the fatality rate of this pandemic with prior pandemics, such as MERS-CoV. For comparison the infection mortality rate of seasonal flu in the United States is 0.1%, which is 13 times lower than COVID-19. Another metric in assessing death rate is the case fatality ratio (CFR), which

7722-696: The practice was common in the Scottish Highlands as well as the Borders . In the Irish language , the term cíos dubh , meaning " black rent ", was used for similar exactions. Some scholars have argued that blackmail should not be a crime. Objections to the criminalization of blackmail often rest on what legal scholars call "the paradox of blackmail": it takes two separate actions that, in many cases, people are legally and morally entitled to do, and criminalizes them if done together. One American legal scholar uses

7821-481: The proceeds of the numbers racket and was distributed by the top bosses to the lower echelon loan sharks at the rate of 1% or 2% a week. The 1952 B movie Loan Shark , starring George Raft , offers a glimpse of mob payday lending. The waterfront in Brooklyn was another site of extensive underworld payday advance operations around mid-century. Over time, mob loan sharks moved away from such labor intensive rackets. By

7920-705: The rights and legitimate interests of borrowers, to identify and eliminate systemic problems of the financial sector of the economy. A unified state register of microfinance organizations was introduced to legalize lenders. Ah Long (derived from the Cantonese phrase '大耳窿' ('big ear hole')) is a colloquial term for illegal loan sharks in Malaysia and Singapore . They lend money to people who are unable to obtain loans from banks or other legal sources, mostly targeting habitual gamblers. Often, they discreetly advertise by sticking notices, mostly on lamp posts and utility boxes around

8019-458: The risk of dying from seasonal influenza . In December 2020, a systematic review and meta-analysis estimated that population-weighted IFR was 0.5% to 1% in some countries (France, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Portugal), 1% to 2% in other countries (Australia, England, Lithuania, and Spain), and about 2.5% in Italy. This study reported that most of the differences reflected corresponding differences in

8118-518: The risk of them stealing from the employer to repay debts. They were able to send agents to stand outside the defaulter's home, loudly denouncing him, perhaps vandalizing his home with graffiti or notices. Whether out of gullibility or embarrassment, the borrower usually succumbed and paid. Many customers were employees of large firms, such as railways or public works. Larger organizations were more likely to fire employees for being in debt, as their rules were more impersonal, which made blackmail easier. It

8217-536: The same country, particularly between states in the United States ) that particular practices that might be technically legal (if arguably unethical) "predatory lending" in one jurisdiction might be considered illegal "loan sharking" if attempted in an identical manner in a different locale. Regulation of moneylenders is typically much looser than that of banks. In Japan, the Moneylending Control Law requires only registration in each prefecture . In Japan, as

8316-496: The same infection may have different symptoms, and their symptoms may change over time. Three common clusters of symptoms have been identified: one respiratory symptom cluster with cough, sputum , shortness of breath, and fever; a musculoskeletal symptom cluster with muscle and joint pain, headache, and fatigue; a cluster of digestive symptoms with abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhoea. In people without prior ear, nose, and throat disorders, loss of taste combined with loss of smell

8415-413: The same populations served by the salary lenders and buyers. Those who turned to the bootleg lenders could not get credit at the licensed companies because their incomes were too low or they were deemed poor risks. The firms operating within the usury cap turned away roughly half of all applicants and tended to make larger loans to married men with steady jobs and decent incomes. Those who could not get

8514-444: The security of a postdated check, are often described as loan sharks by their critics due to high interest rates that trap debtors, stopping short of illegal lending and violent collection practices. Today's payday loan is a close cousin of the early 20th century salary loan, the product to which the "shark" epithet was originally applied, but they are now legalised in some states. A 2001 comparison of short-term lending rates charged by

8613-411: The time from symptom onset to death has ranged from two to eight weeks. Prolonged prothrombin time and elevated C-reactive protein levels on admission to the hospital are associated with severe course of COVID-19 and with a transfer to intensive care units (ICU). Between 5% and 50% of COVID-19 patients experience long COVID , a condition characterised by long-term consequences persisting after

8712-694: The typical convalescence period of the disease. The most commonly reported clinical presentations are fatigue and memory problems, as well as malaise , headaches, shortness of breath , loss of smell, muscle weakness , low fever and cognitive dysfunction . Many countries attempted to slow or stop the spread of COVID-19 by recommending, mandating or prohibiting behaviour changes, while others relied primarily on providing information. Measures ranged from public advisories to stringent lockdowns. Outbreak control strategies are divided into elimination and mitigation. Experts differentiate between elimination strategies (known as " zero-COVID ") that aim to completely stop

8811-543: The variants were identified (e.g. Delta began as the " Indian variant") is no longer common. A more systematic naming scheme reflects the variant's PANGO lineage (e.g., Omicron 's lineage is B.1.1.529) and is used for other variants. SARS-CoV-2 is a virus closely related to bat coronaviruses , pangolin coronaviruses, and SARS-CoV . The first known outbreak (the 2019–2020 COVID-19 outbreak in mainland China ) started in Wuhan , Hubei, China, in December 2019. Many early cases were linked to people who had visited

8910-467: The walls of the property of that person as a threat of violence and to scare, and perhaps shame, the borrower into repaying the loan. A common use of painting includes the characters "O$ P$ " meaning "owe money, pay money", as well as the debtors' unit number. According to local police authorities, there have been cases where borrowers and their family members were beaten or had their property damaged or destroyed, and some victims have committed suicide. During

9009-403: Was a misdemeanor , and the penalty was forfeiture of the interest and perhaps the principal as well. But these were only ever imposed if the borrower sued, which he typically could not afford to do. Opposition to salary lenders was spearheaded by social elites, such as businessmen and charity organizations. Businessmen were encouraged not to fire employees who were indebted to loan sharks so that

9108-443: Was accidentally released from a laboratory have been proposed, as of 2021 these were not supported by evidence. Official "case" counts refer to the number of people who have been tested for COVID-19 and whose test has been confirmed positive according to official protocols whether or not they experienced symptomatic disease. Due to the effect of sampling bias , studies which obtain a more accurate number by extrapolating from

9207-463: Was easier for lenders to learn which large organizations did this as opposed to collecting information on the multitude of smaller firms. Larger firms had more job security and the greater possibility of promotion, so employees sacrificed more to ensure they were not fired. The loan shark could also bribe a large firm's paymaster to provide information on its many employees. Regular salaries and paydays made negotiating repayment plans simpler. The size of

9306-428: Was employed in practice. Relations between creditor and debtor could be amicable, even when the " vig " or "juice" was exorbitant, because each needed the other. FBI agents in one city interviewed 115 customers of a mob loan business but turned up only one debtor who had been threatened. None had been beaten. Organized crime has never had a monopoly on black market lending. Plenty of vest-pocket lenders operated outside

9405-464: Was illegal gambling operators, who could not expose themselves to the law to collect debts legally. They cooperated with loan sharks to supply credit and collect payments from their punters. Thieves and other criminals, whose fortunes were frequently in flux, were also served, and these connections also allowed the loan sharks to operate as fences. Another type of high-risk customer was the small businessman in dire financial straits who could not qualify for

9504-571: Was paid in goods or labour ( reditus nigri , or "blackmail"); the opposite is blanche firmes or reditus albi , or "white rent" (denoting payment by silver). An alternative version is that rents in the Scottish Borders were often paid in produce of the land, called " greenmail " ('green rent'), suggesting "blackmail" as a counterpart paid perforce to the reivers. Alternatively, Mackay derives it from two Scottish Gaelic words blathaich pronounced (the th silent) bla-ich (to protect) and mal (tribute, payment), cf. buttock mail . He notes that

9603-408: Was paid in goods or labour ("nigri"); hence reditus nigri , or "blackmail". The word blackmail is variously derived from the word for mailing (in modern terms, protection racket ) paid by English and Scottish border dwellers to Border Reivers in return for immunity from raids and other harassment. The "mail" part of blackmail derives from Middle English male , "rent, tribute". This tribute

9702-457: Was still a pandemic. Pandemics and their ends are not well-defined, and whether or not one has ended differs according to the definition used. As of 24 November 2024, COVID-19 has caused 7,075,455 confirmed deaths. The COVID-19 pandemic ranks as the fifth- deadliest pandemic or epidemic in history . In epidemiology , a pandemic is defined as "an epidemic occurring over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries, and usually affecting

9801-445: Was the most widely used. According to a June 2022 study, COVID-19 vaccines prevented an additional 14.4 million to 19.8 million deaths in 185 countries and territories from 8 December 2020 to 8 December 2021. On 8 November 2022, the first recombinant protein-based COVID-19 vaccine (Novavax's booster Nuvaxovid ) was authorised for use in adults in the United Kingdom. It has subsequently received endorsement/authorisation from

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