Someone please explain to Donald Trump that we are in the middle of a global pandemic which requires global cooperation and coordination. In fact, as of this writing approximately 2,100,000 people in 180 countries have come down with coronavirus. The light at the end of the tunnel which Trump talks about is most likely the oncoming train.
So far the the developed world has been hit hardest.. But Italy, Spain, France, Germany, the UK and America started off with a mere handful of cases of this highly contagious disease. And that is the position the developing world – especially Africa and large slices of the Middle East are in at the moment.
One big difference between the developed and developing world is medical infrastructure. Several developed world countries have crashed through the 10,000-plus death barrier and are still going. They all have advanced medical systems. Mali, has three respirators per million people. In the refugee camp at Idlib, water is rationed to two and a half litres per day per family, for washing, cooking and cleaning. The largely Western medical staff working with organisations such as the Red Cross and Medecins San Frontieres have returned to their home countries to deal with the crisis there. Some public health officials are predicting that if coronavirus takes hold in Africa as it has in Europe and America, 40 percent of the population (500 million people) could die.
Faced with an almost one in two chance of death, these people will redouble their efforts to flee the grim reaper by crossing the Mediterranean, Aegean and the Atlantic’ and they will more than likely bring with them a fresh round of Covid-19 cases and infections just as Europe and America are starting to recover from the first.
The problem is further exacerbated by an understandable but worrying lack of knowledge about this new virus. Key questions that cannot yet be answered are: Does having the disease create an immunity to it? And if so, how long does the immunity last? Recently there have been cases in South Korea and China where people have had confirmed cases, recovered and were reported suffering from coronavirus. The WHO’s worldwide staff is only 7,000 people. When collecting information it relies on the honesty of the individual countries.
By all means hold an investigation. This is the first pandemic for over a 100 years. The world as a whole has been caught woefully ill-prepared. No government or multinational organisation will emerge covered in laurel leaves. There are lessons to be learned – that must be learned. But after the world has recovered.
The fight against coronavirus has been compared to a war. The major difference is that the enemy is an amoral insensate being with no respect for national borders, political beliefs or any norms of human behaviour. But a war nevertheless, a war of humanity against nature. And common sense dictates that you did not hamstring your command structure at the height of the conflict.
* Tom Arms is foreign editor of Liberal Democrat Voice. He also contributes to “The New World” magazine and lectures on world affairs. He is the author of “America Made in Britain,” two editions of “The Encyclopaedia of the Cold War” and “The Falklands Crisis.”
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7 Comments
[Quote]Some public health officials are predicting that if coronavirus takes hold in Africa as it has in Europe and America, 40 percent of the population (500 million people) could die.[/Quote]
Could you supply a link to this? The highest mortality rates reported for coronavirus is in the region of 6-8%, and this probably over-inflated due to lack of testing, so under reporting the total number of infected. Sounds like these ‘health officials’ need bringing into line, and warned against spreading misinformation.
Africa
https://africacenter.org/spotlight/coronavirus-spreads-through-africa/
Putting Donald J Trump in charge of the world’s largest and still most influential (but for how long?) economy is like putting Dracula in charge of a Blood Bank or Lucretia Borgia in charge of the school canteen. I still cannot understand how the mouth watering choice being offered to the American people in November (always assuming that the presidential election doesn’t go the same way as the 2020 Summer Olympics) is likely to be between a 73 year old semi literate, twice bankrupted billionaire (on paper at least) and a 77 year old career politician, whose nickname apparently is ‘sleepy Joe’. What happened to youthful political ambition in the so called ‘land of the free’?
We are not at war. We have a new disease and we need to find out how to build up resistance. There has been enormous work done on how to strengthen the immune system. The information is on most health related web sites I have seen. Things like a healthy diet, lowering stress, good sleep patterns, exercise.
One problem then is poverty. We know that in our own country many people are not able to live healthy lives as a result of inadequate – or no – housing, insecure jobs, air pollution and so on. Removing poverty is reasonably easy to deal with. Poverty is removed by ensuring people have enough money to lead healthy lives.
Anthony_H appears not to have read the rest of your article, Tom. Clearly in the circumstances you describe the rate of infection and death is going to be much greater in Africa than in first world countries with “sophisticated” health care systems.
@Alison C
On the contrary Alison, I have both read it, and understood it, which is more than you seem to be able to say of my comment.
I simply ask for references for the clear statement in the article that “Some public health officials”, currently unnamed and unsourced, apparently state that “40% of the population” of the entire population of Africa will DIE of coronavirus, and the repercussions of that.
I call BS. I use my sources as reputable science journals, such as ‘New scientist’, rather than Instogram or ‘Dr Facebook’. It would be incredible, with even a basic understanding of science and how diseases propagate that this virus could manage to even just infect more than 80% of the 1.2 billion population of Africa. Killing half of those would mean that the death rate from infection would be around 50% which is more than an order of magnitude greater than anything reported from any reputable source anywhere.
In fact, one study just reported – by Stanford university in the USA, states that far more people have been infected than have been tested for, which , if true, would mean that the death rate from the virus was below 0.2%.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/17/antibody-study-suggests-coronavirus-is-far-more-widespread-than-previously-thought
What I’m asking for is a link for this ‘40% of the population of Africa’ claim, on which this ENTIRE article seems to be based, because without it, or if the allegations should be treated with as much veracity as the ‘5G masts cause coronavirus’.
Antony_H is making a valid point. I can’t see where this 40% of the population of Africa dying comes from.
It might be reasonable to assume that inadequate medical facilities in many African countries could result in a greater proportion (than in say Europe) of those made seriously ill from this virus (directly or due to underlying conditions) might die because of inadequate medical care. That doesn’t get us to 40% of the population of Africa dying.
So Tom – a reference to your source for the “Some public health officials….” statement would be welcome – essential in fact.