Washington Post (January 3)
“Despite the president’s denials, the nation’s death toll surpassed a grim milestone Sunday of more than 350,000…. The nation topped or neared 200,000 reported cases for the sixth straight day Sunday. More than 125,000 people are battling covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, in hospitals across the country.”
Ethical Corporation (June Issue)
“The fate of our plastic-clogged oceans is no longer top of mind in the face of the more immediate threat of a killer disease, leading to mountains of waste from millions of discarded face masks and gloves and other personal protective equipment.” Coupled with plunging oil prices that dramatically lowers prices, “the battle against single-use plastic finds itself in the teeth of a perfect storm.”
Tags: Discarded, Disease, Face masks, Fate, Gloves, Immediate threat, Oceans, Oil prices, Plastic, PPE, Waste
Bloomberg (April 3)
“The cost of the coronavirus pandemic could be as high as $4.1 trillion, or almost 5% of global gross domestic product, depending on the disease’s spread through Europe, the U.S. and other major economies,” according to the Asian Development Bank.
The Economist (February 1)
“Two things explain why a new infectious disease is so alarming. One is that, at first, it spreads exponentially…. conjuring speculation about a health-care collapse, social and economic upheaval and a deadly pandemic. The other is profound uncertainty. Sparse data and conflicting reports mean that scientists cannot rule out the worst case—and that lets bad information thrive.”
Tags: Alarming, Collapse, Deadly, Disease, Economic, Exponentially, Health care, Infectious, Pandemic, Social, Speculation, Uncertainty, Upheaval
The Guardian (June 6)
“South-east Asia is battling to contain the spread of highly contagious African swine fever, known as “pig Ebola”, which has already led to the culling of millions of pigs in China and Vietnam.” At this point, experts say the “region is losing the battle to stop the biggest animal disease outbreak the planet has ever faced.” The news has “sent the global price of pork soaring.”
Tags: African swine fever, China, Contagious, Disease, Ebola, Outbreak, Pigs, Pork, South-east Asia, Vietnam
Washington Post (July 27)
After great devastation, the Ebola crisis appears to be winding down in Africa. “Now it is time to confront another hard problem: addressing the weaknesses in global response that allowed the virus to spread so rapidly. Without the urgency of another outbreak, national governments and the World Health Organization will be disinclined to change the way they do business. But change they must, or there will be another wave of disease, panic and unnecessary death.”
Tags: Africa, Change, Death, Devastation, Disease, Ebola, Global response, Outbreak, Panic, Urgency, WHO
New York Times (January 15, 2014)
After three years without a case, India “can now be declared polio-free.” This “victory is an important milestone in the global effort to eliminate polio,” but much remains to be done to achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of eradicating the disease by 2015, which would mean the world could be declared polio–free in 2018. Unfortunately, 2012 brought backtracking. There were 350 new cases of polio, up from 213 in 2012, and these occurred in 8 countries, up from 4.
Tags: 2012, 2015, 2018, Disease, India, Milestone, Millennium Development Goal, Polio, Polio-free, U.N., Victory
