The year of 2020 chooses to become a destroyer for the whole
mankind. The widespread of infectious disease -SARS popularly known as Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome recently known as COVID-19 has now become a serious
threat for future existence of mankind on this planet. The world declared this
as a pandemic situation due to the deadly spread of this virus.
According to WHO
pandemic means worldwide spread of a infectious disease and people are getting
infected rapidly all over the world without any cure. WHO believes that a
pandemic is situation in which the whole world population will likely be exposed
to this infection and potentially a proportion of them fall sick.
It is first reported to the WHO country office in china, wuhan on 30th December
2019.Corona virus is very deadly virus attacks those people who has a very weak
immune system. it is a group of virus which commonly found in animals .It is
transferred from animal to human.
Symptoms:
The person who got infected by this virus will experience mild fever, moderate
respiratory illness, dry cough, running nose , sore throat , Headache. According
to WHO reports older people and those underlying with ongoing medical problems
like respiratory disease cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer are more
likely to develop serious illness. It proved less effective in young people who
does not have any kind of such disease. Even If they get synchronized they will
experience mild to ,moderate respiratory illness and recover easily without any
special treatment.
Content:
Firstly it is recognized in China ,Wuhan and later it spread all over the world
and left no stone unturned. This outbreak was declared a Public Health Emergency
of international concern 30th January 2020. Various summits and meetings were
held internationally due to this emergency and together they raise funds to
strengthen the weaker countries and to fight with it. The international
community has asked for US 675$ million to help protect states with weaker
health systems as a part of its strategic Preparedness and response plan. On
feb 11 2020 WHO announced a name for the new corona virus disease that is
COVID-19.
Initially , China was the centre of this deadly disease and it is considered
that china had bring this virus to the world. It is still a matter of research
and deep investigation that from where china created this virus. As virus first
detected by Dr. Li wenliang an ophthalmologist at Wuhan central
Hospital, sounded the alarm in an online chartroom on Dec. 30.
That night, Wuhan public health authorities solicited information on the
emergence of a
pneumonia
of unclear cause, but omitted Li's discussion about SARS or a novel corona
virus. Li and other medical professionals who tried to disclose the emergence of
the virus were suppressed or jailed by the regime. On Jan. 1, the state-run
Xinhua News Agency warned, The police call on all netizens to not fabricate
rumors, not spread rumors, not believe rumors.
Four days after Li's chartroom
discussion, officers of the Public Security Bureau forced him to sign a letter
acknowledging he had made false comments, and that his revelations had
severely disturbed the social order. Li, who has become something of
an underground folk hero in China against chicanery by state officials,
ultimately died of the disease. China silenced other doctors raising the
alarm, minimizing the danger to the public even as they were bewildered and
overwhelmed.
State media suppressed information about the virus. Although authorities closed
the Wuhan
wet market at the epicenter of the contagion,
they did not take further steps to stop the wildlife trade. By Jan. 22, when the
virus had killed just 17 yet had infected more than 570 people, China tightened
its suppression of information about the corona virus that it deemed alarming,
and further censored criticism of its malfeasance. Even as cases climbed,
officials declared repeatedly that there had likely been no more infections.
Wuhan Municipal health commission on December 31 falsely cleared that there was
no human to human transmission of this disease and described it as a seasonal
flu which was preventable and controllable. China failed to share crucial
information with the world health organization on the novel coronavirus. Whole
world still in wonder till today that why china hide all facts and related
information regarding to this virus.
New York times on Feb 1, reported that the
government's initial handling of the epidemic allowed the virus to gain a
tenacious hold. At critical moments, officials chose to put secrecy and order
ahead of openly confronting the growing crisis to avoid public alarm and
political embarrassment. when 1700 chinese healthcare workers were got infected
till feb. 14 , china informed WHO that it is spreading rapidly among humans too,
which stymied the WHO experts for data on hospital transmission.
China failure
to provide open and transparent information to WHO proved to become a moral
breakdown for whole world. Even china governance become a big failure Growing
numbers of people are questioning the government's decisions as China enters a
period of virtual shutdown.
It is also a breach of legal duty from Chinese
government. In article 6 of international health regulation require states to
provide timely, accurate , and sufficiently detailed information to WHO about
the health emergencies identified in the second annex chart so that big
pandemics situation can be prevented. Despite of all this , china showed a big
carelessness from its part and rejected repeated offers of epidemic
investigation assistance from WHO and does not showed any support from their
parts.
Unfortunately, China's evasions are part of the autocratic playbook, repeating
its obstruction of information that worsened the SARS crisis 18 years earlier.
In that case, China tried to cover up the SARS epidemic, which led WHO member
states to adopt the new International Health Regulations in 2005. In both cases,
China and the world would have been spared thousands of unnecessary deaths had
China acted forthrightly and in accordance with its legal obligations. Although
China's public health system has been modernized, observed Jude Blanchette, head
of China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, its
political system has regressed.[1]
In article 11 it constitutes a breach of legal obligation from china because of
its failure to share transparent and exact information to WHO in accordance with
international health regulation.
International Law On Human Rights:
International law on human rights long recognized that government of any state
may infringe civil or political rights for public health purpose. A number of
countries affected by the SARS epidemics have restored to voluntary and
compulsory isolation an and part of effort to spread the deadly virus of SARS
community.
According to IHR isolation and quarantine are two different. Isolation applies
to those who are known to have illness and get infected whereas quarantine
applies to those who have been exposed to an illness who may or may not become
infected.
Effects Of Corona Virus On Differenrt States And Their Preventive Measures
China
Though china was the first nation which got affected by this novel corona virus
very badly but does not shard an detail with the WHO and international platform
but despite of this china was able to restrict this virus to a extent. China's
economic growth is expected to slow by up to 1.1% in the first half of 2020 as
economic activity is negatively affected by the new coronavirus pandemic,
according to a Morgan Stanley study cited by Reuters.
But on 1 February 2020,
the People's Bank of China said that the impact of the epidemic on China's
economy was temporary and that the fundamentals of China's long-term positive
and high-quality growth remained unchanged. where all the nation is suffering
from the pandemic china financial and economic growth was still stable as
compared to other developed nation.
China early responses and preventive
measures after recognizing the virus was proved to be beneficial for their
country as they manage to safe the lives of millions in their country and
restrict the virus to one city only. China was the first country to put a
lockdown into effect in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus across the
nation.
The world was stunned by the country's decision, but after two months of
lockdown measures, the country has seen a huge reduction in cases. They started
taking sample of infected person and get involved in making the proper vaccine
of this virus. Soon they stared making kits for testing of invented people.
because of this time actions they manage save their money in economy and
prevent their industries. despite of all this they didn't able to found the
vaccine of this virus which was invented from their country.
china informed to WHO late when the outbreak spread in their country with a
rapid rate. china confirmed cases already exceeded those from the SARS outbreak
in the country in 2003.
It felt only the greed from china to not to seize their boarders and not
cancelled their international flights on time and made it open for every citizen
of other countries to enter in china and exit which become a curse for whole
world and due to their negligence and failure in performing their state
responsibility this virus entered in almost every country. This made whole
worlds health in danger.
China reported the cases to the WHO ,the UN's global health agency on December
31. But WHO experts were only allowed to visit China and investigate the
outbreak on 10 February ,by which time the country has more than 40000 cases.
however China never admitted its mistakes through their statement and always
confronted that they never showed any kind of negligence from their and this is
not their deliberate act in the international court justice. China has been
pushing back against US suggestions that the coronavirus came from a laboratory
studying infectious diseases in Wuhan, the BBC's Barbara Plett Usher in
Washington DC reports.
US President Donald Trump and some of his officials have been flirting with the
outlier theory in the midst of a propaganda war with China over the origin and
handling of the pandemic, our correspondent says.
Mr. Trump this week halted funding for the World Health Organization (WHO),
accusing it of making deadly mistakes and overly trusting China.
Do you really believe those numbers in this vast country called China, and that
they have a certain number of cases and a certain number of deaths; does anybody
really believe that? Mr Trump said at the White House.
Italy
In a matter of weeks (from February 21 to March 22), Italy went from the
discovery of the first official Covid-19 case to a government decree that
essentially prohibited all movements of people within the whole territory, and
the closure of all non-essential business activities. Within this very short
time period, the country has been hit by nothing short of a tsunami of
unprecedented force, punctuated by an incessant stream of deaths. It is
unquestionably Italy's biggest crisis since World War II.
In its early stages, the Covid-19 crisis in Italy looked nothing like a crisis.
The initial state-of-emergency declarations were met by skepticism by both the
public and many in policy circles - even though several scientists had
been warning of the potential for a catastrophe for weeks. Indeed, in late
February some notable Italian politicians engaged in public handshaking in Milan
to make the point that the economy should not panic and stop because of the
virus. mere carelessness were shown from the officials even though they were
diagnosed a week later from COVID -19
The Italian government dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic by issuing a series of
decrees that gradually increased restrictions within lockdown areas (red
zones), which were then expanded until they ultimately applied to the entire
country.
Certainly, there are valuable lessons to be learned from the
approaches of China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, which were able to
contain the contagion fairly early. But sometimes the best practices can be
found just next door. Because the Italian health care system is highly
decentralized, different regions tried different policy responses. The most
notable example is the contrast between the approaches taken by Lombardy and
Veneto, two neighboring regions with similar socioeconomic profiles.
Lombardy, one Europe's wealthiest and most productive areas, has been
disproportionately hit by Covid-19. As of March 26, it held the grim record of
nearly 35,000 novel coronavirus cases and 5,000 deaths in a population of 10
million. Veneto, by contrast, fared significantly better, with 7,000 cases and
287 deaths in a population of 5 million, despite experiencing sustained
community spread early on.
Specifically, while Lombardy and Veneto applied similar approaches to social
distancing and retail closures, Veneto took a much more proactive tack towards
the containment of the virus. Veneto's strategy was multi-pronged:
- Extensive testing of symptomatic and asymptomatic cases early on.
Â
- Proactive tracing of potential positives. If someone tested positive, everyone
in that patient's home as well as their neighbors were tested. If testing kits
were unavailable, they were self-quarantined.
A strong emphasis on home diagnosis and care. Whenever possible, samples were
collected directly from a patient's home and then processed in regional and
local university labs.
Â
- Specific efforts to monitor and protect health care and other essential
workers. They included medical professionals, those in contact with at-risk
populations (e.g., caregivers in nursing homes), and workers exposed to the
public
Under Lockdown Condition:
- Starting on 8 March, the region of Lombardy together with 14 additional
northern and central provinces in Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, and Marche, were put under lockdown. Two days later, the government extended the
lockdown measures to the whole country.
Â
- Two weeks later, the number of new cases per day started to show signs
of slowing down, while the number of new deaths rose slightly. On 31 March,
the president of the Italian National Institute of Health, Silvio Brusaferro,
announced that the pandemic had reached its peak in the country. The news was
confirmed also by the head of the Civil Protection, Angelo Borelli.
Â
- Three weeks into the lockdown, its effects began to show. Italy reported
declines in the number of new cases and of new deaths per day.
The
country also saw a steady decrease in the occupancy of intensive care units. On
5 April, Italy had the lowest number of new daily deaths in two and a half
weeks and one day later the lowest number of new daily cases in three weeks. On
20 April 2020, Italy saw the first fall in the number of active cases.
United States Of America
Now today America become the most suffered nation worldwide. Thousands of people
dying daily now and lakhs and lakhs are infected by this virus. In starting U.S.
officials all admitted that efforts to contain the spread of the novel corona
virus, COVID-19, have failed and that the country now needs to move to mitigate
the effects of the continuing spread of the disease on the nation's health and
economy.
US does most number of test sample as compared to other countries. when the
virus increased in US does most number of test sample as compared to other
countries. despite of locking down the whole nation democrats with US president
Donald trump announces a massive 8 billion dollar economic package for the whole
Americans.
Donald Trump declared live on television on Wednesday night that he did not
believe the World Health Organization's assessment of the global death rate
from coronavirus of 3.4%.
I think the 3.4% is really a false number, he told Sean Hannity, one of his
favorite conservative Fox News hosts, in a phone interview broadcast live.
Now, this is just my hunch, Trump began, before continuing that based on
a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this, because a lot of
people will have this, and it's very mild – they'll get better very rapidly,
they don't even see a doctor, they don't even call a doctor.
He went on: You never hear about those people, so you can't put them down in the
category of the overall population, in terms of this corona flu, and/or virus.
So you just can't do that.
Now today America even the most developed nation seeming to be helpless as
number of death and infections are increasing day by day. they adapted various
measures to protrct their citizens by doing most number of tests sample and by
giving orders of most number of ventilators as they had experienced shortage of
ventilators in the country. They promoted social distancing and self isolation
among Americans. they made their as hospitals where various patients were
admitted.
initially they did not lockdown their states where more number of corona
patients were found which led to vast increase of death of people in America
now.
During a White House press briefing on Tuesday, Trump criticized the WHO,
claiming it had downplayed the virus, and threatened to pull funding for the
organization, though he later backtracked from such talk.
I'm not saying I'm
going to do it, but we are going to look at it, he said.
In particular, Trump has seized on the WHO not supporting his travel
restrictions with China. A CNN fact check found that although Trump is correct
that the WHO didn't support his travel restrictions with China -- the WHO
opposes most international travel restrictions and sees them as ineffectual --
he overstated the case when he insinuated that the WHO downplayed the virus.
On Wednesday, Trump continued his criticisms of the WHO and responded to Tedros
by again pointing to the organization's relationship with China.
I can't believe he's talking about politics when you look at the relationship
they have to China. So China spends 42 million, we spent 450 million and
everything seems to be China's way. That's not right, it's not fair to us and
honestly it's not fair to the world, Trump said.
Trump implied that there would have been fewer corona virus deaths if the WHO
gave a
correct analysis.
now the situation is all the industries had shut down their work in America
nothing is going in their except deaths. whole America is suffering from heavy
economic loss ,people are living with so much of restrictions and experience
shortage of foods .clothes ,money which are daily basic necessity.
India
India is a developing nation with a vast number of population. it is the second
most populated country in the world. But despite of this India took some major
steps to control the virus among people. strong and bold moves are taken by
early listening the alarm rang by other countries who were suffering badly and
are still suffering.
Indian government took the policy of social distancing very seriously and
implement them accordingly in general public of India. policies made and law
enforcement was up to mark from starting days which results in a massive control
in spreading of virus among the population. As WHO cleared right from the
starting that the virus is spreading in human to human and it has different
stages while transmission.
Policies Made By Indian Government
- They promote social distancing as this is the key to protect from this
virus.
- Enforced full fledged lockdown of 21 days in whole country.
- Then enforced 19days lockdown immediately after 1st lockdown.
- Meanwhile law enforcement was up to mark police and borders security
services are on
- Indian media plays a crucial role in lifting the moral of ever citizen
across country
- Every industry, transport, airlines private vehicles are closed.
- Number of tests across the country are increasing day by day .Rapid
tests are undergone.
Indian economy has already suffered of almost 10 lakhs crore till today and till
suffering. people are bound to stay at home and in quarantine. WHO appreciated
the policies and laws which are adopted by India so far and giving examples if
India to other countries to fifth with this novel corona virus.
Other Countries
Entire world is under quarantine because of this virus .Countries like Singapore
little more than a month later, store shelves in Europe, Australia, and North
America are being ransacked while Hong Kong's shelves are being re-stocked. As
Western cities started to forcibly close restaurants and bars, Hong Kong's
people slowly started to relax. It's far too soon to claim victory against the
novel coronavirus. As travelers have started to return to Hong Kong and other
countries that appeared to have contained the virus, including Singapore and
Taiwan, a new wave of Covid-19 cases has surged.
This serves to reinforce one
important point: Strict and centralized enforcement of lockdowns, quarantines,
and closures are the most effective way to contain the virus. What's emerged
from the coronavirus crisis is the fact that some states are equipped to handle
this type of action, and some are not-and it has little to do with development
status.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned in mid-March that COVID-19 had not
yet reached its peak in the Middle East and North Africa, warning that the
region should prepare for the worst as soon as possible. The WHO has also
complained that, despite the seriousness of the situation, countries in the
region were not providing sufficient information on cases of infection and urged
them to make greater efforts to combat the coronavirus.
There are several factors that might facilitate a rapid spread of the new
coronavirus in the Arab region, such as the numerous human contacts with
countries hit by the pandemic (Iran and European and East Asian countries), the
high population density in many Arab cities, the scarcity of means for the
detection and treatment of cases of infection, the social proximity associated
with Arab and Mediterranean cultures, as well as the high proportion of young
people with high mobility that may contribute to the spread of the pandemic in
their social and family environments.[2]
As in other parts of the world, Arab governments took some time before assessing
the seriousness of COVID-19 and taking steps to mitigate and contain its
progress. However, once they saw the effects it was having on other countries,
the Middle East and North Africa have seen some of the strictest isolation and
containment measures, at least on paper. These include border closures, flight
cancellations and airline groundings, home confinement of the population,
closure of places of worship and banning of collective prayers, suspension of
work permits for foreigners and repatriation of tourists to their countries of
origin.
Various forms of curfew have been decreed in several countries: night
curfews in Tunisia since 18 March, in Saudi Arabia since 23 March and in Egypt
since 24 March; an urban curfew in Baghdad since 17 March; and, in the most
extreme case, a round-the-clock curfew in Jordan as of 21 March, until further
notice. Containment measures are expected to increase in the short term as the
pandemic spreads around the world.
Conclusion
At last I just want to conclude myself with a WHO statement which released today
that
worst is yet to come. So from my perspective it is better to stay in
quarantine than to risk the whole mankind for death. This is a situation which
is getting out of control and we can do our best by making ourselves isolated
and self quarantine. No one knows what will going to happen in the end. This is
the time to self motivate ourselves and protect the society by protecting us
first.
I pray for the end of corona virus soon from this world. once it ends and the
lockdown is over it will going to be very difficult for the countries to stand
strong and gain the same position as earlier.
After this pandemic one in any of these outcomes may come:
- recession it means unemployment shutting down of industries and small
businessman
- Inflation- it means the products and services in the country become
expensive
- Depression- In this all the small and medium scale business become
totally shut down and people don't have money to even spend for their basic
necessity
- The great depression – in this market and economy graph come to lowest
and nothing left in the country .poverty , unemployment , goods
manufacturing, export import comes to zero.
- Trade all over the world got affected.WTO also changes some of its
regulation as international trade is facing lot of
irregularities which results in heavy economic loss worldwide.
- WHO should amend their laws regarding pandemic situation for betterment
in future and for the public health safety.
- The international law should be more strict and rigid so that any act of
negligence by any country regarding pubic health should be penalized
accordingly.
- Heavy Penalty should be imposed on the countries who involved in any
kind of act and should stop their economic fund and their trade from other
countries.
- Any kind of monetary help should be stopped for that particular country
by world bank or should be imposed heavy rate of interest on the given loan.
End-Notes:
- commentary by – james karaska { https://warontherocks.com/2020/03/china-is-legally-responsible-for-covid-19-damage-and-claims-could-be-in-the-trillions}
(visited on 20th april 2020)
- Article by – haizam amirah farnandez, available at {http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/coronavirus-in-arab-countries-passing-storm-opportunity-for-change-or-regional-catastrophe}
(last visited – 20th april,2020).
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