'Unseen' News and Views
I am a professor of biology at the University of West Attica in Greece, and a volunteer at Greenpeace. Given the tremendous impact of this pandemic on people’s lives combined with the fact that many experts believe that global heating and other environmental disturbances could facilitate the development of more novel viruses such as COVID-19, I would like to explain how climate change relates to the transmission and spread of infectious diseases.
16 April 2020 (openDemocracy)* — Amidst the turmoil in global financial markets in recent weeks, something unusual has happened.
Investors, seeking shelter from the coronavirus-linked sell-off, have piled into Chinese government bonds on an unprecedented scale. These purchases have increased the total foreign ownership of Beijing’s bonds to record highs, even as much of the country is still emerging from lockdown after the viral outbreak.
15 April 2020 (UN Environment)* — As COVID-19 has expanded around the globe, many of our worlds have seemed to shrink. We see too little of nature, receive too much bad news, and settle for virtual companionship in place of actual community.
A post-COVID-19 world will not be the same one we knew before, but it can be a better one. “When we get past this crisis, which we will, we will face a choice,” says United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres. “We can go back to the world as it was before or deal decisively with those issues that make us all unnecessarily vulnerable to the crises.”
The changes that we must make to create a better world after the pandemic
We will be faced with the problem of rebuilding the world after the enormous economic and human destruction which the disease will have left in its wake | Image from Wall Street International..
15 April 2020 (Wall Street International)* — I would like to announce the publication of a book, which discusses the changes that we must make to create a better world after the pandemic has ended. The book may be freely downloaded and circulated from the following link.
– President Donald Trump’s threat to abruptly cut all US funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) has been described as ‘reckless and deadly”—particularly at a time when the Geneva-based UN agency was engaged in an uphill battle against the spreading coronavirus.
A logo is pictured outside a building of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, February 6, 2020. © Reuters / Denis Balibouse
15 Apr, 2020 (RT)* — Providing money to the “underfunded” World Health Organization is among the best ways to help develop a vaccine against Covid-19, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has said after Trump halted the WHO’s funding.
“Apportioning blame doesn’t help. The virus knows no borders,” Maas wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
Trump ignored reports from U.S. intelligence agencies starting in January and February that warned of the scale and danger of the new coronavirus, according to the Washington Post. | Photo: EFE
– The coronavirus pandemic has set off an unprecedented institutional crisis at the United Nations – funds are drying up, key meetings are cancelled and the world body is fighting for its future.
Credit: United Nations
The chief management officer of the world body, Catherine Pollard, wrote a dire memo on 1 April, setting out the breadth of the crisis, the depth of the financial shortfall, and the emergency steps to be taken immediately to head off ruin.
(UN News)* — Self-isolation has driven more and more children to move online during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to an unprecedented rise in screen time and raising safety risks for millions of young people, the UN said on Tuesday [14 April 2020].
(UN News)* — As the world battles the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and people are searching for clear facts and answers to questions, that could help save countless lives, “a dangerous epidemic of misinformation” is also spreading, the United Nations chief warned on Tuesday [14 April 2020].
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 