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Bloomberg Opinion

1 Jun, 12 tweets, 6 min read

India’s nightmarish second wave of Covid-19 finally seems to be ebbing, but the pandemic’s scars won’t be easily erased.

Other developing nations must learn from India’s experience if they don’t want to repeat it trib.al/0Hg2tAH

The first and most obvious lesson is to avoid overconfidence.

A relatively small change in how transmissible the coronavirus is can have large, non-linear effects on how fast it spreads trib.al/ksUhHUJ

Strategies that kept the Covid-19 pandemic at bay in 2020 won’t necessarily work in 2021.

As new variants emerge, health authorities might need to lock down more firmly and in a more targeted fashion to remain safe trib.al/ksUhHUJ

Health authorities need to test more widely and perform more genomic sequencing so that they can track which variants are spreading in the population and where trib.al/ksUhHUJ

Richer nations should help. A recent paper points out that there are significant legal barriers to sharing of samples and data internationally.

These need to be addressed so virus samples can move across borders quickly bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

Emerging nations need to learn the right lessons about limited healthcare capacity.

The tragic scramble in cities such as Delhi for hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and medicines need not be replicated elsewhere trib.al/ksUhHUJ

Indian states that established triage systems managed the pressure on their creaky public health machinery better than others.

Local authorities should make plans to set up similar systems in their countries, including by phone and online bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

Doctors now have a wealth of data about which therapeutic treatments are most effective, and which aren’t.

➡️Patients’ families spent nights trying to get hold of convalescent plasma when it was ineffective
➡️High-flow oxygen therapy was overused trib.al/ksUhHUJ

Governments now know that when:

➡️The curve starts steepening
➡️A new variant is detected
➡️Test positivity rises above danger levels

They should swiftly establish a centralized task force to allocate hospital resources and prescribe the right therapies trib.al/ksUhHUJ

All nations should now understand that Covid-19 vaccines work and that interfering with their supply is dangerous.

The Indian government argued that “if just one country shuts down raw material production, the entire supply chain breaks down” trib.al/ksUhHUJ

International cooperation over the next weeks and months must focus on ensuring that:

➡️The Covid-19 vaccine supply chain is repaired
➡️Export bans end
➡️More manufacturing capacity is created
➡️The existing stock of vaccines is shared more equitably trib.al/ksUhHUJ

What happened in India could happen anywhere.

But it need not if India’s government, its peers in the emerging world and the world’s richer nations learn the right lessons, work together — and show a little humility about Covid-19 trib.al/ksUhHUJ

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More from @bopinion

Bloomberg Opinion

@bopinion

3 Jun

By now, we’ve all heard about the gender gaps in pay and wealth.

But what’s not often spoken about is the ambition penalty, which punishes women who try to close these gaps trib.al/5fl82a0

On average, for every $1 earned and owned by a man, women in the U.S.:

💵 Earn $0.82
💵 Own $0.32

The disparities are even wider for women of color trib.al/5fl82a0

Women themselves tend to be blamed for these gaps. These are examples of real headlines:

“Women don’t pursue high paying jobs”
“Women drop out of the workforce”
“Women let their partners manage their money”
“Women don’t invest” trib.al/5fl82a0

Read 13 tweets

Bloomberg Opinion

@bopinion

2 Jun

What if we never learn whether the virus that causes Covid-19 escaped from a lab or jumped to humans from animals?

The public is still entitled to a closer look at what’s going on in virology labs trib.al/dHZ7Htj

Some scientists worry that laboratory scientists are getting too little oversight on projects that could potentially start pandemics.

Others worry about the global proliferation of labs that work with dangerous viruses and other pathogens trib.al/kwok8bt

SARS-CoV-2’s closest relative appears to be in horseshoe bats — yet there are no horseshoe bat colonies close to Wuhan, China, where the pandemic was first identified.

However, Wuhan hosts a lab holding the world’s largest collection of bat coronaviruses trib.al/kwok8bt

Read 11 tweets

Bloomberg Opinion

@bopinion

1 Jun

After months stuck at home, many of us are dreaming of a vacation abroad.

But while vaccines will certainly hasten the return of international travel, we'll need more than shots to get back to some kind of normal trib.al/zc4cuvu

The European Union, with its close borders and intergovernmental relationships, can help pave the way.

Testing and travel guidelines for its own region could set a standard for the rest of the world, if done well trib.al/c8czIUE

EU states currently differ over:

📆Quarantine periods
⏳Mandatory testing intervals
💉Treatment of vaccinated individuals
🗝Ability to test out of quarantine

Consistency is likely to improve compliance and lead to better results trib.al/c8czIUE

Read 11 tweets

Bloomberg Opinion

@bopinion

24 May

Globally, Covid cases have fallen since a terrifying peak last month.

It is too soon to declare victory, but the current trend is encouraging trib.al/wJUg2W2

🇪🇺The European Union suffered a nasty new wave of cases in early spring.

The trend is now emphatically lower as its vaccine rollout gathers pace trib.al/wJUg2W2

🇮🇳It looks as though that outbreak in India has peaked, even if the number of people falling ill remains appallingly high trib.al/wJUg2W2

Read 7 tweets

Bloomberg Opinion

@bopinion

23 May

Global warming has increased human activity at the top of the world, and fueled interest from non-polar China.

How it’s overseen must reflect that bloom.bg/3wvp3hU

Warmer temperatures are heralding ice-free summers for the Arctic, opening up all sorts of economic opportunities:

🛢Potential oil and gas riches
🛳New shipping routes
💥Military might

Decades of harmonious exceptionalism may be coming to an end bloom.bg/3wvp3hU

It is still possible to shield the region from rising tensions elsewhere.

That will require rethinking the role of states without polar territory, China among them, and creating an informal venue for security discussions that includes sanctions-hit Russia bloom.bg/3wvp3hU

Read 13 tweets

Bloomberg Opinion

@bopinion

22 May

And the pandemic winner is … Florida and its governor, Ron DeSantis.

Can anyone doubt it? As America tries to recover from the pandemic, psychologically as well as economically, Florida is way ahead of just about every other state in the U.S. trib.al/AR1mgQR

As of March, its unemployment rate was 4.7%, compared with New York’s 8.5% and California’s 8.3%.

The Census Bureau reports that more than 250,000 people moved to Florida last year, second only to Texas
trib.al/AR1mgQR

The reason, of course, is that in Florida, the pandemic is being treated as ancient history.

Are Covid-19 victims still dying in Florida? Yes. But the numbers are relatively low: 45 deaths on Wednesday, for instance trib.al/AR1mgQR

Read 15 tweets

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