Lionel Cavicchioli, The Conversation
From New York to Moscow, Johannesburg to Buenos Aires, the novel coronavirus continues its global journey. On March 30, almost three months after China announced the discovery of COVID-19, the disease associated with the coronavirus, more than 780,000 people have been infected and at least 37,000 have died.
While the epidemic appears to be under control in China, the US is now the country most affected by the pandemic. In Europe, it would appear containment measures and lockdowns are beginning to bear fruit: in Italy, the figures indicate a slowdown in the number of infections.
All over the world countries are locking themselves off one after the other, closing their borders and confining their populations more and more drastically. The World Health Organization has welcomed these efforts. The world is slowing down and holding its breath. For how long?
As researchers around the world continue to decipher the consequences of this unprecedented situation and to seek solutions to the crisis, The Conversation’s international network continues to work with them to inform you as best as possible.
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How long will we have to live with COVID-19? Could it possibly return? The history and modelling of epidemics can help find the answers.
The fate of the pandemic will obviously depend on the weapons at our disposal to fight the coronavirus.
The coronavirus pandemic must not be allowed to overshadow other deadly diseases.
Like many infectious diseases that affect humans, the COVID-19 pandemic is a zoonosis: the virus that comes from animals.
Rather than blaming these flying mammals, we’d be better off questioning our relationship to nature and biodiversity.
More and more of us are being confined in the hope of limiting the spread of the virus and relieving the unbearable strain on health systems. But not everyone is equal when it comes to lockdown and quarantine measures. Some groups are particular at risk.
In addition to the risk of lockdown, heads of state face political risk: their every move is scrutinised and commented upon.
– Finally, Michael Baker at the University of Otago returns to the essential point of all these efforts: to control the pandemic. He is a professor of public health and is “overjoyed” that shutdowns are happening.
The current pandemic is also exacerbating inequalities.
But the current crisis could also be an opportunity to explore ways to reduce inequalities and to test new approaches, particularly economic ones.
And finally, as a tribute to the “heroes in white coats”, The Conversation has published a series of testimonies from clinicians and researchers operating on the front lines of the pandemic – and providing advice on the conversations we should now be having with our loved ones.
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Lionel Cavicchioli, Chef de rubrique Santé, The Conversation
This article is republished from The Conversation under Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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