Coronavirus and issues of Development and Power

Jorge Larach
5/20/20
GPHC
Coronavirus and issues of Development and Power
 I read two articles: 
  • Why Rich Countries must Protect Developing Nations from Coronavirus Pandemic
  • How is the United Nations responding to the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) / COVID-19 outbreak?
Despite this assignment being due weeks ago, I still compared what these articles are talking about to today and processed the timeline provided in the second article (chronologically), as well as considered what the call to action of the first article was referring to. I think the first article provides a persuasive, fact-supported argument as to why higher-income countries should divert some of their attention to poorer countries, not just for the well being of those countries, but for theirs as well. It argues that if poorer countries are not given the support they need, monetary or otherwise, then not only will those countries be hit substantially harder than richer ones, but it will likely prompt a second wave of the disease worldwide. It also discusses the added difficulty of poorer countries already battling against other diseases, like HIV/AIDS or Ebola. The second article detailed chronologically the major world events starting with a “cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China” to last month in April, with the UN uniting with other organizations to launch the “Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator”. The timeline also included a global ceasefire (which was something I didn’t know the UN had the power to declare), and the WHO declaring the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic. Looking over this timeline, I considered if action was taken earlier, would the proliferation of this outbreak be stifled sooner? It seems like they considered taking drastic action early on back in late January, but apparently it was considered to be too soon to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Basically, the two takeaways that the articles presented are still applicable today: Poorer countries need support or everyone worldwide will get hurt, and that it is never too soon to take drastic action in the face of a global threat.


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