Chinese authorities failed on a timely basis to warn about the coronavirus epidemic, endangering the world. The Wall Street Journal reported that the World Health Organization, bending to Chinese pressure, failed to declare it a global health emergency. On Feb. 10, Tedros Ghebreyesus, the head of WHO, in a dramatic about face, warned: “We might only be seeing the tip of the iceberg.”
Gabriel Leung, chair of public health medicine at Hong Kong University, told the Guardian newspaper on Feb.11. He warned that if the virus is not halted, it could infect 60% of the world’s population and kill around 50 million people.
Willy Shih, an expert on Asian industrial competitiveness, in the Harvard Gazette said: “The coronavirus concerns will be the biggest event affecting the global economy in 2020. Fears about the virus have led to tradeshow cancellations throughout Asia and in Europe. A wide swath of business activity has been suspended in the wake of this epidemic. The International Energy Agency slashed its oil demand growth forecast by 365,000 barrels a day because of the impact of coronavirus. Fiat Chrysler is temporarily halting production at a car factory in Serbia because it cannot get parts from China.
The Milken Institute reported that “the coronavirus more than the trade war has sped up decoupling of China-U.S. as businesses think about their supply chain for the long run.” Chinese cities have gone into lockdown, restricting transportation and shuttering factories.
A Chinese factory manager expressed the challenges: “I have all these people working in close quarters. I don’t have enough test kits, masks and protective garments. If I have contagion in the factory, how am I going to quarantine them?” You can imagine that a lot of people are being very cautious about restarting production
Businesses are seeking alternatives to making further investments in China. Until the virus outbreak, major retailers, manufacturers, pharmaceuticals, biotech and other sectors had made major commitments to establishing links with China.
The U.S. warned against all travel to China. U.S. Secretary Wilbur Ross said that the deadly outbreak in China could be good for America because it would lead businesses to reconsider their supply chains and return jobs to and manufacturing to the U.S.
According to the New York Times, throughout China, some 760 million people are under some sort of a residential lockdown. China has reported more than 72, 400 cases and more than 1,800 deaths. The virus is much more transferable than other viruses that have jumped from animals to people. The deaths from coronavirus in China now outnumber the death toll of SARS, which reached 774 worldwide.
Outside of China, 29 countries have reported about 895 cases. The Centers for Disease Control reported 15 cases in the U.S. In addition, 14 Americans taken off Diamond Princess tested positive for coronavirus.
Halting the virus is difficult because while the average time from people being infected from others is three days, it might sometimes be as long as 24 days.
On the positive side, Gilead Sciences released some favorable, although tentative signs, that it developed a drug against this respiratory virus. Specifically, Gilead disclosed that its drug, Remdesivir, cured a 35-year-old man in Washington State. Currently, Gilead is engaged in two clinical trials of 760 Chinese patients, and a handful of patients requesting emergency use.
Foreign Policy senior editor James Palmer forwarded an idea that the global health crisis could worsen: “Notice how the coronavirus cases we’re seeing abroad are in the settings of the rich, such as cruise ships and ski resorts and business conferences? That probably means cases are going undetected among the poor.”
Florida’s U.S. Sen. Rick Scott said: “ I do not trust Communist China to coordinate in a transparent and efficient manner when it comes to combating the threat of the virus, so we have to do everything we can to protect Americans.”
Originally published in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune
