Health & Well Being

Combating COVID-19 and Ensuring No One is Left Behind

Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Kanni Wignaraja, and Bambang Susantono

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is the Executive Secretary, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Kanni Wignaraja is the Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Bambang Susantono is the Vice-President of Asian Development Bank (ADB).

BANGKOK (IDN) — If the world wants to beat back the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure no one is left behind in the recovery, two issues thrown into sharp relief by the pandemic need attention: digitalization and regional cooperation.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 12 July 2021

Image: People in hazardous materil overallson July 6, outside of a public housing tower in Melbourne. Source: France24 video.

Australia’s Early Success In Controlling Covid Turns Sour

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — Along with Singapore and New Zealand, Australia was considered as one of the top three safest countries in the world for having successfully fought the spread of Covid-19 until about two months ago. But, with a two weeks lockdown in Australia’s largest city Sydney extended for another week, this early success has turned sour meanwhile.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 08 July 2021

Photo: PNG national airlines downloading Chinese vaccines. Source: Chinese media company CGTN.

China Accuses Australia of Sabotaging Its Vaccination Program in the South Pacific

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN)—China and Australia have started another battle, this time over the Covid-19 vaccination roll out in the South Pacific. In a lengthy article on July 2, China's 'Global Times' accused Australia of sabotaging China's Covid-19 vaccination assistance scheme in Papua New Guinea (PNG) by planting "consultants" to manipulate local epidemic policies targeting China, blocking the approval of Chinese vaccine's emergency use, and threatening senior government officials who were collaborating with China in the vaccine roll-out program.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 06 July 2021

Photo: Then Health Minister Hridayesh Tripathi receiving the first batch of 348,000 doses of Covishield AstraZeneca vaccines from the UN Resident Coordinator in Nepal Sara Beysolow Nyanti in March. The remaining 1.92 million doses promised by COVAX never arrived. Photo: UN

Hope, Hyperbole and Hypocrisy of COVAX

The realpolitik of vaccine nationalism and how it impacts countries like Nepal

Viewpoint by Kul Chandra Gautam*

KATHMANDU (IDN) — As a previously unknown mystery disease caused by the novel coronavirus struck Planet Earth in the winter of 2019-20, public health officials and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended universal mask-wearing, physical distancing, lockdowns and travel restrictions, while awaiting the arrival of preventive vaccines and effective therapies.

On two sides of the Atlantic, two contrasting approaches emerged to tackle what came to be known as the Covid-19 pandemic.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 03 July 2021

Photo credit: UNICEF Ethiopia/Tewodros Tadesse

UN Report Considers Next 18 Months Crucial for Achieving Global Goals

By Santa Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) — COVID-19 pandemic has caused a major disruption to people’s lives and livelihoods around the world in 2020, pushing back into poverty an additional 119-124 million people, says a new United Nations report. An equivalent of 255 million full-time jobs was lost, and the number of people suffering from hunger, which was already climbing before the pandemic, may have increased by 83-132 million.

: Santo D. Banerjee; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 02 July 2021

Photo: Yoga class online against the backdrop of Upasana Griha, prayer hall, built by Debendranath Tagore in 1863, Santiniketa. Wikimedia Commons.

Indian Univ. Fight against the Pandemic Adopts 'Communication from Within' Strategy

By Moumita Maji*

SANTINIKETAN, India (IDN) — Different units of Visva-Bharati University have come together since the onset of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, in an attempt to fight the virus and ensure the safety of the community with minimum expenses but maximum courage. The home-grown strategy developed is unique with an emphasis on a scientific approach that enables maximum penetration within and outside the campus.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; South Asia; 01 July 2021

Photo: US-Japan-Sri Lanka Joint Military Exercise at Trincomalee Harbour. Source: Lanka Truth.

Militarization, Environment, and Hybrid Maritime Trade War Under a Covid-19 Mask

By Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake

The writer, Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, is a Social and Medical Anthropologist, at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

COLOMBO (IDN) — On June 24, Poson Poya (full moon) day, one of the most sacred days in a Sri Lankan Buddhist’s calendar, the day that Buddhism arrived on the island centuries ago, the country was inexplicably locked down in a Covid-19 curfew.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 29 June 2021

WHO Issues First Global Report in Artificial Intelligence in Health

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) — Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds great promise for improving the delivery of healthcare and medicine worldwide, but only if ethics and human rights are put at the heart of its design, deployment, and use, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO's report, Ethics and governance of artificial intelligence for health, is the result of two years of consultations held by a panel of international experts appointed by WHO.

: Jamshed Baruah; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 29 June 2021

Over 264 million Suffer from Depression Worsened by the Global Pandemic

By Lisa Wohl

The writer is a US-based health reporter

WELLINGTON, Florida, USA (IDN) — According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, one in four people in the world will be affected by neurological or mental disorders at some point in their lives. Depression is a common mental disorder. Globally, more than 264 million people of all ages suffer from depression.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 25 June 2021

Photo: The Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN) system is emerging as the backbone of the vaccination programme in India. Photo: Manisha Mondal | Credit: ThePrint

Cloud-based CoWIN Platform & India’s Journey towards Universal Vaccination

By Arjun Kumar, Ritika Gupta, Chhavi Kapoor, Kashish Babbar, Rohit Mehta*

NEW DELHI (IDN) — With the rolling out of vaccinations early in the year 2021, there was a need for an efficient vaccination drive to dose about 1.39 billion Indians.

To pave the way for a universal and citizen-centric structure of vaccination drive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a digital vaccination management system called CoWIN, a cloud-based IT solution for planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of COVID-19 vaccination in India.