Health & Well Being

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.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 22 June 2021

Little Sense of Proportion When It Comes to War, Conflict and Corona

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — “How sour sweet music is, When time is broke, and no proportion kept! So it is in the music of men’s lives”

Shakespeare wrote this in his play Richard II in 1595. In the events of his day in high politics, there was little sense of proportion. In Europe war was everywhere. Neither is there much today, particularly when it comes to conflict and war.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 22 June 2021

Photo: António Guterres (right) takes the oath of office for his second five-year term as Secretary-General of the United Nations. The oath is administered by Volkan Bozkir, President of the seventy-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Guterres Calls for New Era Of ‘Solidarity and Equality’ After Re-appointment As UN Secretary-General

By Caroline Mwaga

NEW YORK (IDN) — “We are truly at a crossroads, with consequential choices before us. Paradigms are shifting. Old orthodoxies are being flipped,” António Guterres told ambassadors after being re-appointed on June 18 to a second term as UN Secretary-General. He was the sole candidate from the UN’s 193 Member States to vie for its top job. His first five-year term began in January 2017. He was nominated by his homeland, Portugal, and appointed by acclamation by the General Assembly, following prior endorsement by the UN Security Council, for a second term that runs from January 2022 to December 2026.

: Caroline Mwanga; UN INSIDER; 21 June 2021

Nobel Laureate Offers Pathways to A Better Future After COVID-19 Crisis

By UNCTAD

GENEVA (IDN) — Coronavirus pandemic recovery efforts should provide comprehensive social protection, fight climate change, and ensure vaccines reach the poorest people quickly.

Nobel laureate Esther Duflo spelled out what an inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 crisis should entail and outlined lessons learned from the pandemic, while delivering the 17th edition of UNCTAD’s prestigious Raúl Prebisch Lecture on June 15.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 20 June 2021

Photo: At the present time, mankind is losing the battle against the climate crisis. Wall Steet International.

Climate: The Creativity Crisis

Viewpoint by Bill Dahl*

This is the second in a series of four articles. Click here for the first in the series.

QUERETARO, Mexico (IDN) — If Covid-19 has taught us one lesson, it is that the creativity within the scientific community led to effective vaccine development in a timeframe nobody anticipated. Frankly, humanity got lucky. Imagine if science had not made the requisite advances to create effective COVID-19 vaccines in record time. Regarding the climate challenge, there are no effective vaccines available. There is no immunity from the deleterious effects of climate change. Like the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the climate challenge threatens the survival of humanity.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 19 June 2021

Photo: COVID-19 patients receive oxygen at a place of worship in Ghaziabad, India. © UNICEF/Amarjeet Singh.

Donating for COVID-Relief — Mixed-Up Governmental Priorities

Viewpoint by Sunil J. Wimalawansa *

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought “a tsunami of suffering”, taken over 3.4 million lives and 500 million jobs, while wiping trillions of dollars from global balance sheets, Secretary-General António Guterres told business last May, for equitable vaccine distribution worldwide.

NEW JERSEY, USA (IDN) — While the COVID-situations are significantly improving in the USA, UK, and most European nations, the situation in Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, Nepal, and India worsened. Flawed policy decisions and fraud considerably worsen the situation.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 15 June 2021

Photo: G7 leaders with their family members. @GretaTunberg

G7 Judged a 'Colossal Failure' for All the World to See

Viewpoint by Jon Queally*

PORTLAND | USA (IDN) — Anti-poverty groups, climate campaigners, and public health experts reacted with outrage and howls of disappointment Sunday after the G7 leaders who spent the weekend (June 11-13) at a summit in Cornwall, England issued a final communique that critics said represents an extreme abdication of responsibility in the face of the world's most pressing and intertwined crises—savage economic inequality, a rapidly-heating planet, and the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 13 June 2021

Photo: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson poses with the world leaders at the extended family photocall during the G7 Summit at Carbis Bay hotel in Cornwall, UK on June 12, 2021. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

WHO Welcomes G7 Commitment to Donate Vaccines but Asks for "More" and "Faster"

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) — The leaders of seven industrial nations, constituting the Group of Seven (G7 Summit), have pledged in a landmark agreement to share COVID-19 vaccine doses internationally, in support of global equitable access and to help end the acute phase of the pandemic. In doing so, they have built on the momentum of the G20 Global Health Summit hosted by Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on May 21 and the Gavi COVAX AMC Summit hosted by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan on June 2.

: Jaya Ramachandran; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 13 June 2021

Photo: Now we are chasing behind oxygen to save lives; next would be chasing behind precious freshwater for survival. South America's Amazon River. CC BY-SA 2.0

If Lessons Are Not Learned, Eternal Abnormality the New Normal?

Viewpoint by Jayasri Priyalal *

SINGAPORE (IDN) — The new normal has become a famous phrase with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This new normal could become an eternal abnormality if lessons learned about inequality in the globalized world economy exposed by the COVID-19 are not recognized and acted upon.

Today, people feel frustrated about adjusting to the health crisis's eternal uncertainties with looming confusions and contradictions between the normality of the past and not the usual present.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 11 June 2021

Photo: Two women at an empowerment workshop. Credit: High Atlas Foundation.

Heart Disease in Morocco and Empowerment Workshops

By Carlie Daniel

Carlie Daniel is an Intern with the High Atlas Foundation and a student at the University of Virginia.

MARRAKECH (IDN) — Heart disease is a prevalent chronic disease in Morocco and has been one of the leading causes of death over the last 10 years. Heart disease can be prevented through lifestyle changes, but people must be made aware of the steps they should take to effectively curb this health concern.